Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Strategy for full recovery
The Indian economy has been showing the green shoots in the results of the third quarter. However, the recovery is far from complete. The article suggests the strategy to get to the 5 per cent trend line.
Divergent performance after lockdown
- At the end of the third quarter, the economy is showing a hugely divergent performance.
- Pharmaceuticals and chemicals are showing growth on their Year-To-Date numbers.
- FMCG reached last year’s level in the second quarter.
- Construction equipment are showing a huge recovery, with record sales numbers in the last three months, driven by rural demand from sales to individuals.
- Capital goods are still sluggish with YTD numbers well down on last year, but are now showing some signs of life.
- In contrast, travel and tourism, real-estate and construction, and retail, are all still at under half last year.
- These are high employment sectors, and salaried employment has correspondingly taken a big hit, with potentially longer term effects.
How to achieve ‘full recovery’
- Full recovery means getting back to the trend line of growth where we would have been pre-COVID.
- We need to aspire to grow 9 per cent for three years, which is what will get us back to our 5 per cent trend line of growth by 2024.
- The recovery underway is solid, but we need measures to sustain and deepen it.
- The government can do three things.
3 suggestions to sustain the recovery
1) Stimulate the economy
- The most immediate fiscal stimulus possible is to put cash into the economy.
- Distribute the pending tax refunds, pay the bills of all companies, pay off the arbitration awards pending where the government has lost cases, and pay state governments their pending GST dues.
- All this will run into a few trillion rupees, and it will be cash that immediately stimulates the economy.
2) Invest in public health infrastructure
- Some preparation is underway to distribute vaccines, but there is need to go much further.
- Centre should finance state government efforts to build an extensive public health network so we are equipped to handle a possible second wave of the virus.
- If we demonstrate that we are much more prepared in February and March 2021 than we were in April and May 2020, we will spread confidence.
- Government should work in partnership with private sector hospitals.
3) Invest in inftrstructure
- There are dozens of projects stuck as funds are not available.
- The 20 trillion infrastructure pipeline needs to have some cash flow in it.
- The COVID crisis revealed awful things about living conditions in slums across our cities.
- We can put in place the right public-private programme to provide decent, accessible housing, with quick and cheap connectivity into our cities.
- This could trigger a building boom that would stimulate demand like nothing else.
How to finance the spending: Privatisation program
- Government can manage the resource for spending through privatisation program.
- Our current stock market boom says that buyers are ready to invest. But public-sector stock values are still depressed.
- The best way to see them take off is to announce that the government intends to reduce its share-holding to 26 per cent across public-sector banks, steel companies, oil companies, and every manufacturing company and hotel it currently owns.
- To avoid opposition to such reforms, we must operate consistent with our democratic institutions.
- We need discussion papers for public comment, the debate in Parliament, hearing out stakeholders, and compromise with the interests of state governments.
Consider the question “What are the measures India needs to take to achieve the complete recovery of the Indian economy disrupted in the wake of the pandemic.”
Conclusion
Unless we act now we will have a stunted recovery. We must use our economic crisis to set some bigger things right. 2021 will be a year to welcome if it returns us to the growth trajectory we deserve.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CrPC provisions
Mains level: Paper 2- Reduction in the time for investigation and issues with it
Andhra Pradesh’s Disha Bill of 2019 seeks to reduce the time period for investigation of some crimes to seven days. Such a move could have several consequences. The article deals with that issue.
State governments reducing the period of investigation
- The proposed Maharashtra Shakti Act of 2020 will have a provision to complete the investigation within 15 days.
- Maharashtra has taken cur from the Andhra Pradesh’s Disha Bill of 2019.
- Disha mandated completion of investigation within seven working days for offenses such as harassment of women, sexual assault on children, and rape, where “adequate conclusive evidence” is available.
- The interpretation of “adequate conclusive evidence” by the police shall remain a problem.
What are the CrPC provisions?
- The Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) provides that investigations relating to offenses punishable with imprisonment up to 10 years must be completed within 60 days.
- For offenses with higher punishment (including rape) the time limit is of 90 days of detaining the accused, else he or she shall be released on bail.
- To speed up the process, the CrPC was amended in 2018 and the period of investigation was reduced from 90 to 60 days for all cases of rape.
Factors that decide the time required
- Generally, the time of investigation depends on several factors like the severity of the crime, the number of accused persons and agencies involved.
- This is besides the fact that in many cases of rape, the victim remains under trauma for some time and is not able to narrate the incident in detail.
- The speed and quality of investigation also depend on whether a police station has separate units of investigation and law and order.[ a long-pending police reform]
- It also depends on the number of available IOs and women police officers, and the size and growth of the FSL and its DNA unit.
Consider the question “Examine the reasons for the high crime rate in India? Recently, some state governments have reduced the duration for the investigation of crime. How such move could impact the investigation?”
Conclusion
Setting narrow timelines for investigation creates scope for procedural loopholes that may be exploited during the trial. Therefore, instead of fixing unrealistic timelines, the police should be given additional resources so that they can deliver efficiently.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Agreement on Agriculture
Mains level: Paper 3- Challenges of farm subsidies and declining farm incomes
The article examines the reasons for declining farm incomes and the contribution of farm subsidies.
Contribution of agriculture
- India’s agriculture, which also supports the rural workforce, was, forever, living beyond its means.
- In 1950-51, agriculture’s share in the country’s GDP was 45%, the share of the workforce dependent on it was close to 70%.
- Today, agriculture’s share in GDP is below 16%, but almost 50% of the country’s workforce depends on this sector.
- The squeeze on the agricultural sector becomes even more evident from its terms of trade vis-à-vis the non-agricultural sectors.
- Agriculture has been facing adverse terms of trade over extended periods since the 1980s, and even during the phases when the terms of trade have moved in its favour, for instance in the 1990s and again since 2012-13, there was no distinct upward trend.
Reason for fall in farm incomes: falling investment
- The decline in farm incomes was triggered by growing inefficiencies.
- This decline, in turn, was caused by a lack of meaningful investment in agriculture.
- The share of this sector in the total investment undertaken in the country consistently fell from about 18% in the 1950s to just above 11% in the 1980s.
- In the most recent quinquennium for which data are available (2014-15 to 2018-19), the average share of agriculture was 7.6%.
India’s dismal performance in term of yields of major crops
- If one ranks countries in terms of their yields in wheat and rice — India’s two major crops — the country’s ranks were 45 and 59, respectively, in 2019.
- This ranking would go down sharply if the areas recording high yields, such as Punjab and Haryana, are excluded.
- In other words, for farmers in most regions of the country, it is an uphill battle for survival amid low yields.
Need for coherent policy for agriculture
- The lack of a coherent policy for agriculture must surely be regarded among the most remarkable failures of the governments in post-Independence India.
- Compare this failure with the United States, with less than 2% of its workforce engaged in agriculture, has been enacting farm legislations every four years since the Agricultural Adjustment Act was enacted in 1933.
- These policies comprehensively address the needs of the farm sector through proactive support from the respective governments.
Issue of the farm subsidies in India
- The subsidies are the price that the country pays for the failure of the policymakers to comprehensively address the problems of the farm sector.
- Wanton distribution of subsidies without a proper policy framework has distorted the structure of production and, consequently, undesirable outcomes in terms of excessive food stockpiling.
- And, yet, the fundamental ills of Indian agriculture are not adequately addressed.
- Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are expected to notify their agricultural subsidies as a part of their commitment under the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA).
- India’s latest notification, for 2018-19, shows that the subsidies provided were slightly more than $56 billion.
- In most of the recent years, the largest component of India’s subsidies ($24.2 billion, or 43% of the total) is provided to “low income or resource-poor farmers”, a terminology that the AoA uses.
- However, the designation of this category of farmers is left to individual members.
- India has notified that 99.43% of its farmers are low income or resource-poor.
- According to the agricultural census conducted in 2015-16, these are the farmers whose holdings are 10 hectares or less.
- Thus, almost the entire farm sector comprises economically weak farmers.
Comparing subsidies given by various countries
- America provided $131 billion in 2017 and the EU, nearly €80 billion (or $93 billion) in 2017-18.
- Instead of absolute numbers; the ratios of subsidies to agricultural value addition for the three countries give a much better picture.
- Thus, for 2017, India’s farm subsidies were 12.4% of agricultural value addition, while for the U.S. and the EU, the figures were 90.8% and 45.3%, respectively.
- This then is the reality of farm subsidies that India provides.
Consider the question “Indian agriculture has been contributing beyond its means since Indian independence. However, agri incomes have shown a gradual decline. What are the reasons for such a decline? How far has farm subsidies succeeded in solving the low-income problem?”
Conclusion
India needs a comprehensive Agri policy to deal with the distortion created by the subsidies.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Geo-engineering/ Climate engineering
Mains level: Geo-engineering and its limitation
Geoengineering has steadily shifted over the last few decades from the margins towards the mainstream of climate action discourse.
Q.What do you mean by Geoengineering? What are its practical applications? Also, discuss its limitations. (250W)
What is Geoengineering?
- Climate engineering aka geoengineering is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climate system, usually with the aim of mitigating the adverse effects of global warming.
- It is a deliberate, large-scale intervention carried out in the Earth’s natural systems to reverse the impacts of climate change.
- Its techniques fall primarily under three categories: Solar radiation management (SRM), carbon dioxide removal (CDR), and weather modification.
- Solar radiation management refers to offsetting the warming effect of greenhouse gases by reflecting more solar radiation (sunlight) back into space.
- Carbon dioxide removal refers to removing carbon dioxide gas (CO2) from the atmosphere and sequestering it for long periods of time.
Debates around geoengineering have burrowed to the deepest roots of our conflict with nature — do we have the right to manage and manipulate nature?
What are the specificities of geoengineering?
Specific technologies include-
- Solar geoengineering or ‘dimming the sun’ by spraying sulfates into the air to reflect sunlight back into space;
- Ocean fertilization or the dumping of iron or urea to stimulate phytoplankton growth to absorb more carbon;
- Cloud brightening or spraying saltwater to make clouds more reflective and more.
CDR technologies being proposed as a means to achieve ‘net zero’ emissions by mid-century involve deliberate intervention in the natural carbon cycle:
- Carbon capture and storage (CCS), direct air capture (DAC) and
- Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS)
India and Geo-engineering
- We had experiments such as LOHAFEX (an ocean iron fertilization experiment to see if iron can cause algal bloom and trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere).
- LOHAFEX was an ocean iron fertilization experiment jointly planned by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in India and the Helmholtz Foundation in Germany.
- The purpose of the experiment was to see if the iron would cause an algal bloom and trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
How well did it fetch?
- As expected iron fertilization led to the development of bloom during LOHAFEX, but the chlorophyll increase within the fertilized patch, an indicator of biomass, was smaller than in previous experiments.
- The algal bloom also stimulated the growth of zooplankton that feed on them. The zooplanktons in turn are consumed by higher organisms.
- Thus, ocean fertilization with iron also contributes to the carbon-fixing marine biomass of fish species that have been removed from the ocean by over-fishing.
The debate over its advocacy
- Mainstream activists are advocating solar geoengineering as a means to buy “humanity more time to cut greenhouse gas emissions”.
- Opponents have numerous foundationally solid arguments. They warn against “taking our ecosystems even further away from self-regulation”.
- They argue that such actions distract attention from the need for deep cuts to gross emissions which is achievable with the right political will and resource mobilization.
Undesired consequences of geoengineering
- Conducting tests for geoengineering is a fallacy since these methods need to be deployed at a scale large enough to impact the global climate system to be certain of their efficacy.
- It is a large risk to take without knowing the potentially harmful consequences of such a planetary scale deployment.
- Some of these consequences are already known. Solar geoengineering, for example, alters rainfall patterns that can disrupt agriculture and water supplies.
- Injecting sulfate aerosols in the stratosphere above the Arctic to mimic volcano clouds, for example, can disrupt the monsoons in Asia and increase droughts.
Geopolitical concerns
- Manipulating the climate could have the same geopolitical function as nuclear weapons.
- Even before geoengineering is deployed, it may be used as a threat that will likely incite countermeasures.
- Say if governments ever gain control of changing the course of potentially damaging storms, diversions that direct storms toward other countries may be seen as acts of war.
What lies ahead?
- We all know that climate change is growing more rapidly than anticipated earlier.
- Hence we should combine it with a program of deep decarbonization. This would help implement a “clean-up process” that will hasten our return to a more habitable environment.
- Scientists agree that natural climate solutions such as forest sinks cannot be relied upon for the scale of mitigation needed.
- Therefore, a socially just application of such technologies for carbon capture with geological sequestration offers ‘negative emissions’.
Conclusion
- Geoengineering cannot be treated as a magical mechanism to escape the heightening concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) while accepting the viewpoint that rapid decarbonization is impossible.
- It also cannot be treated as a license to continue emitting more GHGs with no changes to current consumption and production patterns.
- Specific technologies that can help us achieve negative emissions need to be publicly funded and democratically administered to ensure that they serve the public interest.
- And they can only act as a supplement to scaling back of GHG emissions in all sectors, not a substitute.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act
Mains level: Not Much
Argentina has legalized abortions up to the 14th week of pregnancy, in what was a ground-breaking decision in a country that has some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws.
In 2009 the Supreme Court of India gave a landmark judgement in Suchita Srivastava vs Chandigarh Administration case where it was held that right to reproductive autonomy is an integral part of Right to Life under Article 21 of Constitution of India.
The Apex Court stressed that a medical procedure of abortion cannot be carried out on a woman if she has not consented to it.
Hence, the right to reproductive autonomy was held as a Fundamental Right.
About the ban
- Prior, abortions were only permitted in cases of rape or when the woman’s health was at serious risk.
- Activists have been campaigning for years, calling for an overturning of this law that has been in existence since 1921.
- The bill calls for greater autonomy for women over their own bodies and control of their reproductive rights, and also provides better healthcare for pregnant women and young mothers.
Why is it a landmark move?
- Prior to this, girls and women were forced to turn to illegal and unsafe procedures because abortion was against the law in Argentina.
- For girls and women from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, the scope of access to safe medical procedures for abortion was even narrower.
- According to Human Rights Watch, unsafe abortion was the leading cause of maternal mortality in the country.
- The Catholic Church and the evangelical community wield immense power and influence in Argentina and had strongly opposed the passing of this bill.
- In fact, for several decades, following the beliefs of the Catholic Church, even the sale of contraceptives was prohibited in the country.
Debate over abortions
- There are differing opinions with regard to allowing abortions.
- One opinion is that terminating a pregnancy is the choice of the pregnant woman and a part of her reproductive rights.
- The other is that the state has an obligation to protect life, and hence should provide for the protection of the foetus.
- Religiosity of the issue (as in case of Catholics) is another aspect.
What impact will this have in Latin America?
- Activists are hopeful that the passage of this law will have an impact in other countries in Latin America.
- At present, abortions are illegal in Nicaragua, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.
- In Uruguay, Cuba, Guyana, and in some parts of Mexico, women can request for an abortion, but only in specific cases, and each country has its own laws on the number of weeks.
- The countries also have varying degrees of punishment and penalties meted out to girls and women, including jail.
Welcome move
- Women’s rights activists have acknowledged that despite the new law in Argentina, the fight is far from over in the region.
- Anti-abortion groups and their religious and political backers have attempted to stall any progress in the process.
Back2Basics: Abortion in India
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971 has governed women’s right to access abortion and their reproductive autonomy.
- The 2020 amendment bill provides for legal abortion procedure.
- The Act regulates the conditions under which a pregnancy may be aborted. The Bill increases the time period within which abortion may be carried out.
- Currently, abortion requires the opinion of one doctor if it is done within 12 weeks of conception and two doctors if it is done between 12 and 20 weeks.
- The Bill allows abortion to be done on the advice of one doctor up to 20 weeks, and two doctors in the case of certain categories of women between 20 and 24 weeks.
- The Bill sets up state-level Medical Boards to decide if pregnancy may be terminated after 24 weeks in cases of substantial foetal abnormalities.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Anaemia
Mains level: Anaemia
Indian women and children are overwhelmingly anaemic, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2019-20 released this month, and the condition is the most prevalent in the Himalayan cold desert.
Anaemia is the condition of having a lower-than-normal number of red blood cells or a quantity of haemoglobin. How widespread is it in India?
What is Anaemia?
- The condition of having a lower-than-normal number of red blood cells or a quantity of haemoglobin. It can make one feel tired, cold, dizzy, and irritable, and short of breath, among other symptoms.
- A diet that does not contain enough iron, folic acid, or vitamin B12 is a common cause of anaemia.
- Some other conditions that may lead to anaemia include pregnancy, heavy periods, blood disorders or cancer, inherited disorders, and infectious diseases.
How widespread is anaemia in our country?
- In Phase I of the NHFS, result factsheets have been released for 22 states and UTs.
- In a majority of these states and UTs, more than half the children and women were found to be anaemic.
- In 15 of these 22 states and UTs, more than half the children are anaemic. Similarly, more than 50 percent of women are anaemic in 14 of these states and UTs.
- The proportion of anaemic children and women is comparatively lower in Lakshadweep, Kerala, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland.
- However, it is higher in Ladakh, Gujarat, J&K, and West Bengal, among others.
- Anaemia among men was less than 30 percent in a majority of these states and UTs.
What was the methodology used?
- NFHS used the capillary blood of the respondents for the estimation of anaemia. For children, haemoglobin of fewer than 11 grams per decilitre (g/dl) indicated anaemia.
- For non-pregnant and pregnant women, it was less than 12 g/dl and 11g/dl respectively, and for men, it was less than 13 g/dl.
- Among children, the prevalence was adjusted for altitude and among adults, it was adjusted for altitude and smoking status.
Why is anaemia so high in the country?
- Iron-deficiency and vitamin B12-deficiency anaemia are the two common types of anaemia in India.
- Among women, iron deficiency prevalence is higher than men due to menstrual iron losses and the high iron demands of a growing foetus during pregnancies.
- Lack of millets in the diet due to overdependence on rice and wheat, insufficient consumption of green and leafy vegetables could be the reasons behind the high prevalence of anaemia in India.
What about the cold desert region of the western Himalaya?
- In the union territory of Ladakh, a whopping 92.5 per cent children, 92.8 per cent women, and around 76 per cent men are anaemic in the given age groups, as per the survey.
- The high prevalence in this region could be due to the short supply of fresh vegetables and fruits during the long winter each year.
- Crops here are generally only grown in summer and during winter; residents fail to get a regular supply of green vegetables and fresh produce from outside, due to restricted connectivity in harsh weather.
- However, there could be other factors as well and the causes of anaemia here are yet to be scientifically ascertained.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Internet usage in India and the digital divide
The recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) survey helps us gain an idea about the spread of awareness regarding the internet among people.
This newscard provides a picture of gendered as well as regional differentiation of internet usage in India.
Statewise Internet Usage
(1) Gendered data
- A very high differential is also seen among the female and male population who have ever used the internet. In every state, it is seen that the percentage of male users exceeds the number of females.
- The states and Union territories with the highest percentage of internet users among men are Goa (82.9 %), Lakshadweep (80.3 %), and Mizoram (79.7 %).
- Also, states like Sikkim (76.7 %), Goa (73.7 %) and Mizoram (67.6 %) have the highest percentage of female internet users. The lowest internet usage among men is seen in Meghalaya (42.1 %), Assam (42.3 %) and Bihar (43.6 %).
- In some states like Bihar, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, there is almost double the number of male internet users than female ones. Among women, it is seen in Bihar (20.6 %), Andhra Pradesh (21 %) and Tripura (22.9 %).
(2) Urban-Rural divide
- Except for West Bengal, there is no other state which shows a lower percentage of urban male internet users compared to rural ones.
- States like Goa, Kerala and Lakshadweep don’t show a huge variation in internet accessibility in the urban and rural areas.
- But in every other state, there is an approximate difference of 10-15 % between the two regions, with urban areas staying ahead.
Why it matters?
- The internet today has a very huge range and a big impact on the lifestyle and empowerment of people.
- Female empowerment and gender equality have been one of the UN-mandated Sustainable Development Goals that our country is trying to achieve.
- Good and affordable internet availability to women will be a big step towards fulfilling this goal.
Significance of the data
- Gender differentiation that is seen in the offline world also affects the variations that we have seen in the online world, which includes differences in education, employment and income.
- Sexual harassment and trolling are other reasons why people prefer to keep their female relatives away from the internet.
- Just like phone ownership was used as an indicator to understand the women empowerment situation in the country, this too can be an indicator for the same.
Conclusion
- The results from the NFHS-5 survey are still partial, but they have shown a great variation in the access to the internet among the states, between men and women and also between the rural and urban regions of each state.
- When we look at the differentials in the usage of the internet by women across the rural and urban regions, a huge gap is seen between the urban and rural women’s use of the internet.
- The variations are very high, with the percentage of women users of the internet in rural areas being just half of that in urban areas. These disparities paint a sad picture.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Dibru-Saikhowa National Park
Mains level: Not Much
PC: Gmaps
Assam has asked the State’s Forest and Revenue departments to permanently rehabilitate the indigenous forest dwellers of the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2019:
Q. Which of the following are in Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve?
(a) Neyyar, Peppara and Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuaries; and Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve
(b) Mudumalai, Sathyamangalam and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuaries; and Silent Valley National Park
(c) Kaundinya, Gundla Brahme-swaram and Papikonda Wildlife Sanctuaries; and Mukurthi National Park
(d) Kawal and Sri Venkateswara Wildlife Sanctuaries; and Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve
Dibru-Saikhowa National Park
- DSNP is a national park in Assam located in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.
- It was designated a Biosphere Reserve in July 1997 with an area of 765 sq. km.
- The park is bounded by the Brahmaputra and Lohit Rivers in the north and the Dibru river in the south.
- It mainly consists of moist mixed semi-evergreen forests, moist mixed deciduous forests, canebrakes, and grasslands.
- It is the largest Salix swamp forest in north-eastern India, with a tropical monsoon climate with a hot and wet summer and cool and usually dry winter.
Why in news?
- Rehabilitation of some 10,000 people has been hanging fire since 1999 when the Dibru-Saikhowa Wildlife Sanctuary was upgraded to a national park.
- The park, home to a few wild horses, had been in focus since May when a blowout at an Oil India Limited gas well in the vicinity posed an ecological threat.
What is the issue?
- The affected people belong to the Missing community.
- The forest dwellers of the 425-sq. km. Dibru-Saikhowa National Park has been denied access to government schemes since 1986 through a notification.
- It allowed them to continue staying until their shifting to a suitable place.
- The organization said the villagers’ problems started when 765 sq. km. around their habitations was declared a biosphere reserve in 1997, limiting the access of the forest to the community.
- The hardship compounded in 1999 when the national park came into existence.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Electoral Bond Scheme, RTI
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues in Electoral Bond Scheme
A recent order passed by CIC in an appeal against the State Bank of India (SBI) has once again highlighted the issues with the Electoral Bond Scheme. The article deals with this issue.
Issues with the scheme
- The scheme creates banking instruments for a donation of funds to political parties facilitated by the SBI.
- It conceals the identity of the donors and donees as well as the amount of donation.
- In effect, the scheme is not transparent, promotes arbitrariness, and is therefore illegal.
- The scheme facilitates undisclosed quid pro quo arrangements between donors, who are likely to be corporates, and political parties.
- The Supreme Court held that the freedom of speech and expression also contained the fundamental right of a voter to secure information about the candidates.
- When the voter is permitted to know if an electoral candidate is facing any cases, she should be equally entitled to know who is financing the expenses of the party and its candidate.
CIC order and RTI Act
- The CIC, in an earlier order, deemed political parties to be public authorities under the RTI Act.
- In the present order, the CIC has upheld the contention of the SBI that it is not required to furnish the details of donors, donees, and donations, under the RTI Act.
- In doing so, SBI has relied on two grounds provided under Section 8 of the RTI Act.
- Section 8 exempts disclosure of information if it has been held in a fiduciary capacity and that there was no public interest involved in the application.
- However, any exemption provided under Section 8 should be read-only in a very narrow sense.
- Section 8(2) directs that when public interest outweighs any harm to protected interests, the information sought may be accessed.
- Therefore, it overrides the grounds erroneously relied upon by the CIC.
- The public interest in the present matter is indisputable.
Consider the question “What are the various provisions in the Electoral Bond Scheme? How some of its provisions could come in conflict with the RTI Act.”
Conclusion
By suppressing knowledge of political financing, we are breaking the basic bonds of democracy holding the country together. An unsettled law is as dangerous as bad law. The Court must conclusively settle the questions around the constitutionality of electoral bonds.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Paris Agreement
Mains level: Paper 3- Climate change policies and issues with them
The article highlights the issues with the current climate policies which are centred on the inequality.
Inequality and climate change
- Inequity is built into the climate treaty, which considers total emissions, size, and population, making India the fourth largest emitter.
- According to the United Nations, the richest 1% of the global population emits more than two times the emissions of the bottom 50%.
- .China, with four times the population of the U.S., accounts for 12% of cumulative emissions.
- India, with a population close to that of China’s, for just 3% of cumulative emissions that lead to global warming.
- In an urbanized world, two-thirds of emissions arise from the demand of the middle class for infrastructure, mobility, buildings, and diet.
- Well-being in the urbanized world is reflected in saturation levels of infrastructure.
- Growth in the developed countries is consumption-driven not production driven.
- The vaguely worded ‘carbon neutrality’, balancing emitting carbon with absorbing carbon from the atmosphere in forests is a triple whammy for latecomers like India.
- Such countries already have less energy-intensive pathways that will not encroach on others’ ecological space, a young population, and are growing fast to reach comparable levels of well-being with those already urbanized and in the middle class.
What changes are required in the policies
- At present, the focus is on physical quantities which indicates effects on nature.
- The solutions require analysis of drivers, trends, and patterns of resource use.
- This anomaly explains why the link between well-being, energy use, and emissions is not on the global agenda.
- Modifying unsustainable patterns of natural resource use and ensuring comparable levels of well-being are societal transformations.
- New thinking must enable politics to acknowledge transformational social goals and the material boundaries of economic activity.
India’s unique national circumstances
- India must highlight its unique national circumstances.
- For example, the meat industry, especially beef, contributes to one-third of global emissions.
- Indians eat just 4 kg of meat a year compared to those in the European Union who eat about 65 kg.
- Also to be noted is the fact that the average American household wastes nearly one-third of its food.
- Transport emissions account for a quarter of global emissions.
- Transport emissions are the symbol of Western civilization and are not on the global agenda.
- Rising Asia uses three-quarters of coal drives industry and supports the renewable energy push into cities.
- India, with abundant reserves and per capita electricity use that is one-tenth that of the U.S., is under pressure to stop using coal.
Way forward
- India has the credibility and legitimacy to push an alternate 2050 goal for countries currently with per capita emissions below the global average.
- These goals should include well-being within ecological limits, the frame of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as multilateral technological knowledge cooperation around electric vehicles, energy efficiency, building insulation, and a less wasteful diet.
Conclusion
Emissions are the symptom, not the cause of the problem. India, in the UN Security Council, must push new ideas based on its civilizational and long-standing alternate values for the transition to sustainability.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Atmanirbhar Bharat
Mains level: Paper 3- Importance of resilient supply chains
What does supply chain resilience mean?
- When assembly lines are heavily dependent on supplies from one country, the impact on importing nations could be crippling if that source stops production intentionally (economic sanction) or unintentionally (natural disaster)
- Example: Japan imported $169 billion worth from China, accounting for 24% of its total imports. Japan’s imports from China fell by half in February 2020 that impacted Japan’s economic activity.
- In the context of international trade, supply chain resilience is an approach that helps a country to ensure that it has diversified its supply risk across a clutch of supplying nations instead of being dependent on just one or a few
Recent incidents that led to supply chain disruption
- Disruptions in supply chains can be natural or man-made.
- When the novel coronavirus pandemic broke out, it had an immediate and telling effect on supply chains emanating from China.
- In Japan’s case, a nuclear disaster (Fukushima Daiichi) caused a sharp drop in Japanese automobile exports to the United States.
- Terrorist drone attacks on oil refineries in Saudi Arabia in September 2019 resulted in a drop of 5.7 million barrels of oil per day.
- That attack triggered a steep plunge in Saudi Arabia’s stock market and a sharp spike in global oil prices.
- Tensions with China led the United States government to impose restrictions on the export of microchips to China’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer SMIC.
Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI)
- Geo-politics and geo-economics can never be truly separated.
- Also, there is a growing trend of weaponization of trade and technology.
- China had imposed sanctions on its key exports of grain, beef, wine, coal, etc to Australia for demanding an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus and advocating a robust Indo-Pacific vision.
- It is against this backdrop that India, Japan, and Australia initiated the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI).
- It focuses on automobiles and parts, petroleum, steel, textiles, financial services, and IT sectors.
- The SCRI may be strengthened by the future involvement of France.
- Kingdom has also shown interest in the SCRI.
“China plus one” strategy
- For many Japanese companies, global performance and profits are linked to manufacturing facilities and supply chains in China.
- Yet, they have shown an early capacity for risk mitigation through the “China Plus One” business strategy.
- The “China plus one” strategy aims at diversification of investments to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), India, and Bangladesh.
- Japan announced a 2.2 billion Relocation Package.
- Of the companies that availed this package, 57 relocated to Japan, 30 to Southeast Asia, and two to India.
India’s vulnerability to supply chain disruptions
- India can ill-afford the shocks of disruption in supply chains.
- For instance, the pandemic caused a breakdown in global supply chains in the automotive sector.
- For India, which imports 27% of its requirement of automotive parts from China, this quandary was a wake-up call.
- It is t is noteworthy is that despite being the fourth largest market in Asia for medical devices, India has an import dependency of 80%.
- Given the renewed thrust in the health-care sector, this is the right time to fill gaps through local manufacturing.
India increasing its presence in global supply chains
1) Electronic industry
- India’s electronics industry was worth $120 billion in 2018-2019 and is forecast to grow to $400 billion by 2025.
- India is enhancing its presence in the global supply chains by attracting investments in the semiconductor components and packaging industry.
- The Indian electronics sector is gradually shifting away from completely knocked down (CKD) assembly to high-value addition.
2) Defence sector
- Defence is among the key pillars of the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ policy.
- The government is providing a big boost to defence manufacturing under the ‘Make in India’ program.
- It has identified a negative import list of 101 items.
- There is a tremendous opportunity for foreign companies to enter into tie-ups with reputed Indian defence manufacturers to tap into the growing defence market in India.
Consider the question “Pandemic has demonstrated the damage vulnerable supply chains can cause. It also underscored the importance of resilient supply chains. In light of this, examine the importance of diversification of supply chains.”
Conclusion
India has the capacity and the potential to become one of the world’s largest destinations for investments, and one of the world’s largest manufacturing hubs, in the aftermath of the pandemic.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Dedicated freight corridor
Mains level: Dedicated freight corridor
Prime Minister has inaugurated a 351-km section between Khurja and Bhaupur in Uttar Pradesh for commercial operations of the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).
There is another concept named Dedicated Passenger Corridors (DPCs). Can you guess the idea behind?
Background of DFCs
- The concept of Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) was mooted in 2006 to generate substantial capacity for freight traffic by developing separate tracks on identified routes.
- The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL) was incorporated as a separate company under the Ministry of Railways.
What is the DFC?
- Under the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007–12), Railways started constructing a new DFC in two long routes, namely the Eastern and Western freight corridors.
- The section recently launched is part of the 1,839-km Eastern DFC that starts at Sohnewal (Ludhiana) in Punjab and ends at Dankuni in West Bengal.
- The other arm is the around 1,500-km Western DFC from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to JNPT in Mumbai, touching all major ports along the way.
- There is also a section under construction between Dadri and Khurja to connect the Eastern and Western arms.
Why is it important?
- Around 70% of the freight trains currently running on the Indian Railway network are slated to shift to the freight corridors, leaving the paths open for more passenger trains.
- Tracks on DFC are designed to carry heavier loads than most of the Indian Railways.
- DFC will get track access charge from the parent Indian Railways, and also generate its own freight business.
What trains will use the new section?
- Freight trains plying on this section from now on will help decongest the existing Kanpur-Delhi main line of Indian Railways, which currently handles trains at 150% of its line capacity.
- The new section means on the Indian Railway mainline, more passenger trains can be pumped in and those trains can, in turn, achieve better punctuality.
- Foodgrain and fertilizers from the northern region are transported to the eastern and Northeast regions.
- From East and Northeast, coal, iron ore, jute, and petroleum products are transported North and West.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GAVI
Mains level: Global collaboration against COVID
Union Health Minister has been nominated by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) as a member of the GAVI Board.
Q.The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the limitations of global cooperation. Critically analyse.
GAVI
- GAVI is a public-private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunization in poor countries.
- GAVI has observer status at the World Health Assembly.
- GAVI has been praised for being innovative, effective, and less bureaucratic than multilateral government institutions like the WHO.
- Members: the WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry in both industrialized and developing countries, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation among others.
- GAVI programs can often produce quantified, politically appealing, easy-to-explain results within an election cycle, which is appealing to parties locked in an election cycle.
Its function
- It currently supports the immunization of almost half the world’s children, giving it the power to negotiate better prices for the world’s poorest countries and remove the commercial risks of manufacturers.
- It also provides funding to strengthen health systems and train health workers across the developing world.
Significance of India’s membership
- The GAVI Board is responsible for the strategic direction and policymaking oversees the operations of the Vaccine Alliance and monitors program implementation.
- With membership drawn from a range of partner organizations, as well as experts from the private sector, the Board provides a forum for balanced strategic decision making, innovation, and partner collaboration.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Digital Ocean platform
Mains level: India's deep ocean mission
The Ministry of Earth Sciences has inaugurated the web-based application “Digital Ocean” developed by INCOIS.
Digital Ocean
- Digital Ocean is a first of its kind digital platform for Ocean Data Management.
- The platform will be promoted as a platform for capacity building on Ocean Data Management for all Indian Ocean Rim countries.
- It would help share ocean knowledge about the ocean with a wide range of users including research institutions, operational agencies, strategic users, the academic community, and the maritime industry and policymakers.
- It also provides free access to information to the general public and the common man.
- It will play a central role in the sustainable management of our oceans and expanding ‘Blue Economy’ initiatives.
Its’ features
- It includes a set of applications developed to organize and present heterogeneous oceanographic data by adopting rapid advancements in geospatial technology.
- It facilitates:
- Online interactive web-based environment for data integration,
- 3D and 4D (3D in space with time animation) data visualization,
- Data analysis to assess the evolution of oceanographic features,
- Data fusion and multi-format download of disparate data from multiple sources viz., in-situ, remote sensing, and model data, all of which is rendered on a georeferenced 3D Ocean.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sea of Galilee
Mains level: Not Much
The Sea of Galilee, well-known in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic lore, has swelled up due to recent rains, according to reports in the Israeli media.
Do you know?
The Sea of Galilee Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth and the second-lowest lake in the world (after the Dead Sea, a saltwater lake).
Sea of Galilee
- The lake lies in northern Israel, between the occupied Golan Heights and the Galilee region. It is fed by underground springs but its major source is the Jordan River.
- The lake has risen to 209.905 meters below sea level due to heavy rainfall in the surrounding areas.
- The Jordan flows into the lake and then exits it before ending in the Dead Sea, the saltiest and the lowest point on the planet.
- Water is not extracted from the Sea of Galilee. But it is considered to be an important barometer of the water situation in Israel.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: TiHAN
Mains level: Not Much
Union Minister of Education laid the foundation stone of ‘TiHAN-IIT Hyderabad’, India’s first Testbed for Autonomous Navigation Systems (Terrestrial and Aerial).
Must read:
https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/regulations-for-flying-of-drones/
TiHAN
- TiHAN is an acronym for Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation and Data Acquisition Systems (UAVs, RoVs, etc.).
- It is a multi-departmental initiative, including researchers from Electrical, Computer Science, Mechanical and Aerospace, Civil, Mathematics, and Design at IIT Hyderabad.
- It would focus on addressing various challenges hindering the real-time adoption of unmanned autonomous vehicles for both terrestrial and aerial applications.
Why need TiHAN?
- One major requirement to make unmanned and connected vehicles more acceptable to the consumer society is to demonstrate its performance in real-life scenarios.
- However, it may become dangerous. Especially in terms of safety, to directly use the operational roadway facilities as experimental test tracks for unmanned and connected vehicles.
- In general, both UAV and UGV testing may include crashes and collisions with obstacles, resulting in damage to costly sensors and other components.
- Hence, it is important to test new technologies developed in a safe, controlled environment before deployment.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: AAAN
Mains level: Agenda for Atmanirbhar Bharat
The Health Ministry has released the report Action Agenda for an AtmaNirbhar Bharat (AAAN) prepared by Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC).
Q.‘Doubling Farmer’s Income’ and ‘USD 5 trillion economy’ seems more like slogans today in wake of COVID pandemic. Comment on the statement with keeping in view the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan of the government.
AAAN Report
- The report AAAN is a consequential follow-up of the TIFAC’s White Paper on Focused Interventions for ‘Make in India’: post-COVID -19 which was released earlier this year.
- The White Paper highlighted five thrust sectors namely, Healthcare, Machinery, ICT, Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Electronics that would be critical for India’s economic growth post-COVID.
- This AAAN action plan has been structured with reference to timeline, highlighting short/medium and long term interventions in various identified sectors.
Why need such an agenda?
- The World is experiencing unprecedented health and economic crisis. A widespread deep global recession has been bolstered, undermining global cooperation and multilateralism.
- The most outward global economies have turned inwards and are designing enhanced measures for rebooting and resilience of the economy.
- The document also specifically defines overarching policy recommendations with reference to technological inputs, focusing towards Local to Global.
- It would thereby revive the Indian economy, in identified domains of Innovation and Technology Development, Technology Adoption/Diffusion, Boosting up Manufacturing and Productivity, Trade and Globalization etc.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IOT, 5G technology
Mains level: Paper 3- Chinese 5G technology and threats associated with it
The article examines the threat posed by the Chinese 5G technology to the world and India.
Implications of Chinese 5G technology for Nepal
- The launch of 5G in Nepal would mean that Nepal’s business interests could pass into Chinese control.
- Real-time information on weather, routes, map, etc could be based on Chinese 5G, thus making locals or visitors to Nepal dependent on it.
- A related development of infrastructure along the borders, where most mountaineering sites are, could make Nepal’s borders vulnerable and damage its tourism industry.
- With lower incomes, the tourism industry might get lured into Chinese cheap loans, leading to a strategic debt trap.
- Such development would have several ramifications for India.
Implications of Chinese 5G technology for the world
- 2020 has been no ordinary year —Militaries have been pushed to the borders, treaties, and agreements are being signed, and a record number of military deals have happened.
- This year has witnessed the most unprecedented intensification of global military conflicts since the Gulf War.
- AI applications have been at display in warfare, with drone killing machines being advertised.
- There is no option left but to get the 5G technology now.
- Huge Chinese investments across the world to spread a 5G network will encompass the planet — a “digital encirclement of the world”.
- Combined with the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative), this encirclement would be complete.
- Intrinsic to the BRI is the fact that Chinese companies will build digital infrastructure.
- Militaries who allow Chinese 5G, could then become hostage to Chinese technology, as seen during the pandemic.
Indian 5G technology: Advantages and challenges ahead
- India is likely to survive the Chinese 5G invasion if it accelerates the launch of the Indian 5G.
- India is working on technologies that would enable it to launch Indigenous 5G that would run IoT platforms for civilians as well as military applications.
- The banning of Chinese apps and blocking of hardware supply chains would be the correct counteroffensive to protect the business and security interests of the country.
- The problem is India being poor in “implementation”.
- Where India starts losing out is in slow adoption, getting entangled in policy processes and the crosshairs of the bureaucracy.
Consider the question “What are the concerns with the adoption of Chinese 5G technology? How indigenous 5G technology help India and what are the challenges in developing it?”
Conclusion
India must get its timing right. The implementation of 5G, though a bit delayed, can make India a good alternative to China. But agreements like RCEP and China’s other debt strategies will remain a larger threat to the world.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Provisions in the act
Mains level: Paper 3- Provisions in the new farm laws and their purpose
Some provisions of the new farm laws are opposed by the farmers. The article explains the utility of these provisions.
Major objections to farm laws
- The first objection is that the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) will be eventually closed,
- The second objection is that Minimum Support Prices (MSP) will be stopped,
- The third fear is that corporates will take over the agriculture trade, and farmers’ land will be taken over by powerful corporates.
Why reforms were needed
- The gap between the agri-income of a farmer and that of a non-agriculture worker increased from ₹25,398 in 1993–94 to ₹1.42 lakh in 2011-12.
- Aggregate food demand has fallen short of domestic production necessitating the export of a large quantity to prevent domestic prices from falling very low.
- India is sitting on an excess stock of 60 lakh tons of sugar and nearly 72 million tons of extra buffer stock of wheat and rice which is causing a huge drain on fiscal resources.
- India’s agri-exports are facing difficulty, imports are turning attractive as domestic prices are turning much higher.
- Rural youth are looking for jobs outside agriculture and there is a serious problem of unemployment in the countryside.
- There are numerous instances of market failure to the detriment of producers and consumers.
- This is turning farmers to look at the government for remunerative prices through MSP for most agricultural products.
- The growth rate in agriculture is driven by heavy support through various kinds of subsidies and output price support.
- These costs and losses and subsidies will take away most of the tax revenue of the central government.
3 Provisions and their utility
1) Relation between MSP and APMC
- APMC has nothing to do with the payment of the MSP.
- The necessary and sufficient conditions for the MSP are procurement by the government, with or without the APMC.
- Experience shows that even after fruits and vegetables were de-notified from the APMC, they continued to arrive at APMC mandis in large quantities while farmers got additional options.
- The protesting farmers have raised concerns to keep the level-playing field for the APMC and private players, and the government has shown agreement to address this fully.
2) Criteria for traders
- Protesting farmers are also opposing the provision of the simple requirement of a PAN card for a trader.
- After having a PAN card, even a farmer can go for trading, his son can do agri-business and other rural youth can undertake purchases of farm commodities for direct sale to a consumer or other agribusiness firms.
- If stringent criteria such as bank guarantee, etc. are included in the registration, then the spirit of the new law to facilitate farmers and rural youth to become agribusiness entrepreneurs will be lost.
3) Mistaking contract farming with corporate farming
- Critics and protesting farmers are mixing contract farming with corporate farming.
- The new Act intends to insulate interested farmers (especially small farmers), against market and price risks.
- The Act is voluntary and either party is free to leave it after the expiry of the agreement.
- It prohibits the transfer, sale, lease, mortgage of the land or premises of the farmer.
- The Act will promote diversification, quality production for a premium price, export, and direct sale of produce, with desired attributes to interested consumers.
- It will also bring new capital and knowledge into agriculture and pave the way for farmers’ participation in the value chain.
Conclusion
The policy reforms undertaken by the central government through these Acts are in keeping with the changing times and requirements of farmers and farming. If they are implemented in the right spirit, they will take Indian agriculture to new heights and usher in the transformation of the rural economy.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NCMC
Mains level: Common Mobility
Prime Minister has launched the ambitious National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) service for the Delhi Metro’s Airport Express Line.
Q.What is the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)? How it a step moving towards a one nation one card system? (150W)
National Common Mobility Card
- The idea of NCMC was floated by the Nandan Nilekani committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
- The committee had suggested that NCMC should contain two instruments – a regular debit card which can be used at an ATM and a local wallet.
- Banks mandated by the department of financial services have been asked to make their debit cards NCMC compliant, to ensure availability of service.
- The committee has also proposed a host of measures, including all payments by the government to citizens through the digital mode, to reduce the number of cash transactions in the country.
Features of the NCMC
- NCMC will allow passengers with RuPay debit cards, issued in the last 18 months by 23 banks, including SBI, UCO Bank, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, etc, to be swiped for Metro travel.
- It can be used at all transit locations making all new metro and transit payments interoperable via one card.
- NCMC is an automatic fare collection system. It will turn smartphones into an inter-operable transport card that commuters can use eventually to pay for Metro, bus, and suburban railways services.
- NCMC service is slated to cover the entire 400km stretch of Delhi Metro.
- It will allow entry and exit from Metro stations with the help of a smartphone, known as the automatic fare collection (AFC) system.
- To make AFC compliant indigenous gates for metro stations, the government has engaged Bharat Electronics Limited. Eventually, all Metro stations will be fitted with AFC gates.
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