Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Net zero
Mains level: India's plans of decarbonization and orderly transition towards net zero
Context
- India’s per capita emissions are relatively low (1.8 tons of CO2e per person), but we are still the world’s third-largest single emitter. India has pledged to get to net zero by 2070. This goal can only be met with urgent actions in this decade, potentially accelerated through India’s recently-assumed G20 presidency.
Current trajectory
- Emissions are set to grow: On its current trajectory, India’s emissions are set to grow from 2.9 GtCO2e a year to 11.8 GtCO2e in 2070.
- Decarbonisation comes with the cost: According to a recent McKinsey report, effective decarbonisation, down to 1.9 GtCO2e by 2070, would require India to spend a total of $7.2 trillion on green initiatives by 2050. This line of sight (LoS) scenario is based on announced policies and expected technology adoption.
- Investment needed: Deeper decarbonisation an accelerated scenario that would reduce emissions to just 0.4 GtCO2e by 2050, or close to net zero would require $12 trillion in total green investments by 2050. Under this scenario, India could create 287 gigatonnes (GT) of carbon space for the world, almost half of the global carbon budget, for an even chance at limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
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Memory shot: Net Zero
- Net zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with remaining emissions re-absorbed by oceans/ forests.
- China, US, EU and India contribute 75% of total GHG emissions
- However, per capita GHG emissions for US, EU and China are7,3 and 3 times of India
- India has set target to achieve net zero emissions by 2070.
What India needs to speed up the decarbonization?
- Orderly transition will benefit but the projects are of heavy investments: To take just one example, If India shifted to a predominantly renewable (and hydrogen)-based energy and materials system, it could save as much as $3 trillion in foreign exchange by 2070. While the investment is large, a vast majority of the abatement projects are in the money.
- Investment, regulation and capacity building is necessary: Three-quarters of the buildings, infrastructure, and industrial capacity of India in 2050 is yet to be built. We have a choice to invest in current technologies or to invest futuristically. Futuristic investment will need India to take urgent actions in this decade on regulation, technology development, and on technology adoption to make the right investments.
- Employing the experience in renewable power: In renewable power, the right policies, strong institutions and industrial capabilities built in the last decade are providing India with the base to scale up four to five times in this decade.
- Making electric vehicles competitive in the market: India also has other advantages. For example, its high taxation on automotive fuels translates to an imputed carbon tax of $140 to $240 per tonne of carbon dioxide. This makes electric vehicles competitive against petrol or diesel ones, explaining the recent rapid growth of electric two-wheelers.
- Setting up national and structural decarbonisation plans: Set out five-year, 10-year, and 25-year national decarbonisation plans. Policies that enable carbon prices or blending mandates can make the economics viable. Such policies need to be held steady and require coordination across sectors like power, hydrogen and steel. A national decarbonisation plan would enable timely investment decisions.
- Defining a national land use plan and consider using barren lands for renewables: India risks being land-short for its dual goals of growth and decarbonisation. For example, McKinsey estimates that renewable power and forest carbon sinks need 18 million additional hectares of land. India would need to maximise the use of barren land for renewable power, urbanise vertically, improve agricultural productivity, and increase forest density.
- Accelerate compliance with carbon markets: Pricing carbon creates demand signals that accelerate emissions reductions, especially in hard-to-abate sectors. Let’s illustrate this through steel, demand for which could multiply eight times by 2070; right now, much of the new capacity is likely to be added using high-emission coal. With a price on carbon emissions, more expensive green steel becomes competitive against high-emission steel. For example, a carbon price of $50 a ton could make green steel cost competitive by 2030, leading to the possibility of the next 200 million tons of capacity being created through low-emissions technologies.
- Investing in opportunities: Companies can aim to play on the front foot, investing in opportunities like recycling, hydrogen, biomass, electrolysers, rare earths, battery materials and battery making. Some of these opportunities would take time to mature. Meanwhile, companies could invest in opportunities opened up by decarbonisation of other countries, such as exporting green hydrogen derivatives like ammonia.
Conclusion
- To embark on an orderly path to net zero, India needs imagination, realism, determination and a sense of urgency. An orderly transition to net zero could help India decarbonize while creating an engine for growth. We must take steps this decade to set things up, to establish momentum, and to build India right for generations to come.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Land Subsidence
Mains level: Read the attached story
Many families living in Uttarakhand’s Joshimath has shifted to safe places after their homes developed deep cracks, leaving them in a panicked state.
Joshimath Crisis
- Joshimath lies on an ancient landslide, resting on a deposit of sand and stone, not rock.
- The rivers Alaknanda and Dhauli Ganga play their part in triggering landslides, by eroding the river banks and mountain edges.
- It is believed that increased construction activity and growing population have contributed to frequent landslides in the area, the 1976 Mishra Committee Report had pointed out.
What is Land Subsidence?
- Land subsidence is when the ground sinks or settles.
- It can happen because people are taking too much water or minerals from the ground, which causes the ground to sink.
- It can also be caused by natural processes, like soil compaction or the movement of the earth’s crust.
- Land subsidence can cause problems like damage to buildings and roads, and can make it more likely for flooding to occur.
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Why is it sinking?
- Joshimath is a deposit of sand and stone — it is not the main rock — hence it was not suitable for a township.
- Vibrations produced by blasting, heavy traffic, etc. has led to a disequilibrium in natural factors.
- Lack of proper drainage facilities also leads to landslides.
- A lot of water has been percolating down into the porous crystalline rocks beneath the surface, softening them further.
- When water is not allowed to flow down its natural course, it creates a lot of pressure, either over the ground, or underneath.
- The existence of soak pits, which allow water to slowly soak into the ground, is responsible for the creation of cavities between the soil and the boulders.
- This leads to water seepage and soil erosion.
Issues with Joshimath’s town-planning
- Overt tourism: The place is now the hub of tourists headed to at least three important shrines — Badrinath, Hemkund Sahib and Shankaracharya temple — as a result of which major infrastructure development has taken place.
- Ignoring topography: There are lots of loose soft rocks, moraine (material left behind by retreating glaciers), and sediments. The soil is, therefore, not ideal for large constructions.
- Seismically active area: Added to this is the fact that the area falls in a highly seismic zone, and experiences regular tremors, making the top soil unstable.
Preventing a disaster
1976 Mishra Committee Report suggested-
- Imposition of restrictions on heavy construction: Construction should only be allowed after examining the load-bearing capacity of the soil and the stability of the site, and restrictions should also be imposed on the excavation of slopes.
- Keeping the boulders: In the landslide areas, stones and boulders should not be removed from the bottom of the hill as it would remove toe support, increasing the possibility of landslides.
- Sealing of cracks: Cracks which have developed on the slopes should be sealed. The toe of a landslide is its bottom-most point.
- Conserving of trees: It has also advised against cutting trees in the landslide zone, and said that extensive plantation work should be undertaken in the area, particularly between Marwari and Joshimath, to conserve soil and water resources.
- Agriculture on the slopes must be avoided: Activities like ploughing loosens the soil thereby triggering the scope for landslides.
- Preventing water seepage: To prevent any more landslides in the future, the seepage of open rain water must be stopped by the construction of a pucca drainage system.
- Cobbled roads: Roads should be metalled and without scuppers, that drain away the water from the road surface.
- River training: The construction of structures to guide the river’s flow should be carried out. Hanging boulders on the foothills should be provided with appropriate support.
Way forward
- Ensuring safety of people: This should be immediate priority. State government should establish a clear and continuous communication channel with the affected people.
- Time-bound reconstruction plan must be prepared.
- Continuous seismic monitoring must be done.
- A risk sensitive urban development plan for Joshimath should also be developed.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Indian economic growth estimate and the areas of concern
Context
- The Indian economy is expected to grow at 7 per cent in 2022-23 as per the first advance estimates of national income released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday. This is marginally higher than the RBI’s most recent assessment in the December monetary policy committee meeting, the central bank had lowered its expectation of growth to 6.8 per cent.
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Estimate: Indian economic growth
- As per the latest estimates growth is likely to slow down in later half: Considering that the economy grew by 9.7 per cent in the first half of the financial year (April-September), the latest estimate implies that growth is likely to slow down to 4.5 per cent in the second half of the year (October-March) as the base effect wanes.
- Full year growth estimates India will be fastest growing economy: Notwithstanding that, the full-year growth estimate suggests that India will be one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Positive signs in the Indian Economy
- Positive medium-term growth prospects: Company and bank balance sheets are healthier, credit growth is rising, and capacity utilisation has increased, all of which augur well for investment activity.
- Positive impact on tourism: The waning of Covid-19 should hopefully have a positive impact on travel, transport and tourism. Construction activity should pick up further with the reduction in housing inventory and almost stable prices over the last decade.
- On inflation India is doing better: On the inflation front, India is doing better than many advanced economies and emerging markets.
Areas of concern
- Private consumption is likely to contract in the second half of the year: While the pace of contraction is expected to be marginal, the slowdown in spending could be due to either the exhaustion of pent-up demand or the lagged impact of a tighter monetary policy.
- Exports growth likely to grow: As per the estimates, exports are likely to grow at almost 12 per cent in the second half of the year. This is at odds with recent data which showed that export growth has actually slowed down considerably as advanced economies have come under pressure.
- Agriculture growth likely to slow down: Agricultural growth is expected to slow down in the second half. As per some analysts this is not in sync with the healthy sowing rates and reservoir levels.
- Manufacturing will go upward: The manufacturing sector, which was almost flat in the first half of the year, is expected to witness an uptick in the second half. It is difficult to reconcile this with the view that both domestic demand and exports are likely to remain subdued, which would in turn impact industrial production.
- Government spending will remain almost flat: Public administration, defence and other services, which largely connotes government spending, is expected to remain more or less flat in the second half. This is odd considering that government consumption expenditure is pegged to grow at 7.2 per cent during the period.
- As the first advance estimates suffer from data limitations, they are based only on seven to eight months of data these are likely to change once more data is available.
- However, they do provide some sense of underlying momentum in economic activities, and are useful in the context of the upcoming Union budget.
- The last budget had assumed a nominal GDP growth of 11.1 per cent. However, as per the latest estimates, nominal GDP is expected to grow at a significantly higher pace of 15.4 per cent.
Conclusion
- Along with trends in tax collections as per which the government’s revenues will surpass budgeted targets by a significant margin, these growth estimates only increase the likelihood of the Centre meeting its budgeted fiscal deficit target for the year.
Mains question
Q. As per the first advance estimates of national income released by the National Statistical Office, Indian economy is expected to grow at 7 per cent in 2022-23. In light of this discuss some of the latest projections and the areas of concern for Indian economic growth.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas and its theme and related facts
Mains level: Overseas citizens of India, and their concerns
Context
- Government will observe the 17th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The day is meant to celebrate the contributions of India’s diaspora. The theme for this year’s event is, “Diaspora: Reliable Partners for India’s Progress in Amrit Kaal”.
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Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas
- Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (Non-Resident Indian Day) is a celebratory day observed (starting in 2003) on 9 January by the Republic of India to mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community towards the development of India. The day commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to Mumbai on 9 January 1915.
Who are the Overseas Citizens of India (OCI)?
- OCI are not citizens: Overseas Citizenship of India is a form of permanent residency available to people of Indian origin and their spouses which allows them to live and work in India indefinitely. Despite its name, OCI status is not citizenship and does not grant the right to vote in Indian elections or hold public office.
- It can be revoked: The Indian government can revoke OCI status in a wide variety of circumstances. As of 2020, there are 6 million holders of OCI cards among the Indian Overseas diaspora.
- Scheme for dual citizenship: Originally conceptualised in 2003 by the then NDA government led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the OCI scheme was envisaged as a dual-citizenship project.
- All rights of citizen of India: OCIs would enjoy all rights as normal citizens except the right to hold public office and cast their vote.
- Citizenship to OCI from certain countries: The Vajpayee government introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2003 in Parliament. The statement accompanying the Bill, that was passed by Parliament in December that year clearly stated that it was meant to provide dual citizenship to persons of Indian origin from certain countries.
- Present government Downgraded OCI status: Nearly two decades later, the Union Home Ministry is downgrading the OCI scheme from dual-citizenship to virtually a residency permit scheme. The ministry’s statements in circulars and courts declaring that OCIs are not Indian citizens and that they would not enjoy any fundamental rights under the Indian Constitution have been particularly disheartening.
What are the ambiguities about the downgrading of OCI status?
- Confusion over rights: There is considerable legal confusion about the status of OCIs. Can they practice certain professions like journalism without prior government permission? Do contributions by OCIs residing in India to charities/schools violate the country’s laws?
- Problem in donation: During the pandemic, resident OCIs had to ensure their donations went only to NGOs that had FCRA clearance. As a result, many local level initiatives could not be supported with their monetary contributions.
- Confusion over the status: Very often OCIs have been confronted with remarks, including at courts, that we are foreigners in India. Unlike several other countries, the Indian Constitution does not have exhaustive provisions on citizenship.
Making a case of citizenship for OCI
- Vasudaiva kutumbakam philosophy: The Government of India announced that India’s Presidency of G20 will be grounded in the principles of “Vasudaiva kutumbakam” wherein the entire world is considered as one family.
- Push to Mobility for diaspora: Hopefully such political homilies are reflected in the way the government thinks about the idea of citizenship in relation to the increasingly mobile Indian diaspora.
- Injustice to people born in India: Clearly, an elemental question is whether it is proper to cancel the citizenship of people born in the country, and who have continued engagement with it, merely because they have acquired foreign citizenship. No other progressive democracy does that today, even though most countries had similar laws when India enacted the Citizenship Act, 1955.
- Removing the outdated laws: In a recent address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised Chief Secretaries of states and Union Territories to focus on quality of service over outdated laws and rules, to achieve the goal of making India a developed country by 2047. Realising the essence of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003 is in the spirit of the PM’s directive.
Conclusion
- OCI contribute immensely to India at home and abroad. But granting a citizenship to Overseas citizens of India will create structural asymmetry in economic, social, political life of ordinary people of India. It will open the flood gates for demand for dual citizenships from other sections of diaspora.
Mains Question
Q. What are problems of Overseas Citizens of India? Discuss why OCI deserve the better status in India?
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
Mains level: Antimicrobial resistance, challenges and preventive measures
Context
- Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), often also called antibiotic resistance, is a global health challenge and a looming public health crisis. The WHO has declared it as one of the top 10 health threats facing humanity.
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What is antimicrobial resistance (AMR)?
- AMR is the ability of a microorganism (like bacteria, viruses, and some parasites) to stop and survive exposure to an antimicrobial (such as antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials) from working against it. As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, infections persist and may spread to others.
How AMR occurs?
- Improper use of antimicrobials: Antimicrobials, chemicals or molecules that kill harmful bugs, are the backbone of modern medicine. Improperly used antimicrobials create selective pressure on bugs.
- Resilient bugs survive the exposure to antimicrobials: The bugs most vulnerable to the drugs die quickly, while the most resilient ones survive, replicate and become superbugs. AMR occurs when superbugs develop and antimicrobials stop working.
- For example: Microorganisms (bugs) are everywhere with some being helpful like the yoghurt-making lactobacillus and some being harmful like the typhoid-causing salmonella.
What are superbugs?
- Microorganisms that become resistant to most antimicrobials are often referred to as superbugs.
- Superbugs makes medical procedures such as organ transplantation, cancer chemotherapy, and other major surgeries very risky.
Interesting fact
- Research has shown that the use of certain types of antimicrobials in animal feed can lead to the development of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in food-producing animals.
- These resistant bacteria can then be transmitted to humans through the food supply, leading to the spread of AMR.
- The first prescription is prevention: Disease prevention and wellness are key to public health and thus preventing infections whenever and wherever possible is equivalent to averting resistance. We need to spearhead sanitation drives, ensure a clean water supply and support hospital-driven infection-control programmes.
- Judicious prescription of antimicrobials: Reducing AMR also requires prescribing antimicrobials judiciously and only when they are absolutely needed.
- Effective coordination and management: There is also a need for more cohesion within management strategies. Coordination across the animal industry and environmental sectors to prevent the unnecessary use of antibiotics in farms these nurtures drug-resistant organisms in our food supply is necessary.
- Robust surveillance systems to detect resistant pathogens of all kinds: Other prescription closely connected with prevention is the development of robust surveillance systems that allow us to detect resistant pathogens of all kinds in the environment and hospitals that would eventually allow containment.
- Heavy investment in research and development: There is an urgent need for a strong pipeline of new antibiotics; an essential component in restoring the balance and ensuring that we have new tools in the fight against AMR. Bringing a new antibiotic from basic research through clinical trials takes more than a decade and requires upward of $1 billion. So there is need to invest heavily in research and development through both government and private funding.
- New financial incentives to make it profitable keeping in mind the social value: Profits on these drugs are negligible. Hence, there is need to formulate new types of financial incentives to measure return on investment and measure profitability by the social value of the antibiotic, breaking the conventional link between sales and profits.
- Bringing in the collective moral vision: Last but not least, we need to bring a collective moral vision to AMR and start thinking of antibiotic/antimicrobial drugs as limited resources that should be available to all.
Conclusion
- Although seemingly distant and abstract, AMR is in the air and potentially catastrophic for those burdened by it. The success of modern medicine, women’s health, infectious diseases, surgery and cancer would be at increased risk for lack of working antimicrobials. The cost of AMR to the economy is significant and it is critical to develop policies and implement them through a holistic One Health approach.
Mains question
Q. What is Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)? Given that AMR is an impending health disaster, discuss what measures can be taken to reduce AMR?
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAA
Mains level: Issues with CAA
The Union Home Ministry has sought another extension of 6 months to frame the rules of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), without which it cannot be implemented.
Why in news?
- This is the seventh such extension sought by the Ministry.
- The legislation is contentious issue in West Bengal.
- The Act is aimed at giving citizenship to the Matua community in West Bengal who trace their origins to present day Bangladesh.
What is Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019?
- The act is sought to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship of India.
- In other words, it intends to make it easier for non-Muslim immigrants from India’s three Muslim-majority neighbours to become citizens of India.
- Under The Citizenship Act, 1955, one of the requirements for citizenship by naturalization is that the applicant must have resided in India during the last 12 months, as well as for 11 of the previous 14 years.
- The amendment relaxes the second requirement from 11 years to 6 years as a specific condition for applicants belonging to these six religions, and the aforementioned three countries.
- It exempts the members of the six communities from any criminal case under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport Act, 1920 if they entered India before December 31, 2014.
Key feature: Defining illegal migrants
- Illegal migrants cannot become Indian citizens in accordance with the present laws.
- Under the CAA, an illegal migrant is a foreigner who: (i) enters the country without valid travel documents like a passport and visa, or (ii) enters with valid documents, but stays beyond the permitted time period.
- Illegal migrants may be put in jail or deported under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.
Exceptions
- The Bill provides that illegal migrants who fulfil four conditions will not be treated as illegal migrants under the Act. The conditions are:
- they are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians;
- they are from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan;
- they entered India on or before December 31, 2014;
- they are not in certain tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, or Tripura included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution, or areas under the “Inner Line” permit, i.e., Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Nagaland.
Controversy with the Act
- Country of Origin: The Act classifies migrants based on their country of origin to include only Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
- Other religious minorities ignored: It is unclear why illegal migrants from only six specified religious minorities have been included in the Act.
- Defiance of purpose: India shares a border with Myanmar, which has had a history of persecution of a religious minority, the Rohingya Muslims.
- Date of Entry: It is also unclear why there is a differential treatment of migrants based on their date of entry into India, i.e., whether they entered India before or after December 31, 2014.
- Against the spirit of Secularism: Further, granting citizenship on the grounds of religion is seen to be against the secular nature of the Constitution which has been recognised as part of the basic structure that cannot be altered by Parliament.
Conclusion
- India is a constitutional democracy with a basic structure that assures a secure and spacious home for all Indians.
- Being partitioned on religious grounds, India has to undertake a balancing act for protecting the religious minorities in its neighbourhood.
- These minorities are under constant threat of persecution and vandalism.
- India needs to balance its civilization duties to protect those who are prosecuted in the neighbourhood.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Aspirational Block Programme (ABP)
Mains level: Read the attached story
Prime Minister has launched the government’s Aspirational Block Programme (ABP), which is aimed at improving the performance of blocks lagging on various development parameters.
Aspirational Block Programme (ABP)
- The Aspirational Blocks Programme is on the lines of the Aspirational District Programme that was launched in 2018 and covers 112 districts across the country.
- The Centre had announced its intention to launch this initiative in the Union Budget 2022-23.
- The programme will cover 500 districts across 31 states and Union Territories initially.
- Over half of these blocks are in 6 states—Uttar Pradesh (68 blocks), Bihar (61), Madhya Pradesh (42), Jharkhand (34), Odisha (29) and West Bengal (29).
- However, states can add more blocks to the programme later.
About Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP)
- Launched in January 2018, the ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ initiative aims to remove this heterogeneity through a mass movement to quickly and effectively transform these districts.
- The broad contours of the program are Convergence (of Central & State Schemes), Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’ Officers & District Collectors), and Competition among districts driven by a spirit of mass Movement.
- With States as the main drivers, this program will focus on the strength of each district, identify low-hanging fruits for immediate improvement, measure progress, and rank districts.
Behind the name
- PM then negated the idea of naming any scheme based on their backwardness.
- Rather the name ‘Aspirational’ presents a more affirmative action-based execution of the scheme.
Selection of districts
- A total of 117 Aspirational districts have been identified by NITI Aayog based upon composite indicators.
- The objective of the program is to monitor the real-time progress of aspirational districts based on 49 indicators (81 data points) from the 5 identified thematic areas.
Weightage has been accorded to these districts as below:
- Health & Nutrition (30%)
- Education (30%)
- Agriculture & Water Resources (20%)
- Financial Inclusion & Skill Development (10%)
- Basic Infrastructure (10%)
Strategy of the ADP
The core Strategy of the program may be summarized as follows.
- Making development a mass movement in these districts
- Identify low hanging fruits and the strength of each district, to act as a catalyst
- for development.
- Measure progress and rank districts to spur a sense of competition.
- Districts shall aspire to become State’s best to Nation’s best.
Features of the ADP
- It has transformed into a Jan Andolan.
- The ADP is different in trying to monitor the improvement of these districts through real-time data tracking.
- The programme seeks to develop convergence between selected existing central and state government programmes.
- District performance in the public domain and experience building of the district bureaucracy is another notable feature.
- The programme is targeted, not towards any single group of beneficiaries, but rather towards the population of the district as a whole.
What makes this program special?
The program reflects what has become of the development project in India under neoliberalism, especially after the end of planning.
- Long overdue sectors have been given more emphasis.
- It is not a tailor-made program with one-size-fit strategy. More onus has been laid on the districts. It has a district-intervention strategy.
- It works on the principle of SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threats) model and comparison with national best parameters for effective resource management.
- It is the most reviewed programme by the Prime Minister.
- A general idea behind the idea is that a good work never goes un-noticed. It is duly appreciated on social media as well as by the officials.
Programmatic Strengths
- A key strength of the ADP is the collection of baseline data and follow-ups at regular intervals.
- Sustaining this effort would create a robust compilation of statistics for use by both researchers and policy-makers.
- In doing this, the government also brings much-needed attention to human development and a willingness to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Incremental progress being made in the chosen districts as reflected in the rankings.
- The programme also claims to be “non-partisan and unbiased” and geared towards all-India growth.
- The selection of districts indeed suggests that the programme has not favored any bias either regional, political or any other.
- The programme seeks convergence of central and state schemes anchored around specific activities.
Issues with the programme
- Using the case of Bihar, they argue that the programmes selection of districts itself is problematic.
- In fact, it actually excludes the most backward districts because per capita income, the most basic measure of development, has not been considered.
- There seems to be some ambiguity around the issue of whether the programme is concerned only with improved access or also with the quality of service provided.
- The indicators used are not defined relationally, rather they are static human development indicators that do not see people mired in dynamic social relations.
- It is also accused that the state is not making any new or focused public investment (except for possible use of Flexi-funds) into these districts, on the other hand, it is moralizing about their inability to improve (through rankings).
- The programme is carrying the burden of proving the government’s “developmental” work without addressing any of the fundamental issues around achieving equitable development.
- Yet, the NITI Aayog justifies the overall approach as capitalizing on “low-hanging fruit.”
Way forward
- The program has been able to make difference in the lives of citizens of India, in education, health, nutrition, financial inclusion, skill development and this has made a difference to some most backward and most geographically far-flung districts of the nation.
- ADP is ‘aligned to the principle of “leave no one behind—the vital core of the SDGs. Political commitment at the highest level has resulted in the rapid success of the program the report said.
- UNDP has recommended revising a few indicators that are slightly close to reaching their saturation or met by most districts like ‘electrification of households’ as an indicator of basic infrastructure.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: New Umbrella Entity (NUE)
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is said to have put on hold licensing of the New Umbrella Entity (NUE) network, a fintech institution planned as a rival to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Why in news?
- Six groupings, which included Facebook, Google, Amazon, Flipkart and others, had applied for NUE licences.
What is New Umbrella Entity (NUE)?
- NUE is an entity (under the Companies Act 2013) that will manage and operate the new payment system in the retail sector such as ATMs, POS, UPI etc.
- NUEs will be set up for profit entities that will manage payments in the retail space.
- These could offer a host of retail payment services, including setting up of ATMs, offering white-label, point of sale terminals, Aadhaar-based payments, remittance services, and develop newer payment methods.
- They will also manage clearing and settlement systems that could be an alternative to the bank-promoted NPCI.
- They will be allowed to charge fees for transactions (unlike the existing NPCI).
- All NUEs will have to be interoperable with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Why need NUEs?
- The NPCI is at the epicentre of the digital payments in the country.
- RBI has introduced NUEs to end the so-called monopoly of NPCI.
- The central bank also noted that during the pandemic, with people spending more time at home the usage of e-commerce has increased, and there’s been a significant rise in the incidence of internet fraud, cyber-crimes.
If NPCI is doing its job well, then why NUE?
- 48% of all electronic retail payments in the country pass through the NPCI infrastructure.
- RBI’s concern stems from having the operations of so much of the country’s payment system concentrated in one entity.
How will NUE aid Consumers?
- With the introduction of NUEs, options for payment will increase for users.
- This will result in more competition and eventually help boost transaction volumes for both platforms as e-commerce expands and reaches deeper into India’s unbanked hinterland.
- In the World Bank’s most recent report on financial inclusion in 2017, some 190 million Indians did not have a bank account and more than half did not make or receive digital payments.
- Customers who face frequent sever transaction due to server overload currently have few options.
- In the new regime, they’ll be able to try the other platform.
What about Data Safety?
- Compliance as far as data safety and privacy is concerned holds good for all and sundry in the payments and banking space.
- Every entity involved in payments and settlement have to follow the same set of rules.
- RBI already have a new set of guidelines on “Regulation of Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways” .
- It ensures that neither the authorised Payment Aggregators (PAs) nor the merchants on-boarded by them can store customer card credentials within their database or server to avoid data breaches and potential abuse.
Will NUEs replace NPCI?
- NUEs will co-exist with NPCI to strengthen the payment infrastructure network.
- A robust and resilient infrastructure is needed to ensure the government’s ambitious target of one billion digital transactions per day is achieved.
- NUEs will not replace but complement NPCI in taking India’s digital payment success story to new heights.
- By establishing a neutral and independent standards-setting body, we can make sure that the system as a whole in our country evolves in the best traditions of digital infrastructure adopted anywhere in the world.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Root bridges of Meghalaya
Mains level: Not Much
This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in TH.
Living Root Bridges
- A living root bridge is a type of simple suspension bridge formed of living plant roots by tree shaping.
- They are common in the southern part of the Northeast Indian state of Meghalaya. Such a bridge is locally called jingkieng jri.
- They are handmade from the aerial roots of rubber fig trees (Ficus elastic) by the Khasi and Jaintia peoples of the mountainous terrain along the southern part of the Shillong Plateau.
- Most of the bridges grow on steep slopes of subtropical moist broadleaf forest between 50m and 1150m above sea level.
Why is it so unique?
- As long as the tree from which it is formed remains healthy, the roots in the bridge can naturally grow thick and strengthen.
- New roots can grow throughout the tree’s life and must be pruned or manipulated to strengthen the bridge.
- Once mature some bridges can have as many as 50 or more people crossing, and have a lifespan of up to 150 years.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Superconductivity in Mercury
Mains level: Not Much
This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in TH.
What is a superconductor?
- A superconductor is defined as a substance that offers no resistance to the electric current when it becomes colder than a critical temperature.
- Some of the popular examples of superconductors are aluminium, magnesium diboride, niobium, copper oxide, yttrium barium and iron pnictides.
How mercury becomes superconductor?
- In 1911, Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered superconductivity in mercury.
- He found that at a very low temperature, called the threshold temperature, solid mercury offers no resistance to the flow of electric current.
How is mercury capable of achieving superconductivity?
Ans. Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory
- Scientists classified mercury as a conventional superconductor because its superconductivity could be explained by the concepts of Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory.
- While scientists have used the BCS theory to explain superconductivity in various materials, they have never fully understood how it operates in mercury — the oldest superconductor.
- The researchers used state-of-the-art theoretical and computational approaches and found that all physical properties relevant for conventional superconductivity are anomalous in some respect in mercury.
How BCS explains it?
- In BCS superconductors, vibrational energy released by the grid of atoms encourages electrons to pair up, forming so-called Cooper pairs.
- These Copper pairs can move like water in a stream, facing no resistance to their flow, below a threshold temperature.
- By including certain factors that physicists had previously side-lined, the group’s calculations led to a clearer picture of how superconductivity emerges in mercury.
- For example, when the researchers accounted for the relationship between an electron’s spin and momentum, they could explain why mercury has such a low threshold temperature (around –270°C).
Coulomb repulsion and Mercury
- Similarly, the group found that one electron in each pair in mercury occupied a higher energy level than the other.
- This detail reportedly lowered the Coulomb repulsion (like charges repel) between them and nurtured superconductivity.
- Thus, the group has explained how mercury becomes a superconductor below its threshold temperature.
- Their methods and findings suggest that we could have missed similar anomalous effects in other materials, leading to previously undiscovered ones that can be exploited for new and better real-world applications.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ottanthullal
Mains level: NA
A renowned folk artist has expressed his angst over the fading participation of students in Ottanthullal Artform.
What is Ottanthullal?
- Ottanthullal (or Thullal, in short) is recite-and-dance art-form of Kerala.
- It was introduced in the 18th century by the famous Malayalam poet Kunchan Nambiar (1705 – 1770).
- It is famous for its humour and social satire, and marked by its simplicity as opposed to more complex dance-forms like Kathakali and Koodiyattam.
Unique features
- Ottanthullal follows the classical principles of Natyasasthra (a treatise on art compiled in the 2nd century B.C.E).
- It is enacted into three separate versions
- Ottanthullal
- Seethankan thullal
- Parayan thullal
- The Ottanthullal is the most popular among the three varieties of Thullal.
How is it performed?
- The performance uses elaborate expressions and stories recited in verses to bring important mythological tales and stories to life.
- The costume and makeup of the performer are similar to that of a Kathakali artist.
- It is performed at temple festivals and cultural programmes.
- The performer is supported by a singer who repeats the verses and is accompanied by an orchestra of mridangam or thoppimaddalam (percussions) and cymbals.
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