Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan
Mains level: Self-reliance measures
Finance Minister has announced a fresh set of relief and stimulus measures for the economy worth ₹1.19 lakh crore, including a scheme to boost re-employment chances of formal sector employees who lost their jobs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Assist this newscard with:
[Burning Issues] Atmanirbhar Abhiyan Package
Atmanirbhar Bharat
- Atmanirbhar Bharat, which translates to ‘self-reliant India’ or ‘self-sufficient India’, is the vision of our PM of making India a bigger and more important part of the global economy.
- It doesn’t mean “self-containment”, “isolating away from the world” or being “protectionist”.
- It calls for pursuing policies that are efficient, competitive and resilient, and being self-sustaining and self-generating.
- The five pillars of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ are stated as economy, infrastructure, technology-driven systems, vibrant demography and demand.
Highlights of the Package 3.0
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Terminologies such as Slowdown, Recession, Depression
Mains level: Hurdles to India's economic growth
Latest RBI bulletin projects contraction for a second consecutive quarter, which means the economy, is in a ‘technical recession’.
Nowcasts by RBI
- In its latest monthly bulletin, the Reserve Bank of India has dedicated a chapter on the “State of the economy”.
- The idea is to provide a monthly snapshot of some of the key indicators of India’s economic health.
- As part of the exercise, the RBI has started “nowcasting” or “the prediction of the present or the very near future of the state of the economy”.
- And the very first “nowcast” predicts that India’s economy will contract by 8.6% in the second quarter (July, August, September) of the current financial year.
- It implies India that has entered a “technical recession” in the first half of 2020-21— for the first time in its history.
What is a Recessionary Phase?
- At its simplest, in any economy, a recessionary phase is the counterpart of an expansionary phase.
- In simpler terms, when the overall output of goods and services — typically measured by the GDP — increases from one quarter (or month) to another, the economy is said to be in an expansionary phase.
- And when the GDP contracts from one quarter to another, the economy is said to be in a recessionary phase.
- Together, these two phases create what is called a “business cycle” in any economy. A full business cycle could last anywhere between one year and a decade.
Now try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following actions by the Government:
- Cutting the tax rates
- Increasing government spending
- Abolishing the subsidies
In the context of economic recession, which of the above actions can be considered a part of the “Fiscal stimulus” package?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
How is the Recession different?
- When a recessionary phase sustains for long enough, it is called a recession. That is, when the GDP contracts for a long enough period, the economy is said to be in a recession.
- There is, however, no universally accepted definition of a recession — as in, for how long should the GDP contract before an economy is said to be in a recession.
- But most economists agree with the US definition that during a recession, a significant decline in economic activity spreads across the economy and can last from a few months to more than a year.
Then, what is a Technical Recession?
- While the basic idea behind the term “recession” — significant contraction in economic activity — is clear, from the perspective of empirical data analysis, there are too many unanswered queries.
- For instance, would quarterly GDP be enough to determine economic activity? Or should one look at unemployment or personal consumption as well?
- It is entirely possible that GDP starts growing after a while but unemployment levels do not fall adequately.
- To get around these empirical technicalities, commentators often consider a recession to be in progress when real GDP has declined for at least two consecutive quarters.
- That is how real quarterly GDP has come to be accepted as a measure of economic activity and a “benchmark” for ascertaining a “technical recession”.
How long do recessions last?
- Typically, recessions last for a few quarters. If they continue for years, they are referred to as “depressions”.
- But depression is quite rare; the last one was during the 1930s in the US.
- In the current scenario, the key determinant for any economy to come out of recession is to control the spread of Covid-19.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Contempt of Court and its types, AGI
Mains level: Free speech vs. Contempt of court
Attorney-General gave his consent for the initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against the stand-up comedian for his tweets following a Supreme Court’s decision to grant interim bail to a news anchor.
Note important power, functions and limitations of AGI. A bluff can be created with the dicey statements in the prelims.
Also read:
[Burning Issue] Free Speech Vs. Contempt of Court
What is Contempt of Court?
- According to the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, contempt of court can either be civil contempt or criminal contempt.
- Civil contempt means wilful disobedience of any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or another process of a court, or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
- Criminal contempt, on the other hand, is attracted by the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which:
(i) Scandalizes or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or
(ii) Prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or
(iii) Interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner
- In 2006, the government brought in an amendment, which now provides “truth” as defence provided it is bona fide and in the public interest.
Why is the A-G’s consent needed to initiate contempt proceedings?
- In cognizance of criminal contempt, The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 has a provision under Subsection 1 of Section 15.
- It reads that- in the case of criminal contempt, (other than contempt in the face of the Supreme Court or a High Court), the related court may take action on its own motion or on a motion made by (a) the Advocate-General, or (b) any other person, with the consent in writing of the Advocate-General.
Back2Basics: Attorney General of India (AGI)
- The AGI is the Indian government’s chief legal advisor and is a primary lawyer in the Supreme Court of India.
- They can be said to be the advocate from the government’s side.
- They are appointed by the President of India on the advice of Union Cabinet under Article 76(1) of the Constitution and holds office during the pleasure of the President.
- They must be a person qualified to be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court ( i.e. a judge of some high court for five years or an advocate of some high court for ten years or an eminent jurist, in the opinion of the President and must be a citizen of India.).
Functions and duties
- The AGI is necessary for advising the Government of India on legal matters referred to them.
- They also perform other legal duties assigned to them by the President.
- The AGI has the right of audience in all Courts in India as well as the right to participate in the proceedings of the Parliament, though not to vote.
- The AGI appears on behalf of Government of India in all cases (including suits, appeals and other proceedings) in the Supreme Court in which GoI is concerned.
- They also represent the Government of India in any reference made by the President to the Supreme Court under Article 143 of the Constitution.
- The AG is assisted by a Solicitor General and four Additional Solicitors General.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Arsenal of Indian Navy
Mains level: Modernisation of Indian Navy
The fifth Scorpene submarine of Project-75 named ‘Vagir’ has been launched at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) in Mumbai.
In a rare case we would see a question based on various classes of Indian Submarines in the CSP. However, we can expect a question based on Project-75 in the CSP and CAPF exam very well.
About Vagir
- Vagir, ex-Russia, named after the Sand Fish, a deadly deep-sea predator of the Indian Ocean, was commissioned into the Indian Navy on December 3, 1973, and was decommissioned on June 7, 2001.
- In true nautical tradition, it is refurbished under the same name – Vagir.
- It is rebuilt with superior stealth features (such as advanced acoustic absorption techniques, low radiated noise levels, hydro-dynamically optimized shape etc.) and precision-guided weapons.
- The attack can be launched with both torpedoes and tube-launched anti-ship missiles, whilst underwater or on the surface.
What is Project-75?
- The Project 75I-class submarine is a follow-on of the Project 75 Kalvari-class submarine for the Indian Navy.
- In the late 1990s, around the time of Kargil war, a three-decade plan took shape for indigenous construction of submarines.
- It was known to have two separate series of submarine building lines – codenamed Project 75 and Project 75I — in collaboration with foreign entities.
- Under this project, the Indian Navy intends to acquire six diesel-electric submarines, which will also feature advanced air-independent propulsion systems.
- This is for enabling them to stay submerged for longer duration and substantially increase their operational range.
Submarines commissioned till date
- The submarines in the current Kalvari-class take their names from erstwhile decommissioned classes of submarines named Kalvari.
- It included Kalvari, Khanderi, Karanj and Vela class — which included Vela, Vagir, Vagsheer.
- Two submarines of the ongoing project, Kalvari and Khanderi, have been commissioned into the Indian Navy.
- The third submarine, Karanj, is in the last phase of rigorous sea trials.
- The fourth Scorpene, Vela, has commenced her sea trials, whilst the sixth and last submarine, Vagsheer, is being readied for boot together.
Strategic importance of these submarines
- India currently operates one submarine each in nuclear-powered Classes of Chakra and Arihant and in addition to 14 submarines belonging to three classes of Diesel Electric category — Kalvari, Shishumar and Sindhughosh, some of which are ageing.
- The nuclear powered and diesel-electric submarines have their designated roles in the Carrier Battle Groups, which are formations of ships and submarines with Aircraft Carriers at the lead role.
- As per the basic principles of submarine deployment and the minimum requirement for India to create a strategic deterrence, there is a specific number of submarines of both types that India needs to have in active service.
- Currently, India has less number of submarines than what is required with some more of those from both types being at various stages of construction.
Back2Basics: Classes of Submarines in India
- In maritime terms, a class of ships is a group of vessels which have the same make, purpose and displacement.
- In the Navy and Coast Guard in India, the ships belonging to a particular class are named in a specific manner.
- Many times the names have the same first letters, prefixes, similar meanings or the names belong to a particular type of words for example names of cities, persons, mythological concepts, animals, rivers, mountains, weapons, etc.
- The class is generally named after the first vessel in the category. In some cases, a particular class of vessels takes their names from an earlier class of vessels which are now decommissioned.
- Like Kalvari – which means Tiger Shark, Vagir has been named after a Sand Fish, a predatory marine species.
- Khanderi has been named after an Island Fort built by Chhatrapati Shivaji, which played a key role in his Navy. Karanj has also been named after an Island located South of Mumbai.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Genus Rohanixalus
Mains level: Eastern Himalayas and its biodiversity
Indian researchers have discovered a genus of tree frog found in the Andaman Islands and the northeast.
A stand-alone species being mentioned in the news for the first time find their way into the prelims. Make special note here. Usually, note the species and its habitat location (IUCN status if available), in the purview of a generic prelims question.
Genus Rohanixalus
- Named after Sri Lankan taxonomist Rohan Pethiyagoda, the frogs of the new genus Rohanixalus are characterised by a rather small and slender body (size about 2 to 3 cm long).
- It has a pair of contrastingly coloured lateral lines on either side of the body, minute brown speckles scattered throughout the upper body surfaces, and light green coloured eggs laid in arboreal bubble-nests.
- Based on DNA studies, the new genus is also revealed to be a distinct evolutionary lineage from all previously known tree frog genera.
- It is the 20th recognised genus of the family Rhacophoridae that comprises 422 known Old World tree frog species found in Asia and Africa.
Sub-species of this frog
- There are eight frog species in this genus Rohanixalus.
- They are known to inhabit forested as well as human-dominated landscapes right from the northeast to Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, up to southern China.
Unique features of this genus
- The genus has several unique behavioural traits including maternal egg attendance where the female (mother) attends the egg clutches until hatching and assists in the release of the tadpoles into the water.
- During the first three days after egg-laying, the female sits over the eggs and produces a gelatinous secretion with which she glazes the egg mass through the clock-wise movement of her legs.
- This behaviour provides necessary moisture to the eggs laid on exposed leaf surfaces and protects them from insect predation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Challenges faced by lending financial institutions and the issue of stagnant credit growth in India
The article deals with the issue of credit and financial institutions in India. It also suggests the five changes needed in the lending financial institutions in India.
Financial institutions and credit in India
- India has labour and land but not enough capital.
- The case for foreign financial institutions is also simple — their technology, processes, and experience raise everybody’s game.
- India is open — foreigners own 25 per cent of public equity, 90 per cent of private equity, and Google and Walmart are UPI’s biggest volume contributors.
- India’s challenge over the last 10 years has been bank credit.
- Credit-to-GDP ratio is stuck at 50 per cent, banking concentration measured by flow has increased by 70 per cent, and bad loans exceed Rs 10 lakh crore.
Significance of lending financial institutions
- Foreign institutions are unlikely to lend when needed most and lend to small enterprise borrowers.
- Bank numbers have practically remained unchanged since 1947 despite world-leading net interest margins.
- Nationalised banks that have an eight-times higher chance of bad loan, would save Rs 35,000 crore annually with industry benchmarked productivity.
- regulators prioritise domestic stakeholders.
- The home bias for global bank lending is accelerating.
- UPI crossing 2 billion monthly transactions demonstrates how mandated interoperability, local innovation, and enlightened regulation help insurgents take on incumbents.
5 Changes required in lending financial institutions
- 1) The biggest impact lies in creating a nationalised bank holding company that replaces the Finance Ministry’s Department of Financial Services, has no access to government finances, and is governed by an independent board.
- 2) We must licence 25 new full banks over 10 years.
- 3) We must expect and empower the RBI to deal with bank challenges earlier, faster, and invasively, by reimagining post-mortems, granting listed bank capital induction flexibility and making regulation ownership agnostic.
- 4) We must explore new eyes for banking supervision that include differential deposit insurance pricing.
- 5) Finally, financial stability and innovation are not contradictory; let’s blunt regulatory barriers between banks, non-banks, and fintech.
Conclusion
The opportunities for India arising from the coming Asian century, China’s contradictions and China’s new inward focus strategy come not once in a decade but once in a generation. Let’s empower our financial services entrepreneurs to exploit this opportunity.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Issue with legal language
Context
- Recently, a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court regarding the use of legal language.
- Reacting to the plea, the Supreme Court has asked the Ministry of Law and Justice and Bar Council to respond.
Wha the PIL is about?
- The PIL (Subhash Vijayran vs Union of India) wants the legislature and executive to use plain English in drafting laws, the Bar Council to introduce plain English in law curricula and the Supreme Court to only allow concise and precise pleadings.
- He begins the synopsis to the writ petition in the following way. “The writing of most lawyers is: (1) wordy, (2) unclear, (3) pompous and (4) dull.
Way forward
- When asking the Ministry of Law and Justice and Bar Council to respond, the Chief Justice of India referred to Anthony Burgess’s book (1964) Language Made Plain.
- George Orwell set out six principles, which could be used while drafting.
- Copy editors routinely use these principles, but not the judiciary.
- The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy produced a manual on plain language drafting in 2017.
Conclusion
The Ministry of Law and Justice make use of the opportunity provided by the PIC to come up with the set of principles to make the legal language easier for all.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: OTT
Mains level: Need for OTT media regulation
In a move that will have a far-reaching impact, the Union government has brought Over The Top (OTT) platforms, or video streaming service providers under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).
Try answering this
Q.What is Over the Top (OTT) media services? Critically analyse the benefits and challenges offered by the OTT media services in India.
Background
- The MIB has found a vast swathe of unregulated content, namely news online and Over the top (OTT) platforms which had escaped any architecture of regulation.
- The print was regulated by the Press Council of India and Television, both News and Entertainment were being regulated by the Cable Networks Regulation Act (2005).
- However, the content on online, the Government felt, fell into a black hole with no oversight.
What are OTT Media?
- An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet.
- OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content.
- The term is most synonymous with subscription-based video-on-demand (SVoD) services that offer access to film and television content.
- They are typically accessed via websites on personal computers, as well as via apps on mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets), digital media players, or televisions with integrated Smart TV platforms.
Regulating OTT
- Currently, there is no law or autonomous body governing digital content. The recent move will give the government control over OTT platforms, which were unregulated till now.
- From time to time, the government had indicated the necessity to monitor these platforms.
- In October 2019, the government had indicated that it will issue the “negative” list of don’ts for the video streaming services like Netflix and Hotstar.
- It also wanted the platforms to come up with a self-regulatory body on the lines of the News Broadcasting Standards Authority.
Self-regulation is not sufficient
- Anticipating the government’s intervention, in January 2019, video streaming services had signed a self-regulatory code that laid down a set of guiding principles for content on these platforms.
- The code adopted by the OTTs prohibited five types of content:
- Content that deliberately and maliciously disrespects the national emblem or national flag,
- Any visual or storyline that promotes child pornography
- Any content that “maliciously” intends to outrage religious sentiments
- Content that “deliberately and maliciously” promotes or encourages terrorism and
- Any content that has been banned for exhibition or distribution by law or court
- The government had refused to support this code.
What lies ahead?
- The government had been giving enough hints from time to time that it wanted to regulate digital media but the exact nature of the regulation it wanted to bring was not clear.
- The government considers digital media and digital aggregators in the same breath but they are different things.
- It is unclear whether it is looking at licensing or entry barriers, or any other curbs in digital media.
- However, monitoring content 24×7 has its own challenges. Whether the Ministry will set up a committee involving the public to look into complaints received remains to be seen.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Viability Gap Funding
Mains level: Not Much
The government has expanded the provision of financial support by means of viability gap funding for public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure projects to include critical social sector investments in sectors such as health, education, water and waste treatment.
Note the minutes of VGF, its meaning, funding mechanism, various sectors included and its nodal ministry etc. UPSC can ask static statements based question.
What is the move?
- Now, under this scheme, private sector projects in areas like wastewater treatment, solid waste management, health, water supply and education, could get 30% of the total project cost from the Centre.
- Separately, pilot projects in health and education, with at least 50% operational cost recovery, can get as much as 40% of the total project cost from the central government.
- The Centre and States would together bear 80% of the capital cost of the project and 50% of operation and maintenance costs of such projects for the first five years.
Viability Gap Funding (VGF) Scheme
- Viability Gap Finance means a grant to support projects that are economically justified but not financially viable.
- The scheme is designed as a Plan Scheme to be administered by the Ministry of Finance and amount in the budget are made on a year-to-year basis.
- Such a grant under VGF is provided as a capital subsidy to attract the private sector players to participate in PPP projects that are otherwise financially unviable.
- Projects may not be commercially viable because of the long gestation period and small revenue flows in future.
- The VGF scheme was launched in 2004 to support projects that come under Public-Private Partnerships.
Its’ funding
- Funds for VGF will be provided from the government’s budgetary allocation. Sometimes it is also provided by the statutory authority who owns the project asset.
- If the sponsoring Ministry/State Government/ statutory entity aims to provide assistance over and above the stipulated amount under VGF, it will be restricted to a further 20% of the total project cost.
VGF grants
- VGF grants will be available only for infrastructure projects where private sector sponsors are selected through a process of competitive bidding.
- The VGF grant will be disbursed at the construction stage itself but only after the private sector developer makes the equity contribution required for the project.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: FCRA
Mains level: FCRA
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has relaxed FCRA norms for farmer, student, religious and other groups who are not directly aligned to any political party to receive foreign funds if the groups are not involved in “active politics”.
Must read:
What is Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, and how does it control donations?
What is the FCRA?
- The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 regulates foreign donations and ensures that such contributions do not adversely affect the internal security of our country.
- The Act, first enacted in 1976, was amended in the year 2010 when a slew of new measures was taken by the Union Home Ministry to regulate foreign donations. It was again amended in September this year.
- It is applicable to all associations, groups and NGOs which intend to receive foreign donations. It is mandatory for all such NGOs to register themselves under the FCRA.
- The registration is initially valid for five years and it can be renewed subsequently if they comply with all norms.
What are the new rules?
- The new rule says- the organisations specified under clauses (v) and (vi) of sub-rule (1) shall be considered to be of political nature, if they participate in active politics or party politics, as the case may be.
- The 2011 rules on said clauses dealt with “guidelines for the declaration of an organisation to be of a political nature, not being a political party”.
- It said that the Central government could specify an organisation as that of political nature based on six criteria.
Defining ‘Political group’
- Clause V of Rule 3 (FCRA 2011) qualified a political group as, “organisations of farmers, workers, students, youths based on caste, community, religion, language or otherwise, which is not directly aligned to any political party, but whose objectives or activities, include steps towards advancement of political interests of such groups.
- The activities include: habitually engagement in or employ common methods of political action like rasta roko, jail bharo, rail roko, bandh or hartal in support of public causes.
Why such a move?
- As per the FCRA, members of legislatures, political parties, government officials, judges and media persons are prohibited from receiving any foreign contribution.
- The new rules make new FCRA registrations more stringent.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sarna Religion
Mains level: Tribal culture and its conservation
The Jharkhand government convened a special Assembly session to pass a resolution to recognise Sarna religion and include it as a separate code in the Census of 2021.
The Sarna Religion
- The followers of Sarna faith believe pray to nature.
- The holy grail of the faith is “Jal (water), Jungle (forest), Zameen (land)” and its followers pray to the trees and hills while believing in protecting the forest areas.
- Jharkhand has 32 tribal groups of which eight are from Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups.
- While many follow Hindu religion, some have converted to Christianity — this has become one of the planks of demanding a separate code “to save religious identity”— as various tribal organisations put it.
A sacred grove is any grove of trees that are of special religious importance to a particular culture. Can you link this concept with the traditional practice of Sarna Tribals?
Why need Sarna Code?
- It is believed that 50 lakhs tribal in the entire country put their religion as ‘Sarna’ in the 2011 census, although it was not a code.
- The resolution will seek a special column for followers of the Sarna religion in the Census, 2021. At present, they are not classified as a separate entity.
Politics around the code
- Many of the tribals who follow this faith have later converted to Christianity—the state has more than 4% Christians most of whom are tribals.
- Some who still follow the Sarna faith believe the converted tribals are taking the benefits of reservation as a minority as well as the benefits are given to Schedule Tribes.
- They also believe that benefits should be given specifically to them and not those who have converted.
What sense does a separate code make?
- The protection of their language and history is an important aspect of tribals.
- Between 1871 and 1951, the tribals had a different code. However, it was changed around 1961-62.
- Experts argue that when today the entire world is focusing on reducing pollution and protecting the environment, it is prudent that Sarna becomes a religious code as the soul of this religion is to protect nature and the environment.
Back2Basics: Census of India
- The decennial Census of India has been conducted 15 times, as of 2011.
- While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872 under British Viceroy Lord Mayo, the first complete census was taken in 1881.
- Post-1949, it has been conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
- All the censuses since 1951 were conducted under the 1948 Census of India Act.
- The last census was held in 2011, whilst the next will be held in 2021.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gujarat Maritime Cluster
Mains level: Need for a Maritime Cluster in India
The Gujarat Maritime Cluster coming up in the GIFT (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) City at Gandhinagar will be a dedicated system to address logistics of ports and seaways.
Try answering this:
Q.What do you mean by Central Business Districts? How it is different from a Special Economic Zone (SEZ)?
What is a Maritime Cluster?
- The concept of the maritime cluster is new to India, but these clusters have been driving some of the most competitive ports of the world like Rotterdam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Oslo, Shanghai, and London.
- Simply put, a maritime cluster is an agglomeration of firms, institutions, and businesses in the maritime sector that are geographically located close to each other.
Gujarat Maritime Cluster
- While the project was conceptualized back in 2007, it received in-principle approval from the state government only in 2015.
- The Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), a nodal agency of the Gujarat government, has been trying to develop such a cluster at GIFT City in the state capital Gandhinagar.
- This cluster will initially consist of Gujarat-based shipping lines, freight forwarders, shipping agents, bunker suppliers, stevedores, and shipbrokers with chartering requirements.
- In the second stage, the cluster would attempt to bring Indian ship owners, ship operators, Indian charterers and technical consultants scattered in cities like Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi to Gujarat.
- Thereafter it would target to attract global players in the maritime sphere.
Need for a maritime cluster
- This project will try to bring back businesses that have migrated over the years to foreign locations due to the absence of the right ecosystem in the country.
- Gujarat has a lot of ports and handles 40 per cent of the country’s cargo, but it does not target the entire value chain.
- Since we didn’t have the ecosystem, a lot of Indian companies have moved to foreign locations. For instance, Adani Group has the biggest port in Gujarat, but for their chartering needs, they are based out of Dubai.
Back2Basics: GIFT City, Gandhinagar
- GIFT city is India’s first operational smart city and international financial services centre (much like a modern IT park).
- The idea for GIFT was conceived during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor Summit 2007 and the initial planning was done by East China Architectural Design & Research Institute (ECADI).
- Currently approximately 225 units/companies are operational with more than 12000 professionals employed in the City.
- The entire city is based on concept of FTTX (Fibre to the home / office).The fiber optic is laid in fault tolerant ring architecture so as to ensure maximum uptime of services.
- Every building in GIFT City is an intelligent building. There is piped supply of cooking gas. India’s first city-level DCS (district cooling system) is also operational at GIFT City.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Crew-1 Mission
Mains level: Manned mission to space
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will lift off carrying a crew of four people to the International Space Station (ISS) on a six-month-long mission.
What is the Crew-1 Mission?
- The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, whose objective is to make access to space easier in terms of its cost.
- This will carry four astronauts on NASA missions, maintaining a space station crew of seven to maximize time dedicated to scientific research on the orbiting laboratory.
- With this, the cargo and crew can be easily transported to and from the ISS, enabling greater scientific research.
- At the ISS, the crew will join the members of Expedition 64, the space station crew currently in residence at the ISS.
Mission goals
- The goals of the mission are the same as that of Expedition 1 that lifted off 20 years ago.
- NASA has called both of these ISS missions “historic”.
- At the ISS, the Crew-1 team will join members of Expedition 64 and conduct microgravity studies and deliver new science hardware to ISS.
- Once in orbit, NASA astronauts will collect samples to provide data to scientists back on Earth so that they can continue to study how dietary changes affect his body.
- The crew will also study the effects of dietary improvements on immune function and the gut microbiome and how those improvements can help crews adapt to spaceflight.
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—just very small.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PLI scheme and various sectors
Mains level: Moves for Atmanirbhar Bharat
The Union Cabinet has unveiled the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme to encourage domestic manufacturing investments in ten key sectors.
PLI Scheme
- The PLI scheme aims to boost domestic manufacturing and cut down on imports by providing cash incentives on incremental sales from products manufactured in the country.
- Besides inviting foreign companies to set shop in India, the scheme aims to encourage local companies to set up or expand, existing manufacturing units.
UPSC can directly as the sectors included in the PLI scheme. Earlier it was only meant for Electronics manufacturing (particulary mobile phones).
What was the earlier PLI Scheme?
- As a part of the National Policy on Electronics, the IT ministry had notified the PLI scheme on April 1 this year.
- The scheme will, on one hand, attract big foreign investment in the sector, while also encouraging domestic mobile phone makers to expand their units and presence in India.
- It would give incentives of 4-6 per cent to electronics companies which manufacture mobile phones and other electronic components.
- A/c to the scheme, companies that make mobile phones which sell for Rs 15,000 or more will get an incentive of up to 6 per cent on incremental sales of all such mobile phones made in India.
- In the same category, companies which are owned by Indian nationals and make such mobile phones, the incentive has been kept at Rs 200 crore for the next four years.
10 new sectors added
The ten sectors have been identified on the basis of their potential to create jobs and make India self-reliant, include:
- Food processing
- Telecom
- Electronics
- Textiles
- Speciality steel
- Automobiles and auto components
- Solar photo-voltaic modules and
- White goods such as air conditioners and LEDs
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Disaster Management Act 2005
Mains level: Paper 2- Making healthcare disaster prepared
The article highlights the importance of the robust public healthcare system for the disaster preparedness and suggests linking it with the primary healthcare.
Reactive approach to disasters
- In 2005, India enacted the Disaster Management Act, which laid an institutional framework for managing disasters across the country.
- Under the Act, reactive, ad hoc measures applied in the event of a disaster, was to be replaced with a systematic scheme for prevention, mitigation, and responding to disasters of all kinds.
- Disaster management considerations were to be incorporated into every aspect of development and the activities of different sectors, including health.
- While some headway has indeed been achieved, the approach continues to be largely reactive.
- Significant gaps remain particularly in terms of medical preparedness for disasters.
Medical preparedness for disasters
- Two important lessons emerge:-
- First, health services and their continuing development cannot be oblivious to the possibility of disaster-imposed pressures.
- Second, the legal framework for disaster management must push a legal mandate for strengthening the public health system.
Role of private health sector during disaster
- Instances of overcharging during Covid illustrates how requisitioning of private sector services during disasters can hardly be a dependable option in the Indian context.
- This is particularly important since the future development of hospital care services is being envisaged chiefly under publicly financed health insurance, which would very likely be private-sector led.
- The Indian private sector landscape, characterised by weak regulation and poor organisation, is incapable for mounting a strong and coordinated response to disasters.
- During disasters, the limited regulatory ability could be further compromised.
- While publicly financed insurance could be a medium to introduce some order into this picture, a large majority of private hospitals in the country are small enterprises which cannot meet the inclusion criteria for insurance.
- Many of these small hospitals are also unsuitable for meeting disaster-related care needs.
- Punitive action against non-compliant requisitioned hospitals becomes tricky during disasters since health services are already inadequate.
- Private hospitals are known to prefer lucrative and high-end ‘cold’ cases, especially under insurance, and are generally averse to infectious diseases and critical cases with unpredictable profiles.
Need for strong public sector capacities
- Due to the above-cited limitations of the private sector, strong public sector capacities are imperative for dealing with disasters.
- While the Disaster Management Act does require States and hospitals to have emergency plans, medical preparedness is a matter of policy, and, therefore, gaps are pervasive.
- There is a strong case for introducing a legal mandate to strengthen public sector capacities via disaster legislation.
- There is also scope for greater integration of disaster management with primary care.
- Primary care stands for things such as multisectoral action, community engagement, disease surveillance, and essential health-care provision, all of which are central to disaster management.
Way forward
- Evidence supports the significance of robust primary care during disasters, and this is particularly relevant for low-income settings.
- Synergies with the National Health Mission, concurrently with the Disaster Management Act in 2005, could be worth exploring.
- Interestingly, the National Health Mission espouses a greater role for the community and local bodies, the lack of which has been a major criticism of the Disaster Management Act.
- Making primary health care central to disaster management can be a significant step towards building health system and community resilience to disasters.
Consider the question “Robust public healthcare system is indispensable for the disaster preparedness which could be achieved through making the primary healthcare central to the disaster management. Comment.
Conclusion
While the novel coronavirus pandemic has waned both in objective severity and subjective seriousness, valuable messages and lessons lie scattered around. It is for us to not lose sight and pick them up.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Role of CPCB and SPCBs
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues faced by SPCBs
The article deals with the issues faced by the State Pollution Control Boards.
Role of CPCB and State Pollution Control Boards
- The pollution crisis is a highly complex, multi-disciplinary issue with several contributory factors.
- To address this crisis, India has a plethora of rules, laws and specialised agencies which, at least on paper, seem very impressive.
- The footsoldiers of India’s battle against polluters are its officials at the state pollution control boards.
- The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) based in Delhi is generally well funded and resourced, unlike the state pollution control boards (SPCBs) that are in charge of implementation of the rules that CPCB writes.
5 issues faced by SPCBs
1) Shortage of Staff
- As an illustration, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board has been operating with a 70 per cent staff shortage.
- What this means practically is that a single officer is tasked to handle the demands of pollution control for an entire district without any subordinate technical staff.
- This comes at the cost of not being able to do inspections and other core pollution control work.
2) Lack of specialisation
- The officers at the SPCBs do not get to develop any specialisation.
- The CPCB has a decent workforce and robust laboratories, where scientists once recruited get to work and excel in a particular area.
- On the other hand, SPCBs don’t have such a stratified system, and the same officer is in charge of all these pollution categories, making it impossible to gain expertise and excel in any one area.
3) Lack of legal skills to take on pollutors
- SPCBs lack the necessary legal skills to take on polluters.
- While a legal cell may exist at the head office of a SPCB, they have few full-time public prosecutors there.
- As a result, engineering graduates in district SPCB offices — have to play the role of lawyers and develop legal paperwork that often falls short of holding polluters to account.
- Clerks and superintendents at courts often refuse to file cases, pointing at flaws that someone not trained in law would naturally make.
4) Lack of funds
- SPCBs are chronically underfunded.
- For instance, the funds of several SPCBs such as Haryana’s largely come from “No Objection Certificates” and “Consent to Operate” that the boards grant to industries and projects, rather than budgetary allocations by the government.
- Owing to this, SPCB officials are unable to spend on critical functions.
5) Additional duties
- SPCB officials are at times given additional responsibilities that are unrelated to pollution control.
- Haryana’s SPCB, for instance, has poultry farms under its ambit.
Consider the question “Dealing with the crisis of air pollution need coordination at various levels and the State Pollution Control Boards play an important role in it. In light of this, examine the challenges and suggest the steps needed to empower them.”
Conclusion
India must empower SPCBs to act by giving them the necessary funds, human resources, tools and technologies.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3-Challenges in judicial review of the central bank actions
Judicil review of central bank action could impact several stakeholders at the same time. This type of problems could be termed as polycentric problems. The article disusses the issues with judicial reviews in such cases.
Judicial review of central bank actions
- The Supreme Court is currently considering if the RBI should extend the COVID-19 induced loan moratorium and waive the accrued interest on interest.
- Earlier this year, the court struck down an RBI circular imposing a ban on virtual currencies.
- Last year, it quashed RBI circular that mandated banks and financial institutions to initiate insolvency proceedings against defaulting companies with significant loan exposures.
Unsuitable for adjudication
- Legal scholars have long recognised that certain disputes are inherently unsuitable for adjudicative disposition.
- The most influential arguments on this subject were advanced by the American legal philosopher Lon Luvois Fuller.
- Fuller compared polycentricity with a spider’s web — a pull on one strand distributes the tension throughout the web in a complicated pattern.
- Applied to adjudication, polycentric problems normally involve many affected parties and a somewhat fluid state of affairs.
- The range of those affected by the dispute cannot easily be foreseen and their participation in the decision-making process by reasoned arguments and proofs cannot possibly be organised.
- As a result, the adjudicator is inadequately informed and cannot determine the complex repercussions of a proposed solution.
Complexity of functioning of bank
- Disputes involving certain central bank functions are highly polycentric and are unsuitable for resolution through judicial review.
- For example, consider monetary policy function.
- This involves varying short-term interest rate to control supply and demand of money in the economy, which, in turn, influences economic activity and inflation.
- If judicial review supplants the central bank’s decision on this rate with the decision of the adjudicator, the repercussions would affect every single borrower and saver.
- Yet, the adjudicator can neither offer a meaningful hearing to all those affected parties, nor can he effectively process all the necessary information to determine an optimal solution.
- Evidently, disputes about monetary policy rate are highly polycentric and are better resolved outside the court.\
Which actions of banks should involve judicial review
- Not all disputes involving central bank functions are polycentric.
- For example, a dispute regarding imposition of a pecuniary penalty by a central bank could be resolved through judicial review.
- If the adjudicator finds the central bank to be correct, it need not interfere.
- If the adjudicator finds the central bank to be incorrect, it could modify or overturn the central bank’s decision.
- Clearly, judicial review could be effectively used to resolve bipolar disputes involving the central bank if they exhibit low polycentricity.
Need for striking the balance
- Monetary policy and pecuniary penalties are at two extreme ends of the polycentricity spectrum.
- There are, however, various central bank functions of intermediate polycentricity.
- Consider prudential regulations such as bank capital regulation.
- If judicial review supplants provisions of such regulations with the decision of the adjudicator, it may appear to directly impact only the banks and nobody else.
- But in reality, it could impact bank lending, which, in turn, would have complex repercussions on the entire credit market and risk-taking abilities across the economy.
- Effective hearing of all affected parties, directly or indirectly, would, therefore, be impossible.
- Consequently, some bipolar disputes involving the central bank may be too polycentric for meaningful resolution through judicial review.
- Judicial review could be purely procedural — the adjudicator could merely review whether the central bank’s action is within its legal mandate or not.
- The adjudicator could at most nullify a procedurally invalid central bank action, but may never supplant the decision of the central bank with his own.
Consider the question “Judicial review of the central bank actions could be different from the other judicial reviews. Examine the issues in such reviews by the judiciary.”
Conclusion
Adopting polycentricity test within constitutional jurisprudence would help sustain the legitimacy of judicial review while retaining the accountability of technocratic institutions such as the central bank.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Loopholes in India's policymaking
This newscard is an excerpt of the original article published in the DownToEarth.
Central theme: India needs to work out problems in old policies and develop new ones that ensure a rapid tectonic shift in India’s technological future.
Past lessons:
(1) From Agriculture
- The Father of the Green Revolution, Norman E Borlaug, was credited with the development of semi-dwarf, disease-resistant and high-yield variety of wheat that he introduced in India, Pakistan and Mexico.
- Led by Mexico, and soon followed by India, many countries adopted what is now commonly known as the ‘Green Revolution’.
- Even after suffering two famines and recovering from the colonial catastrophe, India transformed itself into a self-sufficient nation in terms of rice and wheat over the next two decades.
Sustaining GR with farm mechanization
- Nearing the end of this decade, farm mechanization in India stands at 40-45 per cent, which is low compared to the USA (95 per cent), Brazil (75 per cent) and China (57 per cent).
- Renewal of focus on farm mechanization was afforded only in the 12th five-year plan through a sub-mission on agricultural mechanization.
- Regional disparities aside, India has broken the inertia in adopting farm machinery when compared to previous decades that is largely owed to the current push by the Union government.
Still stranded with Land reforms
- Yet, the response came late as compared to other countries with similar levels of development and was off by decades when compared to advanced economies.
- Indian policymakers are still catching-up when implementing agriculture reforms, including land record digitization that should have been done and dusted by now.
(2) Agriculture to Industries
- After adopting resistant-variety cotton, India became the largest producer and second-largest exporter of cotton.
- But it lags significantly behind in exporting cotton fabric at 5-6 per cent of the global share as China leads at 51 per cent.
- Even with technical textiles, India’s production share is at four per cent and we suffer from an overall trade deficit.
Why do we lag?
- The earlier policies have not been revamped to reorient them into improving the technologically laggard and decentralized small-scale industries.
- The overall direction is guided by budgetary announcements and segregated schemes that often leads to ambiguity in policy.
- The new textile policy that is expected to provide for the economy of scale through textile parks is yet to be rolled out and the dedicated National Technical Textile Mission has only been recently announced.
- Both policies should have been in place a decade ago.
(3) Automobile sector
- India’s automobile sector is yet another example of playing policy catch-up.
- None of the Indian companies has any substantial market share in electric vehicle (EV) production, and retail sale of EVs in India has not registered any significant growth.
- The biggest hurdle to the growth of EVs in India, among others, is policy ambiguity in relation to conventional internal combustion (IC) engine vehicles that hamper strategic business decisions.
Beyond lofty roadmaps
- In June 2019, NITI Aayog claimed that only EVs would be sold in India after 2030, replacing conventional IC engine vehicles, a claim that was later refuted by the Union Minister of Transport.
- Policy ambiguity and lack of clear-cut directives on such a revolutionary technology can create disarray within the industry and on the broader strategic direction of the manufacturing sector.
(4) Gaps in data and privacy lawmaking
- The world is fast changing with the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing (QC).
- Every dimension of technology will start interacting with each other as the physical operations will all be controlled and operated by intelligent and adaptive virtual systems.
Here too, India lags
- Advanced economies have already put data regulation guidelines in place. China and the United States are already far too ahead in their R&D and policy research into AI and QC.
- India developed its national strategy for AI only in 2018 and still lacks a full-proof futuristic policy on quantum computing.
- Revolutionary and disruptive technologies require full-proof futuristic policies and strategies for development, and not vision documents and segregated schemes.
Dealing with data
- As of November 2019, the Internet and Mobile Association of India put India’s active Internet users at 504 million; in 2020, India would register nearly 700 million internet users.
- We generate a copious amount of data, which, when combined with personal data from individual users in India, demand a new legal and paradigm change.
- India’s data fiduciary laws are still in their nascent stage.
- Data Protection Bill based on the recommendation of the Justice BN Srikrishna Committee is still pending with Parliament.
Not treating the symptoms
- Every day millions of Indians share intricate personal details and data over the internet; a majority of active users are unaware of the threats posed by an open-access to data.
- Political battles are slowly gaining traction on the internet by harnessing the loopholes in social media.
- Threats of state surveillance loom over millions of Indians and even now, any legal framework to protect data or privacy is missing.
What we can deduce from the above discussion?
- The Indian State heavily influences the outcome of the country’s technological development, largely due to the significant presence of PSEs, the dominance of public expenditure in R&D and the type of mixed economy.
- Therefore timely policy intervention is essential to drive technological development in India.
- Policies also require time to materialise and bear fruit, and thus far, India’s track record in implementing policies does not inspire confidence.
India isn’t always laggard
- India has been able to harness the potential of technology in the past by timely policy intervention. India was an early bird to its environmental policies and space technology.
- The United States set up its Solar Energy Research Institute in 1977 and India set up its Commission of Alternate Sources of Energy (CASE) in 1981.
- Today, India leads by example in the share of renewable energy in its power generation matrix. India’s space technology is another success story that doesn’t miss the public eye.
- Time and again, through innovation and research, Indian academia and industries have exemplified its willingness and capacity to change, and all it requires is the desired policy push.
Conclusion
- With the rapid pace of technological development, the Union government and states cannot set to lose out time, as they have done in the previous decades.
- India must hunt for new technological innovations, fund research into prospective applications and build policies to facilitate the adoption of new technologies.
- Ministries and public-funded research bodies must be re-tasked to actively seek out new and emerging technologies all across the globe.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SCO
Mains level: SCO and India
In an indirect reference to the Chinese infrastructure projects in PoK, our PM has urged members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to respect “territorial integrity” and “sovereignty”.
What is SCO?
- After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the then security and economic architecture in the Eurasian region dissolved and new structures had to come up.
- The original Shanghai Five were China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
- The SCO was formed in 2001, with Uzbekistan included. It expanded in 2017 to include India and Pakistan.
- Since its formation, the SCO has focused on regional non-traditional security, with counter-terrorism as a priority.
- The fight against the “three evils” of terrorism, separatism and extremism has become its mantra. Today, areas of cooperation include themes such as economics and culture.
Try this PYQ now:
Q. In the context of the affairs of which of the following is the phrase “Special Safeguard Mechanisms” mentioned in the news frequently?
(a) United Nations Environment Programme
(b) World Trade Organization
(c) ASEAN- India Free Trade Agreement
(d) G-20 Summits
India’s entry to the SCO
- India and Pakistan both were observer countries.
- While Central Asian countries and China were not in favour of expansion initially, the main supporter — of India’s entry in particular — was Russia.
- A widely held view is that Russia’s growing unease about an increasingly powerful China prompted it to push for its expansion.
- From 2009 onwards, Russia officially supported India’s ambition to join the SCO. China then asked for its all-weather friend Pakistan’s entry.
Tap to read more about SCO
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: OPEC + members
Mains level: Global oil price dynamics
Oil prices jumped by close to 10% for its biggest daily gain in almost six months after news of a highly effective vaccine against COVID-19 and Saudi Arabia’s assurance that an OPEC+ oil output deal could be adjusted to balance the market.
About OPEC
- OPEC stands for Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
- It is a permanent, intergovernmental organization, created at the Baghdad Conference in 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
- It aims to manage the supply of oil in an effort to set the price of oil in the world market, in order to avoid fluctuations that might affect the economies of both producing and purchasing countries.
- It is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
- OPEC membership is open to any country that is a substantial exporter of oil and which shares the ideals of the organization.
- Today OPEC is a cartel that includes 14 nations, predominantly from the middle east whose sole responsibility is to control prices and moderate supply.
What is OPEC+?
- The non-OPEC countries which export crude oil along with the 14 OPECs are termed as OPEC plus countries.
- OPEC plus countries include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan and Sudan.
- Saudi and Russia, both have been at the heart of a three-year alliance of oil producers known as OPEC Plus — which now includes 11 OPEC members and 10 non-OPEC nations — that aims to shore up oil prices with production cuts.
Why OPEC plus came into existence?
- When Russia concluded the Vienna Agreement in 2016, the Russian leadership believed that it would help prepare the country for the Russian presidential elections in March 2018.
- Higher oil prices ensured the Kremlin’s financial capacity to lead a successful electoral campaign.
- This changed the regime’s priorities – from satisfying the needs of the general population to ensuring the sustainability of the Kremlin’s alliance with powerful tycoons, including that controlling oil production.
- For Saudi Arabia, turning what had been an ad hoc coalition into a formal group provides a hedge (protection) against future oil-market turbulence.
- For Russia, the formalization of the group helps expand Putin’s influence in the Middle East
- However, both reportedly aimed at causing a drop in oil prices in order to hit US shale producers, who have continued to benefit from OPEC production cuts by expanding their market share.
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