Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Unified Database of Birth and Death
Mains level: Not Much
The Centre has proposed amendments to a 1969 law that will enable it to “maintain the database of registered birth and deaths at the national level”.
Registration of Births and Deaths Act (RBD), 1969
- The registration of births, deaths and stillbirths are compulsory under the provisions of RBD Act in all parts of the Country.
- The normal period of 21 days (from the date of occurrence) has been prescribed for reporting the birth, death and stillbirth events.
Why need amendment?
- The database may be used to update the Population Register and the electoral register, and Aadhaar, ration card, passport and driving licence databases after the amendment.
- Presently, the registration of births and deaths is done by the local registrar appointed by States.
What are the proposed amendments?
Ans. Unified Database of Birth and Death
- It is proposed that the Chief Registrar (appointed by the States) would maintain a unified database at the State level.
- It would then integrate it with the data at the “national level,” maintained by the Registrar General of India (RGI).
- The amendments will imply that the Centre will be a parallel repository of data.
Significance of the database
- Population Register prepared under the Citizenship Act, 1955;
- Electoral registers or electoral rolls prepared under the Representation of the People Act, 1951
- Aadhaar database prepared under the Aadhaar Act, 2016;
- Ration card database prepared under the National Food Security Act, 2013;
- Passport database prepared under the Passport Act; and
- Driving licence database under the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, and
- Other databases at the national level are subject to provisons of Section 17 (1) of the RBD Act, 1969
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: E-KAUSHAL, Krishi UDAAN
Mains level: Agricultural promotion
The Union Minister of Civil Aviation has launched Krishi UDAN 2.0.
Krishi UDAN 2.0
- The scheme proposes to facilitating and incentivizing movement of Agri-produce by air transportation.
- It lays out the vision of improving value realization through better integration and optimization of Agri-harvesting and air transportation.
- It works by contributing to Agri-value chain sustainability and resilience under different and dynamic conditions.
- It will be implemented at 53 airports across the country mainly focusing on Northeast and tribal regions and is likely to benefit farmer, freight forwarders and Airlines.
Key highlights of the scheme
- Facilitating and incentivizing movement of Agri-produce by air transportation: Full waiver of Landing, Parking, TNLC and RNFC charges for Indian freighters and P2C at selected Airports. Primarily, focusing on NER, Hilly, and tribal regions.
- Strengthening cargo-related infrastructure at airports and off airports: Facilitating the development of a hub and spoke model and a freight grid.
- Concessions sought from other bodies: Seek support and encourage States to reduce Sales Tax to 1% on aviation fuels for freighters / P2C aircraft as extended in UDAN flights.
- Resources-Pooling through establishing Convergence mechanism: Collaboration with other government departments and regulatory bodies.
- Technological convergence: Development of E-KUSHAL (Krishi UDAN for Sustainable Holistic Agri-Logistics).
What is E-KAUSHAL?
- It is a platform to be developed to facilitate information dissemination to all the stakeholders.
- This will be a single platform that will provide relevant information at the same time will also assist in coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the scheme.
- Furthermore, integration of E-KUSHAL with the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) is proposed.
Airports under the scheme
| Proposed timeline |
Locations |
| 2021 – 2022 |
Agartala, Srinagar, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Hubballi, Imphal, Jorhat, Lilabari, Lucknow, Silchar, Tezpur, Tirupati, Tuticorin |
| 2022 – 2023 |
Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Jharsuguda, Kozhikode, Mysuru, Puducherry, Rajkot, Vijayawada |
| 2023 – 2024 |
Agra, Darbhanga, Gaya, Gwalior, Pakyong, Pantnagar, Shillong, Shimla, Udaipur, Vadodara |
| 2024 – 2025 |
Holangi, Salem |
7 focus routes & products
| Routes |
Products |
| Amritsar – Dubai |
Babycorn |
| Darbhanga – Rest of India |
Lichis |
| Sikkim – Rest of India |
Organic produce |
| Chennai, Vizag, Kolkata – Far East |
Seafood |
| Agartala – Delhi & Dubai |
Pineapple |
| Dibrugarh – Delhi & Dubai |
Mandarin & Oranges |
| Guwahati – Hong Kong |
Pulses, fruits & vegetables |
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CNA, CVE Program, CERT-IN
Mains level: Cyber security challenges for India
CERT-In has partnered with the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Program and has been authorized as a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) for vulnerabilities impacting all products designed, developed and manufactured in India.
What is CVE Program?
- CVE is an international, community-based effort and relies on the community to discover vulnerabilities.
- The vulnerabilities are discovered then assigned and published to the CVE List.
- Information technology and cybersecurity professionals use CVE Records to ensure they are discussing the same issue, and to coordinate their efforts to prioritize and address the vulnerabilities.
- Partners publish CVE Records to communicate consistent descriptions of vulnerabilities.
Mission of the Program
- The mission of the CVE Program is to identify, define, and catalog publicly disclosed cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
- The vulnerabilities are discovered then assigned and published by organizations from around the world that have partnered with the CVE Program.
Who are the CNAs?
- CNAs are organizations responsible for the regular assignment of CVE IDs to vulnerabilities, and for creating and publishing information about the Vulnerability in the associated CVE Record.
- The CVE List is built by CVE Numbering Authorities (CNAs).
- Every CVE Record added to the list is assigned by a CNA.
- The CVE Records published in the catalog enable program stakeholders to rapidly discover and correlate vulnerability information used to protect systems against attacks.
- Each CNA has a specific Scope of responsibility for vulnerability identification and publishing.
Back2Basics: Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN)
- CERT-IN is an office within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
- It is the nodal agency to deal with cyber security threats like hacking and phishing. It strengthens the security-related defense of the Indian Internet domain.
- It was formed in 2004 by the Government of India under the Information Technology Act, 2000 Section (70B) under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ABHIM
Mains level: Paper 2- ABHIM
Context
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, one of the largest pan-India schemes for strengthening healthcare infrastructure, in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
Aims of Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (ABHIM) and how it seeks to achieve it
- This was launched with an outlay of ₹64,180 crore over a period of five years.
- In addition to the National Health Mission, this scheme will work towards strengthening public health institutions and governance capacities for wide-ranging diagnostics and treatment, including critical care services.
- The latter goal would be met with the establishment of critical care hospital blocks in 12 central institutions such as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and in government medical colleges and district hospitals in 602 districts.
- Laboratories and their preparedness: The government will be establishing integrated district public health labs in 730 districts to provide comprehensive laboratory services.
- Research: ABHIM will focus on supporting research on COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, including biomedical research to generate evidence to inform short-term and medium-term responses to such pandemics.
- One health approach: The government also aims to develop a core capacity to deliver the ‘one health’ approach to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks in humans and animals.
- Surveillance labs: A network of surveillance labs will be developed at the block, district, regional and national levels for detecting, investigating, preventing, and combating health emergencies and outbreaks.
- Local capacities in urban areas: A major highlight of the current pandemic has been the requirement of local capacities in urban areas.
- The services from the existing urban primary health centres will be expanded to smaller units – Ayushman Bharat Urban Health and Wellness Centres and polyclinics or specialist clinics.
Conclusion
The Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (ABHIM) is another addition to the arsenal we have to prepare for such oubreaks in the future.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Global carbon budget
Mains level: Paper 3- Why India should not commit to net-zero emission target
Context
The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made it clear that limiting the increase in the world’s average temperature from pre-industrial levels to those agreed in the Paris Agreement requires global cumulative emissions of carbon dioxide to be capped at the global carbon budget.
Understanding why reaching net zero by itself is irrelevant to forestalling dangerous warming
- The promise of when you will turn off the tap does not guarantee that you will draw only a specified quantity of water.
- The top three emitters of the world — China, the U.S. and the European Union — even after taking account of their net zero commitments and their enhanced emission reduction commitments for 2030, will emit more than 500 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide before net zero.
- These three alone will exceed the limit of about 500 billion tonnes from 2020 onwards, for even odds of keeping global temperature increase below 1.5°C.
Issues with ‘net zero’ target
- Neither the Paris Agreement nor climate science requires that net zero be reached individually by countries by 2050, the former requiring only global achievement of this goal “in the second half of the century”.
- Claims that the world “must” reach specific goals by 2030 or 2050 are the product of specific economic models for climate action.
- They front-load emission reduction requirements on developing countries, despite their already low emissions, to allow the developed world to backload its own, buying time for its own transition.
- These stringent limits on future cumulative emissions post 2020, amounting to less than a fifth of the total global carbon budget, is the result of its considerable over-appropriation in the past by the global North.
- Promises of net zero in their current form perpetuate this hugely disproportionate appropriation of a global commons, while continuing to place humanity in harm’s way.
Suggestions for India
- India is responsible for no more than 4.37% cumulative emissions of carbon dioxide since the pre-industrial era, even though it is home to more than a sixth of humanity.
- India’s per capita emissions are less than half the world average, less than one-eighth of the U.S.’s.
- For India to declare net zero now is to accede to the further over-appropriation of the global carbon budget by a few.
- India’s contribution to global emissions, in both stock and flow, is so disproportionately low that any sacrifice on its part can do nothing to save the world.
- India, in enlightened self-interest, must now stake its claim to a fair share of the global carbon budget.
- Technology transfer and financial support, together with “negative emissions”, if the latter succeeds, can compensate for the loss of the past.
- Such a claim by India provides it greater, and much-needed long-term options.
- It enables the responsible use of coal, its major fossil fuel resource, and oil and gas, to bootstrap itself out of lower-middle-income economy status and eradicate poverty, hunger and malnutrition for good.
- India’s resource-strapped small industries sector needs expansion and modernisation.
- The agriculture sector, the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions for India after energy, needs to double its productivity and farmers’ incomes and build resilience.
- Infrastructure for climate resilience in general is critical to future adaptation to climate change.
- All of these will require at least the limited fossil fuel resources made available through a fair share of the carbon budget.
Conclusion
Without restriction of their future cumulative emissions by the big emitters, to their fair share of the global carbon budget, and the corresponding temperature target that they correspond to made clear, India cannot sign on to net zero.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: EoDB
Mains level: Paper 3- Reducing the cost of doing business in India
Context
The controversy over Ease of the Doing Business (EoDB) notwithstanding, India must now sharpen its focus on the Cost of Doing Business (CoDB).
Cost of Doing Business in India
- India has made considerable progress on EoDB rankings since 2016.
- While the Centre’s focus on EoDB has been commendable, several state governments have also made efforts to improve business conditions.
- India must now sharpen its focus on the Cost of Doing Business (CoDB).
- India lags behind other countries in terms of CoDB on several counts.
Two key factors influencing CoDB — energy costs and regulatory overload
- High fuel costs: Diesel prices in India are 20.8 per cent higher than those in China, 39.3 per cent higher than in the US, 72.5 per cent higher than Bangladesh and 67.8 per cent higher than in Vietnam.
- This is largely because of heavy taxation — total taxes on diesel account for over 130 per cent of the base price in India.
- High power costs: In the case of electricity, prices for businesses in India were higher by around 7-12 per cent vis-à-vis those in the US, Bangladesh or China and by as much as 35-50 per cent as compared to those in South Korea or Vietnam prior to the recent coal/energy crisis.
- Coal, which accounts for more than 70 per cent of electricity generation in India, is also pricier vis-à-vis other countries leading to higher electricity prices.
- Like in the case of the petroleum sector, government levies account for nearly half of the prices paid by coal consumers.
- And coal producers cannot claim input tax credit because electricity is not under GST.
- Further, coal freight costs are amongst the highest in the world as high freight rates are used to cross-subsidise passenger fares by the railways.
- Regulatory overload: Outsized regulatory levels also pose a significant burden on businesses.
- A Teamlease report highlights that a small manufacturing company with just one plant and up to 500 employees is regulated by more than 750 compliances, 60 Acts and 23 licences and regulations.
- A mid-sized manufacturing company with six plants spread across different states is regulated by more than 5,500 compliances, 135 Acts and 98 licences and registrations.
- Keeping track of such a large number of regulations along with the changes thereof, imposes huge operational and financial costs on businesses, particularly the MSME segment.
Way forward
- Including fuels under GST would lower costs for businesses owing to input tax credit even if taxation levels continue to remain high.
- Cleaning up the power distribution sector, which is largely state-controlled, could potentially lower electricity prices for businesses.
- Fiscal incentives by the Centre: A majority of the compliances stem from the states and reducing this burden would require a significant push on states to act on this front.
- The Centre could leverage the “carrot and stick” framework — using fiscal incentives to nudge the states to act and disincentivise them from maintaining the status quo.
Consider the question “What are the factors affecting the cost of doing business in India? Suggest the measures to reduce it.”
Conclusion
The Government must prioritise reducing the cost of energy and compliances for businesses rather than focusing on de jure measures to boost ease of doing business. These will boost India’s manufacturing competitiveness significantly and further increase formalisation in the economy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: China's territorial expansionism
China has recently passed a new land law for the “protection and exploitation of the country’s land border areas”.
Land Border Law: Key Takeaways
- The law states that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China are sacred and inviolable.
- It asks the state to take measures to safeguard territorial integrity and land boundaries and guard against and combat any act that undermines these.
- The state can take measures to strengthen border defence, support economic and social development as well as opening-up in border areas.
- It seeks to improve public services and infrastructure in such areas, encourage and support people’s life and work there.
Other features
- In effect, this suggests a push to settle civilians in the border areas.
- The law also asks the state to follow the principles of equality, mutual trust, and friendly consultation, handle land border related-affairs with neighbouring countries.
China’s land borders
- China shares its 22,457-km land boundary with 14 countries including India, the third-longest after the borders with Mongolia and Russia.
- Unlike the Indian border, however, China’s borders with these two countries are not disputed.
- The only other country with which China has disputed land borders is Bhutan (477 km).
Why is it significant for India?
- China claims up to 90,000 square kilometres in Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern sector.
- It has illegally occupied 38,000 square kilometres of Aksai Chin in the western sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
- While recent tensions in the western sector have been centred on Ladakh, both sides have lately clashed in Uttarakhand as well.
A signal to India
- The law is not meant specifically for the border with India.
- However, this could create hurdles in the resolution of the 17-month-long military standoff at LAC.
- There is also a clear distinction that PLA will do border management but it will make negotiations a little more difficult.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Population Register
Mains level: NPR, NRC, Census
The latest form of the National Population Register (NPR) appears to have retained contentious questions such as “mother tongue, place of birth of father and mother and last place of residence”.
National Population Register
- The NPR is a Register of usual residents of the country.
- It is being prepared at the local (Village/sub-Town), sub-District, District, State and National level.
- This is carried under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
- It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR.
- A usual resident is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next 6 months or more.
Why NPR is under fire?
- Though NPR was first compiled in 2010 and updated in 2015, the new questions were part of a trial exercise involving 30 lakh respondents in September 2019.
- The exercise has perceived the first step toward the compilation of the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRC) according to Citizenship Rules, 2003.
Questions in NPR
- In 2020 NPR, the respondent will have to specify the “name of State and district” if the place of birth of father and mother is in India and mention the country’s name if not born here.
- The form will collect details on 14 parameters of all family members.
- The sub-heads include passport number, relationship to head of the family, whether divorced/widowed or separated, mother tongue, if non-worker, cultivator, labourer, government employee, daily wage earner among others.
- The form also has a column on Aadhar, mobile phone, Voter ID and driving license number, which are to be provided if available with the respondent.
How are NRIC and NPR related?
- Out of the NPR, a set of all usual residents of India, the government proposes to create a database of “citizens of India”.
- Thus, the “National Register of Indian Citizens” (NRIC) is a sub-set of the NPR.
- The NRIC will be prepared at the local, sub-district, district and State levels after verifying the citizenship status of the residents.
- The rules say the particulars of every family and individual found in the Population Register shall be verified and scrutinized by the Local Registrar.
How NPR is different from Census?
- The census involves a detailed questionnaire — there were 29 items to be filled up in the 2011 census.
- They are aimed at eliciting the particulars of every person, including age, sex, marital status, children, occupation, birthplace, mother tongue, religion, disability and whether they belonged to any SC or ST.
- On the other hand, the NPR collects basic demographic data and biometric particulars.
- While the census is legally backed by the Census Act, 1948, the NPR is a mechanism outlined in a set of rules framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Khasi Tribe, khatduh
Mains level: Matrilineal society in NE
Matrilineal Meghalaya is set to break the tradition of share of parental property to the khatduh, which means the youngest daughter in the Khasi language.
Matrilineal Society of Meghalaya
- The matrilineal tradition which the Khasi and other subgroups practice in Meghalaya is unique within India.
- Khasi are an ancient tribe said to be the largest surviving matrilineal culture in the world.
- Matrilineal principles among the Khasi are emphasised in myths, legends, and origin narratives.
Their evolution
- Khasi kings embarking on wars left the responsibility of running the family to women and thus their role in society became very deep rooted and respected.
- Reference to Nari Rajya (female kingdom; or land of matriarchy) in the epic Mahabharata likely correlates with the Khasi and Jaintia Hills and Meghalaya’s present-day matrilineal culture.
Property rights
- The youngest daughter of the family, the Ka Khadduh, inherits all ancestral property.
- After marriage, husbands live in the mother-in-law’s home.
- The mother’s surname is taken by children.
- When no daughters are born to a couple, they adopt a daughter and pass their rights to property to her.
- The birth of a girl is celebrated while the birth of a son is simply accepted.
- There is no social stigma attributed to a woman remarrying or giving birth out of wedlock as the “Khasi Social Custom Lineage Act” gives security to them.
- Care of children is the responsibility of mothers or mothers-in-law.
Matrilineal, not matriarchal
- While society is matrilineal, it is not matriarchal. In past monarchies of the state, the son of the youngest sister of the king inherited the throne.
- Even now in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly or village councils or panchayats the representation of women in politics is minimal.
Issues with the system
- Some Khasi men perceive themselves to be accorded a secondary status.
- They have established societies to protect equal rights for men.
- They express that Khasi men don’t have any security, they don’t own land, they don’t run the family business and, at the same time, they are almost good for nothing.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Podu, Shifting cultivation
Mains level: Not Much
The Telangana government has decided to move landless, non-tribal farmers engaged in Podu shifting cultivation inside forests to peripheral areas as it looks to combat deforestation.
What is Shifting Cultivation?
- Shifting cultivation is a form of agriculture or a cultivation system, in which, at any particular point in time, a minority of ‘fields’ are in cultivation and a majority are in various stages of natural re-growth.
- Over time, fields are cultivated for a relatively short time, and allowed to recover, or are fallowed, for a relatively long time.
- Eventually, a previously cultivated field will be cleared of the natural vegetation and planted in crops again.
- Fields in established and stable shifting cultivation systems are cultivated and fallowed cyclically.
- This type of farming is also called jhumming in India.
What is Podu?
- Podu is a traditional system of cultivation used by tribes in India, whereby different areas of jungle forest are cleared by burning each year to provide land for crops.
- The word comes from the Telugu language.
- Podu is a form of shifting agriculture using slash-and-burn methods.
Issue in Telangana
- Shifting cultivation continues to be a predominant agricultural practice in many parts of India, despite state discouragement and multipronged efforts.
- Telangana government has red-flagged encroachment of forests by non-tribals, who are indulging in the practice of shifting agriculture (podu).
- Several political leaders have raised the issues of shifting agriculture and deforestation wherein encroachers clear a portion of land.
- The government now wants to shift out all farmers from the forests to the periphery by allotting lands to them for cultivation.
Impact of the move
- Tribal farmers who have been traditionally cultivating for decades will not be affected by this drive against illegal encroachers.
- The government has, in fact, given land ownership titles to tribals.
- Other encroaching farmers will be shifted out.
Back2Basics: Various shifting cultivation in India
| Type |
Place of practice |
| Jhum |
North-eastern India |
| Vevar and Dahiyaar |
Bundelkhand Region (Madhya Pradesh) |
| Deepa |
Bastar District (Madhya Pradesh) |
| Zara and Erka |
Southern States |
| Batra |
South-eastern Rajasthan |
| Podu |
Andhra Pradesh |
| Kumari |
Hilly Region of the Western Ghats of Kerala |
| Kaman, Vinga and Dhavi |
Odisha |
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Cyber Coordination Centre, CERT-IN
Mains level: Cyber security challenges for India
There are cybersecurity organisations in the country but no central body responsible for safety in the online space said the National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC).
National Cyber Coordination Centre
Headed by National Cyber Security Coordinator: Lt. Gen. Rajesh Pant (Retd.)
Objective: To help the country deal with malicious cyber-activities by acting as an Internet traffic monitoring entity that can fend off domestic or international attacks
- The National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) is an operational cybersecurity and e-surveillance agency in India.
- It is jurisdictionally under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- It coordinates with multiple security and surveillance agencies as well as with CERT-In of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
- Components of the NCCC include a cybercrime prevention strategy, cybercrime investigation training and review of outdated laws.
Functions
- It will be India’s first layer for cyber threat monitoring and all communication with government and private service providers would be through this body only.
- The NCCC will be in virtual contact with the control room of all ISPs to scan traffic within the country, flowing at the point of entry and exit, including the international gateway.
Cyber-security bottlenecks in India
- India has no dedicated Cyber-security regulation and is also not well prepared to deal with cyberwarfare.
- India has formulated the National Cyber Security Policy 2013 which is not yet implemented.
- NCCC has been classified to be a project of the Indian government without a legal framework, which may be counterproductive as it may violate civil liberties and human rights.
- Some have expressed concern that the NCCC could encroach on Indian citizens’ privacy and civil liberties, given the lack of explicit privacy laws in the country.
Back2Basics: Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN)
- CERT-IN is an office within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
- It is the nodal agency to deal with cyber security threats like hacking and phishing. It strengthens the security-related defence of the Indian Internet domain.
- It was formed in 2004 by the Government of India under the Information Technology Act, 2000 Section (70B) under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Emerging Technology Working Group
Mains level: Paper 2- Bubble of trust approach to globalisation
Context
An asymmetric globalisation favouring China allowed Beijing to attain power. It is now using that power to undermine liberal democratic values around the world.
What is Globalization?
Globalization is a process of increasing interdependence, interconnectedness and integration of economies and societies to such an extent that an event in one part of the globe affects people in other parts of the world.
OR
Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, organizations, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology.
Asymmetric globalisation
- The Chinese market was never open to foreign companies in the way foreign markets are to Chinese firms.
- This is particularly true in the information and communications technology sector: foreign media, technology and software companies have always been walled out of Chinese markets.
- Meanwhile, Chinese firms rode on the globalisation bandwagon to secure significant market shares in open economies.
Global retreat from globalisation and role of Quad
- We are currently witnessing a global retreat from the free movement of goods, services, capital, people and ideas.
- But this should not be understood as a reaction to globalisation itself, but of its skewed pattern over the past four decades.
- The Quad countries – Japan, India, Australia and the U.S. – have an opportunity to change tack and stop seeing engagement with China through the misleading prism of free trade and globalisation.
- It will be to their advantage to create a new form of economic cooperation consistent with their geopolitical interests.
- Indeed, without an economic programme, the Quad’s geopolitical and security agenda stand on tenuous foundations.
Economies inside bubbles of trust
- Policies of self-reliance: The popular backlash against China – exacerbated by the economic disruption of the pandemic – is pushing Quad governments towards policies of self-reliance.
- But while reorienting and de-risking global supply chains is one thing, pursuing technological sovereignty is inherently self-defeating.
- Worse still, inward-looking policies often acquire a life of their own and contribute to geopolitical marginalisation.
- There is a better way.
- A convergence of values and geopolitical interests means Quad countries are uniquely placed to envelop their economies inside bubbles of trust, starting with the technology sector.
- The idea of ‘bubbles of trust’ offers a cautious middle path between the extremes of technological sovereignty and laissez-faire globalisation.
- Unlike trading blocs, which tend to be insular and exclusive, bubbles tend to expand organically, attracting new partners that share values, interests and economic complementarities.
- Such expansion will be necessary, as the Quad cannot fulfil its strategic ambitions merely by holding a defensive line against authoritarian power.
Way forward
- The U.S. is a global leader in intellectual property, Japan in high-value manufacturing, Australia in advanced niches such as quantum computing and cyber security, and India in human capital.
- This configuration of values, interests and complementary capabilities offers unrivalled opportunities.
- The Quad’s Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group, announced in March 2021, is well placed to develop the necessary ‘bubbles of trust’ framework, which could be adopted at the next Quad summit.
- To be successful the Working Group must seek to strengthen geopolitical convergences, increase faith in each member state’s judicial systems, deepen economic ties and boost trust in one another’s citizens.
- There are fundamental differences between authoritarian and liberal-democratic approaches to the information age.
- The Quad cannot allow differences of approach on privacy, data governance, platform competition and the digital economy to widen.
Conclusion
This agenda cannot be about substituting China. Rather, the approach would allow Quad countries to manage their dependencies on China while simultaneously developing a new vision for the global economy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: The Ashgabat Agreement,
Mains level: Paper 2- India's central Indian outreach
Context
The evolving situation in Afghanistan has thrown up renewed challenges for India’s regional and bilateral ties with Central Asia and the Caucasus, prompting India to recalibrate its rules of engagement with the region.
Background of India’s relations with Central Asian countries
- After the breakup of the Soviet Union and the formation of the independent republics in Central Asia, India reset its ties with the strategically critical region.
- India provided financial aid to the region and established diplomatic relations.
- New Delhi signed the Strategic Partnership Agreements (SPA) with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to stimulate defence cooperation and deepen trade relations.
- In 2012, New Delhi’s ‘Connect Central Asia’ policy aimed at furthering India’s political, economic, historical and cultural connections with the region.
- However, India’s efforts were stonewalled by Pakistan’s lack of willingness to allow India passage through its territory.
Renewed engagement with Central Asia
- The growing geostrategic and security concerns regarding the BRI’s China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and its violation of India’s sovereignty forced New Delhi to fix its lethargic strategy.
- Eventually, Central Asia became the link that placed Eurasia in New Delhi’s zone of interest.
- India signed MoUs with Iran in 2015 to develop the Chabahar port in the Sistan-Baluchistan province that was in the doldrums from 2003.
- External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was in the region earlier this month.
- In Kyrgyzstan, Mr. Jaishankar extended a credit line of $200 million for the support of development projects and signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) on High-Impact Community Development Projects (HICDP).
- Kazakhstan: His next stop was the Kazakhstan capital, Nur Sultan, where he attended the 6th Foreign Ministers’ Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).
- Armenia: Mr. Jaishankar has become the first Indian External Affairs Minister to visit Armenia.
- During the visit, Mr. Jaishankar also supported efforts for a peaceful solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk group.
Limits of SCO
- The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was created in response to the threats of terrorism that sprang from Afghanistan.
- The Taliban re-establishing its supremacy over Afghanistan has also exposed the weaknesses of coalitions such as SCO.
- The SCO has been used by most member countries for their own regional geostrategic and security interests, increasing the trust-deficit and divergence within the forum.
Way forward
- Most of the Central Asian leaders view India’s Chabahar port as an opportunity to diversify their export markets and control China’s ambitions.
- They have admitted New Delhi into the Ashgabat Agreement, allowing India access to connectivity networks to facilitate trade and commercial interactions with both Central Asia and Eurasia, and also access the natural resources of the region.
- Rising anti-Chinese sentiments within the region and security threats from the Taliban allow New Delhi and Central Asia to reimagine their engagement.
- Central Asian countries have been keen to have India as a partner as they have sought to diversify their strategic ties.
Conclusion
India cannot afford to lose any time in recalibrating its regional engagements.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Crises in Pakistan and India's approach towards it
Context
Whether it can or should make a difference to Pakistan’s internal politics, India must pay greater attention to the internal dynamics of our most difficult neighbour and more purposefully engage a diverse set of actors in that polity.
India’s interventions in internal affairs of neighbours
- Except for Pakistan, in most other countries of the subcontinent, India is drawn quickly into their internal political arguments.
- Delhi has always exercised some influence on the outcomes of those contestations.
- It is enough to note that India’s interventions are a recurring pattern in the subcontinent’s international relations.
- Even when Delhi is reluctant to get into the weeds of these conflicts, the competing parties in the neighbourhood demand India’s intervention on their behalf.
- All of the contestants, of course, resolutely oppose India’s meddling when it goes against them.
- But Delhi has rarely been a decisive player in Pakistan’s internal politics.
- Delhi’s hands-off attitude is surprising, given India’s huge stakes in the nature of Pakistan’s policies and their massive impact on regional security.
Current crises in Pakistan
- Internal crises: Among the many challenges confronting Pakistan is the fresh breakdown in civil-military relations.
- Pakistan’s economy is in a tailspin as it struggles to negotiate a stabilisation package with the International Monetary Fund.
- The militant religious movement Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) has mounted a fresh march against the capital demanding the release of its arrested leader.
- External crises: The internal crises are sharpened by worsening external conditions.
- In Afghanistan, Pakistan has succeeded in restoring the Taliban to power.
- The celebrations have not lasted too long; the long-awaited victory is turning sour.
- The Arab Gulf states that have been fast friends of Pakistan are now tilting towards India.
- Once a favourite partner of the West, Pakistan today faces tensions in its ties with the US and Europe.
- More broadly, nuclear weapons and a powerful army seem unable to stop Pakistan’s relative decline in relation to not just India but also Bangladesh.
- Pakistan’s economy is now 10 times smaller than that of India and is well behind Bangladesh.
Suggestions
- Whether it can or should make a difference to Pakistan’s internal politics, India must pay greater attention to the internal dynamics of our most difficult neighbour and more purposefully engage a diverse set of actors in that polity.
- For Delhi, it is always about narrow political arguments with Rawalpindi and Islamabad; it is as if the people of Pakistan do not exist.
- For India, the crises in Pakistan should be an occasion to reflect on the long-term regional consequences of Pakistan’s internal turbulence.
- It might be argued that that unlike elsewhere in the neighbourhood, Delhi’s leverage in Pakistan’s politics is limited. But it is by no means negligible.
Consider the question “For Delhi, it is always about narrow political arguments with Rawalpindi and Islamabad; it is as if the people of Pakistan do not exist. The depth of the current crises in Pakistan, however, should nudge India into overcoming this entrenched indifference. Comment.”
Conclusion
India looms so large in Pakistan’s mind space. For Delhi, it may be worth trying to turn that into influence over Pakistan’s policies if only at the tactical level and at the margins.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: AB- Health Infrastructure Mission
Mains level: Not Much
PM has launched the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (AB-HIM), one of the largest pan-India schemes for strengthening healthcare infrastructure.
AB- Health Infrastructure Mission
- AB-HIM is being rolled out as India’s largest scheme to scale up health infrastructure.
- It is aimed at ensuring a robust public health infrastructure in both urban and rural areas, capable of responding to public health emergencies or disease outbreaks.
Key features
- Health and Wellness Centres: In a bid to increase accessibility it will provide support to 17,788 rural HWC in 10 ‘high focus’ states and establish 11,024 urban HWC across the country.
- Exclusive Critical Care Hospital Blocks: It will ensure access to critical care services in all districts of the country with over five lakh population through ‘Exclusive Critical Care Hospital Blocks’.
- Integrated public health labs: will also be set up in all districts, giving people access to “a full range of diagnostic services” through a network of laboratories across the country.
- Disease surveillance system: The mission also aims to establish an IT-enabled disease surveillance system through a network of surveillance laboratories at block, district, regional and national levels.
- Integrated Health Information Portal: All the public health labs will be connected through this Portal, which will be expanded to all states and UTs, the PMO said.
Why is the scheme significant?
- India has long been in need of a ubiquitous healthcare system.
- A 2019 study has highlighted how access to public health care remained elusive to those living on the margins.
- The study found that 70 per cent of the locations have public healthcare services.
- However, availability was less in rural areas (65 per cent) compared to urban areas (87 per cent).
- In 45 per cent of the surveyed locations, people could access healthcare services by walking, whereas in 43 per cent of the locations they needed to use transport.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mullaperiyar Dam
Mains level: Interstate water disputes
The Supreme Court has directed the Supervisory Committee to take an immediate and firm decision on the maximum water level that can be maintained at Mullaperiyar dam amidst torrential rains in Kerala.
What is the news?
- A report by United Nations has stated that the Mullaperiyar dam, situated in a seismically active area, faces the risk of failure.
- Earlier this year, the Supreme Court warned the TN Chief Secretary against the failure to give information on the rule curve for dam which decides the discharge of excess water.
Mullaperiyar Dam
- It is a masonry gravity dam on the Periyar River in Kerala.
- It is located on the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats in Thekkady, Idukki District.
- It was constructed between 1887 and 1895 by John Pennycuick and also reached in an agreement to divert water eastwards to the Madras Presidency area.
- It has a height of 53.6 m (176 ft) from the foundation, and a length of 365.7 m (1,200 ft).
Operational issue
- The dam is located in Kerala but is operated and maintained by Tamil Nadu.
- The catchment area of the Mullaperiyar Dam itself lies entirely in Kerala and thus not an inter-State river.
- In November 2014, the water level hit 142 feet for first time in 35 years.
- The reservoir again hit the maximum limit of 142 feet in August 2018, following incessant rains in the state of Kerala.
- Indeed, the tendency to store water to almost the full level of reservoirs is becoming a norm among water managers across States.
The dispute: Control and safety of the dam
- Supreme court judgment came in February 2006, has allowed Tamil Nadu to raise the level of the dam to 152 ft (46 m) after strengthening it.
- Responding to it, the Mullaperiyar dam was declared an ‘endangered’ scheduled dam by the Kerala Government under the disputed Kerala Irrigation and Water Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2006.
- For Tamil Nadu, the Mullaperiyar dam and the diverted Periyar waters act as a lifeline for Theni, Madurai, Sivaganga, Dindigul and Ramnad districts.
- Tamil Nadu has insisted on exercising the unfettered colonial rights to control the dam and its waters, based on the 1886 lease agreement.
Rule of Curve issue
- A rule curve or rule level specifies the storage or empty space to be maintained in a reservoir during different times of the year.
- It decides the fluctuating storage levels in a reservoir.
- The gate opening schedule of a dam is based on the rule curve. It is part of the “core safety” mechanism in a dam.
- The TN government often blames Kerala for delaying the finalization of the rule curve.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: White dwarf
Mains level: Not Much
Using the Hubble Space telescope and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have identified several white dwarfs over the years.
Where is this white dwarf?
- A white dwarf is what stars like the Sun become after they have exhausted their nuclear fuel.
- Near the end of its nuclear burning stage, this type of star expels most of its outer material, creating a planetary nebula.
- Only the hot core of the star remains. This core becomes a very hot white dwarf, with a temperature exceeding 100,000 Kelvin.
- Unless it is accreting matter from a nearby star, the white dwarf cools down over the next billion years or so.
Limits for white dwarf
- White Dwarf is half the size of our Sun and has a surface gravity 100,000 times that of Earth.
- There is a limit on the amount of mass a white dwarf can have.
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar discovered this limit to be 4 times the mass of the Sun. This is appropriately known as the “Chandrasekhar Limit.”
Observing white dwarf
- Many nearby, young white dwarfs have been detected as sources of soft, or lower-energy, X-rays.
- Recently, soft X-ray and extreme ultraviolet observations have become a powerful tool in the study the composition and structure of the thin atmosphere of these stars.
What is TESS?
- The researchers observed this phenomenon using Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
- TESS is a space telescope in NASA’s Explorer program, designed to search for extrasolar planets using the transit method.
- The primary mission objective for TESS is to survey the brightest stars near the Earth for transiting exoplanets over a two-year period.
- The TESS project will use an array of wide-field cameras to perform an all-sky survey. It will scan nearby stars for exoplanets.
How does white dwarf ‘switch on and off’?
- In these types of systems, the donor star orbit around the white dwarf keeps feeding the accretion disk.
- As the accretion disk material slowly sinks closer towards the white dwarf it generally becomes brighter.
- It is known that in some systems the donor stars stop feeding the disk.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Floating Rate Bonds
Mains level: Not Much
The Government of India has announced the Sale (Re-issue) of Floating Rate Bonds, 2028’.
What are Bonds?
- Bonds are investment securities where an investor lends money to a company or a government for a set period of time, in exchange for regular interest payments.
- Generally, bonds come with a fixed coupon or interest rate. For example, you can buy a bond of Rs 10,000 with a coupon rate of 5%.
- Once the bond reaches maturity, the bond issuer returns the investor’s money.
- Fixed income is a term often used to describe bonds, since your investment earns fixed payments over the life of the bond.
Why are bonds launched?
- Companies sell bonds to finance ongoing operations, new projects or acquisitions.
- Governments sell bonds for funding purposes, and also to supplement revenue from taxes.
What are Floating Rate Bonds?
- A floating rate bond is a debt instrument that does not have a fixed coupon rate, but its interest rate fluctuates based on the benchmark the bond is drawn.
- Benchmarks are market instruments that influence the overall economy.
- For example, repo rate or reverse repo rate can be set as benchmarks for a floating rate bond.
How do floating rate bonds work?
- Floating rate bonds make up a significant part of the Indian bond market and are majorly issued by the government.
- For example, the RBI issued a floating rate bond in 2020 with interest payable every six months. After six months, the interest rate is re-fixed by the RBI.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Issues with paddy cultivation
Mains level: Paper 3- Pathway to switch from paddy to maize cultivation
Context
As per the latest Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of agricultural households conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO), an average Indian farmer earned Rs 10,218 per month in 2018-19 (July-June).
SAS analysis: Variation across the states and cause of concern for Punjab
- Across states, the highest income was received by a farming household in Meghalaya (Rs 29,348) followed by Punjab (Rs 26,701), Haryana (Rs 22,841), Arunachal Pradesh (19,225) and Jammu and Kashmir (Rs 18,918).
- While the lowest income levels were in West Bengal (Rs 6,762), Odisha (Rs 5,112) and Jharkhand (Rs 4,895).
- But this is not a fair comparison as holding sizes vary widely across states.
- After normalising these incomes of agri-households by their holding sizes, as in the SAS, Punjab’s ranking on per hectare income falls from 2nd to 11th and Haryana goes down from 3rd to 15th (see figure).
- The states that would do well on this score are Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.
- In these states, people earn their income from cultivating fruits and vegetables, spices, and livestock.
- These are high value in nature, not linked to MSPs, and market and demand-driven.
- As per the SAS, the average operated area per holding for Punjab is 1.44 ha (we have used that in the figure), but the Census gives a much higher value of 3.62 ha of average operational holding.
- If we normalise incomes of agri-households using Census values of average holding sizes, Punjab’s rank would go further down to 21st (household monthly income Rs 7,376) out of 28 states.
How can farmers in Punjab and Haryana augment their incomes with more sustainable agriculture?
1) Swith from paddy to maize
- Punjab’s former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had approached the Centre with an idea to create a fund of around Rs 25,000 crore to help farmers switch from paddy to maize.
- The Centre should give this idea a serious thought with the following modifications:
- One, the fund should be under a five-year plan to shift at least a million hectares of paddy area (out of a total of 3.1 million hectares of paddy area in Punjab) to maize.
- Two, the corpus should have equal contributions from the Centre and state.
- Three, since Punjab wants that farmers be given MSP for maize, an agency, the Maize Corporation of Punjab (MCP), should be created to buy maize from farmers at MSP.
- Four, this agency should enter into contracts with ethanol companies, and much of this maize can be used to produce ethanol as the poultry and starch industries will not be able to absorb this surplus in maize once a million hectares of paddy area shifts to maize.
- Fifth, maize productivity must be as competitive as that of paddy in Punjab and the best seeds should be used for that purpose.
- This is to ensure that ethanol from maize is produced in a globally competitive manner.
- The GoI’s policy for 20 per cent blending of ethanol in petrol should come in handy for this purpose.
2) Diversification
- Other parts of the diversification strategy have to be along the lines of increasing the area under fruits and vegetables, and a more focused policy to build efficient value chains in not just fruits and vegetables but also livestock and fisheries.
- They are more nutritious and the SAS data shows that their profitability is much higher in these enterprises than in crop cultivation, especially cereals.
- The sector needs to be backed by proper processing, grading and packaging infrastructure to tap its full potential.
Benefits of switching to maize from paddy
- Punjab will arrest its depleting water table as maize needs less than one-fifth the water that paddy does for irrigation.
- Also, Punjab will save much on the power subsidy to agriculture, which was budgeted at Rs 8,275 crore in the FY2020-21 budget, as paddy irrigation consumes much of the power subsidy.
- This saving subsidy resulting from the switch from paddy to maize can be used to fund a part of the state’s contribution to the Maize Corporation of Punjab.
- This could result in a win-win situation for all — farmers, the Government of Punjab and the country — as there will be lesser methane emissions and less stubble burning.
- Moreover, ethanol will also reduce GHG emissions in vehicular pollution.
Consider the question “Switching from paddy cultivation to maize can help the Punjab farmers deal with the several issues. In light of this, explain the issues with paddy cultivation and suggest the way forward.”
Conclusion
Their income on a per hectare basis needs to increase more sustainably, protecting the state’s land, water and air from further degradation, and producing more nutritious food. Punjab can then shine again on the nutritional security front with sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Medical Commission
Mains level: Paper 2- More LGBTQIA+ affirmative curriculum
Context
The National Medical Commission (NMC), the body responsible for regulating medical education in India, released an advisory regarding the LGBTQIA+ community and the necessary changes in the competencies of its competency-based medical education (CBME) curriculum.
Exclusion of LGBTQIA+ community in medication
- Medical education in India has focussed only on the binary of male and female, heterosexuality and cis-gendered lives, while excluding homosexuality and gender non-binary and transgender issues.
- This results in the exclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community.
- Even with the release of the competency-based medical curriculum in August 2019, the curriculum continues to include a queerphobic syllabus.
About the NMC notification
- The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 mandates governments to take measures for the “review of medical curriculum and research for doctors to address their [transgender] specific health issues,” but no action has been taken since then.
- In June 2021, in response to a case filed by a queer couple, the Madras High Court laid down a set of guidelines and directed the NMC to ban queerphobic practices such as conversion therapy which aims to forcibly change the sexual orientation of a person.
- In its notification, the NMC has advised medical colleges to teach gender in a way that is not derogatory to the queer community.
- The authors of medical textbooks have also been asked to amend the books to remove any harmful contents regarding virginity and the queer community.
Issues with the NMC notification
- While the NMC advisory title mentions necessary changes in the competencies of its CBME curriculum, there are no specifications on what these changes are.
- At the same time, the CBME curriculum itself mentions queerphobic things that are to be taught to students.
- Certain acts are called as sexual offences even though the Supreme Court has read down Section 377.
- Also, the competencies which will make a future Indian doctor respectful and empathetic in treating a queer patient are missing.
Way forward
- The NMC must start by recognising the flaws in its own CBME curriculum and explicitly state the changes required.
- Specific guidelines on how to make healthcare queer-affirmative are needed.
- The directive also needs to specify changes across several subjects and not just forensic medicine and psychiatry.
- For this, there needs to be a participatory stakeholder consultation towards the development of a queer-affirmative curriculum.
- Finally, there needs to be clarity on what the NMC plans to do for tackling queerphobia in the current set of health professionals.
Consider the question “The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 mandates governments to take measures for the review of the medical curriculum. In light of this, discuss the changes needed in the medical curriculum regarding the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Conclusion
Without these changes, equitable access to healthcare for queer persons will remain a faraway dream.
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