Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: AUKUS
Mains level: Paper 2- India-UK relations
Context
January this year saw the formal launch of negotiations for an India-United Kingdom free trade agreement (FTA).
Momentum in India-UK engagement
- Despite some potential challenges, there is a new momentum in the India-U.K. bilateral engagement these days with both sides confident of moving forward swiftly.
- Greater role for UK in Indo-Pacific: Britain has made a trade pact with India one of its post-Brexit priorities as it seeks a greater role in the Indo-Pacific.
- Brexit has necessitated greater access to non-EU markets, and the U.K.’s changing relationship with China requires a diversification of trading partners.
- The FTA negotiations were aimed at achieving a “fair and balanced” FTA and cover more than 90% of tariff lines so as to reach the bilateral trade target of around $100 billion by 2030.
- There have been indications that instead of the two nations trying to tackle all sensitive issues in one go, there could be an interim pact or early harvest deal.
UK’s Indo-Pacific strategy
- India is at the heart of the U.K.’s Indo-Pacific ‘tilt’, which has generated considerable interest around the world.
- A range of factors have contributed for the U.K. to adopt a more robust Indo-Pacific strategy:
- a) the trading implications of Brexit;
- b) the U.K.’s changing approach towards China — shifting from being a major proponent of China to perhaps the most hawkish in Europe;
- c) and the fact that the U.S. remains firmly focused on the Indo-Pacific.
- The U.K. recognizes the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific to global stability and prosperity and has made clear its intentions to deploy strategic assets to this end.
- The trilateral security partnership AUKUS has given London a greater voice in the region.
Consider the question “Various factors have contributed towards enhanced India-UK engagement. Examine the factors and the possibilities it offered to the two countries.”
Conclusion
The U.K. is finally carving out a direction and purpose to its post-Brexit foreign policy and this prioritization has opened up a new window for New Delhi and London to quickly finalize their FTA. It is a unique “now or never” moment and the two sides seem willing to seize it despite the challenges.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-UK FTA
Context
In May last year, Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Boris Johnson announced their shared vision for a transformative decade for the India-United Kingdom partnership. These words have now been made real.
Transforming India-UK partnership
- Doubling bilateral trade: The two leaders had declared their ambition to more than double bilateral trade by 2030, which totalled over £23 billion in 2019.
- Reduce barriers to trade: They directed their governments to take rapid steps to reduce barriers to trade.
- FTA: The groundwork necessary to begin work on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) had to be prepared by the end of 2021.
- Both governments have already taken action; for example, unlocking the export of British apples to India and enabling a greater number of Indian fisheries to export shrimp to the U.K.
- The big next step was the launch of FTA negotiations last month.
Trade relations at present
- Bilateral trade: The bilateral trade between the two countries stood at 15.5 billion USD in 2019-20. India has engaged with the UK in sectors like pharma, textiles, leather, industrial machinery, furniture, and toys.
- Britain is among the top investors in India and India is the second-biggest investor and a major job creator in Britain. Recently, the Serum Institute of India has announced setting up its research facilities in the UK.
- Indian Diaspora: Around 1.5 million people of Indian origin live in Britain. This includes 15 Members of Parliament, three members in Cabinet, and two in high office as Finance and Home Ministers.
- India is already a big investor in the U.K. — especially in dynamic sectors such as fintech, electric vehicles, and batteries.
- India has an extraordinary opportunity to transform its economy and society in the next 30 years, as it hits its demographic sweet spot, at the heart of the Indo-Pacific region where half the world’s people live and 50% of global economic growth is produced.
Benefits of FTA
- A U.K.-India trade agreement will stimulate growth and employment in both countries.
- Lower barriers coupled with greater regulatory certainty would incentivize new small and medium-sized enterprises to export their goods and services.
- An agreement also means Indian and British consumers see improvements in the variety and affordability of products.
- Strategic reasons: The British Government’s Integrated Review of our overseas policy, describes the world we are in; messier, with the more geostrategic competition.
- It is one in which two dynamic democracies such as India and the U.K. need to work closely together to promote open economies.
Consider the question “Colonial prism has long distorted the perception of India-UK relation. However, both the countries stand to gain by finding a fresh basis for sustaining bilateral relations. Comment.”
Conclusion
An FTA would mark a new way of working between the U.K. and India. It gives a new framework within which the two countries can grow and flourish together, putting the colonial economic relationship where it belongs — in the history books.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cartelization
Mains level: NA
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) issued its final order in an alleged case of cartelization involving four Japanese shipping firms, asking them to desist from avoiding competition with each other.
What is a Cartel?
- According to CCI, a “Cartel includes an association of producers, sellers, distributors, traders or service providers who, by agreement amongst themselves, limit, control or attempt to control the production, distribution, sale or price of, or, trade in goods or provision of services”.
- The three common components of a cartel are:
- an agreement
- between competitors
- to restrict competition
What is Cartelization?
- Cartelization is when enterprises collude to fix prices, indulge in bid-rigging, or share customers, etc. But when prices are controlled by the government under law, that is not cartelization.
- The Competition Act contains strong provisions against cartels.
- It also has the leniency provision to incentivize a party to a cartel to break away and report to the Commission, and thereby expect total or partial leniency.
- This has proved a highly effective tool against cartels worldwide.
How do they work?
- Four categories of conduct are commonly identified across jurisdictions (countries). These are: price-fixing, output restrictions, market allocation and, bid-rigging
- In sum, participants in hard-core cartels agree to insulate themselves from the rigors of a competitive marketplace, substituting cooperation for competition.
How do cartels hurt?
- They not only directly hurt the consumers but also, indirectly, undermine overall economic efficiency and innovations.
- A successful cartel raises the price above the competitive level and reduces output.
- Consumers choose either not to pay the higher price for some or all of the cartelized product that they desire, thus forgoing the product, or they pay the cartel price and thereby unknowingly transfer wealth to the cartel operators.
Are there provisions in the Competition Act against monopolistic prices?
- There are provisions in the Competition Act against abuse of dominance.
- One of the abuses is when a dominant enterprise “directly or indirectly imposes unfair or discriminatory prices” in the purchase or sale of goods or services.
- Thus, excessive pricing by a dominant enterprise could, in certain conditions, be regarded as abuse and, therefore, subject to investigation by the Competition Commission if it were fully functional.
- However, where pricing is a result of normal supply and demand, the Competition Commission may have no role.
What is the penalty for cartelization?
- The Competition Act calls for a penalty on each member of the cartel, which is up to three times its profit for each year of anti-competitive behavior, or 10% of turnover for each year of its continuance, whichever is higher.
- However, in case of a leniency petition, CCI can waive the penalty depending on the timing and usefulness of the disclosure and full cooperation in the probe.
How might cartels be worse than monopolies?
- Monopolies are bad for both individual consumer interests as well as society at large.
- Monopolist completely dominates the concerned market and, more often than not, abuse this dominance either in the form of charging higher than warranted prices or by providing lower than the warranted quality of the good or service in question.
How to stop the spread of cartelization?
- Strong deterrence to those cartels that are found guilty of being one.
- Typically this takes the form of a monetary penalty that exceeds the gains amassed by the cartel and it is not always easy to ascertain the exact gains from cartelization.
- The threat of stringent penalties can be used in conjunction with providing leniency — as was done in the beer case.
Back2Basics: Competition Commission of India (CCI)
- The CCI is the chief national competition regulator in India.
- It is a statutory body within the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
- It is responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002 in order to promote competition and prevent activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PMMVY
Mains level: Mother and Child health related schemes
The government’s recent announcement that the maternity benefits program which provides ₹5,000 for the first child will be extended to cover the second child only if it is a girl has met with sharp criticism from activists who have demanded that it be universalized.
What is PMMVY?
- Launched in 2017, this scheme provides ₹5,000 for the birth of the first child to partially compensate a woman for the loss of wages.
- It also aims to improve the nutritional well-being of the mother and the child.
- The amount is given in three installments upon meeting certain conditions.
- It is combined with another scheme, Janani Suraksha Yojana, under which nearly ₹1,000 is given for an institutional birth so that a woman gets a total of ₹6,000.
Eligibility Conditions
The first transfer (at pregnancy trimester) of ₹1,000 requires the mother to:
- Register pregnancy at the Anganwadi Centre (AWC) whenever she comes to know about her conception
- Attend at least one prenatal care session and take Iron-folic acid tablets and TT1 (tetanus toxoid injection)
- Attend at least one counseling session at the AWC or healthcare centre.
The second transfer (six months of conception) of ₹2,000 requires the mother to:
- Attend at least one prenatal care session and TT2
The third transfer (three and a half months after delivery) of ₹2,000 requires the mother to:
- Register the birth
- Immunize the child with OPV and BCG at birth, at six weeks, and at 10 weeks
- Attend at least two growth monitoring sessions within three months of delivery
Additionally, the scheme requires the mother to:
- Exclusively breastfeed for six months and introduce complementary feeding as certified by the mother
- Immunize the child with OPV and DPT
- Attend at least two counselling sessions on growth monitoring and infant and child nutrition and feeding between the third and sixth months after delivery
Why in news?
- Under the revamped PMMVY under Mission Shakti, the maternity benefit amounting to ₹6000 is also to be provided for the second child.
- However, this is only in case the second is a girl child, to discourage pre-birth sex selection and promote the girl child.
Issues with this provision
- To provide maternity benefit only to the mother of the firstborn is illegal as the National Food Security Act, 2013 lays down that every pregnant woman and lactating mother are entitled to it.
- For second child as a girl, it is to promote the birth of a girl child is nothing but posturing since it penalizes the mother for not giving birth to a girl child.
- Subsequent adding of more conditions to the scheme will prove to be a bureaucratic nightmare, which can be overcome if the scheme is universalized.
- Women will be able to access the scheme only after the delivery, which will not have any impact on their nutritional uptake during the course of their pregnancy.
Before judging this factual information, take this PYQ form 2019:
Q.Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017?
- Pregnant women are entitled to three months pre-delivery and three months post-delivery paid leave.
- Enterprises with creches must allow the mother a minimum of six crèche visits daily.
- Women with two children get reduced entitlements.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Paray Shikshalaya
Mains level: Open schools concept
The West Bengal government has launched ‘Paray Shikshalaya’ Initiative.
Paray Shikshalaya
- It is an open-air classroom in the neighborhood programme – for students from class 1 to 7.
- The aim of this initiative is to encourage students who dropped out of schools during the Covid-19 pandemic to continue their education.
Why was this initiative launched?
- In view of the rising demand for physical classes, the state government reopened schools.
- Classroom teaching could not be called on due to fear of spikes in covid cases.
- Hence, students are being called in batches.
Where were these classes held?
- Schools which do not have open-air spaces conducted the classes in neighbourhood parks and grounds.
- Local councilors and MLAs helped set up infrastructure in such parks like putting up makeshift shades and chairs, besides making mid-day meal arrangements for the students.
- Schools which have open-air spaces held the classes there.
- Benches were set up for students and blackboards were placed to provide a real classroom experience.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Operation AAHT
Mains level: Human trafficking preventive measures
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has launched a nationwide ‘Operation AAHT’ to curb human trafficking.
We can site such examples in essays as well as mains as initiatives for curbing human trafficking in India
Operation AAHT
- As part of this operation, special teams will be deployed on all long-distance trains/routes with focus on rescuing victims, particularly women and children, from the clutches of traffickers.
- The RPF will act as a bridge cutting across States to assist the local police in the mission to curb the menace.
- The infrastructure and intelligence network of the force could be utilized to collect, collate and analyse clues on victims, source, route, destination, popular trains used by suspects, identity of carriers/agents, kingpins etc and shared with other law-enforcing agencies.
Why need this mission?
- The Railways, which operate about 21,000 trains across the country daily, is the most reliable mode of transportation for the traffickers who often move their victims on long-distance trains.
- Thousands of Indians and persons from neighboring countries are trafficked every day to some destinations where they were forced to live like slaves.
- They are also being trafficked for illegal adoptions, organ transplants, working in circus, begging and entertainment industry.
Also read
[Burning Issue] Draft Anti-Trafficking Bill, 2021
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: mWRAPR
Mains level: NA
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) led start-up has launched mWRAPR, a biological transport and storage medium for genomic sequencing labs, biobanks, and research labs handling biological samples for molecular analysis.
mWRAPR
- It is India’s first indigenous bio-sample kit, a biological transport and storage medium.
- It would help in preserving genetic content in all types of biological samples, including microbiomes, saliva, cells, tissues, blood, body fluids, and fecal tubes.
- It is the only Molecular Transport Medium to be manufactured in India that competes with sample stabilisation and transporting media of notable foreign brands.
Significance
- The disruptions in global supply chain limits accessibility to materials for molecular diagnostics.
- India required to move to molecular tests (PCR/ RT-PCR test), but sample collection kits currently used were very cheap and not of molecular grade.
- RNA WRAPR is the kind of molecular grade sample collection medium that India needs right now.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kodiyal Theru
Mains level: NA
The annual Kodiyal Theru car (chariot) festival has begun in Mangalore, Karnataka.
Kodiyal Theru
- It falls in late January or early February in the Hindu month of Magha.
- It begins on Tritiya or the third day of the bright moon and ends on the seventh to be followed by Holi (Okuli) after the festival.
- For these six days, the Car Festival rules in the Car Street in front of the Venkatramana Temple in Mangalore.
- The Festival begins with the Dwajarohana or hoisting of the ‘flag’ – actually a framed picture of Garuda.
- This is done ceremoniously on the first day of the festival amidst the clanging of bells and the reverberation of drumbeats.
- The Garuda stays aloft for the rest of the festival until he is again lowered in an equally ceremonial manner on the day of the Holi and this is the concluding event of the festival.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 312
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with changes in IAS rule
Context
The proposed amendment to Rule 6 of the IAS (Cadre) Rules 1954, seeks to do away with the consent of both the officer and the state government.
What makes All-India services different?
- Article 309: Under Article 309 of the Constitution, the Centre and states are empowered to erect and maintain services for running their administration.
- Both the Centre and the states exercise full control over their services independently of each other.
- Article 312: Unlike a central service or state service, an All-India Service is compositely administered under Article 312.
- While recruitment and allotment to a cadre (state) are determined by the Centre, the states determine the work and posting.
- Balance between Centre and states: Hence, All-India Services are carefully balanced between the Centre and the states.
- The Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and Indian Forest Service (IFS) are the three All-India Services.
- Being an All-India Service, officers of the IAS are posted to the states, from where they are deputed to the Centre with the tripartite consent of the officer, the state government and the central government.
Issues with the proposed changes
- The proposed amendment to Rule 6 of the IAS (Cadre) Rules 1954, seeks to do away with the consent of both the officer and the state government.
- Reasons for amendment: The reason for the amendment, as declared by the central government, is to ensure adequate availability of IAS officers for central deputation, which at present is “not sufficient to meet the requirement at the Centre”.
- However, the central government has gone beyond its declared reason and stretched the cadre rules to also allow for appropriation of IAS officers “in public interest”.
- The Centre has virtually conferred upon itself the plenipotentiary power to pull out any number of IAS officers from the states.
- States may divest IAS officers of key posts: To protect their administration from becoming paralysed, states may resort to altering their Transaction of Business Rules to divest IAS officers of key posts in the state, and vesting the same with the state officers.
- Alternately, states may conjure provisional berths for retired bureaucrats to re-enter administration as special appointees, outside the cadre rules.
- Flouting of cadre rules by States: As it is, the implementation of cadre rules is left to the mercy of the states, with the Centre showing a disinclination to enforce them.
- Some states openly flout the cadre rules with impunity in matters of postings and transfers.
- The Civil Services Board has been rendered impotent, non-cadre officers are being unilaterally appointed to IAS cadre posts, and the minimum tenure guarantee is openly flouted.
- Against federalism: Not only could it allow distrust to fester in Centre-state relations, it would also result in the functional depreciation of the IAS in the states.
Conclusion
It is important for the states to be reassured that they are in control of their administration, and for the service to not lose its relevance.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RDSS
Mains level: Paper 3- RDSS for discoms
Context
Launched in July 2021, the Revamped Distribution Sector Reform Scheme (RDSS) is the latest of many central government grant-based programmes towards electricity distribution network investments.
RDSS overview
- Revamped Distribution Sector Reform Scheme (RDSS) has an outlay of Rs 3 lakh crore for five years.
- Half of the outlay is for better feeder and transformer metering and pre-paid smart consumer metering.
- The remaining half, 60 percent of which will be funded by central government grants, will be spent on power loss reduction and strengthening networks.
- RDSS stipulates universal pre-paid metering but post-paid options may be suitable in many contexts.
- RDSS suggested measures such as privatization and franchisee adoption.
Legacy design issues in RDSS
- Design issues: Complex processes and conditions for fund disbursal: Only 60 percent of the total Rs 2.5 lakh crore grants allocated in past schemes were disbursed.
- Lack of review and regulatory oversight: Lack of public review and regulatory oversight in states is another issue.
- Prescriptive approach: The prescriptive approach of the scheme design impedes effective implementation. For example, RDSS emphasizes loss reduction investments over system strengthening.
- However, high losses are typically connected to sustained poor quality service which, in turn, is affected by inadequate investment in system strengthening.
Opportunities for discoms under RDSS
1] Strengthen rural networks
- It is important to strengthen rural networks to meet growing demand.
- In the past decade, 4.9 crore poor households have been electrified and more than Rs 50,000 crore has been invested in rural networks.
- However, actual investments have been much less than planned.
- Transformer and sub-station capacities were designed to meet the minimal demand assuming few lights, fans, and TV.
- Increased supply hours, appliance usage, and the needs of rural enterprises will need more network investment.
- Without this, the risk of power outages is high.
- The RDSS system’s strengthening plans can focus on this challenge.
2] Opportunity to provide reliable supply and reduce subsidy requirements for agriculture
- About 25 percent of electricity sales is to be highly subsidized, agricultural consumers who also receive an erratic, poor quality supply.
- Under the national KUSUM scheme, day-time, low-cost supply can be provided to a large number of farmers by installing megawatt scale solar plants.
- For this to work, separate feeders for agricultural consumers are needed. RDSS prioritizes investments and grants towards dedicated agricultural feeders to accelerate feeder solarisation.
- States must leverage this grant support to provide reliable supply and reduce subsidy requirements.
3] Automatic metering of distribution feeders
- Often, discoms under-estimate losses by over-estimating unmetered consumption in a bid to demonstrate loss reduction.
- For greater veracity, all feeders must be equipped with meters capable of communicating readings without manual intervention.
- States should leverage RDSS’s emphasis on automatic meter reading for this.
4] Smart metering
- RDSS prescribes a phase-wise roll-out of consumer smart meters, starting with commercial and industrial consumers and urban areas.
- Such an approach provides states with an opportunity to understand implementation issues, adopt suitable strategies for metering and evolve frameworks for assessing benefits vis-a-vis the costs.
5] Network for charging EVs
- Discoms can avail 60 percent of grants under RDSS for network investments required to address the demand of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
- This can accelerate a shift away from petrol and diesel fuels.
Way forward
- Flexibility: To leverage various opportunities, states must emphasize the need for flexibility in prioritizing investments in their action plans.
- Central government agencies should also be flexible in the monitoring, tracking, and fund disbursal mechanisms.
- Accelerated implementation: This should be accompanied by state-level commitments towards accelerated but deliberate implementation.
Conclusion
Despite the challenges, there are opportunities for discoms under RDSS. However, without these efforts, despite its potential, RDSS will likely be important but limited in its impact, like its predecessors.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission
Mains level: Paper 2- Privacy centric health data retention policy
Context
The National Health Authority (NHA) — the body responsible for administering the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) — has initiated a consultation process on the retention of health data by healthcare providers in India. The consultation paper asks for feedback on what data is to be retained, and for how long.
Issues with the policy for healthcare data retention
- Risk of over-collection: A simple classification system, as suggested in the consultation paper, exposes individuals to harms arising from over-collection and retention of unnecessary data.
- At the same time, this kind of one-size-fits-all system can also lead to the under-retention of data that is genuinely required for research or public policy needs.
- Instead, we should seek to classify data based on its use.
Do we need a policy for the mandatory retention of health data?
- Currently, service providers can compete on how they handle the data of individuals or health records, in theory, each of us can choose a provider whose data policies we are comfortable with.
- Whether the state should mandate a retention period at all is an open question.
- Given the landscape of healthcare access in India, including through informal providers, many patients may not think about this factor in practice.
- Nonetheless, the decision to take the choice out of the individual’s hands should not be taken lightly.
Balancing the policy for public health data retention with the right to privacy
- Four-part test for privacy: The Supreme Court of India has clarified that privacy is a fundamental right, and any interference into the right must pass a four-part test: legality; legitimate aim; proportionality, and appropriate safeguards.
- Health data and privacy: The mandatory retention of health data is one such form of interference with the right to privacy.
- 1] Legality: In this context, the question of legality becomes a question about the legal standing and authority of the NHA.
- Since the NHA is not a sector-wide regulator, it has no legal basis for formulating guidelines for healthcare providers in general.
- 2]Legitimate aim: The aim of data retention is described in terms of benefits to the individual and the public at large.
- Benefits to the individuals: Individuals benefit through greater convenience and choice, created through portability of health records.
- The broader public benefits through research and innovation, driven by the availability of more and better data to analyse.
- Risk involved: Globally, legal systems consider health data particularly sensitive, and recognise that improper disclosure of this data can expose a person to a range of significant harms.
- Benefits must be clearly defined: As per Indian law, if an individual’s rights are to be curtailed due to anticipated benefits, such benefits cannot be potential or speculatory: they must be clearly defined and identifiable.
- 3] Proportionality: This is the difference between saying that data on patients with heart conditions will help us better understand cardiac health — a vague explanation — and being able to identify a specific study that will include data from that patient.
- It would further mean demonstrating that the study requires personally identifiable information, rather than just an anonymous record — the latter flowing from the principle of proportionality, which requires choosing the least intrusive option available.
- 4] Safeguard: Standards for anonymisation are still developing.
- We are not yet able to rule out the possibility of anonymised data still being linked back to specific individuals.
- In other words, even anonymisation may not be the least intrusive solution to safeguarding patients’ rights in all scenarios.
Way forward
- Clear and specific case for retention: The test for retaining data should be that a clear and specific case has been identified for such retention, following a rigorous process run by suitable authorities.
- Anonymise data: A second safeguard would be to anonymise data that is being retained for research purposes — again, unless a specific case is made for keeping personally identifiable information.
- If neither of these is true, the data should be deleted.
- Express and informed consent: An alternate basis for retaining data can be the express and informed consent of the individual in question.
- User-based classification process: Health-care service providers — and everyone else — will have to comply with the data protection law, once it is adopted by Parliament.
- The current Bill already requires purpose limitation for collecting, processing, sharing, or retaining data; a use-based classification process would thus bring the ABDM ecosystem actors in compliance with this law as well.
Consider the question “What are the advantages and concerns with the retention of public health data? Suggest the ways to ensure the privacy-centric public health data retention policy.”
Conclusion
A privacy-centric process is needed to determine what data to retain and for how long.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India's engagement with Central Asia
Context
The inaugural India-Central Asia Summit, the India-Central Asia Dialogue, and the Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan in New Delhi — all held over the past four months — collectively indicate a renewed enthusiasm in New Delhi to engage the Central Asian region.
Significance of Central Asia for India
- India has limited economic and other stakes in the region, primarily due to lack of physical access.
- And yet, the region appears to have gained a great deal of significance in India’s strategic thinking over the years, particularly in the recent past.
- New geopolitical realities: India’s mission Central Asia today reflects, and is responsive to, the new geopolitical, if not the geo-economic, realities in the region.
Factors driving India’s engagement
- One of the factors driving this engagement and shaping it is the great power dynamics there.
- Withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan: The decline of American presence and power in the broader region (due primarily to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan) has led to a reassertion by China and Russia seeking to fill the power vacuum.
- India-Russia relations: Moscow considers India to be a useful partner in the region: it helps it to not only win back New Delhi, which is moving towards the U.S., but also to subtly checkmate the rising Chinese influence in its backyard.
- For the U.S., while growing India-Russia relations is not a welcome development, it recognises the utility of Moscow-New Delhi relations in Central Asia to offset Beijing’s ever-growing influence there.
- India’s dilemma: In the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, New Delhi faces a major dilemma in the wider region, not just in the pre-existing theatres like the Line of Control and the Line of Actual Control.
- India’s China challenge: India in the region might get further hemmed in due to the combined efforts by China, Pakistan and Taliban-led Afghanistan.
- If so, it must ensure that there is no China-led strategic gang up with Pakistan and the Taliban against India in the region, which, if it becomes a reality, would severely damage Indian interests.
- Consolidation of Afghan policy: India’s engagement of Central Asia would also help it to consolidate its post-American Afghan policy.
- Now that the Taliban have returned to Kabul, New Delhi is forced to devise new ways of engaging Afghanistan.
- That’s where the Central Asian Republics (CARs) and Russia could be helpful.
- The announcement of a Joint Working Group on Afghanistan during the summit between India and the CARs is surely indicative of such interest.
Russia’s prominence
- In India’s current vision for a regional security architecture, Russia appears prominent
- Countering China: By courting Russia — its traditional partner, also close to China and getting closer to Pakistan — to help it re-establish its presence in the Central Asian region, India is seeking to work with one of the region’s strongest powers and also potentially create a rift between China and Russia.
- Joint defence production by India and Russia has been on the rise and the CARs could play a key role in it.
- India’s non-critical stance on developments in Ukrain and Kazakhstan: This growing India-Russia partnership also explains India’s non-critical stance on the developments in Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Challenges in India’s engagement with Central Asia
- China’s dominance in the region: China, which shares a land border with the region, is already a major investor there.
- Iran’s role: An even bigger challenge for India may be Iran.
- India’s best shot at reaching the CARs is by using a hybrid model – via sea to Chabahar and then by road/rail through Iran (and Afghanistan) to the CARs.
- So, for New Delhi, the ongoing re-negotiations on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action are of crucial importance.
- While Iran getting close to the West is not preferred by Russia (but preferred by India), if and when it becomes a reality, India would be able to use it to its advantage and join Russia in engaging the CARs.
- Delivering on the commitment: Most importantly, India will have to walk the talk on its commitments to Central Asia.
- Does it have the political will, material capability and diplomatic wherewithal to stay the course in the region?
Conclusion
India’s renewed engagement of Central Asia is in the right direction for the simple reason that while the gains from an engagement of Central Asia may be minimal, the disadvantages of non-engagement could be costly in the longer run.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Geographical Indication, WTO, TRIPS
Mains level: India and WTO
India runs the risk of being excluded from a proposal it co-authored at the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, in 2020, to “temporarily waive” intellectual property rights (IPR) held, by primarily Western countries, on vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics for COVID-19.
What is the case?
- India and China are two major global suppliers of medicine.
- A small group of WTO members was discussing suggestions to exclude drug manufacturers in India and China from prospective waivers to IPR obligations.
- IPR obligations are a result of the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) which WTO members are committed to upholding.
What is the Agreement on TRIPS?
- The Agreement on TRIPS is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
- It establishes minimum standards for the regulation by national governments of different forms of intellectual property (IP) as applied to nationals of other WTO member nations.
- TRIPS was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) between 1989 and 1990 and is administered by the WTO.
- It introduced intellectual property law into the multilateral trading system for the first time and remains the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property to date.
Key provisions
- TRIPS requires member states to provide strong protection for intellectual property rights.
- It seeks to provide copyright rights, covering authors and other copyright holders, as well as holders of related rights, namely performers, sound recording producers, and broadcasting organizations.
- It provides for geographical indications (GI); industrial designs; integrated circuit layout designs; patents; new plant varieties; trademarks; trade names and undisclosed or confidential information.
- It also specifies enforcement procedures, remedies, and dispute resolution procedures.
- TRIPS also has a most favored nation (MFN) clause.
Why TRIPS?
- The obligations of the main international agreements of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that already existed before the WTO was created:
- Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (patents, industrial designs, etc)
- Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (copyright).
- Some areas are not covered by these agreements. In some cases, the standards of protection prescribed were thought inadequate.
- So the TRIPS Agreement adds significantly to existing international standards.
What else is covered under TRIPS Agreement?
- Copyright terms must extend at least 50 years unless based on the life of the author.
- Computer programs must be regarded as “literary works” under copyright law and receive the same terms of protection.
- Patents must be granted for “inventions” in all fields of technology and must be enforceable for at least 20 years.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Legislative Powers of Governor
Mains level: Read the attached story
Tamil Nadu CM has charged that the Governor that he had failed to perform the duty vested in him by the Constitution when it came to deciding on the Bill adopted in the Legislative Assembly against the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
What is the issue?
- The Governor had returned the Bill to the Assembly Speaker instead of forwarding it for Presidential assent.
Constitutional Powers of the Governor
- Article 154: The executive power of the state shall be vested in the
governor and shall be exercised by him either directly or through
officers subordinate to him in accordance with this Constitution.
- Article 163 (1): There shall be a council of ministers with the chief minister as the head to aid and advise the governor in the exercise of his functions, except in so far as he is required to exercise his functions in his discretion.
- Article 163 (2): If any question arises whether a matter falls within the governor’s discretion or not, the decision of the governor is final and the validity of anything done by him cannot be called in question on the ground that he ought or ought not to have acted in his discretion.
- The governor has constitutional discretion in the following cases:
a) Reservation of a bill for the consideration of the President (Articles 200 and 201).
b) Recommendation for the imposition of the President’s Rule in the state (Article 356).
c) While exercising his functions as the administrator of an adjoining Union territory (in case of an additional charge).
d) Special responsibility in 5th and 6th schedule areas.
e) Seeking information from the chief minister with regard to the administrative and legislative matters of the state.
- Also, the governor has situational discretion (i.e., the hidden discretion derived from the exigencies of a prevailing political situation) in the following cases:
a) Appointment of the chief minister when no party has a clear-cut majority in the state legislative assembly or when the chief minister in office dies suddenly and there is no obvious successor.
b) Dismissal of the council of ministers when it cannot prove the confidence of the state legislative
assembly.
c) Dissolution of the state legislative assembly if the council of ministers has lost its majority.
What are the Legislative Powers of Governor?
Governor summons the sessions of both houses of the state legislature and prorogues them.
- The governor can even dissolve the State Legislative Assembly.
- These powers are formal and the governor’s use of these powers must comply with the advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister.
- He addresses the first session of the state legislature after the general elections in the state.
Appointments to the legislature
- He appoints 1/6th members of the State Legislative Council in states wherever there is a bicameral legislature.
- He nominates one member in the state legislative assembly from the Anglo-Indian Community if in view; the community is not well represented.
- Governor is empowered under Article 192 to disqualify a member of the State legislature when the election commission recommends that the legislator is no longer complying with provisions of Article 191.
Passing of Bills
- All the bills passed by the state legislatures are sent to the Governor for assent.
- Once a bill is sent to Governor for assent, he can:
a) Give assent to the bill
b) Withhold the assent
c) Return the bill to the legislature for reconsideration if it is not a money bill.
d) If the bill is re-passed by the legislature with or without amendment, the governor has to give assent to the bill.
e) Reserve the bill for consideration of the President.
When is the Bill sent to the President?
This is done under the circumstances when a bill:
- Violates the constitution or against directive principles of state policy (DPSP)
- Conflict with union powers
- Against the larger interest of the country and people
- May endanger the position of the high court in the state.
Ordinance making power
- When the state legislature is not in session and the governor considers it necessary to have a law, then the governor can promulgate ordinances.
- These ordinances are submitted to the state legislature at its next session.
- They remain valid for no more than six weeks from the date the state legislature is reconvened unless approved by it earlier.
Others
- As per Articles 165 and 177, Governor can ask the Advocate General to attend the proceedings of both houses of the state legislature and report to them any unlawful functioning if any.
Concerns with the role of governor
- Misuse of discretionary powers: States allege that this provision has often been misused by the governor who acts on the behest of the union government which is opposed to the basic scheme of the Indian Constitution.
- Appointment by centre: This often leads to the appointment of persons aligning with the party’s ideology to the post of Governor and he/she remains faithful to the Union government of the day rather than acting on the advice of the State Executive.
- Arbitrary removal: Even after Supreme Court Judgement in B.P. Singhal v. Union of India calling for a fixed tenure for Governors to encourage neutrality and fairness in the discharge of their duties, it is not being implemented on the ground.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)
Mains level: Artificial Intelligence
This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in TH.
What are ANN?
- The concept behind an ANN is to define inputs and outputs, feed pieces of inputs to computer programs that function like neurons and make inferences or calculations.
- It then forwards those results to another layer of computer programs and so on, until a result is obtained.
- As part of this neural network, a difference between intended output and input is computed at each layer and this difference is used to tune the parameters to each program.
- This method is called back-propagation and is an essential component to the Neural Network.
Setting up of ANNs
- Instead of CPUs, Graphic Processing Units (GPU) which are good at performing massive parallel tasks can be used for setting up ANNs.
- A few free ANN frameworks are TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch and Theano.
- These can be used for both normal Machine Learning tasks like classification or clustering and for Deep Learning/ANN tasks.
Why called Neural Network?
- Neuron is the building block of the brain and it inspired computer scientists from the 1950s to make a computer perform tasks like a brain does.
- It is not a simple problem and the clue to its complexity is in the brain structure.
Why ANN?
Ans. Making an artificial brain
- We need billions of artificial neurons if we were to build an artificial brain.
- With the increase in computing power, mimicking billions of neurons is now possible.
Popularity of ANNs
- Data Science, used interchangeably with Machine Learning, is the computer technology that uses data to detect patterns.
- Hand-written digit recognition is a good example of machine learning.
- However, in order for the computer to do this task, large amounts of sample data need to be manually labelled as examples of images of digits.
- The ANN mentioned above with its backpropagation does exactly this.
- This is why ANNs have become hugely popular in the past decade. This approach of using neural networks of many layers to automatically detect patterns and parameters is called Deep Learning.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Havana Syndrome
Mains level: NA
A recent US intelligence report says that ‘Havana Syndrome’ —a collection of symptoms and related brain injuries, reported by some US officials could be caused by pulsed electromagnetic energy or close-range ultrasound.
What is Havana Syndrome?
- ‘Havana Syndrome’ is a colloquial name given to a set of symptoms such as dizziness, hearing loss, headaches, vertigo, nausea, memory loss and possible brain injuries.
- It was first reported by 16 American Embassy staff and their family members in Havana, Cuba, in 2016-17.
- There have been other instances of the phenomenon, which has mostly impacted US officials.
What did the latest investigation find?
- Such cases have been caused by pulsed electromagnetic energy in the radio frequency.
- The results of the investigation did not point to who may have been behind the phenomenon, nor commented on their motivations.
- A partially redacted report summary finds that the symptoms of AHI are “genuine and compelling.”
What can be the other reasons?
- Psychosocial factors alone do not explain the core characteristics, the report finds, although they may cause other incidents or contribute to long-term effects.
- These other incidents could occur via hyper-vigilance or reactions to stress especially among individuals who are security-oriented.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Basai Wetlands
Mains level: Not Much
The Basai Wetlands in Gurugram has shrunk to a quarter of its original size over the years.
Basai Wetlands
- Basai wetland, located in Basai village in Gurgaon Haryana is a flora and fauna rich water body.
- It lies in one of the paleochannel of the Sahibi River, a tributary of Yamuna which originates from the Aravalli range in Rajasthan and flows through the region.
Its significance
- It is recognized as one of India’s Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas and is of global conservation significance.
- It supports populations of several endangered, vulnerable, and threatened bird species.
- It is recognized globally as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by the BirdLife International housing 20,000 birds of over 280 species including migratory birds and endangered birds.
- However, it has not yet been declared a protected wetland by the Government of Haryana.
Threats
- Given the accelerated expansion of the city of the future, the wetland continues to disappear under newly laid roads, modern housing constructions and other infrastructure development.
- An upcoming expressway, cutting through the terrain here, has majorly impacted the flyway of thousands of migratory birds from Europe and Central Asia.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Need for Population Control Policy
The Rajya Sabha has discussed a Private Member’s Bill on population regulation.
The Population Control Bill
- First introduced in 2019, it is a private member bill proposed by Rakesh Sinha.
- The purpose of the bill was to control the population growth of India.
- The proposed bill then was signed by 125 Members of Parliament (MP) and is yet to become an act of law.
It seeks to amend Article 47 by inserting article 47A to the Constitution of India. It proposes that-
- The State shall promote small family norms by offering incentives in taxes, employment, education etc. to its people who keep their family limited to two children
- The state shall withdraw every concession from and deprive such incentives to those not adhering to small family norm, to keep the growing population under control.
Key provisions
- Penalties: The 2019 bill talked about introducing penalties for couples not adhering to the two-child policy such as debarment from contesting in elections and ineligibility for government jobs.
- Two-child policy: The 2020 bill proposes to introduce a two-child policy per couple.
- Incentivizing adoption: It shall incentivize adoption through various measures such as educational benefits, taxation cuts, home loans, free healthcare, and better employment opportunities.
- Birth spacings: It also proposes to ensure healthy birth spacing through measures related to augmenting the availability, accessibility and affordability of quality reproductive health services.
Issues with penal provisions
- Alienation: If a family was penalized for more than two children, then the third child would develop a feeling of alienation that he is an unwanted child.
- Bar on Women: The biggest victim of such would be women, irrespective of religion. They would be debarred in political participation.
- Selective abortions: In India, the preference for male children may lead to a greater anti-female child sex selection because parents will only have “two attempts” to have babies.
- Violation of reproductive autonomy: To control and regulate the number of children a family can have is a gross violation of human rights, the right to self-determination and an individual’s reproductive autonomy.
- Violation of Individual Privacy: A right to procreation is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution but it comes under the ambit of Article 21, as discussed in Jasvir Singh vs State of Punjab.
- Remarriage issues: A divorced person who has two children with a prior partner cannot bear a child with their next spouse.
Why need such policy?
- India had a land availability of only 1.2 hectare per person, while the resources that get regenerated automatically was 0.43 only.
- We are an ecological debtor. The ecological footprint which we use and the gap between their regeneration is 187%.
- If this continued for 30 years, then resources would be exhausted and people would not be able to lead a dignified life.
- Some people see demographic dividend in the growing population but it was being used as cheap labour globally.
Way forward
- The population of India is seen as the biggest obstacle to its economic development.
- It is the fall guy for governments seeking to justify their incompetence.
- No legislation must be enacted unless its future impact and social effect are first completely realized.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Freedom of Religion
Mains level: Read the attached story
A row over whether educational institutions can impose a strict dress code that could interfere with the rights of students has spilled in the Udupi district of Karnataka.
Don’t you think that such instances incite fear among the politically destitute minorities?
Religious Freedom in India
- Article 25(1) of the Constitution guarantees the “freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion”.
- It is a right that guarantees a negative liberty — which means that the state shall ensure that there is no interference or obstacle to exercise this freedom.
Restrictions on religious freedom
- Like all fundamental rights, the state can restrict the right for grounds of public order, decency, morality, health and other state interests.
- Over the years, the Supreme Court has evolved a practical test of sorts to determine what religious practices can be constitutionally protected and what can be ignored.
- In 1954, the Supreme Court held in the Shirur Mutt case that the term “religion” will cover all rituals and practices “integral” to a religion.
The test to determine what is integral is termed the “Essential Religious Practices” test.
What is the essential religious practices test?
- While these issues are largely understood to be community-based, there are instances in which the court has applied the test to individual freedoms as well.
- In a 2004 ruling, the Supreme Court held that the Ananda Marga sect had no fundamental right to perform the Tandava dance in public streets since it did not constitute an essential religious practice of the sect.
- For example, in 2016, the Supreme Court upheld the discharge of an airman from the Indian Air Force for keeping a beard.
- It distinguished the case of a Muslim airman from that of Sikhs who are allowed to keep a beard.
- In 2015, the Supreme Court restored the Jain religious practice of Santhara/Sallekhana (a ritualistic fast unto death) by staying an order of the Rajasthan HC.
Issues with this Test
- In the first place, what constitutes the essential part of a religion is primarily to be ascertained with reference to the doctrines of that religion itself, the SC had held in the Shirur Mutt case.
- So the test, a judicial determination of religious practices, has often been criticized by legal experts as it pushes the court to delve into theological spaces.
- In criticism of the test, scholars agree that it is better for the court to prohibit religious practices for public order rather than determine what is so essential to a religion that it needs to be protected.
- In several instances, the court has applied the test to keep certain practices out.
Precursors related to Hijab
- Two set of rulings of the Kerala High Court, particularly on the right of Muslim women hold dressing according to the tenets of Islam.
- In 2015, Kerala HC ruled the prescription of dress code for AIPMT exam which prescribed wearing light clothes with half sleeves not having big buttons, brooch/badge, flower, etc. with Salwar/Trouser and slippers and not shoes.
- In 2016, it examined the issue more closely. It held that the practice of wearing a hijab constitutes an essential religious practice but did not quash the CBSE rule.
- The court once again allowed for the “additional measures” and safeguards put in place the previous year.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Vande Bharat Express
Mains level: Highs speed railways in India
Presenting the Union Budget for 2022-23, Finance Minister said 400 new energy-efficient Vande Bharat trains will be introduced in three years.
What is Vande Bharat Express?
- The Vande Bharat Express is a semi-high speed train designed, developed, and built by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF).
- Presently there are only two Vande Bharat trains that are running — Delhi to Varanasi and Delhi to Katra.
Key Features
- The current Vande Bharat trains have seating only in two classes — chair car and executive chair car. But Railways is planning to upgrade it.
- The trains have fully sealed gangways for a dust-free environment, modular bio-vacuum toilets, rotating seats in Executive Class, personalized reading lights, automatic entry/exit doors with sliding footsteps, diffused LED lighting, mini pantry, and sensor-based interconnecting doors in each coach.
- They are self-propelled trains that do not require an engine. This feature is called a distributed traction power system, which is increasingly becoming the norm the world over for passenger operations(Distributed power gives the train higher acceleration and deceleration compared to loco-hauled trains, which take a much longer time to reach top speed or to gradually come to a halt).
- 400 trains announced by the Finance Minister carry a potential investment of Rs 50,000 crore over the next three years, because of different specifications and also, inflation.
- The current Vande Bharat’s are being made at Rs 106 crore per trainset of 16 cars, at 2018 pricing.
Benefits of Vande Bharat Trains
1) Cuts Travel Time Drastically
2) Energy Efficient
3) Reduce Turnaround Time
4) Faster Acceleration and Deceleration among others.
Why High-speed rail projects are important for India?
- Improve India’s GDP: According to a study conducted by the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Hamburg in 2008, cities that are connected to HSR systems tend to witness a rise in their gross domestic product (GDP) by at least 2.7 percentage points compared to their neighbors that do not have an HSR station. The reason for the differential was improved market access.
- Role of the trains in India’s development: Being the third-largest network in the world under single management and
with over 68,102 route km IR strives to provide a safe, efficient, competitive, and world-class transport system.
- During FY21, IR carried 1.23 billion tonnes of
freight and 1.25 billion passengers. In addition, despite COVID -19 pandemic revenue earning freight loading (excluding loading by Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. (KRCL) was 1230.9 million tonnes in 2020-21 as compared to 1208.4 million tonnes during2019-20. Passengers originating were 1250 million in 2020-21 as compared to 8086 million in 2019-20- Economic Survey 2021-22.
- Spin-off effect: It is about Rs 40,000 crore business opportunity that would also create 15,000 jobs and several spin-off benefits and act as a stimulus for the development of satellite towns.
- Boost to ‘Make in India’– it involves only about 15 percent import content which will further go down if production volumes increase.
- Environmental Benefits: More rail traffic translates to less automobile traffic, and by extension, less highway and city street traffic congestion, reduced air pollution. In addition, less congestion means less wear and tear on the roadways, which means that they require fewer repairs. According to the International Association of Railways (UIC), high-speed rail is eight times more energy-efficient than airplanes and four times more efficient than automobile use.
- Social Benefits: High-speed rail can promote a sense of social cohesion among residents, by bringing distant populated areas closer together.
- Global Experience: The High-Speed Railway has an economic multiplier effect. Since the introduction of the first Shinkansen (literally meaning ‘new main line’) in Japan in 1964, high-speed trains have proven to be an undeniable technological, commercial and popular success. Many countries like the UK, France, Germany, Spain, China, and most recently, the US have adopted the technology.
Challenges faced by the High-Speed Rail Projects
- Infrastructure Bottlenecks: India’s railway system is saddled with a two-pronged infrastructure deficit – aging infrastructure and the pace of new project execution struck by unforeseen circumstances related to socio-economic issues on land acquisition for new projects and escalating projects costs.
- New Technologies: For instance, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies which proposes to make travel as fast as 760 miles per hour, investing a humongous capital on bullet trains seems like an outdated investment.
- Political Will: The politics of Rail Bhavan and an unwillingness to accept the need for change have derailed the project execution.
- Short of Investments: For instance, the estimated cost of Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR is ₹1.1 lakh crore (US$17 billion) which is massively expensive. Though India receives funding from Japan (81%), the power demand and up-gradation of existing infrastructure will be more costly.
- Social Conflict: Development along the corridor will lead to an increase in urbanization, the fight for resources, and social conflicts due to the labor influx of the workforce.
- Legal Trouble: While farmers in Maharashtra are protesting on the ground, the farmers in Gujarat led by Gujarat Khedut Samaj (GKS)- fighting a case in the Gujarat High Court against the land acquisition for the bullet train project.
Way ahead
- Stakeholders approach: Politics and Policy have to be in sync for the railway modernization. In order to achieve the target, Railways will have to pool in all resources and multiple stakeholders, including private players to deliver the propulsion system and also carry out the assembling. The Policymakers and administration should give priority to systematic sustainable development work- the convergence of jal, jungle, jameen(water-forest-land is an asset for the Adivasi community).
- Regular Monitoring: To ensure the induction of these trains in the shortest time possible, as envisaged by Indian Railways.
- Technology Transfer: The government has to push for the technology transfer of HSR. This is because there is no mention of the transfer of technology anywhere in the agreement.
Conclusion
India aspires to become the third-largest economy in the next 25 years. It has already proven its prowess in the field of space and now is the time for furthering its international stature by joining the exclusive club of nations having a high-speed rail network, however, we should be careful not to confuse leapfrogging technology development with elitism, whether it is mobile phones, satellite launches, regional air connectivity, or high-speed rail. This high-speed rail project will therefore help the Indian Railways to become a global leader in scale, technology, and skill.
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