Day: July 22, 2022

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Foreign Policy Watch: India-Sri Lanka

‘Advantage New Delhi’ in Sri Lanka’s India lifeline

op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Paper 2- India-Sri Lanka relations

Context

Ranil Wickremesinghe’s election as the President of Sri Lanka in a crucial Parliament vote on July 20, 2022, gives India an opportunity to take the lead in the foreign aid game in its neighbourhood.

Background of the crisis in Sri Lanka

  • Sri Lanka has been facing economic turbulence since its pre-emptive default on its foreign debt obligations in mid-April this year.
  • Following the debt default and a shortage of dollars, the Sri Lankan economy is experiencing stagflation.
  •  Inflation has spiralled to over 50%, translating into higher food and fuel prices.
  •  Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948 is due to a tepid recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict shock and economic mismanagement under the administration of the Rajapaksas.
  • Sri Lanka is also facing challenges in getting foreign aid, as 60% of the world’s poorest countries are also experiencing debt distress.

Opportunities for India

  •  In the first six months of 2022, Indian aid worth $3.8 billion has flowed to Sri Lanka through loans, swaps and grants.
  • This is India’s largest bilateral aid programme in recent times.
  •  Stabilising Sri Lanka’s economy could prove to be a major win for Indian’s ‘neighbourhood-first’ policy.
  • Moreover, once the Sri Lankan economy stabilises, India can deepen its trade and investment linkages with Sri Lanka, transcending the current humanitarian aid relationship.
  • On the other hand, an unstable Sri Lankan economy could pose security risks to India and lead to a flood of refugees across the Palk Strait.
  • This is an opportunity for India to strengthen bilateral and regional partnerships.
  • Countering Chinese influence: In recent years, China has emerged as a major partner for Sri Lanka, especially for infrastructure projects, many of which are under scrutiny now.
  • This provides an opportunity for India to upscale its aid and cement its first mover advantage over China by leading an aid consortium for Sri Lanka, working closely with other friendly countries such as the United States, Japan and the European Union as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Why China is reluctant to help?

  • China worries that unilaterally restructuring Sri Lanka’s debt or giving it moratoria would set a new precedent in its lending practices, leading to a queue of similarly distressed countries seeking debt relief from Beijing.
  • Furthermore, China, which is a G2 economy, and wanting to challenge the U.S., does not want its reputation to be tarnished by bailing out a floundering economy.

Steps Sri Lanka needs to take

  • Concluding the talks with Sri Lanka: The government must show that it is serious about stabilising the economy by concluding talks on an IMF programme which will increase taxes and utility prices to raise revenue and increase interest rates to control inflation.
  • Economic reforms: It has to implement structural reforms to make the economy more open to trade and investment and allow market forces to determine resource allocation.
  • National consensus on IMF program: It has to build national consensus on implementing the IMF programme and reforms by explaining that this is the only solution to the crisis.
  • Anti-corruption policies: It has to restore the rule of law and enforce strong anti-corruption policies (including asset declarations for all parliamentarians and a strong anti-corruption office supported by the United Nations).
  • Reset foreign policy: It has to reset foreign policy towards a more neutral direction.

Conclusion

With political will and the right set of policies, Sri Lanka stands a sporting chance of achieving some economic normalcy within the next three years. India stands to gain by supporting Sri Lanka in its hour of need. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

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Need for a debate on freebies

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: PM-Kisan

Mains level: Paper 2- Phasing out the unwarranted subsidies

Context

Many in India have been lamenting for quite some time the culture of political populism and “freebies”

Fiscal stress due to subsidies

  • Technically, a subsidy is the unrecovered cost of any service (or good) provided by the government.
  • Freebies such as distribution of televisions, free cycles or laptops are the most highly visible and discussed freebies, but they are fiscally insignificant compared to the much larger subsidies on food, fertiliser and petroleum.
  • Though curbed in recent years, these “visible” subsidies in government budgets remain a major source of fiscal stress.
  • Then there is a range of “invisible” subsidies, especially in state government budgets, not always recognised as such, but which are also very large.
  • The deficit between the receipts and expenditure of a government department in providing a service is the unrecovered cost of providing that service, that is, a subsidy, even if not recognised as such in the budget.
  • Examples include the unrecovered cost of providing public education, healthcare, irrigation, power, water supply and sanitation.

Some facts about the subsidies

  • Relation with per capita income: The volume of subsidies as a proportion of GDP comes down with rising per capita incomes, but very gradually.
  • The total volume of subsidies came down from 13 per cent of GDP way back in 1987-88 to a little over 10 per cent by 2015-16, almost 30 years later.
  • Contribution of central government: The central government accounts for less than 30 per cent of total subsidies, provided mainly for economic services including food.
  • Merit subsidies: From the total volume there is a very small number of “merit subsidies” which might be warranted in public interest.
  • All governments have provided a food subsidy for poor households by bi-partisan consensus for decades.
  • Then there is basic education and health services which have large benefits for society beyond the benefit accruing to the immediate recipient of the service, what economists call “externalities”.
  • Also in case of expenditure on water supply and sanitation, where again the benefit to society is much larger than that accruing to the immediate recipient of the service — for example, prevention of infectious diseases.
  • These four “merit” subsidies account for only a third of total subsidies.
  • Unwarranted freebies: Thus, two-thirds of total subsidies, about 6 per cent of GDP, are unwarranted freebies which should be eliminated.

Way forward

  • Phasing out the unwarranted freebies: If central and state governments could step beyond their business as usual budgets and take bold measures to phase out these unwarranted freebies, along with much of the tax exemptions and concessions, which amount to about 5 per cent of GDP, that would free up huge fiscal space.
  • Universal basic income: There is a growing demand in many advanced countries, which already have large social security schemes, to provide a minimum “Universal Basic Income” for all.
  •  Providing a small safety net for the poor in countries like India, which have no social security system, is the least that any caring government can do.
  • MGNREGA is the largest and longest-standing income support programme in India for the unemployed in rural areas.
  • But it is often not regarded as such as it entails payment against performance of work.
  • The usual complaint against such schemes is that they artificially raise rural wages, reduce the incentive to search for work, and that the poor blow up these freebees on liquor etc.
  • Since MGNREGA and similar schemes in the states pay much less than the minimum wage, they obviously cannot raise rural wages beyond what is the legal minimum wage anyway.

Conclusion

Phasing out the unwarranted subsidies will enable a massive reduction in the combined fiscal deficit of the Centre and the states, while at the same time stepping up required expenditure on education, health and infrastructure.

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Parliament – Sessions, Procedures, Motions, Committees etc

Droupadi Murmu elected 15th President of India

| Polity | Mains Paper 2: Indian Constitution - historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: President of India

Mains level: Read the attached story

Former Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu was elected the 15th President of India, the first (santhal) tribal woman to be appointed to the position and the youngest as well.

Here’s a look at some interesting facts about the past Presidents of India:

* Rajendra Prasad was the first President of India. He is also the only President to have served two consecutive terms.

* Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was the second President. He was the first to have served as Vice President before being elected to the top post.

* Zakir Hussain was the third President of India, and the first Muslim President. He also was the first President to die in office. He was the shortest serving President of India (less than two years).

* On his election, fourth President V.V. Giri became the first one to have also been an acting President.

* Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was the fifth President and the second Muslim to hold the post. The Emergency was declared during his tenure. He is the second President to have died in office.

* Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was the sixth President. He became the youngest to take the post at the age of 64. He is also the only one to have been elected unopposed.

* Giani Zail Singh was the seventh President of India and the first Sikh President.

* Eighth President Ramaswamy Venkataraman was the first President to have worked with four Prime Ministers and appointed three: V. P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar and P. V. Narasimha Rao.

* Shankar Dayal Sharma was the 9th President. He also worked with four PMs and appointed three of them in his last year: Atal Bihari Vajpayee, H. D. Deve Gowda, I. K. Gujral.

* Kocheril Raman Narayanan was the 10th President of India and the first Dalit President. At 76 years and 271 days, he was the oldest President to be elected.

* APJ Abdul Kalam was the 11th President and first Muslim President to serve an entire term.

* Elected as the 12th President, Pratibha Patil was the first woman President of India.

* Pranab Mukherjee, the 13th President, was the first Bengali to hold the post.

* 14th President Ram Nath Kovind was the first BJP candidate to be elected to the post.

* 11 Presidents have been members of a political party before being elected. 8 were from Congress, 2 from BJP, 1 from Janata Party, and the rest were Independents.

The President of India

  • The President of India is recognized as the first citizen of the country and the head of the state.
  • The elected President of India is a part of the Union Executive along with several other members of the parliament including the Prime Minister, Attorney-General of India and the Vice – president.

Electing the President

  • The provisions of the election of the President are laid down in Article 54 of the Constitution of India.
  • The Presidential and Vice-Presidential Election Act 1952 led to the establishment of this Constitutional provision.

Qualifications to become the President of India

The qualification of being the President of India are given below:

  • He/ She must be an Indian citizen
  • A person must have completed the age of 35.
  • A person must be qualified for election as a member of the House of the People.
  • Must not hold a government (central or state) office of profit
  • A person is eligible for election as President if he/she is holding the office of President or Vice-President.

Actual course of election

  • The President of India is elected indirectly by an Electoral College following the system of proportional representation utilizing a single transferable vote system and secret ballots.
  • MPs and MLAs vote based on parity and uniformity values.

Electoral College composition-

(1) Legislative Assemblies of the States:

  • According to the provision of Article 333, every state’s Legislative Assembly must consist of not less than 60 members but not more than 500 members.

(2) Council of States:

  • 12 members are nominated by the President of India based on skills or knowledge in literature, arts, science, and social service to act as the members of the Council of States.
  • In total, 238 represent act as representatives from both the States and Union Territories.

(2) House of the People:

  • The composition of the House of People consists of 530 members (no exceeding) from the state territorial constituencies.
  • They are elected through direct election.
  • The President further elects 20 more members (no exceeding) from the Union Territories.

Uniformity in the scale of representation of states

To maintain the proportionality between the values of the votes, the following formula is used:

Value of vote of an MLA= total no. of the population of the particular state/ number of elected MLAs of that state divided by 1000.

Single vote system

  • During the presidential election, one voter can cast only one vote.
  • While the MLAs vote may vary state to state, the MPs vote always remain constant.

MPs and MLAs vote balance

  • The number of the total value of the MPs votes must equal the total value of the MLAs to maintain the State and the Union balance.

Quotas:

  • The candidate reaching the winning quota or exceeding it is the winner.
  • The formula sued is ‘Winning quota total number of poll/ no.of seats + 1’.

Voters’ preference:

  • During the presidential election, the voter casts his vote in favor of his first preferred candidate.
  • However, in case the first preference candidate does not touch the winning quota, the vote automatically goes to the second preference.
  • The first preferred candidate with the lowest vote is eliminated and the votes in his/her favor are transferred to the remaining candidates.

Why need Proportional representation?

  • The President of India is elected through proportional representation using the means of the single transferable vote (Article 55(3)).
  • It allows the independent candidates and minority parties to have the chance of representation.
  • It allows the practice of coalition with many voters under one government.
  • This system ensures that candidates who are elected don’t represent the majority of the electorate’s opinion.

Why is President indirectly elected?

If Presidents were to be elected directly, it would become very complicated.

  • It would, in fact, be a disaster because the public doesn’t have absolute clarity of how the president-ship runs or if the candidate fits the profile of a president.
  • Another reason why the direct election system isn’t favorable is that the candidate running for the president’s profile will have to campaign around the country with the aid of a political party.
  • And, this will result in massive political instability.
  • Moreover, it would be difficult and impossible for the government to hand out election machinery (given the vast population of India).
  • This will cost the government financially and may end up affecting the economy as well.
  • The indirect election system is a respectable system for the First Man of India (rightly deserving).
  • The system/method of indirect electing of the president also allows the states to maintain neutrality and minimize hostility.

 

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Women empowerment issues – Jobs,Reservation and education

Women have Right to Safe Abortion: SC

SC Judgements | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Indian Constitution - historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Right to Safe Abortion

Mains level: MRTP Act

Denying an unmarried woman the right to a safe abortion violates her personal autonomy and freedom, the Supreme Court held in an order.

What did the SC say?

  • A woman’s right to reproductive choice is an inseparable part of her personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.
  • She has a sacrosanct right to bodily integrity, the court quoted from precedents.
  • The court said forcing a woman to continue with her pregnancy would not only be a violation of her bodily integrity but also aggravate her mental trauma.

Indispensable clause of safety

  • The court ordered a medical board to be formed by the AIIMS to check whether it was safe to conduct an abortion on the woman and submit a report in a week.

What is the case?

  • A Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud was hearing the appeal of a woman who wanted to abort her 24-week pregnancy after her relationship failed and her partner left her.
  • The lower court had taken an “unduly restrictive view” that her plea for a safe abortion was not covered under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.
  • This was since the pregnancy arose from a consensual relationship outside wedlock.

What was the last amendment?

  • The court noted that an amendment to the Act in 2021 had substituted the term ‘husband’ with ‘partner’, a clear signal that the law covered unmarried women within its ambit.

Reiterating the live-in recognition

  • Chastising the lower court, the Bench said live-in relationships had already been recognised by the Supreme Court.
  • There were a significant number of people in social mainstream who see no wrong in engaging in pre-marital sex.
  • The law could not be used to quench “notions of social morality” and unduly interfere in their personal autonomy and bodily integrity.

Back2Basics: Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act

  • Abortion in India has been a legal right under various circumstances for the last 50 years since the introduction of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act in 1971.
  • The Act was amended in 2003 to enable women’s access to safe and legal abortion services.
  • Abortion is covered 100% by the government’s public national health insurance funds, Ayushman Bharat and Employees’ State Insurance with the package rate for surgical abortion.

The idea of terminating your pregnancy cannot originate by choice and is purely circumstantial. There are four situations under which a legal abortion is performed:

  1. If continuation of the pregnancy poses any risks to the life of the mother or mental health
  2. If the foetus has any severe abnormalities
  3. If pregnancy occurred as a result of failure of contraception (but this is only applicable to married women)
  4. If pregnancy is a result of sexual assault or rape

These are the key changes that the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021, has brought in:

  1. The gestation limit for abortions has been raised from the earlier ceiling of 20 weeks to 24 weeks, but only for special categories of pregnant women such as rape or incest survivors. But this termination would need the approval of two registered doctors.
  2. All pregnancies up to 20 weeks require one doctor’s approval. The earlier law, the MTP Act 1971, required one doctor’s approval for pregnancies upto 12 weeks and two doctors’ for pregnancies between 12 and 20 weeks.
  3. Women can now terminate unwanted pregnancies caused by contraceptive failure, regardless of their marital status. Earlier the law specified that only a “married woman and her husband” could do this.
  4. There is also no upper gestation limit for abortion in case of foetal disability if so decided by a medical board of specialist doctors, which state governments and union territories’ administrations would set up.

 

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Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Global Implications

Russia resumes gas supplies to Europe via Nord Stream Pipeline

| International Relations | Mains Paper 2: International Institutions
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Nord Stream Pipelines

Mains level: Energy implications of Russia-Ukraine War

Russia restored critical gas supplies to Europe through Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline after 10 days of uncertainty in guise of maintenance.

Nord Stream Pipeline

  • It is a system of offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.
  • It includes two active pipelines running from Vyborg to Lubmin near Greifswald forming the original Nord Stream, and two further pipelines under construction running from Ust-Luga to Lubmin termed Nord Stream 2.
  • In Lubmin the lines connect to the OPAL line to Olbernhau on the Czech border and to the NEL line to Rehden near Bremen.
  • The first line Nord Stream-1 was laid and inaugurated in 2011 and the second line in 2012.
  • At 1,222 km in length, Nord Stream is the longest sub-sea pipeline in the world, surpassing the Langeled pipeline.

Why in news?

  • Germany, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas, had feared that Moscow would not reopen the pipeline after the scheduled work and accused Moscow of using energy as a “weapon”.
  • The showdown came amid the worst tensions in several years over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
  • Germany believes Russia is squeezing supplies in retaliation for Western sanctions over the war.

Why is Russian gas so important?

(1) Major chunk of energy

  • Russia supplied some 40% of Europe’s natural gas before the war.
  • That has dropped to around 15%, sending prices through the roof and straining energy-intensive industries.

(2) Everyday use

  • Gas is used across a range of processes that most people never see – to forge steel to make cars, make glass bottles and pasteurise milk and cheese.
  • Companies warn that they often can’t switch overnight to other energy sources such as fuel oil or electricity to produce heat.

(3) Fuel inflation

  • High energy prices are already threatening to cause a recession in Europe through record inflation, with consumers having less to spend as costs rise for food, fuel and utilities.
  • A complete cutoff could deal an even heavier blow to an already troubled economy.

What is visible in Russia’s game plan?

  • Since the invasion, Russia’s revenue from exporting oil and gas to Europe has doubled over the average from recent years, to $95 billion.
  • So Putin has cash in hand and could calculate that painful utility bills and an energy recession could undermine public support for Ukraine in Europe and increase sentiment for a negotiated settlement in his favour.
  • It would be unwise to exclude the possibility that Russia could decide to forgo the revenue it gets from exporting gas to Europe in order to gain political leverage.

What alternatives does Europe have?

  • The EU has turned to more-expensive liquefied natural gas, or LNG, which comes by ship from places like the US and Qatar.
  • Germany is fast-tracking construction of LNG import terminals on its North Sea coast, but that will take years.
  • But LNG alone can’t make up the gap.
  • Conservation and other energy sources are key.

Could people freeze this winter?

  • Its unlikely homes, schools and hospitals will lose heat because governments are required to impose rationing first on businesses.
  • The German government also could allow gas suppliers to immediately pass on increases to customers.
  • The choices could include torpedoing industry and/or socking consumers with even higher bills.
  • The IEA recommends that European countries step up campaigns for people to conserve at home and plan to share gas in an emergency.

 

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Promoting Science and Technology – Missions,Policies & Schemes

Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022

Bills/Act/Laws | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: S&T - Applications In Everyday Life
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022

Mains level: Read the attached story

The Lok Sabha deferred the consideration and passing of the Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022 as the Opposition benches were empty due to the ongoing protests outside of Parliament.

Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022

Aims and objectives:

  • To provide for national measures to protect the Antarctic environment and associated ecosystems and to give effect to the Antarctic Treaty
  • To provide a harmonious policy framework for India’s Antarctic activities through a well-established legal mechanism
  • Facilitate activities of the Indian Antarctic programme, including management of Antarctic tourism and sustainable development of fisheries
  • To prohibit carrying of certain activities without a permit or the written authorisation of another party to the protocol
  • To provide for inspection in India by an officer designated by the Central government as an Inspector and to constitute an inspection team to carry out inspections in Antarctica
  • To prohibit drilling, dredging, excavation or collection of mineral resources or even doing anything to identify where such mineral deposits occur.

Key feature: Committee on Antarctic governance

  • It will empower the government to establish a committee on Antarctic governance and environmental protection to monitor, implement and ensure compliance with the relevant international laws, emissions standards and rules of protection.
  • The panel is to be headed by the secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, as ex officio chairperson.
  • Among other roles, he/she has also been the vice-president of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research of the International Science Council since 2018.
  • The committee will have ten members from various ministries, departments and organizations of the Union government, plus two experts on the Antarctic environment or other relevant areas.

Prohibited activities

The Bill prohibits certain activities in Antarctica including:

  • Nuclear explosion or disposal of radioactive wastes,
  • Introduction of non-sterile soil, and
  • Discharge of garbage, plastic or other substance into the sea which is harmful to the marine environment

About Antarctica Treaty

  • Antarctica has a geographical area of 14 million sq. km and has had no indigenous population (i.e. “Antarcticans” don’t exist).
  • However, a few thousand people reside there, in some 40 research stations spread across the continent, throughout the year.
  • In 1959, 12 countries – Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the USSR, the UK and the US signed the Antarctic Treaty.
  • Their aim was to prevent the continent from being militarised and to establish it as a center of peaceful activities.
  • Later, more countries, including India, have become party to the treaty, and today it counts more than 54 members.

Significance of the treaty

  • The treaty requires each party to take appropriate measures within its competence, including the adoption of laws and regulations, administrative actions, and enforcement measures, to ensure compliance with the protocol.
  • Countries also signed the ‘Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty in 1991, which designates Antarctica as a “natural reserve, devoted to peace and science”.

Need for the Antarctic Legislation

  • The growing presence of Indian scientists in Antarctica and the commitment to Antarctic research and protection prompted the government to adopt domestic legislation consistent with its obligations as a member of the Antarctic Treaty system.
  • These laws will enable India’s courts to deal with disputes or crimes committed in parts of Antarctica, and help build credibility vis-à-vis India’s participation.

 

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Innovation Ecosystem in India

Karnataka tops India Innovation Index List

DOMR | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Achievements Of Indians In S&T
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: India Innovation Index

Mains level: Not Much

Karnataka has bagged the top rank in NITI Aayog’s India Innovation Index, 2022, which determines innovation capacities and ecosystems at the sub-national level.

India Innovation Index (III)

  • The release of the second edition of the index—the first was launched in October 2019—demonstrates the Government’s continued commitment to transforming the country into an innovation-driven economy.
  • The index attempts to create an extensive framework for the continual evaluation of the innovation environment of all states and UTs in India.
  • It intends to perform the following three functions-
  1. Ranking of states and UTs based on their index scores
  2. Recognizing opportunities and challenges, and
  3. Assisting in tailoring governmental policies to foster innovation
  • The states have been bifurcated into three categories: major states, northeast and hill states, and union territories/city-states/small states.

Significance

  • The study examines the innovation ecosystem of Indian states and union territories.
  • The aim is to create a holistic tool that can be used by policymakers across the country to identify the challenges to be addressed and strengths to build on when designing policies.

Highlights of the 2022 index

  • Karnataka has held this position, under the Major States category, in all three editions of the Index so far.
  • It was followed by Telangana, Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar and Gujarat were at the bottom of the index.
  • In the Index, Manipur secured the lead in the Northeast and Hill States category, while Chandigarh was the top performer in the Union Territories and City States category.

 

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Water Management – Institutional Reforms, Conservation Efforts, etc.

Kali Bein and its cultural significance

Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Kali Bein

Mains level: River water management issues

Punjab CM has been admitted to hospital, days after he had drunk a glass of water directly from the Kali Bein, a holy rivulet in Sultanpur Lodhi.

What is the Kali Bein?

  • The 165-km rivulet starts from Hoshiarpur, runs across four districts and meets the confluence of the rivers Beas and Sutlej in Kapurthala.
  • Along its banks are around 80 villages and half a dozen small and big towns.
  • Waste water from there as well as industrial waste used to flow into the rivulet via a drain, turning its waters black, hence the name Kali Bein (black rivulet).
  • Dense grass and weeds grew on the water until a cleaning project started.

Why did Punjab CM drink water from it?

  • The occasion was the 22nd anniversary of the cleaning project, which had started on July 16, 2000.
  • The project has been slow for years after having made remarkable progress in the initial years.
  • Nevertheless, when Mann drank water from it directly, it was a much cleaner Kali Bein than it was before 2000.

Cultural significance

  • The Kali Bein is of great significance to Sikh religion and history, because the first Guru, Nanak Dev, is said to have got enlightenment here.
  • When Guru Nanak Dev was staying at Sultanpur Lodhi with his sister Bebe Nanki, he would bathe in the Kali Bein.
  • He is said to have disappeared into the waters one day, before emerging on the third day.
  • The first thing he recited was the “Mool Mantra” of the Sikh religion.

How did the cleaning project start?

  • It was started by environmentalist Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal with a handful of followers, without government help.
  • They removed weeds, treated the water and spread awareness among residents.
  • Six years of hard work paid off when then President A P J Abdul Kalam visited the site in 2006 and praised them for their effort.
  • The then government in Punjab then announced that it would take up the project to stop the discharge of untreated water into the rivulet.

What is its national significance?

  • At one stage, the project had become a role model for river cleaning missions.
  • The ‘Kali Bein Model’ was cited as the blueprint for the National Mission for Clean Ganga.
  • Uma Bharti, then Union Minister for Water Resources, River Project and Ganga Rejuvenation, visited the Kali Bein in 2015, and called it a Guru Sthan for the Ganga project.

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