Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Shigmo Festival
Mains level: NA
The Shigmo or the Goan Carnival celebrations may be terminated this year due to rising covid cases.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2017:
Q.Consider the following pairs:
Traditions Communities
- Chaliha Sahib Festival — Sindhis
- Nanda Raj Jaat Yatra — Gonds
- Wari-Warkari — Santhals
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) None of the above
What is Shigmo or Shigmotsav?
- Shigmo is the celebration of a ‘rich, golden harvest of paddy’ by the tribal communities of Goa.
- Agricultural communities including the Kunbis, Gawdas and Velips celebrate the festival that also marks the onset of spring.
- Shigmo celebrations last over a fortnight in the months of Phalgun-Chaitra months of the Hindu calendar that correspond with March-April every year.
Various activities in celebrations
- The festival begins with ‘Naman’ that is the invocation of the local folk deities on the village ‘maand’ or the village stage.
- It is held to the beats of percussion instruments like the Ghumat, Dhol, Mhadle and Tashe by the male folk.
- This is called the ‘romta mell’ that moves from one village to another.
- The celebration is replete with traditional, colourful costumes, mythological installations, painted faces and costumes of various hues.
- Folk dances like Ghodemodini (a dance of equestrian warriors), Gopha and Phugadi are among the many dances performed by the participating communities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-Taiwan ties
25 years of friendship
- India and Taiwan are celebrating 25 years of their partnership.
- Mutual efforts between Delhi and Taipei have enabled a range of bilateral agreements covering agriculture, investment, customs cooperation, civil aviation, industrial cooperation and other areas.
- This growing relationship indicates that the time has come to recalibrate India-Taiwan relations.
Recalibrating relationship
1) Creating political framework
- Both partners have increasingly deepened mutual respect underpinned by openness, with democracy and diversity as the key principles for collective growth.
- To make this relationship more meaningful, both sides can create a group of empowered persons or a task force to chart out a road map in a given time frame.
2) Cooperation in healthcare
- Taiwan’s handling of the pandemic and its support to many other countries underlines the need to deepen healthcare cooperation.
- India and Taiwan already collaborate in the area of traditional medicine.
- The time is ripe to expand cooperation in the field of healthcare.
3) Bio-friendly technologies
- Stubble burning and an associated decline in air quality has become a challenge for Indian government.
- Taiwan could be a valuable partner in dealing with this challenge through its bio-friendly technologies.
- Such technologies convert agricultural waste into value-added and environmentally beneficial renewable energy or biochemicals.
- This will be a win-win situation as it will help in dealing with air pollution and also enhance farmers’ income.
- Further, New Delhi and Taipei can also undertake joint research and development initiatives in the field of organic farming.
4) Cultural exchange
- India and Taiwan need to deepen people-to-people connect.
- Cultural exchange is the cornerstone of any civilisational exchange.
- However, Taiwanese tourists in India are a very small number.
- The Buddhist pilgrimage tour needs better connectivity and visibility, in addition to showcasing incredible India’s diversity. .
- With the Taiwan Tourism Bureau partnering with Mumbai Metro, Taiwan is trying to raise awareness about the country and increase the inflow of Indian tourists.
5) Deepening economic ties
- India’s huge market provides Taiwan with investment opportunities.
- The signing of a bilateral trade agreement in 2018 was an important milestone.
- Taiwan’s reputation as the world leader in semiconductor and electronics complements India’s leadership in ITES (Information Technology-Enabled Services).
- This convergence of interests will help create new opportunities.
- Despite the huge potential, Taiwan investments have been paltry in India.
- Taiwanese firms find the regulatory and labour regime daunting.
Consider the question “Though mutual efforts between Delhi and Taipei have enabled a range of bilateral agreements, the time has come to recalibrate India-Taiwan relations” In light of this, discuss the ways in which the two countries can deepen bilateral relations and increase cooperation.
Conclusion
The two countries have much to cooperate and build the relationship on. What is needed is the political will to recalibrate the relationship.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Provision of MTP Act
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with the MTP bill
The article highlights key changes the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks to make in the 1971 Act and also deals with the issues with some of these changes.
Key changes
- The 1971 Act had moral biases against sexual relationships outside marriage, adopts an ableist approach and carries a strong eugenic emphasis.
- In addition to preventing danger to the life or risk to physical or mental health of the woman, “eugenic grounds” were recognised as a specific category for legally permissible abortions.
- To deal with these issues the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed by the parliament.
- The bill is being hailed for two reasons:
- First, the bill replaces “any married woman or her husband” with “any woman or her partner” while contemplating termination of pregnancies resulting from contraception failures, thus ostensibly destigmatising pregnancies outside marriage.
- Second, the time limit within which pregnancies are legally terminable is increased.
Issues with the Bill
1) Scope for executive overreach
- The bill raises the upper gestational limits for the two categories of permissible abortions envisioned in Section 3(2) of the 1971 Act.
- Limit for the first category in which pregnancies are terminable subject to the opinion of one medical practitioner is raised from 12 weeks to 20 weeks.
- The limit for the second category in which pregnancies are terminable subject to the opinion of two medical practitioners is raised to include those exceeding 20 but not exceeding 24 weeks, instead of the present category of cases exceeding 12 but not exceeding 20 weeks.
- However, the second category is left ambiguous and open to potential executive overreach insofar as it may be further narrowed down by rules made by the executive.
2) Rejection of the bodily autonomy of women
- Pregnancies are allowed to be terminated only where:
- 1) Continuance of the pregnancy would “prejudice the life of the pregnant woman.
- 2) Or cause grave injury to her mental or physical health”
- 3) Or “if the child were born it would suffer from any serious physical or mental abnormality.”
- As such, the bill seeks to cater to women “who need to terminate pregnancy” as against “women who want to terminate pregnancy.”
- By not accounting for the right to abortion at will the Bill effectively cripples women’s bodily autonomy.
3) Ableist approach
- A woman’s right to terminate the pregnancy of a child likely to suffer from physical or mental anomalies or one diagnosed with foetal abnormalities, on socio-economic grounds or otherwise, merits recognition.
- However, in treating “physical or mental disability” or “foetal abnormalities” as separate categories amounting to heightened circumstances for termination of pregnancies, the bill reveals its ableist approach.
- This evidences a presumption that certain people are by default societally unproductive, undesirable and somehow more justifiably eliminable than others.
- This ableism becomes stark when the said 24-week limit, which is purportedly dictated by scientific and legislative wisdom, is completely lifted where the termination of a pregnancy involves “substantial foetal abnormalities”.
4) Dichotomy in allowing termination beyond 24 weeks
- When read together with Section 3(2B) of the bill, a strange dichotomy emerges:
- 1) It is either the case that medical advancement is such that a safe abortion is possible at any point in the term of pregnancy, and hence, the bill allows it in case of “substantial foetal abnormalities” .
- Or that, a 24-week ceiling is scientifically essential and abortions beyond the said limit would pose risks to the health of the pregnant woman or the foetus.
- If it is the former, then allowing termination only in cases of “substantial foetal abnormalities” is a fictitious and moralistic classification.
- If it is the latter, then the secondary status of women’s safety and the dominant eugenic tenor of the bill once again becomes evident.
Need to sensitise healthcare provider
- Access to abortion facilities is limited not just by legislative barriers but also the fear of judgment from medical practitioners.
- It is imperative that healthcare providers be sensitised towards being scientific, objective and compassionate in their approach to abortions notwithstanding the woman’s marital status.
Consider the question “What are the changes the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks to make in the 1971 Act. Discuss the issues with the changed provision in the Act.
Conclusion
In KS Puttaswamy v Union of India, the Supreme Court recognised women’s constitutional right to “abstain from procreating” was read into the right to privacy, dignity and bodily autonomy. The MTPA Bill falls short of meeting this constitutional standard and its own stated objectives.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- How Atmanirbhar Bharat policies can help in post-covid recovery
The article highlights how Atmanirbhar Bharat policies can play important role in India’s post-pandemic recovery.
Decline of trade-led catch-up growth
- The Asian Development Bank identifies India as an outlier, with the country’s GDP growth likely to range between eight and 10 per cent — as against 7.7 per cent for China and seven per cent for the Asian region.
- The convergence between the rich and poor countries in the 1990s and 2000s was founded on high relative growth rates driven by globalisation and export-led growth.
- The World Bank and many international think tanks are now projecting a process of de-globalisation, reduction in exports, and reduced service exports from the tourism, travel and hospitality sector in response to COVID.
- So, the phenomenon of trade-led catch-up growth is declining.
How Atmanirbhar Bharat is different from past strategies
- India’s import substituting growth strategy of the 1960s did not succeed because the high protective customs barriers led to the growth of non-competitive industries.
- The current Atmanirbhar Bharat project is different because tariffs are low and public investment is focused on non-tradable infrastructure rather than commodity production.
1) Atmanirbhar in heath: Atmirbhar Swasth Bharat
- Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat is a domestic non-trade dependent initiative which will invest over Rs 64,000 crore in setting up 17,800 rural and 11,000 urban health and wellness centres and 602 critical care hospitals in the country’s districts.
- Today India has 29 health workers per 10,000 population, while we need 60 such professionals per 10,000 people, as per WHO norms.
- Creating such a cadre will mean nearly four million new jobs, which can be self-paying.
2) Infrastructure
- China and emerging markets like Russia and Brazil have a fairly advanced transport and energy infrastructure.
- India has a huge potential to renew its railways and highways and shift to solar energy from its current dependence on coal.
- In fact, the country’s long-neglected fourth largest rail network in the world is undergoing rapid transformation.
- While rail track coverage expanded by 5,000 km during 2010 to 2014-15, nearly 7,000 km of tracks were added between 2015 and 2020.
- The Railways now aim to lay 9.5 km of track daily and have raised adequate capital for the same by leveraging domestic insurance funds.
- Railways are also aiming for 100 per cent electrification and zero carbon footprint by 2024.
- Electrified track has doubled from 20,000 km in 2012/13 to nearly 40,000 km in 2020.
- The Centre’s decision to invest heavily in urban mass transit systems since 2014 has led to the rapid expansion of such services.
- The resolution of financial problems of blocked PPP projects and smooth land acquisition process has increased the pace of construction of national highways.
- Pace of construction of the national highway increased from 3,330 km per year during 2009-20014 to nearly 9,450 km in 2020-21.
3) Renewable energy
- Today over 55 per cent of India’s energy comes from coal but the share of renewable has been steadly increasing.
- Starting with only 10 MW of solar power in 2010, India has installed nearly 35 GW of solar power by 2020.
- This has been propelled by economic reforms which drove solar power prices down from Rs 17 per unit in 2010 to Rs 2.44 per unit in 2020.
- The target of reaching 100 GW by 2022 can drive growth further.
- Currently nearly 25 per cent of India’s electricity is used for pumping underground water for irrigation.
- Providing irrigation energy from decentralised solar grids — solar power can be generated at the points on consumption.
- This will reduce huge transmission losses and the associated carbon footprint of non-renewable energy sources.
4) Privatising public sector outfits
- The Centre’s shift towards privatising public sector outfits including banks, insurance companies and other PSUs can fund the growth of rail, road and energy infrastructure.
- This will also foster efficiency in India’s credit system.
- China achieved supernormal growth in infrastructure without access to international financing in the initial decades.
- Recent studies have revealed that China’s financial decentralisation and commercial exploitation of state-owned lands was critical for the success.
- In India, too, regional development authorities like the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority and Maharashtra Industries Development Corporation have financed the metro, trans-harbour links and industrial infrastructure through a similar commercial land allocation model.
- This model can be extended throughout the country to finance infrastructure expansion.
Consider the question “How Atmanirbhar Bharat policies differ from the past import-substituting growth strategy? Examine the role Atmanirbhar Bharat can play in the post-pandemic recovery?”
Conclusion
In such a way, Atmanirbharta with its various facets will pave the road of post-pandemic recovery.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Uighurs
Mains level: Uighur's genocide by PRC
In a coordinated move, many countries imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for human rights abuses against Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang province.
The Uighurs
- Xinjiang has a large number of Uighurs, Muslims of Turkic descent.
- Over the past few decades, more and more Han Chinese has settled in Xinjiang, which saw violent clashes between them and the Uighurs.
The sanctions have come after a meeting between the US and Chinese officials in Alaska last week, in what Washington described as “tough and direct talks”.
This was a “Tu-Tu, Mai-Mai” conservation if you had seen the news!
Sanctions on China
- The European Union, the US, Britain, and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese Officials.
- Australia and New Zealand issued a joint statement welcoming the Western action, adding they were concerned about reports of abuses from Xinjiang.
- China on the other hand has consistently denied all reports of atrocities against Uighurs, maintaining it is only “deradicalising” elements of its population in the interests of security.
Retaliation by China
- Those sanctioned by China include five Members of the European Parliament and the Political and Security Committee, the EU’s main foreign policy decision-making body, among others.
- China also summoned the EU ambassador and the UK ambassador to lodge “solemn protests”.
Why these sanctions are crucial?
- This is the first time the EU has imposed sanctions on China since an arms embargo after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. That is still in place.
- Although the EU sanctions are not very damaging, they show a hardening of stance against its largest trading partner.
- Also significant is that the Western powers moved together, in what is being seen as a result of the US push to deal with China along with its allies.
Nations that claim to be defenders of the faith or self-proclaimed Caliphates are silent on the persecution of Uighurs! They perceived the abrogation of Art. 370 as a doomsday event! This is height of hypocrisy!
Reasons behind: Crackdown on Uighurs
- China is accused of putting over a million people in internment camps to “de-Muslimise” them and make them integrate better in the Communist country.
- Allegations are that these people have been forced to leave behind their occupations, properties and families, to stay at the camps.
- Survivors, human rights organisations, and governments of other countries have alleged physical, psychological and sexual torture.
- People can be sent to the camps for showing any signs of “extremism” — sporting beards, fasting during Ramzan, dressing differently from the majority, sending Eid greetings, praying “too often” etc.
The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture because it seeks to turn other ideas – uncertainty, progress, change – into crimes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Gender sensitization of Judiciary
A judgment by the Supreme Court forbidding judges from making gender-stereotypical comments came as a corrective voice from within the highest judiciary.
Q.Discuss the need for gender sensitization of the judicial institutions.
What is the news?
- The judgment came days after the CJI, during a virtual hearing reportedly asked an alleged rapist’s lawyer to enquire whether his client would marry the survivor.
- His statement coincided with International Women’s Day.
- Days later, a Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and S. Ravindra Bhat urged courts to avoid using reasoning/language which diminished a sexual offence and tended to trivialize the survivor.
What did the Court say?
- The greatest extent of sensitivity is to be displayed in the judicial approach, language and reasoning adopted by the judge.
- Even a solitary instance of such order or utterance in court, reflects adversely on the entire judicial system of the country, undermining the guarantee to fair justice to all, and especially to victims of sexual violence.
- This judgment is one among a series of interventions with which the apex court has clamped down on abuse and sex stereotyping of women.
No institution is mightier than the modesty of a woman.
SC against stereotyping
Some of the notable judgments which have lashed out at sex stereotyping include:
- The framing of the Vishaka Guidelines on sexual harassment of women in working places, and
- Justice D.Y. Chandrachud’s historic judgment giving women Armed Forces officers’ equal access to Permanent Commission while debunking the establishment’s claim that women were physiologically weaker than men
- In the Anuj Garg case, the Supreme Court had rebuked “the notion of romantic paternalism”, which, “in practical effect, put women, not on a pedestal, but in a cage”
Avoid gender stereotypes such as:
The courts should desist from expressing any stereotype opinion, in words spoken during proceedings, or in the course of a judicial order, to the effect that
- women are physically weak and need protection;
- men are the “head” of the household and should take all the decisions relating to family;
- women should be submissive and obedient according to our culture;
- “good” women are sexually chaste;
- motherhood is the duty and role of every woman and assumptions to the effect that she wants to be a mother;
- being alone at night or wearing certain clothes make women responsible for being attacked;
- lack of evidence of physical harm in sexual offence case leads to an inference of consent by the woman.
Conclusion
- Stereotyping compromises the impartiality and integrity of the justice system, which can, in turn, lead to miscarriages of justice, including the re-victimization of complainants.
- Often judges adopt rigid standards about what they consider to be appropriate behaviour for women and penalize those who do not conform to these stereotypes.
There should be gender sensitization
- The court-mandated that a module on gender sensitization is included, as part of the foundational training of every judge.
- This module must aim at imparting techniques for judges to be more sensitive in hearing and deciding cases of sexual assault, and eliminating entrenched social bias, especially misogyny.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Vehicle Scrappage Policy
The much-awaited draft policy on vehicle scrappage is finally out. But the draft policy also misses an opportunity: Of designing the policy as an effective stimulus programme for green recovery in the sector to achieve deeper and quicker air quality benefits.
Background
- The policy outlines the criteria for defining end-of-life vehicles and scrapping them.
- It also makes provision for scrapping facilities for safe disposal of waste and material recovery.
- This is an important step forward towards building infrastructure for organised and scientific scrapping of old vehicles.
The proposal
- This proposed policy seeks to phase out unfit vehicles to reduce vehicular pollution, meet the climate commitments, improve road safety and fuel efficiency, formalize informal vehicle scrapping industry and recover low-cost material for the automotive, steel and electronics industry.
- The policy expects to spin jobs and attract investment as well.
- It is a big positive for supporting a network of well-equipped scrappage facilities with adequate environmental safeguards to stop unsafe dismantling that contaminates the environment.
Must read:
New Vehicle Scrappage Policy
Issues with the policy
(1) Advisory nature
- This policy has only ‘advised’ the state governments and the automobile industry to provide voluntary incentives to the owners of old vehicles.
- The central government has not committed to make it a fiscal stimulus strategy for quicker renewal of ageing, heavy-duty vehicle fleet with BS-VI vehicles — or to link other segments with targeted electrification.
(2) Achieving fleet renewal
- The focus on targeted fleet renewal for maximum emissions gains is still weak.
- The proposed policy puts the entire onus of incentivizing fleet renewal on the state governments.
- They have been advised to waive off a big chunk of road tax and registration fees on replacement vehicles.
- These are important sources of state revenue, and the reaction of the state governments is still not known.
(3) No stimulus
- The more compelling question is whether the central government would consider a centrally supported stimulus programme for post-pandemic green recovery.
- This is the global trend wherein governments have been giving conditional bailouts or tax support linked to emissions targets.
What can be an effective strategy?
(1) Transportation vehicles
- For heavy-duty vehicles, the policy can take a more nuanced approach.
- Consider that some truck owners may want to only dispose of the very old trucks without replacing them. But others may want to scrap and replace the older trucks.
- In that case, a rebate can be given to the owners of end-of-life vehicles who are interested in ‘only scrapping’ the vehicle without immediately replacing them.
- And this rebate can be given based on a scrappage certificate from authorized scrappage centres.
- Old trucks with more economic life left can get a comparatively higher incentive as that will give higher emissions benefits.
(2) Personal vehicles
- For these vehicles, the central incentive can be linked with replacement with electric vehicles.
- This can be added to the normal scrapping of end-of-life vehicles as already proposed in the draft policy. This can maximise air quality gains.
- Personal vehicles are numerous and general public support for their fleet renewal can divert a lion’s share of the allocated budget from the priority heavy-duty segment.
- Therefore, the public support for the personal vehicle segment can be linked only with voluntary electrification.
Build-in manufacturers’ responsibility
- The new policy also needs to align with the mandate for the manufacturers to meet targets for recyclability of material.
- Make this mandatory as part of the scrappage policy.
We have AIS 129
- It is encouraging that the Automotive Industrial Standard-129 (AIS 129) on reuse, recycling and material recovery from vehicles were framed in 2015.
- This requires 80-85 per cent of the material used in vehicle manufacturing by mass to be recoverable/recyclable/reusable at the end of life.
- AIS-129 also restricts the use of heavy metals including lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, etc, and asks for the coding of plastics to inform dismantlers.
- The requirement of recyclability should be extended to 85-95 per cent to maximise material recovery as well as energy recovery from residual waste like used oil, non-recyclable rubber etc.
Way forward
- This first-ever formal scrappage policy in India is urgently needed to help build infrastructure for safe disposal and material recovery to minimise environmental hazards.
- But India would be adopting scrappage policy during these unprecedented pandemic times, so it is necessary to leverage this targeted fleet renewal with well-designed central support for a post-pandemic green deal.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: DFI
Mains level: Key provisions of the bill
Finance Minister has introduced the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) Bill 2021 in the Lok Sabha to pave way for setting up a government-owned DFI to fund infra projects.
NaBFID Bill
- The NaBFID Bill, 2021 was introduced in Lok Sabha on March 22, 2021.
- The Bill seeks to establish the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NBFID) as the principal development financial institution (DFIs) for infrastructure financing.
What are DFIs?
- DFIs are set up for providing long-term finance for such segments of the economy where the risks involved are beyond the acceptable limits of commercial banks and other ordinary financial institutions.
- Unlike banks, DFIs do not accept deposits from people.
- They source funds from the market, government, as well as multi-lateral institutions, and are often supported through government guarantees.
Note every statement about DFIs such as – Terms of finance, Sources of funds, Savings option etc.
Key provisions of the Bill
NBFID:
- NBFID will be set up as a corporate body with an authorised share capital of one lakh crore rupees.
- Shares of NBFID may be held by (i) central government, (ii) multilateral institutions, (iii) sovereign wealth funds, (iv) pension funds, (v) insurers, (vi) financial institutions, (vii) banks, and (viii) any other institution prescribed by the central government.
- Initially, the central government will own 100% shares of the institution which may subsequently be reduced up to 26%.
Functions of NBFID:
- NBFID will have both financial as well as developmental objectives.
- Financial objectives will be to directly or indirectly lend, invest, or attract investments for infrastructure projects located entirely or partly in India.
- The central government will prescribe the sectors to be covered under the infrastructure domain.
- Developmental objectives include facilitating the development of the market for bonds, loans, and derivatives for infrastructure financing.
Functions of NBFID include:
- extending loans and advances for infrastructure projects,
- taking over or refinancing such existing loans,
- attracting investment from private sector investors and institutional investors for infrastructure projects,
- organising and facilitating foreign participation in infrastructure projects,
- facilitating negotiations with various government authorities for dispute resolution in the field of infrastructure financing, and
- providing consultancy services in infrastructure financing
Source of funds:
- NBFID may raise money in the form of loans or otherwise both in Indian rupees and foreign currencies, or secure money by the issue and sale of various financial instruments including bonds and debentures.
- NBFID may borrow money from: (i) central government, (ii) Reserve Bank of India (RBI), (iii) scheduled commercial banks, (iii) mutual funds, and (iv) multilateral institutions such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
Management of NBFID:
- NBFID will be governed by a Board of Directors.
- The members of the Board include: (i) the Chairperson appointed by the central government in consultation with RBI, (ii) a Managing Director, (iii) up to three Deputy Managing Directors among others.
- A body constituted by the central government will recommend candidates for the post of the Managing Director and Deputy Managing Directors.
- The Board will appoint independent directors based on the recommendation of an internal committee.
Support from the central government:
- The central government will provide grants worth Rs 5,000 crore to NBFID by the end of the first financial year.
- The government will also provide a guarantee at a concessional rate of up to 0.1% for borrowing from multilateral institutions, sovereign wealth funds, and other foreign funds.
- Costs towards insulation from fluctuations in foreign exchange (in connection with borrowing in foreign currency) may be reimbursed by the government in part or full.
- Upon request by NBFID, the government may guarantee the bonds, debentures, and loans issued by NBFID.
Prior sanction for investigation and prosecution:
- No investigation can be initiated against employees of NBFID without the prior sanction of (i) the central government in case of the chairperson or other directors, and (ii) the managing director in case of other employees.
- Courts will also require prior sanction for taking cognisance of offences in matters involving employees of NBFID.
Other DFIs:
- The Bill also provides for any person to set up a DFI by applying to RBI.
- RBI may grant a licence for DFI in consultation with the central government.
- RBI will also prescribe regulations for these DFIs.
With inputs from:
PRS India
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indus Waters Treaty, 1960
Mains level: Indus Waters Sharing
After a gap of more than two and a half years, the Indian and Pakistani delegations began the 116th Meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission.
Indus Waters Treaty, 1960
- The Indus Waters Treaty is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, brokered by the World Bank signed in Karachi in 1960.
- According to this agreement, control over the water flowing in three “eastern” rivers of India — the Beas, the Ravi and the Sutlej was given to India
- The control over the water flowing in three “western” rivers of India — the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum was given to Pakistan
- The treaty allowed India to use western rivers water for limited irrigation use and unrestricted use for power generation, domestic, industrial and non-consumptive uses such as navigation, floating of property, fish culture, etc. while laying down precise regulations for India to build projects
- India has also been given the right to generate hydroelectricity through the run of the river (RoR) projects on the Western Rivers which, subject to specific criteria for design and operation is unrestricted.
Based on equitable water-sharing
- Back in time, partitioning the Indus rivers system was inevitable after the Partition of India in 1947.
- The sharing formula devised after prolonged negotiations sliced the Indus system into two halves.
- Equitable it may have seemed, but the fact remained that India conceded 80.52 per cent of the aggregate water flows in the Indus system to Pakistan.
- It also gave Rs 83 crore in pounds sterling to Pakistan to help build replacement canals from the western rivers. Such generosity is unusual of an upper riparian.
- India conceded its upper riparian position on the western rivers for the complete rights on the eastern rivers. Water was critical for India’s development plans.
Significance of the treaty
- It is a treaty that is often cited as an example of the possibilities of peaceful coexistence that exist despite the troubled relationship.
- Well-wishers of the treaty often dub it “uninterrupted and uninterruptible”.
- The World Bank, which, as the third party, played a pivotal role in crafting the IWT, continues to take particular pride that the treaty functions.
Need for a rethink
- The role of India, as a responsible upper riparian abiding by the provisions of the treaty, has been remarkable.
- However, of late, India is under pressure to rethink the extent to which it can remain committed to the provisions, as its overall political relations with Pakistan becomes intractable.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 239AA
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with the Bill to amend Delhi Government-LG relations
The article highlights the issues with the amendment bill introduced by the Centre to clarify the term ‘Government’.
Why Delhi was made Union Territory: Historical background
- When the Constitution came into force, there were four kinds of States, called Parts A,B, C and D States.
- The last two were administered by centrally appointed Chief Commissioners and Lieutenant Governors, with no locally elected Assemblies to aid and advise them.
- First, it was felt that if Delhi became a part of any constituent State of the Union, that State would sooner or later acquire a predominant position in relation to other States.
- Second, the need for keeping the National Capital under the control of the Union Government was deemed to be vital in the national interest.
- Third, it was felt that if Delhi became a full State, the administration of the National Capital would be divided into rigid compartments of the State field and Union field.
- Conflicts would likely arise in vital matters, particularly if the two governments were run by different political parties.
- Hence, Delhi was initially made a Part C State.
- In 1951, a Legislative Assembly was created with an elected Chief Minister.
- In 1956, when the Constitution of India was amended to implement the provisions of the States Reorganisation Act, only two categories, namely, States and Union Territories remained in the Indian Union.
- Delhi then became a Union Territory to be administered by an Administrator appointed by the President.
- Ten years later, the Delhi Administration Act, 1966 provided for a limited representative Government in Delhi through a Metropolitan Council comprising 56 elected Members and five nominated Members.
Balakrishnan Committee report
- In 1989, the Balakrishnan Committee recommended that Delhi should continue to be a Union Territory but that there must be a Legislative Assembly and Council of Ministers responsible to the said Assembly with appropriate powers.
- Based on this report, the Constitution (69th) Amendment Act and the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCT) Act, 1991 were passed.
- They roughly restored the kind of governance system that was offered to Delhi in 1952: a Union Territory with a Legislative Assembly, a Council of Ministers and an elected Chief Minister.
- This limited reincarnation has continued to hold the field to date, despite several efforts to progress to full or near-statehood.
LG-Delhi Government conflict
- A Bench in 2018 ruled over the conflict and said that Parliament envisaged a representative form of Government for the NCT of Delhi.
- The Bench also said that the Constitution has mandated a federal balance wherein independence of a certain required degree is assured to the State Governments.
- The remaining issues of governance, especially in the matter of control over Delhi government servants, was remitted to two judges of the Court for further adjudication.
- In 2019, there was a difference of opinion recorded in separate judgments by the two judges and the matter awaits hearing before a larger Bench.
Issues with the Amendment Bill
- The central government recently introduced a Bill, namely, the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks, inter alia, to clarify the expression ‘Government’ in 2018 Supreme Court judgement.
- The Bill effectively reduces the elected government to a mere vestigial organ and elevates the centrally appointed LG, to the position of a Viceroy with plenipotentiary powers.
- It further provides that before taking any executive action to exercise powers of Government, the opinion of Lieutenant Governor shall be obtained on all such matters as may be specified by Lieutenant Governor.
- The population of Delhi which counts among the highest in the world, will have an unrepresentative administration.
- It is quite likely that the amendment act will end up being challenged in the constitutional courts.
- The Supreme Court has already cautioned — “Interpretation cannot ignore the conscience of the Constitution.“
Consider the question “Examine the issues with Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021. Do you think that the Bill will avoid the conflict between the LG and the Delhi government?”
Conclusion
The Amendment Bill should be reconsidered given its impact on the administration of the Delhi government.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bad bank
Mains level: Paper 3- Advantages of bad bank
The article explains the important role bad bank can play in cleaning up the balance sheets of the banks.
How India banks dealt successfully with pandemic
- Indian banks were written off in the early days of the pandemic due to expectations of an exponential jump in non-performing assets.
- Only after the banks consistently talked about the lower number of restructuring requests, and the higher provision coverage ratios that the markets began to get convinced.
- What finally turned the corner were the budget announcements related to the financial sector
- There are several reasons for this good performance by the banks.
- First, banks in India and globally were much better capitalised prior to the pandemic.
- Second, Indian banks had built up a sizeable buffer to provide for bad assets negating any surprise on balance sheets during and even after the pandemic.
- Third, independent research shows that as the size of the middle class grows to about two-thirds of Asian households.
- Banks in Asia, including in India, have begun to adjust for this steady growth in the size of pie by experimenting with new business models, rationalising costs and providing faster and superior customer digital experience, as was clear during pandemic.
- Fourth, Indian banks and the RBI brought about financial discipline much before the pandemic.
Creation of Bad Bank
- The budget this year has the provision for reation of a bad bank.
- The proposed structure envisages setting up of a National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARC) to acquire stressed assets in an aggregated manner from lenders, which will be resolved by the National Asset Management Company (NAMC).
- A skilled and professional set-up dedicated for Stressed Asset Resolution will be ably supported by attracting institutional funding in stressed assets through strategic investors, AIFs, special situation funds, stressed asset funds, etc for participation in the resolution process.
- The net effect of this approach would be to build an open architecture and a vibrant market for stressed assets.
How it will work
- Banks may first transfer those assets to the proposed bad bank with a 100 per cent provision on its book and then based on the experience they will decide on transferring assets with less than 100 per cent provisioning at a later date.
- It is also being speculated that of the total amounts recovered, a specified percentage will be in the form of security receipts.
- These receipts will reside in the bank balance sheets, but will carry a zero-risk weight, with full government guarantees for a specified period of time.
How it will benefit the banks
- The benefits of this process includes the recovered value, and significant lending leverage because of three factors:
- One, capital being freed up from less than fully provisioned bad assets.
- Two, capital freed up from security receipts because of a sovereign guarantee.
- Three, cash receipts that come back to the banks and can be leveraged for lending, also freeing up provisions from the balance sheet.
- There are several international success stories of a bad bank accomplishing its mission and there is no reason to believe why India cannot accomplish its objective.
- The current Indian approach will drive consolidation of stressed assets under the AMC for better and faster decision making.
- This will free up management bandwidth of banks enabling them to focus on credit growth, leading to an enhancement in their valuations.
- Governance of the AMC and its independence is central to its successful functioning, there are multiple suggestions to make.
- These include keeping majority ownership in the private sector, putting together a strong and independent board, a professional team, and linking AMC compensation to returns delivered to investors.
Consider the question “What is a bad bank? How its creation could help the banking sector?”
Conclusion
The creation of a bad bank will help the banking sector contribute more in the growth of the country
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Lessons to improve India-Pakistan relations
There is a sharp contrast between India’s relations with its neighbours two neighbours: Pakistan and Bangladesh. The article suggest drawing on the lessons from Indo-Bangladesh relations to mend Indo-Pak relations.
Indo-Bangladesh relations
- Prime Minister of India will travel to Dhaka this week to commemorate Bangladesh’s Declaration of Independence from Pakistan 50 years ago.
- From being one of the world’s poorest countries in 1972, Bangladesh is now racing to be in the world’s top 25 economies by the end of this decade.
- It is also a time for deeper reflection — on the inability of the region to come to a closure on the two Partitions of the subcontinent, the first in 1947 and the second in 1971.
- Delhi and Dhaka have started finding ways to overcome the tragedy of the Partition to chart a new course of bilateral and regional cooperation.
- Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has provided strong leadership in advancing ties with India over the last decade and more.
- Recently the Indian government mobilised enough political support to get a boundary settlement agreement with Bangladesh approved by the Parliament.
- India also backed an international tribunal’s award resolving the maritime territorial dispute with Bangladesh.
- The steady improvement in bilateral relations over the last decade has reflected in growing trade volumes, expanding trans-border connectivity, mutual cooperation on terrorism, and widening regional cooperation.
Applying lessons from Indo-Bangladesh relations to Indo-Pak relations
- Positive changes in India’s relations with Pakistan have been elusive.
- Hopes have been rekindled by the agreement late last month between the two military establishments to a ceasefire on the border and to address each other’s concerns.
- Following are the lessons we can learn and apply productively to Indo-Pak relations
1) Importance of political stability
- First lesson is the importance of political stability and policy continuity that have helped Delhi and Dhaka deepen bilateral ties over the last decade.
- In contrast, the political cycles in Delhi and Islamabad have rarely been in sync.
- Pakistan’s mainstream civilian leaders have all supported engagement with India.
- In fact, it is the military that is yet to make up its collective mind.
2) Concerns for mutual security
- Cooperation in countering terrorism built deep mutual trust between Dhaka and Delhi.
- That trust helped deal with many complex issues facing the relationship.
- In the case of Pakistan, its army has sought to use cross-border terrorism as a political lever to compel India to negotiate on Kashmir.
- If sponsoring terror seemed a smart strategy in the past, it has now become the source of international political and economic pressure on Pakistan.
3) Depoliticise national economic interests
- Delhi and Dhaka have steadily moved forward on issues relating to trade, transit and connectivity by dealing with them on their own specific merits.
- Pakistan, on the other hand, has made sensible bilateral commercial cooperation and regional economic integration hostages to the Kashmir question.
- It is not clear if Pakistan is ready to separate the two and expand trade ties while talking to India on Kashmir.
Consider the question “The steady improvement in bilateral relations with Bangladesh over the last decade can offer valuable lessons to be applied to India-Pakistan relations. In light of this, examine the factors that India and Pakistan need to focus on to achieve improvement in bilateral relations.”
Conclusion
Both India and Pakistan need to recognise the importance of pursuing the national well being through regional cooperation. That is exactly what Bangladesh has done in the last decade.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ken-Betwa Linking Project
Mains level: River interlinking
In the presence of PM and Jal Shakti Minister, the CMs of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have signed an agreement to implement the Ken Betwa Link Project (KBLP).
Must read:
Interlinking of rivers: Significance & Challenges
What is the Ken Betwa Link Project?
- The Ken-Betwa Link Project is the first project under the National Perspective Plan for the interlinking of rivers.
- Under this project, water from the Ken River will be transferred to the Betwa river. Both these rivers are tributaries of the river Yamuna.
- The project is expected to provide annual irrigation of 10.62 lakh hectares, drinking water supply to about 62 lakh people and also generate 103 MW of hydropower.
The Project has two phases:
- Under Phase-I, one of the components — Daudhan dam complex and its appurtenances like Low Level Tunnel, High Level Tunnel, Ken-Betwa link canal and Power houses — will be completed.
- While in the Phase-II, three components — Lower Orr dam, Bina complex project and Kotha barrage — will be constructed.
Regions benefitting from KBLP
- The project lies in Bundelkhand, a drought-prone region, which spreads across 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
- It will be of immense benefit to the water-starved region of Bundelkhand, especially in the districts of Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Sagar, Damoh, Datia, Vidisha, Shivpuri and Raisen of Madhya Pradesh and Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi and Lalitpur of Uttar Pradesh.
- It will pave the way for more interlinking of river projects to ensure that scarcity of water does not become an inhibitor to development in the country.
What about the Panna tiger reserve?
- Out of the 6,017 ha of forest area coming under submergence of Daudhan dam of Ken Betwa Link Project, 4,206 ha of the area lies within the core tiger habitat of Panna Tiger Reserve.
Previous examples of river-linking
- In the past, several river linking projects have been taken up. For instance, under the Periyar Project, the transfer of water from the Periyar basin to the Vaigai basin was envisaged.
- It was commissioned in 1895.
- Similarly, other projects such as Parambikulam Aliyar, Kurnool Cudappah Canal, Telugu Ganga Project, and Ravi-Beas-Sutlej were undertaken.
Recent developments on the interlinking of rivers in India
- In the 1970s, the idea of transferring surplus water from a river to a water-deficit area was mooted by the then Union Irrigation Minister Dr K L Rao.
- Rao, who himself was an engineer, suggested the construction of a National Water Grid for transferring water from water-rich areas to water-deficit areas.
- Similarly, Captain Dinshaw J Dastur proposed the Garland Canal to redistribute water from one area to another.
- However, the government did not pursue these two ideas further.
The National Perspective Plan
- It was in August, 1980 that the Ministry of Irrigation prepared a National Perspective Plan (NNP) for water resources development envisaging inter-basin water transfer in the country.
- The NPP comprised two components: (i) Himalayan Rivers Development; and (ii) Peninsular Rivers Development.
- Based on the NPP, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) identified 30 river links—16 under the Peninsular component and 14 under the Himalayan Component.
- Later, the river linking idea was revived under the then Vajpayee Government.
Ken Betwa Link Project is one of the 16 river linking projects under the Peninsular component.
Clearances required for a river-linking project
- Generally, 4-5 types of clearances are required for the interlinking of river projects.
- These are Techno-economic (given by the Central Water Commission); Forest Clearance and Environmental clearance (Ministry of Environment & Forests); Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) Plan of Tribal Population (Ministry of Tribal Affairs) and Wildlife clearance (Central Empowered Committee).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Chin ethnic community
Mains level: Myanmar coup and its impact on India
Mizoram CM has expressed his sympathies for the people fleeing areas bordering Mizoram. These areas are inhabited by Chin communities who are ethnically Mizo.
Map reading: Note all NE states bordering Myanmar.
Who are the Chin communities?
- The Chin Hills, or the Indo-Chin hill ranges as they are often called, are a mountainous region in north-western Myanmar.
- At an elevation of 2100-3000 metres, this heavily- forested mountain region was the home of numerous tribes that fall under the Zo umbrella.
- The Zo people include all the tribes that come under the Chin-Kuki-Mizo ethnic group spread across Myanmar, India and Bangladesh.
- They include a host of tribes, sub-tribes and clans such as Chin, Kuki, Mizo, Zomi, Paitei, Hmar, Lushei, Ralte, Pawi, Lai, Mara, Gangte, Thadou etc.
Their ethnic origin
- Believed to have originated in China, the tribes migrated through Tibet to settle in Myanmar, and speak a group of the Tibeto-Burman languages.
- But constant feuds among clans of different tribes and their kings (chieftains), drove many of the clans westwards, towards Mizoram and some parts of Manipur, in the 17th century.
- Here the tribes set up new villages and colonies, but even with their new identities, they remain socially and emotionally tied with the Chin tribes of Myanmar.
- When British rule extended towards the Northeast, Mizoram was denoted an “excluded area” and remained outside the administration of the British, governed only by the Scheduled District Act.
Nature of the bond with Mizos
- While they are separated by a 510-km India-Myanmar border, they consider themselves “one people’’ despite past conflicts: the Indo-Chin people.
- Besides the shared ethnicity, what binds these two peoples together is a shared religion.
- Mizoram is predominantly Christian, as are the Chin people of Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
- Mizoram officials refer to the refugees’ status as a Christian minority people in seeking asylum for them, and also the fear of persecution by the junta.
- Rih Dil in Chin state, Myanmar, is a cultural and spiritual lake for the Mizos, deeply revered in folklore, shaping pre-Christian belief of traditional Mizo views of life after death.
How well are the two sides connected?
India’s Look East, Act East policy and greater interactions on the border have strengthened an already strong connection between the people on either side of the border.
- The Mizoram-Myanmar border is porous, with very little fencing, if any.
- While the latest influx has been driven by the coup, Myanmar residents have been crossing this open border for decades.
- It is understood that the actual number of refugees is much higher, with more arriving every day.
- In the early 20th century, Mizos from Champhai district and elsewhere migrated to Myanmar, setting up villages in the Kalay-Kabaw valley.
- Many are believed to have joined the Myanmar army for lucrative employment.
- Many Mizo families also migrated to Myanmar in 1966 and 1986, when the Mizo National Front sought secession from India, to escape counter-insurgency operations from the Indian government.
The Free Movement Regime
- The Mizo social fabric spans across the border, which now separates families.
- The two countries have an arrangement called the Free Movement Regime (FMR) that allows locals on either side to go up to 16 km on the other side and stay up to 14 days.
- Thousands regularly cross over on either side for work and to meet relatives, often unofficially and for extended periods.
- Marriages are often arranged across the border.
Trade dependency on Myanmar
- In border trade, Mizoram depends to a large extent on Myanmar for many essential commodities including beef, pork, good quality rice, fruits, and household utensils.
- Mizoram sends across items scarce in Myanmar such as medicines or fertilisers.
What is India’s policy on asylum seekers?
- India is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention and 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, and it does not currently have a national law on refugees.
- In 2011, the Centre circulated to all states and UTs a Standard Operating Procedure to deal with foreign nationals who claimed to be refugees.
- An illegal immigrant can be a foreign national who enters India on valid travel documents and stays beyond their validity or a foreign national who enters without valid travel documents.
- Cases can be justified on grounds of well-founded fears of persecution on account of race, religion, sex, nationality, ethnic identity, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
- They can be recommended by states or UTs to the Home Ministry for a long-term visa (LTV) after due security verification.
Note: LTV-holders are allowed to take up private-sector employment and enrol in any academic institution.
What is happening in Mizoram right now?
- The Mizo Zirlai Pawl, the apex Mizo students body, on February 3 held a sit-in demonstration in Aizawl in solidarity with the people of Myanmar.
- Several Mizo village council authorities have issued letters and statements affirming their willingness to accommodate Chin refugees.
- The CM gave an assurance in the Assembly that the state government would be ready to provide assistance to civilians fleeing the Myanmar regime.
Way ahead
- With the swell of sympathy among Mizos for the fleeing Chin people and increasing pressure on the state government, it is unlikely that Mizoram will back down any time soon — unless the Centre devises a way out.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RODTEP Scheme
Mains level: Not Much
The notification of benefit rates payable to exporters under the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RODTEP) scheme is expected to take more time as it is facing ‘teething issues’.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Among the following, which one is the largest exporter of rice in the world in the last five years? (CSP 2019)
(a) China
(b) India
(c) Myanmar
(d) Vietnam
RODTEP Scheme
- RoDTEP is a scheme for Exporters to make Indian products cost-competitive and create a level playing field for them in the Global Market.
- It has replaced the current Merchandise Exports from India Scheme, which is not in compliance with WTO norms and rules.
- The new RoDTEP Scheme is a fully WTO compliant scheme.
- It will reimburse all the taxes/duties/levies being charged at the Central/State/Local level which are not currently refunded under any of the existing schemes but are incurred at the manufacturing and distribution process.
Why need such a scheme?
- The scheme was announced last year as a replacement for the Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS), which was not found not to be compliant with the rules of the World Trade Organisation.
- Following a complaint by the US, a dispute settlement panel had ruled against India’s use of MEIS as it had found the duty credit scrips awarded under the scheme to be inconsistent with WTO norms.
Back2Basics: Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS)
- MEIS was launched with an objective to enhance the export of notified goods manufactured in a country.
- This scheme came into effect on 1 April 2015 through the Foreign Trade Policy and will be in existence till 2020.
- MEIS intended to incentivize exports of goods manufactured in India or produced in India.
- The incentives were for goods widely exported from India, industries producing or manufacturing such goods with a view to making Indian exports competitive.
- The MEIS covered almost 5000 goods notified for the purpose of the scheme.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gandhi Peace Prize
Mains level: NA
The Culture Ministry has announced that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the late Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said Al Said, would be awarded the Gandhi Peace Prize for 2020 and 2019 respectively.
Note the features of the award such as prize, the composition of jury etc.
Gandhi Peace Prize
- The International Gandhi Peace Prize, named after Mahatma Gandhi, is awarded annually by the Government of India.
- As a tribute to the ideals espoused by Gandhi, the GoI launched the International Gandhi Peace Prize in 1995 on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
- This is an annual award given to individuals and institutions for their contributions towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violence and other Gandhian methods.
Its features
- The award carries ₹1 crore (US$140,000) in cash, convertible in any currency in the world, a plaque and a citation.
- It is open to all persons regardless of nationality, race, creed or gender.
- A jury consisting of the PM of India, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Chief Justice of India, Speaker of the Lok Sabha and one other eminent person decides the awardees each year.
- Ordinarily, only proposals coming from competent persons invited to nominate are considered.
- However, a proposal is not taken as invalid for consideration by the jury merely on the ground of not having emanated from competent persons.
Information about the awardees
(1) Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920-1975)
- The Prize recognizes the immense and unparalleled contribution of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in inspiring the liberation of Bangladesh.
- It acknowledges the contribution in bringing stability to a nation born out of strife, laying the foundation for the close and fraternal relations between India and Bangladesh and promoting peace and non-violence in the Indian subcontinent.
(2)Sultan Qaboos Bin Said (1940-2020)
- Sultan Qaboos was a visionary leader whose twin policy of moderation and mediation in addressing international issues won him praise and respect across the globe.
- He played an important role in supporting peace efforts in various regional disputes and conflicts. H.M. Sultan Qaboos was the architect of the special ties between India and Oman.
- He had studied in India and always maintained a special relationship with India.
- Under his leadership, India and Oman became strategic partners and our mutually beneficial, comprehensive partnership strengthened and scaled newer heights.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Rythu Bandhu
Mains level: Paper 3- PM-KISAN and issues
The article highlights the challenge of exclusion error in the PM-KISAN and suggests measures to deal with the issue by drawing on the success of KALIA and Rythu Bandhu.
Exclusion in PM-KISAN
- Budget FY22 announced an allocation of Rs 65,000 crore to the PM-Kisan scheme.
- Since 2019, the PM-Kisan has been the largest component of the agriculture budget each year.
- The scheme is targeted at farmers who own cultivable land as per land records of the state.
- Unfortunately, this leaves out vulnerable sections such as tenant farmers, women farmers, tribal families and landless labourers.
- The exclusion is the result of the challenge of first identifying these people, since our existing systems do not formally recognise them as farmers.
The need to identify farmers
- Despite 73.2% of rural women engaging in agriculture, only 12.8% are reported to own land.
- Among tribal communities, of the 20 million tribal families, less than 2 million have received individual forest rights pattas; the rest are ‘invisible’ and left out of government safety nets.
- Landless agricultural labourers and tenant farmers account for close to 150 million people in rural India, and they too are not part of state land records.
- Although there are multiple welfare schemes for farmers, there is no standard government definition of a farmer.
- The 2007 MS Swaminathan Committee called out that the term ‘farmer’ would include any person actively engaged in growing crops and other agricultural commodities, and would include not only landholders, but also cultivators, labourers, sharecroppers, tenants and tribal families, amongst others.
Learning from KALIA and Rythu Bandhu
- Odisha has been a frontrunner in implementing an inclusive farmer welfare scheme, the KALIA.
- The KALIA provides an unconditional income support of Rs 12,500 to landless agricultural households and an annual Rs 10,000 to small and marginal land-owning farmers as well as tenant farmers.
- Odisha leveraged existing databases such as the Paddy Procurement Automation System, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and the National Food Security Act, and deployed close to 50,000 government staff at state, district and block levels to conduct extensive on-ground verification to identify eligible beneficiaries.
- Telangana took a different approach prior to rolling out the Rythu Bandhu Scheme, a direct benefit transfer scheme for land-owning farmers.
- The Rythu Bandhu Scheme targeted only land-owning farmers.
- But the state took on the onus of updating land records before implementing the scheme.
- The revenue and agriculture departments partnered to undertake a state-wide Land Records Updation Programme (LRUP).
- This shows that updating and digitising land records databasse is possible with focused efforts.
Way forward
- Instead of every scheme having its own farmer beneficiary database, the ideal solution would be to leverage the existing land records databases in every state.
- The design should ensure women’s names are not excluded.
- Implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006 needs to be accelerated so that tribal families receive forest rights pattas and become part of the land records database.
- The next challenge is to build in incentives in the process to encourage the maintenance of the land record database, such that all future transactions such as sale, gift etc. are regularly updated to increase the reliability of the records.
Consider the question “How lack of definition of farmer leads to inclusion and exclusion errors in the schemes for farmers. Suggest the measures to deal with the issue.”
Conclusion
The pandemic, more so than anything else, has highlighted the need for the government to have robust social security mechanisms to reach the most vulnerable sections of the population, and making PM-Kisan more inclusive is an important step in that direction.
Source:
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/pm-kisan-income-support-to-farmers-needs-to-be-more-inclusive/2217436/
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: JCPOA
Mains level: Paper 2- Role IAEA can play in rescuing JCPOA
The article explains how IAEA could play an important role in finding a solution to the stalemate between the U.S. and Iran on JCPOA.
Issue of Iran’s return to JCPOA
- There is uncertainty between the U.S. and Iran on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as to whether Iranian compliance comes first or the lifting of sanctions by the U.S.
- In this context, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is back on the stage to rescue the JCPOA.
- The U.S. tried to pressurise Iran by proposing a resolution in the IAEA Board of Governors meeting criticising Iranian non-compliance with the JCPOA and its alleged IAEA safeguards violations.
- This comes amidst rumours that Iran might withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Iran may follow Indian model on creating a deterrent
- Foreign Policy recently noted that Iranian society increasingly see the weapon not just as an ultimate deterrent but as a panacea for Iran’s chronic security problems and challenges to its sovereignty by foreign powers.
- If the stalemate continues on JCPOA, because of the U.S. pressure, public opinion may shift towards the Indian model of creating a deterrent and then seeking a special dispensation to avoid severe sanctions.
- But the risks involved in such a policy will be grave, including the possibility of military action by Israel.
Relation between IAEA and NPT
- The IAEA is neither the Secretariat of the NPT nor is it empowered to request States to adhere to it.
- . It does, however, have formal responsibility in the context of implementing Article III of the Treaty.
- At the broadest level, the IAEA provides two service functions under the NPT.
- 1) It facilitates and provides a channel for endeavours aimed at further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
- 2) It administer international nuclear safeguards, in accordance with Article III of the Treaty, to verify fulfilment of the non-proliferation commitment assumed by non-nuclear-weapon States party to the Treaty.
- The NPT assigns to the IAEA the responsibility for verifying, at the global level, through its safeguards system, that non-nuclear weapon States fulfil their obligations not to use their peaceful nuclear activities to develop any nuclear explosive devices of any kind.
How IAEA could play role in JCPOA
- Accordingly, the Iranian file could go back to the IAEA to start fresh negotiations to restrain Iran to remain within the permissible level of enrichment of uranium.
- This may mean going back to the pre-six nation initiative, when the IAEA could not certify that Iran was not engaged in weapon activities.
- With the experience of the JCPOA, any new arrangement has to ensure the following:
- 1) Iran must have sanctions relief.
- 2) The stockpile of enriched uranium should not exceed the limits established.
- 3) There should be guarantees that Iran will not violate the safeguards agreement.
- The test is whether these can be accomplished within the framework of the IAEA.
Way forward
- Since the IAEA is a technical body, its deliberations may be kept at the technical level.
- At the same time, since it is open for the IAEA to report to the Security Council for necessary action, the IAEA will have the necessary clout to insist on the implementation of the NPT and its additional protocol.
- A new avenue may open for Iran to continue its peaceful nuclear activities as permitted in the NPT.
Consider the question “Examine the role played by IAEA under NPT. How this role can help IAEA in breaking the ice between Iran and the U.S. on JCPOA?”
Conclusion
Thus, IAEA can play an important role in ending the statement JCPOA finds itself in and ensure compliance from Iran on JCPOA and lifting sanctions by the U.S.
Back2Basics: Article III of NPT
- This article provides for the application of safeguards to ensure that nuclear material in non-nuclear weapon states (NNWS) isn’t diverted to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.
- NNWS must place all nuclear materials in all peaceful nuclear activities under IAEA safeguards.
- Each nuclear weapon state (NWS) will not provide nuclear materials or equipment to a NNWS without an IAEA safeguards agreement.
- The safeguards should comply with Article IV of the NPT, and should not hamper peaceful uses of nuclear technology or economic/technical development in general.
- Safeguards agreements can be concluded on an individual or group basis.
- After the entry into force of the NPT, state parties had 180 days to commence negotiation of a safeguards agreement. Currently, state parties must begin negotiations by the date they deposit their instruments of ratification or accession.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Factors driving FDI in India
The article explains the four factors that explain the FDI inflows in India.
India’s economic decade
- Almost every major global company is either contemplating or operating on the assumption that India is a key part of their growth story.
- Google, Facebook, Walmart, Samsung, Foxconn, and Silver Lake have been just a handful of the firms that made huge investments in Inda.
- As a result, India saw the fastest growth in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows among all the major economies last year.
- Meanwhile, India’s latest FDI totals still lags behind the highest tallies in other markets such as China and Brazil.
Issues faced by investors and factors driving investment
- Frequent shifts in the policy landscape and persistent market access barriers are standard complaints levied against India by the business community.
- The government’s push to build a “self-reliant” India has also rattled skittish investors and smaller companies that lack the resources to navigate on-the-ground hurdles.
- Still, investors recognise that doing business in India — or any emerging market — comes with inherent risks but that adaptation in approach is critical to success.
- Four core dynamics drive this calculus and explain why multinational companies are making India an essential part of their growth story.
4 Factors driving FDI in India
1) India’s population
- What India offers through its nearly 1.4 billion people and their growing purchasing power is uniquely valuable for multinationals with global ambitions.
- No other country outside of China has a market that houses nearly one in six people on the planet and a rising middle class of 600 million.
2) Shifting geopolitics
- Rising U.S.-China competition is forcing multinationals to rethink their footprints and production hubs.
- Savvy countries such as Vietnam have capitalised on this opportunity to great effect, but India is finally getting serious about attracting large-scale production and exports.
3) Digital connectivity
- Cheap mobile data have powered a revolution across India’s digital economy and connected an estimated 700 million Indians to the Internet.
- More than 500 million Indians still remain offline, this is a key reason why leading global tech companies are investing in India and weathering acute policy pressure.
- Domestic Indian companies have also demonstrated their ability to innovate and deliver high quality services at scale.
- The partnerships and FDI flows linking multinationals and Indian tech firms will continue to unlock shared market opportunities for years to come.
4) National resilience
- Despite facing the scourge of the novel coronavirus head on, India has managed the pandemic better than many of its western peers and restored economic activity even before implementing a mass vaccination programme.
- These are remarkable developments, and yet they speak to India’s underlying resilience even in the face of historic challenges.
Shared value creation
- Unlocking opportunities in the Indian market cannot take the form of a one-way wealth transfer.
- Companies need to demonstrate their commitment to India.
- Successful companies do this by placing shared value creation at the heart of their business strategy.
- They tie corporate success to India’s growth and development.
- They forge enduring partnerships and lasting relationships, elevate and invest in Indian talent, align products with Indian tastes, and ultimately tackle the hardest problems facing India today.
Consider the question “Despite the issues faced by the investors, India witnessed the fastest growth in the FDI inflows among all the major economies amid pandemic. In light of this, examine the factors driving the FDI in India.”
Conclusion
For leading companies with global ambitions and a willingness to make big bets, the rewards of investing in the Indian market are substantial and well worth pursuing.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mizo-Mynmar ethnic ties
Mains level: Myanmar coup and its impact on India
India has sealed all entry points along the border with the southeast Asian neighbour and is closely monitoring to prevent any Myanmar nationals from entering the country.
Issue: Problem with refugees
- At least 1,000 people from the adjoining Chin State of Myanmar are said to have crossed over to Mizoram, fearing a military crackdown.
- The Mizoram government favours providing refuge to the Chins that are ethnically related to the majority Mizos in the State.
- However, the Ministry of Home Affairs has made it clear that “India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol theron”.
When did the refugees start arriving?
- Mizoram began feeling the heat a month after the military coup when three police personnel crossed over to Lungkawlh village in Serchhip district.
- The influx of Myanmar nationals was reported from Hnahthial, Champhai, Saitual and Serchhip districts.
- Most of the refugees waded across the Tiau River that runs along much of Mizoram’s 510-km border with Myanmar.
Try answering this:
The cross-border movement of insurgents is only one of the several security challenges facing the policing of the border in North-East India. Examine the various challenges currently emanating across the India-Myanmar border. Also, discuss the steps to counter the challenges. (15 Marks)
Is this the first time this has happened?
- Extremism, counter-insurgency and sectarian violence have driven people out of Myanmar into India in the past as well.
- More than 1,200 Buddhists and Christians from Myanmar’s Arakan State had taken refuge in Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district in 2017.
- They fled their homes after the Myanmar Army clashed with the extremist Arakan Army.
- The refugees stayed back for more than a year. Thousands of Chins are said to be living in Mizoram for more than 40 years now.
How porous is the border?
Unlike India’s border with Pakistan and Bangladesh, much of the border with Myanmar is without any fence.
- The Assam Rifles personnel guard the border but a tough terrain comes in the way of maintaining airtight vigil.
- There have been calls to fence the border. Fencing the border would also help in checking the movement of extremist groups to and from Myanmar.
- Some are against the idea, insisting that a fence would make the “free movement” of border residents into each other’s country difficult.
- The two countries had in 2018 agreed to streamline the movement of people within 16 km of the border on either side.
Note: Myanmar has indefinitely stalled the agreement to streamline the free movement of people within 16 km along the border citing domestic issues.
Mizoram welcomes the refugees
- As a humanitarian gesture, the Mizoram government has issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) to Deputy Commissioners of border districts to facilitate the entry of refugees and migrants.
- The SOP stated that all Myanmar nationals entering Mizoram in connection with the political developments in the country shall be properly identified.
- The government said those facing a threat to their lives should be treated as refugees, given medical care, relief and rehabilitation and security.
Where do the Centre and Mizoram stand now?
- The SOP was revoked on March 6 after the Centre conveyed its displeasure to the State over the development.
- The State governments have no powers to grant “refugee status to any foreigner”.
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