Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 15, 16
Mains level: Quota in Promotion debate
The Supreme Court has asked Attorney General to compile the various issues being raised by States with regard to the 2006 M. Nagaraj case, which had upheld the application of creamy layer principle to members of the SC/ST communities in promotions.
Must read edition: Reservation not a Fundamental Right
What is the case about?
- The Centre’s plea came despite the Supreme Court, in September 2018, in Jarnail Singh case, reiterating the Nagaraj judgment of 2006.
- The 2006 judgment required the States to show quantifiable data to prove the ‘backwardness’ of a community to provide quota in promotion in public employment,
- The 2018 judgment, which was authored by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman, had refused the government’s plea to refer the 2006 Nagaraj judgment to a seven-judge Bench.
- It had while modifying the part of the Nagaraj verdict, rejected the Centre’s argument that Nagaraj misread the creamy layer concept by applying it to SC/ST.
Nagaraj Case
- In Jarnail Singh vs Lachhmi Narain Gupta (2018), the court dealt with a batch of appeals on the correctness of the Supreme Court’s judgment in M Nagaraj & Others vs Union of India (2006).
- The Nagaraj case, in turn, had arisen out of a challenge to the validity of four Constitution amendments, which the court eventually upheld.
What were the amendments?
- 77th Amendment: It introduced Clause 4A to the Constitution, empowering the state to make provisions for reservation in matters of promotion to SC/ST employees if the state feels they are not adequately represented.
- 81st Amendment: It introduced Clause 4B, which says unfilled SC/ST quota of a particular year, when carried forward to the next year, will be treated separately and not clubbed with the regular vacancies of that year to find out whether the total quota has breached the 50% limit set by the Supreme Court.
- 82nd Amendment: It inserted a proviso at the end of Article 335 to enable the state to make any provision for SC/STs “for relaxation in qualifying marks in any examination or lowering the standards of evaluation, for reservation in matters of promotion to any class or classes of services or posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of a State”.
- 85th Amendment: It said reservation in the promotion can be applied with consequential seniority for the SC/ST employee.
What is Art.335 about?
- Article 335 of the Constitution relates to claims of SCs and STs to services and posts.
- It reads: “The claims of the members of the SC’s and ST’s shall be taken into consideration, consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration, in the making of appointments to services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of a State.”
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Age of marriage
The task force set up to take a re-look at the age of marriage for women has submitted its report to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Try this question for mains:
Q.The different minimum age of marriage for women and men is a discriminatory provision. Analyse.
What is the issue?
- PM in his I-Day speech last year spoke about a panel formed to decide on the “right age of marriage” for women.
- The minimum age of marriage, especially for women, has been a contentious issue.
- The law evolved in the face of much resistance from religious and social conservatives.
- Currently, the law prescribes that the minimum age of marriage is 21 years and 18 years for men and women respectively.
Invoking ‘Majority’
- The minimum age of marriage is distinct from the age of majority which is gender-neutral.
- An individual attains the age of majority at 18 as per the Indian Majority Act, 1875.
- The law prescribes a minimum age of marriage to essentially outlaw child marriages and prevents the abuse of minors.
About the Committee
- The Union Ministry for WCD had set up a task force to examine matters pertaining to the age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering Maternal Mortality Ratio and the improvement of nutritional levels among women.
- The task force would examine the correlation of age of marriage and motherhood with health, medical well-being, and nutritional status of the mother and neonate, infant or child, during pregnancy, birth and thereafter.
- It will also examine the possibility of increasing the age of marriage for women from the present 18 years to 21 years.
How common are child marriages in India?
- UNICEF estimates suggest that each year, at least 1.5 million girls under the age of 18 are married in India.
- It makes our country home to the largest number of child brides in the world — accounting for a third of the global total.
- Nearly 16 per cent adolescent girls aged 15-19 are currently married.
Provisions for the minimum age for marriage
- Personal laws of various religions that deal with marriage have their own standards, often reflecting custom.
- For Hindus, Section 5(iii) of The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, sets 18 years as the minimum age for the bride and 21 years as the minimum age for the groom.
- However, child marriages are not illegal — even though they can be declared void at the request of the minor in the marriage.
- In Islam, the marriage of a minor who has attained puberty is considered valid.
- The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 also prescribe 18 and 21 years as the minimum age of consent for marriage for women and men respectively.
- Additionally, sexual intercourse with a minor is rape, and the ‘consent’ of a minor is regarded as invalid since she is deemed incapable of giving consent at that age.
Evolution of the law
- The IPC enacted in 1860 criminalised sexual intercourse with a girl below the age of 10.
- The provision of rape was amended in 1927 through The Age of Consent Bill, 1927, which declared that marriage with a girl under 12 would be invalid.
- The law faced opposition from conservative leaders of the Indian National Movement, who saw the British intervention as an attack on Hindu customs.
- A legal framework for the age of consent for marriage in India only began in the 1880s.
Comes in: The Sarda Act
- In 1929, The Child Marriage Restraint Act set 16 and 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for girls and boys respectively.
- The law, popularly known as the Sarda Act after its sponsor Harbilas Sarda, a judge and a member of Arya Samaj, was eventually amended in 1978 to prescribe 18 and 21 years as the age of marriage for a woman and a man respectively.
Contention over different legal standards
- There is no reasoning in the law for having different legal standards of age for men and women to marry. The laws are a codification of custom and religious practices.
- The Law Commission consultation paper has argued that having different legal standards “contributes to the stereotype that wives must be younger than their husbands”.
- Women’s rights activists have argued that the law also perpetuates the stereotype that women are more mature than men of the same age and, therefore, can be allowed to marry sooner.
- The international treaty Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), also calls for the abolition of laws that assume women have a different physical or intellectual rate of growth than men.
Why is the law being relooked at?
- Despite laws mandating minimum age and criminalizing sexual intercourse with a minor, child marriages are very prevalent in the country.
- From bringing in gender-neutrality to reduce the risks of early pregnancy among women, there are many arguments in favour of increasing the minimum age of marriage of women.
- Early pregnancy is associated with increased child mortality rates and affects the health of the mother.
Upholding the Constitution
- Petitioners, in this case, had challenged the law on the grounds of discrimination.
- It is argued that Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which guarantee the right to equality and the right to live with dignity, were violated by having different legal ages for men and women to marry.
- Two significant Supreme Court rulings can act as precedents to support the petitioner’s claim.
- In 2014, in the ‘NALSA v Union of India’ case, the Supreme Court, while recognising transgenders as the third gender, said that justice is delivered with the “assumption that humans have equal value and should, therefore, be treated as equal, as well as by equal laws”.
- In 2019, in ‘Joseph Shine v Union of India’, the Supreme Court decriminalized adultery, and said that “a law that treats women differently based on gender stereotypes is an affront to women’s dignity”.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indian innovation index
Mains level: Innovation ecosystem in India
NITI Aayog is set to release the second edition of the India Innovation Index 2020 tomorrow.
*Statewise rankings will be updated tomorrow.
Updated on 21st Jan, Thursday.
India Innovation Index (III)
- The release of the second edition of the index—the first was launched in October 2019—demonstrates the Government’s continued commitment towards transforming the country into an innovation-driven economy.
- The index attempts to create an extensive framework for the continual evaluation of the innovation environment of 29 states and seven UTs in India.
- It intends to perform the following three functions-
- Ranking of states and UTs based on their index scores
- Recognizing opportunities and challenges, and
- Assisting in tailoring governmental policies to foster innovation
- The India Innovation Index 2019 is calculated as the average of the scores of its two dimensions – Enablers and Performance.
- The states have been bifurcated into three categories: major states, north-east and hill states, and union territories/city-states/small states.
Significance
- The study examines the innovation ecosystem of Indian states and union territories.
- The aim is to create a holistic tool which can be used by policymakers across the country to identify the challenges to be addressed and strengths to build on when designing policies.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Harike Wetland
Mains level: Wetland conservation in India
Winter migratory waterbirds using the central Asian flyway have started making a beeline to Punjab’s Harike wetland, offering a delight for bird lovers.
Try this PYQ:
Q.In which one among the following categories of protected areas in India are local people not allowed to collect and use the biomass?
(a) Biosphere reserves
(b) National parks
(c) Wetlands declared under Ramsar convention
(d) Wildlife sanctuaries
Harike Wetland
- Harike Wetland also is the largest wetland in northern India in the border of Tarn Taran Sahib district and Ferozepur district of Punjab.
- The wetland and the lake were formed by constructing the headworks across the Sutlej River in 1953.
- The headworks is located downstream of the confluence of the Beas and Sutlej rivers just south of Harike village.
- The rich biodiversity of the wetland which plays a vital role in maintaining the precious hydrological balance in the catchment with its vast concentration of migratory fauna.
- It was accorded as a wetland in 1990, by the Ramsar Convention, as one of the Ramsar sites in India, for conservation, development and preservation of the ecosystem.
Back2Basics: Ramsar Convention
- The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (better known as the Ramsar Convention) is an international agreement promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands.
- It is the only global treaty to focus on a single ecosystem.
- The convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
- Traditionally viewed as a wasteland or breeding ground of disease, wetlands actually provide fresh water and food and serve as nature’s shock absorber.
- Wetlands, critical for biodiversity, are disappearing rapidly, with recent estimates showing that 64% or more of the world’s wetlands have vanished since 1900.
- Major changes in land use for agriculture and grazing, water diversion for dams and canals and infrastructure development are considered to be some of the main causes of loss and degradation of wetlands.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Understanding the paradox in between booming financial sector and declining economy
Divergence in the financial sector and the overall economy
- India’s major secondary stock market, the Sensex has been found tracking an upward path, from 40,817 on January 8, 2020, to 48,569 a year later, on January 8, 2021.
- The trend indicates that GDP in India has been subdued while the financial sector has continued moving up.
- This paradox has been found to be replicated in other developing as well as advanced economies.
- These include the major emerging economies such as Brazil and Argentina along with advanced economies such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
- It remains an open question whether this paradox can sustain itself.
- If this cannot sustain, it poses risk for those having large exposures in the financial market and also for the economy as a whole.
Let’s understand the financial flows beyond the real economy
- Finance as above, having no counterpart in the productive sector, was identified, first by Karl Marx, as fictitious capital.
- Earnings from fictitious capital include interests, dividends, and capital gains as well as profits on derivatives.
- All the above come in the category of unearned or rentier capital.
- Financial assets, sold with capital gains at higher prices, are met with a rising rather than with the usual declines in demand.
- Evidently, possibilities of accumulating assets turn even brighter with the high-value assets (used as collaterals), fetching credit for further business.
- As for the stock prices, which reflect the stream of dividends over time discounted by interest rates, lower rates can help pitch stock prices higher.
- Cuts in interest rates are often preferred as tools under mainstream prescriptions limiting expansionary policies, which evidently helps stock prices.
- A journey as above for the financial circuit continues, is subject to market confidence.
Role of state
- To look at how finance has attained its present status we need to look at the evolving alliances between finance and the ruling state.
- The path started with the financial deregulation in the late-1990s when banks were allowed to profit by dealing with securities and with the emergence of hedging devices such as futures and options in the market.
- It also reflects the rise of non-bank financial institutions as well as shadow banks operating beyond regulations even at cost for the regular banks which had large exposures to the non-banks.
- The state’s close proximity to big finance is also evident in the revamping of downhill finance, even with bailouts in the name of restoring financial stability.
- It speaks even more of the pro-finance stance of the government in the neglect of upswings in the financial sector despite the continuing downslides in the real economy.
Consider the question “What explains the apparent paradox in the India economy with evident divergence in its booming financial sector and subdued economy. What are the risks involved in such situations? Suggest the measures to deal with such situations.
Conclusion
Catastrophes, that comes with the sudden collapse of confidence in the financial sector, highlight the need for alternative policies on the part of the state as well as a bit of caution on part of individual investors — in a bid to usher in a sustainable and equitable path of growth for the economy as a whole.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Data Protection Bill provisions
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues of informed consent to the online privacy policies
The article discusses challenges posed by online privacy policies and suggests some ideas to make them more user friendly.
Issues with online privacy policies
- Such policies are not designed for easy reading.
- These policies are full of legal jargon and most are difficult to read.
- Most policies are exclusively in English, which is clearly inadequate in a country where no more than 12 per cent are comfortable with the language.
- A human-centric study across India found that even people who couldn’t read or write, when made aware of what they were consenting to, cared deeply about it.
- Online consent is, therefore, a false choice for most Indians.
Importance of consent in data ecosystem
- Consent is also the fulcrum of India’s fast-growing data ecosystem.
- The Data Protection Bill under consideration by Parliament lists consent as a legal ground for data processing.
- Last year, NITI Aayog sought public comments on the Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA), a system that will connect an individual’s financial, health, telecom and other data so that it can be moved from one provider to another.
- DEPA intends to use consent to ensure that users remain in control of their data.
New ideas needed to give users greater control
1) Business as steward of consumer trust
- Businesses need to become more responsible stewards of consumer trust.
- Experiments suggest that making consumers read privacy policies by getting them to stay on the “privacy policy” page for a few minutes, led to increased trust in businesses and greater data sharing.
- Businesses can adopt such ideas to make users trust them more.
2) Regulatory bodies need to guide consumers
- Consumers do not have the time or knowledge to go through privacy policies.
- The food regulator’s food safety certifications and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)’s rating guides have become part of our everyday lives.
- Similarly, a “privacy rating” for apps can help individuals make more informed choices about their data.
- Such “rule of thumbs” can help them cut through the jargon, trust businesses more and share more data.
3) Running awareness campaign
- Governments and industry associations can play an enabling role by running innovative awareness campaigns that leverage local contexts, and relatable narrative styles.
- The campaign should include awareness about messages logging off from public computers, and not sharing phone numbers easily.
4) Some other ideas
- The “burden of proof” on privacy should rest with providers rather than consumers.
- Businesses should act as fiduciaries of user data and act in the best interest of the user than simply maximising profits.
-
Regulators can create a new class of intermediaries that warn consumers about dangerous practices, represent them, and seek recourse on their behalf.
Consider the question “What are the issues with the consent to the online privacy policies? Suggest the measures to give users greater control over their digital destinies.
Conclusion
By educating and empowering every Indian, we will enable her to participate fully in India’s digital economy, and thereby create a meaningful digital life for every Indian. Only then will the true potential of Digital India be realised.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: FCI and MSP
Mains level: Paper 3- Making India's agri-food policies optimal
Basic parameters to design optimal agri-food policy
- UN population projections (2019) indicate that India is likely to be the most populous country by 2027.
- By 2030, the country is likely to have almost 600 million people living in urban areas, who would need safe food.
- Indian agriculture has an average holding size of 1.08 hectares (2015-16 data) while engaging 42 percent of the country’s workforce.
- Cultivable land and water for agriculture are limited and already under severe pressure.
What should be the basic features of agri-policy
- 1) It should be able to produce enough food, feed, and fibre for its large population.
- 2) It should do so in a manner that protects the environment — soil, water, air, and biodiversity and achieves higher production with global competitiveness.
- 3) It should enable seamless movement of food, keeping marketing costs low, save on food losses in supply chains and provide safe and fresh food to consumers.
- 4) Consumers should get safe and nutritious food at affordable prices.
Need to change from sub-optimal to optimal policies
- Free electricity and highly subsidized fertilizers, especially urea, are damaging groundwater levels, especially in the Green Revolution states.
- Sugar and wheat are being produced at prices higher than global prices, and these crops can’t be exported unless they are heavily subsidized.
- Excessive stocks of wheat and rice with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) are putting pressure on the agency’s finances.
- Rice remains globally competitive, but it should be remembered that in exporting rice we are also exporting massive amounts of precious water — almost 25-30 billion cubic meters, annually.
- This is the water that is pumped for rice cultivation, enabled by the subsidized power supply.
- In the marketing segment also, for most of our agri-commodities, our costs remain high compared to several other developing countries due to poor logistics, low investments in supply lines, and high margins of intermediaries.
- All these are signs of sub-optimal agri-food policies.
Policy changes required: On the production level
- Green Revolution states of Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh require crop diversification.
- This can be done by switching from the highly subsidized input price policy (power, water, fertilizers) and MSP/FRP policy for paddy, wheat, and sugarcane, to more income support policies linked to saving water, soil, and air quality.
- The Agri-marketing segment is also in the need of reforms especially with respect to bringing about efficiency in agri-marketing and lowering transaction costs.
- It is believed that developing countries should invest at least one percent of their agri-GDP in agri-R&D and extension.
- India invests about half.
- It needs to double with commensurate accountability of R&D organizations, especially the ICAR and state agriculture universities to deliver.
Policy changes required: On the consumption level
- The biggest challenge for the next 10 years is that of malnutrition, especially amongst children.
- The public distribution of food, through PDS, that relies on rice and wheat, and that too at more than 90 percent subsidy over costs of procurement, stocking, and distribution, is not helping much.
- It is increasing the finances of FCI, whose borrowings have touched Rs 3 lakh crore.
- To address that, beneficiaries of subsidized rice and wheat need to be given a choice to opt for cash equivalent to MSP plus 25 percent.
- The FCI adds about 40 percent cost over the MSP while procuring, storing, and distributing food.
- This cash option will save some money and also lead to supplies of more diversified and nutritious food to the beneficiaries.
Consider the question “What are the issues with India’s agri-food policies? Suggest the changes in agri-food policies so as to make them optimal.
Conclusion
What we need is to set agri-food policies on a demand-driven approach, protecting sustainability and efficiency in production and marketing, and giving consumers more choices for nutritious food at affordable prices.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Judicial Review
Mains level: Separation of Power doctrine
The Supreme Court’s recent order staying the implementation of three farm laws has been criticised and is seen as violative of the doctrine of Separation of Powers.
Q. Discuss the role of judicial activism in parliamentary democracy in India.
What is the issue?
- In particular, many have questioned the suspension of action under the laws as such interim orders are extremely rare.
- The court did not accept the Attorney General’s argument that laws made by the legislature should not be ordinarily stayed, as there is a presumption of constitutionality in favour of the laws.
SC’s justification
- This court cannot be said to be completely powerless to grant stay of any executive action under a statutory enactment, the Bench observed in its order.
- This means that it was apparently making a distinction between staying a law and staying its implementation or any action under it.
- Some may argue, however, that the effect remains the same, as the order operates as a stay on the government invoking its provisions.
Previous such orders
- The court also cited an order passed by another Bench of the Supreme Court in September 2020 on the Maratha reservation issue.
- It directed that admissions to educational institutions for 2020-21 and appointments to posts under the government shall be made without reference to the reservation provided under the relevant legislation.
Farms laws case is different
- In the Maratha reservation case, the Bench said interim orders could be passed if an enactment is ex facie unconstitutional or contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court.
- It noted that the quota violated the 50% ceiling mentioned in the Indra Sawhney case (1992) and that the Maharashtra government had not shown any extraordinary situation to justify exceeding the limit.
- Here, the Court observed that a stay on the farm laws’ implementation may assuage the hurt feelings of farmers and encourage them to come to the negotiating table.
What are the court’s powers in regard to staying enacted law?
- Under the broad framework of judicial review, the Supreme Court and High Courts have the power to declare any law unconstitutional.
- This is on grounds if a law is contrary to any provision of the Constitution or it violates any of the fundamental rights.
- Another ground is invalidity if the law is repugnant to a central law on the same subject or has been enacted without legislative jurisdiction.
Criticisms of the move
- The main criticism is that suspending a law made by the legislature goes against the concept of separation of powers.
- Courts are expected to defer to the legislature’s wisdom at the threshold of a legal challenge to the validity of a law.
- The validity of law ought to be considered normally only at the time of final adjudication, and not at the initial stage.
- The second principle is that there is a presumption that every law enacted by any legislature is constitutional and valid.
- The onus is on those challenging it to prove that it is not. Therefore, courts are circumspect when hearing petitions seeking suspension of law pending a detailed adjudication.
Various precedents cited by the Court
- Case law suggests that in some cases, High Courts indeed stayed the operation of some laws. However, the Supreme Court took a dim view.
- In 1984, the top court set aside an interim stay granted against the operation of a municipal tax (Siliguri Municipality & Others vs Amalendu Das & Others).
- In 2013, it removed the stay on some provisions of and regulations under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 (Health for Millions Trust vs Union of India).
- It then held that the rules were ex facie unconstitutional and the factors, like, the balance of convenience, irreparable injury and public interest are in favour of passing an interim order.
Back2Basics: Judicial Activism
- The term “Judicial Activism” refers to the court’s decision, based on the wisdom that does not go rigidly within the text of the statute passed by the legislature.
- It goes in favour of the use of judicial power broadly to provide remedies to the wide range of social wrongs for ensuring proper justice.
- The judiciary performs an active role to uphold constitutional values and ethics under the constitutional pattern.
- For addressing civic dilemmas, the judiciary applies its intellect and creativity to fill the gap between the positive and normative aspects of legislations.
- For this reason, judicial activism has emerged.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: G7. G8, G20
Mains level: G7 and its significance for India
The United Kingdom has invited PM Modi to attend the G7 summit that is scheduled to be held in June.
Note the members of G7 and G20. UPSC may puzzle you asking which G20 nation isn’t a member of G7. 
G7 Countries
- The G-7 or ‘Group of Seven’ includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- It is an intergovernmental organisation that was formed in 1975 by the top economies of the time as an informal forum to discuss pressing world issues.
- Initially, it was formed as an effort by the US and its allies to discuss economic issues.
- The G-7 forum now discusses several challenges such as oil prices and many pressing issues such as financial crises, terrorism, arms control, and drug trafficking.
- It does not have a formal constitution or a fixed headquarters. The decisions taken by leaders during annual summits are non-binding.
- Canada joined the group in 1976, and the European Union began attending in 1977.
Evolution of the G-7
- When it started in 1975—with six members, Canada joining a year later—it represented about 70% of the world economy.
- And it was a cozy club for tackling issues such as the response to oil shocks.
- Now it accounts for about 40% of global GDP.
- Since the global financial crisis of 2007-09, it has sometimes been overshadowed by the broader g20.
- The G-7 became the G-8 in 1997 when Russia was invited to join.
- In 2014, Russia was debarred after it took over Crimea.
Significance of G7 for India
- India will get more voice, more influence, and more power by entering the G7.
- After the UN Security Council (UNSC), this is the most influential grouping.
- If the group is expanded it will collectively address the humongous issues created by the Wuhan virus,
- Diplomatically, a seat at the high table could help India further its security and foreign policy interests, especially at the nuclear club and UN Security Council reform as well as protecting its interests in the Indian Ocean.
Back2Basics: The G-20
- The G-20 is a larger group of countries, which also includes G7 members.
- The G-20 was formed in 1999, in response to a felt need to bring more countries on board to address global economic concerns.
- Apart from the G-7 countries, the G-20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, and Turkey.
- Together, the G-20 countries make up around 80% of the world’s economy.
- As opposed to the G-7, which discusses a broad range of issues, deliberations at the G-20 are confined to those concerning the global economy and financial markets.
- India is slated to host a G-20 summit in 2022.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Adaptation Cost
Mains level: Progress of global climate action
The United Nations Adaptation Gap Report, 2020 was recently released by the UNEP.
Must read edition: Five years of Paris Agreement
UN Adaptation Gap Report
- UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has managed the production of UN Environment’s Adaptation Gap Report series since its first edition in 2014.
- The aim of the reports is to inform national and international efforts to advance climate change adaptation.
Behind the concept: Adaptation Cost
- Adaptation Cost includes costs of planning, preparing for, facilitating and implementing the climate change adaptation measures.
- It thus derives benefits as the avoided damage costs or the accrued benefits following the adoption and implementation of adaptation measures.
Highlights of the 2020 report
- The annual cost of adaptation to the effects of climate change for developing countries is estimated to at least quadruple by 2050, according to the United Nations Adaptation Gap Report, 2020.
- The current cost for developing countries is in the range of $70 billion (Rs 5.1 lakh crore) and may rise to $140-300 billion in 2030 and $280-500 billion in 2050.
Funding gaps
- The ever-increasing adaptation cost has also outpaced the growth in adaptation finance that refers to the flow of funds to developing countries to help them tide over the damages caused by climate change.
- This, in turn, has kept the adaptation finance gap from closing with the current efforts, although the fund flow has increased, the report said.
- Adaptation costs, in actual terms, are higher in developed countries but the burden of adaptation is greater for developing countries in relation to their gross domestic product.
- These countries, especially in Africa and Asia, which are least equipped to tackle climate change will also, be the most impacted by it, the report noted.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: 5G technology
Mains level: 5G technology and its rollout
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sought inputs from telcos and other industry experts on the sale and use of radiofrequency spectrum over the next 10 years, including the 5G bands.
Try this PYQ:
Q. In India, which of the following review the independent regulators in sectors like telecommunications, insurance, electricity, etc.?
- Ad Hoc Committees set up by the Parliament
- Parliamentary Department Related Standing Committees
- Finance Commission
- Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission
- NITI Aayog
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2
(b) 1, 3 and 4
(c) 3, 4 and 5
(d) 2 and 5
What is 5G technology?
- 5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks.
- It mainly works in 3 bands, namely low, mid and high-frequency spectrum — all of which have their own uses as well as limitations.
Three bands of 5G
- The low band spectrum has shown great promise in terms of coverage and speed of internet and data exchange, the maximum speed is limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second).
- This means that while telcos can use and install it for commercial cellphones users who may not have specific demands for very high-speed internet, the low band spectrum may not be optimal for specialised needs of the industry.
- The mid-band spectrum, on the other hand, offers higher speeds compared to the low band but has limitations in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals.
- Telcos and companies, which have taken the lead on 5G, have indicated that this band may be used by industries and specialised factory units for building captive networks that can be moulded into the needs of that particular industry.
- The high-band spectrum offers the highest speed of all the three bands, but has extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength.
- Internet speeds in the high-band spectrum of 5G have been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps (gigabits per second), while, in most cases, the maximum internet data speed in 4G has been recorded at 1 Gbps.
Where does India stand in the 5G technology race?
- On par with the global players, India had, in 2018, planned to start 5G services as soon as possible, with an aim to capitalize on the better network speeds and strength that the technology promised.
- Indian private telecom players have been urging the DoT to lay out a clear road map of spectrum allocation and 5G frequency bands so that they would be able to plan the rollout of their services accordingly.
- One big hurdle, however, is the lack of flow of cash and adequate capital with some companies due to their AGR dues.
Global progress on 5G
- More than governments, global telecom companies have started building 5G networks and rolling it out to their customers on a trial basis.
- In countries like the US, some companies have taken the lead when it comes to rolling out commercial 5G for their users.
- A South Korean company, which had started researching on 5G technology way back in 2011, has, on the other hand, take the lead when it comes to building the hardware for 5G networks for several companies.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BBB
Mains level: Paper 3- Bank Investment Company for governance reforms in the Public Sector Banks.
Banks, especially the Public Sector Banks have to play an important role in the pandemic afflicted economy. With that aim, the government has been envisaging the Bank Investment Company (BIC) for the improvement of PSB governance. The article discusses the issues with the BIC.
Background of the BIC
- Recent reports suggest that the upcoming budget may include proposals for a Bank Investment Company (BIC), anchoring the government’s shareholding in its banks.
- The BIC was proposed by the P J Nayak Committee constituted by the RBI in 2014 to examine governance at public and private sector banks.
- The committee had offered two options — privatisation or a complete overhaul of bank governance.
- The overhaul of bank governance is envisaged in the form of a gradual disassociation of the government from the operations, management and governance of PSBs.
- The BIC is a welcome step in as much as it signals the government’s intent to pursue reforms to improve the governance and performance of PSBs.
Concerns with the BIC
- The ownership and governance of the BIC itself will be crucial.
- BIC will need to be allowed to garner the requisite talent and expertise and operate with freedom.
- In the absence of this, it would merely add another layer while preserving the status quo.
- The less than encouraging experience of the Banks Board Bureau (BBB) that was to precede the BIC is instructive.
Why BBB failed to achieve its objectives
- The BBB was set up in 2016 to advise on the selection and appointment of senior board members and management.
- However, in practice, the BBB’s advice has not always been heeded to, and appointments have not always been made on time.
- The BBB, as originally conceived, was to consist of three senior bankers.
- However, it was expanded to include representatives from the RBI and the government.
- The BBB was also originally envisaged by the committee as a temporary arrangement.
- However, no further steps have been forthcoming after its establishment.
Way forward for BIC
- The government would need to ensure the necessary freedom for the BIC to operate while circumscribing its own role.
- The ultimate success of these reforms will depend on how the government disassociates itself and empowers the BIC.
- The objectives of the BIC would have to be clearly defined too.
- If capital raising is one of the goals, the structure of a holding company — with a portfolio of comparatively better performing and non-performing banks — to attract investments must be assessed.
- In this regard, the RBI has reportedly, in the past, expressed reservations on the BIC structure being a potential challenge for investors to assess the relative risks, returns and performance of the banks.
- This raises the question of whether privatisation would not be a better alternative, particularly as the transition of the government from an owner to a pure financial investor in its banks is likely to take time.
Conclusion
Given these concerns, privatisation may be a better alternative. The budget could signal this intent by announcing the first step — the repeal of the Bank Nationalisation Acts and the State Bank of India Act.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UGC
Mains level: Paper 2- Impact of UGC's criteria in evaluation of research on social sciences and humanities
The article highlights the issues with the criteria applied by the UGC to evaluate the faculty research.
Impact of UGC standardisation on social sciences and humanities research
- UGC has been the regulatory body responsible for maintaining standards in higher education, while addressing challenges of globalisation.
- Processes of UGC mandated standardisation have in particular impacted social sciences and humanities research in Indian universities.
- Over the years, UGC has linked institutional funding to ranking and accreditation systems like NAAC and NIRF.
- In order to evaluate institutions, these bodies have evolved criteria, which rank universities based on faculty research measured by citations in global journal databases like SCOPUS.
- In comparison, importance granted to research outputs like books or other forms is declining.
Issues with the criteria
- The insistence of publication in journals fails to distinguish between the varied trajectory of disciplines.
- While in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Management) disciplines, research is often highly objective and quantified.
- In social sciences and humanities research is subjective, analytical and argumentative.
- In disciplines like history, sociology, politics, philosophy, psychology and literature, researchers spend years writing books that engage with ideas in complex ways.
- In devaluing books as authentic forms of research, UGC does major disservice to scholars of social sciences and humanities.
- Due to emphasis on publication, teachers spend most of their productive time writing articles and getting them published, thereby missing out on quality engagement with pedagogy and research.
Issues with the process of peer review
- The process of peer review itself is subjective, and depends upon the knowledge, inclination and availability of time of the particular reviewer.
- It is often quite challenging for scholars to meet peer-review standards of A-listed journals.
- This has actually required the UGC to expand its own list, ending up including and subsequently deleting a large number of locally published journals.
Issue of inaccessibility
- Publication of research in paywalled journal databases makes research inaccessible for students as universities continue to cut down library budgets.
- Students and teachers, access articles through pirated sites like Libgen and Scihub, prone to be shut down at any point of time as evident from the litigations.
- Clearly, access to knowledge is structurally made inequitable in favour of the elite and/or moneyed institutions and their constituents.
Way forward
- The above arguments maintain for the possible multiplicity that can emerge as the end-result of research.
- Interdisciplinary and practice-based research can throw up social and ecological experiments, artworks and performances, and numerous new outcomes yet to be conceived as research outputs.
- While the UGC hopes to raise the standards to global levels, precarity of employment, longer teaching hours, a dismal student-teacher ratio, lack of sabbaticals, research and travel grants, access to research facilities and office space, adversely impact the research potential of teachers.
- Regulating research needs to be replaced with facilitating research, allowing minds to think and gestate.
- Regulations without facilitation will merely bureaucratise the governance of knowledge without generating any pathbreaking insights.
Conclusion
The UGC needs to widen its criteria which values publication of a book as much as a research paper in the mandated journal to widen the research in social sciences and humanities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Open Skies Treaty (OST)
Mains level: Open Skies Treaty (OST)
Russia has announced that it was pulling out of the Open Skies Treaty, saying that the pact had been seriously compromised by the withdrawal of the United States.
The New START, INF and now the OST …. Be clear about the differences of these treaties. For example- to check if their inception was during cold war era etc.
Open Skies Treaty (OST)
- OST is an agreement that allows countries to monitor signatories’ arms development by conducting surveillance flights over each other’s territories.
- The idea behind the OST was first proposed in the early years of the Cold War by former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower.
- It came to existence decades later and was signed in 1992, during the George H.W. Bush presidency and after the Soviet Union had collapsed.
- The OST came into effect in 2002 under the George W. Bush administration and it allows its 34 signatories to conduct unarmed reconnaissance flights over the territory of treaty countries.
Issues with the OST
- The U.S. has used the treaty more intensively than Russia.
- Between 2002 and 2016, the U.S. flew 196 flights over Russia (in addition to having imagery from other countries) compared to the 71 flights flown by Russia.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kalapani Region
Mains level: India-Nepal Border Issues
Nepal has raised the Kalapani boundary dispute with India during the Joint Commission meeting of the Foreign Ministers.
Q.The India-Nepal bilateral relations these days are increasingly seen through the lens of China factor. Examine.
Kalapani Boundary Issue
- Mapped within Uttarakhand is a 372-sq km area called Kalapani, bordering far-west Nepal and Tibet.
- A treaty signed between Nepal and British India in 1816 determined the Makhali river, that runs through Kalapani, as the boundary between the two neighbours.
- The Treaty of Sugauli concluded between British India and the Kingdom of Nepal in the year 1816, maps the Makhali River as the western boundary with India.
- But different British maps showed the source of the tributary at different places which were mainly due to underdeveloped and less-defined surveying techniques used at that time.
- However, the river has many tributaries that meet at Kalapani. For this reason, India claims that the river begins at Kalapani but Nepal says that it begins from Lipu Lekh pass, which is the source of most of its tributaries.
- While the Nepal government and political parties have protested, India has said the new map does not revise the existing boundary with Nepal.
- India claims that the river begins at Kalapani but Nepal says that it begins from Lipu Lekh pass, which is the source of most of its tributaries.
Legal Dimension of Issue
According to International Laws, the principles of avulsion and accretion are applicable in determining the borders when a boundary river changes course.
- Avulsion: It is the pushing back of the shoreline by sudden, violent action of the elements, perceptible while in progress. Also, it can be defined as the sudden and perceptible change in the land brought about by water, which may result in the addition or removal of land from a bank or shoreline.
- Accretion: It is the process of growth or enlargement by a gradual buildup. It is the natural, slow and gradual deposit of soil by the water.
If the change of the river course is rapid – by avulsion – the boundary does not change. But if the river changes course gradually – that is, by accretion – the boundary changes accordingly.
Since, the Gandak change, of course, has been gradual, India claimed Susta as part of their territory as per international laws.
- On several occasions, India has tried to resolve the issue through friendly and peaceful negotiations, but the Nepali leadership has always shown hesitation in resolving the issue.
- In Nepal, the issue has become a tool for arousing strong public sentiment against India. Therefore, resolving the issue may not be in the best interest of Nepal’s domestic politics.
Significance for India
- The Lipu Lekh pass serves strategic importance for India as a key point to monitor Chinese troop movement.
- The link road via Lipulekh Himalayan Pass is also considered one of the shortest and most feasible trade routes between India and China.
- The Nepalese reaction would probably have triggered in response to Chinese assertion.
An undefined boundary claimed by Nepal
- Nepal’s western boundary with India was marked out in the Treaty of Sugauli between the East India Company and Nepal in 1816.
- Nepali authorities claim that people living in the low-density area were included in the Census of Nepal until 58 years ago.
- Five years ago, Nepali Foreign Minister had claimed that the late King Mahendra “handed over the territory to India”.
- By some accounts in Nepal, this allegedly took place in the wake of India-China War of 1962.
Must read:
[Burning Issue] India-Nepal Border Row
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: India's trade deficit
Mains level: Atmanirbhar Bharat
India’s trade with China last year fell to the lowest since 2017, with the trade imbalance declining to a five-year low on the back of a slump in India’s imports from China.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Among the following, which one is the largest exporter of rice in the world in the last five years? (CSP 2019)
(a) China
(b) India
(c) Myanmar
(d) Vietnam
India-China Trade
- Two-way trade in 2020 reached $87.6 billion, down by 5.6%, according to new figures from China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC).
- India’s imports from China accounted for $66.7 billion, declining by 10.8% year-on-year and the lowest figure since 2016.
- It, however, rose to the highest figure on record, for the first time crossing the $20 billion-mark and growing 16% last year to $20.86 billion.
What constitutes India’s import from China?
- While there was no immediate break-up of the data in 2020, India’s biggest import in 2019 was electrical machinery and equipment, worth $20.17 billion.
- Other major imports in 2019 were organic chemicals ($8.39 billion) and fertilizers ($1.67 billion), while India’s top exports were iron ore, organic chemicals, cotton and unfinished diamonds.
India’s exports to China
- The past 12 months saw a surge in demand for iron ore in China with a slew of new infrastructure projects aimed at reviving growth after the COVID-19 slump.
- China’s total iron ore imports were up 9.5 per cent in 2020.
A friction-induced low
- The trade deficit, a source of friction between India and China, declined to a five year-low of $45.8 billion, the lowest since 2015.
- Whether 2020 is an exception or marks a turn away from the recent pattern of India’s trade with China remains to be seen.
- While India’s imports from China declined, so did India’s imports overall with a slump in domestic demand last year.
- There is, as yet, no evidence to suggest India has replaced its import dependence on China by either sourcing those goods elsewhere or manufacturing them at home.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Thiruvalluvar
Mains level: Sangam Literature
The Prime Minister has extended his venerations to Thiruvalluvar on the Thiruvalluvar Day.
Read everything about Sangam Literature from your basic sources.
Who was Thiruvalluvar?
- Thiruvalluvar is fondly referred to as Valluvar by Tamils was born during 4th -5th century CE.
- His ‘Thirukkural’, a collection of 1,330 couplets (‘kurals’ in Tamil), are an essential part of every Tamil household.
- It holds importance in the same way the Bhagavad Gita or the Ramayana are in traditional North Indian Hindu households.
- Thiruvalluvar is revered as an ancient saint, poet, and a philosopher by Tamils, irrespective of their religion.
- He is an essential anchor for Tamils in tracing their cultural roots; Tamils are taught to learn his couplets word-for-word and to follow his teachings in their day-to-day living.
Also read:
Sangam era older than previously thought, finds study
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PMKVY
Mains level: Skill Development
The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has launched Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 3.0.
Note the differences between all three versions of PMKVY.
PMKVY 3.0
- PMKVY 3.0 envisages training of eight lakh candidates over the scheme period of 2020-2021.
- This phase three will focus on new-age and COVID-related skills.
- The 729 PM Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs), empanelled non-PMKK training centres and more than 200 industrial training institutes under Skill India will be rolling out under it.
- On the basis of the learning gained from PMKVY 1.0 and PMKVY 2.0, the MSDE has improved the newer version of the scheme to match the current policy doctrine and energize the skilling ecosystem.
Implementation
- PMKVY 3.0 will be implemented in a more decentralized structure with greater responsibilities and support from States/UTs and Districts.
- District Skill Committees (DSCs), under the guidance of State Skill Development Missions (SSDM), shall play a key role in addressing the skill gap and assessing demand at the district level.
- The new scheme will be more trainee- and learner-centric addressing the ambitions of aspirational Bharat.
- PMKVY 2.0 broadened the skill development with the inclusion of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and focus on training.
- With the advent of PMKVY 3.0, the focus is on bridging the demand-supply gap by promoting skill development in areas of new-age and Industry 4.0 job roles.
Back2Basics: PMKVY 1.0
- PMKVY is a skill development initiative scheme of the Government of India for recognition and standardization of skills launched on16 July 2015;.
- The aim of the scheme is to encourage aptitude towards employable skills and to increase the working efficiency of probable and existing daily wage earners, by giving monetary awards and rewards and by providing quality training to them.
- For this qualification plans and quality, plans have been developed by various Sector Skill Councils (SSC) created with the participation of Industries.
- National Skill Development Council (NSDC) has been made coordinating and driving agency for the same.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CRAR
Mains level: Paper 3- Recapitalisation of PSBs
The article suggest the approach to deal with the problems banking in India faces.
Banking sector under stress
- Along with the other sectors, pandemic dealt a severe blow to the banking sector.
- Stress tests reported in the Financial Stability Report (FSR) indicate that the low ratio of capital to risk-adjusted-assets (CRAR) is likely to decline further.
- To revive the economy and resume sustained high growth, bold structural reforms will have to be combined with strong fiscal and monetary measures.
Declining credit growth: monetary challenge
- India’s credit-to-gross domestic product ratio is around 51%.
- 51% not too low compared to other countries at comparable levels of per capita income.
- However, the worry is that credit growth is declining rapidly.
- It is mainly attributable to rising risk aversion among lenders, reflecting the high and rising level of NPAs.
- Risk aversion spiked during the economic contraction.
Rising NPA of Public Sector Banks
- The FSR stress tests now indicate that the gross NPA ratio is likely to go up to as much as 13.5% by September 2021 in the report’s baseline case and 14.8% in the ‘severe stress’ case.
- Within the banking sector, conditions are much worse in public sector banks (PSBs) compared to private banks (PBs) or foreign banks (FBs).
- The gross NPA figure is forecast to rise to 16.2% for PSBs as compared to 7.9% and 5.4% for PBs and FBs in the baseline case.
- Clearly, high NPAs are primarily a problem for PSBs, which still account for 60% of India’s total bank credit.
Expanding banking sector: bypass PSBs and give a big push to private banking
- The recent report on Ownership and Corporate Structure for Indian Private Sector Banks submitted by an RBI internal working group (IWG) espouses this approach.
- The IWG’s main recommendation is to enable large corporations and industrial houses to acquire banking licences.
- The proposal has been strongly opposed by former governors and deputy governors of RBI, several former chief economic advisers, a former finance secretary, and, most significantly, all save one of the many experts the IWG consulted.
Four issues with the push to private banking
- 1) With an industry CRAR of only 12%, the proposed raising of the promoter share cap to 26% could potentially leverage the promoter’s investment by 32 times.
- The very high risk appetite generated by such leveraging would subject depositors to a high level of systemic risk, given the limited deposit insurance provided in India.
- 2) Excessive risk appetite would lead to imprudent lending, especially connected lending to group companies. Conglomerates always find ways around regulatory restrictions against such connected lending.
- 3) Three, a conglomerate’s bank would have access to insider information on borrower companies that compete with its group companies.
- 4) Conglomerate banks would lead to massive concentration of economic power and political influence against not just competing companies, but even the regulator.
Way forward
- A safer and cleaner option would be to help the country’s banking sector grow through simultaneous privatization and recapitalization of PSBs.
- However, these options do not change the ownership and governance structure of PSBs, which is what primarily is to blame for their poor performance.
- A better option is for PSBs to recapitalize themselves by raising fresh equity.
- It would be more prudent financially and also more acceptable politically to test this approach with one or two small PSBs.
Conclusion
Government should try to adopt the approach which reduces the risks associated with giving push to private players in the banking sector while making the PSBs more efficient.
Back2Basics: CRAR-Capital to risk-adjusted-assets
- The CRAR is the capital needed for a bank measured in terms of the assets (mostly loans) disbursed by the banks.
- Higher the assets, higher should be the capital by the bank.
- A notable feature of CRAR is that it measures capital adequacy in terms of the riskiness of the assets or loans given.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Working of HAM
Mains level: Paper 3- Hybrid Annuity Model and risks involved
The article explains the working of Hybrid Annuity Model in the road construction and the risks involved in the model.
Investment in road sector
- The central government has set a target of increasing the investment in infrastructure to over Rs 111 lakh crore over the period FY20-FY25.
- Within the transportation segment, projects worth Rs 36.7 lakh crore, constituting 55% of transportation infra, are for the road sector.
- The large investments planned in the road sector signifies its importance—it has a multiplier effect on the economy and provides large employment opportunities.
Models for the road sector
- Out of HAM (Hybrid Annuity Model) and BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer)—toll developers prefer the relatively lower risk HAM model.
- This is due to its various positives like lower equity requirements, provision for mobilisation advances, better right of way availability, inflation-linked adjustments for bid project cost, termination payments during the construction period and de-linking construction and operations.
- These HAM features have garnered a favourable response and mix of HAM awards has increased from 10% in FY16 to 48% in H1FY2021.
How HAM works and risks involved
- During the operations period for a HAM project, the recovery from authority is in the form of fixed annuity payments along with interest on balance accumulated annuity payments (calculated @300 bps over prevailing bank rate)
- The only major risk for HAM is the prevailing low bank rates adversely affecting the overall project viability and returns.
- Such interest receipts account for around 45% of total inflows.
- Low bank rate would thus reduce the overall inflows for a HAM project, thereby adversely affecting its debt coverage metrics and returns to the investors.
- The second problem is related to delayed and inadequate interest rate transmission—there is a transmission lag for the project loan (linked to MCLR of banks).
Changes in model concession agreement
- As per revised concession agreement dated November 10, 2020, interest rate on annuities will be equal to the average MCLR of top 5 scheduled commercial banks plus 1.25% instead of bank rate.
- With the average MCLR replacing the bank rate, there will be a natural hedge between the annuity inflows and interest costs,
- This will reduce the interest rate risks to a large extent, and that too without any delay.
- The other major revision is the grant payment from the authority which will now be paid in 10 instalments instead of five.
- The other major revision is the grant payment from the authority which will now be paid in 10 instalments instead of five.
- Thus, the spacing between the payment milestones is reduced.
- This will improve the cash conversion cycle for the contractors executing the HAM projects as their payments are back to back in nature.
- However, these changes will be applicable for new awards, and the fate of the existing HAM projects is hanging in the balance.
Conclusion
With improved attractiveness, HAM is expected to remain the mainstay for public-private partnership projects in the road sector.
Source:-
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/hamsome-gains/2171329/
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