Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: FATF
Mains level: Terror financing and money laundering
The global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has retained Pakistan on its terrorism financing “grey list”.
What is the FATF?
- FATF is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering.
- The FATF Secretariat is housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris.
- It holds three Plenary meetings in the course of each of its 12-month rotating presidencies.
- As of 2019, FATF consisted of 37 member jurisdictions.
India and FATF
- India became an Observer at FATF in 2006. Since then, it had been working towards full-fledged membership.
- On June 25, 2010, India was taken in as the 34th country member of FATF.
- The EAG (Eurasian Group) is a regional body comprising nine countries: India, Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.
What is the role of FATF?
- Watchdog on terror financing: The rise of the global economy and international trade has given rise to financial crimes such as money laundering.
- Recommendation against financial crimes: The FATF makes recommendations for combating financial crime, reviews members’ policies and procedures, and seeks to increase acceptance of anti-money laundering regulations across the globe.
What is the Black List and the Grey List?
- Black List: The blacklist, now called the “Call for action” was the common shorthand description for the FATF list of “Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories” (NCCTs).
- Grey List: Countries that are considered safe haven for supporting terror funding and money laundering are put in the FATF grey list. This inclusion serves as a warning to the country that it may enter the blacklist.
Consequences of being in the FATF black list:
- Economic sanctions from IMF, World Bank, ADB
- Problem in getting loans from IMF, World Bank, ADB and other countries
- Trade sanctions: Reduction in international trade
- International boycott
Pakistan and FATF
- Pakistan, which continues to remain on the “grey list” of FATF, had earlier been given the deadline till June to ensure compliance with the 27-point action plan against terror funding networks.
- It has been under the FATF’s scanner since June 2018, when it was put on the Grey List for terror financing and money laundering risks.
- FATF and its partners such as the Asia Pacific Group (APG) are reviewing Pakistan’s processes, systems, and weaknesses on the basis of a standard matrix for anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Tiger Density in India
Mains level: Man-Animal Conflict
Preliminary findings of a study by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) suggest that the density of tigers in the Sunderbans may have reached the carrying capacity of the mangrove forests, leading to frequent dispersals and a surge in human-wildlife conflict.
Tiger Density of India
- In the Terai and Shivalik hills habitat — think Corbett tiger reserve, for example — 10-16 tigers can survive in 100 sq km.
- This slides to 7-11 tigers per 100 sq km in the reserves of north-central Western Ghats such as Bandipur, and to 6-10 tigers per 100 sq km in the dry deciduous forests, such as Kanha, of central India.
- The correlation between prey availability and tiger density is fairly established.
- There is even a simple linear regression explaining the relationship in the 2018 All-India Tiger report that put the carrying capacity in the Sunderbans “at around 4 tigers” per 100 sq km.
- A joint Indo-Bangla study in 2015 pegged the tiger density at 2.85 per 100 sq km after surveying eight blocks spanning 2,913 sq km across the international borders in the Sunderbans.
Conflict: cause or effect
- The consequence, as classical theories go, is frequent dispersal of tigers leading to higher levels of human-wildlife conflict in the reserve peripheries.
- Physical (space) and biological (forest productivity) factors have an obvious influence on a reserve’s carrying capacity of tigers.
- What also plays a crucial role is how the dispersal of wildlife is tolerated by people — from the locals who live around them to policymakers who decide management strategies.
- More so when different land uses overlap and a good number of people depend on forest resources for livelihood.
Why tiger corridors are not a solution?
- But though vital for genes to travel and avoid a population bottleneck, wildlife corridors may not be the one-stop solution for conflict.
- First, not all dispersing tigers will chance upon corridors simply because many will find territories of other tigers between them and such openings.
- Even the lucky few that may take those routes are likely to wander to the forest edges along the way.
- Worse, the corridors may not lead to viable forests in reserves such as Sunderbans, bounded by the sea and villages.
Way ahead
- Artificially boosting the prey base in a reserve is often an intuitive solution but it can be counter-productive.
- To harness the umbrella effect of tigers for biodiversity conservation, it is more beneficial to increase areas occupied by tigers.
- For many, the prescription is to create safe connectivity among forests and allow tigers to disperse safely to new areas.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2020:
Q.Among the following Tiger Reserves, which one has the largest area under “Critical Tiger Habitat” ?
(a) Corbett
(b) Ranthambore
(c) Nagarjunasagar- Srisailam
(d) Sunderbans
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Exercise Vayu Shakti
Mains level: NA
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has decided to postpone its firepower demonstration, Ex Vayu Shakti, scheduled in the Pokhran ranges in Rajasthan.
Exercise Vayu Shakti
- It is conducted once in three years which is participated by fighters, helicopters, force enablers and support systems.
- The aim of the exercise is to detect and identify targets and neutralise them in day, dusk and night capability demonstrations.
- The Indian Air Force showcases repower capability of indigenously developed aircrafts and its missile arsenal in this exercise.
- Fighter aircraft including Jaguar, Rafale, Sukhoi-30, MIG-29, light combat aircraft Tejas, MIG-21 Bison, Hawk 32, M200 participates in the exercise.
Also read
Various Defence Exercises in News
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IPCC
Mains level: Paper 3- IPCC sixth assessment report
Context
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released on Monday its sixth assessment report.
Bleak assessment of our future
- In its sixth assessment report, titled ‘Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability’, the IPCC discusses the increasing extreme heat, rising oceans, melting glaciers, falling agricultural productivity, resultant food shortages and increase in diseases like dengue and zika.
- Failed climate leadership: Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, quoted in The New York Times, describes the IPCC report as being “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.”
- The IPCC warns that should our planet get warmer than 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times (we are at 1.1 degrees at present), then there will be irreversible impact on “ecosystems with low resilience” such as polar, mountain and coastal ecosystems “impacted by glacier melt, and higher sea level rise”.
- This will cause devastation to “infrastructure in low-lying coastal settlements, associated livelihoods and even erosion of cultural and spiritual values.”
- The increased heat will lead to an increase in diseases like diabetes, circulatory and respiratory conditions, as well as mental health challenges.
Impact on India
- Climate “maladaptation”: The IPCC also highlights that climate “maladaptation” will especially affect “marginalised and vulnerable groups adversely, indigenous people, ethnic minorities, low-income households and informal settlements” and those in rural areas.
- Therefore, India, with a majority of its people falling in these categories, will be especially devastated.
- The IPCC highlights India as a vulnerable hotspot, with several regions and cities facing climate change phenomena like flooding, sea-level rise and heatwaves.
- For instance, Mumbai is at high risk of sea-level rise and flooding, and Ahmedabad faces the danger of heat waves — these phenomena are already underway in both cities.
- Vector-borne and water-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue will be on the rise in sub-tropical regions, like parts of Punjab, Assam and Rajasthan.
- When the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases, the grains we consume, including wheat and rice, will have diminished nutritional quality.
- Over the past 30 years, major crop yields have decreased by 4-10 per cent globally due to climate change.
- Consequently, India, which continues to be predominantly agrarian, is likely to be especially hurt.
- Urban India is at greater risk than other areas with a projected population of 877 million by 2050 nearly double of 480 million in 2020.
- The concentration of population in these cities will make them extremely vulnerable to climate change.
Conclusion
Fighting climate change requires fiscal expenditure and policy changes fuelled by political will, which will reap results in a decade or so. Yet, our political class has no cohesive and urgent policy roadmap to combat rising emissions and our diminishing life spans.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission)
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with draft data accessibility policy
Context
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) released the“Draft India Data Accessibility & Use Policy 2022”.
Objectives of the policy
- If passed, it would govern, “all data and information created/generated/collected/archived by the Government of India” as much as, “State Governments [who] will also be free to adopt the provisions of the policy”.
- The twin purpose to which this data will be put to will be government-to-government sharing and high value datasets for valuation and licensing.
Issues with the draft policy
1] Original objective will get dilutes in favour of commercial interests
- The immediate risk arises when a government starts licensing citizen data.
- Over the past three years, there has been a rapid expansion in the nature and scope of our most intimate details.
- While the middle classes faced the mendacity of voluntarily linking their Aadhaar to their bank accounts and mobile connections, today, the digital sweep is all pervasive.
- For agriculture, there is an Agristack; for unorganised labourers, we have the e-SHRAM portal; in health we have Aarogya Setu and ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission); and for school children and teachers there is NDEAR (National Digital Education Architecture).
- For every area of our lives, the government now has a database filled with our personal data.
- Purpose of data collection: The stated purpose for collection has been improving service delivery, planning and checking leakages.
- Public data is now being viewed as a prized asset of the Union government that should be freely shared, enriched, valued and licensed to the private sector.
- Given that more data means more money, commercial interests will prompt the government to collect granular personal details through greater capture and increased retention periods.
- Tying government policy determinations with a fiscal potential may also lead to distortion of the aims of data collection — the welfare of farmers, healthcare, unorganised labourers or even schoolchildren.
- There is no indication that consent will be sought in a meaningful form.
- Over time, the original objectives for which databases are built will get diluted in favour of commercial interests.
2] Absence of values and objectives related to transparency
- The second issue emerges from the disingenuous phrasing of “making data open by default”.
- Importance of open data: The World Bank notes that one of the first benefits of open data is that it supports “public oversight of governments and helps reduce corruption by enabling greater transparency”.
- These principles were recognised in past policy pronouncements of the government.
- Specifically, the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy, 2012 and the implementation guidelines formulated in 2017 refer to the Right to Information Act, 2005.
- However, within the present draft data accessibility policy, while the phrase “open data” has been used, its values and objectives are absent.
- The primary, overpowering objectives in the draft data accessibility policy and the background note are commercial.
3] Absence of legal basis
- The final area for reconsideration is a larger trend of policy-based administration detached from our constitutional framework.
- Compounding this problem, the present policy, as many others, is untethered to any legislative basis and contains no proposals for the creation of a legal framework.
- As per the Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy judgment on the fundamental right to privacy, the first ingredient to satisfy constitutionality is the existence of a legal, more often a legislative, basis.
- Without a law, there is absence of defined limits to data sharing that are enforceable and contain remedies.
- Inadequate provisions for privacy preservation: In this case, the promise of privacy preservation through anonymisation tools holds little promise when it cannot be independently assessed by a body for data protection.
- Even heavily sampled anonymised datasets are unlikely to satisfy the modern standards for anonymisation set forth by GDPR and seriously challenge the technical and legal adequacy of the de-identification release-and-forget model.
- This becomes vital as it is the principal measure suggested in the draft data accessibility policy.
Suggestions
- Parliamentary enactments also help bring accountability through deliberation that furthers foresight and contains financial memorandums – given that public money would be spent to enrich datasets of public data.
- Since the policy contemplates sharing data between databases of the central and state governments as well as through central funded schemes, it may also be prudent to deliberate further in the Rajya Sabha.
- Federalism becomes a relevant issue given that such data, when it is generated, processed and enriched by state governments to comply with interoperability standards, will lead to revenue generation for itself.
Consider the question “What are the benefits of open data? Why privacy and welfare activists have raised concerns with the Draft India Data Accessibility & Use Policy 2022?”
Conclusion
These are the glaring issues in this short, draft data accessibility policy, which appears to transform the Union government into a data broker.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CBI
Mains level: General consent to CBI by states and issues in CBI investigation
Meghalaya has withdrawn consent to the CBI to investigate cases in the state, becoming the ninth state in the country to have taken this step.
General Consent
- Unlike the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is governed by its own NIA Act and has jurisdiction across the country, the CBI is governed by the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act.
- This makes consent of a state government mandatory for conducting an investigation in that state.
- There are two types of consent: case-specific and general.
- Given that the CBI has jurisdiction only over central government departments and employees, it can investigate a case involving state government employees or a violent crime in a given state only after that state government gives its consent.
When is Consent needed?
- General consent is normally given to help the CBI seamlessly conduct its investigation into cases of corruption against central government employees in the concerned state.
- Almost all states have given such consent.
- Otherwise, the CBI would require consent in every case.
What does the withdrawal of consent mean?
- It means the CBI will not be able to register any fresh case involving a central government official or a private person stationed in these two states without getting case-specific consent.
- Withdrawal of consent simply means that CBI officers will lose all powers of a police officer as soon as they enter the state unless the state government has allowed them.
Under what provision has general consent been withdrawn?
- In exercise of the power conferred by Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, the government can withdraw the general consent to exercise the powers and jurisdiction.
- Section 6 of the Act says nothing contained in Section 5 shall be deemed to enable any member of the Delhi Special Police Establishment to exercise powers and jurisdiction in any area in a State, not being a Union Territory or Railway, area, without the consent of the Government of that State.
Does that mean that the CBI can no longer probe any case in the two states?
- The CBI would still have the power to investigate old cases registered when general consent existed.
- Also, cases registered anywhere else in the country, but involving people stationed in that particular state would allow CBI’s jurisdiction to extend to these states.
- There is ambiguity on whether the agency can carry out a search in either of the two states in connection with an old case without the consent of the state government.
Why such a move by the States?
- If a state government believes that the ruling party’s ministers or members could be targeted by CBI on orders of the Centre, and that withdrawal of general consent would protect them.
- This is a debatable political assumption.
- CBI could still register cases in Delhi which would require some part of the offence being connected with Delhi and still arrest and prosecute ministers or MPs.
- The only people it will protect are small central government employees.
Legal Remedies for CBI
- The CBI can always get a search warrant from a local court in the state and conduct searches.
- In case the search requires a surprise element, there is CrPC Section 166, which allows a police officer of one jurisdiction to ask an officer of another to carry out searches on his behalf.
- And if the first officer feels that the searches by the latter may lead to loss of evidence, the section allows the first officer to conduct searches himself after giving notice to the latter.
Back2Basics: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
- The Bureau of Investigation traces its origins to the Delhi Special Police Establishment, a Central Government Police force, which was set up in 1941 by the Government of India.
- It then aimed to investigate bribery and corruption in transactions with the War and Supply Department of India.
- It then had its headquarters in Lahore.
- After the end of the war, there was a continued need for a central governmental agency to investigate bribery and corruption by central-government employees.
- The DSPE acquired its popular current name, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), through a Home Ministry resolution dated in 1963.
Mandate of the CBI
- The CBI is the main investigating agency of the GoI.
- It is not a statutory body; it derives its powers from the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.
- Its important role is to prevent corruption and maintain integrity in administration.
- It works under the supervision of the CVC (Central Vigilance Commission) in matters pertaining to the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
- The CBI is also India’s official representative with the INTERPOL.
Cases to investigate
- Cases connected to infringement of economic and fiscal laws
- Crimes of a serious nature that have national and international ramifications
- Coordination with the activities of the various state police forces and anti-corruption agencies.
- It can also take up any case of public importance and investigate it
- Maintaining crime statistics and disseminating criminal information.
Issues with CBI
- Caged parrot: The Supreme Court has criticized the CBI by calling it a “caged parrot speaking in its master’s voice”.
- Political interference: It has often been used by the government of the day to cover up wrongdoing, keep coalition allies in line and political opponents at bay.
- Investigation delay: It has been accused of enormous delays in concluding investigations due to political inertia.
- Loss of Credibility: CBI has been criticised for its mismanagement of several cases involving prominent politicians and mishandling of several sensitive cases like Bofors scandal, Bhopal gas tragedy.
- Lack of Accountability: CBI is exempted from the provisions of the Right to Information Act, thus, lacking public accountability.
- Acute shortage of personnel: A major cause of the shortfall is the government’s sheer mismanagement of CBI’s workforce.
- Limited Powers: The powers and jurisdiction of members of the CBI for investigation are subject to the consent of the State Govt., thus limiting the extent of investigation by CBI.
- Restricted Access: Prior approval of Central Government to conduct inquiry or investigation on the employees of the Central Government is a big obstacle in combating corruption at higher levels of bureaucracy.
Reforming CBI
- Need for autonomy: As long as the government of the day has the power to transfer and post officials of its choice in the CBI, the investigating agency will not enjoy autonomy and will be unable to investigate cases freely.
- Selection of director/ Officers: To ensure that the CBI is a robust, independent and credible investigation agency, there is an urgent need to work out a much more transparent mechanism for selection and induction of officers on deputation.
- Lokpal scrutiny: The Lokpal Act already calls for a three-member committee made up of the PM, the leader of the opposition and the CJI to select the director.
- Bifurcation of Cadre: CBI should be bifurcated into an Anti-Corruption Body and a National Crime Bureau.
- Develop own cadre: One of the demands that have been before Supreme Court, and in line with international best practices, is for the CBI to develop its own dedicated cadre of officers.
- Annual social audit should be carried out by ten reputed, knowledgeable persons with background of law, justice, public affairs and administration and the audit report should be placed before the parliament.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: FoP Labelling
Mains level: Packaged food regulation
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will soon start labelling the front of packaged food products with Health Star Rating (HSR).
What is FoPL?
- In India, packaged food has had back-of-package (BOP) nutrient information in detail but no FoPL.
- Counter to this, FoPL can nudge people towards healthy consumption of packaged food.
- It can also influence purchasing habits.
- The study endorsed the HSR format, which speaks about the proportions of salt, sugar, and fat in food that is most suited for consumers.
- Countries such as the UK, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Hungary, and Australia have implemented FoPL systems.
What warranted such rating in India?
- Visual bluff: A lot of Indian consumers do not read the information available at the back of the packaged food item.
- Burden of NCDs: Also, India has a huge burden of non-communicable diseases that contributes to around 5.87 million (60%) of all deaths in a year.
- Healthy dietary choices: HSR will encourage people to make healthy choices and could bring a transformational change in the society.
- Supreme court order: A PIL seeking direction to the government to frame guidelines on HSR and impact assessment for food items and beverages was filed in the Supreme Court in June 2021.
Which category of food item will have HSR?
- All packaged food items or processed food will have the HSR label.
- These will include chips, biscuits, namkeen, sweets and chocolates, meat nuggets, and cookies.
- However, milk and its products such as chenna and ghee are EXEMPTED as per the FSSAI draft notified in 2019.
Will there be pushback from food industry?
- Negative warning: Some experts opposed the use of the HSR model in India, suggesting that consumers might tend to take this as an affirmation of the health benefits rather than as a negative warning of ill effects.
- Lack of awareness: This is significant because there is lack of awareness on star ratings related to consumer products in India.
- Impact on Sale: Certain organisations fear it might affect the sale of certain food products.
When will the rating come into force?
- FSSAI’s scientific panel recommends voluntary implementation of HSR format from 2023 and a transition period of four years for making it mandatory.
- FSSAI noted that the proposed thresholds are in alignment with the models implemented in other countries and ‘WHO population nutrient intake goals recommendations’.
- FSSAI will analyse the nutritional information in 100 mg of packaged food.
- The food safety compliance system licensing application portal will have a module for generating certificates wherein a licensee can enter details of a product.
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Back2Basics: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)
- The FSSAI is an autonomous body established under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India.
- It has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 which is a consolidating statute related to food safety and regulation in India.
- It is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety.
- It is headed by a non-executive Chairperson, appointed by the Central Government, either holding or has held the position of not below the rank of Secretary to the Government of India.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kavach
Mains level: Highs speed railways in India and safety parameters
Kavach, this indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection System is earmarked for aggressive rollout on 2,000 km in 2022-23, according the Budget proposals.
What is Kavach?
- It is India’s very own automatic protection system in development since 2012, under the name Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), which got rechristened to Kavach or “armour”.
- Simply put, it is a set of electronic devices and Radio Frequency Identification devices installed in locomotives, in the signalling system as well the tracks.
- They connect to each other using ultra high radio frequencies to control the brakes of trains and also alert drivers, all based on the logic programmed into them.
Key features of Kavach
- One of its features is that by continuously refreshing the movement information of a train, it is able to send out triggers when a loco pilot jumps signal, called Signal Passed at Danger (SPAD).
- The devices also continuously relay the signals ahead to the locomotive, making it useful for loco pilots in low visibility, especially during dense fog.
- It includes the key elements from already existing, and tried and tested systems like the European Train Protection and Warning System, and the indigenous Anti Collison Device.
- It will also carry features of the high-tech European Train Control System Level-2 in future.
- The current form of Kavach adheres to the highest level of safety and reliability standard called Safety Integrity Level 4.
What is the upgrade?
- In the new avatar, India wants to position Kavach as an exportable system, a cheaper alternative to the European systems in vogue across the world.
- While now Kavach uses Ultra High Frequency, work is on to make it compatible with 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology and make the product for global markets.
- Work is on to make the system such that it can be compatible with other already installed systems globally.
How far is the rollout?
- So far, Kavach has been deployed on over 1,098 km and 65 locomotives in ongoing projects of the South Central Railway.
- In future it will be implemented on 3000 km of the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors where the tracks and systems are being upgraded to host a top speed of 160 kmph.
- Further, over 34,000 km on the High Density Network (HDN) and Highly Utilized Network (HUN) of on the Golden Quadrilateral have been included in its sanctioned plans.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UNSC
Mains level: Paper 2- Global rules based order
Context
The unexpected Russian military intervention in Ukraine is merely the latest symptom of an underlying cause of decay in the international ‘rules-based’ order.
Background of the idea of international rules-based order and sovereignty
- It was the Diet of Westphalia (in the then Holy Roman Empire) in 1648 that first set out what our post-World War II global institutional framework established as the principle of ‘sovereignty’.
- Sovereignty was for a long time the singular bedrock, the very founding principle that the UN Charter sought to firmly establish, in order to make wars of aggression (as opposed to self-defense) illegal under international law, and liable to be punished by the international community via the UN Security Council and its right to use coercive force.
What is a state?
- State is a community that feels as one, accepts a set of common guiding principles and is constituted by member states who are willing to operate according to rules / norms of behaviour.
- There has always been a theoretical debate in the discipline, drawing on elements of philosophy, psychology and even economics, on whether or not we actually live in an international society of states or whether it is still merely a system of states.
- System of states: A system of states is a very complex landscape consisting of individual actors who possess coercive power to varying degrees, have zero-sum ambitions to varying degrees, adhere to global ‘rules’ to the extent that they are convenient or exigent at a moment, while being willing to covertly and overtly bend and even break those rules, when core national interests are involved.
- In the second interpretation, states are engaged in game-theoretic, rational-utilitarian cooperation, competition and even conflict, depending on the specificities of each situation.
- In a nutshell, it is a highly complicated theoretical and practical situation wherein simplistic, moralising explanations and narratives about events are typically wrong and often misleading or counterproductive.
UN and the issue of enforcement
- Forces like the internet and social media, combined with the cultural dominance of the West, portended a gradual spread of democratic values.
- The biggest challenge to this kind of perspective usually came from the ‘realist’ camp of International Relations researchers who argue that argue that in the absence of effective enforcement of rules, the notion of such rules was an empty idea.
- Enforcement was theoretically meant to happen by way of the Security Council.
- However, this plan was stillborn due to the fundamental unwillingness of the five permanent members to countenance a possibility of global action against themselves and the consequent injection of the notion of a ‘veto’ in the world’s highest security-focused body.
- This has meant that for the entirety of the UN’s existence, true Security Council intervention in an international crisis has only been possible in the rarest of rare exceptions when all five permanent members happened to agree.
Threat to rule-based order
- The foregoing analysis allows us to conclude that far from being an isolated incident that for the first time since the UN Charter was drafted has violated our rules-based order, the Russian intervention in Ukraine is a significant further erosion in the believability of anyone’s claims that such a thing actually exists.
- All states have shown their willingness to conduct foreign policy at the cost of others.
- Most states in the last few decades have provided international rules with a lot of ‘lip-service’ while using clandestine methods to achieve their aims.
Nuclear weapons as a source of stability
- The notion of ‘mutually assured destruction’ created a tension that seemed to preclude even conventional warfare between two nuclear-armed rivals.
- Most interestingly, with the separation of seven decades between Hiroshima / Nagasaki and the present, a gradual shift in the calculus of defence planners seems to have occurred.
- From the sense that a mere conventional conflict would be sufficient trigger for a power to exercise a nuclear option, planners seem to have gained a new comfort with nuclear weapons in existence.
- They no longer seem to believe they will be used short of an existential threat.
- Russia equally feels confident that merely asserting its core security interests in Ukraine will not draw a nuclear response from NATO.
- Waning American dominance combined with a retreat of global norms and a lessening nuclear deterrent to armed conflict and the rise of new power centres in Asia are a potent mix of new dynamics in our world.
Conclusion
Never since the establishment of our post-war global system has it been under such significant threat. India must take stock and with extreme vigilance approach its entire gamut of cooperative, competitive and adversarial options while navigating this wholly new world out there.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Marginal propensities to consume
Mains level: Paper 3- Impact of high crude price
Context
The Russia-Ukraine conflict will impact India’s economy through several channels. The first order impact, emanates from the negative terms of trade shock from higher commodity prices, particularly oil.
- Crude prices have surged well past a $110/barrel and there is a growing expectation that, as the conflict gets more entrenched, crude could remain elevated for much longer and average close to $100/barrel in 2022, vis-a-vis $70/barrel in 2021.
Why crude oil price is increasing?
Limited Supply:
- Major oil-producing countries had cut oil production last year amid a sharp fall in demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Saudi Arabia pledged extra supply cuts in February and March 2020 following reductions by other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies.
- In early January 2021, the OPEC and Russia (as OPEC+) agreed to cut back on oil production to increase prices.
Rising Demand:
- The production and rollout of vaccines for Covid-19 and the rising consumption post the Covid lockdowns last year have both led to a revival in international crude oil prices.
Geopolitical reasons
- Geopolitical tension has risen between Russia, which is the second largest oil producer in the world, and neighbouring Ukraine.
- In January, there were drone attacks on oil facilities in UAE, another major oil producer.
- An outage on a major oil pipeline linking Saudi Arabia and Turkey further added to the pressures.
How it will impact India?
- Current Account Deficit: The increase in oil prices will increase the country’s import bill, and further disturb its current account deficit (excess of imports of goods and services over exports).
- According to estimates, a one-dollar increase in crude oil price increases the oil bill by around USD 1.6 billion per year.
- Inflation: The increase in crude prices could also also further increase inflationary pressures that have been building up over the past few months.
- This will decrease the space for the monetary policy committee to ease policy rates further.
- The government had hiked central taxes on petrol and diesel by Rs. 13 per litre and Rs. 11 per litre in 2020 to boost revenues amid lower economic activity.
- Fiscal Health: If oil prices continue to increase, the government shall be forced to cut taxes on petroleum and diesel which may cause loss of revenue and deteriorate its fiscal balance.
- The growth slowdown in the last two years has already resulted in a precarious fiscal situation because of tax revenue shortfalls.
- The revenue lost will erode the government’s ability to spend or meet its fiscal commitments in the form of budgetary transfers to states, payment of dues and compensation for revenue shortfalls to state governments under the goods and services tax (GST) framework.
Why high growth impact on fiscal space leads to a greater hit to demand and growth?
- The growth impact will manifest through constraints on fiscal space, household purchasing power being impinged and firm margins coming under pressure.
- Why does marginal propensity to consume matter? The quantum of the growth impact will depend on how the shock is distributed across the fiscal, households and firms because of the different marginal propensities to consume.
- For example, the excise duty cuts last November have already absorbed about one-third of the shock from oil (0.4 per cent of GDP).
- The cost of this, however, is commensurate pressures on fiscal expenditures and growth, agnostically assuming a fiscal multiplier of 1.
- In contrast, the marginal propensity to consume/invest out of income/earnings is typically lower than 1 for households/firms.
- So, the greater the fraction of the shock absorbed on the fiscal, the greater the hit to demand and growth.
Way forward
1] Let the rupee reach the new equilibrium
- The widening of the CAD and associated BoP pressures will create some depreciation pressures on the rupee.
- More fundamentally, a persistent negative terms of trade shock will argue for a weaker equilibrium real effective exchange rate.
- Policymakers should let the rupee reach this new equilibrium – albeit in a gradual and non-disruptive manner – and not prevent this adjustment because it will facilitate the necessary “expenditure switching” to reduce imports, boost exports and help narrow an elevated CAD.
2] Pragmatic fiscal policies
- Cutting excise duties would buffer the impact on households and protect consumption, but potentially result in a larger hit to demand by shrinking fiscal space to spend.
- If the government doesn’t cut duties, it has resources that can potentially be used to more directly target affected households at the bottom of the pyramid.
- But this will mean higher retail prices that can harden inflationary expectations, increasing the challenges for monetary policy.
- Finally, policymakers could always cut duties, not cut spending and let the deficit widen commensurately — effectively pushing out some of the terms of trade costs to the future — but negative surprises on the fiscal during periods of heightened macro uncertainty can generate significantly risk premia in markets.
- All told, the fiscal will confront several trade-offs, and should try avoiding corner solutions.
- What should be clear is that as soon as markets begin to stabilise, authorities must plough ahead with planned asset sales/disinvestment to create more fiscal headroom, without trying to perfectly time the market.
3) Reduce the dependence
- India has proposed Oil Buyer’s club. This would be a grouping of India, China, Japan and South Korea. The objective is to reduce the dependence on OPEC, have better bargains, increase the imports of crude oil imports from USA etc
- It was put forward by Mani Shankar Ayyar in 2005
- Create a stabilization fund or reserve account – Thailand, UK etc
Conclusion
A persistent adverse supply shock is complicated and challenging to respond to, and the new equilibrium will inevitably need some combination of a weaker rupee, higher rates, and judicious fiscal management.
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Back2Basics: What is a fiscal multiplier?
- The fiscal multiplier measures the effect that increases in fiscal spending will have on a nation’s economic output, or gross domestic product (GDP).
- Fiscal multipliers are important because they can help guide a government’s policies during an economic crisis and help set the stage for economic recovery.
What is Marginal Propensity to Consume?
- In economics, the marginal propensity to consume (MPC) is defined as the proportion of an aggregate raise in pay that a consumer spends on the consumption of goods and services, as opposed to saving it.
- Marginal propensity to consume is a component of Keynesian macroeconomic theory and is calculated as the change in consumption divided by the change in income.
- MPC varies by income level. MPC is typically lower at higher incomes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NATO
Mains level: Read the attached story
Amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has been rapidly deploying troops to member countries but has clarified that it has no plans of sending them to Ukraine.
What is NATO?
- NATO is a military alliance established by the North Atlantic Treaty (also called the Washington Treaty) of April 4, 1949.
- It sought to create a counterweight to Soviet armies stationed in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.
- Its original members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- NATO has spread a web of partners, namely Egypt, Israel, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Finland.
Why was it founded?
Ans. Communist sweep in Europe post-WWII and rise of Soviet dominance
- After World War II in 1945, Western Europe was economically exhausted and militarily weak, and newly powerful communist parties had arisen in France and Italy.
- By contrast, the Soviet Union had emerged from the war with its armies dominating all the states of central and Eastern Europe.
- By 1948 communists under Moscow’s sponsorship had consolidated their control of the governments of those countries and suppressed all non-communist political activity.
- What became known as the Iron Curtain, a term popularized by Winston Churchill, had descended over central and Eastern Europe.
Ideology of NATO
- NATO ensures that the security of its European member countries is inseparably linked to that of its North American member countries.
- It commits the Allies to democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law, as well as to the peaceful resolution of disputes.
- It also provides a unique forum for dialogue and cooperation across the Atlantic.
What is Article 5 and why is it needed?
- Article 5 was a key part of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty, or Washington Treaty, and was meant to offer a collective defence against a potential invasion of Western Europe.
- It states: (NATO members) will assist the party or parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
- However, since then, it has only been invoked once, soon after the 9/11 attack in the United States.
Why has Article 5 not been invoked this time?
- The reason is simple: Ukraine is a partner of the Western defence alliance but not a NATO member.
- As a result, Article 5, or the Collective Defense Pledge, does not apply.
- While NATO has said it will not be sending troops to Ukraine, it did invoke Article 4, which calls for a consultation of the alliance’s principal decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council.
- In its history, it has only been activated half a dozen times.
- But the fact that this time around eight member nations chose to invoke it was enough to demonstrate the seriousness of the situation at a global level.
What may prompt NATO to invoke Article 5?
- NATO will invoke Article 5 only if Russia launches a full-blown attack on one of its allies.
- Some top US officials have warned of the impact of some of Russia’s cyberattacks being felt in NATO countries.
- When you launch cyberattacks, they don’t recognize geographic boundaries.
- Some of that cyberattack could actually start shutting down systems in eastern Poland.
But what is NATO’s problem with Russia?
- Russia has long been opposed to Ukraine’s growing closeness with European institutions, particularly NATO.
- The former Soviet republic shares borders with Russia on one side, and the European Union on the other.
- After Moscow launched its attack, the US and its allies were quick to respond, imposing sanctions on Russia’s central bank and sovereign wealth funds.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Neutral foreign policy
Mains level: Switzerland’s Neutrality Policy
Switzerland broke its 200-year long neutrality policy to sanction Moscow and its leaders.
What is the news?
- Switzerland announced that it would join the European Union (EU) in closing the Swiss airspace to Russian aeroplanes.
- It also wished for imposing financial sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders.
Switzerland’s Policy of Permanent Neutrality
- The tiny Alpine nation the size of Haryana has had a neutrality policy in place since 1815.
- Its official website attests to this, noting that “permanent neutrality is a principle of Swiss foreign policy.”
- Though it serves as the headquarters of several diplomatic missions and as the venue for historic treaties like the Geneva Convention, Switzerland is not a part of the European Union or NATO.
- Historically, the Swiss had been famed warriors with expansionist ambitions until the 1500s when they lost the Battle of Marignano to the French.
- The years that followed saw the Swiss shift its foreign policy to that of being an armed impartial state during wartime, a stance which was sorely tested in the decades that followed.
The World Wars and Switzerland
- Switzerland shares borders with Germany, France and Italy.
- During WW II, Switzerland found itself surrounded by Axis forces, with Hitler describing the land-locked territory as “a pimple on the face of Europe”.
- It used a combination of military deterrence, strategic planning and economic neutrality to hold its own in 1940s Europe.
- Besides this, the Swiss pursued a policy of armed neutrality, putting into place compulsory military service (which continues till date) to maintain military readiness in event of an invasion.
Recent deviations
- Switzerland joined the United Nations as recently as 2002, putting an end to years to debate after 54 per cent of its population voting in favour of the move.
- The Swiss federal government had said that it had weighed its neutrality and peace policy considerations into account to reach its decision.
- The Swiss government has initially adopted a traditional and very narrow interpretation of neutrality, which translated to a decision to not issue any sanctions.
- However, the Swiss parliament and citizens strongly pushed back, arguing that Russia’s massive military aggression cannot be tolerated.
- This prompted the government to reconsider its position.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Definition of War Crimes
Mains level: War crimes and genocides
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague announced that it would open an investigation into possible war crimes or crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
What are War Crime?
- War crimes are defined as serious violations of humanitarian laws during a conflict.
- There are specific international standards for war crimes, which are not to be confused with crimes against humanity.
- The definition is established by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
- It is derived from the 1949 Geneva Conventions and is based on the idea that individuals can be held liable for the actions of a state or its military.
- There is a long list of acts that can be considered war crimes.
- The taking of hostages, willful killings, torture or inhuman treatment of prisoners of war, and forcing children to fight are some of the more obvious examples.
How to identify war crimes?
To decide whether an individual or a military has committed a war crime, international humanitarian law lays down three principles:
- Distinction: This principle says that you have to be constantly trying to distinguish between civilian and belligerent populations and objects.
- Proportionality: It prohibits armies from responding to an attack with excessive violence. If a soldier is killed, for example, you cannot bomb an entire city in retaliation.
- Precaution: It requires parties to a conflict to avoid or minimize the harm done to the civilian population. For example, attacking a barrack where there are people who have said they no longer participate in the conflict can be a war crime.
Do war crimes constitute to genocides?
- The UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect separates war crimes from genocide and crimes against humanity.
- War crimes are defined as occurring in a domestic conflict or a war between two states.
- However, genocide and crimes against humanity can happen in peacetime or during the unilateral aggression of a military towards a group of unarmed people.
Discrepancy in defining war crimes
- In practice, there is a lot of gray area within that list.
- The laws of war do not always protect civilians from death. Not every civilian death is necessarily illegal.
- Raids on a cities or villages, bombing residential buildings or schools, and even the killing of groups of civilians do not necessarily amount to war crimes — not if their military necessity is justified.
- The same act can become a war crime if it results in unnecessary destruction, suffering and casualties that exceed the military gain from the attack.
- Also civilian and military populations have become increasingly hard to distinguish
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: AIIB
Mains level: Not Much
The Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) said it was putting on hold and reviewing all projects in Russia and Belarus.
About AIIB
- The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia, began operations in January 2016.
- It aims to stimulate growth and improve access to basic services by furthering interconnectivity and economic development in the region through advancements in infrastructure.
- AIIB has now grown to 102 approved members worldwide. US & Japan are not its members.
- It is a brainchild of China. It has invested in 13 member regions.
Capital and shareholding of AIIB
- It has authorized capital of US 100 billion dollars and subscribed capital of USD 50 billion.
- It offers sovereign and non-sovereign finance for projects in various sectors with an interest rate of London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) plus 1.15 % and a repayment period of 25 years with 5 years in grace period.
- China is the largest shareholder in AIIB with a 26.06% voting power, followed by India with 7.62% and Russia with 5.92% voting power.
Try this question from CSP 2019
Q.With reference to Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), consider the following statements
- AIIB has more than 80 member nations.
- India is the largest shareholder in AIIB.
- AIIB does not have any members from outside Asia.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 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: Theyyam ritual dance
Mains level: NA
Ritual dance Agni Kandakarnan Theyyam performing at the Kaliyattam festival has begun in Kannur, Kerala.
What is Theyyam?
- Theyyam is a popular thousand-year-old ritual form of dance worship in Kerala and Karnataka, India.
- The people of these districts consider Theyyam itself as a channel to a god and they thus seek blessings from Theyyam.
- There are about 456 types of Theyyam.
- Theyyam is performed by males, except the Devakoothu theyyam; the Devakoothu is the only Theyyam ritual performed by women.
- It is performed only in the Thekkumbad Kulom temple.
Major types of performances
- Vishnumoorthi: It is the most popular Vaishnava Theyyam. This theyyam narrates and performs the story of Hiranyakashipu’s death by the Lord Vishnu in his avatar of Narasimham.
- Sree Muthappan Theyyam: It consists of two divine figures is considered as the personification of two divine figures— the Thiruvappana or Valiya Muttapan (Vishnu) and the Vellatom or Cheriya Muttapan (Shiva).
- Padikutti Amma: It is believed to be the mother of Muthapan. The Padikutti Amma Theyyam is performed in the Palaprath Temple in Kodallur near Parassini Kadavu in the Meenam (a Malayalam month)
Thee
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 39A
Mains level: Paper 2- Debate on death penalty
Context
Last week, a little over 13 years after the blasts in 2008 (in July) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, the designated court to conduct a speedy trial decided the fate of 78 of the accused people. Within a week, the court sentenced 38 of 49 people to death.
The debate on the death sentence
- The death sentence grants the state the monopoly of violence.
- This monopoly is justified by claiming that such a step prevents crime or that it is a measure of long-due justice.
- Use in ‘rarest of rare’ case: Fundamentally, ‘rarest of rare’ is a standard that allows a court of law to use public sentiment as a judicially reliable standard in handing out the death sentence.
- Proportionality test: India’s carceral criminal jurisprudence requires a court to calculate proportionality between crime and punishment.
- But a death sentence is a sentence that goes beyond the confines of these calculations to deprive a person of their life — committing an act whose central value itself is immeasurable.
- The impossibility of reform, the heinous nature of the crime, the shock to the public conscience, none of these things sufficiently justify the right of a fallible institution to take someone’s life.
Mitigating arguments
- After the verdict is delivered in any criminal trial, lawyers make what are called ‘mitigating arguments’ — essentially to contextualise the convict as an individual and not as the accused.
- Unlike other trial stages where a court adjudicates between competing legal identities of an accused, the complainant, etc., in mitigation, the court hears evidence of a person’s humanity.
- Hearing mitigating circumstances requires — however temporarily — for the trappings of distance and formality to be stripped away so that a court may see a person instead of a convict.
The issue in the above case
- In this case, first, the court orally convicted ‘en masse’ several of the accused instead of declaring the charges proved against them separately.
- The prosecution argued that the defendants should argue for mitigation before it would even disclose which convicts it intended to seek the death sentence.
- The role attributed to each of the accused was different.
- By equating them for mitigation purposes (individual circumstances were unaccounted for and context and circumstances were considered to be the same) and handing down a mass death sentence, the court has only opened the door for greater misuse of a questionable power to end a life without any oversight.
Conclusion
A permanent sentence requires us to assume that our institutions are infallible and user-proof. To cast this as a simple ‘penalty’ ignores what it truly does — and did in this case; it negates the individual for the final time.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Action Plan for AMR
Mains level: Paper 2- Dealing with the challenge of anti-microbial resistance
Context
Ever since the pandemic struck, concerns have been raised about the improper use of antimicrobials amongst Covid-19 patients.
Concern over anti-microbial resistance
- The “Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 204 countries and territories in 2019 (GRAM)” report, released last month, 4.95 million people died from drug-resistant bacterial infections in 2019, with 3,89,000 deaths in South Asia alone.
- AMR directly caused at least 1.27 million of those deaths.
- Lower respiratory infections accounted for more than 1.5 million deaths associated with resistance in 2019, making it the most burdensome infectious syndrome.
- Amongst pathogens, E coli was responsible for the most deaths in 2019, followed by K pneumoniae, S aureus, A baumannii, S pneumoniae, and M tuberculosis.
Concern for India
- As per the yearly trends reported by the Indian Council of Medical Research since 2015, India reports a high level of resistance in all these pathogens, especially E coli and K pneumoniae.
- Only a fraction of the Indian data, available through the WHO-GLASS portal, has been included in the GRAM report.
- India has been reporting high levels of resistance to fluoroquinolones, cephalosporins and carbapenems across the Gram-negative pathogens that cause almost 70 per cent of infections in communities and hospitals.
- Therefore, the Indian data on the AMR burden may not look very different from the estimates published in the report.
- Now that we know that AMR’s burden surpasses that of TB and HIV, a sense of urgency in containing such resistance is called for.
- With no new drugs in the pipeline for drug-resistant infections, time is running out for patients.
Addressing AMR through a multipronged and multisectoral approach
- Use existing antimicrobials judiciously: The urgency to develop new drugs should not discourage us from instituting measures to use the existing antimicrobials judiciously.
- Improved infection control in communities and hospitals, availability and utilisation of quality diagnostics and laboratories and educating people about antimicrobials have proved effective in reducing antimicrobial pressure — a precursor to resistance.
- The National Action Plan for AMR, approved in 2017, completes its official duration this year. The progress under the plan has been far from satisfactory.
- There is enough evidence that interventions like infection control, improved diagnosis and antimicrobial stewardship are effective in the containment of AMR.
Conclusion
The GRAM report has underlined that postponing action could prove costly.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pandemic Treaty
Mains level: Pandemic management at global level
Members of the World Health Organisation (WHO) held the first round of negotiations towards the pandemic treaty on February 24, 2022.
What is the Pandemic Treaty?
- In December 2021, the World Health Assembly agreed to start a global process to draft the pandemic treaty.
- The need for an updated set of rules was felt after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the shortcomings of global health systems.
- The Health Assembly adopted a decision titled “The World Together” at its second special session since it was founded in 1948.
- Under the decision, the health organization established an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) to draft and negotiate the contents of the pandemic treaty in compliance with Article 19 of the WHO Constitution.
What is it likely to entail?
- The pandemic treaty is expected to cover aspects like data sharing and genome sequencing of emerging viruses and equitable distribution of vaccines and drugs and related research.
- Solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic have seen an inequitable distribution of vaccines so far, with poorer countries at the mercy of others to receive preventive medication.
Why need such treaty?
- Most countries have followed the “me-first” approach which is not an effective way to deal with a global pandemic.
- A widely-accepted theory points that the novel coronavirus may have jumped from animals to humans in a wildlife market of China.
- Many nations want a ban on wildlife markets.
Issues in negotiations
- While the EU wants the treaty to be legally binding, the U.S., Brazil and India have expressed reservations about the same.
- The legal nature of the treaty is yet to be defined.
What is Article 19 of the WHO Constitution?
- Article 19 of the WHO Constitution gives the World Health Assembly the authority to adopt conventions or agreements on matters of health.
- A two-third majority is needed to adopt such conventions or agreements.
- The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was set up under Article 19 and it came into force in 2005.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: New Rules for Deputation of DIGs
Mains level: Appointment of civil servants
After its proposal to amend the All India Service Rules that would allow it to call any IAS, IPS or IFoS officer on central deputation with or without the state’s consent, the Centre has issued another order on central deputation of Deputy Inspector General-level IPS officers.
What is the order?
- The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has said that IPS officers coming to the Centre at DIG level would no longer be required to be empanelled at that level with the Union Government.
- According to existing rules, a DIG-ranked IPS officer with a minimum experience of 14 years could only be deputed to the Centre if the Police Establishment Board empanelled them as DIGs at the Centre.
- The board chooses the panel on the basis of officers’ career and vigilance records.
- Only Superintendent of Police-level officers do not require empanelment at the Centre.
- The new order makes the entire pool of DIG-level officers in a state eligible for central deputation.
Why has it been issued?
Ans. Huge Vacancies
- The move is aimed at increasing the pool of DIG-level IPS officers for central deputation in the backdrop of massive vacancies in central police organisations (CPOs) and the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs).
- Out of 252 posts reserved for IPS officers at DIG level at the Centre, 118 (almost half) are vacant.
- IPS officers have a quota of 40% in CPOs and CAPFs.
How will the move help?
- The idea is to ease up the process of central deputation as verification of records takes a long time.
- Also, it increases the size of the pool of officers available to the Centre.
So why would states have a problem?
Ans. Relieving the Officers
- States would have to be willing to relieve these officers.
- The new order may be seen by many states as the Centre’s attempt at pushing the envelope further on increasing its powers over officers serving in the states.
- With these orders, the Centre would have powers to demand, within a stipulated time frame, a certain quota of officers from the state for central deputation.
- It may also call any IAS officer on central deputation in “public interest”.
- In case the state failed to relieve the officer, he/she would be deemed relieved following the date fixed.
Why don’t states relieve officers?
Ans. Vacancy in states
- There is a serious paucity of officers in the states too.
- In a cost-cutting move during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime, the size of IPS batches among other government staff was reduced even though sizeable vacancies existed even then.
- From 80-90 officers each, IPS batches were cut to 35-40 officers (in 1999-2002, the average was 36).
- The average attrition rate of IPS officers due to superannuation is 85 per year.
- The strength of IAS officers too had been impacted due to low intake during the 1990s.
How has this impacted the services?
- The anomaly in IPS recruitment adversely affected cadre management over the years.
- At some levels, there are fewer officers than sanctioned posts, while at others there is a glut. For example, UP has a shortage of DIGs and IGs, but too many officers at the level of ADGs.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Suez Canal
Mains level: NA
Cash-strapped Egypt increased transit fees for ships passing through the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most crucial waterways, with hikes of up to 10%.
Suez Canal
- The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez; and dividing Africa and Asia.
- Constructed by the Suez Canal Company between 1859 and 1869, it officially opened on 17 November 1869.
- The canal was earlier controlled by British and French interests in its initial years but was nationalized in 1956 by Egypt’s then leader Gamal Abdel Nasser.
- It extends from the northern terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez.
- Its length is 193.30 km including its northern and southern access channels.
Its significance
- The Suez Canal provides a crucial link for oil, natural gas and cargo being shipping from East to West.
- About 10% of global trade, including 7% of the world’s oil, flows through the Suez Canal.
- It provides a major shortcut for ships moving between Europe and Asia, who before its construction had to sail around Africa to complete the same journey.
- As per a report, the canal is a major source of income for Egypt’s economy, with the African country earning $5.61 billion in revenues from it last year.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Between India and East Asia, the navigation time and distance can be greatly reduced by which of the following?
- Deepening the Malacca straits between Malaysia and Indonesia.
- Opening a new canal across the Kra isthmus between the Gulf of Siam and Andaman sea.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Post your answers here.
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