Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gaganyaan Mission
Mains level: Indian Human Spaceflight Programme (IHSP)
After a rather muted 2021 in terms of satellite launches, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is gearing up for a number of missions in 2022 including the launch of the first unmanned mission of Gaganyaan.
Gaganyaan Mission
- Gaganyaan is crewed orbital spacecraft intended to be the formative spacecraft of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme (IHSP).
- The IHSP was initiated in 2007 by ISRO to develop the technology needed to launch crewed orbital spacecraft into low Earth orbit.
- The first uncrewed flight, named Gaganyaan 1, is scheduled to launch no earlier than June 2022 on a GSLV Mark III rocket.
- ISRO had been working on related technologies and it performed a Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment and a Pad Abort Test for the mission.
- If completed in meantime, India will become the fourth nation to conduct independent human spaceflight after the Russia, US and China.
Details of the project
- The spacecraft is being designed to carry three people, and a planned upgraded version will be equipped with rendezvous and docking capability.
- In its maiden crewed mission, this capsule will orbit the Earth at 400 km altitude for up to seven days with a two or three-person crew on board.
- This Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) manufactured crew module had its first un-crewed experimental flight in 2014.
- DRDO will provide support for critical human-centric systems and technologies like space-grade food, crew healthcare, radiation measurement and protection, parachutes for the safe recovery of the crew module and fire suppression system.
Other missions this year
- Earth Observation Satellites: EOS-4 and EOS-6
- Flights for Crew Escape System of Gaganyaan
- Chandrayaan-03
- Aditya Ll
- XpoSat
New projects
- Venus mission
- DISHA –a twin aeronomy satellite mission
- TRISHNA, an ISRO-CNES [Centre national d’études spatiales] mission
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Offline E-payments
Mains level: Not Much
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come out with the framework for facilitating small-value digital payments in offline mode, a move that would promote digital payments in semi-urban and rural areas.
Offline E-payments
- Offline digital payment does not require Internet or telecom connectivity.
- Such payments can be carried out face-to-face (proximity mode) using any channel or instrument like cards, wallets and mobile devices.
- Such transactions would not require an Additional Factor of Authentication.
- Since the transactions are offline, alerts (by way of SMS and/or e-mail) will be received by the customer after a time lag.
- There is a limit of ₹200 per transaction and an overall limit of ₹2,000 until the balance in the account is replenished.
Conditions applied
- Payment instruments shall be enabled for offline transactions only after the explicit consent of the customer.
- That apart, these transactions using cards will be allowed without a requirement to turn on the contactless transaction channel.
- The customers shall have recourse to the Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, as applicable, for grievance redressal.
- RBI retains the right to stop or modify the operations of any such payment solution that enables small value digital payments in offline mode.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q. With reference to digital payments, consider the following statements:
- BHIM app allows the user to transfer money to anyone with a UPI-enabled bank account.
- While a chip-pin debit card has four factors of authentication, BHIM app has only two factors of authentication.
Which of the statements given above is/ are correct? (CSP 2018)
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(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: Velu Nachiyar
Mains level: Not Much
The Prime Minister has paid tributes to Rani Velu Nachiyar on her birth anniversary.
Velu Nachiyar (1730-1796)
- Rani Velu Nachiyar was a queen of Sivaganga estate from c. 1780–1790.
- She was the first Indian queen to wage war with the East India Company in India.
- She is widely known as Veeramangai (“brave woman”).
Her legend
[A] Early life
- Velu Nachiyar was the princess of Ramanathapuram and the only child of King Chellamuthu Vijayaragunatha Sethupathy and Queen Sakandhimuthathal of the Ramnad kingdom.
- Nachiyar was trained in many methods of combat, including war match weapons usage, martial arts like Valari, Silambam, horse riding, and archery.
- She was a scholar in many languages and was proficient in languages like French, English and Urdu.
[B] Battles fought
- During this period, she formed an army and sought an alliance with Hyder Ali with the aim of launching a campaign against the East India Company in 1780.
- When her husband, Muthu Vaduganatha Periyavudaya Thevar was killed in a battle with EIC soldiers, she was drawn into the conflict.
- When Velu Nachiyar found the place where the EIC stored some of their ammunition, she arranged a suicide attack on the location, blowing it up.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India's engagement with the world
Context
In 2021, Indian diplomacy was characterised by a readiness to deal with friends and foes alike.
Challenges faced by India diplomacy in 2021
- The US leadership change: Coping with the change from President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden and the consequent changes in U.S. policy were big enough to keep the world leaders on tenterhooks.
- Pandemic: With the increased onslaught of the pandemic, India suddenly became the epicentre of the tragedy.
- The exposure of the inefficiency of India’s health system and put the country in the defensive and weakened its credibility as it tried to contribute to the resolution of global issues.
- Aggression by China: For India, the biggest preoccupation of 2021 was the effort to get China to disengage in areas in Ladakh.
- Dialogue, military preparedness and economic pressure met with limited success.
- Afghanistan crisis: Afghanistan turned out to be a bigger crisis than expected, with the Taliban’s walkover in Kabul.
- Bringing some civility to the Taliban in Kabul became a high priority in the face of a Pakistan-China-Taliban axis with some support from Russia and Iran.
- Issue of permanent membership of the UN Security Council: Unprecedented in the history of the UN, an event at the Security Council was chaired by the Prime Minister.
- Significant inputs were provided during discussions on issues like maritime security, peacekeeping and anti-terrorism for active consideration in the future.
- Although it is illusory to believe that the way has been cleared for India’s permanent membership of the Security Council, India’s diplomatic capabilities and its commitment to the UN have demonstrated yet again.
What marks the change in the style of Indian diplomacy?
- From selective alignment, India moved to universal engagement, even to the extent of convening meetings with antagonists.
- Engagements with the U.S. went beyond familiarisation with the new government to increased commitment to Quad and acceptance of AUKUS and formation of the ‘western Quad’, with the U.S., Israel and the UAE.
- Engagement with Russia: Major agreements were signed with Russia, despite the American threat of CAATSA against S-400 missiles and the Russian inclination to align with China in the days to come.
- The engagement with China at the level of commanders and diplomats was intense, and ministerial interaction continued even when China tore up many fundamental agreements that sustained the dialogue for many years.
- Patience, diligence and firmness: India attended a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, where a sub-group led by China took its own decisions on Afghanistan.
- We also attended a meeting of Russia, China and India.
- Perhaps because of the unique geopolitical situation, India gave particular importance to its presidency of the UN Security Council in August 2021.
- Engagement with Myanmar: The Foreign Secretary’s visit to Myanmar to engage the military junta at a time when opposition leaders are in prison may raise eyebrows in many countries, but this is another instance of India’s readiness to engage those in power to explore possibilities of friendship and co-operation.
- The intention is to prevent China from having a field day in Myanmar.
Conclusion
Sadly, the extraordinary efforts made by India have not been fruitful in the cases of China and Afghanistan. But India’s new style of diplomacy will have an impact in shaping the world of the future.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Challenges in transition to clean energy
Context
Political leaders find themselves currently amid a messy reality. The seemingly “irresistible force” for clean energy has met, it would appear, the “immovable object” of an embedded fossil fuel energy system.
Changes in the energy sector in 2021
- Commitment to Net-zero: One hundred and thirty-three countries pledged to a “net-zero carbon emissions date” and most governments, corporates and civic entities have shown determination to “phase down” and eventually phase out fossil fuels from their energy basket.
- Price volatility: The petroleum market seesawed and was expectedly volatile.
- High price: Natural gas prices reached stratospheric levels as demand exceeded supplies and geopolitics compounded the imbalance.
Five trends that will shape the emergent energy landscape
[1] Transition to clean energy will be long and expensive
- Redesign and rebuilding: The fossil fuel-based economic system will have to be redesigned and, in parts, rebuilt for clean energy to achieve scale.
- The process will take decades and require massive capital infusion.
- No country or multilateral institution can finance this transition individually.
- The world needs to collaborate: The world will have to collaborate and if it fails to do so, the financing deficit will push back the transition even further.
[2] Fossil fuels will dominate the energy basket during the transition
- Fossil fuels will dominate the energy basket during this transition phase.
- Contributing factors: As has been the case so far, its market will be defined by the “fundamentals” of demand, supply and geopolitics and the “non-fundamentals” of exchange rates and speculative trade.
- The price movements will be sharp, volatile and unexpected.
[3] The resurgence of market influence of OPEC plus after private companies move beyond fossil fuel
- The “ OPEC plus” will resurge in market influence.
- The low-cost, high resource petrostates (Saudi Arabia, the Gulf nations, Iraq, Iran, Russia) will, in particular, gain greater control over the petroleum market as private companies move beyond fossils under pressure from shareholders and regulators.
[4] Transition will create new centres of energy power
- The Democratic Republic of Congo controls, more than 50 per cent of the global supply of cobalt; Australia holds a comparably large share of the lithium market; and China controls the mining, processing and refining of rare earth minerals.
- It is difficult to tell how and when these countries will exercise their market power but it is clear that the “green transition” will create new centres of energy power.
[5] Nationalism and political opportunism will influence energy policy
- The US and China are currently embroiled in a “Cold War” over technology, trade, cyber issues and the South China Sea.
- The US and China appear to be in a similar face-off. But that has not come in the way of their energy relations.
- A few weeks ago, the two countries decided to coordinate the release of oil stocks from their strategic reserves to cool off the oil market.
- The underlying reality is that national self-interest and short-term political ambition will be the defining determinant of future energy supply relations cutting across values and rhetoric.
Suggestions for India
- Nurture relations with traditional suppliers: India must assiduously nurture relations with our traditional suppliers of oil and gas.
- It must not assume their role in the energy market will diminish.
- Increase storage capacity of strategic reserves: It should accelerate the build-up of the storage capacity for oil and gas; the latter to hold strategic oil reserves, the former to store gas for inter alia conversion to blue hydrogen.
- Ecosystem for search and development of minerals required for clean energy: It must create a facilitative ecosystem for the search and development of the minerals and metals required for clean energy.
- Clean energy supply chain: It should create a “clean energy aatmanirbhar supply chain”.
Conclusion
The green transition must not lead to import dependency on raw minerals and manufactured inputs, especially from China. The current policy to incentivise the manufacture of semiconductors is a step in the right direction.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Powers of Election Commission
Context
Ever since the Allahabad High Court urged the Election Commission of India to consider banning all political rallies or postponing the upcoming Assembly elections due to the increasing threat of Omicron, the focus of debate has shifted to the EC.
Why and when does the Election Commission clubs the elections?
- To avoid the influence of result: As per practice, the EC clubs all elections that are so close to each other to ensure that the results in one state do not influence the voters in the state going to the polls soon after.
- Earliest date: The earliest due date of a state determines the poll dates for all the clubbed states.
- No delay allowed: The EC cannot delay an election even by a day, although it can advance it by up to six months.
- The Assembly elections of five states are due in the early months of 2022, four of these in March itself — Goa (by March 15), Manipur (March 19), Uttarakhand (March 23) and Punjab (March 27).
- The fifth — UP — is due by May 14.
- Goa being the earliest, we must have all five elections completed before March 15.
Why EC cannot postpone the elections?
- Violation of Constitution: Postponing elections is not in the Election Commission’s hands at all and would be a violation of the constitutional mandate that gives every Vidhan Sabha a fixed term.
- As soon as the term is over, the House stands dissolved automatically.
- The term of the House cannot be extended except in an emergency declared by Parliament, which the Constitution restricts to only two situations — war and breakdown of law and order.
- In the seven decades of our electoral history, this has happened only three times — in Assam, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir — in insurgency situations.
Way forward: Strict enforcement of guidelines
- Before the Bihar elections of 2020, the EC had issued detailed guidelines based on its observation of other countries that conducted elections that year, like South Korea and Sri Lanka.
- Reduction of the number of electors: These guidelines included the reduction of the number of electors per polling booth from 1,500 to 1,000, to prevent over-crowding, which required the addition of 33,797 auxiliary polling stations.
- Covid-sensitive capacity building: The guidelines also included Covid-sensitive capacity-building of election officials.
- Postal ballot option: The ECI also extended the postal ballot option to senior citizens over the age of 80, Covid-positive patients, persons with disabilities and voters in essential services.
- Virtual campaigning: Virtual campaigning was also encouraged to stop election rallies contributing to Covid.
- Besides the standard social distancing and sanitising norms, voters were provided with gloves to touch the EVMs.
- To avoid crowding at the counting centres, the counting tables were reduced from 14 to seven per assembly constituency.
Consider the question “What are the challenges in postponing the Assembly elections beyond the fixed terms of the Assembly? Suggest the way forward.”
Conclusion
This election is an opportunity for the EC to redeem its image. More importantly, it must guard itself against the trap of postponing the polls under any persuasion.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: EWS Quota
Mains level: Issues with EWS quota
A government committee report in the Supreme Court has said that “income” is a “feasible criterion” for defining the “Economically Weaker Sections” (EWS) in society, and the annual family income of ₹8 lakh is a “reasonable” threshold to determine EWS.
Centre’s Argument: Strict criteria for EWS
- The income criterion for EWS was “more stringent” than the one for the OBC creamy layer.
- EWS’s criteria relates to the financial year prior to the year of application.
- On the other side, income criterion for the creamy layer in OBC category is applicable to gross annual income for three consecutive years.
EWS Quota: A backgrounder
- The 10% reservation was introduced through the 103rd Constitution Amendment and enforced in January 2019.
- It added Clause (6) to Article 15 to empower the Government to introduce special provisions for the EWS among citizens except those in the classes that already enjoy reservation.
- It allows reservation in educational institutions, both public and private, whether aided or unaided, excluding those run by minority institutions, up to a maximum of 10%.
- It also added Clause (6) to Article 16 to facilitate reservation in employment.
- The new clauses make it clear that the EWS reservation will be in addition to the existing reservation.
Significance of the quota
- The Constitution initially allowed special provisions only for the socially and educationally backward classes.
- The Government introduced the concept of EWS for a new class of affirmative action program for those not covered by or eligible for the community-based quotas.
What are the criteria to identify the section?
- The main criterion is that those above an annual income limit of ₹8 lakh are excluded.
- It accounts income from all sources such as salary, business, agriculture and profession for the financial year prior to the application of the family, applicants, their parents, siblings and minor children.
- Possession of any of these assets, too, can take a person outside the EWS pool:
- Five or more acres of agricultural land
- A residential flat of 1,000 sq.ft. and above
- A residential plot of 100 square yards and above in notified municipalities, and
- A residential plot of 200 square yards and above in other areas
What are the court’s questions about the criteria?
- Reduction within general category: The EWS quota remains a controversy as its critics say it reduces the size of the open category, besides breaching the 50% limit on the total reservation.
- Arbitrariness over income limit: The court has been intrigued by the income limit being fixed at ₹8 lakh per year. It is the same figure for excluding the ‘creamy layer’ from OBC reservation benefits.
- Socio-economic backwardness: A crucial difference is that those in the general category, to whom the EWS quota is applicable, do not suffer from social or educational backwardness, unlike those classified as the OBC.
- Metropolitan criteria: There are other questions as to whether any exercise was undertaken to derive the exceptions such as why the flat criterion does not differentiate between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas.
- OBC like criteria: The question the court has raised is that when the OBC category is socially and educationally backward and, therefore, has additional impediments to overcome.
- Not based on relevant data: In line with the Supreme Court’s known position that any reservation or norms for exclusion should be based on relevant data.
- Breaches reservation cap: There is a cap of 50% on the reservation as ruled in the Indira Sawhney Case. The principle of balancing equality ordains reservation.
What is the current status of the EWS quota?
- The reservation for the EWS is being implemented by the Union Government for the second year now.
- Recruitment test results show that the category has a lower cut-off mark than the OBC, a point that has upset the traditional beneficiaries of reservation based on caste.
- The explanation is that only a small number of people are currently applying under the EWS category — one has to get an income certificate from the revenue authorities — and therefore the cut-off is low.
- However, when the number picks up over time, the cut-off marks are expected to rise.
Practical issues with EWS Quota
The EWS quota will come in for judicial scrutiny soon. But it’s not only a matter for the judiciary, India’s Parliament should revisit the law too.
- Hasty legislation: This law was passed in haste. It was passed in both the houses within 48 hours, and got presidential approval the next day.
- Minority appeasement: It is widely argued that the law was passed to appease a certain section of upper-caste society and to suppress the demands for minority reservations.
- Morality put to question: Imagine! A constitutional amendment has been made with few hours of deliberation and without consultation of the targeted group. This is certainly against constitutional morality and propriety.
- Substantial backing is missing: This amendment is based on a wrong or unverified premise. This is at best a wild guess or a supposition because the government has not produced any data to back this point.
- Under-reservation of Backward Classes: The assertion is based on the fact that we have different data to prove the under-representation of SC, ST, OBCs. That implies that ‘upper’ castes are over-represented (with 100 minus reservation).
- Rationale of 10%: There is one more problem in this regard. The SC and ST quota is based on their total population. But the rationale for the 10 per cent quota was never discussed.
- Principle of Equality: Economic backwardness is quite a fluid identity. It has nothing to do with historic wrongdoings and liabilities caused to the Backward Classes.
Way forward
- Preserving the merit: We cannot rule out the sorry state of economic backwardness hampering merit in our country .
- Rational critera: There has to be collective wisdom to define and measure the economic weakness of certain sections of the society in order to shape the concept of economic justice.
- Judicial guidance: Judicial interpretation will pave the wave forward for deciding the criterion for EWS Quota.
- Targetted beneficiaries. The centre needs to resort to more rational criteria for deciding the targeted beneficiary of this reservation system. Caste Census data can be useful in this regard.
- Income study: The per capita income or GDP or the difference in purchasing power in the rural and urban areas, should be taken into account while a single income limit was formulated for the whole country.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Issues with free speech
A recent religious conclave has witnessed inflammatory and provocative speeches by some religious proponents hinting at a Myanmar-type ‘minority cleansing campaign’.
What is ‘Hate Speech’?
- There is no specific legal definition of ‘hate speech’.
- The Law Commission of India, in its 267th Report, says: “Hate speech generally is an incitement to hatred primarily against a group of persons defined in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief and the like …
- Thus, hate speech is any word written or spoken, signs, visible representations within the hearing or sight of a person with the intention to cause fear or alarm, or incitement to violence.”
- In general, hate speech is considered a limitation on free speech that seeks to prevent or bar speech that exposes a person or a group or section of society to hate, violence, ridicule or indignity.
How is it treated in Indian law?
- Provisions in law criminalize speeches, writings, actions, signs and representations that foment violence and spread disharmony between communities and groups and these are understood to refer to ‘hate speech’.
- Sections 153A and 505 of the Indian Penal Code are generally taken to be the main penal provisions that deal with inflammatory speeches and expressions that seek to punish ‘hate speech’.
[I] Section 153A:
- Promotion of enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony’, is an offence punishable with three years’ imprisonment.
[II] Section 505:
505(1): Statements conducing to public mischief
- The statement, publication, report or rumour that is penalized under Section 505(1) should be one that promotes mutiny by the armed forces, or causes such fear or alarm that people are induced to commit an offence against the state or public tranquility.
- This attracts a jail term of up to three years.
505(2): It is an offence to make statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes.
505(3): Same offence will attract up to a five-year jail term if it takes place in a place of worship, or in any assembly engaged in religious worship or religious ceremonies.
What has the Law Commission proposed?
The Law Commission has proposed that separate offences be added to the IPC to criminalize hate speech quite specifically instead of being subsumed in the existing sections concerning inflammatory acts and speeches.
[A] Inserting two sections
- It has proposed that two new sections, Section 153C and Section 505A, be added.
Section 153C
It is an offence if anyone-
- Uses gravely threatening words, spoken or written or signs or visible representations, with the intention to cause fear or alarm OR
- Advocates hatred that causes incitement to violence, on grounds of religion, race, caste or community, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, place of birth, residence, language, disability or tribe
Section 505A
- It proposes to criminalize words, or display of writing or signs that are gravely threatening or derogatory, within the hearing or sight of a person, causing fear or alarm or, with intent to provoke the use of unlawful violence against that person or another”.
[B] Imprisonment
- Section 153C: two-year jail term for this and/or a fine of ₹5,000 or both
- Section 505A: prison term of up to one year and/or a fine up to ₹5,000
Other committees’ recommendations
- Similar proposals to add sections to the IPC to punish acts and statements that promote racial discrimination or amount to hate speech have been made by the M.P. Bezbaruah Committee and the T.K. Viswanathan Committee.
- At present, the Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws, which is considering more comprehensive changes to criminal law, is examining the issue of having specific provisions to tackle hate speech.
Why regulate hate speech?
- Creates social divide: Individuals believe in stereotypes that are ingrained in their minds and these stereotypes lead them to believe that a class or group of persons are inferior to them and as such cannot have the same rights as them.
- Threat to peaceful co-existence: The stubbornness to stick to a particular ideology without caring for the right to co-exist peacefully adds further fuel to the fire of hate speech.
Issues in regulating hate speech
- Powers to State: Almost every regulation of speech, no matter how well-intentioned, increases the power of the state.
- Hate speeches are Political: The issue is fundamentally political and we should not pretend that fine legal distinctions will solve the issue.
- Legal complications: An over-reliance on legal instruments to solve fundamentally social and political problems often backfires.
What lies ahead?
- Subjects like hate speeches become a complex issue to deal with, in a country like India which is very diverse, as it was very difficult to differentiate between free and hate speech.
- There are many factors that should be considered while restraining speeches like strong opinions, offensive comments towards certain communities, the effect on values like dignity, liberty and equality.
- We all have to work together and communicate efficiently for our country to be a healthy place to live in.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act
Mains level: Reproductive rights of women
The Delhi High Court has permitted a 28-week pregnant woman to undergo medical termination of pregnancy on account of substantial foetal abnormality.
What did the HC rule?
Ans. Termination of Pregnancy is a matter of Right
- The High Court said the woman cannot be deprived of the freedom to take a decision to continue or not to continue with the pregnancy, due to foetal abnormalities.
- HC ruled that reproductive choice is a dimension of personal liberty that is enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.
- It stated that allowing the pregnancy to continue would have a deleterious impact on the petitioner’s mental health.
- The petitioner cannot be deprived of the freedom to take a decision to continue or not to continue with the pregnancy in view the medical board’s opinion.
What is the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act?
- Abortion in India has been legal under various circumstances for the last 50 years with the introduction of MTP Act in 1971.
- The Act was amended in 2003 to enable women’s accessibility to safe and legal abortion services.
Termination of pregnancy is permitted for a broad range of conditions up to 20 weeks of gestation as detailed below:
- Threat to mother: When the continuation of pregnancy is a risk to the life of a pregnant woman or could cause grave injury to her physical or mental health;
- Child abnormalities: When there is substantial risk that the child, if born or dead would be seriously handicapped due to physical or mental abnormalities;
- Rape survivors: When pregnancy is caused due to rape (presumed to cause grave injury to the mental health of the woman);
- Failure of contraception: When pregnancy is caused due to failure of contraceptives used by a married woman or her husband (presumed to constitute grave injury to mental health of the woman).
Conditions for abortion
- The MTP Act specifies – (i) who can terminate a pregnancy; (ii) till when a pregnancy can be terminated; and (iii) where can a pregnancy be terminated.
- There must be an opinion formed of a doctor, that the pregnancy would cause a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or grave injury to her physical or mental health.
- When a pregnancy exceeds 20 weeks but not 24 weeks, termination is permissible on the opinion formed of two registered medical practitioners.
What was the recent case?
- In the present case, the woman has completed 28 weeks of pregnancy.
- As the MTP Act does not permit pregnancy termination beyond 24 weeks, she approached the court.
- Various anomalies were found in the heart of the foetus in the foetal ECG.
Key issues
There are differing opinions with regard to allowing abortions.
- One opinion is that terminating a pregnancy is the choice of the pregnant woman and a part of her reproductive rights.
- The other is that the state has an obligation to protect life, and hence should provide for the protection of the foetus.
- Across the world, countries set varying conditions and time limits for allowing abortions, based on foetal health, and risk to the pregnant woman.
Conclusion
- Access to abortion facilities is limited not just by legislative barriers but also the fear of judgment from medical practitioners.
- It is imperative that healthcare providers be sensitized towards being scientific, objective and compassionate in their approach to abortions.
Also read
Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Amendment Bill, 2020
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Non-Nuclear Aggression Agreement
Mains level: Nuclear Non-Proliferation
India and Pakistan has exchanged a list of their nuclear installations that cannot be attacked in case of an escalation in hostilities, as part of an annual ritual that has been in practice between the two neighbours for more than three decades.
Non-Nuclear Aggression Agreement
- The Non-nuclear aggression agreement is a bilateral and nuclear weapons control treaty between India and Pakistan, on the reduction (or limitation) of nuclear arms.
- Both pledged not to attack or assist foreign powers to attack on each others nuclear installations and facilities.
- The treaty was drafted in 1988, and signed by the PM Rajiv Gandhi and his counterpart Benazir Bhutto on 21 December 1988; it entered into force on January 1991.
- The treaty barred its signatories to carry out a surprise attack (or to assist foreign power to attack) on each other’s nuclear installations and facilities.
- Starting in January 1992, India and Pakistan have annually exchanged lists of their respective military and civilian nuclear-related facilities.
Need for the treaty
- In 1986-87, the massive exercise, ‘Brasstacks’ was carried out by the Indian Army, raising the fears of an Indian attack on Pakistan’s nuclear facilities.
- Since then, the Foreign ministries of both countries had been negotiating to reach an understanding towards the control of nuclear weapons.
Significance of the agreement
- The treaty barred its signatories to carry out a surprise attack (or to assist foreign power to attack) on each other’s nuclear installations and facilities.
- The treaty provides a confidence-building security measure environment.
Other: Sharing of Prisoners information
- Both nations do simultaneously share the list of prisoners in each others’ custody.
- These lists are exchanged under the provisions of the Agreement on Consular Access signed in May 2008.
- Under this pact, the two countries should exchange comprehensive lists on January 1 and July 1 every year (i.e. twice a year).
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Semiconductor, Rare earth elements
Mains level: Electronic industry
Worldwide carmakers have slashed production due to an abrupt and cascading shortage of semiconductors.
Semiconductor Chips
- Semiconductors — also known as integrated circuits (ICs), or microchips — are most often made of silicon or germanium, or a compound like gallium arsenide.
- It’s the thing that makes electronic items smart and faster.
- Made from a material, usually silicon, that “semi-conducts” electricity, the chip performs a variety of functions.
- Memory chips, which store data, are relatively simple and are traded like commodities.
- Logic chips, which run programs and act as the brains of a device, are more complex and expensive.
Reasons for shortages
- Stay-at-home shift: This pushed chip demand beyond levels projected before the pandemic. Lockdowns spurred growth in sales of smartphones, laptops etc to the highest in a decade
- Fluctuating forecasts: Automakers that cut back drastically early in the pandemic underestimated how quickly car sales would rebound.
- Stockpiling: Chinese smartphone industry dominates the global market for 5G networking gear — began building up inventory to ensure it could survive US sanctions.
How is the chip crisis playing out in geopolitics?
- The global chip crisis and geopolitical tensions with China have shifted focus back on semiconductors.
- The US, which was once a leader in chip manufacturing, wants the crown back.
- The protectionist US is looking to bring manufacturing back to America and reduce its dependency on a handful of chipmakers mostly concentrated in Taiwan and South Korea.
- China’s renewed aggression on Taiwan is also being seen in light of the chip crisis.
Impact of semiconductor shortages
- Chip shortages are expected to wipe out $210 billion of sales for carmakers this year, with the production of 7.7 million vehicles lost.
- Broadband providers were facing delays of more than a year when ordering internet routers.
Why is it so hard to compete?
- Manufacturing advanced logic chips requires extraordinary precision, along with huge long-term bets in a field subject to rapid change.
- Plants cost billions of dollars to build and equip, and they have to run flat-out 24/7 to recoup the investment.
- A factory also consumes up enormous amounts of water and electricity and is vulnerable to even the tiniest disruptions, whether from dust particles or distant earthquakes.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: INSACOG
Mains level: Not Much
The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) has sequenced about 1,00,000 samples.
What is INSACOG?
- INSACOG is a consortium of 10 labs and 18 satellite labs across India tasked with scanning COVID samples from patients and finding the variants that has led to spike in transmission.
- The institutes involved include the laboratories of the Department of Biotechnology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Indian Council of Medical Research, and the Health Ministry.
- Its work began in January 2020, by sequencing all samples with a history of travel from the U.K. and a proportion of positive samples in the community.
Tasks of INSACOG
- The NCDC is tasked with coordinating collections of samples from the States as well as correlating disease with certain mutations.
- It is mainly involved in genomic sequencing which is done by isolating the genetic material of the coronavirus samples.
- It is also tasked with tracking certain combinations of mutations that become more widespread in India.
What has it found so far?
- The INSACOG sequenced about 1,00,000 samples as of early December 2021 when this data was last made publicly available.
- The bulk of its effort has been focussed on identifying international ‘variants of concern’ (VoC) that are marked out by the WHO as being particularly infectious or pathogenic.
- International travellers who arrive in India and test positive are the ones whose samples usually get sent to INSACOG for determining the genomic variant.
Why is genome sequencing useful?
- Understanding mutations: The purpose of genome sequencing is to understand the role of certain mutations in increasing the virus’s infectivity.
- Immune response: Some mutations have also been linked to immune escape, or the virus’s ability to evade antibodies, and this has consequences for vaccines.
- Effectiveness of vaccines: Labs across the world, including many in India, have been studying if the vaccines developed so far are effective against such mutant strains of the virus.
- Evolution of viruses: Studies such as this have shown that Omicron, for instance, has evolved to evade antibodies much better than the Alpha or Delta variant. This prompted the push towards booster doses.
How is it done?
- Genomic sequencing is done by isolating the genetic material (RNA) of the coronavirus samples.
- RNA consists of millions of nucleotide bases and genomic sequencing is about identifying and comparing the sequence in a given sample to a reference sample.
- Changes in the sequence are clues to mutations that show that the virus may have undergone distinct changes at some key locations.
- There are several approaches to genome sequencing — whole genome sequencing, next-generation sequencing — that have different advantages.
- It has now evolved to a stage where large sequencers can process even thousands of samples simultaneously.
Various challenges that INSACOG faces
- Geographical variations: Given that COVID-19 is spreading, mutating and showing geographical variations, the original aim of the group was to sequence at least 5% of COVID-19 samples.
- Shortage of funds: But only 1% has been achieved yet, primarily due to a shortage of funds, insufficient reagents and tools necessary to rapidly scale up.
- Red-tapism: The INSACOG, in spite of being peopled by expert scientists, is ultimately within the Central government’s communication structure.
- Infrastructure lacunae: Not all INSACOG labs have the same quality of equipment and manpower and therefore a surge or spike in some cities can mean difficulties in processing.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indo-Saracenic Architecture
Mains level: NA
The restored and refurbished Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) (erstwhile Prince of Wales Museum) will open this month as the building enters its centenary year.
Who was George Wittet?
- George Wittet was born in Blair Atholl, Scotland. He studied architecture in Perth, Scotland, and worked in Edinburgh and York before arriving in India in 1904.
- In India, he became assistant to John Begg, consulting architect to the Government of Bombay.
- Together, they pioneered the Indo-Saracenic style, using it in many government and public buildings across Bombay.
- About a decade later, Wittet rose to be consulting architect himself and was also elected as the first president of The Indian Institute of Architects.
- Besides the Prince of Wales Museum, Wittet also designed the Gateway of India, a fine example of Indo-Saracenic architecture and among the most identifiable landmarks of Mumbai.
What is Indo-Saracenic style?
- The Indo-Saracenic style was promoted by British architects starting from the late 19th century.
- It is exemplified by the use of elements seen in architecture across India, from Mughal structures to Hindu temples.
- The style was dominated by Indo-Islamic elements, but sometimes combined with Gothic and neo-classical elements popular in Britain at that time.
- Major features of the style include domes and domelets, chhattris, minarets, and open pavilions.
- Indo-Saracenic was seen as Raj’s efforts to promote “Indian” culture, so that their colonial subjects would view them more favorably, especially after the Revolt of 1857.
Notable monuments
Examples from other parts of India include the magnificent:
- Victoria Memorial in Kolkata
- Amba Vilas Palace (Mysore Palace) in Mysuru
- Senate House (on the Madras University campus) in Chennai
- Secretariat Building (Central Secretariat) in New Delhi
Mumbai’s notable architecture: CSMVS
- The dome of the CSMVS is based on the Gol Gumbaz, the mausoleum of king Mohammed Adil Shah of Bijapur.
- Wittet had toured the historic buildings of Bijapur, which was key to his Indo-Saracenic designs.
- CSMVS’s finial is based on that of the Taj Mahal.
- However, even though he won the competition for the museum’s design, it wasn’t his design that was executed finally.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: McMahol Line, Shimla Convention
Mains level: India-China Border Issue
China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs has issued standardized names for 15 places in the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh, to be used henceforth on official Chinese maps.
MEA clarification
- The Ministry of External Affairs has dismissed the Chinese “invention”.
- Arunachal Pradesh has always been, and will always be, an integral part of India, said MEA.
Why is China giving names to places that are in India?
- China claims some 90,000 sq km of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory.
- It calls the area “Zangnan” in the Chinese language and makes repeated references to “South Tibet”.
- Chinese maps show Arunachal Pradesh as part of China, and sometimes parenthetically refer to it as “so-called Arunachal Pradesh”.
- China makes periodic efforts to underline this unilateral claim to Indian territory.
- Giving Chinese names to places in Arunachal Pradesh is part of that effort.
Earlier unilateral renamings
- This is the second lot of “standardized” names of places in Arunachal Pradesh that China has announced.
- Earlier in 2017, it had issued “official” Chinese names for six places spanning the breadth of Arunachal Pradesh
What is China’s argument for claiming these areas?
- The PRC disputes the legal status of the McMahon Line, the official boundary under the ‘Convention Between Great Britain, China, and Tibet’ — of 1914 (Simla Convention).
- China was represented at the Simla Convention by a plenipotentiary of the Republic of China, which had been declared in 1912 after the Qing dynasty was overthrown.
- The present communist government came to power only in 1949, when the People’s Republic was proclaimed.
- The Chinese representative did not consent to the Simla Convention, saying Tibet had no independent authority to enter into international agreements.
What is the McMohan Line?
- The McMohan Line, named after Henry McMahon, the chief British negotiator at Shimla, was drawn from the eastern border of Bhutan to the Isu Razi pass on the China-Myanmar border.
- China claims territory to the south of the McMahon Line, lying in Arunachal Pradesh.
- China also bases its claims on the historical ties that have existed between the monasteries in Tawang and Lhasa.
Intention behind these renamings
- This renaming is a part of the Chinese strategy to assert its territorial claims over Indian territory.
- As part of this strategy, China routinely issues statements of outrage whenever an Indian dignitary visits Arunachal Pradesh.
- Beijing keeps harping on its “consistent” and “clear” position that the Indian possession of Arunachal Pradesh.
- These claims have been firmly established and recognized by the world, as “illegal”.
Arunachal not all-alone
- Laying aggressive claims to territories on the basis of alleged historical injustices done to China is a part of Beijing’s foreign policy playbook.
- The claim on Taiwan is one such example, as are the consistent efforts to change the “facts on the ground” in several disputed islands in the South China Sea.
- The aggression is at all times backed in overt and covert ways by the use of China’s economic and military muscle.
Also read:
[RSTV Archive] India-China Ties Post-Galwan
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST slabs, Inverted Duty Structure
Mains level: Losses due to GST
Hours before the new GST rate was to take effect, the GST Council has decided to temporarily roll back the increase in tax rate for the textiles sector.
What was the proposal?
- The GST Council had recommended making certain rate changes for footwear and textiles to correct the inverted duty structure.
What is Inverted Duty Structure?
- An inverted duty structure arises when the taxes on output or final product is lower than the taxes on inputs.
- This creates an inverse accumulation of input tax credit which in most cases has to be refunded.
A loss for the govt
- Inverted duty structure has implied a stream of revenue outflow for the government prompting the government to relook the duty structure.
- For footwear, the government refunds around Rs 2,000 crore in a year.
What is the present rate of GST on textiles?
- At present, tax rate on manmade fibre, yarn and fabrics is 18%, 12% and 5%, respectively.
- Apparel and clothing up to Rs 1,000 per piece currently attracts 5% GST.
Issues with the tax increase
- This decision has created a negative impact resulting in drop in demand and recession.
- The new rate structure would cause closure of around 1 lakh textile units and losses of 15 lakh jobs nationally.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Chisumle- Demchok Road
Mains level: Critical border infrastructures
Ladakh’s Chisumle-Demchok Road, when it crosses the Umling Pass, is now the world’s highest motorable road.
Chisumle- Demchok Road
- The project to build the road through the pass — a part of Border Roads Organization (BRO) Project Himank — had been completed in 2017, after which vehicles had started playing on the route.
- The road is in south Ladakh. It passes through Umling La Pass, which is at a height of over 19,000 feet.
- The height of the pass makes it the highest motorable road in the world, and was recently recognized as such by Guinness World Records.
- The 52-km road ‘black-top’ tarmac road from Chisumle to Demchok betters the previous record of a road in Bolivia, which connects the volcano Uturuncu at 18,953 feet.
- The road was built under extremely challenging conditions, as temperatures in the region can fall to below minus 40 degrees Celsius, and oxygen levels go down to 50 per cent below normal.
Top of the world
- At the pass, the road is higher than both the base camps for the climb to Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain.
- The South Base Camp in Nepal is at a height of 17,598 ft, while North Base Camp in Tibet is at 16,900 ft.
- The Chisumle-Demchok road is also higher than the Siachen Glacier, which is situated at 17,700 feet.
- Khardung La in Leh, which at one time was among the highest roads in the world, is at an altitude of 17,582 feet.
Military significance of the road
- This road provides a direct route from Chisumle, which lies on the major road coming from Leh, Karu and Nyoma.
- All of these stations have important military stations which are close to the Line of Actual Control.
- Demchok has been an India-China flashpoint earlier, the site of a standoff between the two armies in 2016.
- In the current standoff in eastern Ladakh, which began in May 2020, Demchok has come up as a point of contention.
Other benefits offered
- The new axis will be helpful for the armed forces, making it easier to mobilize troops and equipment, including rations.
- The road will not only enable faster movement of armed forces to the region but will also boost tourism and improve the socio-economic condition of the local people in the region.
Certain limitations
- Since the road goes through such a high pass, road transport will be unfeasible during the winter, when the armed forces rely on air support.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Solid-state lithium ion battery
Mains level: Battery Technology for e-Vehicles boost
After Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, now another Indian origin is in the headline is Jagdeep Singh, CEO and founder of a US battery startup. The reason for his recent buzz for his breakthrough battery technology.
About QuantumScape
- QuantumScape Corp is a battery startup backed by Volkswagen AG.
- Its solid-state battery — lithium metal with a solid electrolyte separating the two electrodes — is seen as an exceptionally bright prospect in E-Vehicle industry.
What are Solid-state batteries?
- A solid-state battery is a battery technology that uses solid electrodes and a solid electrolyte, instead of the liquid or polymer gel electrolytes found in lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries.
- Such batteries can provide potential solutions for many problems of liquid Li-ion battery, such as flammability, limited voltage, unstable solid-electrolyte interphase formation, poor cycling performance and strength.
What are Li-ion Batteries?
- Lithium-ion batteries use aqueous electrolyte solutions, where ions transfer to and fro between the anode (negative electrode generally made of graphite) and cathode (positive electrode made of lithium), triggering the recharge and discharge of electrons.
- The energy density of lithium-ion cells used in today’s mobile phones and electric vehicles is nearly four times higher than that of older-generation nickel-cadmium batteries.
Its limitations
- Low energy density: Despite improvements in technology over the last decade, issues such as long charging times and weak energy density persist.
- Small appliances: While lithium-ion batteries are seen as sufficiently efficient for phones and laptops, they still lack the range that would make EVs a viable alternative.
- Extreme reactivity: One major problem is that lithium metal is extremely reactive.
- Corrosion of cells: The main form of lithium corrosion is dendrites (branched lithium structures) that grow out from the electrode and can potentially pierce the separator short-circuiting the cell.
- Fire hazard: In current lithium-ion batteries, in which the electrolyte is a flammable liquid, dendrite formation can trigger a fire.
What is the breakthrough?
- QuantumScape claims to prevent dendrites formation.
- It uses a solid-state separator technology that eliminates the side reaction between the liquid electrolyte and the carbon/graphite in the anode of conventional lithium-ion cells.
- The replacement of the separator enables the use of a lithium-metal anode in place of the traditional
- The lithium metal anode is more energy-dense than conventional anodes, which allows the battery to store more energy in the same volume, according to the company.
Key advantages of QuantumScape Battery
- The advantages of the solid-state battery technology include higher cell energy density (by eliminating the carbon anode), lower charge time (by eliminating the need to have lithium diffuse into the carbon particles in conventional lithium-ion cells).
- It has the ability to undertake more charging cycles and thereby a longer life, and improved safety.
- Lower cost could be a game-changer, given that at 30 per cent of the total cost, battery expenses are a key driver of the vehicle costs.
India’s battery push
- The centre is working on a blueprint for a project of around 4,000 MWh of grid-scale battery storage system at the regional load dispatch centres that control the country’s power grid, primarily to balance the vagaries of renewable generation.
- Reliance Industries Ltd has announced plans to set up an Energy Storage Giga factory; state-owned NTPC Ltd has floated a global tender for a grid-scale battery storage project.
- The Ministry of Heavy Industries issued a request for proposal for setting up manufacturing facilities for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) battery storage in India.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Summit for Democracy
Mains level: Paper 2- Challenges facing democracy
Context
President Joe Biden-led Summit for Democracy was held on December 9-10. The summit was driven by the idea that in the face of populism, authoritarianism it is critical to keep the “democratic” flock together.
The salience of Summit for Democracy
- As a goal in itself: The salience of this summit lies in a deeper understanding that democracy is not just a form of government, it is a goal in itself, a value that must be cherished, preserved and celebrated.
- Democracy as a way of life: Unlike other political systems, democracy is also a way of life — a work in progress that needs sustained attention and careful nurturing to make it more resilient.
Taiwan as a desired partner of like-minded democracies
- Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (NSP) was launched in 2016 to bring Asia closer to Taiwan and vice-versa.
- The NSP is aimed to be a pivotal tool to engage like-minded democracies in the region.
- Role in the post-pandemic world: The post-pandemic world would be more invested in some of these areas — for example, health diplomacy and collaboration in the medical sector, climate change mitigation, and developing sustainable and resilient supply chains.
- Platform for semiconductor industry: Taiwan is already proving its efficacy as a viable platform for the semiconductor industry.
- Resilient supply chain mechanism: The US and its friends in the region, particularly India, Japan and Australia, have been proactively exploring possibilities of creating resilient supply chain mechanisms.
- With its technological knowhow, and shared interests and concerns, Taiwan fits perfectly in this agenda.
- EU’s renewed interest in Indo-Pacific: Greater interactions between Taiwan and EU on the technology cooperation front, stimulated by the latter’s renewed interest in the Indo-Pacific region, makes Taiwan a desired partner of fellow democracies.
- As an industrialised democracy, Taiwan could play an important role, especially since countries are trying to reduce dependence on China and establish supply chain resilience.
Conclusion
It is important for liberal democracies to acknowledge that they are facing similar challenges and view Taiwan as an indispensable partner. Deft diplomacy is in order since transnational challenges demand joint efforts by liberal democracies.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Free Trade Agreements
Mains level: Various bilateral trade instruments
India and Australia are expected to complete negotiations for an interim free trade agreement (FTA) soon, a move aimed at boosting economic ties between the two countries.
Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA)
- The final agreement is officially dubbed as the CECA is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
- The pact covers areas such as goods, services, investment, rules of origin, customs facilitation, legal and institutional issues.
- This new strategic economic agreement is expected to increase bilateral trade in goods to $100 billion within five years.
What is a Free Trade Agreement (FTA)?
- A FTA is a pact between two or more nations to reduce barriers to imports and exports among them.
- Under a free trade policy, goods and services can be bought and sold across international borders with little or no government tariffs, quotas, subsidies, or prohibitions to inhibit their exchange.
- The concept of free trade is the opposite of trade protectionism or economic isolationism.
Key benefits offered by FTA
- Reduction or elimination of tariffs on qualified: For example, a country that normally charges a tariff of 12% of the value of the incoming product will rationalize or eliminate that tariff.
- Intellectual Property Protection: Protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in the FTA partner country is upheld.
- Product Standards: FTA enhances the ability for domestic exporters to participate in the development of product standards in the FTA partner country.
- Fair treatment for investors: FTA provides treatment as favorably as the FTA partner country gives equal treatment for investments from the partner country.
- Elimination of monopolies: With FTAs, global monopolies are eliminated due to increased competition.
How many FTAs does India have?
- India has signed it’s first Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Sri Lanka in 1998.
- Likewise, India had FTAs with: Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Singapore, ASEAN, Japan and Malaysia.
- India has signed Preferential Trade Agreements such as:
- Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) with Bangladesh, China, India, Lao PDR, Republic of Korea, and Sri Lanka
- Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP)
- India – MERCOSUR PTA etc. with South American countries
Back2Basics: Types of Trade Agreements
(1) Free Trade Agreement
(discussed above)
(2) Preferential Trade Agreement
- In this type of agreement, two or more partners give preferential right of entry to certain products.
- This is done by reducing duties on an agreed number of tariff lines.
- Here a positive list is maintained i.e. the list of the products on which the two partners have agreed to provide preferential access.
- Tariff may even be reduced to zero for some products even in a PTA.
- India signed a PTA with Afghanistan.
(3) Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement
- Partnership agreement or cooperation agreement are more comprehensive than an FTA.
- CECA/CEPA also looks into the regulatory aspect of trade and encompasses and agreement covering the regulatory issues.
- CECA has the widest coverage. CEPA covers negotiation on the trade in services and investment, and other areas of economic partnership.
- It may even consider negotiation on areas such as trade facilitation and customs cooperation, competition, and IPR.
- India has signed CEPAs with South Korea and Japan.
(4) Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement
- CECA generally cover negotiation on trade tariff and Tariff rate quotas (TRQs) rates only.
- It is not as comprehensive as CEPA.
- India has signed CECA with Malaysia.
(5) Framework Agreement
- Framework agreement primarily defines the scope and provisions of orientation of the potential agreement between the trading partners.
- It provides for some new area of discussions and set the period for future liberalisation.
- India has previously signed framework agreements with the ASEAN, Japan etc.
(6) Early Harvest Scheme
- An Early Harvest Scheme (EHS) is a precursor to an FTA/CECA/CEPA between two trading partners. For example, early harvest scheme of RCEP has been rolled out.
- At this stage, the negotiating countries identify certain products for tariff liberalization pending the conclusion of actual FTA negotiations.
- An Early Harvest Scheme is thus a step towards enhanced engagement and confidence building.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST Compensation
Mains level: Harmonization of GST
Many states have demanded that the GST compensation cess regime be extended for another five years and the share of the Union government in the centrally-sponsored schemes be raised as the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their revenues.
What is GST?
- GST, being a consumption-based tax, would result in loss of revenue for manufacturing-heavy states.
- GST launched in India on 1 July 2017 is a comprehensive indirect tax for the entire country.
- It is charged at the time of supply and depends on the destination of consumption.
- For instance, if a good is manufactured in state A but consumed in state B, then the revenue generated through GST collection is credited to the state of consumption (state B) and not to the state of production (state A).
Compensation under GST regime: GST Compensation Cess
- Due to the consumption-based nature of GST, manufacturing states like Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu feared a revenue loss.
- Thus, GST Compensation Cess or GST Cess was introduced by the government to compensate for the possible revenue losses suffered by such manufacturing states.
- However, under existing rules, this compensation cess will be levied only for the first 5 years of the GST regime – from July 1st, 2017 to July 1st, 2022.
- Compensation cess is levied on five products considered to be ‘sin’ or luxury as mentioned in the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017 and includes items such as- Pan Masala, Tobacco, and Automobiles etc.
Why is the compensation necessary?
- States no longer possess taxation rights after most taxes, barring those on petroleum, alcohol, and stamp duty were subsumed under GST.
- GST accounts for almost 42% of states’ own tax revenues, and tax revenues account for around 60% of states’ total revenues.
- Finances of over a dozen states are under severe strain, resulting in delays in salary payments and sharp cuts in capital expenditure outlay amid the pandemic-induced lockdowns and the need to spend on healthcare.
Distributing GST compensation
- The compensation cess payable to states is calculated based on the methodology specified in the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017.
- The compensation fund so collected is released to the states every 2 months.
- Any unused money from the compensation fund at the end of the transition period shall be distributed between the states and the centre as per any applicable formula.
Try this question from CSP 2018:
Q. Consider the following items:
- Cereal grains hulled
- Chicken eggs cooked
- Fish processed and canned
- Newspapers containing advertising material
Which of the above items is/are exempt under GST (Goods and Services Tax)?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1, 2 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Post your answers here.
Also read:
[Burning Issue] GST Compensation
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