Daily News Simplified - DNS

13 07 22
Notes
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TOPICS THE HINDU
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1 The scale of municipal finances is inadequate 07

2 Slow Wheels of Justice 08

3 NASA telescope dives deep into the universe 13

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1. UPSC Current Affairs: The scale of municipal finances is inadequate | Page - 07

UPSC Syllabus: Mains – GS Paper II – Polity & Governance
Sub Theme: Urban Local Bodies |UPSC

Context: The economic and developmental promise envisaged for the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) through
the Constitution 74th Amendment seems to be weakening due to increasing strains in municipal finance
specially post GST implementation and Covid pandemic.

Key Trends
Recently, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) analysed data from 80 ULBs across 24 States
between 2012-13 and 2016-17 to understand ULB finance and spending, and found some key trends on
declining municipal finances.

1. ULBs’ own sources of revenue were less than half of their total revenue
§ ULBs’ key revenue sources - taxes, fees, fines and charges, and transfers from Central and State
governments, which are known as inter-governmental transfers (IGTs).
§ ULB’s own share of own revenue - taxes on property and advertisements, and non-tax revenue
from user charges and fees from building permissions and trade licencing.
§ Property Tax - the single largest contributor to ULBs’ own revenue, accounted for only about
0.15% of the GDP. The contribution from property tax for Indian ULBs is lower than developing
and developed countries whose share of property tax to their GDP stands at 0.6% and 1%
respectively.
§ Lower Ratio of ULB’s Own Revenue v Total revenue reflects financial health & autonomy -
This ratio also reflects the ULBs’ ability tap unclaimed sources and their dependency on IGTs.
Cities with a higher share of own revenue are more financially self-sustaining.
§ Findings – ULBs’s own revenue was 47% of their total revenue. Of this, tax revenue was the largest
component - around 29% of the total. There was a 7% increase in own revenue from 2012-13 to
2016-17, but ULBs still lacked revenue buoyancy as their share in GDP of own revenue was only
0.5% for the five-year period. Tax Revenue is said to be buoyant if the tax revenues increase more
than proportionately in response to a rise in national income or output.
§ Way Forward - ULBs must leverage their own revenue-raising powers to ensure fiscal
sustainability and have better amenities and quality of service delivery.

2. Many ULBs are highly dependent on Inter-governmental Transfers (IGTs)

§ Transfers from the Central government are based on recommendations of Finance
Commissions through grants towards specific reforms.
§ Transfers from State government are as grants-in-aid and devolution of State’s collection of
local taxes.
§ Most ULBs were highly dependent on external grants between 2012-13 and 2016-17 where
IGTs accounted for about 40% of the ULBs’ total revenue.
§ Concern - dependence on IGTs dipped over the years due to modest increase in own revenue, the
scale of IGTs in India remained at around 0.5% of GDP, which is far lower than the international
average of 2% to 5% of GDP.
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§ Way Forward – Revenue assigned to ULBs from state governments needs to increase along with
allocating a share of the State and Centre’s GST proceeds to ULBs.

3. Difference in Tax Revenue for Larger and Smaller Cities

§ Dependency on Tax Revenue & Grants based on city size - Tax Revenue is the largest revenue
source for larger cities, while smaller cities are more dependent on grants. There are considerable
differences in the composition of revenue sources across cities of different sizes.
§ Class of Cities & their dependencies - Class I-A cities (population of over 50 lakh) primarily
depend on their own tax revenue, while Class I-B cities and Class I-C cities (population of 10 lakh-
50 lakh and 1 lakh-10 lakh, respectively) rely more on IGTs.
§ Increase in Tax & Non-tax revenue for Class I-A cities - In the five-year period studied, tax
revenue in Class I-A cities grew by about 11%, while non-tax revenue grew by about 30%. The
external revenue dependency of these larger cities gradually reduced over time, from around 27%
in 2012-13 to about 15% in 2016-17.
§ Own revenues of Class I-B and Class I-C cities remained stagnant even while these cities grew
in size.

4. Operations and Maintenance (O&M) expenses are on the increase but still inadequate

§ Increase in O&M Expenditure for ULBs - O&M expenses are crucial for the upkeep of
infrastructure and for maintaining quality of service delivery. The share of O&M expenses in ULBs’
total revenue expenditure increased from about 30% in 2012-13 to about 35% in 2016-17.
§ O&M Expense inadequate - Despite the increase in share of O&M expense of ULBs, studies
found that it remained inadequate. For instance, O&M expenses incurred in 2016-17 covered only
around a fifth of the requirement forecast by the High-Powered Expert Committee for estimating
the investment requirements for urban infrastructure services.
§ Cost Recovery for essential services inadequate - such as water supply, solid waste
management, transportation and waste water management.
§ The non-tax revenues were short of the O&M expenditure by around 20% - and this shortfall
contributed to the increasing revenue deficit in ULBs.
§ Concern - O&M expenses should ideally be covered through user charges which are part of non-
tax revenue. However, total non-tax revenues, of which user charges are a part, are insufficient to
meet current O&M expenses.
§ Way Forward - Increasing cost recovery levels through improved user charge regimes would not
only improve services but also contribute to the financial vitality of ULBs.

Urban local Bodies - Constitutional provisions

• 74th Constitutional amendment act 1992 added Part IX-A to the Constitution of India.
• Articles 243- P to 243-ZG.
• Twelfth Schedule - This schedule contains eighteen functional items of municipalities. It deals with
Article 243-W.
• State Governments are under constitutional obligation to adopt the new system of municipalities
in accordance with the provisions of the act.
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Provisions Compulsory
Composition • All the members of a
municipality shall be elected
directly by the people of the
municipal are
Ward • There shall be constituted a
committee wards committee,
consisting of one or more wards,
within the territorial area of a
municipality
having population of three lakh or
more
Reservation of • Reservation of seats for the
Seats scheduled castes and the
scheduled tribes in every
municipality in proportion of
their population to the total
population in the municipal
area.
• Reservation of not less than
one-third of the total number
of seats for women
Duration • five-year term of
office for every municipality
• Fresh elections to constitute a
Voluntary
• The state legislature may provide the
manner of election of the chairperson
of a municipality.
• State legislature may provide for -
• Representation of
Persons having special knowledge or
experience in municipal
administration without the right to vote in the
meetings of municipality.
• The members of the Lok Sabha and
the state legislative assembly
representing constituencies that comprise
wholly or partly the municipal
Area
• The members of the Rajya Sabha and
the state legislative council
registered as electors within the municipal
area.
• The chairpersons of committees
(other than wards committees).
• The state legislature may make
provision with respect to the
composition and the territorial area of
a wards committee and the manner in
which the seats in a wards committee
shall be filled. It may also make any
provision for the constitution of
committees in addition to the wards
committees.
• The state legislature may provide for
the manner of reservation of offices
of chairpersons in the municipalities
for SCs, STs and women.
• It may also make any provision for the
reservation of seats in any
municipality or offices of chairpersons
in municipalities in favour of
backward classes.
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municipality shall be completed

(a) before the expiry of its duration of
five
years; or
(b) in case of dissolution, before the
expiry of a period of six
months from the date of its
dissolution
• where the remainder of the
period (for which the
dissolved municipality would
have continued) is less than
six months, it shall not be
necessary to hold any election
for constituting the new
municipality for such period.
• A municipality
reconstituted after premature
dissolution does not enjoy the full
period of five
years but remains in office only for
the remainder of the period.

Powers and • The state legislature may endow the

Functions municipalities with such powers and
authority as may be necessary to
enable them to function as
institutions of self-government.

Finances • The state legislature may

• (a) authorise a municipality to levy,
collect and appropriate taxes, duties,
tolls and fees;
• (b) assign to a municipality taxes,
duties, tolls and fees levied and
collected by state government;
• (c) provide for making grants-in-aid to
the municipalities from the
consolidated fund of the state; and
• (d) provide for constitution of funds
for crediting all moneys of the municipalities.

District • Every state shall constitute at
planning the district
committee level, a district planning committee to
consolidate the plans prepared by
panchayats and municipalities in the
district, and to prepare a draft
development plan for the district as a
whole.
• The state legislature may make
provisions with respect to the following:
1. The composition of such committees;
2. The manner of election of members of such
committees;
3. The functions of such committees in
relation to district planning; and
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• four-fifths of the members of 4. The manner of the election of the

a district planning chairpersons of such committees.
committee should be elected by the
elected members of the district
panchayat
and municipalities in the district from
amongst themselves.
• The chairperson of such
committee shall forward the
development plan to
the state government.

Metropolitan • Every metropolitan area shall •The state legislature may make
planning have a metropolitan planning provisions with respect to the
Committee committee to prepare a draft following:
development plan 1. The composition of such committees;
2. The manner of election of members of such
• two-thirds of the members of committees;
a metropolitan planning 3. The representation in such committees of
committee should be elected the Central government, state
by the elected members of the government and other organisations;
municipalities and 4. The functions of such committees in
chairpersons of the relation to planning and coordination
panchayats in the for the metropolitan area; and
metropolitan area 5. The manner of election of chairpersons of
from amongst themselves such committees
• The chairpersons of such
committees shall forward the
development plan
to the state government.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a report, “State Finances, Study of Budgets of 2021-22”, released in
November 2021, wrote: “With the third-tier governments in India playing a frontline role in combating the
pandemic by implementing containment strategies, healthcare, their finances have come under severe
strain, forcing them to cut down expenditures and mobilise funding from various sources.”
• Finances of the third-tier governments were impacted severely during the pandemic which
inflicted a heavy toll on their finances. Reasons were many:
• Restrictions on movement of people
• Provisions for goods and services
• ramping up of health infrastructure
• measures taken to protect livelihood and efforts taken to inoculate the citizens in a short
span of time.
In economics, this is known as Scissor Effect:
Date: 13-July-2022 DNS Notes - Revision

‘Scissor effect’ – an increase in expenditure due to a sharp rise in demand for public healthcare
services with a simultaneous decrease in revenue resulting from the slowdown in economic activity.

All of the above factors resulted in

• increase in expenditure;
• decline in revenue collection;
• lack (or delayed release) of funds from the State governments during the second wave of the
pandemic.
The Reserve Bank’s qualitative survey of Municipal Corporations estimated that local authorities would
lose around 15-25 per cent of their revenues in 2021

The major revenues of urban local bodies (Muncipal corporations) are

• Tax revenues (property, octroi, toll, water etc.)
• Non-tax revenues like fees and user charges
• Central and state govt transfers
Expenditures:
• Administrative expenses
• Public services (water, sanitation, roads, education, waste management etc.)

Due to reduced revenues and increased Health expenditure on account of COVID and limited
opportunities for market borrowings, as statutorily they can’t run a deficit, the ULBs had to cut on
expenditure on public services.

Steps taken by MCs to fill the resource gaps:

• Reduction of non essential expenditure
• Mobilising additional funding from borrowing (by issuing municipal bonds)
• deposits in State Disaster Response Funds (SDRF),
• issuances of COVID bonds,
• donations and contribution

The crux of the problem is lack of devolution of Funds to the local level:
• Despite the constitutional empowerment, the local bodies face problems of inadequate finance to
carry out various activities assigned to them.
• Transfers made through the State Finance Commissions are also meagre in most States.
• In most of the states, most of the GPs are found reluctant to raise their own source of revenue
(OSR). Only a few GPs are able to generate OSR in the form of tax or non-tax revenue by renting
shops, house tax and clean water fee.

OTHER CONCERNS – URBAN LOCAL BODIES

• Irregular elections.
• Lack of decentralization up to the local level as major work of ULBs done by parastatal.
• Persistent scarcity of finances due lack of power to collect taxes leads to crippling administrative
capacities.
• Issue of parallel governance due to multiplicity of authorities for especial purpose vehicles in
smart city projects.
• Lack of coordination among various departments (under central and state government) and local
bodies leads to haphazard and delayed execution of plans.
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• Lack of infrastructure and specialized human resources is another issue which affects matters of
urban governance.
• Various states have remained ignorant about timely elections of local bodies which defeats the
aim of decentralization of power.
• Corruption remains one of the most concerning issues which adversely affect functioning of the
local bodies.
• Unplanned urbanization impacts basic amenities like sanitation, waste management, issues in
land use management

RECOMMENDATIONS OF 2ND ARC ON IMPROVING URBAN GOVERNANCE

• Urban Local Bodies must have a stake in the state assembly.
• Legislative Council can be recast as Council for Local Bodies.
• The tiers of local government should be left for the State Legislature to decide.
• Chairpersons or the members at all levels should be directly elected.
• There should be clear delineation of functions for each level of urban local bodies.

14TH FC STRENGTHENED FISCAL POSITION OF STATES BY:

• Increasing vertical distribution of taxes from 32% to 42% in the form of untied grants.
• Providing broader parameters for horizontal distribution of taxes – 1971 census, changes in
population since then, income distance, forest cover and area etc.
• Providing maximum weightage to “income distance” (50%) for horizontal distribution of taxes
which was based on per capita income of states ensuring more funds for poor states.
• Considering state’s entire revenue expenditure needs without distinguishing between plan and
non-plan expenditure.
• Providing grants for Panchayats and Municipalities - 2011 Census.
• Ensuring Basic and Performance grants in the ratio of 90:10 for Panchayats and 80:20 for
Municipalities.
• Creating ‘GST Compensation Fund’ to address lack of revenue
• Providing revenue deficit grant to some states.

RECOMMENDATIONS OF 15TH FINANCE COMMISSION

Grants recommended by Fifteenth Finance Commission are in two parts –

1. Basic Grant (unconditional) and 2. Performance Grant (conditional) in the
proportion of 90:10 for duly constituted gram panchayats and of 80:20 for
municipalities.

• Distribution of grants between rural and urban local bodies in the

ratio of 67.5:32.5 to all tiers in the Panchayat - village, block and district
- create durable community assets, improve overall functioning and
provide employment opportunities.
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• Recommend grants to all tiers of the Panchayati Raj – enable

pooling of resources across villages thereby creating durable
community assets and improve their functional viability.
• Give grants to the Fifth and Sixth Schedule areas and Cantonment
Boards.
• Special focus on districts having higher concentration of SC/ST
population.
• Provide tied grants to rural local bodies - improve sanitation, ensure
open-defecation free (ODF) status, supply of drinking water, rain water
harvesting and water recycling.
• Tied grants have also been allocated to ULBs (which are over and
above central sponsored schemes) for drinking water including
rainwater harvesting and recycling and solid waste management. (In
tied grants, states have to spend on the areas or schemes specified by the
centre. So, there is no financial and operational autonomy in spending of
the amount granted as tied grants by the centre.)
• Differentiated the need of larger cities by categorising Fifty
Million-Plus cities which needs differentiated treatment, with special
emphasis on meeting the challenges of bad ambient air quality, ground
water depletion and sanitation.
• Provided additional funds to ULBs for issues critical for planned
urbanisation - problems of sanitation, air quality, ground water
depletion, supply and management of water and efficient solid waste
management.
• Asked states to draw a detailed project report for capacity
development and address the infrastructural issues.
CHALLENGES WHICH STILL REMAINS

• Limited number of taxes devolved to ULBs by state.

• CAG report pointed out lacunas in maintenance of accounts and
budget preparation.
Date: 13-July-2022 DNS Notes - Revision

• Property Tax potential still unrealised due to incomplete land

record.
• ULB staff ill-trained and ill-equipped to effectively collect the taxes
levied.
• Legal boundaries of municipal bodies not been expanded to include
urban sprawl, as a result, a large number of properties fall outside their
jurisdiction.

WAY FORWARD - Thus, implementing recommendations of 2nd ARC, Fifteenth Finance Commission, RBI
Report and also implementing Article 243W by states will help to address the challenges of urban
governance.

2. UPSC Current Affairs: Slow Justice | Page 08

UPSC Syllabus: Mains – GS Paper II – Polity
Sub Theme: Judicial pendency | UPSC

Context: The judicial system in India is under tremendous pressure. As of May 2022, over 4.7 crore cases are
pending in courts across different levels of the judiciary. Of them, 87.4% are pending in subordinate courts, 12.4%
in High Courts, while nearly 1,82,000 cases have been pending for over 30 years.

Status of Judicial Backlog

• As per the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), in 2018, 2.93 crore cases are pending in the
subordinate courts, 49 lakhs cases in High Courts and 57,987 cases in Supreme Court respectively.
· In the Supreme Court, more than 30% of pending cases are more than five years old while in the
Allahabad High Court, 15% of the appeals have been pending since 1980s.
· A Law Commission report in 2009 had quoted that it would require 464 years to clear the
arrears with the present strength of judges.

Reasons for Judicial Pendency

· Shortage of judges
o around 5,580 or 25% of posts are lying empty in the sub-ordinate courts. It leads to poor Judges to
Population Ratio, as India has only 20 judges per million population. Earlier, Law Commission had
recommended 50 judges per million.
· Frequent adjournments
o The laid down procedure of allowing a maximum of three adjournments per case is not followed in over
50 per cent of the matters being heard by courts, leading to rising pendency of cases.
· Low budgetary allocation leading to poor infrastructure
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o India spends only about 0.09% of its GDP to maintain the judicial infrastructure. Infrastructure status of
lower courts of the country is miserably grim due to which they fail to deliver quality judgements. A 2016
report published by the Supreme Court showed that existing infrastructure could accommodate only 15,540
judicial officers against the all-India sanctioned strength of 20,558.
· Burden of government cases
o Statistics provided by LIMBS shows that the Centre and the States were responsible for over 46% of the
pending cases in Indian courts.
· Special leave petition cases in the Supreme Court, currently comprises to 40% of the court’s
pendency. Which eventually leads to reduced time for the cases related to constitutional issues.
· Judges Vacation-
o SC works on average for 188 days a year, while apex court rules specify minimum of 225 days of work.
· Lack of court management systems-
o Courts have created dedicated posts for court managers to help improve court operations, optimise case
movement and judicial time. However only few courts have filled up such posts so far.
· Inefficient investigation-
o Police are quite often handicapped in undertaking effective investigation for want of modern and
scientific tools to collect evidences.
· Increasing Literacy-
o With people becoming more aware of their rights and the obligations of the State towards them, they
approach the courts more frequently in case of any violation.

Impacts of Judicial Pendency

· Denial of ‘timely justice’ amounts to denial of ‘justice’ itself- Timely disposal of cases is essential to
maintain rule of law and provide access to justice. Speedy trial is a part of right to life and liberty guaranteed
under Article 21 of the Constitution.
· Erodes social infrastructure- a weak judiciary has a negative effect on social development, which leads
to: lower per capita income; higher poverty rates; poorer public infrastructure; and, higher crime rates.
· Overcrowding of the prisons, already infrastructure deficient, in some cases beyond 150% of the
capacity, results in “violation of human rights”.
· Affects the economy of the country as it was estimated that judicial delays cost India around 1.5% of its
Gross Domestic Product annually.
· As per the Economic Survey 2017-18 pendency hampers dispute resolution, contract enforcement,
discourage investments, stall projects, hamper tax collection and escalate legal costs which leads to
Increasing cost of doing business.

Steps to reduce pendency

· Improving infrastructure for quality justice-
o The Parliamentary Standing Committee which presented its report on Infrastructure Development and
Strengthening of Subordinate Courts, suggested:
o States should provide suitable land for construction of court buildings etc. It should undertake vertical
construction in light of shortage of land.
o Timeline set out for computerisation of all the courts, as a necessary step towards setting up of ecourts.
· Addressing the Issue of Vacancies-
Date: 13-July-2022 DNS Notes - Revision

o Ensure the appointments of the judges be done in an efficient way by arriving at an optimal judge
strength to handle the cases pending in the system. The 120th Law Commission of India report for the first
time, suggested a judge strength fixation formula.
o Supreme Court and High Courts should appoint efficient and experienced judges as Ad-hoc judges in
accordance with the Constitution.
o All India Judicial Service, which would benefit the subordinate judiciary by increasing quality of judges
and help reduce the pendency.
· Increase in number of working days:
o Average annual working days for subordinate courts is 244, 190 for Supreme Court, 232 for High Court.
Increase in number of working days could improve productivity significantly.
· Having a definite time frame to dispose the cases by setting annual targets and action plans for
the subordinate judiciary and the High Courts. The judicial officers could be issued a strict code of conduct,
to ensure that the duties are adequately performed by the officials.
· Better Court Management System & Reliable Data Collection:
o For this categorization of cases on the basis of urgency and priority along with bunching of cases should
be done.
· The Economic Survey 2018-19 has suggested formation of Indian Courts and Tribunal Services to
provide administrative support functions needed by the judiciary and identify process inefficiencies and
advise the judiciary on legal reforms.
· Use of Information technology (IT) solutions- The use of technology for tracking and monitoring
cases and in providing relevant information to make justice litigant friendly.
· Alternate dispute resolution (ADR)-
o As stated in the Conference on National Initiative to Reduce Pendency and Delay in Judicial SystemLegal
Services Authorities should undertake pre-litigation mediation so that the inflow of cases into courts can be
regulated.
o The Lok Adalat should be organized regularly for settling civil and family matters.
o Gram Nyayalayas, as an effective way to manage small claim disputes from rural areas which will help in
decreasing the workload of the judicial institution.
o Village Legal Care & Support Centre can also be established by the High Courts to work at grass root level
to make the State litigation friendly.

3. UPSC Current Affairs: NASA telescope dives deep into the universe | Page 13
UPSC Syllabus: Prelims: GS Paper I : Science & technology
Sub Theme: James Webb | UPSC

James Webb Space Telescope

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was launched on 25th December on an Ariane 5 rocket from
French Guiana, South America.

The James Webb Space Telescope’s revolutionary technology will study every phase of cosmic
history—from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe.
Date: 13-July-2022 DNS Notes - Revision

• It is considered a successor of the Hubble Telescope.

• It is the most powerful infrared telescope of National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA).
• The telescope is joint collaboration among NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the
Canadian Space Agency.
• It is expected to reveal new and unexpected discoveries, and help humanity understand the
origins of the universe and our place in it.

WHY JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE IS CONSIDERED AS REVOLUTIONARY

Earth reflects radiation in the far infrared region. So telescopes cannot operate near this region from
ground or low earth orbit. Also the technology to make telescope see the universe in this region is very
sophisticated. Hubble telescope – the most power telescope operational till date – is positioned in low
Earth orbit and hence can’t operate in infra IR region. James Webb Space Telescope on the other hand
will operate in the Far infrared region and will be positioned in L2.

Webb will directly observe a part of space and time never seen before. Webb will gaze into the epoch
when the very first stars and galaxies formed, over 13.5 billion years ago. Ultraviolet and visible light
emitted by the very first luminous objects has been stretched or “redshifted” by the universe’s continual
expansion and arrives today as infrared light. Webb is designed to “see” this infrared light with
unprecedented resolution and sensitivity.

Webb will be a powerful tool for studying the nearby universe. Scientists will use Webb to study planets
and other bodies in our solar system to determine their origin and evolution and compare them with
exoplanets, planets that orbit other stars.

So James Webb Space Telescope will:

1. See the already known universe with higher sensitivity
2. See far side of the universe, unknown till date.

Quick Facts

• INSTRUMENTS: It has four science instruments:

o Near-Infrared Camera
o Near-Infrared Spectrograph
o Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI)
o Near-Infrared Imager
• WAVELENGTHS: Visible, Near Infrared, Mid Infrared (0.6-28.5 micrometres)
• LOCATION IN SPACE: Orbiting the Sun around the second Lagrange point (L2).

Using a technique called transmission spectroscopy, the observatory will examine starlight filtered
through planetary atmospheres to learn about their chemical compositions.

The science goals for the Webb can be grouped into four themes:
Date: 13-July-2022 DNS Notes - Revision

• The End of the Dark Ages: First Light and Reionization - JWST will be a powerful time
machine with infrared vision that will peer back over 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and
galaxies forming out of the darkness of the early universe.
• Assembly of Galaxies - JWST's unprecedented infrared sensitivity will help astronomers to
compare the faintest, earliest galaxies to today's grand spirals and ellipticals, helping us to
understand how galaxies assemble over billions of years.
• The Birth of Stars and Protoplanetary Systems - JWST will be able to see right through and
into massive clouds of dust that are opaque to visible-light observatories like Hubble, where stars
and planetary systems are being born.
• Planetary Systems and the Origins of Life - JWST will tell us more about the atmospheres of
extrasolar planets, and perhaps even find the building blocks of life elsewhere in the universe.
In addition to other planetary systems, JWST will also study objects within our own Solar
System.

Webb Vs Hubble Telescope:

Wavelength The JWST will observe primarily in the infrared range and provide coverage
from 0.6 to 28 microns.
The instruments on Hubble see mainly in the ultraviolet and visible part of the
spectrum. It could observe only a small range in the infrared from 0.8 to 2.5
microns.
The infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum covers the wavelength range
from approximately 0.7 to a few 100 microns.

Size Webb’s primary mirror has a diameter of 6.5 metres while Hubble’s mirror was
much smaller – 2.4 metres in diameter.
So, Webb will have a larger field of view compared to the camera on Hubble.
Webb also carries a large sun shield.
Distance Webb’s near- and mid-infrared instruments will help study the first formed
galaxies, exoplanets and birth of stars.
Hubble can see the equivalent of “toddler galaxies” while Webb Telescope will
be able to see “baby galaxies”.