Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Wildlife week
Mains level: Conservation of wildlife
Celebrating Wildlife Week
- Wildlife Week is celebrated every year in India between October 1 and 8.
- The annual theme of the campaign is to promote the preservation of fauna – i.e. animal life.
- Wildlife Week was conceptualized in 1952 with the overall goal of raising awareness to serve the long-term goal of safeguarding the lives of wildlife through critical action.
- In addition, the Indian Government established an Indian Board of Wild Life which works to improve awareness towards the preservation of wildlife.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Net Zero
Mains level: Climate change commitments
Context- Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Chinese President Xi Jinping made two promises that came as a welcome surprise to climate change watchers.
What has China announced ?
- First, Xi said, China would become carbon net-zero by the year 2060.
- Net-zero is a state in which a country’s emissions are compensated by absorptions and removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
- Absorption can be increased by creating more carbon sinks such as forests, while removal involves application of technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
- Second, the Chinese President announced a small but important change in China’s already committed target for letting its emissions “peak”, from “by 2030” to “before 2030”.
- That means China would not allow its greenhouse gas emissions to grow beyond that point.
- Xi did not specify how soon “before 2030” means, but even this much is being seen as a very positive move from the world’s largest emitter.
How significant is China’s commitment?
- China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. It accounts for almost 30% of global emissions, more than the combined emissions in the United States, the European Union and India, the three next biggest emitters.
- Getting China to commit itself to a net-zero target is a big breakthrough, especially since countries have been reluctant to pledge themselves to such long term commitments.
- So far, the European Union was the only big emitter to have committed itself to a net-zero emission status by 2050.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Research and development is medical science
Context- Earlier this week, late actor Irrfan Khan’s wife Sutapa Sikdar made an appeal to legalise CBD oil in India for its potential to treat cancer. Her appeal followed the criticism of actor Rhea Chakrabaorty after it was reported that she had administered CBD oil, used as a pain reliever for some, to Sushant Singh Rajput when he was alive.
About CBD oil ?
- CBD oil is an extract from the cannabis plant. The two main active substances in it are cannabidiol or CBD and delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
- The high that is caused by the consumption of cannabis is due to THC. CBD, however, does not cause a “high” or any form of intoxication.
- CBD oil is made by extracting CBD from the cannabis plant, then diluting it with a carrier oil like coconut or hemp seed oil.
- Cannabidiol can reduce pain and anxiety. It also reduces psychotic symptoms associated with conditions such as schizophrenia as well as epilepsy.
- There is not enough robust scientific evidence to prove that CBD oil can safely and effectively treat cancer.
- CBD oil manufactured under a license issued by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 can be legally used. However, the use of cannabis as a medicine is not much prevalent in India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Labour Code Bills
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with the labour laws
Increase in the jobs without employment security
- Between 2004-05 and 2017-18, the share of salaried workers outside agriculture without any written contract increased from 60 per cent to 71 per cent.
- Even in private and public limited companies, this share increased from 59 per cent to 71 per cent.
- In the government and the public sector the share of such workers increasing from 27 per cent to 45 per cent over the period.
- Many of the wage jobs in the organised sector came through contractors.
- In organised manufacturing, the reported share of contract labour increased from 13 per cent in 1995-06 to 36 per cent in 2017-18.
Policy response
- A policy to deal with the problem of employment security was much needed.
- The response came in the form the three revised labour Code Bills — on Industrial Relations, Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions, and Social Security.
- These were introduced in Parliament in the Monsoon Session, and approved on September 23.
- These three labour codes, along with the Code on Wages approved earlier, touch the lives of every Indian worker.
“Fixed term” worker
- In 2018, the government amended the Standing Orders on Employment Act and introduced the category of “fixed term” worker.
- That category creates a permanent cadre of temporary workers, with no prospects of career growth and job security.
Changes and issues with the Bills
- 1) Government had rationalised fixed-term employment by arguing that industries had resorted to the third-party engagement of contract labour to get around the rigidities in firing workers.
- But that has not stopped the Codes from further liberalising the provisions relating to employment of contract labour and making their regulation applicable only in establishments employing 50 or more workers, instead of 20 or more.
- 2) The key provisions which regulate the employment of inter-state migrant workers have been further diluted and made applicable only to establishments employing 10 or more such workers, compared to five earlier.
- 3) Along with the provisions of retrenchment, the applicability of the Standing Orders, which regulate the categorisation as well as the terms of employment of workers in establishments, has also been raised from 100 to 300 workers.
- 4) The threshold for factories has now been doubled — from 10 to 20 workers with power — thereby eliminating a large number of important regulatory provisions for the smaller factories.
- 5) Relevant governments have been given much more leeway in exempting establishments from the applicability of a whole range of provisions in the Code.
- 6) Inspection provisions have been diluted in all the Codes and will no longer even be complaints based.
- 7) The changes have also made legal industrial action a virtual impossibility, and the presence of unions less possible.
Conclusion
Informality contributes to inequality and to conditions which make sustainable growth impossible, and economic recovery more difficult. It also creates conditions in which employers under-invest in workers’ capacities and workers are not invested in a company’s future — leading to low productivity and lack of competitiveness.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: APMC Act, Companies Act, ECA 1955
Mains level: Paper 3- Reforms in various sectors of economy
The article discusses the issues faced by the various sectors of the economy and how the reform measures introduced by the government could help these sectors.
Exploitation of farmers and consumers
- The Indian farmer has bee treated as captive sources of producing cheap food grain while living at subsistence levels.
- There was no freedom to choose the point of sale for his produce, he could not decide the price of his product and had no say in selecting the buyer.
- The end consumer was equally short-changed with frequent cycles of persistent high inflation.
- The only beneficiaries of this perverse system were middlemen who thrived under political protection.
How reforms will help farmers
- The stifling nature of the Essential Commodities Act and the APMC Act have both been removed.
- Contract farming is now nationally enabled, allowing private investment to come in.
- Private investment will bring in technology, modern equipment, better seeds, know-how for in-between-season crops, improved yields, better logistics and freer access to national and international markets.
- The Indian farm sector will now finally begin to see the benefits of economies of scale.
Need for the reforms in various sectors
- There were 44 different labour laws with more than 1,200 sections and clauses that demanded compliance if one even thought of becoming an entrepreneur.
- Different inspectors and departments administered these laws and this stunted many entrepreneurs.
- The Companies Act of 2013 completely paralysed risk-taking and quick decision-making among the private wealth creators.
- There were a large number of organisations that called themselves “banks” but were completely outside the ambit of RBI regulation.
- The politicians who controlled these banks were the primary obstacles in introducing any reforms in these sectors.
- Indian mainstream banks, contrary to international norms, had a peculiar practice of “grossing” their bilateral liabilities rather than “netting”.
- As per estimates, this locked anywhere between Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 crore funds.
Reforms made by the government
- In place of the 44 central labour laws, the Parliament has now put in place four labour codes that are much simpler — the Code on Wages, the Industrial Relations Code, the Social Security Code and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code.
- The bilateral banking netting law has been passed and a large corpus of unproductive capital has been freed to be deployed in the market.
- Cooperative banks will now be regulated by the RBI and its customers will have the same protections as those of other regular banks.
- The problematic sections of the Companies Act 2013 have been done away with and the fear of criminal prosecution gone.
Conclusion
The reforms in various sectors of the economy are bound to help the faster recovery of the economy as well as help the farmers realising their full potential.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Quad members
Mains level: Paper 2- Future course of action for Quad
The article discusses the future course of action for the Quad and issues it faces in the present circumstances.
Evolution of the Quad
- In 2007, the Quad (the United States, Japan, India, and Australia) was an idea whose time had not yet come.
- The global financial crisis was yet to happen as America continued to enjoy its ‘unipolar moment’.
- The American still expected China to become a ‘responsible stake-holder’.
- America required Chinese goodwill in handling issues with North Korea and Iran, and the War on Terror.
- Japan and Australia were riding the China Boom to prosperity.
- If India was ambivalent at the time, it was because this mirrored the uncertainties of others.
China’s reaction and naval expansion
- When the idea of Quad was barely on the table; the Chinese, labelled it as an Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
- The real reason for China’s hyperreaction was out of concern that such a grouping would “out” China’s plans for naval expansion by focusing on the Indo-Pacific maritime space.
- Once the idea of Quad 1.0 had died down, China advanced a new claim — the Nine-Dash Line — in the South China Sea.
- It undertook the rapid kind of warship building activity
- It built its first overseas base in Djibouti.
- It started systematically to explore the surface and sub-surface environment in the Indian Ocean beyond the Malacca Straits.
- China’s dismissal of the Arbitral Award in the dispute with the Philippines on the South China Sea and its militarization of the islands has given a second chance to the Quad.
Quad: A plurilateral mechanism
- The Quad nations need to better explain that the Indo-Pacific Vision is an overarching framework being discussed in a transparent manner.
- They should also explain that the objective of Indo-Pacific vision is of advancing everyone’s economic and security interests.
- The Quad is a plurilateral mechanism between countries that share interest on specific matters.
- In 2016, China itself established a Quadrilateral Cooperation and Coordination Mechanism with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
- The Quad is no exception.
Way forward
- The forthcoming Ministerial Quad meeting will be an opportunity to define the idea and chart a future path.
- Needless provocation of China should be avoided.
- Other countries might be invited to join in the future.
- An outreach to the Indian Ocean littoral states is especially important since there are reports from some quarters suggesting that India is seeking to deny access to some extra-regional countries through the Indian Ocean.
Conclusion
A positive agenda built around collective action in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, monitoring shipping for search and rescue or anti-piracy operations, infrastructure assistance to climatically vulnerable states, connectivity initiatives and similar activities, will re-assure the littoral States that the Quad will be a factor for regional benefit, and a far cry from Chinese allegations that it is some sort of a military alliance.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Eight Schedule
Mains level: Paper 2- Eighth Schedule and related issues
The article discusses the issues with excessive attention given to Hindi and how the neglect of another language could lead to the loss of language and the way of life associated with it as well.
Debate in Constituent Assembly and issues in the adoption of Hindi
- The issue of adopting a national language could not be resolved when the Constituent Assembly began drafting India’s Constitution.
- Members from the Hindi-speaking provinces who moved a number of pro-Hindi amendments and argued for adopting Hindi as the sole national language.
- Widespread resistance to the imposition of Hindi led to the passage of the Official Languages Act of 1963, which provided for the continued use of English for all official purposes.
- Hindi became the sole working language of the Union government by 1965 with the State governments free to function in the language of their choice.
- The constitutional directive for the Union government to encourage the spread of Hindi was retained within Central government entities in non-Hindi-speaking States.
Issues with the Eighth Schedule
- According to the 2001 Census, India has 30 languages that are spoken by more than a million people each.
- The Constitution lists 22 languages and protects them in the eighth schedule.
- Many languages are kept out of this schedule even if they deserve to be included.
- This includes Tulu which is spoken by over 1.8 million people and has inscriptions dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries.
- While Hindi, a much younger Indo-Aryan language, has been gaining prominence since before independence.
- When a refined language loses its status in literary and daily interactions, the way of life associated with it also vanishes.
- The Census found that while Hindi is the fastest growing language, the number of speakers of other languages has dropped.
Way forward
- While discussing Hindi and its use, let us also focus on the merit of other Indian languages.
- Instead of focusing on one national language, we should learn a language beyond the mother tongue and get to know a different way of life too.
Conclusion
If we don’t protect and promote other well-evolved or endangered and indigenous languages, our future generations may end up never understanding their ‘real’ roots and culture
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ambedkar Social Innovation and Incubation Mission
Mains level: Significance of Venture Capital Fund for Schedule caste
Union Social Justice Minister launched the Ambedkar Social Innovation and Incubation Mission(ASIIM) under Venture Capital Fund for SCs, with a view to promoting innovation and enterprise among SC students studying in higher educational institutions.
What is ASIIM ?
- Under Ambedkar Social Innovation Incubation Mission initiative, one thousand SC youth will be identified in the next four years with start-up ideas through the Technology Business Incubators in various higher educational institutions.
- They will be funded 30 lakh rupees in three years as equity funding to translate their start-up ideas into commercial ventures.
- Successful ventures would further qualify for venture funding of up to five Crore rupees from the Venture Capital Fund for SCs.
Venture Capital Fund for SCs:
- The Social Justice Ministry had launched the Venture Capital Fund for SCs in 2014-15 with a view to developing entrepreneurship amongst the SC and Divyang youth and to enable them to become job-givers.
- The objective of this fund is to provide concessional finance to the entities of the SC entrepreneurs. Under this fund, 117 companies promoted by SC entrepreneurs have been sanctioned financial assistance to set up business ventures.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sawantwadi toys
Mains level: NA
Context- Online Release of Picture Postcard on Sawantwadi Toy by India Post.
What are Sawantwadi toys ?
- Sawantwadi toys refers to hand made works of art made of wood in Sawantwadi a town in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra. Most of these toys are made in the village of Kolgaon in Sawantwadi taluka.
- These toys are made from the wood of the Indian Coral tree (Erythrina variegata).
- Craftsmen who make these toys belong to the Chittari community who came to Sawantwadi from Karwar and Goa.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kanaklata Barua
Mains level: Role of women in Indian National Movement
A Fast Patrol Vessel (FPV) named ICGS Kanaklata Barua was commissioned in the Indian Coast Guard on Wednesday, in Kolkata. It is named after a teenage freedom fighter who was shot dead in Assam during the Quit India Movement.
Who was Kanaklata Barua ?
- One of the youngest martyrs of the Quit India Movement, Kanaklata Barua has iconic status in Assam. Barua.
- Then 17, led the Mukti Bahini, a procession of freedom fighters to unfurl the Tricolour at Gohpur police station on September 20, 1942. When police did not let them move forward, an altercation led to firing, killing Barua at the head of the procession.
- She had joined the Mrityu Bahini [a kind of a suicide squad] just two days before the incident. The squad strictly admitted members aged 18 and above but Kanaklata was an exception. She wanted to lead the procession and after much persuasion she was allowed to.
- Even as Barua fell to bullets, she did not let go of the flag. She did not want it to touch the ground. Another woman volunteer behind her — Mukunda Kakoty — came and held the flag, and she, too, was shot.
How important is her legacy ?
- 1940’s was a time where you saw a lot of women coming to the fore, leading processions, patriotic fervour was at its peak — and Kanaklata was a product of this time.
- There are schools named after her, there are two statues, there is a ship. While we see her as an icon now, people in her village hated her then — she was a rebel, who questioned patriarchy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kelkar committee and defense offset
Mains level: Procurement of defense equipments
What are defence offsets ?
- In simplest terms, the offset is an obligation by an international player to boost India’s domestic defence industry if India is buying defence equipment from it.
- Since defence contracts are costly, the government wants part of that money either to benefit the Indian industry, or to allow the country to gain in terms of technology.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) defined offsets as a “mechanism generally established with the triple objectives of: (a) partially compensating for a significant outflow of a buyer country’s resources in a large purchase of foreign goods (b) facilitating induction of technology and (c) adding capacities and capabilities of domestic industry”.
When was the policy introduced?
- The policy was adopted on the recommendations of the Vijay Kelkar Committee in 2005.
- The idea was that since India has been buying a lot of defence equipment from foreign countries, so that India can leverage its buying power by making them discharge offset obligations, which is the norm world over.
- The Sixth Standing Committee on Defence (2005-06) had recommended in December 2005 in its report on Defence Procurement Policy and Procedure that modalities for implementation of offset contracts should be worked out.
- The first offset contract was signed in 2007.
How can a foreign vendor fulfil its offset obligations?
- There are multiple routes. Until 2016, the vendor had to declare around the time of signing the contract the details about how it will go about it. In April 2016, the new policy amended it to allow it to provide it “either at the time of seeking offset credits or one year prior to discharge of offset obligations”.
- Investment in ‘kind’ in terms of transfer of technology (TOT) to Indian enterprises, through joint ventures or through the non-equity route for eligible products and services.
- Investment in ‘kind’ in Indian enterprises in terms of provision of equipment through the non-equity route for manufacture and/or maintenance of products and services.
- Provision of equipment and/or TOT to government institutions and establishments engaged in the manufacture and/or maintenance of eligible products, and provision of eligible services, including DRDO (as distinct from Indian enterprises).
- Technology acquisition by DRDO in areas of high technology.
Will no defence contracts have offset clauses now ?
- Only government-to-government agreements (G2G), ab initio single vendor contracts or inter-governmental agreements (IGA) will not have offset clauses anymore. For example, the deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets, signed between the Indian and French governments in 2016, was an IGA.
- IGA is an agreement between two countries, and could be an umbrella contract, under which you can go on signing individual contracts. G2G is transaction specific, or an acquisition specific agreement.
Why was the clause removed?
- Vendors would “load” extra cost in the contract to balance the costs, and doing away with the offsets can bring down the costs in such contracts.
Conclusion- The CAG is not very hopeful of the obligations being met by 2024. It said the audit “found that the foreign vendors made various offset commitments to qualify for the main supply contract but later, were not earnest about fulfilling these commitments”.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Separation of role of District Magistrate and Police Commissioner
The article analyses how could the duel role assigned to an official leads to the problems in certain situations and so suggest the separation of the roles.
Context
- Delhi Police, having magisterial powers under the Criminal Procedure Code to take preventive action has been criticised for failing to maintain public order and prevent riots in Delhi.
Issue with delegation: Confusion powers with the role
- The distinction between independent actions, for which no political clearance is needed, by the District Magistrate to maintain public order and by the police to investigate crime and make arrests, was ignored.
- Maintaining public order requires the District Magistrate to make hard choices but there can be no justification for lack of effective police action.
- The District Magistrate is expected to consider protest as legitimate.
- In Delhi, the police did not distinguish between wider political support and violence caused by a few.
Distinction between “law and order” and “public order”
- The Supreme Court has made a distinction between law and order, relating to individual crime, and public order.
- Law and order consists of the analysis made by police of the situation in an area and their commitment to firm action and penalties under criminal law.
- Public order is a duty imposed on the District Magistrate to assess whether it is necessary to rush to the spot where law and order has been breached to prevent violence.
- The District Magistrate’s role is important in exceptional situations — for example, to prevent a breach of peace at a particular place.
- If an official is allotted a dual role, this could lead to the displacement of one goal in favour of the other.
Supreme Court’s guidelines
- The Supreme Court has formulated certain guidelines and rules when it comes to these distinct duties.
- 1) In Ram Manohar Lohia vs. State of Bihar, in 1965, the Supreme Court held that in the case of ‘public order’, the community or the public at large have to be affected by a particular action as it “embraces more of the community than ‘law and order’, which affects only a few individuals”.
- 2) In the Madhu Limaye case, the Bench reiterated that “the emergency must be sudden and the consequences sufficiently grave” for imposition of restrictions.
- 3) In Anuradha Bhasin vs. Union of India, the Supreme Court held that prohibitive orders should not prevent legitimate expression of opinion or grievance or exercise of democratic rights.
- The Supreme Court has also specifically recognised the importance of the assessment of the role of the District Magistrate, distinct from that of the police.
Way forward
- Judicial review of roles and proportionality of decisions for maintaining public order requires a policy rethink.
- Prevention through grievance redress and reliance on the least blunt instruments are critical for legitimacy.
- The National Police Commission also recognises the coordinating role of the District Magistrate, having more leverage than the police.
Conclusion
The role of the District Magistrate needs to be clearly differentiated from the role of the Police Commissioner.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2-Issues with the Code on the Wages
The article discusses the issues in the Code on Wages (yet to be notified) 2019 and how it fails to achieve what it seeks to achieve.
Code on Wages 2019
- The Code on Wages, 2019 seeks to consolidate and simplify four pieces of legislation into a single code. These 4 legislations are-
- 1) Payment of Wages Act, 1936.
- 2) Minimum Wages Act, 1948.
- 3) Payment of Bonus Act, 1965.
- 4) Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
- Its object and reasons stated that even the Second National Commission on Labour- 2002 suggested consolidating all labour laws into four codes.
Issues with the consolidation
- While the previous four pieces of legislation had a total of 119 sections, the new Code has 69 sections.
- Any consolidation will impact the length of the sections.
- Further, all requirements for enforcing the Act, have been relegated to the Rules.
- As a result, the delegated pieces of legislation (Rules) will be bigger than the Code; this is no way to condense prior pieces of legislation.
- All the four repealed pieces of legislation were enacted historically at different points in time and to deal with different situations.
- The combining of asymmetrical laws into a single code is not an easy task and will only create its own set of new problems.
- The central government will have the power to fix a “floor wage”.
- Once it is fixed, State governments cannot fix any minimum wage less than the “floor wage”.
- The concept should be for a binding minimum wage and not have dual wage rates — a binding floor wage and a non-binding minimum wage.
- Neither the Code nor the Rules (presently, draft Rules) prescribe the qualifications and experience required for appointment of competent authority.
- Anew provision (Section 52) has been introduced where an officer will be notified with power to impose a penalty in the place of a judicial magistrate.
- An essential judicial function is now sought to be vested with the executive in contravention of Article 50 of the Constitution.
Issue of MGNREGA wages
- There were cases as to whether the Minimum Wages Act would have an over-riding effect over the provisions of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005.
- Several High Courts have placed the Minimum Wages Act to override MGNREGA.
- That has been set to rest by excluding MGNREGA from the purview of the Code on Wages.
- That has been set to rest by excluding MGNREGA from the purview of the Code on Wages.
Conclusion
The Code on Wages (yet to be notified) has neither succeeded in consolidation of laws nor will it achieve the expansion of the coverage of workers in all industries in the unorganised sector.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Retrospective legislation
Mains level: Paper 3-Implications of Vodafone tax case ruling
Context
- An Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) tribunal has ruled that India’s imposition of tax liability amounting to ₹22,000 crore on Vodafone is in breach of India-Netherlands bilateral investment treaty obligations.
Background of the case
- This case arose after the Indian Parliament in 2012 amended the Income Tax Act.
- As per the amendment, income deemed to be accruing to non-residents, directly or indirectly, through the transfer of a capital asset situated in India is taxable retrospectively with effect from April 1, 1962.
- This amendment was carried out to override the Supreme Court ruling in favour of Vodafone.
- This amendment dented India’s reputation as a country governed by the rule of law, and shook the faith of foreign investors.
Key lessons from Vodafone case
- 1) All the three organs of the Indian state — Parliament, executive, and the judiciary — need to internalise India’s BIT and other international law obligations.
- These organs need to ensure that they exercise their public powers in a manner consistent with international law, or else their actions could prove costly to the nation.
- 2) India should learn that being a country that values the rule of law is an important quality to win over the confidence of foreign investors and international goodwill.
- 3) It is likely that the government might challenge the award at the seat of arbitration or resist the enforceability of this award in Indian courts alleging that it violates public policy.
- It would mean that India does not honour its international law obligation.
- 4) This ruling might have an impact on the two other ISDS claims that India is involved in with Cairn Energy and Vedanta on the imposition of taxes retrospectively.
- 5) It is quite possible that India might use this award to further harden its antagonistic stand against ISDS and BITs.
- India unilaterally terminated almost all its BITs after foreign investors started suing India for breaching BITs.
- But the fact is that this case and several others are a result of bad state regulation.
- 6) This decision shows the significance of the ISDS regime to hold states accountable under international law when in case of undue expansion of state power.
- The case is a reminder that the ISDS regime, notwithstanding its weaknesses, can play an important role in fostering international rule of law.
Consider the question “What were the issues involved in the Vodafone tax case? What are the implication of Investor-State Dispute Settlement ruling for India?”
Conclusion
If government is serious about wooing foreign investment, India should immediately comply with the decision.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Fifth Schedule
Mains level: Forest dwellers role in its conservation
Maharashtra government has issued a notification modifying the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 that will enable tribals and other traditional forest dwelling families to build houses in the neighbourhood forest areas.
Try this question for mains:
Q.Forest dwellers are integral to the very survival and sustainability of the forest ecosystem. Analyse.
Historical Background
1878: The Forest Act of 1878 was introduced and it truncated the centuries-old traditional use by communities of their forests and secured the colonial governments control over the forestry. The provision of this Act established a virtual State monopoly over the forests in a legal sense on one hand, and attempted to establish, on the other, that the customary use of the forests by the villagers was not a ‘right’, but a ‘privilege’ that could be withdrawn at will.
1927: The Indian Forest Act, 1927. In continuance with the forest use policy of 1878, this landmark law – India’s main forest law, had nothing to do with conservation. It was created to serve the British need for timber. It sought to override customary rights and forest management systems by declaring forests state property and exploiting their timber.
1952: ‘National interests’ overrode all interests and forests were viewed as a national asset. It was made clear that local priorities and interests and claims of the communities around forest areas should be subservient to larger national interests
About the FRA, 2006
- The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, is a key piece of forest legislation in India.
- It has also been called the Forest Rights Act, the Tribal Rights Act, the Tribal Bill, and the Tribal Land Act. In the colonial era, the British diverted abundant forest wealth of the nation to meet their economic needs.
- While the procedure for settlement of rights was provided under statutes such as the Indian Forest Act, 1927, these were hardly followed.
- As a result, tribal and forest-dwelling communities, who had been living within the forests in harmony with the environment and the ecosystem, continued to live inside the forests in tenurial insecurity, a situation which continued even after independence as they were marginalised.
- The symbiotic relationship between forests and forest-dwelling communities found recognition in the National Forest Policy, 1988.
- The FRA, 2006, was enacted to protect the marginalised socio-economic class of citizens and balance the right to the environment with their right to life and livelihood.
What empowers the Governor?
- The notification has been issued by the Governor using his powers under subparagraph (1) of paragraph 5 of the Schedule V of the Constitution, according to a statement issued by Raj Bhavan.
- PESA rules in the State have given recognition to many habitations as villages, but there is no provision for land for house-building.
Significance of the move
- The decision is likely to provide a major relief to Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest-dwelling families residing in the scheduled areas of the State.
- The urban areas get increased FSI, the rural areas (on revenue lands) get the same too, but tribal villages (on forest lands) have no legal space for building houses.
- The move aims to prevent the migration of forest-dwelling families outside their native villages and provide them with housing areas by extending the village site into forest land in their neighbourhood.
Back2Basics: Fifth Schedule of the Constitution
- It deals with the administration and control of Scheduled Areas as well as of Scheduled Tribes residing in any State other than the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram (ATM2).
- In Article 244(1) of the Constitution, expression Scheduled Areas means such areas as the President may by order declare to be Scheduled Areas (SA).
The President may at any time by order-
- direct that the whole or any specified part of SA shall cease to be a SA or a part of such an area;
- increase the area of any SA in a State after consultation with the Governor of that State;
- alter, but only by way of rectification of boundaries, any Scheduled Area;
- on any alteration of the boundaries of a State on the admission into the Union or the establishment of a new State, declare any territory not previously included in any State to be, or to form part of, a SA;
- rescind, in relation to any State of States, any order or orders made under these provisions and in consultation with the Governor of the State concerned, make fresh orders redefining the areas which are to be SA.
- The Governor may, by public notification, direct that any particular Act of Parliament or of the Legislature of the State shall or shall not apply to a SA or any part thereof in the State, subject to such exceptions and modifications, as specified.
- The Governor may make regulations for the peace and good government of any area in the State which is for the time being a SA. Such regulations may
- prohibit or restrict the transfer of land by or among members of the Scheduled Tribes in such area;
- regulate the allotment of land to members of the STs in such area;
- regulate the carrying on of business as money-lender by persons who lend money to members of the STs in such area.
In making such regulations, the Governor may repeal or amend any Act of Parliament or of Legislature of the State or any existing law after obtaining the assent of the President.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Causacus region mapping
Mains level: Usual crisis in the middle east and caucasus region
Fresh clashes erupted on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, threatening to push the countries back to war 26 years after a ceasefire was reached.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Turkey is located between-
(a) The Black Sea and Caspian Sea
(b) The Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea
(c) Gulf of Suez and the Mediterranean Sea
(d) Gulf of Aqaba and the Dead Sea
The conflict
- The largely mountainous and forested Nagorno-Karabakh, home for some 150,000 people, is at the centre of the conflict.
- Nagorno-Karabakh is located within Azerbaijan but is populated, mostly, by those of Armenian ethnicity (and mostly Christian compared to the Shia Muslim majority Azerbaijan).
- The conflict can be traced back to the pre-Soviet era when the region was at the meeting point of Ottoman, Russian and the Persian empires.
A legacy of soviet era
- Once Azerbaijan and Armenia became Soviet Republics in 1921, Moscow gave Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan but offered autonomy to the contested region.
- In the 1980s, when the Soviet power was receding, separatist currents picked up in Nagorno-Karabakh.
- In 1988, the national assembly voted to dissolve the region’s autonomous status and join Armenia.
- But Baku suppressed such calls, which led to a military conflict.
- When Armenia and Azerbaijan became independent countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the clashes led to an open war in which tens of thousands of people were killed.
- The war lasted till 1994 when both sides reached a ceasefire (they are yet to sign a peace treaty and the border is not clearly demarcated).
Issue over control
- By that time, Armenia had taken control of Nagorno-Karabakh and handed it to Armenian rebels. The rebels have declared independence, but have not won recognition from any country.
- The region is still treated as a part of Azerbaijan by the international community, and Baku wants to take it back.
What is the strategic significance of the region?
- The energy-rich Azerbaijan has built several gas and oil pipelines across the Caucasus (the region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea) to Turkey and Europe.
- This includes the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline (with a capacity of transporting 1.2 billion barrels a day), the Western Route Export oil pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline and the South Caucasus gas pipeline.
- Some of these pipelines pass close to the conflict zone (within 16 km of the border). In an open war between the two countries, the pipelines could be targeted, which would impact energy supplies.
What’s Turkey’s role?
- Turkey has historically supported Azerbaijan and has had a troublesome relationship with Armenia.
- In the 1990s, during the war, Turkey closed its border with Armenia and it has no diplomatic relations with the country.
- The main point of contention between the two was Ankara’s refusal to recognise the 1915 Armenian genocide in which the Ottomans killed some 1.5 million Armenians.
- On the other end, the Azeris and Turks share strong cultural and historical links. Azerbaijanis are a Turkic ethnic group and their language is from the Turkic family.
Where does Russia stand?
- Moscow sees the Caucasus and Central Asian region as its backyard. But the current clashes put President Vladimir Putin in a difficult spot.
- Russia enjoys good ties with both Azerbaijan and Armenia and supplies weapons to both.
- But Armenia is more dependent on Russia than the energy-rich, ambitious Azerbaijan. Russia also has a military base in Armenia.
- But Moscow, at least publicly, is trying to strike a balance between the two. Like in the 1990s, its best interest would be in mediating a ceasefire between the warring sides.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Obesity
Mains level: Obesity in India
Adults in urban India consume much more fat than those in rural areas, found the latest survey by the Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Nutrition.
Do you know?
Over-nutrition is also a form of malnutrition.
‘What India Eats’ Survey
- Adults in India’s urban centres consumed 51.6 grammes fat per day per head on an average. The volume was 36 g in rural areas, according to the survey report What India Eats.
- The report categorised fat into two groups:
- Visible or added fat, comprising oils and fat in preparing food, in fried food and those derived from meat and poultry
- Invisible fat, including fat/oils from rice, pulses, nuts and oilseeds
Urban-Rural data
- 84 per cent of the rural population secured their energy (E) per day requirement from total fats/oils, or visible / added fats.
- On the other hand, less than 20 per cent of the urban population derived their E / day from this category.
- In urban areas of the country, northern India had the highest intake of added fat with 45.9 g / day.
- Southern India reported the lowest per capita consumption of added fat/oils with 22.9 g / day in this segment of the population.
- In the urban region of north India, fat intake (67.3 g) was among the highest; and overweight, obesity and abdominal obesity were highest when compared to other regions.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cat Que Virus
Mains level: Not Much
In a study published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, scientists have noted the presence of antibodies against the Cat Que virus (CQV) in two human serum samples.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which one of the following statements is not correct?
(a) Hepatitis B virus is transmitted much like HIV.
(b) Hepatitis B, unlike Hepatitis C, does not have a vaccine.
(c) Globally, the number of people infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses is several times more than those infected with HIV.
(d) Some of those infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses do not show the symptoms for many years.
What is the Cat Que Virus?
- For CQV, domestic pigs are considered to be the primary mammalian hosts.
- Antibodies against the virus indicate that the virus has formed a “natural cycle” in the local area and has the ability to spread in pigs and other animal populations through mosquitoes.
- CQV belongs to the Simbu serogroup and infects both humans and economically important livestock species.
- It was first isolated in 2004 from mosquitoes during the surveillance of arbovirus activity in northern Vietnam.
- In this study, researchers reported a CQV strain (SC0806), which was isolated from mosquito samples collected in China in 2006 and 2008.
Impact on humans
- Humans can get infected through mosquitoes as well.
- In the study, scientists note that because of positivity in human serum samples and the replication capability of CQV in mosquitoes, there is only a “possible disease-causing potential” of CQV in the Indian scenario.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India and relations with its neighbours
The article analyses the inherent challenges India faces in managing good relations with its neighbours.
Duality challenge
- Even for the Britishers, it was an unceasing struggle to sustain its primacy in the region.
- The notion of regional primacy certainly persisted in the Nehru era.
- Primacy was hard to sustain after Independence even within the immediate neighbourhood.
Five reasons stand out
1) Partition of the subcontinent
- The problems generated by the great division of the Subcontinent on religious lines continue to animate the region.
- Partition created the challenges of settling boundaries, sharing river-waters, protecting the rights of minorities, and easing the flow of goods and people.
- The burden of the Subcontinent’s history is not easily discarded.
2) Unification of China
- The unification of China amidst the Partition of India had profoundly transformed the geopolitical condition of India.
- Beyond the bilateral territorial dispute in the Himalayas, the emergence of a large and purposeful state on India’s frontiers was going to be a problem given the ease with which it could constrain Delhi within the Subcontinent.
3) India’s choice in favour of de-globalisation
- Independent India’s conscious choice in favour of de-globalisation led to a steady dissipation of commercial connectivity with the neighbours.
- India’s economic reorientation since the 1990s and the rediscovery of regionalism did open possibilities for reconnecting with its neighbours.
- Delhi today is acutely aware of the need to revive regional connectivity.
- There is much progress in recent years — note, for example, the recent launch of a ferry service to the Maldives or the reopening of inland waterways with Bangladesh.
- Integrating India’s regional economic and foreign policy remains a major challenge-Consider the recent fiasco of onion exports to Bangladesh.
4) Rise of political agency in the neighbourhood
- India ignores the rise of political agency among neighbourhood elites and mass politics that they need to manage.
- Their imperatives don’t always coincide with those of Delhi.
- It is unlikely that Delhi can completely insure itself against the intra-elite conflicts in the neighbourhood.
5) Influence of domestic politics on foreign policy
- Can India persistently champion Tamil minority rights in Sri Lanka without incurring any costs with the Sinhala majority?
- But asking that question takes us to India’s own domestic politics.
- Can Delhi ignore sentiments in India’s Tamil Nadu in making its Sri Lanka policy?
- Indian Prime Minister did not attend the Colombo Commonwealth Summit in 2013 because of the Tamil minority issue.
- The Teesta Waters agreement was not concluded due to political reasons.
Ways forward
- Timely responses to problems.
- Preventing small issues from becoming big.
- Aligning Delhi’s regional economic policy with India’s natural geographic advantages .
- These are some important elements of any successful management of India’s perennial neighbourhood challenges.
Conclusion
There are no easy answers to the regional difficulties that trouble all governments in Delhi. The source of the problem lies in the deeply interconnected nature of South Asian societies administered by multiple sovereigns.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: U.N. and its organs
Mains level: Paper 2- United Nations and the challenges it faces
As the U.N. enters into 75th year of its existence, it faces several challenges. The article discusses such challenges.
Challenges to the multilateralism
1) Withdrawal of the main stakeholders: U.S. and the U.K.
- The U.S. is withdrawing from multilateralism and so it the U.K.
- Brexit has shown that nationalism remains strong in Europe.
- Nevertheless, the most important development is the position of the U.S.
- The U.S., which created the international system as we know today, is no longer willing to be its “guarantor of last resort”.
- U.S. President Donald Trump stressed “America First” and suggested that others too should put their countries first.
2) China’s reluctance
- China has stepped in to take advantage of the West’s retreat from multilateralism.
- But China is not embracing the idea of multilateralism.
- China’s Belt and Road Initiative consists of a series of bilateral credit agreements with recipient countries with no mechanism for multilateral consultation or oversight.
- The European Union’s and U.S.’s sanctions against Russia have driven it closer to China.
- Work of the UN Security Council has been affected by the lack of consensus between its permanent members.
3) Turkey’s interventions
- Turkey has intervened in Syria, Libya, and the Eastern Mediterranean, which is a breach of international law.
- The last was a reference to Turkey sending a drilling ship in Greek and Cypriot exclusive economic zones.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a detailed reference to the Jammu and Kashmir issue.
- As Turkey has assumed the position of UN General Assembly President, statement and its actions matters.
4) Paucity of resources
- Over 40 UN political missions and peacekeeping operations engage 95,000 troops, police, and civil personnel. it suffers from a paucity of resources.
- The UN peacekeeping budget, a little over $8 billion, is a small fraction of the $1.9 trillion military expenditure governments made in 2019.
- Most of the humanitarian assistance, developmental work, and budgets of the specialised agencies are based on voluntary contributions.
- There are calls for increasing public-private partnerships. This is not a satisfactory arrangement.
- The UN provides ‘public goods’ in terms of peace and development often in remote parts of the world.
- There may not be enough appetite on the part of corporations. The UN remains an inter-governmental body.
5) Climate action
- President Trump mentioned that China’s emissions are nearly twice of those of the U.S.
- Despite its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the U.S. has reduced its carbon emissions by more than any country in the world.
- President Xi said that after peaking emissions by 2030, China will achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
- President Macron said that he was determined to see the EU agree on a target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
Consider the question “As the world is facing the retreat from multilateralism, what are the challenges facing the U.N. in the current global order?”
Conclusion
What does the UN bring to the developing countries? It gives them greater political space. We need to support reform not only to expand the permanent members’ category of the Security Council but also to revitalise the role of the General Assembly. The retreat from multilateralism would undermine the UN’s capacity to face diverse challenges.
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