Dec Mag

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PREFACE
With the present shift in examination pattern of UPSC Civil Services Examination, ‘General
Studies – II and General Studies III’ can safely be replaced with ‘Current Affairs’. Moreover,
following the recent trend of UPSC, almost all the questions are issue-based rather than
news-based. Therefore, the right approach to preparation is to prepare issues, rather than
just reading news.
Taking this into account, our website www.iasbaba.com will cover current affairs focusing
more on ‘issues’ on a daily basis. This will help you pick up relevant news items of the day
from various national dailies such as The Hindu, Indian Express, Business Standard, LiveMint,
Business Line and other important Online sources. Over time, some of these news items will
become important issues.
UPSC has the knack of picking such issues and asking general opinion based questions.
Answering such questions will require general awareness and an overall understanding of
the issue. Therefore, we intend to create the right understanding among aspirants – ‘How to
cover these issues?
This is the 19th edition of IASbaba’s Monthly Magazine. This edition covers all important
issues that were in news in the month of December 2016.
Value add’s from IASbaba- Must Read and Connecting the dots.
‘Must Read’ section, will give you important links to be read from exam perspective. This
will make sure that, you don’t miss out on any important news/editorials from various
newspapers on daily basis.
Under each news article, ‘Connecting the dots’ facilitates your thinking to connect and
ponder over various aspects of an issue. Basically, it helps you in understanding an issue
from multi-dimensional view-point. You will understand its importance while giving Mains
or Interview.
Must Read Articles: We have not included them in the magazine. Those following DNA on
daily basis may follow it- http://iasbaba.com/babas-daily-news-analysis/
“Your Only Limit is You“
All the Best 
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INDEX
NATIONAL (5-54)
 A case of forced patriotism and judicial over-reach
 Central Bureau of Investigation- A roadmap to revamp
 Generating jobs through e-commerce
 Hospital over Home- Janani Suraksha Yojana
 India’s burgeoning cities and how to engender them
 The idea of Digital Democracy
 Disruptive amendments to Prevention of Corruption Act
 Forests Rights Act- Stop the dilution of rights
 Need for Reforms in the Education Policy
 The Parliament deadlock- Not the right way
 Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana – Mid Term Appraisal
 Bottlenecks in Policy Implementation and Formulation - Water, Sanitation and
Hygiene (WASH)
 Right of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2016- An overview
 FCRA: Time to go?
 Existence of Financial Exclusion in danger
 Water woes and rising social discontent
 Untouchability in India? Yes, it exists!
INTERNATIONAL (55-84)
 India and Pakistan- Leave back the rhetoric
 OPEC oil output cut
 Heart of Asia Summit- Stabilising the heart
 Potential at Pacific: India and Indonesia
 India Indonesia Relations
 Making India’s foreign policy more humane
 Speak up for the Rohingyas
 India’s Current Foreign Policy - Critical Analysis
 Israel, Palestine and the World Reaction
 India and China – Need for Convergence rather than Confrontation
ENVIRONMENT (85-97)
 Outcomes of Marrakech climate conference
 Environmental ‘Refugees’
 Integrating Biodiversity with development
 Delhi Pollution- Is there any hope?
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ECONOMY (98-120)
 Demonetisation: Impact till now and what next?
 Regulating the digital economy
 Will demonetisation pay off?
 A new normal- Being Cashless
 Challenges and Scope of Unorganised Manufacturing Sector
 Indian Economy- Are the goals clear?
 Economic Inclusion and Equality in 2017
 The leadership priorities for 2017
HEALTH (121- 125)

 Tracking the health targets
 Malnutrition in India and Food Fortification
SECURITY (126- 138)

 Secure digital infrastructure
 Vulnerable cyberspace in India
 Manipur violence- Assessing the internal security
 Data Privacy- A matter of concern
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (139-142)

 India’s space diplomacy
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NATIONAL
TOPIC: General Studies 2

 Separation of powers between various organs
 Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary
A case of forced patriotism and judicial over-reach
In news: SC’s interim directions to play national anthem in cinemas prior to the exhibition of
movies has evoked strong reactions.
Background
 In August 1986, a Supreme Court bench granted protection to three children of the
Jehovah’s Witness sect, who stood up respectfully but didn’t join in the singing of the
national anthem at their school. The court held that forcing the children to sing the
anthem violated their fundamental right to religion.
 Art 51 A (a) states that citizen of India should abide by the Constitution and respect its
ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem. There is no provision
of law which obliges anyone to sing the national anthem. So, even if the person stands
respectfully and doesn’t sing is not showing disrespect to national symbol.
 Also, Art 25 is an article of faith which incorporates that real test of democracy is the
ability of even an insignificant minority to find its identity under the country’s
Constitution. Hence, no one should be harassed in name of display of patriotism.
 Recently, a writ petition was filed under Art 32 of constitution of India which said that
national anthem has to be given utmost respect when it is played, recited or sung.
 Playing the national anthem in theatres at the end of the film was given up some three
decades ago in most parts of the country, largely as a result of the tendency of a section
of the audience to walk out.
Judicial directives and its overreach

In the recent interim directives by SC, it is a clear case of judicial over-reach where judiciary
is claiming an extra-constitutional power.
There shall be no commercial exploitation to give financial advantage or any kind of
benefit
 This is an ambiguous sentence which is difficult to interpret as to how one would derive
benefit from national anthem in an unfair manner inviting judiciary involvement.
 This is open to interpretation which will create more doubts. Does this mean that all
copyrights of artists performing national anthem become automatically void?
No place in films
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 The next directive says that no film, drama or show of any sort can have national
anthem as its part.
Publication prohibition
 The publication of copy of national anthem or even specific words is prohibited.
 This is followed by the directive which says that national anthem or any of its part
should not be printed on an object or displayed in a manner which may be disgraceful to
its status and amount to disrespect. It is associated with the concept of the protocol
associated with it has its inherent roots in national identity, national integrity and
constitutional patriotism’.
Theatres as nationalist symbols
 The next directive is a clear cut one proclaiming that all theatres must play national
anthem before the feature film starts. However it doesn’t say how it expects to enforce
this direction.
 This directive gives an idea about how the court is intending to make its citizens
‘patriotic’ no matter how old, infirm, physically challenged or just tired citizens they are.
 It has also directed that entry and exit doors be closed while national anthem is being
played. Here, it has ignored its own judgement in Uphaar cinema case where it held that
under no circumstances doors to cinema shall be shut.
The executive role
 After playing the role of legislator, the judiciary plays the role of executive by ordering
that national anthem be played only with the image of national flag on screen.
 Whether it is to be a static flag or waving flag has not been clarified.
The original version
 The last directive says that abridged version of national anthem will not be played.
There is no reason to justify as to why the judiciary had to frame such rules in a space which
is for personal entertainment and choice.
Don’t force patriotism

 Today, patriotism is largely becoming a visible value where it has to be frequently
publicly demonstrated. Sometime, such is the demonstration and enforcement of
patriotism that a dissenter feels threatened for his right to dissenting. There seems to be
an emerging market of instilling and teaching patriotism in India.
 During the demonetisation effect, even if anyone complained about standing in long
queues outside banks and ATMs, there were many who reminded them of soldiers
protecting us standing at borders. Thus, standing in queue without complaining became
a measure of loyalty to the nation.
 Recently, UGC also issued an order that all educational institutions must instil
knowledge of Constitution generally and Fundamental Duties particularly. Instead, this
can be made a voluntary exercise where students are encouraged to read about the
Constitution of India rather than it forcing upon them.
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 The politics of patriotism and nationalism is not new. It has unfolded in many countries
at different points of time with very similar effects like harassment of minorities,
blackmailing of dissenters and closure of intellectual freedoms.
Law to protect the anthem

 The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 addresses insults to the
Constitution, the national flag and the national anthem. Its genesis lies in art 51A (a) of
the constitution.
 The Act states that whoever intentionally prevents the singing of the national anthem
or causes disturbances to any assembly engaged in such singing, shall be punished.
 Hence, no where it is stated about forcing a person to stand up or sing the National
Anthem.
 There are clear rules on when the anthem should be played. Any misuse of the anthem
or any wilful insult to it is legally prohibited, and those aggrieved by any such incident
can take recourse to the law.
 The current National Anthem orders are not a judicial creation but in the form of
guidelines compiled by the ministry of home affairs on when and how the national
anthem should be played.
 Given they are guidelines, they are not part of legislation and hence should not result in
any penalties.
Is it the step in right direction?

 The singing of the national anthem on special occasions, especially in schools and
colleges, is sufficient to help citizens identify the anthem with something larger than
their daily concerns.
 Playing a national anthem compulsorily through a judicial order does not define a
mature democracy.
 Also, the cinema halls should not be singled out to play national anthem as a sizeable
number of people congregate. If this is the reason, then such an order should be
extended to dance and music recitals as well.
 And why to stop there? It should be further taken to every sitting of the legislature, or
the court itself as the so called reason of ‘congregation of people’ well fits.
Conclusion
Patriotism is the value most cherished without being too demonstrative about it. The feeling
of love and respect for the country should come to a citizen from within and something as
sacred as national anthem should be played or sung only on special occasions.
Connecting the dots:

 What is patriotism? Do recent SC orders on national anthem violate fundamental rights?
Examine.
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TOPIC:
General Studies 3
 Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate
General Studies 2
 Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive
 Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and
institutions.
Central Bureau of Investigation- A roadmap to revamp
A new interim chief of CBI is appointed which has been called a ‘caged parrot’. Though the
job may seem glamourous, it has been frequently called a ‘crown of thorns’. In the times of
rampant corruption and number of new sensitive cases coming across CBI, it has to now gear
up for more effective changes to increase organisational efficiency.
 The role of CBI chief is critical one as it is constantly under public glare and scrutiny by
media.
 As a CBI chief, he is regularly in contact with top executives of the government,
especially the PM to brief about all the major issues concerning the organisation. But, at
the same time it has to be maintained that the chief maintains an individuality while
overseeing investigations as he/she is answerable to law only.
 The current CBI chief has various functions to be performed in order to bring the system
to being more independent and public friendly.
Clean up target
 Enforcement Directorate has recently reported adversely against two former CBI chiefs.
Hence, the first focus will be to undoing the damage caused by some predecessors.
 This is a difficult task to do but it is necessary to instil public confidence in the CBI as a
fearless agency that will not hesitate to proceed against its own erring personnel.
 Many reports have surfaced stating dishonesty and harassment of the public by those at
top positions in the CBI.
 Here it is necessary to investigate against allegations of dishonest actions as well as
stringent actions against misbehaving staff in the agency. This will be in conformity with
Prime Minister’s drive against dishonesty in high offices.
The weak points

Political pressure
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 It is widely known that CBI is vulnerable to political pressure. Though less than 10 per
cent of the cases handed over to the CBI have political overtones, there is still some
truth in charge of politicisation in investigations.
 Thus, there is a need of team of reliable people who are insulated from external
pressures whenever conducting high profile investigations. This will go a long way to
boost CBI’s credibility.
 Though, even after maintaining utmost care, there are full chances of allegations and
counter allegations. But this should not deter or disturb the organisation or leadership
effectiveness of CBI chief.
 Even the most credible institution such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation was
recently under fire while investigating cyber misconduct by Democratic presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton. Hence, such events will occur but it shouldn’t affect the
organisational targets.
Delayed closures
 The closure of investigation takes enormous time which has severely dented its
effectiveness.
 As a former CVC had put it in light-heartedness, CBI is like a black hole. Nothing that
goes in ever comes out of it. But, this should not be taken casually.
 This is the current system which is prevailing totally in entire criminal justice system.
 There is an obligation on the part of every CBI director to explore all possible avenues to
speed up investigation but it is more easily said than done.
 To make good of it, the CBI can take up less cases. But then there is no another
professional investigative agency at centre which can take the less important case can
be delivered.
 Hence, the appropriate alternate is to work towards expanding CBI’s infrastructure,
especially the manpower by requesting the Department of Personnel and Training
headed by PM,that provides administrative support to the CBI, to look into this matter.
Unpopular as medium of employment

 Attracting new talent and youth into CBI is a tough job as it is not much popular amongst
them in the central government jobs.
 Thus, there is need for looking at service conditions for direct recruitment to the CBI
with a fresh and updated mindset.
 Traditional thinking and red-tapesim have to go in order to recruit more and generously
improve emoluments (outside the rigid government pay structure) of the eternally
demoralised direct recruits.
 One can be on the lines of Central Intelligence Agency wherein CBI goes to campuses
and promotes the idea of working in a rewarding as well as challenging environment.
Capable but unaware candidates can take this as an opportunity.
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Compulsory State coordination

 One of the great constraints on CBI is that it is dependent on state governments for
invoking its authority to investigate cases in a State, even if a central government
employee is a target.
 As CBI acts per the procedure prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), it
becomes a police agency. And because police is a state subject under Constitution of
India, CBI needs the consent of the State government before it starts its investigation in
the state.
 In such a condition, there is a case by case consent or authorisation to be taken or a
blanket approval of a class of offences which makes it a cumbersome and time taking
clerical procedure which ultimately affects the investigation.
About CBI
 CBI derives power to investigate from the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.
 Later on, the Government of India set up Central Bureau of Investigation by a resolution
dated 1st April, 1963. Hence, CBI is not a statutory body as it was created by executive
resolution.
 Today it has following divisions
1. Anti Corruption Division
2. Economic Offences Division
3. Special Crimes Division
4. Directorate of Prosecution
5. Administration Division
6. Policy & Coordination Division
7. Central Forensic Science Laboratory
 Special Cells were created to take up investigations in important & sensational cases of
conventional nature.
 Over a period of time, some of the work originally allotted to the CBI was transferred to
other organisations. Part of the work relating to Crime Records and Statistics Division
was transferred to NCRB and that relating to Research Division was transferred to
BPR&D.
 In the last 65 years, the organisation has evolved from an anti corruption agency to a
multi faceted, multi disciplinary central police law enforcement agency.
 Director, CBI as Inspector General of Police, Delhi Special Police Establishment, is
responsible for the administration of the organisation. With enactment of CVC Act,
2003, the Superintendence of Delhi Special Police Establishment vests with the Central
Government except investigations of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act,
1988, in which, the superintendence vests with the Central Vigilance Commission.
 CBI has been provided security of two year tenure in CBI by the CVC Act, 2003. The CVC
Act also provides mechanism for selection of Director, CBI and other officers of the rank
of SP and above in CBI.
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 The CBI is subject to three ministries of the Government of India and Two Constitutional
bodies:[3]-
1. Ministry of Home Affairs: Cadre Clearance
2. DoPT: Administration, Budget and Induction of non IPS officers
3. Union Public Service Commission: Officers of and above the rank of Deputy SP
4. Law and Justice Ministry: Public prosecutors
5. Central Vigilance Commission: Anti-corruption cases.
Previous attempt of reforms
The UPA government had appointed a Select Committee that had given several
recommendations for strengthening the CBI. It included
1. Appointment of the Director of CBI through a collegium comprising of the PM,
Leader of the Opposition of the Lok Sabha and Chief Justice of India.
2. Power of superintendence over CBI in relation to Lok Pal referred cases shall vest in
the Lokpal.
3. CBI officers investigating cases referred by the Lokpal will be transferred with the
approval of the Lokpal
4. For cases referred by the Lokpal, the CBI may appoint a panel of advocates (other
than government advocates) with the consent of the Lok pal.
Conclusion
Though the police infrastructure is in critical condition, there are minimal chances of any
constitutional amendments pertaining to police reforms in India. But it is equally important
for CBI to work efficiently in order to sustain its credibility.
Hence, as suggested by many former CBI directors, there should be a promulgation of a CBI
Act which is on par with the Customs Act or the Income Tax Act. This will allow CBI officers
to enjoy and efficiently utilise independent powers of investigation — outside the CrPC —
without being at the mercy of State governments.
There are concerns about CBI becoming far too autonomous and powerful but they are
irrational given the fact that there always will be checks and balances to maintain the
accountability of the institution.

 What is the mandate of CBI? Analyse its importance with respect to legislature,
executive and judiciary establishments.
 How is CBI a multi-disciplinary central police law enforcement agency? Can it promote
cooperative federalism? Discuss.
TOPIC:
General Studies 2
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 Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues
arising out of their design and implementation.
General Studies 3
 Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth,
development and employment.
 Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday
life
Generating jobs through e-commerce
India has been facing ‘jobless growth’ which can rein in disaster in future with growing
population and non-proportionate growing jobs options as well as opportunities. India
needs to create 80 million new jobs over the next decade, double the number over the
previous 10 years in order to keep up with the growing population. Therefore, the mode of
job creation needs to be explored.
Going China’s way?

 China was the only country which faced similar problems as India.
 In late 1970s, it was confronted with this issue due to rapid global trade growth.
 But China responded it by contributing to the global trade through which it gained.
 China’s annual growth averaged 10% since 1970s due to staggering transformation from
agriculture to manufacturing (largely export based).
 But it is unlikely that same formula will be applicable to India.
 The world is seeing lackasidal growth and more of inward looking economic policies are
emerging. For the first time in decades, global trade growth is running lower than global
economic growth.
 Thus, there might not be anymore need of another export powerhouse in this period.
And hence, India may have to rely more on domestic demand.
Domestic demand has austere future

 Agriculture is a low-productivity sector, but it employs half the labour force. On the
other hand, sectors such as financial services are highly productive, but only employ a
little percentage of labour force.
 Over the last decade, labour has been exiting agriculture but it is only going to
construction and unregistered manufacturing, which are not noticeably better jobs.
 Also, service sector, where labour tends to be most productive, are not generating the
additional jobs the country needs.
Chance of change through e-commerce

 The internet revolution has the potential to help India generate more jobs.
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 Recently, one survey mentioned that 88% of Indians had access to mobile phones and
34.8% had access to internet.
 Thus, India could cope with China in ecommerce as it is lagging only 7 years behind it in
terms of internet penetration and online purchases.
 Comparison with China is important because of the structural similarities with India.
China’s lack of organised retail was overcome by e-commerce which then led to its
increased adoption.
 India has around 10% of total retail activity as organised retail. Thus, it needs to put in
more efforts to increase its e-commerce activity.
 This will be supported with a young population which is more open to technology, spurt
in Internet-enabled mobile telephony, decreasing cost of smartphones and the ongoing
digital payments revolution due to demonetisation.
 The e-commerce jobs are also touted as more productive as the employment will be
generated in retail as well as transport services which are more productive than
currently generated jobs in construction.
E-commerce: will it match the numbers?

 Currently, the local media has multiple stories of failing e-commerce ventures. And this
is exactly why it needs to be put in context.
 Globally, a large majority of e-commerce businesses fail, and “creative destruction” is a
vital part of that ecosystem because those that succeed become exceptionally large,
often changing consumption patterns in economies.
 In terms of job creation, it is estimated that higher wages (on the back of rising
economic growth) and the convenience of buying online can increase online sales 20-
fold over the next decade.
 There will be jobs created through online sales in terms of average transaction value,
parcels delivered per day, customer care per order and IT support ratios.
 Data suggest that e-commerce could create 20 million “gross” jobs at different skill
levels—logistics and delivery (70%), and customer care, IT and management (30%).
 No doubt, there will be loss of jobs in brick-and-mortar businesses. But, if compared
‘with’ and ‘without’ e-commerce scenario, it is estimated that e-commerce could create
12 million net new jobs. In other way, for every job lost over the next decade, 2.5 jobs
will be created.
 It is often argued that huge economies of scale require less labour inputs and thus e-
commerce will not create jobs and is bad for growth. But this is incorrect as estimates
show that the rise in consumption due to the convenience factor of buying online can in
itself enlarge the transactions which will require larger labour force to serve.
 Also, currently e-commerce is focused in urban areas. When the rural areas will get
accustomed to it, it will bring in huge benefits to countryside as well as economy.
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 Rural areas will have village merchants who will take care of that side of demands and
thereby create livelihood opportunities. Together with it, there will be reduced pressure
on crowded cities due to scattering of markets.
Conclusion
E-commerce has slowly picked up in India and is expected to get necessary push post
demonetisation. But for that, building the physical and digital infrastructure is a necessary
condition to spread and raise wages that boost consumption demand.
Simultaneously, Make in India should also succeed as e-commerce will grow with decreased
trade deficit and macro instability.
Together with it, now there is a need for health and education service providers who can
cater to mass’s demand on click of mouse. These sectors together will bring in more job
opportunities in India from India.

 Though India is suffering from ‘jobless growth’, there are opportunities hidden beneath
the internet revolution to create jobs. Discuss in detail.
 India’s future lies in internet. Justify your answers by giving suitable examples.
TOPIC:
General Studies 2
 Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to
Health, Education, Human Resources.
General Studies 1
 Social empowerment
 population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues
Hospital over Home- Janani Suraksha Yojana
 The government has aimed at increasing institutional deliveries over the last decade.
This has changed the health-seeking behaviour of Indian women.
 Various schemes have been introduced by government to support women during
pregnancy and for some period thereafter. These include:
 Janani Surakhsha Yojana
 Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram
 Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS)
 Matritva Sahyog Yojana
 A study was conducted using data from two rounds of the India Human Development
Survey (IHDS)- 2004-05 and 2011-12. This IHDS data served two advantages:
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 Round 1 of IHDS was conducted in 2004-05 when the JSY was not in place and
round two was conducted six years after the launch, providing a before-after
scenario for comparison.
 IHDS is a longitudinal data set. It means that same households were interviewed
in both rounds, which allows to examine changes in maternal care patterns.
Janani Suraksha Yojana

 Janani Suraksha Yojana, a conditional cash transfer scheme- was launched in 2005 as
part of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to improve maternal and neonatal
health by promotion of institutional deliveries (childbirth in hospitals).
 The aim was to improve India’s infant and maternal mortality rates through institutional
deliveries.
 Under JSY, pregnant women choosing to deliver at the hospital and the health worker
who motivated her to take the decision get cash incentives- Rs.1,400 for the woman and
Rs.600 for the Accredited Social Health Activist in rural areas and Rs.1,000 and Rs.200
respectively in urban areas.
 The motto of cash incentive was to reduce financial barriers to accessing institutional
care for delivery.
Increased hospitalisation
 The researchers of the study ‘Health and Morbidity in India: 2004-2014’, based on
analysis of the 60th and 71st round of NSSO data, found a causal link between JSY and
increase in hospitalisation, even for non-childbirth-related ailments.
 While the fertility rates in Indian women have steadily declined from 2.88% in 2004 to
2.4% in 2014, JSY has impacted overall hospitalisation of women in India.
 It has led to 15% increase in institutional childbirth with a commensurate decline in
deliveries at home.
 Also, there is tremendous increase of 22% in deliveries in government hospitals. This is
due to 8% decline in childbirth at private hospitals and a 16% decline in childbirth at
home.
 The scheme has increased the probability of woman being hospitalised by 1.3% which
has resulted in 2% overall increase in hospitalisation of women in India.
 Though this increase might appear marginal but it is very significant as women in rural
India are known to delay in seeking health interventions.
Positive changes
 This scheme has led to enhancement in utilisation of health services among all groups
especially among the poorer and underserved sections in the rural areas.
 This has reduced prevalent disparities in maternal care.
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 Previous studies on JSY had shown reduction in maternal mortality rates. But there was
no evidence if it had reduced socio-economic inequalities, i.e. difference in access to
maternal care between individual people of higher or lower socioeconomic status.
 In the IHDS study, three key services of maternal care were used for the analysis:
1. Full antenatal care (full ANC)
2. Safe delivery
3. Postnatal care
Major findings
Services used
 Increase in utilisation of all three maternal healthcare services between the two rounds
was remarkably higher among illiterate or less educated and poor women.
 This shows the effect of JSY scheme where women with little or no education were
motivated to utilise maternal health care services.
Reduced disparities
 The usage of all three maternal healthcare services by the OBC, Dalit, Adivasi and
muslim women increased between the surveys.
 There was narrowing of gap between the less educated and more educated women and
between the poorer and richer women.
 It was also found that women in their early twenties were more likely to avail of each of
the three maternal health care services as compared to their older women.
 Also, the incidence of women availing maternal healthcare services decreases with the
increase in the number of children they have delivered.
Inequality persists
 There still exists inequality in the access to maternal care.
 Though there is gap in access to healthcare between the marginalised group of women
and those who are financially better-off, it has declined since the advent of the JSY
program.
 There is still high incidence of maternal mortality rate in India. As per the latest series on
maternal health, India accounted for 15% of the total maternal deaths in the world in
2015 — second only to Nigeria — with 45,000 women dying during pregnancy or
childbirth.
Support of other schemes
 Percentage of women reporting sick has also increased partially due to result of other
health insurance schemes like Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana.
 Having insurance is associated with a 17% increase in probability of being hospitalized in
a government facility and an 8% increase in the probability of hospitalization in a private
hospital.
Challenge to tackle
 Though the economic significance of 2% increase is little, it has to be understood that
JSY was not to increase overall hospitalisation. It was only to reduce maternal and infant
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mortality. But now it is seen that women are going for childbirth and are also coming in
for other ailments to the hospitals.
 This has however raised concerns about quality of care with increasing number of
caesarean sections and hospital-acquired infections.
 Increased hospitalisation for deliveries in public sector is an achievement. But this has
also increased the dangers of decreased health care quality. Here, the health outcomes
are not aligned with public health goals.

 What is Janani Suraksha Yojana? Examine the impact of the scheme on maternal and
neo-natal healthcare in India.
 What is the current healthcare scenario in rural areas? Identify challenges faced by
government and civil society in creating a healthy rural society.
TOPIC:
General Studies 1
 Population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization,
their problems and their remedies.
General Studies 2
India’s burgeoning cities and how to engender them
 Recently, representatives from 195 countries participated in the Habitat III Conference
and adopted the New Urban Agenda (NUA) on sustainable cities and human
settlements.
 This conference had particularly addressed the attention-deficit topic of gender
dimension in migration and urbanisation.
 This had come at a time when forced migration and expansive urbanisation have
become issues of growing global concern.
 Thus, it is an important step to address the need of gender inclusive urban planning as it
has been observed that cities were always designed for men. But, urban development is
a gender neutral domain.
New Urban Agenda

 It helps strategise the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by
“improving the spatial configuration of cities and human settlements in a gender
inclusive way and by recognising the crucial dimensions of women’s rights.”
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 It advocates participatory age- and gender-responsive approaches at all stages of the

urban-territorial policy and planning processes, including in conceptualization, design,
budgeting, implementation, and evaluation.
 Thus, gender equality has been placed high on the agenda in the urban development
context.
Urban challenges
 The global urban population has gone up to 54% today from 42% in 1990s.
 In India, around 800 million are expected to stay in urban areas by 2050.
 In urban migration, cities are perceived and experienced differently by men and women
and thus, gender plays a decisive role in experiencing vulnerabilities.
 Today, the Indian cities have experienced haphazard growth. It was expected that there
will be blurred lines between caste and religion in cities due to heterogeneous nature of
the cities. But such has been not the case so far.
 Spatial segregation by caste and religion is becoming increasingly visible in Indian cities.
Need of engendering the cities

Though the proportion of women in cities is increasing, the facilities and infrastructure for
them needs to cope up.
Male centric design

 The women does not choose public transport more often due to its poor conditions and
uncertain timings.
 Hence, they generally have to opt for more expensive and more time consuming for
safer mobility.
 The public toilet facilities in cities have been in grave conditions. It has been frequently
observed that women have to suffer in order to avail public toilet facilities which are
either unavailable or far away.
 For example, Mumbai has a population of 22 million but only one-third of the
approximately 11,000 pay-to-use public toilets are for women.
 Thus, there is critical need of gender mainstreaming in urban development wherein
cities respond equally to men and women.
Security
 Rapid urbanisation and urban migration has creating safety problems for women all over
the world.
 The cities have grown haphazardly and as a result, there fails to be a check on the city
activities.
 As a result, girls in cities have often encountered harassment leading to their reluctance
in going around the city, particularly at night.
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 Thus, there should be equal and safe access to public spaces wherein women can
without any fear for their safety can become a part of city.
Climate change
 Environmental change is touted as one of the reason for rural to urban migration as
people living in rural areas will suffer from decline in agricultural output and income and
thus migrate to cities.
 In this scenario, the women are again more affected than men as they tend to live in
slums and shanty spaces which is detrimental to health, children and employment
opportunities.
 Also, they might not be able to avail government welfare schemes which require
multiple documentation like proof of address, proof of identify etc.
 In such informal settlements, women face lot of problems due to inaccessibility to
subsidised food, housing, drinking water, sanitation as well as public health facilities,
education and banking services.
Immense opportunities
 Though women can be vulnerable to the negative impacts of unplanned urbanisation,
they also offer robust opportunities for overcoming existing inequalities.
 Cities provide greater independence, better opportunities and less rigidity in observing
social norms.
 Therefore, women’s right to cities, an enabling environment, and equal access to
opportunities within them must be prioritised by governments.
Conclusion
Women have been traditionally excluded from city development. In India, where the
representation of urban planners per 100,000 people is exceptionally low at just 0.23, the
need for women’s voices and representation in urban planning processes as well as in urban
local decision-making is even more pronounced. Thus, India needs to invest in gender-
sensitive policies, and participatory planning that considers the concerns of all marginalised
sections in urban spaces and the gender groups within them.
The NUA is a step in the right direction but it is not sufficient. It provides targets but not
concrete solutions to achieve them. Hence, ideally, the urban policy approach should be the
one that recognises gendered vulnerabilities, incorporates women’s equal right to safe
spaces, and makes use of their potential as change-makers. This will lead to sustainable and
inclusive development.

 What is gender sensitive planning? How can the Indian cities be made more gender
inclusive?
 Development should be engendered else it will be endangered. Comment (UPSC 2016)
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TOPIC:
General Studies 2
General Studies 3
life Achievements of Indians in science & technology
The idea of Digital Democracy
 The present government has shown one of the most digitally savvy administrative
functioning that India has had till date.
 The digital smarts and social media popularity of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet are
now being actively leveraged to establish a direct connect between the Government and
its citizens.
 If compared to Akbar’s modern day diwan-e-aam, parallels can be drawn where an
aggrieved citizen, however lowly he may be, can approach the government directly and
report the injustices.
 This is being made possible through the e-governance initiatives of the present NDA
government through digital connectivity.
 The examples are prompt replies from Union ministers of external affairs and railways to
consumer grievances with respect to their portfolios via their Twitter handles. Many
ministerial statements and policy decisions of the Centre are conveyed not just on the
PIB website, but also through ministerial Twitter handles.
 Also, if there are any sought of clarifications needed on dense policy subject, the
secretaries to government solve the concern.
What happens in a democracy?

 The democracy implies the limitation of state’s powers and evokes more of a bottom-up
process.
 In order to open way for a digital democracy, public action is necessary. The marketplace
is not always the best mechanism to ensure basic values. Technological changes are
ambivalent and may lead to different kinds of information society.
 It largely depends on how ICTs are applied and how public authorities are able to frame
their usage.
Propagating the idea of digital democracy
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The central government is actively involved in soliciting the citizen’s participation in

policymaking through three distinct digital initiatives.
Government updates
 If a citizen is keen to receive regular updates on what the Government is up to, the
government has provided for a My Government portal (https://www.mygov.in)
 This portal puts the subscriber on the mailing list to receive regular updates on new
announcements, participate in government surveys and discussion boards, and even
offer your services or suggestions to upcoming government projects or policy
announcements.
 The response to this initiative has been encouraging. The data shows that some 39 lakh
citizens were registered with the MyGov portal and had posted 35 lakh comments on
various discussions live on the site.
 The union budget 2017 ideas had received about 2500 suggestions. Revenue ideas for
the Indian Railways elicited 3,500 posts — ranging from fixing solar panels on the roofs
of trains to ferrying fruits and vegetables in AC coaches!
Instant grievance redressal

 There is a concerted push to transform the Twitter handles of different ministries into e-
Sewa or grievance redressal platforms for citizens.
 So, if a person faces any problem with any of public service and if the person has a
twitter handle, the complaint can be tweeted straight to the concerned ministry.
 Currently, ministries of railways, external affairs and communications are already on this
platform. Also, there are police forces of few states who use this platform for prompt
services.
Poll participation
 The government has now begun to regularly update its draft policies and made it public
to receive comments. This enhances public participation
 Along with it, polls and surveys are taken so as to immediately identify people’s first
reaction to administrative decisions taken.
 For example, the controversial demonetisation decision had generated a poll via
Narendra Modi app where 90% of the 5 lakh subscribers gave an enthusiastic thumbs-
up.
Thus, there are many such future prospects to scale up the scope of this government-citizen
interface to more areas of governance.
Power of the people

The digital outreach empowers citizens in three ways.
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1. It enhances the accountability of elected representatives. After casting one’s vote, one
need not be a passive spectator to the whims and fancies of the ruling regime until the
next election crops up.
2. It bypasses the army of bureaucrats that stands between the Government and citizen,
thereby reducing scope of corruption
3. People can express their views directly to the government via internet and need not
belong to a powerful lobby group or be a crony capitalist.
Challenge- the limited internet

 The most basic thing that has to be never forgotten is that the internet numbers do not
reflect the reactions of a common man.
 This is because the digital access is yet to be universalised in India where it is currently
available with elite few.
 As of June 2016, India was home to 35 crore internet subscribers (source: TRAI), with
nearly 18 crore of those subscribers still on narrowband.
 This can be very dodgy considering the fact that to post one’s thoughts on the MyGov
portal, one needs uninterrupted internet access.
 Broadband internet connections stood at 16 crore, just 12% of the Indian population.
Only a fraction of those users own a Twitter handle (about 3% of the population) or
Facebook account (about 15%)
 The numbers may sound encouraging but it is beaucse of double counting. Businesses
and well-to-do households in the metros own multiple internet connections and thus,
real numbers need to be arrived by removing duplication.
 A pew survey showed that internet usage in India varied widely based on age, gender
and income levels. About 22% of Indians use the net, but usage is much lower for
women (17%), people in the 35-plus age group (12%) and those in lower-income groups
(11%).
 Thus, given the cost of owning smartphone and available data packs, the % of
population that is constantly on the internet is very low.
Way forward
 Expansion of networks to reach underserved population
 Ensure affordable access
 Promote good governance by removing digital and policy level obstacles
 Create local content and capital, encourage local technical skills, support local
entrepreneurs and use local institutions to further democratic principles.
Conclusion
The government should identify the challenges and work upon multiple mega-projects to
make internet access more inclusive — from the rollout of pan-India optic fibre networks to
the opening of wifi hotspots at gram panchayats.
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A digital democracy is the future which will encourage literacy, freedom of communication
and environment of transparency and accountability.

 What is digital democracy? How is it significant for the development of democracy?
Critically analyse.

arising out of their design and implementation
Disruptive amendments to Prevention of Corruption Act
In news: Parliament is set to amend Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), 1988 which is not
considered to be healthy to stop the corrupt practices in government. Though
demonetisation was introduced as a step to wage a forefront war on black money but it is
not engaging into corruption which is the fountainhead of black money.
Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and amendments

 In 2013, the amendments to the PCA were first introduced in Rajya Sabha following
massive anti-corruption protests. The purpose was to tighten existing anti-corruption
legislation but it had worrisome provision.
 Following the UPA government, the NDA government further brought out additional
amendments in 2014 which demand introspection.
 A Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha, comprising members across the political
establishment, has already approved these changes. This means that the move enjoys
cross-party support, as in most instances where the political establishment protects
itself, in name of war against black money.
The flaws in the bill

 The bill dilutes and defeats the entire point of anti-corruption legislation in many ways.
 The bill proposes to narrow down the existing definition of corruption, increase the
burden of proof necessary for punishing the corrupt thereby making things more
difficult for whistle-blower and strengthen the shield available to officials accused of
corruption.
 The bill also has clauses that would protect politician-bureaucracy nexus from anti-
corruption probe.
Narrowing definition
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 In existing act, Section 13(1)(d) covers various indirect forms of corruption including the
obtaining of “any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage” by illegal gratification or by
“abusing his position as a public servant”.
 The present amendment removes this section and replaces it with shortened definition
of criminal misconduct by a public servant. It includes fraudulent misappropriation of
property under one’s control and intentional, illicit enrichment and possession of
disproportionate assets.
 In this new definition, any benefit that is not economic, that is indirect or that cannot be
proven to be intentional fraud will not be punished as corruption.
 However, the Law Commission which studied this proposed amendment rejected it and
proposed a widened definition: any “undue advantage” that results from “improper
performance of public function or activity” of a public servant should be punishable. Yet
the government and the Parliamentary Committee disregarded this suggestion.
 Importance of the section: it is a critical section which deals with corruption in high
places where typically no under-the-table transactions take place.
 A corrupt public servant usually receives illegal gratification in an extremely clandestine
manner such as off-shore transactions or non-monetary considerations such as a better
posting, post retirement benefits, etc.
 Major scams such as Bofors, 2G, commonwealth games scam, coal scam etc. had
become criminal offences because of this section only.
 This is the reason why a section of bureaucrats have demanded to remove the section
on the ground that it hinders fearless decision-making that may involve exercise of
discretion and bona fide errors.
 This cannot be termed true as a retired Cabinet Secretary, TSR Subramanium, known for
his integrity, has repeatedly said that the existing laws offer adequate protection to
honest officers where no officer is punished on basis of any bona fide difference or even
mistake unless it is a clear abuse of power leading to financial or other gains.
Give more proof

 Under the current bill, the possession of monetary resources or property
disproportionate to the public servant’s known sources of income is enough to prove
corruption.
 The “known sources of income” are limited only to those receipts which had been
“intimated in accordance with the provisions of any law, rules or orders for the time
being applicable to a public servant”.
 This provision was made in 1988 in order to cover an earlier loophole wherein many
accused persons would cite fresh sources of income at the stage of trial, resulting in
acquittal in a large number of disproportionate assets cases.
 But, the amendment bill makes it more difficult to prove someone guilty of
disproportionate assets as it asks for more proof. The prosecutor has to now prove that
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the disproportionate asset was acquired with the intention of the public servant to
enrich himself illicitly.
More risk for bribe giver

 Currently, if a person makes a statement during a corruption trial that he gave a bribe, it
would not be used to prosecute him for the offence of abetment of corruption.
 But the amendment bill omits this provision and proposes that bribe-taking and bribe-
giving will be equally punishable.
 This would surely deter bribe giver to appear as witnesses in cases against public
officials.
 Though it is right step in the direction of not giving the bribe-giver complete immunity,
but there should have been other way of solving it instead of removing the provision.
 The 2nd ARC had recommended a distinction between “coercive” and “collusive” bribing.
Those who are coerced into bribing but report it thereafter should be given some
protection. Also, there can be a seven-day window for declaration by the bribe-giver in
order to qualify for exemption.
 But such alternates were rejected and the final proposal included punishment for all and
thereby reduced chances of evidence against the bribe-taker.
Prosecution of corrupt
 Under the existing act, the government’s or higher officials’ sanction is required before
prosecution of any serving public servants. The idea was to protect honest public
officials from harassment, persecution and frivolous litigation.
 The proposed amendment bill extends this protection to retired public servants, if the
case pertains to the period when they were in office. This is a reasonable addition to
existing provision.
 But another additional provision says that if a private person approaches the
government for sanction to prosecute a public servant for corruption, he would now
need a court order to this effect.
 With this additional layer of protection, the victims of corruption and anti-corruption
activists would be discouraged to prosecute the corrupt civil servants.
A new provision
 The government has added a most diabolic provision, Section 17A that would bar
investigating agencies from even beginning an inquiry or investigating the offences
under this Act without prior approval.
 The government had proposed that such sanction would have to be obtained from a
Lokayukta or Lokpal. But the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha shifted the power to give
this sanction to an “authority competent to remove” the person from office.
 This means that the political masters will decide whether they wish to allow a corruption
inquiry against any government employee or not.
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 This is detrimental to fight against corruption. If someone wishes to harass an innocent

officer without any credible evidence of corruption, the government can refuse to give
sanction for prosecution. But there is no need for sanction before an inquiry. If this
happens, there is no inquiry, thus no credible evidence,
Conclusion
The bureaucracy needs to be made accountable for its decisions and actions. Hence, the
amendments to Prevention of Corruption Act needs a relook and open for public opinion.
The Whistleblower Protection Act’s provision should also be in alignment with the
Prevention of Corruption Act. Reintroduction of grievance redressal bill and
operationalisation of Lokpal Act along with these two form the necessary anti-corruption
statutory framework.

 Critically analyse the provision of prevention of corrupt act.
 India has extensive laws in place to tackle corruption but its implementation lacks teeth.
Do you agree? Examine.

Forests Rights Act- Stop the dilution of rights
In 2006, the historic Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of
Forest Rights) Act was passed. The conception and passage was the result of the decades of
struggles and sacrifices of millions of tribals across India, of their organisations, of numerous
activists and intellectuals working on tribal issues.
Watering down
 During the colonial times, the colonial masters had turned tribal owners of the forests
and its resources into encroachers.
 Even before the Forest Rights Act was passed, there were successful attempts in diluting
some important recommendations of the Parliamentary Select Committee on
community forest rights, access to minor forest produce etc.
 These were done by real encroachers and plunderers of the forests, the mining
companies, the private power sector companies, those involved in irrigation projects,
the timber and paper industries and the forest resort tourist industry.
 The clause that Non-tribal Traditional Forest Dwellers would have to show evidence of
their occupation of the land for 75 years virtually negated the inclusion of these largely
poorer sections in the law.
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Amending the bill

Few amendments which are being proposed to weaken the Act
Series of legislation
 Various legislations were passed which undermined the rights and protections given to
tribals in the FRA
 Amendments to Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, the
Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act and a host of amendments to the Rules to the FRA
weakened the implementation of FRA.
 It also included the condition of “free informed consent” from gram sabhas for any
government plans to remove tribals from the forests and for the resettlement or
rehabilitation package. In a start, the requirement of public hearings and gram sabha
consent has been done away with for mid-sized coal mines.
 Many states are working against the spirit of FRA.
 In Andhra Pradesh, the government has issued orders to subvert FRA
 In Telangana, the government has illegalised traditional methods of forest land
cultivation.
 In Jharkhand, government has brought amendments to the Chotanagpur and
Santhal Pargana Tenancy Acts which eliminate rights of gram sabhas and permit
tribal land to be taken over by corporates, real estate players, private
educational and medical institutions in the name of development, without tribal
consent.
 In Maharashtra, the government has issued a notification of “Village Rules”
which gives all rights of forest management to government-promoted
committees as opposed to the gram sabha.
Policy wars
 For ‘ease of doing’ business, the government policy translates into clearing all private
sector-sponsored projects in tribal-inhabited forest areas.
 The National Board for Wildlife, with the Prime Minister as Chairperson, was
reconstituted, slashing the number of independent experts from 15 members to three.
This Board cleared 33 out of 41 proposals diverting over 7,000 hectares of forest land in
2014 itself.
 In almost all these projects, the affected tribal families have not yet received their pattas
(land ownership documents), one of the conditions set by the FRA.
 Thus, this wilful disregard and blatant violation of the legal protections given to tribals
has become the cornerstone of the policy.
Implementation reality
 There is very less or no actual implementation happening on ground.
 Neither individual pattas nor pattas for community forest resources are being given.
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 The Ministry of Environment and Forests is rejecting such claims. According to one
analysis, between May 2015 and April 2016, eight out of every 10 claims were rejected.
 MoTA, the nodal ministry for FRA and the spokesperson for Adivasi interests, is yet to
effectively address the hollowing out of this crucial law.
Role of judiciary
 The role of judiciary is very important. It gave tribals hope through the Samata judgment
and the historic Niyamgiri judgment.
 Recently, in a writ petition by filed by Wildlife Trust of India and others, the court issued
notice to all State governments to “file an affidavit giving data regarding the number of
claims rejected within the territory of the State and the extent of land over which such
claims were made and rejected and the consequent action taken up by the State after
rejection of the claims”.
Way forward
 The government should not view FRA as a roadblock to development but as a means to
achieve a more just, democratic and ecologically informed conversation around mining.
 It has to admit that the knowledge base of local communities, which interact most
intimately with the forests, is of value in decision-making.
 The 2013 SC order observed: “…we have realised that forests have the best chance to
survive if communities participate in their conservation and regeneration.”
 The FRA mandated Gram Sabhas, if nurtured seriously as an institution of local
governance, they can be a vital mechanism to outline the full costs and gains of mining,
and more crucially, how these get distributed.
 Till 1985, the department of “Tribal Affairs” was under the Home Ministry. Tribal rights
and struggles for justice were viewed as a “law and order issue, always a problem”.
Hence, in these forthcoming period, this retrograde approach should not be resurrected.
IASbaba’s views
Though are inadequacies in the Bill, the Forest Rights Act is a powerful instrument to protect
the rights of tribal communities. It stops the private companies and mining firms to invade
into the tribal properties and plunder India’s mineral resources.
An attempt to dilute the laws passed by Parliament and to create laws that allow for easier
acquisition of land for various activities seem to be driven by convenience notwithstanding
the fact that conflicts over land forcibly acquired and pending claims are a reality and are
not likely to disappear even if attempts are made to dilute existing laws.
Hence, a consensual approach should be followed by the departments (Tribal and
Environment) to uphold the rights of the tribals and communities.
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 What are the problems faced in successful implementation of Forest Rights Act, 2006?
Examine.
 Forest Rights Act is game changer in life of tribals and their development prospects if
implemented as envisaged. Comment.

Need for Reforms in the Education Policy
Introduction- Education and Economy

With half of the term of the present government over, amongst all policy areas the most
important area that needs all the focus and reforms is India’s education policy.
Indian economy faces two challenges in the form of a deteriorating environment and
employment especially underemployment. The factors that are responsible for the slow
growth of productive jobs include poor infrastructure, poor governance, anti employment
bias in the economic policies and most importantly a failed education policy.
India and the World

On an international comparison, India lags behind various countries in different areas. The
same has been illustrated below:
 5% of India’s workforce has had any skill training and only 2% have any formal skill
certification in comparison to over 70% in European countries and 80% to 90% in East
Asian countries.
 In 2012, over 26% of India’s population was still illiterate compared to 5% in South
Africa, 4% in China.
 50% of India’s population has received only primary education or less, compared to 24%
in South Africa and 38% in China.
 As per the 2015 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), about 50% of class V students
could not read a simple text meant for class II students and also could not could not do a
simple arithmetic meant for class II students.
India has also performed very poorly in other international reports and surveys such as the
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducted by Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Reasons for ineffective education policy of India:

 Education policy in India is focused on inputs rather than learning outcomes.
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 Education policy has a strong elitist bias in favour of higher education as opposed to
primary or secondary education.
 The public expenditure by India on tertiary education is way higher than the expenditure
on primary education. This is against the trend as observed in countries across the
world.
 The lack of incentives for teachers to enhance their performance level.
 Inadequate performance appraisal methods to evaluate the performance of teachers.
There are no effective checks and balances to act as benchmarks for their performance
measurement.
 Teachers in government schools in India have very low accountability to students, their
parents and the society.
 Other teacher related problems include:
 High absenteeism
 Involvement in non-teaching activities.
 Poorly qualified teachers.
 Inadequate compensation to teachers.
Consequences of ineffective education policy of India:

 Due to the poor education profile of the presently underemployed workers, they are
able to get employment in low- or medium-skill jobs rather than the organised sector.
 Inefficient education system in India has led to lack of basic skill training which leads to
low productivity
 Poor human resource development leads to poor economic growth.
 Lack of proper education at the basic level also leads to increase in crimes and social
evils.
 The focus on theoretical learning at the primary level makes students dependent on rote
learning. This leads to lack of practical knowledge.
Suggestions for Reforms in the Education Policy in India

India can reform it’s education policy rapidly if it undertakes the following measures:
 Introducing learning through activity and reduce rote learning.
 Implement a child friendly pedagogy.
 Introduce various reform measures as provided for in the Right To Education Act to
ensure adequate emphasis on primary education.
 Implementation of strict performance evaluation standards for teachers.
 Qualitative and regular training and testing techniques for teachers.
 Performance based compensation for teachers along with regular incentivization for
quality performance.
 More diversion of funds by the government towards policies focusing on primary
education.
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Conclusion
Education holds both intrinsic and instrumental value. The instrumental value lies in the
utilization of education in obtaining quality employment and skill-set. The intrinsic value, on
the other hand, lies in education assisting the citizens in having a fulfilling life and
participating in the functioning of robust democracy. Along with policies such as Pradhan
Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) and National Skill Development Mission (NSDM), the
government needs to ensure that it devotes sufficient focus and resources, both financial
and human, towards basic and primary education.
These reforms in the primary education system will not only go a long way in improving the
social indicators of the country but also improve it standing in the global economy.
Additionally, they will help India in ensuring that the demography proves to be a dividend
rather than a burden.
Connecting the dots

 Skill development, higher education and primary education are the three sides of the
triangle of human resource development. Comment. Also highlight the challenges and
the reforms needed in Indian education policy with respect to primary education.

 Parliament and State Legislatures - structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers
& privileges and issues arising out of these.
The Parliament deadlock- Not the right way
Parliament makes laws, ensures accountability of the government and scrutinises legislation
through the committee system. But above all, Parliament provides a forum and establishes
procedures for reflection on, and critical engagement with, what has been done, and what
needs to be done in the light of popular expectations.
However, Parliament has been often reduced to a medium wherein important discussion are
affected- delayed or discarded through disruptions, political theatrics rule over
parliamentary etiquettes or petty topics gain momentum, thereby allotting less time for
meaningful and critical issues.
Today’s Parliament
 Most Indians have found Parliament irrelevant to the needs of the day.
 The Parliament meets and disburses. But there is hardly any impact of these
meetings/non-meetings on the democratic discourse in the country.
 The media highlights the wastage of time and taxpayer’s money.
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 Even the analysts regret that widening of the social base of the body has not resulted in
meaningful legislation or responsible legislators.
Thus, the body which houses the representatives of 1.2 billion people, has not been able to
represent the aspirations of the citizens and symbolically failed to enhance the relationship
between the citizen and the state, which a representative democracy is expected to do.
Statistics that shame

 Data with Indian think tank PRS Legislative shows that as of December 14, 2016, the Lok
Sabha had made 14% progress during the Winter Session, while it was 20% in Rajya
Sabha.
 It also noted that in past 21 sittings, while the Lok Sabha had dedicated 4.3 hours on
non-legislative issues, the Rajya Sabha had spent 11.8 hours.
 The Rajya Sabha committed zero hours on questions, while the Lok Sabha spent 5.1
hours.
 The deadlock created by Opposition and the ruling government has resulted in
considerable losses as whenever a Parliamentary session is disrupted, it is estimated to
cost Rs 2 crore per day.
Reasons for the dysfunctional Parliament

 The Opposition focusses on denigrating the government rather than engaging with
policies.
 Similarly, the government hardly bothers to reply and instead engage in attacks and
counter-attacks, sometimes personal, with the opposition.
 Instead of maintaining the institution’s decorum and dignity through a calm, reflective
and reasoned debate, the members have been recently observed to resort to drama and
actions on the floor of house.
Impact of winter session washout

 The winter session of Parliament was among the most unproductive in 15 years.
 Of the eight Bills introduced in this session, only two were passed. Such was the
indifference to discuss matters of vital public interest that a critical legislation such as
the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed within an hour of it being
introduced.
 The opposition, which is people’s watchdog in Parliament, was apparently content that
only two of the total 330 listed questions in the Rajya Sabha were answered orally.
 It lost the chance to pass bills critical to the April 1, 2017, deadline for the rollout of the
Goods and Services Tax. It also failed to end the session on a note of federal cooperation
to set up the shift to Budget day to February 1 from next year.
 Precious time, money and business was lost in the Lok Sabha as the Government failed
to organise a discussion around Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sudden demonetisation
decision.
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 The leader of the government chose to speak only where the on-the-spot debate was
ruled out, such as rallies and radio show.
 This presents a stark reality that the government was not seemingly serious about
upholding the dignity of the house by engaging in frequent disruptions in discussions
and transaction of business.
 The opposition is also not totally immune to blame. It earlier insisted on adjournment
and a debate with voting and then, as the session neared to a close, agreed to speak
under any rule.
 It is both the responsibility of the treasury and the opposition to see that the house runs
reasonably in each session and the interest of the Parliament is safeguarded.
 If this fails to take place, the political class can hardly complain of the people losing
confidence in the institution of Parliament, if it is not allowed to discharge its
Constitutional duties.
Need of a Parliament
 Civil society in India has a large number of organisations- the media, social associations,
neighbourhood groups, all kinds of professional lobbies, non-governmental and non-
profit organisations, philanthropic bodies, social and political movements and trade
unions where each claim to represent the interest of their members.
 But political representatives are considered more influential as
 They represent all the members of a territorially delimited constituency, as
opposed to say trade unions.
 They are accountable to their constituents via the route of election.
 The party representative acquires legitimacy by the fact that she has been
elected by the people whose interests she is charged with representing and
furthering.
 Though citizen is considered primary unit of political society, the definition of
representative is derivative.
 Voters authorise representatives to speak and act on their behalf. However, the
representatives represent their constituency where it has to ensure that the opinions,
interests and needs of its constituents are adequately, competently and effectively
represented in forums of decision-making.
 They have to perform their functions which include assisting in the production of
appropriate policies.
 Thus, a representative democracy will not work successfully if the relation between
state and citizen is not working as desired in a democracy.
Will democracy lose relevance in India?

 Fortunately for the Indian political class, the generalised loss of confidence in
representative institutions has not led to disenchantment with democracy with the
citizens.
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 Surveys show that Indians value democracy as it is this form of government which
enables them to realise the primordial desire of each human being to be treated as an
equal, at least during election time.
 The elections are marked by high voter turnouts where voters exercise freedom of
choice and elect and dismiss governments in often unpredictable ways.
 The making of the Indian constitution reflects the faith the Constituent Assembly had
put in Indian citizens where adult suffrage was adopted, for both men and women, since
its enactment.
IASbaba’s views
An unproductive Parliamentary session is reflection of the institutional damage inflicted
upon country’s democratic values and principles.
If the President of India, Vice-President of India and a veteran Parliamentarian urge the
members to let the houses function, it reminds the fact that all sections of house need to
introspect.
As India’s first PM rightly embossed it in the ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech: “Freedom and
power bring responsibility. That responsibility rests upon this assembly, a sovereign body
representing the sovereign people of India”.

 Critically examine India’s tryst with representative democracy as the most desired
form of government.
 Parliamentary logjams reflect India’s political class as immature. Comment.

 Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States
and the performance of these schemes
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana – Mid Term Appraisal
Features of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was launched by the government in January
2016 to replace the existing two crop insurance schemes in India, National Agricultural
Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and Modified NAIS. PMFBY was launched with the following
features:
 The scheme covers kharif, rabi crops and commercial and horticultural crops as well.
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 The premium charged for kharif crops would be up to 2% of the sum insured and for rabi
crops it would be up to 1.5% of the sum assured.
 For annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium would be 5 per cent.
 To provide insurance to the farmers at a subsidized rate of premium, the remaining
share will be borne equally by the central and respective state governments.
 This scheme will cover post-harvest losses also and provide farm level assessment for
localised calamities including hailstorms, unseasonal rains, landslides and inundation.
 To fasten the process of claims, the scheme proposes mandatory use of remote sensing,
smart phones and drones for quick damage assessment.
Problems with NAIS and MNAIS
The NAIS and the MNAIS were not serving the farmers’ interests well and suffered from
following lacunae:
 The sum insured under MNAIS, particularly for risky crops and districts, was meagre and
was based either on the quantum of crop loans or on the capping of the sum insured.
 The crop damage assessment method based on crop cutting experiments was very slow
and time-consuming.
 The time taken for compensation to reach the farmers often ran into several months.
Improvements via PMFBY

To overcome the problems and the weaknesses of the NAIS and MNAIS, the government
decided to incorporate following essential elements in the new scheme:
 A technical committee was proposed to be set up in each district to decide the scale of
finance for the sum insured.
 The premiums are to be decided on an actuarial basis which would give credibility to the
process of setting premiums.
 Bids are invited from public and private insurance companies to decide the premiums,
thus adding an element of competition which would work in the favour of the farmers.
 The farmers were required to pay the premiums at a subsidized rate and rest is paid by
the government as mentioned above.
 Use of technology such as smart phones, GPS, drones and satellites to ensure accuracy,
transparency, and faster assessment of damages and settling claims.
Impact of PMFBY
To know the impact and the results achieved due to the introduction of this scheme, it is
essential to know a few numbers in comparison to the erstwhile insurance schemes
performance in Kharif 2013 and Kharif 2015.
 Farmers Insured
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The number of farmers insured under the PMFBY rose by 193% over Kharif 2013 and by
0% over Kharif 2015. The number of non-loanee farmers also increased by more than six
times.
 Area Covered
The area insured also increased from 16.5 million hectares (mha) in kharif 2013 and 27.2
mha in kharif 2015 to 37.5 mha under PMFBY.
 Sum Insured
The sum insured has witnessed a huge rise and has gone up from Rs 34,749 crores in
kharif 2013 to Rs 60,773 crores in kharif 2015, and now to Rs 1,08,055 crores under
PMFBY.
Challenges faced by PMFBY

PMFBY has also had its own share of challenges and shortcomings in terms of
implementation. These need to be ironed out to ensure that the scheme serves the farmers
well and at a lower cost. Few of the problems faced by PMFBY have been:
 This scheme has witnessed an increase in the actuarial premium, instead of coming
down with the increasing scale of coverage. A major reason for this is high price charged
by various insurance companies to increase their profits. The competition in the
upcoming seasons will reduce this rate of premium and reduce cost to the government.
 Areas in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam which faced floods and subsequent loss
to farmers saw inspections being done by human eye.
 Drones were not employed and smart phones which had to be issued to field officials, as
per guidelines, were also not issued.
 States failed to pay premiums to companies in advance in many cases.
 There has also been a delay in compensating the farmers.
 The scheme does not cover the risks and losses inflicted by wild animals like elephants
and wild boars which is a major problem in certain states.
Conclusion
PMFBY has a lot of potential to tackle the impact of vagaries of nature on Indian agriculture.
At the rate at which it is increasing the coverage and the scope India may soon have half of
its cropped area insured within three to five years. The subsidized premium for farmers is a
big boost and will reduce farmer distress as well, although the scheme will increase the cost
to the government.
Success of PMFBY depends on its sincere implementation and overcoming certain
traditional problems faced by Indian agriculture such as poor land records, flawed land titles
and corruption.
Connecting the dots

 Critically analyse the provisions of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.
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 Discuss the need for the government to introduce Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
even though various agriculture insurance schemes such as NAIS, MNAIS and Weather
Based Crop Insurance Scheme were already in operation.

Bottlenecks in Policy Implementation and Formulation - Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

(WASH)
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Water, sanitation and hygiene are sectors which are taking a centre stage in terms of policy
formulation in most of the emerging and developing countries. With the shift in approach
towards sustainable development, the Sustainable Development Goals also lay alot of
emphasis on WASH. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is an example of the growing importance
of these facilities.
However, still there is a huge imbalance in the access to WASH services across different
segments of the population. In India alone, 128 million lack safe water services and about
840 million people don’t have sanitation services
Policy Analysis
The analysis of policies formulated by the Central and State Government has to be done on
the basis of the robustness of WASH policies. The assessment of robustness was based on
the comprehensiveness of the policy document. The comprehensiveness in turn will be
measured by the following four parameters:
 The beneficiary segments;
 Barriers faced by the different segments;
 Strategies that would be used to improve outcomes; and
 The type of outcomes, namely, adequacy, accessibility, affordability, and quality and
safety.
The robustness of the policy can be classified as high, moderate, or low depending on how
many of the above four parameters have been clearly addressed in the policy. The better
the inclusion and the addressing of these parameters, higher will be the effectiveness of
these policies in improving WASH outcomes.
National and State policies
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The various sectors covered under WASH are concurrent subjects and hence policies have
been formulated by both, the Central government and respective State governments. On
comparison and appraisal of these policies, it was found that WASH policies formulated by
State governments have low robustness as compared to that of national policies even
though the state policies are closer to the site of implementation. The capacity for
policymaking of State governments thus needs to be further strengthened.
On an international comparison with WASH policies in 10 other developing countries within

Asia and Africa, it was observed that policy robustness of WASH policies from India was
lower than those of the other countries. There is a large scope for improvement in policy
robustness for India. In terms of numbers, only 22 per cent of the WASH policies from India
could be classified as highly robust, as compared to the 75 per cent number of the other
developing countries.
To ensure effective implementation of policies and get the best results, there should be a
synchronisation of beneficiary segments, barriers, strategies, and outcomes.
Beneficiary Identification
Proper identification of the beneficiaries in a policy is a key component for the success of a
policy. Accurate beneficiary identification is also helpful in achieving the target of universal
coverage for various policies.
The needs and barriers for various segments of the population differ and consequently the
strategies need to be customised accordingly. Policymakers need to move away from a “one
size fits all” approach to a more beneficiary-centric approach.
Approach to Beneficiary Identification

A traditional approach followed to classify the beneficiaries has been on the basis of
geographical and social context (GSS). In this method, the population is divided as rural,
urban, low income and so on. Further, a new approach being followed is the segregation of
beneficiaries on the basis of the human life cycle (LCS). Beneficiaries are segmented as
children, adolescents, adults, senior citizens, and so on.
When compared for robustness for both the GSS and LCS segments, policies showed a
higher degree of robustness for GSS segments. Certain sections favour adoption of LCS for
improving the access to WASH services. However, the Indian policy engine seems to be
more attuned to the GSS framework. Hence, to achieve our targets, our policies should
combine both the LCS and GSS approaches, rather than restricting to the traditional GSS
approach.
Identification of Barriers
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Among the four parameters essential for policy robustness, identification of barriers has
been a major obstacle for a majority of the policies.
Just 11 per cent of the policies considered for appraisal had identified the barriers for the
different segments. The robustness of policies can be enhanced if more and more policies
can focus on identifying the barriers faced by the different segments in accessing WASH
services. Better identification of barriers would also have a positive impact on subsequent
downstream components such as formulation of strategies and outcomes.
Way Forward
Policies provide direction to the steering hand and help to keep them on course. A more
robust policy would help in achieving better outcomes from WASH projects and
programmes. The way forward should include the following elements:
 WASH policies in India definitely need a robustness enhancement.
 Policy formulation at the State level should be strengthened.
 Emerging contemporary approaches such as LCS should be introduced in addition to the
traditional GSS approaches.
 Barriers that come in the way of access to WASH services should be given more
importance than they usually are.
Connecting the dots

 What is a bigger challenge in terms of policy for India - policy paralysis or the policy
implementation? Discuss the same with respect to policies introduced by India in areas
of water, sanitation, hygiene and waste management. Also provide suggestions to
overcome the challenges faced.
TOPIC:
General Studies 2
General Studies 1
Right of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2016- An overview
 The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2016 which replaces the Persons with
Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995,
has been brought in to comply with the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with
Disabilities, which India signed in 2007.
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 The government has brought in amendments to Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill,
2014 where the draft legislation is based on the 2010 report of the Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment’s expert Sudha Kaul Committee.
 The 2011 Census put the number of disabled in India at 2.68 crore which is 2.21% of the
population. With the passing of the Bill, the official count of disabled in India is set to
rise to about 70-100 million.
 The Bill makes a larger number of people eligible for rights and entitlements by reason
of their disability, for welfare schemes and reservations in government jobs and
education.
Key provisions of the bill

Number of disabilities increased
 The 1995 Act recognised 7 disabilities — blindness, low vision, leprosy-cured, hearing
impairment, locomotor disability, mental retardation and mental illness.
 The 2014 Bill expanded the definition of disability to cover 19 conditions, including
cerebral palsy, haemophilia, multiple sclerosis, autism and thalassaemia among others.
 The Bill also allowed the central government to notify any other condition as a disability.
 The amended version recognises two other disabilities — resulting from acid attacks and
Parkinson’s Disease — taking the number of recognised conditions to 21.
Disability certificate
 A disability certificate is a basic document for any entitlement. Even for registering a
complaint under the Persons with Disabilities Act, a person requires a disability
certificate.
 The 2015-16 annual report of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with
Disabilities reveals that only 49.5% of the disabled population identified by the 2011
census, have been issued certificates as of August 31, 2015.
 The issuance of disability certificate is a major issue for the vast majority of the disabled
people.
 The certificate issued under current law will be valid throughout the country, which was
not the case earlier.
Penal provisions
 The 1995 act had no penal provisions. The 2014 version made violation of any provision
of the Act punishable with a jail term of up to 6 months, and/or a fine of Rs 10,000. And
subsequent rise in fines if continued with violation of act.
 The present bill entirely removes the jail term and includes a fine of up to Rs 10,000 for
the first violation and not ‘less than fifty thousand rupees but which may extend to five
lakh’ for subsequent contraventions.
Employment
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 The 1995 law had 3% reservation for the disabled in higher education institutions and
government jobs — 1% each for physically, hearing and visually impaired persons.
 The 2014 Bill raised the ceiling to 5%, adding 1% each for mental illnesses and multiple
disabilities.
 Now, the new bill has reduced reservation in employment to 4% from 5%.
 This has raised some concerns as a similar provision in the 1995 Act was misinterpreted
by governments to restrict the quota to identified posts only, forcing the Supreme Court
to intervene.
 However, the government has assured that no difficulties shall be encountered by
persons with disabilities due to it.
Increased scope
 The amendments include private firms in the definition of ‘establishments’, which
previously referred to only government bodies.
 All such establishments have to ensure that persons with disabilities are provided with
barrier-free access in buildings, transport systems and all kinds of public infrastructure,
and are not discriminated against in matters of employment.
Others
 Two types of guardianship will become available to mentally-ill persons. One will involve
a guardian taking decisions jointly with the disabled person and the other, a guardian
taking decisions on behalf of the mentally ill person without consulting him or her.
Certain concerns
 The new bill removes the provision in the 2014 Bill for strong National and State
Commissions for Persons with Disabilities, with powers on a par with a civil court.
Instead, they will continue with the status quo of having only a Chief Commissioner with
far fewer powers.
 In the past, several favourable orders given by the Chief Commissioner have been
quashed by the courts on the ground that the Commissioner has no powers and is only a
quasi-judicial body.
 The bill fails to specify the degree of disability for thalassaemia, learning disabilities or
autism in the recognised wider scope of disabilities.
 The new bill defines discrimination as “any distinction, exclusion, restriction on the basis
of disability” which impairs or nullifies the exercise on an equal basis of rights in the
“political, social, cultural, civil or any other field”.
 However, it has been also added that it shall overlook such discrimination if “it is shown
that the impugned act or omission is a proportionate means of achieving legitimate
aim”.
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 This provision has in the past led to many problems for the disabled people wherein it
might give unfettered power to the implementing agencies to discriminate against
persons with disabilities, on the pretext of serving a “legitimate aim”.
Conclusion
Despite its inadequacies, the current legislation is a big advance over the 1995 Act and
brings in the rights based perspective.
However, as the word goes, earnest implementation of the policy and adherence to
provisions is the key to its success.

 What are the key provisions of recently passed disability bill? Discuss the significance
and drawbacks pertaining the bill.
 Will the ‘Divyangs’ be benefited by the new ‘Rights of people with disabilities Act’?
Analyse.

FCRA: Time to go?
In news: In early November, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs rejected the licence renewal
applications of 25 non-governmental organisations (NGO0) under the Foreign Contribution
(Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA), which means that these NGOs can no longer receive funds
from foreign donors.
What is FCRA?
 Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 repeals and replaces Foreign Contribution
(regulation) Act, 1976
 It regulates the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality
by certain individuals or associations.
 It prohibits acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for
any activities detrimental to the national interest.
 The FCRA also prohibits acceptance of foreign funding by candidate for election,
government employees and servants, judges, MPs and MLAs, political parties,
correspondent-cartoonist-editor-columnist-owner-printer-publisher of registered
newspaper etc.
Why FCRA
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 The Foreign Contribution (regulation) Act, 1976 was brought into force by Indira Gandhi-
led government during the Emergency which prohibited electoral candidates, political
parties, judges, MPs and even cartoonists from accepting foreign contributions.
 The intension was to clamp down on political dissent with the justification that the law is
to curb foreign interference in domestic politics.
 This was the Cold War era, when both the Soviets and the Americans interfered in the
internal affairs of post-colonial nations to secure their strategic interests.
 Thus FCRA was to prevent parties from accepting contributions from foreign sources and
stoking domestic turbulence with help of ‘foreign hands’.
 With the 1991 reforms, the Indian state had no problem accepting contributions from
foreign donors such as the World Bank or IMF. This was followed by Indian businesses
and political parties who were also wooing foreign investment, despite the fact that
FCRA 1976 prohibited political parties from accepting money from ‘foreign sources’.
The new FCRA

FCRA 2010 which replaced FCRA 1976 was more draconian and stringent version.
1. Under FCRA 1976, FCRA registration was permanent but under 2010 law, it expired after
five years and had to be renewed afresh. This gave a state an invisible whip with which it
can bring errant ‘organisations’, in its opinion, to heel.
In early 2016, more than 11000 NGOs lost their FCRA licences because they failed to
renew their license.
Even NHRC has issued a notice to the Home Ministry stating that FCRA licence non-
renewal provision is neither legal nor objective and thus it is impinging on the rights of
the human rights defenders in access to funding, including foreign funding.
2. The new law has put restrictions (50%) on the proportion of foreign funds that could be
used for administrative expenses. This means that the government was in control how a
civil society organisation functions (spends the money).
3. The FCRA 1976 primarily aimed at political parties but FCRA 2010 includes
“organisations of a political nature”. The FCRA rules, 2011 has helped the government to
target NGOs, especially those working on governance accountability.
The list includes —trade unions, students’ unions, workers’ unions, youth forums,
women’s wing of a political party, farmers’ organisations, youth organisations based on
caste, community, religion, language and “any organisation which habitually engages
itself in or employs common methods of political action like ‘bandh’ or ‘hartal’, ‘rasta
roko’, ‘rail roko’ or ‘jail bharo’ in support of public causes”.
The explicit double standards

 In 2014, Delhi HC had pulled up BJP and Congress for violating the FCRA by accepting
contributions from the Indian subsidiaries of the London-based multinational, Vedanta.
 As expected, the NDA government did not take action against BJP or Congress nor did
Congress as an opposition party protest against flouting of a judicial directive.
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 Instead, an amendment was brought in the law with retrospective effect, which
converted a “foreign company” into an “Indian company” by allowing all political parties
to accept funding from foreign companies, so long as it is channelled through an Indian
subsidiary.
 This comes forwards as a brazen attempt to legitimise FCRA violations of two parties.
Legal Analysis of FCRA, 2010 by UN Special Rapporteur

 In 2015, a UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of
Association undertook a legal analysis of the FCRA, 2010.
 Post the analysis, a note was submitted to the Indian government stating that FCRA
provisions and rules were not in conformity with international law, principles and
standards.
 India is a party to International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which has the right
to freedom of association. Here, access to resources, particularly foreign funding, is part
of the right to freedom of association.
 Though it is not an absolute right and is subject to restrictions which have to be precise.
The restrictions should be defined in a way that would enable the CSO to know in
advance whether its activities could reasonably be construed to be in violation of the
Act.
 However, the Indian government has invoked restrictions in name of “public interest”
and “economic interest” under FCRA. These terms are vague and give the state
excessive discretionary powers to apply the provision in an arbitrary manner.
Conclusion- Should FCRA go?

 The FCRA has to prevent the foreign funding from interfering into domestic politics or
from threatening the national interest. This doesn’t mean it has to harass the other
NGOs. If FCRA shall be arbitrary in nature, then it is better if it is repealed.
 This does not mean that there should be no monitoring of foreign funding of NGOs. The
NGO funding has to be regulated as there are corrupt and unscrupulous NGOs too that
receive foreign funds as a means to money laundering.
 For their regulation, there can be an establishment of an independent, statutory body
along the lines of the Bar Council.
 Such kind of institution was proposed in 2009 where a seven member task force was set
to create a national-level self-regulatory agency, the National Accreditation Council of
India (NACI) which would monitor and accredit CSOs.
 Thus, the government shouldn’t use legal procedures for its personal gains or any
vendetta.

 FCRA should be replaced by an independent statutory body that monitors the foreign
funding of civil society organisations. Critically analyse.
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 Determine the significance of FCRA in light of recent crackdown on NGOs in India.
TOPIC:
General Studies 1
General Studies 2
and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and bodies
constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
Existence of Financial Exclusion in danger
 Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was launched in 2014 to provide an impetus for
financial inclusion. The mandate is not restricted to opening accounts but to provide
easier access to banks through the issuing of RuPay cards.
 There are other features of the scheme which includes providing small-value overdrafts
based on satisfactory conduct of account, availability of low-cost life insurance (Pradhan
Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana) and accident insurance (Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima
Yojana) and pension scheme (Atal Pension Yojana).
 However, disabled people face numerous inconvenience while availing the banking
facilities. It has come to notice that many banks refrain from offering insurance to
people with disabilities or they are refused loans.
 The situation is grim in rural areas with regards to opportunities of financial inclusion to
all, especially after demonetisation.
 The RBI has repeatedly issued circulars to all scheduled commercial banks across the
country to provide banking facilities to customers with disabilities at a par with non-
disabled people. Yet, such attitude of the banks for the people with disabilities has made
financial inclusion an illusion for them.
Hurdles in accessing basic banking services

 It is an unfortunate reality that the banking industry has classified its customers where
the customers suitable for banking business have been prioritised. It can be for
customer needs, interest in certain product features, or customer profitability.
 There are many hurdles faced by disabled people to access banking services. Many
commercial banks have archaic rules in their statute books which debar people with
disabilities from opening independent accounts.
 The disabled persons are required to produce witness everytime they visit banks to
make online transactions through real-time gross settlement and national electronic
funds transfer.
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 Hence, many disabled people, especially in rural areas find it difficult to sign bank
documents, and are denied ATM cards, cheque books and Internet banking.
 The disabled customers are discriminated against by the bank officials in this age of
technology where banks are bringing about tailor-made financial products and services
for general customers.
 The common perception is said to be existing among the bank officials that disabled
people do not require banking products and services.
 This is evident from the fact that most bank websites are inaccessible to the disabled
people as they are perceived to be dependent on their family members. They are seen
as lacking independent agency to make their own decisions.
Evident discrimination
 It has been observed that in rural areas, mostly the banks don’t comply if a visually
impaired person or a person with low vision walks into a bank to open an account.
 They are insisted by the bank officials that the person should open a joint bank account
with a person with sight, or open an account with no ATM card/cheque book facility or
both.
 For a person with hearing impairments and intellectual disabilities, the situation is
worse. If a deaf person visits a bank for availing the benefits of a scheme or service, the
branches mostly lack the manpower to understand or interpret sign language.
 The worst hit are the people with psycho-social disabilities where a guardian is required
to sign a contract on their behalf.
Demonetisation disruption
 This move has further aggravated the problem. The disabled people, called ‘divyangs’
have to stand in long queues outside ATMs and banks facing difficulty in availing cash
and services in such environment, especially in rural areas.
 Though the government has proposed that there should be separate queues for persons
with disabilities and for senior citizens, the reality is starkly different.
 Most ATMs remain inaccessible despite the RBI stating that “banks have to take
necessary steps to provide all existing ATMs/future ATMs with ramps so that wheel chair
users/persons with disabilities can easily access them”.
Conclusion
According to a 2005 study by Handicap International, fewer than 1% of the clients of
microfinance institutions, dedicated to serving the world’s financially excluded people, were
persons with disabilities (PWDs).
In 2007, India ratified the UN Disability Convention where the Convention provides that
states that ratify it should enact laws and measures to improve the rights of the disabled
and also abolish laws, regulations and practices that discriminate against the disabled.
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Following this, RBI passed various circulars regarding providing ease of financial accessibility
to people with disabilities.
Yet right now, financial inclusion seems to be difficult for disabled people as banks and
companies that offer insurance policies are not yet ready to accept disabled people as
respected clients. Even the monthly state sponsored pension hardly reaches on time with
the disabled people even after knowing that it is their sole meagre monetary support. Thus,
there is a need to provide the disabled persons with adequate financial services.
It is necessary for RBI and government to take punitive action against those banks and
officials who fail to follow RBI’s guidelines for providing banking facilities to disabled people.
Also, special basic training on disability and communication be made part of syllabus for
training of banking officials, and that regular interactions and training is encouraged for
bank officials.
The digital banking, especially mobile and internet banking should be made disabled
friendly. There should be appointment of an accessibility officer across all branches who is
given specialized training in matters relating to accessibility. This would go a long way in
ensuring that financial inclusion leaves no one behind and the upheld the spirit of Article 41
of the Constitution (Right to public assistance for the disabled).

 Financial inclusion still remains a distant dream for many, especially for persons with
disabilities. Critically analyse the problems faced by divyangs and possible solutions to it.

Water woes and rising social discontent
 The word rival comes from the Latin rivalis, which means those who share the waters of
a river and be prepared for trouble in paradise.
 There are only two units of water to be distributed. The total surplus maximizes when
the upstream farmer uses one unit in watering the most fertile portion of his land and
the downstream farmer uses the remaining one unit on his most fertile acreage.
 However, the upstream farmer may well use his positional advantage to grab both units
of water. This is not ideal from the efficiency viewpoint. In addition, if the second farmer
is relatively poor, then there is a further issue of inequity.
 Such kind of water disputes has been present in India which has given rise to social
conflicts between upstream and downstream inhabitants or rich and poor neighbours.
River water disputes in India
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 India has faced multiple river water disputes in India- Cauvery, Indus, Sutlej, Yamuna,
Brahmaputra, Teesta — which reflect the discontent present within state boundaries.
 Governmental intervention to settle ‘riparian rights’ (the rights of those owning land on
the borders of a river) often involves laying down rules on the quantity of water that can
be used by each user.
 On certain occasions, the adjudication involves not merely private parties but different
governmental jurisdictions also.
Cauvery dispute
 An important factor affecting the agreements reached is the relative power of the
negotiating parties. The Cauvery agreement prescribes the quantity of water that
accrues to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala.
 The Cauvery agreement was struck in 1924 between a powerful Madras Presidency
under British rule and the Mysore state under the Wodeyars. As a result, it is believed,
the terms were skewed in favour of Madras.
 The agreement has been revisited frequently after a tribunal was constituted in 1990
but implementation becomes difficult in a situation when the Central government and
two main state governments involved, are governed by different parties.
 Such agreements are susceptible to delays and opacity in decision making and they
suffer challenges of monitoring.
Indus water treaty

 Some agreements, to reduce problems, divide the rivers in a basin between upstream
and downstream users instead of dividing the water of a single river.
 The Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan is an example where India gets the
waters of the Sutlej, Ravi and Beas, and Pakistan gets the waters of the Indus, Jhelum
and Chenab with limited rights for India on the upstream portion.
Satluj Yamuna Link Canal

 The sharing of waters between Haryana and Punjab was decided at the time of the
formation of Haryana in 1966, when the Central government and both the state
governments were under Congress rule.
 Construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal was officially started in 1982 to
operationalize the agreement under the same configuration of governments.
 Today even though one party is involved at the Centre as well as in the state
governments, it is not in a position to openly support the transfer of water from Punjab
to Haryana.
 Indeed, the sabre rattling of the Prime Minister on the Indus Waters Treaty in the run-up
to the Punjab election can partly be construed as a cover-up for the fact that the Central
government cannot openly oppose the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal.
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 This is a reflection not just of political and legal realities, but also of the far greater stress
on water resources after close to 50 years of over-exploitation.
Tragedy of commons
 The utilization of common property resources is subject to the ‘tragedy of the
commons’, a concept popularized by the ecologist Garrett Hardin.
 Each user of the resource fails to take into account the effect of his usage on the
depletion of the common property resource for other users. As a result, the resource is
overused.
 The problem of the commons becomes amplified when the total stock of the resource is
depleting every year.
 In the alluvial aquifers of northern Gujarat, the reserves, and therefore the tube wells,
are evenly spread out. This allowed the cohesive Patidar community to cleverly use the
groundwater for a time.
 However, in the hard rock aquifers of the Deccan plateau, tube wells are often situated
in close proximity due to the spatial concentration of suitable reserves.
 As a result, each user is quite cognizant that their access to water becomes reduced by
the water extraction activities of their neighbour. A race to the bottom ensues as each
user aims to maximize its water usage.
 The cultivation of high water intensity crops like sugar cane, paddy, mulberry and vanilla
flourishes in areas of maximum water scarcity, precisely where it is most unsustainable.
Depletion of water resources

 The depletion of groundwater reduces the flow in rivers in two ways:
 It reduces the recharge of rivers from groundwater
 It occasions the demand for dams and canals from communities that have
become powerful in the groundwater economy—for instance, the demand for
the Sardar Sarovar dam by the Patidars.
 This further reduces the flow and quality of surface water and puts river agreements at
risk.
 When the exploitation of groundwater becomes unviable due to receding levels, when
dams are delayed, and when exit options in the form of government jobs or migration to
other countries dry out, there is unrest as powerful agricultural communities hit the
streets.
 The Patidar, Maratha and Jat agitations are symptoms of agricultural distress that can be
traced back to the drying up of water resources and the lack of viable alternatives.
 This has resulted in increased rallies, demonstrations and bandhs in quota stirs.
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Picture Credit:
http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/sites/beta.worldsbiggestproblems.com/files/images/Indi
a%20Water%20Availability.preview.JPG
Taking care of the problem

 The United Nations estimates that half of the world’s population will live in areas of
high water stress by the year 2030.
 It is difficult to have a thriving economy when fresh water is not easily accessible for
industrial, farming, and individual use.
 Such conditions have already started taking place in the rural as well as urban areas
in India. The recent Cauvery water sharing dispute saw violence and loss of lives.
 Economic liberalization intensified the problems of most of the deprived groups.
Marathas are no exception. The paucity of jobs and the burgening agrarian crisis
have affected the community over the years. As a matter of fact, maximum farmer
suicides are reported in the Maratha community.
 In the Patidar-dominated Saurashtra region, cash crops like jeera, groundnut, cotton
have been affected, with production dipping. Their traditional profession of
agriculture is losing its sheen due to poor monsoons as well as shortage of
groundwater in the water scarce region. This is making Patidars turn towards cities,
and more specifically government jobs in cities.
 This points out to the fact that agriculture has a played a critical role in lives of
dominat caste of the region. Water crisis has pushed them to the brink of survival
and hence there is a rising discontent amongst them with regards to more liberal
reservation policy for them to survive.
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 Thus, water concerns — whether solving interstate water dispute or maintaining the
surface water and ground water resources — need to be addressed at priority level
to prevent any kind of water war being initiated in the country. If this fails to happen,
India is bound to face a new internal security challenge.
Conclusion
Water is increasingly an important site of contestation between states in India because of
the rapid pace of economic growth, growing populations and increasing urbanization. The
growing importance of forging coalition governments at the national level and the related
assertion of regional identities add to the intractability of the problems. Also, India needs a
comprehensive water management programme to put a break on depleting water supply.
The Interlinking of River Project has to become a reality to bring about water security in the
country. The clear and present danger of water emergency is starkly visible to all. If the
business as usual is carried out, there will be sharp decrease in agricultural production,
which will negate all of the previous efforts at food security. As a result, the clashes
between various groups in society will be difficult to contain as all would like to safeguard
their interests through reservations. Hence, a radical revision of citizens’ relationship with
natural resources is urgently needed to prevent the indications of disaster turn into a full-
blown catastrophe.

 Why is the dominant caste of Indian society fighting for its rights when such has
been observed mainly amongst minorities and depressed? Analyse the situation.
 Why does India need a permanent National Water Council to decide interstate water
disputes? Discuss.

 Salient features of Indian Society
Untouchability in India? Yes, it exists!
The Constitution of India has abolished untouchability under article 17. It has been made it a
punishable offence under the Untouchability Offences Act, 1955. The practice of
reservations has been going on for a while where in the society aims to reconstruct the
society by giving the depressed, oppressed and the under privileged some status in the
society.
Despite the constitutional provision, punishable offence and upliftment efforts,
untouchability is present in the society, and unfortunately, thriving.
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Untouchability
 It is a product of the caste system in Indian society where people from lower strata of
the society are called ‘untouchables’ or ‘achut’ as they are ‘impure’.
 They are called ‘impure’ as their ancestors were doing jobs that were considered
polluting and impure such as removing human waste (known as “manual scavenging”),
dragging away and skinning animal carcasses, tanning leather etc.
 It has now been taken for granted that such activities have to be performed by
‘untouchables’ or ‘Dalits’.
 Thus, untouchability is prompted by the spirit of social aggression and the belief in purity
and pollution that characterises casteism.
Untouchability in modern India?

 With the economic growth, technological leapfrogs and scientific developments, many
may feel that untouchability no longer exists in India or is not being practiced much
except for in some rural areas.
 However, untouchability has various forms and not just ‘not touching the person’.
Untouchability is present in nearly every sphere of life and practiced in an infinite
number of forms.
 At the village level Dalits are barred from using wells used by non-Dalits, not allowed to
the barber shop or entering temples, kids are given food to eat separately and clean
school toilets, at the level of job recruitment and employment Dalits are systematically
paid less, given menial work and rarely promoted.
 In urban areas too untouchability is visible in considerable proportion. There are
separate utensils for servants, they have separate siting arrangement and are mostly not
allowed to use toilets of the house they work in.
Caste discrimination
 Many in urban areas think about caste only in context of reservation or media reports
like the Una flogging incident. People may think that caste hardly plays a role in modern
society, but a research proves it otherwise.
 A survey called SARI (Social Attitudes Research for India) has conducted that caste
discrimination is far more commonplace than most educated urbanites would care to
acknowledge.
 The SARI used sampling in urban area (Delhi) and rural area (Uttar Pradesh). It was
found that people’s attitudes towards their Dalit neighbours is sobering: among non-
Dalit Hindus in Delhi, a third said that someone in their household practises
untouchability. In Uttar Pradesh, half of adults said that someone practises it.
 This presents the ground reality of the so called ‘abolished’ practice.
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Picture Credit: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-

ed/article16960325.ece/alternates/FREE_320/TH30_New_Inter%20Marriage
Admitting the criminal offence

 When it was asked to a sample if untouchability was practiced at their home, the answer
would be a unflinching yes from many.
 However, if it was a yes, it didn’t mean that only older people were engaged in such
activity. There is very few age variations in reported untouchability. Sadly, in Delhi and
U.P., young people are not much less likely to practise untouchability than their parents
or grandparents.
 In Delhi, half the adults in non-SC Hindu households admitted to the fact that they
practiced untouchability whereas in Uttar Pradesh, the numbers reached 70%.
 However, these numbers do have concealed truth in them. Some people know that it is
politically incorrect to admit practising untouchability to a stranger. Hence, the
responses are manipulated.
 The women are less likely to conceal the truth than men as they are less aware that it is
not a politically correct thing to say. Hence, inspite of living in same household, there is
observed difference in their answers at times.
 Also, as women work more with food, utensils and domestic help, there is more proof of
practice of untouchability in their responses.
 If women’s responses are only considered, which are more likely to be accurate, it is
found that 40% of non-Dalit Hindu households in Delhi report practising untouchability.
In rural UP, it touches 60%. Inspite of this, there are women who do not admit to
practising untouchability or do not recognise some of the things they do in their
interactions with Dalits as untouchability.
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What now?
 Untouchability is considered as an age old practice which found its way even after
independence despite the fact that eminent persons like B.R.Ambedkar and Ganshiji
have staunchly opposed such social discrimination.
 The reservations in government schools and jobs was initiated to socially uplift the
backward classes. But, not much difference is visible on ground when abolishing of
untouchability is concerned.
 To remove untouchability, the children have to be made aware ad educated about such
ongoing process.
 It has been found that many urban families find themselves talking explicitly about caste
only when their children are trying to get admitted to colleges. The children have the
right to know what reservation is and why some social groups have certain privileges
over another.
 Just like women report untouchability practices, the mothers are the foremost teachers
of the children to educate them about caste differences and caste discrimination
happening around.
 Rather than denying existence of untouchability with the hope that the new generation
will not bother about it this technologically driven era and eventually untouchability will
disappear, it is more matured approach by the parents, teachers, and even the
government to make the child aware about it and make it end.
 The children have to be taught about respecting the fellow human being irrespective of
their background and have kinder attitude towards different groups.
 A study of primary school students in the United States found that white students who
read about both the accomplishments of and the discrimination faced by black
Americans later displayed less biased attitudes towards blacks than white children who
had merely read about accomplishments.
IASbaba’s views
Untouchability is not easy to eradicate, but it does not mean it cannot be and thus should
exist. If its existence is denied, the children will never come to know why it is practiced and
what can be done to stop it. They will continue to follow the archaic and hurtful social
norms without knowing the root cause of the same and thus crippling the growth of the
society culturally. Hence, right from parents to teachers to government, all have to make
sincere efforts to educate the children about the ongoing practice of untouchability in rural
as well as in urban areas. This will make the children more aware of their unjust social
customs and find ways to abolish them, thereby upholding the true spirit of constitution of
India.

 Why in your opinion is untouchability still being practiced? Critically evaluate the means
for their upliftment.
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 Though constitution abolishes untouchability, it is widely practiced by the common man,

thereby making a considerable proportion of citizens of India against the law. Is there
any remedy to it? Give reasons for you answer.
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INTERNATIONAL

 India and its neighbourhood- relations.
 Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or
affecting India's interests
India and Pakistan- Leave back the rhetoric
 The year 2016 has witnessed constant spiked up relationship between two neighbours in
South Asia- India and Pakistan.
 From Pathankot terror attack in January to Uri attacks to recent Nagrota attack, the
current phase can be called as one of the darkest periods in India-Pakistan relations.
 There has been surge in criticising each other at global platforms. Also, the diplomatic
ties have been tweaked by expelling diplomats on both sides, thereby reminding the
Cold War era in the West.
 Given the history of troubled relations between two countries, it is necessary that two
neighbours converge towards a peaceful talk process. However, it seems so that every
time an attempt is made by India to reduce tensions, matters only seem worsen.
India- the initiator and giver

 In the beginning of new tenure of NDA government, PM Modi called his counterparts
from neighbouring nations, including Pakistan to establish a stable relationship.
However, nothing has gone right since then.
 In past too, Indian Prime Ministers had reached out to their Pakistani counterparts, in
hope of finding solutions to the problems arisen post partition.
 In the hindsight, India has been over-generous with its negotiations, for example Simla
Agreement in 1972, Indus Water Treaty in 1960. But, these initiatives have hardly seen
any real progress.
 On the other hand, Pakistan has been more consistent, using such occasions to extract
maximum benefits for itself, with little ‘give’ on their part. The failed agreements of
Lahore Pact (1999), Agra Summit (2001), Simla Agreement (1972), Sharm-el-Sheikh
(2009) and other recent initiatives did not deter India’s efforts for diplomatic
negotiations at highest levels.
 India has continued to follow this path with Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and
Vajpayee being practitioners of this ‘art of possible’ and also PM Modi joining in.
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 The PM energised this kind of ‘top-down’ diplomacy and himself took the lead where his
example was followed at the level of the Foreign Minister, National Security Adviser and
the Foreign Secretary.
 This shows that India followed a calibrated approach for many years where diplomatic
moves were balanced with an occasional retaliatory step when the policy does not yield
result.
Weak international support

 After the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India was under intense pressure
to adopt a more robust and aggressive policy. However, India refrained from doing so.
 It believed that international support to India and statements such as ‘an action just
short of war’ and identification of Pakistan as a ‘terror state’ would deter Pakistan from
taking such steps and make it more responsible in handling terrorism.
 But, neither did Pakistan mend its ways, nor international forum were any more serious
about the escalating tensions between neighbourhood ties due to cross border
terrorism.
 It is apparent that despite all the diplomatic options that India has used to normalise
relations between two nations, Pakistan has outrightly rejected all the overtures.
 Hence, this raises questions on India’s continuance of ‘more of the same’ policy.
 Though world recognises India as victim of Pakistan’s ‘state bred terrorism unleashing
terrorists acts across border’, the same world, including UN refuse to formally declare
Pakistan a ‘terror state’. The Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism is
pending to be introduced since two decades in UN.
 In such circumstances, Pakistan continues to provoke India with incessant LOC
infiltrations, terrorist attacks and civilian targets. More worse is that Pakistan has
resorted to mutilation of the bodies of Indian soldiers killed in terror attacks. This has
forced India to take retaliatory steps.
 Adding fuel to fire, some meddlesome third parties are interfering by stating that a war
between the two neighbours is imminent, and that it could lead to a nuclear conflict.
Such talks are unwarranted but nevertheless it is gaining some attention.
Internal unrests
 There is rising influence of radical extremist ideas and ideologies inside Pakistan which is
evident from the fact that terrorist outfits such as the Tehrik-e-Taliban, the Lashkar-e-
Jhangvi and elements of the Islamic State have recently carried out attacks inside
Pakistan.
 This is becoming the ‘new normal’ in Pakistan, further shrinking the space available for
any India-Pakistan détente.
 Also, due to continuing turmoil and escalating unrest inside Jammu and Kashmir,
Pakistan is taking it as an opportunity to mobilise international opinion against India on
the issue of violation of human rights.
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 The separatist elements in J&K are also voicing their concerns on growing endangering
peace and stability in the region and beyond. This has made Pakistan more bold in its
approach to put India on backfoot.
Way forward
 The road ahead is clearly ‘not clear’. Currently, the diplomatic options have been used
and military options are being used as per requirements but the future action plan is not
decided though is it agreed that there is need for change of strategy and approach.
 Hence, it should begin from somewhere and the first step should be to identify the
nature and scope of conflicts with Pakistan. This will lay out the chart as to what areas to
be focussed, where are the conflicts and what could be possible way out from them.
 The de-hyphenation of India and Pakistan has taken immense time and this has to be
maintained. For this, a strategic strategy is required to tackle Pakistan.
 Negotiating a peace deal with Pakistan has the risk of running into unambiguous
territories. At the same time, it is known that peace is not at hand and India should not
have any compromises on its part. Pakistan is safely conducting its ‘state sponsored
terrorist activities’ where it denies involvement and at the same time, there is evidence
of terror emanating from Pakistan’s soil.
 The change in Pakistan’s military chief is not expected to bring any possible change as
Pakistan’s military, identified by one and all as the most pervasive anti-India elemental
force in Pakistan, remains opposed to any understanding with India.
 It is also visible that the U.S. and certain other nations have distanced themselves from
Pakistan which has given Pakistan an open hand to freely terrorise India and
Afghanistan.
 Also, China has befriended Pakistan as it is an important ally to achieve success for its
One Belt One Road initiative. Along with it, Russia is also showing interest in increasing
military relations with Pakistan.
 Thus, India’s attempt to isolate Pakistan diplomatically has not exactly materialised.
Conclusion
The world is increasingly witnessing terrorist activities in last few years, irrespective of
which part of world it belongs. This can evoke understanding among sufferers what India is
going through and what it has been trying to convey since few decades.
Today, most countries are facing problems in achieving coherence in foreign policy. For
India, it has become more difficult. But, India can no more afford to be unclear in its policies
or resort to knee-jerk reactions. Hence, India being a dominant power in South Asia and as
one of world’s leading democracies, India has to find an answer to the existing crisis with
Pakistan.
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 India and Pakistan tensions are on the rise. How can both countries deescalate these
flaming period to establish an environment for conducting peaceful talks?
TOPIC:
General Studies 2
 Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interests
General Studies 3
 Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources
OPEC oil output cut
The decision of cut in 1.2 million barrels per day in crude oil output by the Organisation of
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, reflects the failure of
the latter’s strategy of protecting market share at the cost of falling prices.
The previous strategy was to make the shale oil industry in the US suffer which was fast
emerging as a threat to the cartel. Yet, even after two years, shale oil producers have
managed to survive falling prices. It was also able to bring down the break-even price
steadily with aid from technology. This made the OPEC countries change their strategy.
Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
Picture Credit: http://history105.libraries.wsu.edu/fall2015/wp-

content/uploads/sites/7/2015/08/List_of_OPEC_countries.jpg
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 OPEC is an organization consisting of the world's major oil-exporting nations. Currently,

there are 13 member countries (Gabon, Africa which recently joined in July 2016. Also,
Indonesia terminated its membership on 30th November 2016.)
 It was founded in 1960 to coordinate the petroleum policies of its members, and to
provide member states with technical and economic aid.
 OPEC has been gaining steady power and influencing the global oil market since the
1970s when OPEC had ~50% of market share in global crude oil production.
 High market share has also given OPEC the bargaining power to price oil above what
prices would be in a more competitive market.
 This means OPEC has the ability to sway crude oil prices by increasing or decreasing
production.
 But with US Shale market rising with increased domestic production, it started importing
less oil. Thus, Saudi Arabia lost ~50% of its US customer base.
OPEC- Losing relevance?

 Saudi Arabia, the lead oil producer in the OPEC, has been badly hurt in economic terms
by low oil prices and has thus taken the lead by offering to cut its output by half-a-
million barrels per day. This has been first production cut by OPEC in eight years.
 It is a significant development and the effect of the decision on oil prices — which shot
up 10% immediately — clearly signals that the cartel is alive and continues to be a force
to count on within the market.
 But the fact remains that even after this cut, its daily output of 10.06 million barrels will
be higher than the 9.5 million barrels per day that it was producing in July 2014 when
the fall in prices began.
 Iraq was very reluctant to cut its output but even it has been persuaded to cut output
while Iran has been permitted to produce at its pre-sanction levels.
The test of oil prices

 The first tests will be if OPEC members who are known for breaching their output caps
will be able to stick to the production levels set for them.
 Countries like Venezuela and Algeria, whose small economies are in doldrums as they
are smaller producers are highly likely to breach the output limit.
 The second test will be if non-OPEC members like Russia will support by cutting their
own output. At present, Russia has agreed to cooperate with the OPEC decision and
consider a freeze.
 However, just like smaller OPEC countries, Russia is known to break promises in the past
and importantly, all its output is piped out, making it difficult for the cartel to monitor
compliance.
 The third and final test for prices will be if and when the shale oil producers in the US get
their rigs back in action. If that happens, there is low possibility of a rise in prices beyond
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the $60 a barrel mark. Currently, the US output is down by an estimated 100,000 barrels
a day.
 The current bounce in oil prices is not sustainable and the best that OPEC’s cut will
probably do is ensure that prices don’t plumb back to the depths of $30-35 a barrel.
Impact on India
 India is the fourth largest importer of crude in the world. It imports 85% of total oil and
95% of gas from OPEC nations. Hence, it has benefited highly from the low price regime.
It was able to keep inflation under control and economy on growth path.
 But the recent OPEC output cut might raise prices and, therefore, subsidies, is the worry.
 However, experts say, a global crude oil price of $50-55 a barrel is comfortable for India
as it is believed that prices are unlikely to climb above this.
 Also, an increase in price will be a boost for domestic exploration and production
companies Oil and natural Gas Corporation, Cairn India and Oil India.
 The inventory drawdowns and the oil market are expected to come back into balance
which will further push up prices. However, higher prices will also result in higher
production from US shale, preventing prices from reaching levels last seen in 2014.
 The current subsidy burden on government is LPG and kerosene which is expected to
remain below Rs. 30,000 crore in FY17.
 On the other hand, the sector is providing excise revenue in excess of Rs. 160,000 crore
to the government, a net contributor to the fiscal situation.
 As petrol and diesel are out of the subsidy burden, under-recoveries on both domestic
LPG and kerosene came down to Rs. 27,571 crore in 2015-16, from Rs. 76,285 crore in
2014-15.
 According to the government's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, under recovery on
kerosene with effect from December 1 will be Rs. 10.51 a litre, as against Rs. 12.25 a litre
in the first fortnight of October.
 Cash transfer to the customer under Direct Benefits Transfer of LPG (DBTL) will be Rs.
151.29 a cylinder, of which Rs. 123.17 will be cash compensation by government and Rs.
28.12 by the oil marketing companies (OMCs).

 Why OPEC oil production cut is a significant decision for world oil production? How will
it affect India’s economy? Examine.

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 Important International institutions, agencies and fora
Heart of Asia Summit- Stabilising the heart
Background:
 The Heart of Asia- Istanbul process was formed by 14 nations in 2011. The participating
countries include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab
Emirates.
 It was formed to facilitate the development and security of Afghanistan.
 Why: Afghanistan is geographically located at the junction of Central, South and East
Asia, and also of the ancient trading routes from China and India to Europe.
 Today it is also a focal point for the region’s biggest challenge of terrorism; some of the
far-reaching battles against al-Qaeda, Islamic State, etc. will be decided on the
battlegrounds of Afghanistan.
The Amritsar conference

 In the meeting, delegation from Afghanistan pushed for a regional counter-terror
framework with binding commitment by member countries to effectively deal with the
terror networks. In today’s testing times, it was necessary for India to put terror centre
stage at the Heart of Asia declaration in Amritsar.
 Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi focussed their
concerns on cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
 Afghan President made it clear that progress and development in Afghanistan are
meaningless and unsustainable without peace, and peace is contingent on Pakistan
ending support to terror groups such the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
 In a bold move, he dared Pakistan to use its proposed development grant to Afghanistan
to fight terror on its own soil.
 The issue of cross border terrorism was something even Pakistan’s traditional allies at
the conference, including China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Turkey, found difficult to
counter.
 India had already made it clear that it would never accept continuing cross-border
terrorism as the ‘new normal’ in bilateral ties with Pakistan. It also reiterated that talks
cannot take place in an atmosphere of ‘continued terror’.
 There was also reference to the importance of the tripartite India-Iran-Afghanistan
agreement on developing the Chabahar Port to promote regional connectivity to and
through Afghanistan.
India-Afghanistan-Pakistan: Dealing is tough

 Currently, India and Afghanistan are facing problems due to cross border terrorism
emanating from Pakistan which they have constantly highlighted.
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 If it so happens that every engagement with Pakistan is closed for India and Afghanistan,
the two countries have to closely consider their next steps.
 In short term, lack of engagement may yield some pressure on Pakistan’s leadership to
act, as it did briefly after the Pathankot attack.
 But in long run, it may deplete the two countries of their limited leverage as Pakistan’s
neighbours. Pakistan may create more obstacles in trade between India and
Afghanistan.
 Also, it has been observed in the past that cornering Pakistan by its neighbours has led
to its deepening of ties with China and Russia, pushed Afghanistan closer to Central Asia
and India has to move towards multilateral groupings in east and south.
 This may result into derailing of India and Afghanistan’s plans of avoiding Pakistan
through land trade from the Chabahar port and a dedicated air corridor between Delhi
and Kabul as this infrastructure will take time to put in place.
Way forward for India

 Afghanistan has been appealing to India for over three years for urgent supply of
military hardware. India is yet to firm up arrangements for this. Thus, India should
immediately conclude a tripartite agreement with Iran and Afghanistan to facilitate
transit of arms supplies.
 India has to also look forward to fulfil its commitment to develop Chabahar Port in Iran.
 Also, India has to recognise the emergence of a Russia-China-Pakistan axis, when it
comes to developments in Afghanistan.
 Though it has been clear that talks between the Taliban and the Afghanistan
government are meant to be exclusively ‘Afghan-led and Afghan-owned’, there are third
parties who want to meddle into it.
 Earlier, the facilitators were US, China and Pakistan. But the talks broke down because
Afghan saw Pakistan’s duplicity.
 Hence, now there is an emergence of a new grouping of Russia, China and Pakistan, set
to promote what is called an internal Afghan Peace Process.
 Russia has been saying that real threat to regional peace emerging from Afghanistan
comes from Daesh (ISIS) and not the Taliban. But it is clear that this is what Pakistan is
pushing for as it recognises that Russia's primary concern is the ISIS.
India and Afghanistan

 The process of reconciliation within Afghanistan has achieved a small success, with the
former pro-Pakistani mujahideen leader of Hizb-e-Islami, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, signing
a peace agreement with the Afghan government.
 The prospects for a restoration of peace and a peace agreement with the Taliban are
virtually non-existent at present.
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 It should be not forgotten that Taliban, together with their affiliates in the Haqqani
network - armed, trained and operating from safe havens in Pakistan - that constitute
the main threat to the security of Afghanistan and indeed the region as a whole.
 US leadership is also transforming and hence no one can predict what ‘deals’ the new
President might enter into to address developments in Afghanistan.
Conclusion
The focus areas of the Heart of Asia conference at Amritsar have been finalising a counter-
terror framework, ways to bring lasting peace to Afghanistan and boosting regional
connectivity for the war-ravaged country’s economic growth. The Heart of Asia process thus
remains critical to forging cooperation to realise Afghanistan’s potential to be a vibrant
Asian ‘hub’.

 What is the significance of ‘Heart of Asia’ conference? What are the challenges faced by
India in maintaining stability in the region? Critically analyse.

Potential at Pacific: India and Indonesia
India and Indonesia engaged in a bilateral talk at the sidelines of 9th East Asia Summit in
Myanmar in 2014. After the wait of two years, visit of new Indonesian President Joko
Widodo to India reflects the lack of priority attached to the India-Indonesia relationship so
far.
Realising the potential

 The India-Indonesia relationship has been one of potential rather than realisation.
 Though the leaders of the previous governments of both the nations made efforts to
increase partnership, it did not gain any grip.
 Hence, now is the time to ensure that the bilateral visits are not limited to diplomatic
formalities but becomes a defining relationship in Asia.
Importance of Indonesia
 It is the world’s largest archipelago, straddling the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
 It can potentially control virtually all the straits linking the southern Indian Ocean to the
South China Sea. Hence it can be called as a latent Asian power.
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 Though Indonesia is such strategically placed, it has not yet been able to articulate a
vision to put into use its extraordinary geographical location advantage.
 Though now the new President seems to have slowly begun to understand the
geographical location of Indonesia where he sees the country as a “maritime axis”
requiring a strong naval force to protect its territorial integrity, fishing waters and
energy interests, supported and funded by strong economic growth.
Picture Credit: http://city4.xn--e1akkdfpb6a.xn--p1ai/images1/surabaya-indonesia-1.jpg
Geopolitics at the Pacific

 India and Indonesia officially brought up South China Sea disputes and asked China to
respect UNCLOS which establishes the international legal order of the seas and oceans.
 This is significant in the light of China's refusal to acknowledge the ruling by an
international tribunal formed under UNCLOS which dismissed Beijing's claimed historical
rights over 90% of South China Sea's waters in response to a lawsuit filed by the
Philippines.
 In the past, India has been vary of strategic ‘spillovers’ from the Pacific to the Indian
Ocean. Hence it needs to look for partners who can play a stabilising role in the Indo-
Pacific region as China is showing its naval muscle in the South China Sea and expanding
its strategic and commercial reach through the One Belt One Road initiative.
 At the same time, there are uncertainties surrounding U.S. President Barack Obama’s
‘Asian pivot’ and President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy
 Also, there have been known emerging divergences amongst ASEAN countries about
where its future interests lie- On one side there is a looming China and on other side an
unsteady U.S. Here, Indonesia would be the best placed to play such a role.
 Thus, India should recognise Indonesia’s centrality in the Indo-Pacific region and help
work towards a future where both countries can be partners for security in the region.
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India and Indonesia

Political relation
 The political basis of relationship between both countries exists in the Strategic
Partnership that was agreed to in 2005. This could be used to initiate a high-level
strategic dialogue which aims at
 identifying common strategic interests
 Develop a partnership with Indonesia as a maritime power
 Increase in India’s defence cooperation to cover all threats to security in the
region.
 Such a partnership would also be a hedge against dependence on big powers outside the
region whose commitment to regional security is subject to their own shifting
perceptions.
 Apart from this, the leaders of the both the nations focused on upgrading ties in the
domain of maritime security and defence cooperation.
 The leaders of both nations condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations in
the strongest terms, emphasizing ``zero tolerance" for acts of terror.
 They resolved to significantly enhance bilateral cooperation in combating terrorism and
terrorists' financing.
Cultural relation
 At present, Indonesia is battling with tensions over the role of religion, ethnicity and
language. This in some ways mirrors India’s own concerns.
 Indonesia’s pluralist, tolerant social-religious philosophy has come under serious
pressure due to overpowering of Arabised version of Islam in India.
 This version looks at ethnic and religious identities in terms of binaries and views
Indonesia as a Sunni Islamic state where non-Muslims have to live by the rules of the
majority Muslims.
 Here, India has a stake in the diversity of Islam found in Indonesia against exclusive and
homogenising influences. This can happen without participating into a domestic debate
on religion by advocating its admission in a revived India-Brazil-South Africa forum as a
pluralist democracy that is an alternative to what appears to be a rise of intolerance in
many democracies.
 Thus, India and Indonesia can provide complementary models for the coexistence of
religious minorities with majoritarian communities in Asia based on their own traditions
of coexistence.
 Also, in the areas of education, culture, and people-to-people relations, a thrust could
be given to Indian Council for Cultural Relations scholarships in Indian universities,
increased slots for training under the Indian Technical and Economic Corporation
programme, closer academic exchanges and vocational training by Indian companies in
Indonesia.
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 India could also learn lessons on tourism promotion from Indonesia — from Bali, for
instance, where Indians rank high in the list of nationalities visiting that island.
 From Bali, it can learn about a more ‘simple’ Hinduism that is relatively free from caste
and sectarian divisions.
Economic relation
 India and Indonesia can make a conscious attempt to enhance their economic and
cultural relationship.
 All major powers today look at foreign investment in economic and strategic terms as a
stronger tool for influence than trade.
 Economic growth is President Jokowi’s top priority. He has brought forward his interests
in foreign investment, particularly in the energy, infrastructure, manufacturing and
tourism sectors.
 India can develop its investment profile in Indonesia as it has huge infrastructural needs
such as toll roads, power plants, ports and airports apart from already substantial Indian
investment in areas like coal, textiles, steel, auto and banking sectors.
 A number of industrial estates have already come up in many places in Jakarta, Bandung,
Surabaya, Medan and Batam. Medan industrial zone in northern Sumatra should be of
particular interest to India from a connectivity point of view.
 A shipping service from Chennai or Krishnapatnam to Medan via the Andaman Islands
could be used to export Indian goods to offset, at least partly, the large imbalance in
India’s trade with Indonesia.
 Indian investment in strategically important countries should thus be seen as an arm of
its foreign policy which has not been a case yet.
 The PM reiterated that Indonesia was one of the valued partners of India’s Act East
Policy where they shared economic and strategic interest.
 Indonesia has emerged to become the second largest trading partner of India in the
ASEAN region. Bilateral trade has increased from USD 6.9 billion in 2007-08 to USD 19.03
billion in 2014-15.
 Indonesia enjoys trade surplus with India, though the volume has been small and
declining, according to data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Conclusion
Both the leaders have to look forward to provide the much needed thrust into the bilateral
relations so that a truly strategic relationship between both the countries is realised and
developed.

 Indonesia was considered the weakest link in India’s Act East policy. Do you agree?
Critically analyse.
 Comment upon India and Indonesia bilateral relations.
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 Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's
interests, Indian diaspora.
India Indonesia Relations
Introduction
India and Indonesia have shared two millennia of close cultural and commercial contacts.
The Hindu, Buddhist and later Muslim faith travelled to Indonesia from the shores of India.
The Indonesian folk art and dramas are based on stories from the great epics of Ramayana
and Mahabharata. The shared culture, colonial history and post independence goals of
political sovereignty, economic self-sufficiency and independent foreign policy have unifying
effect on the bilateral relations.
Present Situation
For a long time that two nations have kept each other out of focus while determining their
foreign policy, even though they have had converging strategic interests. Even under the
present ruling governments, the nations have taken too long to reach out to each other.
However, both the countries have shown willingness and intent to build a strong
relationship with President Widodo’s visit to India being the first presidential visit from
Indonesia to India in nearly six years. The areas of common concern and interest have been
discussed below with the joint efforts made by both the countries.
South China Sea

 India and Indonesia both are not in agreement with China’s aggressive stance on South
China Sea and want the dispute to be resolved by peaceful means and in accordance
with international law such as UNCLOS.
 Both the countries do not have a direct stake in this dispute, yet they are concerned
about China’s territorial expansion and its reluctance to abide by international laws and
norms.
Maritime Security
 India and Indonesia want their nations to emerge as major maritime powers and ensure
a stable maritime order in the region.
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 India’s concerns lie in the security of the sea lanes of communication in the Indo-Pacific
region and Indonesia has been concerned about Chinese maritime intrusions near the
Natuna islands and its claim to include the island chain in its territorial maps. Indonesia
claims it to be a part of its exclusive economic zone.
Terrorism and Security

 The two countries are also now moving towards cooperation in defence and security
which will help in focussing on combating terrorism and organized crime.
 They have also issued a joint statement which condemns terrorism in all forms and
emphasises on “zero tolerance” towards terrorism.
 The statement has asked all nations to focus on the following:
 Eliminating terrorist safe havens and infrastructure,
 Disrupting terrorist networks and their financing channels, and
 Stopping cross-border terrorism.
 Called upon all countries to implement the UN Security Council Resolution 1267
(banning militant groups and their leaders) and other resolutions designating
terrorist entities.
 The two nations have also laid stress on the need to combat and eliminate illegal,
unregulated and unreported fishing and recognized transnational organized fisheries
crime.
Defence and Security

 India and Indonesia have been gradually enhancing their security and political ties
through the strategic partnership agreement signed in 2005.
 This agreement also introduced the annual strategic dialogue between the two nations.
 In 2006, the two countries ratified a defence cooperation agreement, focussing on areas
of defence supplies, technology and joint projects.
 An extradition treaty and a mutual legal assistance treaty for gathering and exchanging
information to enforce their laws have also been signed.
 Other important features of the relationship between the two nations are the joint naval
exercises and patrols and regular port calls by their respective navies.
 India is also a major source of military hardware for Indonesia.
Economy
 India and Indonesia have also decided to give a major boost to their trade and
investment ties by focusing on the areas of oil and gas, renewable energy, information
technology and pharmaceuticals.
 It is expected that bilateral trade between the two may grow by four times in the next
decade.
Conclusion
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The importance of cooperation between these two countries is important due to the
strategic location of these two. Indonesia’s location allows it to work effectively with India
to ensure security in the sea lanes of communication between Europe, the Middle East and
South-East Asia. Together, they control the entry point from the Bay of Bengal to the Strait
of Malacca.
However, the need of the hour is to ensure that the two nations speed up the progress of
improving the ties. Even though, the two countries have shared cultural and historical links
they have still been distant. One very major highlight of the poor quality relationship
between the two countries was the lack of direct air connectivity between the two till this
visit by the Indonesian President. This visit by Mr. Widodo has helped India take another
step in its “Act East” policy. This will promote greater engagement and integration between
India and South-East Asia.
Connecting the dots

 What is the ‘Act East’ Policy of India? Discuss the importance of Indonesia for India, with
regard to this policy.
 Discuss the importance of India Indonesia relationship and the steps which can be taken
by both the nations of improve this relationship.

Making India’s foreign policy more humane
Need for acknowledgement

 It has been noticed that the Indian newspapers have filtered the international tragedies
to our minds where India is seen responding only to the biggest and most devastating
events.
 Here, Aleppo tragedy seems to be a middle-range tragedy where only 4,50,000 have
been killed when dictators like Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, Hitler have eliminated millions.
 This comparison, however, becomes a failure of ethics as it is portrayed as if the small
and the minuscule do not deserve attention.
 However, this portrays the lack of compassion in India’s foreign policy.
Look in the past

 India has prided itself on its humane approach to issues.
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 But it has been India’s policy to not interfere in the affairs of other countries, and not to
be involved in events in countries with which it is not directly concerned or which do not
directly affect its interests.
 However, when it came to addressing the heartless and cold-blooded killings in Syria,
India has a moral imperative to talk on such massacres being carried out.
 During the era of policy of non-alignment, PM Nehru was determined to keep India aloof
from conflicts elsewhere, so that the country could devote its efforts and energy to the
task of developing its economy. This was largely successful as India did not have to side
with either of the two politico-military blocs.
 But at the same time, he had declared that where peace was threatened or justice
denied, India would not keep silent. This front has seen mixed record. In 1956, Nehru
spoke up strongly at the time of the Suez crisis but took a less-than-neutral stand on the
Hungarian revolt the same year.
 Suez crisis- Invasion of Egypt by Israel, UK and France to regain Western control of the
Suez Canal and to remove Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser from power.
Hungarian revolt- it was a revolt against the Hungarian government and its Soviet-
imposed policies for a demand of more democratic political system and freedom from
Soviet oppression.
 It was a stark contrast where though the Hungarian policy was flawed on moral grounds,
it could be justified on the ground of national interest (USSR-India had close relations).
In a foreign policy, the national interests dictate the terms and the government of the
day has to pursue the national interest.
The Syrian battle

 The Syrian civil war is in its sixth year. More than 4,00,000 lives have been lost, millions
have been displaced, an entire generation of children has gone without experiencing
childhood and has been denied education.
 Though it is a civil war where Syrian government (Shia) is fighting Syrian rebels and ISIS
(Sunnis), it has external elements too.
 External elements, regional (Iran) or non-regional (US and Russia), have entered into the
fray for their own agendas, without caring about the Syrian people.
 Nobody really knows how many militia groups are fighting in Syria and at times, many
are fighting among themselves. There is also a difference of motives among those who
want Bashar al-Assad out.
 But now, dethroning the Syrian President is not the priority. Instead the target is
defeating the ISIS, which was nurtured initially to defeat Assad, has now become a
bigger threat.
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Picture credit: http://cdn4.spiegel.de/images/image-1058407-galleryV9-fvtu-1058407.jpg
Should India get involved?

 It makes sense for India to not get involved as the civil war will go on for decades.
 Previously also India has remained more or less neutral, though its stand was somewhat
pro-regime in the past.
 But, there is no reason why India should not speak up for or be indifferent to the
merciless slaughter of innocent lives in Syria.
 The peace in the region is important for India as prolonged instability which might
become worse in future due to change in administration in Washington, is not in India’s
interest.
 Though India has legitimate reasons to not upset its international friends by voicing its
opinion on political or military front, but there should be some mention on the
humanitarian issues.
 In early 1990s when Somalia was suffering from civil war, India was UNSC member. At
that time there was strong sentiment among the international community that
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something had to be done to stop the massacres. India joined in authorising the Council
to take action that eventually did not produce the desired result.
 Nevertheless, India did support all the resolutions even though it amounted to
intervening in the internal affairs of a UN member state, it was solely guided by moral or
ethical grounds.
 Hence, by repeating the same concerns, India should condemn the loss of civilian lives
amidst military encounters. Expression of outrage at the sufferings of the Syrian people
would be perfectly in order.
Way forward- Is there any?

One problem in solving Syrian conflict is that external elements are thinking of only their
interests. Even resolutions that are being proposed on humanitarian matters have unhidden
political agendas.
In such a case, India should take the initiative of tabling a resolution in the UN Security
Council, denouncing and deploring the civilian loss of lives in Syria. Together with it, it
should abstain from any support or criticism to any parties involved in the conflict.
Though India is non-member, there is nothing to prevent a non-member from introducing a
draft resolution. Also, India can issue a statement supporting the UNSC adoption of Franco-
Russian draft resolution mandating the deployment of observers to monitor the evacuation
from Aleppo.

 The escalation of Syrian crisis shows the losing powers of UNSC. In the light of the same,
examine the mandate of UNSC and its future.
 India has been known to have policies with humane approach. But its ignorance on
commenting upon the recent Syrian crisis is well-established. Comment.

Speak up for the Rohingyas
In October 2016, Myanmar soldiers went to Rakhine and killed over 130 Rohingyas and
torched dozens of the villages on the basis of suspicion of Rohingya insurgents killing the
Burmese policemen.
As per UN, about 30,000 Rohingyas have been displaced by the ongoing violence in Rakhine.
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As a result, Myanmar called for a special meeting with Foreign Ministers of ASEAN recently
as a response to protests in East and South Asia and beyond over the deteriorating Rohingya
situation in Rakhine.
The Rohingya crisis

 Rohingya, a heavily-persecuted ethnic Muslim minority of around one million people live
in Rakhine, a restive state in Western Myanmar.
 The Myanmar government has forcibly segregated Rohingya from the rest of the
population in Rakhine state since 1982 when the government stripped them of their
citizenship.
 The 1982 Burma citizenship law excluded the Rohingya from a list of 135 officially
recognized ethnic groups as the government insists that Rohingyas are illegal immigrants
from neighbouring Bangladesh and have no history in the country.
 The Rohingya face long-standing ethnic and religious tensions with the Buddhist majority
in Rakhine State, which views them as unwanted interlopers.
 Since decades they are living in ghetto-like enclaves, from which they aren't allowed to
leave. They have very limited access to basic services and viable livelihood opportunities
due to strict movement restrictions.
 The U.S. State Department’s latest human rights report states that more than 100,000
Rohingya have fled Rakhine State since 2012. This exodus is “facilitated by [Myanmar]
military and security forces and criminal smugglers and traffickers,” who subject the
migrants to further abuse and exploitation.
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Picture Credit: http://www.franciscansforjustice.org/wp-

content/uploads/2015/06/graphic_Rohingya_trafficking_crisis_heza_150515_cs6_english.jp
g
Managing the crisis

 The crisis shows that people facing persecution will flee borders, regardless of
exogenous factors. This is most certainly true for the Rohingyas.
 Around 30000 Rohingyas have been displaced internally and thousands have tried to
flee to neighbouring countries, especially Bangladesh, through perilous routes.
 During the European migration crisis, the leaders of the European Union have
proactively debated and responded somewhat positively to finding a humane solution to
it, even though the problem still persists.
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 Contrary to this, the emerging leaders in Asia such as China and India have remained
mostly passive on the long-standing Rohingya refugee crisis as it has direct geopolitical
implications on it.
 China and India share a border with Myanmar and have vested economic interests in the
country owing to trade and investment ties.
India, Myanmar and Rohingyas

The building relationship
 India has been trying to build a strong relationship with Myanmar in recent years, both
on the economic and strategic fronts, by seeking to enhance connectivity through the
Northeastern States.
 In addition, India has also been assisting Myanmar with capacity building in areas such
as English language training and Information Technology.
 Under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme, 500 slots have been
reserved for Myanmar nationals with the goal of strengthening human resource
capacity.
 This clearly shows that India would like to play a constructive role in Mynamar’s
transition to a robust democracy.
Dealing with internal affairs

 India’s relation with Myanmar are recently taking an upward turn. When the military
took over the Myanmar leadership, India suspended its relations with the neighbouring
country. This is when China made inroads into Myanmar.
 India has played a constructive role in other crises such as the Yemen civil war and the
Nepal earthquake. But, India has been silent in the context of the Rohingya crisis.
 As Indian leadership has highlighted in the UNGA- that ‘Vasudhaiva Katumbakam’ — the
whole world is one family — is India’s philosophy, India can take certain steps with
respect to Rohingyas
 It can contribute to the rescue efforts of the International Organization for
Migration, which has already collected $I million for rescue efforts.
 It can express displeasure against the atrocities on the Rohingya community,
especially since it believes in democracy, liberalism and pluralism.
 An unstable Myanmar is likely to have strong security implications for India.
Hence, India needs to assure that its eastern neighbourhood is secured.
 India has supported the Hindu minorities from Bangladesh and Pakistan. Even during the
1971 war, India provided shelter to millions of East Pakistani refugees. At the end of war,
there was one of the most orderly and peaceful return of refugees to their land from
India.
 India can play a constructive role in maintaining the security stability in the region as the
persecuted Rohingya Muslims are likely to provide fertile recruiting grounds for
extremist groups.
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 Hence there should also be similar approach of India towards Rohingyas and project
itself as a regional leader who rises above narrow economic and geopolitical interests
and take a stance consistent with the moral and spiritual values with which it is
identified.
Conclusion
India has welcomed Rohingyas as long as they obtain a valid visa and have a refugee card.
Without a refugee card, the Rohingyas can’t claim land, health benefits or education for
their kids. According to a Reuters report, only 9000 of the 36,000 Rohingyas who live in India
are registered. Thus, though in principle, all refugees in India have access to government
health and education services, many Rohingyas struggle for these as they don’t have an
official refugee status.
Considering India’s most mature democracy in Asia with much-touted pluralistic and secular
ideologies, India should respond on humanitarian grounds to not allow the security and
economic implications for the region spiral out of control.

 What is the significance of neighbourhood stability with respect to India’s internal
security? Discuss.
 In order to establish India as a regional power, India has to make a space for itself in
economic, political as well as security issues. Do you agree? Support your stand with
suitable example.

India’s Current Foreign Policy - Critical Analysis
Narendra Modi has received a lot of appreciation for his strategy at the world stage. From
the very beginning he has been able to build up a lot of excitement around India’s
international relations. However, with time his foreign policy has come under a scanner and
has faced some criticism as well.
An Exciting Beginning
The Prime Minister’s entry on the world stage brought along a lot of freshness, energy and a
decisive intent supported by some exemplary oratory skills. India witnessed certain changes
as soon as Mr. Modi took over.
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 India’s visibility on the stage of global politics increased and India appeared to be more
active and assertive in its actions.
 Mr. Modi’s way of handling the international relations brought a lot of optimism which
spread among people of the country.
 India evolved from being a mere spectator to an active participant.
 In critical matters, India took a tough stand and faced all hardships head on whether it
was relating to Pakistan, China or the United States.
Complex Transition
The transition from the initial days of optimism and excitement to the contemporary
challenges has been a complex and tough one.
 During this transition, the foreign policy of India faced a lot complex issues, rivals and
adversaries as well.
 The assertion changed to hesitations due to impact of historic policies and easy solutions
as anticipated were not being found.
 India tried to solve things with an out-of-the-box approach where simpler and standard
methods would have helped.
 Relations with Pakistan and China did not see much improvement.
 It was also observed that wherever India followed the traditional path as laid by
predecessors, there was progress in the relationship.
Contemporary Complications
India Russia
 Even though India and Russia have been close partners traditionally, the relationship has
seen tougher times in the recent past.
 Russia has tried to come closer to China and Pakistan which is not what India would
want.
 The relations between India and Russia are being mended through efforts in terms of
defence deals and huge military contracts.
 Russia, however, has still supported Pakistan against India and Afghanistan in the
recently concluded Heart of Asia Conference in Amritsar.
India Pakistan
Animosity between India and Pakistan has still continued and does not seem to be going
away very soon considering the present situation. At times, it only seems to be becoming
worse.
 In early days of the government, ceasefire was in force and the terror attacks were not
as frequent and now neither the exchange of pleasantries nor the surgical strikes are
helping the nations come to a solution.
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 Prime Minister Modi has made a shift from the previous government’s policy when no
comprehensive dialogue was possible without ending terrorism.
 Accordingly, India has tried to improve bilateral relations by inviting Pakistan’s Prime
Minister to India and proposed negotiations between foreign secretaries and National
Security Advisers of the two nations. These methods have gone in vain and there has
been a surge in terror attacks, surgical strikes, expulsion of diplomats and India’s open
support to Balochistan and boycott of the SAARC summit. Hence, this is not good for
both these countries.
 Due to the sour relations between India and Pakistan, the future of SAARC has also
become uncertain and the recent SAARC summit was boycotted.
India China
The bilateral relations between India and China are not as bad as India and Pakistan but the
last two years have not seen much progress.
 India has opposed the admission of China into SAARC. Even though majority of members
are willing to allow China into SAARC, India seems to be the sole opponent.
 The China-Pakistan factor and long-term measures taken by China as a part of the ‘One
Belt, One Road’ are challenges that India has to face with respect to China.
 Mr. Modi’s inclination towards the U.S., Japan and Australia and his concerns about the
South China Sea are also a major issue when it comes to India China.
 However, the reduction in cross border infiltration along the India China border is a
positive.
India USA
India USA relationship has seen a lot of positive growth as compared to the other bilateral
relations mentioned above.
 India has become a major defence partner with the U.S. through the agreements
such as Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), Basic Exchange
and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) and Defence Trade and Technology Initiative
(DTTI).
 With Donald Trump set to take over as the President, migration and visa issues are
two areas which have to be handled with care.
With all these challenges and few bright spots as well, India’s foreign policy’s importance is
growing with each passing day. Strategic and tactical steps have to be taken to ensure that
we improve our relations with most of the nations in the long run.
Connecting the dots

 Critically analyse India’s foreign policy in the recent past and suggest certain changes
that India should make in its foreign policy to emerge stronger in this multipolar world of
geopolitics.
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 Important international institutions, agencies and fora, their structure and mandate.
Israel, Palestine and the World Reaction
Introduction
In 1967, Israel seized the parts of Palestine which had been outside its control such as West
Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has
ever since passed a series of resolutions asking Israel to withdraw from the territories and to
desist from building settlements on the occupied territories. Based on the assumption of
Israeli withdrawal from this land which was occupied in 1967 is the two-state solution, the
international consensus for the Israel-Palestine conflict. The occupation by Israel of the
Palestinian territories over the years can be understood from the below image.
Picture credit:
http://israelipalestinianmastelags.weebly.com/uploads/3/1/1/4/31142973/7490634_orig.jp
g
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Latest Development – UNSC Resolution

UNSC has introduced Resolution No. 2334 which condemns Israel’s settlement activity in the
occupied territory of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The resolution has been passed
with 14 votes in favour and one abstention (the U.S.A.). This gives a lot of hope to nations
which still want this entire crisis to be resolved by the two-state solution.
USA and its stand

USA has for long acted as a shield for Israel. A resolution in 2011, during the Arab Spring,
was vetoed by it. Now when the USA has abstained from voting in this resolution, it justifies
its change in approach by saying that the resolution in 2011 would have not given
negotiations a chance and would have led to Israel totally going on a violent and aggressive
spree. However, unfortunately the same is happening now. USA terms the language of the
current resolution as tentative and has also hesitated to call Israel settlements illegal.
Further, the emergence of International Criminal Court (ICC) and its desire to act against
Israel has constantly seen USA vetoing resolutions and in some instances abstaining from
voting against Israel to protect Israel. However, USA has made no commitment to assist
Israel in retaining territories seized in the 1967 war and also did not veto resolutions to
defend the settlements.
Israel and ICC

From an Israeli point of view, it is not the UN resolution that is a major concern for them but
the criminal investigations that would follow thereafter. The ICC has already opened a
preliminary investigation into Israel’s actions during the 2014 bombing of Gaza and into the
illegal settlements. Though the ICC has clarified that it would not proceed with a
comprehensive criminal investigation without a clear go ahead from the UNSC, the recently
passed resolution has paved way for such action.
Now once the resolution is in force and since Palestine is a recognised state in the United
Nations (UN) and a member of the ICC, a comprehensive investigation against Israel could
be on the cards very soon. As a result, settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem would
feel threatened and Israeli soldiers will feel pressurized to refuse to serve in any future
criminal bombardment of Gaza.
ICC investigators visited the West Bank and East Jerusalem in October this year but refused
to acknowledge the visit as a part of its preliminary investigation. The new UN Security
Council resolution is expected to include more radical action steps as considered in 1979
and 1980 and also will be guided by the International Court of Justice’s 2014 finding that the
apartheid wall that entraps the West Bank is illegal. Pressure will increase on ICC to take the
investigations forward.
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Israel, Palestine and world resolutions

The first UN resolution was passed in November 1967 without any abstention or veto by the
permanent members. UN has periodically censured Israel for its ongoing occupation and the
violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention which deals with the construction of settlements
on occupied land.
The Oslo Accord emphasised on the creation of Palestinian state although it did not have an
explicit statement regarding the same. Israel does not want a two-state solution or even a
one-state solution. This approach of Israel shows its intent of a permanent occupation of the
Palestinians and its dream of a Greater Israel.
Four years after Oslo, the Rome Statute led to the establishment of the ICC. It was the
creation of ICC which had a greater impact than the Oslo Accord. Subsequently, USA
increased the vetoes and protected Israel. The creation of ICC has been worrisome for Israel
because it would increase its focus on issues such as population transfer and war crimes.
Even ICC is under pressure to investigate crimes outside the African continent and Israel and
its actions provide a legitimate site of inquiry.
Conclusion
The international community should take lesson from how the Iran issue was handled in the
past. All world powers had come to agree on terms of sanctions to be imposed on Iran.
Renewed efforts to broker peace in the Israel-Palestine conflict will result in success only if
Israel shows flexibility in its stand and the nations come together for this cause. However, if
Israel continues to reject any other approach and stays strong in its belief or right to occupy
territories in Palestine regions, the conflict is here to stay.
Connecting the dots

 Throw light on the genesis and the evolution of the Israel Palestine conflict. Suggest a
strategy that should be adopted by the international community to bring this
longstanding dispute to an end.

 Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's
interests, Indian diaspora.
India and China – Need for Convergence rather than Confrontation
Introduction
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In 1950, India was the first non-socialist nation to establish diplomatic relations with China.
In the last six to seven decades, the relationship has seen a lot of ups and downs. India-
China border conflict in 1962 was a major setback to the relationship. Later, during the
reign of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narsimha Rao the relationship did experience
some stability and substance. However, in this multipolar world and complex geopolitics,
both nations have once again come to face each other at times. The attitude has been
confrontationist though the need for convergence is supreme.
Western Influence and Partnerships

 India’s approach to China has been somewhat influenced by the western prejudices.
 India is trying to get closer to nations in the Pacific such as Japan and Vietnam to forge
an alliance with nations which have traditionally been on the opposite side of China.
 There is also a lot of focus on increasing the bonding with United States of America
(USA). This should be done very cautiously considering the emergence of Donald Trump
as the president and the egocentricism displayed by USA in the past.
These actions seem to be a safeguard against the rising Chinese influence and supremacy.
India’s Avoidable Actions

 India is not only boosting its defence might against China but also trying to challenge
Chinese military strength in the neighbourhood.
 India is incurring a huge expenditure on matching China’s militarily.
 Geopolitically as well India is trying to compete with China in terms of infrastructure
creation which China is carrying out under the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative.
These steps by India are not only unaffordable and counterproductive but will also lead to
reinforcement of rivalry between the two nations. India needs to understand that China is
financially way stronger. As a result, China announced a package of $24 billion in response
to India’s package of $2 billion for Bangladesh.
Impact of the Competition

 One of the most important impacts of this approach towards China has been the
increasing bonding between China and Pakistan. India cannot afford to have disputes
along two of its most critical borders, especially when the already existing dispute is
here to stay.
 India is also incurring a lot of expenditure in terms of military infrastructure and
infrastructure creation in the continent. This can have a huge impact on the twin deficit
of the country as well.
 China is making transformational investment in the region, building roads, ports and
railroads across Asia and connecting them with Europe as well. The first freight train to
Europe was flagged off on its 9,800-km journey to Hamburg in 2015 and another arrived
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in Tehran earlier this year through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan from Zhejiang
province.
 With the help of this growing connectivity and infrastructure, China will be at our
doorstep in the East, the West and the North.
Beneficial Partnership
China has been one of the fastest growing nations in the world. It has all by itself challenged
the supremacy and dominance of USA in all areas. Therefore, India can benefit from a
congenial relationship with China in many ways.
 China’s universities and research establishments are among the best in the world. India
could use this in various development initiatives and the field of education as well.
 Industrially, China is not only a leader in electronics but has also surpassed South Korea
and Japan as the world’s leading shipbuilder.
 In terms of science and technology and medicine, China is the world leader in DNA
sequencing and is placed second to the USA in nano technology.
What India needs to do?

 To wipe off historic animosity, accept that the 1962 border war with China was a fault of
both the nations.
 Just like China has arrived at border settlements with Russia and Vietnam, India should
also seal a similar deal with China. India needs to accept geopolitical reality and show
willingness to settle the issue.
 Use the growing friendship between China and Pakistan to strike peace with Pakistan
and accelerate development and stability in the neighbourhood.
 India should not see the OBOR initiative as China’s strategy to counter India’s growth. It
should in fact consider this as an opportunity, both economic and strategic, to partner
with China and make the best use of the infrastructure also.
 Both the nations are located in the Himalayan vicinity and are highly vulnerable to
impact of climate change. India should partner with China to not only tackle the impact
in our neighbourhood but also forge a stronger partnership at global fora for climate
change.
Conclusion
It is high time that India rethinks on the relationship with China before it gets too late. India
needs to move away from the early 20th century perceptions, conjured grievances and
western influences to forge a mutually beneficial partnership with our largest neighbour and
most important trading partner.
India needs to strengthen its expertise in understanding China and its relationship with
China and not continue to see it through western eyes. Such an attitude will ensure that the
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21st century witnesses an Indian-Asian growth rather than just Chinese growth. Together
both these nations have the potential to define this century as the Asian Century.
Connecting the dots

 Critically analyse India’s foreign policy approach towards China. Do you agree that both
that nations can go ahead and shape an Asian Century? If yes, elaborate on the reforms
required in the foreign policy of both the nations.
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ENVIRONMENT
TOPIC:
General Studies 3
 Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact
assessment
 Disaster and disaster management.
General Studies 2
Outcomes of Marrakech climate conference
The twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) on Climate Change
was held in Marrakech, Morocco from 7-18 November 2016.
The Conference successfully demonstrated to the world that the implementation of the
Paris Agreement is underway and the constructive spirit of multilateral cooperation on
climate change continues.
The UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech was the crucial next step for governments
looking to operationalize the Paris Climate Change Agreement adopted last year. While the
Paris Agreement gave clear pathways and a final destination in respect to decisive action on
climate change, many of the details regarding how to move forward as one global
community in that common direction still needed to be resolved.
Therefore, the dialogue and decisions in Marrakech and its outcome hold immense
potential to accelerate and amplify the immediate response to the challenge recognized in
the Paris Agreement. This meeting was therefore incredibly important.
However, outcomes of the Marrakesh climate conference failed to make huge positive
impact as there were no big friendly chats between political leaders of major powers, and
no big decisions to generate global excitement.
(We had covered this section in previous article: http://iasbaba.com/2016/11/iasbabas-

daily-current-affairs-24th-november-2016/)
Highlights:
 Marrakesh conference’s main agenda was to begin work on framing the rules and
procedures that would guide the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
 Negotiators began work on the rulebook in Marrakesh, and gave themselves up to 2018
to finish.
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 Besides the negotiations on the procedural details of the rulebook, several important
partnerships were stitched up on the sidelines of the conference.
 Some of these partnerships could prove to be the gamechangers needed to keep global
temperatures from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times.
International Solar Alliance
 ISA, an initiative launched by India in Paris, seeks to bring together all countries in
the sun-rich tropics to boost the global demand of solar energy deployment, and
ensure standardisation in the use of equipment and processes.
 It also aims to promote research and development in solar technologies, all of which
are likely to bring down costs of both technology and finance, and lead to further
increases in deployment.
 India went to Marrakesh with a draft Framework Agreement on International Solar
Alliance, which 26 countries signed. The Agreement will take the shape of an
international treaty once 15 countries that have signed up, ratify it.
 About 120 countries lie, either fully or in part, between the Tropics of Cancer and
Capricorn, and are potential members of the treaty. Some 80 countries had
supported the declaration of the alliance last year.
Adaptation of African Agriculture (AAA)
 The entire continent contributes just about 4% to global greenhouse gases, but is
likely to be one of the worst affected by climate change.
 African countries are heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture, and the cycle of
droughts and floods induced by climate change could devastate economies and lead
to further poverty and hunger.
 The triple-A initiative seeks to climate-proof agriculture in Africa by promoting
sustainable soil management, better water management, and risk mitigation
strategies. 27 African countries are already on the platform.
 International agencies like the Food and Agriculture Organisation are supporting the
alliance, which will also act as a platform for seeking and channeling financial flows
meant for climate change adaptation purposes.
Mission Innovation
 This too was announced in Paris, the brainchild of the US. It aims to promote
research and development in clean energy technologies.
 In Marrakesh, Finland and the Netherlands formally joined the mission, taking the
number of countries on the platform to 23.
 These countries together have pledged an investment of $ 30 billion over the next 5
years in clean energy research.
 There will be greater research collaborations between these countries, which
together account for almost 80% of all investments into clean energy research.
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 The mission has identified 7 innovation challenges, including smart grids, carbon
capture and sequestration, building of storage cells for solar energy, clean energy
materials and sustainable biofuels.
Climate Vulnerable Forum
 This is a group of countries that are most vulnerable to climate impacts. It has been
in existence since 2009, when 11 countries voiced their common concerns. It has
operated mostly on the sidelines. But in Marrakesh, the number of countries on the
platform reached 48, and the group got a lot of attention.
 Member countries stressed that the target should be to keep global temperature
rise to within 1.5 (not 2) degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times.
 They vowed to update their climate action plans before 2020 to bring in greater
ambition, and prepare a long-term low-carbon development strategy for 2050 with a
1.5-degree target in mind.
 They also said they would strive to reach 100% renewable energy production
between 2030 and 2050.
2050 Pathway Platform
 This is an effort to get countries, cities and businesses to accept long-term targets for
climate action. Countries have submitted 5-year or 10-year action plans as part of
their commitments under the Paris deal.
 Fixing long-term targets, for say 2050, forecloses the possibility of countries doing
too little in the beginning and then failing to scale up their ambition to required
levels in later years.
At least 20 countries, 17 states, 15 cities and 196 businesses joined the platform in
Marrakesh. Each promised to come up with climate objectives for 2050 and strive to work
towards achieving those targets. The US, Germany, Canada and Mexico unveiled
decarbonisation plans for 2050. The US said it would cut emissions by 80% of 2005 levels by
2050; Germany said it would reduce emissions by up to 95% on 1990 levels.
Conclusion:
These partnerships (like the India-led International Solar Alliance) are essentially outside of
the UN process under which Paris was negotiated, but represent the growing desire on the
part of countries and non-government agencies such as businesses and city administrations
to do their bit in the fight against climate change.
The adaptation of Marrakech Action Proclamation sends out a strong signal to the world on
climate action and shift towards a new era of implementation and action on climate and
sustainable development. India has welcomed Marrakesh Action Proclamation as most of its
demands including the issue of providing finance to developing nations to tackle climate
change has been incorporated.
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 Discuss some of the initiatives and partnerships of recently concluded Marrakech
climate conference that could prove to be the gamechangers needed to keep global
temperatures from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times.
 Analyse the outcomes of recently concluded Marrakech climate conference.
 To read complete summary of Outcomes of the UN Climate Change in Marrakech, click
on this link: http://www.c2es.org/docUploads/cop-22-marrakech-summary.pdf
TOPIC:
General Studies 3
 Disaster and disaster management.
General Studies 2
Environmental ‘Refugees’
Who are environmental refugees?

 In the increased frequency of natural disasters due to climate change, there are more
evidences of people getting displaced due to droughts, famines, rising sea levels and
other natural disasters.
 In popular literature, this class of migrants are called ‘environmental refugees’.
 “Environmental refugee”, a term coined by Essam El-Hinnawi, describes “people who
have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because
of a marked environmental disruption (natural and/or triggered by people) that
jeopardizes their existence and/or seriously effects the quality of their life”
 According Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, an international body reviewing
trends of internal displacement, approx. 24 million people are being displaced annually
by natural disasters since 2008.
 98% of this displacement was caused by climate- and weather-related disasters,
especially flooding.
 If such crisis events continue, almost half a billion people worldwide will become
“environmental refugees” by the end of the century.
 In 2013, natural disasters displaced three times as many people as war, with 22 million
people driven out of their homes by floods, hurricanes and other hazards. Out of these,
80% were from Asia. Thus, those living in developing countries face more risk.
Refugees are unwelcome

 Refugees puts pressure on existing population to share their resources.
 In cases when resources are already scarce, the refugees are seen as unwelcome guests.
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 For example, desertification threatens around 50 million inhabitants in North Africa

which has led to them migrating to neighbouring western Europe.
 In a condition of scarce resource and burden of additional population, there rises social
mistrust and competition which may further escalate into conflicts and violence.
Picture credit: http://www.globalization101.org/uploads/Image/Migration/map-water-

scarcity.JPG
UN Refugee Convention, 1951

 It grants certain rights to people fleeing persecution because of race, religion,
nationality, affiliation to a particular social group, or political opinion.
 The entitled rights follow the principles of non-discrimination, non-penalisation, and
non-refoulement.
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 However, people migrating due to environmental disasters have no such recognition of

their ‘refugee’ status in international law, leaving them without any basic rights of
rehabilitation and compensation.
 A recent example is refusal of rehabilitation of family to New Zealand from Kiribati
islands, which regularly witnesses environmental problems including storm surges,
flooding and water contamination.
 The New Zealand Court pronounced the judgement saying that asylum was sought on
grounds of being an ‘environmental refugee’ which does not have such category under
UN Refugee Convention.
Paris fails to initiate

 The Paris conference had presented a unique opportunity to address the challenge of
increasing environmental refugees.
 Even before the negotiations had commenced, there were numerous demands to
incorporate ways to tackle climate migration in the final agreement.
 It included
 Recognising the threat posed by climate change to livelihoods and human safety,
and environmental refugees or migrants affected by climate change.
 Providing technical and capacity building support to national and local initiatives
tackling such displacement.
 Developing suitable policies to manage loss and damage by addressing climate
change-induced displacement.
 However, the final agreement did not deliver on these issues in a satisfactory manner.
 Paragraph 50 of the Loss and Damage section of the agreement, states to create a task
force to build upon existing work and develop recommendations for addressing climate
migration. But this is not sufficient as
 The recommendations of task force have no binding authority
 No details have been provided on task force’s functions, operations, funding and
other aspects.
 Thus, the ambiguity does not build confidence in the realistic capability of task force to
effectively tackle climate migration.
What can be done?

It has been one year since Paris agreement and the political will has displayed its
commitment to take meaningful action against climate change. However, the issue of
environmental refugee cannot be sidelined.
Climate Change Displacement Coordination Facility

 The draft of Paris Agreement provided for a Climate Change Displacement Coordination
Facility.
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 This facility was intended to target organised migration and planned relocation of
displaced persons, securing emergency relief, arranging compensation for those
displaced and establish guidelines and standards for addressing climate change-induced
displacement and migration.
 The facility had more meaningful objectives on hand than the proposed task force.
Unfortunately, the coordination facility was not a part of final agreement. So it might be
important to reconsider this option too.
International Treaty
 The coordination facility will provide for a short term solution to relocate migrants and
rehabilitate them in safer regions.
 But a permanent solution is required, like an international treaty framework that
recognises ‘environmental refugees’ and obligation of nation states to accommodate
them.
Expanding the definition

 The refugees’ definition under existing UN Refugee Convention should be expanded to
include climate migration.
 This along with international treaty framework will provide necessary support to the
people who are most likely to lose their habitat and face threat to their lives due to
climate changes.
Picture credit:
https://www.digitalmethods.net/pub/Dmi/MappingClimateConflictVulnerabilityAndVictims
/Climate_vulnerability_world_map.jpg
Conclusion
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The world is already witnessing strong reactionary attitude towards political refugees as
seen with Brexit and Trump’s election as US President. This underlines the existing paranoia
towards migrants. Hence, there is a need to recognise the existence of environmental
refugees to save them under international law from danger to their survival and legal
complications.
The largest three emitters of Greenhouse gases- USA, China and India should also
proactively deal with the issue as these are predicted to be suffered tremendously from
climate change-induced migration, resulting in large-scale displacement of their own
populations.
Therefore, a collective effort is needed in finding an international solution to mitigate the
looming crisis.

 What do you understand by environmental refugees? Critically analyse the challenges
faced by India in dealing with new kind of disaster management.

 Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation
Integrating Biodiversity with development
 Recently, the PM himself made his environmental concerns clear when he asked people
to use idols mad of clay then plaster of Paris which is more harmful to environment
when immersed in water.
 This should stimulate the environmental consciousness of people to encourage the
preservation of precious natural resources.
 It has to be understood and engraved in the attitude that an eco-friendly approach in
every socio-economic activity should be followed.
Biodiversity
 Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources, including
terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which
they are part of
 This includes diversity within species (genetic diversity), between species (species
diversity) and of ecosystems (ecosystem diversity).
 It provides services such as water purification and supply, waste assimilation and the
cleaning of air and water, regulation of pests and diseases, and soil nutrient cycling and
fertility.
 It also helps mitigate unpredictable global changes and natural disasters.
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 Therefore, a rich biodiversity is the basis for good health, food security, economic
growth, livelihood security and moderation of climatic conditions.
 Today, the annual contribution of biodiversity to the world is put at $33 trillion. More
than 70% of the world’s poor live in rural areas and are directly dependent on the
ecosystem/biodiversity goods and services for their survival.
 Biodiversity forms the foundation of the vast array of ecosystem services that critically
contribute to human well-being. They also act as a safety net to indigenous peoples,
poor and vulnerable groups, women and children.
 However, this unique and critical asset has come under pressure due to anthropogenic
reasons.
India and biodiversity

 India is one of the 17 mega-diverse countries which is rich in biodiversity and its
associated traditional knowledge systems.
 Due to its size, range of topography, altitude and climate, India exhibits a rich variety of
ecosystems such as forests, grasslands, deserts, wetlands, mangroves and coral reefs.
 These provide basic needs such as food, fibre, medicine, fodder, fuel wood and timber.
 Around 1.2 billion people coexist with 8% of recorded species, which includes over
45,000 species of plants and 91,000 species of animals.
 India’s tribal population is also dependent on forests and natural resources to a
significant extent.
Bringing Biodiversity in foreground

 Though India possess 18% of the world’s population but it has only 2.4% of land and
4.2% water resources.
 For a higher GDP growth rate, rapid development that pertains to industry and
infrastructure is required.
 But the development activities have sought to greatly affect the biodiversity.
 Natural resources such as water, forests, fisheries and marine resources are being
overexploited, which in turn affects their renewability. A recent study has shown that
India will become water scarce by 2025.
 Also, the emissions from industry and the transport sectors are at a high level. There is
indiscriminate discharge of solid wastes, industrial effluents and domestic sewage with
considerable impact.
 Therefore, there is a need of proactive efforts in ecosystem management that involve
government and community as such work cannot be done in isolation.
Presence of biodiversity
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 Many economic sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry, health, nutrition, water
supply, energy, trade, industry, transport and tourism depend on biodiversity. As a
result, the use of biodiversity also impacts biodiversity.
 Biodiversity conservation has traditionally been the responsibility of the environment
sector. Its enforcement is done by taking measures through legal decisions, ‘polluters
pay’ principles as well as the incorporation of protected areas.
 But, the development sector generally ignores its responsibility towards biodiversity
conservation. With development in mind, the effects and impact on surroundings is
generally ignored.
 Many times this leads to harmful effect on environment. Hence a more responsible
approach towards biodiversity management by mainstreaming it is required.
Mainstreaming biodiversity
 It means integrating actions related to conservation and promoting the sustainable use
of biodiversity in strategies relating to production sectors such as agriculture, fisheries,
forestry, tourism, and mining.
 It also refers to including biodiversity considerations in poverty reduction and national
sustainable development plans.
 Mainstreaming helps to reduce the negative impacts on biodiversity. For example, in
agriculture, strategies to minimise the use of chemicals and optimise the application of
chemical fertilizers and pesticides reduce negative impacts on soil, groundwater,
surrounding habitats and wildlife can be implemented.
What can be done?

 Small-scale farming or aquaculture activities undertaken in a sustainable manner might
prove to be a relief to wild species.
 Positive biodiversity impacts might also be optimised through promoting people’s access
to benefits derived from the use of biological resources.
 Community-based joint forest management, promotion of traditional multi-species and
multi-variety agricultural practices, securing access to medicinal resources for local use,
strengthening traditional and cultural practices, and governing the use of wild resources
are few examples
 Fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use of biological resources
and the knowledge associated thereto (one of the objectives of the Convention of
Biological diversity, or CBD, and the Biological Diversity Act of India) by users (industries)
to the providers (communities) act as incentives to local communities in the
conservation and sustainable use of bio-resources.
 Each sector should understand its relationship with biodiversity and come up with
appropriate mechanisms for conservation and sustainable biodiversity use.
 Here, the involvement of Central/State Ministries and Departments is equally important
and needed.
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 The research institutions should be more proactive and come up with appropriate
management strategies, with budget options.
Conclusion
To achieve many national and international biodiversity goals such as the National
Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, Aichi Biodiversity Targets and CBD objectives,
biodiversity integration into developmental sectors is a prerequisite.
This will promote holistic valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services thereby
strengthening cases of investment in development sectors by governments and the private
sector.

 Can biodiversity be integrated with development? Examine.

 Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation
Delhi Pollution- Is there any hope?
 Delhi pollution has worsened over past few years. Now, the capital is facing its worst
spell of persistent smog in nearly two decades.
 According to the latest data from the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and
Research (SAFAR), the levels of PM10 and PM2.5 particles have reached 876 and 680
micrograms per cubic metre, against the safe limits of 100 and 60 micrograms per cubic
metre respectively.
 This represents the severity of the issue for the citizens of Delhi as well as environmental
harm caused.
Stop blaming farmers

 There are many factors that have contributed to deteriorating of the air quality in Delhi
and increased pollution levels, raising environmental concerns.
 It includes Diwali fireworks, urban emissions from vehicles, cooking, lighting, waste-
burning, industries, power plants and construction activities.
 However, the state government has singled out stubble burning by the farmers of
Punjab and Haryana as the prime cause for the ongoing crisis. Thus, resource-poor
farmers become convenient scapegoats for any crisis that happen in country.
 Whether it is over-exploitation of groundwater or environmental pollution, condemning
farmers’ actions has become the norm.
 Despite the Central Groundwater Board’s (CGWB) revelations that cities are also
culprits, farmers continue to be blamed for groundwater exploitation.
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 If the pollution was caused by stubble burning, it would have affected the air quality in
Lucknow, Chandigarh and Amritsar, which fall between Delhi, Punjab and Haryana.
 Also, if the pollutants from Punjab and Haryana were actually causing the high levels of
toxity in Delhi, they should have been reporting the same conditions in their own home
States. But there is no such report so far.
 It is true that there is spike in pollution levels in Delhi’s air annually in winter and also
the burning of paddy and wheat stubble after the crop is harvested. But this does not
mean that the burning crop residues are contributing to Delhi’s pollution peaks.
 An expert from Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has pointed out that Delhi’s
pollution level continues to be critical even after the burning stops. This categorically
means that the pollution is not the reason of stubble burning and hence farmers should
not be blamed.
Problem lies within

 Union environment minister has clearly stated that satellite images from ISRO prove that
the neighbouring States were responsible for only 20% of the pollution. The remaining
80% was strictly from Delhi and mainly due to its garbage problem. This was highlighted
by study of Central Pollution Control Board and IIT Kanpur (2015).
 Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, IIT-Delhi, made a very crucial observation that vehicles
were the largest contributor of air pollutant emissions in Delhi followed by industries,
power plants and domestic sources. (2014)
 In a joint report by IIT-Kanpur, Delhi Pollution Control Committee and Department of
Environment, NCT Delhi (2016), it was clearly suggested that the single largest
contributor is road dust, accounting for about 56% of PM10 and about 38% of PM2.5.
 No doubt crop burning is also a cause of pollution but it is ranked behind major
pollutants such as road dust, vehicles and industry.
 The per capita registration of high emission vehicles in Delhi is reportedly the highest in
India; more than half of the city’s middle-class homes have two or more cars. This has
led the increase in vehicle population since 2007.
 The city planning can also be held the culprit for increased pollution as cramped
residential quarters around the industrial zones not only lead to traffic congestion but
also stop polluted air from escaping.
Choice with farmers?

 In order to remove all unwanted plants and shrubs in a quick, cheap and easy manner,
farmers from time immemorial have set fire to their fields after harvesting. Hence,
burning of crops is not a new phenomenon in India.
 However, burning stubble has become inevitable and frequent in recent years as
harvesters do not cut the crop close to ground and farmers’ financial condition does not
allow them to dispose of the stubble mechanically.
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 Also, the other problem is that the time period to shift from rabi to karif crops is very
small. This has to be done between the third week of October and the middle of
November.
 So, each day of delay in sowing costs them dear. In such a scenario, where resource-
poor farmers are already burdened with the rising cost of farm inputs, they cannot be
expected to invest more funds to dispose of crop stubble.
Way forward
 The residents should be willing to keep their lifestyle in check.
 For the sources of pollution, the Centre and the State need to rethink the model of
urban development. Then only it is possible to keep air pollution in check.
 Long term measures include imposing a ceiling on the number of vehicles per
household, controlling the registration of diesel vehicles, using CNG engines for public
transport and phasing out old commercial vehicles, restricting and regulating
construction activities, efficient management of garbage and banning smoke-generating
fireworks at all social events.
 Also, research initiatives should be undertaken to ensure that mechanised harvester
does not leave behind crop stubble.
 Right financial incentives should be put in place to ensure that the collected straw is
used in biomass plants for power generation.
 Also, India can take lessons from France by forging partnerships to develop technologies
that help bring innovative solutions. Technological and research partnerships,
particularly in the areas of space, clean energy and water, can contribute to this.
IASbaba’s views
Implementation of sustainable urban development strategy which includes energy
efficiency, development of clean energy, adaptation of conventional energy sources to
restrict their negative impact and expansion of public transport network is needed. The two
drivers of growth- innovation and technology- play a crucial role in this field.
Hence, the sources of pollution should be clearly identified and best available solutions
should be adopted.

 What are the various causes of air pollution? Critically examine the need for India to
mitigate the air pollution level else disaster is on the brink of occurrence.
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ECONOMY
TOPIC:
General Studies 3
General Studies 2
arising out of their design and implementation
Demonetisation: Impact till now and what next?
Demonetisation has come as a shock for all as it eliminated 86% of the value of the currency
with the public. The government called it ‘short term pain for long term gain’. But now it
needs to be seen as to what is gained and what pains had to be suffered.
 The long term objective is to cleanse the system of corruption, tax evasion and the
generation of black income.
 Demonetisation only targets that part of existing black wealth which is held in cash.
 It does not affect the continuous flow of black income and the corruption/tax evasion
which generates it, which in many ways is the core of the corruption problem.
Demonetisation effect so far

 It has considerably caused inconvenience to people as people with legitimate quantities
of old notes of Rs500 and Rs1,000 have to queue up at banks to exchange them into
new notes.
 Tragically, many reports have also surfaced of people standing in queues.
 Also, the shortage of cash has also disrupted business in the cash-based informal sector,
which is where the majority of the population is employed.
 Farmers, fishermen, vegetable sellers, small shopkeepers without card readers or Paytm,
taxi drivers, truckers, etc., have all been affected with loss of livelihood which may be
irretrievable in some cases.
 For example: loss of daily wages for casual labour, or lower sales for vegetable vendors.
 Real estate sector is expected to be badly affected because it is heavily cash-dependent,
having long been a favourite asset for holding black wealth.
 Other sectors like hotels, restaurants, catering, the fashion garments industry, etc.
funded by cash from black income will also be affected.
 In short run, the downstream income flows in the form of wages to construction labour,
purchases of cement and other construction materials will be disrupted.
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Expected normalcy?
 It has been reported that given the capacity constraints at the two printing presses
which can print the high-value notes, it will take until May 2017 to replace all notes.
 It will not be possible to replace all notes because:
1. there will be some switching to digital payments, which is desirable
2. some of the cash hoards will be cancelled in any case on 30 December
GDP growth
 The negative impact on the various sectors of the economy is bound to produce lower
growth
 GDP growth estimates for FY17 from financial analysts vary from a low of 3.5% to a
range of 5.5-6.5%.
 More importantly, it will also remain subdued next year. Moreover, much depends on
what happens to the investment climate.
 Since the slowdown will be concentrated in sectors which are more employment-
intensive, the impact on low-end employment will be greater than on overall GDP.
 This raises the issue whether the slowdown should be offset by counter-cyclical
additional expenditure on road construction and railways.
 Though such intervention will breach the fiscal-deficit target but a temporary deviation
can be justified in the face of the negative-demand shock of the demonetisation.
Better management was needed
 If the plan was two months old, building up a larger stock of new notes in advance
would certainly have avoided some of the inconvenience and the associated cash
shortage.
 Considering the sowing and marriage season, the provisions for weddings and farmers,
could have been anticipated.
 Also, ministry of agriculture’s request regarding an exemption for farmers purchasing
seeds and other inputs during the sowing season to avoid disruption in sowing, should
also have been addressed promptly, rather than after several days.
 There should have been flexibility in usage of demonetised notes. old notes are allowed
to be used in public-sector hospitals but not private hospitals, and farmers are allowed
to use them for purchase of seeds from public-sector agencies but not private agencies.
 The most important flexibility is to allow cooperative banks to accept old notes. Their
presence in rural areas is much larger than that of commercial banks, and they are all
regulated entities.
Does demonetisation affect black wealth held in cash?

 Much of enthusiasm with public is that those with hoards of cash will not be able to
exchange it in the banks for new notes, and will therefore lose their ill-gotten money.
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 This group includes businessmen, or politicians (either on their own behalf or on behalf
of political parties), or bribe-taking bureaucrats.
 However, much of this may be laundered. Since the notes will be valueless after 30
December, holders of undeclarable cash will be willing to offer 30-40% commission, or
even more.
 Intermediaries will organize large numbers of individuals who can take smaller
“explainable” amounts of cash to the banks for deposit.
 Since farm income is free of tax, large numbers of people claiming to be farmers, could
make deposits in banks, technically even exceeding Rs2.5 lakh with impunity.
 Black wealth held in cash can also be laundered by purchase of gold and hawala
transactions. Some of this has already happened as evidenced by the sharp rise in gold
prices and also the hawala rate for the dollar.
 Thus, black money is cash will still find ways to be secured and thus not affected much.
Will black money be controlled?

Demonetisation is for this but it doesn’t yet address it. What is needed are steps that will
discourage fresh black income from being generated in future through continued
corruption. It can be as follows:
 Reducing discretion in both the Central and state governments and increasing
transparency and accountability especially where the financial amounts involved are
large. Example: areas related to land and land use.
 Tax administration reforms including reorganizing, strengthening and modernizing the
Central Board of Excise and Customs/Central Board of Direct Taxes.
 The goods and services tax (GST) to be introduced shortly was an ideal opportunity, but
the proposal finally approved by the GST council has far too many rates and exemptions.
Thus, there is need to lower tax rates and simplify tax system to improve compliance.
 Lowering the corporate tax rate to 25% at one go with exemptions eliminated in the
next budget. The present rate is much higher than in most other jurisdictions.
 Persuading states to drastically lower the stamp duty for real estate sales as high rates
of stamp duty are a major reason to perpetuate real estate transactions in black money.
 Pursuing some high-profile corruption cases to a successful conclusion to send a
message to both business and the bureaucracy that corruption will not be tolerated.
 To start making serious effort at reforming the system of electoral funding, including
introducing transparency in party finances.
Conclusion
Demonetisation can be a part of comprehensive strategy to tackle corruption and
generation of black income. As it is likely to impose substantial pain because of the adverse
effect on GDP and low-end employment, the more important next step is to attack from
various directions on the source of corruption and black money. The PM has begun this by
asking his partymen to submit their bank account details.
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Progress on these would make a real contribution to reducing the long- term gain of
reducing the generation of black income over time.

 What do you understand by demonetisation? How does it affect the lives of people and
economy? Examine.
 Critically analyse the effect of demonetisation on black money and corruption.

life
Regulating the digital economy
 By 2016, the digital economy is likely to reach US$ 4.2 trillion in the G20 economies,
more than 5 % of GDP.
 This projection, however, is dependent on the availability of fast fixed and mobile
connections, secure cloud services, affordable devices, innovative apps and available
content.
 Similarly, investment and innovation in the digital sector has generated enormous
opportunities for the Indian economy.
 It has raised the economic and global profile of entire cities, created jobs and produced
innovative technologies used and sold around the world.
 Today, it has become more important as India is trying to speedily switch over to a
country-wide system of digital payments across sectors in a cashless economy.
What is digital economy?

 Digital economy means an economy that is based on digital computing technologies.
 It is also called the Internet Economy, the New Economy, or Web Economy.
 The terms 'Digital Economy' was coined in Don Tapscott's 1995 book The Digital
Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence. The Digital Economy
was among the first books to consider how the Internet would change the way business
was done.
 Three main components of digital economy can be identified as
1. Supporting infrastructure (hardware, software, telecoms, networks, etc.),
2. e-business (how business is conducted, any process that an organization conducts over
computer-mediated networks),
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3. e-commerce (transfer of goods, for example when a book is sold online).

 But, new applications are currently blurring the lines between these- for example, social
media.
 However, digital economy is looked forward with a promising future with digital
networking and communication infrastructures providing a global platform over which
people and organizations devise strategies, interact, communicate, collaborate etc.
Challenges of digital economy

Internet services are growing at a massive rate, putting strain on existing infrastructure and
business models. Two known challenges are:
1. Spectrum
The world is possibly facing a ‘spectrum crunch’. It has been forecasted that 19 billion
wireless devices will be in service by 2017 and mobile data traffic is expected to grow by 66
% annually. The increasing network density, is costly, time-consuming and will result in
disruptions for consumers.
2. Government engagement and regulation
The government has to set an overall strategy for digital infrastructure and manage key
tradeoffs. One such key tradeoff for governments is the question of whether to provide high
speeds for urban residents versus basic connectivity for rural residents.
In fast-moving industries, regulators struggle to keep up with market and technological
developments.
Regulating the digital economy

 Though it brings number of benefits to economy, consumers, entrepreneurs and
businesses, it has highlighted a number of new challenges for regulators.
 Recently, a conference co-hosted by the Competition Law Bar Association and the CCI
revealed that the CCI recognises its critical role in encouraging innovation in this growing
area of the economy.
 CCI recognises that in view of the low barriers to entry and high levels of innovation,
companies at the top of an industry have to work harder to keep customers, who can
easily switch their faithfulness to a better or cheaper competitor.
 This has been visible with Facebook overtaking MySpace and also rise of apps such as
Whatsapp and Hike replacing SMS messages.
 In such a backdrop, it is necessary to examine how regulators outside of India have been
examining the dynamic and fast-moving technology sector.
Understanding the changing dynamics
 The regulatory vacuum in which disruptive and ‘permissionless’ innovations are thriving
on the internet is also creating concerns for the Indian government.
 Uber and Ola are two such examples where advances in smartphone technology have
disrupted the entire taxi service industry, rendering their regulatory model perfunctory.
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How can regulators, faced with fast paced innovation, reimagine new rules for the
future?
 The universal core principle is that regulators have to protect competition in their own
jurisdiction, focus on domestic consumers rather than competitors and keep in view
the economic development of the country.
 This may be the reason that tech progressive countries such as the US and Canada have
taken a cautious approach to tech interventions.
 However, old and high-profile tech-related investigations continue in Europe. Others
have documented Europe’s technology sector and concluded that it is far from thriving
with many putting blame over-regulation.
 Hence, Indian regulators could be cautious about seeking European guidance on
regulating the digital sector given Europe’s indifferent performance in tech.
 A recent analysis by The Economist showed that the US leads the world, followed by
Asia and Europe is a distant third in market capitalisation of online platforms.
 At a time when Indian tech companies such as Flipkart, Zomato, MakeMyTrip, Yatra,
Snapdeal, Justdial, Paytm, and others are growing and the economy is assured of an
accelerated growth trajectory mainly due to the country’s technology sector, Indian
regulators must be cautious in following Europe’s example in the regulation of its digital
economy.
 The Indian government is working hard to encourage investment and bring rapid
expansion in the technology sector.
 It is now incumbent on regulators to weigh the pros and cons of their actions against this
objective and not rush into decisions that could jeopardise this growth.
IASbaba’s views
India’s market regulator is highly respected for what it has achieved within its relatively
short existence. It has the potential to show the path to various developing economies,
many of which are looking to India. Hence, India has to set a high standard in determining its
regulatory mechanism for digital economy.
Also, the role of the private sector in regulation is significant as it is well positioned in the
digital economy to increase awareness among consumers on the best practices required for
the industry. Hence, government and private sector should create a co-regulatory
framework to maintain the digital economy.
Regulation must be narrowly tailored and based on empirical evidence rather than a
peremptory judgment of newer business models. Drawing lessons from international
examples about what works and what doesn’t is equally necessary.

 What is digital economy? Critically examine the importance of digital economy in
contemporary world and the role of regulator.
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TOPIC:
General Studies 3
General Studies 2
Will demonetisation pay off?
 After a scheme or programme is launched, it is necessary to know whether it has been

successful or not so as make decision to improve or eliminate it.
 Thus, it is also necessary to know the success of demonetisation or rather re-
monetisation programme of government.
 The purpose of demonetisation is an attempt to eliminate black money besides
countering the phenomenon of counterfeit currency.
 As the time passed by, other objectives were also declared which included need of
switching to digital transactions.
 Hence, such schemes cannot be evaluated in the short term as some of the goals
specified are transformational and will take time to materialise.
Measures to determine the success rate

 Though demonetisation effect can’t be known in short term but its yardsticks can be
decided beforehand for evaluation.
Disappearing cash
 The first metric to evaluate the scheme can be how much money disappears from the
system.
 Though the finance secretary has expected that the entire scrapped money in circulation
in the form of currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 will come back to the banking
system so that the tax authority can trace the transactions and tax black money
hoarders.
 But there is a projection that a large part of the currency in high denomination notes -
around Rs. 14.25 lakh crore - would not enter the banking system, thus making it
redundant.
 At present, Rs. 8 lakh crore have been deposited in banks and a month is yet to go.
Hence, whether 10% or 20% or 30% money will not be returning may determine the
success rate.
 A ratio of 20-30% will justify the quantum of vast exercise. The reason is that the cost of
demonetisation for 50 days from November 8 to Dec 30 is expect to cost Rs 1,28,000
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crore which includes loss of business or sales, cost to households, the expenses for
printing fresh currency notes to the government and the RBI besides for banks.
 Thus, the government will have to show gains in form of penalties and additional taxes
from those who have been found violating the rules or have evaded taxes.
Taking refuge through Jan Dhan account

 In respect to it, the second metric can be identification of people hoarding money. There
have been reports of transactions converting cash to bank deposits through the Jan
Dhan programme or any other means.
 Identifying of such transactions will attract penalty cum fine which can vary across the
spectrum. This will clearly bring in more revenue for the government.
 Hence, it is expected that for every Rs. 1 lakh crore of identified black deposits could
earn the Government a bonus of at least Rs. 50,000 crore revenue.
 The success garnered here will reflect Government promptness in plugging loopholes
that were being exploited by holders of black money.
Cash availability post 30th December

 The third metric will be cash availability with banks and ATMs post 30 th December when
the window to deposit the scrapped notes and withdrawal limit will end. Currently, the
cash crunch and long lines at banks and ATMs are signs of problems faced by citizens.
 However, post 30th December, it needs to be seen how fast RVI revokes all the curbs on
withdrawal of currency from banks and also sufficient cash in the economy.
GDP growth
 The GDP growth is expected to retard in Q3 of the year and thereby affect the economic
growth process and thus affecting overall growth in the fiscal.
 Hence the fourth metric will be how fast the re-monetisation scheme will help the
recovery of GDP growth and help economy move upwards.
 If Q4 growth is lower than Q3, than the demonetisation plan will prove that it hampered
the growth. But if it attains normalcy, then it should be considered turning point in
economy post Q3.
Impact on real estate

 The real estate hosts the maximum percentage of black money. Though there are varied
views on how the sector will cope up post demonetisation, its litmus test will be on if the
real estate prices come down or not.
 The RBI or NHB price indices would provide some clue to whether there has been any
moderation in the prices of property in the country.
Acceptance of digital transactions
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 Demonetisation has also the objective of promoting digital payments. Hence, the sixth
metric will be if the volume of cash holdings will come down with the time.
 Over a period of 6 to 12 months, the ratio of currency to GDP should come down from
the present level of around 12%.
 If the households and businesses go back to holding similar amounts of currency, then
the transformational objective would get vitiated. It would also mean that Indians
require currency for the three classical purposes put forward by monetarists —
transactional, precautionary and speculative.
Creation of new black money

 The main target of demonetisation has been targeting black money and eliminating it.
 Till now, most of the black money has resided in cash and hence it needs to be seen if
another platform for black economy will be created or not considering the fact that high
denomination notes of Rs. 2,000 become easier to hold.
 But it will probably take 5 to 10 years for such an economy to come up; however, it can
be delayed by more stringent tax laws. This is where the tax system must be tightened
so that slippages are eliminated.
Challenges
There are going to be considerable costs - some that can be measured and others that
cannot.
 The most tangible among it is loss of GDP and 50 bps cut in the GDP growth rate which
would amount to around Rs. 70,000 crore. If the loss on an annual basis is higher, then
the cost for the economy will increase proportionately.
 There also are intangible costs such as time spent by households and businesspersons to
deal with the new situation.
 There will be distortion in market which includes stocks and GSecs in particular. The
yields have become volatile as the RBI grapples with the excess liquidity problem in the
system.
 The banks have faced multiple challenges during the process such as late hours,
reconciliation, overtime, recalibration of ATMs, security and so on, which would be
considerable even as some cannot be quantified.
Conclusion
The success of demonetisation will largely be seen post 12 months when the economy will
show changes that were projected. It is expected that benefits should outweigh the costs
once the system starts cleaning up. However, the challenge would be to see that the new
black economy doesn’t get generated again.

 What are the parameters to identify the success of demonetisation? Critically evaluate.
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 How is demonetisation disruptive to economy? Substantiate.
TOPIC:
General Studies 3
General Studies 2
A new normal- Being Cashless
 Though demonetisation was touted as a surgical strike on black money, fake currency
and terror funding, it has now become a radical ‘reform’ to transform India into a
cashless economy.
 Government has rolled out a series of measures which are in way of building a national
consensus in favour of the transformation.
 This shows the most significant shift in the legitimising narrative around the note ban.
This was significant in PM’s Mann ki baat speech which drew on the equivalence
between ‘Swachh’ and ‘purity’, and ‘purity’ and ‘virtue’, to give a moral colouring to the
binary of cash/cashless.
Informal is the target

 In Indian economy, 90% of all transactions are in cash. This is due to the large informal
sector, which employs 90% of the workforce.
 However, this sector doesn’t comprise of majority of black money hoarders.
 Hence, for India to become a cashless society, it has to transform the mammoth
informal sector to digital payments.
 The PM thus sought to pre-emptively control the resistance to transform India into
digital economy by launching it as a campaign against black money.
 The distinction between legal cash and black money was dissolved and the ground was
cleared for the treatment of all cash as potentially black unless proven white.
 This can be understood in the context that informal sector did not suffer as an
unintended casualty of demonetisation but it was the intended target.
 As RBI has clarified that it was not at all an ill-planned operation as some have
suggested. In fact, the government was fully cognisant of the consequences of its move.
In name of black money

 Cash is the most powerful instrument of financial inclusion. Anyone can access it
directly, without depending on rent-seeking technological or financial intermediaries.
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 It is non trackable as once a person has cash, it can be spent wherever and whenever
without anyone tracing.
 This freedom was taken as granted and this is what ‘cashless’ society takes away from
the person.
 The ‘phase one’ of demonetisation focused on implanting the idea of black money in
public memory to give the ‘cashless’ drive a logical need.
 The ‘phase two’ kicked in after black money and national pride was inserted into
demonetisation discourse where cashless was equal to clean and cash with dirt with
suspicion of black money.
Speedy deliveries
 Traders, small businesses, shopkeepers and consumers routinely use cash as a means to
avoid paying service tax, sales tax, VAT and any number of indirect taxes and fees.
Hence, a cashless society would result into a sharp rise in indirect taxes compliance.
 This would be needed when Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime needs to become
successful.
 By sucking out 86% of paper money and enforcing a cashless payments system by letting
people flounder for a period in a condition of acute paper money scarcity was perhaps
one the quickest means to implement the ‘cashless’ drive.
 Also, apart from the state, the finance capital of India is another big beneficiary of
cashless India.
 Currently, India’s low-income households access credit through informal systems
through broker, money lender or relative with cash savings.
 This informality was partially dented with the arrival of self-help groups that can access
formal credit. But because of India’s growing population, both the debt and the savings
of the working classes constitute an enormous market that global finance has so far
been unable to access.
 Hence, when the cashless system was enforced, it instantly formalised informality.
 Thus when seen in reverse, the Jan Dhan accounts were meant for financial inclusion
which channel personal income (wages/cash transfers) to financial markets via insurance
and pension schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Atal
Pension Yojana. And with cashless systems, money in Jan Dhan accounts can serve as a
fresh source of liquidity for financial institutions.
 The digital sector enjoys a symbiotic relationship with finance capital. Post November,
there has been surge in digital payment apps and e-wallet companies.
The new ‘normal’

 The citizens of India- from businessmen to farmers to analysts- are waiting for life to
return to normal. Here, a general ‘Normal’ means no long queues at ATMs.
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 But the queues are long not only due to too many people and too little cash but also
because of limit on withdrawals which forces people to queue up multiple times at
different locations.
 Hence, a proper return to the pre-demonetisation ‘normal’ therefore requires removal
of any ceiling on cash withdrawals.
 But, such a definition of ‘normal’ would be valid if the reason for demonetisation was
either destruction of black money or fake currency or even a recapitalisation of banks.
But these things have already happened and no longer matter. People have started
using new notes for their transactions but it is not available as per demand.
 Thus, the return to the ‘old normal’ may not be possible as no matter how many
currency notes are printed or how many ATMs are recalibrated or how many livelihoods
affected in the informal sector, the ceiling on cash withdrawals may not be withdrawn
any time soon.
 Reason: the demonetisation drive is not much about black money as it is about
combating cash.
 Unsurprisingly, the banking sector, IT sector and somewhat corporate sector are
supporting this move.
 Only the targeted informal sector is hit by the demonetisation as it is cash-dependent. It
will continue to be so until they switch en masse to digital payment platforms — which
is what the government is expecting them to do.
Conclusion
The digital transformation of cash is also a cost savings to the entire financial ecosystem and
not just the public purse. From printing to cash management to physical infrastructure to
securing and dispensing of currency, cash is very expensive.
Hence, India must use the demonetisation drive to harness its innovation and political
capital.

 Is demonetisation move a planned exercise? Critically analyse
TOPIC:
General Studies 1
 Factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector
industries in various parts of the world (including India)
General Studies 3
 Changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth
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Challenges and Scope of Unorganised Manufacturing Sector
Scope of the Small Scale Units
The debate on the small units versus large units in industry and agriculture has been going
on amongst the industrial academicians since quite a while. Small scale units are said to
better in terms of performance indicators and labour absorption. At times it is emphasised
that small units are the engines of pro-poor growth.
However, one major obstacle the small units face is the access to several kinds of resources,
particularly credit and marketing facilities. Due to this they are not able to get benefits of
economies of scale and larger units end up having an edge in the market.
Unorganised manufacturing sector, both household and non-household units, accounts for a
large majority of total manufacturing employment in India. Enhancing the technological
capabilities of these units and integrating them into national and regional value chains is
important to ensure their economic viability. This economic viability will ensure decent
wages to the workers and ensure pro-poor growth.
Organised Sector versus Unorganized Sector

 In terms of technical efficiency and total factor productivity, there is little evidence in
favour of positive links between the organised and the unorganised sector units
perceived in terms of inter-sectoral efficiency differences and associations between
them.
 The units within the unorganised sector seem to reveal similar characteristics in terms of
performance indicators, while organised sector units are much better performers.
 It is observed that the unorganised sector units are not able to benefit significantly in
the process of rapid economic growth. The demand side factor or agglomeration-specific
factor does not impact on the performance of unorganised sector enterprises in a
favourable way.
 Organised sector units respond positively to a rise in income in the region where they
are located, which could be due to difference in terms of quality of the products
manufactured by the organised and unorganised sectors. A rise in income leads to a shift
in demand for products away from the unorganised to the organised sector.
 The process of ancillarisation is expected to benefit unorganised sector by creating
greater opportunities through inter-sectoral linkages but the increasing role of labour
intermediaries and payment of wages on piece rate basis is not facilitating a positive spill
over.
 Even the level of infrastructure also does not exert a positive impact on the performance
of the unorganised sector, while the efficiency of the organised sector improves with a
rise in the availability of infrastructure.
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Unorganised sector enterprises exist to provide means of survival only, which is especially
true for household units.
Steps for the Unorganised Sector

 Policies should be framed in a manner which lead to product quality improvement
within the unorganised sector and hence give an impetus to the demand for the
products.
 Infrastructure access needs to be enhanced for these units especially for those
numerous units operating from remote rural areas.
 Special facilities have to be provided to these units in terms of credit and market access.
 Not only accessibility of infrastructure has to be increased but even the affordability has
to be increased. Facilities such as electricity need to be priced in a manner which is
affordable for the units in the unorganised sector.
Advantages of Urban Location

Surveys and studies in the past have indicated that those smaller units located in the urban
areas have an edge over their rural counterparts.
 Higher technical efficiency has been observed for small industrial units in urban areas
than their counterparts in rural areas.
 The government policy initiatives for promoting urbanisation in India, particularly the
‘Smart Cities’ programme, are expected to help make unorganised manufacturing more
economically viable.
 Growth of investment in small unorganised sector units is expected once the small
towns (census towns) which do not have urban local bodies are officially given the status
of urban areas.
 Sub-contracting activities enhance the technical efficiency of unorganised manufacturing
units. It is noticed that incidence of sub-contracting is relatively greater in urban areas.
Hence, more urbanisation will lead to more sub contracting and hence higher technical
efficiency.
Way Forward
In the light of above challenges and the potential of the small scale units belonging to the
industrial sector, various measures which can assist these units in growth and efficiency are
as follows:
 Affordable and easy credit
 Access to markets through emporiums, trade fairs and other forms of consortiums
 Congenial and growth oriented labour laws making these units fruitful employment
centres
 Tax benefits, exemptions and holidays to the unorganised sector to reduce their cost of
operations and also promote infrastructural development.
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 Subsidised provision of electricity, land and other forms of essential infrastructure.

 Create inter sectoral linkages so that the units feed from each other’s growth and
growth of larger units as well through ancillarisation.
Connecting the dots

 How can small industrial units in the unorganised sector act as engines of pro poor
growth? Discuss the challenges faced by such units and provide strategy for their growth
supported by examples of government policy initiatives.
Indian Economy- Are the goals clear?
During the second half of UPA 2, there was some anxiety over India’s future, especially its
economic future. After two and a half years of NDA government, the present scenario brings
to the same standards of concern.
Stagnated growth
 Despite the headline GDP growth number, private investment has been more or less
stagnant. Had there been even tepid growth in the private investments, it would have
been projected with great fervour. It is because the private investment growth gives
more information about how the economy is doing and is likely to do.
 Also, it was said that India can grow despite state intervention. But, this has occurred
first time in a decade that the share of public investment in projects under
implementation exceeds private investment.
 This means that share of state funding is likely to continue dominate the investment
environment for some more time.
 However, the result is that the economy is not growing despite the state support.
Instead it is becoming more dependent on state. The risks of such economy are that it
will need constant push by the government, creating all sorts of fiscal and institutional
distortions.
 It is a fact that the present government had inherited a slew of problems and hence the
economic boom will take time. But it is necessary that economic growth is positive
compared to lustreless global economic scenario.
Not upto the mark execution

 The present government had been confident about its execution capabilities. However,
it has been seriously dented by demonetisation. But, demonetisation is a recent
phenomenon. Yet, the execution capabilities of the government are coming under
serious questions in comparison the standards set up by itself.
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 One of the better performing ministers in the government, Ministry of Roads and
Highways, has admitted that road building targets are way short of the ambitious targets
(20-25km/day); in fact, they are at a lowly six kilometres per day for the year.
 The mobilisation of private investment for infrastructure is stuck and there are modest
successes in energy and on the renewables.
 However, there is no doubt that total capacity augmentation exceeds that of the
previous UPA rule. Let us look at performance of few flagships programmes:
 Swachh Bharat gained initial boost but its impact is less visible.
 Clean Ganga mission, just like previous programmes, has failed to evoke the
required response and consistency. Though, the momentum is building up
slowly.
 Smart cities programme need to do more than announcing the list of cities and
creation of SPVs. However, here too, the city government reform is not even on
the agenda despite its sore need.
 Make in India has not seen progress as touted.
 Programmes like Jan Dhan and Aadhar have acquired great momentum which is
positive step in direction of financial inclusion and identity proof.
 No doubt, these are all long term projects whose results will be delayed. But the
problem lies not in ambition, but execution.
 Demonetisation has hit rural consumption demand harder than urban demand (more
cash intensity), services more than manufacturing (higher proportion of unorganised
sector), and exports more than imports.
 The government failed to predict the consequences of such a drastic policy step and
match up with the execution of its remedial measures post demonetisation.
Rise of arbitrary state

 India has an established rule of law which demands respect for law. The core institutions
of intelligent law enforcement are police, investigating agencies, prosecution and
judiciary. Yet, the institutional capacities of none of them has have increased in past few
years.
 In fact, sometimes it is felt that the government wants to discipline the society by
arbitrary injections of fear every now and then, just as it was visible in 1970s.
 Currently, government is being empowered in unprecedented ways to regulate and
control the lives of individuals.
 The government is facing a stand-off with judiciary, the investigating agencies are just
doing as they were without any improvement of confidence of people in the institution
and the questions on surveillance, privacy, the appropriateness of data-sharing, choice
seem to be sidelined.
 The media is not able to speak its mind. For example, during UPA government, a mere
possibility of siding with USA would evoke protests, but now, even when it is clearly
visible that India is aiming for alignment with USA, there is no discussion!
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 In addition to it, any argument against government decisions are called anti-national.
This is in violation of basic principle of democracy- the right to dissent.
Not all is lost

 The current demonetisation move is expected to have a short term effect on economy
as per the Indian industry representatives. But it has requested the government to take
steps for improvement in productivity and consumption so as to spurt increase in
demand.
 The digitisation of the economy was discouraged by lot of cash payments and the heavy
charges. Now with government incentivising the usage of digital medium, the economy
should get a boost, atleast beginning with the formal sector till the informal sector gets
used to it.
 Also, the Indian economy is expected to rebound as soon as remonetisation is
completed. The government has assured for the earliest results.
 According to a report by Nomura, India’s growth is expected to largely remain
unchanged at 7.1 per cent in the coming year and will rise sharply to 7.7 per cent in
2018.
 This means that some of the reforms that might hurt growth in the near term but are
positive for the economy in the medium to long run include — the recent
demonetisation and implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) — along with a
reversal of the terms-of-trade gains.
Conclusion
India has emerged as the fastest growing major economy in the world as per the Central
Statistics Organisation (CSO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The improvement in
India’s economic fundamentals has accelerated in the year 2015 with the combined impact
of strong government reforms, RBI's inflation focus supported by benign global commodity
prices. These should be considered as kickstarters and growth simulators for more
investments, both public and private.
Though the economic growth is expected to suffer dent due to demonetisation, the
government has taken a bold step which was much needed to ouster black money and
terror fundings.
The work approach and attitude of government does seem autocratic in nature but it shall
never be able to demean democracy and its principles as people have the power to accept
or reject the government on its performance.

 Is the Indian economy in crisis? Critically examine.
 What in your opinion will be the effect of demonetisation on Indian economy? Explain
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 Effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects
on industrial growth.
 Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.
Economic Inclusion and Equality in 2017
How 2016 shaped up?

The year gone by has seen a lot of political developments around the world whether it was
the exit of Britain from the European Union (EU) or the presidential elections in the USA.
The people around the world who have constituted the vote bank have been concerned
about issues such as trade, migration, and structural labour market changes.
However, from an economic viewpoint, 2016 has not been a very happening year and has
just seen nations recovering slowly from the after effects of the global crisis of 2008.
The economic activity in the US, Europe and other emerging markets has seen gradual
improvement with a few vulnerabilities still in existence.
Global Co-relation
USA Policies
 The expansionist policies shown by the USA have had a positive impact worldwide.
 The approach by USA has helped in raising expectations of global growth and inflation
and also gives some respite and manoeuvring space to the central banks of advanced
nations which have carried the burden of the economic policies throughout the past few
years of recovery and growth.
Co-existence and Co-operation

 As per International Monetary Fund (IMF), the fiscal policy of countries with a stronger
economic base and capacity to withstand the shocks need to be supportive for global
growth.
 These countries should have monetary policies and structural reforms which aid
increase in productivity and growth.
 Other factors such as Germany assuming leadership of the G-20 will push the countries
towards structural reforms and building more resilient and stronger economies.
Expectations and Role Play in 2017

In the coming year, China is expected to continue focussing on reorientation of its economy
away from exports and more towards domestic demand. Other Asian economies are also
expected to and need to exhibit more dynamism in their growth strategies.
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Economic Challenges in 2017

The economic challenges in 2017 will be a result of various political developments that have
occurred in the last one year.
 Imbalance in technological progress in countries is widening income inequality within
many countries. The same can be well understood by the fact that in major advanced
economies, the top 10% of earners’ incomes increased by 40% in the last two decades.
 Another major challenge staring in the face of the international community is migration
which is increasing in magnitude due to geopolitical pressures.
 Migrants and refugees are substantially beneficial for host countries but their increase
leads to fears of economic and cultural change and ethnic insecurities.
 Nations believe that restrictions on cross-border movement of goods, capital, and
people will improve employment prospects and economic security of the domestic
population
 Countries need to preserve the gains from economic openness while addressing
inequalities or else welfare and living standards of people especially in the low income
countries would be endangered.
 There is also a growing feeling among people that policymakers are not focussing
adequately on interests and welfare.
Action Steps
The major problems related to inequality can be addressed in many different ways.
 Governments can provide and enhance direct support for lower-skill workers, especially
in countries and regions which have had high rate of automation and outsourcing.
 Policy makers should focus on increasing the public investments in healthcare services,
education and skills training and also try to improve occupational and geographic
mobility.
 A huge focus has to be laid on significance of lifelong education to prepare current and
future generations for fast-changing technologies.
 Countries should strengthen social safety nets and promote affordable childcare,
parental leave, access to healthcare and workplace flexibility.
 Tax reforms and legal minimum wage rules can also be implemented to support lower-
income earners and create tax incentives to bring more women into the labour market.
 Economic fairness should be ensured so as to restore social trust and bolster public
support for reforms.
 Governments around the world should try to promote competition in important
industries that lack it, crack down on tax evasion and prevent business practices that
shift profits to low-tax locations.
Conclusion
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As a result of the above suggestions, the policies can improve economic inclusion if the
same are implemented effectively. Various stakeholders and professions need to join the
economic world in this effort.
The IMF recommends a more equitable income distribution as a sound social policy and a
sound economic policy as well. As per research, reduction in high inequality makes
economic growth more robust and sustainable over the long term.
Political developments that have happened in 2016 will push policymakers to focus on those
countries or people who have benefited least from economic integration or have been
displaced by technology-driven labour-market changes.
Lastly, we need to understand that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to tackle inequality
and promote inclusion around the world. Policies have to be flexible and suitable for
different countries and regions depending on the set of problems they face.
Connecting the dots

 What are the reasons that the world countries are witnessing inequality and lack of
inclusion in the post global crisis era? Suggest a strategy for nations to promote equality
and inclusion with due concern towards economic growth.
TOPIC:
General Studies 3
 Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.
General Studies 1
 Effects of globalization on Indian society
The leadership priorities for 2017
 True leadership in a complex, uncertain and anxious world requires leaders to navigate
with both a radar system and a compass. It means that the leaders need to provide a
vision and a way forward so that people can get a better future.
 It has been demonstrated in 2016 that leaders must be responsive to the demands of
the people who have entrusted them to lead.
 The leaders have to be receptive to the signals that are constantly arriving from an ever-
changing landscape and they should be willing to make necessary adjustments. In these
efforts, they should not deviate from their truth of having a strong vision based on
authentic values.
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Responsive and Responsible Leadership

 The World Economic Forum has organised their annual meeting on the theme of
‘Responsive and Responsible Leadership’.
 Here, the leaders in the government, business and civil society chart a course for 2017,
where five key challenges will warrant their attention.
Fourth Industrial Revolution

 The new industrial revolution is evident with new technology redefining entire industries
and creating new ones from zero.
 The ground-breaking advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things,
self-driving vehicles, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and quantum
computing is making inroads into new revolutionary industrial development.
 2016 has shown what their potential is and 2017 will eventually will be witnessing
science fiction becoming a reality.
 But, with such development comes the drawback. The fourth industrial revolutions
threatens to divide the world between the world that embraces the technology and
those who don’t for any reason. This division threatens the well-being of the society.
Global governance system

 Today’s economic, technological, environmental and social challenges can be well
addressed through global public-private collaboration.
 For this, the leaders have to build a dynamic, inclusive multi-stakeholder global-
governance system.
 The current framework for international cooperation is based on the post-war era, when
nation-states were the key actors. But now, the private players are equally playing a key
role in defining the global market as well as governance system.
 The geopolitical shifts have made the world multi-polar as new global players bring new
ideas about how to shape national systems and the international order.
 This has made the existing order more fragile as the countries interact on the basis of
shared interests, rather than shared values. Hence, the extent to which they will be able
to cooperate will be limited.
 Moreover, non-state actors are now capable of disrupting national and global systems,
not least through cyber attacks.
 Thus, the countries cannot isolate themselves from the global occurrences. The only way
forward is to make sure that globalization is benefiting everyone.
Restoring growth
 The global leaders have a crucial challenge to restore global economic growth.
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 Permanently diminished growth translates into permanently lower living standards: with
5% annual growth, it takes just 14 years to double a country’s gross domestic product
(GDP); with 3% growth, it takes 24 years.
 If the current stagnation persists, the next two generations will have a difficult life than
the predecessors.
 The global population is forecasted to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, from 7.4 billion today.
Even without today’s technologically driven structural unemployment, the global
economy would have to create billions of jobs to accommodate a growing population.
 Thus, leaders have to chart out the roadmap to create ways to accommodate social
inclusion and youth unemployment which has become critical global and national issue.
Reforming market capitalism

 There is a need to reform market capitalism and restore the compact business and
society.
 Today, free markets and globalisation have improved living standards and lifted people
out of poverty since few decades.
 However, this has structural flaws of having myopic short-termism, increasing wealth
inequality and cronyism. This has fuelled severe political backlashes.
 Thus, there is a need to create permanent structures for balancing economic incentives
with social well-being.
Identity formation
 There has been crisis in identity formation that has resulted from erosion of traditional
norms over past two decades.
 Many people are searching institutions who share their distinct beliefs and thus furnish a
sense of purpose and continuity. This is the result of globalisation making world small
but a complex place.
 Identity formation is not a rational process; it is deeply emotional and often
characterized by high levels of anxiety, dissatisfaction, and anger.
 Similarly, politics is also driven by emotion where the leaders don’t attract votes by
addressing needs or presenting long-term visions, but rather by offering a sense of
belonging, nostalgia for simpler times or a return to national roots.
 This was evident from Brexit and US’s Presidential election result.
Conclusion
In 2016, populists made gains by fostering reactionary and extreme beliefs. However, the
responsible leaders must recognize people’s fears and anger as legitimate, while providing
inspiration and constructive plans for building a better future.
Just by looking at the surroundings, there is overwhelming presence of pessimism,
negativity, and cynicism. But not all is lost as there is an opportunity to lift millions more
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people out of poverty so that they can lead healthier and more meaningful lives. The narrow
interest shoul be replaced by interests of the global society.
The leaders have the duty to work together toward a greener, more inclusive, and peaceful
world. Success will also not be dependent on external events during the year but the
choices made by the leaders.
Hence, responsive and responsible leaders are required to address the collective challenges
and restore people’s trust in institutions and in one another.

 Critically evaluate the global economic challenges recognised in recent years.
 Leadership plays a critical role in steering the global ship. But the present leadership
don’t emanate positive environment for the same. Analyse the role of leaders in
maintaining the global collectively.
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HEALTH
TOPIC:
General Studies 2
General Studies 3
life
Tracking the health targets
 NITI Ayog is preparing a vision document of 15 years for India’s development path
beyond the 12th Five Year Plan
 Also, it has made is clear that the development goals will be in alignment with the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
 SDGs comprise of 17 goals and 169 targets which were agreed in principle by 200
countries. They represent a five-fold increase from the 48 indicators of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG).
 Now, as India joins the global community in the pursuit of the SDGs, it faces the twin
burden of implementation and official data capture.
Tracking the goals

 Since the 1970s, various studies of India’s health sector have shown that one third of
field workers’ time is often consumed in task of maintaining registers and records.
 When this work is traded off, it has a negative impact on the quality of data captured by
the health system.
 There has been lack of information on non-communicable diseases and injuries, dearth
of primary data on causes of death, lack of private health sector numbers and
insufficient district-level data.
 National Health Policy of 2002 also recognised the immediate need for systematic and
scientific population health statistics.
 Thus, there is a critical importance of keeping a track of data that reflects the success of
policies and their implementation.
 For this, there is a need of data revolution wherein disaggregated data is made publicly
available so that India’s SDG targets can be tracked.
There are few recommendations to streamline and build on the existing national statistical
infrastructure to facilitate such a revolution.
Transform Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems
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 India relies on sample registration and surveys to track mortality-related goals because
of the inadequate coverage of its Civil Registration System (CRS).
 The National Population Policy 2000 had set the goal of achieving universal birth
registration by the year 2010. Though India has made considerable improvement, the
nationwide coverage is inadequate for informing decision-making.
 With respect to it, WHO (2015) has observed that the Civil Registration and Vital
Statistics (CRVS) systems permit continuous production of statistics even for local
administrative subdivisions which is not possible with censuses and household surveys.
 The CRVS system allows for more accurate information, and in turn, clearer
denominators for assessing progress across sectors.
 The aim to achieve universal registration of births and deaths have been revised to 2020.
Also, an initiative has begun to integrate the National Population Register with CRS
which will offer transformative possibilities.
 Thus, efforts to universalise birth and death registration, as well as integrate existing
databases like the Census, NPR and CRS systems at the sub-district levels, can help track
at-risk population in small areas.
Streamlining National Surveys

 The latest round of NHFS (2015-16) gave district-level estimates for the first time. Now
NHFS will be repeated every 3 years and thus will help in overcoming some of the
country’s health and nutrition data bottlenecks.
 Also, NFHS 4 replaces the Annual Health Survey (AHS) and District Level Household and
Facility Survey (DLHS). These were two major sources of health data at the district level
during the MDG era.
 But this should not stop the tracking of concrete data on health and nutrition
monitoring.
 It is a policy imperative to conduct a comprehensive assessment of existing surveys with
the aim of streamlining a set of health and nutrition indicators to continuously track the
national targets.
 There can be combination of consumer expenditure rounds with at least some modules
of the social consumption of health rounds so that enhanced data is collected at more
regular intervals.
 Thus, a yearly survey covering all major indicators of health and nutrition coordinated by
NSSO. Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) can offer inputs towards
such an endeavour.
Reform the national Health Management Information System (HMIS)

 A transparent and evidence-based decision-making can be supported by an efficient
national health information system. This can lead to improvements in health outcomes.
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 HMIS offers benefits such as helping decision-makers to detect and control emerging
and endemic health problems, monitor progress towards health goals, and promote
equity.
 The HMIS was intended to oversee the working of the National Rural Health Mission
(NRHM). It has around 1.8 lakh health facilities capturing data for HMIS about antenatal
coverage, immunisation coverage, delivery services, family planning coverage, among
other indicators, across the country.
 But it faces certain challenges such as lack of coverage of the private medical facilities
and shortages and the nature of incentive structures within the system.
 Multiple initiatives often prevent a holistic health systems approach. There are various
schemes and programmes announced by the ministries of health and of women and
child development.
 These schemes should be mapped and rationalised in a way that there is a
comprehensive set of indicators helping assess the system and track progress.
Conclusion
With so much of possibilities of change and transformation in India’s health statistics, it can
be said that the majority success of SDGs will lie in India’s performance. Though there are
challenges but with robust policy, efficient implementation and continuous tracking, there
can be visible improvements in health statistics all across India.

 India faces critical public health challenges faced in India. Examine.
 How to improve the health status of the Indians? How can the tracking system of health
policies be improved? Discuss.

 Issues relating to Poverty and hunger
Malnutrition in India and Food Fortification
What is Malnutrition?
Malnutrition refers to the lack of proper nutrition which could be either caused by not
eating the right food with the right nutrients or not eating adequate amount of food with
the adequate nutrients. This leads to lack of essential nutrients being received by the body.
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Causes of Malnutrition in India

 Geographical Causes: Due to physiographic diversity and regional imbalance in terms of
resources, certain areas lack certain nutrients or food items.
 Historical Causes: The long rule of British has led to exploitation to such an extent that
certain sections of the population and certain regions in the country have still not been
able to overcome the deprivation caused.
 Socio-Economic Causes: Poverty and inadequate inclusion of various sections of the
demography. Also, with the increasing level of disposable income with the people there
is increasing consumption of junk food and packaged food which is leading to
malnutrition as well in urban areas.
 Governance and Policy Failures: Ineffective implementation of policies and failed targets
of the five year plans and delayed focus on malnutrition has left India lagging behind in a
major way.
 Other Causes: Additionally, a family’s economic costs incurred and cultural links are also
responsible for micronutrient deficiencies.
Malnutrition in India – Magnitude

 World Bank Report on India issued in 2006 estimates the prevalence of underweight
children in India to be among the highest in the world, and nearly double that of Sub-
Saharan Africa.
 Fifty per cent of Indian villages are severely affected by malnutrition.
 Malnutrition is the single largest contributor to under-five mortality.
 As per World Bank, India loses over $12 billion in GDP to vitamin and mineral
deficiencies.
Food Fortification
 Fortification of staple foods such as milk, oil, sugar and flour is an important strategy to
eradicate malnutrition which is followed globally. The key vitamins and minerals which
rank high on the fortification need are vitamin A, iodine and iron. Deficiencies arising
from these three are creating the greatest burden on public health.
 India has been focussing on advocacy programmes as a starting point for food
fortification initiatives.
 Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and private organisations have been actively
pursuing the food fortification programme with support from the Centre. Some NGOs in
Rajasthan and Haryana are collaborating directly with local mills, where majority of the
wheat consumed is processed, to ensure micronutrient fortification by providing vitamin
A and vitamin D in flour.
 Vitamin A sachets are being provided to school children in municipal schools, as part of
the midday meal programme.
 Public/private partnerships can also help in resolving the issue through unique business
models as done in Philippines. In Philippines, sugar is the most widely consumed staple
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food. The government has started a nationwide food fortification program by enriching
sugar with Vitamin A because 40 per cent of children between the ages of six months
and six years had severe Vitamin A deficiency. For this they are taking support of the
largest sugar manufacturer.
 It is also being advised to promote the importance of a balanced diet along with food
fortification and Vitamin A supplementation by creating a sustainable food fortification
programme where all stakeholders come together.
There is a need for unique initiatives that will support a nourished lifestyle among the poor
and it is a welcome move where joint efforts are being carried out to address this challenge,
with national and global organisations joining hands.
Legislative Support for National Level Programmes

 To ensure that programmes for food fortification are carried out effectively, centrally
mandated laws are needed.
 There is a need for programmes which can be implemented at the national level such as
the widely successful programme of salt fortification with iodine, which has been useful
in reducing goitre deficiency.
 Learning has to be taken from our neighbours. Support from Central government has
made it possible for Bangladesh and Pakistan to initiate national wheat and oil
fortification programmes and nationwide bio-fortification programmes as well.
Way Forward for India

 The Group of Secretaries on Education and Health has identified fortification of food
items like salt, edible oil, milk with a timeline of three years, as one of the measures to
be undertaken to address the issue of malnutrition in the country.
 A task force is slated to be formed from various ministries to support fortification.
 Concrete action with a unified front is needed by involving various stakeholders to
combat malnutrition.
 India can also rely upon the Public Distribution System (PDS) efficiency to ensure the
access of fortified food to the masses especially in the rural areas.
 Focus on tribal area nutrient needs. Schools in tribal areas should be given special
responsibility in ensuring that students get access to the right food and in the right
quantity.
 We also need to work towards achievement of all Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
which together can have a huge impact in reducing the incidence of malnutrition.
 International collaborations such as SAARC Food Bank can be useful in reducing under
nourishment.
Connecting the dots
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 What is food fortification and bio-fortification? Discuss how fortification can be a major
strategy of the government of India to reduce malnutrition in India.
 What are Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Discuss how these goals can be highly
instrumental in assisting India in reducing the incidence of malnutrition. Highlight certain
initiatives taken by the government of India to overcome malnutrition.
SECURITY

 Science and Technology – developments and their applications and effects in everyday
life Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and
developing new technology.
 Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media and
social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security; money-
laundering and its prevention.
Secure digital infrastructure

On October 21, US and Europe witnessed attacks from hackers when large chunks of the
internet were made inoperable. Computers and servers were flooded with artificially
created traffic which resulted in "Denial of Service" of many applications.
The attackers hacked and took control of an estimated 100,000 low-end devices that can
autonomously access the internet and consequentially paralyse the internet.
This event was a chilling demonstration of the new vulnerabilities that attend the
astounding growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). Technology, and the exploding range of
services it enables, has consistently outpaced our understanding of the internet’s evolution
and the systems designed to protect it.
India’s case:
Last month, people in India woke up to the news about the largest data breach in the
country. It involved data stolen from 3.2 million debit cards between 25 May and 10 July
from a network of bank ATMs, managed by a Japanese payment services company.
After demonetisation, the Government of India is pushing for digital transactions. As India
goes digital, experts must recognise the huge threat to the internet from hackers using
armies of ‘bots’.
 The country’s digital infrastructure will remain vulnerable until we have indigenously
developed security hardware and software.
 Software and application developers have a first-to-market mindset, and tend to ignore
security and privacy issues.
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 Given the manner with which Indian companies and the Government treats customer
data, BPOs seem to be the biggest threat to data security breaches. The legal system to
handle cyber fraud needs further strengthening.
 Banks need to dedicate far greater resources and should have a designated senior
officer such as a CISO for overseeing security issues.
Though the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has issued
guidelines and policies, the implementation has been poor. Incident reporting and handling,
having a complete information security management system in place, developing business
continuity plans, and threat modeling are a few important steps that banks need to take
immediately.
How have cyber threats evolved over the years?
Cyber security threats are constantly evolving.

 Viruses infecting personal desktops were the first generation.
 The second generation can be traced back to 2001, when hackers took down the
Microsoft and EBay websites by targeting their domain name server with a denial of
service (DOS) attack, giving rise to “botnets.”
 The third generation began in 2007, with the release of Red October, a state-sponsored
cyber-espionage campaign that stole data from classified computers, mobile devices,
and network equipment. Perhaps the most famous of these attacks is Stuxnet.
 Malware is also evolving to become more platform-focused. Now, with the advent of
smart devices, malware is penetrating pervasively and focusing on all security
dimensions, that is, access, data theft, and destruction. The trend is global and does not
affect India alone.
What measures need to be taken to strengthen the existing security system?

 Some of the positive initiatives which RBI is already taking with regard to digital payment
systems, are two-factor authentication in net banking/online transactions by using one-
time password’s (OTPs), SSL/128 bit encryption used as minimum level of security, etc.
 However, they should consider other ATM security solutions, including advanced anti-
skimming technology, silent alarm notifications and video surveillance, ATM lighting and
remote video monitoring at all places, 24/7 surveillance and security systems strictly
controlling access to all banking facilities, and so on.
How far the existing infrastructure to prevent cyberattacks in India as compared to

developed countries? Where are we lacking?
 In terms of regulations, our banking systems and companies providing digital platforms
for digital transactions are at par with international standards. However, we certainly
lack in adherence to, and implementation and review of the regulations.
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 We still do not have data privacy regulation in India. Among other things, banks should
take necessary preventive and corrective measures in addressing various types of cyber
threats including, denial of service, distributed denial of services (DDoS), destructive
malware, etc.
The way ahead:

The challenge is what can be done about this. Long-term solutions will require immediate
operational actions and practices with longer-range initiatives, some policy driven. These
will require shared responsibilities across a spectrum of players, from individuals to
institutional and corporate entities and various agencies of the government.
The root cause is the vulnerability of devices where security has not been addressed as part
of the original design, or indeed, provisions do exist but these processes have not been
followed at the time of activation. It is critical that standards for device security must exist
and compliance must be required for sale and operation.
The most effective move would be to embrace the standards and protocols being adopted
by technologically advanced economies of the West that have dramatically higher stakes
and are developing safeguards. That will position India well for the future as its own reliance
on the internet rises steeply.
But even that would be a partial solution since hundreds of millions of vulnerable devices
are already out there globally — the IoT is not waiting to happen. An important step should
be to assess the risk from all exposed devices and take actions to contain this. In some
cases, the fix might be simple; replace default passwords by strong, unique passwords. But
when security considerations are not well addressed, the only sensible action would be to
either disable autonomous access or remove the devices altogether.
Urgent action is an imperative — otherwise, we risk becoming collective victims of cyber-
attacks or unwitting accomplices to these incidents, potentially with large-scale and serious
consequences. At a national level, more is needed.
 The imperatives are, first, to set policy, strategies and priorities to address this and other
aspects of cyber security, including appropriate frameworks of laws and statutes.
 Second, it is vital to develop and set specific standards and provide guidance for
compliance.
 Third, we must identify vulnerabilities and prioritise actions to protect critical
infrastructure and operational capabilities.
 Fourth, developing and maintaining specific real-time interventional capability to
address a cyber attack of this nature by pinpointing and containing it, and ensuring
resilience for protection and restoration of capabilities, is important.
 Fifth, we must carefully think through protocols that will be necessary to manage such
complex issues that cross organisational boundaries in real time — the ability to respond
must not be hampered by internal boundaries and conflicting authorities.
Cyber security is a complex topic that requires a range of coordinated, dynamically adaptive
actions where responsibilities span from individuals and organisations to national
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governments. The stakes are enormous. Cyber security is already a rapidly evolving frontier
of vulnerability and threat. The option to do nothing does not exist.

 Critically examine the need of a robust cyber security architecture for India to tackle the
growing digital intrusions.
 As Digital India gains more traction, and the consumer and Industrial Internet of Things
trends become more mature, security is bound to pose more challenges. Elucidate.

life
 Awareness in the fields of IT
 Challenges to internal security through communication networks
 basics of cyber security; money-laundering and its prevention
Vulnerable cyberspace in India
Recently, a hacker group ‘Legion’ broke into twitter accounts of Congress Party, its vice
president Rahul Gandhi, controversial liquor baron Vijay Mallya, TV journalists Barkha Dutt
and Ravish Kumar. Such hacker groups have exposed the vulnerability of cyber market in
India which may fall to prey easily, thereby compromising on the privacy of data.
Knowing Legion
 The group ‘Legion’ has claimed access to ‘over 40,000 servers’ in India, ‘encryption keys
and certificates’ used by some Indian banks, and confidential medical data housed in
‘servers of private hospital chains’.
 It is a group that trades in ‘zero days’ and makes money through ‘weaponised exploits’.
A zero day vulnerability refers to a hole in software that is unknown to the vendor. This
security hole is then exploited by hackers before the vendor becomes aware and fixes it—
this exploit is called a zero day attack. Thus, a zero day vulnerability is a flaw.
 For example, Stuxnet, the cyber weapon developed jointly by the United States and
Israel to slow down Iranian nuclear centrifuges, used a zero-day exploit that falsified
digital certificates, allowing it to run in Windows operating systems.
 So, if Legion has gained access to a ‘Secure Socket Layer’ (SSL) certificate that an Indian
bank’s website uses to validate its authenticity to a user’s computer or mobile phone,
the group can easily retrieve confidential login information and cause unmitigated
financial loss.
 Now the group aims to target to hack mail servers hosted by the government.
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The loss that such security breaches induct is the corrosion of public trust reposed in digital
transactions. This becomes more profound when more Indians are switching to online
payment gateways in the aftermath of demonetisation.
Digital security in India

 As per a study by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India and PwC, in
India, there has been a surge of about 350% of cybercrime cases registered under the
Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 from 2011 to 2014.
 Researchers in India at cybersecurity company FireEye discovered phishing websites
created by cybercriminals that spoof 26 Indian banks in order to steal personal
information from customers. This has been now notified to Computer Emergency
Response Team (CERT) team.
 At a time when an increasing number of Indians are going digital and doing transactions
online, these hacking incidents expose the country's cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
 As the digital economy grows, consumers should be aware of the risks that come with
convenience. The ease of online payments opens new avenues for criminals to trick
consumers into divulging their own sensitive information of banking, digi wallets etc.
Threat to privacy
 If the country’s digital assets are vulnerable to espionage and disruptive attacks, there
are institutional, economic and social factors fuelling their neglect.
 The centre is yet to identify and implement measures to protect ‘critical information
infrastructure’ indispensable to the country’s governance.
 The National Informatics Centre (NIC), which hosts the government’s mail servers, has
been compromised several times in the past. It has just recently started using two-factor
authentication (or 2FA, in which the user provides two means of identification) to access
sensitive government communications.
 Not only government, but even private sector has failed to report and respond to
breaches in digital networks.
 As per Interpol report of 2015, 1,11,083 security incidents were handled by CERT-In but
less than 10% of those were registered with law enforcement agencies.
 Whether at the payment interface or the e-commerce website, electronic fraud is highly
underreported in India.
 There are neither voluntary, sector-specific standards for reporting data breaches nor
industry backchannels for sharing confidential security information.
 Most Indian applications available on Android and iOS stores allow for automatic
updates or patches, increasing the likelihood that an exploit or malware can be
introduced without the user’s knowledge.
 Many Indians don’t even realise that the digital identities have been now inextricably
linked to their actual personas. An intrusion in the virtual social existence limited in its
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scope by 140 characters, may make way into person who owns the account- their
identity, personality, private life and, more dangerously, financial profile.
 With many digital accounts linked to Aadhar platform, the breach of privacy may cause
mayhem.
Way forward
 There should be attitudinal change among the Indian elites and policy makers that
cybersecurity is not ‘optional’. The successful hacking of accounts of highly visible
politicians, journalists and industrialists shows that cybersecurity space needs boost in
coming days.
 There should be a policy in place which deals strictly with cybercrimes. Even misuse of a
digital wallet should be dealt with in the toughest way to send a message that cyber
security is not something that can be messed with.
 There should be awareness and education about the digital platforms being used. There
are many first-generation Internet users who might not understand the full risks and
vulnerabilities associated with going online.
 There should be appointment of a National Cyber Security Coordinator, which was
suggested in 2014, by creating liaison officers in the States.
 The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) should be adequately staffed.
 2FA should be made mandatory even for Indian companies that rely on Gmail for official
communication.
Frequent data breaches will steadily erode the confidence of Internet users and deter them
from using digital gateways. The government has staked its future heavily on the success of
the Digital India programme and hence it has to vindicate its goals by focusing on the
importance of cyber security.

 Why is cybersecurity important in this age? Examine the issues surrounding the fallouts
of cyber breaches.

 Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.
 Security challenges and their management in border areas;
Manipur violence- Assessing the internal security
Manipur has been facing sever hardships in supply of essential items since November 1, 2016
after United Naga Council (UNC) imposed an indefinite economic blockade on the two
national highways — NH 2 and NH37 — that serve as lifeline for the state.
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The economic blockade

 The state government had announced formation of seven new districts with the reason
being administrative convenience. This brings up total districts to 16 from 9.
 UNC which claims to be a common platform for Nagas in Manipur, feels that the move
by the majority Meiteis will hurt their interests.
 The UNC has claimed that the creation of new districts, especially making Sadar Hills and
Jiribam full-fledged districts in the Naga dominated hill areas, will encroach upon and
divide the traditional land holdings of Naga tribes.
 This blockade has not only crippled trade and normal life in the state but also increased
the existing divide between the valley and the hill people.
 The blockade has led to scarcity of goods which has led to price rise. The cost of
petroleum products have almost tripled.
 In addition, the demonetisation move further worsened the situation. However, the
market is devoid of essential items which has made people now indifferent to
demonetisation move.
 Cross-border trade with Myanmar at border towns of Moreh in Manipur and
Namphalong in Myanmar, legalised since 1995, has also come to a standstill, hit by the
double blow of the blockade and demonetisation.
 Adding fuel to the fire, the tensions in the state has further heightened after suspected
UNC militants continued their violent attacks on Manipur Police and other state forces.
 Though the leadership of National Socialist Council of Nagaland - Isak-Muivah
(NSCN(IM)) claims that a political solution on the lines of Greater Nagalim is on the
cards, the situation has worsened so much that Manipur Chief Minister urged the Centre
in writing to snap all agreements with the NSCN(IM) and revoke the ceasefire at least in
Manipur.
 In the aftermath of economic crisis and insurgency, a group of angry protesters took to
streets and torched the vehicles.
Actions taken
 In order to prevent spread of violence, the mobile internet was shut down in Imphal
West district.
 Also, a large number of police personnel were deployed at sensitive areas of the state.
The central government had placed 15 companies of central forces stationed in Manipur
at the disposal of the state government.
Internal security challenges- nothing new

 Manipur has faced cycle of violence and insurgency movements within the states due to
land and identity issues. Lack of competent governance institutions, infrastructure and
economic growth has failed to bring a long term solution to the Manipur crisis.
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 The creation of new districts has been a subject of ethnic strife in Manipur since 1971,
when it was first proposed.
 Successive governments have failed to resolve the festering identity-driven tensions
sparked by the exercise.
 For instance, Naga and Kuki villages are located side by side in all four hill districts of
Manipur (Imphal East, Imphal West, Senapati and Tamenglong).
 The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (Afspa) has been in place since 1958. It has
continued to alienate the local population, and act as a deterrence for focused
modernizing of state police and counter-insurgency forces.
 The signing of the Naga framework accord between NSCN-IM and NDA government in
2015 has also increased speculation about the territorial disintegration of Manipur.
 Manipur’s northern districts have been long claimed by Nagas as part of the greater
Nagalim territory. Disputes over these lands in the 1990s resulted in targeted attacks
against Kukis and tensions between Nagas and other tribes.
 The creation of 7 new districts, with at least three districts dividing the Naga-dominated
areas in northern Manipur, has given new life to this tension.
Solving the instability

 There should be phased removal of AFSPA wherein central and state government work
together for greater peace establishment in Manipur.
 There should be implementation of the Sixth Schedule, which gives autonomy to tribal
districts, rather than an inner-line permit which will restrict the entry of people. This will
give people greater control over their territories.
 Resolutions involving the various tribes along with possible administrative control over
certain regions dominated by the Nagas can ensure better governance in the state.
 It will also help in removing incentives for the rise of smaller insurgent groups and
remove the onus for maintaining peace from the state and on to the groups themselves.
 Making Manipur a stakeholder in any foreign policy that involves acting east. An Act East
policy that uses the growth and regional impact of a stronger, better-governed Manipur
will have far greater impact on India’s commitment to its eastern neighbours.
Strengthening Manipur-Myanmar international border

 Manipur shares 355km of its border with Myanmar. It has historical and cultural
contiguity with Myanmar, apart from having a clear navigable, active trading route with
Myanmar.
 Manipur remains India’s most economically viable border to the south-east, forms the
nucleus of India’s renewed zeal to act east, and therefore requires special focus.
 India’s planned trilateral highway starts from Moreh and is designed to cross Myanmar,
extending all the way to Mae Sot in Thailand. Legalizing, securing, and streamlining this
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existing natural trade route will ensure economic connectivity remains, and benefits the
state.
 Manipur, after Mizoram, remains the port of choice for drugs and arms originating from
the golden triangle on the Myanmar, Laos, Thailand border. Better security
infrastructure, a narcotics agency with more powers, better equipment, a modernized
border force, and streamlining of trading posts can also help stop illegal cross border
imports.
Conclusion
The Manipur state elections are approaching in 2017. In this backdrop, these issues should
be addressed. The entry of a second national-level party into Manipur could end 15 years of
single-party rule. This is needed because political competition would improve the efficiency
of the government and moderate the distrust of citizens towards the political system.
Tribes of Manipur
 Tribes of Manipur are one of the most distinctive features of the state include at least 29
communities that originated from Tibetan-Burmese tribal group of Mongoloids.
 Manipur is largely inhabited by 4 types of tribes along with other tribes. These include
the Meities and Pangals who inhabit the lower regions of the valley; while the hilly
regions of Manipur are mainly populated by the Naga tribes and Kuki tribes.
 Tribes of Manipur along with these include some more groups like the Tangkhul tribe
which resides in the Indo-Myanmar border occupying Ukhrul District of Manipur.
 The Meities, who constitute 56% of the state’s population of almost thirty lakh, occupy
only ten% of the geographical area particularly the valley region.
 The Nagas, with a population of approximately seven lakh, reside in the hilly areas of the
State and are deeply suspicious of the Meities.
 The Kukis who are sandwiched between the Nagas and the Meities constitute 7.5% of
the population and are demanding a separate Kuki State.
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Picture credit:
http://mdoner.gov.in/sites/default/files/silo4_content/map_icon/Manipur.jpg

 The biggest threat to India is from its internal states than external states. Do you agree?
Examine.
 North east India has long been out of limelight which has resulted into non-recognisance
of its concerns. In the backdrop of same, discuss the current problems in Manipur and
how to address them.

 Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media and
social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security.
Data Privacy- A matter of concern
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Issue Involved- Consumer Privacy has been one such issue in India which has not received
sufficient attention in India corresponding to the critical nature of the matter. The problems
with respect to privacy include:
 Lack of awareness among people with respect to breach of privacy and the utilisation of
data.
 Recent examples of privacy breach also show that India economy is thoroughly
unprepared for safeguarding data privacy.
 Lack of regulations based on global standards.
 Obsolete principles guiding privacy in India based on recommendations of the Ajit
Prakash Shah Committee.
Justice A P Shah Report on Privacy

The panel headed by Justice A P Shah was constituted after concerns were raised about the
impact on privacy on the data of individuals due to emergence of several national
programmes such as Unique Identification number, NATGRID, DNA profiling, most of which
will be implemented through information and communication technology (ICT) platforms.
The recommendations included an over-arching law to protect privacy and personal data in
the private and public spheres and suggested setting up privacy commissioners, both at the
Central and State levels. It additionally enlisted nine principles to guide privacy and data use
along with exceptions to the right to privacy. The nine principles pertain to notice, choice,
collection limitation, purpose limitation, disclosure, access, security, openness, and
accountability.
Contemporary Analysis of the Principles
Notice and choice

These two principles together create the “notice and choice model” of consumer privacy. As
we all have experienced while accessing services of websites and mobile applications,
service provider provides notice in the form of a privacy policy and we as consumers
exercise choice by agreeing to and accepting the terms and conditions. In a competitive
market, various service providers should have ideally competed to provide the best privacy.
However, the same has not been held true. In fact privacy policies have always been
complex for a layman which may be attributed to the complex nature of commercial
transactions themselves.
There has been a major failure in terms of awareness where the consumer would have
demanded better and higher privacy from the service providers. This is also due to lack of
any “choice” available with the consumers.
Big Data and the Principles of Limitation
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Big Data are extremely large sets of data that are usually collected in massive quantity and
then analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially
relating to human behaviour and interactions.
The problem arises when the same data is used for purposes other than those for which the
same is collected. Further, it is obvious that more the data more will be the uses that it will
serve. Therefore, this urge for more and more data is endangering the privacy of consumers.
Herein the principle of collection limitation and purpose limitation are bound to be violated.
Smart Data and the Principle of Disclosure

Other than big data, smart data which is referred to as the operational element of big data
endangers the remaining principles. Smart data can be understood in the light of the
Internet of Things (IoT).
Data collected usually through sensors, cameras, radio frequency identification readers
(RFID) etc consists of smart data. As and when the IoT becomes operational in a more
efficient manner sensors will be ubiquitous, connected, and freed from human interaction.
As the IoT grows, all devices whether wearable on the body or the home devices or even the
remote devices will be connected to each other. In a digital age where data sharing is so
quick, the principle of disclosure which restricts data sharing without necessary permissions
will be moulded as per needs and preferences. This shall also threaten consumer privacy.
Smart Data and the Principle of Access

As India aspires to go digital through the Digital India Programme, smart data will be
integrated into all digital mission such as Smart Cities project. In such a situation, people will
not be able to review their personal data which is being collected through the digital
networks. The principle of access and data security will take a major blow in this case as
data sharing increases.
Conclusion
 The Shah principles are on the verge of obsolescence in this digital era. It is not possible
for them to pass this test with the increasing significance of big data and the increasing
need for smart data.
 The need of the hour is to modify these principles wherever they are still relevant. In
other areas, a new and contemporary approach is needed.
 Instead of the notice and choice model, India needs to introduce a model focused on
data use. A use-focused model will categorize data uses on the basis of harm to privacy.
In this model, data can be tagged at the moment of its creation with a list of permissible
uses thus allowing better judgment to the consumers as well in terms of threat to their
privacy. For example, a phone’s roving location could be shared in real time with other
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phones to plot travel times and for efficient transport management but will not be
shared with the employer of the individual.
 Other than data use, data collection also needs to be regulated. Designing devices that
minimize data collection but are compatible with the IoT is another solution. This will
keep a check on the data collection.
 For the segment of population which is not interested in sharing the data or do not want
to be a part of this data exchange, their data should not be collected by default. In fact
the default mode should be now changed to non-collection unless consumers opt in.
Hence, data collection has to be understood in conjunction with privacy. Privacy

encompasses a number of inter-related values, rights and interests unique to individuals.
These may be the right to be left alone, the right to control personal information, the
freedom from surveillance and integrity of one's body. As we move towards a Digital India, it
is very important to respect these values and rights.
Connecting the dots

 As India is undergoing an era of digital transition, discuss why consumer data privacy is a
challenge that needs to be addressed? Also suggest measures to safeguard consumer’s
right to privacy.
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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
TOPIC:
General Studies 3
life Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and
developing new technology.
 Indigenization of technology and developing new technology.
 Awareness in the fields of IT, Space
General Studies 2
India’s space diplomacy
India has vigorously expanded into space diplomacy as an instrument to expand Indian
diplomatic clout and soft power as well as further its geo strategic interests. This has the
potential to enhance India’s diplomatic relations with developed as well as developing
countries. Let us look at India’s space diplomacy reign so far.
 Technological capabilities in outer space have long been used as an effective tool of
foreign policy. For instance, US used its LandSat satellites to share the data or Russia
included an Indian cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma in its manned space flight.
 India has established a long-standing space programme with a history of over 50 years of
space exploration. This is evident from the fact that India has some of the best remote
sensing satellites in the world and it has provisioned downlink capabilities for these
remote sensing satellites for a number of countries.
 India also shares data with countries and is a part of international forums such as United
Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency
Response (UNSPIDER).
 Also, India has launched satellites for countries that do not have space launch
capabilities as well as for countries like France, Canada and even USA who find Indian
services reliable as well as reasonable.
 Thus, India has taken excellent steps towards utilisation of space diplomacy and more
can achieved considering India’s capabilities for regional and global diplomacy.
India’s space applications
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 ISRO is now supporting many new tools and governance applications such as alert
system for unmanned railway crossings, identifying water sources, pipeline safety etc.
This can be used in furthering improvement in living standards of people.
 Civil aviation, marine navigation, road transportation and disaster management are
some of the areas that would stand to benefit from the potentials of IRNSS.
 Significantly, the INSAT communications and IRS earth observation spacecraft
constellations being operated by ISRO are being routinely harnessed for a wide ranging
purposes including disaster warning, tele medicine and tele education, crop forecast,
water resources monitoring and mapping of natural resources.
 Indeed, India’s experience in exploiting the potentials of satellite technology for
accelerating the pace of socio economic development is of immense relevance to the
third world countries including the India’s South Asian neighbours.
A peaceful and prosperous neighbourhood

 Reaching out to the neighbours with the expertise in space technology has become a
new, vibrant mantra of the space diplomacy projected by the current government.
 The SAARC satellite which is being spearheaded by ISRO, is considered an excellent
example of the Indian policy of strengthening relations with the immediate neighbours.
 The SAARC satellite aims to help South Asian countries in India’s neighbourhood for
fighting poverty and illiteracy, scientific advancement and open up the opportunities for
the youths of these countries.
 India has successfully launched seven satellites of IRNSS which will help in regional
navigation too, thereby generating an alternative to commercial navigation satellite
services.
 India has now offered Bangladesh its expertise to build and launch its domestic
satellites.
South East Asia outreach

 With a view to project its soft power through the sharing of its space expertise, India is
looking at the possibility of setting up a ground station in Fiji that could ultimately serve
as a hub for sharing space expertise with the Pacific island nations.
 ISRO already operates ground stations in Mauritius, Brunei and Indonesia to help track
the Indian satellites launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
 India has offered to share Indian space expertise with the countries in South East region
where China, Japan, Australia and USA are competing to acquire a strategic edge.
 As part of its international cooperation programme, ISRO has offered to share its
experience in utilizing the space technology for socio economic development with
ASEAN countries which are also prone to natural disasters.
 Relevantly, the Department of Space (DOS) Annual Report for 2014-15 makes a
reference to the plan for the setting up of a satellite data reception centre in Vietnam. It
says “India is actively pursuing a proposal with ASEAN comprising Brunei, Cambodia,
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Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam to

establish a ground station in Vietnam to receive, process and use data from Indian
satellites for a variety of applications including disaster management and support and
also to provide training in space science ,technology and applications”.
Regional competition
 China along with Pakistan, Bangladesh and a number of other countries have set up a
regional partnership organization called the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation
Organization.
 It involves sharing data, establishing a space communication network and tracking space
objects.
 China is helping set up a space academy/satellite ground station alongside the launch of
a telecommunications satellite for Sri Lanka. Bangladesh and Maldives were also
expected to pursue a similar path.
 Pakistan is expected to receive military grade positioning and navigation signals from
China’s BeiDou system.
 Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmospheric Research Commission (SUPARCO) is building a
remote sensing satellite which is expected to be launched in 2018, by means of a
Chinese space vehicle.
Thus, India is facing tough completion from China in expanding its space diplomacy in the
region. SAARC satellite could serve as an instrument to blunt the edge of China’s plan to
strengthen space cooperation with South Asian countries including Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Also, Indian plan to set up a state of the art satellite monitoring station in Vietnam has
attracted Chinese ire where it sees satellite data reception cum tracking and telemetry
station in Ho Chi Minhcity as a “clear cut attempt to stir up trouble in the disputed South
China Sea region”. China is concerned that the link up of ground stations would give India a
significant advantage in the South China Sea region.
Conclusion
India is considered to be a leader in societal applications of space technology. It can play a
role in capacity building for other developing countries in use of space technology to solve
their local problems of land, water, forests and crop, among others, which have been
successfully demonstrated by ISRO.
Technological capacity-based diplomacy may very well hold the key to deepening
relationships both regionally and internationally for India. India’s space prowess must be
effectively used as a tool in diplomacy and foreign policy not only for regional capacity
building and collaboration with developing nations but also for enhancing India’s role in a
global framework. Thus, India should continue its efforts in spreading its space diplomatic
tentacles.
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 What is space diplomacy? Critically evaluate India’s position in furthering its diplomatic
relations through space diplomacy.
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Page |1

“Your Only Limit is You“

All the Best 

HEALTH (121- 125)

SECURITY (126- 138)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (139-142)

TOPIC: General Studies 2

A case of forced patriotism and judicial over-reach

Judicial directives and its overreach

Don’t force patriotism

Law to protect the anthem

Is it the step in right direction?

Connecting the dots:

Central Bureau of Investigation- A roadmap to revamp

The weak points

Unpopular as medium of employment

Compulsory State coordination

Connecting the dots:

Generating jobs through e-commerce

Going China’s way?

Domestic demand has austere future

Chance of change through e-commerce

E-commerce: will it match the numbers?

Connecting the dots:

Hospital over Home- Janani Suraksha Yojana

Janani Suraksha Yojana

Connecting the dots:

India’s burgeoning cities and how to engender them

New Urban Agenda

 It advocates participatory age- and gender-responsive approaches at all stages of the

Need of engendering the cities

Male centric design

Connecting the dots:

The idea of Digital Democracy

What happens in a democracy?

Propagating the idea of digital democracy

The central government is actively involved in soliciting the citizen’s participation in

Instant grievance redressal

Power of the people

Challenge- the limited internet

Connecting the dots:

TOPIC: General Studies 2

Disruptive amendments to Prevention of Corruption Act

Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and amendments

The flaws in the bill

Give more proof

More risk for bribe giver

 This is detrimental to fight against corruption. If someone wishes to harass an innocent

Connecting the dots:

TOPIC: General Studies 2

Forests Rights Act- Stop the dilution of rights

Amending the bill

Connecting the dots:

TOPIC: General Studies 2

Need for Reforms in the Education Policy

Introduction- Education and Economy

India and the World

Reasons for ineffective education policy of India:

Consequences of ineffective education policy of India:

Suggestions for Reforms in the Education Policy in India

Connecting the dots

TOPIC: General Studies 2

The Parliament deadlock- Not the right way