Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: 101st Constitutional Amendment
Mains level: Paper 2- Fiscal federalism
Context
States are facing financial constraints in the backdrop of lockdown and consequent dwindling revenue collection. The situation also highlights the issues of fiscal federalism in India.
Issues facing fiscal federalism in India
1) Issue of 14% compensation
- As per the Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, compensation on account of the implementation of GST will be available for a period of five years.
- 14% increment assurance: At the time of introducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) law assured States a 14% increase in their annual revenue for five years (up to July 1, 2020).
- But the Union government has deviated from the statutory promise and has been insisting that States avail themselves of loans.
- The future interest liability of these loans should not be placed on the shoulders of the States.
- Borrowing limits built into loan: Moreover, the borrowing limit of States, as per the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, should not be built into these loans.
2) Conditional increase in borrowing limit
- Last year, the Union government increased the borrowing ceiling of the States from 3% to 5% for FY 2020-21.
- But conditions are attached to 1.5% of the 2% of increased ceiling.
- Attaching conditions for expenditure out of the borrowed amount would clip the wings of the States and goes against the principle of cooperative federalism.
Way forward
- Introduce special rate: A special rate could be levied for a specified period in order to raise additional resources to meet the challenges posed by COVID-19 with the approval of the GST Council.
- As per Section 4(f) of Article 279A, the Union government can consider introducing any special rate to raise additional resources during the pandemic (any natural calamity or disaster).
- The present GST compensation period will end in 2021-22.
- Increase the period beyond five years: Compensation beyond five years requires a constitutional amendment.
- If this period is not increased, it will create serious financial stress to the States, especially to those which require higher compensation.
Conclusion
There is a need for measures on part of the Central government to consolidate fiscal federalism in the aftermath of pandemic and implementation of the GST regime in India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Agriculture reforms to reduce the risk in agriculture in India
Context
The farmers’ protest against farm laws brings into focus the factors afflicting agriculture in India.
Issues of Indian agriculture
- Some 50 years after the Green Revolution, an all-India agricultural landscape is characterized by relatively low productivity levels that co-exist with high levels of variation in crop yields across our farming districts.
- Excessive control: Various government agencies have a say on all aspects of the farmer’s livelihood — the latest count includes 13 central and countless state ministries and agencies.
- These agencies oversee rural property rights, land use, and land ceilings; commodity prices, input subsidies, and taxes, infrastructure, production, credit, marketing and procurement, public distribution, research, education, trade policy, etc.
- Poor policies: The result has been a mix of arbitrary and conflicting policy interventions by both the central and state government agencies.
- Poor provision of basic public goods: This, combined with poor and varying levels of provision of basic public goods, including irrigation explains the poor state of Indian agriculture.
Risk-to-return in agriculture
- The following figures indicate the median (typical) district-level yield (in tonnes-per-hectare) for four major crops — rice, wheat, maize, and cotton — along with the geographic variability of this yield (risk) across all reporting districts for each year from 1966 to 2018.
- Combining these two values — median district yield and its geographic variability across all farming districts — provides us a measure of the all-India level of risk-to-return, in percentage terms.
Lessons from risk-to-return profile
- One, the large gap in rice and wheat yields that opened up between Punjab and Haryana and the farm districts in the rest of the country remains far from being closed.
- Limited mobility of ideas: There is severe unevenness in the provision of common goods across districts — irrigation, roads, power, etc.
- There is also the absence of well-functioning markets for agricultural land, crops, and inputs, the slow labour reform, and the poor quality of education.
- These two factors have worked to reduce overall resource mobility within and across our farming districts.
- Most importantly, they have limited the mobility of ideas and technology needed to increase productivity and reduce the variation of yield across districts.
- Decentralization failed: As a result of lack of mobility, the real promise of a decentralized system — of experimentation, of learning from each other, and the adoption of best practices and policies — has failed to materialize.
- Distortion due to subsidies: Various input subsidies and minimum price guarantee procurement schemes provided by the state have worked to worsen the overall levels of productivity and the risk in agriculture, generating adverse effects for all of us, through the degradation of our water resources, soil, health, and climate.
- At the same time, these policies have tightened the trap our farm households find themselves in.
- Thus, as is evident in the next chart, outside of rice and wheat, the risk-to-return levels are even higher in the case of maize and cotton, including for Punjab.
- As a result, the farm households of Punjab and Haryana fear both, the loss of state support for rice and wheat and the higher risks implied by a switch to other crops.
Way forward
- Minimize risk: The guiding principle for three farm laws must be to create conditions that allow farm households to maximize their income while minimizing the overall level of risk in Indian agriculture.
- Freedom of choice: Farmers must be made free to determine the best mix of resources, land, inputs, technology, and organizational forms for their farms.
- More freedom: Farmers, just as entrepreneurs in the non-farm sector, must be allowed to enter and exit agriculture, on their own terms and contract with whomever they wish.
- Allow entry of corporates: Entry of the large or small private corporates in the Indian agricultural stream will help the Indian farmer, along with the rest of us, move to a low-risk, high-return path of progress.
Conclusion
The more we delay the needed reforms, the more difficult it will prove to be for all of us to extract ourselves out of these risk-laden currents of agriculture.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: 97th Amendment
Mains level: Paper 2- Striking down of the 97th Amendment Act
Context
In Union of India vs Rajendra N. Shah, the Supreme Court of India partially struck down the 97th Constitutional Amendment.
Background of the 97th Constitutional Amendment
- The 97th Constitutional Amendment came into effect from February 15 2012.
- The amendment added “cooperative societies” to the protected forms of association under Article 19(1)(c), elevating it to a fundamental right.
- It also inserted Part IXB in the Constitution which laid down the terms by which cooperative societies would be governed, in more granular detail than was palatable.
Why was the Amendment struck down?
- The Constitution can be amended only by the procedure provided in Article 368.
- The amendment procedure requires a majority of the total strength of each of the Houses of Parliament and two-thirds majority of those present and voting.
- A proviso to the Article lists out some articles and chapters of the Constitution, which can be amended only by a special procedure.
- The special procedure requires that the amendment will also have to be ratified by the legislatures of half of the States.
- It is precisely on the grounds of violation of this additional requirement that the 97th Constitutional Amendment was challenged.
- The Gujarat High Court struck down the amendment in 2013 on the grounds that it had failed to comply with the requirements under Article 368(2) by virtue of not having been ratified by the States and had also given an additional finding that the 97th Amendment violated the basic structure of the Constitution.
- The Union Government challenged the Gujarat High Court judgment before the Supreme Court, arguing that the amendment neither directly nor effectively changed the scheme of distribution of powers between the Centre and the States.
- The court took the example of the 73rd and 74th Amendments which were similar in impact on the legislative power of the States, had been passed by the special procedure involving ratification by State legislatures.
- Procedural lacuna: The court noted that the procedure had not been followed in this case.
- The Supreme Court clarified that the does not go into the question of the amendment being violative of the basic structure of the Constitution.
- The judgment makes a distinction between cooperative societies operating in one State and multi-State cooperative societies and holds that while a ratification by half the State legislatures would have been necessary insofar as it applies to cooperative societies in one State.
Increasing control of the Union government
- Union government has been acquiring incrementally greater control of cooperative societies over the years.
- Cooperative banks have been brought under the purview of the Reserve Bank of India.
- Union Government recently established Union Ministry for Cooperation.
Issues with Central control over cooperative sector
- Domain of States: The idea that the cooperative sector ought to be controlled at the State level and not at the central or Union level goes back all the way to the Government of India Act, 1919 which placed cooperatives in the provincial list.
- Part of State list: Entry 32 of the State List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution confer power on the State legislatures to make laws pertaining to incorporation, regulation and the winding up of cooperative societies.
- The cooperative sector has always been in the domain of the States or provinces.
- Different organising principles: The organising principles and mechanism of these cooperatives differ from area to area and depend on the industry or crop which forms the fulcrum of the cooperative.
- Homogeneity nor require: Homogeneity in this area would only result in the creation of round holes in which square pegs no longer fit.
- They also would not really serve to break the control some political interests have taken over cooperatives.
Conclusion
It is best that the Government takes this judgment in the right spirit and stays away from further meddling in the cooperative sector, notwithstanding the creation of the new Ministry.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Farmers Database
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Centre’s new National Farmers Database will only include land-owning farmers for now as it will be linked to digitized land records.
National Farmers Database
- The Central government had proposed an Agristack initiative to create a digital database that focuses on farmers and the agricultural sector.
- As part of the first step of this initiative, the government has initiated a farmers database that would serve as the core of the Agristack.
- The database would be linked to the digital land record management system and would thus only include farmers who were legal owners of agricultural land.
- The database would facilitate online single sign-on facilities for universal access and usher in proactive and personalized services to farmers such as DBT, soil and plant health advisories, weather advisories
- It would also facilitate seamless credit & insurance, seeds, fertilizers, and pesticide-related information.
Need for such database
- India has 140 million operational farmland holdings.
- The availability of a database would serve an important role in the formulation of evidence-based policies for the agricultural sector.
- Also, the government can make use of the database for targeted service delivery with higher efficiency and in a focused and time-bound manner.
- The database could be used to select beneficiaries of government schemes.
- The availability of data will make it possible to implement digital technologies like AI/Machine Learning, IoT in the agricultural domain, thus opening up the sector to immense opportunities for improvement in productivity.
Back2Basics: AgriStack Initiative
- The AgriStack is a collection of technologies and digital databases proposed by the Central Government focusing on India’s farmers and the agricultural sector.
- The central government has claimed that these new databases are being built to primarily tackle issues such as poor access to credit and wastage in the agricultural supply chain.
- Under AgriStack’, the government aims to provide ‘required data sets’ of farmers’ personal information to Microsoft to develop a farmer interface for ‘smart and well-organized agriculture’.
- The digital repository will aid the precise targeting of subsidies, services, and policies.
- Under the program, each farmer of the country will get what is being called an FID, or a farmers’ ID, linked to land records to uniquely identify them.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Academic Bank of Credit
Mains level: Need of multi-disciplinary education
On the first anniversary of the National Education Policy (NEP), the Centre plans to officially roll out some initiatives promised in the policy, such as the Academic Bank of Credit
Academic Bank of Credit
- Academic Bank of Credit referred to as ABC is a virtual storehouse that will keep records of academic credits secured by a student.
- It is drafted on the lines of the National Academic Depository.
- It will function as a commercial bank where students will be the customers and ABC will offer several services to these students.
- Students will have to open an Academic Bank Account and every account holder would be provided with a unique id and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
- The academic accounts of students will have credits awarded by higher education Institutes to students for the courses they are pursuing.
- However, ABC will not accept any credit course document directly from the students, and its institutes that will make the deposits in students’ accounts.
Functions of ABCs
- ABC will be responsible for opening, closing, and validating the academic accounts of students.
- It will also perform tasks including credit verification, credit accumulation, credit transfer/redemption of students, and promotion of the ABC among the stakeholders.
- The courses will also include online and distance mode courses offered through National Schemes like SWAYAM, NPTEL, V-Lab, etc.
- The validity of these academic credits earned by students will be up to seven years. The validity can also vary based on the subject or discipline. Students can redeem these credits.
- For instance, if a student has accumulated 100 credits which is equivalent to say one year and they decide to drop out.
- Once they decide to rejoin they can redeem this credit and seek admission directly in the second year at any university. The validity will be up to seven years, hence, students will have to rejoin within seven years.
Benefits for students
- The participating HEIs in the ABC scheme will enable students to build their degrees as per their choices.
- As per UGC guidelines, the higher education institutes will have to allow students to acquire credits 50-70% of credits assigned to a degree from any institute.
- Students, depending upon their needs can take this opportunity.
- UGC will ensure that students secured the minimum credits to be secured in the core subject area.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Dalitha Bandhu Scheme
Mains level: Not Much
Telangana CM has recently been informed to spend Rs 80,000 crore to Rs 1 lakh crore for Dalit Bandhu Scheme, touted as the country’s biggest direct benefit transfer scheme, to empower Dalits across the state.
Dalit Bandhu Scheme
- Dalit Bandhu is the latest flagship program of the Telangana government.
- It is envisioned as a welfare scheme for empowering Dalit families and enable entrepreneurship among them through a direct benefit transfer of Rs 10 lakh per family.
- This is, once implemented on the ground, going to be the biggest cash transfer scheme in the country.
- Apart from monetary assistance, the government plans to create a corpus called the Dalit Security Fund permanently to support the beneficiary in the event of any adversities.
- This fund will be managed by the district collector concerned, along with a committee of beneficiaries.
- The beneficiary would be issued an identity card with an electronic chip, which will help the government monitor the progress of the scheme.
Where is the scheme being implemented?
- The CM decided to implement it on a pilot basis in the Huzurabad Assembly constituency.
- Based on the experiences of implementation in Huzurabad, the scheme will be rolled out across the state in a phased manner.
- Officials were asked to visit Dalit colonies and interact with Dalit families to find out their views and opinions before preparing guidelines for the scheme.
- The pilot project will focus on monitoring the implementation of the scheme, evaluating the results, and also creating a safety fund for the beneficiaries with the government’s participation.
How is Dalitha Bandhu being implemented?
- The CM has ensured that the Dalit Bandhu is free.
- The governments in the past came out with some schemes and asked for bank guarantees.
- This is not a loan. There is no need to repay it. There is no chance of any involvement of middlemen.
- To promote Dalit entrepreneurship, the government has decided to start a system of reservations for Dalits in sectors where the government issues licenses.
- The government will provide reservations for Dalits in issuing licenses for wine shops, medical shops, fertilizer shops, rice mills, etc.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SMILE Scheme
Mains level: Transgenders rehabiliation
The Government has approved a comprehensive scheme named “Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise (SMILE)” which includes a sub-scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons.
About SMILE Scheme
- This scheme is a sub-scheme under the ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of Begging’.
- It also focuses on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities and intervention, counselling, education, skill development, economic linkages to transgender persons.
- It covers several comprehensive measures including welfare measures for persons who are engaged in the act of begging.
- The focus of the scheme is extensively on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counselling, basic documentation, education, skill development, economic linkages and so on.
Its implementation
- The scheme would be implemented with the support of State/UT Governments/Local Urban Bodies, Voluntary Organizations, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), institutions and others.
- The scheme provides for the use of the existing shelter homes available with the State/UT Governments and Urban local bodies for rehabilitation of the persons engaged in the act of Begging.
- In case of the non-availability of existing shelter homes, new dedicated shelter homes are to be set up by the implementing agencies.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Raja Mircha
Mains level: Geographical Indication (GI)
In a major boost to exports of Geographical Indications (GI) products from the north-eastern region, a consignment of ‘Raja Mircha’ also referred to as king chili from Nagaland was exported to London via Guwahati by air for the first time.
Raja Mircha
- The King chili from Nagaland is also referred to as Bhoot Jolokia and Ghost pepper.
- It got GI certification in 2008.
- Raja Mircha contains Scoville Heat Units (SHUs) which makes it the world’s hottest chili.
- It belongs to the genus Capsicum of the family Solanaceae.
- It has been considered as the world’s hottest chili and is constantly on the top five in the list of the world’s hottest chilies based on the SHUs.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.Which of the following has/have been accorded ‘Geographical Indication’ status?
- Banaras Brocades and Sarees
- Rajasthani Daal-Bati-Churma
- Tirupathi Laddu
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Back2Basics: Geographical Indication (GI)
- The World Intellectual Property Organization defines a GI as “a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin”.
- GIs are typically used for agricultural products, foodstuffs, handicrafts, industrial products, wines, and spirit drinks.
- Internationally, GIs are covered as an element of intellectual property rights under the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
- They have also covered under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement.
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