Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Summit for Democracy
Mains level: Paper 2- Challenges facing democracy
Context
President Joe Biden-led Summit for Democracy was held on December 9-10. The summit was driven by the idea that in the face of populism, authoritarianism it is critical to keep the “democratic” flock together.
The salience of Summit for Democracy
- As a goal in itself: The salience of this summit lies in a deeper understanding that democracy is not just a form of government, it is a goal in itself, a value that must be cherished, preserved and celebrated.
- Democracy as a way of life: Unlike other political systems, democracy is also a way of life — a work in progress that needs sustained attention and careful nurturing to make it more resilient.
Taiwan as a desired partner of like-minded democracies
- Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (NSP) was launched in 2016 to bring Asia closer to Taiwan and vice-versa.
- The NSP is aimed to be a pivotal tool to engage like-minded democracies in the region.
- Role in the post-pandemic world: The post-pandemic world would be more invested in some of these areas — for example, health diplomacy and collaboration in the medical sector, climate change mitigation, and developing sustainable and resilient supply chains.
- Platform for semiconductor industry: Taiwan is already proving its efficacy as a viable platform for the semiconductor industry.
- Resilient supply chain mechanism: The US and its friends in the region, particularly India, Japan and Australia, have been proactively exploring possibilities of creating resilient supply chain mechanisms.
- With its technological knowhow, and shared interests and concerns, Taiwan fits perfectly in this agenda.
- EU’s renewed interest in Indo-Pacific: Greater interactions between Taiwan and EU on the technology cooperation front, stimulated by the latter’s renewed interest in the Indo-Pacific region, makes Taiwan a desired partner of fellow democracies.
- As an industrialised democracy, Taiwan could play an important role, especially since countries are trying to reduce dependence on China and establish supply chain resilience.
Conclusion
It is important for liberal democracies to acknowledge that they are facing similar challenges and view Taiwan as an indispensable partner. Deft diplomacy is in order since transnational challenges demand joint efforts by liberal democracies.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Free Trade Agreements
Mains level: Various bilateral trade instruments
India and Australia are expected to complete negotiations for an interim free trade agreement (FTA) soon, a move aimed at boosting economic ties between the two countries.
Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA)
- The final agreement is officially dubbed as the CECA is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
- The pact covers areas such as goods, services, investment, rules of origin, customs facilitation, legal and institutional issues.
- This new strategic economic agreement is expected to increase bilateral trade in goods to $100 billion within five years.
What is a Free Trade Agreement (FTA)?
- A FTA is a pact between two or more nations to reduce barriers to imports and exports among them.
- Under a free trade policy, goods and services can be bought and sold across international borders with little or no government tariffs, quotas, subsidies, or prohibitions to inhibit their exchange.
- The concept of free trade is the opposite of trade protectionism or economic isolationism.
Key benefits offered by FTA
- Reduction or elimination of tariffs on qualified: For example, a country that normally charges a tariff of 12% of the value of the incoming product will rationalize or eliminate that tariff.
- Intellectual Property Protection: Protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in the FTA partner country is upheld.
- Product Standards: FTA enhances the ability for domestic exporters to participate in the development of product standards in the FTA partner country.
- Fair treatment for investors: FTA provides treatment as favorably as the FTA partner country gives equal treatment for investments from the partner country.
- Elimination of monopolies: With FTAs, global monopolies are eliminated due to increased competition.
How many FTAs does India have?
- India has signed it’s first Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Sri Lanka in 1998.
- Likewise, India had FTAs with: Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Singapore, ASEAN, Japan and Malaysia.
- India has signed Preferential Trade Agreements such as:
- Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) with Bangladesh, China, India, Lao PDR, Republic of Korea, and Sri Lanka
- Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP)
- India – MERCOSUR PTA etc. with South American countries
Back2Basics: Types of Trade Agreements
(1) Free Trade Agreement
(discussed above)
(2) Preferential Trade Agreement
- In this type of agreement, two or more partners give preferential right of entry to certain products.
- This is done by reducing duties on an agreed number of tariff lines.
- Here a positive list is maintained i.e. the list of the products on which the two partners have agreed to provide preferential access.
- Tariff may even be reduced to zero for some products even in a PTA.
- India signed a PTA with Afghanistan.
(3) Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement
- Partnership agreement or cooperation agreement are more comprehensive than an FTA.
- CECA/CEPA also looks into the regulatory aspect of trade and encompasses and agreement covering the regulatory issues.
- CECA has the widest coverage. CEPA covers negotiation on the trade in services and investment, and other areas of economic partnership.
- It may even consider negotiation on areas such as trade facilitation and customs cooperation, competition, and IPR.
- India has signed CEPAs with South Korea and Japan.
(4) Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement
- CECA generally cover negotiation on trade tariff and Tariff rate quotas (TRQs) rates only.
- It is not as comprehensive as CEPA.
- India has signed CECA with Malaysia.
(5) Framework Agreement
- Framework agreement primarily defines the scope and provisions of orientation of the potential agreement between the trading partners.
- It provides for some new area of discussions and set the period for future liberalisation.
- India has previously signed framework agreements with the ASEAN, Japan etc.
(6) Early Harvest Scheme
- An Early Harvest Scheme (EHS) is a precursor to an FTA/CECA/CEPA between two trading partners. For example, early harvest scheme of RCEP has been rolled out.
- At this stage, the negotiating countries identify certain products for tariff liberalization pending the conclusion of actual FTA negotiations.
- An Early Harvest Scheme is thus a step towards enhanced engagement and confidence building.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST Compensation
Mains level: Harmonization of GST
Many states have demanded that the GST compensation cess regime be extended for another five years and the share of the Union government in the centrally-sponsored schemes be raised as the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their revenues.
What is GST?
- GST, being a consumption-based tax, would result in loss of revenue for manufacturing-heavy states.
- GST launched in India on 1 July 2017 is a comprehensive indirect tax for the entire country.
- It is charged at the time of supply and depends on the destination of consumption.
- For instance, if a good is manufactured in state A but consumed in state B, then the revenue generated through GST collection is credited to the state of consumption (state B) and not to the state of production (state A).
Compensation under GST regime: GST Compensation Cess
- Due to the consumption-based nature of GST, manufacturing states like Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu feared a revenue loss.
- Thus, GST Compensation Cess or GST Cess was introduced by the government to compensate for the possible revenue losses suffered by such manufacturing states.
- However, under existing rules, this compensation cess will be levied only for the first 5 years of the GST regime – from July 1st, 2017 to July 1st, 2022.
- Compensation cess is levied on five products considered to be ‘sin’ or luxury as mentioned in the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017 and includes items such as- Pan Masala, Tobacco, and Automobiles etc.
Why is the compensation necessary?
- States no longer possess taxation rights after most taxes, barring those on petroleum, alcohol, and stamp duty were subsumed under GST.
- GST accounts for almost 42% of states’ own tax revenues, and tax revenues account for around 60% of states’ total revenues.
- Finances of over a dozen states are under severe strain, resulting in delays in salary payments and sharp cuts in capital expenditure outlay amid the pandemic-induced lockdowns and the need to spend on healthcare.
Distributing GST compensation
- The compensation cess payable to states is calculated based on the methodology specified in the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017.
- The compensation fund so collected is released to the states every 2 months.
- Any unused money from the compensation fund at the end of the transition period shall be distributed between the states and the centre as per any applicable formula.
Try this question from CSP 2018:
Q. Consider the following items:
- Cereal grains hulled
- Chicken eggs cooked
- Fish processed and canned
- Newspapers containing advertising material
Which of the above items is/are exempt under GST (Goods and Services Tax)?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1, 2 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Post your answers here.
Also read:
[Burning Issue] GST Compensation
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Consumer Disputes Redressal mechanism
Mains level: Consumer protection
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution has notified monetary jurisdiction for various Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (CDRC) under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
What are the new changes?
- The Centre has notified new rules to revise pecuniary jurisdiction for entertaining consumer complaints at district, state and national level commissions, a move aimed at fast disposal of cases.
- The NCDRC will now have jurisdiction to entertain consumers’ complaints where the value of the goods or services exceeds Rs 2 crore as against the earlier limit of over Rs 10 crore.
- The state commissions will have jurisdiction to similar complaints with value of goods or services between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore, and the National Commission over Rs 2 crore.
- District commissions have jurisdiction to entertain complaints where value of goods or services paid as consideration does not exceed Rs 1 crore.
Legal basis of these changes
- The Act provides a “three-tier quasi-judicial mechanism” for redress of consumer disputes: district commissions, state commissions, and the national commission.
- The law also provides pecuniary jurisdiction of each tier of consumer commission.
Benefits of the move
- Fast-track disposal of cases: Reduction of limit of pecuniary jurisdiction of district and state commissions will reduce workload at these two tiers of dispute resolution system, and thereby reduce pendency at these two levels.
- Easy litigation: Besides, with E-Dakhil in place, consumers can take their complaints to a state or national commission without visiting the commission physically.
Back2Basics: Features of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019
[1] Definition of consumer
- A consumer is defined as a person who buys any good or avails a service for a consideration.
- It does not include a person who obtains a good for resale or a good or service for commercial purpose.
- It covers transactions through all modes including offline, and online through electronic means, teleshopping, multi-level marketing or direct selling.
[2] Rights of consumers
Six consumer rights have been defined in the Bill, including the right to:
- be protected against marketing of goods and services which are hazardous to life and property
- be informed of the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods or services
- be assured of access to a variety of goods or services at competitive prices and
- seek redressal against unfair or restrictive trade practices
[3] Central Consumer Protection Authority
- The central government will set up a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers.
- It will regulate matters related to violation of consumer rights, unfair trade practices, and misleading advertisements.
- The CCPA will have an investigation wing, headed by a Director-General, which may conduct inquiry or investigation into such violations.
[4] Penalties for misleading advertisement
- The CCPA may impose a penalty on a manufacturer or an endorser of up to Rs 10 lakh and imprisonment for up to two years for a false or misleading advertisement.
- In case of a subsequent offence, the fine may extend to Rs 50 lakh and imprisonment of up to five years.
- CCPA can also prohibit the endorser of a misleading advertisement from endorsing that particular product or service for a period of up to one year.
[5] Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission
- CDRCs will be set up at the district, state, and national levels.
- A consumer can file a complaint with CDRCs in relation to: (i) unfair or restrictive trade practices; (ii) defective goods or services; (iii) overcharging or deceptive charging; and (iv) the offering of goods or services for sale which may be hazardous to life and safety.
- Complaints against an unfair contract can be filed with only the State and National Appeals from a District CDRC will be heard by the State CDRC.
- Appeals from the State CDRC will be heard by the National CDRC.
- Final appeal will lie before the Supreme Court.
[6] Jurisdiction of CDRCs
- The District CDRC will entertain complaints where value of goods and services does not exceed Rs one crore.
- The State CDRC will entertain complaints when the value is more than Rs one crore but does not exceed Rs 10 crore.
- Complaints with value of goods and services over Rs 10 crore will be entertained by the National CDRC.
[7] Product liability
- Product liability means the liability of a product manufacturer, service provider or seller to compensate a consumer for any harm or injury caused by a defective good or deficient service.
- To claim compensation, a consumer has to prove any one of the conditions for defect or deficiency, as given in the Bill.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Direct Selling
Mains level: Direct Selling and related issues
The Government has notified the Consumer Protection (Direct Selling) Rules, 2021, that prohibits all direct selling entities from promoting pyramid schemes or money circulation schemes, while also providing for a mechanism for redressal of consumer complaints.
What is Direct Selling?
- In Direct Selling, goods or services are directly sold to consumers through sellers who act as individual representatives of the direct selling entities, instead of a retail premises.
- For example: Brands such as Amway, Herbalife , Oriflame and Modicare etc. directly sell their products through outlets. They are generally expensive.
What are the new rules?
- The new Rules were primarily introduced to prohibit the promotion of pyramid and money circulation schemes by the direct selling industry.
- Apart from that, entities are now required to be registered in the country.
- Further, to provide a redressal mechanism for consumers, the Rules mandate that direct selling entities appoint grievance redressal officers who will put up their contact details on the website.
- Direct selling entities that are not established in India, but offer goods or services to consumers here, will also need to comply with the newly notified rules.
How big is the Indian Direct Selling industry?
- As per a report, the number of active direct sellers in the country stood at around 7.4 million in 2019-20.
- The two big categories were ‘wellness & nutraceuticals’ – which accounted for 57% of the sales, followed by cosmetics and personal care which contributed 22% to the sales.
Whom do these Rules apply?
- These Rules apply on all models of direct selling and all goods and services bought or sold through direct selling.
- Direct selling entities that are not established in India, but offer goods or services to consumers in India, will also need to comply with the newly notified Rules.
Why have they been notified now?
- Fraud prevention: The guidelines aim for preventing fraud and protecting consumer interest. Earlier, these were not regulated under enforceable law.
- Costly products: A direct selling entity or a direct seller cannot refuse to take back “spurious goods or deficient services” and provide a refund, or charge consumers any entry fee or subscription fee.
- Coercive persuasion: They often tend to persuade consumers to make a purchase based upon the representation that they can reduce or recover the price by referring prospective customers.
- Providing legitimacy to DS: The Rules provide legitimacy to the industry and also help attract more foreign direct investment (FDI).
What do the rules say?
- Registration: Every direct selling entity with operations in India needs to be registered in the country, and have a minimum of one physical location as its registered office within India.
- Self-declaration: The entities will need to make a self-declaration that it is in compliance with these Rules and is not involved in any pyramid scheme or money circulation scheme.
- Data storage within India: Additionally, such entities are required to store sensitive personal data within India and take steps to ensure the protection of such data.
- Grievance redressal: The Rules mandate that direct selling entities appoint one or more grievance redressal officers and put up their details such as name, telephone number and email address, on their website.
- Officer to ensure compliance: Every direct selling entity will need to appoint a nodal officer who will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the provisions of the Act.
- Restricted visits: A direct seller will not visit a consumer’s premises without identity card and prior appointment or approval, or provide any literature to a prospect, which has not been approved by the direct selling entity.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Electoral Bonds
Mains level: Not Much
The 19th phase of sale of Electoral Bonds will commence ahead of elections is some states.
What are Electoral Bonds?
- Electoral bonds are banking instruments that can be purchased by any citizen or company to make donations to political parties, without the donor’s identity being disclosed.
- It is like a promissory note that can be bought by any Indian citizen or company incorporated in India from select branches of State Bank of India.
- The citizen or corporate can then donate the same to any eligible political party of his/her choice.
- An individual or party will be allowed to purchase these bonds digitally or through cheque.
About the scheme
- A citizen of India or a body incorporated in India will be eligible to purchase the bond
- Such bonds can be purchased for any value in multiples of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹10 lakh, and ₹1 crore from any of the specified branches of the State Bank of India
- The purchaser will be allowed to buy electoral bonds only on due fulfillment of all the extant KYC norms and by making payment from a bank account
- The bonds will have a life of 15 days (15 days time has been prescribed for the bonds to ensure that they do not become a parallel currency)
Objective of the scheme
- Transparency in political funding: To ensure that the funds being collected by the political parties is accounted money or clean money.
Who can redeem such bonds?
- The Electoral Bonds shall be encashed by an eligible Political Party only through a Bank account with the Authorized Bank.
- Only the Political Parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) and which secured not less than one per cent of the votes polled in the last General Election to the Lok Sabha or the State Legislative Assembly, shall be eligible to receive the Electoral Bonds.
Restrictions that are done away
- Earlier, no foreign company could donate to any political party under the Companies Act
- A firm could donate a maximum of 7.5 per cent of its average three year net profit as political donations according to Section 182 of the Companies Act.
- As per the same section of the Act, companies had to disclose details of their political donations in their annual statement of accounts.
- The government moved an amendment in the Finance Bill to ensure that this proviso would not be applicable to companies in case of electoral bonds.
- Thus, Indian, foreign and even shell companies can now donate to political parties without having to inform anyone of the contribution.
Issues with the Scheme
- Opaque funding: While the identity of the donor is captured, it is not revealed to the party or public. So transparency is not enhanced for the voter.
- No IT break: Also income tax breaks may not be available for donations through electoral bonds. This pushes the donor to choose between remaining anonymous and saving on taxes.
- No anonymity for donors: The privacy of the donor is compromised as the bank will know their identity.
- Differential benefits: These bonds will help any party that is in power because the government can know who donated what money and to whom.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pangolin
Mains level: Not Much
The Odisha Forest and Environment Department has completed its first-ever radio-tagging of the Indian pangolin in an attempt to standardize the rehabilitation protocol for the animal in the State.
Why radio-tagging?
- The radio-tagging aims to know its ecology and develop an effective conservation plan for it.
- The radio-tagging is part of a joint project by the department and non-profit, the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) that also involves the species’ monitoring apart from other activities.
About Pangolin
IUCN status: Endangered
- India is home to two species of pangolin.
- While the Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) is found in northeastern India, the Indian Pangolin is distributed in other parts of the country as well as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
- Both these species are protected and are listed under Schedule I Part I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
- Commonly known as ‘scaly anteaters’, the toothless animals are unique, a result of millions of years of evolution.
- Pangolins evolved scales as a means of protection. When threatened by big carnivores like lions or tigers they usually curl into a ball.
- The scales defend them against dental attacks from predators.
Pangolin in China
- Pangolin meat is considered a delicacy in China and Vietnam.
- Their scales which are made of keratin, the same protein present in human nails — are believed to improve lactation, promote blood circulation, and remove blood stasis.
- These so-called health benefits are so far unproven.
What makes pangolins the most trafficked animals in the world?
- Their alleged health benefits in traditional Chinese medicines prompted a booming illicit export of scales from Africa over the past decade.
- Officials quote the trafficking price of Pangolin and its scale anywhere between Rs 30,000 and Rs 1 crore for a single animal.
- Conservation of pangolins received its first shot in the arm when the 2017 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) enforced an international trade ban.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Digital diplomacy
Context
India is pioneering the concept of digital public goods, with it, there is an opportunity for India to embark on digital diplomacy.
Digital public goods in India
- Built on the foundation of Aadhaar and India Stack, modular applications, big and small, are transforming the way we make payments, withdraw our PF, get our passport and driving licence and check land records, to name just a few activities.
- There is an opportunity for India to embark on digital diplomacy — to take its made-in-India digital public goods to hundreds of emerging economies across the world.
How Digital Diplomacy can help India?
- This could be a strategic and effective counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
- Enhancing the productivity of emerging economies: Emerging economies are characterised by gross inefficiencies in the delivery of government services and a consequent trust deficit.
- Digital public goods spread speed, transparency, ease and productivity across the individual-government-market ecosystem and enhance inclusivity, equity and development at scale.
- Acceptance in emerging economies: India’s digital diplomacy will be beneficial to and welcomed by, all emerging economies from Peru to Polynesia, from Uruguay to Uganda, and from Kenya to Kazakhstan.
- Goodwill: It will enable quick, visible and compounding benefits for India’s partner countries and earn India immense goodwill.
Benefits of Digital diplomacy
- Reusability: The code is highly reusable
- Low cost: The cost of setting up an open source-based high school online educational infrastructure, to supplement the physical infrastructure, for an entire country is less than laying two kilometres of high-quality road.
- No debt trap: The investments required for transporting digital public goods are minuscule in comparison and there is no chance of a debt trap.
- Short gestation period: Unlike physical infrastructures such as ports and roads, digital public goods have short gestation periods and immediate, and visible impact and benefits.
- It plugs leaks: Digital infrastructure plugs leaks.
- It eliminates ghost beneficiaries of government services, removes touts collecting rent, creates an audit trail, makes the individual-government-market interface transparent and provides efficiencies that help recoup the investments quickly.
- Processes get streamlined and wait times for any service come down dramatically.
- Increases productivity: Productivity goes up and services can be scaled quickly.
- Benefits can be rapidly extended to cover a much larger portion of the population.
- Compounding instead of depreciation: Above all, the digital public goods infrastructure compounds while physical infrastructure depreciates.
Three ways in which digital public goods infrastructure compound
- Compounding happens for three reasons.
- [1] Growth of technologyy: Chips keep becoming faster, engines more powerful, and gene-editing technology keeps improving.
- [2] Network effect: As more and more people use the same technology, the number of “transactions” using that technology increase exponentially — be it Facebook posts or UPI transactions.
- [3] Rapid creation of new layers of technology: For example, the hypertext protocol created the worldwide web.
- Then the browser was built on top of it, which made the worldwide web easier to navigate and more popular.
- Thousands of new layers were added to make it what it is today.
- Growth of UPI in India: To give an example, consider the surge in UPI-based payments in India.
- This kind of growth doesn’t happen with a few entitled and privileged people using UPI more and more; it happens with more and more people using UPI more and more.
- Use of Diksha: The use of Diksha, the school education platform built on the open-source platform Sunbird, has followed the same trajectory — today close to 500 million schoolchildren are using it.
Conclusion
Made in India digital tools can help other emerging economies deal with economic, governance challenges.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Palk Bay conflict
Context
The arrest of 68 Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan authorities between December 18 and 20 and the impounding of 10 boats for “poaching” in the territorial waters of Sri Lanka has flared up the conflict between the two countries.
About Palk Bay
- Palk Bay is home to diverse resources including 580 species of fish, extends from Point Calimere of Nagapattinam district to Mandapam-Dhanushkodi of Ramanathapuram district over about 250 km.
- Source of dispute: It is an important marine zone between south-eastern India and northern Sri Lanka, has been a source of dispute for long.
About the conflict
- Negotiations: The genesis of the dispute can be traced to the October 1921 negotiations between representatives of the Governments of Madras and Ceylon, on the need for the delimitation of the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar.
- Delimitation: It was in the mid-1970s that two agreements were signed by India and Sri Lanka, under which the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) came into being.
- Instead of settling the issues, the pacts gave way to new problems, including the recurring incidents of Tamil Nadu fishermen crossing the IMBL and getting caught by the Sri Lankan authorities.
Cause of the problem
- Different fishing practices: The asymmetric nature of fishing practices in Tamil Nadu and the Northern Province of Sri Lanka is said to be the cause of the problem.
- While Tamil Nadu’s fishing community uses mechanised bottom trawlers, its counterpart uses conventional forms of fishing, as trawling is banned in Sri Lanka.
- Difference in resources: The fishermen of Tamil Nadu continue to cross the IMBL, as the Sri Lankan side of the Bay is considered to have more fishery resources than the Indian side.
Way forward
- Weak away fishermen from trawling: The deep-sea fishing project, to wean away the fishermen of Tamil Nadu from bottom trawling, launched in July 2017, has not yielded the desired results.
- Relaxation of norms of the project is under the consideration of the Union Government, to draw greater response from the fishermen.
- Motivation for deep-sea fishing: Given the fact that deep sea fishing takes longer duration and has a higher recurring cost per voyage than what the fishing community experiences currently, the need for providing continuous motivation to the fisherfolk assumes critical importance.
- Other strategies: Various strategies, including the promotion of seaweed cultivation, open sea cage cultivation, seaweed cultivation and processing, and sea/ocean ranching should be adopted.
- Forming FPOs: There is a view that if the community is encouraged to form fish farmer producer organisations, it may take to sustainable fishing practices.
- Institution of stakeholders: A section of specialists favours the creation of an international institution of stakeholders for regulating the fishing sector in the Bay.
Consider the question “What leads to the dispute between India and Sri Lanka over the Palk Bay? Suggest the way forward for fishermen in Tamil Nadu.”
Conclusion
For all this to happen, sustained public pressure and political will are a must.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Back2Basics: What is bottom trawling?
- A bottom trawl consists of a large tapered net with a wide mouth and a small enclosed end.
- The mouth of a trawl net has two weighted doors that serve not only to keep the net open, but also to keep the net on the ocean floor.
- These doors can weigh several tons.
- In addition to the heavy doors, the bottom of the net is a thick metal cable (footrope) studded with heavy steel balls or rubber bobbins that effectively crush everything in their path.
- As the net drags along the seafloor, living habitat in its path is crushed, ripped up, or smothered as the seabed is turned over.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Rythu Bandhu Scheme
Mains level: DBT schemes for farmers
The total funds disbursed under Rythu Bandhu, Telangana government’s direct benefit transfer scheme for farmers, will soon touch Rs 50,000 crore in the coming days.
What is Rythu Bandhu?
- Rythu Bandhu is a scheme under which the state government extends financial support to land-owning farmers at the beginning of the crop season through direct benefit transfer.
- The scheme aims to take care of the initial investment needs and do not fall into a debt trap.
- This in turn instills confidence in farmers, enhances productivity and income, and breaks the cycle of rural indebtedness.
DBT under the Scheme
- Each farmer gets Rs 5,000 per acre per crop season without any ceiling on the number of acres held.
- So, a farmer who owns two acres of land would receive Rs 20,000 a year, whereas a farmer who owns 10 acres would receive Rs 1 lakh a year from the government.
- The grant helps them cover the expenses on input requirements such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and labour.
How much does it cost the state exchequer?
- Since the Kharif season of 2018, the state government has been crediting Rythu Bandhu assistance to farmers.
- As of date, it has credited Rs 43,036.64 crore into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.
- This season, the state government will disburse another Rs 7638.99 crore, taking the total sum disbursed so far to over Rs 50,000 crore.
Comparing with the PM-KISAN scheme
- The state government has often said that the Centre’s PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) scheme is a “copy” of Rythu Bandhu.
- Under PM-KISAN, a land-holding family receives an income support of 6,000 per year in three equal installments.
- Rythu Bandhu is based on anticipated input expenditure for each acre of land and there is no restriction on the number of acres owned by a farmer.
- PM-KISAN only provides support to the family and not to the farm units.
Criticisms of the Rythu Bandhu Scheme
- The scheme does not cover the landless or tenant farmers.
- Farmer bodies have been demanding that the state government should extend the agriculture assistance to tenant farmers as well.
- They have pointed out that those who work on lands taken on lease from landowners also need government assistance at the beginning of a crop season.
- It is difficult to bring tenant farmers under the ambit of the scheme because of the informal nature of the agreements they enter into.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mutual funds, Blockchain funds
Mains level: Not Much
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has ruled that Indian mutual funds (MFs) cannot invest in crypto-related products until government regulations on are clear.
What are Blockchain Funds?
- Blockchain is a digital ledger system that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a network.
- It is possible to have blockchain without crypto, but in practice the two are highly interlinked.
- Cryptocurrency tends to power the resources needed for a public blockchain network.
- Unlike specific crypto-based investments, blockchain funds invest in multiple companies that are driving sustainable earnings from blockchain businesses.
- Some key companies in this ecosystem are US-based Coinbase Global Inc and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, and Japan’s GMO internet Inc.
Why has SEBI blocked Blockchain funds?
- Absence of regulations: SEBI concerns stem from unclear regulations around cryptocurrencies in India.
- Unclear future: While investing, trading and holding crypto assets are allowed in India as of now, the laws are still not clear as to how they are regulated and taxed.
- Possible ban: There is a possibility that the government may ban trading in crypto altogether or come up with stringent thresholds for investors to delve into this new asset.
- Taxing the gains: For taxation purposes, short-term capital gains from individual crypto investing are taxed at personal taxation rates, however, there are no clear guidelines for fund investing.
Are blockchain funds good investments?
- The technology is creating value by revolutionizing the way assets and digital records are managed and transferred.
- Many companies, particularly in financial services, are investing millions of dollars in researching and building Blockchain infrastructure.
- Although the technology is still in the nascent phase in India, its potential across the board is huge.
Back2Basics: Mutual Funds
- A mutual fund is a company that pools money from many investors and invests the money in securities such as stocks, bonds, and short-term debt.
- The combined holdings of the mutual fund are known as its portfolio. Investors buy shares in mutual funds.
- Each share represents an investor’s part ownership in the fund and the income it generates.
Mutual funds are a popular choice among investors because they generally offer the following features:
- Professional Management. The fund managers do the research for you. They select the securities and monitor the performance.
- Diversification or “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Mutual funds typically invest in a range of companies and industries. This helps to lower your risk if one company fails.
- Affordability. Most mutual funds set a relatively low dollar amount for initial investment and subsequent purchases.
- Liquidity. Mutual fund investors can easily redeem their shares at any time, for the current net asset value (NAV) plus any redemption fees.
Risks with MFs
- With mutual funds, one may lose some or all of the money invested because the securities held by a fund can go down in value.
- Dividends or interest payments may also change as market conditions change.
- The more volatile the fund, the higher the investment risk.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Regression Theorem
Mains level: Not Much
This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in the TH e-paper edition.
Regression Theorem
- The regression theorem refers to a theory of the origin of money.
- It states that money must have originated as a commodity with intrinsic value in the marketplace.
- The idea was first proposed by Austrian economist Carl Menger in his 1892 work “On the Origins of Money.”
- This theory is offered as an alternative to the state theory of money which states that money (fiat money) can come into existence only when it is backed by the government.
Evolution of Money
- The regression theory argues that money comes into existence through a gradual process of evolution in the marketplace, without the need for any government sanction.
- Economists who try to explain the regression theory generally start with the question of why money, particularly fiat money which is simply just a piece of paper, has any value at all in the marketplace.
- The most common answer to this question is that fiat money can be used to buy other useful goods such as houses, cars etc.
- But this answer is insufficient —it tries to tackle the question of why fiat money can buy other useful goods by simply saying that it can buy other useful goods.
Why is fiat money, which has little intrinsic value, considered valuable?
- In real life, people accept money in exchange for goods in the present because they are aware that money was accepted as a medium in exchange for other goods in the past.
- For example, people accept wages in the US dollar today because they are aware that the dollar was used to buy cars, groceries and other goods in the market yesterday.
- This gives them confidence in the value of their money.
What made people accept money in exchange for other useful goods in the past?
Ans. Intrinsic Value
- Economists who advocate the regression theory of money argue that money must have originated as a useful commodity like gold or silver or the barter system.
- This is the only way, they argue, it could have possibly been accepted by people in exchange for other useful goods at some point in the past.
- If a thing did not possess any intrinsic value, it is unlikely that people in the marketplace would have accepted it in exchange for other goods and services.
- So, commodities like gold and silver must have been traded in exchange for other goods and services at some point in history purely because they offered some kind of personal utility to people.
- For example, these precious metals could have been used to make ornaments, to fill teeth, etc., which gives them intrinsic value.
- They maintain value over time because their supply cannot be easily ramped up as mining gold involves significant production costs.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indus valley civilization and its decline
Mains level: Aryan Invasion Theory
The 2022 calendar of the IIT, Kharagpur on the theme of “evidence” for “rebutting the Aryan invasion myth” has caused controversy.
What is the Aryan Invasion Theory?
- It has always been understood that the Aryans migration from the Steppe happened after 2000 BCE.
- In 1953 Mortimer Wheeler proposed that the invasion of an Indo-European tribe from Central Asia, the “Aryans”, caused the decline of the Indus Civilization.
- As evidence, he cited a group of 37 skeletons found in various parts of Mohenjo-daro, and passages in the Vedas referring to battles and forts.
- However, scholars soon started to reject Wheeler’s theory, since the skeletons belonged to a period after the city’s abandonment and none were found near the citadel.
Basis of this theory
- This was first propounded when linguistic similarities between Sanskrit and the major European languages were discovered by European scholars during the colonial era.
- This tool was used by the colonizers to legitimize their rule in India.
- The theory hypothesizes that during 2000BC Aryans from Europe invaded or migrated into the Asian subcontinent.
- It states these ‘invaders’ killed the original Dravidians and set up the Aryan race in the South-Asian subcontinent.
- The Aryan Invasion Theory claimed that these ‘invaders’ were the root of modern Indian civilization, not the Harappan civilization.
Its rebuttal
- Recent studies have debunked the theory after DNA samples from 5000-year old Harappan remains were proven to be similar to modern Indians’ DNA as part of the Rakhigarhi Project.
Who were the Harappans then?
- The Harappans who created the agricultural revolution in northwestern India and then built the Harappan civilization were a mix of First Indians and Iranians who spoke a pre-Arya language.
- The Arya were central Asian Steppe pastoralists who arrived in India between roughly 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE, and brought Indo-European languages to the subcontinent.
- The new study says the Iranians arrived in India before agriculture or even herding had begun anywhere in the world.
- In other words, these migrants were likely to have been hunter-gatherers, which means they did not bring a knowledge of agriculture.
Try this PYQ:
Q With reference to the difference between the culture of Rigvedic Aryans and Indus Valley people, which of the following statements correct?
- Rigvedic Aryans used the coat of mail and helmet in warfare whereas the people of Indus Valley Civilization did not leave any evidence of using them.
- Rigvedic Aryans knew gold, silver and copper whereas Indus Valley people knew only copper and iron.
- Rigvedic Aryans had domesticated the horse whereas there is no evidence of Indus Valley people having been aware of this animal.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) Only 1
(c) 1 and 3 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Post your answers here.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ARIIA
Mains level: HEIs in India and their competence
Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) 2021 has been recently released.
About ARIIA
- ARIIA is an initiative of erstwhile Ministry of HRD, implemented by AICTE and Ministry’s Innovation Cell.
- It systematically ranks all major higher educational institutions and universities in India on indicators related to “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development” amongst students and faculties.
- ARIIA 2020 will have six categories which also includes special category for women only higher educational institutions to encourage women and bringing gender parity in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship.
- The other five categories are 1) Centrally Funded Institutions 2) State-funded universities 3) State-funded autonomous institutions 4) Private/Deemed Universities and 5) Private Institutions.
Major Indicators for consideration
- Budget & Funding Support.
- Infrastructure & Facilities.
- Awareness, Promotions & support for Idea Generation & Innovation.
- Promotion & Support for Entrepreneurship Development.
- Innovative Learning Methods & Courses.
- Intellectual Property Generation, Technology Transfer & Commercialization.
- Innovation in Governance of the Institution.
Key highlights of 2021 report
- Seven IITs and the IISc, Bengaluru, are among the top 10 central institutions in promotion and support of innovation and entrepreneurship development.
- The top rank has been bagged by the IIT, Madras followed by the IITs in Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur and Roorkee.
- The IISc has bagged the sixth position in the ranking followed by the IITs in Hyderabad and Kharagpur, the NIT, Calicut.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Deucha-Pachami Mines
Mains level: Not Much
Thousands of Tribals fear displacement following the implementation of the project to mine coals and basalts from the Deucha-Pachami coal block in West Bengal’s Birbhoom district.
Deucha-Pachami Mines
- Deucha-Pachami-Dewanganj-Harinsinga coal block is the second-largest coal block in the world; it is the largest in India.
- It is located in Deucha and Panchamati area under Mohamad bazar community Development Block of Birbhum district, West Bengal.
- The block has a thick coal seam trapped between equally thick layers of rocks, mostly basalt. It has a great economic value.
- The existence of these thick basalt layers, however, makes mining of coal difficult; foreign investment and technology will be hence needed for mining.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Importance of middle powers in Arab Gulf
Context
On December 19, Pakistan hosted a special session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to address the crisis in Afghanistan.
The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and how regional countries are responding to it
- The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is peaking with no basic amenities available for its population and a harsh winter ahead.
- While Pakistan hosted the OIC, India played host to foreign ministers of Central Asian states where Afghanistan topped the agenda as well.
- All the attending countries — Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan — also OIC members, chose to prioritise deliberations with New Delhi.
Qatar’s growing influence in Afghanistan and implications for the region
- Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Pakistan were the only three countries that had officially recognised the previous Taliban government in 1996, until its fall in 2001.
- Fast forward to the 2010s, and it was the small but rich state of Qatar that became the mediating force on Afghanistan.
- Doha hosted the official Taliban political office from 2013 to allow negotiations with the U.S.
- Qatar’s new role on Afghanistan gave it significant diplomatic and political visibility the world over.
- In West Asia, Qatar’s growing influence was causing unease in the traditional power centres in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, specifically on issues such as the Qatari leadership’s support for political Islam and organisations such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
Fundamental changes
- Economic blockade: In 2017 the UAE and Saudi Arabia initiated an economic blockade against Doha in the hope of reigning the Kingdom in and disallowing it from pursuing its geopolitical designs that were challenging the long-held power status quos.
- This four-year long impasse ended in 2021.
- These four years created fundamental changes within the larger Arab Gulf construct.
- Qatar mitigated risk and moved closer towards Turkey and Iran.
- Today, both Qatar and Turkey are bidding to operate a landlocked Afghanistan’s airports under the Taliban regime.
- For the Gulf specifically, Qatar’s punching-above-its-weight approach in geopolitics was also making it more powerful and influential with Washington D.C.
- To mitigate this, the Saudis played a central role during the recent OIC special session.
- They repaired their broken relationship with Pakistan.
Way forward for India
- Over the past decade, India has recognised the importance of middle powers in the Arab Gulf to a fast-evolving global order, from fighting against terrorism to newer diplomacy challenges such as Afghanistan.
Conclusion
The Arab Gulf is poised to become an important player once again in Afghanistan under the shadow of the Taliban.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Dealing with Covid
Context
The Government must make COVID-19 data including that for vaccine regulatory approvals and policy available.
Kay decisions
- On December 25, the Prime Minister of India announced two key decisions.
- Vaccination of children: All children in the 15-17 age bracket will be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines from January 3, 2022.
- Third shot: All health-care workers, frontline workers and the people aged 60 years and above (with co-morbidities and on the advice of a medical doctor) can get a third shot, or ‘precaution dose’.
- The eligibility for the precaution dose will be on the completion of nine months or 39 weeks after the second dose.
- Teenage children whose birth year is 2007 or before will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.
- Children will receive Covaxin, the reason being (according to the note) it is the only emergency use listed (EUL) World Health Organization vaccine available for use in this age group in India.
Issues with the decision
- Lack of scientific evidence: The decision is said to be based on ‘advice of the scientific community’.
- A few members of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) in India, have written or spoken publicly about not having enough scientific evidence to administer booster doses and vaccinate children in India.
- Successive national and State-level sero-surveys have reported that a majority of children in India had got natural infection, while staying at home and thus developed antibodies.
- The studies have shown that children rarely develop moderate to severe COVID-19 disease.
- Targeted vaccination approach not adopted: Most public health and vaccine experts favour a ‘targeted vaccination approach’ by prioritising high-risk children for COVID-19 vaccination.
- However, such an approach is likely to face an operational challenge in the identification of the eligible children.
- Consultation cost: A majority of the elderly have one or other comorbidities. Of the 14 crore elderly population in India, an estimated 7 to 10 crore people could have co-morbidities.
- If they have to seek advice from a physician, in order to get vaccinated, this essentially means that there would be up to 10 crore of medical consultations, which would come at a cost — all of which is avoidable.
Suggestions
- Do away with prescription: The conditionality of comorbidities and the need for advice/prescription by a doctor for ‘the precaution shot’ in the elderly should be done away with.
- Third dose to all immunocompromised adults: There is scientific evidence and consensus on administering the third dose for immunocompromised adults.
- The Indian government should urgently consider administering a third dose for all immunocompromised adults, irrespective of age.
- Third dose on a different vaccine platform: Studies have found that a heterologous prime-boost approach — third shot on a different vaccine platform — is a better approach.
- Identify policy questions: Various pending policy questions on COVID-19 vaccine need to be identified urgently.
- The technical expert should be given complete access to COVID-19 data for analysis and to find answers to those scientific and policy questions.
- Vaccine supply and stock management: Vaccination for teenage children, exclusively with Covaxin (which means 15 crore doses for this sub-group) has other implications.
- Covaxin will also be needed for people coming for their first shot, returning for their second shot, and then for their ‘precaution dose’ if a third shot of the same vaccine is allowed.
- Focus on primary vaccination: The precaution dose and vaccination for children should not divert attention from the task of primary vaccination, which continues to be an unfinished task in India; 46 crore doses are still needed for the first and second shots.
- Make data public: It is time the Union and State governments in India make COVID-19 data — this includes clinical outcomes, testing, genomic sequencing as well as vaccination — available in the public domain.
- This would help in formulating and updating COVID-19 policy and strategies and also assess the impact of ‘precaution dose’ as well as vaccination of children.
Conclusion
The Indian government urgently needs to make COVID-19 data available, including the one used for regulatory approvals of vaccines and for vaccine policy decisions. This will bring transparency in decision making and increase the trust of the citizen in the process.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Judicial Reforms
At least two Supreme Court judges have in the past few months openly expressed the need to “Indianize” the legal system.
What is the news?
- This week, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer underscored the need to embrace the great legal traditions as per Manu, Kautilya, Katyayana, Brihaspati, Narada, Parashara, Yajnavalkya and other legal giants of ancient India.
- Continued neglect of their great knowledge and adherence to alien colonial legal system is detrimental to the goals of our Constitution and against our national interests, he said.
- He emphasized the need for Indianization of the legal system to decolonize the Indian legal system.
- He concluded that this colonial legal system is not suitable for the Indian population.
Background of the case
Then CJI P.N. Bhagwati in the M.C. Mehta Case way back in 1986 has said that-
- We cannot allow our judicial thinking to be constricted by reference to the law as it prevails in England or for the matter of that in any other foreign country.
- We no longer need the crutches of a foreign legal order.
- We are certainly prepared to receive light from whatever source it comes from, but we have to build up our own jurisprudence.
Indianization of Judiciary
- Last month, CJI N.V. Ramana called for the “Indianization” of the legal system to provide greater access to justice to the poor as the “need of the hour”.
- CJI emphasized this as an adaptation to the practical realities of our society and localize our justice delivery systems.
- For example, parties from a rural place fighting a family dispute are usually made to feel out of place in the court, the CJI clarified.
Major suggestions by CJI:
(A) Simplification
- The simplification of justice delivery should be our pressing concern.
- It is crucial to make justice delivery more transparent, accessible and effective.
- Procedural barriers often undermine access to justice.
- The Chief Justice said both judges and lawyers have to create an environment which is comforting for the litigants and other stakeholders.
(B) Alternate dispute mechanisms
- The CJI said alternate dispute mechanisms like mediation and conciliation would go a long way in reducing pendency, unnecessary litigation and save resources.
Major suggestions by CJI:
(A) Simplification
- The simplification of justice delivery should be our pressing concern.
- It is crucial to make justice delivery more transparent, accessible and effective.
- Procedural barriers often undermine access to justice.
- The Chief Justice said both judges and lawyers have to create an environment that is comforting for the litigants and other stakeholders.
(B) Alternate dispute mechanisms
- The CJI said alternate dispute mechanisms like mediation and conciliation would go a long way in reducing pendency, unnecessary litigation and save resources.
Recent moves of Indianization
- Supreme Court judgments show that the Indian legal system had made an early start at consciously getting rid of the “crutches” of colonial influence.
(1) General principles laid by the SC
- The evolution of laws in India has been through legislation and the binding precedents of the Supreme Court under Article 141 of the Constitution.
- Article 142 of the Constitution of India deals with the Enforcement of decrees and orders of the Supreme Court.
(2) Public Interest Litigation
- The public interest litigation mechanism is truly Indian.
(3) Reference to Indian texts
- Several judgments since the 1980s refer to the works of Manu and Kautilya.
- In the privacy judgment, Justice S.A. Bobde (retired), referred to how “even in the ancient and religious texts of India, a well-developed sense of privacy is evident”.
- He mentions that Kautilya’s “Arthashastra prohibits entry into another’s house, without the owner’s consent”.
Issues with Ancient Texts
- In the Sabarimala Case, the court pointed to the Manusmriti to observe that in these “ancient religious texts and customs, menstruating women have been considered as polluting the surroundings”.
- It went on to hold that practices that legitimize menstrual taboos, due to notions of purity and pollution, limit the ability of menstruating women to attain the freedom of movement and the right of entry to places of worship.
Way forward
- It is time for courts to wake up from their colonial stupor and face the practical realities of Indian society.
- Rules and procedures of justice delivery should be made simple.
- The ordinary, poor, and rural Indian should not be scared of judges or the courts.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IPO
Mains level: Not Much
The Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has approved amendments to a slew of regulations to tighten the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and norms governing the utilization of IPO proceeds by promoters.
What is an IPO?
- Every company needs money to grow and expand.
- They do this by borrowing or by issuing shares.
- If the company decides to opt for the second route of issuing shares, it must invite public investors to buy its shares.
- This is its first public invitation in the stock market and is called the Initial Public Offering (IPO).
What does it mean for investors to buy shares?
- When one buys such shares, he/she makes an IPO investment.
- He/she gets ownership in the company, proportionate to the value of your shares.
- These shares then get listed on the stock exchange.
- The stock exchange is where you can sell your existing shares in the company or buy more.
How does an IPO work?
- The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) regulates the entire process of investment via an IPO in India.
- A company intending to issue shares through IPOs first registers with SEBI.
- SEBI scrutinizes the documents submitted, and only then approves them.
Who can hold IPOs?
- It could be a new, young company or an old company that decides to be listed on an exchange and hence goes public.
What are the recent regulations?
- In its board meeting, SEBI approved conditions for sale of shares by significant shareholders in the Offer-For-Sale (OFS) process via an IPO and has extended the lock-in period for anchor investors to 90 days.
- Shares offered for sale by shareholders with more than 20% of pre-issue shareholding of the issuer, should not exceed 50% of their holding.
- If they hold less than 20%, then the offer for sale should not exceed 10% of their holding of the issue.
- These changes are as per proposals recommended by SEBI’s Primary Market Advisory Committee.
Also read:
[Sansad TV] The IPO Boom
Try this question from CSP 2019:
Q.In India, which of the following review the independent regulators in sectors like telecommunications, insurance, electricity, etc.?
- Ad Hoc Committees set up by the Parliament
- Parliamentary Department Related Standing Committees
- Finance Commission
- Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission
- NITI Aayog
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2
(b) 1, 3 and 4
(c) 3, 4 and 5
(d) 2 and 5
Post your answers here.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Read the attached storyd
Mains level: Issues with role of Governor
Maharashtra Governor and the incumbent government are locked in a tussle over the election of the Speaker of the Assembly. The Governor has not given his consent to the election program decided by the Cabinet.
Election of Speakers to the Assembly
- Article 178 of the Constitution provides for every Legislative Assembly to choose two members of the Assembly to be respectively Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
- The Constitution does not specify the process of holding these elections; that is left to the state legislatures.
- It also does not set a timeframe other than to say the elections should be held “as soon as maybe”.
Some states lay down timeframes
- In Haryana, the election of the Speaker must be held as soon as possible after the Assembly election, and the Deputy Speaker must be elected within another seven days.
- In UP, the Speaker’s election is required to be held within 15 days if the post falls vacant during the term of the Assembly.
- The date for the Speaker’s election is notified by the Governor.
A crucial case in Maharashtra
- As per Rule 6 of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Rules, “The Governor shall fix a date for the holding of the election and the Secretary shall send to every member notice of the date so fixed.”
- A former Secretary of the state Assembly said the election of the Speaker can take place only after the Governor fixes the date for it.
What are the recent amendments?
- The govt has moved a motion in the Assembly seeking amendments to Rules 6 (election of Assembly Speaker) and 7 (election of Deputy Assembly Speaker) by voice vote instead of a secret ballot.
- The amendments excluded the words “holding of the election” and included the words “to elect the Speaker on the recommendation of the Chief Minister” in Rule 6 of Maharashtra Assembly Rules.
What are the objections to these amendments?
- The Opposition accused the govt of running the “most insecure government” that does not trust its MLAs and fears there would be cross-voting in the election of the Speaker.
- It argued that the Rules cannot be amended in the absence of the Speaker.
What is the government’s position?
- The government has argued that the amendments are in line with the Rules that are in practice in Lok Sabha, the Upper House of the state legislature, and in the Assemblies of several others states.
- It has also been said that the amendments would put an end to horse trading.
What is the way ahead?
- The govt can explore legal options to see whether the election of the Speaker could be held without the consent of the Governor.
- However, the situation is very odd.
- While Rule 6 mandates that the Governor should fix the date for the election, the amendment says that the Governor should fix the date on the advice on the CM.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now