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Global Geological And Climatic Events

How the Moon ‘Wobble’ affects rising tides

Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Geographical Features & Their Location

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Moon wobble

Mains level: Moon wobble and climate change

US coastlines will face increasing flooding in the mid-2030s due to a regular lunar cycle called the wobble effect that will magnify rising sea levels caused by climate change.

What is the Moon Wobble?

The moon wobble is nothing but a regular swaying in the moon’s orbit.
It was first documented way back in 1728.
This wobble takes over an 18.6-year period to complete and continues in a cyclic fashion.

How does this wobble occur?

High tides on this planet are caused mostly by the pull of the moon’s gravity on a spinning Earth. On most beaches, you would see two high tides every 24 hours.
The moon also revolves around the Earth about once a month, and that orbit is a little bit tilted.
moon’s orbital plane around the Earth is at an approximate 5-degree incline to the Earth’s orbital plane around the sun.
Because of that, the path of the moon’s orbit seems to fluctuate over time, completing a full cycle — sometimes referred to as a nodal cycle — every 18.6 years.
At certain points along the cycle, the moon’s gravitational pull comes from such an angle that it yanks one of the day’s two high tides a little bit higher, at the expense of the other.
This does not mean that the moon itself is wobbling, nor that its gravity is necessarily pulling at our oceans any more or less than usual.

What impact does this wobble have on Earth?

Influences the ebb and flow of tides: The moon wobbles impacts the gravitational pull of the moon, and therefore, indirectly influences the ebb and flow of tides here on the Earth.
One half of the 18.6-year cycle suppresses the tides, which means that the high tides get lower, while the low tides get higher than normal.
Once this cycle completes, the situation flips—in the subsequent cycle, the tides are amplified, with high tides getting higher and low tides, lower.
The lunar cycle is expected to shift again by mid-2030, and in the coming phase, the tides will amplify once again.

Moon wobble and climate change

The upcoming changes in the lunar cycle will pose a serious threat, as the amplified high tides coupled with the rising sea levels will make the risk of flooding far greater across all coastal regions of the globe.
The study predicts that the high tide-associated floods—also known as nuisance floods or sunny day floods—may occur in clusters that could last for months or even for longer periods!
This surge will be closely associated with the position of the Moon, Earth and the Sun.
When the Moon and Earth line up in specific ways with each other and the Sun, the resulting gravitational pull and the ocean’s corresponding response may leave city-dwellers coping with floods every day or two.

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Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

Places in news: Great Barrier Reef

India Mapping | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Important Geophysical Phenomena

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Great Barrier Reef

Mains level: Coral Reefs and their significance

Chinese official has said that political tensions between Beijing and Australia were not behind a UNESCO recommendation to place the Great Barrier Reef on its endangered list.

Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands.
It is stretched for over 2,300 kilometres over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres.
The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.
It was world heritage listed in 1981 by UNESCO as the most extensive and spectacular coral reef ecosystem on the planet.

Importance of Corals

Coral reefs are some of the most diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth.

They support more species per unit area than any other marine environment, including about 4,000 species of fish, 800 species of hard corals and hundreds of other species.
This biodiversity is considered key to finding new medicines for the 21st century.
Medical use: Many drugs are now being developed from coral reef animals and plants as possible cures for cancer, arthritis, human bacterial infections, viruses, and other diseases.
Fisheries: Healthy coral reefs support commercial and subsistence fisheries as well as jobs and businesses through tourism and recreation.
Local economies receive billions of dollars from visitors to reefs through diving tours, recreational fishing trips, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses based near reef ecosystems.
Coral reef structures also buffer shorelines against 97 per cent of the energy from waves, storms, and floods, helping to prevent loss of life, property damage, and erosion.

Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

Q.Consider the following statements:

Most of the world’s coral reefs are in tropical waters.

More than one-third of the world’s coral reefs are located in the territories of Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Coral reefs host far more number of animal phyla than those hosted by tropical rainforests.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1 and 3 only

Back2Basisc: Coral Reef

Coral reefs are built by and made up of thousands of tiny animals—coral “polyps”—that are related to anemones and jellyfish.
Polyps are shallow-water organisms that have a soft body covered by a calcareous skeleton. The polyps extract calcium salts from seawater to form these hard skeletons.
The polyps live in colonies fastened to the rocky seafloor.
The tubular skeletons grow upwards and outwards as a cemented calcareous rocky mass collectively called corals.
When the coral polyps die, they shed their skeleton on which new polyps grow.
The cycle is repeated for millions of years leading to the accumulation of layers of corals shallow rock created by these depositions is called a reef.

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Cyber Security – CERTs, Policy, etc

Back in news: Pegasus Spyware

Prelims Only | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Cyber Security

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Pegasus

Mains level: Whatsapp snooping

Telephone numbers of some noted Indian journalists were successfully snooped upon by an unidentified agency using Pegasus software.

Pegasus Spyware

All spyware do what the name suggests — they spy on people through their phones.
Pegasus works by sending an exploit link, and if the target user clicks on the link, the malware or the code that allows the surveillance is installed on the user’s phone.
A presumably newer version of the malware does not even require a target user to click a link.
Once Pegasus is installed, the attacker has complete access to the target user’s phone.
The first reports on Pegasus’s spyware operations emerged in 2016, when Ahmed Mansoor, a human rights activist in the UAE, was targeted with an SMS link on his iPhone 6.

What is the new threat?

Pegasus has evolved from its earlier spear-phishing methods using text links or messages to ‘zero-click’ attacks which do not require any action from the phone’s user.
This had made what was without a doubt the most powerful spyware out there, more potent and almost impossible to detect or stop.

How do zero-click attacks work?

A zero-click attack helps spyware like Pegasus gain control over a device without human interaction or human error.
Zero-click attacks are hard to detect given their nature and hence even harder to prevent.
Detection becomes even harder in encrypted environments where there is no visibility on the data packets being sent or received.
Most of these attacks exploit software that receive data even before it can determine whether what is coming in is trustworthy or not, like an email client.

Answer this PYQ from CSP 2018:

Q.The terms ‘WannaCry, Petya, Eternal Blue’ sometimes mentioned news recently are related to

(a) Exoplanets

(b) Crypto currency

(c) Cyber attacks

(d) Mini satellites

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A panoramic look at our three decades of economic reforms

| Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Paper 3- Look at three decades of economic reforms

Context

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the economic reforms launched by our then finance minister Manmohan Singh in his budget speech of 24 July 1991.

After and before reform comparison

The average annual growth over the past three decades has been 5.8% per annum.
It is slightly higher than 5.6% in the decade before 1991.
Clearly, our growth acceleration was not sustained, despite a pick-up in the pace of reforms.
However, on a long-term comparison, the economy did better than its 4.1% average of the first 40 years of independence.
But if we compare our first four decades with the pre-1947 phase, and on that score, we saw a massive growth improvement.

Impact of reforms

Their biggest contribution was a change in India’s economic paradigm.
Every government after 1991 has embraced the philosophy of liberalization and privatization that those reforms initiated and has tried to outdo the previous regimes on that.
Still, 30 years on, the situation for most of our population remains unchanged.
The reforms created a class of rich entrepreneurs and a small but vocal middle class in urban areas.
But it also contributed to widening inequality, which has worsened after 1991 and is now at its worst level since 1947 on almost all dimensions.
The widening of disparities also occurred between urban and rural areas, between laggard states and developed ones.
Disparities have increased even further in terms of access to health and education and several other human- development indicators.
On most of these, be it education, health, women’s workforce participation and hunger, we remain at the bottom of any global chart of comparison.
The logic of reforms meant that expenditure on welfare and investment in human development were not a policy priority.
The situation is no different on employment, with data suggesting an absolute decline on this count and a historic rise in unemployment rates.
An official consumption survey that was not accepted about two years ago by the Centre had shown, a decline in real consumption and a rise in poverty.
Rising informalization and contractualization of the country’s workforce has been a factor in the worsening of most workers’ working conditions.

Why reforms failed to deliver

In many ways, they are no different from our pre-reform economic policies, all of which were supply- side responses.
The reforms attempted to use the private sector for the task through a liberalized regulatory framework and business-friendly fiscal and monetary policies.
But an absence of concern for distributional inequities and aggregate-demand management has continued as the defining feature of our economic policymaking.
The consequences of supply-side- biased reforms will show up in a further worsening of income distribution and eventually slow growth down.

Conclusion

Things have taken a turn for the worse with the pandemic. The problem this time is not like the 1991 crisis. What is needed at this point is a fundamental shift in the way economic policy is designed, keeping people and workers at the centre of the exercise.

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Labour, Jobs and Employment – Harmonization of labour laws, gender gap, unemployment, etc.

Need for social security to migrant and informal workers

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Schemes For Vulnerable Sections

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Recommendation 202

Mains level: Paper 2- Social security for migrant labour

Context

The migrants’ crisis after the two covid waves compelled policy-makers to make certain provisions for them in the schemes announced for the assistance of the poor.

Supreme Court judgement on the issue

On June 29, the Supreme Court finally delivered its judgment on the plight of migrant labour.
The judgement was notable for two main reasons.
First, it recognised that there was the large-scale exclusion of migrant workers and other informal workers from existing schemes due to the lack of their registration and outdated eligibility lists.
It noted that no benefits will be denied to migrant workers for want of an Aadhaar card and that food assistance will be provided for migrants who were not covered by the National Food Security Act.
Second, it connected informal workers and migrant workers, both of whom experience exclusion, and mandated that the portal for registration of all informal/migrant workers should be fully operational before July 31.

Advantages of providing social protection

Investment in social protection is not charity, it is an investment in workers’ productivity and in equitable growth.
Providing social protection is, as the UN mooted in 2009 when it spelt out the social protection floor (SPF) initiative after the global financial crisis, the surest way out of a crisis by boosting demand at the bottom of the pyramid.
The report of the Advisory Committee of the ILO, in which India was represented by its labour secretary, provides a strong rationale for instituting a universal SPF during economic crises.
As a result, all constituents of the ILO adopted Recommendation 202 on social protection floors at the International Labour Conference in 2012.

Inadequate provisions by government

The Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, was approved by Parliament in December 2008.
But it lacks the mandatory elements of the NCEUS’s proposals and included neither a National Minimum Social Security Package, nor the provision for mandatory registration.
Estimates show that the central government’s expenditure on all major social protection programmes declined from 1.96 per cent of GDP in 2008-09 to 1.6 per cent in 2013-14 and to only 1.28 per cent in 2019-20.

Way forward

The National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) had pointed out that the circular migrant workers were a disadvantaged segment among informal workers.
Comprehensive law: The NCEUS had advocated a comprehensive law for the protection of the rights of all informal workers, including migrants, home workers, and domestic workers.
Universal registration: NCEUS had also recommended a universal registration mechanism based on self-declaration, with the issuance of a smart social security card, and a National Minimum Social Security Package.
Guaranteed social security/social protection: We need the provision of a minimum level of guaranteed social security/social protection for all informal workers and their households within a definite time frame.
More public spending: Guaranteed social protection would involve a clear framework and a commitment to greater public resources being spent on social protection as a large class of workers in India do not have an identifiable employer and a contributory social insurance framework will not work for them.
Recommendation 202: Government should embrace ILO’s Recommendation 202 and work towards these in a time-bound manner.

Conclusion

To end the silent, painful, and enduring crisis for the workers, as well as the crisis for the economy, the government must urgently recognise the right to social security, embedded both in the Indian Constitution and international covenants.

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Can India invoke state sovereignty in Cairn Energy case?

op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways Etc.

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: BIT

Mains level: Paper 2- State sovereignty

Context

Last year, an arbitration tribunal indicted India for breaching its obligations by imposing taxes retrospectively on Cairn. As a result, Cairn Energy has been attempting to seize Indian assets in several jurisdictions to recover $1.7 billion due from India.

How asset seizure order affects India?

This episode projects India as an unfriendly country for investors at a time when it wishes to project itself as a prime destination for foreign investment.
This episode puts India in the league of countries like Pakistan, Congo, Venezuela, Russia and Argentina, who have been part of attachment proceedings overseas due to their failure to comply with international arbitral awards.
Fighting cases will consume an enormous amount of time, money, and resources, in addition to attracting bad press internationally.

Understanding the doctrine of state immunity

State immunity is a well-recognised doctrine in international law.
It safeguards a state and its property against the jurisdiction of another country’s domestic courts.
Despite the universal acceptance of this doctrine, there is no international legal instrument in force administering its implementation.
Attempts are underway to create binding international law on the application of the rules of state immunity such as the United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property (UNSCI).
However, this convention is yet to be ratified by 30 countries — the minimum number required to bring it in force, as per Article 30(1) of UNSCI.
India has signed the convention, but not ratified it.
The doctrine of state immunity has progressed from absolute immunity to restrictive immunity in which immunity is only for the sovereign functions of the state.

Can India invoke state immunity?

Most prominent jurisdictions follow the concept of restrictive immunity.
State immunity can be invoked to resist the seizure of sovereign assets, but not commercial properties.
In the context of the execution of the investment treaty arbitration awards, properties serving commercial functions are available for seizure.
In the case of India, the most popular commercial property that foreign investors would target for attachment are the global assets of India’s public sector undertakings such as Air India.

Way forward

If India wishes to continue the case, it needs to carefully study the laws on state immunity in different jurisdictions where attachment proceedings are likely to come up.
A better option would be to admit that amending the tax law retrospectively was a mistake and comply with the international ruling.

Conclusion

At the time when India seeks to project itself as an attractive investment destination, such cases could be a setback. India needs to avoid such disputes in the future.

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Freedom of Speech – Defamation, Sedition, etc.

Explained: Shreya Singhal case that struck down Section 66A of IT Act

| Polity | Mains Paper 2: Indian Constitution - historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Shreya Singhal Case

Mains level: Section 66A

Six years after it struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Supreme Court earlier this month termed its continued use by law enforcement agencies of various states as “a shocking state of affairs” and sought a response from the Centre.

What did Section 66A do?

Introduced in 2008, the amendment to the IT Act, 2000, gave the government power to arrest and imprison an individual for allegedly “offensive and menacing” online posts, and was passed without discussion in Parliament.
Section 66A empowered police to make arrests over what policemen, in terms of their subjective discretion, could construe as “offensive” or “menacing” or for the purposes of causing annoyance, inconvenience, etc.
It prescribed the punishment for sending messages through a computer or any other communication device like a mobile phone or a tablet, and a conviction could fetch a maximum of three years in jail.
In 2015, the apex court struck down the law in the landmark case Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, calling it “open-ended and unconstitutionally vague”, and thus expanded the contours of free speech to the Internet.

Why was the law criticized?

The problem was with the vagueness about what is “offensive”.
The word having a very wide connotation was open to distinctive, varied interpretations.
It was seen as subjective, and what might have been innocuous for one person, could lead to a complaint from someone else and, consequently, an arrest arbitrarily.

So, how did 66A come under the Supreme Court’s scrutiny?

The first petition came up in the court following the arrest of two girls in Maharashtra by Thane Police in November 2012 over a Facebook post.
The girls had made comments on the shutdown of Mumbai for the funeral of a political leader.
The arrests triggered outrage from all quarters over the manner in which the cyber law was used.
The petition was filed by Shreya Singhal, then a 21-year-old law student.

What were the grounds for the challenge?

The objective behind the 2008 amendment was to prevent the misuse of information technology, particularly through social media.
The petitioners argued that Section 66A came with extremely wide parameters, which allowed whimsical interpretations by law enforcement agencies.
Most of the terms used in the section had not been specifically defined under the Act.
The law was a potential tool to gag legitimate free speech online and to curtail freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the Constitution, going far beyond the ambit of “reasonable restrictions” on that freedom.

What did the Supreme Court decide?

In March 2015, a bench of Justices J. Chelameswar and R.F. Nariman ruled in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India declared Section 66A unconstitutional for “being violative of Article 19(1)(a) and not saved under Article 19(2).”
Article 19(1)(a) gives people the right to speech and expression whereas 19(2) accords the state the power to impose “reasonable restrictions” on the exercise of this right.
The decision was considered a landmark judicial pushback against state encroachment on the freedom of speech and expression.
The bench also read down Section 79– now at the centre of the ongoing “intermediary liability” battle between the Centre and micro-blogging platform Twitter– defining key rules for the relationship between governments and commercial internet platforms.
Section 79 says that any intermediary shall not be held legally or otherwise liable for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted on its platform.

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Civil Aviation Sector – CA Policy 2016, UDAN, Open Skies, etc.

Draft Drone Rules, 2021

Bills/Act/Laws | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Draft Drone Rules, 2021

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has released Draft Drone Rules, 2021, for public consultation. The rules will replace the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2021.

Highlights of the Draft Drone Rules 2021

Number of forms: The rules propose to reduce the number of forms required for manufacturing, importing, testing, certifying and operating drones in India from 25 to six.

Abolishing authorization number: The draft seeks to abolish the unique authorisation number, unique prototype identification number, and certificate of conformance that were previously required for approval of drone flights.

Digital Sky Platform: Digital Sky, a platform launched by the government in December 2018, will become a single-window system for all approvals under the newly proposed rules.

Airspace map: An airspace map segregating the entire landmass of India into Green, Yellow and Red zones will be published on the platform within 30 days of notification of the new rules, the government said. The map will also be machine-readable through an Application Programming Interface (API) for easier plotting of drone flight paths.

Airport Perimeter: The draft rules reduced the airport perimeter from 45 km to 12 km. The rules state that no flight permissions would be required to fly up to 400 feet in green zones and up to 200 feet in the area between 8 and 12 km from the airport perimeter.

Drone corridors: The government will also publish a policy framework for Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) within 60 days of notifying the rules. This will also include frameworks for developing “drone corridors” for the safe transfer of goods by drones.

Drone Promotion Council: The Rules also propose the setting up of a Drone Promotion Council, with the aim of facilitating a business-friendly regulatory regime for drones in India, the establishment of incubators for developing drone technologies and organizing competitive events to showcase drones and counter-drone solutions.

Others: To implement safety features such as “no permission, no take-off”, real-time tracking and geofencing, drone manufacturers, importers and operators will get six months’ time to comply from the date of notification of the rules.

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Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

When were Tilak and Gandhi tried under the Sedition Law?

Prelims Only | | Mains Paper 1: Modern Indian History

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Sedition in colonial times

Mains level: Not Much

Recently, Chief Justice of India N V Ramana observed that the “colonial law” was used by the British to silence Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

Must read:

Sedition Law and its discontents

Use of sedition law through history

According to the LOC blog, the first known instance of the application of the law was the trial of newspaper editor Jogendra Chandra Bose in 1891.
Other prominent examples of the application of the law include the trials of Tilak and Gandhi.
Apart from this, Jawaharlal Nehru, Abul Kalam Azad and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar were also charged with sedition.

When was sedition law used against Gandhi and Tilak?

In 1922, Gandhi was arrested on charges of sedition in Bombay for taking part in protests against the colonial government.
He was sentenced to six years in prison but was released after two years because of medical reasons.
Before Gandhi, Tilak faced three trials in cases related to sedition and was imprisoned twice.
He was charged with sedition in 1897 for writing an article in his weekly publication called Kesari and was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.
He has tried again in 1908 and was represented by MA Jinnah. But his application for bail was rejected and he was sentenced to six years.
The second time he was tried was also because of his writings, one of which referred to the murder of European women in Muzzafarpur when bombs were thrown by Bengali revolutionaries.
Interestingly, the judge who announced Tilak’s sentence in the second trial, Justice DD Davar, had represented him in his first trial in 1897.

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Digital India Initiatives

[pib] Kisan Sarathi Platform

PIB | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: E-Technology In The Aid Of Farmers

In order to facilitate farmers to get ‘right information at right time’ in their desired language, a digital platform namely ‘Kisan Sarathi’ was launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

Kisan Sarathi

This digital platform empowers farmers with the technological interventions to reach farmers in remote areas.
Through this platform, the farmers can interact and avail personalized advisories on agriculture and allied areas directly from the respective scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs).
Using this platform, farmers can get information about crop and crop production, among other things that will help them in improving the quantity of their produce.
Farmers will be able to get information about good crop practices, the right amount of products and many other basic things.

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Police Reforms – SC directives, NPC, other committees reports

Interference an investigating officer can do without

op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Paper 2- Judicial interference in investigation

Context

Instances of judiciary directing the investigating officer point to the need for restraint from the judiciary.

Challenging the discretion of investigating officer

There have been growing instances of subordinate judicial officers, and even High Courts sometimes, directing the investigating officer to effect the arrest of a particular individual.
To deal with the issue, the Supreme Court of India recently made the observation that courts have no authority to direct an investigating officer to in turn direct the arrest of any particular individual connected with a crime
This points to the need for a slightly kindlier view of police conduct and more latitude to them in the standard operating procedures which they follow, especially when they investigate a complicated crime.
The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) vests sufficient discretion in the investigating officer to take such decisions as arrests and searches.

Issues with court’s directions

Court observations that smack of a lack of faith in police ability and integrity will make grass-root level policemen even more arbitrary than now and force them into carrying out questionable actions that will cast aspersions on an officer’s ability to think for himself.
Court interference in the day-to-day investigation is not only undesirable but is also not sanctioned by law.
Only the Supreme Court, has been vested with enormous authority and discretion by the Constitution, the lesser courts shall not give directions in the matter of arrests and searches.

Safeguard against police misconduct

We need to educate the Executive and the common man that it is now well-established law that the police have to register an FIR.
It is mandatory that every police station in the land should register a complaint under the relevant sections of a statute the moment a cognisable offence is made out in the complaint
There is another safeguard against police misconduct.
The CrPC makes it obligatory for the investigating officer to write a diary that details the action taken every day following registration.
When in doubt, the competent court, which already has a copy of the first information report, can demand to see the case diary.
Courts should remember that the police are a well-established hierarchy that is obligated to ensure objectivity during a criminal investigation.
Every investigation is supervised by at least two immediate senior officers.

Conclusion

Judicial interference in an investigation is counterproductive to the idea of justice. Therefore, there is a need for allowing more freedom to the investigating officers in the standard operating procedure that they follow.

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Addressing claims of backwardness by various politically powerful castes

op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary,Government Scheme/Policies

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Social backwardness

Mains level: Paper 2- Claim of backwardness and challenges

Context

Two rulings of the Supreme Court have frayed nerves in Maharashtra on the broader question of “reservation”. The other pertains to OBC reservation in local bodies. Both issues have relevance beyond Maharashtra.

Challenges in addressing the demand for reservation

Lack of quantitative data: The issue of actual numbers or population share of OBCs has been talked about for over a decade.
Besides, there is a need to understand the socio-economic situation of different backward communities.
In the last instance, we have to decide which groups are backward and what needs to be done for them.
The political class have consistently avoided the juridical reality.

Consensus between judiciary and political class

That consensus after implementation of Mandal commission recommendation had three dimensions:
1) Accepting that caste is the main cause of tradition-born backwardness among a large section of the population.
2) Resorting to “reservation” as the easiest policy response.
3) Recognising and accommodating the political aspirations of the backward sections by expanding the social base of the political elite.
But this resulted in the current deadlock on the question of social justice.
Today, not only the Marathas, but Jats and Patidars, too, claim that vast numbers among them have been left behind in the contemporary economy.
These demands have deflected attention from two matters.
1) That the enabling provision of the Constitution aims at social backwardness (caused by societal location).
2) That the causes of economic distress originating in development policies are distinct from backwardness primarily originating in caste location.
Granting reservations on an economic basis seems to have complicated matters.

Five reservation-related issues gaining renewed urgency

Intra-OBC differentiations: This issue was already raised by a member of the Mandal Commission itself.
Most states have failed to come up with an effective arrangement to addressing the issue.
The Centre is currently waiting for a report on this question.
Intra-caste stratification: Intra-caste stratification is increasing — something that was rather limited at the time of Mandal.
What sociologist D L Sheth called as classification is now becoming the central issue, with many complications.
Advantages and logic: The third question is about the specific advantages and logic of reservation in the three different arenas of employment, education and political representation.
Limits of reservation: There is need to discuss the limits of reservation and the need to think of additional measures to augment the policy of social justice.
Setting boundaries: With such widespread poverty and suffering, how do we distinguish between backwardness primarily caused by a group’s social location in traditional social order and backwardness resulting from distortions of the political economy?
Unless we grapple with this question, reservation is bound to remain a contentious issue.

Way forward

The above questions are best left ideally to a third backward classes commission whose time has come.
Removing the 50 per cent cap legislatively needs to be considered.

Conclusion

We need to devise a mechanism to verify the claims of backwardness to address the increasing demands for reservation from the politically strong section of society.

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Foreign Policy Watch: India-Afghanistan

Explained: India’s Afghan investment

| International Relations | Mains Paper 2: India & Its Neighborhood - Relations

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Read the attached story

Mains level: India-Afghan relations

As the Taliban push ahead with military offensives across Afghanistan, preparing to take over after the exit of US and NATO forces, India faces a situation in which it may lose all its stakes.

India-Afghan ties

After a break between 1996 and 2001, when India joined the world in shunning the previous Taliban regime (only Pakistan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia kept ties).
One-way New Delhi re-established ties with the country in the two decades after the 9/11 attacks was to pour in development assistance, under the protective umbrella of the US presence.
India built vital roads, dams, electricity transmission lines and substations, schools and hospitals, etc. India’s development assistance is now estimated to be worth well over $3 billion.
And unlike in other countries where India’s infrastructure projects have barely got off the ground or are mired in the host nation’s politics, it has delivered in Afghanistan.

A soft corner

Afghanistan is vital to India’s strategic interests in the region.
It is also perhaps the only SAARC nation whose people have much affection for India.
Taliban takeover would mean a reversal of nearly 20 years of rebuilding a relationship that goes back centuries.

Projects across the country

[1] SALMA DAM

Already, there has been fighting in the area where one of India’s high-visibility projects is located — the 42MW Salma Dam in Herat province.
The hydropower and irrigation project, completed against many odds and inaugurated in 2016, is known as the Afghan-India Friendship Dam.
In the past few weeks, the Taliban have mounted attacks in nearby places, killing several security personnel.
The Taliban claim the area around the dam is now under their control.

[2] ZARANJ-DELARAM HIGHWAY

The other high-profile project was the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway built by the Border Roads Organisation. Zaranj is located close to Afghanistan’s border with Iran.
With Pakistan denying India overland access for trade with Afghanistan, the highway is of strategic importance to New Delhi, as it provides an alternative route into landlocked Afghanistan through Iran’s Chabahar port.

[3] AFGHAN PARLIAMENT

The Afghan Parliament in Kabul was built by India at $90 million.
It was opened in 2015; PM Modi inaugurated the building.
A block in the building is named after former PM AB Vajpayee.

[4] STOR PALACE

In 2016, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and PM Modi inaugurated the restored Stor Palace in Kabul, originally built in the late 19th century.
It is famous for the 1919 Rawalpindi Agreement by which Afghanistan became an independent country.

[5] POWER INFRA

Other Indian projects in Afghanistan include the rebuilding of power infrastructure such as the 220kV DC transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province to the north of Kabul.
Indian contractors and workers also restored telecommunications infrastructure in many provinces.

[6] HEALTH INFRA

India has reconstructed a children’s hospital it had helped build in Kabul in 1972 —named Indira Gandhi Institute for Child Health in 1985 — that was in shambles after the war.
‘Indian Medical Missions’ have held free consultation camps in several areas.
Thousands who lost their limbs after stepping on mines left over from the war have been fitted with the Jaipur Foot.
India has also built clinics in the border provinces of Badakhshan, Balkh, Kandahar, Khost, Kunar, Nangarhar, Nimruz, Nooristan, Paktia and Paktika.

[7] TRANSPORTATION

According to the MEA, India gifted 400 buses and 200 mini-buses for urban transportation, 105 utility vehicles for municipalities, 285 military vehicles for the Afghan Army.
It also gave three Air India aircraft to Ariana, the Afghan national carrier, when it was restarting operations.

[8] OTHER PROJECTS

India has contributed desks and benches for schools, and built solar panels in remote villages, and Sulabh toilet blocks in Kabul.
New Delhi has also played a role in building capacity, with vocational training institutes, scholarships to Afghan students, mentoring programmes in the civil service, and training for doctors and others.

Various ongoing project

India had concluded with Afghanistan an agreement for the construction of the Shatoot Dam in Kabul district, which would provide safe drinking water to 2 million residents.
Last year, India pledged $1 million for another Aga Khan heritage project, the restoration of the Bala Hissar Fort south of Kabul, whose origins go back to the 6th century.
Bala Hissar went on to become a significant Mughal fort, parts of it were rebuilt by Jahangir, and it was used as a residence by Shah Jahan.

Bilateral trade

Despite the denial of an overland route by Pakistan, the India-Afghanistan trade has grown with the establishment in 2017 of an air freight corridor.
In 2019-20, bilateral trade crossed $1.3 billion.
The balance of trade is heavily tilted — exports from India are worth approximately $900 million, while Afghanistan’s exports to India are about $500 million.
Afghan exports are mainly fresh and dried fruit.
Some of this comes overland through the Wagah border; Pakistan has permitted Afghan trade with India through its territory.
Indian exports to Afghanistan take place mainly through government-to-government contracts with Indian companies.
Exports include pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, computers and related materials, cement, and sugar.
Trade through Chabahar started in 2017 but is restricted by the absence of connectivity from the port to the Afghan border.

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Freedom of Speech – Defamation, Sedition, etc.

Sedition Law and its discontents

| Polity | Mains Paper 2: Indian Constitution - historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Freedom of Speech

Mains level: Sedition law and Free speech

The CJI is now convinced that sedition law (IPC 124A) is being misused by the authorities to trample upon citizens’ fundamental rights of free speech and liberty.

What does Section 124A of the IPC say?

The section deals with the offence of sedition, a term that covers speech or writing, or any form of visible representation, which brings the government into hatred or contempt, or excites disaffection towards the government, or attempts to do so.
It is punishable with three years in prison or a life term.
“Disaffection”, it says, includes disloyalty and feelings of enmity.
However, it also says expressing disapproval of government measures or actions, with a view to getting them changed by lawful means, without promoting hatred or disaffection or contempt towards the government will not come under this section.

What is its origin?

Colonial past: Sedition was introduced in the penal code in 1870, a decade after the Indian Penal Code came into force.
It was a colonial law directed against strong criticism of the British administration.
Putting curb on Freedom fighters: Its most famous victims included Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi called it “the prince among the political sections of the IPC designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen”.

Is it constitutionally valid?

Violative of FRs: Two high courts had found it unconstitutional after Independence, as it violated the freedom of speech and expression.
Reasonable restrictions: The Constitution was amended to include ‘public order’ as one of the ‘reasonable restrictions’ on which free speech could be abridged by law.
Kedar Nath Case: Thereafter, the Supreme Court, in Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar (1962) upheld its validity.
At the same time, it limited its application to acts that involve “intention or tendency to create disorder” or incitement to violence.
Thus, even strongly worded remarks, as long as they do not excite disloyalty and enmity, or incite violence, are not an offence under this section.

Why the controversy now?

Frequent use: In recent times, the resort to this section is seen as disturbingly frequent.
Curbing dissent: Activists, cartoonists and intellectuals have been arrested under this section, drawing criticism from liberals that it is being used to suppress dissent and silence critics.
Misuse for propaganda: Authorities and the police who invoke this section defend the measure as a necessary step to prevent public disorder and anti-national activities.
Irrelevance: Many of them have also been detained under the National Security Act and UAPA.

What is being debated about it?

Liberals and rights activists have been demanding the scrapping of Section 124A.
It is argued that the provision is “overbroad”, i.e., it defines the offence in wide terms threatening the liberty of citizens.
The Law Commission has also called for a reconsideration of the section.
It has pointed that Britain abolished it more than a decade ago and raised the question of whether a provision introduced by the British to put down the freedom struggle should continue to be law in India.
Some argue that a presumption of constitutionality does not apply to pre-constitutional laws as those laws have been made by foreign legislature or bodies.

What has the apex court observed?

Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had flagged the indiscriminate use of the sedition law against people who aired their grievances about the government’s COVID management.
People have been charged even for seeking help to gain medical access, equipment, drugs and oxygen cylinders, especially during the second wave of the pandemic.
Justice U.U. Lalit, in his recent judgment, quashed a sedition case against a person for his alleged remarks about the PM and the Union Government.

Way forward

The time is long past when the mere criticism of governments was sufficient to constitute sedition.
The right to utter honest and reasonable criticism is a source of strength to a community rather than a weakness, the CJI has recorded.

Try answering this PYQ:

Q.With reference to Rowlatt Satyagraha, which of the following statements is/are correct?

The Rowlatt Act was based on the recommendations of the ‘Sedition Committee’.
In Rowlatt Satyagraha, Gandhiji tried to utilize the Home Rule League.
Demonstrations against the arrival of Simon Commission coincided with Rowlatt Satyagraha.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 1 and 2 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

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Parliament – Sessions, Procedures, Motions, Committees etc

What is Adjournment Motion?

| Polity | Mains Paper 2: Parliament & State Legislatures

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Adjournment motion

Mains level: Devices of parliamentary control

Ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament, a political party from Punjab has decided to move an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha against the government on the three controversial farm laws.

Revise all the devices of parliamentary proceedings from your Polity Book.

Recalling the three laws

Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020
Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020
Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020

[Burning Issue] Agricultural Reform Bills, 2020

What is Adjournment Motion?

Adjournment motion is aimed to draw the attention of the House to a recent matter of urgent public importance having serious consequences.
The matter proposed to be raised should be of such a character that something very grave which affects the whole country and its security has happened.
The House is required to pay its attention immediately by interrupting the normal business of the House.
It can introduce only in the Lok Sabha.
It involves an element of censure against the government, therefore Rajya Sabha is not permitted to make use of this device.
In the event of an adjournment motion being adopted, the House automatically stands adjourned.

How it is held?

It is regarded as an extraordinary device as it interrupts the normal business of the House.
It needs the support of 50 members to be admitted.
The notice of an adjournment motion is required to be given on the prescribed form.
A member can give not more than one notice for any one sitting.
The discussion on this motion should last for not less than two hours and thirty minutes.

Restrictions to the motion

The right to move a motion for an adjournment of the business of the House is subject to the following restrictions. It should:

Not raise a question of privilege.
Not revive discussion on a matter that has been discussed in the same session.
Not deal with any matter that is under adjudication of court.
Not raise any question that can be raised on a distinct motion.

Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

Q.The Parliament of India exercises control over the functions of the Council of Ministers through:

Adjournment motion

Question hour

Supplementary questions

Select the correct answer using the code given below: (CSP 2017)

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 2 and 3 only

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Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

Why the Amazon forests are no longer acting as a carbon sink

Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Important Geophysical Phenomena

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Amazon forests

Mains level: Climate Change

The Amazon forests in South America, which are the largest tropical forests in the world, have started emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of absorbing carbon emissions.

Note the countries bordered by the Amazon forests.

Amazon forests

The Amazon rainforest is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America.
This basin encompasses 7,000,000 sq km of which 5,500,000 sq km are covered by the rainforest.
The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Bolivia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.
It represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world.

Why in news?

A significant amount of deforestation in eastern and southeastern Brazil has turned the forest into a source of CO2 that has the ability to warm the planet.
Not only the Amazon rainforests, some forests in Southeast Asia have also turned into carbon sources in the last few years as a result of the formation of plantations and fires.

What have the researchers found?

Over the years as fossil-fuel emissions across the world have increased, the Amazon forests have absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere, helping to moderate the global climate.
But researchers are not saying that because of significant levels of deforestation (over the course of 40 years) there has been a long-term decrease in rainfall and increase in temperatures during the dry season.
Because of these reasons the eastern Amazon forests are no longer carbon sinks, whereas the more intact and wetter forests in the central and western parts are neither carbon sinks nor are they emitters.
Another reason for the eastern region not being able to absorb as much CO2 as it did previously is the conversion of forests into agricultural land.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

What are Doppler Radars?

Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Doppler Radar

Mains level: Not Much

The India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Doppler Radar in Mumbai, which surveys weather patterns and forecasts, stopped working after heavy rainfalls.

How does a Doppler radar work?

In radars, a beam of energy– called radio waves– is emitted from an antenna.
When this beam strikes an object in the atmosphere, the energy scatters in all directions, with some reflecting directly back to the radar.
The larger the object deflecting the beam, the greater is the amount of energy that the radar receives in return.
Observing the time required for the beam to be transmitted and returned to the radar allows weather forecasting departments to “see” raindrops in the atmosphere, and measure their distance from the radar.

What makes a Doppler radar special?

It can provide information on both the position of targets as well as their movement.
It does this by tracking the ‘phase’ of transmitted radio wave pulses; phase meaning the shape, position, and form of those pulses.
As computers measure the shift in phase between the original pulse and the received echo, the movement of raindrops can be calculated.
Thus it is possible to tell whether the precipitation is moving toward or away from the radar.

Types of Doppler radar

In India, Doppler radars of varying frequencies — S-band, C-band and X-band — are commonly used.
They help track the movement of weather systems and cloud bands and gauge rainfall over its coverage area of about 500 km.
The radars guide meteorologists, particularly in times of extreme weather events like cyclones and associated heavy rainfall.
An X-band radar is used to detect thunderstorms and lightning whereas C-band guides in cyclone tracking.

Why are they called ‘Doppler’ radars?

The phase shift in these radars works on the same lines as the “Doppler effect” observed in sound waves.
It tells that the sound pitch of an object approaching the observer is higher due to the compression of sound waves (a change in their phase).
As this object moves away from the observer, the sound waves stretch, resulting in lower frequency.
This effect explains why an approaching train’s whistle sounds louder than the whistle when the train moves away.
The discovery of the phenomenon is attributed to Christian Doppler, a 19th-century Austrian physicist.

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Issues with coercive Population Policy

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Right to reproductive freedom

Mains level: Paper 2- Coercive policy measures to control population

Context

Recently, the government of Uttar Pradesh released a “Population Policy” in which it stated its intention to bring the gross fertility rate in the State down from the existing 2.7 to 2.1 by 2026.

Provisions in the Bill

This draft law, titled the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill, 2021, seeks to provide a series of incentives to families that adhere to a two-child norm.
The Bill also intends on disentitling families that breach the norm from benefits and subsidies.
It promises public servants who undergo sterilisation and adopt a two-child norm several benefits.
The draft Bill also contains a list of punishments.
A person who breaches the two-child norm will be debarred from securing the benefit of any government-sponsored welfare scheme and will be disqualified from applying to any State government job.
Existing government employees who infringe the rule will be denied the benefit of promotion.
Transgressing individuals will be prohibited from contesting elections to local authorities and bodies.

Issues with coercive population control policies

1) Counter-productive measure

Through an affidavit filed in court, the central government argued that “international experience shows that any coercion to have a certain number of children is counter-productive and leads to demographic distortions”.

2) Against international obligations

India is committed to its obligations under international law, including the principles contained in the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, 1994.
Foremost in those principles was a pledge from nations that they would look beyond demographic targets and focus instead on guaranteeing a right to reproductive freedom.

3) Against right to reproductive freedom and privacy

In Suchita Srivastava & Anr vs Chandigarh Administration (2009), the Court found that a woman’s freedom to make reproductive decisions is an integral facet of the right to personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21.
This ruling was endorsed by the Supreme Court’s nine-judge Bench verdict in K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India (2017).
A reading of the plurality of opinions there shows us that the Constitution sees a person’s autonomy over her body as an extension of the right to privacy.
A simple reading of U.P.’s draft law will show us that, if enacted, it will grossly impinge on the right to reproductive freedom.
However, In Javed & Ors vs State of Haryana & Ors (2003), the Court upheld a law that disqualified persons with more than two children from contesting in local body elections.
But the present UP Bill is far more disproportionate, therefore, the judgment in Javed can no longer be seen as good law.
The UP government will likely argue that there is no violation of privacy here because any decision on sterilisation would be voluntary.
But, as we ought to by now know, making welfare conditional is a hallmark of coercion.
Therefore, the proposed law will fall foul of a proportionality analysis.

4) Negative consequences

An already skewed sex ratio may be compounded by families aborting a daughter in the hope of having a son with a view to conforming to the two-child norm.
The law could also lead to a proliferation in sterilisation camps, a practice that the Supreme Court has previously deprecated.
In Devika Biswas vs Union of India (2016), the Court pointed to how these camps invariably have a disparate impact on minorities and other vulnerable groups.

Way forward

Experiences from other States in India show us that there are more efficacious and alternative measures available to control the growth of population, including processes aimed at improving public health and access to education.

Conclusion

For one thing, the reasoning of the Bill goes against the Puttaswamy case. But as rousing as the nine-judge Bench verdict is, its legacy depends on how its findings are applied.

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e-Commerce: The New Boom

The proposed e-commerce rules shield vested interests

op-ed snap | | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Inventory model vs marketplace model

Mains level: Paper 3- Issues with regulation of e-commerce

Context

The proposed Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, have been drafted ostensibly in the name of the consumer. The rules are driven more by the desire to shield the traditional brick-and-mortar stores, and handicap e-commerce firms, especially the foreign ones.

Issues with the provisions of draft Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020

1) Fall-back liability clause is unfair for those operating through marketplace model

Under this provision, e-commerce entities will be liable in case suppliers on the platform fail to deliver the goods to consumers, causing them a loss.
E-commerce firms in India operate through either the inventory model or the marketplace model.
As FDI is permitted only in the marketplace model.
Under the marketplace model, e-commerce platforms don’t hold inventory, but simply connect buyers and sellers.
Foreign players typically operate through this model.
Considering that these platforms exercise little or no control over the inventory under this model, how can they be held liable for the sellers’ actions.

2) Identifying goods based on country of origin and providing fair opportunity to domestic sellers

The draft rules also require e-commerce platforms to identify goods based on their country of origin.
And when goods are being viewed for purchase by consumers, the rules also mandate platforms to provide suggestions to ensure “fair opportunity” for domestic sellers.
This raises the question as to why the Make in India campaign is being pushed through the Consumer Protection Act.
Surely, if domestic manufacturers are competitive, consumers will automatically gravitate towards them.
Interests of consumers, not domestic manufacturers, should be at the core of the consumer protection framework.

3) Overlapping/competing jurisdictions

Data protection: The draft rules have sought to safeguard consumer data by restraining e-commerce firms from sharing consumer data without consent.
But the data protection should be governed by the provisions under the Personal Data Protection Bill and not the Consumer Protection Act.
Considering the graded approach that is likely to be adopted under the Data Protection Bill, an e-commerce user’s data could be classified as per its vulnerability and be left under the jurisdiction of the data protection authority.
Dominant position: The rules also state that e-commerce entities are prohibited from abusing their dominant positions in the market.
The “abuse of dominant position” has been given the same meaning as that prescribed under Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002.
This will open the scope for new consumer protection authority to enter into issues of abuse of dominant position — the domain of the Competition Commission of India.

Consider the question “Over-regulation tends to curb competition and create monopolies instead of ensuring its holistic growth dovetailed with fair competition. In light of this, examine the issues with the draft Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020?”

Conclusion

The lines of demarcation that have been drawn up in the retail landscape — single brand vs multi-brand, online vs offline, domestic vs foreign — serve only to protect powerful vested interests, not benefit the consumer as is often proclaimed.

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Amnesty Scheme for violators of Environment Norms

| Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: EIA

Mains level: Loopholes in EIA

The union environment ministry has put together an amnesty scheme for infrastructure and industrial projects that have violated environmental clearance (EC) norms for Environment Impact Assessment.

What is the Scheme?

The new amnesty scheme empowers regulatory institutions at both central and state levels:

(1) To identify and report cases of violation

It refers to identify, examine and appraise violation projects, refraining from causing further environmental damage and also compensating for causing damage to the environment.

(2) To take action against violators in terms of closure or demolition of a project

It defines three different actions to be taken for the violation projects depending upon their EC status.
In case the project has not obtained EC, it will be ordered to close its operations.
If the project has undergone expansion without obtaining EC for the expanded portion, it will be ordered to revert the activity/production to the limit granted in the existing EC.

(3) To levy penalty on them that is akin to the scale of the project

It entitles the regulatory authorities to levy penalties on the proponent, in addition to the bank guarantee.

Issues with the scheme

There is also no established procedure to ensure that the complaints made against the violator are not dismissed without hearing.
This ambiguity in the memorandum leaves scope for a less transparent redressal mechanism.
The penalties suggested could be termed as legitimating non-compliance.

Criticisms

Environmental experts argue that such a move to regularise projects, irrespective of size, scale or impact, is purely a political move.
They regarded this move as weakening the EIA process.
This will be the largest regularization scheme for projects that have operated illegally in India and added to our total environmental and social burdens.
Thousands of projects operate in different states without any environmental approval.

Way forward

Looking at the plethora of violation cases it is imperative to develop such a mechanism.
However, we should not compromise the existing environmental regulations and adopt a ‘zero tolerance for violation’.

Back2Basics: Environment Impact Assessment

Environment impact assessment is a process under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, which prevents industrial and infrastructural projects from being approved without proper oversight.
This process ensures that every project should go through the EIA process for obtaining prior environmental clearance.
EIA covers projects such as mining of coal or other minerals, infrastructure development, thermal, nuclear and hydropower projects, real estate and other industrial projects.
The projects are assessed based on their potential impact on the environment. Based on the assessments, they are granted or denied environmental clearance by a panel of experts.

Loopholes in draft EIA 2020

The EIA new draft 2020 allows post-facto clearance.
This means that even if a project has come up without environmental safeguards or without getting environment clearances, it could carry out operation under the provision of the new draft EIA 2020.
This is disastrous because we already have several projects that are running without EIA clearances.

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