Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Importance of medical workforce in making the healthcare system robust
Context
On July 8, 2021, the Union government announced the “India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Package: Phase II”. But it lacks provision for the medical workforce.
Objectives of the package
- The stated purpose of the package is to boost health infrastructure and prepare for a possible third wave of COVID-19.
- There is plan to increase COVID-19 beds, improve the oxygen availability and supply, create buffer stocks of essential medicines; purchase equipment and strengthen paediatric beds.
What is lacking in the package?
- Workforce shortage: The package barely has any attention on improving the availability of health human resources.
- As reported in rural health statistics and the national health profile there are vacancies for staff in government health facilities, which range from 30% to 80% depending upon the sub-group of medical officers, specialist doctors to nurses, laboratory technicians, pharmacists and radiographers, amongst others.
- Interstate variation: In addition, there are wide inter-State variations, with States that have poor health indicators with the highest vacancies.
Way forward
- Package for filling the existing vacancies: The COVID-19 package II needs to be urgently supplemented by another plan and a similar financial package (with shared Union and State government funding) to fill the existing vacancies of health staff at all levels.
- An objective approach to assess the mid-term health human resource needs could be the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS).
- IPHS prescribes the human resources and infrastructure needed to make various types of government health facilities functional.
- The pandemic should be used as an opportunity to prepare India’s health system for the future.
- Scrutiny of the progress on policy decision: The progress on key policy decisions, for the last few years, to strengthen India’s health system, including those in India’s national health policy of 2017, need to be objectively scrutinised.
- These two sets of policy decisions should be reviewed and progress monitored, through a meeting of the Central Council of Health and Family Welfare, of which the Health Ministers of the States are members.
Conclusion
India’s health system will not benefit from ad hoc and a patchwork of one or other small packages. It essentially needs some transformational changes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: OPEC+
Mains level: Paper 2- Tension in bilateral relations of oil producing companies and its implications for the world
Context
The end to the UAE’s weeks-long impasse with Saudi Arabia and Russia, a non-OPEC state, was brought about by Sunday’s deal.
What was the deal about?
- United Arab Emirates (UAE), said to hold the world’s largest untapped crude reserves, had demanded an increase in its oil output quotas.
- The end to the UAE’s weeks-long impasse with Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s biggest crude exporters, and Russia, a non-OPEC state, was brought about by Sunday’s deal.
- Under its terms, the UAE’s demand for an increase in its oil output quotas, in recognition of its higher production capacity, has been conceded.
- The baselines have also been raised for Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, and Kuwait.
- The bloc will now step up crude production by 400,000 barrels a day starting in August.
- The output boost is in response to rising oil prices in the wake of the rebound in economic activity.
- The cartel had cut oil production by 9.7 million barrels a day (mbd) as oil demand fell from 100 mbd to 91.1 mbd and prices plummeted from $70 in January 2020 to around $20 in April.
Strain in Saudi Arabia-UAE relations
- The UAE has played hardball during the bloc’s attempts to deal with the pandemic-induced price volatility.
- Thus, while the internal rift has been resolved for now, the danger cannot be ruled out of an increasingly economically and politically assertive UAE flexing its muscle.
- Bilateral relations between the traditional allies, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have been especially strained since the UAE established diplomatic ties with Israel last year and withdrew troops from the Saudi-spearheaded war in Yemen the year before.
- A more recent arena of tension is the tariffs Riyadh has imposed on imports from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.
- Saudi Arabia will now exclude from the GCC tariff agreement goods made by companies with a workforce of less than 25% of locals and industrial products with less than 40% of the added value after their transformation process.
- Home to a predominantly migrant population, the move could hit the UAE especially hard.
OPEC’s concerns
- The OPEC, forecast in 2016 that a strict implementation of the Paris climate accord could see the demand for oil peak by 2030.
- There is an eagerness to maximise the returns on their substantial hydrocarbon resources, amid growing speculation of a peak in oil demand within sight.
- The International Energy Agency (IEA), which in 2016 forecast a continued rise in oil consumption until the 2040s, has more recently hinted at about a 5% rise or fall relative to the demand before the pandemic within a decade.
- OPEC’s other concerns are the stabilization of world oil prices without jeopardizing national expenditure programs, and the diversification of economies in anticipation of the unfolding global energy transition.
Conclusion
The latest OPEC compromise echoes growing recognition of the delicate balance between competing domestic and global priorities.
B2BASICS
OPEC
- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (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.
- Gabon terminated its membership in January 1995. However, it rejoined the Organization in July 2016.
- As of 2019, OPEC has a total of 14 Member Countries viz. Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates(UAE), Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, Angola, Ecuador, and Venezuela are members of OPEC.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar
Mains level: Paper 2- Engaging the Taliban
Context
With over a third of Afghanistan’s more than 400 districts under Taliban control, the talk-to-the-Taliban option is indeed the best of the many less than perfect options available to India.
India need a reset in its Afghanistan policy
- India has ‘temporarily’ closed its consulate in Kandahar.
- This follows the decision to suspend operations in the Indian consulates in Jalalabad and Herat.
- India’s decision to partially “withdraw” from Afghanistan shows that betting only on the government in Kabul was a big mistake,
- It also shows that India realises the threat the Taliban poses to Indian assets and presence in Afghanistan.
- To safeguard its civilian assets there as well as to stay relevant in the unfolding ‘great game’ in and around Afghanistan, India must fundamentally reset its Afghanistan policy.
- India must, in its own national interest, begin ‘open talks’ with the Taliban before it is too late.
- Open dialogue with the Taliban should no longer be a taboo; it is a strategic necessity.
Reason for avoiding open talks with Taliban
- There are at least five possible reasons why India appears to want to keep the Taliban engagement slow and behind closed doors.
- First, if India chooses to engage the Taliban directly, it could make Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, to look towards China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) for national security and personal political survival.
- Second, India is also faced with the dilemma of who to talk to within the Taliban given that it is hardly a monolith.
- Third, given the global opprobrium that Taliban faced in its earlier avatar and the lack of evidence about whether the outfit is a changed lot today, New Delhi might not want to court the Taliban so soon.
- Fourth, there is little clarity about what the Taliban’s real intentions are going forward and what they would do after ascending to power in Kabul.
- Fifth, it would not be totally unreasonable to consider the possibility of Pakistan acting out against India in Kashmir if India were to establish deeper links with the Taliban.
Reasons India should engage with the Taliban openly
- Wide international recognition: Whether we like it or not, the Taliban, is going to be part of the political scheme of things in Afghanistan, and unlike in 1996, a large number of players in the international community are going to recognise/negotiate/do business with the Taliban.
- Countering Pakistan: The Taliban today is looking for regional and global partners for recognition and legitimacy especially in the neighbourhood.
- So the less proactive the Indian engagement with the Taliban, the stronger Pakistan-Taliban relations would become.
- A worldly-wise and internationally-exposed Taliban 2.0 would develop its own agency and sovereign claims including perhaps calling into question the legitimacy of the Durand Line separating Pakistan and Afghanistan, something Pakistan was always concerned about. T
- The Taliban would want to hedge their bets on how far to listen to Pakistan.
- That is precisely when New Delhi should engage the Taliban.
- Security of civilian assets: India needs to court all parties in Afghanistan, including the Taliban if it wants to ensure its security of its civilian assets there.
- It makes neither strategic nor economic sense to withdraw from Afghanistan after spending over $3 billion, something the Government seems to be prepared to do
- Being a part of Afghanistan’s future course: If India is not proactive in Afghanistan at least now, late as it is, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and China will emerge as the shapers of Afghanistan’s political and geopolitical destiny, which for sure will be detrimental to Indian interests there.
- Continental grand strategy: Backchannel talks with Pakistan and a consequent ceasefire on the Line of Control, political dialogue with the mainstream Kashmiri leadership, secret parleys with Taliban all indicate that India is opening up its congested north-western frontier.
- Except for the strategic foray into the Indo-Pacific, India today is strategically boxed in the region and it must break out of it. Afghanistan could provide, if not immediately, India with such a way out.
Consider the question ” India’s Afghan policy is at a major crossroads; to safeguard its civilian assets there as well as to stay relevant in the unfolding ‘great game’ in and around Afghanistan, New Delhi must fundamentally reset its Afghanistan policy. Comment.”
Conclusion
In the end, India’s engagement with the Taliban may or may not achieve much, but non-engagement will definitely hurt Indian interests.
Back2Basics: Durand Line
- Durand Line, boundary established in the Hindu Kush in 1893 running through the tribal lands between Afghanistan and British India, marking their respective spheres of influence.
- In modern times it has marked the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
- The acceptance of this line—which was named for Sir Mortimer Durand, who induced ʿAbdor Raḥmān Khān, amir of Afghanistan, to agree to a boundary—may be said to have settled the Indo-Afghan frontier problem for the rest of the British period.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 21
Mains level: Paper 2- Right to speedy trial
The Bombay High Court has said that speedy trial is a fundamental right highlighting the issue of people languishing in prisons waiting for the trial to begin.
Background
- The HC was hearing a petition seeking a judicial probe into the death of a tribal rights activist.
- The petitioner told the court that he was not looking for the cause of the death, but an inquiry into what happened in jail that ultimately led to his death.
Right to speedy trial
- It is a right under which it is asserted that a government prosecutor may not delay the trial of a criminal suspect arbitrarily and indefinitely.
- Otherwise, the power to impose such delays would effectively allow prosecutors to send anyone to jail for an arbitrary length of time without trial.
- Right to speedy trial is a concept gaining recognition and importance day by day.
Its constitutional status
- The right to speedy trial is guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
- In the case Kartar Singh v. State of Punjab (1961) it was declared that right to speedy trial is an essential part of fundamental right to life and liberty.
- Article 21 declares that “no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to the procedure laid by law.”
What causes delay?
- Delay in disposition of cases due to huge pendency
- Provision for adjournment
- Vacation of the court
- Investigative agencies generally delay
Why speedy trial is necessary?
The right to a speedy trial serves several important purposes:
- First, requiring a speedy trial helps to ensure that a defendant does not have to spend an unreasonable amount of time in jail.
- It also helps to respect and protect the mental health of the defendant by making sure that the defendant is not kept in suspense or anxiety over pending criminal charges for months or years at a time.
- The right to a speedy trial protects a defendant’s ability to gather evidence for his or her own defense.
- Over time, physical evidence can become harder and harder to locate, and witnesses may move, lose their memories of an event, or even pass away.
Alternative solutions
- The Law Commission of India and the Malimath Committee recommended that the system of plea bargaining should be introduced in Indian criminal justice system.
- Plea bargaining refers to a person charged with a criminal offence negotiating with the prosecution for a lesser punishment than what is provided in law by pleading guilty to a less serious offence.
- This will facilitate the speedy disposal of criminal cases and reduces the burden on the courts at least for some minor trials and not serious criminal offences.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SMILE
Mains level: Paper 2- Scheme for
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has formulated a scheme “SMILE – Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise”.
SMILE Scheme
- This scheme is sub-scheme under the ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of Begging’.
- It covers several comprehensive measures including welfare measures for persons who are engaged in the act of begging.
- The focus of the scheme is extensively on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counselling, basic documentation, education, skill development, economic linkages and so on.
- The scheme would be implemented with the support of State/UT Governments/Local Urban Bodies, Voluntary Organizations, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), institutions and others.
- Scheme provides for the use of the existing shelter homes available with the State/UT Governments and Urban local bodies for rehabilitation of the persons engaged in the act of Begging.
- In case of non-availability of existing shelter homes, new dedicated shelter homes are to be set up by the implementing agencies.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Harela Festival
Mains level: Paper 1- Festivals in India
Villagers across Uttarakhand celebrated Harela, a festival of greenery, peace, prosperity and environmental conservation.
Harela Festival
- Harela means ‘day of green’ and is celebrated in the month of Shravan (the fifth month of the Hindu lunar calendar) to worship Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati.
- People across Uttarakhand, especially the Kumaun region, associate greenery with prosperity.
- The seeds of five to seven types of crops — maize, til (sesame), urad (black gram), mustard, oats — are sown in donas (bowl made of leaves) or ringalare (hill bamboo baskets) nine days before the festival.
- They are harvested on the ninth day and distributed to neighbours, friends and relatives.
- The flourish of the crops symbolizes prosperity in the year ahead.
- People make clay statues of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, known as Dikare, and worship them a day before the festival.
- Harela is also linked to the Barahnaza system (12 types of crops), a crop diversification technique followed in the region.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.Consider the following pairs:
Tradition: State
1. Chapchar Kut: festival Mizoram
2. Khongjom Parba ballad: Manipur
3. Thang Ta dance: Sikkim
Which of the pairs given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 2
(c) 3 only
(d) 2 and 3
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BITs
Mains level: Paper 3- Cairn Energy case
Context
The recent move by Cairn to seize India’s sovereign assets in order to enforce its arbitration award has brought into focus the dispute and the related issues.
Utility of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BIT)
- After the World Wars, as more countries gained sovereignty, they tended to look at foreign investments as a form of neo-colonialism.
- Bilateral investment treaties became the primary tool to forge relationships between developed and developing countries.
- The BITs help to adopt standards for prompt, adequate and effective compensation in case of expropriation.
- With the advent of globalisation, BITs became the means for foreign investment in developing countries.
- Although the impact of investment agreements on foreign investments remains highly contextualised and inconclusive, these came to govern international investment relations.
- The BITs retained the old-world construct that allowed international arbitration.
- However, many developing countries view arbitration of tax matters as a breach of their sovereign right to tax.
The Cairn Energy case
- In 2012, explanations were added to the Income Tax Act 1961 — these provisions were deemed as having a retrospective effect.
- This was more in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in the Vodafone case which denied the income tax department’s assertion of tax claims arising from the offshore transfer of interest that substantially derived their value from India.
- The 2012 explanations to the IT Act indeed sought to fix tax avoidance.
- Looking into the details of the Cairn case, one can see the series of reorganisations that tip-toed around tax laws of multiple jurisdictions, resulting in the non-payment of tax.
- Taxing offshore indirect transfers — a structuring device to gain tax advantage from the indirect sale of assets — is not unique to India (336 tax treaties contain such an article).
- It is also possible to see that the underlying assets of the subsidiaries were immovable assets in India.
- The UK-India tax treaty allowed for taxation of capital gains as per Indian law.
- India challenged the admissibility of the case before the arbitration tribunal.
- However, the case rests on a distinction between tax and tax-related investment.
- Surely, all investments have tax implications and the acceptance of such a distinction could create problems even where tax is explicitly carved out from the bilateral investment treaties.
- The option of arbitration upon an unsuccessful Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) resolution is not available in India.
- For this reason, over the years, there has been a rising trend in tax disputes involving BITs.
- The Cairn case is one such instance where arbitration was invoked especially since MAP was not an option.
Way forward
- The case raises many questions that administrators must address through reform.
- India’s model BIT introduced in 2016 rectifies the issue of the distinction between tax dispute and investment-related taxation dispute through the specific exclusion of taxation.
- The recognition of a tax-related investment dispute, distinct from a tax dispute, should not undermine such a carve-out.
Conclusion
It is also important to note even if the award is enforced, the matter of tax avoidance stands pending before the High Court. Given the complexity, the only reasonable solution would be a negotiated settlement. Even if there’s a resolution in the Cairns case, questions of law would remain.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: FPI and FDI
Mains level: Paper 3- Equity market bubble
Context
Even as the real economy returns to the doldrums after being hit by the second wave of COVID-19 infections, the continuing bull run in India’s equity market in the April-June quarter has baffled many observers.
V-shaped recovery of equity market
- The benchmark BSE Sensex had nosedived to below 28,000 in March-April 2020, following the nationwide lockdown.
- The equity market posted a sharp V-shaped recovery in 2020-21.
- The Sensex surged beyond 50,000 in February 2021 and is currently closing on the 53,000 level.
Factors suggesting bubble in equity market
- There was an 81%-plus growth in the Sensex between April 2020 and March 2021 in the backdrop of real GDP growth plummeting to -7.3% during the same period.
- While output contraction had reversed from the third quarter of 2020-21, the inflation rate also rose and remained way ahead of the real GDP growth rate in the last two quarters (Chart 1).
- It is difficult to find any rationality behind the skyrocketing BSE Sensex in the context of such stagflation in the real economy.
- Just like the fall in the equity prices was driven by the exit of foreign portfolio investors (FPI), the return of massive FPI inflows has driven the Indian equity bubble since then (Chart 2).
- Net FPI inflows clocked an unprecedented ₹2.74 lakh crore in 2020-21, the previous high being ₹1.4 lakh crore in 2012-13.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s annual report (2020-21) to state stated that: “This order of asset price inflation in the context of the estimated 8 per cent contraction in GDP in 2020-21 poses the risk of a bubble.”
Global factors
- The global liquidity glut, following the expansionary, easy money policies adopted by the fiscal and monetary authorities of the OECD and G20 countries, has led to equity price inflation in several markets driven by FPIs, especially in Asia.
- Following cues from the U.S. and the U.K., Asian equity markets in Singapore, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong are currently witnessing price-earnings (P/E) ratios significantly above their historic means.
- The BSE Sensex’s P/E ratio of 32 in end-June 2021 is way above its historic mean of around 20.
What could burst the bubble?
- Change in monetary policy: With COVID-19 vaccination and economic recovery proceeding apace in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe, fiscal and monetary policy stances will change soon.
- Exit of FPIs: Once the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks start raising interest rates, the direction of FPI flows will invariably change bringing about corrections in equity markets across Asia.
- India remains particularly vulnerable to a major correction in the equity market because of two reasons.
- Low pace of vaccination: The pace of COVID-19 vaccination in India, given the vast population, lags behind most large countries.
- In the absence of a substantial increase in the vaccination budget and procurement, large segments of the Indian population will remain vulnerable to a potential third wave of COVID-19, with its attendant deleterious impact on the real economy.
- Weak fiscal stimulus: India’s economic recovery from the recession will remain constrained by the weak fiscal stimulus that has been delivered by the Central government.
- Data from the IMF clearly show that while the total global stimulus consisted of additional public spending or revenue foregone measures amounting to 7.4% of global GDP, India’s fiscal measures amounted to 3.3% of GDP only.
Consider the question “What are the factors driving equity market boom globally? What are the factors that could threaten such boom with a major correction?”
Conclusion
With all agencies, including the RBI, downsizing India’s growth projections for 2021-22, it remains to be seen how long India’s equity bubble lasts.
Back2Basics: P/E ratio
- The price-to-earnings ratio (P/E ratio) is the ratio for valuing a company that measures its current share price relative to its per-share earnings (EPS).
- The price-to-earnings ratio is also sometimes known as the price multiple or the earnings multiple.
- To determine the P/E value, one simply must divide the current stock price by the earnings per share (EPS).
P/E Ratio=Earnings per share / Market value per share
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Doctrine of Severability
Mains level: Management of Cooperatives
In a major boost for federalism, the Supreme Court has struck down parts of the 97th Constitution amendment which shrank the exclusive authority of States over their cooperative societies.
Background
- The Gujarat High Court in 2013 had held that the amendment, to the extent it introduced conditions for state laws on co-operative societies, was liable to be struck down.
- This amendment was passed without the ratification of one-half of the state legislatures as mandated by Article 368(2) of the Constitution.
- As per Article 368(2), ratification of one-half of state legislatures is required for an amendment that makes changes to an entry in the state list.
- Since co-operative societies were a state subject as per Entry 32 in List II of the Seventh Schedule, the amendment introducing Part IX B required ratification as per Article 368(2), the High Court ruled.
What was 97th Amendment about?
- The 97th constitutional amendment dealt with issues related to the effective management of cooperative societies in the country.
- It was passed by Parliament in December 2011 and had come into effect from February 15, 2012.
- Part IXB, introduced in the Constitution through the 97th Amendment of 2012, dictated the terms for running cooperative societies.
- The provisions in the amendment went to the extent of determining the number of directors a society should have or their length of tenure and even the necessary expertise.
What is the recent Judgement?
- In a majority judgment, the supreme court has held that cooperative societies come under the “exclusive legislative power” of State legislatures.
- The judgment may be significant in the background of fears voiced by the States whether the new Central Ministry of Cooperation would disempower them.
- The change in the Constitution has amended Article 19(1)(c) to give protection to the cooperatives and inserted Article 43 B and Part IX B, relating to them.
- The Centre has contended that the provision does not denude the States of its power to enact laws with regard to cooperatives.
Exceptions to the amendment
- The Supreme court did not strike down the portions of Part IXB of the Amendment concerning “Multi-State Cooperative Societies” due to the lack of ratification.
- When it comes to Multi-State Co-operative Societies (MSCS) with objects not confined to one State, the legislative power would be that of the Union of India.
What was the dissenting opinion?
- In his dissent, Justice K.M. Joseph said the doctrine of severability would not operate to distinguish between single-State cooperatives and MSCS.
- The judge said the entire Part IXB should be struck down on the ground of absence of ratification.
Back2Basics: Doctrine of Severability
- Article 13 deals with laws inconsistent with or in derogation of fundamental rights.
- It also deals with all laws enforced in India, before the commencement of the Constitution.
- The doctrine of Severability in Article 13 can be understood in two dimensions
- Article 13(1) validates all Pre-Constitutional Law and thereby declares that all pre-Constitutional laws in force before the commencement of the Indian Constitution shall be void if they are inconsistent with the fundamental rights.
- Article 13(2) mandates the State that it shall not make any law that takes away or abridges the fundamental rights conferred in Part III of the Indian Constitution and any law contraventions this clause shall be void.
- This doctrine widens the scope for Judicial Review on unconstitutional parts of any law.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Solar Rooftop
Mains level: Renewable Energy in India
The Union government’s target of producing 40 gigawatts of rooftop solar power by 2022 is unrealistic: The country could produce only 4.4 GW rooftop solar energy till March 31, 2021, according to the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
What is Solar Rooftop?
- A solar photovoltaic (PV) system mounted on a rooftop of a building is a mini-power requirement or feed into the grid.
- The size of the installation varies significantly depending on the availability of space, amount of electricity consumed by the property and the ability or willingness of the owner to invest the capital required.
Why rooftop?
- Rooftop solar with a storage system is a benefit for both, end consumers as well as discoms (power distribution companies).
- A one-kilowatt (kW) rooftop system can produce three to five units of electricity a day.
- The combination increasingly becomes cost-effective for electricity generation compared to the traditional grid supply and diesel generators.
- In 2021, solar and storage will be cheaper than grid supply for most commercial and industrial (C&I) customers.
- The increase in penetration of rooftop solar in the distribution grid will have a significant impact on the stability of the grid.
A viable alternative
- Most housing societies in urban India rely on diesel generators for power backup. However, as power availability improves in the country, diesel generators will become redundant.
- The operational cost of diesel generators is quite high— R16-18 per unit against Rs 5-6 a unit for solar rooftop systems. So rooftop solar power makes financial sense.Solar rooftop is also a perfect solution for commercial and institutional buildings that operate mostly during the day.
- Their rooftops can be utilized to generate electricity, and they can, partially or completely, replace diesel generators. This would also help them reduce their electricity bills.
Question of energy storage
- In order to integrate rooftop solar and electric vehicles, the grid needs to be flexible and smart.
- Energy storage systems will play a key role in providing this flexibility by acting as a load when there is a surplus generation, as well as generating sources when there is a supply shortage.
- There are two major methods of integrating battery storage into the electric grid:
- Front-of-the-meter (FTM): It is implemented at the utility-scale, wherein the battery system is connected to the transmission or distribution network that ensures grid reliability. This happens on a considerably large scale (~MWh scale).
- Behind-the-meter (BTM): The other method is implemented at the residential and commercial/industrial level, mainly to provide backup during a power failure or to store excess locally generated energy from solar rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems.
India’s storage capacity
- About 34 GW / 136 GWh of battery storage is expected to be installed by 2030, according to the Central Electricity Authority of India.
- This capacity would be used for RE integration, demand-side and peak load management services.
Storage challenges
- The solar segment offers a huge market opportunity for advanced battery technologies.
- However, manufacturers have some ground to cover in addressing technical limitations of batteries, such as charging characteristics, thermal performance and requirement of boost current to charge deep cycle batteries.
- Since solar companies may directly procure batteries from manufacturers and require after-sale services and technical support, battery companies should have wider a presence to address these expectations.
Other key challenges
- Rooftop solar source doesn’t match the rise in renewable energy in India.
- While industrial and commercial consumers account for 70% of total installed capacity residential consumers remain a big untapped potential to give the boost
- Solar rooftops also face several challenges such as little consumer awareness, lack of innovative government policies or attention, bureaucratic hassles, and limited support from discoms.
Way forward
- Supportive policies and innovative technological approaches are needed for the sector to achieve its potential.
- Indian policymakers need to plan for rooftop solar plus storage, rather than rooftop solar alone with the grid as storage (net / gross metering).
- The declining cost of storage solutions, along with that of rooftop solar solutions, is likely to change the future of the Indian power sector.
- Several countries such as Australia, the United States, Germany, among others have already endorsed solar power with battery storage.
- Energy storage, therefore, represents a huge economic opportunity for India.
- The creation of a conducive battery manufacturing ecosystem on a fast track could cement India’s opportunity for radical economic and industrial transformation in a critical and fast-growing global market.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Privilege Motion
Mains level: Breach of Privilege
A spokesperson of the non-ruling political party has said that he will move a privilege motion against the Health Minister for misleading Parliament that no deaths were reported specifically because of shortage of oxygen.
Breach of Privilege
- Parliamentary privilege refers to the right and immunity enjoyed by legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made in the course of their legislative duties.
- The powers, privileges and immunities of either House of the Indian Parliament and of its Members and committees are laid down in Article 105 of the Constitution.
- Article 194 deals with the powers, privileges and immunities of the State Legislatures, their Members and their committees.
What is a privilege motion?
- Parliamentary privileges are certain rights and immunities enjoyed by members of Parliament, individually and collectively, so that they can “effectively discharge their functions”.
- When any of these rights and immunities are disregarded, the offence is called a breach of privilege and is punishable under law of Parliament.
- A notice is moved in the form of a motion by any member of either House against those being held guilty of breach of privilege.
- Each House also claims the right to punish as contempt actions which, while not breach of any specific privilege, are offences against its authority and dignity.
What are the rules governing privilege?
- Rule No 222 in Chapter 20 of the Lok Sabha Rule Book and correspondingly Rule 187 in Chapter 16 of the Rajya Sabha rulebook govern privilege.
- It says that a member may, with the consent of the Speaker or the Chairperson, raise a question involving a breach of privilege either of a member or of the House or of a committee thereof.
- The rules however mandate that any notice should be relating to an incident of recent occurrence and should need the intervention of the House.
- Notices have to be given before 10 am to the Speaker or the Chairperson.
What is the role of the Speaker/Rajya Sabha Chair?
- The Speaker/RS chairperson is the first level of scrutiny of a privilege motion.
- The Speaker/Chair can decide on the privilege motion himself or herself or refer it to the privileges committee of Parliament.
- If the Speaker/Chair gives consent under Rule 222, the member concerned is given an opportunity to make a short statement.
What is the privileges committee?
- In the Lok Sabha, the Speaker nominates a committee of privileges consisting of 15 members as per respective party strengths.
- A report is then presented to the House for its consideration. The Speaker may permit a half-hour debate while considering the report.
- The Speaker may then pass final orders or direct that the report be tabled before the House.
- A resolution may then be moved relating to the breach of privilege that has to be unanimously passed.
- In the Rajya Sabha, the deputy chairperson heads the committee of privileges, which consists of 10 members.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.With reference to the Parliament of India, which of the following Parliamentary Committees scrutinizes and reports to the House whether the powers to make regulations, rules, sub-rules, by-laws etc. conferred by the constitution of delegated by the Parliament are being properly exercised by the Executive within the scope of such delegation?
(a) Committee on Government Assurances
(b) Committee on Subordinate Legislation
(c) Rules Committee
(d) Business Advisory Committee
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Monkey B Virus
Mains level: Zoonotic Diseases
China has reported the first human death case with the Monkey B virus (BV).
What is Monkey B virus?
- The virus, initially isolated in 1932, is an alphaherpesvirus enzootic in macaques of the genus Macaca.
- B virus is the only identified old-world-monkey herpes virus that displays severe pathogenicity in humans.
Answer this question from our AWE initiative:
There is been an increase in occurance of zoonotic human infectious diseases are zoonotic . Give reasons for this. Also suggest ways to contain and decrease the frequency of such events.(250 Words)
How is it transmitted?
- The infection can be transmitted via direct contact and exchange of bodily secretions of monkeys and has a fatality rate of 70 per cent to 80 per cent.
- According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Macaque monkeys commonly have this virus, and it can be found in their saliva, feces, urine, or brain or spinal cord tissue.
- The virus may also be found in cells coming from an infected monkey in a lab. B virus can survive for hours on surfaces, particularly when moist.
When can a human get infected with B virus?
- Humans can get infected if they are bitten or scratched by an infected monkey.
Symptoms
- Symptoms typically start within one month of being exposed to B virus but could appear in as little as three to seven days.
- The first indications of B virus infection are typically flu-like symptoms such as fever and chills, muscle ache, fatigue and headache.
- Following this, a person may develop small blisters in the wound or area on the body that came in contact with the monkey.
- Some other symptoms of the infection include shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and hiccups.
- As the disease progresses, the virus spreads to and causes inflammation (swelling) of the brain and spinal cord, leading to neurologic and inflammatory symptoms.
Is there a vaccine against B virus?
- Currently, there are no vaccines that can protect against B virus infection.
Who are at higher risk for infection?
- The virus might pose a potential threat to laboratory workers, veterinarians, and others who may be exposed to monkeys or their specimens.
- To date, only one case has been documented of an infected person spreading the B virus to another person.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: One District One Focus Product
Mains level: Not Much
ODOFP programme
- The ODOFP programme cover products of agriculture and allied sectors for 728 districts of the country.
- The products have been identified from agricultural, horticultural, animal, poultry, milk, fisheries, aquaculture, marine sectors across the country.
- These identified products will be supported under the PM-FME scheme of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, which provides incentives to promoters and micro-enterprises
- This scheme is being implemented for a period of five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
- The scheme adopts One District One Product (ODOP) approach to reap the benefits of scale in terms of procurement of inputs, availing common services and marketing of products.
About ODOP
- The ODOP scheme aims to identify one product per district based on the potential and strength of a district and national priorities.
- A cluster for that product will be developed in the district and market linkage will be provided for that.
- It is operationally merged with the ‘Districts as Export Hub’ initiative implemented by the Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Department of Commerce.
- Under the initial phase of the ODOP programme, 106 Products have been identified from 103 districts across 27 States.
Back2Basics: PMFME Scheme
- A centrally sponsored scheme that aims to enhance the competitiveness of existing individual micro-enterprises in the unorganized segment of the food processing industry.
- It aims to enhance the competitiveness of existing individual micro-enterprises in the unorganized segment of the food processing industry and promote formalization of the sector,
- It further aims to promote formalization of the sector and provide support to Farmer Producer Organizations, Self Help Groups, and Producers Cooperatives along their entire value chain.
- The scheme envisions directly assist the 2,00,000 micro food processing units in providing financial, technical, and business support for the up-gradation of existing micro food processing enterprises.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 19 and 21
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues with surveillance by the government
Context
The ‘Pegasus Project’ report says that over “300 verified Indian mobile telephone numbers, including those used by ministers, opposition leaders, journalists, the legal community, businessmen, government officials, scientists, rights activists and others”, were targeted using spyware made by the Israeli firm, NSO Group.
Threat to press freedom
- Revelations highlight a disturbing trend with regard to the use of hacking software against dissidents and adversaries.
- A significant number of Indians reportedly affected by Pegasus are journalists.
- This is not surprising since the World Press Freedom Index produced by Reporters Without Borders has ranked India 142 out of 180 countries in 2021.
- The press requires (and in democracies is afforded) greater protections on speech and privacy.
- Privacy and free speech are what enable good reporting.
- This has been recognised in Supreme Court decisions.
- In the absence of privacy, the safety of journalists, especially those whose work criticises the government, and the personal safety of their sources is jeopardised.
- Such a lack of privacy, therefore, creates an aura of distrust around these journalists and effectively buries their credibility.
Issues with the legal provision
- Provisions of law under the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 and the Information Technology (IT) Act of 2000 are used by the government for its interception and monitoring activities.
- While the provisions of the Telegraph Act relate to telephone conversations, the IT Act relates to all communications undertaken using a computer resource.
- Both provisions are problematic and offer the government total opacity in respect of its interception and monitoring activities.
- Section 69 of the IT Act and the Interception Rules of 2009 are even more opaque than the Telegraph Act, and offer even weaker protections to the surveilled.
- No provision, however, allows the government to hack the phones of any individual since the hacking of computer resources, including mobile phones and apps, is a criminal offence under the IT Act.
Issues with surveillance system
- Surveillance itself, whether under a provision of law or without it, is a gross violation of the fundamental rights of citizens.
- Violation of freedom of speech: The very existence of a surveillance system impacts the right to privacy and the exercise of freedom of speech and personal liberty under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution, respectively.
- It prevents people from reading and exchanging unorthodox, controversial or provocative ideas.
- No scope for judicial scrutiny: There is also no scope for an individual subjected to surveillance to approach a court of law prior to or during or subsequent to acts of surveillance since the system itself is covert.
- No oversight: In the absence of parliamentary or judicial oversight, electronic surveillance gives the executive the power to influence both the subject of surveillance and all classes of individuals, resulting in a chilling effect on free speech.
- Against separation of power: Constitutional functionaries such as a sitting judge of the Supreme Court have reportedly been surveilled under Pegasus.
- Vesting such disproportionate power with one wing of the government threatens the separation of powers of the government.
- The existing provisions are insufficient to protect against the spread of authoritarianism since they allow the executive to exercise a disproportionate amount of power.
Way forward
- There needs to be oversight from another branch of the government.
- Judicial oversight: Only the judiciary can be competent to decide whether specific instances of surveillance are proportionate, whether less onerous alternatives are available, and to balance the necessity of the government’s objectives with the rights of the impacted individuals.
- Surveillance reforms: Not only are existing protections weak but the proposed legislation related to the personal data protection of Indian citizens fails to consider surveillance while also providing wide exemptions to government authorities.
- Surveillance reform is the need of the hour in India.
Consider the question “Discuss the threats posed by the use of surveillance systems by the government. Suggest the measures to deal with these threats.”
Conclusion
The only solution to the problem of spyware is immediate and far-reaching surveillance reform.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Limits on China's role in Afghanistan
Context
Amid the gloom that has enveloped Afghanistan, one hope for many countries has been China’s potential role in stabilising it.
Factors that call for China to play role in Afghanistan
- Scope for India-China cooperation: In the past, even India thought that Afghanistan would be a natural area for India and China to work together.
- But little came out of the understanding after the Wuhan summit in 2018.
- Northern neighbours: Afghanistan’s northern neighbours, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan all have expanding political and economic ties with China but have traditionally relied on Russia for their security.
- They might support a larger role for Beijing in Afghanistan in partnership with Russia.
- Iran, Kabul’s western neighbour, also has deepening ties with China.
- Bilateral cooperation with the U.S.: Washington, now locked in an escalating confrontation with Beijing, sees Afghanistan as a potential area of bilateral cooperation.
- Role of Pakistan: Beijing is indeed critical in Pakistan’s plans for Afghanistan.
- Afghan leaders have also been eager to draw China’s BRI into their plans for economic modernisation.
- China was also important for Kabul’s political calculus in limiting Pakistan’s quest for dominance.
Two challenges in China playing role in stabilising Afghanistan
1) Caution in Chinese policy
- The first relates to the deep sources of caution in Chinese policy.
- Neither the prospect of mining Afghanistan’s natural resources nor the vanity of being the newest superpower will compel China to rush into the Afghan vacuum.
- China has deep concerns about Taliban’s ideology and its potential role in fomenting instability in its restive Muslim-majority province, Xinjiang.
- Beijing cannot depend on its special relationship with the Pakistan army to ensure the security of China’s frontiers as well as its investments in Afghanistan.
- The growing attacks on CPEC projects in Pakistan, underline the difficulty of pursuing economic development amid endemic violence.
2) Priorities of Taliban
- The second set of problems relate to the priorities of Taliban.
- It remains to be seen whether the economic development of Afghanistan is a top priority for the Taliban or not.
- Also, is it open to let in foreign capital and all the baggage that comes with it?
- More fundamentally, there is no clarity on the role of economic modernisation in Taliban’s fierce insistence on the creation of an Islamic emirate in Afghanistan.
Conclusion
It is against this backdrop that the chances of China playing a major role in stabilising Afghanistan remain slim.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Conjugal rights
The Supreme Court is expected to begin hearing a fresh challenge to the provision allowing restitution of conjugal rights under Hindu personal laws.
What is the provision under challenge?
- Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, which deals with restitution of conjugal rights.
What are conjugal rights?
- Conjugal rights are rights created by marriage, i.e. the right of the husband or the wife to the society of the other spouse.
- The law recognizes these rights— both in personal laws dealing with marriage, divorce etc and in criminal law requiring payment of maintenance and alimony to a spouse.
- The concept of restitution of conjugal rights is codified in Hindu personal law now, but has colonial origins and has genesis in ecclesiastical law.
- Similar provisions exist in Muslim personal law as well as the Divorce Act, 1869, which governs Christian family law.
- Incidentally, in 1970, the United Kingdom repealed the law on restitution of conjugal rights.
How can a case under Section 9 be filed?
- If a spouse refuses cohabitation, the other spouse can move the family court seeking a decree for cohabitation.
- If the order of the court is not complied with, the court can attach property.
- However, the decision can be appealed before a High Court and the Supreme Court.
- Normally, when a spouse files for divorce unilaterally, the other spouse files for restitution of conjugal rights if he or she is not in agreement with the divorce.
- The provision is seen to be an intervention through legislation to strike a conciliatory note between sparring spouses.
Why has the law being challenged?
- The law is being challenged now on the main grounds that is violative of the fundamental right to privacy.
- The plea argues that court-mandated restitution of conjugal rights amounted to a “coercive action” on the part of the state, which violates one’s sexual and decisional autonomy, and right to privacy and dignity.
- In 2019, a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court recognised the right to privacy as a fundamental right.
- The verdict in the privacy case set the stage for potential challenges to several laws such as the criminalization of homosexuality, marital rape, restitution of conjugal rights, the two-finger test in rape investigations.
Question over gender-neutrality
- Although the law is ex-facie (‘on the face if it’) gender-neutral since it allows both wife and husband to seek restitution of conjugal rights, the provision disproportionately affects women.
- Women are often called back to marital homes under the provision and given that marital rape is not a crime, leaves them susceptible to such coerced cohabitation.
- It will also be argued whether the state can have such a compelling interest in protecting the institution of marriage that it allows legislation to enforce the cohabitation of spouses.
What has the court said about the law earlier?
Supreme Court:
- In 1984, the Supreme Court had upheld Section 9 holding that the provision “serves a social purpose as an aid to the prevention of break-up of marriage”.
- Leading up to the Supreme Court intervention, two High Courts — those of Andhra Pradesh and Delhi — had ruled differently on the issue.
AP High Court:
- In 1983, AP High Court had for the first time struck down the provision and declared it null and void. It cited the right to privacy among other reasons.
- The court also held that in “a matter so intimately concerned the wife or the husband the parties are better left alone without state interference”.
- The court had, most importantly, also recognised that compelling “sexual cohabitation” would be of “grave consequences for women”.
Delhi High Court:
- In the same year, a single-judge Bench of the Delhi High Court took a diametrically opposite view of the law and upheld the provision.
- From the definitions of cohabitation and consortium, it appears that sexual intercourse is one of the elements that go to make up the marriage.
- But it is not the summum bonum (the ultimate aim). As if marriage consists of nothing else except sex.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bad Banks
Mains level: Asset reconstruction
The Government has launched a Bad Bank with all the regulatory approvals in place.
What is a Bad Bank?
- A bad bank conveys the impression that it will function as a bank but has bad assets to start with.
- Technically, it is an asset reconstruction company (ARC) or an asset management company that takes over the bad loans of commercial banks, manages them and finally recovers the money over a period of time.
- Such a bank is not involved in lending and taking deposits, but helps commercial banks clean up their balance sheets and resolve bad loans.
- The takeover of bad loans is normally below the book value of the loan and the bad bank tries to recover as much as possible subsequently.
Global examples of Bad Bank
- US-based BNY Mellon Bank created the first bad bank in 1988, after which the concept has been implemented in other countries including Sweden, Finland, France and Germany.
- However, resolution agencies or ARCs set up as banks, which originate or guarantee to lend, have ended up turning into reckless lenders in some countries.
Do we need a bad bank?
- The idea gained currency during Rajan’s tenure as RBI Governor.
- The RBI had then initiated an asset quality review (AQR) of banks and found that several banks had suppressed or hidden bad loans to show a healthy balance sheet.
- However, the idea remained on paper amid lack of consensus on the efficacy of such an institution.
- ARCs have not made any impact in resolving bad loans due to many procedural issues.
What is the stand of the RBI and government?
- While the RBI did not show much enthusiasm about a bad bank all these years, there are signs that it can look at the idea now.
- Experts, however, argue that it would be better to limit the objective of these asset management companies to the orderly resolution of stressed assets, followed by a graceful exit.
Good about the bad banks
- The problem of NPAs continues in the banking sector, especially among the weaker banks.
- The bad bank concept is in some ways similar to an ARC but is funded by the government initially, with banks and other investors co-investing in due course.
- The presence of the government is seen as a means to speed up the clean-up process.
- Many other countries had set up institutional mechanisms such as the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP) in the US to deal with a problem of stress in the financial system.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Near-Earth Asteroid Scout
Mains level: Study of asteroids
Last week, NASA announced that its new spacecraft, named NEA Scout, has completed all required tests and has been safely tucked inside the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
For landing on Moon
- NEA Scout is one of several payloads that will hitch a ride on Artemis I, which is expected to be launched in November.
- Artemis I will be an uncrewed test-flight of the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket.
- Under the Artemis programme, NASA has aimed to land the first woman on the Moon in 2024 and also establish sustainable lunar exploration programs by 2030.
What is NEA Scout?
- Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, or NEA Scout, is a small spacecraft, about the size of a big shoebox. Its main mission is to fly by and collect data from a near-Earth asteroid.
- It will also be America’s first interplanetary mission using special solar sail propulsion.
- This type of propulsion is especially useful for small, lightweight spacecraft that cannot carry large amounts of conventional rocket propellant.
- NEA Scout will use stainless steel alloy booms and deploy an aluminium-coated sail measuring 925 square feet.
- The large-area sail will generate thrust by reflecting sunlight.
- Energetic particles of sunlight bounce off the solar sail to give it a gentle, yet constant push.
How will it study the asteroid?
- NEA Scout is equipped with special cameras and can take pictures ranging from 50 cm/pixels to 10 cm/pixels.
- It can also process the image and reduce the file sizes before sending them to the earth-based Deep Space Network via its medium-gain antenna.
- The spacecraft will take about two years to cruise to the asteroid and will be about 93 million miles away from Earth during the asteroid encounter.
Why should we study near-Earth asteroids?
- Despite their size, some of these small asteroids could pose a threat to Earth.
- Understanding their properties could help us develop strategies for reducing the potential damage caused in the event of an impact.
- Scientists will use this data to determine what is required to reduce risk, increase effectiveness, and improve the design and operations of robotic and human space exploration.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Our planetary system
Mains level: Not Much
Researchers have developed a model showing that the density, mass and iron content of a Mercury’s core is influenced by its distance from the Sun’s magnetic field.
About Mercury
- Mercury is the first and the smallest planet in our solar system.
- It is also the closest planet to Earth.
- Like the other three terrestrial planets, Mercury contains a core surrounded by a mantle and a crust.
- But unlike any other planet, Mercury’s core makes up a larger portion of the planet.
- MESSENGER was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury’s chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field.
- It was the analysis from the MESSENGER mission that tells: Mercury’s core is solid.
Mystery over the core
- It has long been known that Mercury’s core composition is made of liquid metal.
- The core itself is about 3,600 km across. Surrounding that is a 600 km thick mantle.
- And around that is the crust, which is believed to be 100-200 km thick.
- The crust is known to have narrow ridges that extend for hundreds of kilometres.
- This large core has long been one of the most intriguing mysteries about Mercury.
Why does Mercury have a large core?
- A new study reveals that the sun’s magnetism is the reason.
- The sun’s magnetic field influences the density, mass, and iron content of Mercury’s core.
- The four inner planets of our solar system—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—are made up of different proportions of metal and rock.
- A gradient in which the metal content in the core drops off as the planets get farther from the sun.
- The researchers explain how this happened by showing that the sun’s magnetic field controlled the distribution of raw materials in the early forming solar system.
What are the key propositions?
- During the early formation of the solar system, when a swirling dust storm and gas encircled the sun, iron’s grain was drawn toward the centre by the sun’s magnetic field.
- At the time of planet formation from clumps of that dust and gas, planets nearer to the sun consolidated more iron into their centres than those farther away.
- Scientists also found that the density and proportion of iron in the planet’s core correlate with the strength of the magnetic field around the sun during planetary formation.
- Existing models on planetary formation were used to determine the speed at which gas and dust were pulled into the centre of our solar system during its formation.
- The magnetic field that the sun would have generated as it burst into being and calculated how that magnetic field would draw iron through the dust and gas cloud.
Cooling led solidification
- As the early solar system began to cool, dust and gas that were not drawn into the sun started to clump together.
- The clumps closer to the sun would have been exposed to a stronger magnetic field and thus would contain more iron than those farther away from the sun.
- As the clumps coalesced and cooled into spinning planets, gravitational forces drew the iron into their core.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 21
Mains level: Paper 2- Addressing the issue of undertrials
Context
After the death of Stan Swamy, questions about the conditions of jails and treatment of the incarcerated have been raised anew.
Issue of deaths of prisoners
- The NCRB data reports the death of over 1,800 prisoners in the year 2018. An estimated 70 percent of prison inmates are undertrials.
- Despite constitutional provisions like Article 21, which says, no person shall be denied life or liberty except by the due process of law, the number of undertrials is increasing.
How prisoners are subjected to additional torture
- Overcrowding, delayed medical attention, unhygienic conditions and malnutrition exist in all Indian prisons.
- It is the responsibility of the State and the judiciary to ensure that they are only deprived of their liberty and are not exposed to any additional torture in the form of medical deprivation, unhygienic conditions, bad or inadequate food, etc.
- Yet, thousands are dying every year and the prison authorities are not made accountable.
Way forward
- Acts of extreme neglect that could result in the death of inmates should be acknowledged as extrajudicial torture and made an offense.
- The SC in Sunil Batra (I) v. Delhi Administration (1978), held that “the humane thread of jail jurisprudence that runs right through is that no prison authority enjoys amnesty for unconstitutionality”.
- ARC Recommendations on Prison Reforms: The Union and State Governments should work out, fund and implement at the
earliest, modernization and reforms of the Prison System as recommended by the All India Committee on Jail Reforms (1980-83).
b. The attendant legislative measures should also be expedited.
c. Rules regarding Parole and Remission need to be reviewed.
- Infrastructure: Prisoner Information System, Biometric Identification, facilities for pregnant women, up-gradation of hospitals, etc is needed.
- Strengthening the Open Prison System.
Conclusion
The government needs to take urgent measures to address the issue of additional torture in various forms and the death of prisoners.
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