Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Doctrine of colorable legislation
Mains level: Federalism issue raised by the Agricultural Bills
The President has finally given assent to the controversial farm Bills passed by Parliament last week. Amid protests by farmers’ organisations across the country, questions are being raised about the anti-federal nature of these ‘Acts’.
Here we shall only discuss its constitutionality and federal nature. Tap to read more about the theme at:
What is the question over the constitutionality of these laws?
- These are some of the questions that will be raised in the petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Acts.
- As per Union of India v H.S.Dhillon (1972), the constitutionality of parliamentary laws can be challenged only on two grounds — that the subject is in the State List, or that it violates fundamental rights.
- As per Ram Krishna Dalmia v Justice S R Tendolkar (1958) and other judgments, the Supreme Court will begin hearings after presuming the constitutionality of these laws.
- The bills (now Acts as they have got the President’s assent) do not mention, in the Statement of Objects & Reasons, the constitutional provisions under which Parliament has the power to legislate on the subjects covered.
Where does the question of federalism come in?
What is federalism, first?
- Federalism is the system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units.
- It is based upon democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and state governments, creating a federation.
- It essentially means both the Centre and states have the freedom to operate in their allotted spheres of power, in coordination with each other.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which of the following federal principles are not found in Indian federation?
- Bifurcation of the judiciary between the Federal and State Governments
- Equality of representation of the states in the upper house of the Federal Legislature
- The Union cannot be destroyed by any state seceding from the Union at its will
- Federal Government can redraw the map of the Indian Union by forming new States
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
a) 1, 2 and 3
b) 2, 3 and 4
c) 1 and 2
d) 3 and 4
Federalism in India
- The Seventh Schedule of the Constitution contains three lists that distribute power between the Centre and states.
- There are 97 subjects in the Union List, on which Parliament has exclusive power to legislate (Article 246); the State List has 66 items on which states alone can legislate.
- The Concurrent List has 47 subjects on which both the Centre and states can legislate, but in case of a conflict, the law made by Parliament prevails (Article 254).
- Parliament can legislate on an item in the State List under certain specific circumstances laid down in the Constitution.
Concretization of the idea
- Federalism, like constitutionalism and separation of powers, is not mentioned in the Constitution. But it is the very essence of our constitutional scheme.
- In the State of West Bengal v Union of India (1962), the Supreme Court held that the Indian Constitution is not federal.
- But in SR Bommai v Union of India (1994), a nine-judge Bench held federalism as part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
- Neither the relative importance of the legislative entries in Schedule VII, Lists I and II of the Constitution, nor the fiscal control by the Union per se is decisive to conclude the Constitution is unitary.
- The respective legislative powers are traceable to Articles 245 to 254… The State qua the Constitution is federal in structure and independent in its exercise of legislative and executive power,” it said.
Where is agriculture in the scheme of legislative powers?
Terms relating to agriculture occur at 15 places in the Seventh Schedule.
- Entries 82, 86, 87, and 88 in the Union List mention taxes and duties on income and assets, specifically excluding those in respect of agriculture.
- In the State List, eight entries contain terms relating to agriculture: Entry 14 (agricultural education and research, pests, plant diseases); 18 (rights in or over land, land tenures, rents, transfer agricultural land, agricultural loans, etc.); 28 (markets and fairs); 30 (agricultural indebtedness); 45 (land revenue, land records, etc.); 46 (taxes on agricultural income); 47 (succession of agricultural land); and 48 (estate duty in respect of agricultural land).
- In the Concurrent List, Entry 6 mentions the transfer of property other than agricultural land; 7 is about various contracts not relating to agricultural land; and 41 deals with evacuee property, including agricultural land.
- It is clear that the Union List and Concurrent List put matters relating to agriculture outside Parliament’s jurisdiction, and give state legislatures exclusive power.
- No entry in respect of agriculture in the State List is subject to any entry in the Union or Concurrent Lists.
What about Entry 27 of the State List that is subject to Entry 33 of List III (Concurrent)?
- Entry 33 of the Concurrent List mentions trade and commerce, production, supply and distribution of domestic and imported products of an industry over which Parliament has control in the public interest.
- This includes foodstuffs, including oilseeds and oils; cattle fodder; raw cotton and jute.
- The Centre could, therefore, argue that it is within its powers to pass laws on contract farming and intra- and inter-state trade, and prohibit states from imposing fees/cesses outside APMC areas.
- However, like education, farming is an occupation, not trade or commerce.
- If foodstuffs are considered synonymous with agriculture, then all the powers of states in respect of agriculture, listed so elaborately in the Constitution, shall become redundant.
So what happens in case of legislation that covers entries in two Lists?
- In cases such as State of Rajasthan v G Chawla (1959), courts have used the doctrine of “pith and substance” to determine the character of legislation that overlaps between entries.
- The constitutionality of legislation is upheld if it is largely covered by one list and touches upon the other list only incidentally.
- But the two new farm Acts go beyond that — they impinge on entries in the State List.
- In interpreting the lists, the Supreme Court in State of Bihar v Kameshwar Singh (1952) invoked the doctrine of colourable legislation, which means you cannot do indirectly what you cannot do directly.
What is the Doctrine of Colorable Legislation?
- This doctrine refers to the question of competency of the legislature while enacting a provision of law.
- If a legislature is prohibited from doing something, it may not be permitted to do this under the guise or pretence of doing something while acting within its lawful jurisdiction and this prohibition is an implied result of the maxim “what cannot be done directly, cannot be done indirectly”
- This doctrine is a tool used to determine the legislative competence of laws enacted by various legislatures.
- Therefore, it is a means to implement the separation of powers and impose judicial accountability.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ESG funds
Mains level: Not Much
ESG funds are witnessing a growing interest in the Indian mutual fund industry these days.
Try this PYQ:
Sustainable development is described as the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In this perspective, inherently the concept of sustainable development is intertwined with which of the following concepts?
(a) Social justice and empowerment
(b) Inclusive Growth
(c) Globalization
(d) Carrying capacity
What are the ESG funds?
- ESG means using Environmental, Social and Governance factors to evaluate companies and countries on how far advanced they are with sustainability.
- ESG investing is used synonymously with sustainable investing or socially responsible investing.
- While selecting a stock for investment, the ESG fund shortlists companies that score high on the environment, social responsibility and corporate governance, and then looks into financial factors.
- So, the scheme focuses on companies with environment-friendly practices, ethical business practices and an employee-friendly record.
- They imbibe the environment, social responsibility and corporate governance in their investing process.
Why so much focus on ESG now?
- Modern investors are re-evaluating traditional approaches and look at the impact their investment has on the planet.
- As a result of this paradigm change, asset managers have started incorporating ESG factors into investment practices.
- Companies with good ESG scores tick most of the checkboxes for investing, tend to mitigate environmental and social risks and tends to have stronger cash flows, lower borrowing costs and durable returns.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Chandra Telescope, Chandra X Ray Observatory
Mains level: Not Much
In the cold, dry desert of Ladakh, 4500 meters above the mean sea level, for two decades, the 2-m diameter optical-infrared Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) has been scanning the night sky for 20 years in search of stellar explosions, comets, asteroids, and exo-planets.
Chandra X-Ray observatory and now, it is Himalayan Chandra Telescope. Do you the key difference? The former is a NASA project while the HCT is the Indian one.
Himalayan Chandra Telescope
- The HCT is a 2.01 meters (6.5 feet) diameter optical-infrared telescope named after India-born Nobel laureate Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar.
- It contains a modified Ritchey-Chretien system with a primary mirror made of ULE ceramic which is designed to withstand low temperatures it experiences.
- The telescope was manufactured by Electo-Optical System Technologies Inc. at Tucson, Arizona, USA.
- It is mounted with 3 science instruments called Himalaya Faint Object Spectrograph (HFOSC), the near-IR imager and the optical CCD imager.
- It is remotely operated from Hosakote, about 35 km northeast of Bangalore via an INSAT-3B satellite link which allows operation even in sub-zero temperatures in winter.
Significant feats
- The telescope has been used in many coordinated international campaigns to monitor stellar explosions, comets, and exo-planets, and has contributed significantly to these studies.
- Some of the thrust research areas are the study of solar system bodies like; comets, asteroids, the study of star formation processes and young stellar objects, the study of open and globular clusters and variable stars in them.
- It has helped in analysis of elements in the atmosphere of evolved stars, star formation in external galaxies, Active Galactic Nuclei, stellar explosions like novae, supernovae, gamma-ray bursts and so on.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UVIT
Mains level: Not Much
The satellite that detected the first extreme-UV rays in the Universe from the cosmic noon celebrated its 5th birthday today.
Try this PYQ:
Q.“Event Horizon” is related to:
(a) Telescope
(b) Black hole
(c) Solar glares
(d) None of the above
Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT)
- The UVIT is a remarkable 3-in-1 imaging telescope.
- Weighing all of 230 kg, the UVIT can simultaneously observe in the visible, the near-ultraviolet (NUV) and the far-ultraviolet (FUV).
- UVIT comprises of two separate telescopes. One of them works in the visible (320-550 nm) and the NUV (200-300 nm).
- The second works only in the FUV (130-180 nm).
Its achievement
- It has carried out 1166 observations of 800 unique celestial sources proposed by scientists both from India and abroad.
- It has explored stars, star clusters, mapping of the large and small satellite galaxies nearby to our own Milky Way galaxy called the Magellanic Clouds.
- It is an energetic phenomenon in the Universe such as the ultra-violet counterparts to gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, active galactic nuclei, and so on.
- Its superior spatial resolution capability has enabled astronomers to probe star formation in galaxies as well as resolve the cores of star clusters (3 times better than the last NASA mission, GALEX).
- Observations from UVIT has recently led to the discovery of a galaxy located at a distance of about 10 billion light-years from Earth and emitting extreme ultraviolet radiation that can ionize the intergalactic medium.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Agriculture reforms
The article analyses the regional variation in the problems and issues of the farmer and how it has implications for the reforms in agriculture.
An issue of estimating the number of farmers in India
- Almost 111 million are registered for the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan).
- Other than some categories being barred from PM-Kisan benefits, not every eligible farmer has necessarily registered for PM-Kisan.
- The last Agriculture Census in 2015-16 gave us 146 million holdings.
- If the agricultural landholding is conditional on being a farmer, apart from a possible further increase since 2015-16, 146 million is possibly the upper bound.
- Every definition of “farmer” is not contingent on the ownership of land.
- The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act of 2001 is an example where status as a farmer depends on cultivating land (or supervising cultivation), not owning it.
- That issue was also flagged by the National Commission on Farmers, such as in the Draft National Policy for Farmers (2006), where “farmers” included agricultural labourers, sharecroppers, tenants and so on.
Issues with making landholding prerequisite for being a farmer
- The Committee on State Agrarian Relations and the Unfinished Task in Land Reforms (2009) noted that “the Survey and Settlement Operations in the Permanently Settled Areas have not been taken up and where they have been taken up, for instance in Bihar, they tend to never conclude”
- The last extensive survey and settlement in India was conducted two to three decades prior to Independence.
- Post-Independence, some states have not undertaken a revisional survey and settlement so far.
- There have been improvements since 2009 and the Department of Land Resources has a Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP).
- Punjab and Haryana rank 16th and 18th respectively in Records and Services Index (LRSI).
- Gujarat, West Bengal and Tripura score high on this Index (over 90 per cent).
Variation across the States
- If land records are in this condition, some farmers will conceivably be excluded from the farmer definition.
- With diverse and heterogenous agriculture, all farmers will not have identical views.
- 2015-16 Agricultural Census tells us that most operational holdings are in UP, Bihar, Maharashtra and MP, in that order.
- The highest operated areas are in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, UP and MP, in that order.
- 86.1 per cent of holdings are small and marginal (less than 2 hectares) and only 0.6 per cent are large (more than 10 hectares).
Conclusion
The face of Indian agriculture has changed and is no longer what it was in the Green Revolution days, centred on Punjab, Haryana and western UP. Farmers, and governments, in Bihar and Kerala, don’t want APMCs, nor do UP, MP, Gujarat and Karnataka. There is no evidence that this has made those farmers worse off.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with medical education in India
The article discusses the issues with medical education in India and how it affects the principle of equality.
Role of private entities
- Due to demand for high-quality medical care on the one hand and constraints on public resources on the other, private entities have been permitted to establish medical educational institutions to supplement government efforts.
- In the field of health care, there is a continuing shortage of health-care personnel.
- The infrastructure required for high-quality modern medical education is expensive.
- The three stated objectives of medical education has been — providing health-care personnel in all parts of the country, ensuring quality and improving equity.
- None of the three stated objectives of medical education has been achieved by the private sector.
- Though they are supposed to be not-for-profit, taking advantage of the poor regulatory apparatus and the ability to both tweak and create rules, these private entities, with very few exceptions, completely commercialised education.
Demand for regulation and equity
- There have been attempts to regulate fees, sometimes by governments and sometimes by courts.
- These efforts have not been fruitful.
- The executive, primarily the Medical Council of India, has proven unequal to the task of ensuring that private institutions comply with regulations.
- When the courts are approached, which issues are seen as important depends on the Bench.
- It was in this situation that led to the introduction of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG, as a single all-India gateway for admission to medical colleges.
- Challenged in courts, after an initial setback, the NEET scheme has been upheld.
How NEET affected equity
- NEET may have improved the quality of candidates admitted to private institutions to some extent, but it seems to have further worsened equity.
- Under any scheme of admission, the number of students from government schools who are able to get admission to a medical college is very low.
- With NEET, the number has become lower.
- The high fees of private medical colleges have always been an impossible hurdle for students from government schools, whatever the method used for admission.
Way forward
- The basic cause of inequity in admission to higher educational institutions is the absence of a high quality school system accessible to all.
- Allowing government medical colleges to admit students based on marks in Standard XII and using NEET scores for admission to private colleges will be more equitable right now.
Conclusion
Only a resolute government, determined to ensure that economic policy facilitates quality and equity in education, can do it.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Fiscal deficit and government budget
Mains level: Paper 3- Impact of pandemic on Indian economy
The government faces the challenge of high fiscal deficit and declining revenue. This article discusses the challenge and suggests the way forward to deal with the situation.
Dismal growth prospects
- At (-)23.9% contraction for the first quarter of 2020-21, India’s growth showed one of the highest contraction globally.
- What is most surprising in the Q1 data is that the sector ‘Public Administration, Defence and other Services’ contracted at (-) 10.3%.
- This means that there was no fiscal stimulus.
- The 2020-21 real GDP growth for India is forecast in the range of (-) 5.8% (RBI) to (-) 14.8% (Goldman Sachs).
- The OECD in its September 2020 Interim Economic Outlook has projected a contraction of (-) 10.2% in FY21 for India.
Challenge of decline in revenue
- Due to a sharp contraction in nominal GDP growth, central and State tax revenue, both may contract.
- . In the first quarter of 2020-21, the Centre’s gross tax revenues contracted by (-) 32.6%.
- The CAG-based data pertaining to 19 States show a contraction of (-) 45% in their own tax revenues.
- Given the adverse impact of the lockdown, even the budgeted non-tax revenues are not likely to be realised.
- The revenue calculations of the Budget were made on the assumption that the nominal income of the country would grow at 10%.
- Some estimates indicate that the tax and non-tax revenue and non-debt capital receipts in the current fiscal may fall well short of the budget estimates by an amount higher than ₹5-lakh crore.
- The combined fiscal deficit of the Centre and the States will have to make up for the shortfall in tax and non-tax revenues, if the level of budgeted expenditures is to be maintained.
Challenge of widening of fiscal deficit
- In order for the central government to maintain the level of budgeted expenditure and also provide for additional stimulus, its fiscal deficit may have to be increased to close to an estimated 8.8% of GDP.
- If one adds the Centre’s and States’ fiscal deficit, the combined fiscal deficit amounts to 13.8% of GDP.
- If the nominal GDP actually contracts in 2020-21, the fiscal deficit as the percent of GDP would go up further.
Role of the RBI
- The International Monetary Fund, in its June 2020 update of the World Economic Outlook, estimated the fiscal deficit of India and China at 12.1% of GDP.
- India doesn’t have adequate resources to support a fiscal deficit of nearly 14% of GDP.
- All this will therefore require substantial support from the Reserve Bank of India which will have to take on itself, either directly or indirectly, a part of the central government debt.
- In the direct mode, the RBI takes on the debt directly from government at an agreed rate.
- It took India long to move away from the automatic monetisation of debt.
- Even if the RBI wants to support the borrowing programmes, it should not do so directly.
- The indirect method is preferable as the market still sends out the signals on interest rate.
- In both cases, the RBI is the provider of liquidity.
- The question ultimately relates to the extent of debt monetisation that may be undertaken.
- The country has also to guard against high inflation.
Role of government
- The economic situation warrants enhanced government expenditure.
- It appears that governments are withholding expenditure. That is not the right approach.
- At the same time, there is a limit to monetisation of debt.
Conclusion
Perhaps the best course of action would be to keep the combined fiscal deficit at around 14% of GDP in the current year and find ways to finance it. This will have to be brought down gradually. It may take several years of normalisation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cess, Office of the CAG
Mains level: Cess deposits
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in its latest audit report of government accounts, has observed that the government withheld in the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI) more than ₹1.1 lakh crore out of the almost ₹2.75 lakh crore collected through various cesses in 2018-19.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following items:
- Cereal grains hulled
- Chicken eggs cooked
- Fish processed and canned
- Newspapers containing advertising material
Which of the above items is/are exempted under GST (Goods and Services Tax)? (CSP 2018)
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1, 2 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Issues with the cess deposits
- The CAG found this objectionable since cess collections are supposed to be transferred to specified Reserve Funds that Parliament has approved for each of these levies.
- The nation’s highest auditor also found that over ₹1.24 lakh crore collected as Cess on Crude Oil over the last decade had not been transferred to the designated Reserve Fund — the Oil Industry Development Board.
- Similarly, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Compensation Cess was also “short-credited” to the relevant reserve fund.
What is Cess?
- The Union government is empowered to raise revenue through a gamut of levies, including taxes (both direct and indirect), surcharges, fees and cess.
- While direct taxes, including income tax, and indirect taxes such as GST are taxes where the revenue received can be spent by the government for any public purpose in any manner it deems appropriate for the nation’s good, a cess is an earmarked tax that is collected for a specific purpose and ought to be spent only for that.
- Every cess is collected after Parliament has authorised its creation through enabling legislation that specifies the purpose for which the funds are being raised.
- Article 270 of the Constitution allows cess to be excluded from the purview of the divisible pool of taxes that the Union government must share with the States.
How many cesses does government levy?
- A report submitted to the Fifteenth Finance Commission listed 42 cesses that have been levied at various points in time since 1944.
- The very first cess was levied on matches, according to this report.
- Post Independence, the cess taxes were linked initially to the development of a particular industry, including a salt cess and a tea cess in 1953.
- Subsequently, the introduction of cess was motivated by the aim of ensuring labour welfare.
- Some cesses that exemplified this thrust were the iron ore mines labour welfare cess in 1961, the limestone and dolomite mines labour welfare cess of 1972 and the cine workers welfare cess introduced in 1981.
Cesses after GST
- The introduction of the GST in 2017 led to most cesses being done away with and as of August 2018, there were only seven cesses that continued to be levied.
- These were Cess on Exports, Cess on Crude Oil, Health and Education Cess, Road and Infrastructure Cess, Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess, National Calamity Contingent Duty on Tobacco and Tobacco Products and the GST Compensation Cess.
- And in February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced a new cess — a Health Cess of 5% on imported medical devices — in the Finance Bill for 2020-2021.
Why is the issue in the news currently?
- For one, most crucially, the express purpose of this particular cess is to help recompense States for the loss of revenue on account of their having joined the GST regime by voluntarily giving up almost all the power to levy local indirect taxes on goods and services.
- Also, the share of revenue to the Centre’s annual tax kitty from cess had risen to 11.88% of the estimated gross tax receipts in 2018-19, from 6.88% in 2012-13.
- Given that cess does not need to be a part of the divisible pool of resources, this increasing share of cess in the Union government’s tax receipts has a direct impact on fiscal devolution.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ART
Mains level: ART Regulation Bill, 2020
The Centre moved to standardize protocols of the growing fertility industry and introduced the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020, in Lok Sabha on the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament.
Try this question for mains:
Q. What is Assisted Reproductive Technology? Discuss the salient features of ART Regulation Bill, 2020?
Features of the ART Regulation Bill, 2020
(1) Defining ART
- The Bill defines ART to include all techniques that seek to obtain a pregnancy by handling the sperm or the oocytes (immature egg cell) outside the human body and transferring the gamete or the embryo into the reproductive system of a woman.
- Examples of ART services include gamete (sperm or oocyte) donation, in-vitro-fertilisation (fertilising an egg in the lab), and gestational surrogacy (the child is not biologically related to surrogate mother).
- ART services will be provided through: (i) ART clinics, which offer ART related treatments and procedures, and (ii) ART banks, which store and supply gametes.
(2) Regulation of ART clinics and banks
- The Bill provides that every ART clinic and the bank must be registered under the National Registry of Banks and Clinics of India.
- The National Registry will be established under the Bill and will act as a central database with details of all ART clinics and banks in the country.
- State governments will appoint registration authorities for facilitating the registration process.
- Clinics and banks will be registered only if they adhere to certain standards (specialised manpower, physical infrastructure, and diagnostic facilities).
- The registration will be valid for five years and can be renewed for a further five years. Registration may be cancelled or suspended if the entity contravenes the provisions of the Bill.
(3) Conditions for gamete donation and supply
- Screening of gamete donors, collection and storage of semen, and provision of oocyte donor can only be done by a registered ART bank.
- A bank can obtain semen from males between 21 and 55 years of age, and oocytes from females between 23 and 35 years of age.
- An oocyte donor should be an ever-married woman having at least one alive child of her own (minimum three years of age).
- The woman can donate oocyte only once in her life and not more than seven oocytes can be retrieved from her.
- A bank cannot supply gamete of a single donor to more than one commissioning couple (couple seeking services).
(4) Conditions for offering ART services
- ART procedures can only be carried out with the written informed consent of both the party seeking ART services as well as the donor.
- The party seeking ART services will be required to provide insurance coverage in the favour of the oocytes donor (for any loss, damage, or death of the donor).
- A clinic is prohibited from offering to provide a child of pre-determined sex. The Bill also requires checking for genetic diseases before the embryo implantation.
(5) Rights of a child born through ART
- A child born through ART will be deemed to be a biological child of the commissioning couple and will be entitled to the rights and privileges available to a natural child of the commissioning couple.
- A donor will not have any parental rights over the child.
(6) National and State Boards
- The Bill provides that the National and State Boards for Surrogacy constituted under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019 will act as the National and State Board respectively for the regulation of ART services.
- Key powers and functions of the National Board include:
- advising the central government on ART related policy matters,
- reviewing and monitoring the implementation of the Bill,
- formulating code of conduct and standards for ART clinics and banks, and
- overseeing various bodies to be constituted under the Bill
- The State Boards will coordinate enforcement of the policies and guidelines for ART as per the recommendations, policies, and regulations of the National Board.
(7) Offences and penalties
- Offences under the Bill include:
(i) abandoning, or exploiting children born through ART, (ii) selling, purchasing, trading, or importing human embryos or gametes, (iii) using intermediates to obtain donors, (iv) exploiting commissioning couple, woman, or the gamete donor in any form, and (v) transferring the human embryo into a male or an animal.
- These offences will be punishable with a fine between five and ten lakh rupees for the first contravention.
- For subsequent contraventions, these offences will be punishable with imprisonment for a term between eight and 12 years, and a fine between 10 and 20 lakh rupees.
- Any clinic or bank advertising or offering sex-selective ART will be punishable with imprisonment between five and ten years, or fine between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, or both.
- No court will take cognizance of offences under the Bill, except on a complaint made by the National or State Board or any officer authorised by the Boards.
With inputs from PRS: https://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/assisted-reproductive-technology-regulation-bill-2020
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gilgit-Baltistan Region, CPEC
Mains level: China's vested interests in the Kashmir Valley
Seven decades after it took control of the region, Pakistan is moving to grant full statehood to Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), which appears as the northernmost part of the country in its official map.
Try this PYQ:
Q. If you travel through the Himalayas, you are likely to see which of the following plants naturally growing there?
- Oak
- Rhododendron
- Sandalwood
Select the correct option using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Pak occupation of GB
- During the first Indo-Pak war of October 1947, Pakistan occupied 78,114 sq km of the land of Jammu and Kashmir, including the ‘Northern Areas’.
- The Northern Areas is the other name of Gilgit-Baltistan that Pakistan has used for administrative reasons because it was a disputed territory.
- This November, Pakistan will pave the way for fuller political rights for the roughly 1.2 million residents of the region, which will become the fifth State of Pakistan after Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
GB through history
- One of the most mountainous regions in the world that is rich with mines of gold, emerald and strategically important minerals, GB is known for its extraordinary scenic beauty, diversity and ancient communities and languages.
- The political nature of Gilgit-Baltistan has been directionless from the beginning.
- Pakistan initially governed the region directly from the central authority after it was separated from ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir’ on April 28, 1949.
- On March 2, 1963, Pakistan gave away 5,180 sq km of the region to China, despite local protests.
- Under Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the name of the region was changed to the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA).
- Pakistan passed the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order in 2009, which granted “self-rule” to the ‘Northern Areas’.
Sense of alienation
- GB is largely an underdeveloped region.
- One of the main reasons for the rebellion in the region in 1947 was the sense of alienation that the population felt towards the Dogra rulers of Srinagar, who operated under the protection of the British government.
It’s geographical features
- It’s home to K-2, the second tallest mountain in the world.
- Tourism remains restricted by many factors, including military hostility, though the region has some of the ancient Buddhist sculptures and rock edicts.
- It is also home to an old Shia community, which often finds itself subjected to persecution in Pakistan’s urban centres.
- At present, a Governor and an elected Chief Minister rule the region, which is divided into Gilgit, Skardu, Diamer, Astore, Ghanche, Ghizer and Hunza-Nagar.
Indian protest
- Following Pakistan’s announcement of holding the legislative election in Gilgit-Baltistan, India reiterated its territorial sovereignty over the region.
- India has consistently opposed Pakistan’s activities in Gilgit-Baltistan. It also opposed the announcement of the commencement of the Diamer-Bhasha dam in July this year.
- There have been local and international concerns as reports suggest priceless Buddhist heritage will be lost once the dam is built.
- India has objected to the use of Gilgit-Baltistan to build and operate the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
GB resists
- Gilgit-Baltistan in recent years has witnessed sporadic protests against Islamabad.
- The protests were fuelled by the loss of land and livelihood of the locals to mega projects that are being championed by Pakistan and its international partners like China.
- There is a growing feeling that full statehood will help the locals fight their battles inside Pakistan on an equal basis.
- On the other hand, there is a widespread feeling that Pakistan, under pressure from China, is firming up its control over Gilgit-Baltistan, eventually creating conditions for the declaration of the LoC as the International Border.
China’s vested interest
- Gilgit-Baltistan is important for China as it is the gateway for the CPEC.
- Significantly, the ongoing stand-off with China at the LAC in Eastern Ladakh has a Gilgit-Baltistan connection.
- The Darbuk-Shyok-DBO road of India is viewed as a tactical roadway to access the Karakoram Pass, which provides China crucial access to Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan.
- Full statehood for the region may give Pakistan a political and legal upper hand and strengthen China’s position in the region.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Eden Gardens
Mains level: NA
This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in TH.
UPSC may ask a question like this:
Q. In which Governor-General/Viceroy’s term was the famous cricketing ground ‘Eden Gardens’ was built?
Eden Gardens
- The first cricket club outside Britain was the Calcutta Cricket Club founded in 1792, and the first match was played 12 years later between the Etonians, senior civil servants and other company officials.
- In 1825 the club got a plot of land on the ground between Government House and Fort William to be used as a cricket ground.
- In 1841, the club was permitted to enclose the ground with a fence. But the Army at Fort William described the club as an “encroacher”.
- Cricket Club of Calcutta authorities then looked for an alternative ground and at ₹1,000, found a new one, fenced it and made it playable.
- In 1864, the land was laid out for a ground for Calcutta Cricket Club in the extended part of Eden Gardens.
Deriving its name
- Eden Gardens made its first appearance during the time of Governor-General Lord Auckland (1836-42).
- According to the achieves, a local landlord gifted this land to Lord Auckland and his sisters Emily Eden and Fanny Eden helped him save his third daughter from a deadly disease.
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Context
- Due to extreme uncertainty, several adventurous prescriptions have been put forth.
Following are 4 unconventional measures and issues with them are discussed here.
1) Shoud we change the Inflation targeting regime?
- Monetary policy committee (MPC) concluding that elevated inflation has constrained it from easing policy rates further.
- One way out of this is for the government to relax the inflation-targeting framework.
- This would involve greater tolerance for higher levels of inflation or by extending the period over which the MPC has to meet its inflation target.
- Others have suggested shifting from headline to core-inflation as the nominal anchor of monetary policy or incorporating other indicators such as nominal GDP explicitly into the framework.
- The more extreme ones talk about doing away with the inflation targeting framework altogether.
Why changing the inflation targeting regime will not be helpful
- There is a strong argument for the MPC to look beyond the current spike in inflation and ease rates further.
- But disagreements with either the rationale or the stance of the committee members must not be construed as disagreements with the framework.
- Raising the tolerance threshold may sound appealing now, but it will inject a degree of uncertainty and unpredictability in monetary policy.
- Considering that anchoring expectations around the inflation target takes time, frequent revisions are unlikely to help stabilise household expectations.
- While explicitly signalling will be one of deviating from a rule-based framework.
2) What we shift to Multiple Indicator Structure?
- Such a move would bring back the situation of the pre-MPC days.
- In pre-MPC days there was far greater uncertainty over monetary policy.
- In pre-MPC days there was no clarity over the indicator that was dictating the stance of the RBI governor or which indicator would be given preference, and when.
- Such proposals go against the rationale for shifting to such a framework in the first place — an inflation targeting regime.
- Inflationg targeting regime is a well-defined anchor, is meant to facilitate greater transparency and accountability from the central bank.
Way forward
- There must be a concerted attempt to push for more external voices in the MPC.
- In the UK, a non-voting treasury representative sits with the MPC to discuss policy issues.
3) Should central bank effectively financing the Centre’s capital expenditure on a regular basis?
- This is problematic at many levels.
- First, notwithstanding problems in estimating potential output, monetisation, even in the rarest of rare cases, should be the last resort.
- Such an arrangement, risks tilting the balance of power in favour of the government.
- Any government, owing to its short-term political imperatives, is likely to be seduced by the apparent simplicity of this idea.
- Second, giving a central bank a degree of control over the government’s expenditure priorities is not a prudent approach.
- Whatever be their policy inclinations and expenditure priorities, elected representatives have to face voters.
- Why should unelected technocrats be in charge of determining the expenditure priorities of the government?
- Such proposals blur the lines between fiscal and monetary policy and may lead to what some call the fiscalisation of monetary policy.
4) Should government pledge its shares in companies?
- This raises questions. Should a sovereign pledge assets to borrow in the local currency?
- In 1991, India had pledged gold for a foreign currency-denominated loan not a local currency loan.
- So why the collateral? And what happens if the value of the shares pledged falls below that of the loan?
Conclusion
Some unconventional measures may well be needed at the current juncture. But discarding the principles of sound public policy, though it sounds appealing, could end up doing more harm than good.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various committees and their roles.
Mains level: Paper 2- Role of parliamentary committees
The article discusses the important role played by the various committees and their significance.
Committee system for legislative scrutiny
- Over the years, the Indian Parliament has increasingly adopted the committee system as did the other democracies in the world.
- This helped in housekeeping, to enhance the efficacy of the House to cope with the technical issues confronting it and to feel the public pulse.
- But the committee approach also helped to guard its turf and keep it abreast to exercise accountability on the government.
Important role played by the committees
- Committees are the guardians of the autonomy of the House: consider the role of committees of scrutiny and oversight.
- In the discharge of their mandate, the committee can solicit expert advice and elicit public opinion.
- Besides the standing committees, the Houses of Parliament set up, from time to time, ad hoc committees to enquire and report on specific subjects which include Select Committees of a House or Joint Select Committees of both the Houses.
- Departmentally-related Standing Committees (DRSCs) were envisaged to be the face of Parliament in a set of inter-related departments and ministries.
Issues
- Committees of scrutiny and advice, both standing and ad hoc, have been confined to the margins or left in the lurch in the last few years.
- While 60% of the Bills in the 14th Lok Sabha and 71% in the 15th Lok Sabha were wetted by the DRSCs concerned, this proportion came down to 27% in the 16th Lok Sabha.
- The government has shown extreme reluctance to refer Bills to Select Committees of the Houses or Joint Parliamentary Committees.
Conclusion
The government must not forget that the primary role of Parliament is deliberation, discussion and reconsideration, the hallmarks of democratic institutions, and not a platform that endorses decisions already arrived at.
Back2Bascis: Parliamentary Committees
Broadly, they are classified into two categories — standing committees and ad hoc committees.
1) Standing Committees
- As the name suggests, these committees cover all the ministries and departments of the Government of India.
- Standing committees are more permanent in nature, and are constituted from time to time in pursuance of the provisions of an Act of Parliament or Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.
- The standing committees are further divided into financial committees and departmentally-related standing committees (DRSCs).
- There are 24 DRSCs in total — 16 from Lok Sabha and 8 from the Rajya Sabha.
- Financial committees are of three kinds — the estimates committee, the public accounts committee and the committee on public undertakings.
2) Ad hoc committees
- Ad hoc committees are appointed for a specific purpose and they cease to exist after they finish the task assigned to them and submit a report.
- These include advisory committees and inquiry committees.
- Advisory committees include select and joint committees on bills.
- Inquiry committees are constituted to inquire into a specific issue and report on it.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: HCI, HDI
Mains level: Impact of coronovirus outbreak on Human Capital
India has been ranked at the 116th position in the latest edition of the World Bank’s annual Human Capital Index that benchmarks key components of human capital across countries.
Try this PYQ:
Q.As per UN-Habitat’s Global Report on Human Settlements 2009, which one among the following regions has shown the fastest growth rate of urbanization in the last three decades?
(a) Asia
(b) Europe
(c) Latin America and Caribbean
(d) North America
Highlights of the 2020 rankings
- The 2020 Human Capital Index update includes health and education data for 174 countries — covering 98 per cent of the world’s population — up to March 2020.
- It provides a pre-pandemic baseline on the health and education of children, with the biggest strides made in low-income countries.
Impact of the pandemic
- The analysis shows that pre-pandemic, most countries had made steady progress in building the human capital of children, with the biggest strides made in low-income countries.
- The pandemic puts at risk the decade’s progress in building human capital, including the improvements in health, survival rates, school enrollment, and reduced stunting.
- The economic impact of the pandemic has been particularly deep for women and for the most disadvantaged families, leaving many vulnerable to food insecurity and poverty.
- Due to the pandemic’s impact, most children — more than 1 billion — have been out of school and could lose out, on average, half a year of schooling, adjusted for learning, translating into considerable monetary losses.
- Data also shows significant disruptions to essential health services for women and children, with many children missing out on crucial vaccinations.
India’s performance
- India’s score increased to 0.49 from 0.44 in 2018, as per the Human Capital Index report released by the World Bank.
- Last year, India had raised “serious reservations” over the Human Capital Index, wherein India was ranked 115 out of 157 countries.
- This year India finds itself at 116th from among 174 countries.
Back2Basics: Human Capital Project
- As part of this World Development Report (WDR), the World Bank has launched a Human Capital Project (HCP).
- The HCP programme is claimed to be a program of advocacy, measurement, and analytical work to raise awareness and increase demand for interventions to build human capital.
- There are three components of HCP:
- a cross-country human capital measurement metric called the Human Capital Index (HCI),
- a programme of measurement and research to inform policy action
- a programme of support for country strategies to accelerate investment in human capital.
Human Capital Index (HCI)
- The HCI has been constructed for 157 countries.
- It claims to seek to measure the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18.
- The HCI has three components:
- Survival: as measured by under-5 mortality rates
- Expected years of Quality-Adjusted School: which combines information on the quantity and quality of education
- Health environment: Using two proxies of (a) adult survival rates and (b) the rate of stunting for children under age 5.
HDI vs. HCI
- UNDP constructs Human Development Index (HDI) for several years.
- The HCI uses survival rates and stunting rate instead of life expectancy as a measure of health, and quality-adjusted learning instead of merely years of schooling as a measure of education.
- HCI also excludes per capita income whereas the HDI uses it.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Medical Commission
Mains level: Not Much
The National Medical Commission (NMC) has replaced the Medical Council of India (BoG-MCI), as per information released by the Health Ministry.
National Medical Commission
- National Medical Commission (NMC) is an Indian regulatory body of 33 members which regulates medical education and medical professionals.
- It replaced the Medical Council of India (MCI) on 25 September 2020.
- The Commission grants recognition of medical qualifications, gives accreditation to medical schools, grants registration to medical practitioners, and monitors medical practice and assess the medical infrastructure in India.
- The NMC will have four separate autonomous boards: under-graduate medical education, post-graduate medical education, medical assessment and rating and ethics and medical registration.
It’s legal backing
- The NITI Aayog had recommended the replacement of MCI with NMC.
- The decision was approved by most states and after its approval by the Prime Minister and NMC bill was passed by parliament and approved by President on 8 August 2019.
- National Medical Commission ordinance was brought in to replace Medical Council of India in early 2019 through an ordinance issued in January 2019 by the President of India.
- The Supreme Court had allowed the Central Government to replace the medical council and with the help of five specialized doctors monitor the medical education system in India, from July 2017.
- The government dissolved the MCI in 2018 and Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (102 of 1956) stands repealed.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RRTS train
Mains level: Not Much
The first look of India’s first RRTS train on Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor has been unveiled.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following pairs:
National Highway: Cities connected
- NH 4: Chennai and Hyderabad
- NH 6: Mumbai and Kolkata
- NH 15: Ahmedabad and Jodhpur
Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 1, 2 and 3
(d) None
About the RRTS train
- The Delhi–Meerut RRTS is an 82.15 km long, under-construction, semi-high speed rail corridor connecting Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut.
- It is one of the three rapid-rail corridors planned under Phase-I of Regional Rapid Transport System (RRTS) project of National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC).
- With a maximum speed of 160 km/h (99.42 mph), the distance between Delhi and Meerut will be covered in around 62 min (1.03 h).
- With radiating stainless steel outer body, these aerodynamic RRTS trains will be lightweight and fully air-conditioned.
- Each car will have six automatic plug-in type wide doors, three on each side for ease of access and exit.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: JIMEX 20
Mains level: Not Much
The 4th edition of India – Japan Maritime bilateral exercise JIMEX will be held in the North Arabian Sea from 26 to 28 September 2020.
JIMEX 20
- It is conducted biennially between the Indian Navy and Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF)
- This series of exercises was commenced in January 2012 with a special focus on maritime security cooperation.
- The last edition of JIMEX was conducted in October 2018 off Visakhapatnam, India.
- JIMEX 20 will showcase a high degree of inter-operability and joint operational skills through the conduct of a multitude of advanced exercises, across the spectrum of maritime operations.
- Multi-faceted tactical exercises involving weapon firings cross deck helicopter operations and complex surface, anti-submarine and air warfare drills will consolidate coordination developed by the two navies.
- JIMEX 20 will further enhance the cooperation and mutual confidence between the two navies and fortify the long-standing bond of friendship between the two countries.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pritilata Waddedar
Mains level: Not Much
The government of Bangladesh is financing a film on the life of revolutionary freedom fighter Pritilata Waddedar.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The Ghadr (Ghadar) was a –
(a) Revolutionary association of Indians with headquarters at San Francisco.
(b) Nationalist organization operating from Singapore
(c) Militant organization with headquarters at Berlin
(d) Communist movement for Pritilata Waddedar
Pritilata Waddedar (1911-1932)
- She was a Bengali revolutionary nationalist from the Indian subcontinent who was influential in the Indian independence movement.
- After completing her education in Chittagong and Dhaka, she attended Bethune College in Kolkata.
- She graduated in philosophy with distinction and became a school teacher.
- Pritilata joined a revolutionary group headed by Surya Sen. She is known for leading fifteen revolutionaries in the 1932 armed attack on the Pahartali European Club, during which one person was killed and eleven injured.
- The revolutionaries torched the club and were later caught by the British police. To avoid arrest, Pritilata consumed cyanide and died.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Agri marketing and related issue
The article analyses the results of complete abolition of APMC in Bihar in the context of current protest against the agri bills.
Context
- Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 has been a source of anger among farmers.
- By allowing unregulated trading areas beyond APMC mandis, the law seeks to remove intermediaries from agricultural trade and raise price realization for farmers.
Excessive politicization of APMCs
- APMC’s excessive politicization has resulted in cartelization and price-fixing.
- For this reason, there have been several attempts at reforming their functioning.
- Easier licensing norms, the removal of entry and exit barriers and computerization and transparency have been introduced in most APMC markets.
- However, the Bihar government decided to abolish the APMC system altogether in 2006.
Analysing the impact of abolition of APMC in Bihar
- It was hoped that abolition would ensure better prices for farmers of the state and attract large sums of private investment.
- Before their abolition, Bihar had 95 market yards, of which 54 had infrastructure such as covered yards, godowns and administrative buildings, weighbridges, and processing as well as grading units.
- With no revenue to maintain it, that infrastructure is now in a dilapidated condition.
- A study by the National Council for Applied Economic Research reported increased volatility in grain prices after 2006.
- Most of the farmers surveyed reported high storage costs at private warehouses.
- Farmers this year in Bihar received lower price for maize compared to the farmers in states with APMC.
Lessons from Bihar
- The Bihar experiment has important lessons for future marketing reforms in agriculture.
- The benefits of these reforms will only accrue to farmers if they are accompanied by private investment in creating the physical infrastructure and institutional mechanisms needed to allow for greater participation of farmers.
- The record of states on attracting private investment isn’t much better.
Conclusion
By only attempting to shift trade away from APMC to non-APMC areas, without a regulatory framework, the new law is unlikely to ensure better price realization for farmers.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-China relations
The article discusses the issue of dealing with China in the aftermath of clashes on the border.
Understanding the importance of Tibet
- Tibet is the roof of the world, with vast mineral and natural resources.
- The mighty rivers that emanate from its expansive glaciers — such as the Brahmaputra, the Yangtse, the Yellow river, the Mekong, the Salween and the Indus — together with thousands of their tributaries have nurtured civilisations in peripheral countries for centuries.
- The Kailash Mansarovar is centered in this region.
- In an act of naked aggression, China occupied Tibet in 1959.
- A buffer was eliminated, and the de facto boundary of China became contiguous to that of India.
- That boundary was deliberately left undemarcated to enable further expansion.
Understanding China’s stand
- China has land borders with 14 neighbours covering an estimated 22,100 kilometres.
- Post-independence, and as its economic status increased, so did its military muscle.
- China embarked on claims based on perceived imbalances of treaties forced on countries when they were weak.
- Some of these have since been resolved after bloody clashes such as with Russia and Vietnam, while others have been resolved using a combination of lucrative offers.
- Russia accepted half of China’s claim, Kazakhstan was given lucrative economic deals, Kyrgyzstan retained 70% of the land, ceding just 30%, and so on.
Way forward
- The road ahead will have to be evolved and based on a study of the manner in which China has negotiated its boundary disputes with 12 of its neighbours.
- Under the prevailing circumstances, it has become imperative to form a group of experts.
- This group will plan and prepare, short-, medium- and long-term goals to achieve them within a suggested time frame.
Conclusion
Let us play down the rhetoric and adopt a pragmatic approach. It can no longer be a part-time issue to be addressed only when a crisis occurs. The crisis is upon us now.
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