Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: One Health Concept
Mains level: Strategies to curb rising incidences of zoonotic diseases
The concept of ‘One Health’ is gaining importance as most of the contagious diseases affecting humans are zoonotic (animal to man origin) in nature. It can be effectively implemented for reducing incidence of emerging zoonotic threats like COVID-19.
The One Health concept
- The World Organization of Animal Health, commonly known as OIE (an abbreviation of its French title), summarizes the One Health concept.
- It says that as “human health and animal health are interdependent and bound to the health of the ecosystems in which they exist”.
- Circa 400 BC, Hippocrates in his treatise On Airs, Waters and Places had urged physicians that all aspects of patients’ lives need to be considered including their environment; disease was a result of imbalance between man and environment.
- So One Health is not a new concept, though it is of late that it has been formalized in health governance systems.
Why accept this model?
- Of the contagious diseases affecting humans, more than 65% are of zoonotic or animal to man origin.
- One Health model is a globally accepted model for research on epidemiology, diagnosis and control of zoonotic diseases.
- One Health model facilitates interdisciplinary approach in disease control so as to control emerging and existing zoonotic threats.
- Increasing stress on animals due to loss of their habitat would increase scope of zoonotic diseases.
Why corona is so deadly?
- Current outbreak of COVID-19 still could not find out the actual source of virus.
- Even though genomics of the virus has been published ambiguity still exists whether it was from bats, snakes, pangolin, etc.
Frequent Outbreaks of Zoonotic Diseases
- Not so long ago, the widespread prevalence of avian influenza in poultry, or bird flu as it commonly became known, created nationwide panic resulting in the culling of millions of poultry birds.
- It was concern for human health that prompted the extreme reaction and subsequent establishment of protocols; containment of avian influenza is managed quite effectively now.
- Similarly in 2003, SARS or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome emanated suddenly in China and vanished soon.
Followed by hues and panic
- These outbreaks culminated emergency response that included extreme measures like travel bans and restrictions.
- In both cases, panic spread much faster than the virus.
- Besides drawing a response from governments, these events also brought forth the hitherto forgotten philosophy of One Health.
- This idea recognizes inter-connectivity among human health, the health of animals, and the environment.
Why rise in zoonotic outbreaks?
- As human populations expand, it results in greater contact with domestic and wild animals, providing more opportunities for diseases to pass from one to the other.
- Climate change, deforestation and intensive farming further disrupt environment characteristics, while increased trade and travel result in closer and more frequent interaction, thus increasing the possibility of transmission of diseases.
Need for a robust animal health system
- Private sector presence in veterinary services is close to being nonexistent.
- Unlike a physician, a veterinarian is always on a house call on account of the logistic challenge of transporting livestock to the hospital, unless they are domestic pets.
- There could not be a stronger case for reinventing the entire animal husbandry sector to be able to reach every livestock farmer, not only for disease treatment but for prevention and surveillance to minimize the threat to human health.
- Early detection at animal source can prevent disease transmission to humans and introduction of pathogens into the food chain. So a robust animal health system is the first and a crucial step in human health.
Conclusion
- Developing countries like India have a much greater stake in strong One Health systems on account of agricultural systems resulting in uncomfortably close proximity of animals and humans.
- This builds a strong case for strengthening veterinary institutions and services.
- Further delay may pave way for emergence of new communicable diseases.
Way Forward
- The most effective and economical approach is to control zoonotic pathogens at their animal source.
- It calls not only for close collaboration at local, regional and global levels among veterinary, health and environmental governance, but also for greater investment in animal health infrastructure.
- Need of the hour is to scale up such a model across the country and to establish meaningful research collaborations across the world.
- Health, veterinary, agriculture and life science research institutions and universities can play a lead role.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NEED
Mains level: Sea level rise and its impact
An extraordinary measure to protect 25 million people and important economic regions of 15 Northern European countries from rising seas has been proposed. It is called Northern European Enclosure Dam (NEED) enclosing all of the North Sea.
Northern European Enclosure Dam (NEED)
- The scientists have proposed the construction of two dams of a combined length of 637 km — the first between northern Scotland and western Norway.
- It would be 476 km and with an average depth of 121 m and maximum depth of 321 m; the second between France and southwestern England, of length 161 km, and average depth of 85 m and maximum depth of 102 m.
- A/c to scientists, separating the North and Baltic Seas from the Atlantic Ocean is considered to be the “most viable option” to protect Northern Europe against unstoppable sea level rise (SLR).
- They have also identified other regions in the world where such mega-enclosures could potentially be considered, including the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Irish Sea, and the Red Sea.
The rationale behind
- The concept of constructing NEED showcases the extent of protection efforts that are required if mitigation efforts fail to limit sea level rise.
- While NEED may appear to be “overwhelming” and “unrealistic”, it could be “potentially favourable” financially and in scale when compared with alternative solutions to fight SLR, the research argues.
- The researchers classify the solutions to SLR into three categories of taking no action, protection, and managed retreat — and submit that NEED is in the second category.
- While managed retreat, which includes options such as managed migrations, may be less expensive than protection (NEED), it involves intangible costs such as national and international political instability, psychological difficulties, and loss of culture and heritage for migrants.
- NEED, the paper says, will have the least direct impact on people’s daily lives, can be built at a “reasonable cost”, and has the largest potential to be implemented with the required urgency to be effective.
Viability of NEED
- The researchers have estimated the total costs associated with NEED at between €250 billion and €550 billion.
- They referred to the costs of building the 33.9-km Saemangeum Seawall in South Korea and the Maasvlakte 2 extension of the Rotterdam harbour in the Netherlands as examples,
- If construction is spread over a 20-year period, this will work out to an annual expense of around 0.07%-0.16% of the GDP of the 15 Northern European countries that will be involved.
- Also the construction will “heavily impact” marine and terrestrial ecosystems inside and outside the enclosure, will have social and cultural implications, and affect tourism and fisheries.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Parker Probe. Aditya L1 Mission, Lagranges points
Mains level: Read the attached story
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched on August 12, 2018 has completed its fourth close approach — called perihelion very recently, whizzing past at about 3.93 lakh km/h, at a distance of only 18.6 million km from the Sun’s surface.
Aditya L1: Exciting ahead
- The ISRO is preparing to send its first scientific expedition to study the Sun.
- Named Aditya-L1, the mission, expected to be launched early next year, will observe the Sun from a close distance, and try to obtain information about its atmosphere and magnetic field.
- ISRO categorizes Aditya L1 as a 400 kg-class satellite that will be launched using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in XL configuration.
- The space-based observatory will have seven payloads (instruments) on board to study the Sun’s corona, solar emissions, solar winds and flares, and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), and will carry out round-the-clock imaging of the Sun.
- Aditya L1 will be ISRO’s second space-based astronomy mission after AstroSat, which was launched in September 2015.
What is L1?
- L1 refers to Lagrangian/Lagrange Point 1, one of five points in the orbital plane of the Earth-Sun system.
- Lagrange Points, named after Italian-French mathematician Josephy-Louis Lagrange, are positions in space where the gravitational forces of a two-body system (like the Sun and the Earth) produce enhanced regions of attraction and repulsion.
- These can be used by spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption needed to remain in position.
- The L1 point is home to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Satellite (SOHO), an international collaboration project of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
- The L1 point is about 1.5 million km from Earth, or about one-hundredth of the way to the Sun.
But why is studying the Sun important?
- Every planet, including Earth and the exoplanets beyond the Solar System, evolves — and this evolution is governed by its parent star.
- The solar weather and environment, which is determined by the processes taking place inside and around the sun, affects the weather of the entire system.
- Variations in this weather can change the orbits of satellites or shorten their lives, interfere with or damage onboard electronics, and cause power blackouts and other disturbances on Earth.
- Knowledge of solar events is key to understanding space weather.
- To learn about and track Earth-directed storms, and to predict their impact, continuous solar observations are needed.
- Every storm that emerges from the Sun and heads towards Earth passes through L1, and a satellite placed in the halo orbit around L1 of the Sun-Earth system has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses.
Why are solar missions challenging?
- What makes a solar mission challenging is the distance of the Sun from Earth (about 149 million km on average, compared to the only 3.84 lakh km to the Moon).
- More importantly the super hot temperatures and radiations in the solar atmosphere make it difficult to study.
- NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has already gone far closer — but it will be looking away from the Sun.
- The earlier Helios 2 solar probe, a joint venture between NASA and space agency of erstwhile West Germany, went within 43 million km of the Sun’s surface in 1976.
Problem of Heat
- The Parker Solar Probe’s January 29 flyby was the closest the spacecraft has gone to the Sun in its planned seven-year journey so far.
- Computer modelling estimates show that the temperature on the Sun-facing side of the probe’s heat shield, the Thermal Protection System, reached 612 degrees Celsius, even as the spacecraft and instruments behind the shield remained at about 30°C, NASA said.
- During the spacecraft’s three closest perihelia in 2024-25, the TPS will see temperatures around 1370°C.
Hurdles for Aditya L1
- It will stay much farther away, and the heat is not expected to be a major concern for the instruments on board. But there are other challenges.
- Many of the instruments and their components for this mission are being manufactured for the first time in the country, presenting as much of a challenge as an opportunity for India’s scientific, engineering, and space communities.
- One such component is the highly polished mirrors which would be mounted on the space-based telescope.
- Due to the risks involved, payloads in earlier ISRO missions have largely remained stationary in space; however, Aditya L1 will have some moving components, scientists said.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RIN Mutiny
Mains level: Significance of the Mutiny
Seventy-four years ago on February 18, 1946, some 1,100 Indian sailors or “ratings” of the HMIS Talwar and the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) Signal School in Bombay declared a hunger strike, triggered by the conditions and treatment of Indians in the Navy.
RIN Mutiny
- A “slow down” the strike was also called, which meant that the ratings would carry out their duties slowly.
- The morning after February 18, somewhere between 10,000-20,000 sailors joined the strike, as did shore establishments in Karachi, Madras, Calcutta, Mandapam, Visakhapatnam, and the Andaman Islands.
- One of the triggers for the RIN strike was the arrest of a rating, BC Dutt, who had scrawled “Quit India” on the HMIS Talwar.
- The day after the strike began, the ratings went around Bombay in lorries, waving the Congress flag, and getting into scraps with Europeans and policemen who tried to confront them.
Their demands
While the immediate trigger was the demand for better food and working conditions, the agitation soon turned into a wider demand for independence from British rule. The protesting sailors demanded:
- release of all political prisoners including those from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army (INA),
- action against the commander for ill-treatment and using insulting language,
- revision of pay and allowances to put RIN employees on a par with their counterparts in the Royal Navy,
- demobilisation of RIN personnel with provisions for peacetime employment,
- release of Indian forces stationed in Indonesia, and better treatment of subordinates by their officers
Upsurge of nationalism
- The RIN strike came at a time when the Indian nationalist sentiment had reached fever pitch across the country.
- The winter of 1945-46 saw three violent upsurges: in Calcutta in November 1945 over the INA trials; in February 1946, also in Calcutta, over the sentencing of INA officer Rashid Ali; and, in that same month, the ratings’ uprise in Bombay.
- This chain of events led to the “mounting fever of excitement affecting the whole political climate”.
- Soon, ordinary people joined the ratings, and life came to a virtual standstill in both Bombay and Calcutta. There were meetings, processions, strikes, and hartals.
- In Bombay, labourers participated in a general strike called by the Communist Party of India and the Bombay Students’ Union. In many cities across India, students boycotted classes in solidarity.
- The response of the state was brutal. It is estimated that over 220 people died in police firing, while roughly 1,000 were injured.
Significance of the events
- The RIN revolt remains a legend today. It was an event that strengthened further the determination among all sections of the Indian people to see the end of British rule.
- Deep solidarity and amity among religious groups was in evidence, which appeared to run counter to the rapidly spreading atmosphere of commuanal hatred and animosity.
- However, communal unity was more in the nature of organisational unity than a unity among the two major communities.
- Within months, India was to be devoured by a terrible communal conflagration.
Final nail in the coffin
- This revolt was different from the other revolts in the sense that, after 1857 it was the first time that the British realized that the Royal Indian forces were no more obedient to the British commands and were in concurrence with the overall defiant nationalist sentiments prevailing in the entire country.
- Mutinies are usually confined to a particular station, establishment or ship. However, this was the first instance when the entire service joined the revolt.
- Most striking feature was that it was directed against the British government and not against superior officers – not a single officer, British or Indian, was harmed.
- Fearless action by the masses was an expression of militancy in the popular mind. Revolt in the armed forces had a great liberating effect on the minds of people.
- It displayed that the armed forces no longer obeyed the British authority rather it was the nationalist leaders who held sway over them. The RIN revolt was seen as an event marking the end of British rule.
Aftermath
- The leaders realized that any mass uprising would inevitably carry the risk of not being amenable to centralized direction and control. Besides, now that independence and power were in sight, they were eager not to encourage indiscipline in the armed forces.
- It was immediately after this revolt that PM Atlee dispatched the Cabinet Mission to India, so it is also inferred that the mutiny hastened the process of transfer of power to India.
- It is also important to mention that the revolt came to an end after the nationalist leaders, Sardar Patel and Mohammad Ali Jinnah on receiving a request to intervene by the British, issued a statement calling upon the mutineers to surrender.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Meghalayan caves, and their biodiversity
Mains level: NA
Systematic exploration of the Meghalayan caves has been underway for almost 30 years and hundreds of kilometres of cave passages have been explored and mapped. In a cave in a remote forested area of Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills a research expedition found large specie of a subterranean fish (occurring under the earth’s surface).
About the fish
- The blind fish was over 40 cm. It has not been named so far.
- It is nearly five times the mean length (85mm/8.5 cm) for all known subterranean fish to date.
- The only other species exceeding 300mm (30 cm) in length are eel-like Synbranchidae with nothing like the bulk of the new fish.
- The 250-known subterranean (occurring under the earth’s surface) fish species around the world measure only around 8.5 cm on average.
- The specialists say that possibly one (or more) populations of these fish became isolated deeper in the caves and over generations became adapted to the dark, losing their eyes in the process.
Closest resemblance
- The experts feel that the fish species is very similar to the Golden Mahseer or the Tor Putitora, one of the most famous game fish of the Himalayan rivers.
- Unique characters that distinguishes it from the Golden Mahseer is the lack of pigmentation, a lack of eyes and of course, its subterranean habitat – being locked in caves.
- There are ‘normal’ Golden Mahseer in the area too but there is not much surface water (at least in the dry winter months) so fish end up in the cave pools and underground rivers.
Features of Subterranean ecosystems
- Subterranean ecosystems are considered extreme, high-stress environments characterised by darkness, truncated food webs and food scarcity.
- Despite this, they harbour exceptional vertebrate and invertebrate taxa (21,000+ species), many of which are evolutionarily unique, and relics of ancient fauna given their long-term isolation.
- Many cave fish show different adaptations – some don’t have eyes, some have reduced eyes, some don’t have fins, some have weird body shapes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3-Role played by CRPF in the internal security of the country and problems faced by the force.
Context
The functioning of the CRPF needs to be revisited.
Historical background and present status of CRPF
- Crown Representative Police: In the wake of Independence, a contentious administrative issue was over the retention of CRP (Crown Representative Police).
- The question over the relevance of the force: As the Constitution designated ‘law and order’ as a State subject, the relevance of having a Central police force was questioned by everyone
- But Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel argued vehemently and boldly in favour of it.
- Present-day relevance of the force
- From having just two battalions as the CRP, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has now expanded to being a three-and-a-half lakh-strong force.
- Consisting of specialist wings like-
- The Rapid Action Force.
- The COBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action).
- The Special Duty Group.
- Largest Paramilitary force: It is the largest paramilitary force in the world and no other security force of the country has seen expansion at such a rapid rate.
- Importance of the force
- Security to the country: Providing integrated security to a diverse country of continental size is not an easy task.
- Immediate solution situation: Resolving certain conflicts requires immediate solutions for which regular armed forces cannot be deployed.
- Peacekeeper of the nation: For the reason cited above, we require paramilitary forces, and the CRPF is the most sought-after one because of its flexibility and versatility.
- The force has earned its place as the ‘peacekeeper of the nation’.
Problems faced by the CRPF
- A year after Pulwama attack, it is time for the nation to take a relook at the main agency dealing with conflicts in different territorial zones. The following 3 are the major concerns of the force.
- 1. Pressure taking its toll: The frequent movements lock, stock and barrel are taking its toll.
- There are increasing cases of suicides and fratricides.
- The anguish caused because of prolonged periods of duty away from one’s family members adds to the pressure experienced the soldiers having their fingers constantly on the trigger guard.
- What is being done or needs to be done to address the problem?
- 100-days leave: Though the Home Minister recently stated that CRPF jawans would get to spend 100 days with their families every year, considering the present levels of commitment, 100 days of leave is an impossible dream for a soldier.
- Need to revisit the decision of assigning exclusive operations: An easier way out here would be to revisit the government’s decision on tasking specific Central Paramilitary Forces exclusively with certain operations.
- It should be compulsory for recruits to all Central Police Forces to be deployed to anti-insurgency roles during their first 15 years of service.
- They can be shifted, in the next 10 years, to border duties.
- The last phase of their career should be in static duties.
- 2. Rehabilitation of retired personnel
- Care of welfare and morale: As the Force is deployed to the last man, the welfare and morale of the soldiers need to be taken care of.
- No rehabilitation policy: A large number of personnels are taking voluntary retirement, but there is no rehabilitation policy.
- What is being done or needs to be done to address the problem?
- The creation of a Welfare and Rehabilitation Board has not made any impact. Provision of canteen facilities, without tax exemption, hardly gives the soldiers any relief.
- Another demand that needs to be considered is that of One Rank, One Pension scheme.
- 3. Leadership issue
- It is high time the Force develops home-grown leadership.
- Elements like healthy work culture, ethos and regimentation are very crucial for any armed force and they are best guarded by officers born on the cadre.
- Steps taken to address the issue
- The long-overdue Non-Functional Financial Upgradation (NFU) materialised only after the judicial intervention.
- However, the top leadership- made up of IPS officers on deputation- is reluctant to implement it.
Conclusion
The first anniversary of the Pulwama attacks should enable all stakeholders to devise ways and means to plug the loopholes and address the system failures in a Force that still remains the most formidable in internal security matters.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Changing India-US relation dynamics in the new global order.
Context
Delhi needs to unlearn some of the assumptions about US policy as it prepares to host Trump next week. While the diaspora is important and could be of some value in dealing with Trump, it can’t override the deeper forces animating American politics.
Changing America under Trump
- Restriction on immigration: Trump’s America wants the Americans to come home but is shutting the door on unrestricted immigration from the rest of the world.
- Domestic critics say America has been a nation of immigrants and Trump is wrong to keep them out.
- Why the restriction on immigrants? But Trump has much support among the working people who know-
- Immigration keeps wages low.
- Helps the capitalist class and-
- Disrupts the familiar cultural and social landscape.
- Some want America out
- Some chancelleries in the world demand that America must go home.
- The president of the Philippines wants to end Manila’s century-old relationship with the US military.
- Iran wants America out of the Gulf.
- Russia and China would like to see the US forces out of Europe and Asia respectively.
- The world is paying serious attention to the possibility of Yankee going home.
Downsizing of the US role and how the world is responding?
- Downsizing
- In the Gulf, Trump wants the Asian powers to police the vital sea lines of communication.
- In Europe and Asia, he wants the allies to do more for their own security.
- How the world is responding?
- Europe’s response In Europe, France and Germany are now talking about creating new defence capabilities for the European Union amidst the prospect for American security retrenchment.
- How the Asian countries are responding? In Asia, Japan is debating a larger security role.
- In the Gulf, America’s Arab allies are scrambling to diversify their security dependence.
America First policy
- What is America First policy? The idea of downsizing America’s role, along with the rejection of free trade and open borders, is at the very heart of Trump’s America First policy.
- Resistance to the policy: To be sure there is deep resistance in the US to these ideas that run counter to America’s post-war internationalism.
- Wall Street on the East Coast and Silicon Valley on the West Coast along with the old foreign and security policy establishment in Washington all oppose Trump’s America First focus.
- Widespread support to the policy: Trump’s message, however, resonates across the political divide in the US.
- Many candidates for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party agree with Trump’s goal of ending America’s “endless wars” in the Middle East.
- Many in the working classes, who traditionally supported the Democrats, believe Trump is right in arguing that free trade has hollowed out American industry and eliminated manufacturing jobs.
How the changes matter for India?
- Prepare for the changes: America is at an inflection point; India needs to come to terms with the profound changes unfolding in the US.
- No intervention policy: The Indian political classes castigated the US for excessive interventions in the affairs of other nations.
- Trump now says such interventions are counterproductive and all nations must strengthen their sovereignty.
- Critical of globalisation: Indians criticised the US for imposing globalisation on others; the US President is now one of the biggest critics of globalisation.
- Trump’s America is not the one we have known.
- India’s sensitivity to the US domestic politics: As India broadened its engagement with America in the last two decades, Delhi has become more sensitive to the US domestic political dynamics.
- In getting the US to ease off on Kashmir and nuclear issues, Delhi had to look beyond the foreign policy establishment to generate better US appreciation of India’s concerns and interests.
- Indian diaspora: One of the instruments that came in handy was the mobilisation of the Indian diaspora, it emerged as a key factor in elevating the bilateral relationship in the 21st century.
- While the diaspora is important and could be of some value in dealing with Trump, it can’t override the deeper forces animating American politics.
Conclusion
Delhi’s success with the US will depend on the kind of strategic imagination it can display on trade cooperation, securing Afghanistan after America’s withdrawal, stabilising the Gulf and developing a new global compact on migration that is sensitive to domestic political considerations and yet contributes to the collective economic development.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3- The ambitious target of $5 trillion economy.
Context
The Indian government has set itself a big target, namely, that the Indian economy will have an aggregate income or gross domestic product (GDP) of $5 trillion by 2024-25.
Lack of clarity
- There is little effort to take it beyond a slogan.
- When it comes to targets and aims pertaining to the economy, it is important to have-
- The officials and advisers go beyond the headline.
- To lay out the details and the road-map for the target.
- Matter for investors: For international observers and particularly investors, not to see these details creates doubts about professionalism.
What growth rate is required to reach that target?
- How long will it take to achieve the target at the present growth rate?
- In 2018-19, India’s GDP was $2.75 trillion.
- India’s latest official growth rate happens to be 5 per cent.
- Target will be reached in 2032-33: Continue in the same fashion to compute the size of the GDP and it becomes clear that the target of $5 trillion will be reached not in 2024-25, but in 2032-33.
- What is the required rate? Set the target as $5 trillion dollars for 2024-25 the required rate turns out to be 10.48 per cent or, approximately, 10.5 per cent.
Why 10.5 rate is an ambitious target?
- The only example of any nation growing for six consecutive years at an average annual rate of over 10.5 per cent was China from 2003 to 2009.
- Can India achieve this rate?
- From 1947 till now, India’s economy grew at over 10 per cent only twice — in 1988-89 and 2007-8.
- Of these, the first may be dismissed because the previous year the economy had grown very slowly, by 3.5 per cent.
- What we can learn from the past growth rate?
- The only example to learn from: The only example from which we can learn is the remarkable growth in 2007-8, made all the more remarkable by the fact that India had been growing well for several years, starting from 2003.
- And from 2005, India was actually growing over 9 per cent.
- What factors played the role in high growth?
- This was a period of professional fiscal policy and steady effort at building infrastructure.
- India’s economy was making big news in the international media and investment poured in.
- India’s investment-to-GDP rate climbed to an all-time record of 39 per cent.
- Current investment-to-GDP ratio: Our investment-to-GDP ratio has crashed to 30 per cent and this takes time to re-build.
- If we can get back to a growth rate of 7 per cent we will be lucky.
Can inflation make the target achievable?
- Combination of real growth and inflation can make it possible: Virtually all serious commentators agree that in purely real terms, the $5-trillion target is unreachable.
- But maybe we can make it by a combination of real growth and inflation.
- How the combination will work? One way India can get to the target is if alongside say 7 per cent growth, India has inflation of say 3.5 per cent.
- Then India’s nominal GDP growth rate will be 10.5 per cent.
- Why the inflation argument is flawed?
- The five trillion target is in dollar terms.
- Inflation will lead to depreciation: Typically, if India has higher inflation than the US, the rupee would depreciate vis-à-vis the dollar to account for that.
- For the sake of pure arithmetic, assume US inflation is zero, India’s inflation is 10 per cent, and India’s real growth rate is 0.
- In that case, in rupee terms, India’s economy will grow by 10 per cent. But how much will India’s economy grow in dollar terms?
- The answer is zero.
- Why is it so? This is because the rupee will typically depreciate by 10 per cent to match the inflation differential, and so the larger GDP of India in rupee terms, when converted to dollars will show no growth.
- The other possibility of achieving the target?
- What if the dollar loses value? But this should immediately make it clear that there is another way of getting to the target.
- This can happen if the US dollar loses value.
- We can then get to the target of $5 trillion because that will mean less in real terms.
Conclusion
There are two routes to achieve the target of $5 trillion: A huge policy initiative to boost real growth or the luck of dollar depreciation. The luck of dollar would mean nothing for us in the real term so the best course of action for the government is to seek the first option and try to achieve it.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Debate over suitablity of women in combat roles of Indian Army
- The Supreme Court brought women officers in 10 streams of the Army on a par with their male counterparts in all respects, setting aside longstanding objections of the government.
- The case was first filed in the Delhi High Court by women officers in 2003 and had received a favourable order in 2010. But the order was never implemented and was challenged by the government.
Women in Army: Background of the case
- The induction of women officers in the Army started in 1992.
- They were commissioned for a period of five years in certain chosen streams such as Army Education Corps, Corps of Signals, Intelligence Corps, and Corps of Engineers.
- Recruits under the Women Special Entry Scheme (WSES) had a shorter pre-commission training period than their male counterparts who were commissioned under the Short Service Commission (SSC) scheme.
- In 2006, the WSES scheme was replaced with the SSC scheme, which was extended to women officers. They were commissioned for a period of 10 years, extendable up to 14 years.
- Serving WSES officers were given the option to move to the new SSC scheme or to continue under the erstwhile WSES.
- They were to be, however, restricted to roles in streams specified earlier — which excluded combat arms such as infantry and armoured corps.
2 key arguments shot down
- The Supreme Court rejected arguments against a greater role for women officers, saying this violated equality under the law.
- They were being kept out of command posts on the reasoning that the largely rural rank and a file will have problems with women as commanding officers. The biological argument was also rejected as disturbing.
- While male SSC officers could opt for permanent commission at the end of 10 years of service, this option was not available to women officers.
- They were, thus, kept out of any command appointment, and could not qualify for government pension, which starts only after 20 years of service as an officer.
- The first batch of women officers under the new scheme entered the Army in 2008.
Arguments by the govt.
- The government put forth other arguments before the Supreme Court to justify the proposal on the grounds of permanent commission, grants of pensionary benefits, limitations of judicial review on policy issues, occupational hazards, reasons for discrimination against women and rationalization on physiological limitations for employment in staff appointments.
- The apex court has rejected these arguments, saying they are “based on sex stereotypes premised on assumptions about socially ascribed roles of gender which discriminate against women”.
- It has also said that it only shows the need “to emphasise the need for change in mindsets to bring about true equality in the Army”.
Implications of the judgement
- The SC has done away with all discrimination on the basis of years of service for grant of PC in 10 streams of combat support arms and services, bringing them on a par with male officers.
- It has also removed the restriction of women officers only being allowed to serve in staff appointments, which is the most significant and far-reaching aspect of the judgment.
- It means that women officers will be eligible to tenant all the command appointments, at par with male officers, which would open avenues for further promotions to higher ranks for them.
- It also means that in junior ranks and career courses, women officers would be attending the same training courses and tenanting critical appointments, which are necessary for higher promotions.
Way Forward
- The implications of the judgment will have to be borne by the human resources management department of the Army, which will need to change policy in order to comply.
- But the bigger shift will have to take place in the culture, norms, and values of the rank and file of the Army, which will be the responsibility of the senior military and political leadership.
- After the Supreme Court’s progressive decision, they have no choice but to bite the proverbial bullet.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RBI's accounting year
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is aligning its July-June accounting year with the government’s April-March fiscal year in order to ensure more effective management of the country’s finances.
- Accordingly, the next accounting year will be a nine-month period which starts from July 2020 and ends on March 31, 2021. Thereafter, all the financial years will start from April every year, the RBI said.
- The Bimal Jalan Committee on Economic Capital Framework (ECF) of the RBI had proposed a more transparent presentation of the RBI’s annual accounts and change in its accounting year from July to June to April to March from the financial year 2020-21.
How did the RBI’s July-June accounting year come to be?
- When it commenced operations on April 1, 1935, with Sir Osborne Smith as its first Governor, the RBI followed a January-December accounting year.
- On March 11, 1940, however, the bank changed its accounting year to July-June.
- Now, after nearly eight decades, the RBI is making another switch: the next accounting year will be a nine-month period from July 2020 to March 31, 2021, and thereafter, all financial years will start from April, as it happens with the central and state governments.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various species mentioned
Mains level: Highlights of the report
State of India’s Birds 2020 (SoIB) assessment was recently released.
Highlights of the report
- The SoIB was produced using a base of 867 species (among 1,333 birds ever recorded in India), and analysed with the help of data uploaded by birdwatchers to the online platform, eBird.
- Adequate data on how birds fared over a period of over 25 years (long-term trend) are available only for 261 species.
- Current annual trends are calculated over a five-year period.
Alarming declines
- The SoIB assessment raises the alarm that several spectacular birds, many of them endemic to the sub-continent, face a growing threat from loss of habitat due to human activity, widespread presence of toxins including pesticides, hunting and trapping for the pet trade.
- Diminishing population sizes of many birds because of one factor brings them closer to extinction because of the accelerated effects of others, the report warned.
- Over a fifth of India’s bird diversity, ranging from the Short-toed Snake Eagle to the Sirkeer Malkoha, has suffered strong long-term declines over a 25-year period.
- More recent annual trends point to a drastic 80% loss among several common birds.
Various species mentioned
- Of 101 species categorised as being of High Conservation Concern — 59 based on range and abundance and the rest included from high-risk birds on the IUCN Red List.
- Endemics such as the Rufous-fronted Prinia, Nilgiri Thrush, Nilgiri Pipit and Indian vulture were confirmed as suffering current decline.
- And all except 13 had a restricted or highly restricted range, indicating greater vulnerability to man-made threats.
- Peafowl, on the other hand, are rising in numbers, expanding their range into places such as Kerala, which is drying overall, and areas in the Thar desert where canals and irrigation have been introduced. Stricter protection for peacocks under law also could be at work.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SUTRA PIC
Mains level: Protecting indigenous breed of bovines
The government has unveiled SUTRA PIC programme to research on ‘indigenous’ cows.
SUTRA PIC
- SUTRA PIC stands for Scientific Utilization Through Research Augmentation-Prime Products from Indigenous Cows.
- To be funded by multiple scientific ministries, the initiative, SUTRA PIC, is led by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
- It has the Department of Biotechnology, the CSIR, the Ministry for AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy) among others and the Indian Council of Medical Research as partners.
- It has five themes:
- Uniqueness of Indigenous Cows,
- Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Medicine and Health,
- Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Agricultural Applications,
- Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Food and Nutrition,
- Prime-products from indigenous cows-based utility items
Aims and objectives
The proposals under this theme aim to:
- perform scientific research on the complete characterization of milk and milk products derived from Indian indigenous cows;
- scientific research on nutritional and therapeutic properties of curd and ghee prepared from indigenous breeds of cows by traditional methods;
- development of standards for traditionally processed dairy products of Indian-origin cow
Other facts
- In 2017, SEED constituted a National Steering Committee (NSC) for ‘Scientific Validation and Research on Panchgavya (SVAROP)’.
- Panchgavya is an Ayurvedic panacea and is a mixture of five (pancha) products of the cow (gavya) — milk, curd, ghee, dung and urine.
- Its proponents believe it can cure, or treat a wide range of ailments.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Battle of Çanakkale/Gallipoli
Mains level: Paper 1: World History
India issued a strong demarche to Turkey over its outspoken President Erdogan’s comments in Pakistan. Erdogan has criticised India’s policy in Jammu and Kashmir and compared it with that of Turkey during World War I.
Gallipoli campaign
- The Battle of Çanakkale, also known as the Gallipoli campaign or the Dardanelles campaign, is considered to be one of the bloodiest of World War I, during which the Ottoman army faced off against the Allied forces, leading to the slaughter of tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides.
- In March 1915, with the war in Europe stalemated in the trenches, Winston Churchill, then Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty, devised a plan to take control of the Dardanelles.
- The plan was to capture strategic strait connecting the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and thus reach Constantinople (today’s Istanbul) at the mouth of the Bosporus.
- By taking Constantinople, the Allies hoped to break the Turks, who had recently entered the war on the side of Germany.
The massacre
- The Allies carried out a heavy naval bombardment of Turkish forts along the shores of the Dardanelles, and when that failed, followed up with what was the biggest amphibious landing in military history at the time.
- However, what the British and their allies had hoped would be the turning point in the war ended up as a catastrophe.
- In the nine months upto January 1916, when the Allies called off the campaign and evacuated, more than 40,000 British soldiers had been killed, along with 8,000 Australians. On the Turkish side, some 60,000 had perished.
Legacy of the battle
- The battle resulted in a demotion for Churchill and the emergence on the Turkish side of the young military hero, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
- But the legacy of Gallipoli goes far beyond its military aspects — the event is today one of the central pillars of the modern Turkish identity.
- The campaign is also seen to have seeded Australian and New Zealand national consciousness — April 25, the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, is observed as ANZAC Day, the day of national remembrance for the war dead.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: State of Rampur
Mains level: Post independence consolidation and reorganization
Erstwhile royals of the state of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh are fighting over the assets and legacy of Nawab Raza Ali Khan, who acceded to the Indian Union at the time of Independence. The Supreme Court ended India’s longest-running civil dispute last year, and the process of evaluating the inheritance is currently ongoing.
The state of Rampur
- The state of Rampur was founded by Nawab Ali Muhammad Khan, the adopted son of Sardar Daud Khan, the chief of the Rohillas in Northern India.
- The Rohillas were Afghans who entered India in the 18th century as the Mughal Empire was in decline, and took control of Rohilkhand, at the time known as Katehr.
- In 1737, Nawab Muhammad Khan received the territory of Katehr from Emperor Muhammad Shah, only to lose everything to Nawab Wazir of Oudh in 1746.
- Two years later, he assisted Ahmad Shah Durrani in his conquest of India, recovering all his former possessions.
- Over the next two centuries the Rampur royals, earlier a warring clan, struck deep roots, and with the blessings of the British, began to build one of the richest principalities in the country.
Patrons of the arts, culture
- The Rampur royals have played an important role in the socio-cultural history of the Ganga-Yamuna belt.
- They run the Amir Raza library in Rampur, once known as the official darbar of the Nawab, which is home to some 15,000 manuscripts in Arabic, Urdu, Persian and Turkish, as well as a seventh-century Quran.
- The library also houses 2,500 specimens of Islamic calligraphy, 5,000 miniature paintings, and 60,000 printed books, besides the extremely rare Persian translation of Valmiki’s Ramayana, which is believed to have been Emperor Aurangzeb’s personal copy.
- In the 19th century, the royals established courts of law and a standing army, and built irrigation works. In the 20th century, they set up sugar and textile mills.
- Many Hindus were employed in senior administrative positions in the state. Nawab Raza Ali Khan was known to have written poetry in Bhojpuri for Holi.
- The Rampur court was also a great patron of the arts, and is known to have patronised Ghalib and Begum Akhtar, as well as the tabla player Ahmad Jan Thirakwa, sarangi player Bundu Khan, sarod player Fida Hussein Khan, been player Wazir Khan, and the kathak dancers Acchan Maharaj and Kalka Prasad.
After Independence
- Rampur, under Nawab Raza Ali, was the first kingdom to accede to India in 1949, becoming the only Muslim-majority district in Uttar Pradesh.
- Soon after accession, the Nawab handed over the official royal residence, the Rampur Qila or Fort, built in 1775, to the Indian government, along with several other properties.
- In return, the Indian government bestowed two key rights to the Nawab — he was granted full ownership of the properties, and guaranteed succession to the gaddi or rulership of the state based on customary law, which gave exclusive property rights to the eldest son.
- When Raza Ali Khan died in 1966, he had three wives, three sons, and six daughters.
- His eldest son Murtaza Ali Khan succeeded him as head of the state, as per custom.
- The government recognised him as the sole inheritor of all his father’s private properties and issued a certificate to this effect. But his brother challenged this in the civil court.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SHC scheme
Mains level: Soil health and its significance for farm productivity
The Soil Health Card Scheme has completed 5 years since its launch.
Soil Health Card Scheme
- Soil Health Card (SHC) is a Government of India’s scheme promoted by the Department of Agriculture & Co-operation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
- It is being implemented through the Department of Agriculture of all the State and Union Territory Governments.
- A SHC is meant to give each farmer soil nutrient status of his/her holding and advice him/her on the dosage of fertilizers and also the needed soil amendments, that s/he should apply to maintain soil health in the long run.
- The scheme was launched by PM on 19.02.2015 at Suratgarh, Rajasthan.
Details on the SHC
- SHC is a printed report that a farmer will be handed over for each of his holdings.
- It contains the status of his soil with respect to 12 parameters, namely N,P,K (Macro-nutrients) ; S (Secondary- nutrient) ; Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, Bo (Micro – nutrients) ; and pH, EC, OC (Physical parameters).
- Based on this, the SHC also indicate fertilizer recommendations and soil amendment required for the farm.
- It provides two sets of fertilizer recommendations for six crops including recommendations of organic manures. Farmers can also get recommendations for additional crops on demand.
Other details
- The State Government will collect samples through the staff of their Department of Agriculture or through the staff of an outsourced agency.
- The State Government may also involve the students of local Agriculture / Science Colleges.
- It will be made available once in a cycle of 3 years, which will indicate the status of soil health of a farmer’s holding for that particular period.
- The SHC given in the next cycle of 3 years will be able to record the changes in the soil health for that subsequent period.
- Soil samples will be drawn in a grid of 2.5 ha in irrigated area and 10 ha in rain- fed area with the help of GPS tools and revenue maps.
Why needed such scheme?
- Soil testing is developed to promote soil test based on nutrient management.
- Soil testing reduces cultivation cost by application of right quantity of fertilizer.
- It ensures additional income to farmers by increase in yields and it also promotes sustainable farming.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Atal Bhujal Yojana
Mains level: Groundwater recharge and conservation efforts
The Government of India and the World Bank have signed a $450 million loan agreement to support the national programme to arrest the country’s depleting groundwater levels and strengthen groundwater institutions.
About the Programme
- The World Bank-supported programme will be implemented in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh and cover 78 districts.
- These states span both the hard rock aquifers of peninsular India and the alluvial aquifers of the Indo-Gangetic plains.
- They were selected based on several criteria, including degree of groundwater exploitation and degradation, established legal and regulatory instruments, institutional readiness, and experience in implementing initiatives related to groundwater management.
- This programme will contribute to rural livelihoods and in the context of climatic shifts, build resilience of the rural economy.
Objectives
The programme will, among others, enhance the recharge of aquifers and introduce water conservation practices; promote activities related to water harvesting, water management, and crop alignment; create an institutional structure for sustainable groundwater management; and equip communities and stakeholders to sustainably manage groundwater.
Particulars of the programme
- The programme will introduce a bottom-up planning process for community-driven development of water budgets and Water Security Plans (WSPs).
- Water budgets will assess surface and groundwater conditions (both quantity and quality) and identify current and future needs.
- The WSP, on the other hand, will focus on improving groundwater quantity and incentivize selected states to implement the actions proposed.
- Such community-led management measures will make users aware of consumption patterns and pave the way for economic measures that reduce groundwater consumption.
- Crop management and diversification will be the other focus areas.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3- How to govern India's gig economy?
Context
The gig economy plays to employment patterns in India, where most of the workforce is engaged in “informal” jobs in the “unorganized” sector.
Employment pattern in India
- Non-contractual employment: A recent study of employment patterns over a 13-year period ended 2017 for the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council finds that non-contractual employment grew by 68 million over the period.
- And “has been a hero of employment generation growing by about 5% annually“.
- There were 145 million people in non-contractual employment in 2017-18.
- Professionals constituted the most rapidly growing occupations, with older, better educated and skilled witnessing higher growth.
- Unorganised sector growing at much higher rate than organised sector: The study also found that unorganized sector employment grew by 65 million between 2004 and 2017, compared to only 27 million new jobs in the organized sector.
- What does the asymmetric rate suggests? It suggests that businesses are finding it more convenient to sustain themselves when they are below the radar of the government.
- Potential for growth of gig economy: As technology and business models take the gig economy across the country and implant it more deeply into the Indian economy, we can expect to see a lot more people find employment through online marketplaces and technology platforms.
Regulation of labour laws and expanding the tax base
- Social Security Code: In December, the government introduced legislation in Parliament that seeks to consolidate a number of labour laws into a Social Security Code.
- Who will be covered in the code? The new statute encompasses self-employed professionals, freelancers and platform workers, such as those employed by taxi aggregators and food delivery companies.
- Widening the tax base: The tax person is not far behind.
- Recent reports suggest that revenue officials are leaning on platforms and aggregators to get gig workers registered with the goods and services tax (GST) network.
- Need to reflect on how to govern the gig workforce? While it is just as well that the government is attempting to rationalize labour regulations and expand the country’s tax base, it is important to step back and reflect on how the gig workforce ought to be governed.
The new approach to classification of jobs: Income and volatility
- Classification on the basis of two fundamental characteristics: If we discard the mental model that has long classified jobs as formal and informal, and look at work afresh, we observe that jobs vary along with two fundamental characteristics:
- The level of income they generate and-
- The volatility of this income.
- Example: A security guard at a company might earn a few thousand rupees a month, but with the assurance of a regular monthly paycheque.
- More informative way: Instead of the old binary formulation of informal versus formal jobs, it is more informative to see jobs being distributed on a spectrum depending on how much they pay and how volatile the income flows they provide are.
- Wherever a job lies in this spectrum, the objective of public policy ought to be to ensure a “trimurti”.
Ensuring Trimurti
- Frist-Providing dignified working conditions: Promoting dignified working conditions include-
- Ensuring fairness.
- Respect.
- Safety.
- Protection against exploitation and-
- Arrangements for retirement.
- Need to ensure the obligation from employers: This means that even as labour laws are rationalized to eliminate outdated and hard-coded regulations, it is necessary to ensure that all employers retain an obligation to promote the dignity of all their employees.
- Second-Need to lower the barriers: Real wages grow not because the government imposes minimum wages, but when productivity rises.
- Productivity growth occurs when barriers to trade, investment and travel are lowered.
- A closed economy cannot be a successful gig economy.
- Finally-A re-imagined social security system: A re-imagined social security system for the 21st century must tap government, corporate and social contributions for insurance and retirement accounts.
- Such a multi-contribution system is possible today and the proposed Social Security Code is an opportunity to put in place such a future-proof framework.
How to handle the dispute arising out of the gig economy
- Start online dispute resolution system: The gig economy is perhaps the best place for India to start its first online automated dispute resolution system.
- You can’t govern the 21st-century economy with 18th-century technology.
Conclusion
While ensuring the application of the labour code to the gig economy and bringing them in the tax net the government also ensure the conducive environment for the gig economy to flourish and contribute significantly in the growth of the country.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3-Reforms in foodgrain management, the PDS and the fertiliser subsidy.
Context
Union budget missed the opportunity to undertake reforms in the grain management system and food security act.
The massive reduction in food subsidy and its implications
- Subsidy slashed by 75,552 crores: The revised estimates (RE) for food subsidy for 2019-20 have been slashed by a whopping Rs 75,552 crore -from the budgeted estimate (BE) of Rs 1,84,220 crore to Rs 1,08,668 crore (RE).
- For the next fiscal year, the budget estimate has been kept at Rs 1,15,570 crore.
- No major reforms in grain management system: One wonders whether any major reforms have been undertaken in the grain management system or in the National Food Security Act such that this massive reduction in budget estimates is feasible. But no such reforms are undertaken.
- The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has been asked to borrow more from myriad sources, but most importantly from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF).
- An item that should have been in the budget, is now getting reflected as outstanding dues of FCI.
- Implications of the move–postponing of the crisis: In order to gauge how much is the effective food subsidy in the country, the budget numbers are becoming totally irrelevant.
- One needs to add the actual subsidy numbers reflected in the budget to the outstanding dues of FCI.
- Effective food subsidy: If one adds the due, the effective food subsidy turns out to be Rs 3,57,688 crore.
- By not provisioning for it fully in the budget, and not undertaking any reforms in the foodgrain management system or the NFSA, the government is only postponing the crisis.
Need to bring down the coverage: The Economic Survey
- Bringing down the coverage at 20 %: While the Economic Survey clearly states that the coverage under NFSA needs to be revisited, and brought down to say 20 per cent of the population.
- The budget did not bite this bullet.
- Cost of procurement to go up: The expected cost of rice to FCI in 2020-21 is going to be about Rs 37/kg, and for wheat it will be Rs 27/kg.
- The issue price, that covers 67 per cent of the population, is just Rs 3/kg and Rs 2/kg respectively.
Excessive stock with the FCI
- Actual stock in excess of buffer stocks: Compared to a buffer stock norm of 4 million tonnes, actual stocks with FCI (including unmilled paddy) were 3.5 times higher.
- It speaks of a colossal waste of scarce resources, especially when tax revenues have been sluggish.
- Stocks likely to increase further: Given that Skymet has predicted that the coming wheat crop is going to be one of the best in many years-the stocks is likely to touch 113 million tonnes.
- With procurement prices being above global prices, the chances of wheat exports are bleak unless there is a subsidy for exports.
- And that will be challenged in the WTO.
- The FCI may run out of stock capacity: So, one should expect a piling up of grains stocks with a record procurement of wheat.
- FCI may run out of storage capacity. Stock levels may touch 85-90 million tonnes, or even more, by July 1, 2020.
Fundamental questions
- First: Is the government ignorant of the impending crisis of plenty?
- Second: Does it realise that the policy of procurement prices (50 per cent above cost A2+FL), without looking at the demand side, is likely to create more troubles for the government?
- Third: Does the government have any plan to reform the public distribution system under NFSA?
Way forward
- Reforms in foodgrain management: Reforms in foodgrain management have to start with reforming the PDS system.
- With moving gradually moving away from grains to cash transfers.
- Think over implementing the Shanta Kumar Committee reports recommendations.
- Stop open-ended procurement in Punjab-Haryana belt: The policy of procurement prices, with open-ended procurement in the Punjab-Haryana belt, is doing more damage by depleting the water table and not letting crop diversification take place.
- This is very unfortunate as the “dead loss” in grain management runs to more than Rs 1,00,000 crore.
- Rationalise the fertiliser subsidy: The other part related to this is the fertiliser subsidy, which is largely used in wheat and rice.
- The budget estimates for 2020-21 show a reduction in the subsidy, while dues of the fertiliser industry keep on piling.
- The fertiliser industry estimates that by April 2020, the dues will be roughly Rs 60,000 crore.
- Demoralised fertiliser industry: While FCI has been asked to borrow, the fertiliser industry does not have that type of window.
- It is feeling totally demoralised.
- No private player wants to come and invest in this sector.
Conclusion
Instead of postponing the crisis by compelling the FCI to borrow, the government need to reform the foodgrain management system, rationalise the fertiliser subsidy and limit the coverage under the NFSA.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- India-US relation in changing circumstances.
Context
US president’s visit comes when a mutually beneficial framework of bilateral relationship stands disrupted.
Significance previous U.S. President’s visits
- The Clinton visit: The Clinton visit occurred against the backdrop of a new assessment within the American strategic community of India’s potential role in the post-Cold War era and against the backdrop of the rise of China.
- Recognition of India’s nuclear power: He implicitly recognising India’s nuclear power status.
- Kashmir issue: He suggested that the line of control (LoC) between India and Pakistan should be viewed as the international border so as to bury the “Kashmir issue” forever and-
- Visas for Indians: increasing entry visas for Indians that has since contributed to the emergence of a sizeable community of Indian Americans.
- As a counter to China: It was suggested that the rise of democratic India would be in the interests of the US and so the latter ought to be supportive of the former.
- The Bush visit:
- Political context: The rise of China and of radical Islam and jihadi terrorism provided the geopolitical context.
- Economic context: The growth of an increasingly open Indian economy provided the economic context.
- Cooperation in civil nuclear energy: Influenced by this new thinking, President George Bush took the next steps in strategic partnership and led the initiative to promote cooperation in the field of civil nuclear energy that also explicitly recognised India as a nuclear weapons power.
- As heads of state, Clinton and Bush altered US-India bilateral relations in a fundamental way.
- The Obama visit:
- P2P relation: His second visit was more a recognition of the growing importance of people-to-people (P2P) relations and
- Defence sales to India: The visit also aimed at promoting defence sales to India.
- During the nuclear deal negotiations, US Congresspersons would often suggest that it was a “123 for 126” deal — that is, they would vote in favour of the 123 agreement in Congress in the hope that India would buy 126 fighter jets from the US.
- That hope remains as yet unfulfilled, with the French getting the Rafale deal and no decision taken on the purchase of US fighter jets.
America First policy of Trump
- The credit for laying the foundation for a new and supportive post-Cold War relationship between the US and India goes singularly to President Bush.
- Disruption with the arrival of Trump: The mutually beneficial framework that Bush helped create to promote the bilateral relationship has been rudely disrupted by the arrival of Donald Trump in Washington DC.
- End of GSP: Trump’s “America First” policy offers no space for offering India “special and differential” treatment on any front, least of all trade.
- Status of the Indian economy from the US perspective: With per capita annual national income of US $60,000, Trump’s America has no qualms declaring India, with a per capita annual average national income of US $2,000 a “developed economy” not deserving of any leniency in trade policy.
- Clubbing together with China: To club China, a $15-trillion economy, with a $3-trillion India on the trade front is not just stupid but an affront to Indian sensibilities.
What are the hopes and what could be the outcomes of the visit?
- No bi-partisan support to India’s rise: It has to be recognised that neither Democratic liberals nor Republican conservatives are any longer willing to be supportive of the Bush-Rice paradigm that views India’s rise in benign and mutually beneficial terms.
- Inward-orientation in both the countries: Today the relationship seems caught in the pincers between the inward-orientation of rightwing nationalists in both nations.
- No hope of change: There is no reason as yet to believe that this unfortunate state of affairs will be altered by the Trump visit next week.
- Stand on Pakistan or Kashmir: Trump has also moved away from the Clinton-Bush framework on India-Pakistan relations and moved closer to approach of wanting to insert the US into the equation on Kashmir.
- Appeasement of Pakistan: Trump’s motives are no different from those that initially drove Obama-namely, to appease Pakistan in the hope of securing a peaceful exit from Afghanistan.
- Expect differences to persist: At best, India can hope to limit the damage Trump may do to strategic stability in the region.
- Visa and investment: There will be much talk about US investments in India and increased visas for Indians going to the US.
- Corporate interests: Both are driven largely by US corporate interests.
- Given the direction of the Modi government’s trade policy, one cannot expect any dramatic concessions being made.
- Defence purchases: The best India can do for the US is to buy more defence equipment and ease up on some trade restrictions.
- Defence sales to India are an essentially commercial activity and much of it can go on even in the absence of strategic convergence and shared geopolitical perspectives.
- Brain-drain and need to focus on education: Much is made of Indian Americans heading US multinationals and the Great Indian Diaspora in the US.
- Outmigration of talent: The continued neglect of education in India is increasing the outmigration of talent, offering the US a reservoir of talent.
- Drain on national resources: While the Indian elite celebrates this out-migration, the fact is that it is a drain on national resources.
Conclusion
In sum, with the supportive Bush-Rice doctrine defining the post-Cold War US-India partnership virtually abandoned, and the new Trump doctrine treating India as a “developed” economy, demanding parity on trade, bilateral relations have become uncertain and testy. To hide the lack of substance in the relationship the Trump visit will focus on the hype and Prime Minister Modi has perfected the art of diplomacy as mass entertainment.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Significance of Judiciary: Impartial and independent of all external pressures
Recently a Supreme Court judge recused himself from hearing a petition filed against the government’s move to charge Omar Abdullah under the Public Safety Act. The case was finally heard by another bench.
Rules on Recusals
- There are no written rules on the recusal of judges from hearing cases listed before them in constitutional courts. It is left to the discretion of a judge.
- The reasons for recusal are not disclosed in an order of the court. Some judges orally convey to the lawyers involved in the case their reasons for recusal, many do not. Some explain the reasons in their order.
- The decision rests on the conscience of the judge. At times, parties involved raise apprehensions about a possible conflict of interest.
Why Judges need recusal?
- Recusal usually takes place when a judge has a conflict of interest or has a prior association with the parties in the case.
- For example, if the case pertains to a company in which the judge holds stakes, the apprehension would seem reasonable.
- Similarly, if the judge has, in the past, appeared for one of the parties involved in a case, the call for recusal may seem right.
- A recusal inevitably leads to delay. The case goes back to the Chief Justice, who has to constitute a fresh Bench.
Should the reasons be put on record?
- In his separate opinion in the NJAC judgment in 2015, Justice (now retired) Kurian Joseph, who was a member of the Constitution Bench, highlighted the need for judges to give reasons for recusal as a measure to build transparency.
- It is the constitutional duty, as reflected in one’s oath, to be transparent and accountable, and hence, a judge is required to indicate reasons for his recusal from a particular case, Justice Kurian wrote.
- One of his companion judges on the Constitution Bench, Justice (retired) Madan B. Lokur, agreed that specific rules require to be framed on recusal.
- The two judges were referring to senior advocate Fali Nariman’s plea to Justice J.S. Khehar, who was then in line to be the next Chief Justice, to recuse himself.
- But Justice Khehar refused to recuse himself though he admitted that Mr. Nariman’s plea left him in an “awkward predicament”.
- Justice Khehar reasoned that he did not recuse himself for fear of leaving an impression that he was “scared”.
What happened in the Judge Loya and Assam detention centres cases?
- In 2018, petitioners in the Judge Loya case sought the recusal of Supreme Court judges, Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, from the Bench as they both hailed from the Bombay High Court.
- The case banked on the written statements of two judges from that High Court, both saying that Judge Loya’s death was from natural causes. The court refused the request and called it a “wanton attack”.
- Recusal, the court observed, would mean abdication of duty. Maintaining institutional civilities are distinct from the “fiercely independent role of the judge as adjudicator”, the court explained.
- In May 2019, in the middle of a hearing of a PIL filed by activist Harsh Mander about the plight of inmates in Assam’s detention centres, the then-Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was asked to recuse himself.
- In a lengthy order, Justice Gogoi said a litigant cannot seek recusal of the judge. “Judicial functions, sometimes, involve performance of unpleasant and difficult tasks, which require asking questions and soliciting answers to arrive at a just and fair decision.
- If the assertions of bias as stated are to be accepted, it would become impossible for a judge to seek clarifications and answers,” the court observed.
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