Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Debate on subsidies
Context
The Reserve Bank of India, in a report published in June, linked the precarious state of state finances to “freebies”, particularly power subsidies, and last week, the Supreme Court, waded into the debate, recommending the creation of an expert body to examine the matter.
Political, economic and institutional context
- The determination of what is a good or bad freebie is and always will be a political choice.
- A constructive debate must necessarily locate itself in the underlying political, economic and institutional context in which these so-called freebies are a feature of our electoral politics.
- In the Public Interest Litigation filed in the Supreme Court, the petitioner has argued that “irrational freebies… is analogous to bribery”.
- Commodification of electoral process: The problem with this framing is that it commodifies the electoral process and strips voters of their agency.
- Voters, in this framing, are passive, unsophisticated actors who can be bought and therefore there is a need to be vigilant.
- The honourable court had gone a step further, arguing for an expert, independent body, rather than Parliament, to tackle the issue.
- This is judicial overreach and it privileges “experts” over legitimate democratic negotiation and strikes at the core of the political bargain.
- Politics is central to welfare, not experts.
Economic context
- In that spirit, a debate on the merits and demerits of freebies is important but this debate cannot be divorced from the economic context.
- India’s structural transformation, particularly since 1991, has been slow and unique.
- Despite abundant low-skilled labour, our growth trajectory has mostly skipped manufacturing, growing instead on the back of a far smaller, high-skilled services sector.
- Consequently, as economist Amit Basole has shown the bulk of jobs our economy generated even in its peak growth years were in the largely informal, low value add construction sector.
- The distributional consequences of this have been significant.
- Under-employment and low inter-generational mobility have been persistent features of the Indian economy resulting in deep inequalities.
- Growth lifted a large population out of poverty.
- However, as the World Bank data show, most of those who escaped poverty between 2005-2012 moved into the vulnerable group — one income shock away from falling below the poverty line.
- Somewhat reassuringly, democracy created pressure on our politics to respond to these economic failures.
- It is in this context that the demand for so-called freebies has found legitimate place in our democracy.
Challenges
- While democratic pressures led to the halting creation of limited social protection in the form of PDS and MGNREGA, they did not translate into investments in core public and merit goods — health and education being the most critical.
- It is these accumulated failures that have created the new political logic that we confront today.
- A logic where welfare freebies are being offered to compensate citizens for what economic growth has failed to do.
Conclusion
The answer does not lie in rapping state governments on the knuckles for being profligate. It lies in building a renewed democratic consensus on our economic and institutional growth path.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Labour force participation rate (LFPR)
Mains level: Women's partificaption in workforce
Fewer than one in five Indian women are in the labour force. Four out of five are neither working nor looking for work.
Why in news?
- India has one of the world’s lowest female labour force participation rates (LFPR).
- This means the productive potential of half of the population goes unutilized.
Why women’s LFPR is so low in India?
- A lack of demand for women workers;
- Poor working conditions including low wages,
- Safety concerns and exploitation;
- Girls studying longer; migration;
- Nuclearization of families where there are fewer women to share domestic responsibilities; and
- Middle-income effect is where women stop working because the household has enough income.
- The root of much of this is deep-set patriarchy and neglect for women’s claim to their equal place in a man’s world.
Why enhancing women’s LFPR is critical?
- Research and experience highlight that when women have money, they spend it on the well-being of their families.
- From Brazil’s Bolsa Familia to the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan package for women with Jan Dhan accounts, policymakers have tried to reap the benefits of putting money in women’s hands.
- One way to do this is to ensure that more women have jobs, higher wages, and equal pay.
What is needed to improve women’s employment?
- Persistent effort must be directed toward community sensitization to root out patriarchal social norms.
- In addition to enforcing existing regulations like minimum wages, there must be supportive ancillary policies including childcare; secure transport; lighting; safety at work; and quotas in hiring, corporate boards, and politics to foster more women in leadership.
What obstacles do we confront?
- Correcting asymmetries of power is hard, especially when it entails changing convention.
- Men who are blind to their privilege, or will be forced to share their privileges, will resist change.
- Engendered discrimination results in a lack of labour market demand for women workers.
- This is visible in policies such as honorariums instead of wages for Anganwadi and Asha workers.
- It is also evident from over-reliance on home-based work for women, on and offline, instead of doing the hard work to ensure equal opportunity, outcomes, and real choice.
What happens if we don’t act?
- A concerted effort to advance gender equity must be a central priority over the next 25 years.
- Evidence shows that economic disempowerment of women can result in losses of 10% of GDP in industrialized economies and over 30% in South Asia and in the Middle East and North Africa.
- India’s GDP could grow by nearly ₹3 trillion if women were brought into the labour market and given access to formal, ‘decent’ work opportunities.
Way forward
- If we improve women’s labour force participation, not only do we harness the massive productive potential of half of the population, but their earnings will yield enormous dividends for the future of the country and economy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Public Estimates Committee
Mains level: Revenue loss to govt
The opposition has questioned the government over the corporate tax cut that led to a revenue loss of ₹1.84 lakh crore to the public exchequer as per a report of the Parliamentary Committee on Estimates.
Why in news?
- The Public Estimates Committee found such a huge revenue loss for the government.
- The middle class was charged at a peak tax rate of 30% against 22% for the corporates. Quiet antithetical!
- The centre on the other hand has repeatedly claimed that the corporate tax cut would help increase tax collection.
What is Corporate Tax?
- Domestic as well as foreign companies are liable to pay corporate tax under the Income-tax Act.
- While a domestic company is taxed on its universal income, a foreign company is only taxed on the income earned within India i.e. is being accrued or received in India.
- For the purpose of calculation of taxes under Income tax act, the types of companies can be defined as under:
- Domestic Company is one which is registered under the Companies Act of India and also includes the company registered in the foreign countries having control and management wholly situated in India. A domestic company includes private as well as public companies.
- Foreign Company is one which is not registered under the company’s act of India and has control & management located outside India.
Why has the government slashed Corporate Tax?
- The corporate tax cut is part of a series of steps taken by the government to tackle the slowdown in economic growth since the start of pandemic.
- The most immediate reason behind the tax cut may be the displeasure that various corporate houses have shown against the government’s policies.
- Many investors, for instance, were spooked by the additional taxes on them that were announced by the government during the budget in July and began pulling money out of the country.
- The government hoped that the new, lower tax rates will attract more investments into the country and help revive the domestic manufacturing sector which has seen lackluster growth.
Why Corporate Tax?
- The corporate tax rate is a major determinant of how investors allocate capital across various economies.
- So there is constant pressure on governments across the world to offer the lowest tax rates in order to attract investors.
- Tax cuts, by putting more money in the hands of the private sector, can offer people more incentive to produce and contribute to the economy.
Impact of the rate cut
- The present cut in taxes can make India more competitive on the global stage by making Indian corporate tax rates comparable to that of rates in East Asia.
- At the same time, if it manages to sufficiently revive the economy, the present tax cut can help boost tax collections and compensate for the loss of revenue.
- Relief to big companies
- Big companies got a relief of close to 10 percentage points in the effective tax rate including cess and surcharge.
- Enhanced competitiveness
- India was earlier at disadvantage because of a couple of factors and on top of it was the high corporate tax rate.
- After this cut, base corporate tax rate in India has become competitive and should help boost investment.
III. Enhanced EoDB
- Singapore with 17 per cent tax rate, and Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Taiwan with 20 per cent base tax rates are the only countries offering lower rates than India
- India is now much better than China in terms of rate, transparency, and tax administration so companies can now look at India for setting up new units.
Criticisms of the move
- Some see the present tax cut simply as a concession to corporate houses rather than as a structural reform that could boost the wider economy.
- They believe that the current economic slowdown is due to the problem of insufficient demand which cannot be addressed just through tax cuts and instead advocate greater government spending to boost the economy.
- Others, however, argue that lacklustre demand faced by sectors like automobiles is merely a symptom of supply-side shocks such as the GST that have affected various businesses and caused job losses.
- If so, tax cuts and other supply-side reforms can indeed help the economy recover from its slump.
Back2Basics: Public Estimates Committee
- The Committee on Estimates constituted for the first time in 1950, is a Parliamentary Committee consisting of 30 members, elected every year by the Lok Sabha from amongst its Members.
- The Chairperson of the Committee is appointed by the Speaker from amongst its members.
- A Minister cannot be elected as a member of the Committee and if a member after selection to the Committee is appointed a Minister, the member ceases to be a Member of the Committee from the date of such appointment.
Term of Office
- The term of office of the Committee is one year.
Functions
- The functions of the Estimates Committee are:
- to report what economies, improvements in organisation, efficiency or administrative reform, consistent with the policy underlying the estimates may be effected;
- to suggest alternative policies in order to bring about efficiency and economy in administration;
- to examine whether the money is well laid out within the limits of the policy implied in the estimates; and
- to suggest the form in which the estimates shall be presented to Parliament.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ethanol blended petrol (EBP) Program
Mains level: E-vehicles, Green technologies
Prime Minister has announced that India has achieved its target of blending 10% sugarcane-extracted ethanol in petrol, ahead of schedule.
What is ethanol blending?
- Blending ethanol with petrol to burn less fossil fuel while running vehicles is called ethanol blending.
- Ethanol is an agricultural by-product which is mainly obtained from the processing of sugar from sugarcane, but also from other sources such as rice husk or maize.
- Currently, 10% of the petrol that powers your vehicle is ethanol.
- Though we have had an E10 — or 10% ethanol as policy for a while, it is only this year that we have achieved that proportion.
- India’s aim is to increase this ratio to 20% originally by 2030 but in 2021, when NITI Aayog put out the ethanol roadmap, that deadline was advanced to 2025.
Why need ethanol blending?
- Ethanol blending will help bring down our share of oil imports (almost 85%) on which we spend a considerable amount of our precious foreign exchange.
- Secondly, more ethanol output would help increase farmers’ incomes.
- India’s net import of petroleum was 185 million tonnes at a cost of $55 billion in 2020-21.
- A successful ethanol blending programme can save the country $4 billion per annum.
What are first-generation and second-generation ethanols?
- With an aim to augment ethanol supplies, the government has allowed procurement of ethanol produced from other sources besides molasses — which is first-generation ethanol or 1G.
- Other than molasses, ethanol can be extracted from materials such as rice straw, wheat straw, corn cobs, corn stover, bagasse, bamboo and woody biomass, which are second-generation ethanol sources or 2G.
- While inaugurating the Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) 2G ethanol plant last week, PM referred to not only the prospect of higher farmer income but also dwelt upon the advantages of farmers selling the residual stubble — left behind after rice is harvested — to help make biofuels.
- This means lesser stubble burning and therefore, lesser air pollution.
How have other countries fared?
- Though the U.S., China, Canada and Brazil all have ethanol blending programmes, as a developing country, Brazil stands out.
- It had legislated that the ethanol content in petrol should be in the 18-27.5% range, and it finally touched the 27% target in 2021.
How does it impact the auto industry?
- At the time of the NITI Aayog report in June last year, the industry had committed to the government to make all vehicles E20 material compliant by 2023.
- This meant that the petrol points, plastics, rubber, steel and other components in vehicles would need to be compliant to hold/store fuel that is 20% ethanol.
- Without such a change, rusting is an obvious impediment.
Are there other alternatives?
- Auto industry prefer the use of biofuels as the next step, compared to other options such as electric vehicles (EV), hydrogen power and compressed natural gas.
- This is mainly because biofuels demand the least incremental investment for manufacturers.
- Even though the industry is recovering from the economic losses bought on by the pandemic, it is bound to make some change to comply with India’s promise for net-zero emissions by 2070.
What are the challenges before the industry when it comes to 20% ethanol blended fuel?
- Key challenge is the optimisation of engines for higher ethanol blends and the conduct of durability studies on engines and field trials before introducing E20 compliant vehicles.
- Storage is going to be the main concern, for if E10 supply has to continue in tandem with E20 supply, storage would have to be separate which then raises costs.
Sources for ethanol in India
The plan was to divert its excess sugar production to produce ethanol, 3.5 million tonnes in 2021-22 and 6 million tonnes the next year, in addition to grains like rice, corn, and barley.
- Using surplus rice: The government’s food department revealed its plans to divert 17 million tonnes of surplus rice from its food stocks of 90 million tonnes to produce ethanol.
- Sugarcane: This is in addition to the 2 million tonnes of sugar which is already being diverted to produce ethanol.
How would this benefit the country?
- Cost saving: A successful biofuels programme can save India $4 billion or about ₹30,000 crore every year by lowering import of petroleum products.
- Emission cut: Ethanol is also less polluting and offers equivalent efficiency at a lower cost than petrol.
- Biofuel’s policy boost: Rising production of grains and sugarcane and feasibility of making vehicles compliant to ethanol-blended fuel makes its biofuels policy a strategic requirement.
- Early rollout: Towards this, govt has put in place interest subsidies for distilleries to expand capacity while auto firms have agreed to make compatible vehicles.
What are the unintended effects of the policy?
- Unsustainability of cash-crops: Increasing reliance on biofuels can push farmers to grow more water-intensive crops like sugarcane and rice.
- Huge water requirement: Currently use 70% of the available irrigation water, negating some positive impact on the environment of using more ethanol.
- Food and nutrition security: The move could impact India’s hunger situation by limiting the coverage of the food security schemes.
- Food inflation: Diversion of mass consumption grains can also push food prices up.
How will it impact crop diversification?
- Monotonous crops: Although the biofuels policy stresses on using less water-consuming crops, farmers prefer to grow more sugarcane and rice due to price support schemes.
- Water stress: Growing more of them can lead to an adverse impact in water-stressed areas in states.
What about food security?
- It is unethical to use edible grains to produce ethanol in a country where hunger is rampant.
- India is already a poor performer in Global Hunger Index.
- Although about 80 crore people are now receiving subsidized food grains, calculations show that over 10 crore eligible households are still excluded.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Talaq-e-hasan
Mains level: Triple talaq and related issue
The Supreme Court has prima facie observed that the Muslim personal law practice of talaq-e-hasan is “not so improper”.
What is Talaq-e-hasan?
- Talaq-e-hasan is a form of divorce by which a Muslim man can divorce his wife by pronouncing talaq once every month over a three-month period.
Why did the apex court say this?
- The SC Bench said a Muslim woman has the option to divorce by the process of khula by returning the dower (mahr) or something else that she received from her husband or without returning anything.
- This can be as per agreed by the spouses or Qadi’s (court) decree depending on the circumstances.
Petitioner’s contention
- The petitioner argued that talaq-e-hasan and other forms of unilateral extra-judicial divorce is an evil plague similar to sati.
- Talaq-e-hasan is arbitrary, irrational and contrary to Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 and international conventions on civil rights and human rights, the petition submitted.
- There should be a gender neutral, religion neutral, uniform grounds of divorce and uniform procedure of divorce for all citizens, it read.
- The petitioner argued that the practice in question was “neither harmonious with the modern principles of human rights and gender equality nor an integral part of Islamic faith”.
- The practice discriminates against Muslim women as they cannot resort to it against their husbands.
Why in news?
- The apex court, while striking down triple talaq in the Shayara Bano case, did not address the issue of talaq-e-hasan.
- The unilateral practice of divorce was is definitely defies morality.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Asiatic Cheetah
Mains level: Not Much
India’s ambitious project to translocate African cheetahs has missed an unofficial deadline of August 15.
Asiatic Cheetah
- Cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal was declared extinct in India in 1952.
- The Asiatic cheetah is classified as a “critically endangered” species by the IUCN Red List, and is believed to survive only in Iran.
- It was expected to be re-introduced into the country after the Supreme Court lifted curbs for its re-introduction.
Distribution of cheetahs in India
- Historically, Asiatic cheetahs had a very wide distribution in India.
- There are authentic reports of their occurrence from as far north as Punjab to Tirunelveli district in southern Tamil Nadu, from Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west to Bengal in the east.
- Most of the records are from a belt extending from Gujarat passing through Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha.
- There is also a cluster of reports from southern Maharashtra extending to parts of Karnataka, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
- The distribution range of the cheetah was wide and spread all over the subcontinent. They occurred in substantial numbers.
- The cheetah’s habitat was also diverse, favouring the more open habitats: scrub forests, dry grasslands, savannahs and other arid and semi-arid open habitats.
What caused the extinction of cheetahs in India?
- The major reasons for the extinction of the Asiatic cheetah in India:
- Reduced fecundity and high infant mortality in the wild
- Inability to breed in captivity
- Sport hunting and
- Bounty killings
- It is reported that the Mughal Emperor Akbar had kept 1,000 cheetahs in his menagerie and collected as many as 9,000 cats during his half-century reign from 1556 to 1605.
- The cheetah numbers were fast depleting by the end of the 18th century even though their prey base and habitat survived till much later.
- It is recorded that the last cheetahs were shot in India in 1947, but there are credible reports of sightings of the cat till about 1967.
Conservation objectives for their re-introduction
- Based on the available evidence it is difficult to conclude that the decision to introduce the African cheetah in India is based on science.
- Science is being used as a legitimising tool for what seems to be a politically influenced conservation goal.
- This also in turn sidelines conservation priorities, an order of the Supreme Court, socio-economic constraints and academic rigour.
- The issue calls for an open and informed debate.
Issues in re-introduction
- Experts find it difficult whether the African cheetahs would find the sanctuary a favorable climate as far as the abundance of prey is concerned.
- The habitat of cheetahs is needed to support a genetically viable population.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Super Vasuki
Mains level: Not Much
The Railways conducted a test run of its longest freight train, Super Vasuki, with 295 loaded wagons carrying over 27,000 tonnes of coal.
Super Vasuki
- The 3.5-km-long freight train covered the distance of about 267 km between Korba in Chhattisgarh and Rajnandgaon in Nagpur.
- It was run by the South East Central Railway (SECR).
- The Railways plans to use this arrangement (longer freight trains) more frequently, especially to transport coal in peak demand season to prevent fuel shortages in power stations.
Feats achieved
- This is the longest and heaviest freight train ever run by the Indian Railways.
- The train takes about four minutes to cross a station.
- The amount of coal carried by Super Vasuki is enough to fire 3,000 MW of power plant for one full day.
- This is three times the capacity of existing railway rakes (90 cars with 100 tonnes in each) that carry about 9,000 tonnes of coal in one journey.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Finance Commission
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with fiscal federalism in India
Context
The centralisation of fiscal powers in India has been blamed for the poor fiscal health of the states.
Centralisation of fiscal powers: A background
- Jawaharlal Nehru believed that socio-economic inequities could be addressed through the planning process.
- A degree of centralisation in fiscal power was required to address the concerns of socio-economic and regional disparities.
- As a result asymmetric federalism is inherent to the Indian Constitution.
- India was never truly federal — it was a ‘holding together federalism’ in contrast to the ‘coming together federalism,’ in which smaller independent entities come together to form a federation (as in the United States of America).
- In fact, the Government of India Act 1935 was more federal in nature than the Constitution adopted on January 26, 1950 as the first offered more power to its provincial governments.
- Historically, India’s fiscal transfer worked through two pillars, i.e., the Planning Commission and the Finance Commission.
- But the waning of planning since the 1990s, and its abolition in 2014, led to the Finance Commission becoming a major means of fiscal transfer as the commission itself broadened its scope of sharing all taxes since 2000 from its original design of just two taxes — income tax and Union excise duties.
- Today, the Finance Commission became a politicised institution with arbitrariness and inherent bias towards the Union government.
- Tamil Nadu government constituted a committee under Justice P.V. Rajamannar in 1969, the first of its kind by a State government, to look at Centre-State fiscal relations and recommend more transfers and taxation powers for regional governments.
Declining fiscal capacity of the states
- While States lost their capacity to generate revenue by surrendering their rights in the wake of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, their expenditure pattern too was distorted by the Union’s intrusion, particularly through its centrally sponsored schemes.
- The ability of States to finance current expenditures from their own revenues has declined from 69% in 1955-56 to less than 38% in 2019-20.
- While the expenditure of the States has been shooting up, their revenues did not.
- Stagnant revenue: Since States cannot raise tax revenue because of curtailed indirect tax rights — subsumed in GST, except for petroleum products, electricity and alcohol — the revenue has been stagnant at 6% of GDP in the past decade.
Implications of fiscal centralisation in India
- Use of non-divisive cess: Even the increased share of devolution, mooted by the Fourteenth Finance Commission, from 32% to 42%, was subverted by raising non-divisive cess and surcharges that go directly into the Union kitty.
- This non-divisive pool in the Centre’s gross tax revenues shot up to 15.7% in 2020 from 9.43% in 2012, shrinking the divisible pool of resources for transfers to States.
- Cut in the corporate tax: The recent drastic cut in corporate tax, with its adverse impact on the divisible pool, and ending GST compensation to States have had huge consequences.
- States paying high interest rates: States are forced to pay differential interest — about 10% against 7% — by the Union for market borrowings.
- Centrally sponsored schemes curbing autonomy: There are 131 centrally sponsored schemes, with a few dozen of them accounting for 90% of the allocation, and States required to share a part of the cost.
- They spend about 25% to 40% as matching grants at the expense of their priorities.
- These schemes, driven by the one-size-fits-all approach, are given precedence over State schemes, undermining the electorally mandated democratic politics of States.
- In fact, it is the schemes conceived by States that have proved to be beneficial to the people and that have contributed to social development.
- Driven by democratic impulses, States have been successful in innovating schemes that were adopted at the national level.
- The diversion of a State’s own funds to centrally sponsored schemes, thereby depleting resources for its own schemes, violates constitutional provision.
- Deepening inequality: The World Inequality Report estimates ‘that the ratio of private wealth to national income increased from 290% in 1980 to 555% in 2020, one of the fastest such increases in the world.
- The poorest half of the population has less than 6% of the wealth while the top 10% nearly grab two-third of it’.
- India’s tax-GDP ratio has been one of the lowest in the world — 17% of which is well below the average ratios of emerging market economies and OECD countries’ about 21% and 34%, respectively.
- Its income tax base has been very narrow.
- Indirect tax still accounts for about 56% of total taxes.
- Instead of strengthening direct taxation, the Union government slashed corporate tax from 35% to 25% in 2019 and went on to monetise its public sector assets to finance infrastructure.
Conclusion
In sum, India’s fiscal federalism driven by political centralisation has deepened socio-economic inequality, belying the dreams of the founding fathers who saw a cure for such inequities in planning. It has not altered inter-state disparities either.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Labour welfare initiatives
Context
- One of the biggest economic fallout of the pandemic has been the deteriorating labour market conditions.
- In the years ahead when the health crisis subsides and the economy witnesses a rebound, the healing of the labour market may take some more time. This is because the impact of recovery on this market is always felt with a lag.
- Given the ebb and flow of the pandemic, the growth recovery is likely to be fragmented and will weigh on the number and types of jobs available.
Definition
- Labour welfare relates to taking care of the well-being of workers by employers, trade unions, governmental and non-governmental institutions and agencies.
- Welfare includes anything that is done for the comfort and improvement of employees and is provided over and above the wages.
What are labour rights?
- Labour rights or workers’ rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labour relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labour and employment law. In general, these rights influence working conditions in relations of employment.
Why labour law is needed
- Labour law aims to correct the imbalance of power between the worker and the employer; to prevent the employer from dismissing the worker without good cause; to set up and preserve the processes by which workers are recognized as ‘equal’ partners in negotiations about their working conditions etc.
Constitutional mandate
- Article 41 – The state shall within the limits of its economic capacity and development make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement and in other cases of underserved want.
- Article 42 – The state shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.
Necessity for welfare
- There were only 25 million during the initial period of industrial growth, while the strength of the workers is increasing year after year and hence, need for a mechanism to look into the welfare of the labour.
- Workers put in long hours of work in unhealthy surrounding and the drudgery of the factory work continues to have adverse effect. To counter these welfare measures were felt necessary.
- As a result of hardwork, they fall prey to alchoholism, gambling and other immoral activities results in absenteeism and other problems in the organisation. Hence the need was felt.
Scope for labour welfare in India
- Contribute to the productivity of labour and efficiency of the enterprise.
- Raise the standard of living of workers by indirectly reducing the burden on their purse.
- Be in tune and harmony with similar services obtaining in a neighbouring community where an enterprise is situated.
- Be based on an intelligent prediction of the future needs of industrial work and be so designed as to offer a cushion to absorb the shock of industrialization and urbanization
- Be administratively viable and essentially development in outlook.
Government steps in this direction
- Social Security Measures: The social security measures would help man to face the contingencies as such it is difficult for him either to work or to get work and support himself and his family. Thus social security measure provides a self balancing social insurance or assistance from public funds.
- Social Insurance: is described as the giving in return for contribution, benefits up to subsistence level, as of right and without a means test, so that an individual may build freely upon it.
- Social Assistance: is provided as an supplement to social insurance for those needy persons who cannot get social insurance payments and is offered after a means test.
- Public Service: is a programme constituting the third main type of social security. They are financed directly by the government from its general revenues in form of cash payments or services to every member of the community falling within a defined category.
Case study of Finland
- Universal basic income pilot project: For two years Finland’s government gave 2,000 unemployed citizens €560 a month with no strings attached. It was the first nationwide basic income experiment. The concept is slowly becoming difficult for people to ignore.
Challenges in labour welfare in India
- Technical glitches: Under the Constitution of India, Labour is a subject in the concurrent list where both the Central and State Governments are competent to enact legislation. As a result, a large number of labour laws have been enacted catering to different aspects of labour e.g. occupational health, safety, employment etc.
- Loopholes: Because of the predominantly heavy-handed labour regulations (also called as Inspector Raj) with exploitable gaps, the MNCs and domestic organizations have resorted to alternate ways i.e. employing contract labour at less than half the payroll of a permanent employee.
- Gaps in labour laws: One of the main reasons for labour reforms is the concept of contract labour. Trade Unions suggest that this concept itself should be removed. There is stringent hiring and firing process defined in Industry Disputes Act. It makes it mandatory for the organization to seek Government permission before removing an employee.
Conclusion
- Labour Welfare helps labourers improve their working conditions, providing social security and raising their standard of living.
- Raise the employee’s morale use the workforce more effectively besides removing dissatisfaction help to develop loyalty in workers towards the organization.
Mains question
Q.What is labour welfare according to you? Why it is needed? Explain the challenges in front of Indian labour reforms.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Appointment of CJI
Mains level: Not Much
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was appointed the 49th Chief Justice of India (CJI) after President Droupadi Murmu signed his warrant of appointment.
How is CJI selected?
- Justice U.U. Lalit is the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court now.
- The ‘Memorandum of Procedure of Appointment of Supreme Court Judges’ says “appointment to the office of the CJI should be of the seniormost Judge of the SC considered fit to hold the office”.
- The process begins with the Union Law Minister seeking the recommendation of the outgoing CJI about the next appointment.
What is the time frame?
- The Minister has to seek the CJI’s recommendation at the “appropriate time”.
- The Memorandum does NOT elaborate or specify a timeline.
Making final appointment
The Memorandum says:
- Receipt of the recommendation of the CJI
- The Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs will put up the recommendation to the PM
- PM will advise the President in the matter of appointment
- President of India appoints the CJI
Chief Justice of India: A brief background
- The CJI is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian federal judiciary.
Appointment
- The Constitution of India grants power to the President to nominate, and with the advice and consent of the Parliament, appoint a chief justice, who serves until they reach the age of 65 or until removed by impeachment.
- Earlier, it was a convention to appoint seniormost judges.
- However, this has been broken twice. In 1973, Justice A. N. Ray was appointed superseding 3 senior judges.
- Also, in 1977 Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg was appointed as the chief justice superseding Justice Hans Raj Khanna.
Qualifications
The Indian Constitution says in Article 124 (3) that in order to be appointed as a judge in the Supreme Court of India, the person has to fit in the following criteria:
- He/She is a citizen of India and
- has been for at least five years a Judge of a High Court or of two or more such Courts in succession; or
- has been for at least ten years an advocate of a High Court or of two or more such Courts in succession; or
- is, in the opinion of the President, a distinguished jurist
Functions
- As head of the Supreme Court, the CJI is responsible for the allocation of cases and appointment of constitutional benches which deal with important matters of law.
- In accordance with Article 145 of the Constitution and the Supreme Court Rules of Procedure of 1966, the chief justice allocates all work to the other judges.
On the administrative side, the CJI carries out the following functions:
- maintenance of the roster; appointment of court officials and general and miscellaneous matters relating to the supervision and functioning of the Supreme Court
Removal
- Article 124(4) of the Constitution lays down the procedure for removal of a judge of the Supreme Court which is applicable to chief justices as well.
- Once appointed, the chief justice remains in the office until the age of 65 years. He can be removed only through a process of removal by Parliament as follows:
- He/She can be removed by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present.
- The voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proven misbehavior or incapacity.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ONDC
Mains level: Read the attached story
US firm Microsoft has become the first big tech company to join the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
What does Microsoft joining ONDC mean?
- Microsoft getting on board the ONDC wagon means the project gets its first international marquee name ahead of its Bengaluru launch.
- A number of participants are currently live on the ONDC network, offering a number of services in the e-commerce supply chain such as buying, selling and offering logistics services.
Who else is on board
- Among those that are live are Paytm, which has joined the platform as a buyer, and Reliance-backed Dunzo, which is offering logistics services for hyperlocal deliveries.
- Companies like Kotak, PhonePe, Zoho and Snapdeal are in the “advanced stage of development”, according to the ONDC website.
- Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and Airtel have already initiated integration with the network.
- According to some media reports, e-commerce giants Flipkart and Amazon are also considering joining the network.
What is ONDC?
- ONDC seeks to promote open networks, which are developed using the open-source methodology.
- The project is aimed at curbing “digital monopolies”.
- This is a step in the direction of making e-commerce processes open-source, thus creating a platform that can be utilized by all online retailers.
- They will encourage the usage of standardized open specifications and open network protocols, which are not dependent on any particular platform or customized one.
What does one mean by ‘Open-sourcing’?
- An open-source project means that anybody is free to use, study, modify and distribute the project for any purpose.
- These permissions are enforced through an open-source licence easing adoption and facilitating collaboration.
What processes are expecting to be open-sourced with this project?
- Several operational aspects including onboarding of sellers, vendor discovery, price discovery and product cataloguing could be made open source on the lines of Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
- If mandated, this could be problematic for larger e-commerce companies, which have proprietary processes and technology deployed for these segments of operations.
What is the significance of making something open-source?
- Making a software or a process open-source means that the code or the steps of that process is made available freely for others to use, redistribute and modify.
- If the ONDC gets implemented and mandated, it would mean that all e-commerce companies will have to operate using the same processes.
- This could give a huge booster shot to smaller online retailers and new entrants.
What does the DPIIT intend from the project?
- ONDC is expected to digitize the entire value chain, standardize operations, promote inclusion of suppliers, derive efficiencies in logistics and enhance value for stakeholders and consumers.
Countering ‘Digital Monopoly’
- Digital monopolies refer to a scenario wherein e-commerce giants or Big Tech companies tend to dominate and flout competition law pertaining to monopoly.
- The Giants have built their own proprietary platforms for operations.
- In March, India moved to shake up digital monopolies in the country’s $ 1+ trillion retail market by making public a draft of a code of conduct — Draft Ecommerce Policy, reported Bloomberg.
- The government sought to help local start-ups and reduce the dominance of giants such as Amazon and Walmart-Flipkart.
- The rules sought to define the cross-border flow of user data after taking into account complaints by small retailers.
Processes in the ONDC
- Sellers will be onboarded through open networks. Other open-source processes will include those such as vendor and price discovery; and product cataloging.
- The format will be similar to the one which is used in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
- Mega e-commerce companies have proprietary processes and technology for these operations.
- Marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, BigBasket and Grofers will need to register on the ONDC platform to be created by DPIIT and QCI.
- The task of implementing DPIIT’s ONDC project has been assigned to the Quality Council of India (QCI).
Why such a move by the govt?
- This COVID pandemic has made every business to go digital.
- India is a country with 700 million internet users of whom large crunch of population are active buyers on e-coms.
- There are 9 platforms in the world which are billion user platform and all are private. This is the monopoly which the govt aims to hit.
- No country would ever want a few (foreign) companies to control their domestic e-commerce ecosystem.
- Countries like US are struggling to control their monopoly over the e-commerce giants leaving no space for Indian legislations to control these overseas companies.
- In India Amazon, Walmart, Uber are controlling larger crunch of share in the market leaving very less scope for domestic companies to cope up with.
Scope for ONDCs success
- Over last 50 years India is dealing with Big Tech companies with responsibility and pragmatic manner. Now it is also coming with new policies to control them.
- The drafting panel has extraordinary persons like Mr. Nandan Nilekani and others who were in Aadhar, NPCI, MyGov, Retail industry and these make it inclusive and innovative.
- India has successfully executed various public digital platforms like JAM Trinity, Aadhar linked projects. India for sure can handle its digital ecosystem better in e-coms too.
- Open-sourcing will benefit society at large as did the UPI.
Issues that can be raised
- Draft E-Commerce policy can raise resistance from companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Walmart etc.
- They may raise hues over operability and ease of doing business.
- MSMEs have already raised the growing compliance burden for e-commerce.
- They have argued that the govt is technologically and digitally motivating everybody to get online and on the other hand it is culling their very ability to reach out to the consumer to get more people on board.
Possible issues with ONDC
- Every platform has its own challenges so would the ONDC may have.
- While UPI was ruled out (BHIM being the first) people were reluctant in using it due to transaction failures.
- With subsequent improvements and openness people and businesses are using it in every walks of life. So it would work with ONDC.
Conclusion
- Once adopted, ONDC will make sure consumer and seller interest will be protected as the UPI did.
- Best is yet to come and we are in 4th industrial revolution where the Govt should strengthen itself accordingly and make businesses inclusive and restrict the monopolies.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Medical education in India
Context
- The increasing population (1.32 billion ) and the occurrence of diseases, demands Indian medical education and the training approach to be modified and ensure enhancing practical clinical skills, than just sticking with predominantly theoretical or classroom training.
- The demand for medicine to be taught in language beside English has been made repeatedly over the years, and was reiterated by union home minister recently.
Definition
- Medical education consists of training aimed at ensuring physicians acquire the competencies, skills and aptitudes that that allow them to practice professionally and ethically at the highest level.
Goal of medical education
- The goal of basic medical education is to ensure that medical students have acquired the knowledge, skills, and professional behaviors that prepare them for a spectrum of career choices, including, but not limited to, patient care, public health, clinical or basic research, leadership and management, or medical education.
Why medical education in India needs urgent reforms
- Current Status: Despite being home to one of the oldest medicinal systems in the world, India is still struggling to bring its medical education at par with the leaders around the world. The 541 medical colleges in the country haven’t been able to reach the standard of education that could meet the healthcare needs of the country.
- Deficiency: The doctor-patient ratio of 1:1655 in India as against WHO norm of 1:1000 clearly shows the deficit of MBBS. While the government is working towards a solution and targeting to reach the required ratio, there is a need to relook at the overall medical education.
- Post pandemic scenario: The lag in formal medical education has come up evidently post-pandemic when the nation saw the medical fraternity struggling to fill the doctor deficit.
- Structural issues: It also brought forth the outdated learning methods that most of the medical institutes were using. Due to lockdown and fear of Covid-19 spread, a lot of institutes cancelled lectures and practical sessions.
Current challenges faced by medical education in India
- Limited government seats: The number of seats available for medical education in India is far less than the number of aspirants who leave school with the dream of becoming doctors.
- What data speaks: Of the 1.6 million students who appeared in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in 2021, only 88,120 made it into the 562 medical colleges in the country. Others had to enrol in non-medical courses in India or seek admission to foreign medical colleges. While the number of medical colleges has now increased to 596 (with 89,875 seats), the entry barrier is still high.
- Lack of skills: Though the institutes are managing to hire professors and lecturers, there is a lack of technical skills. Finding faculties in clinical and non-clinical disciplines is difficult and there are very few faculty development programs for upskilling the existing lot.
- Lack of infrastructure: The gap in digital learning infrastructure is currently the biggest challenge the sector is facing. There is an urgent need to adopt technology and have resources available to facilitate e-learning.
- Lack of research and innovation: The medical research and innovation needs an added push as there haven’t been many ground-breaking research here. The education system needs to focus more on increasing the quality of research. Additionally since industry academia partnership is not available, hence innovation also takes a back-seat.
A recent analysis estimates that India has only 4.8 fully qualified and actively serving doctors per 10,000 population.
Government steps in tackling these challenges and issues
- NMC bill: The National Medical Commission Bill, 2019 was passed recently by the parliament. The bill sets up the National Medical Commission (NMC) which will act as an umbrella regulatory body in the medical education system. The NMC will subsume the MCI and will regulate medical education and practice in India. Apart from this, it also provides for reforms in the medical education system.
- MCI suggestion: The Medical Council of India (MCI) launched the globally recognized Competency-based medical education (CBME) for MBBS students in 2019. The CBME curriculum seeks to step away from a content-based syllabus and more towards one that is more practical and aligned with the country’s increasing health demands.
- Schemes: 22 new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) were developed under this initiative, and MBBS classes have already commenced at 18 of the new AIIMS.
About NMC
The Aim of the National Medical Commission are to (i) improve access to quality and affordable medical education, (ii) ensure availability of adequate and high quality medical professionals in all parts of the country; (iii) promote equitable and universal healthcare that encourages community health perspective and makes services of medical professionals accessible to all the citizens; (iv) encourages medical professionals to adopt latest medical research in their work and to contribute to research; (v) objectively assess medical institutions periodically in a transparent manner; (vi) maintain a medical register for India; (vi) enforce high ethical standards in all aspects of medical services; (vii) have an effective grievance redressal mechanism. |
Steps to be taken
- To cater to any unprecedented demand in the future and to bring up the quality of education, the Indian medical education system undoubtedly needs major reforms.
- While the focus needs to be put on improving the curriculum to bring competency-based education, there are several ways that can help bring reform in the current medical education system. Some of these are;
- Leveraging technology to offer digital learning solutions
- Capitalizing on e-learning and facilitating infrastructure to support it
- Revising curriculum to have more practical training, competency-based skill development
- Inculcating problem-solving approach by situational/case-based examination
- A broad-based faculty development program to sharpen the competency of teachers
- Eliminating caste-based reservation and paving way for merit-based admission
- Industry academia collaboration to facilitate innovation
Way forward
- There should be a substantial step-up in public investment in medical education.
- By establishing new medical colleges, the government can increase student intake as well as enhance equitable access to medical education.
- Besides, it must allocate adequate financial resources to strengthen the overall capacity of existing medical colleges to enrich student learning and improve output.
Try this question for mains
Q. Considering the large diaspora of medical students across the globe do you consider there are problems in Indian medical education system? If there are any ,discuss them along with current health status and steps needed to counter them .
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Green carbon fee
Mains level: Sustainable development
Context
- According to NITI Aayog, “600 million people in India face high to extreme water stress with nearly 70% of water being contaminated; India is placed at 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index”.
- The latest global environmental ranking by Yale and Columbia Universities puts India at the bottom among 180 countries.
What is development?
- Economic development means different things to different people. On a broad scale, anything a community does to foster and create a healthy economy can fall under the auspice of economic development.
What is sustainability?
- The integration of environmental health, social equity and economic vitality in order to create thriving, healthy, diverse and resilient communities for this generation and generations to come. The practice of sustainability recognizes how these issues are interconnected and requires a systems approach and an acknowledgement of complexity.
- Sustainability is the balance between the environment, equity, and economy.
What sustainability do for us?
- Sustainable practices support ecological, human, and economic health and vitality.
- Sustainability presumes that resources are finite, and should be used conservatively and wisely with a view to long-term priorities and consequences of the ways in which resources are used.
- In simplest terms, sustainability is about our children and our grandchildren, and the world we will leave them.
Definition of carrying capacity of earth
- Carrying capacity: Carrying capacity is the maximum number of a species an environment can support indefinitely. Every species has a carrying capacity, even humans. The species population size is limited by environmental factors like adequate food, shelter, water, and mates. If these needs are not met, the population will decrease until the resource rebounds.
Mother earth has reached its carrying capacity now
- No species has altered the Earth’s natural landscape the way humans have.
- Global climate change, mass extinction, and overexploitation of our global commons are all examples of the ways in which humans have altered the natural landscape.
- Our growing population, coupled with rising affluence and per capita impact, is driving our planet closer to its tipping point.
- With population expected to reach 5 billion by 2050, many wonder if our natural resources can keep up with our growing demands.
Enrich your mains answer with this
8 Billion dreams, ambitions, aspirations and only one earth to support them all . Human population, now nearing 8 billion, cannot continue to grow indefinitely. There are limits to the life-sustaining resources earth can provide us. In other words, there is a carrying capacity for human life on our planet.
Development vs environment issues
- Unemployment: For India, the national context is shaped by high youth unemployment, millions more entering the workforce each year, and a country hungry for substantial investments in hard infrastructure to industrialise and urbanise.
- Growth with low emission footprint: India’s economic growth in the last three decades, led by growth in the services sector, has come at a significantly lower emissions footprint.
- Infrastructure: But in the coming decades, India will have to move to an investment-led and manufacturing-intensive growth model to create job opportunities and create entirely new cities and infrastructure to accommodate and connect an increasingly urban population.
Why a Carbon Fee and Dividend is Imperative
It is clear that we will soon pass the limit on carbon emissions, because it requires decades to replace fossil fuel energy infrastructure with carbon-neutral and carbon negative energies.
What could India do to pursue an industrialization pathway that is climate-compatible?
- A coherent national transition strategy is important in a global context where industrialised countries are discussing the imposition of carbon border taxes while failing to provide developing countries the necessary carbon space to grow or the finance and technological assistance necessary to decarbonise.
- What India needs is an overarching green industrialisation strategy that combines laws, policy instruments, and new or reformed implementing institutions to steer its decentralised economic activities to become climate-friendly and resilient.
Case study for value addition
- Bhutan: Bhutan remains, for example, the first and only carbon-negative country in the world, and they have also recently prevented the COVID-19 pandemic from overwhelming its population, with only one Bhutanese citizen passing away from the virus to date.
|
Way forward
- India should set its pace based on its ability to capitalise on the opportunities to create wealth through green industrialisation.
Mains question
Do you think mother earth has reached its carrying capacity? Discuss this in context of development vs environment debate.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 44
Mains level: Paper 2- Uniform civil code issue
Context
The Portuguese Civil Code of 1867, the so-called “common civil code” of Goa, is in the news again. A 28-member parliamentary standing committee recently visited the state to study it in the context of the demand for a uniform civil code.
Background
- Long before the arrival of the British imperialists in India, the Portuguese had occupied certain territories in the coastal regions with its capital in Cochin, later shifted to Goa.
- They did not interfere with the local customs relating to family relations and framed, in the mid-19th century, three separate codes of religion-based customary laws of Goa, Daman and Diu.
- The three codes were formally enforced as the law by royal decrees issued by the King of Portugal.
- The Portuguese Civil Code of 1867 was extended to Goa, Daman and Diu by a royal decree of November 18, 1869, declaring that the code would apply to the natives subject to the local usages and customs “so far as they are not inconsistent with morality or public order”.
- In 1910, the Portuguese parliament enacted two civil marriage and divorce decrees and, in 1946, a canonical marriage decree for Catholics.
- All of these too were extended to Goa, Daman and Diu.
- The family law applied by the Portuguese, both at home and in the occupied Indian territories, was thus not a uniform code but a loose conglomeration of civil and religious laws.
After Indian independence
- Fourteen years after the advent of Independence, Goa and its affiliated territories were liberated and turned into a Union Territory (UT) under central rule.
- The Goa, Daman and Diu Administration Act of 1962 declared that all laws in force in these territories before their liberation would continue to be in force “until amended or repealed by a competent legislature or other competent authority” (Section 5).
- None of the pre-liberation family laws was, however, amended or repealed.
- Nor was any central law on family rights, including the four Hindu law Acts of 1955-56, extended to any of the three territories.
- In 1987, the Goa, Daman and Diu Reorganisation Act made Goa a full-fledged state with its own legislative assembly and left Daman and Diu as a UT.
- Twenty-five years later, the Goa state legislature enacted the Succession, Special Notaries and Inventory Proceedings Act, amending certain provisions, mainly procedural, of the 155-year old civil code.
- In 2019, the UT of Daman and Diu was merged with another such territory – Dadra and Nagar Haveli (also ruled in the past by Portugal) — to form a single UT under central rule.
- As laid down in Section 17 of the unifying Act, this development did not in any way change the family law system prevailing in either of these places since their liberation from foreign rule.
Need for uniform civil code
- The law ministry has told the concerned standing committee of Parliament that the Portuguese civil code and its later amendments as in force in Goa may — if required — be duly reviewed.
- Uniform civil code: What has been said now by the law ministry about Goa is in the context of implementing the constitutional directive of Article 44 for a uniform civil code for the citizens throughout the territory of India.
- However, while the 21st Law Commission had already given its opinion against the feasibility and need of such a code at this juncture
- In recent months, the ministry has told Parliament about its reference on this issue to the Law Commission.
- There is no justification for retaining over a century-old archaic law, 75 years after the independence of India.
- Hindu law Acts of 1955-56 governing four religious communities in the rest of the country needs to be extended to the same communities in Goa, Daman and Diu.
Conclusion
The ministry has now reportedly told the parliamentary committee that enacting a uniform civil code would be possible only when a “sizeable majority” of the people seeks such a change.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Samba mashuri rice, Wax Deoiling Technology
Mains level: CSIR ,IPR regime
Context
- Senior scientist Nallathamby Kalaiselvi was appointed the director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), on Saturday, August 6, 2022. This makes her the first woman to head the largest research and development organisation in India, which runs 38 laboratories and institutes, 39 outreach centres, and three innovation centres.
What is CSIR?
- The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the largest research and development organisation in India.
- CSIR covers a wide spectrum of science and technology – from oceanography, geophysics, chemicals, drugs, genomics, biotechnology and nanotechnology to mining, aeronautics, instrumentation, environmental engineering and information technology.
Who established it?
- Dr Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar
- He was the Founder Director (and later first Director-General) of CSIR who is credited with establishing twelve national laboratories. He played a significant role in the building of post-independent Science and Technology infrastructure and in the formulation of India’s S & T policies
CSIR’s Vision
- “Pursue science which strives for global impact, technology that enables innovation – driven industry and nurture trans-disciplinary leadership thereby catalyzing inclusive economic development for the people of India”
Why CSIR is important?
- Innovation: Regarding intellectual property, the CSIR has over 2971 patents filed internationally with 1592 patents filed in India. Since its inception in 1942 over 14000 patents have been granted worldwide. It was awarded the National Intellectual Property Award in 2018 by the India Patent Office.
- Pandemic handling: CSIR identified the unmet needs, assessed its strengths and capabilities for addressing the pandemic and adopted a multi-pronged strategy of working on diagnostics, surveillance, drugs, hospital assistive devices, personal protective equipment and supply chain and logistics. This strategy is now beginning to yield exciting solutions.
Contribution of CSIR
Strategic Sector
- Head-Up-Display (HUD) In high-tech areas, CSIR-NAL made significant contribution by developing indigenous Head-Up- display(HUD) for Indian Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas. HUD aids the pilot in flying the aircraft and in critical flight maneuvers including weapon aiming.
- Design and Development of Indigenous Gyrotron: Addressing the challenges of technology denial:Design and development of indigenous gyrotron for nuclear fusion reactor has been accomplished.
Energy & Environment
- Solar Tree: On July 22nda solar tree designed by CSIR- CMERI lab in Durgapur was launched which occupies minimum space to produce clean power.
- Wax Deoiling Technology:Technology developed for recovery of wax developed in collaboration with Engineers India Limited (EIL) and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd., (NRL). Country’s largest wax producing (50,000 metric ton) plant has been commissioned at NRL with investment of over Rs 600 crore.
Value added Agriculture
- Medicinal and Aromatic Plants:Enhanced cultivation of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in the country brought about through development of new varieties and agro-technologies.
- Samba Mahsuri Rice Variety – Bacterial Blight Resistant:CSIR has in collaboration with DRR (ICAR) and DBT part funding developed an improved bacterial blight resistant Samba Mahsuri variety.
- Rice Cultivar (Muktashree) for Arsenic Contaminated Areas:A rice variety has been developed which restricts assimilation of Arsenic within permissible limit. The variety has been released to farmers of West Bengal.
- White-fly resistant Cotton variety:Developed a transgenic cotton line which is resistant to whiteflies. It is expected to render it commercially cultivable in 10 years, after due regulatory clearances.
Healthcare
- JD Vaccine for Farm Animals:Vaccine developed and commercialized for Johne’s disease affecting Sheep, Goat, Cow and Buffalo so as to immunize them and increase milk and meat production.
- Plasma Gelsolin Diagnostic Kit for Premature Births, and Sepsis related Deaths:A new kit is being developed to diagnose pre-mature birth and sepsis.
- Genomics and other omics technologies for Enabling Medical Decision – GOMED: Genetic diseases, though are individually rare, cumulatively affect a large number of individuals. A programme called GOMED (Genomics and other omics technologies for Enabling Medical Decision) has been developed by the CSIR which provides a platform of disease genomics to solve clinical problems.
Food & Nutrition
- Ksheer-scanner: The Ksheer Scanner, a new technological invention by CSIR-CEERI detects the level of milk adulteration and adulterants in 45 seconds at the cost of 10 paise,
- Double-Fortified Salt:Salt fortified with iodine and iron having improved properties developed and tested for addressing anaemia in people. To be launched in the market soon.
- Anti-obesity DAG Oil:Oil enriched with Diacylglycerol (DAG) instead of conventional triacylglycerol (TAG) developed. To be launched in the market soon.
Water
- Aquifer Mapping of Water Scarce Areas: Heliborne transient electromagnetic and surface magnetic technique based aquifer mapping carried out in six different geological locations in Rajasthan (2), Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
- Understanding the Special Properties of the Ganga Water:Assessment of Water Quality & Sediment Analysis of Ganga from different parts being done.
Some of the challenges faced for sustainable growth of R&D in India are
- Low research professionals: India has an estimated full-time equivalent R&D professional strength of only 150 professionals per million, compared to that of other countries.
- Low investment: Indian research is mostly skewed towards basic research and lacks in application oriented R&D. The vast majority of organizations would rather go for quick acquisition of technology rather than invest in internal R&D.
- IPR enforcement: Inadequate enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR). While India has improved its IPR regime, the protection of intellectual property remains weak in some areas owing to inadequate laws and ineffective enforcement.
Some positive suggestions to improve innovation
- Embrace technology: Technologies, such as machine learning, can be used to improve R&D decision-making. Documents need to be filed throughout the R&D process, for example, and the process could be automated to free up employees to do more complex tasks.
- Invest in innovation hubs: Companies that invest in innovation hubs expand talent and relationships with local universities and startups can support a two-way learning process and faster innovation cycles.
- Promoting startups: Most radical innovations are coming from startups and more of them are needed. Tilting higher education towards science and encouraging more students to take degrees in science-based subjects can provide the people needed for R&D.
Conclusion
India is a strong contender in the field of Global R&D. For India to derive maximum growth and sustainability of R&D, its R&D fundamentals have to be strong and excellent.
Mains question
Q.Culture of innovation is needed in national growth in this context discuss what is IPR regime? How CSIR has helped to consolidate it?
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Open Access Registry (NOAR):
Mains level: UDAY,RDSS
Context
- The Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) power distribution companies (DISCOMs) subscribed to the Late Payment Surcharge (LPS) scheme introduced by the Central government to reduce their liability to generators in a phased manner over the next 12 months.
What are discoms?
- Power distribution companies collect payments from consumers against their energy supplies (purchased from generators) to provide necessary cash flows to the generation and transmission sectors to operate.
What is UDAY scheme?
- Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana is the financial turnaround and revival package for electricity distribution companies of India initiated by the Government of India with the intent to find a permanent solution to the financial mess that the power distribution is in.
What is The Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS)?
- The revamped power distribution sector scheme aims to: Improve operational efficiencies, financial sustainability of discoms and power departments. Provide financial assistance to discoms. Modernise and strengthen distribution infrastructure. Improve reliability and quality of supply to the end consumers.
Low performance of Discoms
1) On the basis of AT&C losses
- A key metric to measure the performance of discoms is AT&C losses.
- The UDAY scheme had envisaged bringing down these losses to 15 per cent by 2019.
- However, as per data on the UDAY dashboard, the AT&C losses currently stand at 21.7 per cent at the all-India level.
- In the case of the low-income north and central-eastern states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh — the losses are considerably higher.
2) On the basis of cost and revenue per unit
- On another metric — the gap between discoms costs and revenues — the difference, supposed to have been eliminated by now, stands at Rs 0.49 per unit in the absence of regular and commensurate tariff hikes.
- For the high-income southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, this gap between costs and revenues is significantly higher.
What are the factors responsible for inefficiencies?
1) Electrification push without cost restructuring
- The government’s push for ensuring electrification of all have contributed to greater inefficiency.
- To support higher levels of electrification, cost structures need to be reworked, and the distribution network would need to be augmented — in the absence of all this, losses are bound to rise.
2) Economic fallout of the pandemic
- With demand from industrial and commercial users falling, revenue from this stream, which is used to cross-subsidise other consumers, has declined, exacerbating the stress on discom finances.
- A turnaround in the economy will provide some relief, but will not form the basis of a sustained improvement in finances.
3) Lack of consumer data and metering
- Even six years after UDAY was launched, various levels in the distribution chain — the feeder, the distribution transformer (DT) and the consumer — have not been fully metered.
- As a result, it is difficult to ascertain the level in the chain where losses are occurring.
- Other than discoms in metros like Delhi and Mumbai, there is also limited data on which consumer is attached to which DT.
- This lack of data makes it difficult to isolate and identify loss-making areas and take corrective action.
4) No tariff hike
- The continuing absence of political consensus at the state level to raise tariffs or to bring down AT&C losses signal a lack of resolve to tackle the issues plaguing the sector.
Suggestions to improve the situation
- Single discom: One of the solution centres around a national power distribution company.
- Financial adjustment: Another option is to deduct discom dues, owed to both public and private power generating companies, from state balances with the RBI forcing states to take the necessary steps to fix discom finances.
- National Open Access Registry (NOAR): NOAR is a centralized online platform through which the short-term open access to the inter-state transmission system is being managed in India.
- Promote privatization: Since in an earlier policy statement the government had mentioned that privatization of discoms is to be promoted, it would make sense to consider this transitional support as a catalyst.
- Provide transitional financial support: An alternate approach that could be considered by the Centre (in lieu of such assistance schemes) is providing only transitional financial support to all discoms, which are privatized under the private-public partnership mode.
Conclusion
- Continuously subsidising discoms for their AT&C losses (operational inefficiencies), and for not supplying power at commensurate tariffs to low-income households and agricultural customers (for political considerations) will become fiscally untenable.
Mains question
Q.There is growing demand for one nation one grid in this context Discuss the problems faced by various discoms. Suggest some robust solutions to address these problems sustainably.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Eco-sensitive Zones (ESZs)
Mains level: Read the attached story
Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has said that the Ministry will file a review petition in the Supreme Court urging a relook into its judgment on eco-sensitive zones.
Why in news?
- The Supreme Court has earlier directed that every protected forest, national park and wildlife sanctuary across the country should have a mandatory eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of a minimum one km starting from their demarcated boundaries.
Why such move?
- The purpose of declaring ESZs around national parks, forests and sanctuaries is to create some kind of a “shock absorber” for the protected areas.
- These zones would act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to those involving lesser protection.
What are the Eco-sensitive Zones (ESZs)?
- Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) or Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFAs) are areas notified by the MoEFCC around Protected Areas, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
- The purpose of declaring ESZs is to create some kind of “shock absorbers” to the protected areas by regulating and managing the activities around such areas.
- They also act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to areas involving lesser protection.
How are they demarcated?
- The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 does not mention the word “Eco-Sensitive Zones”.
- However, Section 3(2)(v) of the Act, says that Central Government can restrict areas in which any industries, operations or processes or class of industries, operations or processes shall be carried out or shall not, subject to certain safeguards.
- Besides Rule 5(1) of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 states that central government can prohibit or restrict the location of industries and carrying on certain operations or processes on the basis of certain considerations.
- The same criteria have been used by the government to declare No Development Zones (NDZs).
Defining its boundaries
- An ESZ could go up to 10 kilometres around a protected area as provided in the Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 2002.
- Moreover, in the case where sensitive corridors, connectivity and ecologically important patches, crucial for landscape linkage, are beyond 10 km width, these should be included in the ESZs.
- Further, even in the context of a particular Protected Area, the distribution of an area of ESZ and the extent of regulation may not be uniform all around and it could be of variable width and extent.
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