Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Eklavya Model School
Mains level: Not Much
A Parliamentary panel has refuted that 20,000 ST people, who make up at least 50% of the total population criteria is “impractical” to build new Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS).
What are Eklavya Schools?
- EMRS started in the year 1997-98 to impart quality education to Scheduled Tribes (ST) children in remote areas in order.
- It aims to enable them to avail of opportunities in high and professional educational courses and get employment in various sectors.
- The schools focus not only on academic education but on the all-round development of the students.
- Each school has a capacity of 480 students, catering to students from Class VI to XII.
- Hitherto, grants were given for construction of schools and recurring expenses to the State Governments under Grants under Article 275 (1) of the Constitution.
- Eklavya schools are on par with Navodaya Vidyalaya and have special facilities for preserving local art and culture besides providing training in sports and skill development.
Features of Eklavya Schools
- Admission to these schools will be through selection/competition with suitable provision for preference to children belonging to Primitive Tribal Groups, first-generation students, etc.
- Sufficient land would be given by the State Government for the school, playgrounds, hostels, residential quarters, etc., free of cost.
- The number of seats for boys and girls will be equal.
- In these schools, education will be entirely free.
What is the population-based criteria?
- The Tribal Affairs Ministry plans to build EMRS on 15 acres of land in all sub-districts which have ST communities of more than 20,000 people, who make up at least 50% of their total population.
- Wherever density of ST population is higher in identified Sub-Districts (90% or more), it is proposed to set up Eklavya Model Day Boarding School (EMDBS) on an experimental basis.
Issues with this criteria
- There are difficulties in identifying and acquiring lands in several tribal districts.
- Especially in forested or hilly areas, a contiguous 15-acre plot is hard to find.
- This criterion would also deprive scattered ST populations of the benefit of the Eklavya schools.
- For most of the places for EMRSs, there is no land available inside the village or the block.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sahel Region
Mains level: NA
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the end of the decade-long Operation Barkhane in Africa’s Sahel Region.
Note the nations falling in Sahel Region.
Sahel Region
- The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition in Africa between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south.
- Having a semi-arid climate, it stretches across the south-central latitudes of Northern Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea.
- The name is derived from the Arabic term for “coast, shore”; this is explained as being used in a figurative sense in reference to the southern edge of the vast Sahara.
- The Sahel part includes from west to east parts of northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, central Mali, northern Burkina Faso, the extreme south of Algeria, Niger, the extreme north of Nigeria, the extreme north of Cameroon and the Central African Republic, central Chad, central and southern Sudan, the extreme north of South Sudan, Eritrea and the extreme north of Ethiopia.
What is Operation Barkhane?
- France began its military operations in Sahel in January 2013.
- Titled Operation Serval, it was limited to targeting Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda who took control of northern Mali.
- However, in 2014, the mission was scaled up, renamed Operation Barkhane and was aimed at counter-terrorism.
- The objective was to assist local armed forces to prevent the resurgence of non-state armed groups across the Sahel region.
- Around 4,500 French personnel were deployed with the local joint counter-terrorism force.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: world university rankings
Mains level: Issues with the autonomy of the universities
Context
- It is sad but not surprising that none of India’s institutions of higher education appears in the list of top 100 universities of the world.
- According to the QS World ranking: The 2023 edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) world university ranking reckons that three of India’s higher educational institutions amongst the top 200 of the World. Another three are counted among the top 300 whereas two more in the top 400.
- As per the Times Higher education Ranking: The Times Higher Education (THE) ranking places only one Indian institution among the top 400 of the worlds.
- Academic rankings: Rankings are the same with the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). Barring one of the most eminent public-funded deemed universities of the country, all the rest are Institutions of National Importance (INIs) the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), to be specific.
Why other universities reflect poor performance than IITs and INIs?
- IITs have more autonomy: IITs are not only better funded but also generally self-governed, enjoying a greater degree of autonomy as they fall outside the regulatory purview of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
- Strict UGC regulations: Funded through the University Grants Commission (UGC), universities are all subject to a very strict regulatory regime.
- Micro-management of universities functioning: Abiding by UGC regulations and AICTE guidelines, encompasses almost all aspects of their functioning be it faculty recruitment, student admission and the award of degrees. In many cases, they are micro-managed by the regulatory authorities.
- Very less autonomy to UGC affiliated Universities: Most of the universities have become so comfortable with the practice that they rarely assert their autonomy.
- Ranking on basis of compliance: Central universities in the country are also ranked on the basis of their ‘obedience’ to regulatory compliances. Even in the academic domain, many of them are comfortable in publicly stating that they have adopted the model curricula, pedagogy and syllabi prescribed by the regulatory bodies, even though the same may have been only indicative.
What are the good practices of best universities around the world?
- Importance to autonomy: The best universities in the world are continuously sensitized about the importance of their autonomy and are trained and enabled to make their own decisions.
- University autonomy tool for comparison: The European University Association (EUA), for example, prescribes a ‘university autonomy tool’ that lets each member university compare its level of autonomy vis-à-vis the other European higher education systems across all member countries.
- Four specific autonomies for ranking: By focusing on four autonomy areas (organizational, financial, staffing, and academic) the EUA computes composite scores and ranks all the countries in Europe.
What are the efforts taken to improve the universities performance?
- National education policy 2020: A large number of commissions and committees, including the national policies on education (including the National Education Policy 2020), have highlighted the need for higher education autonomy. The new education policy seeks to completely overhaul the higher education system, and to attain this objective, repeatedly emphasizes the need for institutional autonomy.
- Academic and administrative autonomy: The NEP regards academic and administrative autonomy essential for making higher education multi-disciplinary, and that teacher and institutional autonomy are a sine qua non in promoting creativity and innovation.
- Independent board of management: The policy considers a lack of autonomy as one of the major problems of higher education and promises to ensure faculty and institutional autonomy through a highly independent and empowered board of management which would be vested with academic and administrative autonomy.
- Light but tight regulation: It argues for a ‘light but tight’ regulatory framework and insists that the new regulatory regime would foster a culture of empowerment. Further, it goes on to say that by relying on a robust system of accreditation, all higher education institutions would gradually gain full academic and administrative autonomy.
Conclusion
- Universities in India have been losing their autonomy. In the two years since the approval, announcement, and gradual implementation of the NEP, universities in India today are far less autonomous than earlier. If India wants to be leader in knowledge and patent economy then its universities must be freed from clutches of unreasonable regulations.
Mains Question
Q. Why Indian universities does poor on world ranking of universities? Autonomy of university is keystone to improve the performance of universities. Examine.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indigenous developments
Mains level: Self reliant in defence Industry
Context
- Defence-Expo 2022 held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat in October drew attention to a major policy initiative, the need for India to acquire the appropriate degree of “atma nirbharata” (self-reliance) in the defence sector and the arduous path ahead.
What is the present status of defence supplies in India?
- High dependency on foreign supply: Even as India aspires to become a $5-trillion economy, it is evident that it faces many national security inadequacies. The high dependency index on foreign suppliers (traditionally the former USSR now Russia) for major military inventory items is stark.
- Risk of National vulnerability: This dependency induces a macro national vulnerability and dilutes India’s quest for meaningful and credible strategic autonomy.
- Undermining national interest: Furthermore, the current gaps in combat capacity expose the chinks in the Indian ability to safeguard core national security interests. The Galwan setback apropos China is illustrative.
Do you know the following examples of Indigenous defence production?
- INS Vikrant: The commissioning of the indigenously-designed and built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.
- SLBM Missiles: The recent test fired SLBM (submarine-launched ballistic missile) from the INS Arihant is indigenously bulit.
- LCH Prachand: The induction of the made in India Prachand LCH (light combat helicopter) is significant leap.
- Kalashnikov-type light weapon: The conclusion of a deal with Russia to manufacture a Kalashnikov-type light weapon/small arms in India.
- 155mm artillery Gun: The 155-mm artillery guns being designed and manufactured in the country.
Current scenario of India’s Defence export
- Rising defence export: India’s defence exports have grown eight times in the last five years.
- Exporting the defence material to 75 nations: India is exporting defence materials and equipment to more than 75 countries of the world. In 2021-22, defence exports from India reached $1.59 billion (about Rs 13,000 crore).
- Target of $5 billion export: The government has now set a target of $5 billion (Rs 40,000 crore).” This is an ambitious target and will demand mission-mode resolve to be realised.
Why our defence industry is not competitive at global stage?
- Import of critical components: India does not yet have the domestic competence to fully design and manufacture any significant combat weapon/platform and is dependent on the foreign supplier for the critical components that lie at the core of the combat index of the equipment in question.
- Partial methods of indigenous manufacturing: While it is commendable that India is now going to manufacture the C295 transport aircraft in a collaboration with AirBus, France, the reality is that the engine, avionics, landing gear, etc, will come from abroad and the integration will be done by the Indian entity.
- Soft defence export: While India now claims that it will soon become a major arms exporter, the composition of such inventory leans towards the “soft” category (clothing, helmets, surveillance equipment).
- No major defence manufacturing hub: India missed the industrial design and manufacturing bus, a national competence demonstrated by nations like South Korea and China, over the last five decades. Technological advances have made the design and manufacture of the semiconductor chip the new currency of national prosperity and military power.
- Increasing the investment in R&D is necessary: At the heart of this challenge is the grim reality that historically, India has not invested enough in the national research and development (R&D) effort. As per data collated by the World Bank, India has been able to allocate only 0.66 per cent of GDP (2018) towards R&D, while the world average is 2.63 per cent.
- Matching with the Global players in R&D: The comparable individual R&D allocation (per cent of GDP) for some other nations is as follows: Israel 5.44; USA 3.45; Japan 3.26; Germany 3.14; China 2.4; and Turkey 1.09.
- Making the R&D prior national issue: Providing a sustained fillip to the national R&D effort across the board (state, corporate and academia) remains critical if India is to emerge as a credible military power and one would identify this as a high-priority issue for the national security apex the CCS (cabinet committee on security).
Read this news Defence- Expo 2022
- India’s flagship exhibition on land, naval and homeland security systems.
- Defence-Expo 2022 was the 12th edition, held in Gandhinagar, Gujrat
- Largest participation with 75 countries so far.
- A milestone under Atmanirbhar Bharat policy.
Conclusion
- The push to achieve self-reliance in defence is commendable. India must step up R&D to achieve competence in design, manufacture of combat weapons/platforms. Meaningful indigenisation and credible “atma nirbharta” calls for sustained funding support, fortitude and an ecosystem that will nurture this effort.
Mains Question
Q. Discuss the current state of indigenous defence production in India? Why Indian defence industry is not Globally competitive?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kisan Rail
Mains level: Read the attached story
Punjab has assured Kerala Government to provide paddy straw for usage as fodder for livestock using the Kisan Rail Project.
Why such move?
- Kerala, being a land-stressed coastal state, does not generate enough roughage that can be used as fodder for cattle.
- It ranks second in milk production after Punjab.
- The move will help Punjab to deal with the excessive paddy straw which contributes to stubble burning.
About Kisan Rail Project
- In the Union Budget 2020-21 an announcement was made by the Union Finance Minister regarding the launch of Kisan Rail.
- The idea behind running Kisan Rail services is to move perishables including fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fishery and dairy products from production or surplus regions to consumption or deficient regions.
- The speedy rail movement would thus ensure minimum damage during transit.
How can farmers transport their produce?
- The farmers have to approach the Chief Parcel Supervisor of the Railway Stations from where the Kisan Rail service is scheduled to originate or to have enroute stoppage, along with their consignment.
- Due care is taken to ensure that the packing condition is not faulty.
- The consignment is weighed and charges are levied as per the prescribed parcel rates (P-scale).
Salient features
- 50 percent subsidy is given in freight for transportation of fruits and vegetables.
- The subsidy is being borne by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries under their Operation Greens – TOP to Total scheme.
- There is no minimum limit on quantity that can be booked, enabling small famers to reach bigger and distant markets.
- Kisan Rails are based on the concept of multi commodity, multi consignor, multi consignee and multi stoppages – to help small farmers with lesser produce to transport their consignment without any middleman.
Need for such scheme
- Farmers, especially small and marginal farmers, often find it difficult to sell their produce in markets beyond a certain distance.
- This is primarily due to factors such as non-availability of affordable transport, delay in transit resulting in damage/decay to produce, and unwillingness of road transporters to carry small sized consignments.
Benefits provided
- Access to markets: Vast network of Indian Railways enables farmers from remote villages to connect to the mainstream market and sell their agricultural produce.
- Helps prevent food wastage: It saves times and encourages farmers to transport their perishables to greater distances and bigger markets.
- Getting better deal for farmers: Kisan Rail is a factor enabling improvement in terms of trade for farmers and the real returns received by farmers for their produce.
- Doubling farmers’ income: Access to such markets will enable farmers to sell their produce at a better price, which will go a long way in fulfilling Government’s vision of ‘doubling farmers’ income.’
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Collegium system, NJAC
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Supreme Court has lambasted the Centre for withholding names recommended or reiterated by the collegium for judicial appointments, even saying that the government is using silence and inaction as “some sort of a device” to force worthy candidates and prominent lawyers to withdraw their consent.
Why in news?
- The Union Law Minister since few months has launched a relentless attack on the collegium system for lack of transparency.
What exactly is the Collegium System?
- The collegium system was born out of years of friction between the judiciary and the executive.
- The hostility was further accentuated by instances of court-packing (the practice of changing the composition of judges in a court), mass transfer of HC judges and two supersessions to the office of the CJI in the 1970s.
- The Three Judges cases saw the evolution of the collegium system.
Evolution: The Judges Cases
- First Judges Case (1981) ruled that the “consultation” with the CJI in the matter of appointments must be full and effective.
- However, it rejected the idea that the CJI’s opinion, albeit carrying great weight, should have primacy.
- Second Judges Case (1993) introduced the Collegium system, holding that “consultation” really meant “concurrence”.
- It added that it was not the CJI’s individual opinion, but an institutional opinion formed in consultation with the two senior-most judges in the Supreme Court.
- Third Judges Case (1998): On a Presidential Reference for its opinion, the Supreme Court, in the Third Judges Case (1998) expanded the Collegium to a five-member body, comprising the CJI and four of his senior-most colleagues.
How does the collegium system work?
- The collegium of the CJI and four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court make recommendations for appointments to the apex court and High Courts.
- The collegium can veto the government if the names are sent back by the latter for reconsideration.
- The basic tenet behind the collegium system is that the judiciary should have primacy over the government in matters of appointments and transfers in order to remain independent.
The procedure followed by the Collegium
Appointment of CJI
- The President of India appoints the CJI and the other SC judges.
- As far as the CJI is concerned, the outgoing CJI recommends his successor.
- In practice, it has been strictly by seniority ever since the supersession controversy of the 1970s.
- The Union Law Minister forwards the recommendation to the PM who, in turn, advises the President.
Other SC Judges
- For other judges of the top court, the proposal is initiated by the CJI.
- The CJI consults the rest of the Collegium members, as well as the senior-most judge of the court hailing from the High Court to which the recommended person belongs.
- The consultees must record their opinions in writing and it should form part of the file.
- The Collegium sends the recommendation to the Law Minister, who forwards it to the Prime Minister to advise the President.
For High Courts
- The CJs of High Courts are appointed as per the policy of having Chief Justices from outside the respective States. The Collegium takes the call on the elevation.
- High Court judges are recommended by a Collegium comprising the CJI and two senior-most judges.
- The proposal, however, is initiated by the Chief Justice of the High Court concerned in consultation with two senior-most colleagues.
- The recommendation is sent to the Chief Minister, who advises the Governor to send the proposal to the Union Law Minister.
Does the Collegium recommend transfers too?
- Yes, the Collegium also recommends the transfer of Chief Justices and other judges.
- Article 222 of the Constitution provides for the transfer of a judge from one High Court to another.
- When a CJ is transferred, a replacement must also be simultaneously found for the High Court concerned. There can be an acting CJ in a High Court for not more than a month.
- In matters of transfers, the opinion of the CJI “is determinative”, and the consent of the judge concerned is not required.
- However, the CJI should take into account the views of the CJ of the High Court concerned and the views of one or more SC judges who are in a position to do so.
- All transfers must be made in the public interest, that is, “for the betterment of the administration of justice”.
Loopholes in the Collegium system
- Lack of Transparency: Opaqueness and a lack of transparency, and the scope for nepotism are cited often.
- Judges appointing Judge: The attempt made to replace it with a ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission was struck down by the court in 2015 on the ground that it posed a threat to the independence of the judiciary.
- Criteria: Some do not believe in full disclosure of reasons for transfers, as it may make lawyers in the destination court chary of the transferred judge. It has even been accused of nepotism.
Way ahead
- In respect of appointments, there has been an acknowledgment that the “zone of consideration” must be expanded to avoid criticism that many appointees hail from families of retired judges.
- The status of a proposed new memorandum of procedure, to infuse greater accountability, is also unclear.
- Even the majority of opinions admitted the need for transparency, now Collegiums’ resolutions are now posted online, but reasons are not given.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pardoning Powers of president and governor
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Supreme Court has ordered for the immediate release of six convicts who are serving life sentence for more than three decades in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
What is the news?
- The Bench referred to the case of their former co-convict G. Perarivalan, who was granted premature release by the apex court this year in exercise of its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution.
What does Pardon mean?
- A pardon is a government/executive decision to allow a person to be absolved of guilt for an alleged crime or other legal offense as if the act never occurred.
Why need a Pardon?
- Pardons can be granted when individuals are deemed to have demonstrated that they have “paid their debt to society”, or are otherwise considered to be deserving of them.
- Pardons are sometimes offered to persons who were either wrongfully convicted or who claim that they were wrongfully convicted.
- Pardons are sometimes seen as a mechanism for combating corruption, allowing a particular authority to circumvent a flawed judicial process to free someone that is seen as wrongly convicted.
What does Article 161 say?
- Article 161 of the Constitution provides the Governor with the power to remit or commute the sentence of any prisoner.
- The Governor’s decision will be subject to judicial review by the constitutional courts.
- The advice of the State Cabinet is binding on the Governor in matters relating to commutation/remission of sentences under Article 161.
Why did the Supreme Court intervene here?
- In its judgment in the Perarivalan case in May, the apex court had held that the State Cabinet’s advice was binding on the Governor under Article 161 (Governor’s power of clemency) of the Constitution.
- The Governor had no business forwarding the pardon pleas to the President after sitting on it for years together.
Back2Basics: Article 142
- Article 142 provides discretionary power to the Supreme Court.
- It states that the court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it.
- Such decree shall be enforceable throughout the territory of India in such manner as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament.
- It is usually used in cases involving human rights and environmental protection.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Currency Manipulation
Mains level: Read the attached story
The United States’ Department of Treasury has removed India from its Currency Monitoring List. India had been on the list for the last two years for alleged manipulation of Rupee.
What is Currency Manipulation?
- Currency manipulation refers to actions taken by governments to change the value of their currencies relative to other currencies in order to bring about some desirable objective.
- It is a designation applied by the US Department of the Treasury, to countries that engage in what is called “unfair currency practices” that give them a trade advantage.
- The typical claim – often doubtful – is that countries manipulate their currencies in order to make their exports effectively cheaper on the world market and in turn make imports more expensive.
Why do countries manipulate their currencies?
- In general, countries prefer their currency to be weak because it makes them more competitive on the international trade front.
- A lower currency makes a country’s exports more attractive because they are cheaper on the international market.
- For example, a weak Rupee makes Indian exports less expensive for offshore buyers.
- Secondly, by boosting exports, a country can use a lower currency to shrink its trade deficit.
- Finally, a weaker currency alleviates pressure on a country’s sovereign debt obligations.
- After issuing offshore debt, a country will make payments, and as these payments are denominated in the offshore currency, a weak local currency effectively decreases these debt payments.
US treasury’s criteria for currency monitoring
To be labelled a manipulator by the U.S. Treasury:
- Countries must at least have a $20 billion-plus bilateral trade surplus with the US
- foreign currency intervention exceeding 2% of GDP and a global current account surplus exceeding 2% of GDP
Which are the countries under this list?
- China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan are the seven economies that are a part of the current Currency Monitoring List.
- China’s failure to publish foreign exchange intervention and broader lack of transparency around key features of its exchange rate mechanism.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Himalayan Langur
Mains level: Not Much
Differences in altitude make a primate species in the same Himalayan habitat choose between flowers and fruits as food options beyond their staple menu of leaves, a new study has revealed.
Himalayan Gray Langur
- The Himalayan (Kashmir) Gray Langur or the Chamba Sacred Langur (Semnopithecus ajax) is a colobine, meaning leaf-eating monkey.
- It is considered an endangered species in IUCN red list.
- According to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the langur is a protected species under Schedule II.
- Globally, its population is estimated to be less than 1,500 mature individuals in 15-20 groups.
Protection measures
- The Gray Langur was once considered a sub-species of the Semnopithecus entellus, commonly known as the Bengal Sacred Langur or Hanuman Langur, but it was separated as a species in 2005.
- Two protected habitats of the species namely Machiara National Park and Dachigam National Park are located in politically disturbed areas.
- Machiara National park is in Pak-Occupied Kashmir where there is very little scope for scientific inputs.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which one of the following groups of animals belongs to the category of endangered species?
(a) Great Indian Bustard, Musk Deer, Red Panda, Asiatic Wild Ass
(b) Kashmir Stag, Cheetah, Blue Bull, Great Indian Bustard.
(c) Snow Leopard, Swamp Deer, Rhesus Monkey, Saras (Crane)
(d) Lion Tailed Macaque, Blue Bull, Hanuman Langur, Cheetah
Post your answers here.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Nadaprabhu Kempegowda
Mains level: Not Much
PM unveiled a 108-feet tall bronze statue of ‘Nadaprabhu’ Kempegowda in Bengaluru, credited to be the city’s founder.
Who was Nadaprabhu Kempegowda?
- Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, a 16th century chieftain of the Vijayanagara empire, is credited as the founder of Bengaluru.
- It is said that he conceived the idea of a new city while hunting with his minister, and later marked its territory by erecting towers in four corners of the proposed city.
- Kempegowda is also known to have developed around 1,000 lakes in the city to cater to drinking and agricultural needs.
- He was from the dominant agricultural Vokkaliga community in south Karnataka.
Political motives behind
- Kempegowda is an iconic figure among Karnataka’s second most dominant Vokkaliga community after Lingayats.
- Political parties plan to woo the Vokkaliga community by honoring Kempegowda.
- The statue would be known as the ‘Statue of Prosperity’.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Vande Bharat project
Mains level: Vande Bharat, issues with the railways infrastructure
Context
- When the Prime Minister inaugurated the latest edition of the Vande Bharat train recently, India made a huge leap into the future of mass transportation. The new Vande Bharat Express trains or Vande Bharat 2.0 are expected to usher in an era of faster, safer and more comfortable rail travel for passengers.
- The Vande Bharat Express is a semi-high-speed, electric multiple unit train previously known as Train 18
- It is designed, built by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) under the Make in India Initiative
- Vande bharat running on 5 routes as of November 2022.
- The first Vande Bharat Express train was flagged off on February 15, 2019, on the New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route.
- All the coaches are equipped with automatic doors, GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system, onboard hotspot Wi-Fi for entertainment purposes, and comfortable seats.
- Vande bharat running on 5 routes as of November 2022.
- Indian Railways hopes to roll out another 25 Vande Bharat train sets by the end of March 2023.
- Railways plans to roll out 75 Vande Bharat trains by Independence Day next year
What is Vande Bharat 2.0?
- The name may be the same, but this train, the third in the Vande Bharat series, is being dubbed ‘Vande Bharat 2.0’, because of certain upgrades it has received over its predecessors.
What are the notable upgrades and newly added features in 2.0?
- Faster and lighter than the previous: This train reaches a top speed of 160 km per hour in 129 seconds, around 16 seconds faster than its predecessor. This is because this train weighs around 392 tonnes, 38 tonnes lighter than the last one, and needs to run almost a km less to attain its top speed.
- Improved on Riding Index: It also has a better riding index (lower the better) of 3.26 at 180 km per hour, from the earlier 3.87. At a standard speed of 115 km per, its riding index is 3.26, better than 3.62 attained at the same speed by the earlier. In layman’s terms, Riding index is a global benchmark to calculate how comfortable and steady the passenger is while the train is in motion.
- Fitted with automatic anti-collision system “Kavach”: In terms of safety features, the new train comes fitted with the automatic anti-collision system Kavach, which the previous trains did not have.
- Improved on safety features: Coaches have disaster lights and their battery backup increased from the last one’s one-hour battery backup. The exterior has eight flatform-side cameras, up from four.
- Passenger communication facility: There is a passenger-guard communication facility in coaches, which comes with automatic voice recording feature.
- Making it flood resilient: The new trainset is higher, making it safe from floods up to 650 mm, up from 400 mm.
- Better quality streaming of audio-visual information with improved network: A centralised coach monitoring system, another new addition, through CCTV cameras, and the internal network supports data at 1 gigabyte per second, This means better quality streaming of audio-visual information.
- Air purification system: The internal air is filtered through photo catalytic ultra violet air purification system with UV lamp which deactivates 99 per cent of germs, the Railways claims something the earlier trainsets did not have.
- Onboard infotainment: It also has a wifi-enabled onboard infotainment system and the LCD display in each coach is now 32 inches, up from the 24-inch screen.
Challenges to the modern railway infrastructure
- Tracks are not in sync with the modern age trains: This new-age train slammed head-on into the “old-age” country on at least two occasions in its very first week. The train crashed into a herd of cows, damaging the aircraft-like nose of the driver coach car.
- Poor fencing along the tracks: The railways built a new-age train but forgot to construct fencing along the tracks to prevent bovine collisions.
- Issues with the battery charging units: Occasional Failure in the battery charging mechanism due to a fault in the charging cable as well as tripping of a circuit breaker needs to addressed.
- Technical glitches in the alerting software system: Failure to alert the technical glitches in the functioning of the system creating problems and adding up to malfunctioning.
Conclusion
- A senior railway official proudly detailed the “superior” features of the Vande Bharat train, which would provide passengers with an “aircraft-like travelling experience” albeit, even quieter than an aircraft, also testified by the Prime Minister But these superior features need superior and resilient infrastructure to achieve the target.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Office of governor, appointment and associated facts.
Mains level: Issues with the office of the governor
Context
- With the rise in instances of tension, and even standoffs, between State governments and Governors, there is once again a debate on the role of the Raj Bhavan and conduct of Governors, the relation of Governors with the Centre and State government, and whether Chief Ministers should have a say in the appointment of Governors in their respective States.
- Executive Powers:
- Nominal Head of the government: These powers are exercised by the council of ministers in the name of Governor. Hence Governor is only nominal head and council of ministers is the real executive.
- Head of the state: He is the constitutional head of the state who appoints the leader of majority party as chief minister. He can seek any information from the chief minister. He appoints the advocate general, chairman and members of the respective state public commission.
- Can recommend the emergency: He can recommend the imposition of constitutional emergency in a state to the President. During the period of President’s rule in a state, the governor enjoys extensive executive powers as an agent of the President.
- Legislative Powers:
- He is part of state legislative.
- No bill can become a law until the governor signs it.
- He can withhold a bill and send it to the President for consideration.
- He can dissolve the State Assembly before the expiry of its term on the advice of the Chief Minister or as directed by the President.
- He causes the annual Budget to be presented in the Vidhan Sabha.
- Judicial Powers:
- The governor appoints the district judges.
- He is consulted in the appointment of the judges of the High Court by the President
- He can, pardon, remit and commute the sentence of a person convicted by a state court.
- Financial Powers:
- He causes the annual budget to be laid before the Vidhan Sabha;
- No money bill can be introduced without his prior approval.
- Discretionary Powers:
- Selection of CM: If no party gets an absolute majority, the Governor can use his discretion in the selection of the Chief Minister;
- Real executive of state: During an emergency he can override the advice of the council of ministers. At such times, he acts as an agent of the President and becomes the real ruler of the state;
- Report to president: He uses his direction in submitting a report to the President regarding the affairs of the state; and
- Withhold the assent: He can withhold his assent to a bill and send it to the President for his approval.
Sarkaria commission’s recommendation on the role of governor
- Chief minister should be involved in appointment: The powers of the President in the matter of selection and appointment of Governors should not be diluted. However, the Governor of a State should be appointed by the President only after consultation with the Chief Minister of that State. Normally the five-year term should be adhered to and removal or transfer should be by following a similar procedure as for appointment i.e., after consultation with the Chief Minister of the concerned State.
- Governor should convey assent or dissent in time: There should be a time-limit say a period of six months within which the Governor should take a decision whether to grant assent or to reserve a Bill for consideration of the President. If the Bill is reserved for consideration of the President, there should be a time-limit, say of three months, within which the President should take a decision whether to accord his assent or to direct the Governor to return it to the State Legislature or to seek the opinion of the Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of the Act under article 143.
Additional suggestions by NCRWC
- Committee to appoint the governor: National commission to review the Working of the constitution (NCRWC) recommendations were similar to that of Sarkaria commission. NCRWC has suggested that a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, and the Chief Minister of the state in question shall nominate the Governor.
Know the basics: Present constitutional arrangement
- The Governor of a State is appointed by the President for a term of five years and holds office during his pleasure.
- Only Indian citizens above 35 years of age are eligible for appointment to this office.
What is the expert’s opinion?
- Vice-president should be involved: Total composition of the committee is of the ruling party at the Centre. It should be the Vice-President, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Leader of the Opposition, and maybe the Chief Minister of the State.
- Governor should be above the chief minister: Getting the Chief Minister involved in the process of selection is not right. The Governor cannot be made to feel that the Chief Minister was one of those responsible for his selection; the Governor has to be above the Chief Minister, be independent, be able to function in a nonpartisan manner, and not be beholden to the ruling party or to the Chief Minister.
- Minimum qualification to be the governor: we have no criteria, no minimum qualifications laid out for a Governor. These are often retirement perks or rewards for unstinting loyalty to a particular party. Governors cannot be called before a court of law. These are things which have to be kept in mind.
- A guide to chief minister: The Governor is supposed to be a friend, philosopher and guide, helping from the back, sorting out issues and resolving disputes, even between political parties. The Governor has to at times advise the Centre on what is happening and what needs to be done. That brings the Centre and the State together.
Conclusion
- Governors’ role is always in contestation when Centre and state have different government. Governor is a political appointee for political purpose. However, governor should respect the constitutional post he holds and perform his duties and responsibilities without any biases and affiliations.
Mains Question
Q. What actions of governors undermines his constitutional position? What are the recommendations of Sarkaria commissions regarding the governor’s office?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: World wars and Indian Soldiers in World wars
Context
- On the eleventh hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the guns fell silent over Europe, bringing an end to a brutal first world war that drew in soldiers and contributions from around the world. Indian soldiers and their contribution are not widely recognized in India.
Background of Indian involvement World War II
- Fight against Fascism: Two conflicts and a reticence Indian reticence over these two conflicts arises from the uneasy relationship between the Indian contribution to fighting fascism on a global stage and the nationalist movement for freedom at home.
- Betrayal of nationalistic expectation: The success of the first is seen to have come at the cost of the second. It began with the betrayal of nationalist expectations of greater autonomy for India in return for support during the Great War.
- No consultation with Indian leaders: This was compounded by the bitterness of Viceroy Lord Linlithgow declaring war on Germany on India’s behalf in 1939 without consulting Indian leaders, and further roiled by the pitting of Indian against Indian when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army sided with the Axis Powers in the hope that this might bring freedom.
- Fighting for India and for World: But the failure of Indian independence to follow automatically from India’s participation in the wars does not mean that the war efforts extended colonial rule, or were all about protecting Britain: there was fighting on Indian soil to defend India.
What is Indian soldiers role in World War II
- Support of nationalist leaders: Almost 1.5 million men volunteered to fight in the Great War. Indians mobilized four days after Britain declared war on Germany, with the support of nationalist leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi.
- War in Europe, Asia and Africa: Indians fought with valor and distinction in the trenches of Europe, West Asia and North Africa, earning 11 Victoria Crosses along the way. Of those men, about 74,000 never came home.
- Largest volunteer for war: India raised the largest ever volunteer army, of 2.5 million, for the Second World War. More than 87,000 of those men are cremated or buried in war cemeteries around the world and in India.
- Thirty-one Victoria Crosses: 15 % of the total Victoria crosses went to soldiers from undivided India. Without Indian soldiers, non-combatant labourers, material and money, the course of both conflicts would have been very different as acknowledged by Field Marshal Auchinleck, Britain’s last Commander-in-Chief of the Indian.
- Indian soldiers are honored by Britain: In Britain, the contribution of the Commonwealth including the Indian subcontinent is memorialized in the Commonwealth Memorial Gates that lead up to Buckingham Palace. The Gates commemorate the campaigns where Commonwealth soldiers served with distinction; there is also a canopy inscribed with the names of the Commonwealth recipients of the George and Victoria Crosses.
- Indian soldiers fought the Britain’s war: Much of India’s recent history is encapsulated in these gates, in a spirit of gratitude and equality. Britain, after all, has much to be grateful for, but Indians seem less keen to acknowledge this. British perfidy, however, does not in any way reduce the sacrifices of those who fought for freedom. Those who went abroad to fight alongside white British soldiers returned with the knowledge that they were equal to their colonial masters. In not recognizing and honoring this, we push those men back into colonial subjugation.
- Britain betrayed the hopes of freedom: Some of this ambivalence owes itself to the atrocities of colonial history, which must be acknowledged too. Britain may have handed out 11 Victoria Crosses over the course of the First World War, but it betrayed the hopes of nationalists with the imposition of martial law after the war ended, culminating in the horror of Jallianwala Bagh in April 1919.
Does India fought the war for its own sake?
- Indian fought the Japanese: These were not just European wars to defend foreign lands. India was threatened in the Second World War by advancing Japanese forces who got as far as Burma/Myanmar. They were repulsed in the battles of Imphal and Kohima between March and July 1944. These were brutal battles. In Kohima, the two sides were at one point separated by the width of a tennis court. A Commonwealth cemetery on Garrison Hill, Kohima, contains this epitaph (by John Maxwell Edmonds): ‘When You Go Home, Tell Them of Us, and Say/For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today’.
- Ultimate sacrifice for India’s freedom: The memory of the almost 10 million battlefield deaths in the First World War and the 15 million or more who were killed fighting the Second World War is now honored in countries around the world on November 11, with nationwide silences and the laying of wreaths. Not so much in India apart from in Army cantonments and at the British Consulate in Kolkata even though over 1,61,000 men made the ultimate sacrifice for India’s freedom.
Conclusion
- Seventy-five years after Independence, it is time to honor India’s immense contribution to the world wars and move it from a footnote in another country’s history to the main stage, where it belongs. These were India’s wars too.
Mains Question
Q. What role the Indian soldier played in Second world War? What are the issues regarding non recognition of contribution of Indian soldiers in world wars?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Current Account, CAD
Mains level: Read the attached story
The SBI has estimated a lower current account deficit at 3% for this fiscal as against the minimum consensus of 3.5%, citing rising software exports, remittances and a likely $5-billion jump in forex reserves via swap deals.
What is Current Account Deficit (CAD)?
- A current account is a key component of balance of payments, which is the account of transactions or exchanges made between entities in a country and the rest of the world.
- This includes a nation’s net trade in products and services, its net earnings on cross border investments including interest and dividends, and its net transfer payments such as remittances and foreign aid.
- A CAD arises when the value of goods and services imported exceeds the value of exports, while the trade balance refers to the net balance of export and import of goods or merchandise trade.
Components of Current Account
Current Account Deficit (CAD) = Trade Deficit + Net Income + Net Transfers
(1) Trade Deficit
- Trade Deficit = Imports – Exports
- A Country is said to have a trade deficit when it imports more goods and services than it exports.
- Trade deficit is an economic measure of a negative balance of trade in which a country’s imports exceeds its exports.
- A trade deficit represents an outflow of domestic currency to foreign markets.
(2) Net Income
- Net Income = Income Earned by MNCs from their investments in India.
- When foreign investment income exceeds the savings of the country’s residents, then the country has net income deficit.
- This foreign investment can help a country’s economy grow. But if foreign investors worry they won’t get a return in a reasonable amount of time, they will cut off funding.
- Net income is measured by the following things:
- Payments made to foreigners in the form of dividends of domestic stocks.
- Interest payments on bonds.
- Wages paid to foreigners working in the country.
(3) Net Transfers
- In Net Transfers, foreign residents send back money to their home countries. It also includes government grants to foreigners.
- It Includes Remittances, Gifts, Donation etc
How Current Account Transaction does takes place?
- While understanding the Current Account Deficit in detail, it is important to understand what the current account transactions are.
- Current account transactions are transactions that require foreign currency.
- Following transactions with from which component these transactions belong to :
- Component 1 : Payments connection with Foreign trade – Import & Export
- Component 2 : Interest on loans to other countries and Net income from investments in other countries
- Component 3 : Remittances for living expenses of parents, spouse and children residing abroad, and Expenses in connection with Foreign travel, Education and Medical care of parents, spouse and children
What has the SBI said?
- The biggest impact on CAD is oil imports, which form as much as 30% of the country’s import bills.
- Every $10 increase in crude prices impacts the CAD to the tune of 40 basis points while the same on fuel inflation is 50 bps and also results in 23 bps decline in growth.
- Strong remittances and software exports had lowered CAD by 60 basis points (bps) in the June quarter.
- Forex reserves, which have declined from $642 billion in September 2021 to about $531 billion last week, are expected to rise by $5 billion as swap transactions reverse.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kherson from mapping perspective
Mains level: Russia's retreat in Ukraine
Ukraine’s defence and intelligence unit has reported on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson but predicts it to be a delusion for a retreat.
Where is Kherson?
- Geographically, Kherson is a strategic location for Russia and Ukraine.
- Situated in the northwest of the Dnipro River, the province shares borders with Donetsk, Crimea and the Black Sea.
Why is it important for Russia?
- With Moscow capturing Crimea in 2014, the occupation of Kherson in March 2022 has benefited Russia in transferring its military from Crimea to counter Ukraine.
- It provides access to Odesa and Black Sea ports in the west and serves as the main route to secure southern Ukraine.
Implications of regaining for Ukraine
- For Ukraine, regaining Kherson is significant to protect its population in Kalanchak and Chaplynka districts and also to recapture Crimea.
- Kherson is also an important agricultural region, with irrigation channels.
How did Kherson come under Russia’s control?
- In early March 2022, Kherson was captured by Russia through intense fighting.
- The battle of Kherson proved to be the starting point to capturing and occupying the southern part of Ukraine while the battles for Kharkiv and Kyiv in the north progressed.
- Russia’s hold over Kherson since March 2022 enabled Moscow to capture the key port cities — Mariupol in the Sea Azov, and Odesa, thus expanding control.
- Kherson’s irrigation canals were used as defence positions, creating a strong line preventing Ukraine’s counter-attacks.
- Russia also had positioned its soldiers in Kherson and stockpiled the ammunition.
Why has Moscow announced its withdrawal from Kherson?
- Mobilisation failure: When Russia was advancing rapidly in capturing the southern and northern cities of Ukraine, its military personnel and weapon systems started to run thin.
- Unexperienced troops: The failure of new recruits added an additional challenge to Russia to keep its hold against the Ukraine counter-offensive in Kherson.
- Inability of Russia to govern Kherson: Despite imposing martial law, Russia could not effectively rule Kherson; the three-level security in the occupied areas could not enforce Russia’s control on the ground.
- Ukraine’s expanding counter-offensive: Until August, Ukraine was supplied only with short-range and low-grade weapons by the West. On the other hand, Russia has been facing challenges in augmenting its military hardware on the battleground.
Is the withdrawal final, or a tactical move by Russia?
- Ukraine is advancing: Russia’s new mobilisation has failed to stop the advancing of Ukraine forces.
- Russia is weakening: The challenges to remobilise its defence systems and the shortage of weapons must have played a role in Russia’s withdrawal.
- Inevitable western intervention: With Ukraine strengthening its military capacity through support from the west, upgrading from land-based to air-based to heavy battle tanks, Russia is facing a challenge to hold its occupied territories in Ukraine.
Conclusion
- Withdrawal from Kherson exposes a serious gap in Russia’s strategy to hold southern Ukraine.
- However, it also underlines its strategy — to withdraw under serious attack or resistance by the Ukrainian forces — as it happened in Kyiv and Kharkiv.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MAC
Mains level: Mangrove conservation efforts
At the 27th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP27), this year’s UN climate summit, the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC) was launched with India as a partner.
Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC)
- An initiative led by the UAE and Indonesia, the MAC includes India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Japan, and Spain.
- It seeks to educate and spread awareness worldwide on the role of mangroves in curbing global warming and its potential as a solution for climate change.
- Under MAC, UAE intends to plant 3 million mangroves in the next two months, in keeping with UAE’s COP26 pledge of planting 100 million mangroves by 2030.
Working of MAC
- MAC would work on a voluntary basis. It means that there are no real checks and balances to hold members accountable.
- Instead, the parties will decide their own commitments and deadlines regarding planting and restoring mangroves.
- The members will also share expertise and support each other in researching, managing and protecting coastal areas.
Why protect mangroves?
- Infrastructure projects — industrial expansion, shifting coastlines, coastal erosion and storms, have resulted in a significant decrease in mangrove habitats.
- Between 2010 and 2020, around 600 sq km of mangroves were lost of which more than 62% was due to direct human impacts, the Global Mangrove Alliance said in its 2022 report.
Importance of mangroves
- Biodiversity: Mangrove forests — consisting of trees and shrub that live in intertidal water in coastal areas — host diverse marine life.
- Fishing grounds: They also support a rich food web, with molluscs and algae-filled substrate acting as a breeding ground for small fish, mud crabs and shrimps, thus providing a livelihood to local artisanal fishers.
- Carbon sinks: Equally importantly, they act as effective carbon stores, holding up to four times the amount of carbon as other forested ecosystems.
- Cyclone buffers: When Cyclone Amphan struck West Bengal in May, its effects were largely mitigated by the Sundarbans flanking its coasts along the Bay of Bengal.
Threats to Mangroves
- Anthropogenic activities: They are a major threat to the mangroves. Urbanization, industrialization and the accompanying discharge of industrial effluents, domestic sewage and pesticide residues from agricultural lands threaten these fragile ecosystems.
- Saltpan and aquaculture: This causes huge damage to the mangroves. Shrimp farming alone destroyed 35,000 hectares of mangroves worldwide.
- Destruction for farming: 40% of mangroves on the west coast has been converted into farmlands and other settlements in just 3 decades.
- Sea-level rise: This is another challenge to these mangroves- especially on the Bay of Bengal coast.
Mangroves in India
- India holds around 3 percent of South Asia’s mangrove population.
- Besides the Sundarbans in West Bengal, the Andaman region, the Kutch and Jamnagar areas in Gujarat too have substantial mangrove cover.
How can India benefit from MAC?
- India is home to one of the largest remaining areas of mangroves in the world — the Sundarbans.
- It has years of expertise in restoration of mangrove cover that can be used to aid global measures in this direction.
- The move is in line with India’s goal to increase its carbon sink.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which one of the following is the correct sequence of ecosystems in the order of decreasing productivity?
(a) Oceans, lakes, grasslands, mangroves
(b) Mangroves, oceans, grasslands, lakes
(c) Mangroves, grasslands, lakes, oceans
(d) Oceans, mangroves, lakes, grasslands
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ETA
Mains level: Climate finance committments by Developed Countries
The US has unveiled a new carbon offset scheme called Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA) for climate finance.
Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA)
- ETA is carbon offset plan that will allow companies to fund clean energy projects in developing countries and gain carbon credits that they can then use to meet their own climate goals.
- The plan will be developed by the US along with the Bezos Earth Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation.
- It would receive inputs from public and private
- The concept is to put the carbon market to work, deploy capital otherwise undeployable, and speed up the transition from dirty to clean power.
Benefits of ETA
- It may be good for renewable energy projects for sure and for those coal plants that are very old and unviable and which India wishes to shut down.
- The scheme comes at a time when there is growing mistrust among developing countries about developed nations failing to deliver on climate finance commitments.
Limitations of ETA
- The proposed initiative would be insufficient to make up for the lack of funding from rich countries.
- What developing countries need is predictable finance – not offset markets.
- The proposed initiative cannot make up for the US’s failure to provide its fair share of climate finance – an estimated $40 billion of the unmet goal of $100 billion a year.
Conclusion
- ETA appears to be a substitute for deep decarbonization needed within the US and other industrialized countries.
- For developing countries like India, the first priority would be to meet their own targets and not provide offsets for reductions in developed nations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Impact of Pandemic on vulnerable sections of the society
Context
- SC/ST and OBC have been impacted disproportionately by the pandemic as various social indicators shows vulnerabilities of this communities.
Impact of pandemic on education
- On the one hand, with policies mandating the promotion of students, promotion rates at the secondary school level rose significantly and repetition rates nosedived during the pandemic years (2020-21 and 2021-22).
- On the other, the inability to attend physical school and the lack of access to digital education caused a massive drop in learning levels after the COVID-19 outbreak.
- Increasing promotion rate: Notably, the promotion rate among Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students increased sharply after the outbreak. The promotion rate among Other Backward Classes (OBC) students continued to rise unabated.
- Repetition rate declining: The repetition rates too drastically came down in the pandemic years with some 1% students repeating their class across all communities. Notably, the gap in the repetition rate between SC/ST students and general category students declined greatly after the outbreak.
- Declining learning outcomes: While the promotion rate surged and the repetition rate declined, the marks scored by school students in National Achievement Survey (NAS) exams dropped significantly across classes and in most subjects.
- Disproportionate impact: There is a disproportionately greater impact on SC and ST students as their learning outcomes reduced the most while their promotion rates saw the highest degree of rise among all the communities.
Impact on livelihood of vulnerable sections of the society
- High job loss probability: The researchers found that compared to workers from upper castes, the probability of job loss was three times higher for those who are SC and two times higher for OBC workers.
- Comparatively higher unemployment: In December 2019, 39% of upper caste workers were employed and by April 2020, the percentage had dropped to 32%. The fall was more pronounced for SC workers, 44% of whom were employed in December 2019, but only 24% were employed in April 2020. For OBCs and STs the fall was from 40% to 26% and 48% to 33%, respectively.
- Poor education poor Opportunities: According to researchers, the upper castes are endowed with higher human capital, i.e. educational achievement, and are in jobs less vulnerable to pandemic disruption. What is surprising is that the impact on scheduled caste is three times worse. Not only has the pandemic exposed the pre-existing inequities but has amplified them.
How women are affected due to the pandemic?
- Effect on mental health: Women in low-caste women may be at a greater risk for worse mental health outcomes and higher perceived loneliness relative to high-caste women.
- Social exclusion and job losses: Prior research has found that low-caste women have been found to experience greater social exclusion greater job loss and greater barriers to healthcare and thus may experience both worse mental health and higher loneliness.
- Rising loneliness: Women in SC/ST and OBC groups will experience worse mental health, and higher perceived loneliness relative to women in the general caste group. We expect that this difference will be robust even when accounting for sociodemographic factors.
- Victims of systemic disadvantage: Women in general and women of weaker sections in particular, are victims of multiple systemic disadvantages, which exacerbated during the pandemic. Rural women, especially the female wage workers, endured greater socio-economic difficulties as their livelihood opportunities were abruptly halted by the lockdown.
- Visible gendered impact of pandemic: There is nothing natural in the gendered impact of pandemic, but the social norms and behaviour put them at greater risks due to unequal gender preference that is inbuilt in the social structure and culture.
Conclusion
- Pandemic have disproportionately affected the Indian society. Whether it is access to healthcare or vaccination SC, ST and OBC had a disadvantage. Lot of studies and research have assessed the caste specific impact of coronavirus and projected the dismal state of vulnerable groups. Government must look all these data while drafting the future policies for vulnerable communities.
Mains Question
Q. Analyze the learning outcome of SC/ST students after the pandemic. Assess the impact of pandemic on women belonging to SC, ST and OBC community.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pollution related facts
Mains level: Air and Water pollution, Impact on health and measures
Context
- More than 1,10,000 infants are likely to have been killed by air pollution in India in 2019, almost immediately after being born while long-term exposure to outdoor and household air pollution was estimated to be responsible for about 1.67 million annual deaths amongst the adult population in the country.
What is pollution?
- Pollution is the introduction of harmful materials into the environment. These harmful materials are called pollutants. Pollutants can be natural, such as volcanic ash. They can also be created by human activity, such as trash or runoff produced by factories. Pollutants damage the quality of air, water, and land.
- Demands for air purifiers: Demand for air purifiers has boomed. Recently, in Delhi, pollution-related curbs were lifted and schools opened, despite air quality continuing to be in the “very poor” category.
- Health related problems: For the majority of urban north Indians who can’t afford air purifiers, life continues amidst dust, cough and breathlessness.
- Children are most affected: Our children in urban localities are growing up with stunted lungs, amidst poverty.
- High percentage of respiratory problems: Eighty per cent of all families in Delhi are noted to be suffering respiratory ailments due to severe pollution.
How we can reduce the air pollution?
- Expand green cover across urban areas to reduce dust pollution: Ahmedabad’s municipal corporation, for instance, has experimented with urban forests, with the city’s 43rd urban forest inaugurated in June 2021 over 20,000 trees have been in 7,625 sq. metres. Chandigarh has about 1,800 parks. Close to 46 per cent of the city was classified as a green area in 2019.
- Use of Miyawaki technique: Civil society could also help in Chennai, the NGO Thuvakkam, with a volunteer force of 1,800, has been able to grow 25 Miyawaki forests, raising over 65,000 trees. Such plantations are now being replicated in other cities including Tuticorin, Vellore and Kanchipuram.
- Push for airshed management: With a focus on understanding meteorological, seasonal and geographic patterns for air quality across a large region. In the US, the passage of the Air Quality Act (1967) saw the state of California being divided into 35 districts which had similar geographic and meteorological conditions and pollution was regulated at the state level. This approach was successful in reducing emissions by 98 per cent from 2010 to 2019.
- Heavy penalty on polluting cars: Inspiration can also be taken from London’s air pollution revolution an Ultra-Low Emission zone has been established in Central London, with hefty daily fees on cars that emit more than 75g/km of pollution.
Water pollution in Indian cities
- Untreated water into freshwater bodies: 72 per cent of urban sewage is untreated in India’s urban freshwater bodies. The Central Pollution Control Board reckons that more than 50 per cent of 351 river stretches (on 323 rivers) are polluted. Over 4,000 septic trucks (with each truck having 5,000 litres of human waste) dispose of their waste in the Ganga every day. In Delhi, about 941 MLPD of raw sewage finds its way to the river, killing off fish and preventing rituals on the banks.
- Riverine Pollution: Riverine pollution causes due to raw sewage overflowing from sewage treatment plants, untreated waste from unauthorized colonies, industrial effluents, sewer water from authorized colonies and inter-state pollution.
- Water scarcity: More than 40 per cent of Indians are expected to face water scarcity by 2050 and close to 35 million will face annual coastal flooding with sea level rise.
- Lack of planning: Apathy prevails as of May 2021, only 16 Indian cities had disclosed their plans to tackle climate change to international institutions, with only eight having actual sustainability-related targets in their urban master plans. Only 43 per cent of all Indian cities surveyed actually sought to address climate change adaption as a topic in their master plans, while only five had a GHG emission reduction target.
Do you know this harsh reality?
- In India, nearly 7 lakh premature deaths are attributed to water pollution
- Globally, 1.5 million children under five years die each year as a result of water-related diseases.
How to fight water pollution?
- Improving sewage treatment plant capacity: ensuring linkages with the drainage network. Mangalore’s City Corporation (MCC) has wastewater treatment plants with end-user linkages. The MCC offered to supply treated water to such industrial end-users in the city’s special economic zone if the latter agreed to fund about 70 per cent of the operations and maintenance cost of the pumps and the sewage treatment plant.
- Developing a sanitation network: The problem of untreated waste and sewer water from unauthorized colonies can be solved by investing in a sewerage network. Consider the example of Alandur, a small suburb of Chennai in 2000, it had no underground sewage lines, with most houses dependent on septic tanks. In the late 1990s, the local municipality in partnership with local resident welfare associations conducted collection drives to gain deposits (ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500) for developing a sanitation network.
- Pump house: The project was launched with a push for creating a pump house, setting up over 5,650 manholes and providing sewerage connections to 23,700 households, a sewage treatment plant with a 12 MLD capacity was also set up. Going forward, many other municipalities in Tamil Nadu have sought to adopt this model.
- A systems-based approach should be adopted: along with a push for protecting “blue infra” areas places that act as natural sponges for absorbing surface runoff, allowing groundwater to be recharged. At the household level, we can encourage citizens to take up rainwater harvesting, urban roof terrace greening, urban roof water retention tanks and having a green corridor around residential buildings.
- Water permeable roads: Municipalities could be encouraged to make existing roads permeable with a push for green landscaping and rain gardens. At the city level and beyond, policymakers should push for “sponge cities” and incorporate disaster planning. A mindset shift, in citizenry and policymakers, is urgently needed.
Conclusion
- Urban planning and urban pollution are largely neglected in our governance model. Unplanned cities are facing the various problems. We must embrace the technology to fight the pollution in urban India.
Mains Question
How severe is the problem of Urban pollution? What steps can be taken to fight the urban pollution in India?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Groundwater in India
Mains level: Read the attached story
Groundwater extraction in India saw an 18-year decline, according to an assessment by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB).
What is Groundwater?
- Groundwater is the water found underground in the cracks and spaces in soil, sand and rock.
- It is stored in and moves slowly through geologic formations of soil, sand and rocks called aquifers.
- Aquifers are typically made up of gravel, sand, sandstone, or fractured rock, like limestone.
- Water can move through these materials because they have large connected spaces that make them permeable.
- Aquifers, hand-dug wells, and artesian wells are different types of sources of groundwater.
Declining trend of groundwater extraction
- The total annual groundwater recharge for the entire country is 437.6 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2022.
- However the extraction for entire country is only 239.16 bcm, according to the 2022 CGWB report.
- By comparison, an assessment in 2020 found that the annual groundwater recharge was 436 bcm and extraction 245 bcm.
- The 2022 assessment suggests that groundwater extraction is the lowest since 2004, when it was 231 bcm.
Implications of the CGWB report
- A detailed analysis of the assessment indicates increase in ground water recharge.
- This is mainly attributed to:
- Increase in recharge from canal seepage,
- Return flow of irrigation water and
- Recharges from water bodies/tanks & water conservation structures.
Significance of groundwater
- Groundwater supplies drinking water to a sizeable population in India and almost 99% of the rural population.
- It helps grow our food. 64% of groundwater is used for irrigation to grow crops.
- It is an important component in many industrial processes.
- It is a source of recharge for lakes, rivers, and wetlands.
Why discuss this?
- Depletion: People face serious water shortages because groundwater is used faster than it is naturally replenished.
- Contamination: In other areas groundwater is polluted by human activities.
Reasons for Depletion
- Increased demand for water for domestic, industrial and agricultural needs and limited surface water resources lead to the over-exploitation of groundwater resources.
- Limited storage facilities owing to the hard rock terrain, along with the added disadvantage of lack of rainfall, especially in central Indian states.
- Green Revolution enabled water-intensive crops to be grown in drought-prone/ water deficit regions, leading to over-extraction of groundwater.
- Frequent pumping of water from the ground without waiting for its replenishment leads to quick depletion.
- Subsidies on electricity and high MSP for water-intensive crops is also leading reasons for depletion.
- Inadequate regulation of groundwater laws encourages the exhaustion of groundwater resources without any penalty.
- Deforestation, unscientific methods of agriculture, chemical effluents from industries, and lack of sanitation also lead to pollution of groundwater, making it unusable.
- Natural causes include uneven rainfall and climate change that are hindering the process of groundwater recharge.
Impact of groundwater depletion
- Lowering of the water table: Groundwater depletion may lower the water table leading to difficulty in extracting groundwater for usage.
- Reduction of water in streams and lakes: A substantial amount of the water flowing in rivers comes from seepage of groundwater into the streambed. Depletion of groundwater levels may reduce water flow in such streams.
- Subsidence of land: Groundwater often provides support to the soil. When this balance is altered by taking out the water, the soil collapses, compacts, and drops leading to subsidence of land.
- Increased cost for water extraction: As the depleting groundwater levels lower the water table, the user has to delve deep to extract water. This will increase the cost of water extraction.
Regulation of Groundwater in India
(1) Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA)
- It has the mandate of regulating ground water development and management in the country.
- It is constituted under the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986.
- CGWA issues advisories, public notices and grant No Objection Certificates (NOC) for ground water withdrawal.
(2) National Aquifer Mapping and Management Programme (NAQUIM)
- The NAQUIM is an initiative of the Ministry of Jal Shakti for mapping and managing the entire aquifer systems in the country.
- It maintains the Hydrological Map of India.
(3) Atal Bhujal Yojana
- It is a Central Sector Scheme, for sustainable management of groundwater resources with community participation in water-stressed blocks.
Way Forward
- Routine survey: There should be regular assessment of groundwater levels to ensure that adequate data is available for formulating policies and devising new techniques.
- Assessment of land use pattern: Studies should be carried out to assess land use and the proportion of agricultural land falling under overt-exploited units.
- Changes in farming methods: To improve the water table in those areas where it is being overused, on-farm water management techniques and improved irrigation methods should be adopted.
- Reforms in power supply subsidies: The agricultural power-pricing structure needs to be revamped as the flat rate of electricity adversely affects the use of groundwater.
- Monitoring extraction: There should be a policy in place to monitor the excessive exploitation of groundwater resources to ensure long-term sustainability.
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