Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: FAANG
Mains level: Paper 3- Importance of tech start-ups.
Context
In the US, the Big Tech FAANG five are Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (now Alphabet). Today, in India, Zomato’s stock market debut is a big occasion for India that could pave the path for other online successes.
Significance for economy
- It is the first among a host of domestic unicorns to have taken the IPO road, heralding a watershed moment.
- Boost for startups: It is also also a big leap for our country as a whole, which today boasts of the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world.
- Creation of online ecosystem: The response to Zomato’s initial public offer (IPO) gave us interesting insights into the robustness of the online economy in a pandemic-stricken world.
- Help creation of tech-giants: It could alter the composition as well as perception of markets, giving Indian investors a feel of new-generation, tech-heavy, assets-light and agile entrepreneurial growth stories, woven around the consumer internet ecosystem in India.
- Attracting FDI: With global liquidity at unprecedented levels and tech being the toast of the season, we could be looking at FDI inflows in unforeseen proportion in days to come.
- The ascent of new-age enterprises like Zomato and Paytm on the Stock Market, followed by likes of Oyo, Ola, Swiggy, Byju’s and even Flipkart could signal the emergence of India’s own FAANG family.
What sets the tech startups apart?
- Their reliance on big data and leveraging of ever-evolving technology, while sustaining a two-way connection with clients set them apart.
- The ‘stickiness’ and the ‘connect’ built over the years through carefully fabricated social layers puts them in the league of giant social media influencers.
- During the last few decades, two distinctive traits that have the potential to push the boundaries of limitations are the creation of a large talent pool and India’s prowess in software and data (including AI/ML) technology, both on a global scale.
Conclusion
As we celebrate 30 years of economic reforms, today’s debut, at least for the markets and the economy, may well be called India’s re-tryst with destiny.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 21
Mains level: Paper 2- Biocentric jurisprudence
Context
In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court of India has sought to move away from an anthropocentric basis of law.
Biocentrism Vs. Anthropocentrism
- Anthropocentrism argues that of all the species on earth humans are the most significant and that all other resources on earth may be justifiably exploited for the benefit of human beings.
- The philosophy of biocentrism holds that the natural environment has its own set of rights which is independent of its ability to be exploited by or to be useful to humans.
- Biocentrism often comes into conflict with anthropocentrism.
Supreme Court of India upholds biocentric principles
- The Great Indian Bustard is a gravely endangered species, with hardly about 200 alive in India today.
- The overhead power lines have become a threat to the life of these species as these birds frequently tend to collide with these power lines and get killed.
- Recently, the Supreme Court in M.K. Ranjitsinh & Others vs Union of India & Others, said that in all cases where the overhead lines in power projects exist, the governments of Rajasthan and Gujarat shall take steps forthwith to install bird diverters.
- In protecting the birds, the Court has affirmed and emphasised the biocentric values of eco-preservation.
- A noteworthy instance of the application of anthropocentrism in the legal world is in that of the “Snail darter” case in the United States.
- The Supreme Court of the United States of America in Tennessee Valley Authority vs Hill, had held that since the “Snail darter” fish was a specifically protected species under the Act, the executive could not proceed with the reservoir project.
Human role in extinction of species
- About 50 years ago, there were 4,50,000 lions in Africa. Today, there are hardly 20,000.
- Indiscriminate monoculture farming in the forests of Borneo and Sumatra is leading to the extinction of orangutans.
- Rhinos are hunted for the so-called medicinal value of their horns and are slowly becoming extinct.
- From the time humans populated Madagascar about 2,000 years ago, about 15 to 20 species of Lemurs, which are primates, have become extinct.
- The compilation prepared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists about 37,400 species that are gravely endangered; and the list is ever growing.
Evolution of Right of Nature laws in Constitutions
- Pieces of legislation are slowly evolving that fall in the category of the “Right of Nature laws”.
- These seek to travel away from an anthropocentric basis of law to a biocentric one.
- The Constitution of India is significantly silent on any explicitly stated, binding legal obligations we owe to our fellow species and to the environment that sustains us.
- It is to the credit of the Indian judiciary that it interpreted the enduring principles of sustainable development and read them, inter alia, into the precepts of Article 21 of the Constitution.
- In September 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to recognise “Rights of Nature” in its Constitution.
- Bolivia has also joined the movement by establishing Rights of Nature laws too.
- In November 2010, the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania became the first major municipality in the United States to recognise the Rights of Nature.
- These laws, like the Constitution of the countries that they are part of, are still works in progress.
Conclusion
In times like this the Supreme Court’s judgment in M.K. Ranjithsinh upholding the biocentric principles of coexistence is a shot in the arm for nature conservation. One does hope that the respective governments implement the judgment of the Court.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gulf of Hormuz
Mains level: Paper 3- Leveraging advantageous geography to counter China
Context
The Chinese are about to extend their geographical advantage by building a new high-speed rail from Chengdu, running close by and parallel to the Arunachal border, up to Lhasa.
Manpower and Defence Budget: Comparison with China
- The Indian army, according to diverse sources, numbers between 12,50,000 and 14,00,000 officers and men.
- Chinese PLA actually has only 9,75,000 officers and men.
- They have downsized their army.
- China is an aspiring world power that spends $252 billion on its defence budget, as compared to $72.9 billion that India spends.
- Both countries limit their budget to around 2 per cent of their GDP, which in China’s case is five times our size.
Why does India need to reduce manpower in defense?
- Expensive: A major portion of the budget is spent on manpower, 81 percent of the army budget goes into manpower and maintenance. Gradually, manpower is going to get increasingly expensive.
- Also, our strategic options get constrained because the army gets 61 percent of the defense budget.
- We need to downsize the army by 2,00,000 men over five years through retirement and reduced recruitment.
- The reduction in manpower will save approximately Rs 30,000 crore, which can be equally divided between the three services.
Way forward: Bigger role to navy and air force
- We can achieve better conventional deterrence against China by giving bigger roles to the navy and air force.
- The first step is to accept that we are an asymmetric power and leverage the RMA (Revolution in Military Affairs) so that numerical inferiority is of no consequence.
- They are invulnerable on land, and their only strategic weakness is their reliance on the Indian Ocean SLOCs (sea lines of communications) for 70 percent of their imported oil.
- The only guarantee of Chinese non-aggression and good behavior is a well-crafted threat to their oil tankers and a complete naval mastery of the escalation that is bound to follow.
- India can also leverage the QUAD resources in various ways such as information.
- Build up the Car Nicobar airfield into a full-fledged airbase.
- We could negotiate with Oman for the use of the old RAF airbase at Masirah to dominate the Gulf of Hormuz and threaten the Chinese base at Djibouti.
Conclusion
China cannot be countered by throwing expensive manpower at the problem, but only by shifting the battlespace to advantageous geography, by a united navy and air force effort, while a technically advanced army holds the Himalayan border.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Secret Ballot
Mains level: Secrecy of Vote and its significance
The Supreme Court has again held that in any election, be it to Parliament or State legislature, the maintenance of secrecy of voting is “a must”.
What is the Secret Vote?
- The secret vote/ secret ballot is a voting method in which a voter’s choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous.
- It aims for forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote-buying.
- The system is one means of achieving the goal of political privacy.
What did the Supreme Court rule?
- Secrecy is a part of the fundamental right of freedom of expression.
- The confidentiality of choice strengthens democracy.
- The principle of secrecy of ballots is an important postulate of constitutional democracy, the court said.
- It is the policy of the law to protect the right of voters to the secrecy of the ballot.
- Even a remote or distinct possibility that a voter can be forced to disclose for whom she has voted would act as a positive constraint and a check on the freedom to exercise of the franchise.
Voter’s discretion is allowed
- A voter can also voluntarily waive the privilege of non-disclosure.
- The privilege ends when the voter decides to waive the privilege and instead volunteers to disclose to whom she had voted.
- Nor can a complaint be entertained from any, including the person who wants to keep the voter’s mouth sealed as to why she disclosed for whom she voted said the court.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gross Environment Product (GEP)
Mains level: GEP vs GDP
The Uttarakhand government recently announced it will initiate valuation of its natural resources in the form of ‘Gross Environment Product’ (GEP), said to be along the lines of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Why such a move?
- The idea of the valuation of the components of the environment is not new.
- But it got impetus following rapid degradation of ecosystems, which led to adverse impacts on more than 60 percent of services we get from the ecosystems.
What is Gross Environment Product (GEP)?
- GEP is the measure of ecosystem services of any area.
- It reflects the aggregated annual value of goods and services provided by ecosystems (forests, water bodies, oceans, etc.) to people in a given region, such as at district levels, state, and country.
- It entails the establishment of a natural capital accounting framework by integrating ecological benefits into common measures of economic growth such as GDP.
- It summarizes the value of ecosystem services in a single monetary metric.
Evolution of GEP
- The term “ecosystem services” was coined in 1981 to attract academics towards this aspect.
- Ecosystem services represent the benefits humans get: Forests, lakes, and grasslands; timber and dyed; carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling; soil formation and productivity; and tourism.
- The definition is still in the process of evolution. The concept received attention and now is part of global knowledge.
Advantages offered
- GEP can be applied as a scientific basis for Eco-Compensation and public financial transfers.
- For example, Finance Commission’s revenue-sharing formula between the Union and the states including forest cover as a determining factor in a state’s share.
- GEP can be applied to measure the status of ecosystem services, which is an important indicator of sustainable development.
- It is also a critical indicator for measuring the progress of Eco-civilization.
- Its implementation can help assess the impact of anthropological pressure on our ecosystem and natural resources- air, water, soil, forests.
The Himalayan context
- The Himalayas contribute substantially to the sustainability of the Gangetic Plains where 500 million people live.
- The Union government incorporated the value of ecosystem services of its states in national accounting.
- According to the recommendation of the 12th and 13th Finance Commissions, grants were transferred to forest-rich states in amounts corresponding to their forest covers.
- However, considering only the forest cover in transferring funds to states is inadequate.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Right to be Forgotten
Mains level: Right to Privacy Issues
A TV celebrity has approached the Delhi High Court with a plea saying that his videos, photographs, and articles, etc. be removed from the internet citing his “Right to be Forgotten”.
What is the plea about?
- The plea mentions that the posts and videos on the internet related to him have caused the petitioner psychological pain for his diminutive acts.
- The plea also states that the petitioner’s mistakes in his personal life become and remains in public knowledge for generations to come.
- Consequently, the values enshrined under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution and the emergent jurisprudential concept of the Right to be Forgotten becomes extremely relevant in the present case.”
What is the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ in the Indian context?
- The Right to be Forgotten falls under the purview of an individual’s right to privacy, which is governed by the Personal Data Protection Bill that is yet to be passed by Parliament.
- In 2017, the Right to Privacy was declared a fundamental right by the Supreme Court in its landmark verdict.
What does the Personal Data Protection Bill say about this?
- The Personal Data Protection Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on December 11, 2019, and it aims to set out provisions meant for the protection of the personal data of individuals.
- Clause 20 under Chapter V of this draft bill titled “Rights of Data Principal” mentions the “Right to be Forgotten.”
- It states that the “data principal (the person to whom the data is related) shall have the right to restrict or prevent the continuing disclosure of his personal data by a data fiduciary”.
- Therefore, broadly, under the Right to be forgotten, users can de-link, limit, delete or correct the disclosure of their personal information held by data fiduciaries.
- A data fiduciary means any person, including the State, a company, any juristic entity, or any individual who alone or in conjunction with others determines the purpose and means of the processing of personal data.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Security Council (NSC)
Mains level: Not Much
The budgetary allocation for the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) increased 10 times from ₹33.17 crores in 2016-17 to ₹333.58 crores in 2017-18.
National Security Council (NSC)
- The NSC is an executive government agency tasked with advising the Prime Minister’s Office on matters of national security and strategic interest.
- It was established by the former PM of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 19 November 1998, with Brajesh Mishra as the first National Security Advisor.
- Prior to the formation of the NSC, these activities were overseen by the Principal Secretary to the preceding Prime Minister.
Members
- Besides the NSA the Deputy National Security Advisors, the Ministers of Defence, External Affairs, Home, Finance of the Government of India, and the Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog are members of the National Security Council.
- PM can chair the meeting of NSC (for eg – PM chaired the meeting of NSC Post Pulwama to discuss heightened tension with Pakistan).
- Other members may be invited to attend its monthly meetings, as and when is required.
Organizational structure
- The NSC is the apex body of the three-tiered structure of the national security management system in India.
- The three tiers are the Strategic Policy Group, the National Security Advisory Board, and a secretariat from the Joint Intelligence Committee.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PLFS
Mains level: Unemployment in India
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Annual Report for July, 2019 to June 2020 was recently released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
Periodic Labour Force Survey
- Considering the importance of the availability of labor force data at more frequent time intervals, National Statistical Office (NSO) launched PLFS in April 2017.
- The objective of PLFS is primarily twofold:
- to estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators (viz. Worker Population Ratio, Labour Force Participation Rate, Unemployment Rate) in the short time interval of three months for the urban areas only in the Current Weekly Status (CWS).
- to estimate employment and unemployment indicators in both ‘Usual Status’ and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually.
Various dimensions of the survey
The PLFS gives estimates of Key employment and unemployment Indicators:
- Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR): LFPR is defined as the percentage of persons in the labor force (i.e. working or seeking or available for work) in the population.
- Worker Population Ratio (WPR): WPR is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population.
- Unemployment Rate (UR): UR is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labor force.
- Activity Status- Usual Status: When the activity status is determined on the basis of the reference period of the last 365 days preceding the date of the survey, it is known as the usual activity status of the person.
- Activity Status- Current Weekly Status (CWS): The activity status determined on the basis of a reference period of the last 7 days preceding the date of the survey is known as the CWS of the person.
Highlights of the third report
- The Labour force participation ratio has increased to 40.1% in 2019-20 from 37.5% and 36.9%, respectively, in the last two years.
- Worker population rate improved to 38.2% in 2019-20 compared with 35.3% in 2018-19 and 34.7% in 2017-18.
- The unemployment rate fell to 4.8% in 2019-20. In 2018-19, it stood at 5.8% and 6.1% in 2017-18.
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