Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: 1995 UNIDROIT
Mains level: Paper 1- Dealing with the issue of idol theft
Context
Building an inventory of antiquities should be the first step in dealing with the problem.
Measures taken by the worldwide organisations
- CAG in its 2013 Report stated that “131 antiquities were stolen from monuments/sites and 37 antiquities from Site Museums from 1981 to 2012″
- It added that in similar situations, worldwide, organisations took many more effective steps:
- 1] Checking of catalogues of international auction house(s),
- 2] Posting news of such theft on websites.
- 3] Posting information about theft in the International Art Loss Registry.
- 4] Sending photographs of stolen objects electronically to dealers and auction houses and intimate scholars in the field.
- Lack of legal provisions: The report also stated that the ASI had never participated or collected information on Indian antiquities put on sale at well-known international auction houses viz. Sotheby’s, Christie’s, etc. as there was no explicit provision in the AAT (Antiquities and Art Treasures) Act, 1972 for doing so.
International conventions and treaties
- India is a signatory to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. (We ratified it in 1977).
- Perhaps we should also sign the 1995 UNIDROIT (International Institute for the Unification of Private Law) Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects.
Lessons from Italy
- Italy also suffers and several stolen antiquities have been returned by the US to Italy.
- That being the case, it shouldn’t be surprising that many best practices originate in Italy.
- The following list is illustrative.
- (1) A specific law on protecting cultural heritage, with enhanced penalties;
- (2) Centralised management before granting authorisation for archaeological research;
- (3) Specialisation in cultural heritage for public prosecutors;
- (4) An inter-ministerial committee for recovery and return of cultural objects;
- (5) MOUs and bilateral agreements with other countries and international organisations to prevent illegal trafficking;
- (6) Involvement of private organisations and individuals in protection;
- (7) A complete inventory of moveable and immoveable cultural heritage, with detailed catalogues;
- (8) Monitoring and inspection of cultural sites; and
- (9) Centralised granting of export requests.
Way forward
- One could say the 2013 CAG Report did a bit of (8), but that was a one-off and isn’t a permanent solution.
- This isn’t a binary, nor is it possible to accomplish everything overnight. However, incrementally, one can move towards (1), (3), (4), (5), (6), (8) and, especially, (7).
- We should start with that inventory.
Conclusion
While fingers can rightly be pointed at Western museums and auction-houses (this isn’t only about the colonial era), there is internal connivance.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Languages in the Eighth Schedule
Mains level: Paper 2- Eighth Schedule
Context
Language sensitivity has been a feature of selfhood in the case of every Indian language.
Sensitivity to language
- From ancient times, a sensitivity to language difference has almost been the core of Dravidic self-hood.
- A similar sensitivity existed among the speakers of Prakrits in ancient times.
- It was in one of the Prakrits that Mahavir had presented his teachings in the sixth century BCE.
- Eighteen centuries later, Acharya Hemachandra, a major Jain scholar, poet, mathematician and philosopher, produced his Desinamamala, a treatise on the importance of Prakrit words used in Gujarat of his times as against those from Sanskrit.
- Mahatma Gandhi, who defined the idea of selfhood for India in Hind Swaraj (1909), chose to write this iconic book in Gujarati.
Constitutional provision
- The official language used for communication between the States shall be the language that has been in use at the time of adoption of the Constitution.
- The move from English to Hindi can take place only if, ‘two or more states agree’ for the shift.
- Article 344 (4) provides for a ‘Committee consisting of thirty members’, ‘twenty’ from the Parliament and ‘ten’ from State assemblies, for safeguarding language-related provisions.
The distribution between two ministries
- The functions and the scope of the committee, as laid down by the Constitution, are further clarified by the practice of distribution of language as a subject between two Ministries, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and the Home Ministry.
- The scope of the HRD Ministry extends to education and the promotion of cultural expression.
- The Home Ministry’s scope extends to safeguarding relations of the States with the ‘union’, protecting the linguistic rights of language minorities and the promotion of Hindi.
- The last of these, the Constitution states, has to be ‘without interference with other languages.
Data on language decline
- In 2011, Hindi speakers accounted for 43.63% of the total population, with a total of 52.83 crore speakers.
- In 1971, the number was 20.27 crore, accounting for 36.99% of the total population.
- Between 2001 and 2011, the growth in proportion of the population was 2.6%.
- The next most spoken language, Bangla, had negative growth.
- It was spoken by 8.30% of Indians in 1991, 8.11% in 2001 and by 8.03% in 2011.
- Telugu, which slid from 7.87% in 1991, to 7.19% in 2001 and 6.70% in 2011, has a similar story to tell.
- Tamil recorded 6.32% of the total population in 1991, 5.91% in 2001 and 5.70% in 2011.
- The only major language to show decadal growth (though small) was Gujarati.
- And the only small yet scheduled language to show good growth was Sanskrit.
Reasons for Hindi’s growth
- The 52.83 crore speakers of Hindi (as recorded in 2011) included not just the speaker of ‘Hindi’ but also those of more than 50 other languages.
- Bhojpuri and most languages of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand have also been pushed into the Hindi package.
- Had the Census not included these other languages under Hindi, the strength of Hindi speakers would have gone down to about 39 crore, — just a little under 32% of the total population in 2011 — and would have looked not too different from those of other scheduled languages.
- The data for English speakers is far more truthful. Census 2011 reports a total of 3,88,793 Indians as English speakers (2,59,678 men and 1,29,115 women).
Hindi in comparison to other languages in the Eighth schedule
- Among the languages included in the Eighth Schedule, Hindi falls within the younger lot of languages.
- On the other hand, Tamil, Kannada, Kashmiri, Marathi, Oriya, Sindhi, Nepali and Assamiya have a much longer/older history.
- As a language of knowledge too, Tamil, Kannada, Bangla and Marathi (with their abundance of encyclopaedias and historical literature), quite easily outshine Hindi.
Conclusion
A language evolves slowly and cannot be forced to grow by issuing ordinances.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Forex reserves, BoP
Mains level: Economic crisis in India's neighbourhood
In an unusual development, the Nepali PM sacked the head of its central bank accusing him of leaking sensitive information and for failing to perform his duties.
What is the news?
- Nepal’s forex reserves have plummeted by 18.5% to $9.58 billion in March from $11.75 billion in July 2021.
- The current forex reserves are not enough to pay the government’s import bills beyond the next seven months or so.
- Nepal’s central bank recently announced a ban on the import of vehicles and other luxury items, citing liquidity crunch and declining foreign exchange reserves.
- It is rumoured that the Nepali economy will go into a crisis like Sri Lanka.
Why have Nepal’s forex reserves fallen?
- Nepal’s forex reserves situation appears healthy as of now as the country, unlike Sri Lanka, is not burdened by external debt.
- There are, however, concerns that the lower middle-income economy is being battered repeatedly by external factors and that may precipitate a crisis sometime soon.
- Nepal which is blessed with one of the finest tourism sectors in South Asia, because of the Himalayan mountain range, suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic as global tourist flow fell.
- This is followed by the global energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- This has put extraordinary inflationary pressure on the economy.
How bad is the situation?
- Nepal’s economy is highly dependent on imports as the country buys a range of merchandise goods apart from fuel.
- The prevailing weak economic indicators mean that Nepal is spending from its forex reserves faster than it can save.
- Economists contend that Nepal will soon have double-digit inflation. All economic indicators are declining.
- The real shortfall in forex reserves is because of the decline in foreign remittances which suffered during the pandemic when the Nepalese workforce abroad suffered job losses.
Can the energy scene in Nepal escalate economic woes?
- Nepal’s history shows that any uncertainty regarding fuel can trigger serious internal problems as was visible during the 2015-16 blockade when disruption of fuel supply from India.
- Nepal’s primary supplier of energy is Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).
- Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) pays IOC in two installments every month, on the 8th and the 23rd.
- The NOC has been in crisis for months as high global prices depleted the company’s savings, prompting it to approach the government for a lifeline.
- The Government of Nepal has agreed to provide NOC the necessary amount to continue supplies from IOC.
- NOC’s financial status makes it unattractive for banks and as a result the public sector company does not enjoy confidence in the market.
Paradoxical situation
- The government is in a paradoxical situation: It has to control imports of products from which it earns the highest amount of tax revenue.
- Luxury items are the country’s major source of revenue.
- If revenue shrinks, an economic crisis could be imminent.
Impact on elections
- Nepal will hold local level polls next month which will be followed by general elections towards the end of the year.
- The election process requires considerable financial allocation and Nepal has received support in the past for elections from international donors like the USAID.
- These donors help in carrying out pre-election staff training and logistics that are part of any democratic process.
- But there are uncertainties considering the bleak financial situation.
- It will require at least 10 billion Nepali rupees for the election process and that will mean diversion of a large amount of resources for the democratic process.
Quick recap: Sri Lankan Crisis
- Like Nepal, Sri Lanka is a country with a small economy. The Sri Lankan economy is around 1.5 times bigger than Nepal’s.
- Sri Lanka’s economic crisis was in the making since it suffered a terrorist attack in 2019 which hit its tourism industry, a major contributor to the GDP.
- Then came the pandemic, which further wiped out tourism incomes. Then there were debt burdens in dollars.
- The political leadership failed to act to address the looming crisis.
- The Rajapaksha dynasty made some wrong moves—it cut taxes and started printing money, hugely devaluing the currency.
- In what looked like a well-intentioned move towards organic farming, the county banned imports of chemical fertilisers. Paddy production failed. The country ran out of money to pay its bills.
Is Nepal really going the way of Sri Lanka?
- In Nepal, the situation is not as bleak.
- Nepal’s current forex reserves are enough to pay for imports of goods and services for about seven and a half months.
- Tourism, one of the major foreign currency earners, was hit hard by the pandemic, but its gradual revival has given a glimmer of hope.
- Since Nepal’s currency is pegged to the Indian rupee, a massive devaluation shock is unlikely. Tourism is also rebounding, giving a fillip to foreign currency reserves.
Back2Basics: Foreign Exchange Reserves
- Foreign exchange reserves are important assets held by the central bank in foreign currencies as reserves.
- They are commonly used to support the exchange rate and set monetary policy.
- In India’s case, foreign reserves include Gold, Dollars, and the IMF’s quota for Special Drawing Rights.
- Most of the reserves are usually held in US dollars, given the currency’s importance in the international financial and trading system.
- Some central banks keep reserves in Euros, British pounds, Japanese yen, or Chinese yuan, in addition to their US dollar reserves.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Renewable Energy in India
Mains level: India's ambitious RE targets and their success
India is likely to miss its 2022 target of installing 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity a/c to a report. This is because of rooftop solar lagging behind, the authors say.
India’s Solar Policy
- Since 2011, India’s solar sector has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 59% from 0.5GW in 2011 to 55GW in 2021.
- The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), also known as the National Solar Mission (NSM), was commenced in January 2010.
- It marked the first time the government focussed on promoting and developing solar power in India.
- Under the scheme, the total installed capacity target was set as 20GW by 2022.
- In 2015, the target was revised to 100GW and in August 2021, the government set a solar target of 300GW by 2030.
Solar energy: India among the peers
- India currently ranks fifth after China, U.S., Japan and Germany in terms of installed solar power capacity.
- As of December 2021, the cumulative solar installed capacity of India is 55GW, which is roughly half the renewable energy (RE) capacity (excluding large hydro power) and 14% of the overall power generation capacity of India.
- Within the 55GW, grid-connected utility-scale projects contribute 77% and the rest comes from grid-connected rooftop and off-grid projects.
What does the new report say?
- As of April, only about 50% of the 100GW target, consisting of 60GW of utility-scale and 40GW of rooftop solar capacity, has been met.
- Nearly 19 GW of solar capacity is expected to be added in 2022 — 15.8GW from utility-scale and 3.5GW from rooftop solar.
- Even accounting for this capacity would mean about 27% of India’s 100GW solar target would remain unmet.
- A 25GW shortfall in the 40GW rooftop solar target, is expected compared to 1.8GW in the utility-scale solar target by December 2022.
- Thus, it is in rooftop solar that the challenges of India’s solar-adoption policy stick out.
What is Solar Rooftop?
- A solar photovoltaic (PV) system mounted on a rooftop of a building is a mini-power requirement or feed into the grid.
- The size of the installation varies significantly depending on the availability of space, amount of electricity consumed by the property and the ability or willingness of the owner to invest the capital required.
- In December 2015, the government launched the first phase of the grid-connected rooftop solar programme to incentivise its use in residential, institutional and social areas.
- The second phase, approved in February 2019, had a target of 40GW of cumulative rooftop solar capacity by 2022, with incentives in the form of central financial assistance (CFA).
- As of November 2021, of the phase 2 target of 4GW set for the residential sector, only 1.1GW had been installed.
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Reasons for rooftop solar adoption not meeting targets
- In its early years, India’s rooftop solar market struggled to grow, held back by lack of consumer awareness, inconsistent policy frameworks of the Centre/ State governments and financing.
- Factors impeding rooftop-solar installation include:
- Pandemic-induced supply chain disruption to policy restrictions
- Regulatory roadblocks
- Limits to net-metering (or paying users who give back surplus electricity to the grid)
- Taxes on imported cells and modules
- Unsigned power supply agreements (PSAs) and banking restrictions
- Financing issues plus delays in or rejection of open access approval grants and
- The unpredictability of future open access charges
Other issues: India’s storage capacity
- About 34 GW / 136 GWh of battery storage is expected to be installed by 2030, according to the Central Electricity Authority of India.
- This capacity would be used for RE integration, demand-side and peak load management services.
Present state of progress
- Recently, there has been a sharp rise in rooftop solar installations due to falling technology costs, increasing grid tariffs, rising consumer awareness and the growing need for cutting energy costs.
- These factors are expected to persist giving a much-needed boost to this segment.
- Going ahead, rooftop solar adoption is expected to proportionally increase as land and grid-connectivity for utility solar projects are expected to be hard to come by.
Significance of solar power to India’s commitment
- Solar power is a major prong of India’s commitment to address global warming according to the terms of the Paris Agreement, as well as achieving net zero, or no net carbon emissions, by 2070.
- PM at the COP Glasgow, in November 2021, said India would be reaching a non-fossil fuel energy capacity of 500 GW by 2030 and meet half its energy requirements via renewable energy by 2030.
- To boost the renewable energy installation drive in the long term, the Centre in 2020 set a target of 450GW of RE capacity to be achieved by 2030, within which the target for solar was 300GW.
- Given the challenge of integrating variable renewable energy into the grid, most of the RE capacity installed in the latter half of this decade is likely to be based on wind solar hybrid (WSH).
Way forward
- Supportive policies and innovative technological approaches are needed for the sector to achieve its potential.
- Indian policymakers need to plan for rooftop solar plus storage, rather than rooftop solar alone with the grid as storage (net / gross metering).
- The declining cost of storage solutions, along with that of rooftop solar solutions, is likely to change the future of the Indian power sector.
- Several countries such as Australia, the United States, Germany, among others have already endorsed solar power with battery storage.
- Energy storage, therefore, represents a huge economic opportunity for India.
- The creation of a conducive battery manufacturing ecosystem on a fast track could cement India’s opportunity for radical economic and industrial transformation in a critical and fast-growing global market.
Also read:
[Sansad TV] Global Solar Grid
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Time Bank System
Mains level: Read the attached story
This newscard is an excerpt of an article originally published in the Down To Earth.
Defining Work
- ‘Work’ was defined by Spanish economist Lourdes Beneria in 1999 as a paid economic activity linked to the market.
- Both paid and unpaid work, however, are constituents of our economic life.
- This leads to an ecosystem where unpaid and care work, performed for long hours, becomes invisible.
Narrative of Unpaid Work
- Women perform 75 per cent of the world’s unpaid care work, and unfortunately it is not accounted for in a nation’s gross domestic product.
- The largest source of women’s unpaid labour is domestic work.
- These include household chores like grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning as well as caregiving to the children, elderly and infirm.
- In the absence of this, survival is perceived as a challenge for both individuals and society as every economy is dependent on unpaid labour and care services.
Time Poverty and unpaid work
- This share of labour has a cost not only in terms of the unrecognised monetary value but also time poverty.
- Time poverty is defined as “not having enough time” to pursue interests beyond unpaid domestic / care work.
- Time poverty has a direct bearing on the ability of women to contribute to or participate in the labour market and / or public or political life.
- Time poverty is also responsible for insufficient political participation of women globally.
Issues with unpaid work
- Unpaid labour is not considered ‘real work’ and is often devalued by the men and society, who directly benefit from it.
- The situation leads to emotional strain and combined with the time poverty, the costs often outweigh the benefits.
- Often, women do not find enough time or motivation to participate in activities outside the household.
- Female labour force participation rate is on a declining trend in major economies.
The conception of Time Banking
- Time banking comes forward as a social innovation for increased empowerment of women.
- Traditionally, household chores are expected to be performed by women. Women in general are more time poor than men.
- Empowerment of women is limited by time poverty. In this context the concept of time banking was introduced.
- Time banking can be viewed as an opportunity cost of an unpaid activity in terms of the time sacrificed.
How does time bank function?
- In time banks, one hour equals one time credit, regardless of the service being performed or the level of each person’s skill or gender.
- The time banks are time-sharing cooperative among women, with people helping each other meet their day-to-day needs and address challenges in their community.
- For each hour of a service exchanged, the service provider receives one, time credit and the beneficiary pays one, time credit.
- The time bank networks tap into unused resources of people in the community to fill unmet needs of each other.
Significance of time banking for women
- Time-banking can benefit women, their families and their communities by alleviating time poverty through the system of exchange services through time credits.
- The system has the potential to improve the livelihoods of women and their families, thereby increasing overall economic activities.
- There were time banks operating in more than 30 countries in the Americas, Africa and Europe as well as in Russia and China.
- Most case studies showed that time banks have functioned most as community-building tools, economic drivers or within elder care.
- They can also be utilised to prioritise women’s political participation.
- This has a direct impact on women empowerment and entails benefits to individual women, their families and communities.
Time bank networks can be utilised for increasing political participation of women in the following ways:
- Directly: Through utilisation of time credits for campaigning for office
- Indirectly: By educating themselves or others on local issues or understanding their rights, accessing government programs and mobilising others.
Way forward
- Across the world, there are examples in our everyday life of intra- and inter-family examples of informal time-sharing.
- However, for tangible results on a community or economy scale, the concept needs scaling up and formalisation.
- Time banking, if made a formal arrangement, has the potential of community building, civic inclusiveness and increasing economic activity.
- Above all, it has the potential to act as the catalyst to women empowerment by formally recognising the economic value of unpaid labour and tapping the same across communities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pithead and Non-pithead plants
Mains level: Coal shortage and Power Crisis
Temperatures have shot up across many parts of the country with the early onset of summer, leading to a rise in the demand for power. Instances of power outages have been reported in several states.
Why is there a concern around power supply?
- The demand for power has soared.
- Several states, including Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Telangana, and Maharashtra, are facing power outages.
- The coal stock with power generation companies (gencos) is not adequate to meet the rising demand.
How bad is the coal shortage?
- Normally, a power plant must maintain 26 days of coal stock.
- However, at present, several power plants are reporting critical levels of coal stock.
- Data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) shows that 97 power plants out of the 173 that the CEA tracks have critical levels of coal inventory.
- Of the 173, there are 155 non-pithead plants or power plants that are not near coal mines.
- These have an average of 28% of the stock compared to the normal scenario.
- The 18 plants that are near coal mines have an average stock of 81% of the normal requirement.
Note: Non-pithead plants are power plants where the coal mine is more than 1,500 kilometres away.
Is coal shortage the only reason for a power crisis?
- The lack of railway rakes to transport coal is also a major problem.
- The state power distribution companies (discoms) have also not been able to clear their dues to power generation companies.
- The covid-19 pandemic has now weakened the finances of many states, raising doubts about the ability of state-owned discoms to clear their dues.
What has led to the coal shortage?
- Several factors have led to the shortage, including the stagnation of production by Coal India Ltd (CIL) after the bumper production in FY15 and FY16.
- There seems to be a tussle between the Centre and coal-rich states, which delay environment and land acquisition clearances.
- High dues of discoms towards gencos and the eventual delay in gencos paying CIL has complicated the scenario.
How has the Centre responded?
- CIL has made efforts to raise supply to the power sector by reducing its dispatch to other industries.
- The power ministry said that to avoid long-distance transport, a ‘tolling’ facility would be allowed.
- In this system, state gencos can allow other thermal power plants near a coal mine to utilize their coal linkages to generate and transmit power back.
- This is an easier alternative compared to transportation.
- Further, the states need to ensure that imported coal-based plants operate at reasonable tariffs.
Try answering this PYQ:
Consider the following statements:
- Coal sector was nationalized by the Government of India under Indira Gandhi.
- Now, coal blocks are allocated on lottery basis.
- Till recently, India imported coal to meet the shortages of domestic supply, but now India is self- sufficient in coal production.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Post your answers here.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gram Swaraj Scheme
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a proposal to continue the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA), a scheme for improving the governance capabilities of Panchayati Raj institutions, till 2025-26.
What is RGSA?
- The RGSA, a centrally sponsored scheme, was first approved by the Union Cabinet in 2018 for implementation from 2018-19 to 2021-22.
- It is a unique scheme proposed to develop and strengthen the Panchayati Raj System across India in rural areas.
- The objective of the campaign is to promote social harmony, spread awareness about pro-poor initiatives of the government, and reach out to poor households to enroll them as also to obtain their feedback on various welfare programs.
- The main central components of the scheme included incentivization of panchayats and mission mode project on e-Panchayat including other activities at central level.
Scope of the scheme
- RGSA is extend to all States and Union Territories (UTs) of the country. It includes institutions of rural local government in non-Part IX areas.
- Part IX provides for a 3 tier Panchayat system, which would be constituted in every state at the village level, intermediate level and district level.
- This provision brought uniformity in the Panchayati Raj structure in India.
Areas where Part IX is not applicable:
As per Article 243M of the Constitution, provisions of Part IX of the Constitution are not applicable to:
- Scheduled Areas and Tribal Areas referred to in Article 244.
- The States of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram.
- The hill areas in the State of Manipur for which District Councils exist. (In these areas, district councils and various types of village-level bodies are in existence)
- Panchayats at the district level to the hill areas of the District of Darjeeling in the State of West Bengal.
- Provision of the Article 243D with respect to reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes is not applicable to the State of Arunachal Pradesh.
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Purpose of extension
The scheme would work towards:
- Poverty-free and enhanced livelihood in villages
- Healthy villages, child-friendly villages
- Water-sufficient villages
- Clean and green villages
- Self-sufficient infrastructure in villages
- Socially-secure villages with good governance and engendered development
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Vaccination
Mains level: NA
Almost everyone vaccinated for Covid-19 over the last 16 months will remember that he or she received a quick prick in the upper arm.
Why vaccines are generally administered into muscle?
- This is because most vaccines, including those for Covid-19, are most effective when administered through the intramuscular route into the upper arm muscle, known as the deltoid.
- There are several reasons, but the most important one is that the muscles have a rich blood supply network.
- This means whenever a vaccine carrying an antigen is injected into it, the muscle releases the antigen, which gets dispersed by the muscular vasculature, or the arrangement of blood vessels in the muscle.
- The antigen then gets picked up by a type of immune cells called dendritic cells, which function by showing antigens on their surface to other cells of the immune system.
- The dendritic cells carry the antigen through the lymphatic fluid to the lymph node.
Role of T Cells
- T Cells also called T lymphocyte, type of leukocyte (white blood cell) that is an essential part of the immune system.
- T cells are one of two primary types of lymphocytes—B cells being the second type—that determine the specificity of the immune response to antigens (foreign substances) in the body.
- Through the course of research over the years, it is understood that the lymph nodes have T cells and B cells — the body’s primary protector cells.
- Once this antigen gets flagged and is given to the T cells and B cells that is how we start developing an immune response against a particular virus.
- It could be any of the new viruses like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, or the previous viruses which we have been running vaccination programs for.
Other options for vaccination
- Conversely, if the vaccine is administered into the subcutaneous fat tissue [between the skin and the muscle], which has a poor blood supply, absorption of the antigen vaccine is poor and therefore one may have failed immune response.
- Similarly, the additives which could be toxic, could cause a local reaction.
- The same thing could happen when the vaccine is administered intradermally (just below the outermost skin layer, the epidermis).
- Hence, the route chosen now for most vaccines is intramuscular.
- Also, compared to the skin or subcutaneous tissue, the muscles have fewer pain receptors, and so an intramuscular injection does not hurt as much as a subcutaneous or an intradermal injection.
But why the upper arm muscle in particular?
- In some vaccines, such as that for rabies, the immunogenicity — the ability of any cell or tissue to provoke an immune response — increases when it is administered in the arm.
- If administered in subcutaneous fat tissues located at the thigh or hips, these vaccines show a lower immunogenicity and thus there is a chance of vaccine failure.
Why not administer the vaccine directly into the vein?
- This is to ensure the ‘depot effect’, or release of medication slowly over time to enable longer effectiveness.
- When given intravenously, the vaccine is quickly absorbed into the circulation.
- The intramuscular method takes some time to absorb the vaccine.
- Wherever a vaccination programme is carried out, it is carried out for the masses.
- To deposit the vaccine, the easiest route would be the oral route (like the polio vaccine).
- However, for other vaccines that need to be administered intravenously or intramuscularly (enabling wider field-based administration), the intramuscular route is chosen from a public health perspective over the intravenous route.
Which vaccines are administered through other routes?
- One of the oldest vaccines that for smallpox, was given by scarification of the skin.
- However, with time, doctors realised there are better ways to vaccinate beneficiaries.
- These included the intradermal route, the subcutaneous route, the intramuscular route, oral, and nasal routes.
- There are only two exceptions that continue to be administered through the intradermal route.
- These are the vaccines for BCG (Bacillus Calmette–Guérin) and for tuberculosis because these two vaccines continue to work empirically well when administered through the intradermal route.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Madhavpur Mela
Mains level: Not Much
The Madhavpur Mela was recently inaugurated by the President of India.
In the entire country, there is no other fair which the President and host of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers of a number of states visit.
What is the Madhavpur Mela?
- The Mela is a religio-cultural fair taking place every year in Madhavpur, a village on the Porbandar coast, also known as Madhavpur Ghed.
- The village has temples of Madhavraiji, or Lord Krishna, and his consort Rukmini, believed to have been built in the 15th century.
- It is also known for its sandy sea beach, the turquoise waters of the Arabian Sea, a sea turtle hatchery and the Osho Ashram
- The fair begins on Ram Navami, Lord Rama’s birth anniversary falling on the ninth day of the month of Chaitra in the Hindu calendar, and culminates on Tryodashi, the 13th day of the month.
Mythology behind the fair
- The fair celebrates the marriage of Lord Krishna with Rukmini around 4,000 years ago, as per Hindu mythology.
- The fair begins on Ram Navami, Lord Rama’s birth anniversary falling on the ninth day of the month of Chaitra in the Hindu calendar, and culminates on Tryodashi, the 13th day of the month.
- According to mythology, Lord Krishna had established his kingdom in Dwarka near Porbandar.
- Rukmini, daughter of King Bhimak of the present-day Arunachal Pradesh, wanted to marry Krishna, while her brother wanted to marry her off to Shishupal, Krishna’s cousin.
- Therefore, Krishna abducted Rukmini, brought her to Gujarat and tied the knot with her at Madhavpur village.
- Today, to mark the wedding, marriage rituals go on for five days.
- They culminate with the idols of Lord Krishna and Rukmini being taken out in a procession through Madhavpur for ‘samaiya’, a ritual to welcome the bridegroom back home with his bride.
Significance of the fair
- The President observed that fairs and festivals have bonded the people of India for ages and that Madhavpur Mela also integrates Gujarat to the Northeast of India.
- This fair reflects that, despite our languages, dialects and lifestyles being different, Indians, since time immemorial, have been one culturally.
Do you know?
There is one such festival called ‘Pushkaram’ which is celebrated by the people of Tamil Nadu. Devotees from Tamil Nadu perform rituals at the banks of Brahmaputra River.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gross Enrolment Ratio
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with CUET
Context
The introduction of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) can be seen as a step in the direction of aligning India with international standards.
About CUET
- The UGC’s rationale for introducing the test is to address the disparity in the allocation of marks by different examination boards, and provide a “level playing field” to students from different sections of society and diverse regions.
- The CUET has been envisaged as a corrective.
- Of the 48 central universities, 45 seem to have the requirements to institute the test.
- The CUET is going to decide the fate of approximately 1.3 crore students for roughly 5.4 lakh undergraduate seats in 45 central universities.
Issues with the CUET
- Students to contend with two examinations: The marks obtained in the board examination will remain vital for admission to state and private universities as well as job applications.
- The students will now have to contend with two examinations.
- Impetus to coaching classes: Many educationists argue that the new examination is likely to give an impetus to coaching classes.
- Coaching and private tuition will flourish without much concern for quality in the preparation of the study material.
- Not all State Boards prescribe NCERT textbooks: The CUET syllabus will be based on NCERT (under the Ministry of Education) textbooks even though not all state boards prescribe these books.
- The coaching industry stands to take advantage of this situation and students will have a hard time navigating two sets of textbooks.
- The impact is likely to be harsher on disadvantaged sections of the society for whom access to higher education is seen as the only route to upward mobility.
Way forward
- The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is constantly increasing for higher secondary education (51.4 per cent according to UDISE, 2019-20) and higher education (27.1 per cent to AISHE, 2019-20).
- The figures indicate that higher education has acquired a mass base in the country.
- This has important implications for a knowledge-based economy and society.
- Maintaining the momentum of GER would require more teachers, schools and higher education institutions of quality and slow down the rush for a few but highly sought after universities and colleges.
Conclusion
The new examination would put additional pressure on both students and teachers at a time when they are trying to overcome the exactions of the pandemic. It appears to diverge from the objective of the National Education Policy-2020 — equitable access to good quality higher education for all students.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Competition Commission of India
Mains level: Privacy as a metric of quality
Context
In February, Facebook stated that its revenue in 2022 is anticipated to reduce by $10 billion due to steps undertaken by Apple to enhance user privacy on its mobile operating system.
Move towards more privacy-preserving options
- Apple introduced AppTrackingTransparency feature that requires apps to request permission from users before tracking them across other apps and websites or sharing their information with and from third parties.
- Through this change, Apple effectively shut the door on “permissionless” internet tracking and has given consumers more control over how their data is used.
- Privacy experts have welcomed this move because it is predicted to enhance awareness and nudge other actors to move towards more privacy-preserving options, leading to a market for “Privacy Enhancing Technologies”.
- Google’s Privacy Sandbox project is a case in point, though it remains to be seen whether it will be truly privacy-preserving.
Big Tech dominance and issues related to it
- Privacy and acquisitions: One standout feature of the Big Tech dominance has been the non-price factors such as quality of service (QoS) in general and privacy and acquisitions in particular.
- Acquisitions to kill competition: Acquisitions by Big Tech are regular and eat up big bucks, not always to promote efficiency but to eliminate potential competition, described evocatively as “kill zone” by specialists.
- According to a report released by the Federal Trade Commission, between 2010 and 2019, Big Tech made 616 acquisitions.
- In the absence of a modern framework, competition law continues to rely on Bork’s theory of consumer welfare which postulated that the sole normative objective of antitrust should be to maximise consumer welfare, best pursued through promoting economic efficiency.
- Market structure thus became irrelevant and conduct became the sole criterion for judgement.
- Conduct now predominantly revolves around QoS which, like much else surrounding digital platforms, is pushing competition authorities to fortify their existing regulatory toolkits.
Privacy as a metric of quality
- Companies such as Apple and DuckDuckGo (with its slogan “the search engine that doesn’t track you”) are employing enhanced user privacy as a competitive metric.
- It has been shown that “websites which do not face strong competition are significantly more likely to ask for more personal information than other services provided for free”.
- In 2018, OECD accepted that privacy is a relevant dimension of quality despite the low quality that may be prevalent due to lack of market development.
- Regulators across the globe are recognising privacy as a serious metric of quality.
- For instance, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in 2021 took suo moto cognisance of changes to WhatsApp’s “take-it” or “leave-it” privacy policy that made it mandatory for every user to share data with Facebook.
- In its prima facie order, the CCI inter alia observed that this amounts to degradation of privacy and therefore quality.
Way forward
- Privacy and competition have overlapping boundaries.
- If privacy becomes a competitive constraint, then companies will have the incentive to create privacy-preserving and enhancing technologies.
- Barriers for new entrants: On the other hand, care must be taken so that Big Tech, aka the gatekeepers in the EU’s Digital Markets Act, do not misuse privacy to create barriers for newer entrants.
- Restricting third-party tracking is not novel and other browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft’s Edge have already done so.
- But Google, which owns 65 per cent of the global browser market, is different.
- By disabling third parties from tracking but continuing to use that data in its own ad tech stack, Google harms competition.
- The use of privacy as a tool for market development, therefore, has to tread this tightrope between enabling and stifling competition.
Conclusion
An approach that balances user autonomy, consumer protection, innovation, and market competition in digital markets is a real win-win and worth investing in.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IRMS
Mains level: Paper 3- IRMS training
Context
A recent Gazette notification regarding the creation of the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) marks a paradigm shift in the management of one of the world’s largest rail networks.
About the merger and IRMS
- A nearly 8,000 strong cadre of the erstwhile eight services is now merged into one.
- Eight out of 10 Group-A Indian Railway services have been merged to create the IRMS.
- The merged services are: Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS), Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS), Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS), Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE), Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSS), Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME), Indian Railway Service of Civil Engineers (IRSE) and Indian Railway Stores Service (IRSS).
- Aims of the restructuring: Besides removing silos, this restructuring also aims at rationalising the top-heavy bureaucracy of the Indian Railways.
Way forward: Training
- Training the future leaders of India’s public transporter in the rapidly evolving logistics sector of the country is the most important task ahead.
- The UPSC will recruit a few hundred IRMS officers each year from now, they will remain much less in number when compared to already serving officers for a long time to come.
- Training of the existing cadre of officers: The fact remains that even after the creation of the IRMS, the 8,000 strong (already serving) officers of the Indian Railways will need to work in coordination and not in silos, as they will be serving in the organisation for decades to come.
- This highlights the importance of training of the existing cadre of officers as they will have to deliver on the ambitious Gati-Shakti projects.
- The task of training such a dynamic talent pool assumes importance in view of India’s aspirations of becoming a $5 trillion economy.
- All this will require a massive revamp of the capacity building ecosystem of the Indian Railways.
- Redesign the training: The merger of services provides an opportunity to redesign the training for newly recruited IRMS officers to make them future-ready. Initial training along with mid-career training programmes may be reoriented.
- The IRMS training needs to be designed based on the competencies required for different leadership roles.
- Mission Karmayogi of the Government of India provides for competencies based postings of officers.
- The Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT) programme of the Government of India will be instrumental in shaping the career progression of IRMS officers.
Conclusion
Future IRMS officers should be ready to face the challenges of working in an organisation that is involved in round the clock and round the year operations, has substantial social obligations to meet and, at the same time, which must earn for itself.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: 2+2 Format
Mains level: Read the attached story
The fourth ‘2+2’ dialogue between India and the United States is underway in Washington DC.
2+2 talks between India and allies
- The 2+2 dialogue is a format of meeting of the foreign and defence ministers of India and its allies on strategic and security issues.
- A 2+2 ministerial dialogue enables the partners to better understand and appreciate each other’s strategic concerns and sensitivities taking into account political factors on both sides.
- This helps to build a stronger, more integrated strategic relationship in a rapidly changing global environment.
- India has 2+2 dialogues with four key strategic partners: US, Australia, Japan, and RUSSIA.
Inception of the idea
- The inaugural 2+2 dialogue with Australia was held in September 2021 when Jaishankar and Singh met with their counterparts Marise Payne and Peter Dutton in New Delhi.
- India held its first 2+2 dialogue with Russia in December last year, when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited India.
- The first India-Japan talks in the 2+2 format were held on November 30, 2019 in New Delhi.
Dialogue with the US
- The US is India’s oldest and most important 2+2 talks partner.
- The first 2+2 dialogue between the two countries was held during the Trump Administration.
- It hosted then-Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and then-Secretary of Defence James Mattis and the late Sushma Swaraj and then Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi in September 2018.
- The second and third editions of the 2+2 dialogues were held in Washington DC and New Delhi in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Defence and strategic agreements
- Over the years, the strategic bilateral relationship with its partners, including the dialogues held in the 2+2 format, have produced tangible and far-reaching results for India.
- India and the US have signed a troika of “foundational pacts” for deep military cooperation, beginning with the:
- Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016
- Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) after the first 2+2 dialogue in 2018, and
- Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) in 2020
Deterrents in ties ahead of the meet
- There is little doubt as to how beneficial this mechanism has been.
- On one side, the ‘two plus dialogue’ is expected to abate, if not resolve, highly problematic issues such as Chinese aggression.
- Even though there is a tonne of expectations from this mutual dialogue between the two countries, the dialogue is also the source of some worry.
- This time, the US is sceptical of India’s mammoth oil import from Russia.
- Another problematic pointer is India’s voluminous weaponry sanctions from Russia.
Why a 2+2 with Russia?
- Russia is one of those countries with which a 2+2 format talk “fits perfectly” in India’s foreign policy.
- India and Russia have shared a strategic relationship since October 2000, which later got upgraded to ‘Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership’ in December 2010.
- To be sure, the India-Russia 2+2 does have a particularly strong signalling component when seen against the backdrop of the S400 controversy.
- Holding the 2+2 talks with Russia is much needed. This gives out a strong message to the world that India sees everyone to be on the same level.
- This is visible messaging that India cannot be compelled to choose partners. India pursues an independent foreign policy serving its national and non-allied interests.
- Having a 2+2 with Russia also means that India is “not in anyone’s camp” and that bilateral ties between Moscow and New Delhi are “traditional and comprehensive”.
Way forward
- India and the US don’t set ‘red lines’ and are pushing for “an honest dialogue”, the ongoing 2+2 dialogue is an opportunity for both India and the US.
- The US also understands that India is one of the few countries that could leverage its relationship with Russia to bring the two warring parties to the negotiating table through a ceasefire and diplomatic resolution.
- For Delhi, it is a season for careful and adroit diplomacy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST slabs, Inverted Duty Structure
Mains level: Issues with Inverted Duty Structure
India has long suffered the anomaly of imported raw material being taxed more than the finished product. Economists call it the inverted duty structure. A spate of free trade agreements (FTAs) in the past have not helped. Are the new ones any better?
What is the inverted duty structure?
- An inverted duty structure comes up in a situation where import duties on input goods are higher than on finished goods.
- In other words, the GST rate paid on purchases is more than the GST rate payable on sales.
Why is it a problem?
- When manufacturers cannot set off the taxes paid on raw materials against the tax on the final product, the excess tax paid on inputs gets built into the price of the product.
- This makes an Indian-made product more expensive than the imported finished product, affecting the competitiveness of Indian makers.
- The issue is acute in sectors like textiles and apparels.
- Correcting duty anomalies is key to attracting investments in manufacturing.
Will new FTAs worsen the problem?
- Looks unlikely. The FTAs under negotiations are structurally very different from those signed a decade ago.
- The FTAs signed in the early 2000s were with manufacturing hubs like the 10-nation ASEAN which includes the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan.
- Most of these countries directly compete with India in a host of manufacturing sectors including apparel, electronics, and engineering goods.
- They largely produced the same goods as India.
- By contrast, the new FTAs being signed by India are with countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that share complementarities with India with respect to trade interests.
How is India addressing duty anomalies?
- India has been increasing import duties since 2014-15 to correct the inverted duty structure for non-FTA countries and the average tariff rose from 13.5% in 2014 to 15% in 2020.
- In fact, the last two budgets sought to correct it by removing duty exemptions and lowering the duty on raw materials.
How did the earlier FTAs impact India?
- In old FTAs, India agreed to lower or eliminate duties on finished goods. But import duty on raw materials remained high.
- That made it cheaper to import the final product than make them in India, hurting domestic manufacturers.
- This can be seen from the fact that the share of ASEAN in India’s total imports has grown from 8.2% in FY11 to 12% in FY21, while exports have stagnated at 10%.
- The share of South Korea rose from 2.83% in FY11 to 3.23% in FY21, while exports are up marginally from 1.5% to 1.6% during the same period.
And how are the new FTAs different?
- The UAE, for example, is a services, oil, and gold-led economy rather than a manufacturer. India benefits from duty-free access for mobile phones, which the UAE does not make.
- Australia, which signed a pact with India last week is again not a major manufacturing economy, but a services one with key interests in wines and minerals, pears, oranges, etc.
- Besides, this time around, the government is holding consultations with the industry during the FTA talks, doing a SWOT analysis to ensure FTAs benefit India’s exports.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Software licensing
Mains level: Read the attached story
This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in The Hindu.
Does software have copyright? Even more specifically, is the Internet free inspite of software copyright? Are software programming languages free of cost? How does copyright apply to software?
Software licensing
- A copyright gives a creator the legal right to own, distribute and profit from his or her creative work.
- There are different kinds of software licences that allow free use of software:
(1) Proprietary License
- There is proprietary software which is to be purchased as a one-time transaction or as yearly licences.
- A popular example is Microsoft Windows which is purchased along with the computer or Microsoft Office which typically has a yearly licence that has to be renewed upon payment.
(2) Creative Commons licence (CC)
- There is the Creative Commons licence (CC) which is public domain: any software or work that is in CC can be used and distributed free of cost.
- For example, Wikipedia is under CC and hence its contents can be used freely with the condition that attribution is made to Wikipedia (this is called ‘Creative Commons – Attribution-ShareAlike).
(3) Permissive Software licence
- Another form of free software licence is Permissive Software licence which is popular in the software developer community and in the commercial world.
- This licence allows free use and modification of software. There are further specific licences under this category, like the Apache licence and MIT licence.
(4) Apache licence
- The Apache licence is maintained by the Apache Software Foundation which is a non-profit entity.
- Many popular and powerful softwares like Spark (used in Big Data) have been developed under Apache licence.
- MIT licence is maintained by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and it covers hundreds of software packages including GitLab and Dot NET.
What are Open Software?
- All free and permissive software licences are similar to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).
- This is a set of rules and free software brought under one umbrella in the 1980s by Richard Stallman, a famous computer scientist and activist.
- FOSS maintains its own licence, called GNU GPL (Gnu’s Not Unix General Public Licence) to govern and distribute free software but it comes with restrictions that its adoption and modification be for free use.
- In the software community, ‘open source’ means any of the above non-proprietary licences.
Who maintains open source softwares?
- Open source software packages are developed and maintained by programmers from around the world.
- Until the mid-1990s, the idea of the general public collaborating to create software for free seemed to be unrealistic and confined to small, elite communities.
- However, with the success of a free operating system like Linux (which is under GNU GPL licence), many were convinced that open source could create sophisticated solutions because of access to top programmers around the world.
Is the Internet free?
- To access and to create content on the internet, there are costs involved such as infrastructure costs like network cost and the cost to host and maintain the content.
- However, the core of the internet itself is free: it is free to use ideas like linking contents on the internet, transferring them with a network software protocol and adopting the associated standards like maintaining the website address (Uniform Resource Locator-URL).
Are programming languages free of cost?
- Until the 1980s, popular programming languages had a price but with the advent of Java in the 1990s and thanks to the initiatives of Richard Stallman and his Free Software Foundation in the 1980s, many languages, especially modern ones like Go or popular ones like Python are free.
- Java is somewhere in the middle where there are free implementations of the language that most software developers use but there are also paid implementations provided by Oracle.
- In general, the realisation in the software community is that a free language has widespread adoption and leads to the availability of an expert pool of programmers.
- The last two decades have seen a proliferation of open source software and the future is even more exciting.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: El-Nino, La-Nina
Mains level: ENSO impact on Indian Monsson
The southwest monsoon is likely to be “normal” in 2022, though rainfall in August, the second rainiest month, will likely be subdued, according to the private weather company Skymet.
El Nino and La Nina
- While El Niño (Spanish for ‘little boy’), the more common expression, is the abnormal surface warming observed along the eastern and central regions of the Pacific Ocean (the region between Peru and Papua New Guinea).
- The La Niña (Spanish for ‘little girl’) is an abnormal cooling of these surface waters.
- Together, the El Niño (Warm Phase) and La Niña (Cool Phase) phenomena are termed as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
- These are large-scale ocean phenomena which influence the global weather — winds, temperature and rainfall. They have the ability to trigger extreme weather events like droughts, floods, hot and cold conditions, globally.
- Each cycle can last anywhere between 9 to 12 months, at times extendable to 18 months — and re-occur after every three to five years.
- Meteorologists record the sea surface temperatures for four different regions, known as Niño regions, along this equatorial belt.
- Depending on the temperatures, they forecast either as an El Niño, an ENSO neutral phase, or a La Niña.
Impact on India
- El Nino during winter causes warm conditions over the Indian subcontinent and during summer, it leads to dry conditions and deficient monsoon.
- Whereas La Nina results in better than normal monsoon in India.
- It has been established that Indian summer monsoon is a fully coupled land-atmosphere-ocean system and that it is linked to ocean temperature variability.
- In an agricultural country like India, the extreme departure from normal seasonal rainfall seriously affects the agricultural output and thus the economy of the country.
Try this PYQ:
Q. La Nina is suspected to have caused recent floods in Australia. How is La Nina different from El Nino?
- La Nina is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperature in equatorial Indian Ocean whereas El Nino is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperature in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
- El Nino has an adverse effect on south-west monsoon of India, but La Nina has no effect on monsoon climate.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) Only 1
(b) Only 2
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Nadabet, Seema Darshan Project
Mains level: Promoting Border Tourism
As part of the Seema Darshan project, Union Home Minister inaugurated an Indo-Pakistan border viewing point in Nadabet in Gujarat, around 188 km from Ahmedabad.
Where is Nadabet?
- Located in the Rann of Kutch region, Nadabet is also known as the ‘Wagah of Gujarat’.
- It is connected by a narrow bitumen road cutting across mudflats that get inundated during high-tide.
- The biggest attraction of the Seema Darshan Project is the access provided to civilians to view the fenced international border with Pakistan at ‘Zero Point’.
- This is guarded round the clock by the Border Security Force (BSF) in Banaskantha district of Gujarat.
- Pakistan is around 150 metres from the border pillar 960 at Nadabet.
- Though the BSF conducts a parade similar to the one held at Attari-Wagah border in Punjab every evening during sunset, there won’t be anyone present across the border on the Pakistani side.
What is the Seema Darshan Project?
- The Seema Darshan project is a joint initiative of the tourism department of the Gujarat state government and the BSF Gujarat Frontier.
- The focus is to develop border-tourism in the region which has a sparse population and even sparser vegetation.
- The project aims to boost tourism as well as restrict migration from the villages across the border to the Indian side.
Role of Nadabet in 1971 Indo-Pak War
- Nadabet played a key role in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War.
- It was in this region that the BSF not only stalled the enemy trying to invade from the west, but also captured 15 enemy posts.
- During the war, the BSF had captured 1,038 square km of Pakistan territory in Nagarparkar and Diplo areas.
- The area was returned to Pakistan after the Shimla Agreement was signed.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Implications of Pakistan's internal crisis
Context
As Pakistan goes through a major political convulsion, India must resist the temptation to see the changes across our western frontiers through the narrow prism of bilateral relations.
Why Pakistan matters
- Pakistan is an important regional piece in the power play between the US, China and Russia.
- Given its location at the crossroads of the Subcontinent, Middle East, Eurasia, and China, Pakistan has always been a vital piece of real estate that was actively sought by contending geopolitical blocs.
- The internal and external have always been tightly linked in Pakistan.
- Today, Pakistan’s internal battles are tied to external geopolitical rivalry.
Two important factors in the political trajectory of Pakistan
- Any Indian strategy in dealing with the new government in Islamabad would depend on an assessment of Pakistan’s post-Imran political trajectory.
- Two important factors stand out.
- 1] First is the changing nature of civil military relations in Pakistan.
- It is part of a serious intra-elite struggle that transcends the well-known military dominance over Pakistan’s polity.
- One of the more interesting questions to come out of the current episode is whether the army’s famed internal coherence and unity of command might endure the crisis.
- 2] Second is the growing fragility of Pakistan’s polity triggered by the deepening economic crisis and sharpening social contradictions.
- There is no guarantee that the army’s ties with new civilian rulers will be smooth nor can we assume that the civilian coalition against Imran Khan will survive the many challenges ahead as it confronts difficult policy challenges on multiple fronts.
Geopolitical challenges of Pakistan
- Engaging India is unlikely to be a high priority for the new government in Islamabad.
- Today, Pakistan has many other things to worry about — reviving its flagging economic fortunes, stabilising the Durand Line with Afghanistan, and rebalancing its ties with the major actors in the Middle East, including Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
- Pakistan, which traditionally enjoyed good relations with the West as well as China, is finding it hard to maintain a balance in its great power relations.
- While the army and the new government are eager to restore ties with the US, Imran Khan has made it hard for them.
- Imran Khan’s repeated praise for India’s independent foreign policy was in essence a critique of the Pakistan army that has long steered Islamabad’s international relations.
Way forward
- Delhi should focus on the potential shifts in Pakistan’s strategic orientation triggered by the current crisis.
- The good news from Pakistan is that India is not part of the argument between the political classes or between Imran Khan and the “deep state” represented by the army.
Conclusion
An India that gets an accurate sense of Pakistan’s changing geopolitics will be able to better deal with Islamabad.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Liquidity Adjustment Framework
Mains level: Paper 3- Standing Deposit Facility
Context
The first bi-monthly meeting of the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) for the current financial year reaffirmed its focus on inflation management.
Towards the normalisation of monetary policy
- The MPC voted to keep the policy rate unchanged at 4 per cent and retained its accommodative stance.
- However, the wording was changed to “remain accommodative while focusing on withdrawal of accommodation to ensure that inflation remains within the target going forward, while supporting growth.”
- This statement sets the stage for a shift to a neutral stance in the next meeting and policy rate hikes in subsequent meetings.
- RBI has announced the withdrawal of some of the steps taken during the pandemic to support the economy.
- These will foster the normalisation of monetary policy.
Inflation challenge
- The central bank has acknowledged that the disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine crisis have upended their growth and inflation outlook.
- It has steeply revised its inflation projection from 4.5 per cent earlier to 5.7 per cent now for the current financial year.
- The projection is based on an average global crude oil price of $100 per barrel.
- The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) Food Price Index, a gauge of global food prices, posted a record growth of 12.6 per cent from February.
Formalisation of Liquidity Adjustment Framework (LAF)
- The RBI has been managing liquidity infused into the system during the pandemic through the Variable Rate Reverse Repo Auctions (VRRR) to withdraw liquidity and Variable Rate Repo auctions to inject liquidity.
- RBI has now formalised the Liquidity Adjustment Framework (LAF).
- The LAF is a framework to absorb and inject liquidity into the banking system.
- The LAF is now a symmetric corridor with a width of 50 basis points.
- The policy repo rate is at the centre of the corridor, with the MSF 25 basis points above the policy rate and the SDF 25 basis points below the policy rate.
What is a Standing Deposit Facility
- The RBI has introduced the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) as the lower bound of the LAF corridor to absorb liquidity.
- The idea of the SDF was first mooted by the Urjit Patel Committee report on the monetary policy framework.
- The RBI Act was amended through the Finance Act of 2018 to allow RBI to use this instrument.
- The SDF will be a facility available to banks to park their funds.
- The SDF will serve as the standing liquidity absorption facility at the lower end of the LAF corridor.
- At the upper end of the corridor is the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) to inject liquidity.
- Through the SDF, the RBI can absorb liquidity without placing government securities as collateral, hence it will give greater flexibility to the central bank.
- The change also marks a shift away from reverse repo being the effective policy rate.
Key takeaways
- While on the face of it, there are no rate hikes, the shift from the reverse repo rate to the SDF signals a tightening of monetary policy.
- There is a 40 basis points increase in the floor rate.
- In the medium run, the call money rate would move towards the new LAF corridor, thus bringing orderly conditions in the money market.
- As RBI begins to normalise liquidity in a calibrated manner, its ability to manage bond yields will likely be limited.
- Yields on bonds are likely to inch up and remain above the 7 per cent mark.
- Going forward, the trade-off between managing inflation and the borrowing programme of the government will become challenging.
Conclusion
For now the RBI has rightly decided to place top priority on inflation management. This will help in maintaining the credibility of the inflation targeting framework.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CARA
Mains level: Child Adoption
The Supreme Court has decided to examine a plea to simplify the legal process for the adoption of children in the country.
Why in news?
- The petition filed said that there were only 4,000 child adoptions annually though there were 3 crore orphan children in the country.
- The Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance (CARING) System ought to appoint trained “adoption preparers” who could help the prospective parents to complete the cumbersome paperwork required for adoption.
What is Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA)?
- CARA is an autonomous and statutory body of Ministry of Women and Child Development set up in 2015.
- It functions as the nodal body for the adoption of Indian children and is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions.
- It is designated as the Central Authority to deal with inter-country adoptions in accordance with the provisions of the 1993 Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, ratified by India in 2003.
Why was CARA established?
- Some people are offering infants for instant adoption by stating how the children have lost their parents to pandemic.
- However, such adoptions are illegal.
- The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) law was enacted in 2015.
- The Juvenile Justice Act is a secular law, all persons are free to adopt children under this law.
- The Juvenile Justice Rules of 2016 and the Adoption Regulations of 2017 followed to create the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).
Adoption Process
- The eligibility of prospective adoptive parents living in India, duly registered on the Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS), irrespective of marital status and religion, is Procedure for adoption adjudged by specialised adoption agencies preparing home study reports.
- The specialized adoption agency then secures court orders approving the adoption.
- All non-resident persons approach authorized adoption agencies in their foreign country of residence for registration under CARINGS.
- Their eligibility is adjudged by authorised foreign adoption agencies through home study reports.
- CARA then issues a pre-adoption ‘no objection’ certificate for foster care, followed by a court adoption order.
- A final ‘no objection’ certificate from CARA or a conformity certificate under the adoption convention is mandatory for a passport and visa to leave India.
Harmonization created by CARA
- India has multiple adoption laws.
- Traditionally, the 1956 Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA), adoption, subject to the requirements and rigors of the Act, is available in India to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs, and others subject to Hindu family law or custom.
- For others, the 1890 Guardians and Wards Act applies, but which provides only guardianship, not adoption, for those not subject to Hindu family law or custom.
- CARA primarily deals with the adoption of “orphaned, abandoned and surrendered” children through recognised adoption agencies.
- In 2018, CARA has allowed individuals in a live-in relationship to adopt children from and within India.
Preference Controversy
- As required by the 1993 Hague Convention, Article 4(b), children residing in India are always offered to Indian families before any foreigner.
- However, after taking office in 2014, PM Modi changed the law to put Non-Resident Indian (NRI) citizens and couples on par with Indians residing in India.
- From this point on, all adoptable children are offered to Indian families in order of seniority instead of distinguishing between resident and non-resident Indians.
Way forward
- CARA must conduct an outreach programme on social media, newspapers and TV, warning everyone not to entertain any illegal adoption offers under any circumstances whatsoever.
- The National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights must step up their roles as vigilantes.
- Social activists, NGOs and enlightened individuals must report all the incidents that come to their notice.
- Respective State Legal Services Authorities have the infrastructure and machinery to stamp out such unlawful practices brought to their attention.
- The media must publicise and shame all those involved in this disreputable occupation.
- At the same time, the police authorities need to be extra vigilant in apprehending criminals.
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