Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Federal structure
Mains level: Paper 2- Evolutio of Centre-State relation in India
Against the backdrop of the ongoing tussle between the states and the Centre over the issue of GST compensation, the article analyses the evolution of federalism and power-sharing in India.
GST and federalism
- At the first sign of stress, the nation unified in a singular system of taxation (GST) turned into a policy of every-state-for-itself.
- Evidence of seriously miscued revenue estimates without pragmatic tax rate, was accumulating at an alarming pace.
- The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) recently revealed how a cess meant to remedy shortfalls in GST yields, was retained in central government revenues, in violation of all applicable norms.
- This revelation does little to build trust between the Centre and the States at a time when the States’ facing lack of resource and the central government is advising them to borrow.
- Some states believe that the onus of borrowing should rest with the central government.
Higher borrowing limit for states with conditions
- The central government sanctioned a higher borrowing limit for States through the current year.
- In the bargain, it imposed conditionalities:
- 1) Enforcing a singular standard for the implementation of policies across a vast and diverse country.
- 2) Improving India’s ranking as a place for “doing business”.
- States will have unconditional access to borrowings equivalent to half a percentage point of their gross output.
- But, subsequently, every tranche of a quarter point will be premised on progress in implementing the “one nation, one ration card” scheme, and improvements in the “ease of doing business”.
Federalism in India
- Aside from the contents and definitions sections, the word “federal” occurs in only one operational article of the Indian Constitution, in reference to the apex judicial body created in colonial times.
- When this body was transformed into the Supreme Court at the moment the Constitution came into force, the word seemingly lost all operative value.
- The distribution of powers and responsibilities between various tiers of the governmental system, was achieved without explicit recognition of federalism as a governing principle.
- In actual operational terms, the relationship of Centre and States followed different paradigms through various phases of politics.
- At the time of Independence, the distribution of powers between Centre and States was transformed into an internal discussion of the Congress.
Evolution of power-sharing and politics
- The “Congress system”, as the political scientist Rajni Kothari called it, was seen at one time to have sufficient internal flexibility and resilience to absorb all factional pressures.
- The first challenge came from the cultural terrain, compelling a reluctant national leadership to accept linguistic reorganisation of States.
- And then, as ambitions of nation-building through rapid industrialisation resulted in the possibility of a non-Congress politics.
- The Congress lost power in a number of key States in 1967.
- The polity moved into a new phase when politics was about “waves” at the national or state level either in favour of, or against the Congress.
- From 1989 onwards, politics settled into another distinct phase, when outcomes at the national level were the resultant of very separate State-level results.
Conclusion
Though federal structure could not be free from Centre-State power struggle, that struggle should not come into the development of the nation. In this context, it is the responsibility of the Centre to address the issues facing the state amid pandemic.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CRISPR-Cas9
Mains level: Paper 3- CRISPR-Cas9-Important tool in gene editing
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2020 has been awarded for the discovery of CRISPR Cas9. The two scientists have pioneered the use of CRISPR – Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9) system as a gene-editing tool.
Background of discovery of CRISPR
- In 1987a group of Japanese researchers observed an unusual homologous DNA sequence bearing direct repeats with spacing in a eubacterial gene.
- In subsequent years CRISPR was discovered and showed to be a bacterial adaptive immune system and to act on DNA targets.
- A notable discovery on the use of CRISPR as a gene-editing tool was by a Lithuanian biochemist, Virginijus Šikšnys, in 2012.
- Šikšnys showed that Cas9 could cut purified DNA in a test tube, the same discovery for which both Charpentier and Doudna were given the credit.
- Thus, the exclusion of Siksnys from this year’s Nobel is going to raise discussions.
Issue of gene-edited babies
- The world was alarmed by such a mission in 2018 when Chinese scientist edited genes in human embryos using the CRISPR-Cas9 system which resulted in the birth of twin girls.
- The incident became known as the case of the first gene-edited babies of the world.
- Following the incident, the World Health Organization formed a panel of gene-editing experts.
- The expert panel suggested a central registry of all human genome editing research in order to create an open and transparent database of ongoing work.
Guidelines and regulations in India
- In India, several rules, guidelines, and policies are notified under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 to regulate genetically modified organisms.
- The above Act and the National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical and Health Research involving human participants, 2017, by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and the Biomedical and Health Research Regulation Bill implies regulation of the gene-editing process.
- This is especially so in the usage of its language “modification, deletion or removal of parts of heritable material”.
- However, there is no explicit mention of the term gene editing.
Consider the question “What is CRISPR-Cas9? How it helps in the gene-editing? What are the concerns with use of it for gene-editing?”
Conclusion
It is time that India came up with a specific law to ban germline editing and put out guidelines for conducting gene-editing research giving rise to modified organisms.
Back2Basics: What is CRISPR?
- CRISPRs: “CRISPR” stands for “clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.”
- It is a specialized region of DNA with two distinct characteristics: the presence of nucleotide repeats and spacers.
- Repeated sequences of nucleotides — the building blocks of DNA — are distributed throughout a CRISPR region.
- Spacers are bits of DNA that are interspersed among these repeated sequences.
- In the case of bacteria, the spacers are taken from viruses that previously attacked the organism.
- They serve as a bank of memories, which enables bacteria to recognize the viruses and fight off future attacks.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Delhi air-pollution issue
The article suggests the three-pronged strategy to deal with the emission from transportation and highlights the importance of coordination at various level to deal with the issue of pollution.
Anti-pollution campaign in Delhi
- With air pollution returning to pre-COVID levels, the Delhi administration has launched a major anti-pollution campaign this month.
- The campaign is focused on cutting the deadly smoke from thermal plants and brick kilns in the National Capital Region as well as on chemical treatment of stubble burning from nearby States.
Abating emission from transportation
- Delhi’s long-term solution will depend importantly also on abating emissions from transportation.
- Delhi needs a 65% reduction to meet the national standards for PM2.5.
- Vehicles, including trucks and two-wheelers, contribute 20%-40% of the PM2.5 concentrations.
- Tackling vehicle emissions would be one part of the agenda, as in comparable situations in Bangkok, Beijing, and Mexico City.
Three-part action to combat emissions from transportation
- A three-part action comprises emissions standards, public transport, and electric vehicles.
1) Stricter enforcement of emission controls
- Two-wheelers and three-wheelers were as important as cars and lorries in Beijing’s experience.
- Bangkok ramped up inspection and maintenance to cut emissions.
- The first order of business is to implement the national standards.
2) Strengthening public transport
- Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) around the world show how the sizeable investment cost is more than offset by the benefits, and that financing pays off.
- Delhi has lessons from its BRT experience in designating better BRT lanes, improving the ticketing system and synchronising with the Metro.
- The Supreme Court’s ruling to increase Delhi’s bus fleet and align it with the Metro network must be carried out.
- The ‘odd-even’ number plate policy can help, but the system should reduce exemptions, allow a longer implementation period, and complement it with other measures.
3) Adoption of electric vehicle: A long term solution
- Subsidies and investment will be needed to ensure that EVs are used to a meaningful scale.
- The Delhi government’s three-year policy aims to make EVs account for a quarter of the new vehicles registered in the capital by 2024.
- EVs will gain from purchase incentives, scrappage benefits on older vehicles, loans at favourable interest and a waiver of road taxes.
Need for coordination at various level
- Transport solutions need to be one part of pollution abatement that includes industry and agriculture.
- Delhi’s own actions will not work if the pollution from neighbouring States is not addressed head on.
- Technical solutions need to be underpinned by coordination and transparency across Central, State, and local governments.
- Public opinion matters.
- Citizen participation and the media are vital for sharing the message on pollution and health, using data such as those from the Central Pollution Control Board.
Conclusion
- It is a matter of prioritising people’s health and a brighter future. Once the pandemic is over, Delhi must not stumble into yet another public health emergency. The time to act is now.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Freedom of Navigation Operations
Mains level: Not Much
Indian Navy is scheduled to hold another Passage Exercise (PASSEX) with the US to undertake Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOP).
Try this question:
Q.What do you mean by Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs)? What are its legal backings? Discuss its significance.
Freedom of Navigation Operations
- FONOPs are closely linked to the concept of freedom of navigation, and in particular to the enforcement of relevant international law and customs regarding freedom of navigation.
- Freedom of navigation has been thoroughly practised and refined, and ultimately codified and accepted as international law under UNCLOS, in a legal process that was inclusive and consent-based.
- The drafting of UNCLOS was driven in part by states’ concerns that strong national maritime interests could lead to excessive maritime claims over coastal seas, which could threaten freedom of navigation.
- FONOPs are outgrowths of this development of international law, based on sovereign equality and international interdependence.
Significance of FONOPs
- FONOPs are a method of enforcing UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) and avoiding these negative outcomes by reinforcing freedom of navigation through practice.
- It is exercised by sailing through all areas of the sea permitted under UNCLOS, and particularly those areas that states have attempted to close off to free navigation as defined under UNCLOS.
Back2Basics: UNCLOS
- The Law of the Sea Treaty formally known as the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted in 1982 at Montego Bay, Jamaica. It entered into force in 1994.
- The convention establishes a comprehensive set of rules governing the oceans and to replace previous U.N. Conventions on the Law of the Sea
- The convention defines the distance of 12 nautical miles from the baseline as Territorial Sea limit and a distance of 200 nautical miles distance as Exclusive Economic Zone limit.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Greater Male Connectivity Project
Mains level: India-Maldives Relations
Following up on India’s announcement of a $500 million package to the Maldives, the Exim Bank of India and the Maldives’s Ministry of Finance signed an agreement for $400 million in Male.
Try this question from 2014:
Q.Which one of the following pairs of islands is separated from each other by the ‘Ten Degree Channel’?
(a) Andaman and Nicobar
(b) Nicobar and Sumatra
(c) Maldives and Lakshadweep
(d) Sumatra and Java
Greater Male Connectivity Project
- The GMCP consists of a number of bridges and causeways to connect Male to Villingili, Thilafushi and Gulhifahu islands that span 6.7 km.
- It would ease much of the pressure of the main capital island of Male for commercial and residential purposes.
- When completed, the project would render the Chinese built Sinamale Friendship bridge connecting Male to two other islands, thus far the most visible infrastructure project in the islands.
- At present, India-assisted projects in the region include water and sewerage projects on 34 islands, reclamation project for the Addl island, a port on Gulhifalhu, airport redevelopment at Hanimadhoo, and a hospital and a cricket stadium in Hulhumale.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Femto Satellites, Micro-gravity
Mains level: Not Much
An experimental satellite developed by three students of Karur (TN) has been selected for launch in sub-orbital space by NASA.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The term ‘IndARC’, sometimes seen in the news, is the name of:
(a) An indigenously developed radar system inducted into Indian Defence
(b) India’s satellite to provide services to the countries of Indian Ocean Rim
(c) A scientific establishment set up by India in Antarctic region
(d) India’s underwater observatory to scientifically study the Arctic region
Indian Sat
- The Indian Sat is made of reinforced graphene polymer. It is 3 cm in size and weighs 64 gm.
- It has its own radio frequency communication to transmit and receive a signal from earth to outer space. The solar cells attached to the satellite generate power for it.
- The photographic film will absorb and measure the cosmic radiation inside the rocket.
- It would study the effect of reinforced graphene polymers in microgravity. It would be in sub-orbital space flight for a few minutes before landing in the ocean.
What is micro-gravity?
- The term micro-g environment is more or less synonymous with the terms weightlessness and zero-g, but with an emphasis on the fact that g-forces are never exactly zero—it is just very small.
- On the ISS, for example, the small g-forces come from tidal effects, gravity from objects other than the Earth, such as astronauts, the spacecraft, and the Sun, and, occasionally, air resistance.
Back2Basics: Femto-satellites
- Femto-satellites are satellites with a mass lower than 100 grams.
- These new categories of satellites are, by concept, low cost devices if they are based on Commercial-of-the-Shelf (COTS) components.
- Some examples of applications are related to low-cost missions with a short time of development.
Kalamsat
- Kalamsat was a communication satellite with a life span of two months launched in 2017.
- The nanosatellite is a 10cm cube weighing 1.2 kg.
- It will be the first to use the rocket’s fourth stage as an orbital platform.
- The fourth stage will be moved to higher circular orbit so as to establish an orbital platform for carrying out experiments.
- It is named after former Indian president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and was built by an Indian high school student team, led by Rifath Sharook, an 18-year-old from the Tamil Nadu town of Pallapatti.
- It is the world’s lightest and first-ever 3D-printed satellite.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RKA
Mains level: India's dailry potential
Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA) has started a nationwide campaign to celebrate “Kamdhenu Deepawali Abhiyan” this year on the occasion of Deepawali festival.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following statements:
- Agricultural soils release nitrogen oxides into the environment.
- Cattle release ammonia into the environment.
- Poultry industry releases reactive nitrogen compounds into the environment.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 3 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 2 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA)
- RKA has been constituted by PM for the conservation, protection and development of cows and their progeny and for giving direction to the cattle development programmes.
- It is a high powered permanent body to formulate policy and to provide direction to the implementation of schemes related to cattle so as to give more emphasis on livelihood generation.
Why need RKA?
- Livestock economy sustains nearly 73 million households in rural areas.
- Even though, the country is the largest producer of milk, the average milk yield in India is only 50% of the world average.
- The low productivity is largely due to deterioration in genetic stock, poor nutrition and unscientific management.
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