Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Working of democracy
Mains level: Paper 2- Evolution of democracy in India
Democracy has evolved in many ways with time. The article examines its evolution in the Indian context.
Historical background of democracy
- In recorded history, the Greeks were the first to experiment with models of government.
- There were monarchies, oligarchies and democracies among the Greek city-states of the 5th Century BCE.
- Aristotle wrote that while monarchies were for the benefit of the monarchs and oligarchies for the benefit of men with means, democracies were for the benefit of men without means.
- Democracy has travelled a long way from those times.
- In the world’s successful democracies like the US, UK and India, there is a fine balance between the elected and non-elected institutions with enough safeguards.
How democracy worked in India
- There was much scepticism about the idea of universal adult franchise during the making of the Indian Constitution.
- But Rajendra Prasad assured the Assembly’s members about the raw political wisdom of the average Indian as also the strength of the other institutions to safeguard the democratic process.
- However, the infamous Emergency exposed the flaws in Indian democracy.
Gandhiji’s and B R Ambedkar’s approach
- Mahatma Gandhi was not a big admirer of the parliamentary system.
- Gandhi’s view was that in the British system, the parliament works only for partisan interest — and not for the national interest.
- He wrote in Harijan in January 1937 that by political independence he meant system suitable to Indian context i.e. Ram Rajya — sovereignty of the people based on pure moral authority.
- B R Ambedkar too described democracy in India as “only a top-dressing” on an Indian soil “which is essentially undemocratic”.
- He underscored the importance of social democracy for the success of political democracy.
- Gandhi was referring to the tyranny of the British rule and Ambedkar was responding to the oppressive caste system.
- Neither was against democracy, but both were against the idea of “majoritarian rule”.
- For Gandhi, democracy meant the weak getting the same chance as the strong.
- For Ambedkar, it was about giving voice to the voiceless.
- For democracies to succeed, both believed that the parliamentary majorities need to be restrained through constitutional ethics and public morality.
- Constitutional ethics is about leaders respecting constitutional order, conventions and institutions.
- Gandhi’s greater emphasis was on public morality.
- He insisted that for India’s democracy to succeed, the Congress should convert itself into a lok sevak sangh and work at the grassroots level.
Consider the question “Public morality and unelected institution are necessary checks on the elected government not inimical to it. Comment.”
Conclusion
India’s democracy, as envisaged by the makers of its Constitution, thrived essentially because of the respect of the leaders for ethical constitutionalism and moral activism of the grassroots activists. Neither should see the other as an enemy and try to bring them down.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Policy approach for industrial development
The article suggests the policy approach to achieve industrial growth while avoiding the isolationist approach in pursuit of AtmaNirbharBharat.
Issue of policy binary
- The goals of the Make in India initiative and now the AatmaNirbharBharat Abhiyan are driving a major shift in policy.
- Import duties are being raised.
- Production-linked incentives are being offered to firms across a wide canvas of 10 priority sectors.
- At the same time, there is considerable unease at the rolling back of trade liberalisation.
- This binary is not very useful.
Steps needed to gain competitive advantage
1) Infrastructure
- It would still take India many years to develop its physical infrastructure to the levels required for international competitiveness.
- Until then, large industrial parks for textiles, electronics, toys or shipbuilding need to be developed by state agencies with soft financing.
- Competitive logistics are essential.
- This was critical for the success of the information technology (IT) industry where world-class infrastructure was created within the software parks.
- High-speed broadband real-time connectivity to the US market was provided through public investment.
- This was done well before general telecom modernisation began.
2) Closing the financing gap
- Long-term financing for world-class infrastructure is still a gap.
- The central government can either use one of its existing financial institutions or create a new development financial institution to provide long-term low-interest rate debt.
- The sovereign needs to provide risk-mitigation through an implicit guarantee. It can afford to do so.
3) Prevent real exchange rate appreciation
- Before considering specific increases in import duties, real exchange appreciation should be undone.
- This would have the effect of raising tariffs across the board.
- It is high time the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) agreed on this objective.
4) Change the regime for SEZ
- Allow SEZ to sell into the domestic area with import duties at the lowest applicable rate with any trading partner and the same value-addition norms.
- Tax exemption on profits could be dispensed with while continuing to provide a duty-free import regime.
- This would create a level-playing field for production vis-à-vis competitive locations overseas.
- Large zones would have to be developed by the state.
- The private sector can be partners in the process, but achievement of scale is only possible by the state.
- Production for the domestic as well as the global market would become easier.
5) Encourage domestic value addition
- Domestic value-addition can be incentivised by-
- 1) Reducing duties to zero for all primary raw materials and inputs.
- 2) then progressively higher rates for intermediates with the highest rate for the finished product.
- In short, have just the opposite of the inverted duty structure we have had for computers.
- This would change investment and production decisions if other costs of production in India have been made competitive.
6) Commitment of procurement of full production
- In some industries, commitment of procurement of full production for a few years would suffice to get investment.
- Bids could be invited for solar panels, or for battery storage for the grid, for annual supply for, say, five years with the condition that full value-addition has to be done in India.
- Such commitment would provide for amortisation of the capital investment and make it a risk-free investment.
- If the bid size is large enough, the best global firms would come and invest.
- If the bids are repeated, prices would come down and a competitive industry structure would be created.
7) Encourage public investment
- Public investment in firms should not be ruled out altogether.
- In some cases, it may be the best way to create competitive capacity.
- Maruti Suzuki is a good example in India.
- Volkswagen was set up by a state government in Germany, which is still a substantial shareholder.
- This is a policy instrument that can be used to create competitive advantage.
8) Creation of fund
- There should also be willingness to create a fund that looks at modest returns, but aims at creating national and global champions through start-ups.
Conclusion
The foundation of China’s incredible success was laid by Deng Xiaoping with the maxim on economic policy that one should not bother about the colour of the cat as long as it caught mice. India’s policies have tended to be doctrinaire. We need a heavy dose of pragmatism to achieve our full potential.
Source:-
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/industrial-growth-the-right-policy-mix-for-success/2136735/
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Western disturbances , Winter rainfall
Mains level: Peculiarities of Indian weather
For the past few days, Chandigarh and its neighbouring states have been experiencing unusually cold days although the night temperatures are normal.
Try this PYQ:
Consider the following statements:
- The winds which blow between 30°N and 60°S latitudes throughout the year are known as westerlies.
- The moist air masses that cause winter rains in the North-Western region of India are part of westerlies.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) Only 1
(b) Only 2
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Temperature anomaly in North
- Meteorological officials have attributed the trend to the cloud cover in the region which was absent until a few days ago.
- It is the result of a western disturbance, which has brought about a spell of precipitation in the northwest Himalaya.
Role of clouds
- During the day, clouds obstruct the heat from the sun from reaching the surface of the earth, reflecting some of it back into space.
- This lowers the temperature. Cold winds blowing down from snow-bound areas in the mountains also contribute to the cooling effect.
- At night, however, clouds act like blankets – they help retain some of the heat energy radiated back by the earth’s surface.
- Overcast weather at night, thus, increases greenhouse warming.
What are western disturbances?
- In northern India, winter rains and clouds are generally caused by moisture-bearing wind systems called western disturbances.
- They originate and gather moisture over the Mediterranean region and flow eastwards towards the Indian subcontinent.
- When some of these winds run into mountains of the northwest Himalaya, they are forced upward.
- At higher altitudes, the temperatures drop and water vapour gets condensed. This leads to cloud formation and eventually rain and snow.
Other factors for severe winters in North
- In north India, the huge temperature difference between summers and winters is due to its continentality (distance from seas and oceans).
- Air from oceans moderates the temperature as it moves onshore, but this effect is missing in continental interiors.
- As a result, north India has greater seasonal differences as compared to peninsular India.
- Temperature also reduces rapidly with altitude, and thus, the Himalayan region is colder still.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SECI
Mains level: Solar energy and its viability
India’s solar power tariffs have hit a new record low of ₹2 per unit.
Can you relate this?
We have such a lower cost of solar energy. Then why do we rely on coal powered thermal power plants?
Solar energy scenario in India
- India has an ambitious target to increase its solar power base – by 2022, it wants to quadruple its current solar capacity to 100GW.
- A number of industrial-scale solar energy plants have come up in the past few years.
- The government-backed company Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI) has been auctioning solar energy capacity to various private developers using a bidding process that favours the cheapest tariffs.
Low tariff may seem lucrative
- The record low solar tariffs are mainly due to the “reverse bidding” process, which selects the cheapest bidder.
- India is now said to be considering a ceiling on solar tariffs – a cap of ₹2.5 ($o.035) and ₹2.68 ($0.038) per unit – for solar power companies that use both domestic and imported equipment.
- India imports over 90 per cent of solar equipment including cells and modules from overseas, mainly from China and Malaysia.
- The govt. now is in proves to impose a 25 per cent safeguard duty on solar equipment imports to protect domestic manufacturers, which could further put pressure on the razor margins of solar developers.
Impacts of such low tariff
- With the steep drop in prices, there are also concerns about the quality of the equipment being deployed, raising questions about future regulation and related costs.
- The infrastructure of many solar plants in India didn’t meet many environmental stress factors and technical standards, according to a study.
- India also has a target of increasing its rooftop solar capacity to 40,000 megawatts (MW) by 2022 similar to trends in many European countries.
- But, here too, prohibitive costs of solar equipment have kept many residential property owners from switching to rooftop solar despite a government subsidy.
Back2Basics: SECI
- It is a company of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, established to facilitate the implementation of the National Solar Mission (NSM).
- It is the only Central Public Sector Undertaking dedicated to the solar energy sector.
- The company’s mandate has been broadened to cover the entire renewable energy domain and the company will be renamed to Renewable Energy Corporation of India (RECI).
- It is responsible for the implementation of a number of govt. schemes, major ones being the solar park scheme and grid-connected solar rooftop scheme etc.
- It has a power-trading licence and is active in this domain through the trading of solar power from projects set up under the schemes being implemented by it.
Reverse bidding Process
In a reverse auction, the buyer puts up a request for a required good or service. Sellers then place bids for the amount they are willing to be paid for the good or service, and at the end of the auction the seller with the lowest amount wins.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UPI
Mains level: Paper 3- Cap on UPI transactions by TPAPs and issues with it
The article deals with the recent NPCI decision to cap the number of transactions by third party application providers (TPAPs).
Context
- The National Payments Corp of India (NPCI), in its recent guidelines imposed a 30% volume-based cap on the share of transactions by TPAPs and payment service providers (PSPs), effective from January 2021.
5 issues with the volume-based cap
1) It undermines cashless economy
- The growth and recognition of UPI would not have been possible had a cap been in place.
- Typically, customers limit themselves to one or two TPAPs of their choice.
- A transaction cap that forces users to use multiple apps may result in more transaction failures and dilute UPI’s popularity and impact.
- Lack of accessibility and user-friendliness would push users away from UPI towards other payment methods, or even cash.
2) It’s an anti-consumer decision
- Open markets and user choice have been crucial factors in the exponential increase seen in UPI adoption and its transactions.
- A volume-based cap would compel TPAPs to either limit the number of transactions on their platforms or stop enrolling new users, which in turn would restrict the customer’s use of UPI.
- TPAPs will likely be forced to redact customer incentives like cashbacks, coupons and the like.
- This could go against consumer interests by reducing choice.
3) It will also make the Indian market less attractive for investors:
- The cap would raise compliance and regulatory costs for players in the sector, which could deter new investors from entering.
- It would also adversely affect the growth potential of existing UPI players.
4) No regulatory impact assessment
- The idea of a volume-based cap does not appear to have undergone an assessment of its impact on the sector.
- As a general principle, before any such rule is imposed, an RIA (Regulatory Impact Assessment) needs to be undertaken.
- Systemic risks are not restricted to UPI and are common in all financial systems; yet, a similar cap has not been suggested for, say, retail bank transactions.
5) Impact on Atmanirbhar Bharat
- In order for Indian businesses to grow and compete at the global level, we need to integrate business processes with the global economy.
- Indian start-ups, in particular, need tools and infrastructure that lets them gain an international edge.
- Atmanirbhar Bharat envisions a self-reliant India that thrives on innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.
- But this vision cannot be fulfilled if our policies restrain the growth of a cashless economy.
Conclusion
India’s UPI ecosystem is nascent, but has demonstrated significant growth and has had a positive impact on the economy by providing the backbone needed to move towards cashless commerce. Any policy decision by regulators at this point should aim at catalysing innovation in this space. Stifling it would serve India badly.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: EVIN
Mains level: Universalization of vaccines and associated challenges in India
The government is using eVIN – Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network in association with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to identify primary beneficiaries and vaccine distribution networks.
Try this question from CSP 2016:
Q.‘Mission Indradhanush’ launched by the Government of India pertains to:
(a) Immunization of children and pregnant women
(b) Construction of smart cities across the country
(c) India’s own search for the Earth-like planets in outer space
(d) New Educational Policy
What is eVIN?
- E-VIN is an indigenously developed technology that digitizes vaccine stocks and monitors the temperature of the cold chain through a smartphone application.
- It was first launched across 12 states in 2015 to support better vaccine logistics management at cold chain points.
- It supports the central government’s Universal Immunization Programme by providing real-time information on vaccine stocks and flows, and storage temperatures across all cold chain points across states and UTs.
Components of eVIN
- eVIN combines state-of-the-art technology, a strong IT infrastructure and trained human resource to enable real-time monitoring of stock and storage temperature of the vaccines kept in multiple locations across the country.
- At present, 23,507 cold chain points across 585 districts of 22 States and 2 UTs routinely use the eVIN technology for efficient vaccine logistics management.
Benefits of eVIN
- It has helped create a big data architecture that generates actionable analytics encouraging data-driven decision-making and consumption-based planning.
- It helps in maintaining optimum stocks of vaccines leading to cost savings. Vaccine availability at all times has increased to 99% in most health centres in India.
- While instances of stock-outs have reduced by 80%, the time taken to replenish stocks has also decreased by more than half, on an average.
- This has ensured that every child who reaches the immunization session site is immunized, and not turned back due to unavailability of vaccines.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MQ-9B, BECA
Mains level: India-US defense cooperation
The Indian Navy has inducted two MQ-9B Sea Guardian unarmed drones procured from the U.S. on lease.
Try this question from CSP 2018:
Q.What is “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)”, sometimes seen in the news?
(a) An Israeli radar system
(b) India’s indigenous anti-missile programme
(c) An American anti-missile system
(d) A defence collaboration between Japan and South Korea
MQ-9B Sea Guardian
- The Guardian, which is the maritime variant of the Predator MQ-9 UAV, has a maximum endurance of 40 hours and a maximum flying altitude of 40,000 feet.
- It has 360-degree maritime surveillance radar and optional multimode maritime surface search radar.
- The drone can perform over-the-horizon long-endurance, medium-altitude Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions.
- The recently released Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 has introduced an option for leasing military platforms.
- The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA) has simplified such high- technology cooperation.
About BECA
- BECA will help India get real-time access to American geospatial intelligence that will enhance the accuracy of automated systems and weapons like missiles and armed drones.
- Through the sharing of information on maps and satellite images, it will help India access topographical and aeronautical data, and advanced products that will aid in navigation and targeting.
- This could be a key to Air Force-to-Air Force cooperation between India and the US.
- BECA will provide Indian military systems with a high-quality GPS to navigate missiles with real-time intelligence to precisely target the adversary.
- Besides the sailing of ships, flying off aircraft, fighting of wars, and location of targets, geospatial intelligence is also critical to the response to natural disasters.
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