Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 19
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with the sealed cover jurisprudence
Context
A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has dismissed the appeal filed by a television channel. The trouble emanating from the judgment is that the state need not even show that its security is threatened. It can conveniently choose the ‘sealed cover’ route.
Background of the case
- The Ministry had said that the licence could not be renewed for reasons related to national security.
- The stand of the Government was endorsed by both the Single and Division Benches of the High Court.
- In the judgment of March 2, the Division Bench said: “It is true that the nature, impact, gravity and depth of the issue is not discernible from the files.
- Still, the Bench chose to dismiss the appeals by bluntly saying that “there are clear and significant indications impacting the public order and security of the state”.
- All that is necessary to ban a news broadcaster are these ‘indications’ — which are never revealed to the broadcaster.
Issues with the judgement
1] Violation of the fundamental rights
- A whole set of rights are directly hit by the ban. The first is the right to freedom of speech and expression of the television channel.
- The rights to association, occupation and business are also impacted.
- Moreover, the viewers also have a right to receive ideas and information.
- All these rights are altogether suspended by the executive. The only contingency in which these rights under Article 19(1) can be interfered with are reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2).
- The judgment creates a situation that endorses the breach of fundamental rights on the one hand, and blocks remedy for the victim through a court of law and a process known to law on the other hand.
2] Takes away the power of judicial review
- India’s Constitution does not give a free hand to the executive to pass arbitrary orders violating such rights.
- Basic feature of the Constitution: The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly held that judicial review of executive action is the basic feature of the Constitution.
- The decisions in Minerva Mills vs Union of India (1980) and L. Chandra Kumar vs Union of India (1997) reiterated this fundamental principle.
- Test of reasonable restriction: If the executive wishes to limit rights — in this case, censor or restrict speech — it must show that the test of reasonable restrictions is satisfied.
- The ‘sealed cover’ practice inverses this position.
3] Lack of examination of national security ground
- There was no examination of the national security plea based on the proportionality analysis, well established in our recent jurisprudence.
- Also, when a three-judge Bench in the Pegasus case ( Manohar Lal Sharma vs Union of India, 2021) has categorically held that the state does not get a “free pass every time the spectre of ‘national security’ is raised”.
Proportionality analysis
- In Modern Dental College vs State of Madhya Pradesh (2016), the top court adopted the proportionality test “a limitation of a constitutional right will be constitutionally permissible if:
- (i) it is designated for a proper purpose
- (ii) the measures undertaken to effectuate such a limitation are rationally connected to the fulfillment of that purpose;
- (iii) the measures undertaken are necessary in that there are no alternative measures that may similarly achieve that same purpose with a lesser degree of limitation; and finally
- (iv) there needs to be a proper relation (‘proportionality stricto sensu’ or ‘balancing’) between the importance of achieving the proper purpose and the social importance of preventing the limitation on the constitutional right”.
- This was reiterated in K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India (2017).
Conclusion
The MediaOne case might create a real problem area that needs resolution by the Supreme Court.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST Council
Mains level: Paper 2- Use of taxation to discourage tobacco use
Context
Tobacco is a silent killer in our midst that kills an estimated 1.35 million Indians every year.
The harm caused by tobacco
- It is the use of tobacco as a result of which more than 3,500 Indians die every single day, as estimated by scientific studies.
- It also comes at a heavy cost: an annual economic burden of ₹1,77,340 crore to the country or more than 1% of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
How price and taxation of tobacco matters
- Research from many countries around the world including India shows that a price increase induces people to quit or reduce tobacco use as well as discourages non-users from getting into the habit of tobacco use.
- There is overwhelming consensus within the research community that taxation is one of the most cost-effective measures to reduce demand for tobacco products.
- There has been no significant tax increase on any tobacco product for four years in a row.
- This is quite unlike the pre-GST years where the Union government and many State governments used to effect regular tax increases on tobacco products.
- As peer-reviewed studies show, the lack of tax increase over these years has made all tobacco products increasingly more affordable.
- The absence of a tax increase on tobacco has the potential to reverse the reduction in tobacco use prevalence that India saw during the last decade and now push more people into harm’s way.
- It would also mean foregone tax revenues for the Government.
Way forward
- The Union Budget exercise is not the only opportunity to initiate a tax increase on tobacco products.
- The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council could well raise either the GST rate or the compensation cess levied on tobacco products especially when the Government is looking to rationalise GST rates and increase them for certain items.
- For example, there is absolutely no public health rationale why a very harmful product such as the bidi does not have a cess levied on it under the GST while all other tobacco products attract a cess.
- GST Council meetings must strive to keep public health ahead of the interests of the tobacco industry and significantly increase either the GST rates or the GST compensation cess rates applied on all tobacco products.
Conclusion
The aim should be to arrest the increasing affordability of tobacco products in India and also rationalise tobacco taxation under the GST.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Small Savings Schemes
Mains level: Paper 3- Managing economic uncertainties due to crisis
Context
Amid Ukraine crisis and high oil prices, the larger concern is how the government and the RBI will navigate this period at a time of record government borrowings, and prevent domestic interest rates from hardening.
The Triffin paradox in current context
- It is ironic that even as emerging economies running current account deficits are getting punished by a depreciating currency and a hardening of interest rates, we are witnessing the US dollar appreciating and US treasuries strengthening.
- The most common argument for such a macroeconomic paradox is named after the economist Robert Triffin (the Triffin Paradox).
- It postulates that the US current account deficit is purely a reflection of the US supplying large amounts of dollars to fulfil the world’s demand.
- In other words, central banks across the world must build up claims on the US to back their domestic money growth.
Dollar’s dominance
- Former US Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke even extended this argument in 2005 to the “saving glut” proposition by espousing that emerging economies were accumulating foreign exchange reserves in dollars, and diverting domestic savings to buy US treasuries.
- There are several counter arguments to this view that effectively state that the dominance of the US dollar is inevitable in the global financial architecture, and it is purely a fault of emerging market economies.
Need for the unconventional tools to avoid the disruption by government borrowing
This can be done in the following ways
1] Spread the borrowing over four quarters after taking real-time view of disruption
- Every year, the government front-loads its large borrowing programme by completing 60 per cent of the borrowings in the first half of the year.
- This time, the RBI and the government may take a real-time view of disruptions and spread the borrowings over four quarters, keeping the initial two quarters light.
- The borrowing programme can also be announced as per a quarterly schedule and there could be even two auctions during the week.
- These steps could smoothen out the non-disruptive elements in government borrowings.
2] Reconfigure the borrowing program
- For example, as rates move up, banks tend to prefer short-term investments while insurance companies, provident funds and others prefer longer-term investments.
- Given this, the borrowing schedule can be reconfigured with a higher proportion of short-and medium-tenor securities being offered in the initial months, while pushing back the longer tenor securities to the second half of the year.
3] Push Small Savings Schemes
- Third, small savings collections have significantly exceeded budget estimates.
- The government could think of giving a push to small savings schemes such as the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY).
- The SSY has witnessed the registration of 2.82 crore girl children in the seven years since its inception in 2015, leaving enough room for further mop-up.
- The newly opened accounts may even be given an enhanced savings limit in the first year to catch up for the years lost for these new additions.
4] Listing of LIC
- LIC currently holds around Rs 23.5 trillion worth of government bonds, higher than even than the RBI.
- LIC’s G-sec holding is around 19 per cent, while in comparison the banking system’s ownership stands at around 38 per cent.
- Thus LIC’s listing should augur well for the bond market as the insurance behemoth may have to deploy a greater share of inflows in safer avenues domestically.
- This is a plausible option as banks may have to readjust their deposits into credit as the economic recovery gains momentum.
Conclusion
Rising oil prices have placed policymakers in an unenviable position. If higher oil prices are fully passed through, it will result in higher inflation and hence higher rates as a consequence. In such a scenario it is best to follow the first option by using unconventional policy measures.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MVA, BBIN
Mains level: BBIN and its significance
With Bhutan continuing to sit out the Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) of the sub-regional Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) grouping, a meeting of the other three countries was held to discuss the next steps in operationalizing the agreement for the free flow of goods and people between them.
What is Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA)?
- India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh signed a Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) for the Regulation of Passenger, Personal and Cargo Vehicular Traffic among the four South Asian neighbours.
- It was signed on 15 June 2015 at the BBIN transport ministers meeting in Thimpu, Bhutan.
- The act will facilitate a way for a seamless movement of people and goods across their borders for the benefit and integration of the region and its economic development.
Key terms of the Agreement
- Trans-shipment of goods: Cargo vehicles will be able to enter any of the four nations without the need for trans-shipment of goods from one country’s truck to another’s at the border.
- Free transport: The agreement would permit the member states to ply their vehicles in each other’s territory for transportation of cargo and passengers, including third-country transport and personal vehicles.
- Electronic permit: As per the agreement each vehicle would require an electronic permit to enter another country’s territory, and border security arrangements between nations’ borders will also remain.
- Ultra-security: Vehicles are fitted with an electronic seal that alerts regulators every time the container door is opened.
Implementation status of the agreement
- The agreement will enter into force after it is ratified by all four member nations.
- The agreement has been ratified by Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
- The lower house of the Bhutanese parliament approved the agreement in early 2016, but it was rejected by the upper house in November 2016.
- Bhutan has requested for a cap to be fixed on the number of vehicles entering its territory
What next?
- India remains “hopeful” that Bhutan could change its position on the project, it was decided at a meeting in November 2021 to go ahead for now, given that there are no new signals from Thimphu on the project.
- Progress on the seven-year-old project has been slow, despite several trial runs being held along the Bangladesh-India-Nepal road route for passenger buses and cargo trucks.
- There are still some agreements holding up the final protocols.
Back2Basics: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN)
- BBIN Initiative is a sub-regional architecture of countries in Eastern South Asia, a sub-region of South Asia.
- The group meets through the official representation of member states to formulate, implement and review quadrilateral agreements across areas such as water resources management, connectivity of power, transport, and infrastructure.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: TPD
Mains level: Refugee crisis of Ukranians
Responding to the crisis, EU Member States made the unprecedented decision to activate a major European Union’s Council Directive, known as the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD).
What is Temporary Protection?
- The EU Commission describes “temporary protection” under the TPD as an “exceptional measure to provide immediate and temporary protection to displaced persons from non-EU countries and those unable to return to their country of origin”.
- The directive applies when there is a risk that the standard asylum system is struggling to cope with demand stemming from a mass influx risking a negative impact on the processing of claims.
Objectives of this protection
- To both establish minimum standards for giving temporary protection to displaced persons
- To promote a balance of effort between Member States in receiving and bearing the consequences of receiving such persons
Why establish standards?
The Commission gives two reasons for doing so:
- It reduces disparities between the policies of EU States on the reception and treatment of displaced persons in a situation of mass influx.
- It promotes solidarity and burden-sharing among EU States with respect to receiving large numbers of potential refugees at one time.”
What obligations does the TPD place upon EU states?
According to the European Commission, the TPD “foresees harmonised rights for the beneficiaries of temporary protection”, which include:
- Residence permit for the duration of the protection (which can last from 1-3 years),
- Appropriate information on temporary protection,
- Access to employment,
- Access to accommodation or housing,
- Access to social welfare or means of subsistence,
- Access to medical treatment,
- Access to education for minors,
- Opportunities for families to reunite in certain circumstances, and
- Guarantees for access to the normal asylum procedure
The TPD also contains provisions for the return of displaced persons to their country of origin, unless they have committed serious crimes or they “pose a threat to security from the benefit of temporary protection”.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Karewa
Mains level: Land degradation
Kashmir’s highly fertile alluvial soil deposits called ‘karewas’ are being destroyed in the name of development, much to the peril of local people
What are Karewas?
- The Kashmir valley is an oval-shaped basin, 140 km long and 40 km wide, trending in the NNW–SSE direction.
- It is an intermountain valley fill, comprising of unconsolidated gravel and mud.
- A succession of plateaus is present above the Plains of Jhelum and its tributaries.
- These plateau-like terraces are called ‘Karewas’ or ‘Vudr’ in the local language.
- These plateaus are 13,000-18,000 metre-thick deposits of alluvial soil and sediments like sandstone and mudstone.
- This makes them ideal for cultivation of saffron, almonds, apples and several other cash crops.
Significance of Karewas
- Today, the karewa sediments not only hold fossils and remnants of many human civilisations and habitations, but are also the most fertile spots in the valley.
- Kashmir saffron, which received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2020 for its longer and thicker stigmas, deep-red colour, high aroma and bitter flavour, is grown on these karewas.
How are they formed?
- The fertility of these patches is believed to be the result of their long history of formation.
- When formed during the Pleistocene period (2.6 million years to 11,700 years ago), the Pir Panjal range blocked the natural drainage in the region and formed a lake spanning 5,000 sq km.
- Over the next few centuries, the water receded, making way for the valley and the formation of the karewas between the mountains.
Threats to Karewas
- Despite its agricultural and archaeological importance, karewas are now being excavated to be used in construction.
- Between 1995 and 2005, massive portions of karewas in Pulwama, Budgam and Baramulla districts were razed to the ground for clay for the 125-km-long Qazigund-Baramulla rail line.
- The Srinagar airport is built on the Damodar karewa in Budgam.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pal-Dadhvav Massacre
Mains level: Major tribal uprisings in freedom struggle
The Gujarat government has marked 100 years of the Pal-Dadhvav killings, calling it a massacre “bigger than the Jallianwala Bagh”.
Pal-Dadhvav Massacre
- The massacre took place on March 7, 1922, in the Pal-Chitariya and Dadhvaav villages of Sabarkantha district, then part of Idar state.
- The day was Amalki Ekadashi, which falls just before Holi, a major festival for tribals.
- Villagers from Pal, Dadhvav, and Chitariya had gathered on the banks of river Heir as part of the ‘Eki movement’, led by one Motilal Tejawat.
- The movement was to protest against the land revenue tax (lagaan) imposed on the peasants by the British and feudal lords.
- Tejawat, who belonged to Koliyari village in the Mewad region of Rajasthan, had also mobilised Bhils from Kotda Chhavni, Sirohi, and Danta to participate.
The fateful day
- Tejawat had been outlawed by the Udaipur state, which had announced a Rs-500 reward on his head.
- The Mewad Bhil Corps (MBC), a paramilitary force raised by the British that was on the lookout for Tejawat, heard of this gathering and reached the spot.
- On a command from Tejawat, nearly 2000 Bhils raised their bows and arrows and shouted in unison- ‘We will not pay the tax’.
- The MBC commanding officer, HG Sutton, ordered his men to fire upon them creating a huge stampede.
- Nearly 1,000 tribals (Bhils) fell to bullets. While the British claimed some 22 people were killed, the Bhils believe 1,200-1,500 of them died.
Must read:
Important Rebellions and Peasant Movements
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Param Ganga, Petaflops
Mains level: National Supercomputing Mission
The National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) has now deployed “PARAM Ganga”, a supercomputer at IIT Roorkee, with a supercomputing capacity of 1.66 Petaflops.
What is a Supercomputer?
- A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer.
- The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS).
- Since 2017, there are supercomputers which can perform over a hundred quadrillion FLOPS (peta FLOPS).
- Since November 2017, all of the world’s fastest 500 supercomputers run Linux-based operating systems.
PARAM Ganga
- PARAM Ganga is designed and commissioned by C-DAC under Phase 2 of the build approach of the NSM.
- It is based on a heterogeneous and hybrid configuration of Intel Xeon Cascade lake processors, and NVIDIA Tesla V100.
- There are 312 (CPU+GPU+HM) nodes with a total peak computing capacity of 1.67 (CPU+GPU+HM) PFLOPS performance.
- The cluster consists of compute nodes connected with the Mellanox (HDR) InfiniBand interconnect network.
- The system uses the Lustre parallel file system and operating system is CentOS 7.x.
Back2Basics: National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)
- NSM is a proposed plan by GoI to create a cluster of seventy supercomputers connecting various academic and research institutions across India.
- In April 2015 the government approved the NSM with a total outlay of Rs.4500 crore for a period of 7 years.
- The mission was set up to provide the country with supercomputing infrastructure to meet the increasing computational demands of academia, researchers, MSMEs, and startups by creating the capability design, manufacturing, of supercomputers indigenously in India.
- Currently there are four supercomputers from India in Top 500 list of supercomputers in the world.
Aims and objectives
- The target of the mission was set to establish a network of supercomputers ranging from a few Tera Flops (TF) to Hundreds of Tera Flops (TF) and three systems with greater than or equal to 3 Peta Flops (PF) in academic and research institutions of National importance across the country by 2022.
- This network of Supercomputers envisaging a total of 15-20 PF was approved in 2015 and was later revised to a total of 45 PF (45000 TFs), a jump of 6 times more compute power within the same cost and capable of solving large and complex computational problems.
When did India initiate its efforts to build supercomputers?
- India’s supercomputer program was initiated in the late 1980s, when the United States ceased the export of a Cray Supercomputer due to technology embargos.
- This resulted in India setting up C-DAC in 1988, which in 1991, unveiled the prototype of PARAM 800, benchmarked at 5 Gflops. This supercomputer was the second-fastest in the world at that time.
- Since June 2018, the USA’s Summit is the fastest supercomputer in the world, taking away this position from China.
- As of January 2018, Pratyush and Mihir are the fastest supercomputers in India with a maximum speed of Peta Flops.
What are the phases of the National Supercomputing Mission?
Phase I:
- In the first phase of the NSM, parts of the supercomputers are imported and assembled in India.
- A total of 6 supercomputers are to be installed in this phase.
- The first supercomputer that was assembled indigenously is called Param Shivay. It was installed in IIT (BHU) located in Varanasi.
- Similar systems, Param Shakti (IIT Kharagpur) and Param Brahma (IISER, Pune) were also later installed within the country.
- The rest will be installed at IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad and Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies (JNIAS).
Phase II:
- The supercomputers that are installed so far are about 60% indigenous.
- The 11 systems that are going to be installed in the next phase will have processors designed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and will have a cumulative capacity of 10 petaflops.
- These new systems are to be constructed more cost-effectively than the previous ones.
- One of the 11 proposed supercomputers will be installed
- at C-DAC exclusively for small and medium enterprises so that they can train employees as well as work on supercomputers at a very low cost.
Phase III:
- The third phase aims to build fully indigenous supercomputers.
- The government had also approved a project to develop a cryogenic cooling system that rapidly dispels the heat generated by a computing chip. This will be jointly built together by IIT-Bombay and C-DAC.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Maternal mortality rate
Mains level: Paper 2- Women's representation in politics
Context
For a proper appraisal of the relations between gender and democracy, we ought to examine the links between violence, representation, and the political participation of women.
Role of women in South Asian democracy
- Historically, one of the peculiar paradoxes of South Asian democracy has been the continued presence of strong women leaders at the executive centre coupled with a generally appalling condition of women in society at large.
- South Asia has had the largest number of women heads of state — including Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Chandrika Kumaratunga, Indira Gandhi, Khaleda Zia, Sheikh Hasina, and Benazir Bhutto — of any region in the world till recently.
- Under-represented: While women have played very visible and important roles at the higher echelons of power and at the grassroots level in social movements, they have been under-represented in political parties as officials and as members of key decision-making bodies.
Electoral representation of women in India
- In India, women currently make up 14.6 per cent of MPs (78 MPs) in the Lok Sabha, which is a historic high.
- Although the percentage is modest, it is remarkable because women barely made up 9 per cent of the overall candidates in 2019.
- In electoral representation, has fallen several places in the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s global ranking of women’s parliamentary presence, from 117 after the 2014 election to 143 as of January 2020.
- In terms of electoral quotas, there were two outstanding exceptions in the 2019 general elections.
- Voluntary parliamentary quota: West Bengal under Mamata Banerjee and Odisha under Naveen Patnaik opted for voluntary parliamentary quotas, fielding 40 per cent and 33 per cent women candidates, respectively.
Growing turnout of women voters and its implications
- Assertion of citizenship rights: In 1962, the male voter turnout in India was 16 percentage points higher than for women. Six decades later, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, women’s participation exceeded that of men for the first time.
- This suggests an increasing assertion of citizenship rights among women.
- The growing turnout of women voters could influence political parties’ programmatic priorities and improve their responsiveness to women voters’ interests, preferences, and concerns, including sexual harassment and gender-based violence.
- Women-centric schemes: The state government in Bengal ran and highlighted many women-centric schemes that potentially played a central role in their victory.
- The central government must be commended for its achievements in two areas in particular: Its DBT schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan.
- As a result, maternal mortality rate has reduced from 167 (2011-13) to 113 (2016-18).
- The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2017 is another landmark achievement that extended the paid maternal leave to 26 weeks from the existing 12 weeks.
Way forward
- Government must use its parliamentary majority to finally pass the Women’s Reservation Bill, as was promised in their 2014 election manifesto.
- Until that happens, the initiative taken by the governments of Banerjee and Patnaik to increase women’s parliamentary presence must serve as an inspiration to other Indian states.
Conclusion
The extent to which parties represent women and take up their interests is closely tied to the health and vitality of democratic processes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Mains level: Paper 2- Russia-Ukraine war
Context
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling in Ukraine, has triggered a far more consequential debate on the importance of atomic weapons in deterring Chinese expansionism.
Background
- Ukraine agreed in 1994 to give up the nuclear weapons that it inherited from the Soviet Union in return for guarantees on Kyiv’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
- Clearly, those legal guarantees were no substitute for nuclear weapons.
Changing stand on nuclear weapons
- Debate in Japan: In an important statement last week, the former prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, called for a national debate on hosting American nuclear weapons on Japanese soil.
- One element of the debate is the fact that nuclear weapons remain the greatest deterrent, especially against a vastly superior adversary.
- Korea strengthening nuclear deterrence: In South Korea, which is electing its president this week, front-runner Yoon Suk-yeol has talked of strengthening Seoul’s nuclear deterrence against both Pyongyang and Beijing.
- Taiwan and Australia developing nuclear submarine: Taiwan, is reportedly developing a nuclear-powered submarine that could offer some deterrence against a Chinese invading force.
- Australia, which is working with the UK and the US to build nuclear-powered submarines, is accelerating the project after the Ukraine invasion.
Threat of escalation to nuclear war
- The threat of escalation to the nuclear level was very much in the mind of NATO’s military planners when the alliance refused to be drawn into a firefight with Russia in Ukraine.
- Moscow is also conscious of the fact that there are two nuclear weapon powers in Europe — Britain and France.
- Nuclear sharing arrangement: Russia is also aware of the “nuclear sharing” arrangements between the US and some European allies — Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.
- Under this framework, European allies host US nuclear weapons on their soil and authorise their armed forces to deliver American nuclear weapons on Russia.
- Nuclear sharing also involves continuous consultations on nuclear doctrine and the planning of nuclear operations.
- The US and its allies are also pursuing a “hybrid war” that boosts Ukrainian resistance against Russian armed forces and raises military, economic, and political costs of Moscow’s aggression.
Threat of China invading Taiwan
- Taiwan is far more important for Asian (and global) security than Ukraine is for Europe.
- Taiwan sits at the heart of the Western Pacific and straddles the sea line of communication in the world’s most dynamic economic arena.
- It is the main source of silicon chips for the world.
- When China conquers Taiwan it will dramatically transform the geopolitics of Asia.
- As Putin becomes more dependent on China, Russia is bound to back Xi Jinping’s ambitions in Asia.
- This is the context in which China’s eastern neighbours are taking a fresh look at the nuclear option.
- Nuclear sharing arrangement: On the nuclear front, the debate in Japan and South Korea is about potential nuclear sharing arrangements with the US.
- In Taiwan and Australia, the emphasis is on developing nuclear-powered submarines.
- Deployment of strategic weapons: The US too is debating the deployment of new strategic weapon systems in Asia that might encourage China to pause before trying to emulate Russia’s Ukraine adventure.
Consider the question ” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is going to transform the nuclear landscape of Asia. Comment.”
Conclusion
One way or another, Russia’s war in Ukraine is bound to transform the Asian nuclear landscape.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Economic implications of Russia-Ukraine War
The economic sanctions imposed by the US, UK, and the EU on Russia for going to war against Ukraine could prove to be detrimental to the country.
What do economic sanctions mean?
- Economic sanctions are penalties or bans that are levied against a country to push it to modify its strategic decisions.
- They include withdrawal of customary trade and financial relations for security and foreign policy purposes.
- Sanctions could result in cutting economic ties in every respect such as terms of trade, financial assistance, transit support, travel bans, asset freezes, and trade restrictions.
- The curbs could also be targeted, thus restricting transactions with certain businesses, groups, or individuals.
- Amid increased global and economic interdependence, they could prove to be detrimental for the targeted country.
How do sanctions impact an economy?
- No country can afford to be a closed economy.
- The affected country’s supply chain gets disrupted in terms of the inflow of goods and services and for reaching out to the export markets.
- In the former, there is a risk of the internal economy being crippled, especially if it depends on imports of critical raw materials.
- The domestic economy could also be deprived of external market support.
- The risk element is high especially in case of economic curbs being imposed collectively, such as by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
What are the economic sanctions against Russia?
- Major Russian banks have been banned from the SWIFT financial messaging service and their assets have been frozen.
- Sanctions have been levied on the Russian Direct Investment Fund and against some of Russia’s wealthiest people.
- Access to air-space has been denied and export controls introduced.
- The countries imposing curbs on Russia account for 34% of world GDP.
What is the cost of such restrictions?
- This depends on the economic strength of the country being targeted.
- Russia cannot be brushed aside as an ordinary economy.
- The country is important to the global economy because of its oil reserves and access to nuclear power.
- Russia is also a supplier of sophisticated defence products and is an important supplier of crucial defence products to India.
- Given the long-term strategic nature of the relationship, India is abstaining from voting on resolutions to condemn Russia.
How did India manage curbs after Pokhran-II?
- India’s dependence on external assistance was more than $100 billion.
- The government appealed to non-resident Indians (NRIs) whose annual savings were more than $400 billion.
- NRIs’ subscription to government bonds was more than double the annual foreign assistance.
- India could also showcase its scientific strength as none of the scientists involved were trained abroad.
- This helped India display confidence, especially to investors.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: No-Fly Zone
Mains level: Read the attached story
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General stated that the organisation would not designate the Ukrainian airspace as a ‘No Fly Zone’ which he said would lead to a full-fledged war in Europe, involving many more countries and resulting in greater human suffering.
What is a No-Fly Zone ?
- In simple terms, a No-Fly Zone refers to a particular airspace wherein aircraft, excluding those permitted by an enforcement agency, are barred from flying.
- Articles under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter dealing with Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression’ are invoked to authorise a potential no-fly zone.
- Article 39 dictates the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to determine the probable existence of any threat to peace or an act of aggression.
- It suggests further measures, if required, are to be carded out in accordance to Article 41 and 42 to restore international peace and security.
- No fly zones have been implemented without UN mandate too.
Cases of implementation
- In 1991 after the first Gulf War, U.S. and its coalition partners imposed two no fly zones over Iraq to prevent Saddam Hussain born attacking ethnic groups.
- In non-combat situations, No fly zones can be imposed permanently and temporarily over sensitive installations or for high profile events like Olympics.
What is the feasibility of ‘No fly zone over Ukraine?
- No-fly zone declarations are essentially a compromise in situations demanding a response to ongoing violence, but full military intervention is politically untenable.
- NATO has previously imposed No-Fly Zones in non-member states like Libya and Bosnia. With Russia it fears a full-fledged war in Europe.
- It has been demanding that NATO scale back to the pre-1997 arrangements. Both Russia and Ukraine are not members of NATO.
- Due to this the idea of imposing a no fly zone’ over Ukraine has been rejected outright.
- If implemented, it means NATO deploying aircraft and assets which would result in a direct confrontation with Russia.
What are the broad contours in a No-Fly Zone?
- The UNSC had banned all flights in the Libyan airspace post adoption of Resolution 1973 in 2011 in response to the Libyan Civil War.
- Member slates were asked to deny permission to any Libyan registered aircraft to use the territory without requisite approval.
- Further, the member states could bar any entity from flying if they found reasonable grounds to believe the aircraft is ferrying lethal or non-lethal military equipment.
- Member states were permitted to allow flights whose sole purpose was humanitarian, such as delivery of medical supplies and food, chauffer humanitarian workers and related assistance, or evacuating foreign nationals from the territory.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ‘Donate a Pension’ Scheme
Mains level: Not Much
The Union Labour and Employment Ministry has launched the “donate a pension” scheme.
‘Donate a Pension’ Scheme
- This scheme allows any citizen to pay the premium amount on behalf of an unorganized worker under the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan
- Maan-Dhan scheme is a government scheme meant for old age protection and social security of unorganized workers.
Eligibility criteria and benefits
- The scheme was launched in 2019, allows unorganized sector workers between 18 and 40 years who earn up to ₹15,000 a month to enroll by paying a premium amount between ₹55 and ₹200, depending on the age, that would be matched by the government.
- On reaching the age of 60, the beneficiaries would get a ₹3,000 monthly pension.
Features of the scheme
- The scheme allows a citizen to “donate the premium contribution of their immediate support staff such as domestic workers, drivers, helpers, caregivers, nurses in their household or establishment.
- The donor can pay the contribution for a minimum of one year, with the amount ranging from ₹660 to ₹2,400 a year depending on the age of the beneficiary, by paying through maandhan.in or visiting a Common Service Centre.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Stagflation
Mains level: Economic impact of Russian invasion
Reports suggest that crude oil prices soared and touched almost $140 per barrel mark amid Russian invasion of Ukraine. This has posed a risk of causing Stagflation in India.
What is Stagflation?
- Stagflation is a stagnant growth and persistently high inflation. It, thus, describes a rather rare and curious condition of an economy.
- Iain Macleod, a Conservative Party MP in the United Kingdom, is known to have coined the phrase during his speech on the UK economy in November 1965.
- Typically, rising inflation happens when an economy is booming — people are earning lots of money, demanding lots of goods and services and as a result, prices keep going up.
- When the demand is down and the economy is in the doldrums, by the reverse logic, prices tend to stagnate (or even fall).
- But stagflation is a condition where an economy experiences the worst of both worlds — the growth rate is largely stagnant (along with rising unemployment) and inflation is not only high but persistently so.
How does one get into Stagflation?
- The best-known case of stagflation is what happened in the early and mid-1970s.
- The OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries), which works like a cartel, decided to cut crude oil supply.
- This sent oil prices soaring across the world; they were up by almost 70%.
- This sudden oil price shock not only raised inflation everywhere, especially in the western economies but also constrained their ability to produce, thus hampering their economic growth.
- High inflation and stalled growth (and the resulting unemployment) created stagflation.
Is India facing stagflation?
- In the recent past, this question has gained prominence since late 2019, when retail inflation spiked due to unseasonal rains causing a spike in food inflation.
- In December 2019, it was also becoming difficult for the government to deny that India’s growth rate was witnessing a secular deceleration.
- As revised estimates, released in January end, now show, India’s GDP growth rate decelerated from over 8% in 2016-17 to just 3.7% in 2019-20.
- However, the answer to this question in December 2019 was a clear no.
- For one, in absolute terms, India’s GDP was still growing, albeit at a progressively slower rate.
Why this is a cause of concern?
- Russia is the world’s second-largest oil producer and, as such, if its oil is kept out of the market because of sanctions, it will not only lead to prices spiking, but also mean they will stay that way for long.
- While India is not directly involved in the conflict, it will be badly affected if oil prices move higher and stay that way.
- India imports more than 84% of its total oil demand. At one level, that puts into perspective all the talk of being Atmanirbhar (or self-reliant).
- Without these imports, India’s economy would come to a sudden halt — both metaphorically as well as actually.
Expected impact on Indian Economy
- Higher inflation would rob Indians of their purchasing power, thus bringing down their overall demand.
- In other words, people are not demanding enough for the economy to grow fast.
- Private consumer demand is the biggest driver of growth in India.
- Such aggregate demand — the monetary sum of all the soaps, phones, cars, refrigerators, holidays etc. that we all spend on in our personal capacity — accounts for more than 55% of India’s total GDP.
- Higher prices will reduce this demand, which is already struggling to come back up to the pre-Covid level.
- Fewer goods and services being demanded will then disincentivise businesses from investing in new capacities, which, in turn, will exacerbate the unemployment crisis and lead to even lower incomes.
Back2Basics: Inflation and its impact
- Depression: It is Economic depression is a sustained, long-term downturn in economic
- Deflation: It is the general fall in the price level over a period of time.
- Disinflation: It is the fall in the rate of inflation or a slower rate of inflation. Example: a fall in the inflation rate from 8% to 6%.
- Reflation: It is the act of stimulating the economy by increasing the money supply or by reducing taxes, seeking to bring the economy back up to the long-term trend, following a dip in the business cycle. It is the opposite of disinflation.
- Skewflation: It is the skewed rise in the price of some items while remaining item prices remain the same. E.g. Seasonal rise in the price of onions.
- Stagflation: The situation of rising prices along with falling growth and employment, is called stagflation. Inflation accompanied by an economic recession.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Jyotiba Phule
Mains level: NA
Maharashtra Governor has recently received flak for his remarks on the social reformist couple Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule.
Who were the Phules?
- Mahatma Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule stand out as an extraordinary couple in the social and educational history of India.
- They spearheaded path-breaking work towards female education and empowerment, and towards ending caste- and gender-based discrimination.
- In 1840, at a time when child marriages were common, Savitri at the age of ten was married to Jyotirao, who was thirteen years old at the time.
- The couple later in life strove to oppose child marriage and also organised widow remarriages.
The Phules’ endeavors and legacy
- Education: Jyotirao, the revolutionary that he was, observed the lack of opportunities for education for young girls and women.
- Leaders of the masses: He started to educate his wife at home and trained her to become a teacher. Together, by 1848, the Phules started a school for girls, Shudras and Ati-Shudras in Poona.
- Widow shelter: The historic work was started by Jyotirao when he was just 21 years old, ably supported by his 18-year-old wife. In 1853, Jyotirao-Savitribai opened a care centre for pregnant widows to have safe deliveries and to end the practice of infanticide owing to social norms.
- Prevention of infanticide: The Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha (Home for the Prevention of Infanticide) started in their own house at 395, Ganj Peth, Pune.
The Satyashodhak Samaj:
- Literally meaning ‘The Truth-Seeker’s Society’ was established on September 24, 1873 by Jyotirao-Savitribai and other like-minded people.
- The Samaj advocated for social changes that went against prevalent traditions, including economical weddings, inter-caste marriages, eradication of child marriages, and widow remarriage.
- The Phules also had far-sighted goals — popularising female education, establishing an institutional structure of schools in India, and to have a society where women worked in tandem with men.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Social media in the time of conflict
Context
The lack of clear systems within social media companies that claim to connect the world is appalling. It is time that they should have learned from multiple instances, as recent as the Israeli use of force in Palestine.
Role of social media platforms in the context of conflict
- There was no unpredictability over conflicts in the information age spilling over to social media platforms.
- In the context of conflict, social media platforms have multiple challenges that go unaddressed.
- Threat of information warfare: Content moderation remains a core area of concern, where, essentially, information warfare can be operationalised and throttled.
- Their sheer magnitude and narrative-building abilities place a degree of undeniable onus on them.
- After years of facing and acknowledging these challenges, most social media giants are yet to create institutional capacity to deal with such situations.
- Additionally, they also act as a conduit for further amplification of content on other platforms.
- Major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter also provide space for extremist views from fringe platforms, where the degree of direct relation to the user generating such content is blurred.
Technology falls short
- Misinformation and disinformation are thorny challenges to these platforms.
- Algorithmic solutions are widely put to use to address them.
- These include identification of content violative of their terms, reducing the visibility of content deemed inappropriate by the algorithm, and in the determination of instances reported to be violative of the terms by other users.
- More often than not in critical cases, these algorithmic solutions have misfired, harming the already resource-scarce party.
- The operational realities of these platforms require that the safety of users be prioritised to address pressing concerns, even at the cost of profits.
Lessons for India
- The lack of coherent norms on state behaviour in cyberspace as well as the intersection of business, cyberspace, and state activity is an opportunity for India.
- Indian diplomats can initiate a new track of conversations here which can benefit the international community at large.
- India should ensure that it initiates these conversations through well-informed diplomats.
- Finally, it is necessary to reassess the domestic regulatory framework on social media platforms.
- Transparency and accountability need to be foundational to the regulation of social media platforms in the information age.
Conclusion
It is in our national interest and that of a rule-based global polity that social media platforms be dealt with more attention across spheres than with a range of reactionary measures addressing immediate concerns alone.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Opec plus
Mains level: Paper 3- Impact of Ukraine crisis on India's energy sector
Context
The Ukraine crisis will affect India’s energy landscape in many ways. This article analyses the impact and suggest the policy measures.
The trajectory of oil prices
- The inflation-adjusted price of Brent crude is $83/bbl (as of writing, the nominal price is $116 / bbl), which is lower than the peak of $145/ bbl in 2008 and the average price that year of $100/bbl.
- In other words, prices could rise much further and we would still not be in uncharted waters.
- Factors affecting prices: The price trajectory will depend on the duration of the conflict, its impact on global energy demand, countervailing supply measures (for example, drawdown of strategic reserves, diversion of US LNG supplies to Europe, the Iranian nuclear deal which, if signed, could release up to 1 mbd of Iranian crude into the market) and whether in all this mayhem, the pipeline infrastructure currently feeding Russian gas into Europe remains operational.
- Impact on India’s earnings: Our earnings from petroleum products (diesel, petrol, naphtha) will be adversely impacted.
- In 2021, these products generated $39 billion in revenue and at 14 per cent, they accounted for the highest share of export earnings.
Impact on India’s energy assets in Russia
- ONGC has a 26 per cent stake in the Vankor oil field, a 20 per cent stake in the Sakhalin-1 LNG/oil export complex.
- All these holdings have eroded substantially in value.
- In India, Rosneft (the Russian national oil company) operates the 20 mtpa refinery in Vadinar through Nayara Energy.
- Nayara is not sanctioned but the traders of crude/products might worry about transacting with an Indian company owned by a sanctioned Russian entity.
Four emergent energy trends that would affect India
- 1] Energy ties of Russia and China: Only last week, for instance, Gazprom signed off on an agreement to build a second gas pipeline to China christened “Power of Siberia 2”.
- The “Power of Siberia 1” pipeline has been pumping gas into China since 2019.
- 2] Emergence of US as second largest producer: The emergence of the US as the largest producer of oil in the world and potentially the largest exporter of LNG.
- It has the capacity to blunt the impact of a supply shortfall but as it is controlled by profit-maximising private corporates.
- 3] The ability of Saudi Arabia to swing the crude oil market: It is the one member of OPEC plus with significant spares, low cost, producible capacity (approx 3 mbd) of crude oil.
- The US has pressured Saudi to bring this volume into the market but they have, as yet, not buckled.
- 4] China’s dominance over rare earth metals: The chokehold of China over the rare earths, minerals and components that are required to effect the transition to a clean energy system.
Suggestions for India
- 1] Take into account uncertainty: Frame the polic around the expectation of continuing volatility.
- 2] Strategic reserves: Build up strategic reserves to safeguard against the unexpected.
- 3] Transnational pipelines: Revive conversations with Turkmenistan and Iran about a transnational gas pipeline.
- 4] Reduce dependence on China for minerals and components required for the transition to clean energy: Fast forward efforts to decouple the supply chain dependence on China for the minerals and components required for the clean energy transition.
- And, finally bring in psychologists to get a better fix on the logic that drives the decisions of the energy autocrats in Russia, Saudi Arabia and China.
Conclusion
The Ukraine crisis throws up many learnings. But one needs particular emphasis. It is not enough to read the tea leaves of supply, demand and geopolitical trends to understand the trajectory of the energy market.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: DIGIT
Mains level: Paper 3- Digital Public Infrastructure
Context
A lot has been written about the emphasis on “digital” in the 2022 Union Budget. But one aspect that hasn’t been talked about as much is the importance given in the budget to digital public infrastructure (DPI).
Significance of digital public infrastructure (DPI) in India
- A global trendsetter: India is seen as a global trendsetter in the DPI movement, having set up multiple large-scale DPIs like Aadhaar, UPI and sector-specific platforms like DIGIT for eGovernance and DIKSHA for education.
- Improvement in public service delivery: These DPIs have helped push the frontier of public service delivery.
- Four key announcements in Budget: This year’s budget adds to the growing discourse on DPIs by making four key announcements:
- 1] In health, an open platform with digital registries, a unique health identity and a robust consent framework;
- 2] In skilling, a Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood (DESH-Stack) to help citizens upskill through online training;
- 3] a Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) to streamline movement of goods across modes of transport; and for travel,
- 4] In mobility, an “open source” mobility stack for facilitating seamless travel of passengers.
- Analysis by the Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research (C-DEP) estimates that national digital ecosystems could add over 5 per cent to India’s GDP.
Suggestions
- But important design considerations must be set right if we are to truly unlock the value of these platforms.
1] Differentiating between tech and non-tech layer
- We need to differente between the “tech” and “non-tech” layers of our digital infrastructure.
- While India seems to have made significant headway on the “tech” layers, the “non-tech” layers of community engagement and governance need a lot more work.
- The combination of these three layers is what is critical to making tech work for everyone.
- Together, they embody what we call the open digital ecosystems (ODE) approach.
2] Get non-tech layers right
- To unleash the true potential of India’s ODEs, we need to get the “non-tech” layers right, by prioritising principles around data protection, universal access and accountability.
- In this regard, three specific non-tech levers are critical.
- 1] Data protection: Protecting the data of all users and giving them agency over how their data gets used.
- The passage of a robust Data Protection Bill is imperative.
- But we also need to go beyond the mere requirement of “consent”.
- 2] Address digital divide: It is important to address the digital divide.
- Research by ORF, for instance, shows that Indian women are 15 per cent less likely to own a mobile phone and 33 per cent less likely to use mobile internet services than men.
- So, we need a “phygital” approach that provides services through both online and offline options and strong grievance redressal mechanisms.
- 3] Institutional mechanism: As we push the frontier on digitisation, India must also focus on developing anchor institutions and robust governance frameworks.
- Just as Aadhaar is anchored by UIDAI under an Act of Parliament, and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is anchored by the National Health Authority, every new ODE requires an accountable institutional anchor.
- These institutions are critical for setting standards, ensuring a level playing field and safeguarding consumer interest.
Consider the question “India is seen as a global trendsetter in the DPI movement, having set up multiple large-scale Digital Public Infrastructures(DPI). List the various DPIs in various sectors in India. Suggest the changes needed in the non-tech layers of these DPIs.”
Conclusion
From Aadhaar and UPI to DBT and CoWin, India’s tech stacks are grabbing global attention. It is now critical to bring the gaze on to the non-tech layers of the stack, so that the potential of these platforms can be unlocked for every Indian.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Medical education in India
- According to estimates from Ukraine, reported in the media, around 18,000 Indian students are in Ukraine (before Operation Ganga).
- Most of them are pursuing medicine.
- This war has turned the spotlight on something that has been the trend for about three decades now.
Preferred countries for medical degree
- For about three decades now, Indian students have been heading out to Russia, China, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Philippines to pursue a medical degree.
Hype of becoming a Doctor
- Prestige: The desire to study medicine still holds a lot of value in the Indian community (the other is becoming an IAS officer).
- Shortages of Doctor: In many rural areas, people still look at doctors as god’s incarnate.
- Rarity of opportunity: The lack of equal opportunities exacerbated by the caste factor in the Indian context, has a great deal of impact on the prestige still associated with being a doctor.
- Social upliftment ladder: For years, certain communities were denied the opportunities, and finally they do have a chance at achieving significant educational status.
Why go abroad?
- No language barrier: The medium of education for these students is English, a language they are comfortable with.
- Affordability: The amount spent on living and the medical degree are far more affordable than paying for an MBBS seat in private medical colleges in India.
- Aesthetics and foreign culture: People are willing to leave their home to study far away in much colder places and with completely alien cultures and food habits.
- Practice and OPD exposure: It broadens students’ mind and thinking, expose them to a whole range of experiences, and their approach to issues and crises is likely to be far better.
Doesn’t India have enough colleges?
(a) More aspirants than seats
- There are certainly far more MBBS aspirants than there are MBBS seats in India.
- In NEET 2021, as per a National Testing Agency press release, 16.1 lakh students registered for the exam, 15.4 lakh students appeared for the test, and 8.7 lakh students qualified.
- As per data from the National Medical Commission (NMC), in 2021-22, there were 596 medical colleges in the country with a total of 88,120 MBBS seats.
- While the skew is in favour of Government colleges, it is not greatly so, with the number of private medical institutions nearly neck-to-neck with the state-run ones.
(b) Fees structure
- That means over 50% of the total seats are available at affordable fees in Government colleges.
- Add the 50% seats in the private sector that the NMC has mandated must charge only the government college fees.
- In fully private colleges, the full course fees range from several lakhs to crores.
(c) Uneven distribution of colleges
- These colleges are also not distributed evenly across the country, with States such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala having many more colleges.
What about costs?
- The cost factor on both sides of an MBBS degree is significant.
- The costs of an MBBS degree in a Government college tot up to a few lakhs of rupees for the full course, but in a private medical college, it can go up to ₹1 crore for the five-year course.
- In case it is a management seat, capitation fees can inflate the cost by several lakhs again.
- Whereas, an MBBS course at any foreign medical university in the east and Eastern Europe costs far less (upto ₹30lakh-₹40 lakh).
Way forward
- While PM Modi emphasised that more private medical colleges must be set up in the country to aid more people to take up MBBS, medical education experts have called for pause on the aspect.
- If the aim is to make medicine more accessible to students of the country, the path ahead is not in the private sector, but in the public sector, with the Central and State governments’ involvement.
- Starting private medical colleges by reducing the strict standards set for establishing institutes may not actually be the solution to this problem, if we think this is a concern.
Conclusion
- Creating more medical colleges will be beneficial for the country, if access and availability can be ensured.
- This will not be possible by resorting to private enterprise only.
- The State and Central governments can start more medical colleges, as recommended by NITI Aayog, by utilising district headquarters hospitals, and expanding the infrastructure.
- This way, students from the lower and middle socio-economic rung, who are otherwise not able to access medical seats, will also benefit.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Democracy Report 2022
Mains level: Global trends in Democracy
A Sweden-based institute has said that India is no longer an ‘electoral democracy’, classifying the country as an ‘electoral autocracy’ instead.
About the report
- The study, titled ‘Democracy Report 2022: Autocratisation Changing Nature?’ states that more than twice as many countries are undergoing Autocratisation as are witnessing democratization.
- The conceptual scheme takes into account not only the electoral dimension (free and fair elections) but also the liberal principle that democracy must protect “individual and minority rights”.
- The V-Dem report classifies countries into four regime types based on their score in the Liberal Democratic Index (LDI):
- Liberal Democracy
- Electoral Democracy
- Electoral Autocracy and
- Closed Autocracy
What is the report’s methodology?
- Since key features of democracy, such as, judicial independence, are not directly measurable, and to rule out distortions due to subjective judgments, V-Dem uses aggregate expert judgments.
- It gathers data from a pool of over 3,700 experts worldwide who provide judgments on different concepts and cases.
- Leveraging the diverse opinions, the V-Dem’s measurement model algorithmically.
The Liberal Democratic Index (LDI)
- The LDI captures both liberal and electoral aspects of a democracy based on 71 indicators that make up the:
- Liberal Component Index (LCI): It measures aspects such as protection of individual liberties and legislative constraints on the executive.
- Electoral Democracy Index (EDI): It considers indicators that guarantee free and fair elections such as freedom of expression and freedom of association.
- In addition, the LDI also uses:
- Egalitarian Component Index (to what extent different social groups are equal)
- Participatory Component Index (health of citizen groups, civil society organisations) and
- Deliberative Component Index (whether political decisions are taken through public reasoning focused on common good or through emotional appeals, solidarity attachments, coercion)
Highlights of the report
- The democratic gains of the post-Cold War period are eroding rapidly in the last few years.
- Autocratisation is spreading rapidly, with a record of 33 countries autocratising.
- The level of democracy enjoyed by the average global citizen in 2021 is down to 1989 levels.
- While Sweden topped the LDI index, other Scandinavian countries such as Denmark and Norway, along with Costa Rica and New Zealand make up the top five in liberal democracy rankings.
What does the report say about India?
- India is one of the top ten ‘autocratisers’ in the world says the report.
- The report classifies India as an autocracy (‘electoral autocracy’) rather than a democracy, ranking it 93rd on the liberal democracy index, out of 179 countries.
- The report notes that India is part of a broader global trend of an anti-plural political party driving a country’s Autocratisation.
- Ranked 93rd in the LDI, India figures in the “bottom 50%” of countries.
- It has slipped further down in the Electoral Democracy Index, to 100, and even lower in the Deliberative Component Index, at 102.
- In South Asia, India is ranked below Sri Lanka (88), Nepal (71), and Bhutan (65) and above Pakistan (117) in the LDI.
Concerns raised by the report
- (Communal) Polarisation: The report also points out that “toxic levels of polarisation contribute to electoral victories of anti-pluralist leaders and the empowerment of their autocratic agendas”.
- Rise of political hate speeches: The report states that measures of polarisation of society, political polarisation, and political parties’ use of hate speech tend to systematically rise together to extreme levels.
- Misinformation as a policy tool: The report identified “misinformation” as a key tool deployed by autocratising governments to sharpen polarisation and shape domestic and international opinion.
- Repression of civil society and censorship of media: These were other favored tools of autocratising regimes.
- Declining autonomy of Election bodies: The report also found that decisive autonomy for the electoral management body (EMB) deteriorated in 25 countries.
Note: The west uses every nook and corner to bully India in all walks of life. This report is an evidence. It ranks India as more autocratic than Pakistan (where democracy is a namesake joke). Credibility of such reports are definitely questionable. But we as an aspirant have to take cognisance of such reports (but not very seriously).
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