Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Emigration Act 1983
Mains level: Paper 2- Emigration Bill 2021
Context
The Emigration Bill 2021 could be introduced in Parliament soon and presents a long-overdue opportunity to reform the recruitment process for nationals seeking employment abroad.
An overview of Emigration Act 1983
- Labour migration is governed by the Emigration Act, 1983.
- The Act sets up a mechanism for hiring through government-certified recruiting agents — individuals or public or private agencies.
- It outlines obligations for agents to conduct due diligence of prospective employers,
- Sets up a cap on service fees.
- Establishes a government review of worker travel and employment documents (known as emigration clearances) to 18 countries mainly in West Asian states and South-East Asian countries.
What are the improvements in Emigration Bill 2021?
- It launches a new emigration policy division.
- It establishes help desks and welfare committees.
- It requires manpower agencies to conduct pre-departure briefings for migrants.
- It increases accountability of brokers and other intermediaries who are also involved in labour hiring.
Shortcoming in Emigration Bill 2021
- Lacks human rights framework: The 2021 Bill lacks a human rights framework aimed at securing the rights of migrants and their families.
- For example, in a country such as the Philippines, it explicitly recognises the contributions of Filipino workers and “the dignity and fundamental human rights and freedoms of the Filipino citizens”.
- Workers to bear recruitment payments and service charges: the Bill permits manpower agencies to charge workers’ service fees, and even allows agents to set their own limits.
- This provision goes against International Labour Organization (ILO) Private Employment Agencies Convention No. 181 and the ILO general principles and operational guidelines for fair recruitment.
- The ILO Convention and guidelines recognises that it is employers, not workers who should bear recruitment payments including the costs of their visas, air travel, medical exams, and service charges to recruiters.
- Criminalise worker: The Bill permits government authorities to punish workers by cancelling or suspending their passports and imposing fines up to ₹50,000 for violating any of the Bill’s provisions.
- Criminalising the choices migrant workers make is deplorable, runs contradictory to the purpose of protecting migrants and their families, and violates international human rights standards.
- Recruiters and public officials could misuse the law to instil fear among workers and report or threaten to report them.
- Gender dimension not adequadely addressed: This Bill does not also adequately reflect the gender dimensions of labour migration where women have limited agency in recruitment compared to their counterparts.
- Women are more likely to be employed in marginalised and informal sectors and/or isolated occupations in which labour, physical, psychological, and sexual abuse are common.
- Limited space for representation: The Bill also provides limited space for worker representation or civil society engagement in the policy and welfare bodies that it sets up.
Way forward
- The Ministry of External Affairs must start at the top, and draft a clearer purpose which explicitly recognises the contributions of Indian workers, the unique challenges they face, and uphold the dignity and human rights of migrants and their families.
Conclusion
The new Bill is better than the Emigration Act 1983, but more reforms are needed to protect Indian workers.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GVA
Mains level: Paper 3- Limits of relying on high-growth sectors
Context
The latest estimates of the fourth quarter of financial year 2020-21 (January-March) brought some relief, for policymakers.
Interpreting the construction sector GVA increase
- The construction sector showed a 15 per cent increase in gross value added (GVA) in the last quarter, which is nearly double the growth experienced by the sector in the previous year (7.7 per cent).
- Sign of better times: The buoyant growth of this sector has been hailed by policymakers not just as a sign of better times to come,
- Addressing distress: Growth in the construction sector is also considered as the capacity of the economy to address the distress that households have faced in the past year.
- Addressing needs of workforce: The Chief Economic Advisor pointed to the high growth rates in construction possibly to indicate that growth would address the needs of the beleaguered workforce.
- The Union budget 2021 has also allocated a considerable sum towards infrastructure and construction in the hopes of the sector playing a catalysing role.
Issues with relying on the growth of high-employment sector
- No strong correlation: While GVA and/or GDP are considered as indicators of economic health, it has been argued in detail how it may not be prudent to rely on these alone as measures of economic welfare.
- In particular, mere growth in a sector may not necessarily translate into benefits for its workers.
- In the last quarter of 2019-2020, when construction GVA grew at nearly 8 per cent, employment in the same sector grew by 3 per cent based on our estimates from CMIE-CPHS.
- Fallback employment option: The fact that employment grew in this sector even during a crisis year is largely because of the fact that the construction sector emerged as a fallback employment option for many displaced workers.
- During “normal” times, the sector typically employs only about 10-15 per cent of India’s total workforce.
- Even if this sector were to expand in line with its GVA growth, it will not be able to provide employment beyond a certain level.
- Employment alone is not enough: Moreover, employment alone is not enough.
- Earnings for an average daily wage worker in the sector have actually declined this year.
- Again, the overall economic growth in GVA in the sector has not been passed on to the workers.
Way forward
- Any relief effort that relies solely on economic growth as a means to uplift workers will be sorely inadequate as we see from the experience of workers in construction.
- The need of the hour is to go beyond relying on sectoral growth as a means of delivering relief to workers.
- Direct transfers of cash and food are also needed, as is livelihood support through employment guarantee programmes.
Conclusion
While boosting growth of high-employment sectors is one strategy to adopt, this has its limitations. The capacity of a sector is limited in terms of the number of workers that it can absorb, and the extent to which growth can benefit workers.
Back2Basics: What is GVA?
- Gross value added (GVA) is an economic productivity metric that measures the contribution of a corporate subsidiary, company, or municipality to an economy, producer, sector, or region.
- GVA is essentially a measure of the “net” value of output — deducting the cost of any input that went into its production from its total value.
- GVA thus adjusts gross domestic product (GDP) by the impact of subsidies and taxes (tariffs) on products.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Paradox in debate over relations with the US
Context
As the Indian leadership reviews US ties this week with the visiting Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, a paradox stands out.
Deepening Indo-US ties
- India and the US have come a long way since the 1990s.
- There is growing political and security cooperation, expanding economic engagement, widening interface between the two societies, and the intensifying footprint of the Indian diaspora in the US.
- Convergence of interests: That ambition, in turn, is based on the unprecedented convergence of Indian and American national interests.
- Agenda for cooperation: The two countries have already agreed on an ambitious agenda for bilateral, regional and global cooperation.
Debate in India over Indo-US relation: A paradox
- The discourse within India’s strategic community continues to be anxious.
- Some of the questions that animate the media and political classes have not changed since the 1990s.
- Issues in the debate: Debate focuses on US’s stand on the Kashmir issue, democracy and human rights and its impact on India-US relations.
- Contradictory fears: There are also contradictory fears such as whether the US extend full support in coping with China.
- While we expect the US to give guarantees on supporting us, we insist that India will never enter into an alliance with the US.
- Small state syndrome in India: As India’s relative weight in the international system continues to grow, it creates much room for give and take between India and the US.
- Yet, a small state syndrome continues to grip the foreign policy elite.
- The situation is similar on the economic front.
- Although India is now the sixth-largest economy in the world, there is unending concern about the US imposing globalisation on India.
- Even as India’s salience for solutions to climate change has increased, India’s debate remains deeply defensive.
Factors responsible paradox
- Missing the big picture: The narrow focus on the bilateral precludes an assessment of the larger forces shaping American domestic and international politics.
- That, in turn, limits the appreciation of new possibilities for the bilateral relationship.
- Underinvestment in American studies: The problem is reinforced by India’s under-investment in public understanding of American society.
- Russia and China have put large resources in American studies at their universities and think tanks.
- The Indian government and private sector will hopefully address this gap in the not-too-distant future.
Policy shifts unfolding in the US
- Domestic economic policies: If the economic policy drift in the last four decades was to the right, Biden is moving left on the relationship between the state and the market — on raising taxes, increasing public spending and addressing the problem of sharp economic inequality.
- Economic policy and globalisation: Biden has also joined Trump in questioning America’s uncritical economic globalisation of the past.
- If Trump talked of putting America First, Biden wants to make sure that America’s foreign and economic policies serve the US middle class.
- Foreign policy: Biden has concluded that four decades of America’s uncritical engagement with China must be reconstituted into a policy that faces up to the many challenges that Beijing presents to the US.
- Biden is also focused on renewing the traditional US alliances to present a united front against China.
- He is also seeking to overcome Washington’s hostility to Russia by resetting ties with Moscow.
Question of democracy and human rights
- Democracy is very much part of America’s founding ideology.
- But living up to that ideal at home and abroad has not been easy for the United States over the last two centuries.
- Delhi and Washington will also have much to discuss on the challenges that new surveillance technologies and big tech monopolies pose to democratic governance.
- The exclusive American focus on democracy promotion has been rare, costly and unsuccessful.
- India’s own experience at spreading democracy in its neighbourhood is quite similar.
- But that discussion is only one part of the expansive new agenda — from Afghanistan to Indo-Pacific, reforming global economic institutions to addressing climate change, and vaccine diplomacy to governing new technologies that beckon India and the United States.
Conclusion
As they intensify the bilateral cooperation, the two sides will hopefully turn the Indo-US partnership from a perennial curiosity to a quotidian affair.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Turmoil in the NE region
Five Assam police personnel were killed in an exchange of fire with the Mizoram Police after the protracted border row between the two northeastern States took a violent turn.
Assam-Mizoram Boundary Dispute
- At the heart of the dispute over the 165-km Assam-Mizoram boundary are two border demarcations that go back to the days of British colonial rule, and disagreement over which demarcation to follow.
- British tea plantations surfaced in the Cachar plains – the Barak Valley that now comprises the districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj — during the mid-19th century.
- Their expansion led to problems with the Mizos whose home was the Lushai Hills.
- In August 1875, the southern boundary of Cachar district was issued in the Assam Gazette.
- The Mizos say this was the fifth time the British had drawn the boundary between the Lushai Hills and the Cachar plains, and the only time when it was done in consultation with Mizo chiefs.
Creation of new states
- But in 1933, the boundary between Lushai Hills and the then princely state of Manipur was demarcated – it said the Manipur boundary began from the trijunction of Lushai Hills, Cachar district of Assam and Manipur state.
- The Mizos do not accept this demarcation, and point to the 1875 boundary which was drawn in consultation with their chiefs.
- In the decades after Independence, states and UTs were carved out of Assam – Nagaland (1963), Arunachal Pradesh (UT 1972, formerly NEFA), Meghalaya (UT 1972), Mizoram (UT 1972).
A matter of perception
- Mizoram says Assam has been pushing its people 10-12 km inside their territory.
- Mizoram’s official stand is that the boundary should be demarcated on the basis of notification in 1875 that distinguished the Lushai Hills (erstwhile district of Assam that became Mizoram) from the plains of Cachar.
- The notification is based on the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act, 1873, which makes it obligatory for Indians beyond to possess a travel document to enter Mizoram.
- Assam also has border disputes with Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Nagaland.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: International Space Station (ISS), Nauka
Mains level: Not Much
Pirs, a Russian module on the International Space Station (ISS) used as a docking port for spacecraft and as a door for cosmonauts to go out on spacewalks. In its place, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos will be attaching a significantly larger module called Nauka.
What does Russia’s new Nauka module do?
- Nauka, which is 42 feet long and weighs 20 tonnes, was supposed to be launched as early as 2007, as per the ISS’s original plan.
- Nauka — meaning “science” in Russian — is the biggest space laboratory Russia has launched to date, and will primarily serve as a research facility.
- It is also bringing to the ISS another oxygen generator, a spare bed, another toilet, and a robotic cargo crane built by the European Space Agency (ESA).
- The new module was sent into orbit using a Proton rocket — the most powerful in Russia’s space inventory — on July 21 and will take eight days to reach the ISS.
What kind of research goes on at the International Space Station?
- A space station is essentially a large spacecraft that remains in low-earth orbit for extended periods of time.
- It is like a large laboratory in space and allows astronauts to come aboard and stay for weeks or months to carry out experiments in microgravity.
- For over 20 years since its launch, humans have continuously lived and carried out scientific investigations on the $150 billion ISS under microgravity conditions, being able to make breakthroughs in research not possible on Earth.
Back2Basics: International Space Station (ISS)
- The International Space Station, which launched its first piece in 1998, is a large spacecraft that orbits around the Earth and is home to the astronauts.
- The ISS is currently the only active space station in the earth’s orbit.
- The first crew on the space station arrived on November 2, 2000.
- The space station is home to a minimum of six astronauts, with two bathrooms, a gymnasium, and a big bay window.
- It is a joint project between five participating space agencies -NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary
Mains level: Not Much
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region is likely to get its first Ramsar site at the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary.
Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary
- The Maharashtra Government has declared the area along the western bank of Thane Creek as the “Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary” since 2015.
- It is Maharashtra’s second marine sanctuary after the Malvan sanctuary.
- It is recognized as an “Important Bird Area” by the Bombay Natural History Society.
About Ramsar Convention
- The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (better known as the Ramsar Convention) is an international agreement promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands.
- It is the only global treaty to focus on a single ecosystem.
- The convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
- Traditionally viewed as a wasteland or breeding ground of disease, wetlands actually provide fresh water and food and serve as nature’s shock absorber.
- Wetlands, critical for biodiversity, are disappearing rapidly, with recent estimates showing that 64% or more of the world’s wetlands have vanished since 1900.
- Major changes in land use for agriculture and grazing, water diversion for dams and canals, and infrastructure development are considered to be some of the main causes of loss and degradation of wetlands.
What does one mean by Ramsar Site?
- A Ramsar Site is a wetland area designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
- It provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gold Reserves in India
Mains level: Not Much
The Minister of Mines and Coal has provided useful information regarding gold reserves in India.
Gold Reserves in India
- As per National Mineral Inventory data, the total reserves/resources of gold ore (primary) in the country have been estimated at 501.83 million tonnes as of 2015.
- Out of these, 17.22 million tonnes were placed under the reserves category and the remaining 484.61 million tonnes were under the remaining resources category.
- In India, the largest resources of gold ore (primary) are located in Bihar (44%) followed by Rajasthan (25%), Karnataka (21%), West Bengal (3%), Andhra Pradesh (3% ), Jharkhand (2 %).
- The remaining 2% resources of ore are located in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.
Who takes up their mapping?
- Geological Survey of India (GSI) is actively engaged in geological mapping followed by mineral exploration (survey) for various mineral commodities including gold.
- GSI aims to identify potential mineral-rich zones and establish resources.
- Every year, as per the approved annual Field Season Program, GSI takes up mineral exploration projects in various parts of the country for augmenting mineral resources.
- Recently, GoI has amended the MEMC Rules to allow auction of composite license at G4 level for deep-seated minerals including Gold.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Consider the following statements:
- In India, State Governments do not have the power to auction non -coal mines.
- Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand do not have goldmines.
- Rajasthan has iron ore mines.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 3 only
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Exercise Cutlass Express
Mains level: Not Much
Indian Naval Ship Talwar is participating in Exercise Cutlass Express 2021, being conducted along the East Coast of Africa.
Exercise Cutlass Express
- The exercise is an annual maritime exercise conducted to promote national and regional maritime security in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean.
- Indian Navy is participating in the exercise in a ‘trainer role’.
The 2021 edition of the exercise involves the participation of:
- 12 Eastern African countries, US, UK, India
- Various international organizations like International Maritime Organization (IMO), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Interpol, European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR), Critical Maritime Routes Indian Ocean (CRIMARIO), and EUCAP Somalia
Focus of the exercise
- The exercise focuses on East Africa’s coastal regions.
- It is designed to assess and improve combined maritime law enforcement capacity, promote national and regional security and increase interoperability between the regional navies.
- As part of the exercise, the Indian Navy, together with other partners, shall undertake the training of contingents from various participating countries in various fields across the spectrum of maritime security operations.
Must read:
[Prelims Spotlight] Defence Exercises
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now