Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Taxing cryptocurrencies
Context
Notwithstanding the eventual introduction of the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill in Parliament, cryptocurrencies continue to proliferate.
Provisions in Income Tax Act 1961 to tax cryptocurrencies
- Cryptocurrencies not mentioned in Income Tax Act, 1961: Although the Income Tax Act, 1961 (“IT Act”) does not specifically mention cryptocurrencies, it does cast a wide enough net to bring crypto transactions under its ambit.
- Capital asset: Trading in cryptocurrency may be classified as transfer of a ‘capital asset’, taxable under the head ‘capital gains.
- Business income: If such cryptocurrencies are held as stock-in trade and the taxpayer is trading in them frequently, the same will attract tax under the head ‘business income’.
- Even if one argues that crypto transactions do not fall under the above heads, Section 56 of the IT Act shall come into play, making them taxable under the head ‘Other sources of income’.
Challenges in taxing cryptocurrencies
- The above provisions in themselves are not sufficient in order to put in place a simple yet effective taxation regime for cryptocurrencies.
[1] Varied interpretations:
- First, the absence of explicit tax provisions has led to uncertainty and varied interpretations being adopted in relation to mode of computation, applicable tax head and tax rates, loss and carry forward, etc.
- For instance, the head of income under which trading of self generated cryptocurrency (currencies which are created by mining, acquired by air drop, etc.) is to be taxed is unclear.
- Since there is no consistency in the rates provided by the crypto-exchanges, it is difficult to arrive at a fair market value.
- Similarly, when a person receives cryptocurrency as payment for rendering goods or services, how should one arrive at the value of the said currency and how should such a transaction be taxed?
[2] Identifying tax jurisdiction
- It is often tricky to identify the tax jurisdiction for crypto transactions as taxpayers may have engaged in multiple transfers across various countries and the cryptocurrencies may have been stored in online wallets, on servers outside India.
[3] The anonymity of taxpayer
- The identities of taxpayers who transact with cryptocurrencies remain anonymous.
- Exploiting this, tax evaders have been using crypto transactions to park their black money abroad and fund criminal activities, terrorism, etc.
[4] Lack of third party information on crypto transaction
- The lack of third party information on crypto transactions makes it difficult to scrutinise and identify instances of tax evasion.
- One of the most efficient enforcement tools in the hands of Income Tax Department is CASS or ‘computer aided scrutiny selection’ of assessments, where returns of taxpayers are selected inter alia based on information gathered from third party intermediaries such as banks.
- However, crypto-market intermediaries like the exchanges, wallet providers, network operators, miners, administrators are unregulated and collecting information from them is very difficult.
[5] Physical goods/services may change hand in return for cryptocurrencies
- Even if the crypto-market intermediaries are regulated and follow Know Your Customer (KYC) norms, there remains a scenario, where physical cash or other goods/services may change hands in return for cryptocurrencies.
- Such transactions are hard to trace and only voluntary disclosures from the parties involved or a search/survey operation may reveal the tax evaders.
Steps need to be taken
- Statutory provision: The income-tax laws pertaining to the crypto transactions need to be made clear by incorporating detailed statutory provisions.
- Awareness generation: This should be followed by extensive awareness generation among the taxpayers regarding the same.
- Separate mandatory disclosure: The practice of having separate mandatory disclosure requirements in tax returns (as is the case in the United States) should be placed on the taxpayers as well as all the intermediaries involved, so that crypto transactions do not go unreported.
- Strengthen international legal framework: Additionally, the existing international legal framework for exchange of information should be strengthened to enable collecting and sharing of information on crypto-transactions.
- This will go a long way in linking the digital profiles of cryptocurrency holders with their real identities.
- Training tax officers: the Government must impart training to its officers in blockchain technology.
- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s ‘Cybercrime and Anti-Money Laundering’ Section (UNODC CMLS) has developed a unique cryptocurrency training module, which can aid in equipping tax officers with requisite understanding of the underlying technologies.
Consider the question “What are the provision in Income Tax Act 1961 to tax the cryptocurrencies? What are the challenges in taxing cryptocurrencies? “
Conclusion
It is certain that cryptocurrencies are here to stay. A streamlined tax regime will be essential in the formulation of a clear, constructive and adaptive regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BrahMos Missile
Mains level: India's missile arsenal and its global competitiveness
In the first export order for the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system, the Philippines has approved a $374.96 mn contract for the purchase of a shore-based anti-ship variant of the missile from India.
About BrahMos Missile
- BrahMos missile derives its name from the combination of the names of Brahmaputra and Moskva Rivers.
- They are designed, developed and produced by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture company set up by DRDO and Mashinostroyenia of Russia.
- It is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster as the first stage and liquid ramjet as the second stage.
- The cruise missiles like BrahMos are a type of system known as the ‘standoff range weapons’ which are fired from a range sufficient to allow the attacker to evade defensive fire from the adversary.
- Such weapons are in the arsenal of most major militaries in the world.
Its capability
- BrahMos missile flies at a speed of 2.8 Mach or almost three times the speed of sound.
- It is the main weapon system of the Indian Navy warships and has been deployed on almost all of its surface platforms.
- An underwater version is also being developed which will not only be used by the submarines of India but will also be offered for export to friendly foreign nations.
Various versions
- The versions of the BrahMos that are being tested have an extended range of around 400 km, as compared to its initial range of 290 km, with more versions of higher ranges currently under development.
- Various versions including those which can be fired from land, warships, submarines and Sukhoi-30 fighter jets have already been developed and successfully tested in the past.
- The earliest versions of the ship launched BrahMos and land-based system are in service of the Indian Navy and the Indian Army since 2005 and 2007 respectively.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Back2Basics:
Explained: India’s Missile Capability
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Desh Ke Mentor Programme, NCPCR
Mains level: Child rights issue
A controversy recently broke out after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) recommended that the Delhi government suspend its flagship ‘Desh ke Mentor’ programme.
What is the Desh Ke Mentor Programme?
- The programme was launched in October 2021 and is aimed at connecting students in classes IX to XII with voluntary mentors.
- People between the ages of 18 and 35 can sign up to be mentors through an app created by a team at the Delhi Technological University and will be connected with students based on mutual interests.
- The mentorship entails regular phone calls for a minimum of two months, which can optionally be carried on for another four months.
- The idea is for the young mentors to guide students through higher education and career options, preparation for higher education entrance exams, and dealing with the pressure of it all.
How is a person selected to be a mentor?
- The registration process takes place on the Desh ke Mentor app.
- The volunteer has to fill in information about themselves such as their date of birth, education qualification, profession, organisation they work with and so on.
- However, it is optional for them to upload any proof of identity.
- Once the registration is complete, the mentor is connected to a set of children of the same gender as themselves whose interests align with theirs.
- Students have to take parental consent before becoming a part of the programme.
What are the concerns raised by the NCPCR regarding this process?
- It has stated that assigning children to a mentor of the same gender as them does not necessarily assure their safety from abuse.
- It has also expressed concern over the lack of police verification of the mentors.
- It has a psychometric test which has not been scrutinized by professional practising experts.
- It has also stated that limiting interactions to phone calls also does not ensure the safety of children since “child-related crime can be initiated through phone calls as well.”
Back2Basics: National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)
- The NCPCR is an Indian statutory body established by an Act of Parliament, the Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005.
- It works under the aegis of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and began operational on 5 March 2007.
- It works to ensure that all Laws, Policies, Programmes, and Administrative Mechanisms are in consonance with the Child Rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- As defined by the commission, a child includes a person up to the age of 18 years.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Hunga Volcano
Mains level: Not Much
A distant undersea volcano has erupted in spectacular fashion near the Pacific nation of Tonga sending large tsunami waves reaching the shore.
Hunga Volcano
- The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano has erupted regularly over the past few decades.
- It consists of two small uninhabited islands, Hunga-Ha’apai and Hunga-Tonga, poking about 100m above sea level 65km north of Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa.
- But hiding below the waves is a massive volcano, around 1800m high and 20 kilometres wide.
- During events in 2009 and 2014/15 hot jets of magma and steam exploded through the waves. But these eruptions were small, dwarfed in scale by the January 2022 events.
- Researchers suggest this is one of the massive explosions the volcano is capable of producing roughly every thousand years.
Impact of the eruption
- The ash plume is already about 20km high.
- Most remarkably, it spread out almost concentrically over a distance of about 130km from the volcano, creating a plume with a 260km diameter, before it was distorted by the wind.
- The eruption also produced a tsunami throughout Tonga and neighbouring Fiji and Samoa.
- Shock waves traversed many thousands of kilometres, were seen from space, and recorded in New Zealand some 2000km away.
- All these signs suggest the large Hunga caldera has awoken.
Why is it so explosive even after being underwater?
Answer: Fuel-coolant interaction
- If magma rises into sea water slowly, even at temperatures of about 1200 degrees Celsius, a thin film of steam forms between the magma and water.
- This provides a layer of insulation to allow the outer surface of the magma to cool.
- But this process doesn’t work when magma is blasted out of the ground full of volcanic gas.
- When magma enters the water rapidly, any steam layers are quickly disrupted, bringing hot magma in direct contact with cold water.
- Volcano researchers call this ‘fuel-coolant interaction’ and it is akin to weapons-grade chemical explosions.
A chain reaction
- Extremely violent blasts tear the magma apart.
- A chain reaction begins, with new magma fragments exposing fresh hot interior surfaces to water, and the explosions repeat, ultimately jetting out volcanic particles and causing blasts with supersonic speeds.
How has it emerged out to be so big?
- The caldera is a crater-like depression around 5km across.
- Small eruptions (such as in 2009 and 2014/15) occur mainly at the edge of the caldera, but very big ones come from the caldera itself.
- These big eruptions are so large the top of the erupting magma collapses inward, deepening the caldera.
- Looking at the chemistry of past eruptions, we now think the small eruptions represent the magma system slowly recharging itself to prepare for a big event.
What next?
- This latest eruption has stepped up the scale in terms of violence.
- Researchers are still in the middle of this major eruptive sequence and many aspects remain unclear, partly because the island is currently obscured by ash clouds.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NEAT Scheme
Mains level: HRD schemes for coding skills
NEAT, first-of-its-kind government scheme, set in motion over two years ago, has finally taken shape, bringing courses offered by a group of edtech platforms within the reach of college and university students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
NEAT Scheme
- The National Education Alliance for Technology (NEAT) is implemented by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
- It aims to act as a bridge between edtech companies, academic institutions and students.
- The initiative was taken after a Ministry of Education review noted that learning tools developed by edtech platforms that can supplement classroom teaching need to be made more accessible.
- Accordingly, it was proposed that a portal be created where edtech platforms can be roped in to display their products after a shortlisting process.
What are the products on display in the portal?
- The NEAT portal has separate sections listing products for students and educational institutes respectively.
- The companies were shortlisted by independent expert committees leaving no room for favouritism, he said.
- Under the B2B (business to business) segment of the portal, courses are on offer for higher education institutes to purchase in bulk for their students.
- And the B2C (business to customer) section lists courses that eligible students can browse through and choose from.
- The courses range from accounting and finance to coding, including advanced programming languages like python.
How to enroll into this scheme?
- There are two different ways through which students can enroll under the scheme.
- The basic objective of the scheme is to make students from disadvantaged backgrounds aware of the availability of such opportunities that can help them learn new skills or polish existing ones.
- In that regard, the AICTE reached out to higher education institutes across the country, directing them to inform students about the portal and enroll them based on their needs and consent.
- The edtech platforms have been allowed to charge fees as per their policies.
How will it benefit students from backward communities?
- In order to do that, the government has mandated that every shortlisted company will have to offer free coupons to the extent of 25 per cent of the total registrations for their solution through NEAT portal.
- Through this route, the government created a bank of 12.15 lakh free coupons over the last two years.
- And it has now started distributing those coupons among students belonging to SC/ST/OBC and EWS categories with the annual family income cap fixed at Rs 8 lakh.
What are the courses in demand?
- The top five courses in terms of demand are python programming, C, C++, Java programming, data science, life science and healthcare analysis, and interview preparation.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mekedatu Project
Mains level: Interstate river water disputes
The ‘Mekedatu march’ has been launched for the implementation of a project to build a reservoir on the Cauvery at Mekedatu near the Tamil Nadu border.
What is the Mekedatu Project?
- Mekedatu, meaning goat’s leap, is a deep gorge situated at the confluence of the rivers Cauvery and Arkavathi, about 100 km from Bengaluru, at the Kanakapura taluk in Karnataka’s Ramanagara district.
- In 2013, then Karnataka announced the construction of a multi-purpose balancing reservoir project.
- The project aimed to alleviate the drinking water problems of the Bengaluru and Ramanagara districts.
- It was also expected to generate hydroelectricity to meet the power needs of the state.
Issues with the project
- Soon after the project was announced TN has objected over granting of permission or environmental clearance.
- Explaining the potential for damage to the lower riparian state of TN, it said that the project was in violation of the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.
- It stated that the project will affect the natural flow of the river Cauvery considerably and will severely affect the irrigation in TN.
What do the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court say?
- The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, in its final order on February 2007, made allocations to all the riparian States — Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, apart from the Union Territory of Puducherry.
- It also stipulated “tentative monthly deliveries during a normal year” to be made available by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu.
- Aggrieved over the final order for different reasons, the States had appealed to the Supreme Court.
- In February 2018, the court, in its judgment, revised the water allocation and increased the share of Karnataka by 14.75 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) at the cost of Tamil Nadu.
- The enhanced quantum comprised 4.75 tmc ft for meeting drinking water and domestic requirements of Bengaluru and surrounding areas.
What is Karnataka planning?
- Encouraged by the Supreme Court verdict, Karnataka, which sees the order as an endorsement of its stand, has set out to pursue the Mekedatu project.
- Originally proposed as a hydropower project, the revised Mekedatu dam project has more than one purpose to serve.
- A hydropower plant of nearly 400 MW has also been proposed.
- The Karnataka government has argued that the proposed reservoir will regulate the flow to Tamil Nadu on a monthly basis, as stipulated by the Tribunal and the Supreme Court.
- This is why Karnataka has contended that the project will not affect the interests of Tamil Nadu farmers.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cryptocurrencies
Mains level: Carbon footprint of cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin prices are rising these days and so will be its mining. As cryptocurrency will become mainstream, its carbon footprint cannot be ignored.
What are Cryptocurrencies?
Cryptocurrency
Global crypto market
- In 2019, the global cryptocurrency market was approximately $793 million.
- It’s now expected to reach nearly $5.2 billion by 2026, according to a report by the market research organization Facts and Factors.
- In just one year—between July 2020 and June 2021—the global adoption of cryptocurrency surged by more than 880 percent.
Carbon footprints of Bitcoins
- Increasing popularity of cryptocurrency has environmentalists on edge, as the digital “mining” of it creates a massive carbon footprint due to the staggering amount of energy it requires.
- A/c to the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, the carbon footprint of Bitcoin is equivalent to that of New Zealand.
- Both emit nearly 37 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.
What is Mining?
- Mining is a process in which computational puzzles are solved in order to verify transactions between users, which are then added to the blockchain.
- In simpler terms, the works are created, or “minted,” through a process called proof-of-work (PoW), which establishes its unique identity.
How do cryptocurrencies create such a footprint?
- Unlike mainstream traditional currencies, bitcoin is virtual and not made from paper or plastic, or even metal.
- Bitcoin is virtual but power-hungry as it is created using high-powered computers around the globe.
- Bitcoin is created when high-powered computers compete against other machines to solve complex mathematical puzzles.
- This is an energy-intensive process that often relies on fossil fuels, particularly coal, the dirtiest of them all.
Conclusion
- What this means is that, unlike traditional currency or gold, Bitcoin is not solely a settlement layer, not solely a store of value, and not solely a medium of exchange.
- This makes Bitcoin’s relative energy consumption productive in comparison to comparative sectors, given its robust potential uses.
- The promise of such an endeavor offers hope for a more sustainable cryptocurrency future.
- Whether this will make much difference to the climate crisis in light of government and industrial inaction remains to be seen.
Back2Basics: Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Women in Indian army
Context
Last year, the Supreme Court threw open the hallowed portals of the National Defence Academy for women. Something to truly celebrate on January 15, Army Day, this year.
Background
- The first batch of women officers was inducted into the Indian Army in non-medical roles via the Short Service Commission in 1992.
- Since 2008, women were inducted as permanent commissioned officers in the legal and education corps and as permanent commissioned officers in eight more non-combative corps in 2020.
The low number of women in Army
- As recent as 2020, women officers in the Indian army (excluding the medical corps) numbered just about three per cent.
- Compare this to 16 per cent in the US, 15 per cent in France and 10 per cent in both Russia and the UK.
Significance of allowing women to NDA
- When in February 2020, the Supreme Court decreed that women officers should get command positions on par with male officers, it also effectively dismissed the military’s earlier objection that it would lead to “operational, practical and cultural problems”.
- The SC went on to say that denying women commands based on the above argument was discriminatory and reinforced stereotypes.
- Last year, the Supreme Court threw open the National Defence Academy for women to compete for the seats and subsequent permanent commission in the Indian army in any corps they desire, including the combat ones.
- Addressing the shortage of officers: This may effectively address the long-standing shortage of officers in the Indian army in general. In response to a question in Rajya Sabha a month ago, the Minister of State for Defence said the Army has a shortage of 7,476 officers.
- This torch may also help confront the chauvinism, often misspelt as chivalry, that indisputably exists in the Army.
Conclusion
The move promises to change the composition of this arm of the defence force not just quantitatively, but also qualitatively — both dire requirements of the force at present.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Back2Basics: Permanent Commission (PC) Vs. Short Service Commission (SSC)
- SSC means an officer’s career will be of a limited period in the Indian Armed Forces whereas a PC means they shall continue to serve in the Indian Armed Forces, till they retire.
- The officers inducted through the SSC usually serve for a period of 14 years.
- At the end of 10 years, the officers have three options.
- A PC entitles an officer to serve in the Navy till he/she retires unlike SSC, which is currently for 10 years and can be extended by four more years, or a total of 14 years.
- They can either select for a PC or opt-out or have the option of a 4-years extension.
- They can resign at any time during this period of 4 years extension.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MSP
Mains level: Paper 3- Making farming viable through legal MSP
Context
There has been debate on the issue of MSP with some arguing against it while some favouring it.
The issues with MSP
- The broad strands of argument against MSP are:
- MSP hinders the price discovery: Providing MSP does not allow the market to discover the prices; if market cleared prices are less than MSP, then the only buyer would be the government; this would render the government bankrupt.
- FPO as a mechanism to deal with markets: If markets have any distortions, the way to negotiate it is through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) — as demonstrated by Amul.
- Provide income support through DBT: A better way to address the possible income gap is to give an income support-based direct benefit transfer (DBT).
Why MSP is necessary?
1] Barriers in agri-markets
- Through tariffs and other measures, we have built a national barrier on markets, where gates are opened on the basis of strategic intent.
- If we were to open our borders for free movement of grains from elsewhere, we may even argue for unlocking agricultural land for more lucrative purposes without worrying about food self-sufficiency, buffer stocking and domestic food safety.
- We may have to accept a national food safety for at least the essential foodgrains and pulses.
2] Role of MSP as price signalling and why it needs to be given as legal guarantee
- Disproportionate risk: If we were to look at farming, we realise that this exposes itself to disproportionate risks.
- First, there is no stop-loss mechanism after sowing the seed, except for destroying the crop for the season.
- This enterprise not only has the usual business risks but also has the enhanced risk of the force majeure elements that destroy the enterprise — a sudden hail storm, drought, unseasonal showers, a pest attack, a locust attack — there are too many things that the farmer cannot control.
- Therefore, an MSP provides a powerful signal to the farmer to exercise the choice of sowing a particular crop because the farmer can back-calculate the expected margin.
- If MSP is a signal that helps the farmer to choose a crop, then it must remain a choice at the harvest time as well.
- The significance of MSP is only when the markets do not clear the price.
- In such a situation, the farmer gets a return less than the MSP and by this argument we are escorting the farm fraternity towards bankruptcy.
- A legal guarantee is, therefore, needed.
- The argument that the state will have to procure all the floating stock in the market and may become bankrupt is fallacious.
- The intervention of the state in the markets usually covers information asymmetry, arbitrage and cools the markets when they get overheated.
3] Why not opt for income support instead of MSP?
- Income support does not address the issue of viability of the farming operations.
- There is no doubt that we need to make farming viable.
- It is important to address the prices of each crop as a strategic signalling mechanism: For crops that would be encouraged and those that would be discouraged.
4] Issues with drawing parallels with AMUL
- While the Amul model recognised the inherent power of markets, it took about five decades to make the system competitive — the investments were made in breed improvement, free veterinary services, better cattle feed, capital subsidy for processing plants, and return-free capital as investments.
- The nature of subsidies was smart and innovative.
- Dairying was the last bit to be liberalised, and it enjoyed protection even when we opened up in 1991.
Way forward
- Modernise the markets: We need to modernise the markets and storage and processing facilities.
- There is no point in conflating modernisation with liberalisation.
- Investment: If we need to take Indian agriculture on the path of Amul, we need to start making those investments now.
Consider the question “What are the objectives of providing MSP? How legal basis to MSP could help in making agriculture viable in India?”
Conclusion
Let us use the MSP framework smartly on diversified crops, on a decentralised basis while we develop the markets. A legal guarantee will only assure the farmers that they will not be bankrupted.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: AUKUS
Mains level: Paper 2- Indo-Pacific challenge
Context
The geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, which is changing fast. As it moves into 2022, the region will carry the imprint of the past five years, and will have to chart a course through inter-state tensions and crises, using both diplomacy and military preparedness.
What will shape the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the Indo-Pacific?
- Key players in the region: The region is central to world economy and peace, and nine countries are key players: the US, China, Japan, India, Germany, the UK, Russia, Australia and France.
- The geopolitics and geo-economics of the Indo-Pacific will be largely shaped by the interplay of relations among these nations.
- US-China relations: Of paramount importance is the US-China equation.
- Expect this relationship to be marked by continually adversarial, competitive and cooperative traits.
- Beijing’s south/east China policy, aggressive postures towards Taiwan, human rights violations in Xinjiang, the subjugation of Hong Kong’s citizenry and assertive economic outreach in the Indo-Pacific — these will weigh heavily on US-China relations.
A significant role of groupings and individual nations
- In this standoff, the role of new groupings and individual nations is significant.
- Role of Quad: Foremost are the Quad, a strategic partnership between the US, India, Japan and Australia and the militaristic AUKUS (Australia, UK, US).
- India-Australia ties: Meanwhile, India and Australia are on track to deepen ties, not only bilaterally but also with the other two Quad powers.
- The next Quad summit, probably hosted by Japan, will cement the grouping.
- EU’s role: The EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy, announced last September, aims at increasing its economic and security profile in, and linkages with, the region.
- UK’s role: Only by being more strategic and less mercantilist, more candid and assertive with China, and more cooperative with partners such as India, can the EU — and its former member the UK — hope to become vital players in the Indo-Pacific.
- ASEAN, located in the middle of the Indo-Pacific waters, faces the heat of China’s aggression and the sharpening great power rivalry.
- It must enhance its realism and shed its tendency of wishing away problems.
Suggestions for India
- 1]Strengthen the Quad – especially by ensuring that the grouping fulfils its commitment to deliver at least one billion vaccine doses to Indo-Pacific nations by December 2022.
- India must protect its established relationship with Russia, and show some resilience in dialogue with Beijing.
- 2] Enhance relations with ASEAN nations: It must enhance cooperation with key Southeast Asian partners —Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand — while humouring ASEAN as a grouping.
- 3] Give attention to African and Indian Ocean island states: The eastern and southern planks of Africa and the Indian Ocean island states need continued high policy attention and financial resources.
- A clear economic and trade agenda to follow the flag in this vital region, is certain to yield long-term dividends.
Consider the question “Indo-Pacific will present India strategic and economic opportunities that India must not miss. However, the region will have to chart a course through inter-state tensions and crises. Comment.”
Conclusion
India has done well by fulfilling its humanitarian duties during the pandemic. Learning how to convert them smartly into economic and strategic opportunities in its periphery is the focused task for the nation in 2022.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Countries involve in South China sea dispute
Mains level: Paper 2- South China sea issue
Context
South-East Asian countries are increasingly wary of their giant neighbour.
Background of dispute
- Disputes in the South China Sea go back decades.
- But it was only ten years ago that China, which makes maritime claims for nearly the whole sea, greatly upped the ante.
- Countries involved: They involve Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, all with contesting claims.
- China provoked a stand-off that left it in control of an uninhabited atoll, Scarborough Shoal, which under un maritime law clearly belongs to the Philippines.
- Then China launched a massive terraforming exercise, turning reefs and rocks into artificial islands hosting airstrips and bases.
China’s strong-arm tactics
- China’s long-term aim is to project Chinese power deep into the South China Sea and beyond, and to hold the Americans away during any conflict.
- The immediate aim, though, is to dominate politically and economically as much as militarily.
- China has challenged oil-and-gas activity by both Indonesia and Malaysia, and sent drilling rigs to both countries’ eezs and continental shelves.
- It has bullied foreign energy companies into dropping joint development with Vietnam and others.
Implications
- China has paid a diplomatic price.
- Impact on relations with ASEAN: Had Mr Xi engaged in none of the terraforming and bullying, China would be better admired among members of the ten-country Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
- Naval presence of the US: The United States and its Western allies have upped their naval presence in the sea, welcomed by most ASEAN members.
Negotiation on Code of conduct on South China Sea
- For years China dragged its feet on agreeing with ASEAN a code of conduct on the South China Sea, a principle agreed on 20 years ago in order to promote co-operation and reduce tensions.
- These days, China likes to play willing.
- China is demanding, in effect, the right of veto over ASEAN members’ naval exercises with foreign powers.
- It also wants to keep out foreigners from joint oil-and-gas development.
- Such demands are unacceptable to members.
Conclusion
Despite China’s efforts to establish its wild claims of sovereignty, China has been facing sustained resistance from the ASEAN countries.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Need for democratic socialism based on cooperative economic enterprises
Context
Inequalities of wealth have increased around the world and India is becoming one of the world’s most unequal countries.
Role of globalisation and privatisation in increasing economic distress
- Economic despair is feeding the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, and identity politics.
- Role of Globalisation: Opening national borders to free trade became an ideology in economics in the last 30 years.
- Taxes of incomes and wealth at the top were also reduced.
- The ideological justification was that the animal spirits of ‘wealth creators’ must not be dampened.
- With higher taxes until the 1970s, the U.S. and many countries in Europe had built up their public health and education infrastructure and strengthened social security systems.
- The rich are now being taxed much less than they were.
- The pie has grown larger but the richest few have been eating, and hoarding, most of it themselves.
- Role of privatisation: ‘Privatisation’ of everything became another ideological imperative in economics by the turn of the century.
- Selling off public enterprises raises resources for funds-starved governments.
- Another justification is efficiency in delivery of services, setting aside ethical questions of equity.
- When ‘public’ is converted to ‘private’, rich people can buy what they need.
- The gaps between the haves and the have-nots become larger.
How liberal economic policies are creating illiberal societies
- Liberal economists, promoting free markets, free trade, and privatisation, are worried by nationalism and authoritarian governments.
- They rail against “populist” policies of governments that subsidise the poor and adopt industrial strategies for self-reliance and jobs for their citizens.
- Liberals must re-examine their ideas of economics, to understand their own culpability in creating authoritarian and identitarian politics.
The failure of capitalism and communism
- While communism had lifted living standards, and the health and education of masses of poorer people faster than capitalism could, communism’s solution to the “property” question — that there should be no private property — was a failure.
- It deprived people of personal liberties.
- Capitalism’s solution to the property problem — replacing all publicly owned enterprises with privately owned ones (and reducing taxes on wealth and high incomes) has not worked either.
- It has denied many of their basic human needs of health, education and social security, and equal opportunities for their children.
- The private property solution has also harmed the natural environment.
Way forward
- Climate change and political rumblings around the world are both warnings that capitalism needs reform.
- Economic policies must be based on new ideas.
- Thought leaders and policymakers in India must lead the world out of the rut of ideas in which it seems to be trapped.
- Principles of human rights must not be overpowered by property rights.
- A new form of “Gandhian” democratic socialism, powered by cooperative economic enterprises, is required in the 21st century, to create wealth at the bottom, not only at the top, and save humanity and the planet.
Conclusion
A new form of ‘Gandhian’ democratic socialism powered by cooperative economic enterprises is required.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Dealing with hate speech
Context
On January 12, 2022 , the Supreme Court of India agreed to hear petitions asking for legal action to be taken against the organisers of, and speakers at, the “Hardwar Dharma Sansad”.
What constitutes hate speech
- Hate speech is speech that targets people based on their identity, and calls for violence or discrimination against people because of their identity.
- There is an absence of any legal or social consensus around what constitutes “hate speech.”
- As societies around the world have long understood, the harm in hate speech is not restricted to direct and proximate calls to violence.
- Inciting discrimination is part of hate speech: Hate speech works in more insidious ways, creating a climate that strengthens existing prejudices and entrenches already-existing discrimination.
- This is why – with the exception of the United States of America – most societies define hate speech in terms of both inciting violence, but also, inciting discrimination.
Challenges in dealing with hate speech
- Legal challenge: Our laws – as they stand – are unequipped to deal with the challenges of hate speech.
- The laws commonly invoked in such cases are section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (blasphemy) and section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (creating enmity between classes of people).
- Hate speech will not always be self-evident: Hate speech, by its very nature, will not always trumpet itself to be hate speech.
- Rather, it will often assume plausible deniability – as has been seen in the Hardwar case, where statements, worded with the right degree of ambiguity, are now being defended as calls to self-defence rather than calls to violence.
- Any comprehensive understanding of hate speech is a matter of judgment, and must take into account its ambiguous and slippery nature.
- Lack of social consensus against hate speech: No matter how precise and how definite we try to make our concept of hate speech, it will inevitably reflect individual judgment.
- If, therefore, social and legal norms against hate speech are to be implemented without descending into pure subjectivity, what is needed – first – is a social consensus about what kind of speech is beyond the pale.
- In Europe, for example, holocaust denial is an offence – and is enforced with a degree of success – precisely because there is a pre-existing social consensus about the moral abhorrence of the holocaust.
Conclusion
Achieving this social consensus is an immense task, and will require both consistent legal implementation over time, but also daily conversations that we, as a society need to have among ourselves.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IPC section 375
Mains level: Persistence of marital rape and need for its criminalization
The Delhi High Court has told the Centre that it will continue hearing the petitions challenging the legal exception to marital rape and not wait for the government’s ongoing process of initiating reform in the criminal laws.
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.
Status in India
- Historically considered as right of the spouses, this is now widely classified as rape by many societies around the world.
- In India, marital rape is not a criminal offense (as protected under IPC section 375).
- India is one of fifty countries that have not yet outlawed marital rape.
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.
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.
Must read:
[RSTV Archive] Sexual Crime – Fast-tracking Justice
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: India State of Forest Report, 2021
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has released the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021.
About India State of Forest Report
- ISFR is an assessment of India’s forest and tree cover, published every two years by the Forest Survey of India under the MoEFCC.
- The first survey was published in 1987, and ISFR 2021 is the 17th.
- It compiles data computed through wall-to-wall mapping of India’s forest cover through remote sensing techniques.
Why need ISFR?
- It is used in planning and formulation of policies in forest management as well as forestry and agroforestry sectors.
How are forests categorized?
The Forest Survey of India has listed four categories of forests. They are:
- Very Dense Forest (with tree canopy density of 70 per cent or above)
- Moderately Dense Forest (tree canopy density of 40 per cent or above but less than 70 per cent)
- Open Forest (tree canopy density of 10 per cent or above but less than 40 per cent)
- Scrub (tree canopy density less than 10 per cent)
Highlights of the ISFR, 2021
[1] Forest cover is increasing
- ISFR 2021 has found that the forest and tree cover in the country continues to increase with an additional cover of 1,540 square kilometres over the past two years.
- India’s forest cover is now 7,13,789 square kilometres, 21.71% of the country’s geographical area, an increase from 21.67% in 2019.
- Tree cover has increased by 721 sq km.
- Bamboo forests have grown from 13,882 million culms (stems) in 2019 to 53,336 million culms in 2021.
[2] State-wise gain/losses
- The states that have shown the highest increase in forest cover are Telangana (3.07%), Andhra Pradesh (2.22%) and Odisha (1.04%).
- The Northeast states account for 7.98% of total geographical area but 23.75% of total forest cover.
- Five states in the Northeast – Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland have all shown loss in forest cover.
- The report has attributed the decline in the NE states to a spate of natural calamities, particularly landslides and heavy rains, in the region as well as to anthropogenic activities.
[3] Increase in Mangrove cover
- Mangroves have shown an increase of 17 sq km. India’s total mangrove cover is now 4,992 sq km.
[4] Increase in carbon stock
- The total carbon stock in country’s forests is estimated at 7,204 million tonnes, an increase of 79.4 million tonnes since 2019.
[5] Big cats population
- ISFR 2021 has some new features. It has for the first time assessed forest cover in tiger reserves, tiger corridors and the Gir forest which houses the Asiatic lion.
- The forest cover in tiger corridors has increased by 37.15 sq km (0.32%) between 2011-2021, but decreased by 22.6 sq km (0.04%) in tiger reserves.
- Buxa, Anamalai and Indravati reserves have shown an increase in forest cover while the highest losses have been found in Kawal, Bhadra and the Sunderbans reserves.
- Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh has the highest forest cover, at nearly 97%.
[6] Impact of climate change
- The report estimates that by 2030, 45-64% of forests in India will experience the effects of climate change and rising temperatures, and forests in all states will be highly vulnerable climate hot spots.
- Ladakh (forest cover 0.1-0.2%) is likely to be the most affected.
- India’s forests are already showing shifting trends of vegetation types, such as Sikkim which has shown a shift in its vegetation pattern for 124 endemic species.
[7] Forest fires
- The survey has found that 35.46 % of the forest cover is prone to forest fires.
- Out of this, 2.81 % is extremely prone, 7.85% is very highly prone and 11.51 % is highly prone
- The highest numbers of fires were detected in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Concerns with the declining trends
- It is worrying that a 1,582 sq km decline was in moderately dense forests, or “natural forests”.
- This decline shows a degradation of forests in the country, say experts, with natural forests degrading to less dense open forests.
- Also, scrub area has increased by 5,320 sq km – indicating the complete degradation of forests in these areas.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Asian Clearing Union (ACU), Currency Swaps
Mains level: India's financial assitances to SL
India has confirmed a $400 million currency swap with Sri Lanka while deferring another $500 million due for settlement to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU).
What is the news?
- Sri Lanka is facing a severe dollar crunch that economists say might lead to a default on external debt and create a food shortage in the imports-reliant island nation.
- In this regard, the Reserve Bank of India has extended currency swap facilities of $900 million to Sri Lanka.
What are Currency Swaps?
- A currency swap, also known as a cross-currency swap, is an off-balance sheet transaction in which two parties exchange principal and interest in different currencies.
- Currency swaps are used to obtain foreign currency loans at a better interest rate than could be got by borrowing directly in a foreign market.
Practice question for mains:
Q. What are Currency Swaps? Discuss the efficacy of Currency Swap Agreements for enhancing bilateral cooperation in Indian context.
How does it work?
- In a swap arrangement, RBI would provide dollars to a Lankan central bank, which, at the same time, provides the equivalent funds in its currency to the RBI, based on the market exchange rate at the time of the transaction.
- The parties agree to swap back these quantities of their two currencies at a specified date in the future, which could be the next day or even three months later, using the same exchange rate as in the first transaction.
- These swap operations carry no exchange rate or other market risks, as transaction terms are set in advance.
Why does one need dollars?
- FPIs investors look for safer investments but the current global uncertainty over COVID outbreak has led to a shortfall everywhere in the global markets.
- This has pulled down foreign exchange reserves of many small and developing countries.
- This means that the government and the RBI cannot lower their guard on the management of the economy and the external account.
Benefits of currency swap
- The absence of an exchange rate risk is the major benefit of such a facility.
- This facility provides the flexibility to use these reserves at any time in order to maintain an appropriate level of balance of payments or short-term liquidity.
- Swaps agreements between governments also have supplementary objectives like the promotion of bilateral trade, maintaining the value of foreign exchange reserves with the central bank and ensuring financial stability (protecting the health of the banking system).
Back2Basics: Asian Clearing Union (ACU)
- The ACU with headquarters in Tehran, Iran, was established on December 9, 1974, at the initiative of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
- The primary objective of ACU was to secure regional co-operation as regards the settlement of eligible monetary transactions among the members of the Union/
- It now aims to provide a system for clearing payments among the member countries on a multilateral basis.
- The unit of settlement of ACU transactions is a common unit of account of ACU, and the unit is equivalent to one USD, and the Asian Monetary Unit may be denominated as ACU dollars and Euro.
Must read:
[Burning Issue] India – Sri Lanka relations in recent times
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: 5G technology
Mains level: Delay in roll-out of 5g
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked for views on band plan, block size, and conditions for auction of spectrum in 5G bands, which includes Millimetre (mm) Wave band of 24.25-28.5 GHz.
Must read:
Status of 5G Rollout in India
What is 5G technology?
- 5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks.
- It’s a unified platform that is much more capable than previous mobile services with more capacity, lower latency, faster data delivery rate and better utilisation of spectrum.
5G spectrum
5G mainly works in 3 bands, namely low, mid and high-frequency spectrum — all of which have their own uses as well as limitations.
(1) Low band spectrum
- It has a great promise in terms of coverage and speed of internet and data exchange but the maximum speed is limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second).
- So Telcos can use and install it for commercial cell phone users who may not have specific demands for very high speed internet, the low band spectrum may not be optimal for specialized needs of the industry.
(2) Mid-band spectrum
- It offers higher speeds compared to the low band, but has limitations in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals.
- This band may be used by industries and specialized factory units for building captive networks that can be moulded into the needs of that particular industry.
(3) High-band spectrum
- It offers the highest speed of all the three bands, but has extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength.
- Internet speeds in the high-band spectrum of 5G has been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps (giga bits per second), while, in most cases, the maximum internet data speed in 4G has been recorded at 1 Gbps.
What is Millimetre (mm) Wave Band?
- Millimetre Wave band or mmWave is a particular segment of radio frequency spectrum that range between 24 GHz and 100 GHz.
- This spectrum, as the name suggests, has a short wavelength, and is apt to deliver greater speeds and lower latencies.
- This in turn makes data transfer efficient and seamless as the current available networks work optimally only on lower frequency bandwidths.
Significance of this mm band
- 5G services can be deployed using lower frequency bands.
- They can cover greater distances and are proven to work efficiently even in urban environments, which are prone to interference.
- But, when it comes to data speeds, these bands fail to hit peak potential needed for a true 5G experience.
- So, mmWave is that quintessential piece in the 5G jigsaw puzzle for mobile service providers.
Concerns with inclusion of mm-band
- The mm bands have been preserved for satellite-based broadband services as per the decision taken by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
- Providing excess spectrum could pose a downside risk of the bands going unsold, or even worse, underutilised by terrestrial players at the expense of satellite-based service providers.
- Offering excessive spectrum will result in Indian citizens being denied the benefits of high-demand, advanced satellite broadband services.
- In addition to this, it will result in a massive loss to the Indian economy of up to $184.6 billion by 2030, along with the loss of foreign direct investment (FDI) and employment generation benefits.
How could this disrupt the satellite communication industry?
- Internet has largely been provided to users via fibre-optic based broadband connectivity or mobile network.
- Of late, another class of Internet vendors is showing up. These are satellite-based communication service providers.
- For example, SpaceX’s Starlink and Bharti Airtel’s OneWeb are some of the players in this market.
- This segment uses Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to provide broadband to both urban and rural users. Their service could also be used for weather predictions.
- The mm band had been the subject of controversy due to out-of-band emissions into the passive satellite band used for weather satellites at 23.6-24 GHz.
HeaWay ahead
- The allocation of mmWave band is critical to the satellite communication industry, which needs a stronger regulatory support to ensure that 5G operations don’t interfere with their existing operations.
- The industry body pointed to Europe’s “5G Roadmap”, which is built on the ITU’s decision to hold these bands for satellite-based broadband services.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Dravidian Model, Justice Party
Mains level: Socio-economic model of economic development
The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is pushing for a ‘Dravidian Model’ where economic development is inclusive.
What is the Dravidian Model?
- The goal is equal economic development that will be in tune with social justice.
- It has taken root since the days of the Justice Party government [in pre-Independent India].
- TN polity has divided the task into short-term and long-term, and travels with the objective of improving the economy by implementing them within the time frame.
Note: The Government of India Act 1919 implemented the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, instituting a Diarchy in Madras Presidency. The diarchial period extended from 1920 to 1937, encompassing five elections. Justice party was in power for 13 of 17 years.
Unique features of this developmental approach
(1) Financial planning
- TN has constituted an Economic Advisory Council comprising internationally renowned economists since there is a need to evolve an economic development to suit the current situation.
- It has emerged out higher as comparatively high levels of human development with economic dynamism.
(2) Health and education
- It sought and ensured opportunity-equalizing policies in the expanding modern sectors through affirmative action policies and investments in education and health.
- Tamil Nadu has been a pioneer in broad-basing entry into school education through a slew of incentives, the noon meal scheme being the most well-known.
(3) Social Harmony
- It also succeeded in building a bloc of lower caste groups under a Dravidian-Tamil identity that subsumed and sought to transcend individual caste identities.
- It has distinct political mobilization against caste-based inequalities in the state.
- Mobilization built an ethos that questioned the privileges of caste elites and the naturalness of merit in a caste society.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 246
Mains level: Paper 2- Need for review of the Seventh Schedule
Context
Without delegation of funds, functions and functionaries, local governments are unable to respond to pressure from citizens who demand greater efficiency.
Background of the Seventh Schedule
- Article 246 of the Constitution mentions three lists in the Seventh Schedule — union, state and concurrent lists.
- The present Seventh Schedule and union (at that time Federal) list, state (at that time Provincial) list and concurrent lists are inherited from that 1935 piece of legislation.
- It states that “Notwithstanding anything in the two next succeeding subsections, the Federal Legislature has, and a Provincial Legislature has not, power to make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in List I in the Seventh Schedule to this Act.”
Delivery of public goods
- Ignoring that narrow and technical definition of public good, loosely, we understand “public good” as something that must be delivered by the government.
- It cannot, or should not, be delivered by the private sector.
- Notwithstanding the use of private security guards, most people will agree “law and order” is a public good.
- Most public goods people will think of are efficiently delivered at the local government level, not Union or state level.
- There is a Seventh Schedule issue that is thus linked to the insertion of a local body list.
- Countervailing pressure by citizens increasingly demands efficient delivery of such public goods.
- But without delegation of funds, functions and functionaries, presently left to the whims of state governments, local governments are unable to respond.
Need for the review of the Seventh Schedule Lists
- No local body list: Most public goods people will think of are efficiently delivered at the local government level, not Union or state level.
- There is a Seventh Schedule issue that is thus linked to the insertion of a local body list.
- But without delegation of funds, functions and functionaries, presently left to the whims of state governments, local governments are unable to respond.
- The Rajamannar Committee — formally known as Centre-State Relations Inquiry Committee suggested constitution of a High Power Commission to examine the entries of Lists I and III in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution and suggest redistribution of the entries,”.
- Changes in the past led to greater centralisation: Items have moved from the state list to the concurrent list and from the concurrent list to the union list.
- Such limited movements have reflected greater centralisation, such as in 1976.
- N K Singh, Chairman of 15th Finance Commission has also often made this point, in addition to scrutiny of Article 282.
Conclusion
For the sake of better governance, it’s not an issue that should be ducked and the basic structure doctrine doesn’t stand in the way.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Restoration and normalization of India-Pak ties
Peace with India and its immediate neighbors is set to be the central theme of Pakistan’s first-ever National Security Policy.
Why has this news made headlines?
- Pakistan’s (official) policy now leaves the door open for trade with India even without the settlement of the Kashmir issue – provided there is headway in bilateral talks.
- Earlier, Kashmir used to be at the centre-stage of all Pakistani outcry.
New Security Policy
- The country’s new policy would act as an umbrella document, to be used as a guideline for Pakistan`s foreign, international and defence related policies.
- The five-year-policy document, which will span 2022-26, is being touted by the Pakistan government as the country’s first-ever strategy paper of its kind.
Key highlights
- Focus on trade: The 100-page policy document has also put out elaborate plans to open trade and business ties with India.
- Silent on Kashmir: Kashmir issue with India has been identified as a ‘vital national policy’ issue for Pakistan.
- No public discussion: Only a part of the national security policy will be made public.
- Defying hostility with India: The document states that Pakistan is not seeking hostility with India for the next 100 years.
- Curbing militancy: The new policy also deals with the issue of militant and dissident groups and advocates dialogue with ‘reconcilable elements.’
- No re-conciliation with India: There are no prospects of rapprochement with India under the current government.
- Others: On the internal front, the new policy identifies five key areas of population/migration, health, climate and water, food security and gender mainstreaming.
Significance of such policy
- Pakistan and India have mostly been at loggerheads with each other throughout history.
- During the first term of Narendra Modi in 2014, the relations took a positive turn when he announced his intentions to have cordial relations with Pakistan.
- He had also visited Islamabad in 2015 unannounced to attend a marriage ceremony in Ex-PMs family.
- However, the relations deteriorated following the horrific 2016 Uri attacks.
Way ahead
- Pivotal equations between India and Pakistan will continue to be dominated by Kashmir, the ongoing proxy war and terrorism.
- It is unlikely that this prevailing equilibrium is likely to be reset by this classified policy document. That too overnight.
- The India-centric security obsession will remain the core of this policy.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now