13 03 20

SL. THE HINDU

TOPICS
NO. PAGE NO.

1 Social media platforms to be made accountable 13

2 Why oil prices are crashing? 14

3 Danger Ahead - Editorial 10

4 New Environmental law cuts time for hearings 09

5 RBI opens dollar-swap window 15

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Title 1. Social media platforms to be made accountable (The Hindu – Pg. 13)

Syllabus Prelims: Polity & Governance

Mains: GS Paper II - Polity & Governance
Theme Social media platforms to be made more "responsive and accountable”

Highlights Context: In response to question in Rajya Sabha, the Minister of Electronics and Information
Technology has said the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011 to make
the social media platforms more "responsive and accountable" will soon be notified.
• In December 2018, the government released the draft Information Technology
(Intermediaries Guidelines Amendment Rules) 2018 that seeks to amend the
provision of section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, deals with the ‘intermediaries’
liability’ regime in India.
• The government felt the need to tinker with ‘intermediaries liability’ in the backdrop of
increasing misuse of social media platforms and other websites to propagate violence,
circulation of fake news, child porn and other objectionable content in India.

Intermediaries Liability regime in India: A backgrounder

Who are intermediaries?
• According to Information Technology Act, 2000, an intermediary is defined as any person
who on behalf of another person stores or transmits a message (information) or provides
any service with respect to that message (information).
• Primarily intermediaries include telecom service providers, internet service providers,
cyber cafes, web-hosters, search engines, social media networks, messaging platforms, e-
commerce websites, audio and video sharing sites, blogs, payment companies etc.

Intermediaries Liability
• Section 79 in the Information Technology Act was brought about by an amendment in
2008 to provide protection to intermediaries in India.
• Accordingly, intermediaries are entities that allow sharing of information and not
‘publishers’ of information and thus are not liable for what a producer publishes or user
accesses.
• This ‘liability protection’ enables these platforms to freely help users publish, message,
communicate, and sell information on the internet.
• The only restriction is that the intermediaries perform ‘due diligence’ on content that is
‘grossly harmful’, ‘obscene’, racially, ethnically objectionable, or unlawful like
pornographic, paedophilic, hateful, relating to money laundering etc.
• With changing social media space and its growing use, the draft Information
Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines Amendment Rules) 2018 seeks to enhance
the ‘intermediary liability regime’.

Changes to ‘intermediaries’ liability’ and related issues

• The proposed The Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines Amendment Rules)

2018 seeks to amend provisions under Section 79 of the Information technology Act.
1. Monitoring of content

➢ According to draft rule 3(9), the online platforms or “intermediaries”

must “deploy appropriate technologies to proactively identify, remove or disable
access to unlawful content.
➢ The unlawful content also include those that “threatens critical information
infrastructure” in India.
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➢ Critical information infrastructure include Power sector, Banking, Financial

Institutions & Insurance, Information and Communication Technology,
Transportation, E-governance and Strategic Public Enterprises
➢ Further the online platforms would have to inform its users to refrain from
hosting, uploading or sharing any content that is blasphemous, obscene,
defamatory, "hateful or racially, ethnically objectionable" or those which threaten
national security.
Problem
➢ Technologies like AI and Machine Learning are not good enough to accurately
understand human context and judge what is lawful and unlawful.
➢ Proactive censorship may stand against the free speech guaranteed under
Article 19 and right to privacy guaranteed under Part 3 of the constitution.
➢ In the landmark Shreya Singhal case of 2015, the Supreme Court acknowledged
the importance of protecting the intermediary to enable free speech in India.
➢ Thus increasing the intermediary liability goes against the spirit of this judgment.

2. 'Notice and takedown'

➢ The Shreya Singhal judgment stipulates that an intermediary will take down
objectionable content from its website upon acquiring 'actual knowledge' of the
same; by means of a judicial or governmental order.

3. Traceability of content

➢ According to the Draft Rule 3(5), the intermediary shall enable tracing out of
originator/source of unlawful content on its platform.
➢ The intermediaries shall within 72 hours provide such information or assistance
as asked for by any government agency who are legally authorised.
Problem
➢ In effect draft rule 3(5) on traceability could break end-to-end encryption
which is the core feature offered by some of the platforms like Whatsapp, Signal
etc.

4. Corporate Office in India

➢ The intermediaries with over 50 lakh active users in India shall have a permanent
registered office and appoint a nodal person to coordinate with law enforcement
agencies to ensure compliance.
Problem
➢ In a country like India where there are more than 350 million internet users, it is
difficult to ascertain who is an active user.

5. Ensuring compliance

➢ The draft rule requires that the companies will have to inform their users “at
least once every month” that in case of non-compliance, their accounts and
content would be removed.
Problem
➢ This shifts the onus of ensuring compliance from government to a private party.
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Title 2. Why oil prices are crashing? (The Hindu Pg. No. 14)
Syllabus Prelims: Economy
Mains: GS Paper III – Economy
Theme Crashing of Oil Prices
Highlights Context: The failure of OPEC+ deal to lower the production has led to oil prices crashing to all-
time low since 1991, a 50% fall to around $30 from 65$ in December 2019.
Basics
• Oil being a commodity is subject to price fluctuations primarily on two factors namely
supply and demand.
• If the supply is more and demand is less the price will fall and vice versa.
Global oil supply
• Globally major suppliers of oil include OPEC (The Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries) who are responsible for about 40 percent of the world’s oil supply
and 60 percent of the oil traded globally.
• OPEC includes 14 countries with major ones including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, UAE, and
Venezuela to name a few. (Qatar withdrew from the group in 2018)
• Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest supplier with nearly 10% of the global share
• Major Non-OPEC producer and suppliers of oil include USA (since 2014) and Russia.
In focus: OPEC+ Deal
• Under the Vienna Agreement of 2016, OPEC-plus deal was signed between major oil
producers to coordinate the production levels to check the price fluctuation
• It is basically an agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers, to cut oil
production in order to prevent falling oil prices.
• Besides the deal is seen as a counter to keep the oil prices from falling due to shale oil
production from US since 2014.
Failure of the deal
• The latest meeting of the OPEC+ in Vienna led to failure of the deal.
• The cartel leader Saudi wanted the group to adopt further cuts in oil production by 1
million barrels per day and Russia reducing its production by 5 lakh barrels per day.
• This was proposed to counter the demand slump on account of coronavirus outbreak
particularly in Asia. (for instance China has cut its imports of foreign oil by about 20% in
February.
• However Russia declined to sign the deal which meant the slashing of oil prices on
account of demand slump and no supply cut.
Reasons for Russia to withdraw
• Russia and Saudi are leading producers of oil in the world who have been competing for
supplying cheaper oil to predominantly the Chinese market.
• Since 2014 US has also entered the race as a result of shale oil production.
• It is said that Russia has withdrawn from the deal to keep the oil prices low and drive
away competition from US Shale. (Cost of producing Shale is higher than cost of
producing crude oil in Russia)
Possible impact on India
Lower import bill
• With more than 80% of the crude oil requirement coming from imports, India’s import
bill will significantly come down.
• With crude oil being the single largest import that India makes, a $1 decrease in price of
crude means over $1.2 billion decrease in our import bill.
Current account balance
• A fall in oil price would drive down the value of its imports as seen above.
• This helps narrow India's current account deficit - the amount India owes to the
world in foreign currency.
• According to estimates, a fall in oil prices by $10 per barrel helps reduce the current
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account deficit by $9.2 billion which is nearly 0.43% of the GDP.

Inflation
• A slump in the oil price significantly reduces the prices of goods in the economy due to
reduced cost of transportation of goods and services.
• According to estimates every $10 per barrel fall in crude oil price helps reduce retail
inflation by 0.2% and wholesale price inflation by 0.5%.
Appreciating rupee
• The value of rupee depends significantly on the current account deficit.
• A high deficit means the country has to sell rupees and buy dollars to pay its bills.
• If the demand for US dollar increases in India, we end up paying ‘more’ rupee to get the
same amount of dollars. In such situations the value of rupee is said have depreciated.
• Thus when CAD is reduced our demand for dollars is reduced in which case the value of
rupee is said have appreciated.

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Title 3. Danger Ahead - Editorial (Page number 10)

Syllabus Prelims: Social Issues
Mains: GS Paper II - Social Issue
Theme India’s road safety record
Highlights Context – Union Transport Minister has highlighted the beneficial impact of amendments made
to the Motor Vehicles Act. The finds the reported reduction in crashes, notably in Gujarat, Uttar
Pradesh, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, proof of
the law’s beneficial impact.
Current status
• 1.5 lakh lives each year since 2015, with the graph rising from 80,888 fatalities in 2001.
• Accident death rate of 18.9 for every 100,000 people (Bangladesh ~ 11)
• World Bank report titled Delivering Road Safety in India - rapid motorisation and
more high-speed road infrastructure has raised the risks for road users.
Road Safety and amendment to the Motor Vehicles act 1988
Increase penalties to act as a deterrent against traffic violations.
Compensation for road accident victims
• Treatment of road accident victims during the golden hour (first 1 hour after accident).

• Compensation for death or grievous injury due to hit and run – Rs2 lakh.

National Road Safety Board– to advise the central and state governments on all aspects of
road safety and traffic management.

Protection of Good Samaritan – They will not be liable for any civil or criminal action.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fund – to provide compulsory insurance cover to all road users in
India.

Road administration

o Vehicle fitness tests to be automated

o Driving tests to be computerized.
o Driver training process for commercial driving will be strengthened and more training
schools set up.

▪ Recall of vehicles: if a defect in the vehicle may cause damage to the environment, or the
driver, or other road users.

▪ National Transportation Policy – can be developed in consultation with state governments.

▪ Taxi aggregators: has been defined as digital intermediaries or market places which can be
used by passengers to connect with a driver for transportation purposes (taxi services). These
aggregators will be issued licenses by state. Further, they must comply with the Information
Technology Act, 2000.
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Summary of the topic for the Prelims examination

• Delivering Road Safety in India report is released by World Bank
• Brasilia Declaration - Declaration on Road Safety. The member countries have agreed
to reduce the number of accidents and deaths to half by the year 2020.
• Central Road and Infrastructure Fund– collected from sale of petrol and diesel is
controlled by the Finance Ministry.
• India doesn’t have National Transportation Policy yet.
• Integrated Road Accident Databaseis being prepared with funding from World Bank.

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Title 4. New Environmental law cuts time for hearings (The Hindu Page 13)

Syllabus Prelims: Environment

Mains: GS Paper III - Environment
Theme Draft framework for future Environment Impact Assessment

Highlights Context: Government has come up with draft notification for a new framework which will guide
the future EIA’s. So before understanding the details about the notification, let us first understand
EIA and its legislative source.
What is environment impact assessment?
• Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) is a planning tool to integrate the environmental
concerns into developmental process right at the initial stage of planning and suggest
necessary mitigation measures.
• EIA essentially refers to the assessment of environmental impacts likely to arise from a
project.
Who is the competent authority for notifying the EIA notification and under which act the
EIA notification is issued along with the provisions of the act?
• The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change is the nodal Ministry for
notifying the EIA Notification under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
• Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 (EPA) gives power to the Central
Government to take all measures that it deems necessary or expedient for the purpose of
protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing and controlling
abating environmental pollution.
• To meet this objective, the Central Government can restrict areas in which any industries,
operations or processes or class of industries, operations or processes shall not be carried
out or shall be carried out subject to certain safeguards [Section 3 (2)(v)].
When was the first EIA notification issued?
• EIA Notification first time came into existence on 27th January, 1994 requiring prior
environmental clearance for 29 categories of projects/processes listed there under. It was
subsequently made applicable to 32 categories.
When was the present EIA notification issued?
• The present EIA Notification was issued on 14th September, 2006.
What are the developmental activities requiring environmental clearance under the EIA
notification, 2006?
• All new projects or activities listed in the Schedule to this notification; expansion and
modernization of existing projects or activities listed in the Schedule to this notification
with addition of capacity beyond the limits specified for the concerned sector, that is,
projects or activities which cross the threshold limits given in the Schedule, after
expansion or modernization; any change in product – mix in an existing manufacturing
unit included in Schedule beyond the specified range.
So what are the changes which have been proposed under the draft?

Area Current Changes

Response time Minimum of 30 days Minimum of 20 days
Public Hearing Within 45 days Within 40 days
Monitoring for compliance Every six months. Once a year.
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Title 5. RBI opens dollar-swap window (The Hindu Page 15)

Syllabus Prelims: Economy

Mains: GS Paper III – Economy
Theme Addressing volatility in Exchange Rate by RBI

Highlights Context: Recently, due to outflow of FPIs from India, the value of Rupee has depreciated to 17-
month low of 74 vis-a-vis dollars. The outflow of dollars has led to its shortage within the Indian
Economy. Hence, in order to address the current volatility in the exchange rate and to make
available dollars in the domestic market, the RBI has announced that it would carry out Foreign
Exchange Sell/Buy Swap.

Background
• The recent outbreak of Coronavirus and drastic decline in the International crude oil
prices have raised concerns about global economic recession in future.
• On account of this, the FPIs have been selling off their investment in the emerging
economies leading to the outflow of dollars. This has in turn led to depreciation in the
currencies of the emerging economies and appreciation in the value of dollar.
• This can be seen from fact that, in March 2020, FPIs have liquidated $2.67 billion in
equities and $1.2 billion in bonds leading to fall in value of Rupee to 17-month low of 74
vis-a-vis dollars.

What is Foreign Exchange Sell/Buy Swap?

• The swap will be in the nature of a simple sell/buy foreign exchange swap from the RBI
side.
• Under the swap, RBI would buy sell dollars to the banks and simultaneously agree to buy
the same amount of US dollars at the end of the swap period. This particular mechanism
shall involve mainly 2 steps:
o In the first leg of the transaction, the bank will buy US Dollars from the Reserve
Bank at prevailing exchange rate.
o In the second leg of transaction, the Bank would be required to sell the same
amount of dollars in order to get back the Rupee.
• Hence, this mechanism essentially works as a swap mechanism wherein the dollars with
the RBI would be swapped with Indian rupees with the Banks for a specified duration.

What is RBI’s plan with respect to Foreign Exchange buy/sell swap?

The RBI has decided to conduct a USD/INR Sell/Buy swap of USD 2 billion for tenor of 6 months.

What would be the likely impact?

• Increase in the dollar supply and consequently increase in value of Rupee (Rupee
Appreciation)
• Check Exchange rate volatility
• Decrease in the forex reserves of RBI (for 6 months)
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