Miscellaneous: Critical Issues For UPSC Mains 2020

MISCELLANEOUS
Critical Issues for

UPSC Mains 2020
CONTENTS
ECONOMY 3 POLITY AND GOVERNANCE 47
Union Budget 2020-21 Highlights 4 Attorney General 48
Education and Skill Development 6 Constitutional Crisis in Maharashtra 49
Agriculture Infrastructure Fund 11 Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) 50
Bad Bank to take on NPAs 13 Delimitation Commission 52
Direct Monetisation for Funding Deficit: SBI 14 A Time for Reforms in Indian Courts 53
National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) 15 Overhauling Indian Bureaucracy 54
New Definition of MSMEs in Offing 16 Domicile-based Job Quota 56
Coal Sector Reforms 18 National Recruitment Agency 58
Discom Losses Mount due to Rising Domestic Vaccine Nationalism 59

Demand 21 SOCIAL ISSUES 61
Clean Energy: Can Support India’s Economic Fake News 62
Recovery Post-COVID-19 23 The Healthcare Gap in India 64
Oil prices in Negative Terrain 24 Making the Private Sector Care for Public Health 66
A Pragmatic Development Strategy to Capitalise on Telemedicine 68
India’s Inherent Strengths 26 Navigating the New Normal Campaign: NITI Aayog 70
Need to Regulate Social Media Platforms 27 Recognise Rural Women’s Work 71
‘Non-Profit Organisations can be listed on STARS Programme: World Bank 72
Social Stock Exchanges’ 29
UNFPA: State of the World Population Report 2020 73
Pro-Business versus Pro Crony 31
HISTORY AND ART & CULTURE 75
India Remains in the U.S. Priority Watch List 32
Birth Anniversary of Gopal Krishna Gokhale 76
ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY 34 Birth Anniversary of Raja Ravi Varma 77
Fly Ash 35 Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (Bust vandalization) 79
Disaster Management- International Frameworks 36 Periyar Role in Vaikom Satyagraha 80
Money Laundering and the Illegal Wildlife Trade 40 Quit India Movement (QIM) 81
Global Warming Alters Rainfall Rhythm 41 Arunachal’s Tribes Revive Indigenous
Cyclone Nisarga: Rare Storm pounds India’s Lockdown Rituals 82
West Coast 43 Gamosa Evolves from Memento to Mask in Assam 84
Long-standing Conundrum on the Sun’s Basava Jayanthi 85
Atmosphere solved 44 Treaty of Versailles 100 years on - A Fragile
Kosi-Mechi River Interlinking project of Bihar 45 Peace and a Fraught Legacy 86
ECONOMY
4 MISSION AIR 1 Miscellaneous
UNION BUDGET 2020-21 HIGHLIGHTS

The Union Budget of 2020-2021 has been structured on the overall theme of “Ease of Living.” The Finance Minister said that the
Union Budget Aims:
•• To achieve seamless delivery of services through Digital governance.
•• To improve physical quality of life through the
•• National Infrastructure Pipeline.
•• Risk mitigation through Disaster Resilience.
•• Social security through Pension and Insurance penetration.
ÂÂ FM Sitharaman lists 3 themes of Union Budget 2020-21:

•• Aspirational India in which all sections of the society seek better standards of living, with access to health,
education and better jobs.
•• Economic development for all, indicated in the PM’s exhortation of “SabkaSaath, SabkaVikas”.
•• Caring Society that is both humane and compassionate, where Antyodaya is an article of faith.
The three broad themes are held together by Corruption free-policy-driven Good Governance & Clean and sound
financial sector.
PROBABLE QUESTION:
•• Will Budget 2020 work in getting the Indian economy back on track?
ÂÂ International Bullion Exchange

•• To further utilize the potential of IFSC, GIFT City to become a center for international finance and high-end data
processing, the setting up of an International
ÂÂ Bullion Exchange at GIFT-IFSC has been proposed.

Benefits
•• It is a positive step towards making gold a mainstream asset class. With its unique locational, infrastructural and
regulatory advantages as an IFSC, GIFT city is well placed to build a fair, efficient and transparent bullion trading
ecosystem.
•• It will serve as an additional option for trade by global market participants.
•• An organised bullion trading system will benefit the entire supply chain particularly, small players and exporters.
•• It is expected to enable better gold price discovery, create jobs and enhance India’s position worldwide.
ÂÂ Agriculture, Irrigation and Rural Development

•• The Government’s vision is that all public institutions at gram panchayat level, such as Anganwadi, PDS outlets,
police stations will all be provided with digital connectivity.
•• A total of 61.1 million farmers insured under Fasal Bima. Hand-holding of farm-based activities needs to be done
in cooperation with states.
•• ‘Comprehensive measures’ for 100 water-stressed districts across India: The funds allocated for the Jal
Jivan will be used for augmenting various water management programmes - rain water harvesting, sewage water
treatment, water desalination, recharging of lakes as well as augmenting existing water resources.
•• There is a plan to provide piped water across Indian households by 2024 with 3.6 trillion rupees in funding.
•• The minister also announced 123 billion rupees for the Clean India mission.
•• The govt. will encourage a balanced use of all fertilizers, a necessary step to change the incentive regime which
encourages excessive use of chemical fertilizers.
•• 377 sagar mitras and 500 fish farmer organizations to help youth work in the fish farming sector.
•• Fish production to be raised to 20 Million Tons.
•• Agricultural credit target set for 15 trillion for next fiscal: For sector comprising agriculture, allied activities,
irrigation and rural development, an allocation of Rs 2.83 trillion has been made for 2020-21.
•• The central govt. will encourage state governments which implement following model laws
•• Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act of 2016 (Agriculture is a State Subject)
Miscellaneous MISSION AIR 1 5
•• Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing Act of 2017
•• Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services Promotion and Facilitation Act of 2018
ÂÂ 16 Action points to Focus on Farmers’ Income, Storage, Blue Economy and Animal
Husbandry
•• Budget 2020 proposed 16 action points focusing on doubling Farmers income, Horticulture sector, Food storage,
Animal Husbandry and Blue economy.
•• The government allocated 2.83 lakh crore rupees for agriculture and allied activities, irrigation and rural
development in 2020-21 budget.
•• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evem Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM) to be expanded to provide 20
lakh farmers in setting up standalone solar pumps.
•• Farmers who have fallow or barren land will be helped to set up solar power generation units and also sell surplus
power to the solar grid and make a living out of barren land.
•• Connect and sell to grid: enable farmers to set up solar power generation capacity on their fallow/ barren land
and to sell it to the grid.
•• Resource efficiency:Resource efficiency can be achieved by encouraging balanced use of all kinds of
•• fertilizers and Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF).
•• Market connectivity: The budget also proposed integration of negotiable warehousing receipts (e-NWR) and
National Agricultural Market (e-NAM).
•• “Jaivik kheti” Portal: Budget 2020 proposed to strengthen online national organic products.
ÂÂ Storage and Logistics:

•• Seamless national cold supply chain: To promote storage infrastructure and reduce wastage of food grains.
•• “KISAN RAIL”: Kisan Rail Scheme of trains with refrigerated coaches for farm produce.
•• “KRISHI UDAAN”: It will be launched by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on international and national routes to help
improve value realisation, especially in the Northeast and tribal districts
•• At Block Level: Warehouse Creation Through
•• Viability Gap Funding on a PPP Model. : National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
will create warehouse facilities for food crops at block/taluka levels. While state governments will provide the
land for the facilities, they will be constructed on a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
•• The proposed storage facilities at villages under
•• Dhaanya Lakshmi Village Storage Scheme will be run by women self-help groups (SHG).
DHAANYA LAKSHMI is a ‘Village Storage Scheme’ run by women’s self-help groups.
The aim of the scheme is to provide holding capacity for farmers. This will help Women in villages and the
rural part of the country to retain their status as “Dhaanya Lakshmi”.
•• Setting up of storage facilities at villages as part of the Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages (CBFL)
under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY).
ÂÂ Animal Husbandry:
•• Aim is to eliminate Foot and Mouth disease, brucellosis in cattle and peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in
sheep and goat by 2025 and to increase coverage of artificial insemination from 30% to 70%.
•• Facilitate doubling of milk processing capacity from 53.5 million MT to 108 million MT by 2025.
ÂÂ Agriculture credit:
•• Setting agriculture credit target of rupees 15 lakh crore for the year 2020-21.
•• All eligible beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) will be covered under the Kisan
Credit Card (KCC) scheme.
•• It enables farmers to purchase agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, etc. and draw cash to
satisfy their agricultural and consumption needs.
ÂÂ Horticulture:
•• Marketing and export: For better marketing and connectivity cluster basis approach will be adopted and
emphasis would be given to one product one district.
ÂÂ Blue Economy:
•• Raising fish production framework: for development, management and conservation of marine fishery resources
and promotion of algae, seaweed and cage culture that will assist in raising fish production to 200 lakh tonnes
by 2022-23.
•• Development of fisheries sector: Rural youth in coastal areas to work as ‘Sagar Mitras’ in fisheries extension.
3,477 Sagar Mitras and 500 fish-farmer producer organisations will work as sagar mitra
EDUCATION AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT

•• `99,300 crore allocated for the education sector for 2020-21: The Union Budget 2020-21 has allocated `99,300
crore for the education sector for 2020-21.
•• By 2030, India is said to have the largest working-age population in the world.
•• Degree-level full-fledged online course to be offered by top 100 institutes: IND-SAT exam will be held in
African and Asian countries for benchmarking foreign candidates who wish to study in India.
•• Young engineers to be offered internships with urban local bodies: FM announced that the government
proposes to start a programme where urban local bodies across the country will give one-year internships to
young engineers.
•• The move will help urban local bodies plan better with young engineers, and in turn, the engineers will also learn.
•• It proposed to set up a national recruitment agency for the conduct of computer-based online common eligibility
tests for recruitment to non-gazetted posts.
•• Gross enrolment of girls has been higher than boys, thanks to ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’. Gross enrolment of
girls at elementary levels is 94.32%, at secondary level 81.32%, and higher secondary level 59.7%.
ÂÂ Smart meters
The Finance Minister in her Budget speech has urged the States and UTs to replace the conventional meters with
prepaid smart meters in three years.
Significance
•• It will cut distribution losses and will set the stage for separating the carriage and content operations of power
distribution companies. (India’s average aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses are at 21.4%,
pushing up the dues of discoms to power generating companies to `72,938 crore at the end of November).
•• Smart meters minimize human intervention in metering, billing and collection, and help reduce theft by
identifying loss pockets.
•• This would give consumers the freedom to choose the supplier and rate as per their requirements.
ÂÂ National Infrastructure Pipeline

The Government announced funding fineprint for the ambitious National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).
•• Under the aegis of this initiative, the Govt aims to invest Rs 103 Lakh crore in around 6,500 projects cutting
across sectors such as power, including renewable, railways, urban development, irrigation, mobility, education,
health, water and digital sector.
•• Rs 25 lakh crore worth energy projects have been lined up, around Rs 20 lakh crore in roads and nearly Rs 14
lakh crore railway projects are in the works for the period of 2020-25. Urban infrastructure schemes such as
AMRUT, Smart Cities mission and affordable housing will need an investment of Rs. 16 lakh crores until 2025.
•• The new pipeline consists of 39% projects each by the Centre and the States and the balance 22% by private
sector.
•• It will enable more infra projects, grow businesses, create jobs, improve ease of living, and provide equitable
access to infrastructure for all, making growth more inclusive.
•• It is being seen as a road to a $5 trillion economy.
ÂÂ Energy Sector
•• PM Kusum Scheme: The govt. can help 1.5 million solarize grid-connected pump sets. It reduced dependence
on diesel and kerosene and relied on social energy. Total of 2 million farmers can set up standalone solar pumps.
•• Govt to provide `22,000 crore for power and renewable energy in F.Y.2021: The government will provide
`22,000 crore for power and renewable energy sectors in the upcoming financial year.
•• Conventional energy meters to be replaced by prepaid smart meters in 3 years. The conventional energy
meters will be replaced by prepaid ‘smart meters’ in the next three years across all states and union territories.
•• This will give consumers the freedom to choose supplier and rate as per their requirements.
ÂÂ MSME Sector
•• The government raised the turnover threshold for audit of MSME accounts to Rs 5 crore and a scheme to
provide subordinate debt to MSME entrepreneurs. Currently, businesses having a turnover of more than Rs 1
crore are required to get their books of accounts audited by an accountant.
•• Debt- Restructuring window for MSME
•• Besides, the government has also asked the Reserve Bank to extend the debt restructuring window for micro,
small and medium enterprises by a year to March 31, 2021.
•• An app-based invoice financing loans product will be launched.
•• This will obviate the problem of delayed payments and consequential cash flow mismatches for the MSMEs.
•• Necessary amendments will be made to the Factor Regulation Act 2011 to enable non-banking financial
companies (NBFCs) to extend invoice financing to the MSMEs through TReDS, thereby enhancing the economic
and financial sustainability.
•• Partial credit guarantee for NBFCs: To address liquidity constraints of NBFCs and housing finance corporations,
partial credit guarantee scheme will be launched by the government.
•• Working capital credit remains a major issue for MSMEs. It is proposed to introduce a scheme to provide
subordinate debt for entrepreneurs of MSMEs.
•• This subordinate debt to be provided by banks would count as quasi-equity and would be fully guaranteed
through the Credit Guarantee Trust for the Medium and Small Entrepreneurs.
•• TReDS is an institutional mechanism to facilitate the trade receivable financing of micro, small and medium
enterprises (MSMEs) from corporate buyers through multiple financiers.
ÂÂ Nirvik (Niryat Rin Vikas Yojana) scheme

Key features
•• The Union Budget 2020-21 mentions that new scheme NIRVIK will be launched to achieve higher export credit
disbursement, which provides for:
Higher insurance coverage
Reduction in premium for small exporters
Simplified procedure for claim settlements.
•• Nirvik (Niryat Rin Vikas Yojana) scheme will provide enhanced insurance cover and reduce the premium for small
exporters.
•• The scheme is being prepared by the Commerce Ministry.
•• Under the scheme, also called the Export Credit Insurance Scheme (ECIS), the insurance guaranteed could
cover up to 90 percent of the principal and interest.
•• The Ministry has also proposed to subsidize the premium under the scheme that has to be paid by exporters of
certain key sectors.
•• The Export Credit Guarantee Corporation currently provides credit guarantee of up to 60 percent loss.
Significance
•• The scheme is expected to enhance accessibility and affordability of credit to exporters and reduce liquidity
requirement
ÂÂ National Technical Textiles Mission

•• The `1,480-crore National Technical Textiles Mission is launched in Budget 2020 to give boost to technical
textiles.
About the mission:
•• The National Technical Textiles Mission is to be implemented from 2020-2021 to 2023-2024.
•• There will be an empowered nodal office that will coordinate all the efforts and make the Mission beneficial to
the industry.
•• Technical or engineered textiles are defined as products that are used for functional purposes. These textiles have
applications in multiple areas of economic activity, such as aerospace, shipping, sports, agriculture, defense and
health care.
Need of the mission:
•• Import-intensive: India imports a significant quantity of technical textiles worth USD 16 billion every year.
•• To increase productivity across various sectors like agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture fields, better
protection of military, para-military, police and security forces, stronger and sturdier transportation infrastructure
for highways, railways, ports and airports and in improving hygiene and healthcare of the general public.\
•• Growing market size: the current trend of growth and various initiatives of the Government, domestic market size
of technical textiles is expected to cross Rs 2 lakh crores by the year 2020-21.
•• Rising sector: Technical textiles hold immense growth opportunities both for the industries.
•• Strengthen supply chain: there is a need to create a domestic base for raw material production and to push for
manufacture of high-end technical textile products.
•• To boost investments, and increase per capita consumption of technical textiles.
ÂÂ Social Sector
Gender Budgeting:
•• Committee to look into raising marriageable age for women: FM proposed a task force to look into raising
marriageable age for women. She also allocated `28,600 crore for programmes specific to women. “Women’s
age of marriage was increased from 15 to 18 in 1978.
•• Village storage schemes will be run by Self-Help Groups (SHGs) for empowering women.
•• Rs. 35000 crores for nutrition-related programmes.
•• Manual Scavenging: The govt. has identified suitable technology to eliminate manual cleaning of sewer
systems and septic tanks.
•• Budget provision of Rs 85,000 crore in 2020-21 for welfare of SC and other backward classes.
•• Rs 53,700 crore for development and welfare of Scheduled Tribes.
ÂÂ Proposals for Start-ups

•• Creation of a digital platform that would facilitate seamless application and capture of IPRs. A Centre has
also proposed to establish an Institute of Eminence for working on innovation in the field of Intellectual
Property.
•• Knowledge Translation Clusters to be set up across different technology sectors including new and emerging
areas.
•• Technology Clusters, with test beds and small-scale manufacturing facilities for designing, fabrication and
validation of proof of concept to be established.
•• Two National-level Science Schemes to be initiated to create a comprehensive database of mapping India’s
genetic landscape.
•• A seed fund to support ideation and development of early stage Start-ups.
ÂÂ Proposals for Quantum Technology

•• Providing outlay of Rs. 8000 crores over a period of five years for the National Mission on Quantum
•• Technologies and Applications.
•• Quantum Technologies & Applications is one of the 9 missions of national importance, being driven by the Prime
Minister’s Science and Technology Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) through the (Principal Scientific
Advisor) PSA’s office to leverage cutting edge scientific research for India’s sustainable development.
•• The areas of focus would both be in fundamental science and towards developing technology platforms in the
Four (4) identified verticals viz.,
Quantum Computing & Simulations;
Quantum Materials & Devices;
Quantum Communications; &
Quantum Sensor & Metrology.
•• The Ministry of Electronics and IT has signed an agreement with Israel for joint research in 27 possible areas
which includes quantum computing as one of the potential segments
ÂÂ Solar units on fallow and Railway land
•• The Govt has proposed that barren lands of the farmers and the Railways will be used to set up solar power
plants. This will give farmers additional income even from the fallow lands.
•• Issue
•• The Govt has also targeted the same land for meeting its commitment of afforestation under UNCCD at COP14
in New Delhi, for creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes under UNFCCC, and for restoring 21
mha of degraded land by 2030 under Bonn Challenge.
•• The MoEFCC has been contemplating to set up a National Forest Board along with state forest boards to
undertake plantations on such non-forest areas.
•• The idea is to bring various government departments like agriculture, railways and forest together under the
boards to facilitate the process of planting trees on areas outside forests. However, it is yet to materialise and
found no mention in the budget.
ÂÂ Union Budget 2020-2021: Synopsis

•• Simplifying the Law - Government has removed around 70 out of 100 exemptions and deductions provided in
the Income Tax Act and promised a review and rationalization of the law in order to simplify the tax system and
lowering the tax rate.
•• Acceptance of the Keynesian concept of pump priming - Higher personal tax rates and slabs have been
modified to the benefit of the middle class. This will certainly push up consumer demand. The fiscal deficit has
been breached and will grow to 3.8% because of exceptional circumstances.
•• Drop in Gender budget - The gender budget of the government as a share of the Budget has seen a decline of
0.01% this fiscal.
•• The last Budget announcement proposed setting up of a committee to look at Budget through the gender lens
which would suggest actions but its status and outcome are not yet known.
•• Insignificant Skill development allocation - Budget allocated a paltry `3,000 crore for skill development when
poor quality of education and lack of opportunities to acquire practical skills are prevalent in India.
•• The Budget could have given tax incentives to companies to provide internships and on-site vocational training
to unemployed youth.
•• Short on Boosting consumption demand - Budgetary allocations for PM-KISAN and MGNREGA are
disappointing. These two schemes are good instruments for income transfers and generate demand for a wide
range of goods and services.
•• Budgetary allocations for health and education are also well below what is needed.
•• Multiple schemes for government bonds - Focus of the Budget is the multiple schemes for government bonds
mainly through additional room for foreign portfolio investors and exchange traded funds in government bonds.
These are welcome moves but are not enough.
•• A well-developed bond market should draw upon domestic insurance funds, pension funds and mutual
funds which are capable of investing in corporate bonds across different schemes.
•• Hike in Subsidies - The hike comes despite the Economic Survey stating that food subsidies end up creating
distortions in the functioning of the free market.
•• Greater privatization and withdrawal of the state in the Social sector - This is reflected not just in the low
allocations but also policy pronouncements such as introducing the public-private partnership model for medical
colleges and district hospitals or narrowing the coverage under the PDS. This would be a worrying direction in
the current context.
•• Personal Income Tax
•• The reduction of the income tax rates on income less than `15 lakh, which will leave income tax rates in India
the lowest they have ever been.
•• An income tax cut is unlikely to restore the rate of growth to the level at which it last peaked, around 8% in
2016-17.
•• Income taxpayers are such a small percentage of the population that the size of their purses is unlikely to make
a serious dent on the fortunes of the economy.
•• Falling allocations: The Budget has not been able to match its claims of ensuring development for all and a
caring society with matching allocations. For example,
•• The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act programme is allocated only `61,500 crore
in 2020-21 [`61,815 crore was spent in 2018-19 and `71,002 crore in 2019-20 (RE)].
•• The scheme for the development of Scheduled Castes is allocated `6,242 crore in 2020-21 [ `7,574 crore in
2018-19 to `5,568 crore in 2019-20].
•• Low on economic intelligence: The Budget highlights that the fundamentals of Indian economy are strong and
is set to attain the projected $5 trillion level on time. But the slowing growth, high unemployment rate (the
highest in close to half a century) present a different picture of Indian economy.
ÂÂ Way Forward
•• Getting private investment - Private investment depends on the cost of capital along with the certainty of returns.
Many projects have been mired in contractual disputes with government departments and various regulatory
hurdles.
•• To pull in private investment, public funding should be front-loaded in under-implementation projects.
•• If the public investment infrastructure actually materialises, it will lend credence to the government’s stated
commitment to revive the investment cycle — to spur job-creating growth.
•• Expanding the PDS - Excess food stocks to the tune of almost 60 million tonnes, high food inflation
•• in recent months and reports of hunger from across the country warrants expanding the PDS.
•• This could be done by universalising ration entitlements in the poorest districts, increasing the quantity
given per individual, including pulses.
•• Storage facilities at village (Dhaanya Lakshmi Village Storage Scheme)
•• Even though this scheme is expected to reduce logistics cost of farmers, SHGs are not professional
organisations, and hence will require a support system.
•• SHGs should be made aware of the processing and maintenance in case of public distribution system.
•• Capacity building of SHGs regarding storage of the product and the quality and standards of the products
needs to be prioritized.
•• Tax administration: To make tax administration more effective, the proposed tax charter should be part of the
statute book and enforceable. It will also ensure accountability.
•• While infrastructure spending is what will determine the long-term trajectory of the economy, the immediate
growth impact of the Budget will be governed by the spending over revenues or the fiscal deficit
AGRICULTURE INFRASTRUCTURE FUND

A new pan India Central Sector Scheme, called ‘Agriculture infrastructure fund’ was given approval by the Union Cabinet under
the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Critically analyse the impact of newly launched Agriculture Infrastructure Fund
ÂÂ Aim
The scheme shall provide a medium-long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest
management infrastructure and community farming assets through interest subvention and financial support.
ÂÂ About Agriculture Infrastructure Fund

•• Under the scheme, Rs one lakh crore will be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans to the following -
Primary agricultural credit societies ( PACS),
Market cooperative societies,
Farmer producers organizations (FPO)
Farmer, self-help group(SHG) & joint liability groups (JLG)
Multipurpose cooperative societies,
Agri-entrepreneurs & startups,
Aggregation infrastructure providers and
Central/state agency or local body sponsored public-private partnership project.
•• The loans will be disbursed in four years starting with the sanction of `10,000 crore in the current financial year
and `30,000 crore each in the next three financial years.
•• All loans under this financing facility will have interest subvention of 3% per annum up to a limit of `2 crores for a
maximum period of seven years.
•• The credit guarantee coverage will be available for eligible borrowers from this financing facility under credit
guarantee fund trust for micro and small enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme for a loan up to `2 crores.
•• The national, state, and district level monitoring committees will be set up to ensure real-time monitoring and
effective feedback.
•• The duration of the scheme shall be from FY-2020 to FY-2029 i.e. 10 years
ÂÂ Implication of the Scheme

•• Availability of formal credit - The facilitation of formal credit to farm and farm processing-based activities is
expected to create numerous job opportunities in rural areas.
•• Use of online management information system (MIS) platform - Agriculture infrastructure fund will be managed
and monitored through an online management information system (MIS) platform which will enable all the qualified
entities to apply for a loan under the fund.
•• Development of agriculture infrastructure - The funds will be provided for setting up of cold stores and chains,
warehousing, silos, assaying, grading and packaging units, e-marketing points linked to e-trading platforms and
ripening chambers.
•• Transparency of interest rates - The platform will provide benefits such as transparency of interest rates
offered by multiple banks, scheme details including interest subvention and credit guarantee offered, minimum
documentation, faster approval process as also integration with other scheme benefits.
ÂÂ Significance of Fund
•• Promotes Agro-processing: This Fund means increased investments in produce shelf life extension and value
addition (indirectly encourages food processing sector)
•• Reduces Wastage: 16% of fruits and vegetables and up to 10% of cereals, oil seeds and pulses are wasted in
the country due to inadequate post-harvest infrastructure.
•• Complementing the recent reforms: Government had issued ordinances removing stockholding restrictions on
major foodstuffs and dismantling the monopoly of regulated mandis in the trading of farm produce.
•• Phased Disposal of Produce empowers farmer: Being able to store their produce, enables farmers to harvest
their crop, say, in March and make staggered sales till November to take advantage of higher off-season rates
ÂÂ Criticisms
•• Additional Scheme: It would have made sense to merge all existing schemes with the new fund so as to better
leverage government money.
•• Its benefits will only accrue in the medium- to long-term. The government must not lose sight of the immediate
economic challenge of boosting growth and incomes.
•• Small farmers cannot hold stocks for long as they have urgent cash needs to meet family expenditures. FPOs
can give an advance to farmers;
•• FPOs will need large working capital to give advances to farmers against their produce as collateral.
•• Gap in vibrant futures market is a standard way of hedging risks in a market economy.
•• Not a panacea: Cold chains and agro-processing cannot solve all of agricultural problems for ex: three-fourths of
India’s sugarcane crop is “processed” by mills and issue of cane arrears still persist.
ÂÂ Conclusion
The bottom line is that India needs to not only spatially integrate its agri-markets (one nation, one market) but also
integrate them temporally — spot and futures markets have to converge. Only then will Indian farmers realize the best
price for their produce and hedge market risks. These measures will collectively herald a new dawn for the agriculture
sector in India and show the government’s commitment to championing the cause of ensuring the welfare and
sustainability of livelihoods for the farmers of India.India has a huge opportunity to invest in post-harvest management
solutions like warehousing, cold chain, and food processing, and build a global presence in areas such as organic
and fortified foods.
BAD BANK TO TAKE ON NPAS
The Indian Banks Association (IBA) has requested the central govt. to set up a ‘bad bank’ to reduce the impact of the losses
banks will face because of provisioning for NPAs.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• What do you understand by a Bad Bank and how it works? Also discuss some challenges associated with this
concept.
ÂÂ Background
•• SARFAESI Act enables and empowers the secured creditors to take possession of their securities, to deal with
them without the intervention of the court and also alternatively to authorize any Securitization or Reconstruction
Company to acquire financial assets of any Bank or Financial Institution (FI).
•• The Act has been empowered with the overriding effect over the other legislation and it shall be in addition to
and not in derogation of certain legislation.
•• SARFAESI Act allows secured creditors to take possession of the assets of a borrower who fails to pay dues within
60 days of demanding repayment.
•• International experience shows that a ‘bad bank’ or ‘Asset Management Company (AMC)’ has the potential to fulfil
the above vital principles and can possibly address the NPA resolution challenge more effectively.
•• The Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) played a major role in resolving stress in its banking
system which was at the heart of the financial crisis that the country faced in 1997-98.
•• The Economic Survey of 2016-17 pointed out the twin balance sheet problem - stressed companies on one
hand and NPA-laden banks on the other and advocated a centralised Public Sector Asset Rehabilitation
Agency (PARA) be established to deal with the bad loans problem.
ÂÂ What’s a bad bank and how it works?

•• A bad bank is a structure that moves the distressed and illiquid assets of a bank into another entity through
regulatory structures such as asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), alternative investment funds (AIFs) and
asset management companies (AMCs).
•• Once it is formed, banks divide their assets into two categories (a) one with non-performing assets and other
risky liabilities and (b) others with healthy assets, which help banks, grow financially.
•• ARC or Bad Bank buys bad loans from the commercial banks at a discount and tries to recover the money from
the defaulter by providing a systematic solution over a period of time.
•• Setting up an ARC platform:
Buy the stressed pools from banks and turn them around. This would allow banks to write off the appropriate
provisions for the portfolio sold and get the discounted value that the ARC pays for the distressed pool
purchase.
The stressed assets can alternatively be sold to an AIF, which could turn them around.
ARCs will buy those pools of stressed assets only if they see continued viability of those pools being recovered
and if they are able to get higher returns than the original purchase price.
ÂÂ Arguments against Bad Bank:

•• Reduces transparency: By forcing the government, in its capacity as the owner of multiple banks, to set up a
bad bank and buy distressed assets at “book value” is setting up a way to build opaqueness in its dealing with
bad loans.
•• Bad precedent: If a bank owner wants to own an ARC and move bad loans from the bank to the ARC, what
precedent does that set for other banks and non-banks who also seek an ARC of their own.
•• Capital as biggest challenge as only few Public Sector banks are allowed to raise capital from the capital market.
•• Most bad loan declarations of late are taking place due to strict regulatory supervision pressures and lenders’
balance sheets are being cleaned out.
•• Turn around specialists with specific sectoral skills is needed for the task of ARCs, not just experts with credit
underwriting or collections expertise.
•• Once the NPA problem is settled, the Bankers may become complacent and again resume reckless lending.
ÂÂ Conclusion:
Bad bank seems to be a viable option to tackle the escalation of NPAs but structural issues like the deficit in the
professionalism of management and non-adoption of greater prudential discipline by the Public sector banks needs
to be addressed at the earliest. Thus, apart from setting up bad banks, proper implementation of holistic reforms in
banking sector is the need of the hour.
DIRECT MONETISATION FOR FUNDING DEFICIT: SBI

A report by the State Bank of India (SBI) has recommended direct monetization as a possible way of funding the Centre’s deficit
at lower rates, without increasing inflation and affecting debt sustainability.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• What is direct monetization of deficit? Do you think it could be a comprehensive solution for the government to
prevent the looming financial crisis? Critically examine
ÂÂ Significance of this report

This report comes as an outcome of a series of meetings by the Prime Minister’s Office(PMO) to prepare further
measures to boost growth and economic activity.
ÂÂ Key outcomes of the report

Direct Monetisation
•• It refers to the purchase of government bonds by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to finance the spending
needs of the government.
•• Under monetization, the government can raise funds directly from the Reserve Bank of India through the issuance
of “COVID perpetual bonds” or such instruments.
•• Till 1997, the government used to sell securities ad hoc Treasury-Bills directly to the RBI, and not to financial
market participants and this allowed the government to technically print equivalent amounts of currency to meet
its budget deficit.
•• In the 1990s, the funding through ad-hoc treasury bills was completely phased out following two agreements
between the Government and RBI. In 2003, with the enactment of the FRBM Act, RBI was completely barred from
subscribing to the primary issuances of the government from April 1, 2006.
Significance of Direct monetization –
•• Direct monetization of the deficit could bring down interest rates and delay inflationary pressures arising out
of the additional spending.
ÂÂ Increasing Debt:
•• Most agencies expect India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to contract by more than 5% in FY 2020-21 as a
result of a slump in economic activity. This has also led to a reduction in revenues of the government.
•• This means the government will run short of its revenue targets and will be forced to raise debt.
•• The report also projects that India’s debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to rise to around `170 lakh crore or 87.6% of
GDP in FY21, from `146.9 lakh crore (72.2% of GDP) in FY20.
•• The higher the debt-to-GDP ratio means, the less probability of the country to pay back its debt and the higher
its risk of default.
ÂÂ Recommendations of the SBI Report:

•• The report argued that the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003 also allows direct
monetization of deficit in certain exceptional circumstances, the Covid-19 pandemic being one such.
•• It expects this not to be inflationary, given the stagnant demand in the country.
•• The report argued that bringing growth back is more important to debt sustainability as compared to fiscal
conservatism (which involves lower levels of public spending, lower taxes and lower government debt).
•• As the current level of foreign exchange reserves is sufficient to meet any external debt obligations. Also, since
most of the debt is domestically owned, the debt servicing of the internal debt is also not an issue.
•• The real challenge is the contraction of economic growth, which can turn interest rate-growth differential into
a positive trajectory.
•• Interest rate - growth differential is a key metric watched by agencies to gauge debt sustainability.
A negative interest rate-growth differential, which denotes growth is higher than the interest rate on debt, is important
from a sustainability perspective, as higher growth means the government’s revenue expansion will outstrip any spike
in debt repayment
NATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING AUTHORITY (NFRA)

The decision to constitute the NFRA was taken after the role of auditors and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
came under the scanner for alleged lapses in various corporate scams including that at the Punjab National Bank.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss the key functions of NFRA and write a note on its significance.
ÂÂ Nature
•• It is to be an independent regulator of the auditing profession.
•• It has been given sweeping powers to take action against erring auditors and auditing firms.
•• By this, it will replace the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in terms of control over erring chartered
accountants.
ÂÂ Formation
•• NFRA was constituted in 2018 by the Government of India under section 132 (1) of the Companies Act, 2013.
•• It is an audit regulator.
•• It consists of a chairperson, who shall be a person of eminence and having expertise in accountancy, auditing,
finance, or law, appointed by the Central Government and such other members not exceeding 15.
•• Its account is monitored by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India.
•• It is headquartered in New Delhi.
ÂÂ Functions and Duties:

•• Recommend accounting and auditing policies and standards to be adopted by companies for approval by the
Central Government.
•• Monitor and enforce compliance with accounting standards and auditing standards.
•• Oversee the quality of service of the professions associated with ensuring compliance with such standards and
suggest measures for improvement in the quality of service.
•• Protect the public interest.
ÂÂ Powers of NFRA
•• It can investigate professional matters or misconduct of any member or a firm of chartered accountants.
•• It can issue summons and examine on oath.
•• It can also inspect any book, registers and documents of any professional/firm probed.
•• It may impose penalties and even has powers to debar a member of a firm.
ÂÂ The present role of auditors

•• The Companies Act casts a responsibility on auditors to see that corporate accounts are in order.
•• Auditors can choose not to sign the accounts if their concerns are not addressed by the management.
•• The Companies Act also allows auditors to report to the Centre if they believe an offense involving fraud is being
committed by the company, by its officers or employees.
ÂÂ Advantages of NFRA
The expected benefits of having the NFRA are listed below.
•• India gains eligibility for IFIAR (International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators), which was denied earlier,
resulting in enhancing the confidence of Foreign/Domestic investors and India’s position on a global scale.
•• Increase in foreign/domestic investors.
•• Economic growth.
•• IFIAR eligibility proves our international standards of business, further supporting globalization.
•• Further development of the auditing profession.
•• Establishment of NFRA will free resources for the ICAI to work on developing new and complex skills needed
in the uncertain world of technology.
NEW DEFINITION OF MSMES IN OFFING

The government has assured to come out with a new definition of MSMEs that are currently defined on the basis of investment
in plant and machinery.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Recently, the union cabinet took a decision to change the basis of classification of the Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises (MSMEs). Examine on what basis classification of MSMEs will be done and how would this classification
impact industries.
ÂÂ Background
•• The MSME sector currently contributed 24% of the GDP growth and 48% of exports, with an annual turnover of
`1 lakh crore this year. A target of `5 lakh crore in five years had been set.
•• There are suggestions that the MSME units should be defined on the basis of turnover as it would increase
compatibility with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system.
ÂÂ About MSME:
•• The Government of India has enacted the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act,
2006 in terms of which the definition of micro, small and medium enterprises is as under:
ÂÂ Enterprises engaged in the Manufacture:

•• A microenterprise is an enterprise where investment in plant and machinery does not exceed `25 lakh;
•• A small enterprise is an enterprise where the investment in plant and machinery is more than `25 lakh but does
not exceed `5 crore;
•• A medium enterprise is an enterprise where the investment in plant and machinery is more than `5 crore but does
not exceed `10 crore.
ÂÂ Enterprises engaged in providing or rendering of Services:

•• A microenterprise is an enterprise where the investment in equipment does not exceed `10 lakh;
•• A small enterprise is an enterprise where the investment in equipment is more than `10 lakh but does not exceed
`2 crores;
•• A medium enterprise is an enterprise where the investment in equipment is more than `2 crore but does not
exceed `5 crore.
ÂÂ Proposed Change
•• Classification criteria of MSMEs from “investment in plant and machinery” to “annual turnover.”
•• There will be no distinction between manufacturing and service enterprises.
ÂÂ Need to Change in the Definition

•• The low threshold in the old MSME definition prevented these companies from growing as that could have
meant losing out the benefits.
•• The new higher limits in investment and turnover may help companies grow. Plus, turnover brings in greater
transparency in the classification, as it is easier for the government to verify a company’s turnover using the
GST data than the investment in machinery etc.
•• Manufacturing companies had opposed using turnover as the sole criteria arguing that it would allow traders to
claim MSME status (and the linked benefits) by importing cheap goods from China and selling them here without
adding to the country’s manufacturing base and increasing competition for “genuine” MSMEs.
ÂÂ Advantages of Change in Definition

•• The definition matters for companies as there are benefits linked to it. These range from loans under the priority
sector lending scheme
•• A 25% share in procurement by government and government-owned companies
•• Promoters being allowed to bid for stressed assets under insolvency law (unlike big companies) as well as
relief from the government and regulators from time to time.
•• There are around 6.3 crore MSME units in the country, with over 99% categorised as small units.
ÂÂ Government Initiatives:
•• It had accepted 39 suggestions by the U.K. Sinha committee appointed by the Reserve Bank of India, including
the setting up a “fund of funds” for the sector.
•• Relaxation of CRR for lending to key sectors: The RBI has announced that any incremental lending (retail
loans) by banks for automobiles, residential housing and loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)
to automobiles between January-end and July-end will not attract CRR restrictions.
•• MSME Samadhan Portal: Ministry of MSME has taken an initiative for filing online application by the supplier MSE
unit against the buyer of goods/ services before the concerned MSEFC of his/ her State/UT. The Mudra Bank and
Start-up India initiatives are illustrative of its keenness to promote a million new enterprises.
•• Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises: Government of India launched the Credit
Guarantee Scheme (CGS) so as to strengthen the credit delivery system and facilitate the flow of credit to the
MSE sector.
ÂÂ Trade Receivables Discounting Platforms (TReDS):

•• The objective was to enable multiple lenders to bid for invoices accepted by the buyer and thereby provide
financing to the MSME seller on a non-recourse basis—transfer the risk from the MSME seller to the financier
against the strength of a validated trade invoice.
•• These platforms play a vital coordination role between the buyer (often large corporate or PSU), the seller (often an
MSME), and the financier (banks and non-banking financial companies or NBFCs), and also enable the upload,
acceptance, discounting and trading of invoices.
•• Government e-Marketplace (GeM) meant to facilitate transparent government procurement of goods and services
across departments. Its back-end infrastructure is quite sophisticated.
•• The MSME ministry is also working on a portal called Bharat Craft in cooperation with the Government e-Marketplace
(GeM) portal to market goods produced by MSMEs across the globe.
ÂÂ Concerns with MSMEs

•• Significant delays in receiving payments from buyers, particularly public sector undertakings (PSUs): It is
happening despite laws mandating a 45-day window, resulting in an often unsustainable working capital cycle.
•• It is also a key reason for many of them turning into non-performing assets (NPAs), affecting their sustainability.
•• Lacunae in Samaadhaan facilitation route: The current grievance redressal system to deal with cases of
delayed payment to Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) does not recognize the power asymmetry between the
buyer and the seller.
While it is theoretically possible for an MSME to take a defaulting buyer to arbitration, or use the government’s
Samaadhaan facilitation route, most MSMEs are worried about losing business relationships if they take this
step.
•• Low activity in TReDS: As of mid-2019, 3,708 MSME sellers, 604 buyers, 71 banks and five NBFC were registered
on these platforms, and invoices worth `66.69 billion had been financed according to the MSME Committee’s
report.
Buyers lack an incentive to use these platforms, despite the government’s diktat for PSUs to mandatorily
enlist.
Delay in generating invoices and about multiple-financing of one invoice across different platforms.
•• Access to Credit: According to Economic Survey (2017-18), MSME sector faces a major problem in terms of
getting adequate credit for expansion of business activities. The Survey had pointed out that the micro, small and
medium enterprises (MSME) received only 17.4 per cent of the total credit outstanding. Most banks are reluctant
to lend to MSMEs because from the perspective of bankers, inexperience of these enterprises, poor financials,
lack of collaterals and infrastructure.
•• Poor Infrastructure: With poor infrastructure, MSMEs’ production capacity is very low while production cost is
very high.
•• Access to modern Technology: The lack of technological know-how and financial constraints limits the access
to modern technology and consequently the technological adoption remains low.
•• Access to markets: MSMEs have poor access to markets. Their advertisement and sales promotion are
comparatively weaker than that of the multinational companies and other big companies. The ineffective
advertisement and poor marketing channels makes it difficult for them to compete with large companies.
•• Legal hurdles: Getting statutory clearances related to power, environment, labour are major hurdles. Further,
laws related to the all aspects of manufacturing and service concern are very complex and compliance with these
laws are difficult.
•• Lack of skilled manpower: The training and development programs in respect of MSME`S development has
been inadequate. Thus, there has been a constant crunch of skilled manpower in MSMEs
ÂÂ Way Forward
•• Government of India and banks should design plans and measures to widen easy, hassle-free access to credit.
•• The RBI should bring stringent norms for Non-Performing Assets (NPA) and it will help curbing loan
defaulters and motivate potential good debts. Further, according to critics, the Credit Guarantee Scheme for
MSME (CGTMSE) run by SIDBI is a growing contingent liability and needs to be examined with urgency
•• Government should provide enhanced development and upgradation of existing rail & road network and
other infrastructure facilities in less developed and rural areas to boost growth and development of MSMEs
•• There should proper research and development in respect of innovative method of production and service
rendering. Further, the government should promote and subsidise the technical know-how to Micro and small
enterprises.
•• Government should encourage procurement programme, credit and performance ratings and extensive
marketing support to revive the growth of sick units.
•• Skill development and imparting training to MSME workers is a crucial step to increase the productivity of the
sector. The government should emphasise predominantly on skill development and training programs
COAL SECTOR REFORMS

In line with the Prime minister’s vision to build Atma Nirbhar Bharat, India is marking a fundamental shift to unleash the coal
sector as commercial-mine auction kickstarts.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• The commercialisation of coal sector may prove to be a progressive step towards ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’. But at
the same time, it may bring about serious other challenges. Critically analyse.
ÂÂ Background
•• The Prime Minister also said the government has set a target to gasify around 100 million tonnes of coal by 2030.
•• India has opened up the coal sector completely for commercial mining for all local and global firms after
easing restrictions on end-use and prior experience in auctions via an ordinance.
•• So far, coal mines were auctioned only for captive power generation.
ÂÂ Facts related to India’s Coal Sector:

•• Coal is the most important and abundant fossil fuel in India. It accounts for 55% of the country’s energy need.
•• The current per capita commercial primary energy consumption in India is about 350 kg/year which is well
below that of developed countries.
•• Top coal-producing states: Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.
•• Coal type: About 98% of the fuel in India is Gondwana coal i.e. the oldest kind of fossil fuel, formed around 250
million years ago. 2% coal is Tertiary coal which is of younger age. It was formed from 15 to 60 million years ago.
•• Coal deposits: Hard coal deposits spread over 27 major coalfields which are mainly confined to Eastern and
South-central parts of the country. The lignite reserves stand at a level around 36 billion tonnes, of which 90 %
occur in the southern State of Tamil Nadu.
•• Production: Today, India is the second-largest producer of coal with its record production at 729 million tonnes
(MT) in 2019-20.
•• Consumption: India ranks 2nd in the world for Coal consumption, accounting for about 84.8% of the world’s
total consumption of 1,139,471,430 tons.
•• Significance: Considering the limited reserve potentiality of petroleum & natural gas, eco-conservation restriction
on the hydel project and geopolitical perception of nuclear power, coal will continue to occupy the centre-stage
of India’s energy scenario.
ÂÂ Chronology of development of coal sector in India:

•• Nationalisation of coal mines: The enactment of the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1973 brought in
the nationalisation of the coal sector which meant that domestic coal could be mined only by public sector
companies. The act now is the piece of Central legislation determining the eligibility of coal mining in India. India
has the world’s largest coal miner, Coal India Limited (CIL), which has registered an unprecedented increase in
production of 140 MT in the last six years. It is a government entity.
•• After liberalisation reforms in 1993, to focus on the increasing energy demand, the government decided to
allocate coal mines to various players for captive consumption (in captive mining coal is taken out by a
company for its own use and it won’t be able to sell it in the market).
•• The power sector reforms of 2003, contributed to growth in the power sector.
•• Demand -supply gap: Increasing demand of Coal by the power sector was not fulfilled by CIL leading to huge
imports. In 2014, based on the CAG report the Supreme Court cancelled allocation of all coal mines allocated
after 1993.
•• Allocation of coal mines through auctions by enacting the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015.
•• In 2018, government permitted entry of private firms in commercial coal mining in the country.
ÂÂ Government initiatives for coal sector reforms: Coal sector moving from an era of
monopoly to competition:
•• A transparent mechanism was set in place through legislation, the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015,
to return the cancelled blocks to industry, via auctions.
•• On the process side, the coal ministry has simplified the process of the mining plan approval process from 90
days to 30 days.
•• A more equitable system of sharing revenues, which moved away from fixed rates to an ad-valorem system.
So, when the prices go up, the miner shares more with the government and if they decrease, he shares less.
•• CIL has been given a target of producing one billion tonnes of coal by FY 2023-24. For this necessary capital,
coal blocks and an expeditious approval giving mechanism have already been put in place.
•• Ministry of Coal has developed an Online Coal Clearances System to provide single window access to its
investors to submit online applications for all the permissions/clearances and approvals granted by the Ministry
of Coal.
•• Coal Allocation Monitoring System (CAMS) is developed to monitor the allocation of coal by CIL to States,
States to State Nominated Agencies (SNA) and SNA to such consumers in a transparent manner.
•• A new coal linkage policy to ensure adequate supply of the fuel to power plants through a reverse auction.
•• UTTAM (Unlocking Transparency by Third Party Assessment of Mined Coal): The Ministry of Coal and Coal
India Limited (CIL) developed UTTAM which aims to provide an App for all citizens and coal consumers to
monitor the process of Third-Party Sampling of coal across CIL subsidiaries.
•• In 2018, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the methodology for auction of coal mines for
sale of coal, the most ambitious coal sector reform since its nationalisation in 1973.
•• Through the Mineral Laws (Amendment) Act, 2020 the government allowed any India-registered company to
bid and develop coal blocks.
ÂÂ Salient features of the Mineral Laws (Amendment) Act, 2020:

•• The Act amends the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act) and the Coal
Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 (CMSP Act).
•• The CMSP Act provides for the auction and allocation of mines whose allocation was cancelled by the Supreme
Court in 2014 as illegal.
Schedule I of the Act provides a list of all such mines;
Schedule II and III are sub-classes of the mines listed in the Schedule I.
Schedule II mines are those where production had already started then, and Schedule III mines are the ones
that had been earmarked for a specific end-use.
•• Removal of restriction on end-use of coal: Earlier, companies acquiring Schedule II and Schedule III coal
mines through auctions can use the coal produced only for specified end-uses such as power generation and
steel production. Now, companies will be allowed to carry on coal mining operations for their own consumption,
sale or for any other purposes, as may be specified by the central government.
•• Eligibility for auction of coal and lignite blocks: The Act clarifies that the companies need not possess any
prior coal mining experience in India in order to participate in the auction of coal and lignite blocks.
•• Prior approval from the central government: Under the MMDR Act, state governments require prior approval
of the central government for granting reconnaissance permit, prospecting license, or mining lease for coal and
lignite. The new Act provides that prior approval of the central government will not be required in granting
these licenses for coal and lignite, in certain cases.
ÂÂ Benefits of coal sector reforms:

•• Augment production capacity: Coal India has been tasked to produce one billion tonnes by 2023-24 but
production will still fall short of demand. Thus, there is a need to introduce private players in coal mining.
•• Energy security: The move of ending monopoly will also lead to greater energy security as 70 per cent of India’s
electricity is generated from thermal power plants.
•• Improved quality: Allowing the private sector in coal mining is likely to increase supply and a competitive scenario
will help in improving quality.
•• Attracting FDI: The government expects to attract investments from Indian and global corporates, besides
mining majors such as Peabody, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
•• It has the innate potential to usher in immense job opportunities and provide a boost to the government’s
Make in India programme since coal mining operations require large machines and manpower.
•• Local development: Besides, it will lead to the induction of new technology and competition in the sector.
Consequently, the economies of coal-bearing states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra
and Odisha will also grow since all the revenue from these auctions will accrue exclusively to them.
ÂÂ Concerns
•• Disadvantages of CIL’s monopoly: State-owned Coal India and Singareni Collieries Company together
accounted for 91.6 per cent of the total coal produced in the country during FY 2017-18.
•• Quality of coal produced in the country: Indian coal has an average ash content of about 45% - far higher than
the 25-30 per cent that ensures efficient power generation. The efficiency of the country’s thermal power plants
has also been compromised because they have to contend with stones and boulders in the coal they procure
from CIL.
•• Import dependency: India has the fourth largest coal reserve in the world and is second largest producer and
importer in the world.
•• Due to coal scarcity, power plants are operating at 60-70 per cent of their installed capacity which is ultimately
hampering the interests of the state and nation.
•• Environmental hazard: Several mines are located in biodiversity-rich forest areas in central India, including a
few in one of the largest contiguous stretches of dense forest called Hasdeo Arand that spans 170,000 hectares.
•• Tribal regions: Coal and iron ore are found in districts that have significant forest cover and host a large population
of the Scheduled tribe and backward community. With no end-use and pricing restrictions, the government is
also giving up its important responsibility of safeguarding the public interest, protecting the environment and
upholding the prevailing constitutional safeguards for the areas in question.
•• Environmental and forest clearances: Delayed clearances from the Environment ministry and Ecologically
Sensitive zone prohibitions have slowed the progress of the coal sector.
•• Land acquisitions: The Land Acquisition Act, Forest Rights Act etc., have impeded the expansion of coal sector.
•• Non-transparent allocation process and litigations.
•• Low productivity of Indian coal due to strict regulations and higher operation and maintenance costs.
•• Pollution norms: State pollution control boards are not able to enforce compliance with pollution laws.
•• Debt financing of coal-based power plants by public sector banks is a huge pressure on banking system.
•• Low FDI: All the above factors have contributed to a very less foreign direct investment.
ÂÂ Way Forward
•• Competence: Revenue maximisation should not be the only focus of the auction methodology but also the mining
experience and core competence should get more weight in the bidding process.
•• Attracting global miners: In order to attract large domestic and global miners, it is important to offer larger coal
blocks, such as 50 MT annual capacities or more, for a period of about 25-30 years.
•• Inordinate delays in land acquisition and statutory approvals need to be addressed. So far, it may be noted,
that just a handful of the blocks which have been auctioned are operational.
•• Transportation: Several railway projects have been taken up for new or doubling the lines including in the
Northern Coalfield Limited (NCL areas) and once completed these would help in increasing the coal supply to
consumers.
DISCOM LOSSES MOUNT DUE TO RISING DOMESTIC DEMAND

The three-week nationwide lockdown is affecting the finances of power distribution companies (discoms), as electricity demand
load has shifted to homes during the lockdown, resulting in lower realizations of revenue.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss the problems faced by the power sector in India. Suggest some measures to tackle these problems.
ÂÂ Background
•• Due to the national lockdown, the peak electricity demand dropped to about 127.96 gigawatts (GW) on 25
March from about 163.73GW on 20 March. In comparison, India’s peak demand in FY19 was 168.74GW
•• Of India’s total electricity demand load pattern, industrial and agricultural consumption accounts for 41.16%
and 17.69%, respectively.
•• Commercial electricity consumption accounts for 8.24% of demand.
•• Domestic electricity consumption accounts for around 25% of India’s power demand.
ÂÂ Significance of the issue

Millions of people are now confined to their homes, resorting to teleworking to do their jobs, e-commerce sites to do
their shopping, and streaming video platforms to find entertainment. A reliable electricity supply underpins all of these
services, as well as powering the devices.
ÂÂ Concerns for discoms:

•• Higher AT&C Losses: Domestic electricity consumption contributes 21.4% of India’s average aggregate
technical and commercial (AT&C) losses.
Increased domestic consumption will result in enhanced T&D (transmission and distribution) losses and
financial losses.
•• Lower revenue from the domestic connections: Domestic consumption, which generates comparatively lower
tariffs, has gone up as people are forced to stay at homes. The onset of summer will further increase the domestic
demand.
The high revenue generating commercial and industrial power demand is down as many factories have
shut down.
•• Stock exchange losses: According to data collated by the Indian Energy Exchange, the demand for electricity
has also come down resulting in an average price of `2.03 per unit for electricity traded on 26 March,2020 on the
exchange market.
•• The gap between the cost of electricity bought (average cost of supply) and supplied (average revenue
realized) for discoms is still substantial in most states and ranges from `2.13 per unit in Andhra Pradesh to `0.09
in Chhattisgarh.
•• Debts: The discoms owe `76,150 crore in dues to power generators at the end of December, 2019. The total
outstanding dues of Discoms payable to generators/creditors as of February 2019 stood at an alarming level of
Rs. 418.81 billion.
•• Non Performing assets (NPA) Stress in banking sector: With at least 10 states losing about a third of the power
supplied to their consumers in distribution losses, their discom’s debts have also contributed to NPA stress in the
banking sector.
•• Lower per capita consumption: India’s per capita power consumption, about 1149 kilowatt-hour (kWh), is
among the lowest in the world. In comparison, the world’s per capita consumption is 3600 kWh.
Discoms must therefore, (a) buy cost-efficient power for consumers, (b) ensure supply reliability with quality
by minimising losses/leakages (c) accurately meter, bill, and collect payments from the consumers, and (d)
thereby, enable timely payments to the generators. These are key steps towards sustaining the entire energy value
chain without power supply disruptions.
There is a need for another scheme to address the shortfall of UDAY’s targets.
About the Indian power sector: It can be broadly segmented into generation, transmission, and distribution
sectors.
Generation sector: India has an installed power-generation capacity of 368.69GW. The peak load demand of
1,75,528 MW during FY 2018-19 was largely met.
The transmission sector: India’s regional grids (Northern, Eastern, Western, North-Eastern, and Southern) are
currently integrated into one national grid.
By the end of the 12th plan period (2012-2017), India had total inter-regional transmission capacity to transfer
nearly 75,050 MW.
The distribution sector: It consists of Power Distribution Companies (Discoms) responsible for the supply and
distribution of energy to the consumers (industry, commercial, agriculture, domestic etc.).
•• Power distribution companies collect payments from consumers against their energy supplies (purchased
from generators) to provide necessary cash flows to the generation and transmission sectors to operate.
•• The Discoms have to purchase and distribute power to fulfil their Universal Supply Obligation (USO) as
defined in the Electricity Act 2003 or borrow for capital expenditure to meet load augmentation and growth
requirements.
•• This sector is the weakest link in terms of financial and operational sustainability.
•• Due to the perennial cash collection shortfall, often due to payment delays from consumers, Discoms are
unable to make timely payments for their energy purchases from the generators. This gap/shortfall is met by
borrowings (debt), government subsidies, and possibly, through reduced expenditure.
•• This increases the Discoms’ cost of borrowing (interest), which is inevitably borne by the consumer.
Govt. initiatives:
•• Financial restructuring/ bailout (Ahluwalia Committee 2001)
•• Central FRP Scheme 2012
•• Operations, infrastructure, and technology improvements (APDRP 2001, R-APDRP/IPDS 2008, DDUGJY &
SAUBHAGYA 2014/2017, Smart Grid Pilot project & NSGM 2012-15), and structural reform (Electricity Act
2003).
•• UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) scheme, launched in November 2015, is the latest attempt to
address the severe financial stress due to accumulation of debt by the Discoms, with a focus on improving
the overall efficiency and financial turnaround.
ÂÂ Way Forward
•• Fuel Reforms: Various aspects like ramping up coal production by both public and private sector in a time-
bound manner, increased participation of private sector in coal production and easing of regulatory framework,
clearances and approvals for allocation and development of coal blocks & gas infrastructure need to be addressed
while formulating such reforms.
•• Balanced Regulatory Interventions: Regulators need to be sensitised to the challenges faced by the sector and
policy framework needs to be crafted and enforced to ensure a win-win situation for all the stakeholders. They
must pro-actively intervene to resolve the immediate issues ailing the power sector.
•• Increased Financing Facilities for Energy Sector: A robust and sustainable credit enhancement mechanism
for funding in Energy Sector needs to be put in place through increased participation by global funding agencies
like The World Bank, ADB etc. in the entire value chain.
•• Public private partnership: There is a strong need to push for wider-scale implementation of public private
partnership models. The private sector has been playing a key role in generating power, a more supportive
environment will help in bridging the energy deficit of the country.
•• Taxation: Power-generating companies should not be saddled with the burden of cross-subsidising the renewable
sector. This can be borne by the society (through taxation) and not by the entities that are already in trouble.
•• Cooperative federalism: To resolve water disputes, government must help states to come to a common ground.
Emphasis should be on cooperative federalism with shared benefit to all the states.
•• Merger of ministries: There should be only one energy ministry to make coordination and implementation of
policies better. It will remove policy paralysis too.
•• Reduction of transmission losses: This should be achieved by better infrastructure and technological efforts.
Old plants should be shut and should be replaced with new.
In the recent past, several initiatives have been taken to address the challenges in the power sector.These include
structural changes in the regulatory framework, and the UDAY scheme to address financial issues being faced by
companies distributing electricity. But power sector still face loses and old issues. Government must effectively
replace and modernise old and inefficient plants and lines to achieve the electricity production and demand target.
CLEAN ENERGY: CAN SUPPORT INDIA’S ECONOMIC RECOVERY POST-

COVID-19
NITI Aayog and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) have released Towards a Clean Energy Economy: Post-Covid-19 Opportunities
for India’s Energy and Mobility Sectors report.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Clean energy can reshape India’s economy in Post-Covid to a recovery path that will not just be environment
friendly but also pocket-friendly. Discuss.
ÂÂ Key Highlights from the NITI Aayog Report

•• NITI Aayog and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) have recently released Towards a Clean Energy Economy: Post-
Covid-19 Opportunities for India’s Energy and Mobility Sectors Report.
ÂÂ Current Scenario:
•• India, along with the rest of the world, is facing significant social and economic challenges after implementing
measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. To address these challenges, public and private sector leaders are
considering short-term and long-term interventions to support economic recovery.
•• In this context, India recently announced a `20 lakh crore (US$266 billion) economic relief package. This provides
an opportunity to prioritize efforts that work towards building a clean, resilient, and least-cost energy future for
India, including electric vehicles, energy storage, and renewable energy programs.
ÂÂ Major Potential & Opportunities:

•• India’s transport sector can save 1.7 giga tonnes of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions and avoid about 600
million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in fuel demand by 2030 through shared, electric, and connected passenger
mobility and cost-effective, clean, and optimized freight transport.
•• Strategic opportunities for economic recovery and green growth exist in India’s clean transport and power policies
and programs:
•• In the transport sector: Major opportunities include making public transport safe, enhancing and expanding
non-motorized transport infrastructure, reducing vehicle kilometres travelled through work from- home where
possible, supporting national strategies to adopt electric vehicles in the freight and passenger segments, and
making India an automotive export hub.
•• In the power sector: Major opportunities in power sector include improving electricity distribution business and
operations, enabling renewables and distributed energy resources, and promoting energy resilience and local
manufacturing of renewable energy and energy storage technologies.
ÂÂ Guiding Principles:
The following principles can help guide initiatives and investments in India’s clean energy future at this time:
•• Invest in least-cost energy solutions: The steeply falling costs of clean energy technologies present an
opportunity to pursue an economically viable clean energy transition. For example, the UJALA program
decreased the unit cost of LED bulbs by over 75 percent in 18 months, solar and wind emerging as India’s
lowest-cost electricity sources, electric buses beginning to present lower total cost of ownership than that
of diesel buses for city bus services. Support resilient and secure energy systems: As climate change
accelerates, the likelihood of pandemics and extreme weather shocks will likely increase, making the need to
build a resilient future critical. In India, future growth will demand resilience on multiple fronts, such as energy
system design, urban development and transport design, industrial growth and supply-chain management,
and the livelihoods of the underprivileged.
•• Prioritize efficiency and competitiveness:India’s manufacturing prowess and technology leadership present
an opportunity to leverage Make in India to turn India into a more self-sufficient economy and globally competitive
export hub over time. Circular economy solutions should become a core feature of India’s future economy.
•• Promote social and environmental equity: India’s decisive response to the current pandemic has helped avoid
some of the most devastating potential effects. But the situation has emphasized the need to support investment
in the country’s public health infrastructure. Beyond health infrastructure, a priority exists to address social and
environmental externalities, especially air pollution.
ÂÂ Way Forward:
Now more than ever, India’s clean energy transition must prioritize multiple benefits, especially clean air, resilience,
and economic and social equity, while putting the economy on a recovery path. We must look at how to leverage our
domestic innovation ecosystem to bring value to the country and industry in this new normal. For this to happen, India
must encourage that class of capital market investors to invest in the clean energy.
OIL PRICES IN NEGATIVE TERRAIN

The United States oil markets created history recently when prices of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), fell to “minus” $40.32 a
barrel in interlay trade in New York.
PROBABLE QUESTIONS
•• Explain the reasons behind the falling oil prices and its impact on Indian economy.
ÂÂ More about the news:

•• It was the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) price for May in the US markets that went so low. Crude oil prices
elsewhere fell too but not this low in comparison with the WTI prices.
•• A negative price implies that a seller would have to pay the buyer to hold the oil to be supplied.
•• This is the second instance when oil prices have fallen below the zero mark, first of such incidents was immediately
after World War II.
ÂÂ Reasons behind this situation (Too much supply and too little demand of oil):
•• COVID-19 and slowdown in economic activity: For limiting the spread of COVID-19 countries have imposed
lockdown. Which has resulted into fewer flights, cars and industries etc using oil. This has resulted in faster
shrinking of demand for oil in comparison with the oil production cuts by various countries.
•• To cancel out negative outcomes production cuts: Cutting production or completely shutting down an oil
well is a difficult decision because restarting it is both immensely costly and cumbersome. If one country cuts
production, it also risks losing market share if others do not follow suit.
•• Earlier disagreement of Saudi Arabia and Russia over the production cuts: As a result of the disagreement,oil-
exporting countries, led by Saudi Arabia, started undercutting each other on price while continuing to produce
the same quantities of oil. This has contributed to the excess supply of the oil.
•• Exhausted storage capacities: Oil-exporting countries decided to cut production by 10 million barrels a day and
yet the demand for oil was reducing even further. This supply demand mismatch resulted in exhausted storage
capacities.
ÂÂ Probable implications on India:

•• No direct impact: The Indian crude oil basket does not comprises West Texas Intermediate (WTI). It contains
only Brent and oil from some of the Gulf countries so there is no direct impact and it may not translate into a sharp
lowering of prices at retail pumps for consumers in India.
•• Indirect impacts: As oil is traded globally so weakness in WTI may get mirrored ultimately in the falling prices of
the Indian basket as well.
•• Boost in individual consumption: If the government passes on the lower prices to consumers, then, whenever
the economic recovery starts in India, individual consumption will be boosted.
•• Implications on Government revenues: If, on the other hand, governments (both at the Centre and the states)
decide to levy higher taxes on oil, it can boost government revenues.
The oil import bill will fall sharply this fiscal year, giving tremendous relief to the government on the external
account front.
With oil prices falling and foreign exchange outgo reducing, the pressure on the current account balance is
off.
Strengthen the Rupees: India imports 80% of crude needs Due to reduction in oil prices both trade and
fiscal deficit would remain under control. It will support for rupee as big oil bill drains currency reserves
•• Implications on Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs): Experts say OMCs are making up for inventory losses and
reductions in refining margins due to a drop in demand by as much as 70 percent due to the lockdown. Due to
this it is unlikely to have lower prices in response to the fall in crude prices until demand for fuel recovers.
•• Inflation: A rise in oil price leads to an increase in prices of all goods and services as a result, inflation rises. This
is why the fall in global crude prices comes as a boon to India. Every $10 per barrel fall in crude oil price helps
reduce retail inflation by 0.2% and wholesale price inflation by 0.5%.
ÂÂ Negative Impacts:
•• India’s Oil Industry: It is in deep trouble because demand has crashed. Because refiners imported a lot of crude
oil before price crash which resulted in heavy inventory losses.
Also with negligible sales revenue, oil companies forced to borrow heavily
•• Impact on remittances: As lower oil prices will impact the economies of oil-producing countries in the Middle
East, they could also affect remittance flows to India.
•• Petroleum products export: It directly affects the exporters of petroleum producers in the country because India
is the sixth largest exporter of petroleum products in the world.
ÂÂ Way Forward:
•• Oil is one of the most important commodities in recent times. Much of the economy depends on oil. This is why
prices of oil matter to almost every economy. It is expected that the Crude oil prices to remain low with further
downside risk as the demand side will take long time to recover.
A PRAGMATIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY TO CAPITALISE ON INDIA’S

INHERENT STRENGTHS
The Prime Minister recently brought up the importance of local manufacturing and consumption of locally produced goods,
stating that Indians needed to become “vocal for local”.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Recently, Indian Prime Minister has emphasised on Vocal for local strategy to make India self-reliant. Analyse.
ÂÂ India’s import dependency:

•• India imported $467.2 billion worth of commodities between April and March 2019-2020.
•• Of this, Electrical and non-electrical machinery were $37.7 billion; pearls, precious and semiprecious stones were
about $22.4 billion; leather and leather products were $1.01 billion, and Machine tool imports were about $4.2
billion.
ÂÂ Sectors heavily dependent on imports which cannot immediately scale up production

domestically
•• India’s electronics industry is limited to mostly assembly, while the country depends on imports to access
most of the primary and critical components used to make them, including printed circuit boards (PCBs).
•• The country’s electric vehicles industry is dependent, “to a large extent” on Chinese imports for chemicals
used to make cathodes and battery cells.
•• Medical devices: Over 60 per cent of the country’s medical devices are imported as well. Medical devices like
ventilators also rely on imports of several crucial components like solenoid valves and pressure sensors.
•• Solar cells and modules used by the country’s solar power industry.
•• Local dyestuff units in India are also heavily dependent on imports of several raw materials.
ÂÂ Partially import dependent sectors:

•• India’s pharmaceutical industry is capable of making finished formulations but the industry also imports some key
ingredients for antibiotics and vitamins currently not manufactured in India.
•• Import dependent API: India imported around `249 billion worth of key ingredients, including fermentation-
based ingredients, in FY19, and this accounted for approximately 40 percent of the overall domestic consumption.
•• Some auto manufacturers depend on imports for various components.
ÂÂ Self-reliant sectors which have minimal dependence on imports or have the capacity to
immediately scale up production:
•• India is not as dependent on imports for some textile components like yarn.
•• Many items like hot water bottles, mercury thermometers, were made here in the past, are not made now by
manufacturers as they prefer to import and market.
ÂÂ Identified sector for self-reliance scheme:

•• Sectors already identified by the Department of Promotion for Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in consultation
with other ministries include:
Capital goods and machinery,
Mobile and electronics, gems and jewellery,
Pharmaceuticals, textiles and garments.
ÂÂ Challenges:
•• Resources: The manufacture of some of the key products that India imports such as semiconductors, displays
and other very capital intensive electrical equipment may not be possible soon as manufacturing these requires
large, stable sources of clean water and electricity.
•• Policy certainty: They also need a high degree of policy certainty as these require high upfront investments.
•• Logistics: The Indian industry faces much higher costs in inputs such as electricity and much higher logistics
costs than Chinese firms. E.g. it costs `4/kg for a shipment of cable to arrive at Mumbai from a city 300 km away
from Shanghai but it costs around `14/kg for that shipment to be transported from Mumbai to a factory in Noida.
•• Import substitution framework: With Atma Nirbhar Bharat, there is a danger of India going back to an import
substitution framework which may not be quite appropriate in the 21st century.
•• Trade distortion: Increasing import duties may cross WTO prescribed limits and invite disputes.
ÂÂ Way Forward
•• Robust Industrial and Innovation policy to make the manufacturing industry more efficient.
•• Indian firms can however begin producing less sophisticated components if certain policy measures are taken.
•• Relaxing labour laws: Some states including UP and Madhya Pradesh have relaxed some labour laws with
Karnataka likely to follow suit.
Technology transfer and local manufacturing: While technology transfer is required for more advanced and critical
medical devices, the country does have the capacity to domestically make products like hot water bottles, mercury
thermometers, hypodermic needles, wheelchairs and patient monitoring display units.
•• Being strategic in terms of the choice of sectors in which India want to be self-reliant. There should be a very
strong case for increasing domestic value addition, besides considering aspects of consumer safety and national
security.
•• Raising import duties: Implementing measures like increasing import duties will make sure that we are not
crossing the WTO bound rates.
We have to emphasise Indian production of a certain scale, certain quality and certain standards. Then only the
Indian product will match up to the best in the world.
Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI)

•• It was pursued mainly from the 1930s through the 1960s in Latin America—particularly in Brazil, Argentina, and
Mexico—and in some parts of Asia and Africa.
•• In theory, ISI was expected to incorporate three main stages:
Domestic production of previously imported simple non-durable consumer goods,
The extension of domestic production to a wider range of consumer durables and more-complex
manufactured products, and
The export of manufactured goods and continued industrial diversification.
NEED TO REGULATE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

With the spotlight on social media regulations across the globe, there is a need to discuss at length the need to create evidence
based, proportionate and targeted regulation.
There is undoubtedly a need to regulate social media platforms in some way given the power of these platforms, the increasingly
important role that they play in society, and the harms that can occur in the digital ecosystem.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• In context of recently drafted Social media guidelines, discuss the various issues associated with these guidelines
and suggest some measures to overcome them.
ÂÂ Global scenario
•• Jurisdictions around the world are trying to develop methods to deal with new problems posed by technologies.
•• Europe is one of the leading jurisdictions in this respect; they have recently put in place the General Data
Protection Regulation, which sets a fairly high standard for data protection.
•• In India, IT Act is nearly 20 years old and is arguably no longer sufficient to deal with the present digital ecosystem,
whether it is in terms of
the scope and nature of offences in the law, or
the provisions permitting surveillance and censorship by the State or
even in terms of sections such as those pertaining to intermediary liability.
ÂÂ India’s draft social media guidelines
ÂÂ Issues
•• Target certain social media companies: One of the primary problems with the draft Rules is that while they are
intended to target certain specific types of social media companies.
However, they apply broadly to all intermediaries - ranging from social media companies to telecom service
providers and content delivery networks.
Putting in place similar obligations on all intermediaries makes little sense.
•• Against the ruling of the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal: The Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of
the Information Technology Act, 2000, relating to restrictions on online speech, as unconstitutional on grounds
of violating the freedom of speech guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India.
•• Provisions for intermediaries: The provisions obliging intermediaries to use automated tools to filter content
and the obligation to trace and identify users are particularly problematic. These seek to implement substantive
obligations which are not contemplated under the IT Act itself, and which could seriously affect civil liberties
(speech and privacy rights in particular).
•• Excessive regulation could certainly lead to over-censorship: This could occur through direct censorship by
the government or indeed if you remove safe harbour protections altogether, as this would give companies an
incentive to censor content so as to avoid lawsuits.
•• Section 79 of the IT Act does not require social media platforms to take responsibility for third party content
shared on their platforms.
Changing this system to mandate content removal and censorship by intermediaries themselves would be
unfair and disproportionate.
The Communications Decency Act in the US establishes a self-regulatory system for platforms. Accordingly,
platforms are supposed to police the content shared on their platforms – though they continue not to be
responsible for any content shared by third parties
•• Consistency, transparency and accountability of platforms in implementing self-regulatory processes to
moderate content. Over the last few years, there have been numerous cases of arbitrary or inconsistent censorship
by many of the biggest platforms.
Due to the global pressure, platforms like Facebook have begun the process of establishing an oversight
board which will independently review content moderation decisions.
This is an interesting attempt to avoid excessive state-regulation, and something that is worth keeping an eye
on going ahead.
•• Structural issues: As far as the platform economy is concerned, some of the biggest problems include the
centralisation of power in the hands of a few technology companies, caused by a number of factors ranging from
network effects to the economies of scale in processing data.
ÂÂ Way Forward:
•• Liability of intermediaries based on functions: Intermediaries should continue to face liability based on their
specific functionality and the role that they play in the digital ecosystem.
•• Putting in place relevant norms to deal with broader issues such as privacy and competition law is required.
•• Knowing the purpose of regulation: Evidence based, proportionate and targeted regulation is the need of the
hour.
•• Existing laws regulating social media platforms:

‘Intermediaries guidelines’ under the purview of the Information Technology (IT) Act (notified under the
IT Act in 2011) and the Indian Penal Code regulates social media platforms in India.
Under existing laws, social media channels are already required to take down content if they are directed
to do so by a court or law enforcement.
•• Legal backing for censorship in India: Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 mentions that
the Central Government or an officer authorized by it may block public access to information on a computer
resource, by directing any agency of government or intermediary.
‘NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS CAN BE LISTED ON SOCIAL STOCK

EXCHANGES’
A SEBI-constituted panel on social stock exchanges has recently recommended direct listing of non-profit organisations
through the issuance of bonds and a range of funding mechanisms.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• What do you understand by Social Stock Exchange (SSE) and discuss about its significance.
ÂÂ Background:
•• The panel or working group was set up by SEBI in September 2019 under the Chairmanship of Ishaat Hussain,
Director at SBI Foundation.
•• The aim was to suggest possible structures and regulations for creating SSE to facilitate listing and fund-
raising by social enterprises as well as voluntary organisations.
•• The decision came after the Finance Minister’s budget announcement in July last year about setting up such
exchanges to take the capital markets closer to the masses and meet various social welfare objectives.
Social Stock Exchange

•• It is a platform which allows investors to buy shares in social enterprises vetted by an official exchange.
•• It is a novel concept in India and such a bourse is meant to serve private and non-profit sector providers by
channelling greater capital to them.
Social Enterprise
•• A social enterprise is a revenue-generating business.
•• Its primary objective is to achieve a social objective, for example, providing healthcare or clean energy etc.
•• This in no way means that a social enterprise can’t be highly profitable.
•• In fact, most social enterprises look and operate like traditional businesses.
•• The only catch is that the profit these entities generate is not necessarily used for payouts to stakeholders, but
reinvested into their social programmes.
ÂÂ Recommendations of Working Group:

•• It has recommended allowing non-profit organisations to directly list through issuance of bonds while
recommending a range of funding avenues, including some of the existing mechanisms such as Social Venture
Funds (SVFs) under Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs).
•• The group has also suggested a new minimum reporting standard for organisations that raise funds on social
stock exchanges.
•• The working group has also suggested that the social stock exchange can be housed within the existing
national bourses (Stock Exchange) like the BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) and the National Stock Exchange.
•• Further, it has been recommended that profit social enterprises can also list on SSE with enhanced reporting
requirements.
•• To encourage, giving culture some tax incentives have also been suggested.
•• The report suggested that COVID-19 aid fund can be set up by SSE to activate solutions such as pay for
success bonds:
With philanthropic foundations, CSR spenders and impact investors as outcome funders and
With domestic banks, Non-Banking Financial Corporations (NBFCs) and impact investors as lenders.
ÂÂ Significance:
•• SSE should foster overall sector development by creating a capacity building unit which will be responsible for
encouraging the setting up of a Self Regulatory Organization (SRO).
•• This organisation will in turn bring together existing Information Repositories (IRs), in the immediate term for
extending requisite support to such bourses.
•• There is a great opportunity to unlock funds from donors, philanthropic foundations and CSR spenders, in the
form of zero coupon zero principal bonds if they are listed on the SSE.
•• Housing within the existing national bourses will help the SSE leverage existing infrastructure and client
relationships of the exchanges to onboard investors, donors, and social enterprises.
•• Solutions like COVID 19 aid fund can be particularly effective in financing the work of NPOs that are providing
help and relief to migrant workers all over the country.
ÂÂ Conclusion:
These recommendations, if implemented as a package, can result in a vibrant and supportive ecosystem, enabling
the non-profit sector to realise its full potential for creating social impact.
PRO-BUSINESS VERSUS PRO CRONY
The aspiration of Indian economy to reach the milestone of $5 trillion, depends critically on Promoting Pro-business policies
that wean away from Pro-crony policies.
ÂÂ $5 trillion Economy
Parameters for
Case for Pro-Business Policies Case against Pro Crony Policies
Analysis
Characteristics Firms Compete on a level playing Field Some incumbent Firms receive preferential
Resource allocation in the economy is treatment
efficient Resource allocation in the economy may not be
Citizen welfare is maximized on business efficient
Citizens welfare may not be maximized
Impact Market undergoes creative destruction On Businesses
and brings in diversity. It may favour specific private interests, especially
Creative Destruction: A powerful incumbents
process of industrial mutation that It does not necessarily foster competitive markets.
continuously revolutionizes the economic There exists the danger of regulatory capture by
structure from within. It keeps on private interests.
destroying the old one, at the same time
The crony firms become uncompetitive, non
creating a new one.
performing in the long run.
Free flow of new ideas, technologies
They are at the risk of becoming willful defaulters
and processes like Financial and
and in turn increase the cost of borrowing.
Information technology.
For example, an equity index of connected firms
It brings dynamism to the marketplace
significantly outperformed the market by 7 per cent
that keeps firms on their toes. Builds
a year from 2007 to 2010, that reflects abnormal
confidence of Policy Makers.
profits extracted at the expense of common citizens.
Example: The economic events since
In contrast, the index under-performed the market
1991 provide powerful evidence. The
by 7.5 per cent from 2011, reflecting the inefficiency
creative destruction has increased in a
and value destruction inherent in such firms.
significant manner after reform.
Crony lending that led to wilful default, wherein
The liberalization of the Indian
promoters collectively siphoned off wealth from
economy in 1991 unleashed
banks, led to losses that dwarf subsidies for rural
competitive markets and enabled
development.
the forces of creative destruction,
On Society
generating benefits that we still witness
today. Business-Politics nexus that may hamper policy
making.
Pro-crony policies such as
Rent seeking by inefficient firms at the expense
discretionary allocation of natural
of genuine businesses and citizens who are not
resources till 2011 led to rent-seeking
receiving any preferential treatment.
by beneficiaries while competitive
allocation of the same post 2014 ended Transfer of wealth from competitive to non-
such rent extraction. competitive firms exacerbates income inequality in
the economy.
On Society
Unleash the power of competitive markets
to generate wealth. Competitive prices
for consumers.
ÂÂ Global Studies related to impact of Pro-Crony Policies

•• Several global studies reinforce the relationship between such connections and rent-seeking activities when
institutional checks and balances are weak.
•• A recent World Bank study of cronyism in Ukraine finds
•• That the country would grow 1 to 2 per cent faster if all political connections were eliminated.
•• Politically connected firms in Ukraine account for over 20 per cent of the total turnover of all Ukrainian companies.
•• The study finds some of the traits of these politically connected firms
•• These are larger than non-connected peers Pay lower effective tax rates
•• These are less productive in terms of total factor productivity (TFP)
•• These are less profitable and also grow slower
•• The same findings are reinforced in Asian Economies too such as China ,Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia
ÂÂ Conclusion
While pro-business policies increase competition, correct market failures, or enforce business accountability, pro-
crony policies hurt markets. Such policies may promote narrow business interests and may hurt social welfare because
what crony businesses may want may be at odds with the same. For example, crony businesses may lobby the
government to limit competition in their industry, restrict imports of competing goods or reduce regulatory oversight.
These initiatives enhance the lobbying group’s income but undermine markets and reduce aggregate welfare. Thus,
a pro-crony policy can inadvertently end up being hurtful to businesses in general.
INDIA REMAINS IN THE U.S. PRIORITY WATCH LIST

India continues to be on the ‘Priority Watch List’ of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) Special 301 report for lack of
adequate intellectual property (IP) rights protection and enforcement.
Algeria, Argentina, Chile, China, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Venezuela are also on the Priority Watch List.
PROBABLE QUESTION
The Special 301 Report of the U.S placed India once again under the Priority Watch List. What is Special 301 Report
and why is India placed under Priority Watch list. Discuss
ÂÂ Background:
Special 301 report:
•• It is prepared annually by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) that identifies trade
barriers to United States companies and products due to the intellectual property laws, such as copyright, patents
and trademarks, in other countries.
•• The USTR must identify countries which do not provide:
adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights, or
fair and equitable market access to United States persons that rely upon intellectual property rights.
•• It is published pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 as amended by Section 1303 of the Omnibus
Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988.
•• It was first published in 1989.
ÂÂ Main Categories under the report:

•• Priority Foreign Countries: These are judged to have inadequate intellectual property laws and may be subject
to sanctions.
•• Watch List: These are identified as having serious intellectual property rights deficiencies but are not yet placed
on the “Priority Watch List”.
•• Priority Watch List: These countries have serious intellectual property rights deficiencies which require increased
USTR attention.
ÂÂ Findings of Report:
•• While India made “meaningful progress” to enhance IP protection and enforcement in some areas over the past
year, it did not resolve recent and longstanding challenges, and created new ones.
•• Online IP enforcement in India has improved but progress is undercut by factors including
Weak enforcement by courts and the police,
Lack of familiarity with investigative techniques and
No centralised IP enforcement agency.
•• Long-standing concerns were about Innovators not being able to receive, maintain and enforce patents particularly
in the pharmaceutical sector.
India also restricted the transparency of information provided on state-issued pharmaceutical manufacturing
licenses.
Continues to apply restrictive patentability criteria to reject pharmaceutical patents, and
India has still not established an effective system for protecting against unfair commercial use.
•• Concerns over copyright laws not incentivising the creation and commercialisation of content.
•• Further 2019 draft Copyright Amendment Rules, if implemented, would have “severe” consequences for Internet-
content rights holders, as the proposed rules broadened the scope of compulsory licensing from radio and
television broadcasting to online broadcasting.
•• An outdated trade secrets framework: Trademark counterfeiting levels were “problematic” and there were
“excessive delays” in obtaining trademarks due to a lack of examination quality.
•• The U.S. continues to urge India to join the Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks, a treaty that harmonises
trademark registration.
•• India maintains extremely high customs duties directed to IP-intensive products such as medical devices,
pharmaceuticals, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) products etc. which hinders the trade.
•• The USTR also noted that India was ranked among the top five source countries for fake goods by the
Organization of Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) in 2019.
ENVIRONMENT,
ECOLOGY AND
GEOGRAPHY
FLY ASH
Recently NTPC Ltd, India’s largest power producer and a PSU under Ministry of Power, has successfully developed Geo-polymer
coarse aggregate from fly ash.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• What is fly ash? Examine the Fly Ash Utilisation policy in India.
ÂÂ What is Fly Ash

•• Fly ash is a fine powder that is a by-product of burning pulverized coal in electric generation power plants.
•• It is a coal combustion product that is composed of the particulates (fine particles of burned fuel) that are
driven out of coal-fired boilers together with the flue gases.
•• Ash that falls to the bottom of the boiler’s combustion chamber (commonly called a firebox) is called bottom ash
and is easily collected.
•• In modern coal-fired power plants, fly ash is generally captured by electrostatic precipitators or other particle
filtration equipment before the flue gases reach the chimneys.
•• Depending upon the source and composition of the coal being burned, the components of fly ash vary considerably,
but all fly ash includes substantial amounts of Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) (both amorphous and crystalline),
Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3) and Calcium Oxide (CaO), the main mineral compounds in coal-bearing rock strata.
•• In the past, fly ash was generally released into the atmosphere, but air pollution control standards now require
that it be captured prior to release by fitting pollution control equipment.
•• Fly ash is a pozzolan, a substance containing aluminous and siliceous material that forms cement in the
presence of water.
•• When mixed with lime and water, fly ash forms a compound similar to Portland cement. This makes fly ash
suitable as a prime material in blended cement, mosaic tiles, and hollow blocks, among other building materials.
•• Fly ash is extremely water-loving (hydrophilic), it turns into a highly water-repelling surface once coated with
stearic acid.
•• Stearic acid-coated fly ash surface can be made to behave like rose petals or lotus leaves.
•• The stearic acid has a hydrophilic part called the head and hydrophobic portion called the tail.
•• The head of stearic acid which is hydrophilic binds to fly ash particles, the water-repelling tail remains free.
Numerous free hydrophobic tails of stearic acid makes the fly ash surface water repellent.
•• By using a combination of stearic acid and surface roughness researchers were able to achieve super
hydrophobicity (where the water contact angle is more than 150 degree).
•• The stearic acid-coated fly ash can be used as a waterproofing material. Owing to its hydrophobic nature,
the surface can be easily cleaned.
ÂÂ Uses of Fly Ash

•• Concrete production, as a substitute material for Portland cement, sand.
•• Fly-ash pellets which can replace normal aggregate in concrete mixture.
•• Embankments and other structural fills.
•• Cement clinker production – (as a substitute material for clay).
•• Stabilization of soft soils.
•• Road sub-base construction.
•• As aggregate substitute material (e.g. for brick production).
•• Agricultural uses: soil amendment, fertilizer, cattle feeders, soil stabilization in stock feed yards, and agricultural
stakes.
•• Loose application on rivers to melt ice.
ÂÂ Challenges in it’s Utilisation

•• Indian fly ash is primarily of the calcareous or class C variety, implying that it possesses not only pozzolanic,
but also hydraulic (self-cementing) properties. In contrast, European fly ash is of a silicious or class F variety,
implying an absence of hydraulic properties.
•• The pricing of fly ash is increasingly becoming a contentious issue that is hampering its gainful utilisation.
•• Imperfections typical of quasi-markets, such as information asymmetry and high transaction costs, vested
interests, technical and technological limitations, and the lack of regulatory oversight and political will, have
impeded the flow of fly ash to its most value-adding use.
ÂÂ Fly Ash Utilisation Policy in India

•• Maharashtra has become the first state to adopt Fly Ash Utilization Policy, paving way for prosperity by generating
“wealth from waste”, and environment protection.
•• The policy will create new employment opportunities in the power plant areas and also make available raw
material for construction at low cost to help ‘Housing for All’ projects.
•• The policy seeks 100% use of fly ash generated from thermal power plants and biogas plants for construction
activities.
•• The policy extends use of fly ash to 300 kms radius of power plant from earlier 100 kms radius of power
plant.
•• The policy states that: Fly ash will be used to make bricks, blocks, tiles, wall panels, cement and other
construction materials. It will save soil excavation and protect environment.
•• Central Government has made it mandatory for use of fly ash bricks in construction activities happening
500km around thermal power plants
ÂÂ Health and environmental hazards:

•• Air Pollution: Fly ash is a major source of PM 2.5, fine, pollution particles, in summer it causes air pollution.
•• It becomes air borne, and gets transported to a radius of 10 to 20 kms. It can settle on water and other
surfaces. It can also contaminate water and soil systems.
•• Toxic heavy metals present: Fly ash contains heavy metals from coal, a large amount of PM 2.5 and black
carbon (BC ). All the heavy metals found in fly ash nickel, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, lead, etc—are toxic in
nature. They are minute, poisonous particles accumulate in the respiratory tract, and cause gradual poisoning.
•• Radiation: For an equal amount of electricity generated, fly ash contains a hundred times more radiation than
nuclear waste secured via dry cask or water storage.
•• Water pollution: The breaching of ash dykes and consequent ash spills occur frequently in India, polluting a
large number of water bodies.
•• Effects on environment: The destruction of mangroves, drastic reduction in crop yields, and the pollution of
groundwater in the Rann of Kutch from the ash sludge of adjoining Coal power plants has been well documented.
•• The wet disposal of Fly ash results in leaching of toxic heavy metals in ground water system.
ÂÂ Conclusion
Indian coal has much more ash content than other countries quality-wise. Diverse approaches must be needed for fly
ash management. It includes washing coal at its place of origin will prevent ash from coming to power plant. Promoting
R&D for increasing efficiency of power plants will also help in reducing ash generation. Proper management of fly ash
is important for environment and also for power plants as it occupies a lot of land space.
DISASTER MANAGEMENT- INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORKS

Considering the global pandemic situation due to COVID 19, international cooperation is necessary in tackling any disaster
situation.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Describe various measures taken in India for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) before and after signing ‘Sendai
Framework for DRR (2015-2030)’. How is this framework different from ‘Hyogo Framework for Action, 2005’?
•• What are the International Disaster Response Laws, Rules and Principles (IDRL) guidelines and state it’s
significance. Also Discuss the differences between Disaster Management Act, 2005 of India and International
Disaster Response Laws, Rules and Principles (IDRL) guidelines.
•• Examine the significance of international cooperation in the context of global disaster like COVID 19.
•• There have been arguments that rich countries owe an obligation to people living in poor countries. In this
context, discuss the issues associated with foreign aid in the context of global disaster.
ÂÂ Hyogo Framework for Action
•• The Hyogo Framework for Action is a 10-year plan to make the world safer from natural hazards. This famework
came out of the World Conference held in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, from 18 to 22 January 2005. It was endorsed
by the UN General Assembly in the Resolution following the 2005 World Disaster Reduction Conference.
•• The Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to
Disasters (HFA) is the first plan to explain, describe and detail the work that is required from all different sectors
and actors to reduce disaster losses.
•• It was developed and agreed on with the many partners needed to reduce disaster risk – governments,
international agencies, disaster experts and many others – bringing them into a common system of
coordination.
•• Its goal is to substantially reduce disaster losses by 2015 by building the resilience of nations and communities
to disasters. This means reducing loss of lives and social, economic, and environmental assets when hazards
strike.
The Hyogo Framework for Action outlines five priorities for action, and offers guiding principles and practical means
for achieving disaster resilience.
•• Priority Action 1: Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local priority with a strong
institutional basis for implementation.
Countries that develop policy, legislative and institutional frameworks for disaster risk reduction and that are
able to develop and track progress through specific and measurable indicators have greater capacity to
manage risks and to achieve widespread consensus for, engagement in and compliance with disaster risk
reduction measures across all sectors of society
•• Priority Action 2: Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early warning.
The starting point for reducing disaster risk and for promoting a culture of disaster resilience lies in the
knowledge of the hazards and the physical, social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities to disasters
that most societies face, and of the ways in which hazards and vulnerabilities are changing in the short and
long term, followed by action taken on the basis of that knowledge.
•• Priority Action 3: Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels.
Disasters can be substantially reduced if people are well informed and motivated towards a culture of disaster
prevention and resilience, which in turn requires the collection, compilation and dissemination of relevant
knowledge and information on hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities.
•• Priority Action 4: Reduce the underlying risk factors.
Disaster risks related to changing social, economic, environmental conditions and land use, and the impact
of hazards associated with geological events, weather, water, climate variability and climate change, are
addressed in sector development planning and programmes as well as in post-disaster situations.
•• Priority Action 5: Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels.
At times of disaster, impacts and losses can be substantially reduced if authorities, individuals and
communities in hazard-prone areas are well prepared and ready to act and are equipped with the knowledge
and capacities for effective disaster management.
ÂÂ Sendai Framework
The “Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030” was adopted during the Third UN World Conference
on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Sendai, Japan in March, 2015.
ÂÂ Key features of the Sendai framework:

•• It is the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda, with seven targets and four priorities for
action.
•• It was endorsed by the UN General Assembly following the 2015 Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk
Reduction (WCDRR).
•• The Framework is for 15-year. It is a voluntary and non-binding agreement which recognizes that the State
has the primary role to reduce disaster risk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders
including local government, the private sector and other stakeholders.
•• The new Framework is the successor instrument to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015:
Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters.
ÂÂ Sendai framework Objectives
•• Sendai framework aims at achieving a substantial reduction of disaster risk and disaster losses in lives,
livelihoods and health; in the environmental, cultural, social, physical-economic assets of people, communities,
and businesses over the next 15 years.
•• The framework comprises of a set of standards, an all-encompassing framework containing achievable
targets and an instrument with a legal basis for disaster risk reduction.
•• The framework calls for the sharing of responsibility among the stakeholders including the private sector, the
government and the other stakeholders.
•• It highlights the concerns on human health and well-being that are common to disaster risk reduction, climate
change and sustainable development.
ÂÂ Sendai Framework – High Priorities

•• Understanding the disaster risk.
•• Strengthening the governance of disaster risks for managing disaster risks.
•• Investments in disaster risk reduction for resilience
•• Improving the disaster preparedness to ensure effective response, recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation.
ÂÂ The difference between Hyogo Framework and Sendai Framework:

•• The Sendai Framework (2015-30) is the successor instrument to the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005-15).
•• The Hyogo framework was the first plan which explained, described and detailed the work that is required from
all different sectors and actors to reduce disaster losses.
•• Sendai framework recognises that the State has the primary role to reduce disaster risk but that responsibility
should be shared with other stakeholders including local government, the private sector and other
stakeholders.
•• The Hyogo Framework sets five priorities for action, the first two being: governance and risk identification.
•• The Sendai Framework sets four priorities for action to be implemented at national & local levels and at global &
regional levels-
•• Understanding disaster risk.
•• Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk.
•• Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience.
•• Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and
reconstruction
ÂÂ International Disaster Response Laws, Rules and Principles (IDRL) guidelines

What are IDRL guidelines?
•• The Guidelines are a set of recommendations to governments on how to prepare their disaster laws and
plans for the common regulatory problems in international disaster relief operations.
Genesis of IDRL Guidelines
•• In 2001, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies began its International Disaster
Response Laws, Rules and Principles (IDRL) Programme to investigate how legal frameworks can contribute to
improving the delivery of disaster relief. Through this programme, the Federation gathered information on existing
international and national law.In 2003, the 28th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent
commended this ongoing work and called on the Federation to work collaboratively with partners to develop
“guidelines for practical use in international disaster response activities.”
•• In November 2007, states and Red Cross and Red Crescent actors unanimously adopted the Guidelines at the
30th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
Why are the guidelines needed?
•• The Guidelines are needed because most countries do not have special laws in place for facilitating and regulating
international relief. Some common problems are:
Unnecessary red tape
Poor quality and coordination from some international providers
Core ideas of the IDRL guidelines
•• Domestic actors have the primary role
•• International relief providers have responsibilities
•• International actors need legal facilities
•• Some legal facilities should be conditional
Uses IDRL Guidelines
•• Governments
Guidelines can be used to draft disaster management legislation, implementation of regulations, to develop
bilateral agreements etc.
•• Humanitarian Organization
Guidelines can be used to develop agreements and memoranda of understanding with governments, to
negotiate rights when operations must commence before such agreements, as a checklist of potential legal
issues to prepare in advance of a relief operation
•• Regional Inter-governmental Organizations
Regional organizations might draw on the Guidelines to fashion agreements and standard operating
procedures to facilitate cross-border relief among their members.
ÂÂ Gaps in IDRL guidelines

•• IDRL guidelines are not applicable in case of Armed conflicts where International aid can play important role.
•• Lack of coordination with affected states in providing international humanitarian assistance
•• It neglects the socio-cultural background of the community while providing international assistance.
ÂÂ Differences between Disaster Management Act, 2005 and IDRL guidelines

Disaster management Act,2005 IDRL
Binding Non-binding
Does not talk about intersectionalities It Consider the Intersectionaities while providing
international assistance
It does not mention about legal facilities for operation, It encourages legal facilities for operation, such as visa,
such as visa, customs and transport facilitation customs and transport facilitation
AS per Second ARC, Definition of Disaster adopted by The definition of Disaster in IDRL guidelines is very
the DM act is not Comprehensive Comprehensive
DM act does not outline the roles and responsibilities IDRL guidelines sets the outline of roles and
of different institutions like NDMA,SDMA relating to responsibilities of different institutions.
international disaster assistance
DM act does not set out quality standards for international It recommends to set out quality standards for
assisting actors.It only mention about the provision international assisting actors
related to international assistance.
DM act does not mention procedures for international It focuses on procedures of international disaster
disaster assistance sent from, and transiting through assistance.
your country.
DM act does not have any provision related to These guidelines encourages the specialized unit for
specialized unit for expediting the entry of international expediting the entry of international disaster assistance
disaster assistance
DM act does not set out a focal point for coordinating IDRL guidelines recommended the focal point for
international disaster assistance coordinating international disaster assistance
ÂÂ Similarities between Disaster Management Act, 2005 and IDRL Guidelines

•• Decision left to domestic authority to determine if it needs foriegn help or not in both (
•• No discrimination on th basis of gender, caste, religion etc
•• States and assisting humanitarian organizations should cooperate to prevent unlawful diversion, misappropriation,
or fraud concerning disaster relief or initial recovery goods, equipment or resources and initiate proceedings as
appropriate-DM Act talks about penalities.
ÂÂ Conclusion
India and United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has signed a Statement of Cooperation. India will partner
with UNISDR to work towards strengthening the capacity of Asian countries in ensuring risk resilient development.
It will also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experiences, and collaborative efforts towards addressing critical
regional challenges.
MONEY LAUNDERING AND THE ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE

Recently, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has released the first global report on the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) namely,
“Money Laundering and the Illegal Wildlife Trade”.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss the linkages between Money laundering and illegal wildlife trade.
ÂÂ Key Points
•• The illegal trade is estimated to generate revenues up to $23 billion a year.
•• Criminals are frequently misusing the legitimate wildlife trade, and other import-export type businesses, as a
front to move and hide illegal proceeds from wildlife crimes.
•• They also rely regularly on corruption, complex fraud and tax evasion.
•• There is a growing role of online marketplaces, mobile and social media-based payments and darknet to
facilitate the movement of proceeds warranting a coordinated response from government bodies, the private
sector and the civil society.
•• According to the 2016 UN World Wildlife Crime report, criminals are illegally trading products derived from over
7,000 species of wild animals and plants across the world
•• The spread of zoonotic diseases underlines the importance of ensuring that wildlife is traded in a legal, safe
and sustainable manner and that countries remove the profitability of illegal markets.
ÂÂ What is money laundering?

•• Money laundering’ can be defined as the conversion of money which is obtained from illegal activities like drug
trafficking, extortion, terrorist activities etc so as to make it appear to originate from a legitimate source.
•• Thus, Money Laundering is not an independent crime, it depends upon another crime (predicate offence), the
proceeds of which is the subject matter of the crime in money laundering. Money Laundering has a close nexus
with an organized crime like drug trafficking, international frauds, arms dealing etc.
ÂÂ Laws in India dealing with the prevention of money laundering:

•• Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA)
•• Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985
•• The Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, 1976
Note: Electorate directorate is the nodal agency to investigate crimes related to money laundering in India.
ÂÂ Challenges:
•• Jurisdictions often do not have the required knowledge, legislative basis and resources to assess and combat the
threat posed by the funds generated through the illegal trade.
•• Criminal syndicates are misusing formal financial sector to launder the proceeds.
•• Funds are laundered through cash deposits, under the guise of loans or payments, e-banking platforms, licensed
money value transfer systems, and third-party wire transfers via banks.
•• Accounts of innocent victims are also used and high-value payments avoided to evade detection.
•• Front companies, often linked to import-export industries, and shell firms are used for the movement of goods
and trans-border money transfers.
ÂÂ Recommendations
•• The report says financial probe is key to dismantling the syndicates involved, which can in turn significantly
impact the associated criminal activities.
•• Jurisdictions should consider implementing the good practices. They include providing all relevant agencies with the
necessary mandate and tools; and cooperating with other jurisdictions, international bodies and the private sector.
•• Legislative changes are necessary to increase the applicability of anti-money laundering laws to the illegal wildlife
trade-linked offences.
ÂÂ International Efforts to Curb Illegal Wildlife Trade:

•• CITES ( Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)
•• It is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens
of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
•• CITES was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN (International
Union for Conservation of nature) and on 1 July 1975 CITES entered in force.
•• The species covered by CITES are listed in three Appendices, according to the degree of protection they need.
•• Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction. Trade-in specimens of these species is permitted only
in exceptional circumstances.
•• Appendix II includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled in
order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival.
•• Appendix III contains species that are protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES Parties for
assistance in controlling the trade.
•• The Conference of the Parties (CoP), which is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention and comprises
all its parties who have agreed to revised Resolution in CoP17 on a set of biological and trade criteria to help
determine whether a species should be included in Appendices I or II.
ÂÂ Indian efforts to curb illegal wildlife trade:

Wildlife (protection) Act,1972 :
Parliament enacted the Wild Life Act (Protection) Act after the UN Stockholm conference of 1972.
The Wild Life Act provides for
•• state wildlife advisory boards,
•• regulations for hunting wild animals and birds,
•• establishment of sanctuaries and national parks,
•• regulations for trade in wild animals, animal products and trophies, and
•• judicially imposed penalties for violating the Act.
•• It has a total six schedules which give varying degrees of protection to plant and animal species.
•• Endangered species protected under Schedule I and part II of Schedule II of the Act receive absolute protection
and their killing prescribed the highest punishment.
•• Hunting species, which require special protection ( part I of Schedule II), big game (Schedule III), and small
game (Schedule IV), is regulated through licensing and their illegal hunting prescribed less severe punishment.
•• A few species classified as vermin (Schedule V), may be hunted without restrictions.
•• Schedule VI contains the plants, which are prohibited from cultivation and planting like the pitcher plant, kuth,
Blue vanda etc.
•• Wildlife wardens and their staff administer the act.
•• An amendment to the Act in 1982, introduced a provision allowing the capture and transportation of wild animals
for the scientific management of the animal population.
GLOBAL WARMING ALTERS RAINFALL RHYTHM

Scientists discovered that Global Warming has altered a key weather system (Madden-Julian Oscillation) which may be
whetting cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, decreasing winter rain in north India and altering global rainfall patterns particularly
in Indo Pacific Region.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Explain Madden Julian oscillation? How do jet streams impact monsoons in India?(250 words)
ÂÂ Background:
•• Study was led by researchers from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and included scientists from
the University of Washington, Tokyo University etc.
•• They compared ocean temperatures from 1981-2018 to compute the changes.
Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO)

•• It is a moving band of rain clouds that travels around the globe spanning 12,000–20,000 km across the tropical
oceans, and is most prominent over the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
•• It is an oceanic-atmospheric phenomenon which affects weather activities across the globe.
•• It brings major fluctuation in tropical weather on weekly to monthly timescales.
•• It is eastward moving ‘pulse’ of clouds, rainfall, winds and pressure near the equator that typically recurs every
30 to 60 days.
•• In its journey, it interacts with surface waters of the Indo-Pacific ocean, the largest pool of warm water in the
globe, and due to this the life cycle of the MJO gets affected.
•• Most cyclones in the pre- or post-monsoon period over Bay of Bengal are triggered by MJO activity in the
Indian Ocean. Even when MJO occurs in the West Pacific, the remnants of those systems can pass over to
Bay of Bengal and get activated.
Source: research.noaa.gov
ÂÂ Key Findings of Study:

•• The findings show that the Indo-Pacific warm pool, a region of warm ocean between the western Pacific Ocean
and eastern Indian Ocean has expanded two-fold between 1981 and 2018, due to consistent warming
•• The MJO clouds on average are spending only 15 days, instead of 19, over the Indian Ocean.
•• It is this change in the residence time of MJO clouds that has altered the weather patterns across the globe
•• This year, India was poised to receive below normal monsoon rainfall in April but ended up with excessive rain
partly due to the MJO.
•• A change in the MJO could drift warmer surface water towards the Bay of Bengal and increase cyclones as
warmer water is conducive for their development
•• The frequent California fires, droughts in Africa and East Asian floods and cyclones in the Bay of Bengal may be
linked to these changes in global weather
CYCLONE NISARGA: RARE STORM POUNDS INDIA’S WEST COAST
Less than two weeks after a powerful cyclone passed through West Bengal on its way to Bangladesh, India braced to face
another cyclone, this time on its western coast.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss the various factors responsible for the formation of cyclones.
ÂÂ Background
•• It was headed towards the coastline of north Maharashtra and south Gujarat.
•• By that time, it is likely to evolve into a Severe Cyclonic Storm, which is of strength 2 on a 1-to-5 of strength of
cyclones that arise in the Indian Ocean
ÂÂ Strength of Cyclone
•• The strength of the cyclones is measured by the wind speeds they generate.
•• At its strongest, Nisarga would be associated with wind speeds in the range 95-105 km per hour.
•• Amphan, on the other hand, was classified as a super-cyclone, of category 5, though it had weakened to category
4, ‘Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm’, ahead of its landfall, at which time the wind speeds were in excess of 180 kph.
ÂÂ Tropical Cyclones:
•• Tropical cyclones are developed in the regions between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer.
•• They are caused by atmospheric disturbances around a low-pressure area distinguished by swift and often
destructive air circulation.
ÂÂ Conditions required for cyclone formation:

•• It requires warm ocean waters of at least 26.5°C (80°F) throughout a sufficient depth, at least on the order of 50
m which is necessary to fuel the heat engine of the tropical cyclone.
•• They need to form at least five degrees of latitude away from the Equator because Coriolis force that is
required for cyclones rotation is absent at Equator. During a tropical cyclone, the Coriolis force deflects winds
blowing towards the low-pressure centre of the storm and creates circulation.
•• They require low wind shear to form.
Wind shear is the change in wind speed or direction with height in the atmosphere.
High wind shear will slow spinning cyclones down and prevent them from lasting a long time.
•• High relative humidity in the atmosphere up to a height of about 5,000 metres is required.
•• Atmospheric instability that encourages the formation of massive vertical cumulus clouds due to condensation
of rising moist air.
ÂÂ Different Names:
•• In the China Sea and Pacific Ocean, they are known as typhoons.
•• In the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, they are known as hurricanes.
•• In north-western Australia, they are known as willy-willies and
•• In Indian Ocean they are known as tropical cyclones.
ÂÂ Reasons for more Cyclones in Bay of Bengal than Arabian Sea:

•• Bay of Bengal has higher surface temperature in comparison and tropical cyclones need a higher temperature
for cyclone genesis.
•• In addition, the Bay receives higher rainfall and constant inflow of fresh water from the Ganga and Brahmaputra
rivers. This means that the Bay’s surface water keeps getting refreshed, making it impossible for the warm water
to mix with the cooler water below, making it ideal for a depression.
•• Cyclones of low intensity also come from the foreign sources.
Neighboring Pacific Ocean seas are more prone to cyclones.
Typhoons originating near the Philippines, China, Thailand and Malaysia enter the Andaman Sea of Bay of
Bengal after they weaken in their native regions.
•• Coastal region of east is of low topography in comparison to Western areas with Ghats of high elevation.
•• Most of the cyclones in the Arabian Sea are local. They collapse a little after making landfall as there is no back-
up supply.
•• Cyclones usually weaken if they encounter a large landmass. However, due to the lack of any such presence
between the Pacific and the Bay, cyclonic winds easily move into the Bay of Bengal. Once here, the winds
encounter the Western Ghats and the Himalayas, either becoming weak or getting blocked in the Bay, but never
reaching the Arabian Sea.
LONG-STANDING CONUNDRUM ON THE SUN’S ATMOSPHERE SOLVED

An international team of researchers of Peking University, China; including one at Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru,
has unravelled why the Sun’s atmosphere is hotter than its surface.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• What do you understand by Corona’s Heating Puzzle? Explain the role of corona in formation of Solar winds.
ÂÂ Background:
•• The temperature at the core of the Sun is nearly 15 million degrees Celsius, while that at its surface layer,
known as the photosphere, is merely 5,700 degrees C.
•• The natural thing to expect is that still further outwards, in its atmosphere, known as the corona, the temperatures
would be comparable to that at the surface (photosphere).
•• However, the temperature of the corona is much higher which stretches over several million kilometres from the
surface of the Sun. It starts increasing outside the photosphere, reaching a value of about one million degrees or
more in the corona. This is called Corona’s Heating Puzzle.
•• This implies there should be a source heating the corona.
ÂÂ About Corona:
•• Our Sun is surrounded by a jacket of gases called an atmosphere. The corona is the outermost part of the Sun’s
atmosphere.
•• The corona is usually hidden by the bright light of the Sun’s surface. That makes it difficult to see without using
special instruments. However, the corona can be seen during a total solar eclipse.
•• Solar Winds: The corona extends far out into space. From it comes the solar wind that travels through our solar
system. The corona’s temperature causes its particles to move at very high speeds. These speeds are so high
that the particles can escape the Sun’s gravity.
ÂÂ Spicules in the Sun:

•• The key to the puzzle lies in geyser-like jets known as solar spicules that emanate from the interface of the corona
and the photosphere.
•• While in a photograph these look like tiny hair like projections, they are in fact 200-500 kilometers wide and shoot
up to heights of about 5,000 km above the solar surface.
•• It has been suspected that these spicules act as conduits through which mass and energy from the lower
atmosphere bypass the photosphere and reach the corona.
•• The present study, has deciphered how these spicules form and also shows that they act as conduits through
which hot plasma is carried into the corona region.
KOSI-MECHI RIVER INTERLINKING PROJECT OF BIHAR

Recently, Union Government has approved Rs 4,900 crore Kosi-Mechi Interlinking project for interlinking of Kosi and Mechi
rivers of Bihar.
PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTION

•• Not many years ago, river linking was a concept but it is becoming reality in the country. Discuss the advantages
of river linking and its possible impact on the environment (2017)
PROBABLE QUESTIONS
•• “River linking projects for the country are a great challenge and at the same time an opportunity to address the
water issues arising out of climate change.” Critically analyse the statement in the light of recent floods witnessed
across the country.
•• Interlinking of rivers is a double edged sword. Critically analyse the statement.
•• Examine the merits and demerits of Kosi-Mechi River linking project that has been mooted to solve various
issues arising out of both water deficiency and sufficiency in India.
ÂÂ About Kosi-Mechi River Inter-linking Project:

•• It is the country’s second major river interlinking project after Ken-Betwa of Madhya Pradesh. The river Kosi
is an international river originating from Tibet and flowing through Nepal in Himalayan Mountains and the lower
portion through plains of North Bihar.
•• It envisages diversion of part of surplus water of Kosi river through existing Hanuman Nagar barrage to the
Mahananda basin. Mechi is an important tributary of the Mahananda River whose basin however remains mostly
deficient in providing adequate water for irrigation.
•• The aim of extension of Eastern Kosi Main Canal (EKMC) up to Mechi River is mainly to provide irrigation
benefits to the water scarce Mahananda basin command in the districts of Araria, Kishanganj, Purnia and
Katihar during Kharif season.
ÂÂ Advantages of Kosi-Mechi Interlinking Project:

•• This project will provide relief to North Bihar from the menace of recurring floods.
•• The mega project will also provide irrigation for a whooping over 2.14 lakh hectares of command areas spread
across the districts of Araria, Kishanganj, Purnia and Katihar in North Bihar.
•• Channeling Kosi water into the Mahananda will optimize redistribution of the surplus waters which will take
irrigation potential in the region into a different league.
• • This project has a possibility to escort the next green revolution in Seemanchal region. This project
involves no displacement of population and there is no diversion of any forest land.
•• The interlinking project of rivers will help in facilitating transportation through inland waterways.
• • It will escalate the fisheries rearing in the areas between two river canals.
•• Another benefit of the project is that there is no national park, wildlife sanctuary; eco-sensitive areas, etc. are
present within 10 km radius of the project.
ÂÂ Challenges in River Interlinking

•• Issue of Project feasibility due to huge requirement of infrastructure and manpower.
•• Massive investment required for implementation.
•• Environmental cost: The huge project will alter entire ecosystems. The wildlife, flora and fauna of the river
systems will suffer because of such displacements and modifications. The project can also reduce the flow of
freshwater into the sea, thus affecting marine aquatic life.
•• Impact on society: Building dams and reservoirs will cause the displacement of a lot of people. This will cause a
lot of agony for a lot of people. They will have to be rehabilitated and adequately compensated.
•• Controlling floods: Some people express doubts as to the capability of this project to control floods. Although
theoretically, it is possible, India’s experience has been different. There have been instances where big dams like
Hirakud Dam, Damodar Dam, etc. have brought flooding to Odisha, West Bengal, etc.
•• Inter-state disputes: Many states like Kerala, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh, etc. have opposed the river interlinking
project.
•• Trans-boundary disputes: In the Himalayan component of the project, the effect of building dams and interlinking
rivers will have an effect on the neighbouring countries. This will have to be factored in while implementing the
project. For example; Bangladesh has opposed the transfer of water from the Brahmaputra to the Ganga.
ÂÂ Conclusion
The river linking project is a great challenge and an opportunity to address the water issues arising out of climate
change. The long-term solution to water scarcity lies in making the Inter-linking Rivers project work by building a
network of dams and canals across the country. However, interlinking needs to be done after a detailed study so that
it does not cause any problem to the environment or aquatic life.
POLITY AND
GOVERNANCE
ATTORNEY GENERAL
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• “The Attorney-General is the principal legal adviser and lawyer of the Government of India.” Elaborate.
ÂÂ About:
•• Article 76 provides for the office of the Attorney General for India.
•• The Attorney General of India is the first law officer of the Government of India.
ÂÂ Appointment:
•• The Attorney General is appointed by the President.
•• In order to be appointed as Attorney-General of India, a person must be qualified to be appointed as a judge of
the Supreme Court.
•• The Constitution hasn’t explicitly fixed the term of office of the AG as well as it does not contain the procedure
and grounds for his removal.
•• He holds office during the pleasure of the President.
•• Conventionally, he resigns when the Council of ministers resign or is replaced as he is appointed on their advice.
ÂÂ Mandate of Office:
•• S/he represents the Union and the States before the courts but is also allowed to take up private practice provided
the other party is not the State.
•• S/he is not deemed as a government servant.
ÂÂ Duties and Functions:

The duties assigned to him are:
•• To give advice to the Government of India on legal matters.
•• To perform other legal duties which are referred or assigned to him by the President and
•• To discharge the functions conferred on him by the Constitution or any other law.
•• In this regard, the President has assigned the following duties to the AG:
To represent the Government of India in the SC/any High Court in all cases concerning the Government of
India.
To represent the Government of India in any reference made by the President to the SC in accordance with
Article 143 of the Constitution.
ÂÂ Rights of the AG:

•• In the performance of his duties, s/he has the right of audience in all courts in the territory of India.
•• S/he has the right to speak or to take part in the proceedings of both the Houses of Parliament and their joint
sittings but without a right to vote.
•• S/he has the right to speak or to take part in the meeting of any committee of the Parliament of which he is
named as a member but without a right to vote.
•• S/he enjoys all the privileges and immunities that are available to a Member of Parliament.
ÂÂ Limitations placed on the AG:

•• He should not advise or hold a brief against the Government of India.
•• He should not defend accused persons in criminal cases without the permission of the government of India.
•• He should not accept an appointment as a director in any company without the permission of the government.
ÂÂ Conclusion:
The Attorney General for India does not have any executive authority unlike the Attorney General of the United States,
but s/he is a part of the Union executive.
CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS IN MAHARASHTRA
Almost 6 months after he became Chief Minister on November 28, Uddhav Thackeray has finally become a Member of the
Maharashtra Legislative Council.
PROBABLE QUESTIONS
•• Explain the significance of Legislative Council in the bicameral system at state level.
•• Do Rajya Sabha and Vidhan Parishads have similar powers?
ÂÂ More on the news

•• The CM of Maharashtra, who took oath in November, had to get elected to either of the houses of the state
legislature before last week of May, as per Article 164(4) of the Constitution.
•• The Election Commission had postponed Rajya Sabha polls, by-elections and civic body elections in the
wake of the pandemic by using its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution, along with Section 153 of the
Representation of the People Act, 1951.
•• However, later the Election Commission of India (ECI) decided to hold elections to nine vacant Maharashtra
Legislative Council seats after receiving letters from the State Governor and the Chief Secretary regarding the
feasibility of conducting the polls during the pandemic.
•• Timely election saved Maharashtra from going into a constitutional crisis in the midst of pandemic.
•• Article 164(4): As per this article of the Constitution, a Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is
not a member of the Legislature of the State shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister.
•• Article 171(3)(e) coupled with Article 171(5) of the Constitution, empowers the Governor to nominate persons
having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of. Literature, science, art, co-operative movement
and social service.
ÂÂ About Legislative Councils

Constitutional Provisions:
•• Article 169: Parliament may by law provide for the abolition or creation of the Legislative Council of a State if
the Legislative Assembly of the State passes a resolution to that effect by a special majority (the majority of the
total membership of the Assembly and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of the Assembly
present and voting).
•• The act of Parliament to create/abolish LCs is not deemed as an amendment under Article 368. So, a Simple
majority in Parliament suffices.
•• At present, there are six states viz Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, UP, Maharashtra, Bihar, Karnataka, where
Legislative Council is in existence. Jammu and Kashmir too had one, until the introduction of J&K Reorganisation
Bill, 2019 that bifurcated it into the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
ÂÂ Composition:
•• Under Article 171(1), the Legislative Council of a state shall not have more than one-third of the total strength of
the State Assembly, and in no case, shall be less than 40 members.
ÂÂ Tenure of Members
•• Similar to the Rajya Sabha, the legislative council is a continuing chamber, i.e. it is not subject to dissolution. The
tenure of a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) is of six years, with one-third of the members retiring every
two years. The retiring members are also eligible for re-election and re-nomination any number of times.
ÂÂ Standing with respect to Rajya Sabha

•• The constitution hasn’t mandated LCs to shape non-financial legislation (Ordinary Bills, Constitution Amendment
Bills) like it has been substantially endowed to Rajya Sabha.
•• Legislative Assemblies can override suggestions/amendments made to a Bill by the Council. There is no provision
of a Joint sitting in order to resolve the deadlock.
•• Further, Rajya Sabha MPs are part of the Electoral College related to elections for the President and Vice President
whereas MLCs are not. MLCs also can’t vote in the elections of Rajya Sabha members.
•• Also, the status accorded to Chairperson of Rajya Sabha (Ex-Officio Vice President) is starkly different vis-a-vis
elected chairperson of the Legislative Council.
•• The constitution gives Councils limited legislative powers. Unlike Rajya Sabha which has substantial powers
to shape non-financial legislation, Legislative Councils lack the constitutional mandate to do so. Legislative
Assemblies have the power to override suggestions/amendments made to a legislation by the Council.
ÂÂ The rationale for Creation of the LC:

•• India has a bicameral system vis-a vis legislative setup. So, In the same manner as that of Indian Parliament that
has two Houses (House of the People and House of Elders), the states can also have an equivalent of Upper
house i.e. Legislative Council.
•• Acts as a check and balance on hasty and populist actions by the directly elected House.
•• Facilitates diversity in the legislative process by the provision of the nomination of non-elected individuals.
•• It enhances the representation of local bodies in state legislation as they are given rights to elect 1/3rd of the
members of the LC.
ÂÂ Critical Analysis:
•• It has become a backdoor entry for party loyalists who fail to win popular mandates.
•• The financial burden on the exchequer.
•• At times, unnecessary delays in the passing of legislation as LCs can only re-evaluate and suggest amendment
but cannot reject them.
•• Providing graduates the privilege of being people’s representatives in a democracy is also questionable. As
literacy and education levels have increased, graduates are no longer a scarce community. Also given the rise of
intellectual prowess of lawmakers, this provision seems obsolete.
ÂÂ Road Ahead
•• India has a bicameral system i.e., two Houses of Parliament. At the state level, the equivalent of the Lok Sabha is
the Vidhan Sabha or Legislative Assembly; that of the Rajya Sabha is the Vidhan Parishad or Legislative Council.
•• A second House of legislature is considered important for two reasons: one, to act as a check on hasty actions
by the popularly elected House and, two, to ensure that individuals who might not be cut out for the rough-and-
tumble of direct elections too are able to contribute to the legislative process.
ÂÂ Recommendations of Parliamentary Committee:

•• Need of the hour is to evolve a National policy on Legislative Councils to ensure that the Constitutional mandate
of LCs is followed. Its fate cannot be decided as per the whims and fancies of the ruling government.
•• Law-making powers of LCs need to be deliberated and debated, given their potential role in shaping policies and
legislations for the development of states.
ÂÂ 2nd ARC:
•• It recommended removing Graduates and teachers from the Electoral College and make local bodies (panchayat
and municipalities) sole electorate with genuine nomination alongside to have local bodies greater say.
CENTRAL VIGILANCE COMMISSION (CVC)

PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss the role and mandate of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in addressing corruption.
ÂÂ Background:
•• The CVC is the principal agency for preventing corruption in the Central government.
•• It comes under the ambit of Ministry of Personnel.
•• Its establishment was recommended by the Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption (1962–64).
•• It is established in 1964 by an executive resolution of the Central government.
•• Originally the CVC was neither a constitutional body nor a statutory body.
•• In September 2003, the Parliament enacted the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003 (CVC Act) conferring
statutory status on the CVC.
•• In 2004, the Government of India authorised the CVC as the “Designated Agency” to receive written complaints
for disclosure on any allegation of corruption or misuse of office and recommend appropriate action.
ÂÂ Functions of CVC:
•• Inquire or cause an inquiry or investigation to be conducted on a reference made by the Central government for
an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PoCA), 1988.
•• Inquire or cause an inquiry or investigation to be conducted into any complaint against any officials for an
alleged offence committed under the PoCA, 1988:
Members of all-India services serving in the Union and Group ‘A’ officers of the Central government; and
Specified level of officers of the authorities of the Central government.
•• Exercise superintendence over the functioning of Delhi Special Police Establishment (which is a part of CBI)
and over the vigilance administration in the ministries of the Central government or its authorities.
•• Give directions to the Delhi Special Police Establishment for the purpose of discharging the responsibility
entrusted to it under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act (DSPE) 1946.
•• Review the progress of investigations conducted by the DSPE Act.
•• Review the progress of applications pending with the competent authorities for sanction of prosecution under
the PoCA, 1988.
•• Tender advice to the Central government and its authorities on such matters as are referred to it by them.
•• To undertake or cause an inquiry into complaints received under the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection
of Informers’ Resolution and recommend appropriate action.
•• The Central Government is required to consult the CVC in making rules and regulations governing the
vigilance and disciplinary matters relating to the members of Central Services and All-India Services.
ÂÂ Challenges
•• Appointment of the Chief Vigilance Officer, is not transparent and clear, as there is no statutory requirement
about the selection having to be unanimous or based on consensus among the members of the committee
•• CVC is only an advisory body. Central Government Departments are free to either accept or reject CVC’s advice
in corruption cases.
•• CVC does not have adequate resources compared with number of complaints that it receives.
•• The commission does not qualify as a competent authority to sanction criminal prosecutions for offences
committed by public officials
•• Public disenchantment with anti-corruption mechanisms due to delay in finalising and submitting various
inquiry reports to the Commission.
•• Deviations from the Commission’s advice: The CVC’s annual report has stated that it has “observed that
during the year 2017, there were some significant deviations from the Commission’s advice” by various Ministries.
•• Pending cases: The CVC observed that several complaints are pending for long periods with the CVOs.
•• Even though CVC has supervisory powers over CBI, it does not have the power to call for any file from CBI or
to direct CBI to investigate any case in a particular manner.
•• Long-pending vacancies in the Central Vigilance Commission.
•• Anonymous and pseudonymous complaints are affecting the efficiency of CVC.
•• Although the Act does not specify it, the persons chosen for these posts are expected to possess impeccable
integrity, but it is getting compromised on several occasions.
ÂÂ Way Forward:
•• It is recommended that the CVC should develop scientific criteria for the selection of CVOs that can match
the competency requirements.
•• The recommendations of CVC should be binding in nature.
•• Vacancies to the Commission should be filled at the earliest to reduce the pendency of cases.
•• It is recommended that the CVC should expand and intensifies its proactive role and achieves even greater
depth and coverage.
•• CVC must give firm guidelines to the companies to initiate proceedings under the relevant sections of the IPC and the
CrPC in all cases of false, malicious, vexatious, and unfounded complaints that may have delayed strategic decisions.
DELIMITATION COMMISSION
The Delimitation Commission in a meeting held recently, reviewed the progress of work of redrawing parliamentary and
assembly seats of UT of Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• What are the powers and functions of the Delimitation Commission of India? Throw light upon the problems
associated with it.
ÂÂ More on News:
•• After the bifurcation of J&K into two UTs, the need to redraw the Assembly constituency boundaries has been felt.
•• The delimitation in the four North-eastern states has been deferred earlier due to the security reasons. Recently,
the government cancelled its earlier notification deferring delimitation in these states.
•• The Commission will delimit the constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the provisions of
the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, and of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland in
accordance with the provisions of the Delimitation Act, 2002.
ÂÂ Delimitation:
It means the process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a state to represent the change of
population that has a legislative body.
Objectives:
•• To provide equal representation to equal segments of a population.
•• Fair division of geographical areas so that one political party doesn’t have an advantage over others in an
election.
•• To follow the principle of “One Vote One Value”.
Background:
•• The first delimitation exercise was carried out by the President in 1950-51.
•• The Delimitation Commission Act was enacted in 1952.
•• Delimitation Commissions have been set up four times — 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002 under the Acts of 1952,
1962, 1972 and 2002.
ÂÂ Constitutional Provisions:
•• Article 82: It provides for the enactment of a Delimitation Act after every Census by the Parliament.
•• Article 170: The States also get divided into territorial constituencies as per Delimitation Act after every Census.
•• The Union government sets up a Delimitation Commission once the Act is in force.
For the present delimitation exercise, the population figures of 2011 census shall be taken as the basis.
The delimitation will be done as per the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and provisions of the J&K
Reorganization Act of 2019 as the J&K Representation of the People Act 1957 has now been invalidated.
ÂÂ Exercise of delimitation by Delimitation Commission:

•• Composition: According to the Delimitation Commission Act, 2002, the Delimitation Commission appointed by
the Centre has to have three members:
Chairperson: A serving or retired judge of the Supreme Court,
Ex-officio members: The Chief Election Commissioner or Election Commissioner nominated by the CEC and
the State Election Commissioner.
•• The orders of the commission have the force of law and they cannot be challenged before any court.
•• Enforcement of commission’s order is undertaken as per the date specified by the President of India. The copies
of these orders are laid before the Lok Sabha or the concerned Legislative Assembly and no modifications are
permitted.
ÂÂ Functions:
•• To determine the number and boundaries of constituencies to make population of all constituencies nearly
equal.
•• To identify seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, wherever their population is relatively
large.
ÂÂ Problems with Delimitation:

•• States that take little interest in population control could end up with a greater number of seats in Parliament.
The Southern states that promoted family planning faced the possibility of having their seats reduced.
•• In 2008, Delimitation was done based on the 2001 census, but the total number of seats in the Assemblies and
Parliament decided as per the 1971 Census were not changed.
•• The Constitution has also capped the number of Lok Shaba and Rajya Sabha seats to a maximum of 550 and 250
respectively so increasing populations are being represented by a single representative.
ÂÂ Conclusion:
This delimitation of constituencies will solve the uneven distribution of the seats in the region which would positively
affect the state politically and socially. The development of the state would be easier after the establishment of a
stable government in the state which would tackle the problem of local terrorism, unemployment, etc.
A TIME FOR REFORMS IN INDIAN COURTS

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world on its head and no aspect of life has escaped unscathed. This includes the
functioning of Indian courts and tribunals.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• The COVID-19 pandemic has brought in several new challenges for already gasping Indian judicial System.
However, at the same time, it has brought in an opportunity for the Indian judiciary to transform itself especially in
terms of technological upgradation. Comment.
ÂÂ Background:
•• The Indian judiciary has limited its work to hearing urgent matters via video conferencing during the pandemic.
•• This way of functioning of courts is considered as an opportunity to improve the IT infrastructure of courts so that
they can move to video conference hearings as the norm.
•• But any such move without first revamping procedural law would be futile.
ÂÂ Few of existing problems in the judiciary and their solutions:

•• Frequent adjournments sought for procedural matters: In the subordinate civil courts and High Courts, a
significant time of daily proceedings is taken up by cases where only adjournments are sought for procedural
matters like filing of replies etc.
•• Overburdening of SC due to Special Leave Petitions (SLPs): Article 136 of the Constitution enables people to
file a petition seeking leave to appeal a decision of any judicial or quasi-judicial authority.
•• The Apex Court grants leave to appeal if
The petition raises a question of law of general public importance or
The judgment appealed against is especially perverse, which would require interference from the Court.
•• The provision has been abused over the years to only to overburden the docket of the Supreme Court. Various
reports show that SLPs comprise about 60-70% of the Supreme Court’s docket.
•• Time consuming Procedure of filing reply to appeals: Even in cases of statutory appeals, and appeals where
leave is granted in SLPs, the Court should do away with the system of filing reply to the appeals and rejoinders
to such replies.
ÂÂ Possible Solutions:
•• There is a need to devise a system where cases are not listed before the court unless all the documents are
filed within strict timelines and every procedural requirement complied with.
Listing can be done before the court only in cases requiring urgent interim intervention from the court.
Specific interventions in the context of COVID-19: When courts reopen, apart from fresh cases, only a
limited number of cases that are ripe for arguments can be posted. This can be done with sufficient notice to
the Bar Associations that requests for adjournments will be looked at askance.
•• A simple solution would be to do away with the immediate oral hearing of SLPs. The Supreme Court Rules,
2013 could be amended to provide for a structure of pre-hearing of SLPs.
To help the Court for that, a cadre of judicial research assistants made up of qualified lawyers should be created.
The research assistants can go through each SLP and cull out the important questions of law as envisioned
in Article 136.
SLPs in which no questions of law are raised, or frivolous ones, should be dismissed without an oral hearing
and upon imposition of costs.
The associated penalties will ensure that only meritorious SLPs get judicial attention and will deter people
from filing frivolous SLPs.
This method will also reduce pendency exponentially as the system will free up the SC’s time to hear
important matters such as related to interpretation of the Constitution or constitutional validity of laws etc.
•• Every case can be decided based on records of the subordinate courts. As no new arguments on facts can
be raised before the Court in appeals, the system of filing additional pleadings should be rendered redundant as
the pleadings are simple regurgitation of the records of the subordinate courts.
OVERHAULING INDIAN BUREAUCRACY

Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has commended the yeomen services rendered by Civil
Servants in India’s fight against COVID-19 to mark the Civil Services Day 2020.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss the various challenges faced by the Indian bureaucracy and suggest some measures to overcome such
challenges.
ÂÂ Background:
•• The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) was constituted in 2005 and in 2009, the Commission
submitted around 15 reports on various aspects of governance. A bulk of the recommendations has not yet been
implemented.
•• In the meantime, the demands for reforming the civil service continue to grow with the ambitious programmes of
the government.
•• Reforms in civil services are a continuous process and several initiatives have been taken in recent years by
the present government. These include the introduction of a multi-stakeholder feedback (MSF) performance
evaluation, introduction of online mechanisms for appraisals and filing of various returns by employees,
implementation of e-office, and strengthening training and merit-based postings etc.
•• About 18 states and 7 union territories have also discontinued the practice of interview for recruitments to lower
level posts.
ÂÂ Associated problems:
•• There is a mismatch between positions and skill sets. Recruitment is not competency specific and often, the
right person is not placed in the right job.
•• The rigid structure of our administrative services.
•• Concentration of power in the hands of the top few.
•• Shortage of manpower: Surprisingly, there are just about 5,100 IAS officers for a country of over 1.3 billion
people. Expansion has been tardy while the challenges have grown complex.
•• Generalist vs Specialist debate: As generalists, these men and women often have to deal with matters beyond
their field of expertise.
•• A related issue is the opposition to lateral entry, which hinders the development process. As the complexity
of the economy increases, policymaking becomes a specialized activity. This creates an inherent need for the
lateral entry of professionals into government service.
•• Inefficiency is inherent in an organization focused on processes more than outcomes.
•• Sub-optimal incentive structure: The IAS is also afflicted by a sub-optimal incentive structure, one that makes
inaction safer than action. In recent years, retrospective probes of bureaucratic decisions are said to have sent
chills down many a spine.
•• Nature of government employment: Government employment in general tends to instill a kind of complacency
that no private sector executive, who must perform or depart, would dare slip into.
•• Attracting talent and nurturing excellence, ensuring transparency and accountability along with participatory and
representative decision-making are some issues that need to be addressed.
ÂÂ Way Forward:
The strategy for 2022-23 should be centered on the implementation of the Second ARC recommendations that have
been accepted by the government.
Recruitment:
•• Improve the teeth to tail ratio: Promote an officer-oriented culture and focus on expanding the numbers of
officers.
•• Objectivity in the recruitment and placement process: Widely disseminate job descriptions and selection
criterion and eliminate elements of arbitrariness.
•• Reduce the number of civil services: The existing 60 plus separate civil services at the central and state level
needs to be reduced through rationalization and harmonization of services.
•• Encourage lateral entry: Inducting specialists at higher levels of government will provide much needed expertise.
•• Nurture specialization: The key to reform in the civil services is encouraging officers to cultivate specializations
based on their education and skills early on in their careers. Wherever possible, longer tenure postings need to
be made based on the officers’ expertise.
Training:
•• Reorient training: With economic gravity shifting towards cities, training should be reoriented to focus relatively
more on managing urban areas.
•• Introduce mid-career training modules for all services.
•• Strengthen and leverage online avenues for training.
•• Introduce pre and post-training matching of skills to determine postings.
•• Digitize human resource records across states.
•• Develop a competency matrix to monitor ongoing skill acquisition and help match requirements with resources
in real time.
•• Mid-career exams/skill assessment might be undertaken to evaluate and decide on future postings.
Evaluation:
•• Consider replacing annual confidential reports (ACRs) with multi stakeholder feedback (MSF): ACRs sould
be replaced with MSF. It is important for MSF to be online to retain transparency and accountability.
•• Institute goal setting and tracking: Institute the online Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online
Window (SPARROW) template in all central and state cadres.
•• Incentivization: Review existing schemes and introduce new schemes of incentives for extraordinary performance.
•• The government could consider merging, eliminating and introducing new civil services.
Governance:
•• Citizen-centric framework: An inclusive policy framework with citizens at the centre needs to be developed
through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the Right to Information Act (RTI).
•• Effective monitoring of suo-moto disclosures: To bring further transparency to public affairs and adopt
safeguards to promote accountability, effective monitoring of Suo moto disclosures is essential.
•• Enhance capability of public authorities: The capabilities and knowledge base of central public information
officers (CPIOs), appellate authorities (AAs) and information commissions need to be upgraded.
•• Protection of civil servants: Introduce an appropriate system of checks and balances, including for the process
of suspension, to ensure that officers are given their due process and are not vulnerable to vested interests and
political pressures.
•• Revisit Allocation of Business Rules (AoBR)/ Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR): Every ministry/
department should review their AoBR/ ToBR keeping in view present day requirements.
E-initiatives and Probity:
•• Ensure probity in governance:
Strengthen institutional mechanisms for prevention and detection of corruption.
Reviewing existing vigilance operating manuals and instructions to ensure probity.
Improving transparency in placement through initiatives in recruitment, placement and training.
Reviewing performance of officers based on probity.
•• Strengthen implementation of a Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System
(CPGRAMs): A revised version of CPGRAMS became operational in January 2018, which enables citizens to
monitor the grievances lodged by them on a single screen.
•• Implementation of e-Office: Implementation of e-Office may be expedited in all ministries/ departments; all
states/UTs may also be encouraged to adopt it.
•• Prompt delivery of services: Every department should seek to simplify their processes to cut administrative
delays and ensure participatory feedback mechanisms for efficient service delivery.
Reforms in pipeline:
•• Discontinuing redundant civil services.
•• Reforming the empanelment process for evaluating suitability of IAS officers.
•• Introducing mandatory deputation of IAS officers at the Centre.
•• Expanding lateral entry in the government, and
•• Continuing the process of forced retirements and monthly review of tainted officers.
ÂÂ Conclusion:
The vision of New India 2022 can only be realized by putting the steel frame under a reformed system of recruitment,
training and performance evaluation to ensure more effective and efficient delivery of public services to achieve the
development goals.
DOMICILE-BASED JOB QUOTA

The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh has announced that the government jobs will be reserved for the “children” of the state
and legal provisions will be made for the same.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Allowing Domicile-based quota by the states goes against the principle of “Unity in Diversity”. Critically examine.
ÂÂ What’s the Issue Now?

•• Reservation solely based on place of birth would raise constitutional questions.
ÂÂ What does the Indian Constitution say about Domicile-Based Job Quota?
•• Indian Constitution clearly prohibits discrimination based on place of birth.
•• Article 16: It guarantees equal treatment of people under the law in matters of public employment.
•• This Article prohibits states from discriminating in matters of employment on grounds of place of birth or residence.
•• Article 16(2): States that in respect of employment or office in the state, no citizen should be discriminated
against on the grounds of “religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them”.
•• Exception in Article 16(3): This clause provides an exception by stating that the Parliament can form a law
“prescribing” the requirement of residence for jobs in any state. However, this can only be done by Parliament,
not by state legislatures.
ÂÂ Arguments in Favour of Providing Reservation Based on Place of Birth:
•• Article 16(3), allows for making provisions in government appointments with respect to residence (not a place of
birth).
•• The Parliament (and not the legislature of a state) can prescribe residence within a state or union territory as
a condition for certain employment or appointments in that state or union territory, or local authority or other
authority within that state or union territory.
•• Some states have been using the loopholes in the laws to reserve government jobs for locals. They have used
other criteria like language tests or proof of having resided/studied in the state for a certain period of time.
•• In Maharashtra, only those living in the state for over 15 years with fluency in Marathi are eligible.
•• In Jammu and Kashmir, government jobs are reserved for “domiciles”
•• In West Bengal, reading and writing skills in Bengali is a criterion in recruitment to some posts.
•• Last year, the Govt of Karnataka issued a notification mandating private employers to give “priority” to Kannadigas
for clerical and factory jobs in the state.
•• It is argued that giving preferential treatment to the residents of a state will help in the rightful allocation of the
resources of the state and would encourage people to work within the boundaries of their state.
•• This is also seen as a way to stop the migration of people from backward states to metropolitans, thereby reducing
the burden on such cities.
ÂÂ Why does the Constitution Prohibit Reservations Based on Domicile?

•• When the Constitution came into force, India turned itself into one nation from a geographical unit of individual
principalities and the idea of the universality of Indian citizenship took root.
•• As India has common citizenship, which gives citizens the liberty to move around freely in any part of the country,
the requirement of a place of birth or residence cannot be qualifications for granting public employment in any
state.
ÂÂ SC Rulings on a Reservation in Jobs for Locals

•• The Supreme Court has ruled against reservation based on place of birth or residence.
•• In 1984, ruling in Dr Pradeep Jain v Union of India, the issue of legislation for “sons of the soil” was discussed.
The court expressed an opinion that such policies would be unconstitutional.
•• In a subsequent ruling in Sunanda Reddy v State of Andhra Pradesh (1995), The Supreme Court affirmed the
observation in Pradeep Jain to strike
•• down a state government policy that gave 5% extra weightage to candidates who had studied with Telugu as the
medium of instruction.
•• In 2002, the Supreme Court invalidated the appointment of government teachers in Rajasthan in which-The
state selection board gave preference to “applicants belonging to the district or the rural areas of the district
concerned”.
•• In 2019, the Allahabad High Court struck down a recruitment notification by the UP Subordinate Service Selection
Commission which prescribed preference for women who are “original residents” of the UP alone.
ÂÂ The Distinction Between Domicile Status and Place of Birth

•• According to the SC ruling in DP Joshi vs Madhya Bharat case,1955, Domicile or status of residence is a fluid
concept that can change from time to time, unlike place of birth, which is fixed.
•• Domicile of a person means his permanent home.
•• The place of birth is one of several grounds on which domicile status is conferred.
ÂÂ Way Forward
•• The move to give reservation to the candidates born in the state itself runs against the spirit of constitutional
equality and fraternity. It is more likely that such politically motivated steps would be overturned by the judiciary
as has been done several times in the past.
•• The government is a not employment guaranteeing agency rather an authority that should create an environment
through its policies that minimize inequalities in income, status, facilities, and opportunities.
ÂÂ Conclusion
The move to give domicile based reservation runs against the spirit of constitutional equality and runs the danger of
being struck down by government.
NATIONAL RECRUITMENT AGENCY

The Union Cabinet has approved the setting up of the National Recruitment Agency( NRA), an independent body to conduct
examinations for government jobs.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss the roles and functions of national recruitment agency also explain in what way it is a major boon to youth
in the country
ÂÂ When was it First Announced?

•• The setting up of such an agency to conduct a common eligibility test (CET) was announced in the Union Budget
by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in February.
ÂÂ Composition
•• It will be headed by a Chairman of the rank of the Secretary to the Government of India. It will have representatives
of the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the SSC, RRB & IBPS.
ÂÂ How will the NRA Work?

•• The NRA will conduct the Common Eligibility Test (CET) for recruitment to non-gazetted posts in government
and public sector banks.
•• Approximately 1.25 lakh government jobs are advertised every year for which 2.5 crore aspirants appear in
various examinations.
•• It aims to replace multiple examinations conducted by different recruiting agencies for selection to government
jobs advertised each year, with a single online test.
•• The present recruitment agencies– Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railway Recruitment Board (RRB), and
the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS)— will remain in place.
•• Based on the preliminary screening done at the CET score level, final selection for recruitment shall be made
through separate specialized Tiers (II, III, etc.) of examination which shall be conducted by the respective
recruitment agencies.
ÂÂ Need for NRA

•• Candidates seeking government jobs have to appear for separate examinations conducted by multiple
recruiting agencies for various posts
•• Candidates have to pay fees to multiple recruiting agencies and also have to travel long distances for appearing
in various exams.
•• Women candidates, especially from rural areas, face constraints in appearing in multiple examinations as
they have to arrange for transportation and places to stay in places that are far away.
ÂÂ Features of CET:
•• The Common Eligibility Test will be held twice a year.
•• There will be different CETs for graduate level, 12th Pass level and 10th pass level to facilitate recruitment to
vacancies at various levels.
•• The CET will be conducted in 12 major Indian languages. This is a major change, as hitherto examinations for
recruitment to Central Government jobs were held only in English and Hindi.
•• In the initial phase, CET will cover recruitments made by three agencies: viz. SSC, RRB, and IBPS at Group B and
C (non -technical) posts. This will be expanded in a phased manner.
•• CET will be held in 1,000 centres across India in a bid to remove the currently prevalent urban bias. There will
be an examination centre in every district of the country. There will be a special thrust on creating examination
infrastructure in the 117 aspirational districts.
•• CET will be a first level test to shortlist candidates and the score will be valid for three years.
•• There shall be no restriction on the number of attempts to be taken by a candidate to appear in the CET subject
to the upper age limit.
•• Age relaxation for SC/ST and OBC candidates as per existing rules will apply.
ÂÂ Advantages for Students

•• Removes the hassle of appearing in multiple examinations.
•• A single examination fee would reduce the financial burden that multiple exams imposed.
•• Since exams will be held in every district, it would substantially save travel and lodging costs for the candidates.
Examination in their own district would encourage more and more women candidates also to apply for government
jobs.
•• Applicants are required to register on a single Registration portal.
•• It will also prevent the issue of clashing examination dates.
ÂÂ Advantages for Institutions

•• Removes the hassle of conducting preliminary/screening tests of candidates.
•• Reduces the time of the recruitment cycle.
•• Brings standardization in the examination pattern.
•• Reduces costs for different recruiting agencies. `600 crore savings expected.
ÂÂ Challenges
•• Unfilled Vacancies: New posts are sanctioned periodically, but a large number of vacancies remain unfilled.
Around 7 Lakh Government Posts Remained Unoccupied till March 2018, according to government sources
•• Growing Privatisation: With the growing emphasis on transferring core railway services to the private sector,
there may be fewer government jobs on offer in the future.
•• Similar reform needed at State level: Only 14% of public employment comes under the purview of the Centre
(predominantly in railways & defense), with the rest falling within the purview of States.
•• Needs Sustained Political Commitment: The long-term relevance of such reforms will depend on the commitment
of governments to raise the level of public employment and expand services to the public.
ÂÂ Way Forward
•• The reform must have a wider reach to achieve scale.
•• It must be marked by well-defined procedures, wide publicity, and open competition, besides virtual
elimination of discretion.
•• The NRA can potentially cut delays, boost transparency, and enable wider access.
•• The entire process of candidate selection must be a model, raising the bar on speed, efficiency, and integrity.
VACCINE NATIONALISM
Recently, the United States has twice indicated that it would like to secure priority access to doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Other
countries, including India and Russia, have taken similar stances. This prioritization of domestic markets has become known
as vaccine nationalism.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• What do you understand by vaccine nationalism? Discuss the various issues posed by such type of nationalism
and also suggest some measures to tackle it.
ÂÂ About Vaccine Nationalism:

•• Vaccine nationalism occurs when a country manages to secure doses of vaccine for its own citizens or residents
before they are made available in other countries.This is done through pre-purchase agreements between a
government and a vaccine manufacturer.
•• It is not new. During the early stages of the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, some of the wealthiest countries
entered into pre-purchase agreements with several pharmaceutical companies working on H1N1
vaccines.
ÂÂ Examples of Vaccine nationalism during COVID-19:
•• Collaboration of White House with CureVac, a German biotech company developing a COVID-19 vaccine.
•• Investment of 300 million euros (nearly US$340 million) in CureVac by German government for a 23% stake
in the company.
•• Sanofi, a French company whose COVID-19 vaccine work has received partial funding from the U.S Biomedical
Advanced Research and Development Authority, announced that the U.S.had the “right to the largest pre-order”
of vaccine.
•• In India, the privately held Serum Institute is developing one of the leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
•• The Serum Institute signaled that, if development of the vaccine succeeds, most of the initial batches of vaccinewill
be distributed within India.
Problems posed by nationalism: Nationalism is at odds with global public health principles. Yet, there are no
provisions in international laws that prevent pre-purchase agreements. The problems posed by nationalism are as
below:
•• Issue for countries with fewer resources: The most immediate effect of vaccine nationalism is that it further
disadvantages the countries with fewer resources and bargaining power.
•• Deprives access to public health: It deprives populations from timely access to vital public health goods.
•• Injustice with needy countries: Taken to its extreme, it allocates vaccines to moderately at-risk populations in
wealthy countries over populations at higher risk in developing economies.
•• Against fundamental principles: Vaccine nationalism also runs against the fundamental principles of vaccine
development and global public health. Most vaccine development projects involve several parties from multiple
countries.
ÂÂ Way Forward:
•• Pledge to refrain from reserving vaccines: At such a time, developed countries should play a major role, they
should pledge to refrain from reserving vaccines for their populations during public health crisis.
•• Coordinated efforts: Countries need a global coordinated effort to estimate and account for the available global
workforce of vaccinations, operationalize mass vaccination programs, implement plans for equitably allocating
vaccines on a prioritized basis, and verify the delivery of vaccines.
•• Global framework for equitable access: International institutions – including the WHO – should coordinate
negotiations ahead of the next pandemic to produce a framework for equitable access to vaccines during public
health crisis.
•• Ensuring equity: Equitable distribution and access should be ensured. Equity entails both affordability of
vaccines and access opportunities for populations across the world, irrespective of geography and geopolitics.
WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and Gavi have come up with an initiative known as
“Covax Facility”. It aims to procure at least two billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of next year for
deployment and distribution mainly in the low- and middle-income countries. It is a step in right direction by WHO to
ensure eqitable distribution of vaccines in the world.
SOCIAL ISSUES
FAKE NEWS
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss the various challenges posed by widespread fake news and misinformation and suggest some measures
to tackle this menace.
ÂÂ Background:
•• Fake news is defined as “information that is likely to be perceived as news, which has been deliberately fabricated
and is disseminated with the intention to deceive others into believing falsehoods or doubting verifiable facts.
ÂÂ Causes responsible for developing fake news culture:

•• Increasing mobile and internet penetration as India has 300 million users on Facebook, 200 million on WhatsApp
and 250 million using YouTube.
•• Emphasis on likability enhancement of the news: Social media algorithms are geared to appeal to people’s
habits and interests and the emphasis is on likeability, and not accuracy.
•• Easy spread of information: Fake news is being used as an extension of propaganda and advertising. Unlike
the traditional process, there are no editorial controls or quality-assurances.
•• Absence of comprehensive legislation: There is no specific law to deal with fake news makers which allows
miscreants to take undue advantage of the situation as authorities mostly remain confused as to the actionable wrong.
•• No codes of practice for Social Media: The internet has enabled a whole new way to publish, share and consume
information and news with very little regulation or editorial standards.
ÂÂ Challenges posed by the Fake News

•• Weakens the democracy: It misleads the consumers of information, poses a threat to a democratic society as
it can give a handle to the state to interfere with the functioning of media. E.g. Facebook took a hammering over
Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.
•• Economic challenges: As communal tendencies emerge in politics due to the spread of fake news, economic
development has taken back seat.
•• Affecting choices and behaviours: Misinformation leads to misdirected behaviours filled with fake news and
disinformation aimed at influencing choices ranging from day to day life to political choices made during the
elections.
•• Threat of infodemic: The WHO warns that societies around the world are facing an “infodemic” - an
“overabundance” of information that makes it difficult for people to identify truthful and trustworthy sources from
false or misleading ones.
•• Give rise to various crimes such as communal riots, mob lynching, mass hysteria, etc.
•• Societal Challenge: It can disturb the social fabric of the society and can create tensions among communities.
•• Violates rights of the citizen: The boundless dissemination of fake news on the social media induces crime
against humanity and infringement of citizens’ right to unbiased and truthful news and reports.
•• Spread hatred and mistrust: False information propagated through fake news has helped people developing
racist and xenophobic sentiments against people of Asian origin around the world.
•• Influences the mainstream information dissemination mechanism: Fake news disrupt the traditional or official
chain of information.
ÂÂ Measures taken to curb the menace of Fake News:

•• Legislations:
Section 505(1) of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Section 66D of Information Technology Act, 2000.
Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
•• By the Government:
•• In the current wake of Corona epidemic, Government initiatives like the introduction of an official chatbot on
WhatsApp named ‘MyGov Corona News Desk’ which answers queries about the virus with an aim to prevent
spreading of rumours during this pandemic.
The Press Information Bureau (PIB) has created a fact checking unit in order to tackle the fake news on
social media targeting the government and the work being done by it.
•• Initiatives taken by social media intermediaries:
Facebook has developed an Artificial Intelligence system that can investigate and deactivate fake accounts
disseminating fake news.
Facebook’s fact checking program, under which content rated false is downgraded in news feeds so that
fewer people see it.
WhatsApp recently partnered with the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF), and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to launch WhatsApp Coronavirus Information
Hub.
•• Supreme Court on Fake News:
As per the court, media should maintain a strong sense of responsibility, while disseminating news and
should ensure that unverified and fake news is not published.
In case of recent Corona epidemic, as per Supreme Court, media should refer to and publish the official
version about developments regarding coronavirus threat, the court said, while maintaining that it does not
intend to interfere with the “free discussion” about the pandemic.
•• Role of Media: Various media outlets are taking initiatives to fact check the information being shared.
ÂÂ Popular Examples of Fake News from India:

•• Muzzafarnagar riots of 2013.
•• Child kidnapping rumours lead to lynching’s by a mob in Jharkhand
•• Various Fake news during covid19 pandemic
ÂÂ Way Forward:
•• Sensitizing and creating awareness: Government should take active measures for promoting awareness among
people about fake news and their consequences’ E.g. Italy, has experimentally added ‘recognizing fake news’ in
school syllabus etc
•• Stringent Regulation: Government should have independent agency to verify the data being circulated on social
and other media.
•• Accountability of Social Media: Social media websites should be made accountable of such activities so that it
becomes their responsibility to have better control over the spread of fake news.
•• Support from Individuals and Civil Society: They should act as active vigilant for maintaining peace and harmony
in the society.
•• Use of Technology: The artificial intelligence technologies, particularly machine learning and natural language
processing, might be leveraged to combat the fake news problem.
ÂÂ Challenge of Law Enforcement Post COVID-19 Pandemic

In a society struck by a deadly virus such as COVID-19, strict maintenance of public order is most essential. Consequently, the
responsibilities of law enforcement agencies have increased.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss the various challenges faced by law enforcement agencies during COVID 19 pandemic. Also suggest
some measures to overcome them.
ÂÂ Current scenario of crime rates during lockdown in India:

•• Overall drop in crime rates: As the roads were deserted and there was nearly zero traffic on major highways, it
ensured a sharp reduction in traffic accidents and fatalities caused by such accidents.
•• Anti-social elements could be kept at bay because of which trespass and burglary also became more difficult
crimes to commit.
•• Major cities that generally report a high number of crimes found a drop-in crime levels during the lockdown
period. For example; Delhi Police reported a 70% fall in heinous crimes (murders and rapes) between April 1
and 15 compared to the same period last year.
•• Uptick in domestic violence: On the other hand, the lockdown period saw a worrying surge in domestic violence
cases. For example, the Tamil Nadu Police has reportedly received 2,963 calls on domestic violence in April
alone.
•• Two major factors for this rise:
Fear and insecurity of men losing their employment cause tension at home and unfortunately, women
become the victims of this tension.
Non-availability of liquor during the lockdown period is considered as the second reason for the rise in
domestic violence.
•• Also, as health workers are busy in combating the pandemic, there is little help for domestic violence victims
during times such as the current times. This shows that epidemics leave women and girls more vulnerable to
violence.
ÂÂ Challenges faced by police administration:

•• Preventing probable rise in organized crime: The pandemic is both a threat to and an opportunity for, organized
crime, especially illicit drug trade. The organized gangs may infiltrate health services and make profits through
the sale of prescription drugs that are not otherwise easily available to the public.
•• Cybercrimes: Many new portals have been launched to get people to donate money for the cause of combating
COVID-19. Experts say that many such fraudulent sites are designed so well that a large number of people can
be easily taken for a ride.
•• Keeping prisons free of virus: Many prisons have taken steps to insulate prisoners who reported positive for
the virus from the rest of the inmates. The Supreme Court recently directed the States and Union Territories to
constitute high-powered committees to consider releasing convicts who have been jailed up to seven years on
parole, in order to decongest prisons.
ÂÂ Way Forward:
•• Incorporating public cooperation: With the bulk of the population keeping off the streets, the police could bring
in equipment and manpower to handle this unusual situation. Police have already shown skilful use of social
media to disseminate all relevant information to a majority of the population.
•• Develop a draft SOP for police: Apart from policymakers, the police administration will have to introspect on its
recent experience and draft a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure that will educate all police persons
in the country. This move will eventually take care of future virus waves, if any.
The pandemic and the lockdown have ensured that many crimes have gone down. However, many other crimes have
gone up or will assume new forms in the near future. As we enter unlock mode, it is incumbent on law enforcement
officials to think of ways of dealing with new challenges in maintaining law and order.
THE HEALTHCARE GAP IN INDIA

As epidemiologists tend to consider that the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic may not come before July, in this scenario the
question of the resilience of the Indian health system becomes even more pressing.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• India’s public health care system is suffering from various challenges. Comment.
ÂÂ Limitations of India’s health care system:

•• Lack of infrastructure: India’s public hospitals have only 7,13,986 beds, including 35,699 in intensive care units
and 17,850 ventilators.
•• Hospital beds per 1,000 people: As per the OECD data available for 2017, India reportedly has only 0.53 beds
available per 1,000 people. These figures are 0.87 in Bangladesh, 2.11 in Chile, 1.38 in Mexico, 4.34 in China,
and 8.05 in Russia.
•• Low public health spending in percentage of the country’s GDP:
As per the National Health Profile 2018, India’s public health spending is less than 1 percent of the country’s
GDP. These figures are lower than some of its neighbours, countries such as Bhutan (2.5 percent), Sri
Lanka (1.6 percent), and Nepal (1.1 percent).
However, India even lags behind its BRICS peers on the Health and Quality Index (HAQ Index).
•• Sub-national differences in India:
Differences in Health and Quality Index (HAQ index):
a. While the best performing states, Kerala and Goa, scored more than 60 points, the worst-performing
states of Uttar Pradesh and Assam scored less than 40 points.
b. Also, the gap between these highest and lowest scores increased from a 23.4 point difference in 1990 to
a 30.8 point difference in 2016.
Availability of beds: Kerala with a population of only 3.5 crore (2018) has over 22,300 available beds in
public hospitals/government medical colleges. However, bigger states like Gujarat and Maharashtra with
populations of over 6.82 crore and 12.22 crore (2018) respectively, have only 16,375 and 6,970 beds
respectively.
•• Non-significant role of Private sector during the pandemic:
The CDDEP/Princeton study shows that the private hospitals have 11,85,242 beds, 59,262 ICU beds, and
29,631 ventilators.
Despite private hospitals accounting for 62 percent of the total hospital beds as well as ICU beds and almost
56 percent of the ventilators, they are handling only around 10 percent of the workload and are reportedly
denying treatments to the poor.
ÂÂ Recent steps taken by the government to effectively utilize private health care
infrastructure:
•• The central government has invoked the National Disaster Management Act of 2005, through which the
authorities are empowered to take over the management of private institutions.
•• Case study of Maharashtra: Maharashtra has taken control of 80 percent of all private hospitals’ beds in the
state till August 31.
•• Capping of rates: For the patients, rates have been capped by the government.
•• The Delhi government has asked 117 private hospitals to allocate 20 percent of beds for COVID-19 patients.
•• Recent ruling of the SC: The recent ruling issued that private labs should conduct free testing. However, later it
was modified to fix the rate of one of the most dependable tests at `4,500.
ÂÂ Suggestions while utilizing private infrastructure:

•• The governments (Union and state), would have to pay crores of dues they owe to private hospitals for treating
patients under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and the Ex-servicemen Contributory Health
Scheme (ECHS).
•• In conducting tests: Similar policies should be made by the government regarding testing, a key priority, as
India continues to test less than it should in a post-lockdown scenario where testing is one of the most obvious
ways to flatten the curve.
ÂÂ Conclusion
The state is staging a comeback everywhere in the world in the context of the corona virus crisis. In India, one of
the domains where it has to step in is public health. Civil society also needs to play a proactive role in such crisis
situations.
MAKING THE PRIVATE SECTOR CARE FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

India enters the second week of a national lockdown imposed in response to COVID-19, it is still unclear how well prepared the
healthcare system is in dealing with the pandemic.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• “Strengthening of the public health care is the need of the hour”. Discuss in the context of COVID 19
ÂÂ Introduction
As the battle against COVID-19 continues in India, it is unclear how well prepared the healthcare system is in dealing
with the pandemic. There exist resource constraints at both the Central and State governments and it is clear that
government hospitals alone will not be able to manage the fallout. Moreover, even within the government system,
tertiary care and public health are the weakest links.
ÂÂ Challenges for the government:

•• The resource constraints: Government hospitals alone will not be able to manage the fallout of severe cases of
COVID-19 that would require hospitalisation.
•• Moreover, even within the government system, tertiary care and public health are the weakest links..
•• Costly diagnosis: At present, the government has put a cap on the cost at `4,500 per test, which is a burden
for even a middle class patient.
•• The National Health Authority has recommended that the testing and treatment of COVID-19 be included in the
PM-Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) but this proposal is still awaiting clearance.
•• Fragmented governance of the health service system: There is lack of a visible central command, which
should be created under the supervision of the Union Health Minister, aided by a team of experts.
•• Ignoring the middle class: So far the govt. has offered packages to the poor but the large, middle class, of which
many are employees in the services sector is being ignored. They do not have secure employment, nor do they
have insurance cover.
•• The government’s silence on involving the private healthcare system: Faced with a serious health emergency,
the silence of the government on the expected role of the private sector is questionable.
ÂÂ Significance of involving the private sector:

•• In India, private corporate hospitals have, in the past, received government subsidies in various forms and it
makes them responsible towards the general public.
•• They are also well poised to provide specialised care and have the expertise and infrastructure to do so.
ÂÂ Recent initiatives to rope in private sector

•• Some individual private sector companies have come forward with offers of creating capacity and making it
available to COVID-19 patients.
•• Some States like Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have already roped in the
private sector to provide free treatment.
•• There have been some tentative measures taken by States to allow individuals seeking testing for COVID-19
to access private laboratories at subsidised rates.
•• The Central government has already taken over some private hotels to accommodate persons quarantined
for COVID-19.
•• The treatment for COVID-19 has been included under Ayushman Bharat.
ÂÂ Drawbacks in private sector

•• Capping the bills: Since the capping of treatment prices in private hospitals in May, many instances of
overcharging by hospitals in Maharashtra have surfaced
•• Punitive measures: In some cases even leading to suspension of licences.
•• Health insurance and private sector: Future development of hospital care services is being envisaged chiefly
under publicly financed health insurance, which would very likely be private-sector led.
•• Private health sector boom: Health systems with large private sectors do not necessarily flounder during
disasters.
•• Indian private sector landscape : It is characterised by weak regulation and poor organisation, is particularly
infelicitous for mounting a strong and coordinated response to disasters. During disasters, the limited regulatory
ability could be further compromised.
•• Insurance Inclusion criteria : A large majority of private hospitals in the country are small enterprises which
cannot meet the inclusion criteria for insurance.
•• Infrastructural needs: Many of these small hospitals are also unsuitable for meeting disaster-related care needs.
•• Snail pace development: Also, development of certain services and competencies that are crucial for disaster
response could lag behind.
•• Lucrative cases: Private hospitals are known to prefer lucrative and high-end ‘cold’ cases, especially under insurance.
•• Indispensable measure: Strong public sector capacities are therefore imperative for dealing with disasters.
•• Medical preparedness: While the Disaster Management Act does require States and hospitals to have emergency
plans, medical preparedness is de facto a matter of policy, and, therefore, gaps are pervasive.
•• Capacity building : There is a strong case for introducing a legal mandate to strengthen public sector capacities
via disaster legislation, including relevant facets such as capacity-building of staff.
ÂÂ Way Forward:
•• There is a need for a comprehensive national policy to ensure that private healthcare capacity is made available
to the public.
•• Creating adequate testing and quarantine facilities: the government should ‘take over’ private corporate
laboratories and hospitals for a limited period.
•• A graduated approach to this is possible by asking tertiary private hospitals to create ICU facilities and
isolation wards to care for the moderate and severe cases under the supervision of the government.
•• The political directive for such a move needs to come from the Central government while ensuring that the
Ministry of Health provides standard treatment protocols for health personnel.
•• Niti Aayog’s ‘Model Concession Agreement for Setting Up Medical Colleges Under the Public Private
Partnership’ guideline document: To address shortage of qualified doctors and bridge gap in medical
education, the Niti Aayog has come out with the public-private partnership model to link new or existing private
medical colleges with functional district hospital to augment medical seats.
•• Universal public healthcare is essential not only to curb outbreaks, but also to ensure crisis preparedness and
the realisation of the promise of right to health.
•• More Funding: Public funding on health should be increased to at least 2.5% of GDP as envisaged in the National
Health Policy, 2017.
•• Decentralisation: There is a need to make nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) part of the core functions
of Panchayati raj institutions and municipalities.
•• Creating a Nodal Health Agency: There is need to create a designated and autonomous focal agency with the
required capacities and linkages to perform the functions of disease surveillance, information gathering on the
health impact of policies of key non-health departments, maintenance of national health statistics, enforcement
of public health regulations, and dissemination of information to the public. In this pursuit, NITI Aayog’s National
Health Stack is a step in the right direction, which needs to be operationalised as soon as possible.
Spanish Example
•• The Spanish government issued an order bringing hospitals in the large private corporate sector under public
control for a limited period.
•• This tough decision was taken with the understanding that existing public healthcare facilities would not be
able to cope with the sudden, if short-term, rise in COVID-19 cases.
ÂÂ Conclusion:
Pandemics such as Covid-19 starkly remind us that public health systems are core social institutions in any society.
The government has made several efforts to address the shortfall in the public health system through the schemes
like the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, 2019, Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana, Pradhan Mantri
- Jan Arogya Yojana etc. However, the need of the hour is an adequate investment, for creating a health system that
can withstand any kind of public health emergencies, deliver universal health coverage and meet the targets of the
Sustainable Development Goals.
TELEMEDICINE
The guidelines proposed 10 years ago were finally sanctioned by the Centre to cope with the Covid-19 outbreak.
Considering distance is a critical factor in delivering healthcare services during the ongoing crisis, doctors will now be allowed to
use information and communication technologies for exchange of valid information for diagnosis and treatment of ailments.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• What is ‘telemedicine’? Discuss how the recent COVID19 pandemic proved to be a boon for the telemedicine
sector.
ÂÂ About Telemedicine:
•• The World Health Organization (WHO) defines Telemedicine as, “The delivery of healthcare services, where
distance is a critical factor, by all healthcare professionals using information and communication technologies
for the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research
and evaluation and for the continuing education of healthcare providers with the aim of advancing the health of
individuals and communities.”
•• Telemedicine has a variety of applications in patient care, education, research, administration and public
health.
•• Telemedicine use is increasing in modern times due to wide use of wireless broadband technology, mobile
phones and internet
•• India is one of the top 10 countries in the telemedicine market in the world.
ÂÂ Telehealth:
•• It may be defined as ‘the delivery and facilitation of health and health-related services including medical care,
provider and patient education, health information services, and self-care via telecommunications and digital
communication technologies.’
ÂÂ Reasons behind the move:

•• To provide preventive and precautionary measures and to have less physical interaction with doctors and
patients.
•• Lack of any set of guidelines or legal framework on the practice to encourage medical practitioners to provide
remote medical consultations during a pandemic.
•• For better utilisation of limited medical resources.
ÂÂ Government guidelines governing telemedicine:

•• A set of guidelines for telemedicine or remote delivery of medical services have been issued in March,2020 by
the Ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW), in collaboration with NITI Aayog and Board of Governors
(BoG), Medical Council of India (MCI).
•• The guidelines aim to provide a proper framework to deliver healthcare services remotely through phone or
online healthcare services.
•• It will allow users to consult certified medical practitioners without going out of the house and reduce the risk
of transmission even further.
•• Only medical practitioners, registered under the IMC (Indian Medical Council) Act 1956, are entitled to provide
telemedicine consultation.
•• Telemedicine consultations should not be anonymous, both patient and doctor should know each other’s
identity.
•• The government has also imposed certain restrictions on the type of medications that can be prescribed based
on the type of consultations. Drugs listed under Schedule X of Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules cannot be
prescribed through telemedicine.
ÂÂ Advantages or Significance of Telemedicine:

•• Reduced travel expenses of patients: It can provide rapid access to medical practitioners who may not be
immediately available in person.
•• Time saving: Telemedicine also reduces unnecessary non-urgent ER visits and eliminates transportation
expenses for regular checkups.
•• Easy access to specialized doctors as telemedicine offers better access to more specialists.
•• Telemedicine practice can prevent the transmission of infectious diseases reducing the risks to both
healthcare workers and patients.
•• Unnecessary and avoidable exposure of the people involved in the delivery of healthcare can be avoided
using telemedicine and patients can be screened remotely
•• Improve follow up and health outcome.
•• It will make available extra working hands to provide physical care at the respective health institutions.
•• Increased reach to inaccessible areas.
This is an important step for Digital Health in India and has the power to make India’s healthcare progress further.
It will make access to quality healthcare simpler and reachable to masses.
ÂÂ The scope of Telemedicine in India:

•• Telemedicine services in the country come under the combined jurisdiction of Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare (MoHFW) and the Department of Information Technology.
•• Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) through its Department of Space (DoS) had initiated a Nationwide
Telemedicine (TM) program in 2001.
•• ISRO first linked Chennai’s Apollo Hospital with the Apollo Rural Hospital at Aragonda village in the Chittoor
district of Andhra Pradesh.
•• MoHFW has set up a National Telemedicine Portal for implementing a green field project on e-health establishing
a National Medical College Network (NMCN).
•• Under (NMCN) scheme, 50 Govt. Medical Colleges are being inter-linked with the purpose of tele-education,
e-Learning and online medical consultation by utilizing the connectivity provided by National Knowledge
Network (NKN). Under this initiative a virtual layer of specialty/super specialty doctors from these medical
colleges is created for providing online medical consultation facility to citizens similar to OPD facility through
a web/ portal.
•• National Telemedicine Network (NTN) has been envisaged to provide Telemedicine Services to the remote
areas by upgrading existing Government Healthcare Facilities in States. Telemedicine nodes across India are
being created inter connecting these health facilities.
•• MoHFW has developed a set of Electronic Health Records (EHR) standards in 2013 and revised in 2016, to
ensure safe data transmission during telemedicine practices.
•• MoHFW proposed to set up National e-health authority (NeHA) in 2015, with a vision of achieving high quality
health services for all Indians through the cost-effective and secure use of ICTs in health and health-related
fields.
•• National Rural AYUSH Telemedicine Network aims to promote the benefit of traditional methods of healing to
a larger population through telemedicine.
ÂÂ Challenges to Telemedicine:
•• Technical Training and Equipment: Restructuring IT staff responsibilities and purchasing equipment takes time
and costs money. Training is crucial in building an effective telemedicine program.
•• Protecting medical data: Hackers and other criminals may be able to access a patient’s medical data, especially
if the patient accesses telemedicine on a public network or via an unencrypted channel.
•• Care delays: When a person needs emergency care, accessing telemedicine first may delay treatment,
particularly since a doctor cannot provide lifesaving care or laboratory tests digitally.
•• An inability to examine patients: Providers must rely on patient self-reports during telemedicine sessions. This
may require clinicians to ask more questions to ensure that they get a comprehensive health history. If a patient
leaves out an important symptom that might have been noticeable during in-person care, this can compromise
treatment.
NAVIGATING THE NEW NORMAL CAMPAIGN: NITI AAYOG

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, in partnership with several other stakeholders has launched a
behaviour change campaign called ‘Navigating the New Normal’, and its website.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Critically examine the behavioural campaigns to create the awareness among the masses.
ÂÂ About the campaign:

•• Developed under the guidance of Empowered Group 6, constituted by the Government of India and chaired by
CEO, NITI Aayog.
•• The campaign has two parts:-
The first is a web portal, containing resources informed by behavioural science and the use of nudge and
social norms theory, related to COVID-safe behavioural norms during the ongoing Unlock phase.
The second is a media campaign focused on the wearing of masks.
The portal focuses on the easy implementation of four key behaviours in the unlock phase: mask-wearing
(essential focus), social distancing, Hand hygiene, and not spitting in public.
•• Citizens Role: It aims at encouraging people towards the social behaviour in which the enforcement burden
shifts from the Government to the citizens.
•• Sector Specific guidelines: The website will have sector-specific collaterals and guidelines for health, nutrition,
and public transport (in metro cities).
•• International Examples: Japan and South Korea have made ‘mask-wearing’ a socially accepted norm.
•• Initiative in India: Meghalaya has issued a new health protocol to fight COVID 19 which also lays emphasis on
the Behaviour Change Model for living with Covid-19.
Behavioural Science
•• It is the systematic, controlled, empirical and critical investigation of human and animal behaviour through
controlled and naturalistic experimental observation and rigorous formulations.
•• It includes disciplines like sociology, anthropology, psychology.
Nudge Theory
•• According to Nudge theory, people, rather than being forced, can be encouraged and influenced to pursue
or desist from certain actions through nudges.
•• It does not talk about penalizing people if they do not behave in a particular manner, rather it encourages them
to make desirable decisions.
•• It believes that Humans are not-so-rational and often need encouragement or intervention — a nudge —
to get going and do what’s best for the country or society at large.
•• American economist Richard Thaler has won the 2017 Nobel Prize in economics for his contributions to
behavioural economics.
ÂÂ Limitations of Behavioural Science

•• Continuous Efforts vs One-time Action - voluntary surrender of LPG subsidy by affluent households was a
comparatively easy policy as it requires only a one-time action, whereas task is not so easy in case of living with
Covid-19, Beti Bachao, Beti Padao and
•• SBM, as it requires continuous effort to change the mind-sets of people.
•• Specific Targeting is Required: In order to make this campaign a success, the focus must be on special areas
of concern such as small factories and poor labourers, who comprise a large part of the vulnerable population.
Example: Advertising campaigns such as the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme did not target specific states
where child sex ratios were already skewed (although it was effective in Haryana, which also has a very poor sex
ratio).
•• Case of Confirmation Bias: The applications of behavioural insights appeared to be a result of confirmation
bias.
ÂÂ Way Forward
As the lockdown is lifted, people will resume their normal activities. This raises a challenge of minimising the spread od
Covid-19 without impacting the movement of people. This signals a need for change and creation of a “New Normal”
– where we adapt our routine activities to enable consistent compliance to the COVID-19 protective behaviours.
RECOGNISE RURAL WOMEN’S WORK

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on women’s work
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Analyse the impact of COVID 19 on rural women’s work and suggest some measures to improve their condition.
ÂÂ Introduction
The pandemic is exposing and exploiting inequalities of all kinds, including gender inequality. In the long term, its
impact on women’s health, rights and freedoms could harm us all. Women are already suffering the deadly impact of
lockdowns and quarantines.
ÂÂ Limited agricultural activity for women:

•• There was increased tendency to use more family labour and less hired labour on account of fears of infection. 
•• Therefore, though agricultural activity continued during lockdown employment available to women was limited.
ÂÂ Reduced income from agriculturally allied sectors

•• For women across the country, incomes from the sale of milk to dairy cooperatives shrank because the demand
for milk fell by at least 25% (as hotels and restaurants closed)
•• Among fishers, men could not go to sea, and women could not process or sell fish and fish products
ÂÂ Collapse of non-agricultural employment for women.

•• Non-agricultural jobs came to a sudden halt as construction sites, brick kilns, petty stores and other enterprises
shut down completely
•• Women have accounted for more than one-half of workers in public works, but no employment was available
through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) till late in April
•• Accredited Social Health Activists or ASHAs, 90% of whom are women, have become frontline health workers,
although they are not recognised as “workers” or paid a regular wage.
ÂÂ Effect on Women’s health & nutrition

•• During the lockdown period the burden of care work mounted.
•• With all members of the family at home, and children out of school, the tasks of cooking, cleaning, child care and
elderly care increased
ÂÂ Disproportionate impact of lockdown on rural women jobs

•• Among rural casual workers 71% of women lost their jobs after the lockdown; the figure was 59% for men.
•• Data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) also suggest that job losses in April 2020, as
compared to April 2019, were larger for rural women than men.
Inadequate attention has been paid to the consequences of the pandemic for women workers and on the design of
specific policies and programmes to assist women workers.
ÂÂ Way Ahead
•• Short term goal should be the expansion of the NREGS
•• A medium and longer term plan needs to generate women-specific employment in skilled occupations and in
businesses and new enterprises
•• ASHA workers must be recognised as workers and paid a fair wage. 
•• Specific attention must be paid to safe and easy transport for women from their homes to workplaces Healthy
meals for schoolchildren as well as the elderly and the sick can reduce the tasks of home cooking, which reduces
care burden of women
ÂÂ Conclusion
It is time for women to be seen as equal partners in the task of transforming the rural economy.
STARS PROGRAMME: WORLD BANK

The World Bank has approved a new project named STARS (Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program)
worth $500 million to improve governance of government schools in six Indian states namely Himachal Pradesh, Kerala,
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.
•• The project will be implemented through the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the flagship central scheme, in
partnership with Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.
•• Some 250 million students (between the age of 6 and in 1.5 million schools and over 10 million teachers will
benefit from the STARS program.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• What is World Bank’s STARS project. DO you think this project will bring some significant changes in Indian
education system? DIscuss
ÂÂ Key initiatives under this program

•• Focusing more directly on the delivery of education services at the state, district and sub-district levels by
providing customized local-level solutions towards school improvement.
•• Addressing demands from stakeholders, especially parents, for greater accountability and inclusion by producing
better data to assess the quality of learning; giving special attention to students from vulnerable sections and
delivering a curriculum that keeps pace with the rapidly evolving needs of the job market.
•• Equipping teachers to manage this transformation by recognizing that teachers are central to achieving better
learning outcomes.
•• Investing more in developing India’s human capital needs by strengthening foundational learning for children in
classes 1 to 3 and preparing them with the cognitive, socio-behavioural and language skills to meet future labour
market needs.
ÂÂ Limitations of the STARS program

•• The program fails to address the basic capacity issue of major vacancies across the education system. Without
capable and motivated faculty, teacher education and training cannot be expected to improve.
•• The program ignores that decentralising decision-making requires the devolution of funds and real decision-
making power. It requires not just investment in the capacity of the front-line bureaucracy but also in increasing
their discretionary powers while fostering social accountability.
•• Further, trust, which implies listening and collaborating across different levels within the administration, is entirely
ignored in the World Bank project. Instead, the Bank displays an overreliance on Information and Communications
Technology (ICT).
•• It is based instead on the idea that a flawed system can be fixed merely through the injection of more and better
technology. In fact, technology does not address most of the systemic or governance challenges; it simply
bypasses them.
•• Outsourcing basic governance functions by expanding private initiatives and reducing government tasks will not
make education more relevant to local needs or democratically promote people’s participation by empowering
local authorities as stated in the project document.
ÂÂ Way Forward
•• An overburdened bureaucracy with vacancies & without basic equipment can’t be expected to be effective. Thus,
the administration must be equipped with adequate physical, financial & human resources.
•• Administrative or governance reforms must give greater discretion to the front-line bureaucracy to address local
issues and innovate if required.
•• There needs to be trust within the administration among peers and across different levels within the
administration, as the goal must not be to judge and punish but to improve, which will eventually lead
to better learning outcomes and help students to be better prepared for the jobs of the future.
UNFPA: STATE OF THE WORLD POPULATION REPORT 2020
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has released the ‘State of the World Population Report 2020. The theme of the
report is ‘Against my will: defying the practices that harm women and girls and undermine equality’.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• State the factors that have influenced India’s population growth trends. Also, enlist some measures taken by the
government for attaining population stabilization.
ÂÂ Findings of the report: World Perspective

•• According to averaged estimates, over a five year period (2013-17), there were 1.2 million female births missing
annually, at a global level.
•• “Missing females” are women missing from the population at given dates due to the cumulative effect of postnatal
and prenatal sex selection in the past Study shows that in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan excess female
mortality of girls below 5 years of age was under 3 per cent.
ÂÂ Excess female mortality:

•• It is the difference between observed and expected mortality of the girl child or avoidable death of girls during
childhood.
•• The report points out that, these skewed numbers translate into long-term shifts in the proportions of women and
men in the population of some countries.
•• In many countries, this results in a “marriage squeeze” as prospective grooms outnumber the prospective brides,
which further results in human trafficking for marriage as well as child marriages.
ÂÂ Finding of the report: India specific

•• India’s population accounts for over one-sixth of the world’s population in 2019 (1.37 billion out of 7.71 billion). It
has a growth rate of 1.2% per year between 2010 - 2019.
•• India’s life expectancy at birth is lower than the world’s (69 years to 72).
•• It scores higher than the global average in terms of access to healthcare during childbirth and also has a much
lower adolescent birth rate.
•• India’s Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in 2015 was 174 deaths per lakh live births (down from 448 in 1994) while
the global MMR in 2015 was 216.
•• India’s fertility rate is 2.3 births per woman in 2019, compared to 2.5 worldwide.
•• The report says that In India, around 460,000 girls went missing, which means they were not even born due to
sex-selection biases, each year between 2013 and 2017.
•• One in three girls missing globally due to sex selection, both prenataland postnatal, is from India.
•• According to their analysis, India has the highest rate of excess female deaths, 13.5 per 1,000 female births,
which suggests that an estimated one in nine deaths of females below the age of 5 may be attributed to postnatal
sex selection.
ÂÂ Top five populous country in 2027 will be:

•• India - 1.5 billion
•• China - 1.1 billion
•• Nigeria - 733 million
•• USA - 434 million
•• Pakistan - 403 million
ÂÂ Focus on three common abuses-

•• The report highlights the three most prevalent cases of abuse that are female genital mutilation, child
marriage, and extreme bias against daughters, in favour of sons.
•• Female genital mutilation involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injuries to the
female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
•• An estimate of 4.1 million girls will be subjected to female genital mutilation in the year 2020.
•• An extreme and continuing preference for sons over daughters in some countries has fuelled gender-biased sex
selection, or extreme neglect, that leads to girls’ death as children.
Other causes: The advent of technology and increased access to ultrasound imaging ensured termination of a foetus
on knowing its gender.
• This resulted in the number of girls missing due to female foeticide exceeding those that which are missing
because of postnatal sex selection.
•• The bias against the girl child is further perpetuated by fears and financial insecurities pertaining to dowry as well
as lack of safety and vulnerability to sexual violence.
•• This further leads to girls being relegated to the status of being ‘unwanted’ that causes neglect and apathy
towards their education, health and well-being.
•• A recent analysis revealed that if services and programmes remain shuttered for six months due to the COVID-19
pandemic, an additional 13 million girls may be forced into marriage and 2 million more girls may be subjected
to female genital mutilation between now and 2030.
ÂÂ Challenges ahead
•• Early marriage continues to play a major cultural obstacle to female empowerment and better reproductive rights.
•• The absence of reproductive and sexual rights has major and negative repercussions on women’s education,
income and safety, leaving them “unable to shape their own futures”.
•• About 35 million women, girls and young people will need life-saving sexual and reproductive health services this
year, as well as services to address gender-based violence, in humanitarian settings.
•• The overall population of the world is ageing, with the age group ‘65 and above’ growing at a fast rate. By 2050,
one in six people will belong to this group, instead of one in 11 in 2019.
ÂÂ Way Forward
•• There is a societal shift in attitudes that hold a different yardstick for women and this is only possible through
targeted social and behaviour change communication interventions.
•• We have to increase the efforts to keep girls in school longer and teach them life skills and to engage men
and boys in social change.
•• The problem should be tackled by eliminating the root causes, especially gender-biased norms.
•• People must foster respect for women and girls, by changing attitudes and practices that commoditize them.
•• People must protect women and girls by enforcing laws against practices like child marriage and female
mutilation and also by changing attitudes and norms. And Governments must fulfil their obligations under human
rights treaties that require the elimination of these practices and rituals.
HISTORY
AND
ART & CULTURE
BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF GOPAL KRISHNA GOKHALE

The Prime Minister recently paid tribute to Gopal Krishna Gokhale on his birth anniversary.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss about the contribution of Gopal Krishan Gokhale in Indian freedom struggle.
ÂÂ About Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915):

•• Early Life:
Gokhale hailed from the Ratnagiri district in present-day Maharashtra and studied at the Elphinstone College
in Mumbai.
He joined later as a professor at the Fergusson College in Pune, where he taught political economy and
history.
•• Arrival on the national scene:
He first arrived on the national scene after cross-examining British colonial expenditure at the Welby
Commission of 1897 in England.
Welby Commission was set up to look into Indian expenditures.
Gokhale’s work had earned him praise in India as he laid bare British military financing policies that heavily
burdened Indian taxpayers much to the chagrin of then Viceroy Lord Curzon.
Gokhale joined the Indian National Congress in 1899.
He emerged as one of the main leaders of its ‘moderate’ wing, and gave up teaching three years later to
work as a lawmaker for the remainder of his life.
•• A liberal politician:
Following the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, a brand of liberal political leaders in India rose who sought a greater role
for Indians in running the country’s affairs while pledging allegiance to British rule.
In the Bombay Presidency, the prominent leaders who adopted constitutional methods as a means of
achieving political reform included Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, Dadabhai Naoroji, and Justice MG Ranade.
Gokhale had worked towards the very same line of thought realizing constitutional ideals in India for three
decades and abjured the use of reactionary or revolutionary ways.
•• Extensive work in colonial legislatures:
In Bombay Legislative Council (1899 and 1902), he opposed the British government’s onerous land revenue
policies, advocated free and compulsory primary education, and asked for the creation of equal opportunities
to fight against untouchability.
•• Imperial legislature (from 1902 till his death):
Gokhale played a key role in framing the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909.
He advocated for the expansion of legislative councils at both the Centre and the provinces.
A critic of British imperial bureaucracy, Gokhale favored decentralization and the promotion of panchayat
and taluk bodies.
Gokhale also spoke for the Indian diaspora living in other parts of the British Empire and opposed the
indentured labor system.
•• Work in the Indian National Congress:
Gokhale became Congress President at its Banaras session in 1905.
This was also the time when big differences had arisen between his group of ‘Moderates’ and the ‘Extremists’
led by Lala Lajpat Rai and Bal Gangadhar Tilak among others.
Matters came to a head when the two factions split at the Surat session of 1907.
Despite his ideological differences, Gokhale maintained cordial relations with his opponents.
In 1907, he fervently campaigned for the release of Lala Lajpat Rai, who was imprisoned that year by the
British at Mandalay in present-day Myanmar.
•• Role as Mahatma Gandhi’s political mentor:
After Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India, he had joined Gokhale’s group before going on to lead the
independence movement.
Gandhi regarded Gokhale as his political mentor, and wrote a book in Gujarati dedicated to the leader
titled ‘Dharmatma Gokhale’.
Publications: The Hitavada was started in the central Indian city of Nagpur by freedom fighter Gopal Krishna
Gokhale. Gokhale also published a daily newspaper entitled Jnanaprakash, which allowed him to voice his
reformist views on politics and society.
•• Related societies and other works:
G.K. Gokhale founded Servants of India Society with the help of M.G. Ranade in 1905 whose aim was:
a. To train national missionaries for the service of India.
b. To promote by all constitutional means the true interest of the Indian people.
c. To prepare a cadre of selfless workers.
In 1908, Gokhale founded the Ranade Institute of Economics.
ÂÂ Conclusion:
Gokhale was a mentor to both Mohammed Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi even wrote a book
called, ‘Gokhale, My Political Guru’. His core beliefs about the importance of political liberty, social reform and
economic progress for all Indians are still relevant to our times.
BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF RAJA RAVI VARMA

29th April is the birth anniversary of the famed Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906) who is remembered for giving
Indians their western, classical representations of Hindu gods and goddesses.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss about the contribution of Raja Ravi Varma to Indian art and culture.
ÂÂ About Raja Ravi Varma:

•• Varma was born into aristocracy at Kilimanoor in the erstwhile Travancore state of present-day Kerala and was
closely related to its royal family.
•• His Work:
Varma worked on both portrait and landscape paintings.
He is considered among the first Indian artists to use oil paints.
Apart from painting Hindu mythological figures, he also made portraits of many Indians as well as Europeans.
Varma is also known for having mastered the reproduction of his work on the lithographic press– through
which his paintings spread far and wide.
Lithography is a method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water.
The printing is from a stone or a metal plate with a smooth surface.
Through his printing press, he humanised the depiction of Hindu pantheon that travelled beyond the
surfaces of costly canvases, and into the prayer and living rooms of working class homes.
He is believed to have made around 7,000 paintings before his death at the age of 58.
His most famous works include:
a. Damayanti Talking to a Swan,
b. Shakuntala Looking for Dushyanta,
c. Nair Lady Adorning Her Hair, and
d. Shantanu and Matsyagandha.
ÂÂ Criticisms
•• Varma is often criticized for being too showy in his paintings.
•• His paintings are also condemned for overshadowing traditional Indian art forms, especially the ones depicting
Hindu gods and goddesses.
•• His approach is said to lack the dynamism of expression seen in the traditional paintings.
•• Critics have also criticized him for modelling goddesses after prostitutes, saying that his representation of deities
have reduced them to the level of mortals.
ÂÂ Conclusion:
Raja Ravi Varma was one of the first artists who created such a modern and Indian style. He mustered the western
art of oil painting and realistic life study but painted themes from Indian mythology. Ravi Varma’s representation of
mythological characters has become a part of the Indian imagination of the epics.
ÂÂ 159th Birth Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore

National Gallery of Modern Art organised the Virtual Tour titled “Gurudev – Journey of the Maestro through his visual
vocabulary” to commemorate the 159th birth anniversary of Sri Rabindranath Tagore.
PROBABLE QUESTIONS
•• Although a supporter of nationalism, Rabindranath Tagore was a vigorous critic of modern nationalism. Comment.
ÂÂ About Rabindranath Tagore:

•• Rabindranath Tagore - a poet, novelist and painter; best known for being the first Indian to be awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1913, for his novel ‘Geetanjali’.
•• He was popularly known as ‘Gurudev’, was fascinated by the worlds of literature, art, music and dance at an early
age.
•• He also wrote the National Anthems of India and Bangladesh i.e Jana Gana Mana and Amar Sonar Bangla.
•• He left his imprint on art and played a role in transforming its practices and ushering into modernism.
ÂÂ Tagore’s contribution to the Indian national movement:

•• He generally denounced British imperialism and spoke out against it in some of his writings.
Partition of Bengal:
•• Outraged by the British proposal to partition Bengal, Gurudev argued that instead of partitioning Bengal, what
was needed was a self-help based reorganization of Bengal.
•• He wrote the song Banglar Mati Banglar Jol - Soil of Bengal, Water of Bengal - to unite the Bengali population
after the Bengal partition in 1905.
•• He also wrote the famed ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ which helped ignite a feeling of nationalism amongst people.
•• He started the Rakhibandhan ceremony where people from Hindu and Muslim communities tied colourful threads
on each other’s wrists. This symbolizing the underlying unity of undivided Bengal.
His belief on Nationalism:
•• Tagore’s perception of nationalism has mainly relied on ancient Indian philosophy, where the world was accepted
as a single nest. So he was a great nationalist and mighty internationalist.
•• Although he supported nationalism, Tagore did not support the element in Gandhi’s Non Cooperation Movement
called the Swadeshi movement which was an economic strategy to boycott British products, and improve
production in India.
•• According to Tagore, this strategy will help India to champion over power and wealth but not soul and conscience.
•• He believed that contemporary nationalism will eventually take a violent form and thus it was necessary to arrive
at an alternative.
•• The cornerstone of Tagore’s beliefs and work is the idea that anti-colonialism cannot simply be achieved by
rejecting all things British, but should consist of incorporating all the best aspects of western culture into the best
of Indian culture.
•• He never reconciled with revolutionary extremism. In spite of all his staunch criticism of imperialist rule he never
approved of two things - namely, romantic adventurism and violence born of intolerance.
•• Tagore also rejected violence from the British as well and renounced the knighthood that had been given to him
by Lord Hardinge in 1915 in protest of the violent Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
His concept of Freedom:
•• One of the most important ideas that Tagore contributed is that “freedom” does not simply mean political freedom
from the British.
•• According to him the Euro-centric notions of freedom have forced us to consider political freedom as an ultimate
destination in the journey of the freedom movement in our country.
•• He advocated that the freedom of fear is the real freedom. It means the ability to be truthful and honest with
oneself otherwise autonomy loses all of its worth.
•• Freedom of thoughts, ideas, mind, rules, and dogmas transfer earth into heaven.
•• He wishes the country to be free of burden of the years it has been oppressed.
•• He wishes his countrymen to move ahead always taking guidance from omniscient God, ever expanding until
India is converted into a heaven of freedom.
•• Therefore, the concept of nationhood and freedom from British rule was his all-pervasive emphasis on the removal
of the gross inequities India’s society suffered.
ISHWAR CHANDRA VIDYASAGAR (BUST VANDALIZATION)

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the 19th century intellectual giant whose bust was vandalised in the course of a street fight
between BJP and Trinamool Congress supporters in Kolkata, was perhaps the first Indian reformer to put forward the
issues of women.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss the contributions of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar to the social reform movements with a special emphasis
on the contributions made by him through literature.
ÂÂ Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: A brief profile:

•• Michael Madhusudan Dutt, the 19th century pioneer of Bengali drama, described Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
as having “the genius and wisdom of an ancient sage, the energy of an Englishman and the heart of a
Bengali mother”.
•• One of Bengal’s towering cultural icons and among the greatest personalities of the Bengal Renaissance,
Vidyasagar was a polymath who reconstructed the modern Bengali alphabet and initiated path breaking
reform in traditional upper caste Hindu society.
•• Vidyasagar’s Bengali primer, BornoPorichoy, remains, more than 125 years after his death in 1891, the
introduction to the alphabet for nearly all Bengali children.
ÂÂ Early life:
•• Ishwarchandra Bandopadhyay was born on September 26, 1820, in Birsingha village of Midnapore district in a
poor Brahmin family.
•• After his elementary education, Ishwar Chandra moved to Calcutta, where he studied Sanskrit grammar, literature,
Vedanta philosophy, logic, astronomy and Hindu law.
•• He received the title of Vidyasagar - Ocean of Learning at age of 21.
•• Privately, he studied English literature and philosophy.
•• When he was barely 30, Vidyasagar was appointed Principal of Calcutta’s Sanskrit College.
ÂÂ Literary and Social Contributions:

•• Vidyasagar’s most enduring contributions were as an educationist and reformer of traditional upper caste
Hindu society.
•• The focus of his reform was women.
•• He spent his life’s energies trying to ensure an end to the practice of child marriage and to initiate widow marriage.
•• The humanist reformism of Raja Rammohan Roy (1772-1833), Akshay Kumar Dutt (1820-86) and Vidyasagar
was shot through with a powerful rationalism that rejected the decadence of contemporary Hindu society, and
questioned the bases of the faith in which it claimed to have its roots.
•• Roy founded the Brahmo Sabha. Vidyasagar and Dutt were agnostics who refused to discuss the supernatural.
•• In a paper written in 1850, Vidyasagar launched a powerful attack on the practice of marrying off girls aged
10 or even younger, pointing to social, ethical, and hygiene issues, and rejecting the validity of the Dharma
Shastras that advocated it.
•• In 1855, he wrote his two famous tracts on the Marriage of Hindu Widows, grounding his argument in reason
and logic, showing that there was no prohibition on widows remarrying in the entire body of ‘Smriti’ literature (the
Sutras and the Sastras).
•• Alongside the campaign for widow remarriage, he campaigned against polygamy.
•• In the 1870s, Vidyasagar wrote two brilliant critiques of polygamy, arguing to the government that since polygamy
was not sanctioned by the sacred texts, there could be no objection to suppressing it by legislation.
ÂÂ British Government response:

•• On October 14, 1855, Vidyasagar petitioned the Government of India asking that it “take into early consideration
the propriety of passing a law to remove all obstacles to the marriage of Hindu widows and to declare the issue
of all such marriages to be legitimate”.
•• Finally, on July 16, 1856, The Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act, known as Act XV, was passed.
ÂÂ The college bearing his name:

Today’s Vidyasagar College in North Kolkata grew out of the Calcutta Training School that Vidyasagar conceptualised
in 1859, and which came to be known as Metropolitan Institution in 1864. The efforts of Vidyasagar and the brilliant
performance of its students led to the college gaining affiliation with the prestigious Calcutta University in 1872. The
college was named after Vidyasagar in 1917.
ÂÂ Conclusion:
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was a true reformer who contributed his whole life for the betterment of the society,
especially women.
PERIYAR ROLE IN VAIKOM SATYAGRAHA

Vaikom Satyagraha is a metaphor for social justice, where Periyar’s leadership played a pivotal role.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss the role of Periyar in Vaikom Satyagraha.
ÂÂ Background:
•• According to the prevalent caste system in Kerala and the rest of India, low-caste Hindus were not allowed to
enter the temples. In Kerala, they were not even allowed to walk on the roads that led to the temples also.
•• In the Kakinada meet of the Congress Party in 1923, T K Madhavan presented a report citing the discrimination
that the depressed castes’ people were facing in Kerala.
•• It was after this session that movements against untouchability started. In Kerala, a committee was formed
comprising people of different castes to fight untouchability.
•• The committee chaired by K Kelappan, comprised of T K Madhavan, Velayudha Menon, K Neelakantan
Namboothiri and T R Krishnaswami Iyer.
•• In February 1924, they decided to launch a ‘Kerala Paryatanam’ in order to get temple entry and also the right
to use public roads for every Hindu irrespective of caste or creed.
ÂÂ Significance of the Vaikom Satyagraha:

•• It became a first struggle for human rights in India. It became a laboratory for testing important methods such
as Satyagrahas.
•• Instilled rationality among the masses.
ÂÂ Role of Periyar in Vaikom Satyagraha:

•• Unrelenting Leadership: The Satyagraha began on March 30, 1924 with the active support of the Kerala Pradesh
Congress Committee (KPCC). The KPCC wrote to Periyar pleading with him to lead the Satyagraha.
•• As he was then the President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, Periyar handed over temporary charge to
Rajaji before reaching Vaikom on April 13, 1924.
•• He was part of every consultative meeting, peace committee, campaign party, etc., including the eight-member
deputation constituted to meet the Diwan.
•• Every major personality who came to Vaikom met with Periyar, this included Swami Shraddhananda of the Arya
Samaj, Rajaji, Sree Narayana Guru and Gandhi.
•• From that date to the day of the victory celebrations, November 29, 1925, he was in the thick of the struggle giving
it leadership at a critical juncture.
•• Countering orthodoxy through Rationality: Usage of wit and folk logic to punch holes in the argument of the
orthodox.
•• Generated mass support by mobilization of masses in the villages around Vaikom.
•• Periyar campaigned tour stretched to Thiruvananthapuram and even further to Nagercoil.
ÂÂ Conclusion:
•• The Satyagraha ended in partial victory in November 1925: three out of four streets were thrown open.
•• Final victory came 11 years later with the Travancore Temple Entry Proclamation of 1936. No wonder,
Kalyanasundara Mudaliar, the great journalist and labour leader, called Periyar the Vaikom Veerar, the hero of
Vaikom, even at the time of the struggle.
QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT (QIM)

On 8th August, every year we celebrates the anniversary of Quit India movement, also known as August Kranti Diwas.
PREVIOUS YEARS QUESTION

•• Many voices had strengthened and enriched the nationalist movements during the Gandhian phase. Elaborate
(2019)
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Was QIM a spontaneous outburst or planned rebellion? Discuss.
•• Quit India Movement gave a decisive turn to freedom struggle. Analyse.
•• Quit India Movement, famously known as the August Revolution in the history of India’s freedom movement. Is it
correct to call Quit India Movement a revolution. Substantiate your views.
ÂÂ Background:
The Quit India Movement was a movement started by Mahatma Gandhi on 8 August 1942 during the World War II
asking for an end to British rule in India. The movement was started in a speech in Bombay where Mahatma Gandhi
asked Indians to Do or Die. The Congress launched a protest asking the British to withdraw from India; however the
British imprisoned most of the Congress leadership within a day of the speech in an effort to suppress the movement.
The British refused to grant independence until the war ended.
ÂÂ Significance and impact of Quit India movement:

•• It made the British realise that in the context of the crippling effect of the Second World War on Britain’s
resources and the bitter opposition to its rule India, it would be very diﬃcult to continue ruling the Indians.
•• Despite heavy-handed suppression by the government, the people were unfazed and continued their struggle.
•• Even though the government said that independence could be granted only after the end of the war, the movement
drove home the point that India could not be governed without the support of the Indians.
•• The movement placed the demand for complete independence at the top agenda of the freedom movement.
•• Public morale and anti-British sentiment were enhanced.
ÂÂ Causes of Quit India Movement:

•• The Second World War had started in 1939 and Japan, which was part of the Axis Powers that were opposed to
the British in the war were gaining onto the north-eastern frontiers of India.
•• The British had abandoned their territories in South-East Asia and had left their population in the lurch. This act
did not garner much faith among the Indian population who had doubts about the British ability to defend India
against Axis aggression.
•• Gandhi also believed that if the British left India, Japan would not have enough reason to invade India.
•• Apart from hearing news about British setbacks in the war, the war-time difficulties such as high prices of
essential commodities fostered resentment against the British government.
•• The failure of the Cripps Mission to guarantee any kind of a constitutional remedy to India’s problems also led
to the INC calling for a mass civil disobedience movement.
ÂÂ Response to Quit India Movement:

•• The British government responded to the call of Gandhi by arresting all major Congress leaders such as
Gandhi, Nehru etc the very next day. This left the movement in the hands of the younger leaders like Jayaprakash
Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia. The government resorted to violence in order to quell the agitation.
•• The INC was banned. Its leaders were jailed for almost the whole of the war. Gandhi was released on health
grounds in 1944.
•• The people responded to Gandhi’s call in a major way. However, in the absence of leadership, there were stray
incidences of violence and damage to government property. But there were no incidences of communal
violence.
•• Some parties did not support the movement. There was opposition from the Muslim League, the Communist
Party of India (the government revoked the ban on the party then) and the Hindu Mahasabha.
•• The League was not in favour of the British leaving India without partitioning the country first. In fact, Jinnah asked
more Muslims to enlist in the army to fight the war.
•• The Communist party supported the war waged by the British since they were allied with the Soviet Union.
•• Subhas Chandra Bose, was by this time, organizing the Indian National Army and the Azad Hind government
from outside the country.
•• C Rajagopalachari, resigned from the INC since he was not in favour of complete independence.
•• In general, the Indian bureaucracy did not support the Quit India Movement.
•• There were strikes and demonstrations all over the country. Despite the communist group’s lack of support to the
movement, workers provided support by not working in the factories.
•• In some places, parallel governments were also set up. Example: Ballia, Tamluk, Satara.
•• The chief areas of the movement were UP Bihar, Maharashtra, Midnapore, and Karnataka. The movement lasted
till 1944.
ÂÂ Outcomes:
The Quit India movement was violently suppressed by the British – people were shot, lathi-charged, villages burnt
and enormous fines imposed.
•• Over 100000 people were arrested and the government resorted to violence in order to crush the agitation.
•• The Britishers declared the INC to be a unlawful association.
•• New leaders like Aruna Asaf Ali emerged out of the vacuum of leadership.
•• While the Quit India campaign was crushed in 1944 with the British refusing to grant immediate independence,
saying it could happen only after the war had ended, they came to the important realization that India was
ungovernable in the long run due to the cost of World War II.
•• It changed the nature of political negotiations with the British, ultimately paving the way for India’s independence.
ÂÂ Conclusion:
The Quit India movement is one of the most important events in the history of Indian freedom struggle against British.
Though the movement was unable to achieve freedom but it succeed to compel the British government to quit India.
The British government also realized that the time had come to quit India.
ARUNACHAL’S TRIBES REVIVE INDIGENOUS LOCKDOWN RITUALS

Arunachal Pradesh, the State geographically closest to China’s Hubei province where the COVID-19 outbreak began, has seen
a comeback of a tribal lockdown ritual.
The border State’s West Siang district ceremonially entered the Arr-Rinam phase recently. The ritual ended with the community
leaders sealing five major entry points of the district.
PROBABLE QUESTION
•• Discuss the significance of tribal indigenous lockdown rituals in the context of COVID 19.
ÂÂ Introduction
The term ‘Scheduled Tribes’ first appeared in the Constitution of India. Article 366 (25) defined scheduled tribes as
“such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under
Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this constitution”. Article 342, which is reproduced below,
prescribes procedure to be followed in the matter of specification of scheduled tribes.
The essential characteristics of these communities are:
•• Primitive Traits
•• Geographical isolation
•• Distinct culture
•• Shy of contact with community at large
•• Economically backward
ÂÂ Galos Tribe
•• Arr-Rinam:
•• Arr-Rinam is the Galo equivalent of lockdown imposed by consensus for 48 hours whenever an epidemic
strikes. The Galos, one of the 26 major tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, dominate West Siang district.
•• Arr-Rinam, which follows the Ali-Ternam ritual to ward off an epidemic, has been a part of the Galo culture.
•• Ali-Ternam - Ali means epidemic and Ternam forestall - and Arr-Rinam were last performed almost four decades
ago when a water-borne disease had affected many members of the community.
•• The community has been performing these rituals periodically for livestock, primarily the semi-wild mithun, that
are prone to contagious diseases.
•• This is for the first time in 30-40 years that the ritual has been performed for the safety of humans.
•• The Bos or deputy priests perform the Ali-Ternam under the guidance of a Nyibo (shaman).
ÂÂ Adi Tribe
•• The Adi community also performed a similar ritual called the motor or pator system in the Adi (tribe) dialect.
•• This is a customary self-restriction, where the locals lock down several villages by erecting barricades to
prevent the entry of outsiders. No person is allowed to enter or leave the villages.
•• They believe that this ritual lets shamans with legendary powers to locate wild herbs to combat an epidemic.
•• About Adi Tribe
The Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh is believed to have come from southern China in the 16th century.
They are the Tibeto-Burman language speaking population..
They reside in the far north inhabiting East Siang and Lower Dibang Valley districts of Arunachal Pradesh.
The Adis are experts at making cane and bamboo items.
Solung (harvesting festival where animal sacrifices and rituals are performed) and Aran ( a hunting festival
where all the male members of the family go for hunting) are two major festivals of the Adi tribes.
ÂÂ Nyishi Tribe
•• In districts such as Papum Pare and East Kameng, the dominant Nyishi community observed Arrue involving
self-quarantine.
•• Nyishi Tribes also called Bangni are the tribal people of eastern Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh (formerly North
East Frontier Agency).
•• Nyishi is a Scheduled Tribe. It is the single largest tribe of Arunachal Pradesh.
•• They speak the Tibeto-Burman language of the Sino-Tibetan family.
•• The Nyishi support themselves with slash-and-burn agriculture and with hunting and fishing.
•• They live together in a longhouse without partitions but with a separate fireplace for each conjugal family.
•• Aside from a patrilineal household there is no formal social organization or village government.
•• Their religion involves belief in spirits associated with nature.
•• Coronavirus has not yet attacked the district, but the lockdown is a part of the precautionary measures. Making
a departure from tradition (as in the past, the community used to lock itself in and banned the entry of anyone
from outside) by adhering to the government’s social distancing guidelines, ensuring more people participates.
GAMOSA EVOLVES FROM MEMENTO TO MASK IN ASSAM

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the ubiquitous gamosa, a decorative cotton towel, evolve from memento to mask.
ÂÂ Background:
•• The gamosas are to be made and sold by the women during the Rongali Bihu festival.
•• Since lockdown has put off the Bihu celebrations, the women turned the towels into masks for use during the
COVID-19 crisis.
ÂÂ More about the news:

•• The members of the non-profit Hargila Army in Guwahati, Assam are sewing the gamosa masks, in order to
keep themselves engaged amid the ongoing lockdown.
•• They have been designing the masks with motifs of the endangered hargila (greater adjutant stork), rhino and
elephant to add a dash of wildlife conservation to the protection of human faces.
ÂÂ Gamosa:
•• Assam’s traditionally woven distinctive red border and floral motifs.
•• It has earned the coveted geographical indications (GI) recognition as proof of their unique geographical
origins, thereby getting legal protection to prevent their unauthorized use.
ÂÂ Different types:
•• Assam has traditionally had two types of gamosas
•• The uka or plain kind (used as a towel) and the phulam, which is decorated with floral motifs (to be gifted as a
memento or during festivals such as Bihu).
•• Wearing the phulam gamosa around the neck became a standard for cultural identity.
ÂÂ Symbol of protest:
•• The gamosa’s graph as a symbol of protest rose during the anti-foreigners Assam Agitation from 1979 to 1985.
•• The gamosa staged a comeback with the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act recently.
ÂÂ Significance
•• Cultural historians say the gamosa came to symbolise Assamese nationalism in 1916 when the Asom Chatra
Sanmilan, a students’ organisation was formed, followed by the Assam Sahitya Sabha, a literary body.
•• Wearing the phulam gamosa around the neck became a standard for cultural identity.
•• Thegamosa’s graph as a symbol of protest rose during the anti-foreigners Assam Agitation from 1979 to 1985.
•• The gamosa staged a comeback as a political statement with the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment)
Act from mid-December 2019.
Hargila Army
•• Women in Assam known as Hargila army, named locally after the species of greater adjutant stork, sing
hymns and weave cloths with motifs of the species to create awareness about the need to protect the species.
•• Greater adjutant stork is the world’s most endangered of the stork species.
•• Earlier distributed throughout northern and eastern India and many countries of south and south-east Asia, it is
currently only in Assam and Bihar and a few other locations in Cambodia.
•• It is listed as “Endangered” in the IUCN Red list of threatened species.
•• In Assam it is found in the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam, which harbours more than 80% of the global population
of the species.
•• A campaign was launched in Assam to save the birds by Aaranyak, a wildlife conservation organisation in
2009.
•• Assam’s renowned environmentalist Purnima Devi Barman has won the prestigious Whitley Awards,
also known as the Green Oscars, for her efforts in conserving greater adjutant storks in association with
Aaranyak.
Rongali Bihu
•• Bohag Bihu or Rongali Bihu is a festival celebrated in the state of Assam and northeastern India, and marks
the beginning of the Assamese New Year.
•• It usually falls on 2 April week, historically signifying the time of harvest.
One liner facts about GI tag
•• Covered under the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property as an element of IPRs.
•• Governed by WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
•• In India, GI tag is governed by Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection Act), 1999.
•• This Act is administered by the Controller General of Patents, Designs and TradeMarks, who is also Registrar
of Geographical Indications.
BASAVA JAYANTHI
The Prime Minister of India paid homage to Lord Basaveshwara and greeted the people on the occasion of Basava Jayanthi, the
Birth anniversary of Lord Basaveshwara.
PROBABLE QUESTIONS
•• The Bhakti movement received a remarkable re-orientation with the advent of Basavanna. Discuss.
ÂÂ About Basava Jayanthi:

•• Basava Jayanthi is an annual event celebrated in the honour of the birth of Vishwaguru Basaveshwara.
•• Global Basava Jayanthi – 2020 is being held digitally due to the Covid 19, connecting followers in India and
abroad.
ÂÂ About Lord Basaveshwara:

Early life:
•• Born in 1131 AD, Lord Basaveshwara was himself a Brahmin. Also known as Basavanna, he was a 12th-century
philosopher, statesman, Kannada poet and a social reformer during the reign of the Kalachuri-dynasty king Bijjala
I in Karnataka, India.
ÂÂ Social reformer:
•• From socio-economic prejudices and untouchability to gender discrimination, he waged war against all ills.
Basava championed devotional worship that rejected temple worship and rituals led by Brahmins, and replaced
it with personalized direct worship of Shiva through practices such as individually worn icons and symbols like a
small linga.
•• Basava’s Lingayat theology was a form of qualified nondualism, wherein the individual Atman (soul) is the body
of God, and that there is no difference between Shiva and Atman (self, soul).
•• Basavanna spread social awareness through his poetry, popularly known as Vachanaas
•• He gave two important and innovative concepts called “Sthavara” and “Jangama”, the meaning of which is
“Static’’ and ‘’Dynamic’’- respectively. Both of these concepts are the main foundation stones of his revolutionary
ideology.
ÂÂ Sharana movement:
•• Preaching egalitarianism, the movement was presided over by Basavanna.
•• The movement, which was too radical for its time (11-12th Century), attracted people from all castes, and like
most strands of the Bhakti movement, produced a corpus of literature, the vachanas, that unveiled the spiritual
universe of the Virashaiva saints.
ÂÂ Anubhava Mantapa:
•• Also known as the “hall of spiritual experience”, a new public institution introduced by Basavanna, where the
Sharanas(men and women), drawn from different castes and communities, gathered and engaged in learning
and discussions..
ÂÂ As a leader:
•• Basavanna developed and inspired a new devotional movement named Virashaivas, or ardent, heroic
worshippers of Shiva.
•• This movement shared its roots in the ongoing Tamil Bhakti movement, particularly the Shiva Nayanars traditions,
over the 7th- to 11th-century.
•• He laid the foundations of democracy, which prioritises, and promotes the rights of each and every person of the
society.
ÂÂ Kalyana Rajya:
•• He established Kalyan Rajya in Karnataka, same in meaning to today’s welfare state.
•• During her 2019 Budget speech, the Finance Minister of India invoked Basavanna before announcing welfare
schemes for youths.
•• Basaveshwara is the first Kannadiga in whose honour a commemorative coin has been minted in recognition of
his social reforms.
Bhakti Movement
•• The Bhakti movement started in the 7th Century-8th Century in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Later it spread in other
parts of country and reached its peak in the 15th Century and 17th Century.
•• Bhakti Movement was started by Alvaras (devotees of Lord Vishnu) and Nayanars. ( devotees of Lord Shiva).
These devotees travelled to various places singing hymns in praise of their Gods.
•• The Bhakti movement swept across medieval India and most of the Bhakti poets sang with loving devotion to
Rama and Krishna, the incarnations of Vishnu.
•• In Bhakti, the devotees completely surrendered to the God. There was a strong bond between the God and
the worshipper.
•• Main principles of Bhakti Movement:
God is one
All men are equal
Give up caste practices
Devotion is more important than rituals.
•• Significance of the Movement:
Produced great poetry
Marked the beginning of a rebellion against the superficial Brahminical customs and rituals, Opposed the
caste distinction and discrimination prevalent in society
Introduced Social giving like Seva (service) and dana (charity)
Promoting folk culture.
Development of literature in local languages.
TREATY OF VERSAILLES 100 YEARS ON - A FRAGILE PEACE AND A FRAUGHT

LEGACY
Recently, the ‘Treaty of Versailles’ that ended the First World War marked 100 years of existence. In this Treaty, the victorious
powers — led by the United States, Britain, France and Italy — declared Germany and its allies to be solely responsible for the
outbreak of World War I.
PROBABLE QUESTIONS
•• Critically analyse the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, 1919 and examine the validity of Germany’s objections
to the treaty.
•• Treaty of Versailles (1919) significantly contributed to the political instability of Europe from 1919 to 1939. Comment.
•• Was the Treaty of Versailles a direct cause of World War II? Analyse.
ÂÂ About Treaty of Versailles:
•• The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed between the central powers and the allied powers that
brought the war to a close.
•• The armistice was signed in November 1918, and after six months of negotiations at the Paris conference, the
final agreement was signed on 28 June 1919 in Versailles.
•• The treaty was based on US President Woodrow Wilson’s proposition of The Fourteen Points.
ÂÂ Key provisions of the Treaty of Versailles:

Hand Over Territories and Colonies (Territorial provisions):
•• Articles 45-40 compelled Germany to turn over its coal mines in the Saar Basin to France, although they
technically were under control of the League of Nations.
•• Article 51 took the territory of Alsace-Lorraine, which Germany had seized during the 1871 and gave it back to
France.
•• Articles 42-44 and Article 180 forced the Germans to dismantle their fortifications along the Rhine river.
Demilitarization of the Rhineland “was a big initiative of France,” says Qualls. “They were trying to prevent
Germany from being an aggressive power again, and also weakening them by allowing for an invasion by France
as well.”
•• Article 80 required Germany to respect the independence of Austria.
•• Articles 81-86 compelled Germany to renounce territorial claims and recognize the independence of
Czechoslovakia, a new nation formed from several provinces of former German ally Austria-Hungary, whose
western portion had a sizable minority of ethnic Germans.
•• Articles 87-93 gave what had been German West Prussia and other territory with ethnic German inhabitants to
newly-independent Poland.
•• Article 119 stripped Germany of its colonies in China and Africa, which Qualls explains was a particularly humbling
provision. Prior to the war, “if you were going to be a European power, you had to have colonial possessions,” he
says.
Limits on Arms, Forces and Equipment (Military provisions):
•• Articles 159-163 reduced the size of the German army, which had reached 1.9 million troops during World War
I, to just 100,000, and mandated that the force “shall be devoted exclusively to the maintenance of order within
the territory and to the control of the frontiers.”
•• Articles 164-172 disarmed the German military, limiting the number of weapons and even how much ammunition
it could possess. Smaller artillery pieces, for example, were allotted 1,500 rounds, while bigger guns got just 500
shells.
•• Articles 181-197 reduced Germany’s naval forces to a skeleton force that included just six battleships, six
light cruisers, 12 destroyers and 12 torpedo boats, and totally eliminated the submarine fleet that had terrorized
ships in the Atlantic.
•• Articles 198-202 prohibited Germany from having an air force, except for up to 100 seaplanes to work in
minesweeping operations. Zeppelins, which had been used to bomb the UK during the war, were banned as well.
ÂÂ War Crimes Trials:

•• Articles 227-230 authorized the Allies to conduct war crimes trials. Article 227 called for a five-judge tribunal to
put the abdicated Kaiser Wilhelm II on trial “or a supreme offence against international morality and the sanctity
of treaties.”
•• That never actually happened, because the Netherlands, where Wilhelm had sought asylum declined to extradite
him, and he eventually died there in 1941.
•• The Allies did put 17 other Germans on trial on allegations ranging from looting to sinking a hospital ship. Some
were acquitted, while others were found guilty but generally received light sentences.
$33 Billion in Reparations (Financial provisions):
Article 231, commonly called the war guilt clause, required Germany to accept responsibility for causing
“all the loss and damage” inflicted on the Allies. That provision became the basis for the Allies to demand that
Germany pay reparations, which were set by a series of conferences in 1920 at $33 billion (about $423 billion
in 2019 dollars).
ÂÂ German Humiliation, Debt and World War II:

•• Eventually, the United States came up with the idea of lending money to Germany to pay the reparations. In the
end, though, the Allies got very little money from Germany, and the reparations were cancelled at the Lausanne
Conference in 1932.
•• “The reparations and dismantling of the German military were humiliating for many Germans, primarily because
the German military and press had been lying to the public about the war,”
•• Anger over the imagined betrayal, in turn, helped fuel the rise of populism and nationalism that eventually led
to the rise of Hitler, who proceeded to violate the treaty by rearming Germany.
•• Hitler subsequently defied other provisions as well, including re-militarizing the Rhineland and joining into a union
with Austria.
•• After bullying the British and French into abandoning yet another provision of the Versailles treaty by giving in
to his territorial demands upon Czechoslovakia in 1938, the Nazi leader was sufficiently emboldened to invade
Poland and start World War II in 1939.
ÂÂ A document of temporary truce rather than permanent peace:

•• Treaty of Versailles was a result of several compromises. None of the parties were satisfied with the results.
•• The Treaty was not signed as a negotiation between the victors (Britain, France, USA) and the defeated
(Germany). The defeated countries were not represented in the conference.
•• Germany did not agree with many of the harsh provisions of the treaty and neither did German people as they
were merely dictated to them.
•• Germany was virtually humiliated through the treaty as it was coerced to sign it under the threat of invasion.
•• The reparation of war damages destroyed German economy. Even during the Great depression, payments
were not reprieved and when Germans could not pay, a major coal rich region Ruhr Valley was taken over by
France.
•• When Hitler was rising in the 1920s and ’30s, he repeated the claim that the military had been stabbed in the back
and that surrender terms had been dictated in the Treaty of Versailles.
•• Hitler wouldn’t have taken power without the massive economic depression that struck Germany, in the late
1920s. Germany’s economic troubles at this time were due to Versailles.
•• Hitler promised a way out, and a disaffected populace turned to him.
•• Italy remained dissatisfied and frustrated with the treaty, as the territories promised to Italy under the secret
negotiations, were not given to Italy.
•• German colonies in Far East Asia, instead of being restored, were handed over to Japan as mandates. That is
why China refused to sign the Treaty as well.
•• Both Germany and Russia were not represented in the League of Nations.
•• The League of Nations also proved to be a failure. It failed to bring disarmament. It could never become a
universal association of independent nations.
45
ÂÂ Other Consequences of the Treaty:
•• Disintegration of German population into newly created nations was used by Hitler to justify German aggression
and expansion before the Second World War.
•• Impact on European economy: It further posed severe risks to the entire European economy which led to the
Great Depression of 1929 as argued by British economist John Maynard Keynes.
•• The treaty could not satisfy the demand of all nations:
Britain wanted a lenient treaty with Germany because a prosperous Germany would serve as a market for
British exports.
France demanded a harsher treaty so that French frontiers could not be threatened in future.
•• Hence, the treaty was meant to weaken Germany and to bring peace enough to stop the spread of communism.
The humiliating conditions of the treaty rankled Germans for years and in many ways led to the rise of Nazism in
Germany. Hitler further used the nationalistic propaganda to imbibe hatred in Germans which culminated into
the Jews holocaust during the Second World War.
•• The treaty could not contain the rise of extreme nationalism in fascist regimes of Italy, Germany and Japan
which in turn led to the increased scramble for new colonies.
•• Also, the treaty led to the formation of the League of Nations which failed to prevent actions of fascist regimes
like invasion of Manchuria by Japan.
•• The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were violated by Hitler which led to the formation of alliances like the Anti-
Comintern Pact (1937) between Germany, Japan and Italy and the Non-Aggression Pact (1939) between
Germany and USSR.
•• Hence, the Treaty of Versailles failed to contain the competitive geopolitics and set the stage for WW II.
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Miscellaneous: Critical Issues For UPSC Mains 2020

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Miscellaneous: Critical Issues For UPSC Mains 2020

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MISCELLANEOUS

Critical Issues for

National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) 15 Overhauling Indian Bureaucracy 54

New Definition of MSMEs in Offing 16 Domicile-based Job Quota 56

Coal Sector Reforms 18 National Recruitment Agency 58

Discom Losses Mount due to Rising Domestic Vaccine Nationalism 59

UNION BUDGET 2020-21 HIGHLIGHTS

ÂÂ FM Sitharaman lists 3 themes of Union Budget 2020-21:

ÂÂ International Bullion Exchange

ÂÂ Bullion Exchange at GIFT-IFSC has been proposed.

ÂÂ Agriculture, Irrigation and Rural Development

ÂÂ Storage and Logistics:

EDUCATION AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT

ÂÂ National Infrastructure Pipeline

ÂÂ Nirvik (Niryat Rin Vikas Yojana) scheme

ÂÂ National Technical Textiles Mission

•• To boost investments, and increase per capita consumption of technical textiles.

ÂÂ Proposals for Start-ups

ÂÂ Proposals for Quantum Technology

ÂÂ Union Budget 2020-2021: Synopsis

AGRICULTURE INFRASTRUCTURE FUND

ÂÂ About Agriculture Infrastructure Fund

ÂÂ Implication of the Scheme

ÂÂ What’s a bad bank and how it works?

ÂÂ Arguments against Bad Bank:

DIRECT MONETISATION FOR FUNDING DEFICIT: SBI

ÂÂ Significance of this report

ÂÂ Key outcomes of the report

ÂÂ Recommendations of the SBI Report:

NATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING AUTHORITY (NFRA)

ÂÂ Functions and Duties:

ÂÂ The present role of auditors

NEW DEFINITION OF MSMES IN OFFING

ÂÂ Enterprises engaged in the Manufacture:

ÂÂ Enterprises engaged in providing or rendering of Services:

ÂÂ Need to Change in the Definition

ÂÂ Advantages of Change in Definition

ÂÂ Trade Receivables Discounting Platforms (TReDS):

ÂÂ Concerns with MSMEs

COAL SECTOR REFORMS

ÂÂ Facts related to India’s Coal Sector:

ÂÂ Chronology of development of coal sector in India:

ÂÂ Salient features of the Mineral Laws (Amendment) Act, 2020:

ÂÂ Benefits of coal sector reforms:

DISCOM LOSSES MOUNT DUE TO RISING DOMESTIC DEMAND

ÂÂ Significance of the issue

ÂÂ Concerns for discoms:

CLEAN ENERGY: CAN SUPPORT INDIA’S ECONOMIC RECOVERY POST-

ÂÂ Key Highlights from the NITI Aayog Report

ÂÂ Major Potential & Opportunities:

OIL PRICES IN NEGATIVE TERRAIN

ÂÂ More about the news:

ÂÂ Probable implications on India:

A PRAGMATIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY TO CAPITALISE ON INDIA’S

ÂÂ India’s import dependency:

ÂÂ Sectors heavily dependent on imports which cannot immediately scale up production

ÂÂ Partially import dependent sectors:

ÂÂ Identified sector for self-reliance scheme:

Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI)

NEED TO REGULATE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

ÂÂ India’s draft social media guidelines

•• Existing laws regulating social media platforms:

‘NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS CAN BE LISTED ON SOCIAL STOCK