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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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Buddhist circuit
Mains level: Paper 2- Regional cooperation
Context
Recent developments — in Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan — underline the geographic imperative that binds India to its neighbours in the Subcontinent.
Need for intensive regional cooperation for managing the new dangers
- Working with the logic of geography has become an unavoidable necessity amidst the deepening regional and global crises accentuated by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
- As higher oil and food prices trigger inflation and popular unrest across the region, more intensive regional cooperation is one of the tools for managing the new dangers.
Hope for transcending internal divide between India and Sri Lanka
- India’s relations with Sri Lanka underline the importance of continuous tending of political geography.
- Tradition of hosting political exile: India has had a long tradition of hosting political exiles from the region.
- Whether it was the Dalai Lama from Tibet or Prachanda from Nepal, Delhi has welcomed leaders from the neighbourhood taking shelter in India.
- Negative consequences: There is a dangerous flip side to this positive tradition in the Subcontinent.
- India has paid a high price for the decision in the early 1980s to train and arm Sri Lankan Tamil rebels.
- Hope for transcending internal divide: The current crisis in Sri Lanka raised hopes for transcending the internal ethnic divide in the island nation and rebuilding political confidence between Colombo and Delhi.
- Material and financial support to Sri Lanka: Delhi’s unstinting support — both material and financial — for Colombo during this unprecedented economic and political crisis has generated much goodwill in Sri Lanka.
Relations with Nepal and role of cultural ties
- Possibilities in cultural geography: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha in Nepal, highlights the immense possibilities of cultural geography in reshaping the Subcontinent’s regional relations.
- The idea of a “Buddhist circuit” connecting the various pilgrimage sites across the India-Nepal border has been around for a long time.
- India and Nepal have come together in developing the Buddhist circuit.
- Religion and culture are deeply interconnected in South Asia.
- Developing all religious pilgrimage sites across the region, and improving the transborder access to them could not only improve tourist revenues of all the South Asian nations, but could also have a calming effect on the troubled political relations
- That China has built a new airport near Lumbini and Modi is avoiding it points to the turbulent triangular dynamic between Delhi, Kathmandu, and Beijing.
- Revitalising the shared cultural geography inevitably involves better management of economic geography.
- Infrastructure development on Indian side: The last few years have seen the Indian government step up on infrastructure development on the Indian side and accelerate transborder transport and energy connectivity in the eastern subcontinent.
Recent trends in India-Pakistan relations
- Cultural ties: Despite their frozen bilateral political relationship, Delhi and Islamabad had agreed to open the Kartarpur corridor at the end of 2019 across their militarised Punjab border.
- There is much more to be done on reconnecting the Subcontinent’s sacred geographies — including the Ramayana trail and Sufi shrines.
- While parts of the region are aligning their policies with the geographic imperative, Pakistan would seem to be an exception.
- Ignoring the geographic imperative: Given the depth of its macro economic crisis and massive inflation, one might have thought Pakistan would want to expand trade ties with India in its own economic interest.
- But Pakistan’s politics are hard-wired against the logic of geography.
- Delhi had little reason to believe that Pakistan’s new government can alter its self-defeating policy towards India.
- But it must continue to bet that the geographic imperative will eventually prevail over Islamabad’s policies.
Conclusion
Realists might want to argue that current trends in the Subcontinent point to India’s growing agency in shaping its neighbourhood and that Pakistan will not forever remain an exception. For Delhi, the policy question is whether India can do something to hasten the inevitable change in Pakistan.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 19
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with Section 124A
Context
In a brief order delivered in S.G. Vombatkere vs Union of India, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court of India effectively suspended the operation of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code.
What was the basis for the reconsideration?
- This direction was issued after the Union government filed an affidavit informing the Court that it had decided to re-examine the law.
- The Bench believed that the offer to reconsider the provision, if nothing else, showed that the Government was in broad agreement with the Court’s prima facie opinion on the matter, that the clause as it stands “is not in tune with the current social milieu, and was intended for a time when this country was under the colonial regime”.
Section 125A and issues with it
- Section 124A defines sedition as any action — “whether by words, signs, or visible representation” — which “brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the Government established by law in India”.
- The word “disaffection”, the provision explains, “includes disloyalty and all feelings of enmity”.
- The adopted Constitution did not permit a restriction on free speech on the grounds of sedition.
- In the 1950s, two different High Courts struck down Section 124A as offensive to freedom.
- But, in 1962, in Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar, a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court reversed these verdicts.
- The Court paid no heed to the debates that informed the Constituent Assembly.
- Instead, it found that Section 124A was defensible as a valid restriction on free speech on grounds of public order.
- However, while upholding the clause, the Court limited its application to “acts involving intention or tendency to create disorder, or disturbance of law and order, or incitement to violence”.
- Vague terms: The decision failed to recognise that terms such as “disaffection towards the government”, which are fundamentally vague.
- Marginalised sections affected: Since then, in its application by law enforcement, the limitations imposed in Kedar Nath Singh have rarely been observed.
- As is often the case with abuses of this kind, it is the most marginalised sections of society that have faced the brunt of the harm.
- Reading of fundamental rights changed: Since 1962, when the judgment was handed out, the Supreme Court’s reading of fundamental rights has undergone a transformative change.
- Time to reconsider Kedar Nath: This altered landscape meant that when fresh challenges were mounted against Section 124A, the time to reconsider Kedar Nath Singh had clearly arrived.
- In the long run, the decision in Kedar Nath Singh will require a clear disavowal.
- But in nullifying Section 124A, albeit for the present, the Court has provided provisional relief — allowing those accused of the offence to both seek bail in terms of the order, and to have their trials frozen.
Conclusion
To protect our democracy, we must ensure that the constitutional guarantees to personal liberty and freedom do not go in vain. For that, each of our penal laws must be animated by a concern for equality, justice, and fairness.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Inflation challenge
Context
Inflation has now remained above the RBI’s upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent for four months in a row.
Broad based inflation
- The second-order impact of higher fuel prices is also visible as inflation in transport and communication surged to nearly 11 per cent, from 8 per cent in the previous month.
- The latest data also indicates that inflation is becoming broad-based.
- With demand rebounding, the pass-through of higher input costs is also gaining momentum.
- Considering that demand for goods recovered faster than services, goods producers passed on input costs to consumers.
- But as services recover, there will be greater pass-through of prices to consumers in the coming months.
- While there may be a slight moderation, inflation is expected to remain above the RBI’s threshold of 6 per cent in the coming months.
- The Ukraine conflict continues to impact markets for foodgrains and vegetable oils.
- Rising fertiliser prices are likely to push up farmers’ production costs, leading to high food prices.
- While the government has extended price support through higher subsidies, if this will be enough to cool prices needs to be seen.
Inflation targeting by the RBI
- With sticky crude oil prices and continuing supply-side disruptions amplified by the Covid-induced lockdowns in China, the RBI has rightly reverted its focus on inflation targeting.
- This is needed as central banks around the world are pursuing tight monetary policies to counter inflation.
- The US Fed followed its 25 basis points hike by another 50 basis points rise in May.
- These will be followed by hikes of similar magnitude in the coming months.
- In its April policy, the RBI announced the withdrawal of excess liquidity but did not raise the policy rate.
- Rate hikes by RBI: The RBI is now likely to respond with aggressive rate hikes to prevent the price spiral from getting entrenched.
- The continued strength of the dollar index and sharp rupee depreciation in the last few days could impose further pressure on prices through higher imported inflation.
- Withdrawal of liquidity support: In addition to calibrated rate hikes, the RBI needs to fast-track the withdrawal of the ultra-accommodative liquidity support provided during the pandemic.
Implications
- Discretionary spending: Rising inflation will cut back discretionary spending and adversely impact consumption that had only just started picking up.
- Recession concerns: There are concerns about a recession in advanced economies as rising prices have started manifesting in a decline in purchasing power and a fall in consumer sentiments.
- The demand destruction could trigger a moderation in prices.
- Base metals prices have eased from the peak seen in the last few months.
Conclusion
Monetary policy support needs to be accompanied by fiscal support measures. The policy response will have to be tailored to the evolving geopolitical situation and the paths of commodity and food prices while balancing the imperatives of fiscal consolidation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CPI
Mains level: Paper 3- Tackling food inflation
Context
Recently, the RBI raised the repo rate by 40 basis points (bps) and the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 bps with a view to tame inflation.
How effective would be the rate hike in taming the inflation?
- High inflation is always an implicit tax on the poor and those who keep their savings in banks.
- Will the increases in the repo rate and CRR control inflation, especially food inflation?
- The RBI has been behind the curve by at least by 4-to 5 months, and its optimism in controlling inflation in the earlier meetings of the Monetary Policy Committee was somewhat misplaced.
- The reason for this is that food prices globally are scaling new peaks as per the FAO’s food price index.
- The disruptions caused by the pandemic and now the Russia-Ukraine war are contributing to this escalation in food prices.
- India cannot remain insulated from this phenomenon.
Opportunities and challenges for India
- Record wheat export: For the first time in the history of Indian agriculture, cereal exports have already crossed a record high of 31 million metric tonnes (MMT) at $13 billion (FY22), and the same cereal wonder may be repeated this fiscal (FY23).
- Among cereals, wheat exports have witnessed an unprecedented growth of more than 273 per cent, jumping nearly fourfold from $0.56 billion (or 2 MMT) in FY21 to $2.1 billion (or 7.8 MMT) in FY22.
- Rice exports have crossed 20 MMT in FY22 in a global market of 50 MMT.
- Some of the concerns on the wheat front are genuine, and we need to realise that climate change is already knocking on our doors.
- With every one degree Celsius rise in temperatures, wheat yields are likely to suffer by about 5 MMT, as per earlier IPCC reports.
- This calls for massive investments in agri-R&D to find heat-resistant varieties of wheat and also create models for “climate-smart” agriculture. We are way behind the curve on this.
Need for rationalising food subsidy
- India distribute free food to 800 million Indians, with a food subsidy bill that is likely to cross Rs 2.8 lakh crore this fiscal out of the Centre’s net tax revenue of about Rs 20 lakh crore in FY23.
- Reducing coverage: What needs to be done targeting only those below the poverty line for free or subsidised food and charging a reasonable price, say 90 per cent of MSP, from those who are above the poverty line.
- Giving an option to beneficiaries to receive cash in their Jan Dhan accounts (equivalent to MSP plus 20 per cent) in lieu of grains can be considered.
- This is permitted under NFSA and by doing so, he can save on the burgeoning food subsidy bill.
Conclusion
Indian farmers need access to global markets to augment their incomes, and the government must facilitate Indian farmers to develop more efficient export value chains by minimising marketing costs and investing in efficient logistics for exports.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Pubic opinion and jurisprudence
Context
On May 5, 2022, the current affairs site politico.com obtained the draft opinion of Justice Samuel Alito, apparently speaking for the majority of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) overruling Roe v Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v Casey (1992). These two previously decided cases enable women in the US to access abortions, albeit with some restrictions.
Background of the US Supreme Court
- SCOTUS was established on March 4, 1789.
- The almost 225-year-old court, founded to interpret the American constitution that was adopted in 1789, has a long history of being an ideologically divided court, hearing deeply contentious political issues.
- Within both the polity and law in the US, no issue is as emotive and divisive as matters related to abortion.
- At present there is the 6-3 divide in the SCOTUS, with the conservatives constituting the majority.
- Paying attention to the public opinion: Conservative judges also frame the regulation of abortion as a state legislative rights issue, giving enormous weight to the apparent public opinion within those states.
Paying attention to the public opinion
- In the draft opinion that was leaked, after being circulated to the other eight judges of SCOTUS, Justice Alito writes “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” adding, “it is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.
- Here is how the issue is initially framed: Legislatures in states must be able to adopt laws on abortion as they see fit.
- The justification offered is in the context of the legitimacy of such laws being made by the will of the people, through their representatives.
- Justice Alito clearly sees this an issue for the legislature to decide based on the will of the voters.
Why public opinion is not a legitimate parameter for adjudicating issues of rights
- Against the separation of power: Across jurisdictions, in the constitutional scheme of separation of powers, the executive, legislature and judiciary are expected to play different roles.
- The executive to govern using the rule of law, the legislature to make law and the judiciary to ensure that those laws are in consonance with constitutional values.
- The introduction of public opinion and deference to the legislature as a valid basis for adjudication by constitutional courts leads to extraordinary conclusions.
- The virtue of constitutional courts is that they are expected to be insulated from public opinion.
- In that regard, they are freed from the vagaries of the will of the voters and enjoy the quiet introspection and justification through legal reasoning that the law creates space for.
Conclusion
The notion that constitutional courts should take the will of voters into account is at odds with the understanding of courts elsewhere, like in India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Delimitation for Jammu and Kashmir Assembly
Context
Fresh delimitation was necessary for Jammu and Kashmir since the State had been divided into two Union Territories and elections could only be held under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
Issues with the report of the Delimitation Commission
- The central question of why Jammu has gained six Assembly seats and the Valley only one has been brushed under general remarks on methodology with no explanation of how that methodology was applied.
- Nor does it explain why Jammu’s Muslim-majority seats now comprise less than a quarter of the province’s total seats, though Muslims comprise over a third of the province’s population.
- The commission’s recommendations further complicate the issue.
- They propose that the President nominate Pandit migrants to two Assembly seats — why is there no reference to Pandits who remain in the Valley?
- Indeed, the only overarching guideline which the report does describe in some detail is the commission’s desire to match the boundaries of Assembly and parliamentary constituencies.
- Most of these questions were addressed to the commission during its consultation phase.
- By choosing not to do so they lost a valuable opportunity to display transparency and dispel suspicion of bias.
Way forward
- The only hope for a peace process in Jammu and Kashmir is if there is a clean election, statehood is speedily restored, and the new Assembly determines whether or in which form special status is required.
- The better option is to hold elections for existing constituencies and let the new assembly approve or query the delimitation report.
- In fact, the commission itself proposed that the report be placed before the legislative assembly, a recommendation that makes sense only if new delimitation comes into force after and not before elections.
- Urgent as elections are, attention to fundamental freedoms is even more important.
Conclusion
The peace process in Jammu and Kashmir needs to address the concerns of the people related to the restoration of statehood, and clean elections.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 311
Mains level: Paper 2- Civil Service reforms
Context
A letter war between two sets of retired public officials (civil servants, judges and army officers), concerning the prevailing political and social situation in the country, has been widely reported in the media.
Role of civil service
- It is the police and magistracy, judicial courts and other regulatory agencies — not politicians — which have been authorised and empowered by law to take preventive action against potential troublemakers, enforce the laws relating to criminal, economic and other offences, and maintain public order.
- In mature democracies, self-respecting public officials normally discharge their constitutional and legal responsibilities with honesty, integrity and their own conscience, firmly resisting the dictates of the vested interests.
Deterioration in the standard of civil service
- The deterioration in standards was very visible during the National Emergency declared in 1975.
- The civil services, like other institutions including the judiciary, just caved in; the trend might have accelerated over the years.
- Now, no one even talks of civil service neutrality.
- Earlier, during communal or caste riots, the Administration focused on quelling the disturbances and restoring peace in the affected locality, without ever favouring one group over the other.
- Now, there are allegations of local officers taking sides in a conflict.
- A civil servant’s pliant and submissive behaviour means an end to civil service neutrality and the norms and values that this trait demands, does not seem to bother either the political or bureaucratic leadership.
- Despite the protection and safeguards in Article 311 of the Constitution, politicians could have a civil servant placed in an inconvenient position or even punish him.
Norms and values associated with a civil servant
- Norms: The norms that define neutrality are: independence of thought and action; honest and objective advice; candour and ,‘speaking truth to power’.
- Values: Associated with these norms are the personal values that a civil servant cherishes or ought to cherish, namely, self-respect, integrity, professional pride and dignity.
- All these together contribute to the enhancement of the quality of administration that benefits society and the people.
Conclusion
Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment,” wrote B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution and added, “It has to be cultivated. We must realise that our people have yet to learn it. Democracy in India is only a top dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.”
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 19
Mains level: Paper 2- Misuse of sedition law
Context
On May 11, the Supreme Court directed the Union government and the states to refrain from using the law of sedition and keep all previous cases under 124A in abeyance till the matter is reconsidered in a comprehensive way.
Data on Section 124A and UAPA about pendency and conviction rates
- The data on draconian laws like 124A or UAPA exposes their untenability.
- According to the National Crime Records Bureau data, a total of 156 cases of sedition were pending in 2017.
- In that year, only 27 cases could be disposed of at the police level by withdrawing the case or submitting a chargesheet.
- In courts, out of the 58 cases on trial, only one conviction could be obtained and the pendency rate for the cases of sedition was close to 90 per cent.
- The number of cases increased in 2020, the year for which the latest NCRB data is available, but with the same results.
- Of the total 230 cases registered, only 23 were chargesheeted.
- Pendency in court reached close to 95 per cent for the sedition cases in 2020.
- The abysmally low rate of conviction and disposal of these cases make it clear that these charges are slapped with very flimsy or no evidence to intimidate or harass those who question the government’s fiat.
- The picture is no different for the UAPA.
- Cases under it have increased by about 75 per cent between 2017-2020.
- A total of 4,827 UAPA cases were pending in 2020 —of them, only 398 could be chargesheeted in that year.
- The pendency rate in court remained 95 per cent, indicating harassment and violation of the right to life and liberty for a great number of people who are suffering because of the diabolical prison conditions in India.
Recommendations and measures
- A consultation paper on sedition circulated by the Law Commission of India on August 30, 2018, found many issues that need addressing around the working of Section 124A.
- Most recently, on May 11, the Supreme Court directed the Union government and the states to refrain from using the law of sedition.
Conclusion
Dissent, criticism and differences of opinion are vital for the functioning of any democracy. The witch-hunting of those who question the government of the day reminds us of medieval times and totalitarian rulers. It is time we usher in an era of free speech. For that, the sedition law must go.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Impact of rate hike on inflation
Mains level: Paper 3- Effectiveness of monetary policy in dealing with the inflation
Context
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week raised both policy rates and cut back liquidity in a surprise inter-meeting decision. The forcefulness and urgency of the policy shift have been seen as a signal of the RBI’s renewed commitment to fighting inflation via aggressive monetary tightening in the coming months.
How do higher inflation rates slow inflation?
- It is true that a large swathe of the global economy is in the throes of runaway inflation and that in many of these economies tightening monetary and fiscal policies is the right response.
- Initial conditions: But initial conditions matter as do the specific drivers of inflation.
- There are typically three ways in which higher inflation rate slows inflation.
1] Lowering inflationary expectations
- Suppose one believes that because a central bank has not tightened enough, future inflation will be higher.
- In that case, the obvious response is to bring forward future consumption and investment to the present, thereby adding to demand and fueling current inflation further.
- So, in principle, the central bank by credibly committing to bringing down inflation through aggressive current actions can bring down expectations of future inflation.
- It won’t work in India: This is a very potent conduit of monetary transmission in developed markets, where there is a wide variety of inflation-hedging instruments, as well as in some emerging markets — Brazil, for instance —where inflation-indexation is widespread.
- However, there is little empirical evidence that this channel works in India, even weakly.
2] Exchange rate channel
- Higher interest rates attract foreign capital that appreciates the currency, lowering import prices and, in turn, inflation.
- Again, this is a powerful mechanism in Latin America and Central Europe, where bond flows — that are sensitive to interest rate differential —dominate capital movements and the import content of the consumer basket is large.
- Will it work in India? This is not the case in India and, in any event, for this to work it would require extreme rate hikes in the country, given the anticipated aggressive tightening by the US Fed.
3] Curbing credit growth
- Raising both the cost of borrowing as well as its availability (for example, by increasing the cash reserve ratio) reduces credit growth, lowering demand, GDP growth and, eventually, inflation.
- It works well in India: This is the credit transmission by which higher interest rates dampen inflation and it works well in India.
- How much of today’s price increase is credit-driven? Even a cursory glance at bank balance sheets would suggest that credit growth is just treading water.
- Having recovered from being negative in mid-2021, real credit growth is running just around 2 per cent.
Comparison with inflation-monetary policy dynamics of 2010-11
- Back then, real GDP growth was clocking over 10 per cent per quarter, nominal credit growth 20-25 per cent, and real credit growth over 10 per cent.
- Inflation was unambiguously driven by an overheated economy and fueled by runaway credit.
- In the event, the RBI assessed the drivers of inflation to be originating from the supply side — higher food and commodity prices — and moved at a glacial pace, such that even after 12 rate hikes inflation remained in double digits for much of that period.
- Faced with a potential US Fed tightening in 2013, India found itself in a near-crisis situation.
- Today things are different. Much of the inflation is driven by global food and commodity prices.
- Despite the languishing private demand, core inflation remains high.
- But this has been the case for much of the last two years, strongly suggesting that the domestic supply chain disruptions in manufacturing and services, especially at the informal level, haven’t been repaired fully.
- The reason why firms locate in the informal sector in the first place is because of lower transaction costs, so when parts of the supply chain shift to the higher-cost formal sector, it shows up as inflation during the transition before increased scale of production and efficiency bring down the cost over time.
- None of these factors is affected much by higher lending rates.
- So the burden of taming inflation by tightening monetary policy will fall largely on lower credit.
- There is clearly a case to remove the extraordinary monetary support provided during the pandemic.
Conclusion
The RBI had misread the drivers of inflation badly in 2010-11. Hopefully, it won’t repeat that mistake this time.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 351
Mains level: Paper 1- Diversity and complexity of India
Context
Given the diversity and complexity of India, the only constitutionally valid common denominator is citizenship.
Social security
- An eminent sociologist and former president of the International Sociological Association, T.K. Oommen, has written extensively on the concept of social security.
- Evolution of nation: He says the principal challenges to the evolution of a nation lie in minimising disparity, eradicating discrimination, and avoiding alienation.
- Excluded groups in our society: He has listed nine categories of socially and/or politically and/or excluded groups in our society: “Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, cultural minorities — both religious and linguistic, women, refugees-foreigners-outsiders, people [of] Northeast India, the poor and the disabled”.
- Sources of exclusion in India: He has suggested that “the three sources of exclusion in India — stratification, heterogeneity and hierarchy — create intersectionality.”
- This insecurity manifests itself in genocide, culturocide and ecocide and in its absence, a society may be conceptualised as secure.
- The Indian polity, he says, “has the most elaborate set of identities based on class, religion, gender, caste, region, language and their intersectionalities as well as consequent permutations and combinations.
- Citizenship as a common denominator: Given the diversity and complexity of India, the only constitutionally valid common denominator is citizenship.
- This is the point at which fraternity can and should be practiced among equals.
- Prof. Oommen opines that it is “only through the conflation of state and nation” can our Republic be considered a nation.
Conclusion
Cultural monoism and secularism are insufficient, Prof. Oommen says; instead, “the idea of conceptualizing India as a multicultural polity is more amenable than a secular India.” The sheet anchor of this has to be citizenship.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Termination of pregnancy as an unconditional right
Context
The issue of abortion is in the news again, internationally.
Criminal law provisions related to termination of pregnancy
- Under the general criminal law of the country, i.e. the Indian Penal Code, voluntarily causing a woman with child to miscarry is an offence attracting a jail term of up to three years or fine or both, unless it was done in good faith where the purpose was to save the life of the pregnant woman.
- A pregnant woman causing herself to miscarry is also an offender under this provision apart from the person causing the miscarriage, which in most cases would be a medical practitioner.
Background of the MTP Act
- In 1971, after a lot of deliberation, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act was enacted.
- This law is an exception to the IPC provisions above.
- Who, when, where, why and by whom? The law sets out the rules — of when, who, where, why and by whom — for accessing an MTP.
- This law has been amended twice since, the most recent set of amendments being in the year 2021 which has, to some extent, expanded the scope of the law.
- The law does not recognise and/or acknowledge the right of a pregnant person to decide on the discontinuation of a pregnancy.
- The law provides for a set of reasons based on which an MTP can be accessed.
Reasons allowed for MTP
- Reasons: The continuation of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or result in grave injury to her physical or mental health.
- The law explains that if the pregnancy is as a result of rape or failure of contraceptive used by the pregnant woman or her partner to limit the number of children or to prevent a pregnancy, the anguish caused by the continuation of such a pregnancy would be considered to be a grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant woman.
- The other reason for seeking an MTP is the substantial risk that if the child was born, it would suffer from any serious physical or mental abnormality.
- A pregnant person cannot ask for a termination of pregnancy without fitting in one of the reasons set out in the law.
- Gestational age of pregnancy: The other set of limitations that the law provides is the gestational age of the pregnancy.
- The pregnancy can be terminated for any of the above reasons, on the opinion of a single registered medical practitioner up to 20 weeks of the gestational age.
- From 20 weeks up to 24 weeks, the opinion of two registered medical practitioners is required.
- Any decision for termination of pregnancy beyond 24 weeks gestational age, only on the ground of foetal abnormalities can be taken by a Medical Board as set up in each State, as per the law.
- The law, as an exception to all that is stated above, also provides that where it is immediately necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman, the pregnancy can be terminated at any time by a single registered medical practitioner.
Issues with the MTP Act provisions
- While India legalised access to abortion in certain circumstances much before most of the world did the same, unfortunately, even in 2020 we decided to remain in the logic of 1971.
- Right to health and right to life: By the time the amendments to the MTP Act were tabled before the Lok Sabha in 2020, a number of cases came before the courts.
- In these cases, the courts had articulated the right of a pregnant woman to decide on the continuation of her pregnancy as a part of her right to health and right to life, and therefore non-negotiable.
- Violation of right to privacy: In right to privacy judgment of the Supreme Court of India it was held that the decision making by a pregnant person on whether to continue a pregnancy or not is part of such a person’s right to privacy as well and, therefore, the right to life.
- The standards set out in this judgment were also not incorporated in the amendments being drafted.
- Not in sync with central laws: The new law is not in sync with other central laws such as the laws on persons with disabilities, on mental health and on transgender persons, to name a few.
- In conflict with other laws: The amendments also did not make any attempts to iron out the conflations between the MTP Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act or the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, to name a few.
Conclusion
While access to abortion has been available under the legal regime in the country, there is a long road ahead before it is recognised as a right of a person having the capacity to become pregnant to decide, unconditionally, whether a pregnancy is to be continued or not.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Marital rape
Context
On May 10, 2022, a two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court gave a split ruling on marital rape, thus ensuring a future hearing in the Supreme Court.
Why rape and marriage were seen as mutually exclusive
- The concepts of rape and marriage were seen as mutually exclusive – they could not be brought together.
- Across the world, and till very recently, marriage has been explicitly treated as being outside the purview of rape.
- Even in the Western countries that we associate with the more “advanced” practices of gender equality, marital rape was treated as an exception to the crime of rape till the early 1990s.
- In the absence of a universal definition, several scholars take marriage to be an institution where a man and a woman live together, have sexual relations and engage in cooperative economic activity.
- Link between marriage and property: Others have emphasised the link between marriage and property.
- The dominant form of marriage in the modern West became quite distinctly patriarchal, visible in late 18th-century British law, for instance, whereby a wife became the property of her husband upon marriage.
- Husbands, therefore, had the right to access their wives sexually, without the question of coercion or consent being on the horizon in the first place.
- As property, wives had to be protected from the (illegal) sexual access of other men, and here too, their consent was irrelevant.
Introduction of marital rape
- If what distinguishes the relationship of husband and wife from other relations between men and women is the legitimate expectation of sexual relations, then the introduction of marital rape signals the entry of a new and equally legitimate expectation: A wife’s consent to sexual relations is essential, and in this, she is no different from other women.
- Husbands no longer enjoy unquestioned rights over the bodies of their wives — this is what it means for a wife to be a person with bodily integrity.
Conclusion
It is strange, indeed, that most parts of the world, India included, became modern while continuing to believe that wives are the property of husbands.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Lesson from the power shortage crisis
Context
The power crisis has taken us by surprise. The question in everyone’s mind is: where did we go wrong? And who slipped up?
Responsibilities in supply chain
- Under the Electricity Act, it is the responsibility of the Distribution Licensee/Company (Discom) to provide reliable quality and round-the-clock electricity to all consumers to meet full demand.
- To do so, they enter into contracts with a number of generating companies in order to ensure adequate supply.
- These Discoms work under the oversight of the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions.
Suggestions
1] Dealing with the challenge of demand prediction
- Qualitative transformation in demand: With higher incomes and the consequent increase in the use of air-conditioners and other electrical appliances, the nature of electricity demand is undergoing a qualitative transformation with rising daily and seasonal peaks, and spikes on very hot or cold days.
- While demand prediction is inherently uncertain, the questions to ask are whether Discoms have been making and updating their demand growth projections and scenarios over the medium term with adequate supply arrangements in a robust manner.
- This needs to become central to the regulatory process.
- Ensuring reliable supply to meet unanticipated peaks, as have occurred now, requires making supply arrangements with reserve margins that are adequate.
- The Regulatory Commissions need to provide for such expensive peaking power arrangements in the tariffs they approve.
- It is also time to move towards separate peaking power procurement contracts in addition to the present system of long-term thermal power contracts.
2] Demand-based time of day rates of electricity
- A transition to demand-based time of day rates of electricity for generators as well as consumers would help.
- These should be brought in by the Regulatory Commissions.
- Flattening of demand curve: Peak demand moderation and flattening of the demand curve through a change in consumer behaviour is feasible with smart meters.
- But this would take place only with a strong price signal, a large differential in peak and off-peak rates.
3] Subsidies and politics
- Free supply of electricity to farmers and households up to a specified level is not a problem as long as State governments pay for it as provided in the Act, and the Regulatory Commissions do not at the same time act from a political point of view and shy away from determining cost-reflective tariffs.
- While the problem of delayed payments by Discoms is getting highlighted and needs to be resolved with a sense of urgency, the coal supply problem is not due to this.
- Coal India needs to create capacities to rapidly ramp up production; and the Railways need to carry larger quantities of coal when demand surges, as has happened now.
- Imported coal and gas generated electricity: There is idle but expensive generating capacity available — about 15-20 GW of gas-based power plants which can run on imported liquefied natural gas, and 6 GW-8 GW of thermal plants which can run on imported coal.
- Consumers who are willing to pay more could be kept free of power cuts with purchase and supply of more expensive electricity generated from imported coal and gas.
- To improve reliability, Discoms, with the approval of the Regulatory Commissions, need to go in for bids for storage.
Conclusion
A lesson is that demand growth projections and supply arrangements need to become central to the regulatory process.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CRR
Mains level: Paper 3- Dealing with inflation challenge through liquidity measures
Context
The recent action of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to raise the repo rate by 40 basis points and cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points is a recognition of the serious situation with respect to inflation in our country and the resolve to tackle inflation.
Inflation in India and role of government expenditure
- India’s CPI inflation has been fluctuating around a high level.
- As early as October 2020, it had hit a peak of 7.61%.
- It had remained at a high level of over 6% since April 2020.
- It did come down after December 2020 but has started rising significantly from January 2022.
- On the other hand, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation had remained in double digits since April 2021. The GDP implicit price deflator-based inflation rate for 2021-22 is 9.6%.
- Even though the RBI’s mandate is with respect to CPI inflation, policymakers cannot ignore the behaviour of other price indices.
- After the advent of COVID-19, the major concern of policymakers all over the world was to revive demand.
- Keynesian prescription: This was sought to be achieved by raising government expenditure.
- Thus, the expansion in government expenditure did not immediately result in increased production in countries where the lockdown was taken seriously.
- However, the Keynesian multiplier does not work when there are supply constraints as in developing countries.
- That is why the multiplier operates in nominal terms rather than in real terms in such countries.
- Something similar has happened in the present case where the supply constraint came from a non-mobility of factors of production.
- Nevertheless, the prescription of enhanced government expenditure is still valid under the present circumstances.
- Perhaps the increase in output could happen with a lag and also with the relaxation of restrictions.
Role of monetary policy
- Why lover money multiplier rate? Initially, the focus of monetary policy in India has been to keep the interest rate low and increase the availability of liquidity through various channels, some of which have been newly introduced.
- However, the growth rate of money was below the growth rate in reserve money.
- This is because of lower credit growth which also depends on business sentiment and investment climate.
- Thus the money multiplier is lower than usual.
- The Government’s borrowing programme which was larger went through smoothly, thanks to abundant liquidity.
- Even as the economy picked up steam in 2021-22, inflation also became an issue, this is a worldwide phenomenon.
- In India too there is a shift in monetary policy.
Analysing the cause of inflation
- While discussing inflation, analysts focus almost exclusively on the increases in the prices of individual commodities such as crude oil as the primary cause of inflation.
- General price level: Supply disruptions due to domestic or external factors may explain the behaviour of individual prices but not the general price level which is what inflation is about.
- Given a budget constraint, there will only be an adjustment of relative prices.
- Besides the fact that any cost-push increase in one commodity may get generalised, it is the adjustment that happens at the macro level which becomes critical.
- It is the adjustment in the macro level of liquidity that sustains inflation.
Inflation and growth
- The possible trade-off between inflation and growth has a long history in economic literature.
- The Phillip’s curve has been analysed theoretically and empirically.
- Tobin called the Phillip’s curve a ‘cruel dilemma’ because it suggested that full employment was not compatible with price stability.
- The critical question flowing from these discussions on trade-off is whether cost-push factors can by themselves generate inflation.
- In the current situation, it is sometimes argued that inflation will come down, if some part of the increase in crude prices is absorbed by the government.
- If the additional burden borne by the government (through loss of revenue) is not offset by expenditures, the overall deficit will widen.
- The borrowing programme will increase and additional liquidity support may be required.
Concomitant decisions on CRR and repo rate
- These are concomitant decisions. Central banks cannot order interest rates.
- For a rise in the interest rate to stick, appropriate actions must be taken to contract liquidity.
- That is what the rise in CRR will do.
- In the absence of a rise in CRR, liquidity will have to be sucked by open market operations.
Conclusion
Beyond a point, inflation itself can hinder growth. Negative real rates of interest on savings are not conducive to growth. If we want to control inflation, action on liquidity is very much needed with a concomitant rise in the interest rate on deposits and loans.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Replacement rate
Mains level: Paper 1- Factors influencing fertility rate
Context
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5 report that was awaited for nearly six months is finally out. And it provides a heartening outlook.
About NHFS
- Started in 1992-93, it has culminated in the fifth round 2019-21.
- The NFHS is a large, multi-round survey that, inter alia, provides information on fertility, infant and child mortality, the practice of family planning, reproductive health, nutrition, anaemia, quality and utilisation of health and family planning services.
- The surveys provide essential data needed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other agencies for policy and programme purposes.
- The Ministry assigned the nodal responsibility for the task to the International Institute for Population Sciences(IIPS), Mumbai.
- Several international agencies are involved in providing technical and financial assistance, mainly USAID, DFID, UNICEF, and UNFPA.
Replacement rate achieved
- Replacement rate achieved: The report shows that India has finally achieved the replacement rate of 2.1TFR (Total Fertility Rate is the total number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime).
- In fact, it has gone below the mark to 2.0.
- There are, of course, large interstate variations.
- The lagging states are UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur and Meghalaya.
- Significantly, there were four states which were keeping the figures poor, namely, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
- Two states, Rajasthan and MP, have struggled to get out of this group, while Jharkhand and the two northeastern states have replaced them.
- UP and Bihar because of their sheer size are pulling down the national average.
- Rajasthan and MP have reached the TFR of 2, which shows the success of their efforts.
Influencing factors
- It is not religion as commonly propounded but literacy, especially of girls, income and delivery of family planning, and health services.
- 1] Delivery of services: The figures would have been even better if all those who have been made aware of the benefits of family planning had received the services they desire.
- Making people informed of the need and methods of family planning and motivating them to adopt family planning is difficult enough.
- Having achieved the difficult task, we are not able to provide the services communities need — the “unmet need” — which is still very high at 9.4 per cent.
- If we focus on this issue in a mission mode, the family planning performance will dramatically improve.
- 2] Male attitude towards family planning: They tend to put the onus for birth control on women.
- As many as 35 per cent men believe that using contraceptives is a woman’s responsibility. They ignore the fact that male vasectomy is a much simpler procedure than female tubectomy.
- 3] Acceptance of family planning: Muslim acceptance of family planning has continued through the five surveys spread over three decades at a rate faster than all other communities.
- Though birth control practice among Muslims is still the least – 47.4 per cent (up from 45 per cent in NFHS-4).
- Other communities — for example, Hindus — are not far behind with 58 per cent (up from 56 per cent).
- This means that 42 per cent of the 80 per cent of the population are not practising family planning.
- Education: Women who have not attended school have 2.8 TFR as against 1.8 for those who have completed class XII.
- Poverty: Similar gap of figure one is visible in the context of poverty with the poorest segment having higher TFR than the richest.
Conclusion
The time has come to leave politics behind and work together for achieving the goals set by National Population Policy 2000. Instead of misleading narratives, we need to address the real determinants of fertility behaviour – literacy, income generation and improvement of health and family planning services.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- US's commitment to the Indo-Pacific
Context
When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine at the end of February, it was widely asked in Delhi if the new challenges of European security would result in a dilution of the US’s strategic commitment to the Indo-Pacific.
The Challenge of balancing China and Russia
- There are two parts of Biden’s answer to the Europe-Asia or Russia-China question.
- 1] Engagement with allies: When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine at the end of February, it was widely asked in Delhi if the new challenges of European security would result in a dilution of the US’s strategic commitment to the Indo-Pacific.
- Biden came to power with a determination to make the Indo-Pacific the highest priority of his foreign policy.
- He is not going to abandon that objective in dealing with the unexpected crisis in Europe.
- The assumption that China was the principal challenge and Russia was less of a threat led Biden to meet Putin in June 2021 to offer prospects for a reasonable relationship with Russia in order to devote US energies to the China question.
- But Putin’s calculations led him towards a deeper strategic partnership with China
- But America’s assessment of the Russian and Chinese threats has not changed since the war began in Ukraine.
- The idea that China will gain from the Russian war in Ukraine has also proven to be false.
- Expectations that Russia’s triumph in Ukraine will be followed by a successful Chinese invasion of Taiwan have begun to dissipate.
- Meanwhile, China is reeling under self-inflicted problems, most notably Xi Jinping’s zero Covid strategy and his crackdown on the large internet companies.
- The costly foreign policy of China: Beijing’s prospects look a lot less rosy than before as the Chinese economy slows down and XI’s foreign policy turns out to be quite costly for China.
- The muscular approach of China: In Asia, China’s muscular approach to disputes with its neighbours has helped strengthen the US alliances, create new forums like the AUKUS, elevate old ones like the Quad to a higher level, and consolidate the strategic conception of the Indo-Pacific.
- 2] Coordination with allies and partners: Biden’s lemma to the theorem on a two-front strategy is a simple one — that Washington will address the simultaneous challenge in Europe and Asia not by acting alone but in coordination with allies and partners.
- The idea was rooted in the recognition that alliances and partnerships are America’s greatest strength and most important advantage over Russia and China.
Engagement with Asia
- ASEAN: This week’s summit level engagement with the ASEAN comes after sustained high-level US outreach to the region since the Biden Administration took charge.
- In northeast Asia, the election of Yoon Suk-yeol as the president of South Korea has tilted the scales slightly towards the US in the continuing battle for influence between Beijing and Washington.
- The US is also actively trying to reduce the differences between its two treaty allies in the region — South Korea and Japan.
- Asia’s new coalitions are a response to Xi Jinping’s unilateralism and his quest for regional hegemony.
- India’s enthusiasm for the Quad can be directly correlated to Xi’s military coercion on the disputed frontiers with India.
Implications for India
- The two parts of Biden’s answer to the Europe-Asia or Russia-China question have worked well for India.
- Tolerance toward India-Russia engagement: For one, the US’s emphasis on the long-term challenge from China has meant that Washington is willing to tolerate India’s engagement with Russia.
- Time for the diversification of defence ties: This gives India time to diversify its defence ties that have been heavily dependent on Russia.
- The US emphasis on partnerships rather than unilateralism in dealing with the China challenge means India’s agency in the region can only grow.
- The Quad allows Delhi to carve out a larger role for itself in Asia and the Indo-Pacific in collaboration with the US and its allies.
Conclusion
Contrary to the initial assumptions that America is on the retreat and the West is in disarray, it is Moscow and Beijing that are on the defensive as the war in Ukraine completes three months.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Significance of emigrants
Context
Though the phenomenon of Indian-origin executives becoming CEOs of top U.S. companies highlights the contribution of Indian talent to the U.S. economy, the role played by Indian semi-skilled migrant labour in the global economy is no less illustrious.
Destinations of Indian migrants
- Every year, about 2.5 million workers from India move to different parts of the world on employment visas
- According to the Ministry of External Affairs, there are over 13.4 million Non-Resident Indians worldwide.
- Significance of GCC: Of them, 64% live in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the highest being in the United Arab Emirates, followed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
- Low and semi-skilled: Almost 90% of the Indian migrants who live in GCC countries are low- and semi-skilled workers, as per International Labour Organization estimates.
- Other significant countries of destination for overseas Indians are the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and Canada.
Contribution of Indian migrant workers
- Besides being involved in nation-building of their destination countries, Indian migrant workers also contribute to the homeland’s socioeconomic development, through remittances.
- Highest remittances: As per a World Bank Group report (2021), annual remittances transferred to India are estimated to be $87 billion, which is the highest in the world, followed by China ($53 billion), Mexico ($53 billion), the Philippines ($36 billion) and Egypt ($33 billion).
- Remittances in India have been substantially higher than even Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the flow of remittances is much less fluctuating than that of FDI.
- Still, remittances’ contribution of 3% in GDP is lower than that of countries such as Nepal (24.8%), Pakistan (12.6%), Sri Lanka (8.3%) and Bangladesh (6.5%), as per a World Bank report.
- Hedging strategy against risk: Besides being a win-win situation for both the destination and source country, labour migration is good hedging strategy against unsystematic risks for any economy.
Way forward
- Human capital should also be invested in a diversified portfolio akin to financial capital.
- Promoting labour mobility: For many countries, remittances have been of vital support to the domestic economy after a shock.
- India should aim to increase remittances to say 10% of GDP.
- The Philippines’ model of promoting labour mobility be replicated in India.
- Reducing the costs involved: Both the cost of recruitment of such workers and the cost of sending remittances back to India should come down.
- Skilling: The number of migrant workers need not go up for remittances to increase if the skill sets of workers are improved.
- Regulation of recruitment agencies: Recruitment agencies should also be regulated by leveraging information technology for ensuring protection of migrant workers leaving India.
- An integrated grievance redressal portal, ‘Madad’, was launched by the government in 2015.
- Proposed Emigration Bill 2021: The Indian government proposed a new Emigration Bill in 2021 which aims to integrate emigration management and streamline the welfare of emigrant workers.
- It proposes to modify the system of Emigration Check Required (ECR) category of workers applying for migration to 18 notified countries.
- The Bill makes it mandatory for all categories of workers to register before departure to any country in the world to ensure better protection for them, support and safeguard in case of vulnerabilities.
- The proposed Emigration Management Authority will be the overarching authority to provide policy guidance.
- Besides workers, as about 0.5 million students also migrate for education from India every year, the Bill also covers such students.
Conclusion
For India to increase remittances’ contribution to GDP, it doesn’t need more workers but skilling and better management.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Judicial corruption and pendency
Context
Departures from substantive and procedural justice need deep scrutiny as the fallout could severely imperil governance.
Judicial corruption in India in lower judiciary
- According to Transparency International (TI 2011), 45% of people who had come in contact with the judiciary between July 2009 and July 2010 had paid a bribe to the judiciary.
- The most common reason for paying the bribes was to “speed things up”.
- The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (April 2013) estimates that for every ₹2 in official court fees, at least ₹ 1,000 is spent in bribes in bringing a petition to the court.
- Freedom House’s ‘Freedom in the World 2016 report for India’ states that “the lower levels of the judiciary in particular have been rife with corruption” (Freedom House 2016).
- Allegations of corruption against High Court judges abound.
- Worse, there are glaring examples of anti-Muslim bias, often followed by extra-judicial killings by the police.
- Anti-Muslim bias alone may not result in erosion of trust but if combined with unprovoked and brutal violence against them (e.g., lynching of innocent cattle traders) is bound to.
Forms of judicial corruption
- Pressure and bribery: Judicial corruption takes two forms: political interference in the judicial process by the legislative or executive branch, and bribery.
- Despite the accumulation of evidence on corrupt practices, the pressure to rule in favour of political interests remains intense.
- Court officials coax bribes for free services, and lawyers charge additional “fees” to expedite or delay cases.
Case pendency
- According to the National Judicial Data Grid, as of April 12, 2017, there are 24,186,566 pending cases in India’s district courts, of which 2,317,448 (9.58%) have been pending for over 10 years, and 3,975,717 (16.44%) have been pending for between five and 10 years.
- Vacancies: As of December 31, 2015, there were 4,432 vacancies in the posts of [subordinate court] judicial officers, representing about 22% of the sanctioned strength.
- In the case of the High Courts, 458 of the 1,079 posts, representing 42% of the sanctioned strength, were vacant as of June 2016.
- Thus, severe backlogging and understaffing persisted, as also archaic and complex procedures of delivery of justice.
Understanding the substantive and procedural justice
- Substantive justice is associated with whether the statutes, case law and unwritten legal principles are morally justified e.g., freedom to pursue any religion,
- Procedural justice is associated with fair and impartial decision procedures.
- Outdated laws: Many outdated/dysfunctional laws or statutes have not been repealed because of the tardiness of legal reform both at the Union and State government levels.
- Worse, there have been blatant violations of constitutional provisions.
- The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (December 2019) provides citizenship to — except Muslims — Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.
- But this goes against secularism and is thus a violation of substantive justice.
- Alongside procedural delays, endemic corruption and mounting shares of under-trial inmates with durations of three to five years point to stark failures of procedural justice and to some extent of substantive justice.
Conclusion
Exercise of extra-constitutional authority by the central and State governments, weakening of accountability mechanisms, widespread corruption in the lower judiciary and the police, with likely collusion between them, the perverted beliefs of the latter towards Muslims, other minorities and lower caste Hindus, a proclivity to deliver instant justice, extra-judicial killings, filing FIRs against innocent victims of mob lynching have left deep scars on the national psyche.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Poverty in India
Mains level: Paper 2- Poverty reduction in India
Context
A recent World Bank Report has shown that extreme poverty in India more than halved between 2011 and 2019 – from 22.5 per cent to 10.2 per cent. The reduction was higher in rural areas, from 26.3 per cent to 11.6 per cent.
What explains the reduction in poverty?
- Poverty has reduced significantly because of the government’s thrust on improving the ease of living of ordinary Indians through schemes.
- These schemes include the Ujjwala Yojana, PM Awas Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission, Jan Dhan and Mission Indradhanush in addition to the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission and improved coverage under the National Food Security Act.
- It is important to understand how poverty in rural areas was reduced at a faster pace.
- Much of the success can be credited to all government departments, especially their janbhagidari-based thrust on pro-poor public welfare.
Contributing factors
1] Identification of beneficiaries through SECC 2011
- The identification of deprived households on the basis of the Socioeconomic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 across welfare programmes helped in creating a constituency for the well-being of the poor, irrespective of caste, creed or religion.
- Deprivation criterion: Since deprivation was the key criterion in identifying beneficiaries, SC and ST communities got higher coverage and the erstwhile backward regions in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan and rural Maharashtra got a larger share of the benefits.
- Gram Sabha Validation: Social groups that often used to be left out of government programmes were included and gram sabha validation was taken to ensure that the project reached these groups.
2] Widened coverage of women
- The coverage of women under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana and Self Help Groups (SHG) increased from 2.5 crore in 2014 to over 8 crore in 2018 as a result of more than 75 lakh SHGs working closely with over 31 lakh elected panchayati raj representatives, 40 per cent of whom are women.
- This provided a robust framework to connect with communities and created a social capital that helped every programme.
- The PRI-SHG partnership catalysed changes that increased the pace of poverty reduction and the use of Aadhaar cleaned up corruption at several levels and ensured that the funds reached those whom it was meant for.
3] Creation of basic infrastructure
- Finance Commission transfers were made directly to gram panchayats leading to the creation of basic infrastructure like pucca village roads and drains at a much faster pace in rural areas.
- The high speed of road construction under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadhak Yojana created greater opportunities for employment in nearby larger villages/census towns/kasbas by improving connectivity and enhancing mobility.
4] Availability of credit through SHGs
- The social capital of SHGs ensured the availability of credit through banks, micro-finance institutions and MUDRA loans.
- Livelihood diversification: The NRLM prioritised livelihood diversification and implemented detailed plans for credit disbursement.
5] Implementation of social sector schemes
- In the two phases of the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan in 2018, benefits such as gas and electricity connections, LED bulbs, accident insurance, life insurance, bank accounts and immunisation were provided to 63974 villages that were selected because of their high SC and ST populations.
- The performance of line departments went up manifold due to community-led action.
- The gains are reflected in the findings of the National Family Health Survey V, 2019-2021.
6] Universal coverage schemes
- The thrust on universal coverage for individual household latrines, LPG connections and pucca houses for those who lived in kuccha houses ensured that no one was left behind. This created the Labarthi Varg.
7] Increase in fund transfer to rural area
- Seventh, this was also a period in which a high amount of public funds were transferred to rural areas, including from the share of states and, in some programmes, through extra-budgetary resources.
8] Community participation
- The thrust on a people’s plan campaign, “Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas” for preparing the Gram Panchayat Development Plans and for ranking villages and panchayats on human development, economic activity and infrastructure, from 2017-18 onwards, laid the foundation for robust community participation involving panchayats and SHGs, especially in ensuring accountability.
9] Social and concurrent audit
- Through processes like social and concurrent audits, efforts were made to ensure that resources were fully utilised.
- Several changes were brought about in programmes like the MGNREGS to create durable and productive assets.
10] Focus of states on improving livelihood diversification
- The competition among states to improve performance on rural development helped.
- Irrespective of the party in power, nearly all states and UTs focussed on improving livelihood diversification in rural areas and on improving infrastructure significantly.
Conclusion
All these factors contributed to improved ease of living of deprived households and improving their asset base. A lot has been achieved, much remains to be done.
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