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Let’s not muddle along on how we share natural endowments (Mint)

Mains Paper 2:- Governance
Prelims level:- Floor space indices
Mains level:- Adoption of policy of auctioning of resources and periodic review of the policy

Context:

• Governments regulations and restrictions in the markets, believing that policies could artificially restrict either supply or demand, or both, often results in unrealistic or unworkable prices.

Adoption of the auctioning process to allocate resources:

• While auctions may be the cleanest way to allot scarce natural resources to private parties, their design makes all the difference.

Three things for desired results from auctions:

• Define clear policy goals for the allotment of the resource whether coal blocks, spectrum or land.
• Define a proper process for periodic review of the design itself, since it may not be possible to get everything right in the first instance.
• Make the political oversight process as non-partisan as possible, so that regime changes do not keep upending policies.

Goes wrong in spectrum allocation case:

• Arbitrary tweaks were made in the telecom licence and spectrum allocation policy.
• Which is what forced the apex court to intervene and cancel those licences.
• Cancellation followed a claim by the CAG that the “presumptive” revenue losses may have been as high as ₹1.76.
• The net result was that all subsequent auctions were designed to maximize spectrum bids.
• The policy finally ended up becoming a winner’s curse, evident in the pile of debt incurred by the telecom sector.
• This happened because of the absence of a clear policy goal.

Real estate sector:

• The same goes for real estate, which is struggling right now due to high land prices because the bureaucracy prevents price reduction in land.
• Unaffordable to middle-income buyers that make most properties unaffordable for middle and lower-middle-income buyers.
• Urban land prices are high due to artificial constriction of supplies through the fixing of low floor space indices (FSIs) even in land-scarce localities.

Technology and periodic review of policy:

• Spectrum or land or coal mines are not always in short supply, for new technology lowers costs.
• The same spectrum can, with the use of newer technology, be used more efficiently.
• Better infrastructure and improved building technologies (even 3D printing techniques for mass housing projects in non-urban areas) can lower housing costs enormously.
• Automated coal mining can lower coal production costs, enabling higher profitability even with relatively high auction bids.
• Technology can reduce the prices of the resources and hence the periodic review of the prices at which the resources are allocated need to be taken to for balanced pricing.

Conclusion:

• Policies on the allocation of scarce resources need to evolve based on actual experience and changing technologies and processes.
• The success or failure of a specific policy cannot be judged purely from a revenue or transparency point of view.

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Maoist rebellion: policy fade-out, policy fade-in (Mint)

Mains Paper 3:- Defense and Security
Prelims level:-
Mains level:- Challenges associated with Naxalism

Context:

• With surging protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 and the National Register of Citizens, and the government’s knee-jerk approach to dealing with democratic queries of its own citizens.
• It may appear that the Maoist rebellion is no longer considered by the government to be India’s greatest internal security threat.
• 2020 will mirror the previous year’s approach of attrition, and steadfast avoidance of peace talks with Maoist rebels which is strange.

Maoist rebellion-affected states:

• In 2019, officially designated as 11, with 90 affected districts—will largely be left to their own devices to combat and contain Maoist rebels.
• This is because policing and maintaining law and order are matters devolved to states.

Approach taken by the government:

• In the ministry of home affairs’ (MHA) own words, the Maoist rebellion is dealt with “primarily by capacity building of the state governments, both in areas of security and development".
• As in the past dozen years, this will continue with better police training, better intelligence gathering, reinforcing police stations in conflict zones, and recruiting locals into auxiliary forces.
• MHA will continue to provide as additional hammers, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and other paramilitaries under its command.
• MHA will monitor the big picture even as it secures for states and joint forces the chisel of intelligence gathering outfits such as the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), which has in the past year increased drone surveillance over the densely forested Abujhmad area in southwest Chhattisgarh, which remains the main rebel hub.
• Across 90 affected districts (of which 19 are in Jharkhand, 16 in Bihar, 15 in Odisha, 14 in Chhattisgarh, 14 across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, 3 in Maharashtra, with the remainder in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, and one in West Bengal).
• Most Maoist-affected states in India have a surrender and rehabilitation policy, and it rides in tandem with search-and-destroy missions that police and paramilitaries provide.
• This pincer has massively depleted rebel leadership and ranks with regular killings, arrests, and surrender of its leaders and cadres.

Way forward:

• The central government and its cohorts would do well to focus here and in beginning negotiations for peace.
• Instead of bolstering the mythology of the Urban Naxal, a species that exists not to undermine India, but to evidently provide government spinmeisters a catchy hashtag along with a rickety windmill.

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Preventing mob lynching (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:- Social Justice
Prelims level:- Mob lynching laws
Mains level:- Welfare scheme for vulnerable sections of the society

Context:

• The spate of incidents of lynching over the past few years has led to a heightened sense of insecurity among the marginalised communities. Though no data has been compiled by the NCRB of the number of cases of lynching in the country since 2015 for reasons unknown, the figures reported by various sections of the media are troubling.

The Supreme Court Judgement in 2018:

• In 2018, the Supreme Court described lynching as a “horrendous act of mobocracy”.
• The Court exhorted the Centre and State governments to frame laws specifically to deal with the crime of lynching.
• The Courtlaid down certain guidelines to be incorporated in these laws including fast-track trials, compensation to victims, and disciplinary action against lax law-enforcers.

State laws:

• The Manipur government came up first with its Bill against lynching in 2018, incorporating some logical and relevant clauses.
• The Bill specified that there would be nodal officers in each district to control such crimes.
• Police officers who fail to prevent the crime of lynching in their jurisdiction are liable to be imprisoned for a term that may extend from one to three years with a fine limit of ₹50,000.
• No concurrence of the State government is required to prosecute them for dereliction of duty.
• The Rajasthan government passed a bill against lynching in August 2019.
• However, not only has the government accepted only a few guidelines issued by the apex court, but is also silent on any action to be initiated against police officers who may be accused of dereliction of duty.
• West Bengal came up with a more stringent Bill against lynching. Punishment for lynching to death is punishable with the death penalty or life imprisonment and a fine of up to ₹5 lakh.
• West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has invited the Chief Minister and leaders of all legislature parties for a meeting this month to discuss the Bill. Most other guidelines of the Supreme Court have been adopted by the State.

What the Centre can do?

• The Centre would do well to incorporate sections in the law for penal action against doctors who stand accused of dereliction of duty, for delay in attending to victims of lynching, or submitting false reports without carrying out a proper and thorough medical examination of the victims, either under coercion by the police or due to their own prejudice against the community or religion of the victims.
• Under the compensation scheme for the victims, the amount to be paid to the victims should be recovered from the perpetrators of the crime or collective fines be imposed on the villagers where the lynching takes place.
• Punitive action to be taken against police officers accused of dereliction of duty.
• The Central law too as it would deter police officials acting in a partisan manner in favour of the lynch mob.

Way ahead:

• To framing the laws, the Centre could even provide for punitive action against political leaders found guilty of inciting mobs.
• Until a zero-tolerance attitude is adopted in dealing with mob lynching, this crime will continue to show a rising trend.

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India needs to invest more on education (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:- Education
Prelims level:- Annual Status of Education Report
Mains level:- Challenges towards education infrastructure improvement

Context:

• The latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) by the NGO Pratham that studied as many as 37,000 children in 26 rural districts across 24 States points out that only 16 per cent children in Class 1 can read text at the prescribed level while 40 per cent cannot even recognise letters.
• Only 40 per cent of these children could recognise two-digit numbers.

Need to improve the learning program:

• A comprehensive and creative learning programme at the foundational stage is critical.
• As 90 per cent of the brain’s growth has already occurred by the time a child is six years old.
• Nobel laureate James Heckman has demonstrated that investment in the early childhood stage when brain growth is at its fastest, yields maximum returns as compared to later stages of childhood and education.
• A comprehensive and creative pre-school programme is absolutely essential for the development of human capital.
• This entails having qualified teachers, appropriate curriculum and parental involvement.

Upgrading the amenities and infrastructure:

• The total number of privileged schools where such creative learning programmes are instituted through pre-school facilities is about 17,000, constituting about 1 per cent of nearly about 1.5 million schools in the country.
• These are privileged, high-fee charging schools, typically affiliated to CBSE, ISCE or international systems.
• Alongside are the low-fee private schools and then come the government schools that constitute 77.25 per cent of all elementary schools.
• There has been an unprecedented expansion of government schools through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which added more than a lakh schools between 2000-01 and 2010-11.
• Most government schools have poor physical and academic infrastructure.
• Around 10 per cent of these primary schools are single-teacher schools, around 45 per cent schools at all levels do not have playgrounds, 45 per cent do not have electricity, only about 12 per cent have computers.

Way forward:

• Clearly, school education is fragmented and inherently discriminatory.
• The poor have been provided access without ensuring that they acquire even the most the basic cognitive skills, despite the hype around Right to Education.
• World over, it has been seen that a State-run common school system has been the basis for universalising quality education.
• There is evidence in Delhi of the radical transformation in local schools in just five years, with the State government spending as much as 26 per cent of its budget on education.
• The Centre and States’ spending on education is just 3 per cent of GDP. This ratio should be doubled.

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Seize the summit (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2:- International Relations
Prelims level:- Shanghai Co-operation Organisation
Mains level:- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India

Context:

• India that it will invite all heads of government of Shanghai Co-operation Organisation member countries, including Pakistan.

Significance of the invitation:

• The summit will assume significance should Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan accept the invitation.
• As it will be the first by a head of government or state of that country to India since former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.
• The hope of that visit was belied. This attempts to engage failed, including at a previous SCO summit at Ufa in 2015. The last year has seen relations nosedive from their already low levels.

Recent events evolved the reduction of engagement:

• Pulwama attack: First, there was the February 2019 Pulwama attack, India’s Balakot response, and Pakistan’s counter-response.
• Article 370: After India did away with Jammu & Kashmir’s special status, India and Pakistan have downgraded even their diplomatic presence in each other’s countries, by withdrawing the high commissioners.
• Stopped trading: Bilateral trade, which had managed to survive earlier shocks to relations, has stopped completely. That the opening of the Kartarpur corridor took place in this setting was miraculous, but that too was touch and go.

Challenges presented in SCO summit:

• Inputs of all stakeholders: In deciding whether to accept the invitation, the Pakistan PM will have to take into consideration.
• A polite way of saying that the final yes or no will rest with the Pakistan Army.
• General Qamar Javed Bajwa appears to have pushed back dissenters in the Army, but his continuance beyond the court-stipulated six months is still up in the air.
• The world wants India and Pakistan to engage, and this was evident in the way the UNSC refused to take up the Kashmir issue, saying it was not the forum for it.
• India, which has declared several times recently that it wants to peel away from historical foreign policy baggage.
• India should make a start with Pakistan by making it possible for such a meeting to take place — or, make it easier for the Pakistan Prime Minister to accept the invitation.
• A start could be made by resuming trade, which has ground to a dead halt, and by sending India’s High Commissioner back to his office in Islamabad.

Way forward:

• However, it would still be a chance for a high-level bilateral meeting.
• Such a meeting may not lead to anything — the Ufa meeting produced a joint declaration, but Sharif had to walk back from it.
• Such meetings also become the focus of speculation cloaked in the new nationalism, which turns them into who-won-the-match events, almost setting them up for failure. But the hiatus in ties cannot endure.

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Current Question : Governor is Constitutional head of the state not just a rubber stamp. Comment it on the context of recent Kerala controversy. (10 Marks / 150 words)

Model Answer:

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan hit out at the Kerala government for moving the Supreme Court against the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act without seeking his approval. The Governor has reiterated his stand in favour of the new citizenship law multiple times.

Kerala state Assembly passed a resolution demanding that the new citizenship law be scrapped, Kerala became the first state to move the Supreme Court , urging it to declare the law enacted by Parliament violative of the Constitution, its basic structure rule and secular principles.

The Kerala government has moved the apex court under Article 131 of the Constitution, the provision under which the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction to deal with any dispute between the Centre and a state; the Centre and a state on the one side and another state on the other side; and two or more states. (Total Words- 144)

(Linkages : Governor and Constitution, Governor and state Government, Constitutional head and Rubber stamp)

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On regulations for foreign investors (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Key implications from SEBI’s move on FPI

Context:

• Foreign investors who have been fleeing the country since the Union budget presented early last month have something to cheer about finally.
• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), based on the recommendations of the H.R. Khan committee, eased several regulatory restrictions that are likely to make life easier for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs).
• Among a slew of measures, the financial markets regulator has simplified the registration process for FPIs by doing away with the broad-based eligibility criteria, which required a minimum of at least 20 investors in a foreign fund, and certain documentary requirements.

Engage off market sale:

• FPIs can now also engage in the off-market sale of their shares with fewer restrictions. Further, SEBI has allowed entities registered at an international financial services centre to be automatically classified as FPIs. This might help foreign investors bypass some of the restrictions.
• Mutual funds with offshore funds too can invest in India as FPIs to avail certain tax benefits now. Central banks that are not members of the Bank of International Settlements are also allowed to register as FPIs and invest in the country under the new norms.
• Smart cities, along with other urban development agencies, will now be allowed to issue municipal bonds to raise funds for development.
• These measures to cut red tape will help lower the regulatory burden on investors, globalise India’s financial markets, and aid the growth of the broader economy by increasing access to growth capital.

Key implications from SEBI’s move:

• It is not immediately clear whether SEBI’s move was motivated by the recent flow of funds out of India’s capital markets.
• Capital in excess of ₹20,000 crore has left Indian shores in the last few weeks after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget decision to increase taxes on FPIs.
• Policymakers were clearly under pressure to do something to allay the fears of foreign investors, so the timing of SEBI’s move is no surprise.
• But given the broader trend of capital flowing out of emerging markets across the world, it remains to be seen whether SEBI’s present move will yield immediate benefits. Even if it fails to do so, the move will still help Indian markets become more attractive to foreign investors in the long-run.

Conclusion:

• While the steps taken by policymakers to make amends for their previous policy errors are obviously welcome, they should not deflect attention from the larger and persistent issue of overreach by the government against investors.
• In a world of globalised capital markets, where many nimble emerging markets compete to attract capital from the developed world, India cannot afford to be seen as flip-flopping on its commitments.

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Behind slow-moving consumer goods (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: FMCG
Mains level: Slowdown in the FMCG companies

Context:

• A lot has been written about why automobile sales in the Indian economy have been skidding lately.
• While it is easy to understand why consumers may hold back on big-ticket car or SUV purchases when faced with slowing credit or income.
• Studying long-term growth trends in listed FMCG companies and their investor interactions after the June-quarter results yields some insights.

It’s a slowdown, not recession:

• The sales of the 30 listed FMCG companies, after expanding at 11-13 per cent between the June and December quarters of 2018, lost speed to a 9 per cent growth in the March quarter of 2019 and further to 7.3 per cent in the latest June quarter.
• Market researcher Nielsen has said that after growing at 12 per cent in the first half of 2019, India’s FMCG market growth will likely slow to about 8 per cent in the second half.
• FMCG firms often keep their sales growth ticking through price increases, so volume growth trends better represent consumer demand.
• On this score, sector bellwether Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has reported a 5 per cent volume growth in the June quarter of FY20, after managing 10 per cent growth in FY19.
  So what has driven this boom-bust behaviour?
• After growing at the sedate single digits until FY16, volume growth for FMCG players received a body-blow from the note ban, reporting shrinking volumes in the September and December quarters of 2016.
• By the time they staged a tentative revival to 3-4 per cent by June 2017, the GST implementation kicked in.
• With the GST sharply lowering indirect taxes on many large FMCG categories amid a benign input environment, players were able to drum up demand through price cuts and promotions.
• As a result, growth accelerated and stayed at double digits between September 2017 and 2018.
• But with the high base effect kicking in and input prices turning volatile in 2019, the old normal of single-digit volume growth seems to be reasserting itself.

What are the trends to driving it?

• The rural market, accounting for about 40 per cent of FMCG sales, seems to be facing the brunt of the slowdown. Rural demand growth for FMCGs, which was racing ahead at 1.3-1.5 times urban growth in 2018, has since levelled off.
• This can probably be pinned on the drought-like situation across many States this past year on top of declining agricultural incomes. Northern and western markets for FMCGs have reported a sharper slowdown than the South or East.
• In highly penetrated categories such as soaps, laundry or toothpastes, mid- and low-priced brands appear to be hit by consumer downtrading on slowing income. But high-priced brands appear to be in good shape, thanks to the trend of affluent consumers ‘premiumising’.
• Products with a ‘natural’ tag, despite their higher price tags, have continued to be a hit with consumers. According to Dabur, oral care products with a natural tag managed to grow volumes at 18 per cent, against 5-6 per cent in garden-variety toothpastes.
• In categories such as biscuits, packaged foods and edible oils, nippy local players have posed a stiff price competition to listed players, wooing away value-conscious consumers. In India, phases of benign input prices for FMCGs have always given birth to new local brands playing the discount game.
• Nielsen noted that small regional manufacturers of FMCGs had managed a 28 per cent sales growth in the year to September 2018, while national players grew at 12 per cent.
  Shifting towards urban markets:
• In the urban markets, disruption in trade has also played a role in slowing sales for some players. The note ban prompted a distinct shift in urban shopping habits towards hypermarket and e-commerce stores, which now make up over 15 per cent of FMCG sales.
• The traditional wholesale channel has seen shrinkage with GST woes and the liquidity crunch.
• With modern trade and e-commerce sites seeing products fly more quickly off the shelves, some players have used targeted discounts and promotions to gain share in this space, while those sticking with traditional channels have lost.

Conclusion:

• All this goes to show that FMCG players do not really have their backs to the wall.
• Should the slowdown worsen, they have leeway to stimulate demand by trimming ad-spends and taking selective price cuts.
• All this, however, must be separated from the stock price performance of FMCG players, which may still need to correct from over-optimistic valuations.

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To creating jobs through garment exports (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Employment
Mains level: Boosting employment through garment exports

Context:

• Rapid creation of productive and better paying jobs reduces poverty. It also mitigates inequality.
• One can actually have high GDP growth rates with modest employment generation.
• One can also have higher expenditure on anti-poverty and welfare measures, without having a major impact on jobs.

Job creation is the key goal:

• Job creation should, therefore, be the key development goal. States, instead of signing MoUs for thousands of crores of investment, should be seeking job creation commitments in their Investment Summits.
• Seeing the economy through the prism of job creation would bring into focus labour intensive sectors and generate discussion around policy instruments which could be used to get these sectors to grow more rapidly.
• This would require fresh thinking beyond the traditional macroeconomic parameters such as inflation, the fiscal and current account deficits, and interest rates on the one hand, and, on the other, infrastructure development; power, highways, ports and airports.
• India fought hard in the WTO negotiations for the phasing out of the quota system which used to govern textile exports and where (presumably for geopolitical reasons) the Chinese had a quota which was many times that of India’s.
• It was felt that once quota restrictions ended, apparel exports from India would rise rapidly and catch up with Chinese exports.

Challenges for India:

• After the quota regime ended in 2005, textile and garment exports from India did not rise more rapidly.
• China’s per capita income and wages are now about five times that of India’s. Yet its textile exports are over $270 billion whereas India’s are around $40 billion.
• India’s growth rates remain modest whereas Vietnam and Bangladesh have been having sustained export growth of over 20 per cent per annum.
• Fresh thinking on feasible measures to achieve a breakthrough is overdue.
• Garment exports, given India’s low wages, should be covering the whole range of products for the global market rather than being restricted primarily to cotton apparel as is the case now.
• Given the nature of the global supply chain of readymade garments with rapidly changing designs and fashions, hassle-free zero duty imports of synthetic fabrics specified by designers of global brands is an essential prerequisite for becoming part of global supply chains.
• This is not the case now.
• The mechanism of advance licensing on input-output norms for exports works for standard industrial products, but not for garments.
• One radical option would be to do away with the duty protection available to the domestic synthetic fibre and fabric industry.

What it needs to?

• However, a viable approach which does not hurt the upstream domestic industry would be a dispensation where garment exporters exporting more than ₹100 crore per annum are given the freedom to import fabrics duty free, maintain records of usage for exports and be subject to annual audit to ensure that there is no misuse.
• Bangladesh runs such a scheme. India could easily do so.
• This would enable garment exporters across the country to attempt diversification using imported fabric and accessories.
  Textile SEZs:
• A more ambitious approach would be for the government to develop large integrated textile and apparel Special Economic Zones, where there are no import duties, and invite investors from India as well as overseas to put up plants.
• There is one good precedent in the 1,000-acre Brandix textile SEZ, promoted by a Sri Lankan entrepreneur near Vijayawada.
• It has specialised in women’s underwear and is a major supplier to the global luxury brand Victoria Secret.
• They claim that 60 per cent of the bras sold by Victoria Secret in the US are made here.
• It has been growing and now employs over 18,000 women from nearby villages who come in chartered buses for two shifts in the day.
• The allotment of land at reasonable/nominal/subsidised rates for industrial parks for job creation has to be the guiding principle if labour intensive organised sector manufacturing jobs for global supply chains are to be created.
• Expensive land can undo the cost advantage of low wages.
• The SEZ regime could also be tweaked to treat sales to the domestic market on normal import duties as meeting the foreign exchange earning obligation of units in the SEZ.
• Some production for the growing Indian market would shift to the SEZ creating jobs for Indians.

Incubation centres

• Another bolder approach would be for the state to finance the creation of Incubation Centres of plug and play garment manufacturing units in Textile Parks.
• This would mean that work sheds with state-of-art stitching machines are provided at a token rent to a start-up, say, a fresh graduate from a fashion/ design institute with the agreement that as she succeeds, she would pay higher rents and even buy the garmenting unit paying the full cost.
• Those who fail, and some would fail, could leave and look for jobs without any liabilities. The cost of the failures could over time be borne by the successes so that the Incubation Centre could grow and nurture an increasing number of entrepreneurs.
• To have global scale, the Textile Parks need to be large. These may be promoted by the state directly, or, through innovative public-private partnerships.
• These could also break new ground by developing rental workers housing which has so far been missing in industrial area development.

Conclusion

• However, staff housing is intrinsic to the IT SEZ development. Decent housing at a reasonable distance from the work place makes a huge difference to worker productivity.
• These ideas are equally relevant for other labour intensive sectors ranging from toys to shipbuilding.
• The state needs to assume a larger responsibility than it has so far been prepared to do for India to begin creating manufacturing jobs for global supply chains on the scale needed.
• It also needs strategic thinking, patience and willingness to take risks.

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Minimising the housing divide (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1: Society
Prelims level: Provision of Urban Amenities to Rural Areas
Mains level: Status of Housing in rural areas

Context:

• Housing in rural areas has consistently suffered from various factors.

Status of Housing in rural areas:

• Shortages in the supply of housing and a lack of redevelopment of collapsible or dilapidated units.
• Dilapidated (in a state of disrepair or ruin as a result of age or neglect) units have contributed towards a high level of housing amenities deprivation, especially because they cannot safely be connected with electricity or solar energy, latrines, and drinking water, owing to associated structural risks.
• Lack of meaningful market interventions, including supply of developed land and financing for housing.
• Due to incompatibilities in supply and demand, millions of Indians dwell in unsecured housing.
• This doesn’t mean that India never pursued effective poverty alleviation measures, but that the interventions it carried out have hardly worked in minimising urban-rural divides.

Way forward:

• If India is to have a real chance to minimize the housing development divide, it requires an integrated housing development strategy for the rural context, to be implemented in “mission mode”. Such a mission should have,
• A definite time frame.
• Accountability in terms of implementing such a mission agenda on a continuous basis, with social audits at multiple levels of governance.
• Realistic resource allocation is required given the cost of redevelopment and new housing units besides other development costs of drinking water supply, household latrines, energy, and drainage connectivity.
• Penetration of the market, including the cooperative sector for the supply of critical inputs such as land and finances, is the need of the hour.
• Public-private-partnership projects should be encouraged on public or government owned lands, with fiscal and other incentives.
• Land owners should be encouraged to develop incentive-based affordable housing projects.
• The people facing housing poverty must be made partners with whom micro finance and self-help groups could be tied in.

Conclusion:

• Menial occupation workers and low income earners being the most affected, development interventions must focus on rural and urban areas with due consideration for new construction and redevelopment of existing, life-threatening units.
• Former President APJ Abdul Kalam had proposed the concept of Provision of Urban Amenities to Rural Areas (PURA), which is a framework to mitigate the country’s socioeconomic problems and create a common development platform for rural and urban areas.
• The objective of this goes beyond the mere creation of economic infrastructure and employment opportunities in rural areas which includes social infrastructure also.
• To further this paradigm, access to good housing, including housing amenities, should become a priority.

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Higher Education Quality Mandate (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: UGC
Mains level: Steps taken towards higher education development process

Context:

• Aiming to improve the quality in Higher Education Institutions the University Grants Commission has adopted the Higher Education Quality Improvement Programme Mandate.
• 5 verticals of Quality Mandate developed by UGC cover evaluation reforms, eco friendly and sustainable university campuses, human values and professional ethics, faculty
  induction and academic research integrity.

Background:

• Innovation and human capital the two pillars of labour productivity and GDP growth, largely depends on the quality of higher education. According to the India Skills Report-2019, only 47% of Indian graduates are employable, which is exacerbated by startlingly low Faculty Figures.
• Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015, SDG4 is dedicated to education.
• Higher education is mentioned in target 4.3 of SDG4 – “By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.”

Faculty storage:

• Faculty vacancies at government institutions are at 50% on average. The problem lies in increased demand, and stagnant supply.
• The number of institutions has surged in India since the 2000s, while the number of students doing PhD has remained constant.
• Meanwhile, there are over 1,00,000 India born PhDs in universities around the world, kept away by paltry salaries and poor funding.
• Indian R&D expenditure at 0.62% of GDP is one of the lowest in emerging economies.

Publications of Research:

• Faculty are under pressure to produce a certain number of papers to Gain Promotion.
• This often makes them publish papers in journals that may not be of high quality.
• This also means that there is more emphasis on publishing papers than on teaching.

Lack of quality faculty:

• Teaching and research in any university depends on the quality of faculty as well as the quality of students.
• The quality of teaching depends on the quality of teachers.
• For teachers to impart knowledge to students they must have a broad knowledge of their subject matter as well as enthusiasm and a desire for learning throughout the course of their career.

Raising Expenses:

• Quality education is expensive in India.
• India has severely under-invested in education over the last 40 years, not much have been invested in R&D, and today even the top institutions are having very poor laboratory facilities.

Large scale expansion:

• We expanded education very rapidly –India has larger number of institutions than China, both in terms of colleges and universities.
• In the process of standardisation of such institutions, India has erred by creating one single framework, where examinations became the only way to judge merit.
• This led to the mushrooming of coaching classes and anybody who could get ranks by studying in such coaching institutes were celebrated.

Lack of leadership:

• The heads of universities are often appointed with Political Motivations.
• Vice-Chancellors are selected merely because they have the right political connections in the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the case of central universities, or appropriate political or caste affiliations in the concerned state.
• Also, in many cases, they pay huge amounts of money for the posts that are most visible symbols of the university system.

What are the UGC mandates?

• The University Grants Commission (UGC) of India is a statutory body set up in 1956, and is charged with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education.

The UGC’s Mandate Includes:

• Determining and maintaining standards of teaching, examination and research in universities.
• Framing regulations on minimum standards of education.
• Overseeing distribution of grants to universities and colleges in India.
• Providing scholarships/fellowships to Beneficiaries.
• Monitoring conformity to its regulations by universities and colleges.
• Serving as a vital link between the Union and state governments and institutions of higher learning.

Why is UGC a failure?

• Though the number of universities and student enrolment has been increasing, the quality of education is still lagging behind, which is attributed to UGC.
• UGC’s policies suffer from two diametrically opposite issues—underregulation and over-regulation.While it lets smaller substandard institutions slip by as deemed universities, it also instigates witch-hunts against reputed deemed universities.
• Hence, it is argued that UGC has not only failed to fulfil its mandate but also has not been able to deal with emerging diverse complexities.

What is the quality mandate in 2019?

• The quality mandate aims at evolving higher education system to equip the country’s next generation with vital skills, knowledge and ethics for leading a rewarding life.
• UGC released five documents concerning the 5 verticals of Quality Mandate, which
  covers- 1) Evaluation Reforms, 2) Eco-Friendly and Sustainable University Campuses, 3) Human Values & Professional Ethics, 4) Faculty Induction, 5) Academic Research Integrity
• SATAT– Framework for Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Campus development in Higher Educational Institutions.
• Mulya Pravah – Guidelines for Inculcation of Human values and Professional Ethics in Higher Educational Institutions.
• Guru-Dakshta – A guide to Faculty Induction Programme (FIP) to improve student centricity.
• Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics (UGC-CARE) to continuously monitor and identify quality journals across disciplines.
• ‘Paramarsh’ – To mentor aspirant institutions for promoting quality assurance in higher education and facilitate National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) Accreditation.

Way forward:

• India is one of the youngest nations in the world, where the college-age group is growing at large. Where as in the QS World University Rankings-2015, only two Indian universities were featured in the top 200, while just 10 made it into the top 700.
• Therefore, the quality of education should be oriented more towards employability than rote learning.
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT)– should be utilized to improve the quality of higher education.
• India shall consider moving towards Learning Outcome based curriculum framework.
• Continuous internal evaluation– can help in identifying Behavioural outcome of individuals.
• In terms of faculty selection and promotion – it should be based on proper selection committee.
• Brain Drain from the country – shall be reduced by appropriate schemes.

Conclusion:

• China solved this problem by attracting Chinese-origin PhDs back home with dollar salaries and monetary incentives for published research.
• With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), almost 40-50% of existing jobs would be heavily automated. This is the right time for the Indian Higher Education institutions to improve their quality to match international standards and enhance the employability of the students.

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The world from Raisina (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: Raisina Dialogue
Mains level: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India

Context:

• As the world is moving from an era of predictability to an era of unpredictability led by the US and China, a new Middle Power coalition is the need of an hour.
  Challenges towards the Rising India:
• The narrative was scripted over the two post-Cold War decades, 1991 to 2011.
• Narrative of plural secular democracy: It was based on the improving performance of the economy and India’s political ability to deal with many longstanding diplomatic challenges within a paradigm of realism.
• Three successive prime ministers – scripted the narrative of India rising as a plural, secular democracy, as opposed to China’s rise within an authoritarian system.
• Opening of new vistas: India’s improving economic performance had opened up new vistas for cooperation with major powers and neighbours.
• New challenges to the narrative: Now the economy’s subdued performance and domestic political issues have created new challenges for Indian foreign policy.
• The new approach to relations with India adopted by both President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping has created a more challenging external environment.

Relations with the US:

• Each time New Delhi has tried to meet a US demand, Washington DC has come up with new demands.
• Any resolution of US differences with China, can only reduce whatever little bargaining clout India has.
• The US has, in fact, actively lodged complaints against India at the World Trade Organisation.
• On the geopolitical side, US intervention in West Asia has always imposed an additional economic burden on India.

Relations with China:

• There has been continuity and consistency in India-China policy over the past two decades, with some ups and downs.
• As the bilateral power differential widens, China has little incentive or compulsion to be accommodative of Indian concerns, much less the interests.
• China never fails to remind India of the growing power differential between the two.
• In dealing with China, India will have to, paraphrasing Deng Xiaoping, “build its strength and bide its time.

Russia’s focus:

• It will remain focused on Eurasian geopolitics.
• It will also be concerned with the geo-economics of energy.
• Both these factors define Russia’s relations with China, and increasingly, with Pakistan, posing a challenge for India.

Way forward in the relations with Pakistan

• The government’s Pakistan policy has run its course.
• It yielded some short-term results thanks to Pakistan’s efforts not to get “black-listed” by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
• But the rest of the world is doing business with Pakistan, lending billions in aid.
• The global community may increasingly accept future pleas from Pakistan that terror attacks in India are home-grown.
• Related to the situation in Kashmir or concerns about the welfare of Muslims, unless incontrovertible evidence to the contrary is offered.
• The need for a new Pakistan policy: Backchannel talks should be resumed and visas should be given liberally to Pakistani intellectuals, media and entertainers to improve cross-border perceptions as a first step towards improving relations.

The Middle Powers and opportunities for India:

• It is a mix of developed and developing economies, some friends of the US and other friends of China.
• It is an amorphous group but can emerge into a grouping of the like-minded in a world of uncertainty capable of taming both the US and China. A new Middle Powers coalition may be the need of the year.
• Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam and perhaps South Korea. One could include Russia, Nigeria and South Africa also in this group.
• Like India, these countries have a stake in what the US and China do, but little influence over either.
• These countries which constitute the part of the Middle Powers should engage the attention of India’s external affairs minister.

Disruptive policies not an option:

• There is a view among some policy analysts that India too can adopt a “disruptive” approach as a clever tactic in foreign affairs.
• Disruption is not an end in itself. It has to be a means to an end.
• Powerful nations can afford disruption as tactics.
• The strategic elements defining Indian foreign policy in the post-Cold War era have not changed.
• India cannot risk such tactics without measuring the risk they pose to strategy.

Conclusion:

• With the changing geopolitical atmosphere particularly with respect to the US and Chiana, India needs to adopt a suitable approach to its foreign policy especially involving the Middle Powers.

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A government that chooses its critics (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: FCRA regulations
Mains level: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary Ministries and Departments of the Government;

Context:

• The Central Bureau of Investigation raided Amnesty International’s offices in Bengaluru and Delhi based on allegations that the NGO had violated provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, and of the Indian Penal Code. Amnesty has been vocal about human rights abuses, notably in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam.
• This is worrying given that international funding is crucial for NGOs to function.
• The contribution of NGOs to human rights and public awareness is significant in India.
• The recognition of the rights of homosexuals and transgender people, for instance, would have been unimaginable without the sustained effort of civil society organisations.
• Developments in the public provision of health and education are unlikely to come about without pressure by NGOs.
• Most NGOs are neither politically powerful nor have great financial capacity.
• Thus there is a power imbalance in this struggle, exacerbated by financial restraints on organisations.

What is ‘public interest’?

• The FCRA regulates the receipt of funding from sources outside of India to NGOs working in India. It prohibits receipt of foreign contribution “for any activities detrimental to the national interest”.
• The Act specifies that NGOs require the government’s permission to receive funding from abroad.
• The government can refuse permission if it believes that the donation to the NGO will adversely affect “public interest” or the “economic interest of the state”.
• This condition is manifestly overbroad.
• There is no clear guidance on what constitutes “public interest”. Consequently, a government could construe any disagreement with, or criticism of, any of its policies as being against public interest.

Consequences on rights:

• The restrictions also have serious consequences on both the rights to free speech and freedom of association under Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(c) of the Constitution.
• The freedom is based on the idea that individuals can form voluntary groups and pursue various interests.
• It is a form of collective expression and thought.
• The Supreme Court has held that this right includes the right to continued sustenance of the association, without unreasonable restraint (Damyanti Naranga v. Union of India, 1971).
• The foreign funding prohibition also negates the significance of voluntary, non-profit associations in a democracy.
• Free speech is valuable not because everyone agrees, but because it enables a culture of dissent, deliberation, and debate.

Affected free speech:

• The right to free speech is affected in two ways.
• One, by allowing only some political groups to receive foreign donations and disallowing some others, the government can ensure a biased political debate. It can reduce critical voices by declaring them to be against public interest.
• Two, this chilling effect on free speech can lead to self-censorship. Speech that is protected by the Constitution can be construed as “against public interest”.
• Thus, the standard regulates speech in a manner that is incompatible with the Constitution. In Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015), the Supreme Court was similarly faced with overbroad classifications in the Information Technology Act.
• Striking down Section 66A, the Court held that the Act could be used in a manner that has a chilling effect on free speech. This has already happened in the case of the FCRA. NGOs need to tread carefully when they criticise the regime, knowing that too much criticism could cost their survival.

Conclusion:

• Democracy requires critics and civil society. This is why invoking the FCRA to curb the work of NGOs is deeply troubling.
• In a democracy, criticism should be welcomed, not repressed. No government should ever be able to choose its own critics.

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Chalk and cheese in private vs. government schools (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Factors differentiate between government and private schools

Context:

• One of the big debates in early childhood education is on children’s “school readiness” and whether early childhood education provides them with the requisite skills to cope with the school curriculum.
• A vast literature exists on the importance of certain cognitive abilities that are supposed to be developed during the years children spend in pre-school, so that they are “ready” when they enter school in grade one.

Home and other factors:

• In terms of what children learn in school, one of the big debates is whether children in private schools perform better than those in government schools.
• In the Indian context, the consensus seems to be that a large proportion of the differences in the learning levels of children enrolled in private and government schools can be attributed to “home factors”.
• And, while the private school effect remains positive, even after taking into account the child’s home environment, learning outcomes in private schools are nowhere near grade competency.
• Let us look at the case of language. According to the grade 1 curriculum, children are supposed to be able to identify and read words and simple sentences.
• According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2019, 21% children in grade one of government schools could read words compared to 46.7% in private schools — an advantage of 122%.

Age distribution in grade:

• The age distribution in grade one of government schools is very different from that in private schools.
• The Right to Education and national policy mandates that children enter grade one at age six. However, 26.1% children in grade one of government schools are four or five years old compared to 15.7% in private schools.
• At the other end of the spectrum, 30.4% children in grade one of government schools are seven-eight years old compared to 45.4% in private schools.
• Comparing learning levels in grade one between government and private schools becomes problematic.
• The higher learning levels in grade one, in private schools, may be partly due to the fact that grade one in those schools has a higher proportion of older children.

Affluent backgrounds:

• It is well known that children who go to private schools come from relatively affluent backgrounds. They also tend to have more educated parents.
• This affords them certain advantages which are not available to children who are from less advantaged families and are more likely to attend government schools.
• 30% of government school grade one children, in the ASER 2019 sample, had mothers who had never been to school compared to only 12% of grade one private school children.
• 27.3% of grade one children in private schools had private tutors compared to 19.5% in government schools.

Build cognitive abilities:

• Early childhood education is supposed to prepare children for school. Children are supposed to be exposed to activities that build their cognitive abilities and early literacy and numeracy skills.
• The National Early Childhood Care and Education curriculum framework talks about developing skills related to sequential thinking, predicting patterns, observing, reasoning and problem solving in the pre-school stage.
• These cognitive and early language skills are highly correlated with the child’s ability to acquire further language skills.
• Therefore, children who enter grade one better prepared with these skills are likely to perform better.
• Among the cognitive tasks administered in ASER 2019 (seriation, pattern recognition and puzzle) only 23.8% children of grade one in government schools could do all three tasks compared to 43.1% in private schools.

Pre-school learning:

• Private pre-schools are doing is to start children on the school-based curriculum in pre-school itself.
• The private sector keeps children longer in pre-school and exposes them to school-like curricula even before they have entered school.
• 14% children in anganwadis could recognise letters or more compared to 52.9% in private pre-schools; and 12.9% children in these private pre-schools were already reading words (something they are supposed to learn in grade one) compared to 2.9% in anganwadis.
• It is not surprising, therefore, that children from private pre-schools perform better in school.
• The children in anganwadis do worse than private pre-school children on cognitive as well as early language tasks such as picture description.
• 23.4% of private pre-school children could do all three cognitive tasks, only about half (12%) of the children in anganwadis could do them.

Way ahead:

• India has a huge investment in its early childhood programme, administered through 1.2 million anganwadis under the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme.
• The findings of ASER 2019 make a clear case for strengthening these early childhood education centres so that they implement appropriate “school-readiness” activities.
• A case can also be made for streamlining the curriculum at the pre-school stage so that all pre-schools focus on activities that build cognitive and early literacy and numeracy skills. These will aid further learning.

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Prelims Questions:

Q1. With reference to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, consider the following statements:
1. It enables filing of all cyber crimes with specific focus on crimes against women and children.
2. It is an initiative by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: A
Mains Questions:
Q1. Describe the similarities and differences between public and private schools.

Theological thicket: On SC's hearing in Sabarimala temple case (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Sabarimala temple Case
Mains level: Judiciary

Context:

• The opening hearing before a nine-judge Supreme Court Bench, constituted to give an authoritative pronouncement on the nature of religious freedom under the Constitution, has revealed the conceptual confusion over the reference made to it.

About the Bench observations:

• The Bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India, S.A. Bobde, has asked lawyers to “re-frame” the issues, or add to them, following submissions that the questions framed by a Bench of five judges were too broad.
• The CJI has clarified that the Court will not be deciding the petitions seeking a review of the verdict in the Sabarimala temple case.
• Instead, it would limit itself to “larger questions” such as the interplay between freedom of religion and other fundamental rights; and the extent to which courts can probe whether a particular practice is essential to that religion or not.
• At the same time, he has said, “We will decide questions of law on women’s entry into mosques/temples, genital mutilation among Dawoodi Bohras, entry of Parsi women who marry outside the community into the fire temple.
• We will not decide the individual facts of each case.” It would be prudent if this approach means that the Bench would set out the limits of the freedom of religion, against which such practices can be tested and their legality determined.

Way forward:

• However, it would be unwise if the examination of every discriminatory practice becomes a fresh treatise on Articles 25 and 26, instead of being subjected to a simple test whether the particular practice is protected by the freedom of religion, or can be curbed on the grounds of “public order, morality and health”.
• A five-judge Bench, while hearing the Sabarimala review petitions, had referred a set of questions to a larger Bench.
• But two dissenting judges had pointed out that it was up to Benches before which such cases came up to decide whether they should go by existing precedent, or refer the matter to larger Benches for fresh consideration.
• That the strength of the Bench was fixed at nine may indicate that the court is leaving scope for revisiting the 1954 seven-judge Bench decision in the Shirur Mutt case, holding that religious denominations had the autonomy to decide what religious practices were essential to them.
• A reconsideration of this “essentiality doctrine” will be useful only if it is a means to rid the court of the burden of entering the theological thicket.
• However, even without revisiting the judgment, courts have often given verdicts that protect individual rights, and uphold equality and dignity over regressive religious practices.

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1. हिमालय के किस भाग पर 'करेवा' भू-आकृति पाई जाती है ?

(a) उत्तर-पूर्वी हिमालय
(b) पूर्वी हिमालय
(c) हिमाचल-उत्तराखण्ड हिमालय
(d) काश्मीर हिमालय

2. सूची – I एवं सूची – II को सुमेलित कीजिये एवं नीचे दिये गये कूट से सही उत्तर चुनिये :

    सूची -I         सूची-II
(खनन क्षेत्र) (खनिज सम्पदा)

1. कालाहांडी i. सोना
2. जावर ii. तांबा
3. कोलार iii. बॉक्साइट
4. मोसाबनी iv. जस्ता व सीसा

कूट:
1 2 3 4
(a) i ii iii iv
(b) i iv iii ii
(c) iii iv i ii
(d) iii ii iv i

3. निम्नलिखित में से कौन-सा एक सही सुमेलित नहीं है ?

वन्यजीव अभ्यारण्य – राज्य
(a) मुकाम्बिका – कर्नाटक
(b) डालमा – झारखण्ड
(c) नय्यर – छत्तीसगढ़
(d) कोटीगाँव – गोवा

4. निम्नलिखित में से किस जनगणना दशक में लिंग अनुपात में भारतवर्ष में सबसे अधिक गिरावट दर्ज की गई?

(a) 1931-41
(b) 1961-71
(c) 1981-91
(d) 2001-2011

5. स्वर्णिम चतुर्भुज का पूर्वी-पश्चिम गलियारा निम्नलिखित में से किन केन्द्रों (नाभिक) को जोड़ती है ?

(a) सिल्चर एवं पोरबन्दर को
(b) गुवाहाटी एवं अहमदाबाद को
(c) काण्डला एवं तिनसुकिया को
(d) ईटानगर एवं जामनगर को

6. ‘बोधन दौआ’ किसका सेनापति था ?

(a) शाहगढ़ के राजा बखतवली का
(b) बानपुर के राजा मर्दन सिंह का
(c) हीरापुर के राजा हिरदेशाह का
(d) झाँसी की रानी लक्ष्मीबाई का

7. निम्नलिखित में कौन-सा सुमेलित नहीं है ?

    जनजाति – उपजाति
(a) गोंड – अगरिया
(b) बैंगा – बिझवार
(c) भारिया – पटलिया
(d) कोरकू – महार

8. निम्नलिखित वाक्यों पर विचार कीजिए।

I. माण्डू धार जिले में है।
II. माण्डू में हिण्डोला महल है।

उक्त वाक्यों के आधार पर सही उत्तर चुनिए ।
(a) केवल I सत्य है
(b) केवल II सत्य है
(c) दोनों असत्य हैं
(d) दोनों सत्य हैं

9. जलबिहारी का मेला कहाँ आयोजित किया जाता है ?

(a) छतरपुर
(b) सीधी
(c) होशंगाबाद
(d) सिवनी

10. ‘काठी’ है

(a) जाति
(b) जनजाति
(c) काष्ठ शिल्प
(d) लोक नृत्य

11. मध्यप्रदेश में राज्य निर्वाचन आयोग के गठन के कितनी बार पंचायत के आम निर्वाचन हो चुके हैं।

(a) तीन
(b) चार
(c) पांच
(d) छः

12. राज्य निर्वाचन आयोग नगरीय निकायों के निर्वाचन संचालन किस अनुच्छेद के तहत करते हैं ?

(a) 243 के
(b) 243 एल
(c) 243 एम
(d) 243 एन

13. पंचायती राज विषय संविधान की किस सूची के अन्तर्गत आता है ?

(a) संघ सूची
(b) राज्य सूची
(c) समवर्ती सूची
(d) उपरोक्त में से कोई नहीं

14. संविधान के कौन-से भाग में पंचायती राज से संबंधित प्रावधान सम्मिलित किए गये हैं ?

(a) भाग -6
(b) भाग -7
(c) भाग -8
(d) भाग-9

15. मध्यप्रदेश के निम्नलिखित शहरों में से किसकी जनसंख्या 2011 की जनगणना के अनुसार 10 लाख से अधिक नहीं है ?

(a) भोपाल
(b) उज्जैन
(c) ग्वालियर
(d) जबलपुर

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Study Kit for Madhya Pradesh (MP PCS) Pre Exam

Current Question : JNU violence has raised questions about the conduct of Police and onus is on the force to restore its credibility. (10 Marks / 200 words)

Model Answer:

Police action in Jamia Millia Islamia during protests against the new citizenship law and the inaction in JNU , allowing hooligans to go on a rampage in the campus have cast a shadow over the force.

In these instances, Delhi Police is perceived to have acted in a partisan manner with the intent to protect its master’s preferences at the cost of its mandate to enforce law and order without prejudice. It is now up to the force to restore its credibility as a free and fearless enforcer of the law or be derided as a mere security wing of the MHA.

Visuals of armed thugs leaving the campus after thrashing students and teachers under the watch of police personnel remain fresh in public memory. That not one of them was apprehended by the policemen waiting outside the JNU gates speaks poorly about the competence of the force.

Failure on the part of Delhi Police to clarify these questions will stain its record. The AAP government, as part of its larger campaign for statehood, has often accused Delhi Police. Delhi Police brass has a task in hand: It must remove apprehensions about its neutrality and reclaim its credibility. (Total Words- 198)

(Linkages : Violence and Conduct of Police, Police and restoration of Credibility , Police and MHA)

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(The Gist of PIB) MoU between India and Kuwait on recruitment of Domestic Workers

MoU between India and Kuwait on recruitment of Domestic Workers

• The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the signing Memorandum of Understanding between India and Kuwait for cooperation on the Recruitment of Domestic Workers.

Details:

• The MOU provides a structured framework for cooperation on domestic workers related matters and provides strengthened safeguards for Indian domestic workers including female workers deployed in Kuwait.
• The MOU is initially valid for a period of five years and incorporates provision for automatic renewal.

Implementation Strategy:

• Under this MOU, a Joint Committee will be set up to follow up the implementation of this MOU.

Major Impact:

• The MOU will promote bilateral cooperation in domestic workers related matters between the two countries.

Beneficiaries:

• Around 3,00,000 Indian domestic workers deployed in Kuwait. This includes around 90,000 female domestic workers.

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(The Gist of PIB) K J Alphons to inaugurate first Swadesh Darshan Project in Sikkim

K J Alphons to inaugurate first Swadesh Darshan Project in Sikkim

• Shri. K.J. Alphons, Union Minister for Tourism will be inaugurating the project “Development of North East Circuit: Rangpo– Rorathang- Aritar- PhadamchenNathang-Sherathang-Tsongmo-Gangtok-P hodong-Mangan-Lachung-Yumthang-Lach en- Thangu-Gurudongmar-ManganGangtok-Tumin Lingee-Singtam” implemented under Swadesh Darshan Scheme of Ministry of Tourism, Government of India in the presence of Shri Ugen T. Gyatso, Minister of Tourism & Civil Aviation, Government of Sikkim in Zero Point, Gangtok on 30th January 2019.
• This project was sanctioned by the Ministry of Tourism in June 2015 for Rs. 98.05 Crores.

Vital highlights

• The development of Tourism in North Eastern Region being prime area of focus for the Ministry of Tourism, several initiatives for growth of domestic and international tourism in the region has been taken by the Ministry.
• One of the many challenges region faces in development of tourism is the absence of quality infrastructure, services and awareness about the array of tourism products region has to offer.
• The Ministry is carrying out number of activities to handle the issues on above fronts.
• On one hand the Ministry has given great impetus to the tourism infrastructure in the region under its flagship schemes of Swadesh Darshan and PRASHAD.
• For development of Tourism infrastructure, the Ministry has sanctioned 16 projects for Rs. 1349.04 crores covering all North Eastern States under its schemes of Swadesh Darshan and PRASHAD.
• The Ministry is actively working with other Central Ministries like Mo/Culture, M/o DONER, M/o Road Transport and Highways, M /o Civil Aviation etc. for development of Tourism in the region.

About Swadesh Darshan scheme

• Swadesh Darshan scheme is one of the flagship scheme of Ministry of tourism for development of thematic circuits in the country in a planned and prioritised manner.
• Under this scheme the Government is focussing on development of quality infrastructure in the country with objective of providing better experience and facilities to the visitors on one hand and on other hand fostering the economic growth.
• The scheme was launched in 2014 -15 and as on date the Ministry has sanctioned 77 projects worth projects for Rs. 6121.69 Crore to 30 States and UTs.
• 30 projects / major components of these projects are expected to be completed this year. 11 projects have been inaugurated as on date under the scheme.
• The Ministry of Tourism has also set up Hotel Managements and Food Craft Institutes for creating skilled manpower in tourism and hospitality sector in the North Eastern Region.
• The efforts of Ministry have shown positive results and the Foreign tourist arrivals in the region has shown an upward trend over the years.
• The region received a total of 1.69 lakh foreign tourist visits during 2017 as against 1.45 lakh in 2016 registering a growth of 16.7% over 2016.
• The Domestic Tourist Visits reached to 95.47 lakhs in the year 2017 against 77.71 lakhs registering impressive double digit growth of 22.8% over 2016.
• The increased number of tourists in turn has created better employment opportunity for the local population in the region.

Study Material for UPSC General Studies Pre Cum Mains

(The Gist of Science Reporter) High Ash Indian Coals Gasification Strategy

High Ash Indian Coals Gasification Strategy

Introduction

• In India, coal based energy generation meets around 70 percent of our energy needs. However, bulk coal reserves (about 7.1%) are of Inferior grade non-cooking coals with ash contents 45-50%, having moderately high reactivity and high ash fusion temperature. Indian coals are not only high in ash, hut also the association of mineral matter with carbon matrix is very close and in dispersed form.
• All three main types of gasifier i.e. Entrained Flow Gasifier (EFG), Fluidised Bed Gasifier (FBG) and Moving Bed Gasifier (MBG) can be used to gasify die coal: however, gasifier efficiency and stability are ensured under a range of values of certain characteristics of the coal. The size of the project may also have an effect.

Gasifiers & Gasification Technologies

• Gasifiers are usually classified by the flow regime inside the reactor. There are three main categories viz. MBG, FBG and EFG. Each type of gasifier depending on the operating characteristics can be further classified through operating pressure, the way heat is produced and transferred (Auto-thermal or allothermal), nature of gasification agents employed fair or oxygen), ash removal (Slagging, dry ash or agglomerate), ang Gasifier lining (refractory, membrane wall).

Coal Properties

1. Proximate analysis: Coal moisture content decides whether the coal fed into the gasifier should lie dry or slurry. Volatile matter of the fuel determines the extent and rate of gasification reactions and also a fleets the syngas generation capacity. Ash content decreases the system efficiency, increases the slag production and disposal cost. It can cause agglomeration/slagging/clinker formation.
2. Ultimate (elemental) analysis: Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen are important for material and energy balance and decision of gasifying agent feeding per unit mass of fuel.
3. Mechanical strength: Coals with high Hard Grove Index (HGI) are more suitable for slurry fed EFG. MBG and FBG need sufficient cold and hot strength of fuel.
4. Caking properties: Indicates difficulties due to plastic zone formation in MBG and FBG.
5. Specific surface area and porosity: Decides approach of gasifying agents to available active sites and hence gasification reactivity.
6. Gasification reactivity of coal: Reactivity dictates the dimensions of reduction zone that are required and the residence time required for complete gasification. Coals with low char yield and high char reactivity (as lignites or brown coals) arc more suitable for FBG.

However, gasifiers with slagging ash can operate with higher rank coals. The reactivity decreases with coal rank and increases with the oxygen functional groups content of the fuel.

Ash composition analysis:

Analysis of major elements of ash such as Si, Al, Fe. Na, K, Ca, Mg, P, etc. as well as minor elements (Chlorine, fluorine. phosphorus, Mercury) plays important role in ash behaviour inside the gasifier. Certain substances contained in the ash (CaO, SiO₂, Fe₂O₃), Sodium compounds, alkali matter can attack the refractory material and reduce the life of the refractory as well as adhere on the pipes walls at downstream. Agglomeration is another ash-derived problem that can affect the process.

Ash fusion temperature:

The AFT values under Oxidizing & reducing conditions are strongly dependent on the ash composition and the applied atmosphere. Depending on the ash disposal characteristics of the gasifier, operating temperature is maintained above or below the ash fusion temperature. For dry ash removal system gasifier temperature must be lower than the AFT, while for slagging gasifier it should be above AFT. Softening temperature (ST) is considered as the temperature where agglomeration starts. In slagging gasifiers, the slag viscosity should be maintained above the critical viscosity for slag flow between bed particles. In agglomerating gasifier operating temperature must be over the softening temperature and below the fluid temperature.

Coal Properties vis-a-vis Matching Gasifier

Selection of gasification technology is based on technical features of gasifier and key coal properties. Following are important properties for each type of gasifier.

Entrained Flow Gasifier: For entrained flow gasifier, ash content, ash composition and ash/slag behaviour are important properties as slag flowability is the most important aspect of the EFG. Further, to form flowable slag layer, temperature of gasifier is maintained above the Ash Fusion Temperature (AFT), Slag formed from ash in coal is utilized as a protective layer for refractory or membrane wall lining and quantity of slag, ash composition and viscosity decides the thickness of slag layer Further, apart from the above mentioned gasifier selection criteria, techno-economic features of the gasifiers listed below are also important to take decision about suitable gasifier selection.

• Reliability: Maturity of technology in view of technological risks, operational and maintenance problems.
• Feedstock flexibility: Wide variety feed stocks, coal, lignite, biomass, etc.
• Syngas Applications: Syngas contaminants & impurities, allowed gas purity (S, CO2 , etc.) and cleanliness (tars, soot, ash) for applications such as synthesis of liquid fuels & chemicals, IGCC, IGFC, thermal applications.
• Efficiency: Carbon conversion efficiency, Cold Gas Efficiency.
• Economics: CAPEX & OPEX.
• Unit Capacity: Fuel Feed Rate/ area (Throughput) & Scale up Prospects, Turndown ratio.

Gasification Strategy for Indian Coals

• In view of utilisation of Indian coats through gasification route, the following strategy may be adopted.
• Development of indigenous high pressure oxy-brown fluidized bed pilot plants to be established followed by establishing operation Development of membrane-based entrained flow pilot technology for low ash Indian coals and blends of high ash coal & Petcoke.
• Performance testing of the above mentioned two types of gasifier pilot plants with high ash Indian coals and identification of suitable type of gasification process based on which a demo plant can be set up at different mine mouths Mapping of Indian coals towards gasification potential and updating coal properties database towards gasification for newly explored coal resources/newly started mines.
• Testing of Indian coals in demo scale facilities of respective technology providers at their end can be preferred.
• Hence, both the routes demo scale unit development and commercial technology adoption may be conducted in parallel.
• Programmes need to be executed with joint venture between R&D institutions, engineering houses and industries instead of independent parallel programmes.

Study Material for UPSC General Studies Pre Cum Mains