Month: July 2021

Bills/Act/LawsDOMREthicsExplainedHistorical SitesIOCRop-ed snapPIBPlaces in newsPrelims OnlySC JudgementsSchemesSpeciesStatesworld map
July 2021
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  

Vacancies send a wrong signal

| Governance | Mains Paper 2: Governance, Transparency & Accountability, Citizens Charters
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Appointment process of Election Commissioner

Mains level: Paper 2- Impact of vacancies

Context

For months on end, top slots in important government agencies like NHRC, CBI, Election Commission, NCERT etc remain vacant affecting the governance.

Vacancies in various agencies

  • The post of the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission was kept vacant until June this year.
  • The post of the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had been vacant since February until the recent appointment.
  • The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) retired on April 12 leaving just two members in the Commission. 
  • The Centre appointed the new Election Commissioner in June.
  •  Of the 40 Central universities across the country, nearly half are without regular Vice-Chancellors.
  • Officers holding additional charges exist in various ministries, commissions and departments.

Impact of vacancies

  • Vacancies have had a deleterious effect on governance.
  •  Delays in promotions and appointments affect the organisations.
  • Vacancies also tend to demoralise the officials who await promotions after vacancies arise.
  •  Delays in important appointments send a wrong signal to the nation.
  • Elections Commission was functioning only with two members for several months, in case of a disagreement on any issue between the two of them, a solution would have become difficult.

Need to change the process for appointment of Election Commissioners

  • The appointment of Elections Commissioners is done by the Centre.
  • The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court demanding the appointment of Election Commissioners by a committee, as is done in the case of appointment of the Director of the CBI.
  • The 255th Report of Law Commission had recommended that Election Commissioners be appointed by a high-powered committee. 
  • The high-powered committee is headed by the Prime Minister has two members – the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
  • However, if the Prime Minister decides on a candidate and the CJI consents, the Opposition leader’s dissenting note carries no weight.
  • There is a need, therefore, to expand the high-powered committee to include at least two more members of eminence with proven integrity for the selection process

Way forward

  • A time frame needs to be worked out to announce top appointments at least a month in advance.
  • Political considerations need to be pushed to the back seat for a clean and honest administration.

Conclusion

Considering the impact vaccines have on governance, we need to devise a mechanism to avoid such vacancies for such a long duration.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

Mental health care in India

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Paper 2- Shift in mental health care system needed

Context

Recently, a High Court suggested that homeless persons with health conditions be branded with a permanent tattoo, when vaccinated against COVID-19.

Issue

  • In many countries, persons with severe mental health conditions live in shackles in their homes, in overcrowded hospitals, and even in prison.
  • On the other hand, many persons with mental health issues live and even die alone on the streets.
  • Three losses dominate the mental health systems narrative: dignity, agency and personhood.
  • Issues with the laws: Far-sighted changes in policy and laws have often not taken root and many laws fail to meet international human rights standards.
  • Many also do not account for cultural, social and political contexts resulting in moral rhetoric that doesn’t change the scenario of inadequate care.
  • There is also the social legacy of the asylum, and of psychiatry and mental illness itself, that guides our imagination in how care is organised.

Way forward: A responsive care system

  • We must understand mental health conditions for what they are and for how they are associated with disadvantage.
  • These situations are linked, but not always so, therefore, not all distress can be medicalised.
  • Adopt WHO guidelines: Follow the Guidance on Community Mental Health Services recently launched by the World Health Organization.
  • The Guidance, which includes three models from India, addresses the issue from ‘the same side’ as the mental health service user and focuses on the co-production of knowledge and on good practices.
  • Drawn from 22 countries, these models balance care and support with rights and participation.
  • Open dialogue: The practice of open dialogue, a therapeutic practice that originated in Finland, runs through many programmes in the Guidance.
  • This approach trains the therapist in de-escalation of distress and breaks power differentials that allow for free expression.
  • Increase investment: With emphasis on social care components such as work force participation, pensions and housing, increased investments in health and social care seem imperative.
  • Network of services: For those homeless and who opt not to enter mental health establishments, we can provide a network of services ranging from soup kitchens at vantage points to mobile mental health and social care clinics.
  • Small emergency care and recovery centres for those who need crisis support instead of larger hospitals, and long-term inclusive living options in an environment that values diversity and celebrates social mixing, will reframe the archaic narrative of how mental health care is to be provided.

Conclusion

Persons with mental health conditions need a responsive care system that inspires hope and participation without which their lives are empty. We should endeavour to provide them with such a responsive care system.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Fresh stirrings on federalism as a new politics

op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Federalism
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: 15th Finance Commission

Mains level: Paper 2- Federalism at the centre stage of politics

Context

  • Several issues such as vaccine wars, debates over the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the fracas over West Bengal’s Chief Secretary, and the pushback against controversial regulations in Lakshadweep have once again brought into focus the idea of federalism.
  • The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, since taking office, has begun to craft an ideological narrative on State rights, by re-introducing the term Union into the public discourse and pushing back against increased fiscal centralisation

Lack of political consensus among States for genuine federalism

  • Federalism in India has always had political relevance, but except for the States Reorganisation Act, federalism has rarely been an axis of political mobilisation.
  • Fiscal and administrative centralisation persisted despite nearly two decades of coalition governments.
  • Rather than deepen federalism, the contingencies of electoral politics have created significant impediments to creating a political consensus for genuine federalism.

Three challenges in deepening federalism among States

1) Tendency to equate federalism as against nationalism

  • The grammar of development and nationalism, which has mass electoral appeal is used to undermine federalism.
  • Slogans such as ‘one nation, one market’, ‘one nation, one ration card’, ‘one nation, one grid’ symbolise development and nationalism while leaving little space for federalism.
  • In this context, federalism as a principle risks being equated with regionalism and a narrow parochialism that is anti-development and anti-national.

2) Lack of federal principles

  • Pratap Bhanu Mehta has pointed out that over the decades, federal principles have been bent in all kinds of ways to co-produce a political culture of flexible federalism.
  • Federalism in this rendition is reduced to a game of political upmanship and remains restricted to a partisan tussle.
  • Claimants of greater federalism often maintain silence on unilateral decisions that affect other States.
  • For instance, the downgrading of Jammu and Kashmir into a Union Territory, the notification of the NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021 hardly witnessed protests by States that were not directly affected by these.

3) Economic and governance divergence among states

  • Across all key indicators, southern (and western) States have outperformed much of northern and eastern India.
  • This has resulted in a greater divergence rather than expected convergence with growth.
  • This has created a context where collective action amongst States becomes difficult as poorer regions of India contribute far less to the economy but require greater fiscal resources to overcome their economic fragilities.
  • These emerging tensions were visible when the 15th Finance Commission (FC) was mandated to use the 2011 Census rather than the established practice of using the 1971 Census.
  • This, Southern states feared, risked penalising States that had successfully controlled population growth by reducing their share in the overall resource pool.
  •  With the impending delimitation exercise due in 2026, these tensions will only increase.

Way forward

  • A politics for deepening federalism will need to overcome a nationalist rhetoric that pits federalism against nationalism and development.
  • Reclaim fiscal federalism:  Weak fiscal management has brought the Union government on the brink of what economist Rathin Roy has called a silent fiscal crisis.
  • The Union’s response has been to squeeze revenue from States by increasing cesses.
  • Its insistence on giving GST compensation to States as loans (after long delays) and increasing State shares in central schemes.
  • Against this backdrop, both sub-nationalist sentiments and the need to reclaim fiscal federalism create a political moment for a principled politics of federalism.
  • Sharing burden with poorer States: On the fiscal side, richer States must find a way of sharing the burden with the poorer States.
  • An inter-State platform that brings States together in a routine dialogue on matters of fiscal federalism could be the starting point for building trust and a common agenda.
  • Overcome isolationist tendency: The politics of regional identity is isolationist by its very nature.
  • An effort at collective political action for federalism based on identity concerns will have to overcome this risk.
  • Finally, beyond principles, a renewed politics of federalism is also an electoral necessity.

Consider the question “Federalism in India has always had political relevance, but it has rarely been an axis of political mobilisation. What are the factors responsible for this? Suggest the way forward for the states to overcome these factors.” 

Conclusion

A renewed politics of federalism would require immense patience and maturity from regional parties. It remains to be seen whether they up to the task.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Interstate River Water Dispute

Water wars of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

| Polity | Mains Paper 2: Federalism
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Reserviors on Krishna River

Mains level: Krishna water dispute

An ongoing jala jagadam (fight over water resources), as it has been described by regional media, once again drew the police forces of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana into a tense standoff over release of water from the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir.

Krishna River Dispute

  • Both states have disagreements over the sharing of the Krishna River water continue to shape politics in the region.
  • AP alleges that Telangana has been drawing Krishna water from four projects — Jurala, Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, and Pulichintala without approvals from the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).
  • The KRMB an autonomous body that was set up after the bifurcation of the state, to manage and regulate the waters in the Krishna basin.

What is the issue?

  • The water that is used for power generation, Andhra says, is being wasted by releasing it into the Bay of Bengal, even as farmers in the Krishna delta ayacut are yet to begin sowing of the kharif crop.
  • Telangana says it would continue with the hydropower generation to meet its requirements of power.
  • At the same time, it has taken strong exception to the irrigation projects of the Andhra Pradesh government, especially the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Project (RLIP), which it claims is illegal.
  • Telangana has called for a 50:50 allocation of water from the Krishna River.

How is the water split between the states currently?

  • After Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh, the two states agreed to split the water share 66:34 on an ad hoc basis until the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-2 decided the final allocation.

Why is Telangana making the big hydel push?

  • The Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project that was inaugurated in 2019 requires a huge amount of power to draw water from the Godavari River.
  • Also, the Telangana government says that it needs hydel energy to power its Nettempadu, Bheema, Koilsagar and Kalwakurthy lift irrigation projects.
  • Despite protests by Andhra, the Telangana CM has chosen to operate all hydel power stations at full capacity because hydel power is cheaper, and imposes a smaller burden on the already stretched state budget.

What is the solution to the disagreement, then?

  • Telangana wants the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-2 to permanently settle the water dispute.
  • In the meantime, it wants the KRMB to convene a full-fledged board meeting on a mutually agreed date this month to address its grievances against Andhra Pradesh.

What political factors are at play behind the dispute?

  • The two CMs have maintained cordial relations and have even met on several occasions to discuss long-standing issues arising out of the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh.
  • Critics have, however, alleged that the two CMs are fanning regional sentiments purely for political gains.

Back2Basics: Interstate (River) Water Disputes (ISWDs)

  • These are a continuing challenge to federal water governance in India.
  • Rooted in constitutional, historico-geographical, and institutional ambiguities, they tend to become prolonged conflicts between the states that share river basins.
  • India has 25 major river basins, with most rivers flowing across states.
  • As river basins are shared resources, a coordinated approach between the states, with adequate involvement of the Centre, is necessary for the preservation, equitable distribution and sustainable utilization of river water.
  • Within India’s federal political structure, inter-state disputes require the involvement of the Union government for a federal solution at two levels: between the states involved, and between the Centre and the states.
  • The Interstate River Water Disputes Act, 1956 (IRWD Act) was enacted under Article 262 of the Constitution of India on the eve of reorganization of states to resolve the water disputes that would arise in the use, control and distribution of an interstate river or river valley.
  • Article 262 of the Indian Constitution provides a role for the Central government in adjudicating conflicts surrounding inter-state rivers that arise among the state/regional governments.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Legislative Council in States: Issues & Way Forward

West Bengal to set up Legislative Council

| Polity | Mains Paper 2: Parliament & State Legislatures
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Legislative Council

Mains level: Need for LCs

The West Bengal Assembly has passed a resolution to set up Legislative Council with a two-thirds majority.

What is a State Legislative Council?

  • The SLC is the upper house in those states of India that have a bicameral state legislature; the lower house being the State Legislative Assembly.
  • As of Jan 2020, 6 out of 28 states have a State Legislative Council. These are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh The latest state to have a council is Telangana.

Why need another house?

  • The Legislative Council has three main functions: to represent the people, to legislate and to scrutinise the executive government as a ‘House of review’.
  • The Legislative Council provides an alternative and complementary system of representation to that of the Legislative Assembly.

Creation and abolition

  • According to Article 169, the Parliament can create or abolish the SLC of a state if that state’s legislature passes a resolution for that with a special majority.
  • The existence of an SLC has proven politically controversial.
  • A number of states that have had their LCs abolished have subsequently requested its re-establishment; conversely, proposals for the re-establishment of the LC for a state have also met with opposition.

Its composition

  • The size of the SLC cannot be more than one-third of the membership of the State Legislative Assembly.
  • However, its size cannot be less than 40 members.
  • These members elect the Chairman and Deputy Chairman from the Council.

MLCs are chosen in the following manner:

  • One third are elected by the members of local bodies such as municipalities, gram panchayats, Panchayat samitis and district councils.
  • One third are elected by the members of the Legislative Assembly of the State from among the persons who are not members of the State Legislative Assembly.
  • One sixth are nominated by the Governor from persons having knowledge or practical experience in fields such as literature, science, arts, the co-operative movement and social services.
  • One twelfth are elected by graduates of three years’ standing residing in that state.
  • One twelfth are elected by teachers who had spent at least three years in teaching in educational institutions within the state not lower than secondary schools, including colleges and universities.

Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

Q.Consider the following statements:

  1. The Legislative Council of a State in India can be larger in size than half of the Legislative Assembly of that particular State.
  2. The Governor of a State nominates the Chairman of Legislative Council of that particular State.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Powers and functions

  • The Constitution of India gives limited power to the State Legislative Council.
  • The State Legislative Council can neither form nor dissolve a state government.
  • The State Legislative Council also have no role in the passing of money bills.
  • But some of the powers it has is that the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the State Legislative Council enjoy the same status as Cabinet Ministers in the state.

Issues with LC

  • It was argued that a second House can help check hasty actions by the directly elected House, and also enable non-elected persons to contribute to the legislative process.
  • However, it was also felt that some of the poorer states could ill afford the extravagance of two Houses.
  • It has been pointed out that the Councils can be used to delay important legislation and to park leaders who have not been able to win an election.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Digital India Initiatives

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) Project

| Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: ONDC Project

Mains level: Policy support against digital monopolies in India

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has issued orders appointing an advisory committee for its Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) project.

What does one mean by ‘Open-source’?

  • An open-source project means that anybody is free to use, study, modify and distribute the project for any purpose.
  • These permissions are enforced through an open-source licence easing adoption and facilitating collaboration.

What is ONDC Project?

  • ONDC seeks to promote open networks, which are developed using the open-source methodology.
  • The project is aimed at curbing “digital monopolies”.
  • This is a step in the direction of making e-commerce processes open-source, thus creating a platform that can be utilized by all online retailers.
  • They will encourage the usage of standardized open specifications and open network protocols, which are not dependent on any particular platform or customized one.

What processes are expecting to be open-sourced with this project?

  • Several operational aspects including onboarding of sellers, vendor discovery, price discovery and product cataloguing could be made open source on the lines of Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
  • If mandated, this could be problematic for larger e-commerce companies, which have proprietary processes and technology deployed for these segments of operations.

What is the significance of making something open-source?

  • Making a software or a process open-source means that the code or the steps of that process is made available freely for others to use, redistribute and modify.
  • If the ONDC gets implemented and mandated, it would mean that all e-commerce companies will have to operate using the same processes.
  • This could give a huge booster shot to smaller online retailers and new entrants.

What does the DPIIT intend from the project?

  • ONDC is expected to digitize the entire value chain, standardize operations, promote inclusion of suppliers, derive efficiencies in logistics and enhance value for stakeholders and consumers.

What is a ‘Digital Monopoly’?

  • Digital monopolies refer to a scenario wherein e-commerce giants or Big Tech companies tend to dominate and flout competition law pertaining to monopoly.
  • The Giants have built their own proprietary platforms for operations.
  • In March, India moved to shake up digital monopolies in the country’s $ 1+ trillion retail market by making public a draft of a code of conduct — Draft Ecommerce Policy, reported Bloomberg.
  • The government sought to help local start-ups and reduce the dominance of giants such as Amazon and Walmart-Flipkart.
  • The rules sought to define the cross-border flow of user data after taking into account complaints by small retailers.

Processes in the ONDC

  • Sellers will be onboarded through open networks. Other open-source processes will include those such as vendor and price discovery; and product cataloguing.
  • The format will be similar to the one which is used in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
  • Mega e-commerce companies have proprietary processes and technology for these operations.
  • Marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, BigBasket and Grofers will need to register on the ONDC platform to be created by DPIIT and QCI.
  • The task of implementing DPIIT’s ONDC project has been assigned to the Quality Council of India (QCI).

Back2Basics: Quality Council of India

  • QCI was set up in 1997 by the government of India jointly with Indian industry (represented by CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM) as an autonomous body under the administrative control of the department.
  • QCI establishes and operates the National Accreditation Structure for conformity assessment bodies; providing accreditation in the field of education, health and quality promotion.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Waste Management – SWM Rules, EWM Rules, etc

How India can face the tidal wave of marine plastic

| Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Plastic waste

Mains level: Need for plastic waste management

The problem of marine plastic pollution has reached a new peak. Hence it must be tackled from various perspectives. This article discusses some of them.

Plastic use in India

  • The Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) Annual Report on Implementing the Plastic Garbage Rules, 2016, is the only regular estimate of the quantum of plastic waste generated in India.
  • According to it, the waste generated in 2018-19 was 3,360,043 tonnes per year (roughly 9,200 tonnes per day).
  • Given that total municipal solid waste generation is between 55 and 65 million tonnes per day, plastic waste contributes about 5-6 per cent of total solid waste generated in India.

What happens to Plastic Waste?

  • Only nine per cent of all plastic waste has ever been recycled.
  • Approximately 12 per cent has been burnt, while the remaining 79 per cent has accumulated in landfills.
  • Plastic waste is blocking our sewers, threatening marine life and generating health risks for residents in landfills or the natural environment.

Marine plastic pollution

  • Incredibly vast and deep, the ocean acts as a huge sink for global pollution. Some of the plastic in the ocean originates from ships that lose cargo at sea.
  • Abandoned plastic fishing nets and longlines – known as ghost gear – is also a large source, making up about 10% of plastic waste at sea.
  • Marine aquaculture contributes to the problem, too, mainly when the polystyrene foam that’s used to make the floating frames of fish cages makes its way into the sea.
  • The financial costs of marine plastic pollution are significant as well.
  • According to conservative forecasts made in March 2020, the direct harm to the blue economy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will be $2.1 billion per year.

Threats posed to coastal areas

  • Enormous social costs accompany these economic costs.
  • Residents of coastal regions suffer from the harmful health impacts of plastic pollution and waste brought in by the tides and are inextricably linked to the fishing and tourism industry for their livelihoods.
  • Therefore, we must begin finding solutions to prevent plastics and other waste from polluting our oceans and clean them up.

Tackling the issue

The problem of marine plastic pollution can — and must — be tackled from a range of perspectives. Some of the solutions are as follows:

1.Designing a product: Identifying plastic items that can be replaced with non-plastic, recyclable, or biodegradable materials is the first step. Find alternatives to single-use plastics and reusable design goods by working with product designers.

2.Pricing: Plastics are inexpensive because they are made with substantially subsidized oil and may be produced at a lower cost, with fewer economic incentives to employ recycled plastics.

3.Technologies and Innovation: Developing tools and technology to assist governments and organizations in measuring and monitoring plastic garbage in cities. ‘Closing the loop’ project of the UN assists cities in developing more inventive policy solutions to tackle the problem. A similar approach can be adopted in India. 

4.Promoting a plastic-free workplace: All catering operations should be prohibited from using single-use plastics. To encourage workers and clients to improve their habits, all single-use goods can be replaced with reusable items or more sustainable alternatives.

5.Producer responsibility: Extended responsibility can be applied in the retail (packaging) sector, where producers are responsible for collecting and recycling products that they launch into the market.

6.Municipal and community actions: Beach and river clean-ups, public awareness campaigns explaining how people’s actions contribute to marine plastic pollution (or how they may solve it) and disposable plastic bag bans and levies.

7.Multi-stakeholder collaboration: Government ministries at the national and local levels must collaborate in the development, implementation and oversight of policies, which includes participation from industrial firms, non-governmental organisations and volunteer organisations. Instead of acting in silos, all these stakeholders must collaborate and synchronise with one another.

Way forward

  • Solving the problem of marine plastic involves a change in production and consumption habits, which would help meet the SDGs.
  • Apart from the solutions mentioned above, the government can take several steps to combat plastic pollution.
  • Identifying hotspots for plastic leakage can assist governments in developing effective policies that address the plastic problem directly.

Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

Q.Why is there a great concern about the ‘microbeads’ that are released into environment? (CSP 2019)

(a) They are considered harmful to marine ecosystems.

(b) They are considered to cause skin cancer in children.

(c) They are small enough to be absorbed by crop plants in irrigated fi elds.

(d) They are often found to be used as food adulterants.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Parliament – Sessions, Procedures, Motions, Committees etc

Government creates Ministry of Cooperation

Prelims Only | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Ministries & Departments Of The Government
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Creation of new ministry

Mains level: Cooperatives in India

The Union Government has created a new Ministry of Cooperation with an aim to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country.

With the creation of the Ministry of Cooperation, there will now be a total of 41 central government ministries. Several of these ministries also have separate departments and organizations under them.

What defines a Cooperative?

  • A cooperative is “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned enterprise”.
  • Cooperatives are democratically owned by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors.

Ministry of Cooperation

  • The ministry has been created for realizing the vision of ‘sahkar se samriddhi’ (through cooperation to prosperity).
  • The NGO Sahakar Bharati, whose founder member Satish Kashinath Marathe is a part-time director on the RBI board, says it was the first to pitch for the creation of a separate ministry for the cooperative sector.
  • It will provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country.
  • It will help deepen cooperatives as a true people-based movement reaching up to the grassroots.
  • The ministry will work to streamline processes for ‘ease of doing business’ for cooperatives and enable the development of multi-state cooperatives (MSCS).

Why need such Ministry?

  • In our country, a Co-operative based economic development model is very relevant where each member works with a spirit of responsibility.
  • This creation has signalled its deep commitment to community-based developmental partnerships.

Second new ministry created so far

  • The Ministry of Cooperation is the second ministry to be created since 2019 after the Modi government came to power for the second time.
  • Soon after taking charge, the government had created the Jal Shakti ministry.
  • However, it was not altogether new as the Ministry of Cooperation.
  • It was created by integrating two existing ministries dealing with water — Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, and Drinking Water & Sanitation ministry.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Foreign Policy Watch: India-Africa

Crafting a unique partnership with Africa

op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: China's scramble for Africa and challenges for India

This op-ed analyses the future of India-Africa cooperation in agriculture amid the looming Chinese involvement in African countries.

Agricultural significance of Africa

  • With 65% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, employing over 60% of the workforce, and accounting for almost 20% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP, agriculture is critical to Africa’s economy.

China factor behind

  • As this relationship enters the post-pandemic world, it is vital to prioritize and channel resources into augmenting partnerships in agriculture.
  • This is crucial given its unexplored potential, centrality to global food security, business prospects and to provide credible alternatives to the increasing involvement of Chinese stakeholders in the sector.

Analyzing Chinese engagement

Chinese corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs adopt has provided a layered perspective of the sociopolitical, economic and environmental impact of Chinese engagement.

  • Trade: China is among Africa’s largest trading partners.
  • Credit facility: It is also Africa’s single biggest creditor.
  • Infrastructure: Its corporations dominate the region’s infrastructure market and are now entering the agri-infra sector.
  • Strategic support: While access to Africa’s natural resources, its untapped markets and support for ‘One China Policy’ are primary drivers of Chinese engagement with the region, there are other factors at play.

China is going strategic in the guise of agriculture

  • Increasingly critical to China’s global aspirations, its engagement in African agriculture is taking on a strategic quality.
  • Chinese-built industrial parks and economic zones in Africa are attracting low-cost, labour-intensive manufacturing units that are relocating from China.
  • Chinese engineers interviewed spoke of how their operations in Africa are important to accumulate global experience in management, risk and capital investments.
  • Not only are they willing to overlook short-term profits in order to build a ‘brand China’, but they want to dominate the market in the long term, which includes pushing Chinese standards in host countries.
  • Chinese tech companies are laying critical telecommunications infrastructure, venture capital funds are investing in African fintech firms, while other smaller enterprises are expanding across the region.

Agricultural landscape

  • While many Chinese entities have been active in Africa’s agriculture for decades now, the nature, form and actors involved have undergone substantial change.
  • In Zambia, Chinese firms are introducing agri-tech to combat traditional challenges, such as using drone technology to control the fall armyworm infestation.
  • They have set up over Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centers (ATDCS) in the continent where Chinese agronomists work on developing new crop varieties and increasing crop yields.
  • This ATDCs partner with local universities, conduct workshops and classes for officials and provide training and lease equipment to small holder farmers.
  • Chinese companies with no prior experience in agriculture are setting out to build futuristic ecological parks while others are purchasing large-scale commercial farms.

Inducing their soft power

  • The exponential growth in the China-Africa economic ties and the emergence of Beijing as an alternative to traditional western powers have motivated change in perceptions across groups.
  • Governments and heads of state are recalibrating approaches, media houses are investing more resources for on-the-ground reporting.

Dark Side of the Sino-Africa ties

  • Simultaneously, Africa-China relations are becoming complex with a growing, insular diaspora, lopsided trade, looming debt, competition with local businesses and a negative perception accompanied by greater political and socioeconomic interlinkages.
  • On occasion, there seems to be a gap between skills transferred in China and the ground realities in Africa.
  • In some cases, the technology taught in China is not available locally and in others, there is inability to implement lessons learnt due to the absence of supporting resources.
  • Larger commercial farms run by Mandarin-speaking managers and the presence of small-scale Chinese farmers in local markets aggravates socio-cultural stresses.

India’s agricultural engagement

  • Diverse portfolios: India-Africa agricultural cooperation currently includes institutional and individual capacity-building initiatives, an extension of soft loans, supply of machinery, acquisition of farmlands and the presence of Indian entrepreneurs in the African agricultural ecosystem.
  • Land acquisition: Indian farmers have purchased over 6,00,000 hectares of land for commercial farming in Africa.
  • States cooperation: Sub-national actors are providing another model of cooperation in agriculture. Consider the case of the Kerala government trying to meet its requirement for cashew nuts with imports from countries in Africa.
  • Civil society: Similar ideas could encourage State governments and civil society organizations to identify opportunities and invest directly.
  • Agri-business: There is also promise in incentivizing Indian industries to tap into African agri-business value chains and connecting Indian technology firms and startups with partners in Africa.
  • Investment: In the past year, despite the pandemic, the sector witnessed a record increase in investments.

Way forward

  • A thorough impact assessment needs to be conducted of the existing capacity-building initiatives in agriculture for India to stand in good stead.
  • This could include detailed surveys of participants who have returned to their home countries.
  • Country-specific and localized curriculum can be drawn up, making skill development demand-led.
  • In all senses, India has consistently chosen well to underline the development partnership to be in line with African priorities.
  • It is pertinent, therefore, that we collectively craft a unique modern partnership with Africa.

Conclusion

  • While India’s Africa strategy exists independently, it is important to be cognizant of China’s increasing footprint in the region.
  • Beijing’s model, if successful here, could be heralded as a replica for the larger global south.
  • It is important to note, however, that prominent African voices have emphasized that their own agency is often overlooked in the global discourse on the subject.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Foreign Policy Watch: India-Middle East

India-Turkey relations

op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: India & Its Neighborhood - Relations
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Turkey's rising space in geopolitical arena

As a new round of geopolitical jousting begins on India’s north-western frontiers, Delhi must deal with a number of new actors that have carved out a role for themselves in the region.

Overambitious Turkey

  • Our focus today is on Turkey’s regional ambitions (particularly in Afghanistan) and their implications for India.
  • Ankara is in negotiations with the US on taking charge of the Kabul airport which is critical for an international presence in Afghanistan that is coming under the Taliban’s control.
  • Turkey has been running Kabul airport security for a while, but doing so after the US pullout will be quite demanding.
  • Taking a longer view, though, Turkey is not a new regional actor in India’s northwest.

Turkey and Afghanistan

  • Ankara and Kabul have recently celebrated the centennial of the establishment of diplomatic relations.
  • Through this century, Turkey has engaged purposefully with Afghanistan over a wide domain.
  • While it joined the NATO military mission in Afghanistan after the ouster of the Taliban at the end of 2001, Turkey avoided any combat role and differentiated itself from the Western powers.
  • Ankara has contributed to the training of the Afghan military and police forces.
  • It has also undertaken much independent humanitarian and developmental work.

Affinity with Pakistan

  • Turkey’s good relations with both Afghanistan and Pakistan have also given space for Ankara to present itself as a mediator between the warring South Asian neighbours.
  • Turkey’s “Heart of Asia” conference or the Istanbul Process has been a major diplomatic vehicle for attempted Afghan reconciliation in the last few years.
  • Widespread goodwill for Turkey in Afghanistan has now come in handy for the US in managing some elements of the post-withdrawal phase.
  • In Pakistan, PM Imran Khan has rallied behind Erdogan’s ambition to seize the leadership of the Islamic world from Saudi Arabia.
  • Pakistan’s Army Chief had to step in to limit the damage with Saudi Arabia, which has long been Pakistan’s major economic benefactor.

Challenges for India

  • Turkey’s growing role in Afghanistan opens a more difficult phase in relations between Delhi and Ankara.
  • India’s opposition to alliances and Turkey’s alignments reflected divergent international orientations of Delhi and Ankara after the Second World War.
  • And Turkey’s deepening bilateral military-security cooperation with Pakistan made it even harder for Delhi to take a positive view of Ankara.
  • Turkey and Pakistan were part of the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) that was set up in 1955 by the British.
  • Although CENTO eventually wound up in 1979, Turkey and Pakistan remained close partners in a number of regional organizations and international forums like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Pre-Erdogan era Turkey

  • The shared secular values between Delhi and Ankara in the pre-Erdogan era were not enough to overcome the strategic differences between the two in the Cold War.
  • To make matters more complicated, the positive legacy of the Subcontinent’s solidarity with the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic, emerged out of its ruins in the early 20th century, accrued mostly to Pakistan.
  • There were moments — during the tenures of PM Rajiv Gandhi and Mr Vajpayee, when India and Turkey seemed poised for a more productive relationship.
  • But those have been rather few and far between.

Turkey’s departure from Secularism

  • Meanwhile, Turkey’s Islamist internationalism under Recep Tayyip Erdogan has inevitably led to its deeper alliance with Pakistan, greater meddling in South Asia, and a sharper contraction with India.
  • The Pakistani prism through which Delhi has long seen Ankara, however, has prevented it from fully appreciating the growing strategic salience of Turkey.
  • Erdogan’s active claim for leadership of the Islamic world has seen a more intensive Turkish political, religious, and cultural outreach to the Subcontinent’s 600 million Muslims.

Self-goals on Kashmir

  • Turkey has become the most active international supporter of Pakistan on the Kashmir question.
  • Delhi is aware of Erdogan’s hypocrisy on minority rights.
  • While pitching for self-determination in Kashmir, Erdogan actively tramples on the rights of its Kurdish minority at home and confronts them across Turkey’s border in Syria and Iraq.

Other ambitions in Asia

  • Erdogan was quick to condemn the Bangladesh government’s hanging of a senior extremist leader in 2016.
  • But in a reflection of his strategic suppleness, Erdogan also offered strong political support for Dhaka on the Rohingya refugee crisis.
  • As Bangladesh emerges as an attractive economy, Ankara is now stepping up its commercial cooperation with Dhaka.
  • Turkey, which hosted the Caliphate in the Ottoman era, had natural spiritual resonance among the South Asian Muslims.

Riving the Caliphate

  • With the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924, Turkey’s Westernization under Ataturk reduced its religious significance.
  • Erdogan’s Islamist politics are about regaining that salience.
  • Erdogan’s strategy marks the declining relevance of the old antinomies — between alliances and autonomy, East and West, North and South, Islam and the West, Arabs and the Jews — that so resonate with the traditional Indian foreign policy discourse.

Stance on Israel

  • Turkey was the first Muslim-majority nation that established full diplomatic relations with Israel.
  • Erdogan now actively mobilizes the Arab and Islamic world against Israel without breaking relations with Tel Aviv.
  • Erdogan’s outrage on Israel is about presenting himself as a better champion of Palestine than his Arab rivals.

India’s option against Turkey

  • India, which has been at the receiving end of Erdogan’s internationalism, has multiple options in pushing back.
  • The recent naval exercise between India and Greece in the Mediterranean offers a small hint of India’s possibilities in Turkey’s neighbourhood.
  • Many Arab leaders reject Erdogan’s policies that remind them of Ottoman imperialism.
  • They resent Erdogan’s support of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood that seek to overthrow moderate governments in the Middle East.
  • There is much that India can do to up its game in the Arab world.

Lessons for India

  • The new fluidity in geopolitics in India’s extended neighbourhood to the west.
  • Agency for regional powers is growing as the influence of great power weakens.
  • Religious ideology, like the more secular ones, is a cover for the pursuit of power.
  • Finally, Erdogan has carefully modulated his confrontation with major powers by avoiding a breakdown in relations.

Conclusion

  • For Erdogan, the choices are not between black and white. That should be a good guide for India’s own relations with Turkey.
  • Delhi needs to vigorously challenge Turkey’s positions where it must, seize the opportunities opened by regional resentments against Erdogan’s adventurism, and at the same time prepare for a more intensive bilateral engagement with Ankara.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Human Rights Issues

Draft Anti-trafficking Bill 2021

Bills/Act/Laws | Polity | Mains Paper 1: Population & Associated Issues
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Draft Anti-trafficking Bill 2021

The Ministry of Women and Child Welfare has invited suggestions and comments for its Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021 which it has released.

A re-attempted legislation

  • A previous draft had been introduced in 2018 and had been passed by Lok Sabha despite stiff opposition from both parliamentarians as well as experts.
  • It was later never introduced in Rajya Sabha.
  • Experts say that nearly all the concerns raised in 2018 have been addressed in this new draft Bill.

Draft Anti-trafficking Bill 2021

The Bill has increased the scope of the nature of offences of trafficking as well as the kind of victims of these offences, with stringent penalties including life imprisonment, and even the death penalty in cases of an extreme nature.

Types of offenders

  • The scope of the Bill vis offenders will also include defence personnel and government servants, doctors and paramedical staff or anyone in a position of authority.

Penalty

  • In most cases of child trafficking, especially in the case of the trafficking of more than one child, the penalty is now life imprisonment.
  • While the penalty will hold a minimum of seven years which can go up to an imprisonment of 10 years and a fine of Rs 5 lakh.
  • In certain cases, even the death penalty can be sought.

Definition of exploitation

  • Exploitation has been defined to include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation including pornography.
  • It also includes any act of physical exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or forced removal of organs, illegal clinical drug trials or illegal bio-medical research.

Victims covered

  • The Bill also extends beyond the protection of women and children as victims to now include transgenders as well as any person who may be a victim of trafficking.
  • It also does away with the provision that a victim necessarily needs to be transported from one place to another to be defined as a victim.

Investigation Agency

  • The National Investigation Agency (NIA) shall act as the national investigating and coordinating agency responsible for the prevention and combating of trafficking in persons.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

Person in news: Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair

Prelims Only | | Mains Paper 1: Modern Indian History
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair

Mains level: Not Much

A noted filmmaker has recently announced his decision to produce the biopic of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair, an acclaimed lawyer and judge in the Madras High Court and one of the early builders of the Indian National Congress.

Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair

  • Nair was born in the year 1857 in Mankara village of Malabar’s Palakkad district.
  • He belonged to an aristocratic family and his great grandfather was employed by the East India Company to enforce peace in the Malabar region.
  • His grandfather was employed as the chief officer under the Civilian Divisional Officer.

His legal career

  • Nair was drawn towards Law while he was completing his graduation from Presidency College in Madras.
  • After completing his degree in Law, he was hired by Sir Horatio Shepherd who later became the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.
  • Since his early days as a lawyer, Nair was known for his defiant attitude.
  • He went against a resolution passed by Indian vakils (advocates) of Madras stating that no Indian vakil would work as a junior to an English barrister.
  • His stance on the issue made him so unpopular that he was boycotted by the other vakils, but he refused to let that bother him.

Legacy

  • Nair was known for being a passionate advocate for social reforms and a firm believer in the self-determination of India.
  • But what really stood out in his long glorious career is a courtroom battle he fought against the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, Michael O’Dwyer.
  • Nair had accused O’Dwyer in his book, ‘Gandhi and anarchy’ for being responsible for the atrocities at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
  • Consequently, he was fighting against an Englishman, in an English court that was presided over by an English jury.
  • In all senses, the case was bound to make history.
  • When the 1908 Montague-Chelmsford reforms were being discussed, he wrote an article in the Contemporary Review criticizing the English jury for being partial towards Englishmen.
  • This infuriated the Anglo-Indian community who petitioned the Viceroy and the Secretary of State for India objecting to his appointment as high court judge the first time.
  • He was once described by Edwin Montague, the secretary of state for India as an ‘impossible person’.

Key positions held

  • In 1897 he became the youngest president of the INC in the history of the party till then, and the only Malayali to hold the post ever.
  • By 1908 he was appointed as a permanent judge in the Madras High Court. In 1902 Lord Curzon appointed him a member of the Raleigh University Commission.
  • In 1904 he was appointed as Companion of the Indian Empire by the King-Emperor and in 1912 he was knighted.
  • In 1915 he became part of the Viceroy’s Council, put in charge of the education portfolio.

Career as judge

  • As a Madras High Court judge, his best-known judgments clearly indicate his commitment to social reforms.
  • In Budasna v Fatima (1914), he passed a radical judgement when he ruled that those who converted to Hinduism cannot be treated as outcasts.
  • In a few other cases, he upheld inter-caste and inter-religious marriages.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

Arctic’s ‘Last Ice Area’

Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Climatic Change
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Last Ice Area

Mains level: Climate Change

A part of the Arctic’s ice called the “Last Ice Area”, located north of Greenland, has melted before expected. Scientists had believed this area was strong enough to withstand global warming.

What is the Last Ice Area?

  • In an article published in 2015, National Geographic noted that climate projections forecast the total disappearance of summer ice in the Arctic by the year 2040.
  • However, the only place that would be able to withstand a warming climate would be this area of ice called the “Last Ice Area”.
  • But while this piece of ice above northern Canada and Greenland was expected to last the longest time, it is now showing signs of melting.
  • WWF claims that WWF-Canada was the first to call this area the‘ Last Ice Area’.

Why is the area important?

  • The area is important because it was thought to be able to help ice-dependent species as ice in the surrounding areas melted away.
  • The area is used by polar bears to hunt for seals who use ice to build dens for their offspring.
  • Walruses too, use the surface of the ice for food search.

When did the area start changing?

  • The first sign of change in LIA was observed in 2018.
  • Further, in August last year, sea ice showed its “vulnerability” to the long-term effects of climate change.
  • The ice in LIA has been thinning gradually over the years much like other parts of the Arctic Ocean.

What are the reasons that explain the change?

  • About 80 per cent of thinning can be attributed to weather-related factors such as winds that break up and move the ice around.
  • The remaining 20 per cent can be attributed to the longer-term thinning of the ice due to global warming.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Indian Army Updates

Indian Army Memorial in Italy

Prelims Only | Security Issues | Mains Paper 1:
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: World History: India's contribution in two World Wars

During his four-day visit to the UK and Italy, the Indian Army Chief will inaugurate the Indian Army Memorial at Cassino in Italy, about 140 km away from Rome.

What is the memorial about?

  • The memorial commemorates over 3,100 Commonwealth servicemen who took part in the effort to liberate Italy in World War II.
  • Apart from this, 900 Indian soldiers were also commemorated on this memorial.

What was happening in Italy in WWII?

  • Under Benito Mussolini, Italy had joined Nazi Germany in 1936 and in 1940 it entered WWII (1939-1945) against the Allies.
  • But in 1943, Mussolini was overthrown and instead, Italy declared war on Germany.
  • The invasion of Italy by the Allies coincided with an armistice that was made with the Italians.
  • Even so, the UK’s National Army Museum notes that for two years during WWII, Italy became one of the war’s most “exhausting campaigns” because they were facing a skilled and resolute enemy.

What was India’s involvement in World War II?

  • In the first half of the 1940s, India was still under British rule and the Indian Army fought in both the world wars.
  • It comprised both Indian and European soldiers.
  • Apart from this, there was the East India Company Army that also recruited both Indian and European soldiers and the British Army, which was also present in India.

India the largest volunteer

  • Indian Army was the largest volunteer force during WWII, with over 2.5 million (more than 20 lakh) Indians participating.
  • These troops fought the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) as part of the Allies.
  • By 1945, the Allies had won, Italy had been liberated, Adolf Hitler was dead and India was barely a couple of years short of independence.
  • However, while millions of Indians participated, their efforts are not always recognized.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Primary and Secondary Education – RTE, Education Policy, SEQI, RMSA, Committee Reports, etc.

[pib] NIPUN Bharat Programme

PIB | Governance | : Health & Education
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NIPUN Bharat

Mains level: Not Much

Union Minister for Education has launched a National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat).

NIPUN Bharat

  • This scheme aims for ensuring that every child in the country necessarily attains foundational literacy.
  • It has been launched under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha.
  • It would cover the learning needs of children in the age group of 3 to 9 years.
  • The unique feature is that the goals of the Mission are set in the form of Lakshya Soochi or Targets for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy.
  • The Lakshyas are based on the learning outcomes developed by the NCERT and international research and ORF studies.

Envisaged outcomes

  • Foundational skills enable to keep children in class thereby reducing the dropouts and improve transition rate from primary to upper primary and secondary stages.
  • Activity-based learning and a conducive learning environment will improve the quality of education.
  • Innovative pedagogies such as toy-based and experiential learning will be used in classroom transactions thereby making learning a joyful and engaging activity.
  • Intensive capacity building of teachers
  • Since almost every child attends early grades, therefore, focus at that stage will also benefit the socio-economic disadvantageous group thus ensuring access to equitable and inclusive quality education.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Solar Energy – JNNSM, Solar Cities, Solar Pumps, etc.

Rajasthan’s rural power solution that other states can emulate

op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways Etc.
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Climate proofing

Mains level: Paper 3- Decentralised model of solar power generation

Power regulatory body in Rajasthan recently ordered discoms to solarise unelectrified public schools. The move has several benefits and therefore can be emulated by the other states as well. 

Expanded electricity access in rural areas and shortcomings in it

  • Estimates suggest that India has doubled the electrified rural households, from 55% in 2010 to 96% in 2020.
  • However, the measure of access to power supply has been the number of households that have been connected to the electricity grid.
  • This measure discounts large areas of essential and productive human activities such as public schools and primary health centres.
  • And despite greater electrification, power supply is often unreliable in rural areas.

Solar energy: Solution to electrification in remote parts

  • To address the above problems, the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission (RERC) has ordered the State’s discoms to solarise unelectrified public schools.
  • The RERC has also suggested installation of batteries to ensure storage of power.
  • Apart from enabling education, this ruling would benefit several other crucial aspects of rural life.
  • The RERC order also directed discoms to seek corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for the solarising drive and allows schools ownership of the power systems in a phased manner.
  • This removes the burden of infrastructure development expenses on discoms, while also ensuring clean energy for the schools.
  • The power that is generated could also be counted towards the discoms’ Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO).
  • Large-scale projects are generally financed by companies that wish to profit from economies of scale.
  • They are less interested in investing in rural electricity as it is not as lucrative.
  • Large-grid based projects add to the supply of power in urban areas, and therefore, only marginally further greater energy access goals.

The decentralised model of power generation

  • While Rajasthan has land mass with vast, sparsely populated tracts available to install solar parks, bulk infrastructure of this scale is susceptible to extreme weather events.
  • With climate change increasing the possibility of such events, a decentralised model of power generation would prove to be more climate resilient.
  • With battery storage, the susceptibility of grid infrastructure to extreme weather events could be mitigated.
  • This is called climate proofing.
  • As solar installations become inexpensive and with rapidly advancing battery storage technologies, decentralised solar power generation has become a reality.

Conclusion

The ruling by Rajasthan’s power regulator not only helps in increasing access to electricity, achieving targets of renewable energy but also suggests solutions that other States could emulate.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Indian Army Updates

The problem now with the military synergy plan

op-ed snap | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Various Security Forces, Agencies & Their Mandates
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Integrated Theatre Commands

Mains level: Issues over the constitution of ITC

The recent controversy over the alleged marginalization of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the proposed ‘theaterisation’ of the national security landscape has led to some debates.

IAF concerned over ITC

  • The Indian military continues to work in silos, like all governmental agencies in India, and a need was rightly felt and directions issued by PM to bring about jointness.
  • The aim is to bring about synergy in operations while economizing through the elimination of duplication and wasteful practices or processes.
  • IAF is keen to bring in the requisite reforms to improve the war-fighting capabilities of the Indian military as a whole while also economizing.

Reservations of IAF

  • In the current formulation of theatres, the objections from the IAF have essentially been due to air power being seen as an adjunct to the two surface forces.
  • IAF veterans feel that the IAF is being divided into penny packets which would seriously degrade the effectiveness of air operations in any future conflict or contingency.
  • They feel that the use of air power is found to be sub-optimal under the military ethos of “an order is an order”.

Hurry by the CDS

  • Concurrently, such an intellectual exercise would identify duplication, wasteful resources and practices.
  • This is what the CDS should have been pursuing before first freezing the structure and then trying to glue the pieces together or hammer square pegs in round holes.
  • Only such a strategy can define the types of contingencies the military is expected to address, leading to appropriate military strategies, doctrines and required capabilities.

Why is the IAF right?

  • Airpower is the lead element, particularly since the Indian political aim, even in the foreseeable future, is unlikely to be the occupation of new territories.
  • A large, manpower-intensive army with unusable armour formations would then also come into focus.
  • Even the proposed air defence command conflicts with the domain command in the seamless employment of airpower.
  • It is due to the absence of such an intellectual exercise that the IAF does not wish to see its limited resources scattered away in fighting defensive battles by a land force commander with little expertise.
  • The Army fails to realise that offensive air power is best not seen, busy keeping the enemy air force pinned down elsewhere as shown in 1971.

The Army-Air Force silo

  • Historically, the Indian Army has always kept the IAF out of the information loop and demonstrated a penchant to ‘go it alone’.
  • The charge that the IAF joined the party late during Kargil (1999) is also totally baseless and shows a lack of knowledge of events and a failure to learn from historical facts.
  • Recorded facts and a dispassionate view would clearly show that the IAF began conducting reconnaissance missions as soon as the Army just made a request for attack helicopters.
  • This despite the IAF pointing out the unsuitability of armed helicopters at these altitudes and their vulnerability.
  • The use of offensive air power close to the Line of Control also required that the political leadership be kept informed due to possibilities of escalation, something that the Army was unwilling to do.

Echoes from Kargil

  • Seen in this light, the Chinese incursion into Eastern Ladakh last year is reminiscent of Kargil.
  • While the response has been swift, it is evident that a clear intent to use combat air power, as against 1962, has significantly contributed in deterring China.
  • However, such intent and a joint strategy would have been forcefully signalled by the presence of air force representatives in the ongoing negotiations to restore status quo ante.
  • The continuing build-up of the infrastructure for the PLA Air Force in Tibet further emphasizes the need for an air-land strategy, with air power as the lead element to deter or defeat the Chinese designs at coercion.

National security strategy should be at the centerstage

  • If war is the continuation of politics by other means, then it is essential to first define the political objectives flowing into a national security strategy before any effective use of force can be truly contemplated.
  • The failures of the mightiest militaries in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and even our own Indian misadventure in Sri Lanka bear testimony to the lack of clear political objectives and appropriate military strategies.
  • It is, therefore, unfortunate that even after over seven decades after Independence, India still does not have a clearly articulated national security strategy.

Address the structural gaps

  • Finally, theatre or any lower structure requires an institutionalized higher defence organization, which has been sadly missing.
  • This has lead to little regular dialogue between the political and military leadership, except in crises resulting in knee-jerk responses.
  • This led to a remark from a scholar-warrior that, “it is ironic that the Cabinet has an Accommodation Committee but not a Defence Committee”.
  • In the current proposal, it appears that the CDS, as the permanent chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC), would also exercise operational control of the theatre/functional commands.

Way forward

  • Prudence demands that instead of ramming down such structures without adequate deliberations and discussions with all stakeholders.
  • We need to first evolve appropriate military strategies in a nuclear backdrop in concert with the political objectives.
  • Thereafter, joint planning and training for all foreseen contingencies, with war-gaming, would automatically indicate the required structures with suitable command, control and communications.

Conclusion

  • We must remember that in war there is no prize for the runner-up.
  • It is better that such objections and dissenting opinions come out now before the structure is formalized than once it is set in stone.
  • The nation would then end up paying a heavy price, with the Air Force carrying the burden and blame for the failures.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Animal Husbandry, Dairy & Fisheries Sector – Pashudhan Sanjivani, E- Pashudhan Haat, etc

Why the dairy sector needs more private players

op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Economics Of Animal-Rearing
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Operation Flood

Mains level: India's dairy sector

One of India’s largest dairy cooperative societies has just raised its milk prices for consumers by Rs 2/litre and this has become national news.

Sparking off a debate

  • Many in the media are debating how this will push up Consumer Price Index causing inflationary pressures, which may soon force the RBI to change its “accommodative stance” on monetary policy.

Why such hues over Milk?

Milk is an important case study for our overall agriculture sector.

  • First, milk is our biggest agri-commodity in terms of value, greater than paddy (rice), wheat, and sugarcane combined.
  • Second, India is the largest producer of milk in the world with an estimated production of about 208 million tonnes in 2020-21, way above its closest competitor, the US, whose milk production hovers around 100 million tonnes.
  • Third, our dairy sector is dominated by smallholders with an average herd size of 4-5 animals.
  • Fourth, and this is important, there is no minimum support price (MSP) for milk. It is more like a contract between the company and the farmers.

How is the milk price determined?

  • The price of milk is largely determined by the overall forces of demand and supply.
  • Increasing costs of production enter through the supply side, but the demand side cannot be ignored.
  • As a result of all this, the overall growth in the dairy sector for the last 20 years has been between 4-5 per cent per annum, and lately, it has accelerated to even 6 per cent.

Concerns of dairy farmers

  • For dairy farmers, this increase in milk prices is not commensurate to the increase in their feed and other costs, and they feel that their margins are getting squeezed.
  • They also feel that this price still does not count their logistics cost.

Transformation since Op Flood

  • It is well known that “Operation Flood” (OF) that started in the 1970s transformed this sector.
  • The institutional innovation of a cooperative model, steered by Verghese Kurien, changed the structure of this sector.
  • However, even after five decades, cooperatives processed only 10 per cent of the overall milk production.
  • India needed the double-engine force of the organised private sector to process another 10 per cent.
  • The doors for the private sector were opened partially with the 1991 reforms, but fully in 2002-03 under the leadership of Vajpayee, when the dairy sector was completely de-licenced.

Rise of dairypreneurs

  • Many start-ups “dairypreneurs” have come in promising a farm-to-home experience of milk.
  • There is one company that delivers fresh milk at the consumer’s doorstep and gives quality testing kits at home.
  • These have digitized cattle health, milk production, milk procurement, milk testing, and cold chain management.

Effective breeding

  • Sexed semen technology helps in predetermining the sex of offspring by sorting X and Y chromosomes from the natural sperm mix.
  • This can solve the problem of unwanted bulls on Indian roads.
  • Although the current cost of sexed sorted semen is high, Maharashtra has taken a bold step in subsidizing it for artificial insemination.

Way forward

  • The upshot of all this is that let prices be determined by market forces, with marginal support from the government or cooperatives in times of extreme.
  • The major focus should be on innovations to cut down costs, raise productivity, ensure food safety, and be globally competitive.
  • That will help both farmers and consumers alike.
  • The cooperatives did a great job during OF, and are still doing that, but the private sector entering this sector in a big way has opened the gates of creativity and competition.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Foreign Policy Watch: India-Afghanistan

What lies ahead for Afghanistan after US exit?

| International Relations | Mains Paper 2: India & Its Neighborhood - Relations
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Turmoil in Afghanistan with US exit

The US troops are departing away after coordinating the 20-year-long war in Afghanistan, effectively ending their military operations in the country.

Why did the US invade Afghanistan?

  • Weeks after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the US declared war on Afghanistan.
  • It was then ruled by the Taliban.

Terror then gets safe heaven

  • Al-Qaeda’s leaders and key operatives fled to safe havens in Pakistan.
  • The US rejected an offer from the Taliban to surrender and vowed to defeat the insurgents in every corner of Afghanistan.
  • In 2003, US announced that major military operations in the country were over.
  • The US focus shifted to the Iraq invasion, while in Afghanistan, western powers helped build a centralized democratic system and institutions.
  • But that neither ended the war nor stabilised the country.

Why is the US pulling back?

  • The US had reached the conclusion long ago that the war was unwinnable.
  • It wanted a face-saving exit.

What are the terms of US exit?

  • Before the Doha talks started, the Taliban had maintained that they would hold direct talks only with the US, and not with the Kabul government, which they did not recognize.
  • The US effectively accepted this demand when they cut the Afghan government off the process and entered direct talks with the insurgents.
  • The deal dealt with four aspects of the conflict — violence, foreign troops, intra-Afghan peace talks and the use of Afghan soil by terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the IS.
  • According to the agreement, the Taliban promised to reduce violence, join intra-Afghan peace talks and cut all ties with foreign terrorist groups, while the US pledged to withdraw all its troops.

Present situation in Afghanistan

  • After the agreement was signed, the US put pressure on the Afghan government to release thousands of Taliban prisoners — a key Taliban precondition for starting intra-Afghan talks.
  • Talks between Taliban representatives and the Afghan government began in Doha in September 2020 but did not reach any breakthrough.
  • At present, the peace process is frozen. And the US is hurrying for the exit.
  • The Taliban reduced hostilities against foreign troops but continued to attack Afghan forces even after the agreement was signed.
  • Kabul maintains that the Pakistan support for the Taliban is allowing the insurgents to overcome military pressure and carry forward with their agenda.

Pakistani role in reviving Taliban

  • Pakistan was one of the three countries that had recognized the Taliban regime in the 1990s.
  • The Taliban captured much of the country with help from Pakistan’s ISI.
  • After the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan’s military dictator Musharraf, under pressure from the Bush administration, cut formal ties with the Taliban and joined America’s war on terror.
  • But Pakistan played a double game. It provided shelter to the Talabani leaders and regrouped their organization which helped them make a staged comeback in Afghanistan.
  • Pakistan successfully expected these groups to launch terror activities against India.

Again in the spotlight

  • A violent military takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban may not serve Pakistan’s core interests.
  • It wants to check India’s influence in Afghanistan and bring the Taliban to Kabul.
  • But a violent takeover, like in the 1990s, would lack international acceptability, leaving Afghanistan unstable for a foreseeable future.
  • In such a scenario, Pakistan could face another influx of refugees from Afghanistan and strengthening of anti-Pakistan terror groups, such as the Tehrik-i-Taliban.
  • From a strategic point of view, Pakistan would prefer the Taliban being accommodated in power through negotiations and a peaceful settlement.
  • But it’s not clear whether Pakistan has the capacity to shape the post-American outcome in Afghanistan.

Why is India reaching out to the Taliban?

  • India had made contacts with the Taliban in Doha. New Delhi has not denied reports of its outreach to the Taliban.
  • India has three critical areas in dealing with the Taliban:
  1. One, protecting its investments, which run into billions of rupees, in Afghanistan;
  2. Two, preventing a future Taliban regime from being a pawn of the ISI;
  3. Three, making sure that the Pakistan-backed anti-India terrorist groups do not get support from the Taliban.

Is the Afghanistan government doomed?

  • The American intelligence community has concluded that Kabul could fall within six months.
  • None of the global leaders are certain about the survival of the Afghan government.

Taliban is pacing its action

  • One thing is certain — the American withdrawal has turned the balance of power in the battleground in favour of the Taliban.
  • They are already making rapid advances, and could launch a major offensive targeting the city centers and provincial capitals once the last American leaves.

Future of Afghanistan

There seems three possibilities:

  1. One, there could be a political settlement in which the Taliban and the government agree to some power-sharing mechanism and jointly shape the future of Afghanistan. As of now, this looks like a remote possibility.
  2. Two, an all-out civil war may be possible, in which the government, economically backed and militarily trained by the West, holds on to its positions in key cities. This is already unfolding.
  3. A third scenario would be of the Taliban taking over the country.

Any nation planning to deal with Afghanistan should be prepared for all three scenarios.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

J&K – The issues around the state

Issues in Ladakh after abolition of Art. 370

| Polity | Mains Paper 2: Indian Constitution - historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Autonomous districts, Sixth Schedule

Mains level: Issues after reorganization of Jammu Kashmir

When Jammu and Kashmir were bifurcated into two UTs, Ladakh was seen welcoming the reorganization. However, different demands are coming from its two districts of Ladakh, Leh and Kargil.

Leh and Kargil, not alike

  • The leaders from Kargil demanded that the district should remain part of J&K.
  • The Leh-based Ladakh Buddhist Association has put forth its demand for an autonomous hill council under the Sixth Schedule, modelled on the lines of the Bodoland Territorial Council in Assam.
  • But what Leh leaders did not bargain for was the complete loss of legislative powers.
  • Earlier, the two districts each sent four representatives to the J&K legislature. After the changes, they were down to one legislator — their sole MP— with all powers vested in the UT bureaucracy.
  • Unlike the UT of J&K, Ladakh was a UT without an assembly.

What are their concerns?

  • What both Ladakh districts fear is the alienation of land, loss of identity, culture, language, and change in demography.
  • They fear that it will follow their political disempowerment.

Hill Development Councils

  • Leh and Kargil have separate Autonomous Hill Development Councils, set up under the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils Act, 1997.
  • However, the AHDCs have no legislative powers.
  • The councils are elected and have executive powers over the allotment, use and occupation of land vested in them by the Centre, and the powers to collect some local taxes, such as parking fees, taxes on shops etc.
  • But the real powers are now wielded by the UT administration, which is seen as even more remote than the erstwhile state government of J&K.

What is the sixth schedule?

  • The Sixth Schedule is a provision of Article 244(A) of the Constitution, originally meant for the creation of autonomous tribal regions in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.
  • Hill councils under this provision have legislative powers.

Evolving demands

  • But with no progress on Leh’s demand for Sixth Schedule protections, the Leh leadership has now upped its demands.
  • Other issues under discussion are protections for language, culture, land and jobs, plus a long-standing demand for a route between Kargil and Skardu in territory under Pakistan in Gilgit- Baltistan.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Join us across Social Media platforms.

💥Mentorship New Batch Launch
Click Here
💥Mentorship New Batch Launch
Click