Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Immunity Passport
Mains level: Issues with Immunity Passport
In a bid to ease travel restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, countries like Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Chile, UK have announced a new ‘immunity passport.’
Try this question form mains:
Q.Discuss various ethical issues evolved during the outbreaks of pandemics (of the scale of COVID-19).
Immunity Passport
- They are the recovery or release certificate or a document attesting that its bearer is immune to a contagious disease.
- The concept has drawn much attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential way to contain the pandemic and permit faster economic recovery.
- The can be used as a legal document granted by a testing authority following a serology test demonstrating that the bearer has antibodies making them immune to a disease.
Ethical issues involved
- Issuing ‘immunity certificates’ to people who have recovered can be an ethical minefield.
- Doctors do not generally prefer immunity to be induced by natural infection compared with vaccines. It seems logical, but there are multiple challenges.
- There might be long-term health complications in those who had COVID-19, whereas the vaccine will have minimal or no adverse health consequences.
- There is a danger that similar arguments will be made for other vaccine-preventable diseases for which we have a universal immunisation programme.
Public health risk
- People whose livelihood has have been affected would be encouraged to adopt risky behaviour so as to get infected rather than taking precautions to stay protected from the virus.
- This would lead to a sharp increase in cases across the country with huge numbers requiring hospitalization.
- Such a situation would lead to testing capabilities getting overwhelmed, crumbling of the health-care systems and increased deaths.
Threats over malpractices
- Immunity certification will include a system for identification and monitoring, thus compromising privacy.
- Other contentious issues would be profiteering by private labs performing tests, and the menace of fake certificates which we have already seen in some Indian states.
- In the end, an immunity passport will further divide the society with different ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.
Way forward
- We need to look at COVID-19 with a sense of balance and not hysteria.
- Terms such as immunity passports may not have relevance as we do not know anything about specific kinds of immune responses and the duration of protection in people.
- There is currently not enough evidence about the effectiveness of antibody-mediated immunity to guarantee the accuracy of an ‘immunity passport’ or ‘risk-free certificate’.
- The permission to travel or work should be decided on a case by case basis, according to the principles of ethics while dealing with a pandemic.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Dickensonia, Bhimbetka
Mains level: Stone age paintings in India
Researchers have found the first-ever fossil in India of a Dickinsonia —the Earth’s ‘oldest animal’, dating back 570 million years — on the roof of what’s called the ‘Auditorium Cave’ at Bhimbetka.
Dickinsonia
- Dickinsonia is an extinct genus of basal animal that lived during the late Ediacaran period in what is now Australia, Russia and Ukraine.
- The individual Dickinsonia typically resembles a bilaterally symmetrical ribbed oval.
- Its affinities are presently unknown; its mode of growth is consistent with a stem-group bilaterian affinity, though some have suggested that it belongs to the fungi or even an “extinct kingdom”.
- The discovery of cholesterol molecules in fossils of Dickinsonia lends support to the idea that Dickinsonia was an animal.
What are the new findings?
Like the awe-inspiring rock shelters themselves, this fossil was discovered by chance.
- Dickinsonia fossils have shown that they could exceed four feet in length but the one found in Bhimbetka is 17 inches long.
- Eleven feet above the ground, almost blending with the rock and easily mistaken by laymen for prehistoric rock art, they found imprints of the Dickinsonia.
- It is believed to be one of the key links between the early, simple organisms and the explosion of life in the Cambrian Period, about 541 million years ago.
Cambrian Explosion and Dickinsonia
- The ‘Cambrian Explosion’ is the term given to the period of time in history when complex animals and other macroscopic organisms such as molluscs, worms, arthropods and sponges began to dominate the fossil record.
- Researchers from Australian found the Dickinsonia fossil since its tissue contained molecules of cholesterol a type of fat that is the hallmark of animal life.
Do you know?
Cosmogenic nuclide dating is deployed to determine time of earliest human culture. India’s oldest stone-age tools, up to 1.5 million years old, are at a prehistoric site near Chennai.
About Bhimbetka
- The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological site in central India that spans the prehistoric Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, as well as the historic period.
- It exhibits the earliest traces of human life in India and evidence of Stone Age starting at the site in Acheulian times.
- It is located in the Raisen District in Madhya Pradesh about 45 kilometres (28 mi) south-east of Bhopal.
- It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that consists of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters distributed over 10 km (6.2 mi).
- At least some of the shelters were inhabited more than 100,000 years ago.
- Some of the Bhimbetka rock shelters feature prehistoric cave paintings and the earliest are about 10,000 years old (c. 8,000 BCE), corresponding to the Indian Mesolithic.
- These cave paintings show themes such as animals, early evidence of dance and hunting.
- The Bhimbetka rock shelters were found by V S Wakankar 64 years ago. Since then, thousands of researchers have visited the site, but this rare fossil went undetected.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PM-JAY
Mains level: Paper 2- Achieving universal health coverage
The article highlights the issues with India’s approach in achieving universal health care and issues with it.
Learning from the experience of Thailand
- About 20 years ago, Thailand rolled out universal health coverage at a per capita GDP similar to today’s India.
- What made this possible was a three decade-long tradition of investing gradually but steadily in public health infrastructure and manpower.
- This meant that alongside the availability of funds, there also existed robust institutional capacity to assimilate those funds.
- This is important because enough evidence exists on weak fund-absorbing capacities particularly in the backward States in India.
Budgetary allocations for health
- The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare budget for 2021-22, viz. ₹73,932 crore, saw a 10.2% increase over the Budget estimate (BE) of 2020-21.
- Also, a corpus of ₹64,180 crore over six years has been set aside under the PM Atma Nirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana, (PMANSBY).
- ₹13,192 crore has been allocated as a Finance Commission grant.
- These allocations could make the first steps towards sustainable universal health coverage through incremental strengthening of grass-root-level institutions and processes.
Two important and prominent arms of universal health coverage in India merit discussion here
1) Insurance route for achieving universal health coverage and issues with it
- The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) has stagnated at ₹6,400 crores for the current and a preceding couple of years.
- Large expenditure projections and time constraints involved in the input-based strengthening of public health care have inspired the shift to the insurance route.
- However, insurance does not provide a magic formula for expanding health care with low levels of public spending.
- Beyond low allocations, poor budget reliability merits attention.
- Another related issue is the persistent and large discrepancies between official coverage figures and survey figures (for e.g. the National Sample Surveys, or NSS, and National Family Health Survey) across Indian States.
- Such discrepancies indicate that official public health insurance coverage fails to translate into actual coverage on the ground.
- Robust research into the implementational issues responsible for such discrepancies and addressing them is warranted.
- Without the same, the PM-JAY’s quest for universal health coverage is likely to be precarious.
- Finally, even high actual coverage should not be equated with effective financial protection.
- For example, Andhra Pradesh has among the highest public health insurance coverage scores (71.36%, NSS 75), but still has an out-of-pocket spending share much above the national average.
2) Comprehensive primary care
- Health and Wellness Centres — 1,50,202 of them — offering a comprehensive range of primary health-care services are to be operationalised until December 2022.
- Of these, 1,19,628 would be upgraded sub health centres and the remaining would be primary health centres and urban primary health centres.
- Initially, most States prioritised primary health centres/urban primary health centres for upgradation over sub health centres, since the former required fewer additional investments.
- Till February 2, 58,155 health and wellness centres were operational, of which 34,733 were sub health centres and 23,422 were primary health centres/urban primary health centres.
- This means that of the remaining 92,047 health and wellness centres to be operationalised by December 2022, 84,895 will be sub health centres.
- This offers huge cost projections.
- The current allocation of ₹1,900 crore, an increase of ₹300 crore from previous year, is a paltry sum in comparison.
- Since 2018-19, when the health and wellness centre initiative began, allocations have not kept pace with the rising targets each year.
- Additional funding under the PMANSBY and Finance Commission grants is reassuring, but a greater focus on rural health and wellness centres would be warranted.
- Two untoward implications could result from under-investing and spreading funds too thinly.
- Continuing the expansion of health and wellness centres without enough funding would mean that the full range of promised services will not be available, thus rendering the mission to be more of a re-branding exercise.
- Second, under-funding would waste an opportunity for the health and wellness centre initiative to at least partially redress the traditional rural-urban dichotomy by bolstering curative primary care in rural areas.
Consider the question “What are the challenges in adopting the insurance model in achieving the universal health coverage in India?”
Conclusion
COVID-19 has prodded us to make a somewhat stout beginning in terms of investing in health. The key, and the most difficult part, would be to keep the momentum going unswervingly.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- International scrutiny of India's domestic policies and dealing with them
Tweets by international celebrities in support of farmers’ protests and the government’s response to it have brought focus the issue of international scrutiny of India’s policies. The article analyses this issue.
Issue of external criticism of India
- Recently, India has been at the receiving end of international criticism over its dealing with the farmers’ protests against recently passed farm laws.
- But neither the negative international scrutiny nor the Indian nationalist rejection of it are new.
- Mobilising nationalist sentiment and evoking territorial sovereignty in fending off external criticism have been consistent themes in the conduct of independent India’s foreign policy.
- The intensity of international scrutiny has varied over time and space, but they are unlikely to ever disappear.
- As India becomes more connected to the world, there will be more global interest in its internal dynamics.
- At the same time, like all rising powers, India will push back against demands that it must always measure up to external expectations.
Why the Western criticism matters
- Western power to turn sensible sentiments on democracy and human rights into consistent policies is rather limited.
- Also, the issue of human rights has never been the sole factor shaping US foreign policy towards other nations.
- But there is no denying that the Western power to create problems is real.
- There are also implications of needless political arguments with the US over your domestic politics.
- Asian realists also know that it is not difficult to neutralise Western liberal critics by emphasising engagement with others that might have commercial and security interests.
Dealing with the criticism in the U.S. Congress
- In the early 1990s, passing resolutions against India on Punjab and Kashmir in the US Congress was routine.
- But once Delhi began to engage with US Congress and explained the complexity of the issues involved, the tide began to turn.
- The Indian diaspora helped by reaching out to their representatives and pressing them to reconsider their positions.
- Within a decade, supporters of separatism in Punjab and Kashmir could not even move the resolutions in the US Congress.
Domestic polarisation and role of diaspora in international criticism
- India’s problem is not with external criticism, India’s real challenge is the deepening domestic political divide.
- India’s internal conflicts have inevitably enveloped the diaspora.
- Sections of the diaspora that are opposed to Indian policies are actively mobilising the political class in their adopted countries to raise the voice against India.
- They are also building wider coalitions to put the Indian government on the mat.
- If the diaspora in the past helped India overcome some difficult problems with the US, it is the counter mobilisation of the diaspora that is shaping the western criticism of India.
Way forward
- The government’s ability to overcome external criticism depends on rebuilding the national consensus on key policies and healing the multiple social rifts.
- Without a visible and sincere political effort to promote unity at home, internal divisions will get worse and make India more vulnerable to external meddling.
Consider the question “Recently, India has been at the receiving end of the international criticism for its internal issues. What are the reasons for such criticism? Suggest the strategy to deal with such criticisms.”
Conclusion
India’s own experience with Sri Lanka and Nepal underlines how hard it is to persuade other societies to accept Delhi’s preferences on the rights of minorities and federalism. In the end, democracy and pluralism can never be foreigner’s gifts. The struggle to construct and preserve democracies remains an internal one.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Countries bordering Myanmar
Mains level: Paper 2- Coup in Myanmar and India's dilemma in dealing with the situation
The coup in Myanmar poses several challenges for India. For one, it poses a dilemma in India’s dealing with Myanmar’s military. Also, it has implications for the Rohingya issue and containing the insurgency in north-east India.
Implications of the coup in Myanmar
1) Political realignment and role of Aung San Suu Kyi
- Threat of sanctions from the United States and the West in the wake of the recent coup could lead to unique political realignments in Myanmar.
- As a result, the international community may not have any alternatives than Aung San Suu Kyi when it comes to pursuing the restoration of democracy in the country.
- The democratic credentials of Aung San Suu Kyi, remain deeply diminished today due to her justification of the ill-treatment meted out to the Rohingya,
- Yet the recent events have brought her right back into the centre of the international community’s political calculations in Myanmar.
2) Implications for Rohingya issus
- International community will have to condone the government’s past actions against the Rohingya in order to highlight Suu Kyi as an anchor of democracy in Myanmar.
- The case against Myanmar’s conduct during her government’s tenure at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will most likely be put on the backburner.
- Increasing global support for Ms. Suu Kyi could potentially negative consequences for the persecuted Rohingya.
3) China factor
- In the short run, the coup stands to hurt the interests of China, India and even the rest of the international community, all of whom were able to do business with Myanmar in their own unique ways.
- For China, the coup has complicated its larger regional economic plans in Myanmar.
- However, the international community’s sharp reactions will likely force the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military) to turn to China.
- International sanctions are unlikely to have a major impact on the country’s largely inward-looking junta and its Generals.
- However, it Generals would still expect Beijing to give them
- For China, the coup has complicated its larger regional economic plans in Myanmar.
- On the positive side for Beijing, decisive western sanctions will force the military to get closer to China.
- To that extent, China will be its biggest beneficiary of the February coup by default.
India’s dilemma
- India faces the most challenging dilemma on how to respond to the military coup in Myanmar.
- The dual power centres of the military and the civilian government that existed in Naypyitaw until recently, suited India.
- While India’s national interests clearly lie in dealing with whoever is in power in Myanmar, India would find it difficult to openly support the junta given the strong western and American stance.
- On the other hand, it can ill-afford to offend the junta by actively seeking a restoration of democracy there.
- While Ms. Suu Kyi was getting cozy with Beijing, it was the Myanmar military that had been more circumspect.
India’s concerns
- While a friendless Myanmar junta getting closer to China is a real worry for New Delhi, there are other concerns too.
- For one, Myanmar’s military played a helpful role in helping India contain the north-eastern insurgencies.
- Equally important is the issue of providing succour to the Rohingya in the wake of the military coup in Myanmar.
Consider the question “Developments in Myanmar have several implications for the regional geopolitics. In light of this, examine the challenges India faces from the development in Myanmar.”
Conclusion
India is left with very few clear policy options. And yet, it must continue to maintain relations with the government in power in Myanmar while discreetly pushing for political reconciliation in the country. In the meantime, the focus must be on improving trade, connectivity, and security links between the two sides.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UN HRC
Mains level: US policies revision after regime change
The Biden administration is set to reengage with the much-maligned UN Human Rights Council that former Donald Trump withdrew from almost three years ago.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following:
- Right to education.
- Right to equal access to public service.
- Right to food.
Which of the above is/are Human Right/Human Rights under “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) Only 1
(c) 1, 2 and 3
(d) Only 3
Why did the US pulled-out earlier?
- Trump pulled out of the world body’s main human rights agency in 2018 due to its disproportionate focus on Israel.
- Israel had received by far the largest number of critical council resolutions against any country.
- The Trump administration took issue with the body’s membership, which currently includes China, Cuba, Eritrea, Russia and Venezuela, all of which have been accused of human rights abuses.
About UN Human Rights Council
- The UNHRC describes itself as “an inter-governmental body within the UN system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe.
- It addresses situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them.
- The first session took place from June 19-30, 2006, three months after the Council was created by UN General Assembly Resolution 60/251 on March 15 that year.
- The UNHRC has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations that require its attention throughout the year.
- The HRC replaced the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR).
HRC Meetings
- The Human Rights Council holds no fewer than three regular sessions a year, for a total of at least 10 weeks.
- The meetings take place for four weeks in March, for three weeks in June, and for another three weeks in September.
- The sessions are held at the UN Office in Geneva, Switzerland.
- If one-third of the Member States so request, the HRC can decide at any time to hold a special session to address human rights violations and emergencies.
Membership
- The Council is made up of 47 UN Member States, which are elected by the UNGA through a direct and secret ballot.
- The General Assembly takes into account the contribution of the candidate states to the promotion and protection of human rights, as well as their voluntary pledges and commitments in this regard.
- Members of the Council serve for a period of three years and are not eligible for immediate re-election after serving two consecutive terms.
- As of January 1, 2019, 114 UN Member States have served on the HRC. Both India and Pakistan are on this list.
- The HRC has a Bureau of one President and four Vice-Presidents, representing the five regional groups. They serve for a year, in accordance with the Council’s annual cycle.
Seat distribution
- African States: 13 seats
- Asia-Pacific States: 13 seats
- Latin American and Caribbean States: 8 seats
- Western European and other States: 7 seats
- Eastern European States: 6 seats
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act
Police have booked several under The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, for the alleged insult of the National Flag in farmers protest on Republic Day.
Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act
- The law, enacted on December 23, 1971, penalizes the desecration of or insult to Indian national symbols, such as the National Flag, the Constitution, the National Anthem, and the Indian map, as well as contempt of the Constitution of India.
- Section 2 of the Act deals with insults to Indian National Flag and Constitution of India.
Do you know?
Article 51 ‘A’ contained in Part IV A i.e. Fundamental Duties asks:
To abide by the constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem in clause (a).
Other provisions
- Section 3.22 of The Flag Code of India, 2002 deals with laws, practices and conventions that apply to the display of the national flag.
- Section 3.58 says: On occasions of State/Military/Central Paramilitary Forces funerals, the flag shall be draped over the bier or coffin with the saffron towards the head of the bier or coffin.
- The Flag shall not be lowered into the grave or burnt in the pyre.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The national motto of India, ‘Satyameva Jayate’ inscribed below the Emblem of India is taken from:
(a) Katha Upanishad
(b) Chandogya Upanishad
(c) Aitareya Upanishad
(d) Mundaka Upanishad
Use of flag in funerals
- The flag can only be used during a funeral if it is accorded the status of a state funeral.
- Apart from police and armed forces, state funerals are held when people who are holding or have held the office of President, Vice-President, PM, Cabinet Minister, or state CM pass away.
- The status of a state funeral can be accorded in case of death of people not belonging to the armed forces, police or the above-mentioned categories by the state government.
- Then too, the national flag can be used.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Einsteinium
Mains level: Not Much
The University of California has reported some of the properties of element 99 in the periodic table called “Einsteinium”, named after Albert Einstein.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The known forces of nature can be divided into four classes, viz, gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force.
With reference to them, which one of the following statements is not correct? (CSP 2012)
(a) Gravity is the strongest of the four
(b) Electromagnetism act only on particles with an electric charge
(c) Weak nuclear force causes radioactivity
(d) Strong nuclear force holds protons and neutrons inside the nuclear of an atom.
Einsteinium
- It was discovered in 1952 in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb (the detonation of a thermonuclear device called “Ivy Mike” in the Pacific Ocean).
- Since its discovery, scientists have not been able to perform a lot of experiments with it because it is difficult to create and is highly radioactive.
- Therefore, very little is known about this element.
- With this new study published in the journal Nature last week, for the first time researchers have been able to characterize some of the properties of the element.
The discovery of the element
- Ivy Mike was detonated on November 1, 1952, as part of a test at a remote island location called Elugelab on the Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific.
- The blast produced an explosion that was about 500 times more destructive than the explosion that occurred at Nagasaki.
- Subsequently, the fallout material from this explosion was sent to Berkeley in California for analysis which identified over 200 atoms of the new element.
Properties of the element
- Einsteinium has a half-life of 20 days.
- Because of its high radioactivity and short half-life of all einsteinium isotopes, even if the element was present on Earth during its formation, it has most certainly decayed.
- This is the reason that it cannot be found in nature and needs to be manufactured using very precise and intense processes.
- Therefore, so far, the element has been produced in very small quantities and its usage is limited except for the purposes of scientific research.
- The element is also not visible to the naked eye and after it was discovered, it took over nine years to manufacture enough of it so that it could be seen with the naked eye.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Air pollution
Mains level: Alternatives solutions for stubble burning
The Scheme on ‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi’ has been extended for the year 2021-22.
We can cite the example of this scheme for crop residue management as an effective solution against stubble burning.
Management of Crop Residues
- In pursuance this, a central sector scheme (100% funded by centre) was launched in 2018 Budget to support the efforts of the governments of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi to address air pollution.
- It aimed to subsidize the machinery required for in-situ management of crop residue.
Various objectives of the scheme:
- Protecting the environment from air pollution and preventing loss of nutrients and soil micro-organisms caused by burning of crop residue;
- Promoting in-situ management of crop residue by retention and incorporation into the soil through the use of appropriate mechanization inputs and
- Creating awareness among stakeholders for effective utilization and management of crop residue
Outcomes of the scheme
- The residue burning events in 2020 in Punjab, Haryana and UP together have reduced by -30% as compared to 2016.
- In Punjab the reduction is -22.7%, Haryana – 63.8% and UP – 52.01%.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Malabar Exercises
Mains level: Not Much
The 24th edition of Malabar maritime exercise, hosted by Indian Navy in 2020, witnessed the participation by Indian Navy, United States Navy, Japan Maritime Self Defence Force and Royal Australian Navy.
Such news is nothing but the repetitive chunk that occurs every year with few or no new developments. Still, they are significant for the sake of information as Australia has joined it after several apprehensions.
Question can be expected in CAPF, CDS or AFCAT exams.
About Ex. Malabar
- Exercise Malabar is a trilateral naval exercise involving the US, Japan and India as permanent partners.
- This year Australia has joined as a permanent partner.
- Originally begun in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between India and the United States, Japan became a permanent partner in 2015.
- Past non-permanent participants are Australia and Singapore.
- The annual Malabar series began in 1992 and includes diverse activities, ranging from fighter combat operations from aircraft carriers through Maritime Interdiction Operations Exercises.
Significance of Australia’s inclusion
- Earlier, India had concerns that it would give the appearance of a “quadrilateral military alliance” aimed at China.
- Now both look forward to the cooperation in the ‘Indo-Pacific’ and the strengthening of defence ties.
- This has led to a convergence of mutual interest in many areas for a better understanding of regional and global issues.
- Both are expected to conclude the long-pending Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) as part of measures to elevate the strategic partnership.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Types of fiscal deficits
Mains level: Paper 3- Push for the growth in the Budget, but concerns with the fiscal deficit remains
The Budget will aid the growth in the aftermath of the pandemic, however, concerns remain over the fiscal deficit.
Concerns about fiscal deficit
- The Budget, taken as a whole, has provided reasonable stimulus to growth through a change in the composition of expenditure and other measures to improve the climate for investment.
- But concerns remain about fiscal deficit.
High expenditure growth
- Proposed growth in central expenditure, both in 2020-21 Revised Estimates (RE) and in 2021-22 Budget Estimates (BE), indicates the extent of contemplated fiscal stimulus.
- For reaching the projected 2020-21 RE levels, the growth required in the last quarter of the current fiscal year over the corresponding period of the previous year appear extraordinary.
- This involves transferring on to the Budget, the accumulated food subsidies amounting to ₹2,54,600 crore given to the Food Corporation of India through National Small Savings Fund (NSSF) loans.
- The balance of subsidies amounting to ₹1,68,018 crore would be the food subsidy pertaining to 2020-21 (RE).
- This is a desirable change towards transparency.
- Taking revenue expenditure figures as budgeted and adjusting for the NSSF-accumulated food subsidy amount, the growth is 6.7% in revenue expenditure in 2021-22 (BE) over 2020-21(RE).
- A good part of expenditure for the last quarter of 2020-21 may also pertain to clearing unpaid dues of various stakeholders including the private sector, autonomous bodies and government-aided institutions.
- Clearing these payments is desirable and would add to demand.
- The main expenditure push comes through a budgeted growth of 26.2% in capital expenditure in 2021-22.
- Relative to GDP, capital expenditure is expected to increase from 1.6% in 2019-20 to 2.3% in 2020-21 RE and 2.5% in 2021-22 BE, signalling a significant change in priority.
Increase in receipts
- Significant increases are planned in non-tax revenues and non-debt capital receipts.
- This increase is mainly predicated on higher dividends from non-departmental undertakings and spectrum sales.
- From a contraction of 35.6% in 2020-21 (RE), non-tax revenues are budgeted to grow by 15.4% in 2021-22.
- In the case of non-debt capital receipts, mainly covering disinvestment, a budgeted growth of 304.3% in 2021-22 stands in contrast with the contraction of 32.2% in 2020-21 (RE).
- Disinvestment initiatives have so far yielded minimal results.
- Budgeted increase in the Centre’s gross tax revenues is dependent on nominal GDP growth of 14.4%, with a buoyancy of 1.6 for direct taxes and 0.8 for indirect taxes.
Steps towards asset monetisation
- An important initiative pertains to the launching of a National Monetisation Pipeline.
- The time lags involved in starting yielding revenue remain unpredictable because of various potential disputes and claims involving government-owned land.
- A transparent auction process needs to be set up to facilitate suitable price discovery.
Other institutional initiatives
- The Budget includes central government’s share to the National Infrastructure Pipeline.
- However, success of the infrastructure expansion plan would depend on other stakeholders of the pipeline playing their due role.
- The Budget also proposes setting up of a Development Finance Institution (DFI), to serve as a catalyst for facilitating infrastructure investment.
- The DFI would have an initial capital of ₹20,000 crore.
- In order to manage non-performing assets of public sector banks, there is a proposal to set up an Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC) and an Asset Management Company (AMC).
- Much depends upon the fine-tuning the operations of these institutions.
Finance Commission’s recommendations
- In the action taken report, the Union government has accepted the recommended vertical share of 41% for the States in the shareable pool of central taxes.
- The government has accepted the Fifteenth Finance Commission’s recommendation for revenue deficit grants, local body grants and disaster-related grants.
- The scope of revenue deficit grants has been extended to cover 17 States in the initial years.
- The determination of these grants is not based on equalisation principle although some norms have been used in the assessment exercise.
- However, the government has put on hold the consideration of State-specific and sector-specific grants including performance-based incentives.
- The substantive issue pertains to the mode of transfers in terms of general-purpose unconditional transfers against specific purpose and conditional transfers.
- States had shown a preference for the former mode and it is for this reason that the 14th Finance Commission had raised the States’ share from 32% to 42%.
- The reduction from 42% to 41% is only on account of the consideration of 28 States excluding Jammu and Kashmir because of its new status.
- The imposition of cesses which are almost permanent has reduced the shareable pool.
- In fact, the States’ share in the Centre’s gross tax revenues is only 30% in 2021-22 (BE).
Way forward
- The Fifteenth Finance Commission has also proposed a revised fiscal consolidation road map for the Centre and States.
- The Fifteenth Finance Commission has recommended the setting up of a High-Powered Intergovernmental Group to re-examine the fiscal responsibility legislations of the Centre and States.
- Giving up the prudential norms will be a wrong lesson to learn from the crisis.
- The issue of debt sustainability can be certainly re-examined by taking into account the evolving profiles of debt, interest payments, and primary deficits relative to GDP.
Conclusion
Fiscal deficit must be related to household savings in financial assets and the interest payments to revenue receipts. It should not be forgotten that in fiscal 2021-22, interest payments to total revenue receipts will be 45.3%, pre-empting a significant proportion of revenue receipts. We must be conscious of the burden of the rising stock of debt.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Types of fiscal deficits
Mains level: Paper 3- Paradigm shift in the budget and challenges in realising them
The article deals with the marked departures in this year’s Budget and the challenges in realising the changes.
Three paradigm shifts from past in this the Budget
1)Increased infrastructure spending
- The main theme of the budget is a big thrust on infrastructure spending and public investment.
- If the budgeted numbers are realised, capex would have grown from 1.6 per cent of GDP pre-COVID to 2.5 per cent in two years.
- With India’s investment/GDP ratio falling by 5 percentage points over the last decade, a sustained public investment push — with its large multiplicative effects — is a much-needed impetus to reinvigorate growth and create jobs.
Implications of increased spending
- The certainty sustained public investment is likely to crowdin private investment.
- The certainty of investment-led employment that is likely to reduce household precautionary savings.
- However, higher capex spend is being paid for by disinvestment and privatisation.
- Effectively, non-core public-sector assets that don’t generate positive externalities — and, in fact, potentially distort the sectors they compete in — are expected to be replaced with much-needed physical and social infrastructure.
- This newly created physical and social infrastructure emanate positive externalities and necessarily suffer from under-provisioning by the private sector.
- If successfully executed — this will not be a case of selling the family silver to pay a credit card bill.
- Instead, it will be akin to a productivity-enhancing asset swap on the public sector’s balance sheet.
2) Shift in the way for financing infrastructure
- In stark contrast to the PPP model, infrastructure will now be financed off public sector balance sheets and, once operational and viable, will be monetised so as to recycle proceeds into the next project.
- In theory, this is the appropriate division of public-private risk sharing.
- It combines the public sector’s ability to better mitigate upstream risk while taking advantage of the glut of global liquidity potentially attracted to downstream projects.
3) Shift is towards more conservative and transparent fiscal accounting
- There has been much focus on bringing the Food Corporation of India (FCI) liabilities back on the budget.
- Less appreciated is the conservatism with which tax revenues have been budgeted for.
- Revised estimates peg this year’s gross taxes at 9.9 per cent of GDP.
- But for that to happen, taxes, net of excise, will need to contract by 20 per cent in the last quarter.
- So it’s very likely gross taxes will end up 0.5 per cent of GDP higher this year.
- Not only is this a welcome departure from the past when revenues were consistently over-budgeted, but it sets the base for next year.
- With nominal GDP expected to grow in double digits, it’s likely taxes, net of excise, will experience a higher-than-unitary-elasticity to growth, especially given the increased formalisation that COVID has spawned.
- Tax collections are, therefore, likely to exceed budgeted levels in 2021-22.
- It behooves a very uncertain macroeconomic environment and creates some buffer if crude prices keep rising or other revenues don’t materialise.
- Credible accounting over time will bring down risk premia in bond yields, and paradoxically generate a stimulative impulse.
Three challenges in realising these changes
1) Execution challenge
- The budget’s impact on shaping the macroeconomic narrative will depend on the speed and efficacy of simultaneously building and selling public assets.
- It will be important, for instance, to front-load disinvestment and strategic sales to take advantage of buoyant equity markets before global central banks become more cautious.
- With debt likely to rise to almost 90 per cent of GDP this year, it’s now incumbent on all stakeholders to consistently deliver the 10 per cent nominal GDP growth that’s needed to first stabilise debt at these levels and then bring it down.
- Viewed from this lens, it is a budget where execution is vital.
2) Withdrawal of the policy support at appropriate time
- While fiscal policy is being appropriately counter-cyclical at the moment, it must be equally nimble in the other direction.
- When the recovery gets more entrenched, policy support should be withdrawn with equal speed and alacrity.
3) Role of monetary policy
- With fiscal policy playing a primary role, monetary policy must slowly take a back seat.
- The combination of a more relaxed fiscal path and domestic private sector savings normalising after the COVID surge could result in equilibrium bond market yields rising [fall in the price of bond] — but that is a cost worth incurring for a meaningful public investment push.
- In the near term, the RBI may focus on ensuring this new equilibrium is reached in a non-disruptive manner.
- Given the current slack in the economy, it’s understandable if fiscal and monetary are temporarily complementary.
- But as confidence in the recovery grows, fiscal and monetary must quickly become substitutes — with the RBI progressively normalising liquidity to wardoff financial stability and fiscal dominance concerns — so as to safeguard macroeconomic stability.
Consider the question “This year’s Budget marked many departures from the past Budgets. However, there are several challenges in realising these departures. What are such departures and identify the challenges in realising them?”
Conclusion
The budget must be commended for embarking on important paradigm shifts. But its success, and in turn the sustainability of India’s recovery, will now come down squarely to policy execution and coordination.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IBC 2016
Mains level: Paper 3- Analysing the working of IBC
The article analyses whether or not the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is delivering on its objectives.
Criticism of IBC
- The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016 was enacted to resolve the stress of companies.
- However, the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) has been criticised as it rescues only about 25 per cent of companies and leads to liquidation for the rest.
Is IBC delivering on its mandate
Let’s analyse how Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) 2016 is working towards value maximising outcomes.
1) It enables the market to attempt to resolve
- The CIRP enables the market to attempt to resolve stress through a resolution plan whereby the company survives.
- When it concludes that there is no feasible resolution plan to rescue the company, the company proceeds for liquidation.
- The market usually rescues a viable company and liquidates an unviable one.
- There are quite a few companies which have negligible assets and/or are defunct when they enter CIRP.
- Many of these are beyond rescue for a variety of reasons, including creative destruction, and their continuation is a cost to the economy.
- In such cases, the code enables liquidation to release available resources to alternate uses.
- It is welcome, as it releases the assets as well as the entrepreneur stuck up in an unviable company, which is a key objective of the code.
2) Look at the total asset value not the number of companies
- In terms of absolute numbers, 25 per cent of companies were rescued and 75 per cent proceeded for liquidation.
- In value terms, however, 75 per cent of the assets were rescued and 25 per cent of assets proceeded for liquidation.
- Of the companies sent for liquidation, 75 per cent were either sick or defunct, and of the companies rescued, 25 per cent were either sick or defunct.
3) Look at the overall impact, not just final numbers
- Third, the stress that a company suffers is like an illness which can be treated by a variety of options.
- Normally, recovery is better if diagnosis and treatment start early.
- Likewise, the health of the company deteriorates if the resolution process is delayed.
- The percentage of rescue at this later stage may not be significant.
- The credible threat of CIRP that a company may change hands has redefined the debtor-creditor relationship.
- Faced with the possibility of the CIRP, a debtor makes all-out efforts to prevent the stress, or resolve it much before it translates into a default, or settles the default.
- Even after an application is filed, a debtor continues efforts to resolve the financial stress midway through settlement, review, mediation, or withdrawal to avoid the consequences of CIRP.
- The number of companies that recover before filing the application as a percentage of those that get starts the insolvency process would give the fair idea about the efficacy of the IBC.
Consider the question “The IBC has often been criticised for liquidating the companies rather than rescuing them. Do you agree with this criticism? Give reasons in support of your argument.”
Conclusion
Liquidation or rescue is an outcome of the market forces; the law is only an enabler giving choices and nudging a company towards value maximising outcomes. The “invisible hands” of the market works towards the best outcome, which we should respect and accept.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GLOF
Mains level: Climate change impact
A massive glacier burst at Chamoli in Uttarakhand yet again bringing back our focus to the dangers of climate change.
A wake-up call!
Uttarakhand is often at the heart of various Himalayan disasters such as flash floods, cloud bursts, avalanches and earthquakes.
The Chamoli incident signifies the dawn of ugly faces of climate disaster for which the mankind is clueless. At last, someone has to be blamed, isn’t it?
What is the news?
- Experts are uncertain about what caused the massive glacier burst at Chamoli in Uttarakhand.
- It is unclear whether there was an avalanche in the area recently or whether the lake breach was the result of construction, anthropological activities, climate change etc.
What is GLOF?
- A GLOF is a type of outburst flood that occurs when the dam containing a glacial lake fails.
- An event similar to a GLOF, where a body of water contained by a glacier melts or overflows the glacier, is called a jökulhlaup.
- The dam can consist of glacier ice or a terminal moraine.
- Failure can happen due to various factors such as:
- Erosion, a buildup of water pressure
- Avalanche of rock or heavy snow
- Earthquake or volcanic eruptions under the ice or
- Displacement of water in a glacial lake when a large portion of an adjacent glacier collapses into it
Possible causes for Chamoli
Avalanche
- An avalanche is falling masses of snow and ice which gathers pace as it comes down the slope.
- But an avalanche is unlikely to result in the rise of water of that magnitude what Chamoli witnessed.
Cloudburst
- What happened in Uttarakhand in 2013 was a multi-day cloudburst.
- It is a sudden, very heavy rainfall accompanies by a thunderstorm. But it generally happens in monsoon.
- In fact, the season in which such a disaster was witnessed has surprised experts as there is no immediate trigger that can be pointed to as the reason why water level rose to that level washing away two hydro projects.
Why always Uttarakhand?
- Human activities profoundly affect the earth’s climate and mountains are a sensitive indicator of that effect.
- The mountain ecosystem is easily disrupted by variations in climate owing to their altitude, slope and orientation to the sun.
- As the earth heats up, mountains glaciers melt at unprecedented rates.
- Several scientists believe that the change occurring in the mountain ecosystems may provide an early glimpse of what could come to pass in a lowland environment.
Conclusion
- The current policy of the government of pursuing hydro-power projects indiscriminately cannot be ignored.
- The entire State of Uttarakhand is categorised as falling in Zone-IV and V of the earthquake risk map of India.
- The potential of the cumulative effect of multiple such projects has turned out to be more environmentally damaging than sustainable.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Social media as a lobbying tool
The Centre has issued notice to Twitter after the micro-blogging site restored more than 250 accounts that had been suspended earlier on the government’s ‘legal demand’.
Take this new term “Hashtags Activism”.
What is the news?
- Twitter was asked to block accounts and controversial hashtags that spoke of an impending ‘genocide’ of farmers for allegedly promoting misinformation about the protests, adversely affecting public order.
- Twitter reinstated the accounts and tweets on its own and later refused to go back on the decision, contending that it found no violation of its policy.
Concerns with the directive
- This direction presents a clear breach of fundamental rights but also reveals a complex relationship between the government and large platforms on the understanding of the Constitution of India.
- The specific legal order issued is secret.
- This brings into focus the condition of secrecy that is threshold objection to multiple strands of our fundamental rights.
- It conflicts against the rights of the users who are denied reasons for the censorship.
- Secrecy also undermines the public’s right to receive information, which is a core component of the fundamental freedom to speech and expression.
- This is an anti-democratic practice that results in an unchecked growth of irrational censorship but also leads to speculation that fractures trust.
- The other glaring deficiency is the complete absence of any prior show-cause notice to the actual users of these accounts by the government.
- This is contrary to the principles of natural justice.
- This again goes back to the vagueness and the design faults in the process of how directions under Section 69A are issued.
Are platforms required to comply with legal demands?
- Cooperation between technology services companies and law enforcement agencies is now deemed a vital part of fighting cybercrime and various other crimes that are committed using computer resources.
- These cover hacking, digital impersonation and theft of data.
- The potential of the misuse has led to law enforcement officials constantly seeking to curb the ill-effects of using the medium.
- Therefore, most nations have framed laws mandating cooperation by Internet service providers or web hosting service providers and other intermediaries to cooperate with law and order authorities in certain circumstances.
What does the law in India cover?
- In India, the Information Technology Act, 2000, as amended from time to time, governs all activities related to the use of computer resources.
- It covers all ‘intermediaries’ who play a role in the use of computer resources and electronic records.
- The term ‘intermediaries’ includes providers of telecom service, network service, Internet service and web hosting, besides search engines, online payment and auction sites, online marketplaces and cyber cafes.
- It includes any person who, on behalf of another, “receives, stores or transmits” any electronic record. Social media platforms would fall under this definition.
What are the Centre’s powers, vis-à-vis intermediaries?
- Section 69 of the Act confers on the Central and State governments the power to issue directions “to intercept, monitor or decrypt…any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource”.
The grounds on which these powers may be exercised are:
- in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state,
- friendly relations with foreign states,
- public order, or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to these, or
- for investigating any offence
How does the government block websites and networks?
- Section 69A, for similar reasons and grounds, enables the Centre to ask any agency of the government, or any intermediary, to block access.
- Any such request for blocking access must be based on reasons given in writing.
- Procedures and safeguards have been incorporated in the rules framed for the purpose.
Obligations of intermediaries under Indian law
- Intermediaries are required to preserve and retain specified information in a manner and format prescribed by the Centre for a specified duration.
- Contravention of this provision may attract a prison term that may go up to three years, besides a fine.
- When a direction is given for monitoring, the intermediary and any person in charge of a computer resource should extend technical assistance in the form of giving access or securing access to the resource involved.
- Failure to extend such assistance may entail a prison term of up to seven years, besides a fine.
- Failure to comply with a direction to block access to the public on a government’s written request also attracts a prison term of up to seven years, besides a fine.
Is the liability of the intermediary absolute?
- Section 79 of the Act makes it clear that “an intermediary shall not be liable for any third-party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted by him”.
- This protects intermediaries such as Internet and data service providers and those hosting websites from being made liable for content that users may post or generate.
- However, the exemption from liability does not apply if there is evidence that the intermediary abetted or induced the commission of the unlawful act involved.
Judicial intervention in this regard
- In Shreya Singhal Case (2015), the Supreme Court read down the provision to mean that the intermediaries ought to act only upon receiving actual knowledge that a court order has been passed.
- This was because the court felt that intermediaries such as Google or Facebook may receive millions of requests, and it may not be possible for them to judge which of these were legitimate.
- The role of the intermediaries has been spelt out in separate rules framed for the purpose in 2011.
Legislative efforts
- In 2018, the Centre favoured coming up with fresh updates to the existing rules on intermediaries’ responsibilities, but the draft courted controversy.
- This was because one of the proposed changes was that intermediaries should help identify originators of offensive content.
- This led to misgivings that this could aid privacy violations and online surveillance.
- Also, tech companies that use end-to-end encryption argued that they could not open a backdoor for identifying originators, as it would be a breach of promise to their subscribers.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: OPCs
Mains level: Entreneurship promotion
In her Budget speech, the Union Finance Minister had announced measures to ease norms on setting up one-person companies (OPCs).
Q.What are One-Person Companies (OPCs)? Discuss how they will help startups and non-resident Indians?
What is an OPC?
- As the name suggests, a one-person company is a company that can be formed by just one person as a shareholder.
- These companies can be contrasted with private companies, which require a minimum of two members to get going.
- However, for all practical purposes, these are like private companies.
- It is not as if there was no scope for an individual with aspirations in business prior to the introduction of OPC as a concept.
- As an individual, a person could get into the business through a sole proprietorship mode, and this is a path that is still available.
Why do we need such companies?
- A single-person company and sole proprietorship differ significantly in how they are perceived in the eyes of law.
- For the former, the person and the company are considered separate legal entities. In a sole proprietorship, the owner and the business are considered the same.
- This has an important implication when it comes to the liability of the individual member or owner. In a one-person company, the sole owner’s liability is limited to that person’s investment.
- In a sole proprietorship set-up, however, the owner has unlimited liability as they are not considered different legal entities.
- Some see the proposal as a move to encourage corporatization of small businesses. It is useful for entrepreneurs to have this option while deciding to start a business.
Is this a new idea?
- Such a concept already exists in many countries. In India, the concept was introduced in the Companies Act of 2013.
- Its introduction was based on the suggestions of the J. Irani Committee Report on Company Law, which submitted its recommendations in 2005.
- Pointing out that there was a need for a framework for small enterprises, it said small companies would contribute significantly to the Indian economy.
- But because of their size, they could not be burdened with the same level of compliance requirements as large public-listed companies.
Features of OPCs
- The law on one-person companies that took shape, as a result, exempted such companies from many procedural requirements, and, in some cases, provided relaxations.
- For instance, such a company does not need to conduct an annual general meeting, which is a requirement for other companies.
- A one-person company also does not require signatures of both its company secretary and director on its annual returns. One is enough.
- There was, however, criticism that some rules governing a one-person company were restrictive in nature. This year’s Budget has dealt with some of these concerns.
How many OPCs does India have?
- According to data compiled by the Monthly Information Bulletin on Corporate Sector, there were 34,235 OPCs out of a total number of about 1.3 million active companies in India (Dec 2020).
- Data also show that more than half of the OPCs are in business services.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Hope Mission
Mains level: Mars mission worldwide and their success
The first Arab interplanetary mission is expected to reach Mars’ orbit on February 9 in what is considered the most critical part of the journey to unravel the secrets of weather on the Red Planet.
Try this question from CSP 2014:
Q.Which of the following pair is/are correctly matched?
| Spacecraft |
Purpose |
| 1. Cassini-Huygens |
Orbiting the Venus and transmitting data to the Earth |
| 2. Messenger |
Mapping and investigating the Mercury |
| 3. Voyager 1 and 2 |
Exploring the outer solar system |
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
a) 1 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only
d) 1, 2 and 3
Hope Mission
- The Emirates Mars Mission called “Hope” was announced in 2015 with the aim of creating mankind’s first integrated model of the Red planet’s atmosphere.
- Hope weighs over 1500 kg and will carry scientific instruments mounted on one side of the spacecraft, including the Emirates exploration Imager (EXI), which is a high-resolution camera among others.
- The spacecraft will orbit Mars to study the Martian atmosphere and its interaction with outer space and solar winds.
- Hope will collect data on Martian climate dynamics, which should help scientists understand why Mars’ atmosphere is decaying into space.
Objectives of the mission
- Once it launches, Hope will orbit Mars for around 200 days, after which it will enter the Red planet’s orbit by 2021, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the founding of UAE.
- The mission is being executed by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, UAE’s space agency.
- It will help answer key questions about the global Martian atmosphere and the loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases into space over the span of one Martian year.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Trans fats
Mains level: Health threats posed by Trans Fats
The FSSAI has amended its rules to put a cap on trans fatty acids (TFAs) in food products just weeks after it tightened the norms for oils and fats.
What are the new rules?
- Food products in which edible oils and fats are used as an ingredient shall not contain industrial Trans fatty acids more than 2% by mass of the total oils/fats present in the product, on and from 1st January 2022.
- In December, the FSSAI had capped TFAs in oils and fats to 3% by 2021, and 2% by 2022 from the current levels of 5%.
- The 2% cap is considered to be the elimination of trans fatty acids, which is to be achieved by 2022.
What are Trans Fats?
- Trans fatty acids are created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid, increase the shelf life of food items and for use as an adulterant as they are cheap.
- They are present in baked, fried and processed foods as well as adulterated ghee which becomes solid at room temperature.
- They are the most harmful form of fats as they clog arteries and cause hypertension, heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases.
Why need such regulation?
- As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately 5.4 lakh deaths take place each year globally because of intake of industrially-produced trans-fatty acids.
- The WHO has called for the elimination of industrially-produced trans-fatty acids from the global food supply by 2023.
- The latest FSSAI rules signal the completion of the process of regulating trans fats in India.
- The move will make a big difference in the health harm caused by this unwanted ingredient.
- This allows FSSAI and the State-level food safety machinery to focus on implementation and enforcement of the WHO recommendations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Types of fiscal deficits
Mains level: Paper 3- Key feature of the Budget
The article highlights the three key feature of the Budget which makes it historic.
1) Disinvestment
- Budget 2021-22 will begin the process of the withdrawal of the state from business.
- Bank nationalisation in 1969 signalled a new era — just more than 50 years later, India has changed course for the better.
- The budget signals that the process towards the goal of greater economic freedom, and faster and more equitable economic development, and maturity, has well and truly begun.
2) Changed role of fiscal deficit in economic policy
- Many of us forgot the original meaning of fiscal deficits and their importance.
- When there is an unemployment, a considerable portion of deficit financing can go towards growth, rather than inflation.
- The relegation of the fiscal deficit to a secondary role in economic policy was the second big departure from a conventional budget.
- The conventional argument was that fiscal deficit was something to really worry about, hence taxes must be raised to keep the deficit within limits.
- There was serious talk of a COVID cess, a wealth tax, and increase in the tax rate for the rich.
- There is no increase in tax rates to increases tax revenue.
- Rather, the finance minister took the extra-bold step of reducing corporate taxes in September 2019.
- India awaits a comprehensive reform of the Direct Tax Code. It did not happen. But the stage is set for such a reform.
3) Transparency in fiscal math
- If the government borrows from the Food Corporation of India (to finance MSP purchases, what else), it will now appear as part of expenditures and as part of the deficit.
- Also, the GDP growth estimates for 2021-22, forecasted at 14.5 per cent (nominal).
- Normally, finance ministers in India tend to over-estimate, and most often, fall short.
- Budget 2021-22 might be the first to significantly exceed the forecasts.
Criticism of the budget
- One of the issues with the budget cited by the critics is that its forecasts would be in error because of problems of “execution and implementation”.
Conclusion
With many firsts, it is a budget that lays the foundation for sustainable recovery in GDP growth and welfare improvement.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NAIP
Mains level: Paper 3- Use of technology to increase milk production in India
The article highlights the issues facing the dairy sector and explains the utility of IVF technology for crossbreeding.
Importance of dairy sector
- The dairy sector assumes significance on account two reasons:
- 1) It has to do with the socio-cultural affinity towards cows and dairy products in large parts of the country.
- 2) As an industry, it employs more than 70 million farmers.
- Need of the hour is for us to identify ways in which we can enhance the return on investment for our farmers.
India’s journey from milk deficit country to one of surplus
- Initiated in 1970, Operation Flood transformed India into one of the largest milk producers.
- The per capita availability of milk in 2018-19 was 394 grams per day as against the world average of 302 grams.
- Today with an annual production of 187.75 million tonnes India accounts for about 22% of the world’s milk production.
- However, India is yet to join the ranks of major milk exporting nations, as much of what we produce is directed towards meeting domestic demands.
Making India milk exporting nation
- Indigenous cows produce 3.01kgs of milk per cow per day, while the yield of exotic crossbred cows is 7.95kgs.
- Crossbreeding has taken off in a big way because of the advancements in reproductive technologies like In vitro fertilization (IVF), embryo transfer process, and artificial insemination.
- Out of these processes, IVF and artificial insemination have proven to be the most popular and effective methods.
- The NAIP (Nationwide Artificial Insemination Programme) Phase-I was launched in September 2019.
- Every animal in the programme was assigned a 12-digit unique identification number under the Pashu Aadhar scheme.
- NAIP Phase-II was initiated on 1 August 2020 with an allocation of ₹1,090 crore in 604 districts covering 50,000 animals per district and is on track to be completed by the 31 May 2021.
- Under the programme, 9.06 crore artificial inseminations will be performed and is expected to lead to the birth of 1.5 crore high yielding female calves.
- Consequently, 18 million tonnes of additional milk will be produced as average productivity will be enhanced from 1,861kg per animal per year to 3,000kg per animal per year.
- Artificial insemination (AI) technology has been the most used method in India, but its success hinges upon accuracy in heat detection and timely insemination.
- And this is where In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technology will prove to be more effective.
Conclusion
In keeping with our ethos of ‘Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan’ the marriage of rural farming with the latest innovations in technology will usher in unprecedented transformation in our dairy industry.
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