Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: One Nation One Ration Card
Mains level: Paper 2- Labour law reforms in issues in implementation
Context
The central government has deferred the possible date of implementation of labour codes to October 1, 2021, prolonging the wait before employers and workers could enjoy the benefits extended by the labour codes.
Labour law reforms: Key provisions
- The government enacted the Code on Wages in August 2019 and the other three Codes, viz., the Industrial Relations Code, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code and Code on Social Security (CSS) in September 2020.
- Universal minimum wage: The codes would extend universal minimum wages and social security, enable enhanced industrial safety and the provision of social security to gig workers, among other things.
- Recognition of trade unions: The Industrial Relations Code provides for recognition of trade union(s) by employers, a labour right that eluded workers for seven decades.
- Flexibility to employers: Employers celebrated the extension of tremendous flexibility to them, even those unasked, such as relief from framing standing orders for most firms.
- The central government has deferred the possible date of implementation to October 1, 2021.
Issues in implementation
- State’s have not issued draft rules: Major States such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi have not issued the draft rules under any codes.
- Even though the Code on Wages was enacted in August 2019, it was only in March 2021 that the central government notified the constitution of an advisory committee.
- Safety concerns persist: Industrial safety continues to be a grave concern even after the enactment of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code.
- Lack of clarity on the determination of minimum wage: On June 3, 2021, the government announced an expert committee with a tenure of three years to advise on minimum wages.
- Then, on July 12, 2021, the government announced that the wage index’s base year would be shifted from 1965 to 2019 to use the revised wage index to determine minimum wages.
- The Government seems to be facing difficulty regarding the implementation of minimum wages.
Conclusion
Despite the gazetting of four Codes, age-old laws are in force. That reflects poorly on the governance abilities of the governments.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Oil recovery rate
Mains level: Paper 3- Balancing the energy needs dependent on fossil fuel and environmental concerns
Context
The spread and speed of the destruction caused by climate change in recent weeks present our new Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas with a policy dilemma. The article offers five policy suggestions to deal with the dilemma.
Energy dilemma facing India
- The events of the past month all over the world have caught even the most alarmist of climate scientists by surprise.
- These events brought into sharp relief the reality that there was no option of denying the consequential implications of the use of fossil fuels.
- However, the dilemma India faces lies in the fact that the Indian economy is heavily dependent on fossil fuels and there is no end in sight to this dependence.
- Further, India imports approximately 85 percent of its crude oil requirements and is exposed to the volatility of the international oil market.
Five policy changes needed
1) Reduce emphasis on domestic exploration
- Not easy to locate and difficult to develop: A review of the public sector’s exploration and production (EP) track record suggests that whilst India may well be sitting on substantial hydrocarbon reserves, these reserves are not easy to locate and, even when located, difficult to develop and produce on a commercial basis.
- The government has often compounded this economic challenge by placing administrative limits on marketing by companies and their pricing freedom.
- High risk and structural softness in the market: The fundamental point is that EP in India is a high-risk activity, and this risk is even greater today because of the longer-term structural softness of the petroleum market.
- The resources earmarked for exploration can be deployed more productively elsewhere.
2) Increase productivity of producing fields
- The ONGC needs to allocate increasing resources to improving the productivity of its producing fields.
- Low oil recovery rate: The average oil recovery rate in India was around 28 percent that is, for every 100 molecules discovered, only 28 were monetized.
- This number did not compare well with the global average of around 45 percent for fields of comparable geology.
- Use technology: The application of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology offers a relatively low-risk avenue for increasing domestic production.
3) Increase strategic reserves
- We hold currently strategic reserves equivalent to 12 days of imports.
- The government has approved plans to increase this buffer to 25 days.
- By comparison, China, the EU, South Korea, and Japan hold between 70-100 days of reserves.
- A significant portion of our oil imports came from the Middle East, predominantly Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran.
- This region faces deep political and social fault lines and there is no knowing when our supply lines might get ruptured.
- We would, therefore, be well-advised to build contingency safeguards.
4) Restructure and reorganize public sector petroleum companies
- Consolidate upstream assets: In the first instance, the upstream assets should be consolidated under ONGC (the upstream assets of BPCL, IOC, HPCL, and GAIL should pass onto ONGC) and GAIL should be unbundled into a public utility gas pipeline company
- Diversify: Thereafter, these companies should be encouraged to look beyond hydrocarbons to build an “energy” enterprise.
- The restructuring will help cut back the “avoidable” costs of intra public sector competition.
- It will also reduce the inefficiencies of “sub-scale” operations.
- It will provide a focused platform for balancing the shorter-term need to provide secure and affordable hydrocarbons with the medium and longer-term imperative of developing clean energy.
5) Avoid siloed thinking
- The petroleum minister should not see his responsibility through the siloed prism of oil and natural gas.
- He should broaden the aperture and become the progenitor of the energy transition.
Conclusion
The dilemma referred to in the opening sentence will be easier to resolve our priorities are set within the framework of clean energy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CRPD
Mains level: Paper 2- Ensuring the dignity of persons with disability
Context
Twenty years ago on August 6 in Erwadi in Tamil Nadu’s Ramanathapuram, a fire broke out in a thatched shelter, engulfing 43 chained people who had psychosocial disabilities.
Legal provision for the persons with disabilities
- India ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2007.
- The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act was enacted in 2016.
- The Mental Healthcare Act (MHCA) was enacted in 2017.
Failure of the states
- Sates have failed to uphold the human rights of people with disabilities in general and those with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities in particular.
- Only eight states/UTs — Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Odisha, Kerala, and West Bengal — have framed rules for implementation of MHCA.
- Unless we implement the law in letter and spirit, the Global Mental Health Movement will remain a mere buzzword and the CRPD-reliant MHCA will remain a law only on paper.
Violations of rights in private asylums
- Private asylums survive because of their close proximity to faith-based healing centres.
- Because mental health conditions carry a high stigma, caregivers flock to these faith-based facilities in the hopes of finding a cure.
- Private players take advantage of their vulnerabilities, forcing such persons with psychosocial issues to be grouped together and chained in these shelters.
- Chaining in any way or form is outlawed under Section 95 of the MHCA.
Way forward
- Human right approach: We must work to ensure that the human rights approach to disability is integrated into mental health systems, education, law, and bureaucracy.
- We move away from pathologisation, segregation, and a charity-based approach.
Conclusion
Implementation of rights of the persons with disability needs implementation in letter and spirit and human rights based approach.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Plastics Pact
Mains level: Paper 3- Plastic waste challenge
Context
The India Plastics Pact, the first in Asia, will be launched in September at the CII Annual Sustainability Summit.
Issue of plastic waste
- A 2019 report by the Center for International Environmental Law suggests that by 2050, greenhouse gas emissions from plastic could reach over 56 gigatonnes, 10-13% of the remaining carbon budget.
- Connection with livelihood: Viewed from the angle of livelihoods, post-consumer segregation, collection and disposal of plastics make up about half of the income of 1.5- 4 million waste-pickers in India.
- For India, the solution must be multi-pronged, systemic, and large scale, to create a visible impact. The Plastics Pacts model offers such a solution.
About Plastics Pacts model
- Business-led initiative: The Plastics Pacts are business-led initiatives and transform the plastics packaging value chain for all formats and products.
- The Pacts bring together everyone from across the plastics value chain to implement practical solutions.
- Integral to the Pact’s framework is the involvement of the informal waste sector crucial to post-consumer segregation, collection and processing of plastic waste.
- All Pacts unite behind four targets:
- 1) To eliminate unnecessary and problematic plastic packaging through redesign and innovation.
- 2) To ensure all plastic packaging is reusable or recyclable.
- 3) To increase the reuse, collection, and recycling of plastic packaging.
- 4) To increase recycled content in plastic packaging.
- It is active in a number of countries including the U.K., South Africa, and Australia.
- The first Plastics Pact was launched in the U.K. in 2018, by WRAP, a global NGO based in the U.K.
- It is now being brought to India by CII and WWF India.
Advantages
- Economic advantage: It can be expected to boost demand for recycled content, investments in recycling infrastructure, jobs in the waste sector, and beyond.
- Support EPR framework: The Pact will support the Extended Producer Responsibility framework of the government and improve solid waste management as envisioned in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
- The India Plastics Pact focuses on solutions and innovation.
- Plastic production and management development: The Pact will encourage the development and maturing of the entire plastics production and management ecosystem.
- Drive circulatory of plastic: Apart from benefits to society and economy, delivering the targets will drive the circularity of plastics and help tackle pollution.
Conclusion
The India Plastics Pact will benefit society, the economy and the environment.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Need for maritime cooperation
A week into India’s United Nations Security Council (UNSC) presidency, PM Modi has outlined a five-point framework for maritime security debate at UNSC.
Maritime Security
- Maritime security is one of the latest buzzwords of international relations.
- Major actors in maritime policy, ocean governance and international security have in the past decade started to include maritime security in their mandate or reframed their work in such terms.
- Core dimensions of maritime security involves the concept of blue economy, food security and the resilience of coastal populations.
- A secure maritime environment provides the precondition for managing marine resources.
Threats to maritime security
Need for an agenda
- In today’s economy, the oceans have an increased importance, allowing all countries to participate in the global marketplace.
- More than 80 percent of the world’s trade travels by water and forges a global maritime link.
- About half the world’s trade by value, and 90 percent of the general cargo, are transported in containers.
- Many countries have invested significant resources in maritime infrastructure, trade, energy supply chains, cargo movements and processes.
- China, undeniably a continental country, claims sovereignty over all of the South China Sea islands and their adjacent waters.
5-point agenda for enhancing maritime cooperation
[1] Removal of barriers to legitimate maritime trade:
- Global prosperity depends on the active flow of maritime trade. Any hindrance in maritime trade can threaten the global economy, PM said.
- Maritime trade has always been part of the civilizational ethos of India.
- PM termed this principle as ‘SAGAR’ Security and Growth for All in the Region.
[2] Resolution of maritime disputes peacefully in accordance with international law:
[3] Fight threats from natural disasters, non-state actors:
- PM said the Indian Navy has been patrolling to counter piracy in the Indian Ocean since 2008.
- It is enhancing the common maritime domain awareness of the region through our White Shipping Information Fusion Centre.
- India has provided support for hydrographic surveying and training of maritime security personnel to several countries.
[4] Conservation of marine resources:
- Our oceans directly impact our climate. Hence, it is very important that we keep our maritime environment free of pollutants like plastic waste and oil spills.
- We also need to take joint steps against over-fishing and marine poaching, PM said.
- He also emphasized the need for increased mutual cooperation in Ocean Science research.
[5] Promoting responsible maritime connectivity:
- PM said it is well understood that the creation of infrastructure is necessary to boost maritime trade.
- He advocated for appropriate global norms and standards to ensure that such infrastructure projects are carried out as per the fiscal sustainability and absorption capacity of the host countries.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)
Mains level: Assessing Climate Change impact
According to the IPCC’s Report (AR6), the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is losing its stability.
What is AMOC?
- The AMOC is a large system of ocean currents.
- It is the Atlantic branch of the ocean conveyor belt or Thermohaline circulation (THC), and distributes heat and nutrients throughout the world’s ocean basins.
- AMOC carries warm surface waters from the tropics towards the Northern Hemisphere, where it cools and sinks.
- It then returns to the tropics and then to the South Atlantic as a bottom current. From there it is distributed to all ocean basins via the Antarctic circumpolar current.
- Gulf Stream, a part of the AMOC, is a warm current responsible for mild climate at the Eastern coast of North America as well as Europe.
What happens if AMOC collapses?
- Colder Europe: Without a proper AMOC and Gulf Stream, Europe will be very cold.
- Rainfall decline: Modelling studies have shown that an AMOC shutdown would cool the northern hemisphere and decrease rainfall over Europe.
- El-Nino trigger: It can also have an effect on the El Nino.
- Cooling of Atlantic: AMOC collapse could bring about large, markedly different climate responses: a prominent cooling over the northern North Atlantic and neighboring areas.
- Weaker thermohaline: Freshwater from melting Greenland ice sheets and the Arctic region can make circulation weaker as it is not as dense as salt water and doesn’t sink to the bottom.
Has the AMOC weakened before?
- AMOC and THC strength has always been fluctuating, mainly if you look at the late Pleistocene time period (last 1 million years).
- The extreme glacial stages have seen weaker circulation and slowdown in AMOC, while the glacial terminations have shown a stronger AMOC and circulation.
- AMOC has been relatively stable until the late 19th century.
- With the end of the little ice age in about 1850, the ocean currents began to decline, with a second, more drastic decline following since the mid-20th century.
Why is the AMOC slowing down?
- Climate models have long predicted that global warming can cause a weakening of the major ocean systems of the world.
- Last month researchers noted that a part of the Arctic’s ice called “Last Ice Area” has also melted.
- The freshwater from the melting ice reduces the salinity and density of the water. Now, the water is unable to sink as it used to and weakens the AMOC flow.
Influence of Indian Ocean
- Another study suggested that the Indian Ocean may also be helping the slowing down of AMOC.
- As the Indian Ocean warms faster and faster, it generates additional precipitation.
- With so much precipitation in the Indian Ocean, there will be less precipitation in the Atlantic Ocean, leading to higher salinity in the waters of the tropical portion of the Atlantic.
- This saltier water in the Atlantic, as it comes north via AMOC, will get cold much quicker than usual and sink faster.
- This acts as a jump start for AMOC, intensifying the circulation.
Now try this:
Q.With reference to Ocean Mean Temperature (OMT), which of the following statements is/are correct? (CSP 2020)
- OMT is measured up to a depth of 26ºC isotherm which is 129 meters in the south-western Indian Ocean during January-March.
- OMT collected during January-March can be used in assessing whether the amount of rainfall in monsoon will be less or more than a certain long-term mean.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Post your answers here:
Back2Basics: Ocean Currents
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Government e-Marketplace
Mains level: Not Much
The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) system has resulted in a 10% savings in public procurement costs in five years.
Government e-Marketplace
- GeM is an online platform for public procurement in India by various Government Departments / Organizations / PSUs.
- The initiative was launched on August 9, 2016 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with the objective to create an open and transparent procurement platform for government buyers.
- It is owned by GeM SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) which is a 100 per cent Government-owned, non-profit company under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries
- GeM aims to enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement.
- It provides the tools of e-bidding, reverse e-auction and demand aggregation to facilitate the government users achieve the best value for their money.
- The purchases through GeM by Government users have been authorized and made mandatory by Ministry of Finance.
Note: The government has made it mandatory for sellers on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal to clarify the country of origin of their goods when registering new products.
Advantages for Buyers
- Offers rich listing of products for individual categories of Goods/Services
- Makes available search, compare, select and buy facility
- Enables buying Goods and Services online, as and when required.
- Provides transparency and ease of buying
- Ensures continuous vendor rating system
- Up-to-date user-friendly dashboard for buying, monitoring supplies and payments
- Provision of easy return policy
Advantages for Sellers
- Direct access to all Government departments.
- One-stop shop for marketing with minimal efforts
- One-stop shop for bids / reverse auction on products / services
- New Product Suggestion facility available to Sellers
- Dynamic pricing: Price can be changed based on market conditions
- Seller friendly dashboard for selling, and monitoring of supplies and payments
- Consistent and uniform purchase procedures
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PM-DAKSH Scheme
Mains level: Various initiaitves for Skilling India
Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment has launched the ‘PM-DAKSH’ Portal and ‘PM-DAKSH’ Mobile App.
About PM-DAKSH Scheme
- The PM-DAKSH stands for Pradhan Mantri Dakshta Aur Kushalta Sampann Hitgrahi (PM-DAKSH) Yojana.
- It is being implemented by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment from the year 2020-21.
- Under this scheme, eligible target group are being provided skill development training programmes on (i) Up-skilling/Re-skilling (ii) Short Term Training Programme (iii) Long Term Training Programme and (iv) Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP).
- These training programs are being implemented through Government Training Institutes, Sector Skill Councils constituted by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and other credible institutions.
PM-DAKSH Portal/App
- Any person can get all the information related to skill development training at one place by visiting the ‘PM-DAKSH’ Portal.
- Also, with just one click, one can get information about skill development trainings happening near him/her and he/she can easily register himself/herself for skill training.
Some of the features of this portal are as follows:
- Availability of all information related to skill development at one place for Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes and Safai Karamcharis.
- Facility to register for the training institute and program of their interest.
- Facility to upload desired documents related to personal information.
- Facility to register the attendance of the trainees through face and eye scanning during the training period.
- Monitoring facility through photo and video clip during training etc.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana
Mains level: Not Much
The Ministry of Rural Development has taken several measures for the successful implementation of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) Gram Panchayats.
Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY)
- SAGY is a village development project launched in October 2014, under which each Member of Parliament will take the responsibility of developing physical and institutional infrastructure in three villages by 2019.
- SAGY aims at instilling certain values in the villages and their people so that they get transformed into models for others.
These values include:
- Adopting people’s participation as an end in itself – ensuring the involvement of all sections of society in all aspects related to the life of village, especially in decision- making related to governance
- Adhering to Antyodaya – enabling the “poorest and the weakest person” in the village to achieve well being
- Affirming gender equality and ensuring respect for women
- Guaranteeing social justice
- Instilling dignity of labour and the spirit of community service and voluntarism
- Promoting a culture of cleanliness
- Living in consonance with nature – ensuring a balance between development and ecology
- Preserving and promoting local cultural heritage
- Inculcating mutual cooperation, self-help and self-reliance
- Fostering peace and harmony in the village community
- Bringing about transparency, accountability and probity in public life
- Nurturing local self-governance
- Adhering to the values enshrined in the Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties of the Indian Constitution
Identification of an Adarsh Gram
- A Gram Panchayat would be the basic unit.
- It will have a population of 3000-5000 in plain areas and 1000-3000 in hilly, tribal and difficult areas.
- In districts where this unit size is not available, Gram Panchayats approximating the desirable population size may be chosen.
- The MP would be free to identify a suitable Gram Panchayat for being developed as Adarsh Gram, other than his/her own village or that of his/her spouse.
- Lok Sabha MP has to choose a Gram Panchayat from within his/her constituency and Rajya Sabha MP a from the rural area of a district of his/her choice in the State from which he/she is elected.
- Nominated MPs may choose a Gram Panchayat from the rural area of any district in the country.
- In the case of urban constituencies, (where there are no Gram Panchayats), the MP will identify a Gram Panchayat from a nearby rural constituency.
- The newly elected MPs will have the option to select the GP of their choice.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Definition of Minority
Mains level: Not Much
The Ministry of Minority Affairs has provided some useful information about various initiatives for minorities.
A very interesting fact found in the article is that Minorities are identified by the States and not the Centre!
Defining a minority community
- The Central has notified minority communities at the national level in consultation with various stakeholders under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), Act,
- The six communities notified as minority communities under Section 2(c) of the NCM Act, 1992 are Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, Parsis, and Jains.
- Notification of any community-specific to a State as a minority community within a State comes under the purview of the State
- Article 29 and 30 of the Constitution provide for the protection of interest of minorities which includes linguistic minorities also.
Who are linguistic minorities?
- Linguistic Minorities are group or collectivities of individuals residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language or script of their own.
- The language of the minority group need not be one of the twenty-two languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
- In other words, linguistic minorities at the State level mean any group or groups of people whose mother tongues are different from the principal language of the State, and at the district and taluka/tehsil levels, different from the principal language of the district or taluka/tehsil concerned.
- The linguistic minorities are therefore identified by the respective States/UTs.
- The State/UT wise, broad linguistic profile is available in the 52nd Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities(CLM).
National Commission for Minorities
- The Government has already enacted the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Act, 1992 to constitute a National Commission for Minorities.
- The NCM receives petitions/grievances from the aggrieved persons and the said petitions/grievances being received by Commission.
- They are dealt with by calling for reports from the concerned authorities under the Union and State Governments.
- On receipt of the reports, the Commission makes appropriate recommendations to the respective authorities for redressal of the grievances.
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