Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Representation of the People Act, 1951
Mains level: Paper 2- Making political parties constitutional in India
Context
Making them constitutional will ensure in-party democracy, make them transparent, and de-communalise them.
Significance of political parties in democracy
- A political party is an organised group of citizens who hold common views on governance and act as a political unit that seeks to obtain control of government with a view to further the agenda and policy they profess.
- Political parties maintain a continuous connection between the people and those who represent them either in government or in the opposition.
- Political parties in India are extra-constitutional, but they are the breathing air of the political system.
U.S. and U.K. model
- No constitutional status: The American Constitution does not presume the existence of political parties.
- In Britain too, political parties are still unknown to the law.
- Political parties in developed nations maintain high levels of internal democracy.
- In the U.K., the Conservative Party has the National Conservative Convention as its top body.
- It has a Central Council and an Executive Committee.
- The Central Council elects its President, a Chairman and Vice Chairmen at its annual meeting.
- It also elects an Executive Committee which meets once a month.
- In the U.S., both the Democratic and the Republican Party have the National Committee as their top decision-making body.
- The National Committee plays an important role in the presidential election and agenda-setting.
Issues with Indian model
- No constitutional status: The Indian Constitution is the one of the longest Constitutions in the world.
- It is astonishing that such a meticulous Constitution overlooked political parties, the vital players in the political system, for constitutional regulation.
- Section 29A(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 is the only major statutory provision dealing with political parties in India.
- Most of the parties are openly caste- or religious-based.
- Their finances are dubious and opaque.
- Almost all the parties — the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Samajwadi Party, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the Indian Union Muslim League, etc. — are family fiefdoms.
- There are no periodical in-party elections in Indian parties except in a few like the CPI(M).
Should India follow the German model?
- The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany (1949) gives constitutional status to political parties.
- Article 21 of the Basic Law deals with their status, rights, duties and functions.
- It provides: Political parties shall participate in the formation of the political will of the people.
- Under it, parties must publicly account for their assets and for the sources and use of their funds.
- It also provides that parties that seek to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order or to endanger the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany shall be unconstitutional.
- Constitution also provides that details shall be regulated by federal laws.
- The German model of constitutionalising political parties is more desirable for India than the U.S. and the U.K. models.
Consider the question “Do you agree with the view that making political parties constitutional will help deal with the many ills political parties in India suffer from? Suggest the alternative model.”
Conclusion
It is high time to constitutionalise political parties to ensure in-party democracy, to impart transparency in their finances, and to de-communalise them.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Geographical Indication, WTO, TRIPS
Mains level: Economic potential of GI Tagged products
This editorial discusses various economic and socio-cultural benefits offered by the Geographical Indication (GI) Tagging.
What is Geographical Indication?
- A GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.
- India, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 w.e.f. September 2003.
- GIs have been defined under Article 22 (1) of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement.
- GI is granted for a term of 10 years in India. As of today, more than 300 GI tags has been allocated so far in India (*Wikipedia).
Why must we promote GI?
Several studies show that the patents and copyright protection of products under GIs result in higher economic gains, fostering quality production and better distribution of profits.
- Lost in history: Most GI are either assigned to the dusty pages of history books or left to rural artisans to propagate and preserve.
- Source of income: Today, with the emphasis on climate change and sustainability, these products can be ready revenue generators.
- Demand in e-com market: A modern distribution system exists in India’s robust global e-commerce backbone which will propel the nascent GI industry onto the national and world stage.
Need for govt support
- GI products need the support of governments.
- The Europeans are masters at it, as seen by products such as Brie cheese and sparkling wine from Champagne. The EU has an $87 billion GI economy.
- China has also done very well by GI, strengthening e-commerce in rural areas and actively promoting agricultural special product brands in lesser developed areas.
Role of GI in China’s rise
- A 2017 UNCTAD report on inclusive growth and e-commerce deems China’s e-commerce-driven growth as inclusive.
- That means China has successfully empowered micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to compete with large companies on the same stage, with no geographic boundaries.
- Likewise, despite a globally depressed market for wines, the produce from the Ningxia region of China saw exports surge 46.4 per cent in 2020, benefitting 211 wineries in Ningxia.
- The output value of GI producers in China totalled $92.771 billion as of 2020.
Socio-cultural benefits offered by GI
- GI protection has wider positive benefits, especially for local communities.
- In particular, it encourages the preservation of biodiversity, local know-how and natural resources. And this is where India can do well.
- Multiple benefits flows from a strong GI ecosystem, which can be a wellspring of economic and soft power.
- It will automatically resolve the three fraught India issues of poor pay for talent, low female participation in the labour force, and urban migration.
How can GI induce economic transformation?
(1) Promotes Entrepreneurship and ‘Passion Economy’
- It will convert talent into entrepreneurship with gig workers, and create a “passion” economy, that is, a new way for individuals to monetise their skills and scale their businesses exponentially.
- It removes the hurdles associated with freelance work to earn a regular income from a source other than an employer.
(2) Employment generation
- The labour-intensive nature of GI offers the best solution to boosting the employment-to-population ratio in India.
- India presently has an abysmal 43 per cent compared with the 55 per cent global average.
(3) Women Empowerment
- GI production mostly involves artisanal work-from-home culture.
- Monetising this artisanal work done at home will increase India’s low female labour force participation rate, which at 21 per cent in 2019 was half the 47 per cent global average.
(4) Prevents migration
- The hyper-localised nature of GI offers solutions to reverse urban migration and conserve India’s ancient crafts, culture and food.
(5) MSME Promotion
- A rejuvenation of MSMEs, which account for 31 per cent of India’s GDP and 45 per cent of exports, will follow.
- An estimated 55.80 million MSMEs employ close to 130 million people; of this, 14 per cent are women-led enterprises and 59.5 per cent are rural.
(6) GI Tourism
- Another revenue-earner, GI tourism, is typically a by-product of a strong GI ecosystem.
Hurdles in GIs progress
(1) Credit Facilities and Capacity Building
- Since GI businesses are micro, it is necessary to address the challenges of capacity-building, formal or easy access to credit.
- There is a need for forming marketing linkages, research and development, product innovation and competitiveness in both domestic and international markets.
(2) Issue of Intermediaries
- With the shift to digital platforms, the distribution margins of these gate keepers or mandi agents must be competitive.
- They often act as countervailing agents by getting into similar businesses or product lines which will erode GI producer incomes.
(3) Ensuring smoother transition
- As seen from the experience of the new farm laws, this will be a task for the central and state governments; they must ensure the transition without breaking down too many existing linkages.
Way forward
- Control: Guardrails like regular audits and consultations with the GI producers must be mandated.
- Cooperative management: Pulling it together will be local GI cooperative bodies or associations which can be nationally managed by a GI board.
- Ministerial support: The Department for the Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the Ministry of Commerce department should be tasked with developing this new sector.
- Digital literacy: Finally, a required skill for GI producers is digital literacy. This should be a priority agenda item for NGOs and stakeholders like the DPIIT.
Conclusion
- It is an opportunity for India to redefine the future of work using automation, technology and artificial intelligence while simultaneously enhancing and adorning the country’s talented local work force.
- The Indian GI economy can be a platform for India to showcase to the world a model for ethical capitalism, social entrepreneurship, de-urbanisation, and bringing women to the workforce, on the back of a robust digital system.
- It recalls and attributes of multi-cultural ethos, authenticity, and ethnic diversity are potential turbochargers for the country’s economy.
- It encompasses the concept of trusteeship, as advocated by Mahatma Gandhi and more recently, by our PM at the UN. It is truly Made in India.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indian monsoon
Mains level: Economic dependency on Monsoon
The monsoon is likely to begin withdrawing from the mainland from October 6, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Let us learn all terminologies related to Monsoon.
What is Monsoon?
- Indian monsoon, the most prominent of the world’s monsoon systems, which primarily affects India and its surrounding water bodies.
- It blows from the northeast during cooler months and reverses direction to blow from the southwest during the warmest months of the year.
Onset of Monsoon
- This process brings large amounts of rainfall to the region during June and July.
- As the high-sun season (that is, the Northern Hemisphere summer) moves northward during April, India becomes particularly prone to rapid heating because the highlands to the north protect it from any incursions of cold air.
- There are three distinct areas of relative upper tropospheric warmth—namely, (1) above the southern Bay of Bengal, (2) above the Plateau of Tibet, and (3) across the trunks of the various peninsulas that are relatively dry during this time.
- These three areas combine to form a vast heat-source region.
- In contrast, a heat sink appears over the southern Indian Ocean as the relatively cloud-free air cools by emitting long-wavelength radiation.
- Monsoon winds at the surface blow from heat sink to heat source.
Peak period
- The position of the easterly jet controls the location of monsoonal rains, which occur ahead and to the left of the strongest winds and also behind them and to the right.
- The surface flow, however, is a strong, south-westerly, humid, and unstable wind that brings humidifies of more than 80 percent and heavy squally showers that are the “burst” of the monsoon.
- The overall pattern of the advance follows a frontal alignment, but local episodes may differ considerably.
Key areas
- Most spectacular clouds and rain occur against the Western Ghats in India, where the early monsoonal airstream piles up against the steep slopes, then recedes, and piles up again to a greater height.
- Each time it pushes thicker clouds upward until wind and clouds roll over the barrier and, after a few brief spells of absorption by the dry inland air, cascade toward the interior.
- Various factors, especially topography, combine to make up a complex regional pattern.
Break in Monsoon
- During the south-west monsoon period after having rains for a few days, if rain fails to occur for one or more weeks, it is known as break in the monsoon.
- These dry spells are quite common during the rainy season.
- In northern India rains are likely to fail if the rain-bearing storms are not very frequent along the monsoon trough or the ITCZ over this region.
- Over the west coast the dry spells are associated with days when winds blow parallel to the coast.
Withdrawal of Monsoon
- By August the intensity and duration of sunshine have decreased, temperatures begin to fall, and the surge of south-westerly air diminishes spasmodically almost to a standstill in the northwest.
- In September, dry, cool, northerly air begins to circle the west side of the highlands and spread over north-western India.
- The easterly jet weakens, and the upper tropospheric easterlies move much farther south.
- Because the moist southwesterlies at lower levels are much weaker and variable, they are soon pushed back.
- The rainfall becomes extremely variable over most of the region, but showers are still frequent in the south-eastern areas and over the Bay of Bengal.
- By early October, variable winds are very frequent everywhere.
Winter rains
- At the end of the month, the entire Indian region is covered by northerly air and the winter monsoon takes shape.
- The surface flow is deflected by the Coriolis force and becomes a north-easterly flow.
- Tropical depressions and cyclones are important contributing factors.
- Most of India thus begins a sunny, dry, and dusty season.
- Conversely, the western slopes of the Karakoram Range and Himalayas are then reached by the midlatitude frontal depressions that come from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
- The winter rains they receive, moderate as they are, place them clearly outside the monsoonal realm.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various types of trade agreements
Mains level: Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
India and Australia have agreed to conclude a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of 2022.
What is a Free Trade Agreement (FTA)?
- A FTA is a pact between two or more nations to reduce barriers to imports and exports among them.
- Under a free trade policy, goods and services can be bought and sold across international borders with little or no government tariffs, quotas, subsidies, or prohibitions to inhibit their exchange.
- The concept of free trade is the opposite of trade protectionism or economic isolationism.
Key benefits offered by FTA
- Reduction or elimination of tariffs on qualified: For example, a country that normally charges a tariff of 12% of the value of the incoming product will rationalize or eliminate that tariff.
- Intellectual Property Protection: Protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in the FTA partner country is upheld.
- Product Standards: FTA enhances the ability for domestic exporters to participate in the development of product standards in the FTA partner country.
- Fair treatment for investors: FTA provides treatment as favourably as the FTA partner country gives equal treatment for investments from the partner country.
- Elimination of monopolies: With FTAs, global monopolies are eliminated due to increased competition.
How many FTAs does India have?
- India has signed it’s first Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Sri Lanka in 1998.
- Likewise, India had FTAs with: Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Singapore, ASEAN, Japan and Malaysia.
- India has signed Preferential Trade Agreements such as:
- Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) with Bangladesh, China, India, Lao PDR, Republic of Korea, and Sri Lanka
- Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP)
- India – MERCOSUR PTA etc. with South American countries
Back2Basics: Types of Trade Agreements
(1) Free Trade Agreement – discussed above
(2) Preferential Trade Agreement
- In this type of agreement, two or more partners give preferential right of entry to certain products.
- This is done by reducing duties on an agreed number of tariff lines.
- Here a positive list is maintained i.e. the list of the products on which the two partners have agreed to provide preferential access.
- Tariff may even be reduced to zero for some products even in a PTA.
- India signed a PTA with Afghanistan.
(3) Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement
- Partnership agreement or cooperation agreement are more comprehensive than an FTA.
- CECA/CEPA also looks into the regulatory aspect of trade and encompasses and agreement covering the regulatory issues.
- CECA has the widest coverage. CEPA covers negotiation on the trade in services and investment, and other areas of economic partnership.
- It may even consider negotiation on areas such as trade facilitation and customs cooperation, competition, and IPR.
- India has signed CEPAs with South Korea and Japan.
(4) Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement
- CECA generally cover negotiation on trade tariff and Tariff rate quotas (TRQs) rates only.
- It is not as comprehensive as CEPA.
- India has signed CECA with Malaysia.
(5) Framework Agreement
- Framework agreement primarily defines the scope and provisions of orientation of the potential agreement between the trading partners.
- It provides for some new area of discussions and set the period for future liberalisation.
- India has previously signed framework agreements with the ASEAN, Japan etc.
(6) Early Harvest Scheme
- An Early Harvest Scheme (EHS) is a precursor to an FTA/CECA/CEPA between two trading partners. For example, early harvest scheme of RCEP has been rolled out.
- At this stage, the negotiating countries identify certain products for tariff liberalization pending the conclusion of actual FTA negotiations.
- An Early Harvest Scheme is thus a step towards enhanced engagement and confidence building.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: External sector of India, BoP, BoT
Mains level: NA
India’s current account balance saw a far lower surplus of $6.5 billion (0.9% of GDP) in the first quarter compared with a surplus of $19.1 billion (3.7% of GDP) a year earlier.
What is External Sector?
- The external sector is the portion of a country’s economy that interacts with the economies of other countries.
- In the goods market, the external sector involves exports and imports.
- In the financial market it involves capital flows.
Various terminologies related:
[A] Balance of Payment (BoP)
- BoP is the difference between all money flowing into the country in a particular period of time (e.g., a quarter or a year) and the outflow of money to the rest of the world.
- These financial transactions are made by individuals, firms and government bodies to compare receipts and payments arising out of trade of goods and services.
- It consists of two components: the current account and the capital account.
- The current account reflects a country’s net income, while the capital account reflects the net change in ownership of national assets.
(1) Current Account
- Current account of BoP consists of all transactions relating to goods, services and income, it is functionally classified into merchandise and
- Current account deficit is the situation where payments on the country are more than the payments into the country.
- In current account surplus, there is a net inward payment into the country on the current.
(2) Capital Account
- The capital account records the net flow of investment transaction into an economy.
- Investments (FDI and FII) and borrowings (ECB) are part of the capital account.
[B] Balance of Trade
- Trade “balance” of a country shows the difference between what it earns from its exports and what it pays for its imports.
- If this number is in negative – that is, the total value of goods imported by a country is more than the total value of goods exported by that country – then it is referred to as a “trade deficit”.
- If India has a trade deficit with China then China would necessarily have a “trade surplus” with India.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Digi-Saksham
Mains level: Various initiaitves for Skilling India
The Ministry of Labour and Employment has launched DigiSaksham Initiative.
DigiSaksham
- It is joint initiative with Microsoft India is an extension of the Government’s ongoing programs to support the youth from rural and semi-urban areas.
- Through DigiSaksham initiative, free of cost training in digital skills including basic skills as well as advance computing, will be provided to more than 3 lakh youths in the first year.
- The Jobseekers can access the training through National Career Service (NCS) Portal.
- DigiSaksham will be implemented in the field by Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India (AKRSP-I).
Training offered
- Under the initiative, there will be basically three types of training viz. Digital Skills – Self paced learning, VILT mode training (Virtual Instructor led) and ILT mode training (Instructor led).
- The ILT training which is in person training would be conducted at the Model Career Centres (MCCs) and National Career Service Centres (NCSC) for SCs/STs across the country.
- Students will be able to access training in areas like Java Script, Data Visualisation, Advance Excel, Power Bi, HTML, Programming languages, software development fundamentals, Introduction to coding etc.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Weddel Sea, Mapping of Southern Ocean
Mains level: NA
India has extended support for protecting the Antarctic environment and for co-sponsoring the proposal of the European Union for designating East Antarctica and the Weddell Sea as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
About Weddell Sea
- The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre.
- Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula.
- Much of the southern part of the sea is covered by a permanent, massive ice shelf field, the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf.
- The sea is contained within the two overlapping Antarctic territorial claims of Argentine Antarctica, the British Antarctic Territory, and also resides partially within the Antarctic Chilean Territory.
Major ice shelves
- Various ice shelves, including the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, fringe the Weddell sea.
- Some of the ice shelves on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula, which formerly covered roughly 10,000 square kilometres of the Weddell Sea, had completely disappeared by 2002.
- The Weddell Sea has been deemed by scientists to have the clearest water of any sea.
India’s support for the Antarctic
- India supports sustainability in protecting the Antarctic environment.
- The proposed MPAs are essential to regulate illegal unreported and unregulated fishing.
- India had urged the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) member countries to ensure Antarctic conservation.
- India remains associated with the formulation, adaptation and implementation mechanisms of these MPAs in future.
What is CCAMLR?
- CCAMLR is an international treaty to manage Antarctic fisheries to preserve species diversity and stability of the entire Antarctic marine ecosystem.
- CCAMLR came into force in April 1982.
- India has been a permanent member of the CCAMLR since 1986.
- Work pertaining to the CCAMLR is coordinated in India by the Ministry of Earth Sciences through its attached office, the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE) in Kochi, Kerala.
Back2Basics: Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
- An MPA is a marine protected area that provides protection for all or part of its natural resources.
- Certain activities within an MPA are limited or prohibited to meet specific conservation, habitat protection, ecosystem monitoring, or fisheries management objectives.
- MPAs can be conserved for a number of reasons including economic resources, biodiversity conservation, and species protection.
- They are created by delineating zones with permitted and non-permitted uses within that zone.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now