Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Implications of Pakistan's internal crisis
Context
As Pakistan goes through a major political convulsion, India must resist the temptation to see the changes across our western frontiers through the narrow prism of bilateral relations.
Why Pakistan matters
- Pakistan is an important regional piece in the power play between the US, China and Russia.
- Given its location at the crossroads of the Subcontinent, Middle East, Eurasia, and China, Pakistan has always been a vital piece of real estate that was actively sought by contending geopolitical blocs.
- The internal and external have always been tightly linked in Pakistan.
- Today, Pakistan’s internal battles are tied to external geopolitical rivalry.
Two important factors in the political trajectory of Pakistan
- Any Indian strategy in dealing with the new government in Islamabad would depend on an assessment of Pakistan’s post-Imran political trajectory.
- Two important factors stand out.
- 1] First is the changing nature of civil military relations in Pakistan.
- It is part of a serious intra-elite struggle that transcends the well-known military dominance over Pakistan’s polity.
- One of the more interesting questions to come out of the current episode is whether the army’s famed internal coherence and unity of command might endure the crisis.
- 2] Second is the growing fragility of Pakistan’s polity triggered by the deepening economic crisis and sharpening social contradictions.
- There is no guarantee that the army’s ties with new civilian rulers will be smooth nor can we assume that the civilian coalition against Imran Khan will survive the many challenges ahead as it confronts difficult policy challenges on multiple fronts.
Geopolitical challenges of Pakistan
- Engaging India is unlikely to be a high priority for the new government in Islamabad.
- Today, Pakistan has many other things to worry about — reviving its flagging economic fortunes, stabilising the Durand Line with Afghanistan, and rebalancing its ties with the major actors in the Middle East, including Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
- Pakistan, which traditionally enjoyed good relations with the West as well as China, is finding it hard to maintain a balance in its great power relations.
- While the army and the new government are eager to restore ties with the US, Imran Khan has made it hard for them.
- Imran Khan’s repeated praise for India’s independent foreign policy was in essence a critique of the Pakistan army that has long steered Islamabad’s international relations.
Way forward
- Delhi should focus on the potential shifts in Pakistan’s strategic orientation triggered by the current crisis.
- The good news from Pakistan is that India is not part of the argument between the political classes or between Imran Khan and the “deep state” represented by the army.
Conclusion
An India that gets an accurate sense of Pakistan’s changing geopolitics will be able to better deal with Islamabad.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Liquidity Adjustment Framework
Mains level: Paper 3- Standing Deposit Facility
Context
The first bi-monthly meeting of the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) for the current financial year reaffirmed its focus on inflation management.
Towards the normalisation of monetary policy
- The MPC voted to keep the policy rate unchanged at 4 per cent and retained its accommodative stance.
- However, the wording was changed to “remain accommodative while focusing on withdrawal of accommodation to ensure that inflation remains within the target going forward, while supporting growth.”
- This statement sets the stage for a shift to a neutral stance in the next meeting and policy rate hikes in subsequent meetings.
- RBI has announced the withdrawal of some of the steps taken during the pandemic to support the economy.
- These will foster the normalisation of monetary policy.
Inflation challenge
- The central bank has acknowledged that the disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine crisis have upended their growth and inflation outlook.
- It has steeply revised its inflation projection from 4.5 per cent earlier to 5.7 per cent now for the current financial year.
- The projection is based on an average global crude oil price of $100 per barrel.
- The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) Food Price Index, a gauge of global food prices, posted a record growth of 12.6 per cent from February.
Formalisation of Liquidity Adjustment Framework (LAF)
- The RBI has been managing liquidity infused into the system during the pandemic through the Variable Rate Reverse Repo Auctions (VRRR) to withdraw liquidity and Variable Rate Repo auctions to inject liquidity.
- RBI has now formalised the Liquidity Adjustment Framework (LAF).
- The LAF is a framework to absorb and inject liquidity into the banking system.
- The LAF is now a symmetric corridor with a width of 50 basis points.
- The policy repo rate is at the centre of the corridor, with the MSF 25 basis points above the policy rate and the SDF 25 basis points below the policy rate.
What is a Standing Deposit Facility
- The RBI has introduced the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) as the lower bound of the LAF corridor to absorb liquidity.
- The idea of the SDF was first mooted by the Urjit Patel Committee report on the monetary policy framework.
- The RBI Act was amended through the Finance Act of 2018 to allow RBI to use this instrument.
- The SDF will be a facility available to banks to park their funds.
- The SDF will serve as the standing liquidity absorption facility at the lower end of the LAF corridor.
- At the upper end of the corridor is the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) to inject liquidity.
- Through the SDF, the RBI can absorb liquidity without placing government securities as collateral, hence it will give greater flexibility to the central bank.
- The change also marks a shift away from reverse repo being the effective policy rate.
Key takeaways
- While on the face of it, there are no rate hikes, the shift from the reverse repo rate to the SDF signals a tightening of monetary policy.
- There is a 40 basis points increase in the floor rate.
- In the medium run, the call money rate would move towards the new LAF corridor, thus bringing orderly conditions in the money market.
- As RBI begins to normalise liquidity in a calibrated manner, its ability to manage bond yields will likely be limited.
- Yields on bonds are likely to inch up and remain above the 7 per cent mark.
- Going forward, the trade-off between managing inflation and the borrowing programme of the government will become challenging.
Conclusion
For now the RBI has rightly decided to place top priority on inflation management. This will help in maintaining the credibility of the inflation targeting framework.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CARA
Mains level: Child Adoption
The Supreme Court has decided to examine a plea to simplify the legal process for the adoption of children in the country.
Why in news?
- The petition filed said that there were only 4,000 child adoptions annually though there were 3 crore orphan children in the country.
- The Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance (CARING) System ought to appoint trained “adoption preparers” who could help the prospective parents to complete the cumbersome paperwork required for adoption.
What is Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA)?
- CARA is an autonomous and statutory body of Ministry of Women and Child Development set up in 2015.
- It functions as the nodal body for the adoption of Indian children and is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions.
- It is designated as the Central Authority to deal with inter-country adoptions in accordance with the provisions of the 1993 Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, ratified by India in 2003.
Why was CARA established?
- Some people are offering infants for instant adoption by stating how the children have lost their parents to pandemic.
- However, such adoptions are illegal.
- The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) law was enacted in 2015.
- The Juvenile Justice Act is a secular law, all persons are free to adopt children under this law.
- The Juvenile Justice Rules of 2016 and the Adoption Regulations of 2017 followed to create the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).
Adoption Process
- The eligibility of prospective adoptive parents living in India, duly registered on the Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS), irrespective of marital status and religion, is Procedure for adoption adjudged by specialised adoption agencies preparing home study reports.
- The specialized adoption agency then secures court orders approving the adoption.
- All non-resident persons approach authorized adoption agencies in their foreign country of residence for registration under CARINGS.
- Their eligibility is adjudged by authorised foreign adoption agencies through home study reports.
- CARA then issues a pre-adoption ‘no objection’ certificate for foster care, followed by a court adoption order.
- A final ‘no objection’ certificate from CARA or a conformity certificate under the adoption convention is mandatory for a passport and visa to leave India.
Harmonization created by CARA
- India has multiple adoption laws.
- Traditionally, the 1956 Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA), adoption, subject to the requirements and rigors of the Act, is available in India to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs, and others subject to Hindu family law or custom.
- For others, the 1890 Guardians and Wards Act applies, but which provides only guardianship, not adoption, for those not subject to Hindu family law or custom.
- CARA primarily deals with the adoption of “orphaned, abandoned and surrendered” children through recognised adoption agencies.
- In 2018, CARA has allowed individuals in a live-in relationship to adopt children from and within India.
Preference Controversy
- As required by the 1993 Hague Convention, Article 4(b), children residing in India are always offered to Indian families before any foreigner.
- However, after taking office in 2014, PM Modi changed the law to put Non-Resident Indian (NRI) citizens and couples on par with Indians residing in India.
- From this point on, all adoptable children are offered to Indian families in order of seniority instead of distinguishing between resident and non-resident Indians.
Way forward
- CARA must conduct an outreach programme on social media, newspapers and TV, warning everyone not to entertain any illegal adoption offers under any circumstances whatsoever.
- The National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights must step up their roles as vigilantes.
- Social activists, NGOs and enlightened individuals must report all the incidents that come to their notice.
- Respective State Legal Services Authorities have the infrastructure and machinery to stamp out such unlawful practices brought to their attention.
- The media must publicise and shame all those involved in this disreputable occupation.
- At the same time, the police authorities need to be extra vigilant in apprehending criminals.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WMD Bill
Mains level: WMD terrorism
Recently the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Amendment Bill, 2022 was passed in the Lok Sabha.
What is the WMD Bill?
- The Bill amends the WMD and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Act, 2005 which prohibits the unlawful manufacture, transport, or transfer of WMD (chemical, biological and nuclear weapons) and their means of delivery.
- It is popularly referred to as the WMD Act.
- The recent amendment extends the scope of banned activities to include financing of already prohibited activities.
- The WMD and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Act came into being in July 2005.
What was the purpose of the original WMD Act?
- Its primary objective was to provide an integrated and overarching legislation on prohibiting unlawful activities in relation to all three types of WMD, their delivery systems and related materials, equipment and technologies.
- It instituted penalties for contravention of these provisions such as imprisonment for a term not less than five years (extendable for life) as well as fines.
- The Act was passed to meet an international obligation enforced by the UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1540 of 2004.
What is the UNSCR 1540?
- In April 2004 the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1540 to address the growing threat of non-state actors gaining access to WMD material, equipment or technology to undertake acts of terrorism.
- In order to address this challenge to international peace and security, UNSCR 1540 established binding obligations on all UN member states under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
- Nations were mandated to take and enforce effective measures against proliferation of WMD, their means of delivery and related materials to non-state actors.
- It was to punish the unlawful and unauthorised manufacture, acquisition, possession, development and transport of WMD became necessary.
UNSCR 1540 enforced three primary obligations upon nation states —
- To not provide any form of support to non-state actors seeking to acquire WMD, related materials, or their means of delivery;
- To adopt and enforce laws criminalising the possession and acquisition of such items by non-state actors;
- To adopt and enforce domestic controls over relevant materials, in order to prevent their proliferation.
What has the Amendment added to the existing Act?
- The Amendment expands the scope to include prohibition of financing of any activity related to WMD and their delivery systems.
- To prevent such financing, the Central government shall have the power to freeze, seize or attach funds, financial assets, or economic resources of suspected individuals (whether owned, held, or controlled directly or indirectly).
- It also prohibits persons from making finances or related services available for other persons indulging in such activity.
Why was this Amendment necessary?
- India echoes these developments for having made the Amendment necessary.
- Two specific gaps are being addressed-
- As the relevant organisations at the international level, such as the Financial Action Task Force have expanded the scope of targeted financial sanctions and India’s own legislation has been harmonised to align with international benchmarks.
- With advancements in technologies, new kinds of threats have emerged that were not sufficiently catered for in the existing legislation.
- These notably include developments in the field of drones or unauthorised work in biomedical labs that could maliciously be used for terrorist activity.
- Therefore, the Amendment keeps pace with evolving threats.
What more should India do?
- India’s responsible behaviour and actions on non-proliferation are well recognised.
- It has a strong statutory national export control system and is committed to preventing proliferation of WMD.
- This includes transit and trans-shipment controls, retransfer control, technology transfer controls, brokering controls and end-use based controls.
- Every time India takes additional steps to fulfil new obligations, it must showcase its legislative, regulatory and enforcement frameworks to the international community.
- It is also necessary that India keeps WMD security in international focus.
Setting up a precedence
- There is no room for complacency.
- Even countries which do not have WMD technology have to be sensitised to their role in the control framework to prevent weak links in the global control system.
- India can offer help to other countries on developing national legislation, institutions and regulatory framework through the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) or on bilateral basis.
Could the Amendment become troublesome to people on account of mistaken identity?
- In the discussion on the Bill in Parliament, some members expressed concern on whether the new legislation could make existing business entities or people in the specific sector susceptible to a case of mistaken identity.
- The External Affairs Minister, however, assured the House that such chances were minimal since identification of concerned individuals/entities would be based on a long list of specifics.
What is the international significance of these legislation?
- Preventing acts of terrorism that involve WMD or their delivery systems requires building a network of national and international measures in which all nation states are equally invested.
- Such actions are necessary to strengthen global enforcement of standards relating to the export of sensitive items and to prohibit even the financing of such activities.
Way forward
- Sharing of best practices on legislations and their implementation can enable harmonization of global WMD controls.
- India initially had reservations on enacting laws mandated by the UNSCR.
- This is not seen by India as an appropriate body for making such a demand.
- However, given the danger of WMD terrorism that India faces in view of the difficult neighbourhood that it inhabits, the country supported the Resolution and has fulfilled its requirements.
Conclusion
- It is in India’s interest to facilitate highest controls at the international level and adopt them at the domestic level.
- Having now updated its own legislation, India can demand the same of others, especially from those in its neighbourhood that have a history of proliferation and of supporting terrorist organisations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Collegium system, NJAC
Mains level: Collegium system
The impression that “judges appoint judges” in India is wrong. It is the government which “finally appoints the judges in the name of the President of India, the head of our state”, Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana said in conversation with US Supreme Court judge.
What did the CJI say??
- There is an impression that in India judges appoint judges. It is a wrong impression.
- The appointment is done through a lengthy consultative process known as collegium system. Many stakeholders are consulted.
What is Collegium System?
- The Collegium of judges is the Indian Supreme Court’s invention.
- It does not figure in the Constitution, which says judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are appointed by the President and speaks of a process of consultation.
- In effect, it is a system under which judges are appointed by an institution comprising judges.
- After some judges were superseded in the appointment of the CJI in the 1970s, and attempts made subsequently to effect a mass transfer of High Court judges across the country.
- Hence there was a perception that the independence of the judiciary was under threat. This resulted in a series of cases over the years.
Evolution: The Judges Cases
- First Judges Case (1981) ruled that the “consultation” with the CJI in the matter of appointments must be full and effective.
- However, it rejected the idea that the CJI’s opinion, albeit carrying great weight, should have primacy.
- Second Judges Case (1993) introduced the Collegium system, holding that “consultation” really meant “concurrence”.
- It added that it was not the CJI’s individual opinion, but an institutional opinion formed in consultation with the two senior-most judges in the Supreme Court.
- Third Judges Case (1998): On a Presidential Reference for its opinion, the Supreme Court, in the Third Judges Case (1998) expanded the Collegium to a five-member body, comprising the CJI and four of his senior-most colleagues.
The procedure followed by the Collegium
Appointment of CJI
- The President of India appoints the CJI and the other SC judges.
- As far as the CJI is concerned, the outgoing CJI recommends his successor.
- In practice, it has been strictly by seniority ever since the supersession controversy of the 1970s.
- The Union Law Minister forwards the recommendation to the PM who, in turn, advises the President.
Other SC Judges
- For other judges of the top court, the proposal is initiated by the CJI.
- The CJI consults the rest of the Collegium members, as well as the senior-most judge of the court hailing from the High Court to which the recommended person belongs.
- The consultees must record their opinions in writing and it should form part of the file.
- The Collegium sends the recommendation to the Law Minister, who forwards it to the Prime Minister to advise the President.
For High Courts
- The CJs of High Courts are appointed as per the policy of having Chief Justices from outside the respective States. The Collegium takes the call on the elevation.
- High Court judges are recommended by a Collegium comprising the CJI and two senior-most judges.
- The proposal, however, is initiated by the Chief Justice of the High Court concerned in consultation with two senior-most colleagues.
- The recommendation is sent to the Chief Minister, who advises the Governor to send the proposal to the Union Law Minister.
Does the Collegium recommend transfers too?
- Yes, the Collegium also recommends the transfer of Chief Justices and other judges.
- Article 222 of the Constitution provides for the transfer of a judge from one High Court to another.
- When a CJ is transferred, a replacement must also be simultaneously found for the High Court concerned. There can be an acting CJ in a High Court for not more than a month.
- In matters of transfers, the opinion of the CJI “is determinative”, and the consent of the judge concerned is not required.
- However, the CJI should take into account the views of the CJ of the High Court concerned and the views of one or more SC judges who are in a position to do so.
- All transfers must be made in the public interest, that is, “for the betterment of the administration of justice”.
Loopholes in the Collegium system
- Lack of Transparency: Opaqueness and a lack of transparency, and the scope for nepotism are cited often.
- Judges appointing Judge: The attempt made to replace it with a ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission’ was struck down by the court in 2015 on the ground that it posed a threat to the independence of the judiciary.
- Criteria: Some do not believe in full disclosure of reasons for transfers, as it may make lawyers in the destination court chary of the transferred judge.
Way ahead
- In respect of appointments, there has been an acknowledgment that the “zone of consideration” must be expanded to avoid criticism that many appointees hail from families of retired judges.
- The status of a proposed new memorandum of procedure, to infuse greater accountability, is also unclear.
- Even the majority opinions admitted the need for transparency, now Collegiums’ resolutions are now posted online, but reasons are not given.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Scheduled languages
Mains level: Hindi imposition row
Last week, Home Minister Amit Shah suggested that states should communicate with each other in Hindi rather than English, while stressing that Hindi should not be an alternative to local languages.
This again sparked the debate of “Hindi imposition”.
How widely is Hindi spoken in India?
- The 2011 linguistic census accounts for 121 mother tongues, including 22 languages listed in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.
- Hindi is the most widely spoken, with 52.8 crore individuals, or 43.6% of the population, declaring it as their mother tongue.
- The next highest is Bengali, mother tongue for 97 lakh (8%) — less than one-fifth of Hindi’s count (Chart 2).
- In terms of the number of people who know Hindi, the count crosses more than half the country.
- Nearly 13.9 crore (over 11%) reported Hindi as their second language, which makes it either the mother tongue or second language for nearly 55% of the population.
Has it always been this widespread?
- Hindi has been India’s predominant mother tongue over the decades, its share in the population rising in every succeeding census.
- In 1971, 37% Indians had reported Hindi as their mother tongue, a share that has grown over the next four censuses to 38.7%, 39.2%, 41% and 43.6% at last count (Chart 1).
- This begs the question as to which mother tongues have declined as Hindi’s share has risen.
- A number of mother tongues other than Hindi have faced a decline in terms of share, although the dip has been marginal in many cases.
- For example, Bengali’s share in the population declined by just 0.14 percentage points from 1971 (8.17%) to 2011 (8.03%).
- In comparison, Malayalam (1.12 percentage points) and Urdu (1.03 points) had higher declines among the mother tongues with at least 1 crore speakers in 2011.
- Punjabi’s share, on the other hand, rose from 2.57% to 2.74%.
- At the other end of the scale (among the 22 languages listed in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution) were Malayalam, whose numbers rose by under 59% in four decades, and Assamese, rising just over 71% (Chart 3).
What explains Hindi’s high numbers?
- One obvious explanation is that Hindi is the predominant language in some of India’s most populous states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
- Another reason is that a number of languages are bracketed under Hindi by census enumerators.
- In 2011, there were 1,383 mother tongues reported by people, and hundreds were knocked out.
- These mother tongues were then grouped into languages.
- You will find that under Hindi, they have listed nearly 65 mother tongues.
- Among them is Bhojpuri, and 5 crore people have reported Bhojpuri as their mother tongue, but the census has decided that Bhojpuri is Hindi.
- If one were to knock out the other languages merged with Hindi, the total figure goes down to 38 crore.
And how widely is English spoken?
- Although English, alongside Hindi, is one of the two official languages of the central government, it is not among the 22 languages in the 8th Schedule; it is one of the 99 non-scheduled languages.
- In terms of mother tongue, India had just 2.6 lakh English speakers in 2011 — a tiny fraction of the 121 crore people counted in that census.
- That does not reflect the extent to which English is spoken.
- It was the second language of 8.3 crore respondents in 2011, second only to Hindi’s 13.9 crore.
- If third language is added, then English was spoken — as mother tongue, second language or third language — by over 10% of the population in 2011, behind only Hindi’s 57%.
- It is still not a scheduled language in India, when it should be.
Where is English most prevalent?
- As mother tongue, Maharashtra accounted for over 1 lakh of the 2.6 lakh English speakers.
- As second language, English is preferred over Hindi in parts of the Northeast.
- Among the 17.6 lakh with Manipuri (an 8th Schedule language) as their mother tongue in 2011, 4.8 lakh declared their second language as English, compared to 1.8 lakh for Hindi.
- Among the non-scheduled languages spoken in the Northeast, Khasi, predominant in Meghalaya, was the mother tongue of 14.3 lakh, of whom 2.4 lakh declared their second language as English, and 54,000 as Hindi.
- The trends were similar for Mizo, and for various languages spoken in Nagaland, including Ao, Angami and Rengma.
- Beyond the Northeastern languages, among 68 lakh with Kashmiri as their mother tongue, 2.8 lakh declared their second language as English, compared to 2.2 lakh who declared Hindi.
Back2Basics: Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution
- The Eighth Schedule lists the official languages of the Republic of India.
- At the time when the Constitution was enacted, inclusion in this list meant that the language was entitled to representation on the Official Languages Commission.
- This language would be one of the bases that would be drawn upon to enrich Hindi and English, the official languages of the Union.
- The list has since, however, acquired further significance.
- In addition, a candidate appearing in an examination conducted for public service is entitled to use any of these languages as the medium in which he or she answers the paper.
- As per Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Indian Constitution, the eighth schedule includes the recognition of the 22 languages.
‘Classical’ languages in India
Currently, six languages enjoy the ‘Classical’ status: Tamil (declared in 2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014).
How are they classified?
According to information provided by the Ministry of Culture in the Rajya Sabha in February 2014, the guidelines for declaring a language as ‘Classical’ are:
- High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years;
- A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers;
- The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community;
- The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms o
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: State Energy and Climate Index
Mains level: Costs of cleaner energy alternatives
Gujarat has topped the list for larger States in the NITI Aayog’s State Energy and Climate Index–Round 1 that has ranked States and Union Territories (UTs) on certain parameters.
State Energy and Climate Index
- The States have been categorized based on size and geographical differences as larger and smaller States and UTs.
- The index is based on 2019-20 data.
- It ranks the states’ performance on 6 parameters, namely
- DISCOM’s Performance
- Access, Affordability and Reliability of Energy
- Clean Energy Initiatives
- Energy Efficiency
- Environmental Sustainability; and
- New Initiatives
- The parameters are further divided into 27 indicators. Based on the composite SECI Round I score.
- The states and UTs are categorized into three groups: Front Runners, Achievers, and Aspirants.
Performance by the states
- Gujarat, Kerala and Punjab have been ranked as the top three performers in the category of larger States, while Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were the bottom three States.
- Goa emerged as the top performer in the smaller States category followed by Tripura and Manipur.
- Among UTs, Chandigarh, Delhi and Daman & Diu/Dadra & Nagar Haveli are the top performers.
- Punjab was the best performer in discom performance, while Kerala topped in access, affordability and reliability category.
- Haryana was the best performer in clean energy initiative among larger States and Tamil Nadu in the energy efficiency category.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Megalithic Burials in India
Mains level: Not Much
The discovery of a number of megalithic stone jars in Assam’s Dima Hasao district has brought to focus possible links between India’s Northeast and Southeast Asia, dating back to the second millennium BC.
What is the news?
- According to a study in Asian Archaeology, the jars are a “unique archaeological phenomenon”.
- It calls for more research to understand the “likely cultural relationship” between Assam and Laos and Indonesia, the only two other sites where similar jars have been found.
About the Megalithic Jars
- The jars of Assam were first sighted in 1929 by British civil servants James Philip Mills and John Henry Hutton.
- They recorded their presence in six sites in Dima Hasao: Derebore (now Hojai Dobongling), Kobak, Kartong, Molongpa (now Melangpeuram), Ndunglo and Bolasan (now Nuchubunglo).
- More such sites were later discovered in 2016 and 2020.
- Researchers documented three distinct jar shapes (bulbous top with conical end; biconcial; cylindrical) on spurs, hill slopes and ridge lines.
Their significance
- While the jars are yet to be scientifically dated, the researchers said links could be drawn with the stone jars found in Laos and Indonesia.
- There are typological and morphological similarities between the jars found at all three sites.
- Dating done at the Laos site suggests that jars were positioned at the sites as early as the late second millennium BC.
- The other takeaway is the link to mortuary practices with human skeletal remains found inside and buried around the jars.
- In Indonesia, the function of the jars remains unconfirmed, although some scholars suggest a similar mortuary role.
Back2Basics: Megalithic Burials in India
- Megaliths were constructed either as burial sites or commemorative (non-sepulchral) memorials.
- The former are sites with actual burial remains, such as dolmenoid cists (box-shaped stone burial chambers), cairn circles (stone circles with defined peripheries) and capstones (distinctive mushroom-shaped burial chambers found mainly in Kerala).
- The urn or the sarcophagus containing the mortal remains was usually made of terracotta.
- Non-sepulchral megaliths include memorial sites such as menhirs. (The line separating the two is a bit blurry, since remains have been discovered underneath otherwise non-sepulchral sites, and vice versa.)
- Taken together, these monuments lend these disparate peoples the common traits of what we know as megalithic culture, one which lasted from the Neolithic Stone Age to the early Historical Period (2500 BC to AD 200) across the world.
- In India, archaeologists trace the majority of the megaliths to the Iron Age (1500 BC to 500 BC), though some sites precede the Iron Age, extending up to 2000 BC.
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