On an equal footing

GS PAPER III

• Infrastructure: Energy.
 On an equal footing

▪ Introduction ➔ India has a population of about 135 crore people.

▪ It is the sixth largest economy in the world with a high growth potential.
▪ But this growth potential cannot be achieved without giving equal
opportunity to every State.
 Do all States get equal opportunities?

▪ The low-income States (LIS) are deprived on many fronts.

▪ They have low accessibility to credit, low investments, low power availability
and accessibility, and high energy costs.
▪ The high-income States (HIS), on the other hand, have a big share in
industry and commerce because they are not deprived on the same fronts.
▪ The six HIS (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana) together account for 56.4% of factories, while their
share in population is only 32.3%.
▪ Among other reasons, this is because they have higher credit and financial
accessibility
 Do all States get equal opportunities?

▪ On the other hand, the six LIS (Bihar, Jharkhand, U.P., M.P., Odisha, and
Rajasthan) access only 15% of total institutional credit and barely 5% of
total industrial credit, while their share in population is 43%.
▪ These States together receive only 50% credit from their hard-earned
savings.
▪ The maximum benefit of the Atmanirbhar package (₹20 lakh crore) also
went to the HIS as they have a higher share in industry.
 Do all States get equal opportunities?

▪ Does power play any role in the disparity?

▪ Among other reasons, the availability of adequate quality power at the
cheapest rate attracts investments, either private or public, in a particular
location.
▪ This is an important factor to start electricity-intensive industrial
production. Of the total consumption of electricity, industry and commerce
account for more than 50%.
▪ Energy India Outlook 2021 concludes: “Electricity prices vary not just among
end users, but also between states, where a complex patchwork of different
taxes and subsidy regimes can leave consumers in some states paying five
times more for their electricity than their counterparts in neighbouring
states.”
▪ This article provides two solutions in the power sector to attain higher
economic growth.
 Do all States get equal opportunities?

▪ The first is to eliminate price discrimination in the power sector.

▪ The power-producing States have the advantage of power, especially hydel
power, being available at lower prices.
▪ This problem can be addressed by synchronising all the regional grids.
▪ This will help the transfer of energy (without compromising quality). The
idea is of ‘One Nation, One Grid, One Frequency’.
▪ Further, this will pave the way for establishing a vibrant electricity market
and facilitate the trading of power across regions through the adoption of
the ‘one tariff’ policy.
▪ Without this policy, States with higher power purchasing costs face the
difficulty of making energy traffic competitive by paying high subsidies
from already scarce resources.
▪ Thus, they are unable to attract investments.
 Do all States get equal opportunities?

▪ The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission is in the process of

implementing a framework of the Market-Based Economic Dispatch and
moving towards ‘One Nation, One Grid, One Frequency, One Price’.
 Do all States get equal opportunities?

• The second is the inclusion of electricity duty under the Goods and Services
Tax (GST).
• Apart from uniform cost, the power sector also needs uniformity in electricity
duty charged by different States.
• In general, the association between income and electricity consumption is
direct.
• The HIS consume a higher proportion of electricity.
• According to the the Central Electricity Authority, Ministry of Power,
Government of India, in 2020-21, six States consumed 50% of the total
installed capacity of power.
• Thus, only 32% of the population used 50% of power. Contrary to this, six
backward States got only 25% of the power though their share of the
population is 43%.
 Do all States get equal opportunities?

• Therefore, it is clear that the substantial proportion of the power cost

incurred in HIS is also borne by the LIS which buy those industrial products,
as the input cost of power has already been included in the product’s price.
• Further, this situation justifies the fact that the final costs of power
consumption are also borne by other States.
• Thus, the electricity duty should be redistributed among the States under the
ambit of GST equally shared by the CGST and SGST.
• However, 100% CGST should be devolved among the States through the
Fifteenth Finance Commission formula, without being shared with the
Centre (as electricity duty is State subject).
 Do all States get equal opportunities?

▪ In order to attain higher economic growth, the States should raise the issue
of uniform energy tariff and inclusion of electricity duty under the ambit of
GST.
▪ This decision will benefit the whole nation through rational tax devolution
and, therefore, provide the opportunity to attain higher growth.
 The Budget lacks the
‘power’ to transform
services
GS PAPER III

• Infrastructure: Energy.
 The Budget lacks the ‘power’ to transform services

▪ While clean energy is a priority, providing power has not been linked with
policy making in the development sector
▪ India’s Union Budget 2022-23 demonstrates a clear intent to prioritise
investments in clean energy and sustainable development, in line with the
country’s promises made at COP26 in Glasgow last year.
▪ The Budget is also an opportunity to turn the spotlight on policy
conversations — since it sets the tone for reflecting on policies, schemes, and
how they are implemented on the ground.
▪ Electricity and development sectors need a more integrated approach to
achieve the vision set forth in instruments such as the Union Budget that
guide policy implementation at other administrative levels.
 A reduction

▪ While the health sector witnessed a 16% increase in estimated Budget

allocations from last year, medical and public health spending was reduced
by 45% for 2022-23.
▪ The education sector also witnessed an 11.86% increase in allocations.
▪ And despite these increases in estimates, health and education continue to
share only about 2% each of budgetary allocations annually.
 The role of reliable energy

▪ It is widely recognised that the availability of reliable electricity supply can

improve the delivery of health and education services; 74% of the targets of
the Sustainable Development Goals are interlinked with universal access to
reliable energy.
▪ Despite this, 44% of schools and 25% of India’s health sub-centres and
primary health centres remain unelectrified.
▪ For the Government’s proposed energy transition to succeed, these critical
facilities require energy access first.
▪ These statistics only refer to the presence or absence of an electricity
connection.
▪ Its reliability in terms of the number of hours that electricity is available
steadily without any voltage fluctuations also plays a significant role in
delivering services.
 The role of reliable energy

▪ The lack of integration of electrification requirements in development sector

policy documents may be partly due to lack of information about electricity
and development linkages, poor coordination mechanisms between the
sectors and departments, and poor access to appropriate finance.
▪ Even while electricity is considered, it is to the limited extent of being a one-
time civil infrastructure activity rather than a continuous feature necessary
for the day-to-day operations of these services.
▪ Departmental budgetary allocations are quite telling in terms of the extent
to which electricity is prioritised by these departments; many do not even
have line items to account for recurring electricity connection charges and
maintenance expenditure.
▪ We must remind ourselves that while electricity is invisible and taken for
granted when available, its absence is felt when it is not provided.
 Think multiple policies too

▪ Our research on development and electricity policies also demonstrates that

integration need not only be at the level of a single policy.
▪ Sometimes, multiple policies can complement each other to achieve the
larger sectoral objectives.
▪ For example, in Assam, the Energy Vision document that lays out the
electricity and development outcomes is to be applied in tandem with the
Solar Energy Policy 2017 that operationalises this vision via an action plan.
▪ To successfully integrate electricity provisioning and maintenance, policy
frameworks should include innovative coordination and financing
mechanisms.
▪ These mechanisms, while developing clear compliance mandates, must also
allow sufficient room for flexibility to respond to local contexts.
 Think multiple policies too

▪ Such flexibility can be embedded in funds (such as untied funds) to provide

local decision-makers with some authority to mitigate policy
implementation barriers.

▪ A successful policy outcome might be dependent on several invisible aspects

that do not get the attention and the funding necessary to aid in successful
policy delivery.
▪ Electricity is one of them.
 This deepens exclusion

▪ Many development policies that have objectives to improve health and

education services require facilities to have access to reliable electricity as a
prerequisite to qualify for benefits.
▪ This, unfairly, puts the onus of acquiring reliable electricity supply on
individual facilities rather than their departments.
▪ Such requirements result in facilities and schools that are already deprived
of electricity to continue to be excluded from other assistance.

▪ Providing reliable electricity for health centres and schools should be the
responsibility of centralised decision-making entities at the State or national
level.
▪ Individual facilities should not be burdened with the responsibility to meet
the eligibility criteria for policies or programmes.
 This deepens exclusion

▪ It must also be noted that integrative policies are useful but insufficient to
achieve intended developmental outcomes.
▪ For policies to become transformative, instruments that operationalise them
must be in place.
▪ This is when budgetary allocations, institutional structures, finance,
information and coordination mechanisms come into play.
 Systemic gaps

▪ The provisioning of reliable electricity, in turn, improves the delivery of

health and educational services.
▪ Departmental silos in public administration have resulted in linkage gaps
between critical “supply” departments (such as electricity and water) and
“demand-generating departments” (such as health and education).
▪ This gap is accentuated when coordination mandates are not met with
sustained finance to support human resources and common activities.
 RAILWAY SAFETY

GS PAPER II

• Government policies and

interventions for development
in various sectors and issues
arising out of their design and
implementation.
 RAILWAY SAFETY

▪ After a recent train accident in West Bengal killing at least 9 people, the
Railway Board Chairman asked for a thorough probe to identify all aspects
related to the accident.
 Indian Railways and the importance of safety

▪ Indian Railways is one of the largest railway systems in the world, carrying
nearly 23 million passengers per day (Pre COVID-19) and around 1.1 billion
tonnes of freight; passing through nearly 8700 railway stations.
▪ With fast, safe, and secure mobility being a key concern over such a long
network, a number of committees and subsequent initiatives are taken by
Indian Railways. This includes dedicated Committees on Safety as well as
other committees making recommendations to ensure safe and secure travel
such as:
▪ Railway Safety Review Committee (Khanna Committee) in 1998,
▪ High Level Safety Review Committee (Kakodkar Committee) in 2012
▪ Expert Group for Modernization of Indian Railways (Pitroda Committee) in 2012,
▪ Committee for Mobilization of Resources for Major Railway Projects and Restructuring
of Railway Ministry and
▪ Railway Board (Debroy Committee) in 2015.
 Indian Railways and the importance of safety

▪ Presently, review/approval of safety aspects in railways is done by the

Commission of Railway Safety, an independent institution under the
Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Indian Railways and the importance of safety
 What has been the outcome of these initiatives?

▪ Train Collisions and Derailments ➔ Between 2014-15 and 2019-20, the

number of such accidents and number of deaths reduced from 135 to 55 and
from 292 to 5 respectively.
▪ Passenger Safety ➔ As per NCRB, as compared to 27,987 accidents in 2019,
13,018 accidents happened in 2020 leading to death of nearly 12,000 railway
passengers.
▪ Around 8,400 people or 70% lost their lives either due to falling off from
the train or while crossing the railway track.
▪ Road Users Safety ➔ Around 1,014 accidents reported at various railway
crossings with 1,185 deaths.
▪ Rescue from Human Trafficking ➔ Over 2,000 women and children during
2017-21.
 What has been the outcome of these initiatives?

▪ Indian Railways launched ‘Operation AAHT’, a nationwide operation to

curb human trafficking (with traffickers often using Indian Railways
network).
 Gaps in creating a Safe and Secure Railway Network

▪ Statistically, the Indian Railways performance on fast, safe and secure

mobility count has been steadily improving. But a large number of safety
concerns still remain. As the density of traffic is increasing with trains
becoming heavier and faster, Indian Railway Network faces number of gaps
in safe and secure mobility such as:
▪ Structural gaps ➔ Huge backlog of renewal and replacement of over
aged assets for safe running of railways. According to the Standing
Committee on Railways (in 2019), Indian Railways network has 1,47,523
number of bridges with serious issues over care as:
▪ 92% of them are classified as minor bridges and 37,689 bridges are 100
years or older.
▪ Operational gaps ➔ Lack of Fire Detection System; issues of maintenance
of tracks with some of the railway network Commission of Railway
Safety being in extreme weather conditions.
 Gaps in creating a Safe and Secure Railway Network

▪ Financial Gaps ➔ The severely underwhelmed railway finance due to

poor internal resource generation for capital expenditure (around 3-3.5%
of total capex) limits the financial capabilities of Indian Railways.
▪ For instance, from 1950 to 2016, only 23% increase in rail network while
passenger and freight traffic increased by 1344% and 1642% respectively.
▪ Railway Staff Lapses ➔ Out of 13,018 accidents in 2020, 12,440 accidents
happened due to locomotive pilot fault. Rest was due to errors on part of
the signalman, mechanical errors, poor track repair infrastructure,
bridge/tunnel collapse etc.
▪ Other Gaps/Issues ➔ All States/Union Territories are yet to form State
Level Security Committee for Railways; Gaps in providing Safe Drinking
Water and other amenities to passengers; issues of water Logging in
Railway Under Bridges (RUBs); yet to accept important
recommendations of various committees such as creation of railway
safety authority.
 Way Forward

▪ Safety is not an attribute but an ethos that should be instilled and nurtured.
Like the National Rail Plan with an objective to create capacity ahead of
demand, Indian Railways should have a safety plan for qualitative and
quantitative improvement in its network safety. This includes steps like:
▪ Renewal or Replacement of railway network to ensure structural safety of
old tracks/bridges to meet dynamics of heavier and faster trains of present
and future.
▪ E.g. Re-evaluating existing classification of bridges or classifying old
bridges as special/separate segments to ensure separate inspection and
maintenance.
▪ Augmentation of internal resources to replace obsolete technology and
materials while creating new infrastructure.
▪ Also, ensure full utilization of various funds to meet the objectives of the
creation.
 Way Forward

▪ Encouraging Indigenous R&D in railway safety to make optimum use of

indigenous technology for safety as well as to reduce passenger casualties,
road users casualties etc.
▪ Set up of Rail Safety Authority to co-ordinate with various railways
departments, helping the concerned departments to discharge their safety
functions effectively.
▪ It can also help to address upcoming challenges like cyber-attacks/data
theft to the Passenger Reservation System.
▪ Set up of State Level Security Committee for Railways by all states/UTs at
the earliest for increased co-ordination and addressing misuse of railway
network by criminal elements.
▪ Creating a code of conduct for safety to infuse the safety ethos among
employees, helping to address human errors as well through behavioral
changes.