Day: January 23, 2021

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Right To Privacy

New WhatsApp Privacy Policy

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: The principle of purpose limitation

Mains level: Paper 2- WhatsApp privacy policy update and issue of privacy

Privacy policy update by the WhatsApp recently led to widespread protest from the user forcing company to put the update on hold. If India had made Personal Protection Bill into the law, the privacy policy update would have been illegal. The article deals with this issue.

About WhatsApp

  • WhatsApp’s unique blend of text, audio, and voice messaging and calling platform.
  • In November 2014, WhatsApp adopted the Signal protocol for end-to-end encryption after its acquisition by Facebook.
  • WhatsApp has two billion users worldwide, of which 400 million are in India, the largest in any country.

What the privacy policy update is about

  • The updated policy seeks consent from users to allow the platform to share their data with Facebook and its companies,
  • It means that WhatsApp would share transaction data, mobile device information, IP addresses, and other metadata on how users interact with businesses on WhatsApp.
  • Such sharing would be done with the user being notified before the start of a chat if the business uses Facebook to store and analyze data and the user would have the option of blocking the business.
  • The update would defy the principle of purpose limitation that has been the yardstick of addressing privacy concerns at a global level.

What is the principle of purpose limitation

  • The Indian government has also sent a strong note to WhatsApp, seeking the company’s response to 14 queries.
  • This note has sent a clear message to WhatsApp to not subject Indian users to greater information security risks and vulnerabilities with the consolidation of data from WhatsApp and Facebook.
  • In the note, the government referred to the principle of purpose limitation provisions in the Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB) currently being discussed by a joint select committee.
  • Had the bill been passed by now, WhatsApp’s move would have been illegal.
  • Provisions in the bill required that every data intermediary has to take explicit permission from the user whose data would be harvested.
  • Even the method of data classification into sensitive personal data and critical data has been defined and their processing possibilities mentioned in the bill.

Way forward

  • The government should make the Personal Data Protection Bill into law so that such restrictive practices can never be introduced in the first place.
  • It is due to such law, WhatsApp did make an exception for its users in the European Union.
  • The Competition Commission of India should take note that this is a classic case of an organization using its near-monopolistic power to push through something that is not in the consumer interest.

Consider the question “What is the principle of purpose limitation in the Personal Data Protection Bill? How it can help user protect its privacy?”

Conclusion

As Digital India expands and brings in more users from the current base of 70 crores, and more take to social media for communications and business, they must be ensured a safer digital space, given that most wouldn’t be aware of the reach of the data being generated.

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A new framework around caste and the census

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Governance, Transparency & Accountability, Citizens Charters
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Difference between SECC and Census

Mains level: Paper 2- SECC and Census data

The article suggests the ways to make the most of the data collected through Census and the SECC.

Census and issues with it

  • The synchronous decennial Census has evolved over time and has been used by the government, policymakers, academics, and others.
  • Though Census is both a data collection effort and a technique of governance, it is criticized for not being useful enough for a detailed and comprehensive understanding of a complex society.
  •  There is a lack of depth in the Census where some issues are concerned.

The debate around full-scale Caste Census

  • Since Independence, aggregated Census data on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes on certain parameters such as education have been collected.
  • There is a growing demand for a full-scale caste census to capture contemporary Indian society and to understand and remedy inequalities.
  • While others believe that this large administrative exercise of capturing caste and its complexities is not only difficult but also socially untenable.
  • There have been concerns that counting caste may help solidify or harden identities, or that caste may be context-specific, and thus difficult to measure.
  • The other concern is whether an institution such as a caste can even be captured completely by the Census.

Socio-Economic Caste Census: how it is different from Census

  • Following debate over full-scale caste census, the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) was conducted in 2011.
  • The SECC, which collected the first figures on caste in Census operations since 1931, is the largest exercise of the enumeration of caste.
  • Questions remain on whether the SECC is able to cover the effects of caste as an aspect of Indian social structure.
  • This was a distinct exercise from the Census of 2011.
  • The Census and the SECC have different purposes.
  • Since the Census falls under the Census Act of 1948, all data are considered confidential, whereas the SECC data is open for use by Government departments to grant and/or restrict benefits to households.
  • The Census thus provides a portrait of the Indian population, while the SECC is a tool to identify beneficiaries of state support.

Way forward

  • What is needed is a discussion on the caste data that already exists, how it has been used and understood by the government.
  • Linking and syncing aggregated Census data to other large datasets such as the National Sample Surveys or the National Family Health Surveys that cover issues that the Census exercises do not, such as maternal health, would be significant for a more comprehensive analysis.
  • This linking of the Census with the National Sample Survey data has been suggested in the past by scholars such as Mamta Murthi and colleagues.
  • Census operations across the world are going through significant changes, employing methods that are precise, faster, and cost-effective, involving coordination between different data sources.
  • Care must however be taken to ensure that digital alternatives and linking of data sources involving Census operations are inclusive and non-discriminatory, especially given the sensitive nature of the data being collected.
  • Delay in the release of data needs to be reduced.
  • There needs to be a closer and continuous engagement between functionaries of the Census and SECC, along with academics and other stakeholders concerned.

Consider the question “How Socio-Economic and Caste Census is different from the Census? How linking and syncing of  these data with other databases could help in the governance?”

Conclusion

Data collected through both the exercises serve an important purpose in the governance of the country, however, there is scope to widen the use of data if the steps suggested here are implemented.

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Parliament – Sessions, Procedures, Motions, Committees etc

Making a Law ‘Operational’

| | Mains Paper 2: Parliament & State Legislatures
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Art. 111, Presidents assent

Mains level: Law-making process

In the ongoing stalemate between protesting farmers and the Centre, the government has repeated its offer of keeping the three contentious farm laws on hold for one to one-and-a-half years.

Bringing/removing a law

  • Parliament has the power to make a law and to remove it from the statute books (a law can be struck down by the judiciary if it is unconstitutional).
  • But the passing of a Bill does not mean that it will start working from the next day.
  • There are three more steps for it to become a functioning law.

Try this PYQ:

Q.Who/Which of the following is the custodian of the Constitution of India?

(a) The President of India

(b) The Prime Minister of India

(c) The Lok Sabha Secretariat

(d) The Supreme Court of India

Making a law operational

  • The first step is the President giving his or her assent to the Bill.
  • Then the law comes into effect from a particular date. President Kovind signed the three farm Bills into law within a week of their passing in September 2020.
  • And finally, the government frames the rules and regulations to make the law operational on the ground.
  • The completion of these steps determines when the law becomes functional.

Presidents’ actions

  • Article 111 of the Constitution specifies that the President can either sign off on the Bill or withhold his consent.
  • The President rarely withholds their assent to a Bill.
  • The last time it happened was in 2006 when President APJ Abdul Kalam refused to sign a Bill protecting MPs from disqualification for holding an office of profit.
  • A Bill is sent to Parliament for reconsideration if the President withholds his or her assent on it.
  • And if Parliament sends it back to the President, he or he has no choice but to approve it.

A curious case of date of effect

  • The next step is deciding the date on which the law comes into effect.
  • In many cases, Parliament delegates to the government the power to determine this date.
  • The Bill states that the law “shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act”.

Example:  Parliament passed the Recycling of Ships Act in December 2019. In October 2020, the government brought Section 3 of the law into force.  This section empowers the government to designate an officer to supervise all ship recycling activities in India.

Giving effect to the implementation

  • There are also instances when the government does not bring a law into force for many years.
  • Two examples are the National Environment Tribunal Act and the Delhi Rent Control Act, which Parliament passed during PM P V Narasimha Rao’s tenure.
  • The government never brought these laws into force, which were passed in 1995 and cleared by the President.
  • The NGT Act finally repealed the environmental tribunal law in 2010. And a Bill to repeal the Delhi Rent Control Act introduced in 2013 is still pending in Rajya Sabha

Rules & regulations to be made

  • For the law to start working on the ground, individuals need to be recruited or given the power, to administer it.
  • The implementing ministry also needs to finalise forms to gather information and provide benefits or services.
  • These day-to-day operational details are called rules and regulations. And Parliament gives the government the responsibility of making them. These regulations are critical for the functioning of law.
  • If the government does not make rules and regulations, law or parts of it will not get implemented.

Example: The Benami Transactions Act of 1988 is an example of a complete law remaining unimplemented. For 25 years, such properties were immune from seizure in the absence of framing relevant government rules. The law was finally repealed in 2016 and replaced with a new one.

A final word on implementation

  • Parliament has recommended that the government make rules within six months of passing a law.
  • But parliamentary committees have observed that this recommendation is being followed in breach by various ministries.
  • The government not only has the power to make rules but can also suppress rules made by it earlier.

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Minimum Support Prices for Agricultural Produce

The Cost of Guaranteed MSP

| Economics | Mains Paper 3: Issues Related To Farm Subsidies & Msp
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: MSP system

Mains level: Economics of MSP

The row over legally guaranteed MSP doesn’t seem to be settled down in near terms.

Farmers’ demand

  • Farmer unions protesting are raising two fundamental demands.
  1. The first is for repealing the three agricultural reform laws enacted by the Centre.
  2. The second is to provide a legal guarantee for the minimum support prices (MSPs) that the Centre declares for various crops every year.
  • Currently, there is no statutory backing for these prices or any law mandating their implementation.

Note: The MSP is now applicable on 23 farm commodities: 7 cereals (paddy, wheat, maize, bajra, jowar, ragi and barley), 5 pulses (chana, arhar, moong, urad and masur), 7 oilseeds (groundnut, soyabean, rapeseed-mustard, sesamum, sunflower, nigerseed and safflower) and 4 commercial crops (sugarcane, cotton, copra and raw jute).

Can MSP be made legally binding?

Yes. There are two ways it can be done.

(1) To force private buyers to pay it

  • In this case, no crop can be purchased below the MSP, which would also act as the floor price for bidding in mandi auctions.
  • There’s already a precedent: In sugarcane, mills are required by law to pay growers the Centre’s “fair and remunerative price” – UP and Haryana fix even higher “state advised prices” – within 14 days of supply.
  • In no other crop is the compulsion to pay the government-announced MSP thrust on the private trade/industry.

(2) The government itself buying the entire crop that farmers offer at the MSP

Various govt agencies such as the Food Corporation of India, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India, and the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) do procure a large chunk of commodities on MSP.

But how much produce can the government procure at MSP?

  • The MSP value of the total production of the 23 crops worked out to around Rs 10.78 lakh crore in 2019-20.
  • Not all this produce, however, is marketed. Farmers retain part of it for self-consumption, the seed for the next season’s sowing, and also for feeding their animals.
  • The marketed surplus ratio for different crops is estimated to range differently for various crops.
  • It ranges from below 50% for ragi and 65-70% for bajra (pearl millet) and jawar (sorghum) to 75% for wheat, 80% for paddy, 85% for sugarcane, 90% for most pulses, and 95%-plus for cotton, soyabean etc.
  • Taking an average of 75% would yield a number of just over Rs 8 lakh crore.
  • This is the MSP value of production that is the marketable surplus — which farmers actually sell.

So, is this MSP money paid out of the government’s pocket?

Not really!

  • To start with, one must exclude sugarcane from the calculations. The onus for paying cane MSP, as earlier pointed out, lies on sugar mills and not the government.
  • Secondly, the government is already procuring many crops – especially paddy, wheat, cotton, and also pulses and oilseeds.
  • Thirdly, government agencies don’t have to buy every single grain that comes to the market. Mopping up even a quarter or third of the market arrivals is usually enough to lift prices.
  • Fourth, the crop bought on government account also gets sold. While such sales in wheat and paddy – which are distributed at super-subsidized rates under the National Food Security Act.
  • This entails heavy losses, but those are far less in the remaining MSP crops. The revenues realized from sales would partly offset the expenditures from MSP procurement.

All in all, the additional fiscal outgo, from the government undertaking the maximum required procurement for guaranteeing MSP to farmers, may not be more than Rs 1-1.5 lakh crore per year.

So, is the MSP system all okay?

Nope!

  • The government undertaking to buy at MSP is definitely better than forcing private players. Their going out of business would ultimately hurt farmers most.
  • However, even assured government MSP-based procurement is fraught with problems.
  • The coverage of MSPs today does not extend to fruits, vegetables, and livestock products that together have a 45% share in the gross value of the output of India’s agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector.
  • The value of milk and milk products alone is more than that of all cereals and pulses combined.

Limitations for govt.

  • Extending MSP to all farm produce and guaranteeing it through law is hugely challenging, fiscally and otherwise.
  • It also explains why economists increasingly are in favor of guaranteeing minimum “incomes” rather than “prices” to farmers.
  • One way to achieve that is via direct cash transfers either on a flat per-acre (as in the Telangana government’s Rythu Bandhu scheme) or per-farm household (the Centre’s PM Kisan Samman Nidhi) basis.

Back2Basics:

(1) Rythu Bandhu Scheme

  • Under Rythu Bandhu, the Telangana government gives every beneficiary farmer Rs 4,000 per acre as “investment support” before every crop season.
  • The objective is to help the farmer meet a major part of his expenses on seed, fertilizer, pesticide, and field preparation.
  • The scheme covers 1.42 crore acres in the 31 districts of the state, and every farmer owning land is eligible.

(2) Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi

  • Under this program, vulnerable landholding farmer families, having cultivable land up to 2 hectares, will be provided direct income support at the rate of Rs. 6,000 per year.
  • This income support will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiary farmers, in three equal installments of Rs. 2,000 each.
  • Around 12 crore small and marginal farmer families are expected to benefit from this.

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Climate Change Negotiations – UNFCCC, COP, Other Conventions and Protocols

India’s Draft Arctic Policy

| Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Climatic Change
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Arctic Council

Mains level: Exploration of the Arctic

India has unveiled a new draft ‘Arctic’ policy that and is committed to expanding scientific research, “sustainable tourism” and mineral oil and gas exploration in the Arctic region.

Note: Five Arctic littoral states — Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Norway, Russia and the USA (Alaska) — and three other Arctic nations — Finland, Sweden and Iceland — form the Arctic Council (estd. 1996).

Try mapping them.

Caution: India became an Observer in the Arctic Council for the first time in 2013. And, India isn’t a full-time observer.

India at the Arctic

  • India launched its first scientific expedition to the Arctic in 2007 and set up a research station ‘Himadri’ in the international Arctic research base at Ny-Ålesund in Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway.
  • It has two other observatories in Kongsforden and Gruvebadet. Himadri is manned for about 180 days a year.
  • Since its establishment, over 300 Indian researchers have worked in the station. India has sent 13 expeditions to the Arctic since 2007 and runs 23 active projects.

Draft ‘Arctic’ policy

  • The draft policy discusses the importance of understanding the impact of climate change in the Arctic region and its connection with India’s monsoon, which is crucial for its economy.
  • India also proposes to focus on vast resources of the Arctic region including hydrocarbons, minerals and renewable power to ensure its energy security.
  • The policy is cautious in framing its involvement in the Arctic as “common heritage of mankind” but its priorities are similar to that of other non-Arctic states.
  • This policy roadmap draft rides on five pillars:
  1. Science and research activities,
  2. Economic and human development cooperation,
  3. Transportation and connectivity,
  4. Governance and international cooperation, and
  5. National capacity building.

Nodal bodies

  • The Goa-based National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research to lead scientific research and act as a nodal body.
  • It would thus coordinate among various scientific bodies to promote domestic scientific research capacities by expanding earth sciences, biological sciences, climate change and space-related programmes, dove-tailed with Arctic imperatives.

Why study arctic?

  • The Arctic is home to almost four million inhabitants, of which approximately one-tenth are considered as indigenous people.
  • Climate change has meant that seasons in the Arctic influence tropical weather.
  • The Arctic influences atmospheric, oceanographic and biogeochemical cycles of the earth’s ecosystem.
  • The loss of sea ice, ice caps, and warming of the ocean and atmosphere would lower salinity in the global oceans.
  • This could increase the temperature differential between land and oceans in the tropical regions, dry subtropical areas and increase precipitation at higher latitudes.
  • Arctic research will help India’s scientific community to study melting rates of the third pole — the Himalayan glaciers.

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Banking Sector Reforms

Tighter regulatory framework for NBFCs

DOMR | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Mobilization Of Resources
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NBFCs and their regulations

Mains level: Not Much

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has suggested a tougher regulatory framework for the non-banking finance companies’ (NBFC) sector to prevent the recurrence of any systemic risk to the country’s financial system.

Try this PYQ:

Which of the following can be said to be essentially the parts of Inclusive Governance?

  1. Permitting the Non-Banking Financial Companies to do banking
  2. Establishing effective District Planning Committees in all the districts
  3. Increasing government spending on public health
  4. Strengthening the Mid-day Meal Scheme

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 3 and 4 only

(c) 2, 3 and 4 only

(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

What are NBFCs?

  • Nonbank financial companies (NBFCs) are financial institutions that offer various banking services but do not have a banking license.
  • An NBFC in India is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 engaged in the business of loans and advances, acquisition of shares/stocks/bonds/debentures/securities issued by a government or local authority, or other marketable securities.
  • A non-banking institution that is a company and has principal business of receiving deposits under any scheme or arrangement in one lump sum or in installments is also an NBFC.

What is the difference between banks & NBFCs?

NBFCs lend and make investments and hence their activities are akin to that of banks; however, there are a few differences as given below:

  • NBFC cannot accept demand deposits
  • NBFCs do not form part of the payment and settlement system and cannot issue cheques drawn on itself
  • The deposit insurance facility of Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation is not available to depositors of NBFCs, unlike in the case of banks

What are the new RBI regulations?

  • The regulatory and supervisory framework of NBFCs will be based on a four-layered structure — the base layer (NBFC-BL), middle layer (NBFC-ML), the upper layer (NBFC-UL), and the top layer.
  • If the framework is visualized as a pyramid, at the bottom of the pyramid will be those where least regulatory intervention is warranted.
  • It can consist of NBFCs currently classified as non-systemically important NBFCs.
  • Moving up, the next layer may comprise NBFCs currently classified as systemically important NBFCs (NBFC-ND-SI), deposit-taking NBFCs (NBFC-D), HFCs, IFCs, IDFs, SPDs, and CICs.
  • The regulatory regime for this layer shall be stricter compared to the base layer.
  • The next layer may consist of NBFCs identified as ‘systemically significant’.
  • This layer will be populated by NBFCs having a large potential of systemic spill-over of risks and the ability to impact financial stability.

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Coronavirus – Economic Issues

[pib] Shramshakti Portal

PIB | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Laws, Institutions & Bodies Constituted For The Vulnerable Sections
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Shramshakti Portal

Mains level: Welfare of the migrant workers

The Union Minister of Tribal Affairs has launched the “ShramShakti” Portal.

Earlier we had ONORC move, now a repository for migrant workers. Keep a tab on all such updates for the welfare of migrant workers.

Shramshakti Portal

  • It is a National Migration Support Portal.
  • It will record various data including demographic profile, livelihood options, skill mapping, and migration pattern.
  • It would effectively help in the smooth formulation of state and national level programs for migrant workers.

Why need such a portal?

  • Migrants all over the country had to face after the lockdown was announced due to the pandemic caused by a coronavirus.
  • The migration of the tribal population is distress-driven and the migrants are exposed to difficult and unsafe conditions.
  • Sometimes they face trafficking or wage harassment issues including many occupational hazards at the workplace.
  • The lack of real-time data of migrants was the biggest challenge for governments in formulating effective strategies and policy decisions for the welfare of migrant workers at both source and destination states.

Benefits of the portal

  • The tribal migration repository would be able to successfully address the data gap and empower migrant workers who generally migrate in search of employment and income generation.
  • It would also help the government for linking the migrant population with the existing Welfare Scheme- under Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

A move for tribals

  • Tribal migrant workers often have low awareness about their rights and entitlements and ways to access services and social security in source and destination areas.
  • With this, they will be able to demand and access services, rights, and entitlements related to livelihood and social security at their village before migration, as well after migration at destination towns and cities.

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