Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Net-zero emission targets and G-7
The article highlights G-7 countries’ emphasis on adoption of net-zero emission target and its implications for India.
Shifting responsibility to developing countries
- The Cornwall G7 summit sought to re-establish a common purpose among the richest democracies of the world.
- The G7 agreed “collectively” to net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 and called on “all countries, in particular, major emitting economies” to join as part of global efforts.
- And, ODA (official development assistance) has been made contingent on net-zero emissions by 2050 and deep cuts in emissions in the 2020s.
- G7 made an equal effort to shift the responsibility to the large developing countries.
- However, “common and differentiated responsibilities” is the agreed guiding principle for tackling climate change.
- Differentiation underscores the responsibility of the industrialised countries to lead.
India’s climate actions
- India has been a leading stakeholder in climate action and is among the few in the G20 in line to meet their commitments under the Paris Accord.
- It has also taken on a most ambitious target of 450 GW of renewable power by 2030.
- India has shown the world the way forward on solar power with producers now offering ultra-competitive tariffs.
India’s concerns
- Coal was particularly in the eye of the G7 which stressed “that international investments in unabated coal must stop now” .
- India, that continues to rely on coal, could face a crunch in assistance in thermal power.
- BASIC, comprising India, China, Brazil and South Africa, has so far led the efforts of large developing countries in climate negotiations.
- But with possible differences of opinion on net zero, BASIC’s clout in future global negotiations is questionable.
Way forward
- Finance and technology are the key areas where the industrialised West can and must lead.
- The collective developed countries’ commitment of $ 100 billion per year was made in Copenhagen in 2009 and is nowhere near being reached.
- A smallish sum of $2 billion was committed by G7 to accelerating the transition from coal.
- For India, with its huge developmental needs and global high-table aspirations that require carbon and policy spaces, the imperative is strong diplomatic partnerships with large developing economies that have an inherent interest in GREEN-Growth with Renewable Energy, Entrepreneurship and Nature.
Conclusion
India, which has huge developmental needs and global high-table aspirations that require carbon and policy spaces, must protect its interests.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues of Discoms
The article highlights the need for frequent financial aids to the discoms by the Centre and discusses the factors responsible for this.
Frequent rescue packages for discoms
- Recently, there was a sharp decline in the dues owed by power distribution companies, discoms, to power generating companies.
- Discoms have paid off their dues in part by drawing down a liquidity facility arranged by the Centre last year.
- This rescue package was arranged to prevent the entire power sector chain from suffering because of the discoms’ inability to meet their obligations.
- In the initial years after the introduction of UDAY some states did, in fact, witness an improvement in their financial and operational indicators.
- But it wasn’t sustained, There has been a sharp deterioration in several parameters.
Low performance of Discoms
1) On the basis of AT&C losses
- A key metric to measure the performance of discoms is AT&C losses.
- The UDAY scheme had envisaged bringing down these losses to 15 per cent by 2019.
- However, as per data on the UDAY dashboard, the AT&C losses currently stand at 21.7 per cent at the all-India level.
- In the case of the low-income north and central-eastern states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh — the losses are considerably higher.
2) On the basis of cost and revenue per unit
- On another metric — the gap between discoms’ costs and revenues — the difference, supposed to have been eliminated by now, stands at Rs 0.49 per unit in the absence of regular and commensurate tariff hikes.
- For the high-income southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, this gap between costs and revenues is significantly higher.
What are the factors responsible for inefficiencies?
1) Electrification push without cost restructuring
- The government’s push for ensuring electrification of all have contributed to greater inefficiency.
- To support higher levels of electrification, cost structures need to be reworked, and the distribution network would need to be augmented — in the absence of all this, losses are bound to rise.
2) Economic fallout of the pandemic
- With demand from industrial and commercial users falling, revenue from this stream, which is used to cross-subsidise other consumers, has declined, exacerbating the stress on discom finances.
- A turnaround in the economy will provide some relief, but will not form the basis of a sustained improvement in finances.
3) Lack of consumer data and metering
- Even six years after UDAY was launched, various levels in the distribution chain — the feeder, the distribution transformer (DT) and the consumer — have not been fully metered.
- As a result, it is difficult to ascertain the level in the chain where losses are occurring.
- Other than discoms in metros like Delhi and Mumbai, there is also limited data on which consumer is attached to which DT.
- This lack of data makes it difficult to isolate and identify loss-making areas and take corrective action.
4) No tariff hike
- The continuing absence of political consensus at the state level to raise tariffs or to bring down AT&C losses signal a lack of resolve to tackle the issues plaguing the sector.
Way forward
- One of the solution centres around a national power distribution company.
- Another option is to deduct discom dues, owed to both public and private power generating companies, from state balances with the RBI forcing states to take the necessary steps to fix discom finances.
- The Centre has linked additional state borrowings to the completion of distribution reforms to incentivise states to act.
Consider the question “Despite several efforts by the Centre to improve the efficiency, discoms continue to perform dismally requiring frequent financial aids. What are the factors responsible for this? Suggest the way forward.”
Conclusion
Short of radical measures — privatisation remains a chimera — it is difficult to see how a sustainable turnaround in the financial and operational position of discoms can be engineered. As the amounts involved rise, minor tinkering isn’t likely to produce the desired results.
Back2Basics: AT&C losses
- Distribution loss consists of two parts:
- a. Technical loss
- b. Commercial loss.
- It is also called AT&C loss.
- AT&C loss is nothing but the sum total of technical and commercial losses and shortage due to non-realization of billed amount.
- AT&C Loss = (Energy input – Energy billed) * 100 / Energy input.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Election Petition
Mains level: Free and fair elections
West Bengal CM has filed an election petition in the Calcutta High Court challenging the Assembly election result of Nandigram constituency, where she had contested and lost.
What is an election petition?
- The Election Commission’s role ends with the declaration of results, that is once the Returning Officer has signed the final result sheet (Form 20).
- After that, an election petition is the only legal remedy available to a voter or a candidate who believes there has been malpractice in an election.
- Such a person can challenge the result through an election petition submitted to the High Court of the state in which the constituency is located.
- Such a petition has to be filed within 45 days from the date of the poll results; nothing is entertained by courts after that.
- Although the Representative of the People Act of 1951 suggests that the High Court should try to conclude the trial within six months, it usually drags on for much longer, even years.
On what grounds can an election petition be filed?
Under Section 100 of the RP Act, an election petition can be filed on the grounds that:
- On the day of the election, the winning candidate was not qualified to contest.
- The winning candidate, his poll agent or any other person with the consent of the winning candidate has indulged in a corrupt practice. Section 123 of the RP Act has a detailed list of what amounts to corrupt practice, including bribery, use of force or coercion, appeal to vote or refrain from voting on grounds of religion, race, community, and language.
- Improper acceptance of the nomination of the winning candidate or improper rejection of a nomination.
- Malpractice in the counting process, which includes improper reception, refusal or rejection of any vote, or the reception of any vote which is void.
- Non-compliance with the provisions of the Constitution or the RP Act or any rules or orders made under the RP Act.
What happens if the court finds that a contention of malpractice is correct?
- This depends on relief that is claimed by the petitioner in her election petition.
- Under Section 84 of the RP Act, the petitioner may ask that the results of all or the winning candidates may be declared void.
- In addition to that, the petitioner may also ask the court to declare her (in case the petition is filed by a candidate) or any other candidate as the winner or duly elected.
- So the verdict on an election petition, if found in favour of the petitioner, may result in a fresh election or the court announcing a new winner.
Have there been any election results that were declared void because of an election petition?
- There are many examples, the most famous being the Allahabad High Court verdict of 1975 which set aside Indira Gandhi’s election from Rae Bareli constituency, four years earlier, on grounds of corrupt practice.
- The election petition was filed by her nearest rival Raj Narain who had lost by over one lakh votes.
- The High Court found that Indira Gandhi’s election agent Yashpal Kapur, the DM of Rae Bareli, the Superintendent of Police of Rae Bareli and the Home Secretary of UP government helped in the arrangements for her election tour.
- This amounted to a corrupt practice under Section 123 (7) of the RP Act.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: World Competitiveness Ranking
Mains level: Not Much
India’s position has remained unchanged at 43 for the third year in a row in the World Competitiveness Ranking by Switzerland-based Institute for Management Development (IMD).
World Competitiveness Ranking
- The IMD World Competitiveness Ranking ranks 64 economies and assesses the extent to which a country promotes the prosperity of its people by measuring economic well-being through hard data and survey responses from executives.
- The ranking examines four factors — economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure.
- The top-performing economies are characterized by varying degrees of investment in innovation, diversified economic activities, and supportive public policy.
India’s performance
- Among the BRICS nations, India is ranked second after China (16), followed by Russia (45th), Brazil (57th) and South Africa (62th).
- Among the four indices used, India’s ranking in government efficiency increased to 46 from 50 a year ago, while its ranking in other parameters such as economic performance (37), business efficiency (32) and infrastructure (49) remained the same.
- India has maintained its position for the past three years but this year, it had significant improvements in government efficiency.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ICMED 13485 PLUS
Mains level: NA
The Quality Council of India (QCI), and the Association of Indian Manufacturers of Medical Devices (AiMeD) have added further features to the ICMED Scheme for Certification of Medical Devices.
ICMED 13485 PLUS
- The ICMED 13485 PLUS, as the new scheme has been christened, will undertake verification of the quality, safety and efficacy of medical devices.
- It was first launched in 2016.
- It has been designed to integrate the Quality Management System components and product-related quality validation processes through witness testing of products with reference to the defined product standards and specifications.
- This is the first scheme around the world in which quality management systems along with product certification standards are integrated with regulatory requirements.
- This scheme will be an end-to-end quality assurance scheme for the medical devices sector in India.
Details of the scheme
- This scheme provides the much-needed institutional mechanism for assuring product quality and safety.
- It will go a long way in assisting the procurement agencies to tackle the challenges relating to the menace of counterfeit products and fake certification.
- This will also help in eliminating the circulation and use of sub-standard medical products or devices of doubtful origin that could prove to be serious health hazards.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Atlas on General Elections
Mains level: Unique features of Indian general elections
The Election Commission of India has released ‘General Elections 2019 – An Atlas’.
Atlas on General Elections
- The Atlas encompasses all the data and statistical figures of this monumental event. It shares interesting facts, anecdotes and legal provisions related to the Indian elections.
- It brings out salient features such as data of the 23 States and Uts where women voting percentage was more than the male voting percentage.
- It has information about the largest & smallest parliamentary constituency in terms of electors, candidates and performance of political parties amongst other parameters.
- The Atlas depicts the elector’s data in different categories and through various comparison charts like Elector Gender Ratio and electors in different age categories.
- This Atlas serves as an informative and illustrative document that brings to light the nuances of the Indian electoral process and empowers readers to analyze trends and changes.
Data on 2019 Elections
- The 2019 General Elections witnessed the lowest gender gap in the history of Indian elections.
- The Elector Gender Ratio which has shown a positive trend since 1971 was 926 in the 2019 General Elections.
- The Atlas also compares the average number of electors per polling station in different states during the 2014 & 2019 General Elections.
- The Election Commission of India set up over 10 lakh polling stations in General Elections 2019 with the lowest number of electors per polling station (365) in Arunachal Pradesh.
Why was such Atlas needed?
- Since the first General Elections in 1951-52, the Commission has been publishing a compilation of electoral data in the form of narrative and statistical books.
- 17th General Elections conducted in 2019 were the largest democratic exercise in human history which witnessed the participation of 61.468 crore voters at 10.378 lakh polling stations spread over 32 lakh sq km.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Exercise EUNAVFOR
Mains level: NA
Indian Navy is participating in the maiden IN – EUNAVFOR Joint Naval Exercise in the Gulf of Aden.
Exercise EUNAVFOR
- EUNAVFOR is a multilateral naval exercise comprising of Italian Navy, Spanish Navy, and French Navy.
- Ships of the four navies will endeavor to enhance and hone their war-fighting skills and their ability as an integrated force to promote, peace, security, and stability in the maritime domain.
- EUNAVFOR and the Indian Navy converge on multiple issues including counter-piracy operations and protection of vessels deployed under the charter of the World Food Programme (UN WFP).
- Indian Navy and EUNAVFOR also have regular interaction through SHADE (Shared Awareness and De-confliction) meetings held annually in Bahrain.
- This engagement showcases increased levels of synergy, coordination, and inter-operability between India and EUNAVFOR.
- It also underscores the shared values as partner navies, in ensuring freedom of seas and commitment to an open, inclusive and rules-based international order.
Mark the nations along the Gulf of Aden:
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