Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Use of technology in governance
Context
There are several reforms and governance initiatives that have successfully steered India to its current strength.
Contribution of Digital India program
- A report carding of Digital India’s performance shows impressive progress.
- Thus far, the government has transferred more than Rs 17 lakh crore through DBT while saving Rs 2.2 lakh crore.
- Today, India has the world’s fastest-growing and most vibrant startup ecosystem with close to 70,000 registered startups and around 100 unicorns, with a unicorn coming up every week.
- GST regime: Thanks to the most significant reform in indirect taxation through the GST and tax compliance, India has registered its highest ever collections.
- Revenue increased from Rs 22 lakh crore in FY 21 to Rs 27 lakh crore in FY 22 — a whopping 22 per cent growth.
- Role in India’s response to pandemic: Digital India played a significant role in India’s response to the pandemic.
- It ensured that the government could reach people in remote parts of the country.
- Health, education and other essential services migrated swiftly to the online mode.
Use of technology for governance amid pandemic
- Digital India played a significant role in India’s response to the pandemic.
- It ensured that the government could reach people in remote parts of the country.
- Health, education and other essential services migrated swiftly to the online mode.
- It would not be an aberration to say that post-Covid, India emerged as a preeminent nation in the use of technology for governance.
Conclusion
The rapid digitalisation of the world along with a new focus on trust in the global supply chains for digital products and services presents tremendous opportunities for India and its youth. It is now up to all of us to engage in a collective “sabka prayas” to realise New India’s economic potential.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Lok Adalat
Mains level: Paper 2- Use of technology by judiciary
Context
The Indian judiciary has increasingly started using technology and the change is reflected in the legal profession in general as well.
Increasing use of digital technology in the judiciary
- With the digitisation of judicial records and the establishment of e-courts, significant developments had taken place in 2020.
- Use of technology to better utilise potential: It is imperative that the use of digital technology be discussed to better utilise its potential, particularly in terms of digitisation of court records, e-filing of cases and their virtual hearing, live streaming of court proceedings.
Background
- In India, e-governance in the field of administration of justice began in the late 1990s, but it accelerated after the enactment of the Information and Technology Act, 2000.
- In the year of 2006, e-courts were launched as a part of the National e-Governance Plan (NEGP).
Digitisation of case files
- When he was the Chief Justice of Allahabad HC, Justice D Y Chandrachud had conceptualised and initiated the project to digitise approximately one crore case files in one year.
- Saving of space and preservation of old documents: This was necessary as not only was a large space required to store so many files, it was also becoming difficult to manually preserve the decades-old documents.
- Traceability: Another purpose was to ensure that these files are traceable electronically as and when required.
- It has also been observed that cases are adjourned simply because affidavits filed several years ago were not restored with the record or were not traceable.
- Once the documents are digitised and e-filed by counsels, at least the cases would not get adjourned by the courts on this account.
- Reducing the risk of missing court records: In State of Uttar Pradesh v. Abhay Raj Singh, it was held by the Supreme Court that if court records go missing and re-construction is not possible, the courts are bound to set aside the conviction.
- Saving of time: With digitisation, it will take much less time for the lower courts to transmit the records as and when called for.
- The lawyers benefit because they or their staff are no longer required to visit the reporting sections or other sections of the court to know about the status of their cases.
- This has been sought to be implemented by the e-Committee of the Supreme Court by issuing directions to ensure that e-filing of cases/petitions by state governments in all matters be made mandatory from January 1, 2022.
Scope for virtual hearing in certain cases
- Cases related to matrimonial issues and domestic violence bounced cheques, motor accident compensation referred to mediation centres and lok adalats could be included in the list of cases fit for disposal through the virtual hearing.
- The hearing of matrimonial cases through video-conferencing was approved by the Supreme Court in the matter of Krishna Veni Nagam v Harish Nagam (2017).
- The direction was short-lived and a coordinate bench of the Supreme Court in the case of Santhini v Vijaya Venkatesh (2018) referred the matter for reconsideration before a larger bench.
- Virtual hearings cannot be a substitute for physical court hearings in all cases.
- However, in appropriate cases and certain categories of cases as identified by the court administration in consultation with the members of the Bar, virtual hearing should be made mandatory.
Live streaming of cases
- In 2018, the Supreme Court allowed the live-streaming of cases of constitutional and national importance on the basis of the judgment in Swapnil Tripathi.
- Step towards transparency: The livestreaming of court proceedings is a step towards ensuring transparency and openness.
- While several reservations were expressed against it, the Gujarat HC in July 2021 became the first court in the country to livestream its proceedings.
- Its example was followed by other HCs like Karnataka, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Patna.
Challenges
- Internet connectivity issues and the need for a well-equipped space where lawyers can conduct their cases are some of the major problems requiring attention.
- Political will and the support of judges and lawyers are also necessary.
- Awareness and training: Judges, court staff and lawyers are not well-versed with digital technology and its benefits.
- The need of the hour is for them to be made aware of these and receive adequate training.
Conclusion
Adoption of technology will bring drastic changes in the field of law and will transform the Court system.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Criminal justice system
Context
The key to an improved criminal justice system is quality forensic labs and well-trained staff, not more legislation and harsher punishments.
About forensic science
- Forensic science is the application of scientific perspectives and techniques to the legal process, including investigations and courtroom protocol.
- It is the use of scientific data and procedures specifically for the legal system.
- There is rigorous procedure involved, including controlled conditions, reliable data collection and the attempt to disprove hypotheses.
- Methodologies like the autopsy procedures, fingerprinting, testing and matching for poisons, blood spatter analysis, matching guns to bullets fired (ballistics), voice sample matches, handwriting assessments and DNA analysis are all facets of forensic science.
Inadequate state forensic facilities
- We have a woefully inadequate number of forensic science laboratories (FSL).
- There are seven central forensic laboratories in India at Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chandigarh, New Delhi, Guwahati, Bhopal and Pune.
- Six of these laboratories, barring Delhi, are under the control of the Directorate of Forensic Science Services (DFSS), and its mission is to render high quality and credible forensic services to the justice delivery system.
- A National Forensic Sciences University was established in Gandhinagar, Gujarat in 2020.
- The existing National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science in Delhi has been integrated into this new university.
- There are 32 state FSLs and about 529 mobile FSL units, of which Delhi has one state FSL and six mobile units.
- The DNA tests discovered in 1985 are used to identify individuals involved in alleged crimes.
- In 2017, The Hindu reported that while the United Kingdom completes DNA testing on over 60,000 crimes annually, India with over 13 times the population completes such tests on less than 7,500 cases.
- The average pendency at each lab is huge.
- In all states, there were over 50 per cent vacancies in personnel at their facilities.
Way forward
- More investment: We certainly need more investment in the establishment of FSL laboratories, the training and appointment of personnel adept at forensic methodologies and reforms within our police to establish a trained and skilled detective cadre tasked with solving complex and heinous crimes.
- Quality training and accreditation: There is a desperate need for good quality training facilities, standards of accreditation and continuous education programmes for our forensic experts.
Conclusion
It is not more legislation and harsher punishments that will solve crimes, but well-trained forensic staff plying their craft in good quality laboratories that will aid our criminal justice system.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST collection
Mains level: Paper 3- Increased GST collection
Context
There has been a remarkable upswing in GST collections in recent months. Collections touched a record high of Rs 1.67 lakh crore in April.
GST
What are the reasons for increased collection?
- 1] Inflation: First, the sharp rise in inflation has played a significant role.
- Notwithstanding concerns over the unevenness of the economic recovery, in nominal terms, the economy grew by 19.4 per cent in 2021-22 as per the second advance estimates.
- Deflating GST collection suggests that a large part of the recent increase in collections is driven by rising prices.
- 2] Higher imports: Part of the overall increase in collections can be traced to higher imports.
- Higher buoyancy: Even if one is to exclude the revenue accruing from imports, the rise in GST collections has outstripped GDP growth, indicating higher buoyancy.
- 3] Tightening of the rules: In order to improve compliance levels, the GST Council has been tweaking the rules to tighten the system.
- Returns filed have gone up, while the number of non-filers and those who delay filing have fallen.
- Alongside, the administration has also taken steps to tackle the menace of fake invoices by placing restrictions on the quantum of input tax credit that can be used to pay of tax obligations.
- The introduction of e-invoicing has also played a role.
- Until recently, this was being implemented for firms with a turnover of more than Rs 50 crore.
- From April, this process has been extended to firms above Rs 20 crore.
- The incremental gains from bringing smaller firms into its ambit, while consequential, are unlikely to be of the same order.
- 4] Industrial activity: The higher collections in April 2022 seem to be led by increase in industrial activity. This is borne by strong growth in collections in states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka and Odisha which house lot of industries. Relatively tepid growth in more populous states such as Bihar (-2.47 per cent), West Bengal (7.80 per cent) and Jharkhand (4.86 per cent) shows that the GST collections was not propelled by revival in private consumption.
- The real challenge lies in improving compliance levels across the entire spectrum of industries where inputs/raw materials are sourced largely from the informal sector.
- 5] Changing the structure of the economy: The formalisation of firms, the growing concentration of economic power in the hands of a few, imply that for the same level of output, the tax paid will be higher.
Suggestion
- Increase tax rate: Around two-fifths of the taxable value (or turnover) falls under the 18 per cent slab as per research by some analysts.
- This implies that simply merging the 12 per cent and the 18 per cent slab as some have been suggesting would lead to a revenue loss.
- Before opting for such adjustments, the GST Council must first ascertain the potential revenue (net of cess and refunds) at varying levels of compliance, tax rates and exemptions afforded.
- Now, as per some estimates presented to the 15th Finance Commission, with existing exemptions in place, the current tax regime should ideally yield revenues equivalent to 8.23 per cent of GDP.
- In another scenario, even if existing exemptions are kept in place, and if a single rate of 14 per cent is levied, then collections should rise to 8.93 per cent.
Conclusion
Considering the current economic situation, now may not be an opportune moment to raise taxes. But there is no getting around it. Both the Centre and the states need to work towards this.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991
Mains level: Paper 2- Lower judiciary
Context
The Supreme Court order of May 20, transferring the suit on the Gyanvapi Masjid dispute from the civil judge (senior division) Varanasi to the district judge casts aspersion, though unintended, on the competence of civil judges in general.
Background
- The matter had reached the Supreme Court on a petition filed by the Mosque Management Committee, which challenged the civil judge’s orders.
- The order permitted inspection, survey, and videography of the mosque’s complex to collect evidence about the alleged existence of idols of Hindu deities inside the mosque, which is adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.
- The Mosque Management Committee had filed an application before the civil judge seeking the rejection of the plaint on the ground that it was barred by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.
- Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 prohibits individuals and groups of people from converting, in full or in part, a place of worship of any religious denomination into a place of worship of a different religious denomination, or even a different segment of the same religious denomination.
- It was argued before the SC that given the said Act, the suit was liable to be rejected at the threshold as the civil judge had no jurisdiction to entertain the same, much less to pass the aforesaid interim orders.
- The SC has not found any fault with the order of the civil judge, though there is also a view that it was mandatory on the part of the civil judge to have first passed an order on whether he had the jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
- However, it appears that in the SC’s view, this was not a serious infraction.
- So, in a way, the SC has affirmed the orders of the civil judge.
- The civil court had territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction to deal with the matter.
- The question that arises is: Why has the Supreme Court transferred the matter to the court of the district judge?
Issues with the SC transferring the case to the district judge
- The SC has seemingly declared civil judges to be not competent to decide a matter alleged to be complex.
- When the Civil Procedure Code, the High Court Rules and Orders invest a civil judge with jurisdiction, why take it away merely on the plea that the matter is complex?
- Unhealthy precedent: Fransfer of the case to the district judge has set an unhealthy precedent and will have a demoralising effect on the subordinate judiciary.
- In the recent past, many lower-level judicial officers have passed outstanding orders in matters concerning the liberties of the citizens, which are under threat as never before.
- The subordinate judiciary provides the foundation of our judicial system.
Conclusion
Supreme Court order inadvertently casts aspersions on competence of subordinate judiciary. District court should not be weighed down by SC observation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Implications of Supreme Court's ruling for GST regime
Context
Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the decisions taken by the GST Council are merely recommendations with “persuasive value” and are not binding.
GST as a advisory body
- The court has rejected the Centre’s contention that the entire structure of GST would crumble if the Council’s decisions were not treated as enforceable.
- In some ways, the verdict states the obvious.
- Article 246-A inserted after the 122nd constitutional amendment states, “Notwithstanding anything contained in articles 246 and 254, Parliament, and, subject to clause (2), the Legislature of every state, have the power to make laws with respect to the GST imposed by the Union or by such state.”
- Thus, the power to levy the central GST (CGST) vests with Parliament, the power to levy state GST (SGST) vests with state legislatures and Parliament has exclusive power to make laws with respect to the GST on items that are part of inter-state trade or commerce.
- Thus, the GST Council is only an advisory body and the actual decisions regarding model GST levies, principles of levy, apportionment of GST levied on inter-state supplies, principles relating to place of supply, exemptions and rate structure and any special provisions will have to be taken by either Parliament in the case of CGST and IGST or the states in the case of SGST.
- In effect, decisions on the structure and operation of the tax can be made by the Centre and individual states without discussion and deliberation in the Council and both can ignore any recommendation made by the Council.
- The judgment reiterates that the sovereign right to levy the tax still exists with the Union and state governments and it is for them to consider the recommendations of the Council.
- The chance of having a harmonised GST and reforms in the tax regime will crucially depend upon continued negotiation and bargaining between the Union and states.
- Intergovernmental cooperation has been kept alive to ensure a harmonised GST and unless both the Centre and the states see the gains, reforms will be hard to come by and if the Centre desires the reforms more than the states, it will have to ensure a “buy in” from the states to agree for the reform.
Implications of the judgement
- Given that the GST Council has been declared as only an advisory body with a persuasive value, what happens to the dream of having a harmonised one nation, one tax, if a state or a group of states decides to deviate?
- But the judgment paves the way for more intensive bargaining and negotiations, placing states on an equal footing with the Centre in taking decisions on the structure and operations of the tax.
- At present, decisions get approved in the GST Council when passed by a majority of three-fourths of the weighted votes of the members present and voting, with the Centre having one-third weight and individual states (and UTs) having an equal share of the remaining two-thirds weight.
- However, in the past, all decisions in the Council have been taken by consensus (except in the case of determining the rate on lotteries), and the Supreme Court decision reinforces this convention.
- The immediate impact of this will be bargaining by states for extending the period of compensation for the loss of revenue.
- As the five-year period of compensation gets over at the end of June, this decision will now help the states to bargain hard for the extension.
Way forward
- Though the period of collecting compensation cess has been extended till March 2026 to meet the interest and repayment requirements of the funds borrowed from the RBI to meet the compensation requirements, the lasting solution lies in increasing the revenue productivity of the tax by pruning the list of exempted items, rationalising the rates and taking administrative measures.
- These reforms will require strengthening the cooperative spirit.
Conclusion
This has come at a time when reforms have to be set in motion and hopefully, the Court’s decision will strengthen the cooperative spirit in reforming the domestic consumption tax system in the country.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Challenges facing wheat economy in India
Context
The ban on the export of wheat was not unexpected. The rather ambivalent approach to agriculture comes out clearly with this move.
Understanding how this ban has come about
- We are not comfortable with market forces operating in agriculture.
- Nor are we quite sure whether we want the farmer to get a better price or the consumer to pay less.
- Governments spend a lot of money in the form of subsidies to ensure farmers are enthused to produce more wheat.
- The Centre keeps increasing the MSP for this purpose and states often pay a bonus for procurement.
- There are political reasons too as the farmer lobby needs to be placated.
- There are political reasons too as the farmer lobby needs to be placated.
- We have been taking credit for the production of wheat and every year we set a new record.
- This year, the Ministry announced that wheat production will touch a record of 111 million tonnes, which has recently been revised downwards.
- With the war, conditions have changed. Russia and Ukraine are large producers of wheat and their supply to world markets has been cut off due to sanctions and supply chain disruptions.
- With supplies interrupted, there is an opportunity for other surplus nations to step in.
- But the disruption has caused world prices to rise significantly.
Opportunity for India
- The World Bank data indicates that the price of US (soft red winter) wheat has gone up from $328/tonne in December to $672/tonne while US (hard red winter) wheat is up from $377 to $496/tonne.
- Countries that produce abundant wheat now have a chance to leverage this opportunity to export.
- However, in case of India it does appear that production will be lower than expected.
- Low wheat stock: The government has also not been able to procure wheat as farmers are no longer selling at MSP (which is at Rs 2,015/quintal) as they are getting higher prices in mandis.
- As of May 10, procurement was just 18 million tonnes against 43 million tonnes last year.
- This is a significant fall.
- But stocks with the Centre and other state agencies are 30.3 million tonnes, way above the buffer norms of 27.6 million tonnes.
- The ban on wheat exports is because of this.
Two constraints on the wheat economy
- In 2007 and again in 2021, the government banned futures trading in wheat on grounds that it led to speculative pressure on prices even though the quantity traded and the open interest were minuscule.
- At that time, it was a decline in expected output which triggered this action.
- It does look like the wheat economy will continue to operate within two constraints that have become barriers to commercialisation.
- MSP and government procurement: The first is MSP and government procurement, which feeds into the public distribution system.
- Arhatiya system: The second is the arhatiya system of trading where middlemen have come in the way of any reform.
Suggestions
- Abolish MSP and procurement system: The MSP and procurement system needs to be dismantled.
- Cash transfers: As the government has successfully expanded both the Aadhaar and Jan Dhan programmes, there should be simple cash transfers to beneficiaries.
- Buffer stocks can be held to ease distress during a crisis, but government involvement should stop there.
- Procuring unlimited quantities of wheat and keeping huge stocks has distorted the wheat matrix.
- The mandi system too needs to be revisited and alternatives have to be made available so that farmers can choose the point of sale.
Conclusion
We have been talking about being a part of global supply chains to augment value addition and accelerate growth. But when it comes to agriculture it is a blow-hot blow-cold approach. This not only affects our credibility but also sends confusing signals to producers as to what is the best way out for them.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indo-Pacific Economic framework
Mains level: Paper 2- Opportunity for Quad plus
Context
On May 23, before the Quad leaders’ summit in Tokyo, the United States launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).
Significance IPEF
- The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) will consist of a diverse group of 12 countries initially — Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
- The IPEF — which covers fair trade, supply chain resilience, infrastructure, clean energy, and decarbonisation, among others — is likely to complement the other Indo-Pacific projects like the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) that also seeks to build resilient and secure trade linkages by reducing dependence on China.
- Decoupling from Chinese over-dependence: The US-led economic engagement is a salient attempt to allow countries to decouple from Chinese over-dependence in order to ultimately strengthen the existing free and open rules-based global order.
- Extension of plus grouping: The launch of IPEF signifies the essence of the Quad and its extension as a “plus” grouping.
- It brings together seven critical countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), all Quad states, and dialogue partners, including South Korea, solidifying a case for the “plus” characterisation of the Quad process.
- Thus, it is an encouraging sign that the Quad countries are investing their strategic orientation in this regard.
- Importantly, both the IPEF launch, and the Tokyo summit dispel any remaining misgivings about the Quad disintegrating and certify that it is a cohesive unit where it matters.
- It would potentially represent an amalgamation of the eastern and western “like-minded” countries.
- The expanded grouping and the related Quad initiatives will build a comprehensive and integrated approach to combating shared challenges arising out of Chinese aggression.
- A hallmark of Biden’s latest Asia visit has been South Korea’s embrace of the Indo-Pacific framework.
- This is a long-awaited turn that could potentially lead to South Korea participating in a more meaningful manner in the Quad in the near future.
Importance of Taiwan
- Taiwan is a major economy in the Indo-Pacific region (as also the US’s eighth-largest trading partner in 2021 and a critical partner in diversifying the US supply chains), which is already engaged in the US-Taiwan Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue that includes many of the issues proposed in the IPEF.
- The inclusion of Taiwan, which already has a critical role in the global semi-conductor supply chain network, in the SCRI and the IPEF as well as, by extension, in the Quad format, in some manner would be a welcome addition.
- Geopolitical statement against coercive tactics: Importantly, Taiwan’s inclusion would also be a geopolitical statement against coercion tactics by international actors.
Inclusivity characteristics based on a commitment to the existing international order
- In its current abstract framework, the plus framework includes a wide array of states (which also comprise the IPEF) — developing and developed economies as well as middle and major powers that are committed to maintaining an inclusive, rules-based and liberal institutional order.
- The inclusivity angle is suspect as the grouping is essentially what China calls a US-led “anti-China” tool.
- Therefore, what interested states must envision is a broad, all-embracing, and comprehensive framework that can stand as a pillar for regional security and stability, multilateralism, and defence of global institutionalism and the status quo.
Conclusion
States are showing their willingness, and now it is incumbent on the Quad states to allow for the creation of a “corridor of communication” that ultimately leads to a “continental connect” to strengthen a rules-based order.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 253
Mains level: Paper 2- Parliamentary supervision of trade pacts
Context
India is negotiating and signing several free trade agreements (FTAs) with countries like Australia, the UK, Israel, and the EU. While the economic benefits of these FTAs have been studied, there is very little discussion on the lack of parliamentary scrutiny of these treaties.
Provisions in the Constitution
- In the Constitution, entry 14 of the Union list contains the following item — “entering into treaties and agreements with foreign countries and implementing of treaties, agreements and conventions with foreign countries”.
- According to Article 246, Parliament has the legislative competence on all matters given in the Union list.
- Thus, Parliament has the power to legislate on treaties.
- This power includes deciding how India will ratify treaties and thus assume international law obligations.
- Article 253 elucidates that the power of Parliament to implement treaties by enacting domestic laws also extends to topics that are part of the state list.
Lack of parliamentary oversight and its implications
- No law laying down the process: While Parliament in the last seven decades has passed many laws to implement international legal obligations imposed by different treaties, it is yet to enact a law laying down the processes that India needs to follow before assuming international treaty obligations.
- Given this legislative void, and under Article 73(the powers of the Union executive are co-terminus with Parliament), the Centre has been not just negotiating and signing but also ratifying international treaties and assuming international law obligations without much parliamentary oversight.
- Arguably, Parliament exercises control over the executive’s treaty-making power at the stage of transforming a treaty into the domestic legal regime.
- However, this is a scenario of ex-post parliamentary control over the executive.
- In such a situation, Parliament does not debate whether India should or should not accept the international obligations; it only deliberates how the international law obligations, already accepted by the executive, should be implemented domestically.
- Against the practice in other liberal democracies: This practice is at variance with that of several other liberal democracies.
- In the US, important treaties signed by the President have to be approved by the Senate.
- In Australia, the executive is required to table a “national interest analysis” of the treaty it wishes to sign in parliament, and then this is examined by a joint standing committee on treaties – a body composed of Australian parliamentarians.
Way forward
- Indian democracy needs to inculcate these healthy practices of other liberal democracies.
Conclusion
Effective parliamentary supervision will increase the domestic acceptance and legitimacy of international treaties, especially economic agreements, which are often critiqued for imposing undue restraints on India’s economic sovereignty.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- University branch campuses
Context
India, after half a century of keeping its higher education doors closed to foreigners, is on the cusp of opening itself to the world.
Higher education reforms
- Currently, India does not allow the entry and the operation of foreign university branch campuses.
- The NEP 2020 was a turning point for the entry of foreign universities as it recommended allowing foreign universities ranked in the “top 100” category to operate in India — under somewhat unrealistic conditions.
- Internationalism: The wide-ranging National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 promises higher education reforms in many areas, and internationalisation is prominent among them.
- Strengthening India’s soft power: Among the underlying ideas is to strengthen India’s “soft power” through higher education collaboration, bringing new ideas and institutions from abroad to stimulate reform and show “best practice”, and in general to ensure that Indian higher education, for the first time, is a global player.
- In February 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget speech, announced that “world-class foreign universities and institutions would be allowed in the planned business district in Gujarat’s GIFT City”
- It was reported that in April 2022, the University Grants Commission (UGC) formed a committee to draft regulations to allow foreign institutions in the “top 500” category to establish campuses in India — realising that more flexibility was needed
- Bringing global experience to India: Establishing branch campuses of top foreign universities is a good idea as this will bring much-needed global experience to India.
Challenges
- Globally, branch campuses, of which there are around 300 now, provide a mixed picture.
- Many are aimed at making money for the sponsoring university — and this is not what India wants.
- It will not be easy to attract foreign universities to India and even more difficult to create the conditions for them to flourish.
- Many of those top universities are already fully engaged overseas and would likely require incentives to set up in India.
- Further, there are smaller but highly regarded universities outside the ‘top 500’ category that might be more interested.
- Universities around the world that have academic specialisations focusing on India, that already have research or faculty ties in the country, or that have Non-Resident Indians (NRI) in senior management positions may be easier to attract.
- What is most important is to prevent profit-seekers from entering the Indian market and to encourage foreign institutions with innovative educational ideas and a long-term commitment.
- Many host countries have provided significant incentives, including building facilities and providing necessary infrastructure.
- Foreign universities are highly unlikely to invest significant funds up front.
- A big challenge will be India’s “well-known” bureaucracy, especially the multiple regulators.
Opportunities
- India is seen around the world as an important country and an emerging higher education power.
- It is the world’s second largest “exporter” of students, with 4,61,792 students studying abroad (according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics).
- And India has the world’s second largest higher education system.
- Foreign countries and universities will be eager to establish a “beachhead” in India and interested in providing opportunities for home campus students to learn about Indian business, society, and culture to participate in growing trade and other relations.
- Benefits of branch campuses: International branch campuses, if allowed, could function as a structurally different variant of India’s private university sector.
- Branch campuses, if effectively managed, could bring much needed new ideas about curriculum, pedagogy, and governance to Indian higher education — they could be a kind of educational laboratory.
Current initiatives
- There has been modest growth of various forms of partnerships between Indian and foreign institutions.
- The joint PhD programmes offered by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay-Monash Research Academy and the University of Queensland-Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Academy of Research (UQIDAR), both with Australian partners, are some examples.
- Another example is the Melbourne-India Postgraduate Academy (MIPA). It is a joint initiative of the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur with the University of Melbourne.
- MIPA provides students with an opportunity to earn a joint degree accredited both in India and Australia: from the University of Melbourne and one of the partnering Indian institutions.
- These partnerships suggest that India could offer opportunities for international branch campuses as well.
Challenges
- Globally, branch campuses, of which there are around 300 now, provide a mixed picture.
- Many are aimed at making money for the sponsoring university — and this is not what India wants.
- It will not be easy to attract foreign universities to India and even more difficult to create the conditions for them to flourish.
- Many of those top universities are already fully engaged overseas and would likely require incentives to set up in India.
- Further, there are smaller but highly regarded universities outside the ‘top 500’ category that might be more interested.
- Universities around the world that have academic specialisations focusing on India, that already have research or faculty ties in the country, or that have Non-Resident Indians (NRI) in senior management positions may be easier to attract.
- What is most important is to prevent profit-seekers from entering the Indian market and to encourage foreign institutions with innovative educational ideas and a long-term commitment.
- Many host countries have provided significant incentives, including building facilities and providing necessary infrastructure.
- Foreign universities are highly unlikely to invest significant funds up front.
- A big challenge will be India’s “well-known” bureaucracy, especially the multiple regulators.
Conclusion
After examining national experiences elsewhere, clear policies can be implemented that may be attractive to foreign universities. Once policies are in place, the key to success will be relationships among universities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Need for coherent policy of food security
Context
The Government of India announced a sudden ban on export of wheat on May 13, 2022, a few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stated that “at a time when the world is facing a shortage of wheat, the farmers of India have stepped forward to feed the world”.
What led to the sudden wheat export ban?
- Low public procurement: The sudden turnaround in the export policy appears to be on account of fears that low public procurement would affect domestic food security.
- This summer, procurement of wheat by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has been very low.
- Last year, the FCI and other agencies procured 43.34 million tonnes of wheat.
- For the current season, procurement has only been 17.8 million tonnes, as of May 10, 2022.
- Given the low levels of procurement, the Government has reduced the procurement target for the current season from 44.4 to 19.5 million tonnes.
- Low production: While wheat production this year has been lower than estimated on account of high heat and other factors in March, there is not a big shortfall in production relative to previous years.
- Wheat production was 103.6 million tonnes in 2018-19, 107.8 million tonnes in 2019-20, and 109.5 million tonnes in 2020-21.
- The most recent estimate of production for 2021-22, revised downwards from the earlier estimate, is 105.
Public procurement in India
- The system of public procurement has been in place since the mid-1960s, and has been the backbone of food policy in India.
- As part of the liberalisation policy, many other economists suggested that food stocks be run down in India and that needs of food security be met through world trade and the Chicago futures market.
Need for effective PDS
- Higher than buffer stock norm: Stocks of wheat in the central pool as of April 30, 2022 were 30.3 million tonnes, much lower than the 52.5 million tonnes of last year, but comfortably higher than buffer stock norms.
- While the Government procurement in this marketing season has been lower than the previous two years, the stock position so far is similar to 2019, when we had 35.8 million tonnes of stock in April.
- An important role in pandemic: In the two COVID-19 years (2020-21 and 2021-22), the Public Distribution System (PDS) played a stellar role, and, its role showed the wisdom of not dismantling it.
- Total offtake of rice and wheat was 102.3 million tonnes in 2021-22 when distribution through the PDS and other welfare schemes is combined.
- It is essential that the PDS and open market operations be used to cool down food price inflation.
- While most States have high inflation rates, States with better PDS, such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu, have low inflation rates.
Way forward
- Provide remunerative prices: To promote production, a key aspect of food policy in India has been to provide remunerative prices to farmers.
- As is well known, after the reports of the National Commission on Farmers, the announced minimum support price (MSP) for wheat has often been inadequate to cover costs of cultivation for several regions and classes of farmers, especially if comprehensive costs (or Cost C2) are taken as the base.
- Over the last two years, costs of production have risen sharply, one important component being the spiralling price of fuel.
Conclusion
India’s flip-flop on the export of wheat is an example of the Government lacking a coherent policy of food security.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Tailored approach to cooperation and competition
Context
The ongoing discords between the Centre and states over issues ranging from the allocation of financial resources to fixing of GST rates has once again brought to the fore issues pertaining to our federal structure, the resolution of which is essential for the country’s growth.
Combination of cooperative and competitive spirit
- Positive competition: It is undeniable that cooperation is key to the smooth functioning of federal design.
- However, if it is coupled with positive competition among the states, then the overall result would be large-scale economic development across the country.
- The competitive aspect of federalism can positively be harnessed by encouraging states to adopt each other’s best practices.
- Exclusivity and mutualism: Indian federalism today enables the Centre and states to function with both exclusivity and mutualism.
- Vertical and horizontal level: Cooperation between the Centre and states is required at both vertical (between Centre and states) and horizontal (among states) levels and on various fronts.
- What does it mean? This includes fine-tuning of developmental measures for desired outcomes, development-related policy decisions, welfare measures, administrative reforms, strategic decisions, etc.
Steps in the direction of cooperation
- Recent efforts in this direction, such as according greater leeway to states in the functioning of the NITI Aayog, frequent meetings of the prime minister with chief ministers as well as with chief secretaries and district magistrates, periodic meetings of the President of India with governors, and the functioning of “PRAGATI” to review the progress of developmental efforts have generated the requisite synergy between the Centre and states.
- Positive efforts of states towards attracting investment can create a conducive environment for economic activities in urban and backward regions alike.
- Healthy competition coupled with a transparent ranking system would ensure the full materialisation of the vast but least utilised potential of the federal framework.
- Sector specific indices: In this direction, NITI Aayog’s initiatives such as launching sector-specific indices like the School Education Quality Index, Sustainable Development Goals Index, State Health Index, India Innovation Index, Composite Water Management Index, Export Competitiveness Index, etc. could prove to be a great contribution.
- Central efforts toward synchronisation of cooperation and competition can be observed in the implementation of the 14th and 15th Finance Commission reports, which have greatly contributed to resource devolution.
- Recent reform measures in the form of the New Labour Code and other amendments/enactments by the legislature also exhibit this trend.
Conclusion
The rising stature of the Indian economy on the world stage can only be strengthened by a tailored approach to cooperation and competition. The mandate to marry the two would inevitably be the collective responsibility of the Centre and the states. Any ideological differences between them will have to be inevitably put on the backburner for the great Indian federal structure to succeed and prosper.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Structural interventions by State for creating high wage jobs
Context
The recent decision to deduct off-budget borrowings from state borrowing limits reminds chief ministers to be good policy ancestors.
Financing welfare state
- In A Brief History of Equality, economist Thomas Piketty suggests that “the world of the early 2020s, no matter how unjust it may seem, is more egalitarian than that of 1950 or 1900, which were… more egalitarian than those of 1850 or 1780”.
- But how the welfare state is financed matters.
- Changes in state borrowing limits: Adjusting state borrowing limits for their off-budget borrowings leads to transparency because they are routinely breached through vehicles for schemes whose bill comes due far in the future.
- The confiscation of future spending — interest payments crowd out expenditure and revenue expenditure crowd out capex — matters because our prosperity problem is productivity, wages, not jobs.
5 Structural interventions that can create high wage jobs
1] Reduce regulatory hurdles
- States control 80 per cent of India’s employers’ compliance ecosystem of 67,000+ compliances, 6,500+ filings and 26,000+ criminal provisions.
- State governments that rationalise, decriminalise, and digitise their compliance ecosystem will reap lower corruption and higher formality.
2] Fix government schools
- The most powerful tool for social mobility and employability is free and quality school education.
- State governments that undertake a significant overhaul of school performance management (the fear of falling and hope of rising for teachers) and governance (the allocation of decision rights around resources and hiring) will create an unfair advantage in human capital.
3] Converge education and employability
- States should set up skill universities that create qualification modularity (between certificates, diplomas, advanced diplomas, and degrees), delivery flexibility (equate online, apprenticeships, on-site and on-campus classrooms), and pray to the one god of employers.
- Degree apprentices innovate at the intersection of employment, employability and education.
- State governments that remove barriers in their path will see their population of employed learners exceed full-time learners.
4] Devolution of money and power
- Cities drive productive job creation — New York City’s GDP is higher than Russia’s.
- It took 70 years after 1947 for the budget of 28 states to cross the central government’s budget.
- The combined budget of state governments now exceeds Rs 45 lakh crore, but 2.5 lakh municipalities and panchayats have a budget of only Rs 3.7 lakh crore.
- Governments that devolve money and power from state capitals to their towns will avoid the curse of megacities and create the competition that drove China’s growth (they have 375 cities with more than a million people versus our 52).
5] Civil service reforms
- State governments must sell their 1,500+ loss-making public sector units, cut civil service compensation to less than 40 per cent of budget spending, and replace expenditure with capex.
- Moving from outlays to outcomes needs a new human capital regime for civil servants via seven interventions; structure, staffing, training, performance management, compensation, culture, and HR capabilities.
Shifting resources to protective and productive version of states
- Nobel Laureate James Buchanan said any state had three versions — the protective state (police, rule of law, defence, courts), the productive state (common goods like roads, power, health, education, etc.), and the redistributive state.
- Too many state governments accept the status quo in the first two and “innovate” in the third version.
- It’s time to shift resources to the first two.
Conclusion
Chief Ministers ought to create high wage jobs, and not borrow money future generations will have to repay.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Constitutional battle between governor and the government
Context
The Supreme Court’s action in ordering the release of A G Perarivalan, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has resulted in mixed reactions.
Background
- After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the assailants were tried under the notorious Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 (TADA).
- All 26 accused were given the death sentence by the Special Court for various offences, including under TADA (1998).
- Fortunately, the SC held that the offences under TADA were not made out since there was no case to proceed for acts of terrorism.
- It also modified the death penalty for 22 persons and confirmed the same only for Nalini, Perarivalan, Murugan and Santhan (1999).
- Petition for mercy under Article 161: They petitioned the governor of Tamil Nadu for mercy under Article 161.
- The then governor of Tamil Nadu dismissed their petition without any advice from the cabinet.
- The Madras High Court ruled that the governor cannot exercise the power of pardon without the advice of the council of ministers.
- The cabinet advised the governor to give reprieve only to Nalini Sriharan and rejected the case of the other three, including Perarivalan.
- Perarivalan and the two other convicts appealed to the president with a mercy plea under Article 72.
- Two successive presidents of India – K R Narayanan and APJ Abdul Kalam — did not pass any mercy orders.
- But all of a sudden, their mercy pleas were rejected after a delay of 11 years by President Pratibha Patil.
- When they were about to be executed, the convicts moved the Madras HC challenging the execution of the death warrant issued against them.
- The cases were transferred to the SC, which decided that the president’s action in not considering the mercy plea within a reasonable time was improper and since the three prisoners had been on death row for 11 years, it was a fit case for commuting their sentence to life imprisonment.
- Meanwhile, on February 19, 2014, the TN cabinet advised the governor to grant reprieve to all seven accused.
- Once again, all of them applied for remission from the governor.
- The state cabinet also advised the governor to grant pardon.
- WhenPerarivalan’s mother, filed a case for parole, the court noting the inordinate delay observed: “the Governor of T N, a constitutional authority, cannot sit on the state’s recommendation on the release of all seven life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case for so long” (July 2020).
- The court was informed that the governor was awaiting the final report of the CBI’s Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA).
Role of MDMA
- The role of MDMA itself came up for criticism by the SC in January 2018 and it observed that the agency did not appear to have made “much headway”.
- The court observed that the question of reopening the case against them will not arise as they had been already convicted for murder and conspiracy.
- Article 20(2) of the Constitution guarantees that no person can be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once.
Use of powers under Article 142 by the Supreme Court
- Once again, the process of granting mercy to the seven accused began with a resolution passed by the T N Assembly on September 9, 2018.
- On the same day, the state cabinet advised the governor to give reprieve to all seven prisoners.
- On being compelled by the court, the governor stated that the matter was to be dealt with by the President.
- It was at this stage the matter went back to the SC.
- It was finally decided that the authority to grant pardon is with the governor and he is bound by the advice of the state government.
- The court also ruled that the action of the governor in delaying the matter for more than 2.5 years was unacceptable.
- Exercising its power under Article 142 as well as considering all the relevant circumstances, the SC ordered Perarivalan’s release.
Limitations on governor’s power
- Giving reprieve to persons sentenced to the death penalty, even in the exercise of the plenary powers by a governor, has limitations.
- In 1978, Parliament amended the Criminal Procedure Code and introduced Sec 433A by which in such cases, prisoners cannot be released from prison unless they had served a minimum of 14 years in prison.
Reformatory penal system of India
- India’s penal system is undoubtedly reformatory and not retributive.
- The SC ruled on this issue by stating “a barbaric crime does not have to be visited with a barbaric penalty.”
- It is also surprising that the successive governments at the Centre appeared to be guided in this case by geopolitical considerations rather than this country’s laws.
Conclusion
The question now is whether the six other prisoners will receive the same relief or will there be a confrontation between the state government and governor once again. Let us hope that wisdom prevails and the governor’s office is not manipulated for narrow political considerations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Public health and management cadre
Context
In April this year, the Union government released a guidance document on the setting up of a ‘public health and management cadre’ (PHMC) as well as revised editions of the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) — for ensuring quality health care in government facilities.
Background
- The need for a public health cadre and services in India rarely got any policy attention.
- Limited understanding: The reason was that even among policymakers, there was limited understanding on the roles and the functions of public health specialists and the relevance of such cadres, especially at the district and sub-district levels.
- However, the last decade and a half was eventful.
- The initial threat of avian flu in 2005-06, the Swine flu pandemic of 2009-10; five more public health emergencies of international concern between years 2009-19; the increasing risks and regular emergence and re-emergence of of new viruses and diseases (Zika, Ebola, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic fever, Nipah viruses, etc.) in animals and humans, resulted in increased attention on public health.
- National Public health Act: In 2017, India’s National Health Policy 2017 proposed the formation of a public health cadre and enacting a National Public Health Act.
- The COVID-19 pandemic changed the status quo.
- In the absence of trained public health professionals at the policy and decision making levels, India’s pandemic response ended up becoming bureaucrat steered and clinician led.
Different cadres and its implications
- Lack of career progression opportunities: At present, most Indian States (with exceptions such as Tamil Nadu and Odisha) have a teaching cadre (of medical college faculty members) and a specialist cadre of doctors involved in clinical services.
- This structure does not provide similar career progression opportunities for professionals trained in public health.
- Limited interest: It is one of the reasons for limited interest by health-care professionals to opt for public health as a career choice.
- The outcome has been costly for society: a perennial shortage of trained public health workforce.
Public health cadre
- The proposed public health cadre and the health management cadre have the potential to address some of these challenges.
- With the release of guidance documents, the States have been advised to formulate an action plan, identify the cadre strengths, and fill up the vacant posts in the next six months to a year.
- A public health workforce has a role even beyond epidemics and pandemics.
- A trained public health workforce ensures that people receive holistic health care, of preventive and promotive services (largely in the domain of public health) as well as curative and diagnostic services (as part of medical care).
Revised version of IPHS and significance
- This is the second revision in the IPHS, which were first released in 2007 and then revised in 2012.
- The regular need for a revision in the IPHS is a recognition of the fact that to be meaningful, quality improvement has to be an ongoing process.
- The development of the IPHS itself was a major step.
- The revised IPHS is an important development but not an end itself.
- In the 15 years since the first release of the IPHS, only a small proportion — around 15% to 20% — of government health-care facilities meets these standards. .
- If the pace of achieving IPHS is any criteria, there is a need for more accelerated interventions.
- Opportunities such as a revision of the IPHS should also be used for an independent assessment on how the IPHS has improved the quality of health services.
Implementation challenges
- The effective part of implementation is interplay: policy formulation, financial allocation, and the availability of a trained workforce.
- In this case, policy has been formulated.
- Financial allocations: Then, though the Government’s spending on health in India is low and has increased only marginally in the last two decades; however, in the last two years, there have been a few additional — small but assured — sources of funding for public health services have become available.
- The Fifteenth Finance Commission grant for the five-year period of 2021- 26 and the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) allocations are available for strengthening public health services and could be used as States embark upon implementing the PHMC and a revised IPHS.
- Availability of trained workforce: The third aspect of effective implementation, the availability of trained workforce, is the most critical.
- As States develop plans for setting up the PHMC, all potential challenges in securing a trained workforce should be identified and actions initiated.
Conclusion
The public health and management cadres and the revised IPHS can help India to make progress towards the NHP goal. To ensure that, State governments need to act urgently and immediately.
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Back2Basics: Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS)
- IPHS are a set of uniform standards envisaged to improve the quality of health care delivery in the country.
- The IPHS documents have been revised keeping in view the changing protocols of the existing programmes and introduction of new programmes especially for Non-Communicable Diseases.
- Flexibility is allowed to suit the diverse needs of the States and regions.
- These IPHS guidelines will act as the main driver for continuous improvement in quality and serve as the bench mark for assessing the functional status of health facilities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Marital rape issue
Context
On 11 May, two judges of the Delhi High Court handed down separate judgments in RIT Foundation v Union of India.
Background
- Section 375 of the IPC defines “rape” as when a man has sex with a woman without her consent.
- Exception to Section 375 of IPC: An exception to Section 375 provides that it is not rape for a husband to have sex with his wife, regardless of consent.
The two judgements
1] Violation of rights:
- In his judgment, Justice Rajiv Shakdher concluded that the marital rape exception violated the rights to life, equality, non-discrimination, and freedom of speech and expression under the Constitution.
- There is no reasonable basis to distinguish between married and unmarried women.
- Marriage is a relationship of equals, and women do not forfeit their agency and sexual autonomy upon marriage.
2] Issues with Constitutional validity of exception
- Justice C Hari Shankar took a different view, concluding that the marital rape exception is constitutionally valid.
- First, the judge held that it is the wrong starting point to assume that a husband who has sex with his wife without her consent “commits rape”.
- 1] Exclusion from definition argument: The judge noted that the effect of the exception to Section 375 of the IPC is that any sex between a husband and wife, whether or not consensual, is excluded from the definition of rape.
- That analysis does not bear scrutiny.
- It makes little difference whether the starting point is that non-consensual sex within marriage should be characterised as rape or, for example, sexual assault.
- The critical question is whether it is unconstitutional to exclude non-consensual sex from the definition of rape.
- 2] Preservation of marital institution argument: The judge held that the marital rape exception was “aimed at preservation of the marital institution, on which the entire bedrock of society rests”.
- The difficulty with that proposition is obvious — is it the policy of the law that marriage is to be preserved at all costs?
- If so, does that withstand constitutional scrutiny?
- 3] Impact argument: the judge rejected the challenge to the martial rape exception based on the right to equality on the spurious assumption that the impact on a woman who is raped by her husband cannot “be equated with the impact of a woman who is raped by a stranger”.
- No evidence is cited in support of those claims.
- They also defy logic. Being raped by someone in whom you have reposed trust is likely to have an indelible emotional impact.
- 4] Reluctance to file complaint: The judge concluded that, as a practical matter, a “majority of Indian women” would be reluctant to file a complaint of rape against their husbands in any event.
- Even if that were true, it is no reason to disempower, by the operation of the law, women who do have the resolve to make a rape complaint against their husbands from doing so.
- 5] Creation of new offence: Justice Shankar held that it is not within the court’s power to create a new offence, and striking down the marital rape exception would have that effect.
- There is no question of creating a new offence — the court would simply be striking down an exception carved out of an existing offence.
- The only principled basis for the judge’s objection is that it may be unfair to punish someone for rape for conduct that was excluded from the definition of rape when it was undertaken.
- But that is not a reason to avoid striking down the marital rape exception.
- The easy solution is for the court to declare that its judgment will apply only to conduct after the date of the judgment.
Conclusion
Whether the marital rape exception violates fundamental rights under the Constitution is a question that falls within the Court’s core competency. There is only one reasonable answer to that question.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Abortion rights
Context
The leaked Roe vs Wade draft opinion has been in the news for its possible impact on abortion rights, but it also paves the way for the erosion of gay rights in America.
Background of abortion rights cases in the U.S.
- Almost 50 years earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Roe vs Wade(1973) that it was unconstitutional for states to ban or restrict abortions before fetal viability.
- Later, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania vs Casey (1992) reaffirmed Roe’s central holding on viability.
- In December 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded oral arguments in Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an ongoing case that looks at a 2018 Mississippi law (The Gestational Age Act) that bans most abortions after 15 weeks.
- Keeping Roe and Casey in mind, lower courts permanently enjoined the Mississippi law, but the case eventually moved up to the Supreme Court, with the following question: are all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions unconstitutional?
- This question (and the court’s acceptance to answer it) is at the heart of Roe and Casey because the Roe court had already decided that answer in the affirmative back in 1973; and this was re-affirmed in 1992 by the Casey court.
- The leaked first draft of the court’s majority decision in Dobbs, however, departs from precedent and signals a completely different turn.
Originalist reading of the US Constitution
- A running theme in this first draft of the Dobbs judgment was the court’s emphasis on originalism.
- The very first page of the draft says that “the constitution makes no mention of abortion”.
- On page 9 it reads “the abortion right, which is not mentioned in the Constitution, is part of a right to privacy, which is also not mentioned.
- An originalist reading of the Constitution and an application of similar reasoning as the one applied in this draft opinion (minus the emphasis on protecting “life or ‘potential life”) could invalidate all rights for gay and lesbian Americans.
Implications for other rights
- Gay rights do not have any place in American history and tradition; it is quite the opposite with American history.
- Simply put, a rollback of Roe and Casey could allow state legislatures across the country to re-instate bans or restrictions on gay rights such as limitations on same-sex couple adoptions or sexuality education in schools.
- Moreover, because the Constitution makes no explicit mention of “privacy”, “sexual orientation”, “gay”, “lesbian”, or “gay rights” anywhere, these rights could be challenged further.
- The constitutional recognition of same-sex marriage is, after all, only a recent phenomenon, both globally and nationally.
- In 1992, the Casey court affirmed what was already decided two decades ago in Roe — namely, that women in America had the “liberty” to an abortion under the Fourteenth Amendment.
- However, the Dobbs draft ruling discards this right to “liberty” just as it does the right to “privacy”.
- By specifically re-defining “liberty” and calling into question its applicability in the case of abortions, the court paves the way for potentially reviewing other “liberty” rights not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution — such as the right to travel ( Kent vs Dulles, 1958), the right to inter-racial marriage ( Loving vs Virginia, 1967), and the right to engage in same-sex activity in private ( Lawrence vs Texas, 2003), among others.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that if 50 year-old constitutionally guaranteed rights could be revoked today, then more recent and similarly, situated rights could also be revoked under an originalist reading of the Constitution.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Delimitation Commission
Mains level: Paper 2- Challenges after delimitation freeze ends
Context
Four years from now, when the delimitation of the constituencies will take place, India’s electoral democracy will stand on an existential crossroads.
Historical background of North-South tension
- There was a time, not all that long ago, when English speakers in the south of India routinely referred to our north as ‘Upper India’.
- The Imperial Legislative Council, with its Central Legislative Assembly as the Lower House and the Council of State as the Upper House, being located in Delhi pushed that upperness further up.
- Later, the Constituent Assembly continued the ‘India’s north as India’s peak’ image.
- Role of Congress: The Indian National Congress was from the very start, aware of the need for India’s regions to be seen as equal, bereft of any asymmetry.
- Its very third session after Bombay (1885) and Calcutta (1886) was held in Madras (1887, and many times later).
- The All India Kisan Sabha, the peasant wing of the Communist Party of India, likewise, which had first met in a ‘founder-conference’ in Lucknow in 1936, met at its fifth session in 1940 in Palasa, Srikakulam.
- These considered arrangements embody the opening Article 1 of our Constitution: India, that is Bharat.
What would be the Impact of delimitation
- A delimitation of the constituencies that will elect Members of the Lok Sabha, following the population figures returned by the next decennial Census, is to take place in 2026.
- Need to increase number of members: We cannot have, should not have, the same number of Members of Parliament — 543 — representing a vastly increased population in the Lok Sabha.
- Mathematically speaking, the higher the number of people per constituency, the lower the impact each voter has on parliamentary representation — clearly an undesirable situation.
- Reduced representation to States that stabilised their population: Re-arranging and standardising the number of people per constituency through the scheduled delimitation exercise will inevitably lead to a reduced representation for States that have managed to stabilise their populations, and to a higher representation for States that have not stabilised their populations.
- Considering the Census data for 2011, almost half (48.6%) of our population (of approximately 1.38 billion) is contributed by the States of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.
- Issues with population-based marking: A population-based marking out or re-arrangement of constituencies, as envisaged in Article 82 of the Constitution, will have the effect of giving more MPs to the States and Union Territories that have let their numbers grow, and will give markedly less MPs to those that have held their numbers in some check.
- Realising the anomaly that a delimitation based on Census data would cause, a delimitation freeze was put in position by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi through the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution in 1976.
- This was extended by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee through the 84th Amendment.
- It is this extension that is to end in 2026, placing us at a crossroads.
Way forward
- There are two alternatives before us:
- 1] Onother freeze: One, we go in for another freeze, this time not for any specific period but for until all States have achieved population stabilisation.
- 2] Mathematically equitable formula: Two, we request demographic and statistical experts to devise a mathematical model along the lines of the ‘Cambridge Compromise’ based on a mathematically equitable “formula” for the apportionment of the seats of the European Parliament between the member-states.
Conclusion
The population-stabilising States of India that is Bharat, which include all the southern States, must continue to enrich our legislative and parliamentary processes as they have been doing since the time of the Imperial Legislative Council, with no penalties having to be paid for their sense of responsibility. We need to limit population, not representation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gavi
Mains level: Paper 2- Future pandemic preparedness
Context
COVID-19, which disrupted supply chains across countries and in India too, marks an inflection point in the trajectory of immunisation programmes.
UIP: Showcasing India’s strength in managing large scale vaccination
- India’s Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP), launched in 1985 to deliver routine immunisation, showcased its strengths in managing large-scale vaccine delivery.
- This programme targets close to 2.67 crore newborns and 2.9 crore pregnant women annually.
- Full immunisation: To strengthen the programme’s outcomes, in 2014, Mission Indradhanush was introduced to achieve full immunisation coverage of all children and pregnant women at a rapid pace — a commendable initiative.
- India’s UIP comprises upwards of 27,000 functional cold chain points of which 750 (3%) are located at the district level and above; the remaining 95% are located below the district level.
- The COVID-19 vaccination efforts relied on the cold chain infrastructure established under the UIP to cover 87 crore people with two doses of the vaccine and over 100 crore with at least a single dose.
Why strong service delivery network is essential?
- While we have, over the years, set up a strong service delivery network, the pandemic showed us that there were weak links in the chain, especially in the cold chain.
- Nearly half the vaccines distributed around the world go to waste, in large part due to a failure to properly control storage temperatures.
- In India, close to 20% of temperature-sensitive healthcare products arrive damaged or degraded because of broken or insufficient cold chains, including a quarter of vaccines.
- Wastage has cost implications and can delay the achievement of immunisation targets.
Measures and initiatives in strengthening vaccine supply chains
- The Health Ministry has been digitising the vaccine supply chain network in recent years through the use of cloud technology, such as with the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN).
- Developed with support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and implemented by the UN Development Programme through a smartphone-based app, the platform digitises information on vaccine stocks and temperatures across the country.
- This supports healthcare workers in the last mile in supervising and maintaining the efficiency of the vaccine cold chain.
Way forward
- Electrification: There is a need to improve electrification, especially in the last mile, for which the potential of solar-driven technology must be explored to integrate sustainable development.
- For instance, in Chhattisgarh, 72% of the functioning health centres have been solarised to tackle the issue of regular power outages.
- This has significantly reduced disruption in service provision and increased the uptake of services.
Conclusion
India has pioneered many approaches to ensure access to public health services at a scale never seen before. Robust cold chain systems are an investment in India’s future pandemic preparedness; by taking steps towards actionable policies that improve the cold chain, we have an opportunity to lead the way in building back better and stronger.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- The SC aligning with collective conscience of India
Context
The Supreme Court’s seminal intervention in a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of section 124A of the Indian Penal Code is a watershed moment in the progressive expansion of human rights jurisprudence.
Abuse of sedition law
- The slapping of sedition charges against political opponents and others in Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have confirmed that the abuse of the sedition law is no longer an aberration.
- It has become a norm that has hollowed out the constitutional guarantee of fundamental rights and exposed individuals to the rigour of draconian laws unjustly invoked, outraging national sensitivities as never before.
Significance of the move
- In what is seen as a first in judicial history, the Supreme Court has virtually rendered redundant the provision of a criminal law without expressly declaring it as unconstitutional.
- In an example of judicial statecraft, the court has shielded individuals against a harsh law without trenching on Parliament’s legislative remit or the executive’s command over policy decisions.
- Plenary jurisdiction: Exercising plenary jurisdiction, the Supreme Court is expected to see through its suggestions/orders to the government, particularly when these concern the non-negotiable fundamental rights of citizens.
- Suggestive jurisdiction: As an organ of the state, the Supreme Court’s suggestive jurisdiction is clearly in accord with its declared law (Nagaraj, 2006) that the state (of which the court is an integral constituent), is under a duty not only to protect individual rights but is also obliged to facilitate the same.
- Validating the nations role: The court-inspired initiatives would also validate the nation’s preeminent role in the shaping of a new world order.
Implications of the law
- Nudging the government towards anti-lynching law: As with the sedition law, it can nudge the government to enact an anti-lynching humanitarian law as suggested by it and a comprehensive law against custodial torture.
- Law against custodial torture: The absence of an anti-custodial torture law, a glaring gap in the architecture of the criminal justice system, is inexplicable considering the command of Article 21, recommendations of the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha (2010), the Law Commission of India (2017) and the Human Rights Commission and the judgments of the Supreme Court (Puttaswamy, 2017; Jeeja Ghosh, 2016; and Shabnam, 2015).
- Implications for the UAPA: It is expected likewise from the court to intervene suitably and read down the UAPA and other criminal laws that have been repeatedly misused to trample upon the civil liberties and rights of the people.
Conclusion
This is indeed the moment to seize, as the government reviews the nation’s legal structures. The initiatives suggested above are in aid of democracy anchored in the inviolability of human rights and would enhance India’s soft power in our engagement with the international community.
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