Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cap on cash withdrawal
Mains level: Tax evasion
The government has made requirement of a Permanent Account Number (PAN) or Aadhaar number for depositing or withdrawing Rs 20 lakh or more in a financial year or for opening a current account mandatory.
Regulating high-value transactions
- The Central Board of Direct Taxes, in a notification, said furnishing PAN or biometric Aadhaar will be mandatory for such high-value cash deposits or withdrawals from banks in a financial year.
- The same will be applied for opening of a current account or cash credit account with a bank or post office.
- Banks, post offices and co-operative societies would be required to report the transactions of deposits and withdrawals aggregating to Rs 20 lakh or more in a financial year.
- As of now, PAN is required to be furnished for cash deposits of Rs 50,000 or more in a day.
- With these rules, a threshold of Rs 20 lakh has been defined for the full financial year.
How will this help tax department?
- This move will help the government in tracing the movement of cash in the financial system.
- It is expected to help the income tax department monitor deposits/withdrawals where tax would not be getting paid by the individual otherwise on his or her income.
Why PAN-Aadhaar interoperability?
- The PAN-Aadhaar interoperability will help banks to record details for those who don’t have PAN.
- The interchangeable provision in the rules would allow a bank or financial institution to ask for Aadhaar in case an individual states that he or she doesn’t have PAN.
- The Finance Act, 2019, has provided for the interchangeability of PAN with Aadhaar.
- It has been provided that every person who is required to furnish or intimate or quote his PAN under the Income-tax Act.
- Those who, has not been allotted a PAN but possesses the Aadhaar number, may furnish or intimate or quote his Aadhaar in lieu of PAN.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 351
Mains level: Paper 1- Diversity and complexity of India
Context
Given the diversity and complexity of India, the only constitutionally valid common denominator is citizenship.
Social security
- An eminent sociologist and former president of the International Sociological Association, T.K. Oommen, has written extensively on the concept of social security.
- Evolution of nation: He says the principal challenges to the evolution of a nation lie in minimising disparity, eradicating discrimination, and avoiding alienation.
- Excluded groups in our society: He has listed nine categories of socially and/or politically and/or excluded groups in our society: “Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, cultural minorities — both religious and linguistic, women, refugees-foreigners-outsiders, people [of] Northeast India, the poor and the disabled”.
- Sources of exclusion in India: He has suggested that “the three sources of exclusion in India — stratification, heterogeneity and hierarchy — create intersectionality.”
- This insecurity manifests itself in genocide, culturocide and ecocide and in its absence, a society may be conceptualised as secure.
- The Indian polity, he says, “has the most elaborate set of identities based on class, religion, gender, caste, region, language and their intersectionalities as well as consequent permutations and combinations.
- Citizenship as a common denominator: Given the diversity and complexity of India, the only constitutionally valid common denominator is citizenship.
- This is the point at which fraternity can and should be practiced among equals.
- Prof. Oommen opines that it is “only through the conflation of state and nation” can our Republic be considered a nation.
Conclusion
Cultural monoism and secularism are insufficient, Prof. Oommen says; instead, “the idea of conceptualizing India as a multicultural polity is more amenable than a secular India.” The sheet anchor of this has to be citizenship.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Termination of pregnancy as an unconditional right
Context
The issue of abortion is in the news again, internationally.
Criminal law provisions related to termination of pregnancy
- Under the general criminal law of the country, i.e. the Indian Penal Code, voluntarily causing a woman with child to miscarry is an offence attracting a jail term of up to three years or fine or both, unless it was done in good faith where the purpose was to save the life of the pregnant woman.
- A pregnant woman causing herself to miscarry is also an offender under this provision apart from the person causing the miscarriage, which in most cases would be a medical practitioner.
Background of the MTP Act
- In 1971, after a lot of deliberation, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act was enacted.
- This law is an exception to the IPC provisions above.
- Who, when, where, why and by whom? The law sets out the rules — of when, who, where, why and by whom — for accessing an MTP.
- This law has been amended twice since, the most recent set of amendments being in the year 2021 which has, to some extent, expanded the scope of the law.
- The law does not recognise and/or acknowledge the right of a pregnant person to decide on the discontinuation of a pregnancy.
- The law provides for a set of reasons based on which an MTP can be accessed.
Reasons allowed for MTP
- Reasons: The continuation of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or result in grave injury to her physical or mental health.
- The law explains that if the pregnancy is as a result of rape or failure of contraceptive used by the pregnant woman or her partner to limit the number of children or to prevent a pregnancy, the anguish caused by the continuation of such a pregnancy would be considered to be a grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant woman.
- The other reason for seeking an MTP is the substantial risk that if the child was born, it would suffer from any serious physical or mental abnormality.
- A pregnant person cannot ask for a termination of pregnancy without fitting in one of the reasons set out in the law.
- Gestational age of pregnancy: The other set of limitations that the law provides is the gestational age of the pregnancy.
- The pregnancy can be terminated for any of the above reasons, on the opinion of a single registered medical practitioner up to 20 weeks of the gestational age.
- From 20 weeks up to 24 weeks, the opinion of two registered medical practitioners is required.
- Any decision for termination of pregnancy beyond 24 weeks gestational age, only on the ground of foetal abnormalities can be taken by a Medical Board as set up in each State, as per the law.
- The law, as an exception to all that is stated above, also provides that where it is immediately necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman, the pregnancy can be terminated at any time by a single registered medical practitioner.
Issues with the MTP Act provisions
- While India legalised access to abortion in certain circumstances much before most of the world did the same, unfortunately, even in 2020 we decided to remain in the logic of 1971.
- Right to health and right to life: By the time the amendments to the MTP Act were tabled before the Lok Sabha in 2020, a number of cases came before the courts.
- In these cases, the courts had articulated the right of a pregnant woman to decide on the continuation of her pregnancy as a part of her right to health and right to life, and therefore non-negotiable.
- Violation of right to privacy: In right to privacy judgment of the Supreme Court of India it was held that the decision making by a pregnant person on whether to continue a pregnancy or not is part of such a person’s right to privacy as well and, therefore, the right to life.
- The standards set out in this judgment were also not incorporated in the amendments being drafted.
- Not in sync with central laws: The new law is not in sync with other central laws such as the laws on persons with disabilities, on mental health and on transgender persons, to name a few.
- In conflict with other laws: The amendments also did not make any attempts to iron out the conflations between the MTP Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act or the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, to name a few.
Conclusion
While access to abortion has been available under the legal regime in the country, there is a long road ahead before it is recognised as a right of a person having the capacity to become pregnant to decide, unconditionally, whether a pregnancy is to be continued or not.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Persistence of marital rape and need for its criminalization
Two judges of the Delhi High Court gave a split verdict on the question of criminalising rape within marriage, leaving the law unchanged.
Seems like the matter will now be referred to a larger bench.
What is Marital Rape?
- Marital rape is the act of sexual intercourse with one’s spouse without her consent.
- It is no different manifestation of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
- It is often a chronic form of violence for the victim which takes place within abusive relations.
What is the news?
- One of the Judge struck down as unconstitutional the exception to Section 375 of the IPC, which says that sexual intercourse by a man with his wife aged 18 and above is not rape even if it is without her consent.
- However, another Judge said that issue requires consideration of social, cultural and legal aspects.
Outcome of the split verdict: Preserving the institution of marriage
The Centre’s concern that criminalising marital rape may destabilise the institution of marriage is a “legitimate” one, said the HC.
- Spousal intimacy: In a marriage, conjugal expectation is a two-way street, where “consent is given as a part of spousal intimacy although the will to engage may be absent”.
- Need for written agreement: If every such case is treated as marital rape, then the only way partners in a marriage may survive would be by drawing up a detailed written agreement.
- Burden of evidentiary record: This would lead to creating a detailed evidentiary record of every act of intimacy and/or by inviting a third party to act as a witness.
- Defying marital obligations: The HC said that marriage was accompanied by obligations that the partners had to bear, including conjugal expectations, financial obligations and, finally, duty towards progeny.
- Sexual liberty of spouses: The bench also underlined the signs of injury on a partner need not necessarily mean there had been non-consensual sex as “in the age of sexual liberation”, injuries could be a sign of “passion”.
- Cruelty not rape: Forced sexual intercourse between a husband and wife cannot be treated as rape. At worst, it can be treated as sexual abuse found in Section 3 of the Domestic Violence Act.
- Clash of ego: A wife cannot prescribe a particular punishment that can be imposed on the husband ‘to satisfy her ego’,” the judge said.
Then what is the remedy for such ‘Marital Rapes’?
- Section 3 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 provides a definition for domestic violence, which includes physical, sexual, verbal and emotional abuse.
General reasons for disapproval of this concept
- The reluctance to define non-consensual sex between married couples as a crime and to prosecute has been attributed to:
- Traditional views of marriage
- Interpretations of religious doctrines
- Ideas about male and female sexuality
- Cultural expectations of subordination of a wife to her husband
- It is widely held that a husband cannot be guilty of any sexual act committed by himself upon his lawful wife their on account of their mutual matrimonial consent.
Why it must be a crime?
- Associated physical violence: Rape by a spouse, partner or ex-partner is more often associated with physical violence.
- Mental harassment: There is research showing that marital rape can be more emotionally and physically damaging than rape by a stranger.
- Compulsive relationship: Marital rape may occur as part of an abusive relationship.
- Revengeful nature: Furthermore, marital rape is rarely a one-time event, but a repeated if not frequent occurrence.
- Obligation on women: In the case of marital rape the victim often has no choice but to continue living with their spouse.
Violation of fundamental rights
- Marital rape is considered as the violation of FR guaranteed under Article 14 of the Indian constitution which guarantees the equal protection of laws to all persons.
- By depriving married women of an effective penal remedy against forced sexual intercourse, it violates their right to privacy and bodily integrity, aspects of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21.
Global examples
- Marital rape immunity is known in several post-colonial common law countries.
- Australia (1981), Canada (1983), and South Africa (1993) have enacted laws that criminalise marital rape.
- The UK in 1991 arrived at a consensus that a rapist remains a rapist subject to the criminal law, irrespective of his relationship with his victim.
- However, in 2003 marital rape was outlawed by legislation in the UK.
Problems in prosecuting marital rape
- Lack of awareness: A lack of public awareness, as well as reluctance or outright refusal of authorities to prosecute is common globally.
- Gender norms: Additionally, gender norms that place wives in subservient positions to their husbands, make it more difficult for women to recognize such rape.
- Acceptability of the concept: Another problem results from prevailing social norms that exist.
Present regulations in India
- Indian Penal Code criminalizes rape in most cases, although marital rape is not illegal when the woman is over the age of 18.
- However, until 2017, men married to those between 15 and 18 could not be convicted of rape.
- Marital rape of an adult wife, who is unofficially or officially separated, is a criminal offence punishable by 2 to 7 year in prison; it is not dealt by normal rape laws which stipulate the possibility of a death sentence.
- According to the Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act (2005), other married women subject to such crime by their husband may demand for financial compensation.
- They also have the right to continue to live in their marital household if they wish, or may approach shelter or aid homes.
However, marital rape is still not a criminal offence in this case and is only a misdemeanour.
Arguments against criminalization
- Subjective: It is very subjective and intricate to determine whether consent was acquired or not.
- Prone to Misuse: If marital rape is criminalized without adequate safeguards it could be misused like the current dowry law by the dissatisfied wives to harass and torture their Husbands.
- Burden on Judiciary: It will increase the burden of judiciary which otherwise may serve other more important causes.
Way forward
- Sanctioning marital rape is an acknowledgment of the woman’s right to self-determination (i.e., control) of all matters relating to her body.
- In the absence of any concrete law, the judiciary always finds it difficult to decide the matter of domestic rape in the absence of solid evidence.
- The main purpose of marriage is procreation, and sometimes divorce is sought on the ground of non-consummation of marriage.
- Before giving a final interpretation, the judiciary must balance the rights and duties of both partners.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Green Manure
Mains level: Soil Health Management
The Punjab agriculture department is promoting the cultivation of green manure these days.
What is the news?
- Punjab Agro is providing subsidy on the seed at the rate of Rs 2,000 per quintal, which costs Rs 6,300 per quintal without subsidy
- The farmers can avail its seed from the block level offices of the agriculture department as limited stock is available.
What is Green Manure?
- Green manures are crops grown specifically for maintaining soil fertility and structure.
- It is done by leaving uprooted or sown crops parts, allowing them to wither onto the field and serve as mulch and soil fertilizers.
- They are normally incorporated back into the soil, either directly, or after removal and composting.
- There are three main varieties of green manure, including
- Dhaincha
- Cowpea
- Sunhemp
- Also some crops such as summer moong, mash pulses and guar act as green manure.
- They can be sown after wheat cultivation
Characteristics of green manure
- Green manure must be leguminous in nature
- They must bear maximum nodules on its roots to fix large amount of atmospheric nitrogen in the soil.
Various policy initiatives
- Under Sub- Mission on Seed and Planting Material (SMSP), the govt. provides 50% cost assistance for the distribution of green manure required for a one-acre area per farmer.
- The Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) promotes cluster-based organic farming with PGS (Participatory Guarantee System) certification.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pantanal Wetlands
Mains level: Not Much
The world’s largest wetland, the Pantanal in South America, is at the risk of collapse due to legal land-use decisions and proposals.
About Pantanal
- The Pantanal is a natural region encompassing the world’s largest tropical wetland area, and the world’s largest flooded grasslands.
- It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso and portions of Bolivia and Paraguay.
- It sprawls over an area estimated at between 140,000 and 195,000 square kilometres.
- Various subregional ecosystems exist, each with distinct hydrological, geological and ecological characteristics; up to 12 of them have been defined.
- Roughly 80% of the Pantanal floodplains are submerged during the rainy seasons, nurturing a biologically diverse collection of aquatic plants and helping to support a dense array of animal species.
Significance of Pantanal
- The Pantanal is a refuge for iconic wildlife. This massive wetland has the largest concentration of crocodiles in the world, with approximately 10 million caimans.
- Jaguars, the largest feline in the Americas, hunt caiman in the Pantanal, which has one of the highest density of jaguars anywhere the world.
Threats
- Around 95% of the Pantanal is under private ownership, the majority of which is used for cattle grazing.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Marital rape
Context
On May 10, 2022, a two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court gave a split ruling on marital rape, thus ensuring a future hearing in the Supreme Court.
Why rape and marriage were seen as mutually exclusive
- The concepts of rape and marriage were seen as mutually exclusive – they could not be brought together.
- Across the world, and till very recently, marriage has been explicitly treated as being outside the purview of rape.
- Even in the Western countries that we associate with the more “advanced” practices of gender equality, marital rape was treated as an exception to the crime of rape till the early 1990s.
- In the absence of a universal definition, several scholars take marriage to be an institution where a man and a woman live together, have sexual relations and engage in cooperative economic activity.
- Link between marriage and property: Others have emphasised the link between marriage and property.
- The dominant form of marriage in the modern West became quite distinctly patriarchal, visible in late 18th-century British law, for instance, whereby a wife became the property of her husband upon marriage.
- Husbands, therefore, had the right to access their wives sexually, without the question of coercion or consent being on the horizon in the first place.
- As property, wives had to be protected from the (illegal) sexual access of other men, and here too, their consent was irrelevant.
Introduction of marital rape
- If what distinguishes the relationship of husband and wife from other relations between men and women is the legitimate expectation of sexual relations, then the introduction of marital rape signals the entry of a new and equally legitimate expectation: A wife’s consent to sexual relations is essential, and in this, she is no different from other women.
- Husbands no longer enjoy unquestioned rights over the bodies of their wives — this is what it means for a wife to be a person with bodily integrity.
Conclusion
It is strange, indeed, that most parts of the world, India included, became modern while continuing to believe that wives are the property of husbands.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Lesson from the power shortage crisis
Context
The power crisis has taken us by surprise. The question in everyone’s mind is: where did we go wrong? And who slipped up?
Responsibilities in supply chain
- Under the Electricity Act, it is the responsibility of the Distribution Licensee/Company (Discom) to provide reliable quality and round-the-clock electricity to all consumers to meet full demand.
- To do so, they enter into contracts with a number of generating companies in order to ensure adequate supply.
- These Discoms work under the oversight of the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions.
Suggestions
1] Dealing with the challenge of demand prediction
- Qualitative transformation in demand: With higher incomes and the consequent increase in the use of air-conditioners and other electrical appliances, the nature of electricity demand is undergoing a qualitative transformation with rising daily and seasonal peaks, and spikes on very hot or cold days.
- While demand prediction is inherently uncertain, the questions to ask are whether Discoms have been making and updating their demand growth projections and scenarios over the medium term with adequate supply arrangements in a robust manner.
- This needs to become central to the regulatory process.
- Ensuring reliable supply to meet unanticipated peaks, as have occurred now, requires making supply arrangements with reserve margins that are adequate.
- The Regulatory Commissions need to provide for such expensive peaking power arrangements in the tariffs they approve.
- It is also time to move towards separate peaking power procurement contracts in addition to the present system of long-term thermal power contracts.
2] Demand-based time of day rates of electricity
- A transition to demand-based time of day rates of electricity for generators as well as consumers would help.
- These should be brought in by the Regulatory Commissions.
- Flattening of demand curve: Peak demand moderation and flattening of the demand curve through a change in consumer behaviour is feasible with smart meters.
- But this would take place only with a strong price signal, a large differential in peak and off-peak rates.
3] Subsidies and politics
- Free supply of electricity to farmers and households up to a specified level is not a problem as long as State governments pay for it as provided in the Act, and the Regulatory Commissions do not at the same time act from a political point of view and shy away from determining cost-reflective tariffs.
- While the problem of delayed payments by Discoms is getting highlighted and needs to be resolved with a sense of urgency, the coal supply problem is not due to this.
- Coal India needs to create capacities to rapidly ramp up production; and the Railways need to carry larger quantities of coal when demand surges, as has happened now.
- Imported coal and gas generated electricity: There is idle but expensive generating capacity available — about 15-20 GW of gas-based power plants which can run on imported liquefied natural gas, and 6 GW-8 GW of thermal plants which can run on imported coal.
- Consumers who are willing to pay more could be kept free of power cuts with purchase and supply of more expensive electricity generated from imported coal and gas.
- To improve reliability, Discoms, with the approval of the Regulatory Commissions, need to go in for bids for storage.
Conclusion
A lesson is that demand growth projections and supply arrangements need to become central to the regulatory process.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CRR
Mains level: Paper 3- Dealing with inflation challenge through liquidity measures
Context
The recent action of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to raise the repo rate by 40 basis points and cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points is a recognition of the serious situation with respect to inflation in our country and the resolve to tackle inflation.
Inflation in India and role of government expenditure
- India’s CPI inflation has been fluctuating around a high level.
- As early as October 2020, it had hit a peak of 7.61%.
- It had remained at a high level of over 6% since April 2020.
- It did come down after December 2020 but has started rising significantly from January 2022.
- On the other hand, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation had remained in double digits since April 2021. The GDP implicit price deflator-based inflation rate for 2021-22 is 9.6%.
- Even though the RBI’s mandate is with respect to CPI inflation, policymakers cannot ignore the behaviour of other price indices.
- After the advent of COVID-19, the major concern of policymakers all over the world was to revive demand.
- Keynesian prescription: This was sought to be achieved by raising government expenditure.
- Thus, the expansion in government expenditure did not immediately result in increased production in countries where the lockdown was taken seriously.
- However, the Keynesian multiplier does not work when there are supply constraints as in developing countries.
- That is why the multiplier operates in nominal terms rather than in real terms in such countries.
- Something similar has happened in the present case where the supply constraint came from a non-mobility of factors of production.
- Nevertheless, the prescription of enhanced government expenditure is still valid under the present circumstances.
- Perhaps the increase in output could happen with a lag and also with the relaxation of restrictions.
Role of monetary policy
- Why lover money multiplier rate? Initially, the focus of monetary policy in India has been to keep the interest rate low and increase the availability of liquidity through various channels, some of which have been newly introduced.
- However, the growth rate of money was below the growth rate in reserve money.
- This is because of lower credit growth which also depends on business sentiment and investment climate.
- Thus the money multiplier is lower than usual.
- The Government’s borrowing programme which was larger went through smoothly, thanks to abundant liquidity.
- Even as the economy picked up steam in 2021-22, inflation also became an issue, this is a worldwide phenomenon.
- In India too there is a shift in monetary policy.
Analysing the cause of inflation
- While discussing inflation, analysts focus almost exclusively on the increases in the prices of individual commodities such as crude oil as the primary cause of inflation.
- General price level: Supply disruptions due to domestic or external factors may explain the behaviour of individual prices but not the general price level which is what inflation is about.
- Given a budget constraint, there will only be an adjustment of relative prices.
- Besides the fact that any cost-push increase in one commodity may get generalised, it is the adjustment that happens at the macro level which becomes critical.
- It is the adjustment in the macro level of liquidity that sustains inflation.
Inflation and growth
- The possible trade-off between inflation and growth has a long history in economic literature.
- The Phillip’s curve has been analysed theoretically and empirically.
- Tobin called the Phillip’s curve a ‘cruel dilemma’ because it suggested that full employment was not compatible with price stability.
- The critical question flowing from these discussions on trade-off is whether cost-push factors can by themselves generate inflation.
- In the current situation, it is sometimes argued that inflation will come down, if some part of the increase in crude prices is absorbed by the government.
- If the additional burden borne by the government (through loss of revenue) is not offset by expenditures, the overall deficit will widen.
- The borrowing programme will increase and additional liquidity support may be required.
Concomitant decisions on CRR and repo rate
- These are concomitant decisions. Central banks cannot order interest rates.
- For a rise in the interest rate to stick, appropriate actions must be taken to contract liquidity.
- That is what the rise in CRR will do.
- In the absence of a rise in CRR, liquidity will have to be sucked by open market operations.
Conclusion
Beyond a point, inflation itself can hinder growth. Negative real rates of interest on savings are not conducive to growth. If we want to control inflation, action on liquidity is very much needed with a concomitant rise in the interest rate on deposits and loans.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Religious and linguistic minorities
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Union government will initiate a wide consultation with states and other stakeholders to examine a plea as to whether Hindus can be granted minority status in states where their numbers are comparatively less.
Why such move?
- Hindus are merely 1% in Ladakh, 2.75% in Mizoram, 2.77% in Lakshadweep, 4% in Jammu & Kashmir, 8.74% in Nagaland, 11.52% in Meghalaya, 29% in Arunachal Pradesh, 38.49% in Punjab, and 41.29% in Manipur.
Who are the Minorities?
- Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jain and Zorastrians (Parsis) have been notified as minority communities under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
- As per the Census 2011, the percentage of minorities in the country is about 19.3% of the total population of the country.
- The population of Muslims are 14.2%; Christians 2.3%; Sikhs 1.7%, Buddhists 0.7%, Jain 0.4% and Parsis 0.006%.
- Minority Concentration Districts (MCD), Minority Concentration Blocks and Minority Concentration Towns, have been identified on the basis of both population data and backwardness parameters of Census 2001 of these areas.
Who are linguistic minorities?
- Linguistic Minorities are group or collectivities of individuals residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language or script of their own.
- The language of the minority group need not be one of the twenty-two languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
- In other words, linguistic minorities at the State level mean any group or groups of people whose mother tongues are different from the principal language of the State, and at the district and taluka/tehsil levels, different from the principal language of the district or taluka/tehsil concerned.
- The linguistic minorities are therefore identified by the respective States/UTs.
Defining Minorities
- The Constitution recognizes Religious minorities in India and Linguistic minorities in India through Article 29 and Article 30.
- But Minority is not defined in the Constitution.
- Currently, the Linguistic minorities in India are identified on a state-wise basis thus determined by the state government whereas Religious minorities in India are determined by the Central Government.
- The Parliament has the legislative powers and the Centre has the executive competence to notify a community as a minority under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992.
Article 29: It provides that any section of the citizens residing in any part of India having a distinct language, script, or culture of its own, shall have the rights of minorities in India to conserve the same. Article 29 is applied to both minorities (religious minorities in India and Linguistic minorities in India) and also the majority. It also includes – rights of minorities in India to agitate for the protection of language.
Article 30: All minorities shall have the rights of minorities in India to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. Article 30 recognises only Religious minorities in India and Linguistic minorities in India (not the majority). It includes the rights of minorities in India to impart education to their children in their own language.
Article 350-B: Originally, the Constitution of India did not make any provision with respect to the Special Officer for Linguistic minorities in India. However, the 7th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1956 inserted Article 350-B in the Constitution. It provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities appointed by the President of India. It would be the duty of the Special Officer to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under the Constitution.
Laws specifying minorities
- 1992 National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Act and
- 2004 National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions (NCMEI) Act
- Under the NCM Act, the central government has notified only six communities, namely Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains, as minorities as the national level.
- The NCMEI Act entitles the six communities notified under the NCM Act to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IBG
Mains level: Significance of Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs)
The Indian Army is in advanced stages of putting together Integrated Battle Groups (IBGs) by reconfiguring its combat formations.
What are IBGs?
- IBGs are brigade-sized, agile, self-sufficient combat formations, which can swiftly launch strikes against an adversary in case of hostilities.
- Each IBG would be tailor-made based on Threat, Terrain and Task and resources will be allotted based on the three Ts.
- They need to be light so they will be low on logistics and they will be able to mobilise within 12-48 hrs based on the location.
- An IBG operating in a desert needs to be constituted differently from an IBG operating in the mountains.
- The key corps of the Army is likely to be reorganized into 1-3 IBGs.
Objective of IBG
- Holistic integration to enhance the operational and functional efficiency, optimize budget expenditure, facilitate force modernization and address aspirations
Structure of the IBG
- While a command is the largest static formation of the Army spread across defined geography, a corps is the largest mobile formation.
- Typically each corps has about three brigades.
- The idea is to reorganise them into IBGs which are brigade-sized units but have all the essential elements like infantry, armoured, artillery and air defence embedded together based on the three Ts.
- The IBGs will also be defensive and offensive. While the offensive IBGs would quickly mobilise and make a thrust into enemy territory for strikes, defensive IBGs would hold ground at vulnerable points or where enemy action is expected.
Why need IBGs?
- After the terrorist attack on the Parliament, the Indian military undertook massive mobilization but the Army’s formations which deep inside took weeks to mobilise losing the element of surprise.
- Following this, the Army formulated a proactive doctrine known as ‘Cold Start’ to launch swift offensive but its existence was consistently denied in the past.
- Its existence was acknowledged for the first time by (Late) Gen Rawat in January 2017.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Highlights of State of the World’s Birds Report
Mains level: Not Much
The State of the World’s Birds, an annual review of environmental resources has revealed that the population of 48% of the 10,994 surviving species of birds is declining.
State of the World’s Birds
- The report is published by the Manchester Metropolitan University.
- It gives an overview of the changes in the knowledge of avian biodiversity and the extent to which it is imperilled.
- The study draws from BirdLife International’s latest assessment of all birds for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.
What are the key findings of the study?
- The study found that 5,245 or about 48% of the existing bird species worldwide are known or suspected to be undergoing population declines.
- While 4,295 or 39% of the species have stable trends, about 7% or 778 species have increasing population trends.
- It shows 1,481 or 13.5% species are currently threatened with global extinction.
Where the birds are threatened the most?
- The more threatened bird species (86.4%) are found in tropical than in temperate latitudes (31.7%).
- Such hotspots are concentrated in the tropical Andes, southeast Brazil, eastern Himalayas, eastern Madagascar, and Southeast Asian islands.
What is the importance of birds to ecosystems and culture?
- Birds contribute toward many ecosystem services that either directly or indirectly benefit humanity.
- These include provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services.
- The functional role of birds within ecosystems as pollinators, seed-dispersers, ecosystem engineers, scavengers and predators.
- They not only facilitate accrual and maintenance of biodiversity but also support human endeavours such as sustainable agriculture via pest control besides aiding other animals to multiply.
- For instance, coral reef fish productivity has been shown to increase as seabird colonies recovered following rat eradication in the Chagos archipelago.
- Wild birds and products derived from them are also economically important as food (meat, eggs).
What are the threats contributing to avian biodiversity loss?
- The study lists eight factors, topped by land cover and land-use change.
- The continued growth of human populations and of per capita rates of consumption lead directly to conversion and degradation of primary natural habitats.
- Deforestation has been driven by afforestation with plantations (often of non-native species) plus land abandonment in parts of the global North, with net loss in the tropics.
- The other factors are habitat fragmentation, degradation, hunting and trapping.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2020:
Q.With reference to India’s Biodiversity, Ceylon frogmouth, Coppersmith barbet, Gray-chinned minivet and White-throated redstart are
(a) Birds
(b) Primates
(c) Reptiles
(d) Amphibians
Post your answers here.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Martand Sun Temple
Mains level: Not Much
After Prayers held at the ruins of the eighth-century Martand Sun Temple in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag is deemed to be a violation of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) rules.
About Martand Sun Temple
- The Martand Sun Temple is a Hindu temple located near the city of Anantnag in the Kashmir Valley.
- It dates back to the eighth century AD and was dedicated to Surya, the chief solar deity.
- The temple was destroyed by Sikandar Shah Miri in a bid to undertake mass conversion and execution of Hindus in the valley.
- According to Kalhana, the Temple was commissioned by Lalitaditya Muktapida in the eighth century AD.
- The temple is built on top of a plateau from where one can view whole of the Kashmir Valley.
- From the ruins the visible architecture seems to be blended with the Gandharan, Gupta and Chinese forms of architecture.
Why in news now?
- According to ASI, prayers are allowed at its protected sites only if they were “functioning places of worship” at the time it took charge of them.
- No religious rituals can be conducted at non-living monuments where there has been no continuity of worship when it became an ASI-protected site.
What are the living/non-living monument?
- If some activity, like any kind of worship, has been going on for years in the structure, then it is taken over as a living monument.
- But where no activity has taken place, say an abandoned building, then it is declared a dead monument.
- The latter is difficult to restore because it is generally covered by a lot of overgrowths.
- The best-known example of a living ASI monument is the Taj Mahal in Agra, where namaz is held every Friday.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pulitzer Prize
Mains level: NA
A team of four Indian photographers have won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for their coverage of the Covid-19 crisis in India.
About Pulitzer Prize
- The Pulitzer is the most coveted award for journalists from across the world.
- It is announced by America’s Columbia University and bestowed on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize Board.
Who was Joseph Pulitzer, after whom the awards are named?
- Born to a wealthy family of Magyar-Jewish origin in Mako, Hungary, in 1847, Joseph Pulitzer had a stint in the military before he built a reputation of being a “tireless journalist”.
- In the late 1860s he joined the German-language daily newspaper Westliche Post, and by 25 he had become a publisher.
- In 1884, he was elected to the US House of Representatives from New York’s ninth district as a Democrat.
When were the Pulitzer awards instituted?
- The awards were instituted according to Pulitzer’s will, framed in 1904, where he made a provision for the establishment of the Pulitzer Prizes as an incentive to excellence.
- Pulitzer specified solely four awards in journalism, four in letters and drama, one for education, and five travelling scholarships.
- After his death in 1911, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in June, 1917.
Indians who have won the Pulitzer
- A member of the Ghadar Party in America, journalist Gobind Behari Lal, was the first from India to win the Prize in 1937.
- In 2000, London-born Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her debut short story collection Interpreter of Maladies.
- In 2003, Mumbai-born Geeta Anand was part of the team at Wall Street Journal that won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on corporate corruption.
- In 2016, Indian-American Sanghamitra Kalita, then managing editor of Los Angeles Times, won the Pulitzer.
The list goes on to date ….
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Replacement rate
Mains level: Paper 1- Factors influencing fertility rate
Context
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5 report that was awaited for nearly six months is finally out. And it provides a heartening outlook.
About NHFS
- Started in 1992-93, it has culminated in the fifth round 2019-21.
- The NFHS is a large, multi-round survey that, inter alia, provides information on fertility, infant and child mortality, the practice of family planning, reproductive health, nutrition, anaemia, quality and utilisation of health and family planning services.
- The surveys provide essential data needed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other agencies for policy and programme purposes.
- The Ministry assigned the nodal responsibility for the task to the International Institute for Population Sciences(IIPS), Mumbai.
- Several international agencies are involved in providing technical and financial assistance, mainly USAID, DFID, UNICEF, and UNFPA.
Replacement rate achieved
- Replacement rate achieved: The report shows that India has finally achieved the replacement rate of 2.1TFR (Total Fertility Rate is the total number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime).
- In fact, it has gone below the mark to 2.0.
- There are, of course, large interstate variations.
- The lagging states are UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur and Meghalaya.
- Significantly, there were four states which were keeping the figures poor, namely, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
- Two states, Rajasthan and MP, have struggled to get out of this group, while Jharkhand and the two northeastern states have replaced them.
- UP and Bihar because of their sheer size are pulling down the national average.
- Rajasthan and MP have reached the TFR of 2, which shows the success of their efforts.
Influencing factors
- It is not religion as commonly propounded but literacy, especially of girls, income and delivery of family planning, and health services.
- 1] Delivery of services: The figures would have been even better if all those who have been made aware of the benefits of family planning had received the services they desire.
- Making people informed of the need and methods of family planning and motivating them to adopt family planning is difficult enough.
- Having achieved the difficult task, we are not able to provide the services communities need — the “unmet need” — which is still very high at 9.4 per cent.
- If we focus on this issue in a mission mode, the family planning performance will dramatically improve.
- 2] Male attitude towards family planning: They tend to put the onus for birth control on women.
- As many as 35 per cent men believe that using contraceptives is a woman’s responsibility. They ignore the fact that male vasectomy is a much simpler procedure than female tubectomy.
- 3] Acceptance of family planning: Muslim acceptance of family planning has continued through the five surveys spread over three decades at a rate faster than all other communities.
- Though birth control practice among Muslims is still the least – 47.4 per cent (up from 45 per cent in NFHS-4).
- Other communities — for example, Hindus — are not far behind with 58 per cent (up from 56 per cent).
- This means that 42 per cent of the 80 per cent of the population are not practising family planning.
- Education: Women who have not attended school have 2.8 TFR as against 1.8 for those who have completed class XII.
- Poverty: Similar gap of figure one is visible in the context of poverty with the poorest segment having higher TFR than the richest.
Conclusion
The time has come to leave politics behind and work together for achieving the goals set by National Population Policy 2000. Instead of misleading narratives, we need to address the real determinants of fertility behaviour – literacy, income generation and improvement of health and family planning services.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- US's commitment to the Indo-Pacific
Context
When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine at the end of February, it was widely asked in Delhi if the new challenges of European security would result in a dilution of the US’s strategic commitment to the Indo-Pacific.
The Challenge of balancing China and Russia
- There are two parts of Biden’s answer to the Europe-Asia or Russia-China question.
- 1] Engagement with allies: When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine at the end of February, it was widely asked in Delhi if the new challenges of European security would result in a dilution of the US’s strategic commitment to the Indo-Pacific.
- Biden came to power with a determination to make the Indo-Pacific the highest priority of his foreign policy.
- He is not going to abandon that objective in dealing with the unexpected crisis in Europe.
- The assumption that China was the principal challenge and Russia was less of a threat led Biden to meet Putin in June 2021 to offer prospects for a reasonable relationship with Russia in order to devote US energies to the China question.
- But Putin’s calculations led him towards a deeper strategic partnership with China
- But America’s assessment of the Russian and Chinese threats has not changed since the war began in Ukraine.
- The idea that China will gain from the Russian war in Ukraine has also proven to be false.
- Expectations that Russia’s triumph in Ukraine will be followed by a successful Chinese invasion of Taiwan have begun to dissipate.
- Meanwhile, China is reeling under self-inflicted problems, most notably Xi Jinping’s zero Covid strategy and his crackdown on the large internet companies.
- The costly foreign policy of China: Beijing’s prospects look a lot less rosy than before as the Chinese economy slows down and XI’s foreign policy turns out to be quite costly for China.
- The muscular approach of China: In Asia, China’s muscular approach to disputes with its neighbours has helped strengthen the US alliances, create new forums like the AUKUS, elevate old ones like the Quad to a higher level, and consolidate the strategic conception of the Indo-Pacific.
- 2] Coordination with allies and partners: Biden’s lemma to the theorem on a two-front strategy is a simple one — that Washington will address the simultaneous challenge in Europe and Asia not by acting alone but in coordination with allies and partners.
- The idea was rooted in the recognition that alliances and partnerships are America’s greatest strength and most important advantage over Russia and China.
Engagement with Asia
- ASEAN: This week’s summit level engagement with the ASEAN comes after sustained high-level US outreach to the region since the Biden Administration took charge.
- In northeast Asia, the election of Yoon Suk-yeol as the president of South Korea has tilted the scales slightly towards the US in the continuing battle for influence between Beijing and Washington.
- The US is also actively trying to reduce the differences between its two treaty allies in the region — South Korea and Japan.
- Asia’s new coalitions are a response to Xi Jinping’s unilateralism and his quest for regional hegemony.
- India’s enthusiasm for the Quad can be directly correlated to Xi’s military coercion on the disputed frontiers with India.
Implications for India
- The two parts of Biden’s answer to the Europe-Asia or Russia-China question have worked well for India.
- Tolerance toward India-Russia engagement: For one, the US’s emphasis on the long-term challenge from China has meant that Washington is willing to tolerate India’s engagement with Russia.
- Time for the diversification of defence ties: This gives India time to diversify its defence ties that have been heavily dependent on Russia.
- The US emphasis on partnerships rather than unilateralism in dealing with the China challenge means India’s agency in the region can only grow.
- The Quad allows Delhi to carve out a larger role for itself in Asia and the Indo-Pacific in collaboration with the US and its allies.
Conclusion
Contrary to the initial assumptions that America is on the retreat and the West is in disarray, it is Moscow and Beijing that are on the defensive as the war in Ukraine completes three months.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Significance of emigrants
Context
Though the phenomenon of Indian-origin executives becoming CEOs of top U.S. companies highlights the contribution of Indian talent to the U.S. economy, the role played by Indian semi-skilled migrant labour in the global economy is no less illustrious.
Destinations of Indian migrants
- Every year, about 2.5 million workers from India move to different parts of the world on employment visas
- According to the Ministry of External Affairs, there are over 13.4 million Non-Resident Indians worldwide.
- Significance of GCC: Of them, 64% live in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the highest being in the United Arab Emirates, followed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
- Low and semi-skilled: Almost 90% of the Indian migrants who live in GCC countries are low- and semi-skilled workers, as per International Labour Organization estimates.
- Other significant countries of destination for overseas Indians are the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and Canada.
Contribution of Indian migrant workers
- Besides being involved in nation-building of their destination countries, Indian migrant workers also contribute to the homeland’s socioeconomic development, through remittances.
- Highest remittances: As per a World Bank Group report (2021), annual remittances transferred to India are estimated to be $87 billion, which is the highest in the world, followed by China ($53 billion), Mexico ($53 billion), the Philippines ($36 billion) and Egypt ($33 billion).
- Remittances in India have been substantially higher than even Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the flow of remittances is much less fluctuating than that of FDI.
- Still, remittances’ contribution of 3% in GDP is lower than that of countries such as Nepal (24.8%), Pakistan (12.6%), Sri Lanka (8.3%) and Bangladesh (6.5%), as per a World Bank report.
- Hedging strategy against risk: Besides being a win-win situation for both the destination and source country, labour migration is good hedging strategy against unsystematic risks for any economy.
Way forward
- Human capital should also be invested in a diversified portfolio akin to financial capital.
- Promoting labour mobility: For many countries, remittances have been of vital support to the domestic economy after a shock.
- India should aim to increase remittances to say 10% of GDP.
- The Philippines’ model of promoting labour mobility be replicated in India.
- Reducing the costs involved: Both the cost of recruitment of such workers and the cost of sending remittances back to India should come down.
- Skilling: The number of migrant workers need not go up for remittances to increase if the skill sets of workers are improved.
- Regulation of recruitment agencies: Recruitment agencies should also be regulated by leveraging information technology for ensuring protection of migrant workers leaving India.
- An integrated grievance redressal portal, ‘Madad’, was launched by the government in 2015.
- Proposed Emigration Bill 2021: The Indian government proposed a new Emigration Bill in 2021 which aims to integrate emigration management and streamline the welfare of emigrant workers.
- It proposes to modify the system of Emigration Check Required (ECR) category of workers applying for migration to 18 notified countries.
- The Bill makes it mandatory for all categories of workers to register before departure to any country in the world to ensure better protection for them, support and safeguard in case of vulnerabilities.
- The proposed Emigration Management Authority will be the overarching authority to provide policy guidance.
- Besides workers, as about 0.5 million students also migrate for education from India every year, the Bill also covers such students.
Conclusion
For India to increase remittances’ contribution to GDP, it doesn’t need more workers but skilling and better management.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various sub-atomic particles
Mains level: Particle physics
Researchers from Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) Collaboration, in the US, announced that they have made a precise measurement of the mass of the so-called W boson.
Do you know?
There are four fundamental forces at work in the universe: the strong force, the weak force, the electromagnetic force, and the gravitational force. They work over different ranges and have different strengths. Gravity is the weakest but it has an infinite range.
What is W Boson?
- Discovered in 1983, the W boson is a fundamental particle.
- Together with the Z boson, it is responsible for the weak force, one of four fundamental forces that govern the behaviour of matter in our universe.
- Particles of matter interact by exchanging these bosons, but only over short distances.
- The W boson, which is electrically charged, changes the very make up of particles.
- It switches protons into neutrons, and vice versa, through the weak force, triggering nuclear fusion and letting stars burn.
- This burning also creates heavier elements and, when a star dies, those elements are tossed into space as the building blocks for planets and even people.
Debate over W Boson’s mass
- The weak force was combined with the electromagnetic force in theories of a unified electroweak force in the 1960s, in an effort to make the basic physics mathematically consistent.
- But the theory called for the force-carrying particles to be massless, even though scientists knew the theoretical W boson had to be heavy to account for its short range.
- Theorists accounted for the mass of the W by introducing another unseen mechanism. This became known as the Higgs mechanism, which calls for the existence of a Higgs boson.
What is the news?
- CDF researchers stated that this precisely determined value did not match with what was expected from estimates using the standard model of particle physics.
- This result is highly significant because this implies the incompleteness of the standard model description.
- This is a major claim, since the standard model has been extraordinarily successful in the past decades.
- Hence, physicists are looking for corroboration from other, independent, future experiments.
What is the standard model of elementary particle physics?
- The Standard Model of particle physics is the theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions while omitting gravity) in the universe and classifying all known elementary particles.
- It is a theoretical construct in physics that describes particles of matter and their interaction. Ex. Proton, Neutron, Electron etc.
- It is a description that views the elementary particles of the world as being connected by mathematical symmetries, just as an object and its mirror image are connected by a bilateral (left–right) symmetry.
- These are mathematical groups generated by continuous transformations from, say, one particle to another.
- According to this model there are a finite number of fundamental particles which are represented by the characteristic “eigen” states of these groups.
- The particles predicted by the model, such as the Z boson, have been seen in experiments and the last to be discovered, in 2012, was the Higgs boson which gives mass to the heavy particles.
Why is the standard model believed to be incomplete?
- The standard model is thought to be incomplete because it gives a unified picture of only three of the four fundamental forces of nature and it totally omits gravity.
- So, in the grand plan of unifying all forces so that a single equation would describe all the interactions of matter, the standard model was found to be lacking.
- The other gap in the standard model is that it does not include a description of dark matter particles.
How are the symmetries related to particles?
- The symmetries of the standard model are known as gauge symmetries, as they are generated by “gauge transformations” which are a set of continuous transformations (like rotation is a continuous transformation).
- Each symmetry is associated with a gauge boson.
- For example, the gauge boson associated with electromagnetic interactions is the photon.
- The gauge bosons associated with weak interactions are the W and Z bosons. There are two W bosons — W+ and W-.
What is the main result of the recent experiment?
- The recent experiment at CDF, which measured the mass of the W boson as 80,433.5 +/- 9.4 Mev/c2, which is approximately 80 times the mass of a hydrogen nucleus.
- This came out to be more than what is expected from the standard model.
- The expected value using the standard model is 80,357 +/- 8 MeV/c2 .
- Thus, the W boson mass itself is a prediction of the standard model.
- Therefore, any discrepancy in its mass means a lack of self-consistency in the standard model.
What is the discrepancy they obtained?
- The mass discrepancy of the W boson needs to be checked and confirmed to the same accuracy by other facilities, for example, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Where do we stand now in terms of new physics?
- New physics is in the air, and experiments have been gearing up for some years now to detect new particles.
- With its high-precision determination of the W boson mass, the CDF has struck at the heart of the standard model.
- So it is a significant finding and if this is confirmed by the LHC and other experiments, it will throw open the field for ideas and experiment.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MPLAD Scheme
Mains level: Read the attached story
At a time when MPs have been asking for an increase in the MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) fund, the Union Finance Ministry has ordered revised rules, under which the interest that the fund accrues will be deposited in the Consolidated Fund of India.
What is the MPLAD scheme?
- The Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) is a program first launched during the Narasimha Rao Government in 1993.
- It was aimed towards providing funds for developmental works recommended by individual MPs.
Funds available
- The MPs then were entitled to recommend works to the tune of Rs 1 crore annually between 1994-95 and 1997-98, after which the annual entitlement was enhanced to Rs 2 crore.
- The UPA government in 2011-12 raised the annual entitlement to Rs 5 crore per MP.
Implementation
- To implement their plans in an area, MPs have to recommend them to the District Authority of the respective Nodal District.
- The District Authorities then identify Implementing Agencies that execute the projects.
- The respective District Authority is supposed to oversee the implementation and has to submit monthly reports, audit reports, and work completion reports to the Nodal District Authority.
- The MPLADS funds can be merged with other schemes such as MGNREGA and Khelo India.
Guidelines for MPLADS implementation
- The document ‘Guidelines on MPLADS’ was published by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in June 2016 in this regard.
- It stated the objective of the scheme to enable MPs to recommend works of developmental nature with emphasis on the creation of durable community assets based on the locally felt needs in their Constituencies.
- Right from the inception of the Scheme, durable assets of national priorities viz. drinking water, primary education, public health, sanitation, and roads, etc. should be created.
- It recommended MPs to works costing at least 15 percent of their entitlement for the year for areas inhabited by Scheduled Caste population and 7.5 percent for areas inhabited by ST population.
- It lays down a number of development works including construction of railway halt stations, providing financial assistance to recognized bodies, cooperative societies, installing CCTV cameras etc.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
With reference to the funds under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), which of the following statements are correct? (CSP 2020)
- MPLADS funds must be used to create durable assets like physical infrastructure for health, education, etc.
- A specified portion of each MP’s fund must benefit SC/ST populations.
- MPLADS funds are sanctioned on a yearly basis and the unused funds cannot be carried forward to the next year.
- The district authority must inspect at least 10% of all works under implementation every year.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 and 4 only
(c) 1, 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 4 only
Post your answers here.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Enforcement Directorate, PMLA
Mains level: Tax evasion
Last week, the Enforcement Directorate had seized Rs 5551.27 crore ($725 million) from the local bank accounts of the Chinese smartphones company, Xiaomi.
Unfolding the Xiaomi Scam
- Xiaomi faces charges of having made illegal remittances to foreign entities by passing them off as royalty payments.
- It is a charge that Xiaomi has been continuously facing in India.
- The ‘royalty and licence fee’ paid by Xiaomi India were not being added to the transaction value of the goods imported by the company and its contract manufacturers.
- By not adding “royalty and licence fee” into the transaction value, Xiaomi was evading Customs duty.
What is the recent probe?
- The Enforcement Directorate has seized the bank account assets from Xiaomi Technology India, under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA.
- The company had remitted over Rs 5500 crore to foreign-based entities, including one Xiaomi group entity, in the guise of royalty payments.
- Such huge amounts in the name of royalties were remitted on the instructions of their Chinese parent group entities.
Xiaomi’s response
- Xiaomi, for its part, said that it is committed to working closely with government authorities to clarify any misunderstandings.
- It argued that the royalty payments and statements to the bank are all legit and truthful and were made for the in-licensed technologies and IPs used in our Indian version products.
- It is a legitimate commercial arrangement for Xiaomi India to make such royalty payments.
- But it is a typical corporate response, something on the lines that Xiaomi did on the previous occasion too.
How has China responded?
- China firmly support its companies in protecting their lawful rights and interests.
- It urged India to provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies making investment and operating in the country.
- It is visible that China has made a dovish statement as they usually do.
- Xiaomi now has alleged its top executives faced threats of “physical violence” and coercion during questioning by ED.
Indian govt on strong wicket
- Indian governmental authorities have made it clear that the Chinese companies were not being targeted.
- And financial misdemeanours had indeed been committed by these companies.
- The government has also explained the various cases in details and what it has seized so far.
- But the Chinese companies seem to be playing the victim card.
Back2Basics: Directorate of Enforcement (ED)
- ED is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime (esp Money Laundering) in India.
- It is part of the Department of Revenue of the Ministry of Finance.
- It is composed of officers from the Indian Revenue Service, Indian Police Service and the Indian Administrative Service as well as promoted officers from its own cadre.
- The total strength of the department is less than 2000 officers out of which around 70% of officials came from deputation from other organizations while ED has its own cadre, too.
- The prime objective of the Enforcement Directorate is the enforcement of two key Acts namely:
- Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 (FEMA) and
- Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA)
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