Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Creation of new ministry
Mains level: Cooperatives in India
The Union Government has created a new Ministry of Cooperation with an aim to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country.
With the creation of the Ministry of Cooperation, there will now be a total of 41 central government ministries. Several of these ministries also have separate departments and organizations under them.
What defines a Cooperative?
- A cooperative is “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned enterprise”.
- Cooperatives are democratically owned by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors.
Ministry of Cooperation
- The ministry has been created for realizing the vision of ‘sahkar se samriddhi’ (through cooperation to prosperity).
- The NGO Sahakar Bharati, whose founder member Satish Kashinath Marathe is a part-time director on the RBI board, says it was the first to pitch for the creation of a separate ministry for the cooperative sector.
- It will provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country.
- It will help deepen cooperatives as a true people-based movement reaching up to the grassroots.
- The ministry will work to streamline processes for ‘ease of doing business’ for cooperatives and enable the development of multi-state cooperatives (MSCS).
Why need such Ministry?
- In our country, a Co-operative based economic development model is very relevant where each member works with a spirit of responsibility.
- This creation has signalled its deep commitment to community-based developmental partnerships.
Second new ministry created so far
- The Ministry of Cooperation is the second ministry to be created since 2019 after the Modi government came to power for the second time.
- Soon after taking charge, the government had created the Jal Shakti ministry.
- However, it was not altogether new as the Ministry of Cooperation.
- It was created by integrating two existing ministries dealing with water — Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, and Drinking Water & Sanitation ministry.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: China's scramble for Africa and challenges for India
This op-ed analyses the future of India-Africa cooperation in agriculture amid the looming Chinese involvement in African countries.
Agricultural significance of Africa
- With 65% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, employing over 60% of the workforce, and accounting for almost 20% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP, agriculture is critical to Africa’s economy.
China factor behind
- As this relationship enters the post-pandemic world, it is vital to prioritize and channel resources into augmenting partnerships in agriculture.
- This is crucial given its unexplored potential, centrality to global food security, business prospects and to provide credible alternatives to the increasing involvement of Chinese stakeholders in the sector.
Analyzing Chinese engagement
Chinese corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs adopt has provided a layered perspective of the sociopolitical, economic and environmental impact of Chinese engagement.
- Trade: China is among Africa’s largest trading partners.
- Credit facility: It is also Africa’s single biggest creditor.
- Infrastructure: Its corporations dominate the region’s infrastructure market and are now entering the agri-infra sector.
- Strategic support: While access to Africa’s natural resources, its untapped markets and support for ‘One China Policy’ are primary drivers of Chinese engagement with the region, there are other factors at play.
China is going strategic in the guise of agriculture
- Increasingly critical to China’s global aspirations, its engagement in African agriculture is taking on a strategic quality.
- Chinese-built industrial parks and economic zones in Africa are attracting low-cost, labour-intensive manufacturing units that are relocating from China.
- Chinese engineers interviewed spoke of how their operations in Africa are important to accumulate global experience in management, risk and capital investments.
- Not only are they willing to overlook short-term profits in order to build a ‘brand China’, but they want to dominate the market in the long term, which includes pushing Chinese standards in host countries.
- Chinese tech companies are laying critical telecommunications infrastructure, venture capital funds are investing in African fintech firms, while other smaller enterprises are expanding across the region.
Agricultural landscape
- While many Chinese entities have been active in Africa’s agriculture for decades now, the nature, form and actors involved have undergone substantial change.
- In Zambia, Chinese firms are introducing agri-tech to combat traditional challenges, such as using drone technology to control the fall armyworm infestation.
- They have set up over Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centers (ATDCS) in the continent where Chinese agronomists work on developing new crop varieties and increasing crop yields.
- This ATDCs partner with local universities, conduct workshops and classes for officials and provide training and lease equipment to small holder farmers.
- Chinese companies with no prior experience in agriculture are setting out to build futuristic ecological parks while others are purchasing large-scale commercial farms.
Inducing their soft power
- The exponential growth in the China-Africa economic ties and the emergence of Beijing as an alternative to traditional western powers have motivated change in perceptions across groups.
- Governments and heads of state are recalibrating approaches, media houses are investing more resources for on-the-ground reporting.
Dark Side of the Sino-Africa ties
- Simultaneously, Africa-China relations are becoming complex with a growing, insular diaspora, lopsided trade, looming debt, competition with local businesses and a negative perception accompanied by greater political and socioeconomic interlinkages.
- On occasion, there seems to be a gap between skills transferred in China and the ground realities in Africa.
- In some cases, the technology taught in China is not available locally and in others, there is inability to implement lessons learnt due to the absence of supporting resources.
- Larger commercial farms run by Mandarin-speaking managers and the presence of small-scale Chinese farmers in local markets aggravates socio-cultural stresses.
India’s agricultural engagement
- Diverse portfolios: India-Africa agricultural cooperation currently includes institutional and individual capacity-building initiatives, an extension of soft loans, supply of machinery, acquisition of farmlands and the presence of Indian entrepreneurs in the African agricultural ecosystem.
- Land acquisition: Indian farmers have purchased over 6,00,000 hectares of land for commercial farming in Africa.
- States cooperation: Sub-national actors are providing another model of cooperation in agriculture. Consider the case of the Kerala government trying to meet its requirement for cashew nuts with imports from countries in Africa.
- Civil society: Similar ideas could encourage State governments and civil society organizations to identify opportunities and invest directly.
- Agri-business: There is also promise in incentivizing Indian industries to tap into African agri-business value chains and connecting Indian technology firms and startups with partners in Africa.
- Investment: In the past year, despite the pandemic, the sector witnessed a record increase in investments.
Way forward
- A thorough impact assessment needs to be conducted of the existing capacity-building initiatives in agriculture for India to stand in good stead.
- This could include detailed surveys of participants who have returned to their home countries.
- Country-specific and localized curriculum can be drawn up, making skill development demand-led.
- In all senses, India has consistently chosen well to underline the development partnership to be in line with African priorities.
- It is pertinent, therefore, that we collectively craft a unique modern partnership with Africa.
Conclusion
- While India’s Africa strategy exists independently, it is important to be cognizant of China’s increasing footprint in the region.
- Beijing’s model, if successful here, could be heralded as a replica for the larger global south.
- It is important to note, however, that prominent African voices have emphasized that their own agency is often overlooked in the global discourse on the subject.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Turkey's rising space in geopolitical arena
As a new round of geopolitical jousting begins on India’s north-western frontiers, Delhi must deal with a number of new actors that have carved out a role for themselves in the region.
Overambitious Turkey
- Our focus today is on Turkey’s regional ambitions (particularly in Afghanistan) and their implications for India.
- Ankara is in negotiations with the US on taking charge of the Kabul airport which is critical for an international presence in Afghanistan that is coming under the Taliban’s control.
- Turkey has been running Kabul airport security for a while, but doing so after the US pullout will be quite demanding.
- Taking a longer view, though, Turkey is not a new regional actor in India’s northwest.
Turkey and Afghanistan
- Ankara and Kabul have recently celebrated the centennial of the establishment of diplomatic relations.
- Through this century, Turkey has engaged purposefully with Afghanistan over a wide domain.
- While it joined the NATO military mission in Afghanistan after the ouster of the Taliban at the end of 2001, Turkey avoided any combat role and differentiated itself from the Western powers.
- Ankara has contributed to the training of the Afghan military and police forces.
- It has also undertaken much independent humanitarian and developmental work.
Affinity with Pakistan
- Turkey’s good relations with both Afghanistan and Pakistan have also given space for Ankara to present itself as a mediator between the warring South Asian neighbours.
- Turkey’s “Heart of Asia” conference or the Istanbul Process has been a major diplomatic vehicle for attempted Afghan reconciliation in the last few years.
- Widespread goodwill for Turkey in Afghanistan has now come in handy for the US in managing some elements of the post-withdrawal phase.
- In Pakistan, PM Imran Khan has rallied behind Erdogan’s ambition to seize the leadership of the Islamic world from Saudi Arabia.
- Pakistan’s Army Chief had to step in to limit the damage with Saudi Arabia, which has long been Pakistan’s major economic benefactor.
Challenges for India
- Turkey’s growing role in Afghanistan opens a more difficult phase in relations between Delhi and Ankara.
- India’s opposition to alliances and Turkey’s alignments reflected divergent international orientations of Delhi and Ankara after the Second World War.
- And Turkey’s deepening bilateral military-security cooperation with Pakistan made it even harder for Delhi to take a positive view of Ankara.
- Turkey and Pakistan were part of the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) that was set up in 1955 by the British.
- Although CENTO eventually wound up in 1979, Turkey and Pakistan remained close partners in a number of regional organizations and international forums like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Pre-Erdogan era Turkey
- The shared secular values between Delhi and Ankara in the pre-Erdogan era were not enough to overcome the strategic differences between the two in the Cold War.
- To make matters more complicated, the positive legacy of the Subcontinent’s solidarity with the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic, emerged out of its ruins in the early 20th century, accrued mostly to Pakistan.
- There were moments — during the tenures of PM Rajiv Gandhi and Mr Vajpayee, when India and Turkey seemed poised for a more productive relationship.
- But those have been rather few and far between.
Turkey’s departure from Secularism
- Meanwhile, Turkey’s Islamist internationalism under Recep Tayyip Erdogan has inevitably led to its deeper alliance with Pakistan, greater meddling in South Asia, and a sharper contraction with India.
- The Pakistani prism through which Delhi has long seen Ankara, however, has prevented it from fully appreciating the growing strategic salience of Turkey.
- Erdogan’s active claim for leadership of the Islamic world has seen a more intensive Turkish political, religious, and cultural outreach to the Subcontinent’s 600 million Muslims.
Self-goals on Kashmir
- Turkey has become the most active international supporter of Pakistan on the Kashmir question.
- Delhi is aware of Erdogan’s hypocrisy on minority rights.
- While pitching for self-determination in Kashmir, Erdogan actively tramples on the rights of its Kurdish minority at home and confronts them across Turkey’s border in Syria and Iraq.
Other ambitions in Asia
- Erdogan was quick to condemn the Bangladesh government’s hanging of a senior extremist leader in 2016.
- But in a reflection of his strategic suppleness, Erdogan also offered strong political support for Dhaka on the Rohingya refugee crisis.
- As Bangladesh emerges as an attractive economy, Ankara is now stepping up its commercial cooperation with Dhaka.
- Turkey, which hosted the Caliphate in the Ottoman era, had natural spiritual resonance among the South Asian Muslims.
Riving the Caliphate
- With the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924, Turkey’s Westernization under Ataturk reduced its religious significance.
- Erdogan’s Islamist politics are about regaining that salience.
- Erdogan’s strategy marks the declining relevance of the old antinomies — between alliances and autonomy, East and West, North and South, Islam and the West, Arabs and the Jews — that so resonate with the traditional Indian foreign policy discourse.
Stance on Israel
- Turkey was the first Muslim-majority nation that established full diplomatic relations with Israel.
- Erdogan now actively mobilizes the Arab and Islamic world against Israel without breaking relations with Tel Aviv.
- Erdogan’s outrage on Israel is about presenting himself as a better champion of Palestine than his Arab rivals.
India’s option against Turkey
- India, which has been at the receiving end of Erdogan’s internationalism, has multiple options in pushing back.
- The recent naval exercise between India and Greece in the Mediterranean offers a small hint of India’s possibilities in Turkey’s neighbourhood.
- Many Arab leaders reject Erdogan’s policies that remind them of Ottoman imperialism.
- They resent Erdogan’s support of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood that seek to overthrow moderate governments in the Middle East.
- There is much that India can do to up its game in the Arab world.
Lessons for India
- The new fluidity in geopolitics in India’s extended neighbourhood to the west.
- Agency for regional powers is growing as the influence of great power weakens.
- Religious ideology, like the more secular ones, is a cover for the pursuit of power.
- Finally, Erdogan has carefully modulated his confrontation with major powers by avoiding a breakdown in relations.
Conclusion
- For Erdogan, the choices are not between black and white. That should be a good guide for India’s own relations with Turkey.
- Delhi needs to vigorously challenge Turkey’s positions where it must, seize the opportunities opened by regional resentments against Erdogan’s adventurism, and at the same time prepare for a more intensive bilateral engagement with Ankara.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Draft Anti-trafficking Bill 2021
The Ministry of Women and Child Welfare has invited suggestions and comments for its Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021 which it has released.
A re-attempted legislation
- A previous draft had been introduced in 2018 and had been passed by Lok Sabha despite stiff opposition from both parliamentarians as well as experts.
- It was later never introduced in Rajya Sabha.
- Experts say that nearly all the concerns raised in 2018 have been addressed in this new draft Bill.
Draft Anti-trafficking Bill 2021
The Bill has increased the scope of the nature of offences of trafficking as well as the kind of victims of these offences, with stringent penalties including life imprisonment, and even the death penalty in cases of an extreme nature.
Types of offenders
- The scope of the Bill vis offenders will also include defence personnel and government servants, doctors and paramedical staff or anyone in a position of authority.
Penalty
- In most cases of child trafficking, especially in the case of the trafficking of more than one child, the penalty is now life imprisonment.
- While the penalty will hold a minimum of seven years which can go up to an imprisonment of 10 years and a fine of Rs 5 lakh.
- In certain cases, even the death penalty can be sought.
Definition of exploitation
- Exploitation has been defined to include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation including pornography.
- It also includes any act of physical exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or forced removal of organs, illegal clinical drug trials or illegal bio-medical research.
Victims covered
- The Bill also extends beyond the protection of women and children as victims to now include transgenders as well as any person who may be a victim of trafficking.
- It also does away with the provision that a victim necessarily needs to be transported from one place to another to be defined as a victim.
Investigation Agency
- The National Investigation Agency (NIA) shall act as the national investigating and coordinating agency responsible for the prevention and combating of trafficking in persons.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair
Mains level: Not Much
A noted filmmaker has recently announced his decision to produce the biopic of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair, an acclaimed lawyer and judge in the Madras High Court and one of the early builders of the Indian National Congress.
Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair
- Nair was born in the year 1857 in Mankara village of Malabar’s Palakkad district.
- He belonged to an aristocratic family and his great grandfather was employed by the East India Company to enforce peace in the Malabar region.
- His grandfather was employed as the chief officer under the Civilian Divisional Officer.
His legal career
- Nair was drawn towards Law while he was completing his graduation from Presidency College in Madras.
- After completing his degree in Law, he was hired by Sir Horatio Shepherd who later became the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.
- Since his early days as a lawyer, Nair was known for his defiant attitude.
- He went against a resolution passed by Indian vakils (advocates) of Madras stating that no Indian vakil would work as a junior to an English barrister.
- His stance on the issue made him so unpopular that he was boycotted by the other vakils, but he refused to let that bother him.
Legacy
- Nair was known for being a passionate advocate for social reforms and a firm believer in the self-determination of India.
- But what really stood out in his long glorious career is a courtroom battle he fought against the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, Michael O’Dwyer.
- Nair had accused O’Dwyer in his book, ‘Gandhi and anarchy’ for being responsible for the atrocities at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
- Consequently, he was fighting against an Englishman, in an English court that was presided over by an English jury.
- In all senses, the case was bound to make history.
- When the 1908 Montague-Chelmsford reforms were being discussed, he wrote an article in the Contemporary Review criticizing the English jury for being partial towards Englishmen.
- This infuriated the Anglo-Indian community who petitioned the Viceroy and the Secretary of State for India objecting to his appointment as high court judge the first time.
- He was once described by Edwin Montague, the secretary of state for India as an ‘impossible person’.
Key positions held
- In 1897 he became the youngest president of the INC in the history of the party till then, and the only Malayali to hold the post ever.
- By 1908 he was appointed as a permanent judge in the Madras High Court. In 1902 Lord Curzon appointed him a member of the Raleigh University Commission.
- In 1904 he was appointed as Companion of the Indian Empire by the King-Emperor and in 1912 he was knighted.
- In 1915 he became part of the Viceroy’s Council, put in charge of the education portfolio.
Career as judge
- As a Madras High Court judge, his best-known judgments clearly indicate his commitment to social reforms.
- In Budasna v Fatima (1914), he passed a radical judgement when he ruled that those who converted to Hinduism cannot be treated as outcasts.
- In a few other cases, he upheld inter-caste and inter-religious marriages.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Last Ice Area
Mains level: Climate Change
A part of the Arctic’s ice called the “Last Ice Area”, located north of Greenland, has melted before expected. Scientists had believed this area was strong enough to withstand global warming.
What is the Last Ice Area?
- In an article published in 2015, National Geographic noted that climate projections forecast the total disappearance of summer ice in the Arctic by the year 2040.
- However, the only place that would be able to withstand a warming climate would be this area of ice called the “Last Ice Area”.
- But while this piece of ice above northern Canada and Greenland was expected to last the longest time, it is now showing signs of melting.
- WWF claims that WWF-Canada was the first to call this area the‘ Last Ice Area’.
Why is the area important?
- The area is important because it was thought to be able to help ice-dependent species as ice in the surrounding areas melted away.
- The area is used by polar bears to hunt for seals who use ice to build dens for their offspring.
- Walruses too, use the surface of the ice for food search.
When did the area start changing?
- The first sign of change in LIA was observed in 2018.
- Further, in August last year, sea ice showed its “vulnerability” to the long-term effects of climate change.
- The ice in LIA has been thinning gradually over the years much like other parts of the Arctic Ocean.
What are the reasons that explain the change?
- About 80 per cent of thinning can be attributed to weather-related factors such as winds that break up and move the ice around.
- The remaining 20 per cent can be attributed to the longer-term thinning of the ice due to global warming.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: World History: India's contribution in two World Wars
During his four-day visit to the UK and Italy, the Indian Army Chief will inaugurate the Indian Army Memorial at Cassino in Italy, about 140 km away from Rome.
What is the memorial about?
- The memorial commemorates over 3,100 Commonwealth servicemen who took part in the effort to liberate Italy in World War II.
- Apart from this, 900 Indian soldiers were also commemorated on this memorial.
What was happening in Italy in WWII?
- Under Benito Mussolini, Italy had joined Nazi Germany in 1936 and in 1940 it entered WWII (1939-1945) against the Allies.
- But in 1943, Mussolini was overthrown and instead, Italy declared war on Germany.
- The invasion of Italy by the Allies coincided with an armistice that was made with the Italians.
- Even so, the UK’s National Army Museum notes that for two years during WWII, Italy became one of the war’s most “exhausting campaigns” because they were facing a skilled and resolute enemy.
What was India’s involvement in World War II?
- In the first half of the 1940s, India was still under British rule and the Indian Army fought in both the world wars.
- It comprised both Indian and European soldiers.
- Apart from this, there was the East India Company Army that also recruited both Indian and European soldiers and the British Army, which was also present in India.
India the largest volunteer
- Indian Army was the largest volunteer force during WWII, with over 2.5 million (more than 20 lakh) Indians participating.
- These troops fought the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) as part of the Allies.
- By 1945, the Allies had won, Italy had been liberated, Adolf Hitler was dead and India was barely a couple of years short of independence.
- However, while millions of Indians participated, their efforts are not always recognized.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NIPUN Bharat
Mains level: Not Much
Union Minister for Education has launched a National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat).
NIPUN Bharat
- This scheme aims for ensuring that every child in the country necessarily attains foundational literacy.
- It has been launched under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha.
- It would cover the learning needs of children in the age group of 3 to 9 years.
- The unique feature is that the goals of the Mission are set in the form of Lakshya Soochi or Targets for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy.
- The Lakshyas are based on the learning outcomes developed by the NCERT and international research and ORF studies.
Envisaged outcomes
- Foundational skills enable to keep children in class thereby reducing the dropouts and improve transition rate from primary to upper primary and secondary stages.
- Activity-based learning and a conducive learning environment will improve the quality of education.
- Innovative pedagogies such as toy-based and experiential learning will be used in classroom transactions thereby making learning a joyful and engaging activity.
- Intensive capacity building of teachers
- Since almost every child attends early grades, therefore, focus at that stage will also benefit the socio-economic disadvantageous group thus ensuring access to equitable and inclusive quality education.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Climate proofing
Mains level: Paper 3- Decentralised model of solar power generation
Power regulatory body in Rajasthan recently ordered discoms to solarise unelectrified public schools. The move has several benefits and therefore can be emulated by the other states as well.
Expanded electricity access in rural areas and shortcomings in it
- Estimates suggest that India has doubled the electrified rural households, from 55% in 2010 to 96% in 2020.
- However, the measure of access to power supply has been the number of households that have been connected to the electricity grid.
- This measure discounts large areas of essential and productive human activities such as public schools and primary health centres.
- And despite greater electrification, power supply is often unreliable in rural areas.
Solar energy: Solution to electrification in remote parts
- To address the above problems, the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission (RERC) has ordered the State’s discoms to solarise unelectrified public schools.
- The RERC has also suggested installation of batteries to ensure storage of power.
- Apart from enabling education, this ruling would benefit several other crucial aspects of rural life.
- The RERC order also directed discoms to seek corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for the solarising drive and allows schools ownership of the power systems in a phased manner.
- This removes the burden of infrastructure development expenses on discoms, while also ensuring clean energy for the schools.
- The power that is generated could also be counted towards the discoms’ Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO).
- Large-scale projects are generally financed by companies that wish to profit from economies of scale.
- They are less interested in investing in rural electricity as it is not as lucrative.
- Large-grid based projects add to the supply of power in urban areas, and therefore, only marginally further greater energy access goals.
The decentralised model of power generation
- While Rajasthan has land mass with vast, sparsely populated tracts available to install solar parks, bulk infrastructure of this scale is susceptible to extreme weather events.
- With climate change increasing the possibility of such events, a decentralised model of power generation would prove to be more climate resilient.
- With battery storage, the susceptibility of grid infrastructure to extreme weather events could be mitigated.
- This is called climate proofing.
- As solar installations become inexpensive and with rapidly advancing battery storage technologies, decentralised solar power generation has become a reality.
Conclusion
The ruling by Rajasthan’s power regulator not only helps in increasing access to electricity, achieving targets of renewable energy but also suggests solutions that other States could emulate.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Integrated Theatre Commands
Mains level: Issues over the constitution of ITC
The recent controversy over the alleged marginalization of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the proposed ‘theaterisation’ of the national security landscape has led to some debates.
IAF concerned over ITC
- The Indian military continues to work in silos, like all governmental agencies in India, and a need was rightly felt and directions issued by PM to bring about jointness.
- The aim is to bring about synergy in operations while economizing through the elimination of duplication and wasteful practices or processes.
- IAF is keen to bring in the requisite reforms to improve the war-fighting capabilities of the Indian military as a whole while also economizing.
Reservations of IAF
- In the current formulation of theatres, the objections from the IAF have essentially been due to air power being seen as an adjunct to the two surface forces.
- IAF veterans feel that the IAF is being divided into penny packets which would seriously degrade the effectiveness of air operations in any future conflict or contingency.
- They feel that the use of air power is found to be sub-optimal under the military ethos of “an order is an order”.
Hurry by the CDS
- Concurrently, such an intellectual exercise would identify duplication, wasteful resources and practices.
- This is what the CDS should have been pursuing before first freezing the structure and then trying to glue the pieces together or hammer square pegs in round holes.
- Only such a strategy can define the types of contingencies the military is expected to address, leading to appropriate military strategies, doctrines and required capabilities.
Why is the IAF right?
- Airpower is the lead element, particularly since the Indian political aim, even in the foreseeable future, is unlikely to be the occupation of new territories.
- A large, manpower-intensive army with unusable armour formations would then also come into focus.
- Even the proposed air defence command conflicts with the domain command in the seamless employment of airpower.
- It is due to the absence of such an intellectual exercise that the IAF does not wish to see its limited resources scattered away in fighting defensive battles by a land force commander with little expertise.
- The Army fails to realise that offensive air power is best not seen, busy keeping the enemy air force pinned down elsewhere as shown in 1971.
The Army-Air Force silo
- Historically, the Indian Army has always kept the IAF out of the information loop and demonstrated a penchant to ‘go it alone’.
- The charge that the IAF joined the party late during Kargil (1999) is also totally baseless and shows a lack of knowledge of events and a failure to learn from historical facts.
- Recorded facts and a dispassionate view would clearly show that the IAF began conducting reconnaissance missions as soon as the Army just made a request for attack helicopters.
- This despite the IAF pointing out the unsuitability of armed helicopters at these altitudes and their vulnerability.
- The use of offensive air power close to the Line of Control also required that the political leadership be kept informed due to possibilities of escalation, something that the Army was unwilling to do.
Echoes from Kargil
- Seen in this light, the Chinese incursion into Eastern Ladakh last year is reminiscent of Kargil.
- While the response has been swift, it is evident that a clear intent to use combat air power, as against 1962, has significantly contributed in deterring China.
- However, such intent and a joint strategy would have been forcefully signalled by the presence of air force representatives in the ongoing negotiations to restore status quo ante.
- The continuing build-up of the infrastructure for the PLA Air Force in Tibet further emphasizes the need for an air-land strategy, with air power as the lead element to deter or defeat the Chinese designs at coercion.
National security strategy should be at the centerstage
- If war is the continuation of politics by other means, then it is essential to first define the political objectives flowing into a national security strategy before any effective use of force can be truly contemplated.
- The failures of the mightiest militaries in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and even our own Indian misadventure in Sri Lanka bear testimony to the lack of clear political objectives and appropriate military strategies.
- It is, therefore, unfortunate that even after over seven decades after Independence, India still does not have a clearly articulated national security strategy.
Address the structural gaps
- Finally, theatre or any lower structure requires an institutionalized higher defence organization, which has been sadly missing.
- This has lead to little regular dialogue between the political and military leadership, except in crises resulting in knee-jerk responses.
- This led to a remark from a scholar-warrior that, “it is ironic that the Cabinet has an Accommodation Committee but not a Defence Committee”.
- In the current proposal, it appears that the CDS, as the permanent chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC), would also exercise operational control of the theatre/functional commands.
Way forward
- Prudence demands that instead of ramming down such structures without adequate deliberations and discussions with all stakeholders.
- We need to first evolve appropriate military strategies in a nuclear backdrop in concert with the political objectives.
- Thereafter, joint planning and training for all foreseen contingencies, with war-gaming, would automatically indicate the required structures with suitable command, control and communications.
Conclusion
- We must remember that in war there is no prize for the runner-up.
- It is better that such objections and dissenting opinions come out now before the structure is formalized than once it is set in stone.
- The nation would then end up paying a heavy price, with the Air Force carrying the burden and blame for the failures.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Operation Flood
Mains level: India's dairy sector
One of India’s largest dairy cooperative societies has just raised its milk prices for consumers by Rs 2/litre and this has become national news.
Sparking off a debate
- Many in the media are debating how this will push up Consumer Price Index causing inflationary pressures, which may soon force the RBI to change its “accommodative stance” on monetary policy.
Why such hues over Milk?
Milk is an important case study for our overall agriculture sector.
- First, milk is our biggest agri-commodity in terms of value, greater than paddy (rice), wheat, and sugarcane combined.
- Second, India is the largest producer of milk in the world with an estimated production of about 208 million tonnes in 2020-21, way above its closest competitor, the US, whose milk production hovers around 100 million tonnes.
- Third, our dairy sector is dominated by smallholders with an average herd size of 4-5 animals.
- Fourth, and this is important, there is no minimum support price (MSP) for milk. It is more like a contract between the company and the farmers.
How is the milk price determined?
- The price of milk is largely determined by the overall forces of demand and supply.
- Increasing costs of production enter through the supply side, but the demand side cannot be ignored.
- As a result of all this, the overall growth in the dairy sector for the last 20 years has been between 4-5 per cent per annum, and lately, it has accelerated to even 6 per cent.
Concerns of dairy farmers
- For dairy farmers, this increase in milk prices is not commensurate to the increase in their feed and other costs, and they feel that their margins are getting squeezed.
- They also feel that this price still does not count their logistics cost.
Transformation since Op Flood
- It is well known that “Operation Flood” (OF) that started in the 1970s transformed this sector.
- The institutional innovation of a cooperative model, steered by Verghese Kurien, changed the structure of this sector.
- However, even after five decades, cooperatives processed only 10 per cent of the overall milk production.
- India needed the double-engine force of the organised private sector to process another 10 per cent.
- The doors for the private sector were opened partially with the 1991 reforms, but fully in 2002-03 under the leadership of Vajpayee, when the dairy sector was completely de-licenced.
Rise of dairypreneurs
- Many start-ups “dairypreneurs” have come in promising a farm-to-home experience of milk.
- There is one company that delivers fresh milk at the consumer’s doorstep and gives quality testing kits at home.
- These have digitized cattle health, milk production, milk procurement, milk testing, and cold chain management.
Effective breeding
- Sexed semen technology helps in predetermining the sex of offspring by sorting X and Y chromosomes from the natural sperm mix.
- This can solve the problem of unwanted bulls on Indian roads.
- Although the current cost of sexed sorted semen is high, Maharashtra has taken a bold step in subsidizing it for artificial insemination.
Way forward
- The upshot of all this is that let prices be determined by market forces, with marginal support from the government or cooperatives in times of extreme.
- The major focus should be on innovations to cut down costs, raise productivity, ensure food safety, and be globally competitive.
- That will help both farmers and consumers alike.
- The cooperatives did a great job during OF, and are still doing that, but the private sector entering this sector in a big way has opened the gates of creativity and competition.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Turmoil in Afghanistan with US exit
The US troops are departing away after coordinating the 20-year-long war in Afghanistan, effectively ending their military operations in the country.
Why did the US invade Afghanistan?
- Weeks after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the US declared war on Afghanistan.
- It was then ruled by the Taliban.
Terror then gets safe heaven
- Al-Qaeda’s leaders and key operatives fled to safe havens in Pakistan.
- The US rejected an offer from the Taliban to surrender and vowed to defeat the insurgents in every corner of Afghanistan.
- In 2003, US announced that major military operations in the country were over.
- The US focus shifted to the Iraq invasion, while in Afghanistan, western powers helped build a centralized democratic system and institutions.
- But that neither ended the war nor stabilised the country.
Why is the US pulling back?
- The US had reached the conclusion long ago that the war was unwinnable.
- It wanted a face-saving exit.
What are the terms of US exit?
- Before the Doha talks started, the Taliban had maintained that they would hold direct talks only with the US, and not with the Kabul government, which they did not recognize.
- The US effectively accepted this demand when they cut the Afghan government off the process and entered direct talks with the insurgents.
- The deal dealt with four aspects of the conflict — violence, foreign troops, intra-Afghan peace talks and the use of Afghan soil by terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the IS.
- According to the agreement, the Taliban promised to reduce violence, join intra-Afghan peace talks and cut all ties with foreign terrorist groups, while the US pledged to withdraw all its troops.
Present situation in Afghanistan
- After the agreement was signed, the US put pressure on the Afghan government to release thousands of Taliban prisoners — a key Taliban precondition for starting intra-Afghan talks.
- Talks between Taliban representatives and the Afghan government began in Doha in September 2020 but did not reach any breakthrough.
- At present, the peace process is frozen. And the US is hurrying for the exit.
- The Taliban reduced hostilities against foreign troops but continued to attack Afghan forces even after the agreement was signed.
- Kabul maintains that the Pakistan support for the Taliban is allowing the insurgents to overcome military pressure and carry forward with their agenda.
Pakistani role in reviving Taliban
- Pakistan was one of the three countries that had recognized the Taliban regime in the 1990s.
- The Taliban captured much of the country with help from Pakistan’s ISI.
- After the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan’s military dictator Musharraf, under pressure from the Bush administration, cut formal ties with the Taliban and joined America’s war on terror.
- But Pakistan played a double game. It provided shelter to the Talabani leaders and regrouped their organization which helped them make a staged comeback in Afghanistan.
- Pakistan successfully expected these groups to launch terror activities against India.
Again in the spotlight
- A violent military takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban may not serve Pakistan’s core interests.
- It wants to check India’s influence in Afghanistan and bring the Taliban to Kabul.
- But a violent takeover, like in the 1990s, would lack international acceptability, leaving Afghanistan unstable for a foreseeable future.
- In such a scenario, Pakistan could face another influx of refugees from Afghanistan and strengthening of anti-Pakistan terror groups, such as the Tehrik-i-Taliban.
- From a strategic point of view, Pakistan would prefer the Taliban being accommodated in power through negotiations and a peaceful settlement.
- But it’s not clear whether Pakistan has the capacity to shape the post-American outcome in Afghanistan.
Why is India reaching out to the Taliban?
- India had made contacts with the Taliban in Doha. New Delhi has not denied reports of its outreach to the Taliban.
- India has three critical areas in dealing with the Taliban:
- One, protecting its investments, which run into billions of rupees, in Afghanistan;
- Two, preventing a future Taliban regime from being a pawn of the ISI;
- Three, making sure that the Pakistan-backed anti-India terrorist groups do not get support from the Taliban.
Is the Afghanistan government doomed?
- The American intelligence community has concluded that Kabul could fall within six months.
- None of the global leaders are certain about the survival of the Afghan government.
Taliban is pacing its action
- One thing is certain — the American withdrawal has turned the balance of power in the battleground in favour of the Taliban.
- They are already making rapid advances, and could launch a major offensive targeting the city centers and provincial capitals once the last American leaves.
Future of Afghanistan
There seems three possibilities:
- One, there could be a political settlement in which the Taliban and the government agree to some power-sharing mechanism and jointly shape the future of Afghanistan. As of now, this looks like a remote possibility.
- Two, an all-out civil war may be possible, in which the government, economically backed and militarily trained by the West, holds on to its positions in key cities. This is already unfolding.
- A third scenario would be of the Taliban taking over the country.
Any nation planning to deal with Afghanistan should be prepared for all three scenarios.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Autonomous districts, Sixth Schedule
Mains level: Issues after reorganization of Jammu Kashmir
When Jammu and Kashmir were bifurcated into two UTs, Ladakh was seen welcoming the reorganization. However, different demands are coming from its two districts of Ladakh, Leh and Kargil.
Leh and Kargil, not alike
- The leaders from Kargil demanded that the district should remain part of J&K.
- The Leh-based Ladakh Buddhist Association has put forth its demand for an autonomous hill council under the Sixth Schedule, modelled on the lines of the Bodoland Territorial Council in Assam.
- But what Leh leaders did not bargain for was the complete loss of legislative powers.
- Earlier, the two districts each sent four representatives to the J&K legislature. After the changes, they were down to one legislator — their sole MP— with all powers vested in the UT bureaucracy.
- Unlike the UT of J&K, Ladakh was a UT without an assembly.
What are their concerns?
- What both Ladakh districts fear is the alienation of land, loss of identity, culture, language, and change in demography.
- They fear that it will follow their political disempowerment.
Hill Development Councils
- Leh and Kargil have separate Autonomous Hill Development Councils, set up under the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils Act, 1997.
- However, the AHDCs have no legislative powers.
- The councils are elected and have executive powers over the allotment, use and occupation of land vested in them by the Centre, and the powers to collect some local taxes, such as parking fees, taxes on shops etc.
- But the real powers are now wielded by the UT administration, which is seen as even more remote than the erstwhile state government of J&K.
What is the sixth schedule?
- The Sixth Schedule is a provision of Article 244(A) of the Constitution, originally meant for the creation of autonomous tribal regions in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.
- Hill councils under this provision have legislative powers.
Evolving demands
- But with no progress on Leh’s demand for Sixth Schedule protections, the Leh leadership has now upped its demands.
- Other issues under discussion are protections for language, culture, land and jobs, plus a long-standing demand for a route between Kargil and Skardu in territory under Pakistan in Gilgit- Baltistan.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CRC treaty
Mains level: Child rights abuse
The US has added Pakistan and 14 other countries to a Child Soldier Recruiter List that identifies foreign governments having government-supported armed groups that recruit or use child soldiers.
Who is a child soldier?
- The recruitment or use of children below the age of 15 as soldiers is prohibited by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
- Currently, 193 countries have ratified the CRC.
- The CRC requires state parties to “take all feasible measures” to ensure that children under 18 are not engaged in direct hostilities.
- It further prohibits the state parties from recruiting children under 15 into the armed forces.
- It is considered a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
- In addition, the Optional Protocol to the CRC further prohibits kids under the age 18 from being compulsorily recruited into state or non-state armed forces or directly engaging in hostilities.
- The United States is a party to the Optional Protocol.
What is US law?
- The US adopted the Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA) in 2008.
- The CSPA prohibits the US government from providing military assistance, including money, military education and training, or direct sales of military equipment, to alleged countries.
What is prohibited for countries on the list?
The following types of security assistance are prohibited for countries that are on the list:
- Licenses for direct commercial sales of military equipment
- Foreign military financing for the purchase of defence articles and services, as well as design and construction services
- International military education and training
- Excess defence articles
- Peacekeeping operations
Criticism of the treaty
- International treaties like CRS are valuable and necessary tools to establish international norms as they raise awareness regarding human rights abuses.
- However, these treaties are limited in scope and nature, and they tend to be idealistic rather than practicable.
- The UN’s mechanisms only bind state parties that ratify the treaties.
- It, therefore, has no authority over countries that are not parties to the convention or are non-state entities, such as rebel militias recruiting child soldiers.
- While the UN views its treaties and conventions as binding on state parties, it has no police power mechanism to enforce its decisions.
- Therefore, the CRC and its Optional Protocol are limited by the signatories’ willingness to comply. Somalia, for example, is a signatory but it hasn’t ratified the convention.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: OPEC, OPEC Plus
Mains level: Global crude oil pricing mechanisms
OPEC+ has failed to reach a deal on oil output policy because the United Arab Emirates blocked some aspects of the pact.
About OPEC
- OPEC is a permanent, intergovernmental organization, created at the Baghdad Conference in 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
- It aims to manage the supply of oil in an effort to set the price of oil in the world market, in order to avoid fluctuations that might affect the economies of both producing and purchasing countries.
- It is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
- OPEC membership is open to any country that is a substantial exporter of oil and which shares the ideals of the organization.
- Today OPEC is a cartel that includes 14 nations, predominantly from the middle east whose sole responsibility is to control prices and moderate supply.
What is OPEC+?
- The non-OPEC countries which export crude oil along with the 14 OPECs are termed as OPEC plus countries.
- OPEC plus countries include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan, and Sudan.
- Saudi and Russia, both have been at the heart of a three-year alliance of oil producers known as OPEC Plus — which now includes 11 OPEC members and 10 non-OPEC nations — that aims to shore up oil prices with production cuts.
Must read:
[Burning Issue] Oil Prices and OPEC+
Concerns for India
- Rising oil prices are posing fiscal challenges for India, where heavily-taxed retail fuel prices have touched record highs, threatening the demand-driven recovery.
- India imports about 84% of its oil and relies on West Asian supplies to meet over three-fifths of its demand.
- As one of the largest crude-consuming countries, India is concerned that such actions by producing countries have the potential to undermine consumption-led recovery.
- This would hurt consumers, especially in our price-sensitive market.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.The term ‘West Texas Intermediate’, sometimes found in news, refers to a grade of (CSP 2020):
(a) Crude oil
(b) Bullion
(c) Rare earth elements
(d) Uranium
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Neutron star, Black Holes
Mains level: Gravitational waves observation
In an entirely strange phenomenon, astronomers have spotted two neutron stars being swallowed by different black holes.
What are Black Holes?
- A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing—no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from it.
- Neutron stars and black holes are among the most extreme objects in the universe. They are the fossil relics of massive dead stars.
- When a star that is more than eight times as massive as the Sun runs out of fuel, it undergoes a spectacular explosion called a supernova.
- What remains can be a neutron star or a black hole.
There is no upper limit to how massive a black hole can be, but all black holes have two things in common: a point of no return at their surface called an “event horizon”, from which not even light can escape and a point at their centre called a “singularity”, at which the laws of physics as we understand them break down.
What about Neutron stars?
- Neutron stars are typically between 1.5 and two times as massive as the Sun but are so dense that all their mass is packed into an object the size of a city.
- At this density, atoms can no longer sustain their structure and dissolve into a stream of free quarks and gluons: the building blocks of protons and neutrons.
What is the news observation?
- Gravitational waves are produced when celestial objects collide and the ensuing energy creates ripples in the fabric of space-time which carry all the way to detectors on Earth.
- The reverberations from the two celestial objects were picked up using a global network of gravitational wave detectors.
What makes this strange phenomenon?
- This is the first time scientists have seen gravitational waves from a neutron star and a black hole.
- Previous gravitational wave detections have spotted black holes colliding, and neutron stars merging but not one of each.
Why study this?
- Neutron star-black hole systems allow us to piece together the evolutionary history of stars.
- Gravitational-wave astronomers are like stellar fossil-hunters, using the relics of exploded stars to understand how massive stars form, live and die.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.“Event Horizon” is related to (CSP 2018):
(a) Telescope
(b) Black hole
(c) Solar glares
(d) None of the above
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Project BOLD
Mains level: Not Much
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has launched the unique Project Bamboo Oasis on Lands in Drought (BOLD) in Rajasthan.
Project BOLD
- Project BOLD seeks to create bamboo-based green patches in arid and semi-arid land zones.
- It is a unique scientific exercise serving the combined national objectives of reducing desertification and providing livelihood and multi-disciplinary rural industry support.
- 5000 saplings of special bamboo species: Bambusa-Tulda and Bambusa-Polymorpha specially brought from Assam – have been planted over 25 bigha (16 acres approx) of vacant arid Gram Panchayat land.
- KVIC has thus created a world record of planting the highest number of bamboo saplings on a single day at one location.
Why Bamboo?
- KVIC has judiciously chosen bamboo for developing green patches.
- Bamboos grow very fast and in about three years’ time, they could be harvested.
- Bamboos are also known for conserving water and reducing evaporation of water from the land surface, which is an important feature in arid and drought-prone regions.
Significance of the move
- The project will help in reducing the land degradation percentage of the country, while on the other hand, they will be havens of sustainable development and food security.
- The bamboo plantation program will boost self-employment in the region.
- It will benefit a large number of women and unemployed youths in the region by connecting them to skill development programs.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q. Consider the following statements:
- As per recent amendment to the Indian Forest Act, 1927, forest dwellers have the right to fell the bamboos grown on forest areas.
- As per the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, bamboo is a minor forest produce.
- The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 allows ownership of minor forest produce to forest dwellers.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2019)
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Back2Basics: Bamboo in India
- Bamboos are tall treelike grasses.
- With an amendment in 2017 in the Indian Forest Act 1927, the Bamboo has ceased to be a tree anymore.
- Earlier, the definition of tree in the law included palm, bamboo, brushwood and cane.
- The move aims to promote cultivation of bamboo in non-forest areas to achieve the “twin objectives” of increasing the income of farmers and also increasing the green cover of the country.
- Bamboo grown in the forest areas would continue to be governed by the provisions of the Indian Forest Act.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BITs
Mains level: Paper 3- Honouring the adverse international judicial ruling in dispute with investors
The article highlights the lack of immediate compliance by the Indian government in awards involving foreign investors.
Why honouring award is important
- An important factor that propels investors to invest in foreign lands is that the host state will honour contracts and enforce awards even when it loses.
- But when the host state refuses to do so, it shakes investors’ confidence in the host state’s credibility towards the rule of law, and escalates the regulatory risk enormously.
- To an extent, this has been India’s story over the last few years
- Last year, India lost two high-profile bilateral investment treaty (BIT) disputes to two leading global corporations — Vodafone and Cairn Energy — on retrospective taxation.
- India has challenged both the awards at the courts of the seat of arbitration.
- As India drags its feet on the issue of compliance, it harms India’s reputation in dealing with foreign investors.
Antrix-Devas agreement cancellation dispute
- The other set of high-profile BIT disputes involve the cancellation of an agreement between Antrix, a commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation, and Devas Multimedia.
- This annulment led to three legal disputes — a commercial arbitration between Antrix and Devas Multimedia at the International Chambers of Commerce (ICC), and two BIT arbitrations brought by the Mauritius investors and German investors.
- India lost all three disputes.
- The ICC arbitration tribunal ordered Antrix to pay $1.2 billion to Devas after a U.S. court confirmed the award earlier this year.
- After the ICC award, Indian agencies started investigating Devas accusing it of corruption and fraud.
- Last month, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) ordered the liquidation of Devas on the ground that the affairs of the company were being carried on fraudulently.
- This has led to Devas issuing a notice of intention to initiate a new BIT arbitration against India, sowing the seeds for complex legal battles again.
Implications for investment in India
- A closer reading of these cases reveals that whenever India loses a case to a foreign investor, immediate compliance rarely happens.
- Instead, efforts are made to delay the compliance as much as possible.
- While these efforts may be legal, it sends out a deleterious message to foreign investors.
- It shows a recalcitrant attitude towards adverse judicial rulings.
- This may not help India in attracting global corporations to its shores to ‘make for the world’.
Consider the question “What are the factors that are leading to more Indian business disputes being settled elsewhere? What are the implications of delay by the government in honouring the awards of the disputes?”
Conclusion
As India aspire to be the global destination of FDI, it needs to burnish its image on the dispute resolution front by honouring the awards.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST
Mains level: Success oof the GST regime
The Prime Minister has lauded Goods and Services Taxes (GST) on its completion of 4 years and said it has been a milestone in the economic landscape of India.
What is GST?
- GST is an indirect tax that has replaced many indirect taxes in India such as excise duty, VAT, services tax, etc.
- The Goods and Service Tax Act was passed in Parliament on 29th March 2017 and came into effect on 1st July 2017. It is a single domestic indirect tax law for the entire country.
- It is a comprehensive, multi-stage, destination-based tax that is levied on every value addition.
- Under the GST regime, the tax is levied at every point of sale. In the case of intra-state sales, Central GST and State GST are charged. All the inter-state sales are chargeable to the Integrated GST.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.All revenues received by the Union. Government by way of taxes and other receipts for the conduct of Government business are credited to the (CSP 2015):
(a) Contingency Fund of India
(b) Public Account
(c) Consolidated Fund of India
(d) Deposits and Advances Fund
What are the components of GST?
There are three taxes applicable under this system:
- CGST: It is the tax collected by the Central Government on an intra-state sale (e.g., a transaction happening within Maharashtra)
- SGST: It is the tax collected by the state government on an intra-state sale (e.g., a transaction happening within Maharashtra)
- IGST: It is a tax collected by the Central Government for an inter-state sale (e.g., Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu)
Advantages Of GST
- GST has mainly removed the cascading effect on the sale of goods and services.
- Removal of the cascading effect has impacted the cost of goods.
- Since the GST regime eliminates the tax on tax, the cost of goods decreases.
- Also, GST is mainly technologically driven.
- All the activities like registration, return filing, application for refund and response to notice needs to be done online on the GST portal, which accelerates the processes.
Issues with GST
- High operational cost
- GST has given rise to complexity for many business owners across the nation.
- GST has received criticism for being called a ‘Disability Tax’ as it now taxes articles such as braille paper, wheelchairs, hearing aid etc.
- Petrol is not under GST, which goes against the ideals of the unification of commodities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- How India can avoid the middle income trap
The article suggests focusing on improving productivity and thereby the manufacturing sector to avoid the middle-income trap.
What is the middle-income trap and why it matters for India
- This trap was first conceived by World Bank economists.
- They found that of the 101 developing economies that could be classified as ‘middle income’ in 1960, only 13 managed to become rich nations by 2008.
- There is little consensus on why some countries succeed in making the transition to high-income status.
- But a distinctive attribute of those that succeed in the transition to high income is productivity improvement.
- India could use its demographic dividend to avoid this predicament and achieve the critical velocity needed to move into the high-income bracket.
How can India avoid the middle-income trap
1) Improve productivity
- Re-allocation of labour from low-productivity agriculture to high-productivity sectors, such as manufacturing, has been a primary channel through which today’s advanced economies raised their living standards.
- In India, growth in labour productivity has consistently declined over the past decade.
- The annual growth rate of output per worker has dipped from 7.9% in 2010 to 3.5% in 2019, as per International Labour Organization estimates.
- This was also a period of low growth in India’s manufacturing sector.
- In 2020-21, it accounted for only 14.5% of India’s gross value added, down from 17.4% in 2011-12.
- An essential first step in improving productivity would be strengthening this sector.
2) Strengthen manufacturing sector
- Industrial labour relations is among the most critical elements to revitalize India’s manufacturing sector especially in the context of labour productivity.
- These labour laws created incentives for firms to remain small and uncompetitive, thereby affecting productivity.
- The new code, once implemented, would increase the threshold relating to layoffs and retrenchment in industrial establishments to 300 workers.
- Other countries, such as China, Vietnam and Bangladesh, with whom India competes for foreign investment and export markets do not require the approval of administrative or judicial bodies for dismissals.
- Therefore, in spite of recent reforms, India’s labour laws stay rigid in comparison with those of its competitor countries.
3) Technology intensive manufacturing
- Engendering innovation in higher value-added, tech-intensive activities is important for economies before they reach that juncture.
- If exports are taken as a proxy for the manufacturing capabilities and competitiveness of an economy, the present status of tech-intensive manufacturing in India leaves a lot to be desired.
- As per World Bank data, high-tech exports accounted for only 10.3% of India’s manufacturing exports in 2019.
- Rival countries had a much higher share of the same: 31% in China, 13% in Brazil, 40% in Vietnam and 24% in Thailand.
- Low R&D spending in India, ranging from a mere 0.64% to 0.86% of gross domestic product over the past two decades, has held the country back.
Steps to improve tech-intensive manufacturing
- The government has introduced a production-linked incentive scheme to ensure a greater share of local value addition.
- While this would attract foreign investments in tech-intensive manufacturing, there is also a need for greater incentives for R&D investments by firms in India.
- A first step in this direction could be reinstating the tax exemption on R&D under Section 35 (2AB), even for companies opting for the lower corporate tax rate of 22%.
Conclusion
We need appropriate interventions to improve productivity—both economy-wide and within the sector. And we must do it now.
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