Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Doomsday Vault
Mains level: Not Much
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault — referred to as the earth’s ‘doomsday vault’ — now contains about 1.05 million seeds.
Global Seed Vault
- The vault — in the island of Spitsbergen, midway between Norway and the North Pole — opened in 2008 and preserves seeds for several food varieties.
- The aim of the vault is to preserve a vast variety of crop seeds in the case of a doomsday event, calamity, climate change or national emergency.
- The vault is artificially cooled at temperatures of minus 18 degrees Celsius.
- The low temperature and limited access to oxygen will ensure low metabolic activity and delay seed ageing.
- The permafrost surrounding the facility will help maintain the low temperature of the seeds if the electricity supply fails.
Access to seeds
- Vault seed samples are copies of samples stored in the depositing genebanks.
- Researchers, plant breeders, and other groups wishing to access seed samples cannot do so through the seed vault; they must instead request samples from the depositing genebanks.
- The samples stored in the genebanks will, in most cases, be accessible in accordance with the terms and conditions of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, approved by 118 countries or parties.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3-Is RBI raising systemic risks by pushing retail credit?
Context
Credit driven growth may not lead to sustainable growth.
Credit driven economic boom
- RBI and govt. acting in line: Both the government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have acted in line with their stated commitment towards the defined fiscal and monetary stability framework.
- Given the pressures of a dwindling growth rate and limited fiscal and monetary elbow room, this is commendable.
- Growth without increasing systemic risk: It is critical that the decisions taken to revive growth have a high likelihood of success without increasing systemic risk in the medium to long run.
- Recent push may add to systemic risk: In this context, it may be argued that RBI’s recent push for retail credit growth would add to systemic risk, while the benefits for India’s gross domestic product growth (GDP) may be limited.
- Credit-driven economic booms always end in economic misery.
- Credit is a necessary evil: To pump-prime an economy, very few tools exist other than credit.
- Thus there is all the more reason to handle it with care. In current economic growth frameworks, economic growth requires
- Quite often, credit creation is the ultimate source of capital.
- If the government spends by increasing its fiscal deficit, government debt increases. If the private sector borrows to invest and kick-start growth, its leverage increases.
- What could be the best source of credit? The best use of credit is when it is used to finance real assets in the economy.
- Creation of financial asset: When credit does not create real assets, it inevitably creates financial assets such as bonds held by investors, loans held by banks, or accounts receivables held by firms.
- The precursor to a crisis: An overabundance of financial assets created by credit is a precursor to a crisis.
How types of loans matters for growth and risk of the system
- How money is used matters for reviving sustainable growth: Taking a consumer loan to splurge on a vacation or celebratory dinner does very little to support long-term growth. It creates economic activity only in the immediate period.
- Which sector should be pushed to ramp up credit and how that money is used become important if reviving sustainable growth is the objective.
- In a paper titled Who Gets The Credit And Does It Matter, Thorsten Beck et al studied the growth dynamics of 45 countries for the period from 1994 to 2005.
- Only loans to firms contribute to growth: The paper concluded that only loans to firms are linked to GDP growth, the argument being that firms use credit to increase their capital stock, and thus, real assets.
- Loans to households do not add substantially to growth: Loans to households, while having desirable social outcomes in terms of boosting consumption and allowing households to tide over short-term cash flow mismatches, do not add to sustainable GDP growth.
- It is debatable whether consumer loans need a push at all.
- Retail and household debt growth
- Retail loan growth, while currently below its 2016 peak of 20%, has been managing to grow at around 15%.
- Household debt: In December 2019, RBI cautioned lenders on household debt levels and the associated risk on retail loans.
- Relation with banking crisis: Higher growth in household debt is associated with higher chances of a banking crisis (Household Debt And Monetary Stability, IMF, 2017).
- Consumer loans not always add to capital stocks: Another kind of consumer loan, the home loan, need not always add to incremental capital stock. Given how slowly the supply of homes responds to demand in the short term, excess credit supply is known to add to the risk.
- Of course, consumer loans such as education loans, which upgrade human resources, are a notable exception.
- In fact, mortgage booms have played key roles in most credit blow-ups.
- Surprising steps by the RBI
- Risk weight of consumer loans lowered: Surprisingly, RBI reduced the risk weight for consumer loans other than credit card debt from 125% to 100% in September 2019.
- Waiver to CRR requirement: Recently, RBI decided to waive lenders’ cash reserve requirement against new exposure to home, auto and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) loans.
- Futile attempts to revive commercial lending:
- Home loan growth was hovering around 15% for the last two years.
- Commercial credit growth falling: Growth of commercial credit (loans to industry and services as per RBI), which last exhibited 20%-plus growth in June 2012, has been falling.
- Since 2016, its annual growth averaged around 6%, with a strong downward trend observed since March 2019.
- Efforts to revive commercial lending have not borne fruit.
- Misplaced belief needs to be relooked: This misplaced belief—“if not commercial, let retail loans revive the economy”—needs to be re-looked.
- The simplistic understanding that any credit uptick can revive the economy needs to change.
- What retails at best can achieve? India’s retail credit push, if successful, may at best check the downward trend in GDP growth.
- The argument that it will revive growth is based on optimism.
- The assumption here being that consumption will drive the current capacity utilization of 69% to somewhere above 85%, which will trigger capital expenditure.
- This assumes that the consumer loan boom, already a decade old, will continue for another 3-4 years.
- Chances of household balance sheet weakening: In an environment of low job growth, it is difficult to see how household leverage will not increase.
- If capacity utilization does not pick up sufficiently to revive growth, then along with banking and corporate balance sheets, household balance sheets will also be weakened.
- Over the next 3-5 years, the downside of RBI’s retail push appears at least as significant as the upside.
Conclusion
- Polity stability needed: The government and RBI must make more determined efforts to revive corporate activity. Policy stability and confidence in the business environment may push commercial credit better than mere interest rate cuts.
- Need to increase government spending: Among the options available, using good old government spending to stimulate infrastructure spending, and eventually, the economy, appears to be a wiser option.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: DDT-What is dividend distribution tax?
Mains level: Paper 3- What are the steps taken in the budget in order to simplify the taxation in India.
Context
Loss expected from lower tax rates may be countered by gains from the settlement of cases, higher dividend taxes on top incomes, and the wider scope for taxing international incomes.
Simplification and providing ease to the taxpayers
- Fiscal constraints leaving no room for a lower rate: Ahead of The Union budget, taxpayers had anticipated a wide range of measures that they hoped would stoke demand.
- These ranged from lower tax rates to a more even tax structure on income from various sources.
- As the former was less feasible given the fiscal constraints, the budget proposals focused on simplification and providing ease to the taxpayer.
- Simplification in personal tax: The recalibration of personal income tax slabs was suggested as a step towards simplification.
- However, its uptake is contingent on the preference for new slabs.
- Who will not opt for a new slab? Switching over to the new slab rates is not beneficial to-
- An individual currently claiming full exemptions.
- An individual with incomes comprising largely of capital gains.
- It is possible, however, that individuals do not claim such exemptions or deductions.
- How switching to new slab impact revenue? An analysis of data published by the Central Board of Direct Taxes suggests that for the assessment year 2018-19, it suggest improvement in the collection.
- 1% improvement: If individuals do switch over to the new regime, it may translate to a 1 per cent improvement in tax collections, rather than a loss.
- Limited takers of the new slab: It can be inferred that this option may be exercised by few individuals, if at all, since the potential gains from foregoing exemptions and the intended simplification is expected to be limited.
Tax disputes
- The new scheme proposed: A common concern among taxpayers is protracted disputes. To reduce litigation, a new scheme has been proposed.
- Importance of precedence in disputes: 39 per cent of the cases made a reference to a similar case in the previous year. This underscores the importance of precedence.
- In such cases, the settlement is not a superior option as the waiver of the penalty and interest does not offer any advantage against a decision that would impact future assessment.
- Success rates of disputes: The success rate of the tax department is 27 per cent at the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) and the Supreme Court and 12 per cent in appeals filed in high courts.
- Given the odds of success, an assessee may thus be tempted to pursue litigation.
- Incentivising the settlement: Taxpayers may choose to settle for the waiver of interest and penalty in cases where it is one time and does not set a precedent for future transactions.
Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT)
- What is DDT? It is one of the significant change is in the taxation of dividends.
- The dividend distribution tax is a unique levy on distributed profits and is payable by the distributing company.
- What is the shortcoming in DDT? The shortcoming of such tax is that foreign investors can’t claim the credit.
- Additional 10 % of DDT: In an effort to make the tax progressive, an additional dividend tax of 10 per cent was introduced for domestic investors receiving dividend in excess of Rs 10 lakh.
- Dividend pay-out decreased after DDT: Changes in DDT were accompanied by a decline in dividend pay-out – the proportion of profits paid as dividends declined from 30 per cent in early 2000s to 22 per cent in 2019 (BSE 500 companies).
- Chance of improvement in pay-outs: It is expected that the reversion to the classical system may improve dividends pay-outs.
- However, this will benefit individual taxpayers with incomes below Rs 5 lakh as the slab rate applicable is less than the existing rate.
Taxing cross-border income
- In the international arena, India is determined to tax cross-border incomes.
- Taxing digital companies: The addition of explanation 3A to the Income Tax Act reinforces India’s commitment to taxing digital companies.
- What comprises the business with nexus to India: The proposed amendment clarifies that incomes related to the advertisement, sale of data of a person residing in India and sale of goods and services based on the data of a person residing in India, may be attributed to a business with nexus in India.
- Taxing citizen not taxable anywhere: To tax Indian citizens that are not taxable in any other jurisdiction, the Act will now deem such individuals as resident taxable in India.
- While the application of the law may be challenged giving rise to disputes, it is a step forward.
The proposal of Citizen’s charter
- Charter on rights and obligations: The finance minister also referred to introducing a citizen’s charter that incorporates taxpayer’s rights and obligations.
- Limits of charters: International experience shows that charters have limited enforceability unless adopted in primary legislation.
- Supporting charters with legislation: Introducing charter to the statutes may, therefore, prove to be a positive initiative.
- Faith can be built through enforcement of the charter.
- However, the penal provisions must be well-thought-out so as to avoid adding another contentious element.
Conclusion
- Lack of uniformity: The budget proposals aimed to provide simplicity, yet much remains to be done, given the lack of uniformity in the taxation of incomes such as capital gains.
- Limited revenue implications: The success of schemes proposed is contingent on the traction they gain. As for the revenue implications, the impact of these measures may, in fact, be limited.
- Countering loss through gains from settlements: Loss expected from lower tax rates may be countered by gains from the settlement of cases, higher dividend taxes on top incomes, and the wider scope for taxing international incomes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Aadhaar- how it has fared so far?
Context
Aadhaar-based biometric authentication did not reduce PDS leakages, finds Jharkhand-based empirical study
What was the rationale behind Aadhaar?
- What did the UIDAI’s report say? Aadhaar has curtailed leakages of government subsidies. Through Aadhaar, savings worth ₹90,000 crores have accrued to the government– UIDAI’s2017-18 annual report.
- Plugging the leakages in the schemes: When Aadhaar was conceived a decade ago, the rationale postulated was: India spends nearly three trillion rupees a year across several core welfare programmes such as Public Distribution System (PDS), LPG, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act etc.
- Huge leakage due to duplications: Roughly 30-40% of this three trillion is lost in leakages.
- Leakages are largely due to ‘ghost’ and ‘duplicate’ beneficiaries using fake identities to avail these benefits; a unique identity biometric scheme can eliminate these leakages and vastly improve efficiency in welfare delivery.
- Improve welfare delivery efficiency: In fact, the former Union Minister, Arun Jaitley, even renamed the Aadhaar Bill to ‘Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services’ Bill, making it amply clear that Aadhaar’s primary, if not sole purpose, was to improve welfare delivery efficiency.
What are the findings of study?
- How was the study carried out?
- Use of RCT and sample of 15 million people: They conducted a scientifically designed study of the PDS system in Jharkhand covering 15 million beneficiaries using the technique of randomised control trials (RCT).
- In the study, one set of beneficiaries went through the Aadhaar-based biometric authentication while the other group used the old system of procuring their ration.
- The results were then compared to see if Aadhaar-based biometric authentication had any impact in reducing leakages.
- What were the findings of the study?
- No measurable benefit: The study concluded that Aadhaar-based biometric authentication had no measurable benefit.
- No reduction in leakages: Aadhaar-based biometric authentication did not reduce leakages due to elimination of ghosts and duplicates, as widely perceived.
- Increase in transaction costs for beneficiary: On the other hand, they found that Aadhaar-based biometric authentication increased transaction costs for beneficiaries.
- 17% extra cost: That is, to claim ration worth ₹40, beneficiaries in the Aadhaar system incurred an additional ₹7 of costs than those in the old system, because of multiple trips to authenticate themselves and the opportunity cost of time spent.
- This is a whopping 17% extra cost burden of the value of the benefit they were entitled to receive.
- Type 1 error of exclusion: To make matters worse, Aadhaar-based biometric authentication also introduced what empirical scientists call Type I error of exclusion.
- Aadhaar authentication falsely rejected genuine PDS beneficiaries who were then denied their ration supplies.
- The study finds that nearly 10% of legitimate beneficiaries were denied their ration either because they did not have their Aadhaar linked to their ration card or due to an exclusion error.
- Summary of the finding: In summary, the study states that there was-
- No direct impact of Aadhaar in reducing leakages.
- 2. It denied ration to 10% of genuine beneficiaries and increased costs by 17% to those that were forced to get their ration using Aadhaar.
- Pain with no gain: They conclude that Aadhaar authentication for PDS in Jharkhand caused “some pain with no gain”.
What premises were wrong about Addhaar?
- No testing of empirical belief: There was a widespread belief among the policy elite that ghosts and duplicates were the scourge of India’s welfare delivery and that Aadhaar would eliminate this.
- But this belief was never empirically tested.
- Based on this belief, an entire story was concocted about improving welfare efficiency by eliminating ghosts and duplicates with Aadhaar and a whole new law was enacted to this effect.
- The pilot project not carried out: Many studies now establish that ghosts and duplicates are not the significant cause of leakages.
- It would have been better to have undertaken a robust pilot project of scale to test the belief about ghosts and duplicates, before embarking on it nationwide.
Conclusion
In a sociologist’s world and in a liberal society, a policy that could run the risk of denying welfare to just a few people, putting their lives at risk, is not worth implementing regardless of how many millions it benefits.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Terms of References for the office of CCPA
Mains level: CCPA, New Consumer Protection Laws, 2019
Recently the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs has announced that a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) will be established by the first week of April.
What is the Central Consumer Protection Authority?
- The authority is being constituted under Section 10(1) of The Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
- The Act replaced The Consumer Protection Act, 1986, and seeks to widen its scope in addressing consumer concerns.
- The CCPA, introduced in the new Act, aims to protect the rights of the consumer by cracking down on unfair trade practices, and false and misleading advertisements that are detrimental to the interests of the public and consumers.
Why need CCPA?
- The new Act recognizes offences such as providing false information regarding the quality or quantity of a good or service, and misleading advertisements.
- It also specifies action to be taken if goods and services are found “dangerous, hazardous or unsafe”.
- The CCPA will have the powers to inquire or investigate into matters relating to violations of consumer rights or unfair trade practices suo motu, or on a complaint received, or on a direction from the central government.
What can the possible structure of CCPA be?
- The proposed authority will be a lean body with a Chief Commissioner as head, and only two other commissioners as members — one of whom will deal with matters relating to goods while the other will look into cases relating to services.
- It will be headquartered in the NCR of Delhi but the central government may set up regional offices in other parts of the country.
- The CCPA will have an Investigation Wing that will be headed by a Director General.
- District Collectors too, will have the power to investigate complaints of violations of consumer rights, unfair trade practices, and false or misleading advertisements.
What kind of goods and food items in particular, can be classified as “dangerous, hazardous or unsafe”?
- This is not specified in the notification of the Act.
- Regarding food, an official said the CCPA will ensure that all standards on packaged food items set by regulators such as the FSSAI are being followed.
What will the CCPA do if any goods or services are found not meeting these standards?
Under Section 20 of The Consumer Protection Act, the proposed authority will have powers to:
- recall goods or withdrawal of services that are “dangerous, hazardous or unsafe;
- pass an order for refund the prices of goods or services so recalled to purchasers of such goods or services and
- discontinuation of practices which are unfair and prejudicial to consumer’s interest
Penalties:
For manufacture, selling, storage, distribution, or import of adulterated products, the penalties are:
- If injury is not caused to a consumer, fine up to Rs 1 lakh with imprisonment up to six months;
- If injury is caused, fine up to Rs 3 lakh with imprisonment up to one year;
- If grievous hurt is caused, fine up to Rs 5 lakh with imprisonment up to 7 years;
- In case of death, fine of Rs 10 lakh or more with a minimum imprisonment of 7 years, extendable to imprisonment for life.
How will it deal with false or misleading advertisements?
- Section 21 of the new Act defines the powers given to the CCPA to crack down on false or misleading advertisements.
- The CCPA may order investigation that any advertisement is false or misleading and is harmful to the interest of any consumer, or is in contravention of consumer rights.
- If dissatisfied, the CCPA may issue directions to the trader, manufacturer, endorser, advertiser, or publisher to discontinue such an advertisement, or modify it in a manner specified by the authority, within a given time.
Penalties:
- The authority may also impose a penalty up to Rs 10 lakh, with imprisonment up to two years, on the manufacturer or endorser of false and misleading advertisements.
- The penalty may go up to Rs 50 lakh, with imprisonment up to five years, for every subsequent offence committed by the same manufacturer or endorser.
- CCPA may ban the endorser of a false or misleading advertisement from making endorsement of any products or services in the future, for a period that may extend to one year.
- The ban may extend up to three years in every subsequent violation of the Act.
What other powers will the CCPA have?
- While conducting an investigation after preliminary inquiry, officers of the CCPA’s Investigation Wing will have the powers to enter any premise and search for any document or article, and to seize these.
- For search and seizure, the CCPA will have similar powers given under the provisions of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
- The CCPA can file complaints of violation of consumer rights or unfair trade practices before the District, State, and the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.
- It will issue safety notices to alert consumers against dangerous or hazardous or unsafe goods or services.
Also read:
Five new rights you get as a consumer
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: 2020 CD3, Temporarily Captured Object (TCO)
Mains level: Not Much
Astronomers have observed a small object orbiting Earth, which they have dubbed a “mini-moon” or the planet’s “second moon”.
2020 CD3
- The mini-moon was discovered by some astronomers at NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) in Arizona.
- It is actually an asteroid, about the size of a car; its diameter is about 1.9-3.5 m.
- And unlike our permanent Moon, the mini-moon is temporary; it will eventually break free of Earth’s orbit and go off on its own way.
- Orbit integrations indicate that this object is temporarily bound to the Earth.
- 2020 CD3 was captured into Earth’s orbit over three years ago.
- For CSS, it is only the second such discovery. It previously discovered 2006 RH120, which orbited Earth for some time that year, before it escaped in 2007.
Where do such moons come from?
- When an asteroid’s orbit crosses Earth’s orbit, it can sometimes be captured into the latter orbit. This is what happened with 2020 CD3.
- It is now orbiting at a distance farther from Earth. Such an asteroid is called a Temporarily Captured Object (TCO).
- The orbit of such objects is unstable. They have to contend with the gravitational influence of our permanent Moon as well as that of the Sun.
- Once caught in Earth’s orbit, such objects usually remain for a few years before they break free and go into independent orbit around the Sun.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: EASE 3.0
Mains level: Ease and data-driven PSBs
Union Finance minister has released Enhanced Access and Service Excellence (EASE) 3.0, the new reform agenda for tech-enabled banking.
EASE 3.0
- EASE 3.0 aims at providing smart, tech-enabled public sector banking experience for aspiring India, by establishing paperless and digitally-enabled banking at places where people visit the most such as malls, stations etc.
- With EASE 3.0, the government is trying to enhance the customer experience with the introduction of features like Dial-a-loan, credit at a click, alternate-data-based lending or other analytics-based credit offers.
Various features
- Palm Banking for “End-to-end digital delivery of financial service
- “Banking on Go” via EASE banking outlets at frequently visited spots like malls, stations, complexes, and campuses
- Digitalizing the experience at public sector bank branches
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MIEWS, TOP
Mains level: Ensuring fair prices for TOP produce
The Union Food Processing Ministry has launched a new Market Intelligence and Early Warning System (MIEWS) portal to monitor the prices of TOP crops – Tomato, Onion and Potato.
About MIEWS
- MIEWS portal is the first-of-its-kind platform for ‘real-time monitoring’ of prices of tomato, onion and potato.
- The system has been designed to provide advisories to farmers to avoid cyclical production and issue early warnings in situations of gluts.
- It will simultaneously generate alerts for price intervention under the terms of Operation Greens (OG) scheme.
- It will generate early alerts in case there is going to be a major change in the prices of these crops.
- This will help in planning and timely intervention for price stabilization. The portal can be accessed at this link- http://miews.nafed-india.com.
Utility of MIEWS
The MIEWS would:
- Monitor the supply situation for timely market intervention,
- Assist in rapid response during times of glut to move the produce from glut regions to regions with deficit supply.
- Provide inputs for export/import decision making.
Back2Basics
Operation Greens
- In the budget speech of Union Budget 2018-19, a new Scheme “Operation Greens” was announced on the line of “Operation Flood” to promote Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs #), agri-logistics, processing facilities and professional management.
- Accordingly, the Ministry has formulated a scheme for integrated development of Tomato, Onion and Potato (TOP) value chain.
- Under the OG Scheme, during a glut situation, the evacuation of surplus production from producing areas to consumption centres will be undertaken in the following cases:
- When the price falls below the average market price at the time of harvest in the preceding 3 years.
- When the price falls more than 50 percent in comparison to the previous year’s market price at the time of harvest.
- When the price falls below the benchmark, if any, fixed by either the state or central government for a stipulated period.
For additional readings, navigate to:
https://mofpi.nic.in/Schemes/operation-greens
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various initiaitives mentioned in the newscard
Mains level: Not Much
The INCOIS Hyderabad has launched a trio of products for users in the marine realm.
About INCOIS
- The institute is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
- INCOIS prioritises requests for specific services from its diverse user community that ranges right from fishermen to offshore oil exploration industries.
Products launched:
Small Vessel Advisory and Forecast Services System (SVAS)
The SVAS is an innovative impact-based advisory and forecast service system for small vessels operating in Indian coastal waters.
- The SVA system warns users about potential zones where vessel overturning can take place, ten days in advance.
- The advisories are valid for small vessels of beam width up to 7 m.
- This limit covers the entire range of beam widths of the fishing vessels used in all the 9 coastal states and union territories of India.
- The warning system is based on the ‘Boat Safety Index’ (BSI) derived from wave model forecast outputs such as significant wave height, wave steepness, directional spread and the rapid development of wind at sea which is boat-specific.
Swell Surge Forecast System (SSFS)
SSFS is an innovative system designed for the prediction of Kallakkadal/Swell Surge that occurs along the Indian coast, particularly the west coast.
- Kallakadal/Swell surge are flash-flood events that take place without any noticeable advance change in local winds or any other apparent signature in the coastal environment.
- Hence the local population remains totally unaware of these flooding events until they actually occur. Such events are intermittent throughout the year.
- Kallakkadal is a colloquial term used by Kerala fishermen to refer to the freaky flooding episodes and in 2012 UNESCO formally accepted this term for scientific use.
- Kallakkadal are caused by meteorological conditions in the Southern Ocean, south of 30°S.
- These swells once generated, travel northward and reach the Indian coasts in 3-5 days time, creating havoc in the coastal areas.
- The system will now predict Kallakkadal and warnings will be given to concerned authorities at least 2-3 days in advance, which will help the local authorities for contingency plans and to reduce damage.
Algal Bloom Information Service (ABIS)
- The increasing frequency of algal blooms is a major concern due to its ill effects on the fishery, marine life and water quality.
- INCOIS has developed a service for “Detection and Monitoring of Bloom in the Indian Seas”.
- The target users are fishermen, marine fishery resource managers, researchers, ecologists and environmentalists.
- The service also complements INCOIS’ marine fishing advisories i.e. Potential Fishing Zone advisories.
- INCOIS-ABIS will provide near-real-time information on spatio-temporal occurrence and spread of phytoplankton blooms over the North Indian Ocean.
- In addition, four regions have been identified as bloom hotspots viz.
a) North Eastern Arabian Sea
b) coastal waters off Kerala
c) Gulf of Mannar and
d) coastal waters of Gopalpur
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ‘1000 Springs’ Initiative
Mains level: Conservation of aquifers
Union Tribal Affairs Ministry has launched “1000 Spring Initiatives” and an online portal on GIS-based Spring Atlas with hydrological and chemical properties of the Springs on the occasion.
‘1000 Springs’ Initiative
- The ‘1000 Springs Initiative’ aims at improving access to safe and adequate water for the tribal communities living in a difficult and inaccessible part of rural areas in the country.
- It is an integrated solution around natural springs.
- It includes the provision of infrastructure for piped water supply for drinking; provision of water for irrigation; community-led total sanitation initiatives; and provision for water for backyard nutrition gardens, generating sustainable livelihood opportunities for the tribal people.
- It will help in harnessing the potential of perennial springs’ water to address the natural scarcity of water in tribal areas.
Spring Atlas
- Springs are natural sources of groundwater discharge and have been used extensively in the mountainous regions across the world, including India.
- However, in the central and eastern Indian belt with more than 75% tribal population, it remains largely unrecognized and under-utilized.
- An online portal on GIS-based Spring Atlas has been developed to make these data easily accessible from an online platform.
- Presently, data of more than 170 springs have been uploaded on the Spring Atlas.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RAISE 20202
Mains level: Creating a roadmap to harness AI
The Govt. has announced the mega event, RAISE 2020- ‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020,’ to be held in April in New Delhi.
RAISE 2020
- RAISE 2020 is a first of its kind, a global meeting of minds on Artificial Intelligence to drive India’s vision and roadmap for social empowerment, inclusion and transformation through responsible AI.
- It is India’s first Artificial Intelligence summit to be organized by the Government in partnership with Industry & Academia.
- The summit will be a global meeting of minds to exchange ideas and charter a course to use AI for social empowerment, inclusion and transformation in key areas like Healthcare, Agriculture, Education and Smart Mobility amongst other sectors.
- It will facilitate an exchange of ideas to further create a mass awareness about the need to ethically develop and practice AI in the digital era.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Henneguya Salminicola
Mains level: NA
Researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered a non-oxygen breathing animal, which significantly changes one of science’s assumptions about the animal world — that all animals use aerobic respiration and therefore, oxygen.
Henneguya Salminicola
- The organism is Henneguya salminicola, a fewer-than-10-celled microscopic parasite that lives in salmon muscle.
- It relies on anaerobic respiration (through which cells extract energy without using oxygen).
- In the case of this non-oxygen breathing organism, evolution turned it into a simpler organism that shed “unnecessary genes” responsible for aerobic respiration.
- Other organisms such as fungi and amoebas that are found in anaerobic environments lost the ability to breathe over time.
- The new study shows that the same can happen in the case of animals, too.
What is Aerobic respiration?
- Animals, including humans, need energy to perform the various tasks that are essential for survival.
- Aerobic respiration is one such chemical reaction through which organisms take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
- Through this mechanism, energy is transferred to cells, which can use it for multiple purposes — for instance, to burn food.
- Mitochondria is the “powerhouse” of the cell, which captures oxygen to make energy — its absence in the H. salminicola genome indicates that the parasite does not breathe oxygen.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Bodo peace accord, issues involved.
Context
There are indications that the new Bodo accord does not spell closure of the statehood movement by Bodo groups.
Power-sharing experiment under the Sixth Schedule
- Sixth Schedule expected as a panacea: The experiment of power-sharing and governance under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution was expected to be the panacea of the ethno-nationalist identity questions in the Northeastern States.
- Complexities of exclusion: Euphoria, as well as anger over the third Bodo Accord, have, however, held the mirror reflecting the complexities of exclusion of communities in such ethnocentric power-sharing and governance model.
Specifics of the new Accord
- The new Accord was signed by the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU), United Bodo People’s Organisation and all the four factions of the insurgent outfit- National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) with Delhi and Dispur on January 27.
- It promises more legislative, executive and administrative autonomy under the Sixth Schedule to Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and expansion of the BTC territory in lieu of statehood.
- The Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD), the autonomous region governed by BTC, will be known as Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) after demarcation of the augmented territory.
The emergence of the faultlines in the new Accord
- What went wrong in the previous Accord? The previous Bodo Accord signed by the erstwhile insurgent outfit, Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) with Delhi and Dispur on February 10, 2003, led to the creation of the BTC as a new experiment of territorial autonomy under the Sixth Schedule.
- No assent by the Governor to any BTC legislation: The constitutionally mandated legislative power of the BTC has been reduced to a farce as the Assam Governor has not given assent to any of the legislation passed by the BTC Legislative Assembly.
- Intensification of demand for Kamatapur State: Bodo groups have suspended their statehood movement.
- The new Bodo Accord has triggered the intensification of the movement for Kamatapur State by organisations of the Koch-Rajbongshi community.
- Overlapping territory: The territory of the demanded Kamatapur State overlaps with the present BTAD, proposed BTR and demanded Bodoland.
- Demand for ST status: Clamour for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status by the Koch-Rajbongshis, Adivasis and several other non-ST communities has also grown.
- Faultlines over ST status: Deeper ethnic faultlines in an ethnocentric power-sharing model will become exposed when the Koch-Rajbongshis and the Adivasis are granted ST status, as promised by the government.
- For, the reservation of seats of BTC is for the STs and not exclusively for the Bodos.
- The new accord has no clear answer to such critical questions.
- In BTAD, the ST communities account for 33.50% of the total population and the Bodos account for over 90% of the ST population in the BTAD.
- The ST populations are an overwhelming majority in territories overseen by nine other autonomous councils under the Sixth Schedule in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.
- Minority governing majority: Such a demographic composition in the BTAD has allowed the space for political mobilisation of other non-Bodo communities.
- It also allowed the articulation of the campaign that the BTC is a faulty model as it allows the minorities to govern the majorities.
- Exclusion demand: The organisations of these communities have been demanding exclusion of villages with less than 50% Bodo population from the BTAD.
- Counter argument by Bodos: Bodo organisations have a counter-argument that non-Bodo is a political identity construction articulated to capture power in the BTAD by certain political forces.
- The new accord promises to increase the current strength of BTC to 60 from 40 but “without adversely affecting the existing percentage of reservation for tribal[s]”.
- Constitutional provision for dealing with such situations: Sub-paragraph 2 of the first paragraph of the Sixth Schedule provides that, “If there are different Scheduled Tribes in an autonomous district, the Governor may, by public notification, divide the area or areas inhabited by them into autonomous regions.”
- However, constitutional amendments were made following the previous Bodo Accord to ensure that this provision shall not apply in respect of the BTAD.
- What could be the solution to the present situation? The provision of setting up regional autonomous councils under the Sixth Schedule can be explored to create the space for communities aggrieved by exclusion from the power-sharing model of BTC.
Provision of commission
- The new accord promises to appoint a commission by the Assam government.
- What the commission will deal with? It will look into the demands for inclusion of villages with ST majority and contiguous to the BTAD, and exclusion of villages which are contiguous to non-Sixth Schedule areas and have majority non-ST population.
- However, the core area of the BTAD will continue to have many villages with majority non-ST population which were included for contiguity.
Evaporating of euphoria over the accord
- Failure in uniting the four factions: Euphoria among the Bodos over the accord is also fast evaporating with efforts to unite all the four factions of NDFB having turned futile.
- The factions are divided into two camps.
- The new accord will be the pivot of political mobilisation in the BTAD during the forthcoming BTC elections due in April.
- Revival in homeland demand: A shift in the political equilibrium in the BTC resulting from a likely expansion of the ST list in Assam has the potential to keep the Bodos out of power in the BTC and push Bodo organisations to revive their homeland demand
Conclusion
Peace will continue to be fragile in Assam’s Bodo heartland until an all-inclusive power-sharing and governance model is evolved under the provisions of the Sixth Schedule.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Jal Jeevan Mission, ensuring quality drinking water.
Context
The competitive politics of Delhi election has brought the issue of drinking water to centre stage.
Controversy over BIS water status report
- Politicising of the report: The controversy started with the release of the BIS report for 21 major Indian cities, in keeping with the objectives of the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’.
- The mission aims to provide safe piped water to all households by 2024.
- The fact that drinking water in Delhi was ranked the most unsafe, as the samples failed in 19 out of 28 parameters, was challenged by the Government of Delhi and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
- Compilation of information on the existing status: The study is scheduled to cover all districts in the country within a year. Supply of potable water obviously requires first compilation of information on the existing status
- Water as an urgent concern: The fact that water should be treated as an urgent concern for public health and the ecosystem of the country cannot be denied.
- Imperceptible threat: The threats to human health due to poor water quality, except when they appear as an epidemic, are largely imperceptible.
- This generally subjects the population to subtle health problems without its knowledge or consent.
Pollution and water crisis in India
- Pollution contributing to water crisis: India is on the throes of a severe water crisis, not only because of a gradual reduction in per capita availability of water due to a rising population but also because of rising and unchecked pollution in the country’s rivers and water bodies.
- It is a fact which is mostly overlooked in the deliberations on water resources management.
- Only 30% sewage treatment capacity in major cities: As per published estimates of the Central Pollution Control Board, the country has a treatment capacity of only about 30% of sewage generated in the major cities.
- Not to talk of other urban and rural areas where the sewage finds its way to local water bodies or rivers without treatment.
Impending water stress in the country
- NITI Aayog report: A 2018 Report of the NITI Aayog has observed that currently, 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress.
- The report also states that about two lakh people die every year due to inadequate access to safe water.
- Demand twice the supply by 2030: The crisis is only going to get worse.
- By 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people.
- High methane in Yamuna water in Delhi: For the water coming from the Yamuna released from Haryana, the DJB has to often stop the supply for a few days if the concentration of methane goes up beyond a certain level.
- This is because the tri-chloromethane that may be produced during the disinfection process is highly carcinogenic.
- The effect may surface on human health not immediately but over a period of time.
The capital’s high pollutant load and need for improvement in governance
- Contributing 50% pollutant: Delhi, which constitutes less than 1% of the total catchment of the Yamuna, contributes more than 50% of total pollutant load in the river.
- Delhi has 7,000 km of sewer line as on date, against a requirement of 24,000 km.
- The 17 sewage treatment plants being operated by the DJB are able to take care of not more than 30% of sewage treatment.
- There is no sewerage system at all for over 45% of the population in unauthorised and even regularised colonies and rural areas.
- As of now, there are 18 major drains carrying sewage, garbage and industrial effluents into the Yamuna.
- Solid waste dumping in Yamuna: It is not only the untreated sewage water and industrial effluents, but also the solid wastes and construction material discharged by individuals, companies and municipal bodies that have caused the suffocation of the Yamuna.
- Also, floodplains have been encroached upon by settlements.
- Challenge of supplying quality water: Ensuring the supply of quality drinking water is not only expensive, but it also needs improvement in governance.
- It needs technical knowledge on measurement and regulation of water quality.
- It is not the fault of the DJB or the Delhi government alone that they have not been able to ensure a 100% supply of quality water to the citizens of Delhi.
- Given the constraints they face, especially those concerning the water resources management and laws in the country.
Conclusion
The Jal Jeevan Mission, even if it has not been so far structured, conceptualised and funded adequately, has begun the important work of gathering information on the scale and scope of the problem and making it available in an open and transparent manner. The best outcome is that the competitive politics of the Delhi election has ensured a political debate on water quality.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Supreme Court delivering its judgement without giving the reasons and its implications.
Context
In a highly unusual move, a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court resorted to a non-speaking order as it ruled affirmatively on the preliminary issue arising out of the Sabarimala review petition.
Departure from norms
- The importance of a ‘reasoned decision’ in a constitutional democracy committed to the rule of law, is self-evident.
- Its importance cannot be overstated and this curious departure from the norm merits close analysis.
- Time and again, the Supreme Court has unequivocally endorsed and underlined the requirement of giving reasons in support of the order.
- The SC has often chastised subordinate institutions for their failure to supplement their orders with reasons.
Importance of ‘reasoned decision’
- The juristic basis for the ‘reasoned decision’: The juristic basis for this has also been explored in a number of cases.
- In various decisions, the court has ruled that speaking orders promote-
- Judicial accountability and transparency.
- Inspire public confidence in the administration of justice; and
- Introduce clarity and minimise the chances of arbitrariness.
- Quotes from various judgements: In addition to being a “healthy discipline for all those who exercise power over others”, recording of reasons has been described by the Supreme Court as the “heartbeat of every conclusion”; the “life blood of judicial decision making”; and a cherished principle of “natural justice”.
- The Madhya Pradesh Industries Ltd case: In this case Justice Subba Rao K. stated:
- “The condition to give reasons introduces clarity and excludes or at any rate minimises arbitrariness;”
- “… it gives satisfaction to the party against whom the order is made; and it also enables an appellate or supervisory court to keep the tribunals within bound… Speaking order will at its best be reasonable and at its worst be at least a plausible one.”
Devaluation by the SC and implications
- Implicit rules: The need for a court to provide an intellectual substrate for its decisions is also implicit in the expression “pronounce judgment” in Supreme Court Rules, 2013.
- According to settled decisions, the same signifies “judicial determination by reasoned order”.
- However, when it came to applying the principle to its own verdict, the apex court has inadvertently devalued the importance of concurrent reporting of reasons.
- The court seems to have downplayed the fact that it may be coming across as inarticulate at best and indecisive at worst.
- Undermining integrity: Besides undermining institutional integrity, a decision’s authority as a binding precedent is also potentially compromised by this omission.
Culture of justification
- The term “transformative constitutionalism” has recently found currency in constitutional adjudication (Navtej Joharand Joseph Shine).
- The Supreme Court is yet to articulate a comprehensive theory of the concept but it has been fleshed out in other jurisdictions.
- From authority to justification: For example, Pius Langa, former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, argued that “transformative constitutionalism” entails a transformation of legal culture from one “based on authority” to the one “based on justification”.
- Karl Klare (the scholar who coined the term) posited that it may be legitimately expected of constitutional adjudication to “innovate and model intellectual and institutional practices appropriate to a culture of justification”.
Conclusion
In light of the above, it can be concluded that the practice of issuing non-speaking orders and giving post-hoc rationalisations later is an anathema to the principle of constitutional governance. Duty to give reasons is an incident of the judicial process and constitutional justice should not be a matter of afterthought.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Read the attached story
Mains level: Assam as the centre-stage of disputes
Assam is at the centre of a fresh inter-State border row in the northeastern region. The Mizoram government has sought the revision of the boundary with Assam, based on the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) of 1873 and the Inner Line of the Lushai Hills Notification of 1993.
Background
- Since 1962 most of the state borders of states carved out of Assam were divided following the myopic vision of the Central government.
- On ground these borders still do not run in sync with the tribal territories and identities, creating repetitive conflicts in the region and disturbing its peace.
- Assam finds itself at the center of all the conflicts since most of the neighboring states were carved out of its territory since independence.
- This was done to consolidate the Indian Union at the time by catering to the aspirations of the local tribes and including them in the mainstream by giving them independent statehoods.
What is the dispute?
- Mizoram shares a 123-km border with southern Assam and has been claiming a 509-square mile stretch “occupied” by the neighbouring State.
- Mizoram used to be the Lushai Hills district of Assam before being made a Union Territory in 1972 and a State in 1987.
- Both States have been disputing an extensive stretch of this boundary.
About Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation
- The Inner Line Regulations, commonly referred to as the Inner Line Permit system (ILP), first gained legal effect through the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.
- At present the BEFR continues to apply, but only in present-day Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram.
- It had been lifted in the whole of Assam, as well as the entirety of present-day Meghalaya.
- The BEFR allows Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland not to let non-resident Indians in without an inner-line permit for a temporary stay.
Present status of ILP
- The Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order, 1958 is the modern embodiment of the ILP.
- This Order was passed in furtherance of the Foreigners Act, 1946.
- The Order defined the ‘inner line’ throughout present-day India starting from Jammu and Kashmir and ending at Mizoram.
- This inner line is different from the one envisioned in the Bengal Frontier Regulations.
- This line represents the furthest point up to the international border where a foreigner can visit on the strength of a visa alone.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: InSight Mission
Mains level: Key findings of the InSight Mission
It’s now more than a year since NASA’s InSight lander mission touched down on Mars on November 26, 2018. This week, NASA published a report regarding findings on the Mars.
About InSight Mission
- The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport mission is a robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet Mars.
- It is the first mission dedicated to looking deep beneath the Martian surface.
- Among its science tools are a seismometer for detecting quakes, sensors for gauging wind and air pressure, a magnetometer, and a heat flow probe designed to take the planet’s temperature.
- The InSight mission is part of NASA’s Discovery Program.
- It is being supported by a number of European partners, which include France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA).
Key findings of the Mission
Underground: rumbles
- Mars trembles more often than expected, but also more mildly.
- This emerged from readings of the ultra-sensitive seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS).
- The instrument enables scientists to “hear” multiple trembling events from hundreds to thousands of miles away.
- Mars doesn’t have tectonic plates like Earth, but it does have volcanically active regions that can cause rumbles.
The surface: Magnetism
- Billions of years ago, Mars had a magnetic field.
- Although it is no longer present, it left behind what NASA describes as “ghosts” – magnetized rocks that are now between 61 m to several km below ground.
- InSight is equipped with a magnetometer, which has detected magnetic signals.
- At a Martian site called Homestead hollow, the magnetic signals are 10 times stronger than what was predicted earlier (based on data from orbiting spacecraft).
In the wind: dust devils
- InSight measures wind speed, direction and air pressure nearly continuously.
- Weather sensors have detected thousands of passing whirlwinds, which are called dust devils when they pick up grit and become visible.
- The site has more whirlwinds than any other place where a landing has been made on Mars while carrying weather sensors.
- Despite all that activity in the wind and frequent imaging, InSight’s cameras have yet to see dust devils. But SEIS can feel these whirlwinds pulling on the surface.
The core: still to come
- InSight has two radios. One is for regularly sending and receiving data. The other radio, which is more powerful, is designed to measure the “wobble” of Mars as it spins.
- This X-band radio, also known as the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE), can eventually reveal whether the planet’s core is solid or liquid.
- A solid core would cause Mars to wobble less than a liquid one would.
- This first year of data is just a start, NASA said in the statement. When it is two years on Earth, Mars will have completed one year.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Details of the choppers
Mains level: India-US defence cooperation
During his speech in Ahmedabad, Mr. Trump announced: deals to sell over $3 billion state-of-the-art military helicopters and other equipment to the Indian Armed Forces.
MH-60 Romeo helicopters
- The incoming 24 multirole MH-60 Romeo helicopters are expected to boost the Indian Navy’s efforts to expand its role in the Indian Ocean Region.
- The MH-60 Romeo Seahawk, made by defence giant Lockheed Martin, is one of the most advanced naval helicopters in the world, used by the US Navy among others.
- It is the most capable and mature Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) multi-mission helicopter available in the world today, the makers say.
- MH-60 Romeo Seahawks have equipped with anti-submarine Mark 54 torpedoes and Hellfire air-to-surface missiles, along with precision-kill rockets.
- It also has an advanced system for passive detection, location, and identification of emitters. It can not only track and hunt ships but is also used by the US Navy as an anti-submarine weapon.
Apache helicopters
- Indian Army will receive six more Apache helicopters in addition to the 22.
- The Apaches can operate at high altitudes and will be deployed along the Pakistan border. The Army is likely to get the helicopters armed with Stinger air-to-air missiles and Hellfire Longbow air-to-ground missiles.
- Among the Apache’s modern capabilities are the ability to shoot fire-and-forget anti-tank missiles, air-to-air missiles, rockets, and other munitions.
- It also has modern electronic warfare capabilities to provide versatility in network-centric aerial warfare.
- The choppers are all-weather capable and have high agility and survivability against battle damage.
- They can be easily maintained in field conditions as well as during operations in the tropical and desert regions.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Technical Textiles, About the Mission
Mains level: Textile sector of India and its global competitiveness
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval to set up a National Technical Textiles Mission with a view to position the country as a global leader in Technical Textiles.
What are Technical Textiles?
- Technical textile is a textile product manufactured for non-aesthetic purposes, where the function is primary criterion.
- They are functional fabrics that have applications across various industries including automobiles, civil engineering and construction, agriculture, healthcare, industrial safety, personal protection etc.
- Technical Textiles is a high technology sunrise sector which is steadily gaining ground in. India.
National Technical Textiles Mission
- The Mission would have a four year implementation period from FY 2020-21 to 2023-24.
- It will move into sunset phase after four years period.
- A Mission Directorate in the Min. of Textiles headed by an eminent expert in the related field will be made operational.
- The Directorate will not have any permanent employment and there will be no creation of building infrastructure for the Mission purpose.
Components of the mission
Component-I: Promoting both (i) fundamental research at fibre level and (ii) application-based research in geo-textiles, agro-textiles, medical textiles, mobile textiles and sports textiles and development of biodegradable technical textiles.
Component-II: Promotion and Market Development.
Component-III: Export promotion of technical textiles and ensuring 10% average growth in exports per year upto 2023-24. An Export Promotion Council for Technical Textiles will be set up for this purpose.
Component-IV: Promoting technical education at higher engineering and technology levels related to technical textiles.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ex. Indradhanush
Mains level: Not Much
The Indian Air Force (IAF) and Royal Air Force (RAF) jointly commenced the fifth edition of Exercise Indradhanush at Air Force Station Hindan.
Ex. Indradhanush
- It is a joint air force exercise conducted by the Royal Air Force (RAF) of United Kingdom and the Indian Air Force (IAF) being held since 2006.
- The exercise is tasked to enhance mutual operational understanding between the two air forces via close interaction.
- The focus of this edition of the exercise is ‘Base Defence and Force Protection’.
- This theme is of significance considering the recent threats to military establishments from terror elements.
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