Widening Gulf (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: Gulf Cooperation Council
Mains level: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interests

Context

•  Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani’s decision to stay away from the December 9 Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Riyadh is the latest reminder of the growing disunity among the Gulf countries.
•  Qatar, blockaded by three GCC countries, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, and their non-GCC allies, has said it will not discuss a compromise unless the blockade is lifted.
•  The Saudi-led bloc imposed it in June 2017, accusing Qatar of funding terrorism. But as Riyadh came under increasing global pressure after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in its consulate in Istanbul, it has shown signs of reconciliation.

Background of this conflict

•  In October, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is believed to have ordered the Khashoggi hit, surprised observers by praising the Qatari economy.
•  The personal invitation to the GCC meet from King Salman bin Abdulaziz to the Qatari Emir followed the Crown Prince’s remarks.
•  But Qatar, a tiny kingdom but the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, remains defiant. Doha has announced its decision to quit OPEC, the first Arab nation to do so since the cartel was formed in 1960.
•  Though Qatar said the decision was not political, clearly its exit from OPEC was a snub to Saudi Arabia, its de facto leader.

Implications of this blockade

•  The blockade has triggered tensions among other GCC countries as well.
•  Saudi Arabia is upset that Oman and Kuwait did not join the embargo.
•  Kuwait was trying to mediate between the rivals camps, which hasn’t gone down well with Riyadh.
•  The Crown Prince started a two-day tour of Kuwait but ties were reportedly so tense that he left the country within a few hours.
•  Oman continues to be independent of Saudi influence by keeping ties open with both Qatar and Iran.
•  The blockade has made Qatar only more independent in its foreign policy decisions.

Way forward

•  It has stepped up assistance for Hamas in Gaza, accelerated a plan to allow Turkey to set up a military camp in the country and resisted calls to cut ties with Iran.
•  The decision to quit OPEC and the Emir’s absence at the GCC meet (a state minister was sent to represent the country) point to an increasingly confident Qatar.
•  But the intra-Gulf quarrels have dampened hopes for the integration of the region.
•  The bloc, which once talked about a common Gulf currency and robust connectivity projects, is now a ghost of its old self.
•  After the summit, the GCC issued a customary statement, emphasising regional stability and economic challenges.
•  Even as the summit was on, Bahrain Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa criticised the Emir’s decision to skip the meet, while Doha slammed the communiqué for its failure to address the blockade. That is the state of affairs in the GCC.

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No time left to waste on waste (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: Bioremediation
Mains level: Waste management relates issues and procedures

Context

•  The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) took the radical step of issuing notices to a slew of residents who did not segregate their household waste perhaps.
•  Delhi’s garbage woes have been hurtling towards some sort of an endgame ever since a portion of the landfill at Ghazipur, on the city’s eastern edge, collapsed onto an adjoining road and buried two people in September 2017.
•  A temporary ban on dumping at the site was immediately announced, but the Ghazipur garbage mountain is already nearly as tall as the Qutub Minar, as the Supreme Court caustically observed recently.
•  With the quest for another dumpsite going nowhere (as nobody wants a mound of garbage next to their neighbourhood), there is no clarity yet on what to do with the thousands of tonnes of solid waste Delhi generates every day.

Rising of this garbage problem

•  The impasse in Delhi is a reflection of India’s troubling relationship with waste. India’s cities already generate over 150,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste every day, with Mumbai being the world’s fifth most wasteful city.
•  The waste heaps that dot the edges of India’s cities are set to double in size by 2025.
•  Only one-third of the waste undergoes even rudimentary treatment, according to the urban ministry’s optimistic assessment, and hardly any of it is segregated, which would make processing easier.
•  As India’s economic growth accelerates, the garbage problem would only get bigger, unless immediate solutions are found to delink growth from garbage generation.
•  According to the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, cities are already beginning to run out of land on which to dump their waste and have begun throwing it in the backyards of smaller towns, suburbs and villages.
•  Thus, garbage may soon become a flashpoint that sets off recurrent conflict across the urban landscape.

How India can deal with is problem?

•  The only big national idea on offer has been to incinerate or burn the garbage. That is what the NITI Aayog had proposed in its medium-term three-year vision for the country, which was released in August 2017.
•  By burning the waste, a small amount of energy could also be produced, at least in theory.
•  Currently, about 3% of urban India’s daily garbage output gets fed into waste-to-energy incinerators.
•  A minuscule amount of energy is generated, but there has been very little debate on whether incinerators work in the Indian context.

Problems with incineration

•  Unlike the Western world, a large chunk of India’s waste is still organic kitchen waste—almost 40% of the total volume.
•  Since segregation of waste is yet to become a reality, incineration is a highly inefficient solution.
•  In the Indian context, there is also very little certainty on whether the harmful gases, which are a byproduct of incineration, are adequately contained and treated.
  Using bioremediation
•  Apart from incineration, the other big idea that several cities have tried is bioremediation, which effectively involves the use of living micro-organisms to degrade the contaminants in a landfill into less toxic forms.
•  While the technology is somewhat effective in dealing with existing landfills, in an ideal future, the waste processing chain should abolish the need for a landfill to begin with.
•  That is the path that several smaller Indian towns have already embarked on—from Alappuzha in Kerala to Mysuru in Karnataka, both of which endeavour to build a “zero landfill” city.
•  Segregation and composting are a big part of the mix of solutions that are being implemented.
•  Their experience in inducing collective action among ordinary citizens to segregate waste may hold important lessons for India’s large cities.

Way forward

•  Global examples show that the national mood changes under the influence of an adequate trigger, which makes a radical change in collective behaviour possible.
•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission, the hope was that it would serve as India’s trigger.
•  Four years down the line, nothing much has changed but the time has come to do something.
•  Indians should start demanding clean and healthy cities as a basic right and governments must step up and deliver that basic human need.

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The numbers game (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Central Statistics Office
Mains level: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth,
development and employment

Context

•  India’s national income statistics are under a cloud.
•  The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released official revisions of the GDP estimates for the years 2004-05 to 2013-14 in the Manmohan Singh-led government’s tenure.
•  The revisions make the Narendra Modi government’s performance on the economic front appear better than that of its predecessor.
•  The fastest growth rate reached was in the year 2010-11 (8.5%). The growth rate for this year, before this revision, was estimated at 10.3%.
•  The best year in Mr. Modi’s term so far has been 2015-16 (when GDP growth reached 8.2%).
•  The growth rates for the majority of years in Dr. Singh’s term have been cut drastically. Besides 2010-11, the growth rate was slashed quite sharply for 2007-08, from 9.8% to 7.7%.

Statistical stunts

•  The CSO’s credibility has emphasised that the revisions are compliant with the international guidelines, the System of National Accounts (SNA), 2008.
•  Many of the proxies and techniques that the CSO has used are, in fact, not recommended by the SNA. At best, they are tolerated under the SNA system.
•  One particular statistical stunt that the CSO has introduced is a structural break in its back series in 2011-12. Let us understand this in detail.
•  Macroeconomic aggregates such as GDP and GVA (gross value added) are estimated every year at the prices of a selected year, the base year.
•  Base years are periodically updated, and the GDP for every year all the way back to 1950-51 is then re-estimated.
•  In 2015, the base year was updated from 2004-05 to 2011-12. Improvements in estimation methodology were also carried out.
•  There was a problem: non-availability of appropriate databases complicated the re-estimation backwards.

The CSO’s role

•  The CSO worked out a proxy.
•  Its use would have led to growth rates getting revised upwards in the years before 2011-12.
•  This was not agreeable to the NITI Aayog, and the back series computed with it was withheld. For three years, the CSO and the NITI Aayog could not resolve the problem.
•  The CSO, under the rather controversial guidance of the NITI Aayog, has for a proxy used data extracted from the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), the database that was used for the earlier 2004-05 base year series.
•  Combining MCA data with the ASI data is technically problematic.
•  There is no statistically robust way of seamlessly linking these two datasets.
•  Their coverage differs significantly.

Complications

•  The complications introduced by the ASI’s relatively smaller coverage than the MCA’s. Take a company that has manufacturing establishments across the country.
•  Such a company may also have non-manufacturing establishments as part of its set-up.
•  The total corporate GVA should ideally be the sum of manufacturing and non-manufacturing establishments.
•  While the MCA would cover both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing GVA of this company from 2011-12 onwards, the ASI has been found to cover only manufacturing establishments in such cases.
•  Non-manufacturing GVA inside a manufacturing corporate enterprise is not captured by it. This GVA, in fact, does not get covered at all as the service sector surveys also leave it out.
•  Some of the GVA in the years before 2011-12 in the back series has escaped estimation altogether due to such holes in the ASI’s coverage, making the year 2011-12 a point of discontinuity.
•  A structural break can be observed in the back series before and after the year 2011-12.
•  The upgradation to MCA from ASI data 2011-12 onwards had led to upward revisions. Going backwards, the revisions are by and large sharply downwards.

Way forward

•  The statistical challenge before the CSO is to estimate the GVA that remained uncaptured by the ASI.
•  This is a complex problem with no clear solution. Whether the holes led to an underestimation or overestimation and what the impact was on the growth rates is difficult to judge.
•  Service offshoots can lead a conglomerate or can be a drag.
•  The trouble is, rather than admitting to these challenges transparently, the CSO has sought to gloss over them.
•  One of India’s most well-regarded statisticians, T.C.A. Anant, was not willing to replace the MCA database with the ASI database in the back casting exercise when he was Chief Statistician of India.

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In Good Faith: The rights side of 70 (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: UN
Mains level: Important international institutions and their mandate

Context

•  In his famous book, Man and the State, the French philosopher Jacques Maritain draws attention to the universal essence of human rights above ideologies.
•  Maritain was right to underline that a dignified life was based on the establishment of the basic needs and rights of every individual independent of his or her race, language, culture, religion or nationality.
•  The core idea of this optimistic philosophy that states and peoples can discuss practical issues and arrive at mutual agreements despite ideological differences.

A lesson for more equitable future

•  In that sense, from the very beginning, their task was as much philosophical as it was judicial.
•  However, influenced by the spirit of the French Revolution and its revolutionary motto “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité”.
•  Cassin identified the four foundational blocks of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as “dignity, liberty, equality, and brotherhood”.
•  By “dignity”, developed in the first two articles of the universal declaration, Cassin referred to all the values which were shared by individuals beyond their sex, race, creed and religion.
• As for “liberty”, it included articles three to 19, and emphasised on rights related to individual life, liberty and personal security.
•  Under “equality”, Cassin understood rights related to the public sphere and political participation (articles 20 to 26), and, under “brotherhood” were economic, social and cultural rights (articles 27 and 28).
•  Finally, the three last articles (28, 29 and 30) focused on the conditions in which these could be realised in society and the state.
•  French legal scholar, who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in drafting the final version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

Way forward

•  However, the concept of rights long recognised in historically significant laws, charters and constitutions such as the Magna Carta (1215), American Declaration of Independence (1776), Bill of Rights (1791) and the French Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789), and at the foundation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 — did not succeed in overcoming the approaches of the states and individuals who distinguished between “themselves” and “others”.
•  Let us not forget that out of them 58 members of the United Nations, only 48 ratified the universal declaration while Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the Soviet Union, Poland, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Byelorussia and Czechoslovakia abstained, because they were worried that the moral appeal of the document would endanger the sanctity of their domestic laws and regulations.
•  However, despite the tireless struggles of three generations of individuals and institutions, and the impact of globalisation on human rights, the Universal Declaration is considered as a lantern of hope viewed from afar by political prisoners and refugees around the world.

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(The Gist of Kurukshetra) HEALTHCARE INTERVENTIONS FOR RURAL INDIA

[MARCH-2019]

Healthcare interventions for rural India

Introduction

•  The National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 of India aimed to provide Preventive and Promotive Healthcare and Universal access to good quality healthcare services through the mix of public and private healthcare services. The policy emphasizes reorienting and strengthening the Public Health institutions across the country, so as to provide universal access to free drugs, diagnostics and other essential healthcare. The NHP 2017 expressed its vision for Universal Health Coverage and creating affordable and quality healthcare for all.
•  The policy is ensuring availability of free, comprehensive primary healthcare services, for all aspects of reproductive, maternal, child and adolescent health and for the most prevalent communicable, noncommunicable and occupational diseases in the population. It also talked about reinforcing trust in public healthcare system. The Government intended to achieve various targets by involvement of all possible stakeholders.

Key Initiatives and Interventions Ayushman Bharat:

•  As part of Ayushman Bharat programme, two major initiatives in health sector have been taken. First is Health and Wellness Centres and second is the Notional Health Protection Scheme (NHPM). The goal of this intervention is to address health needs in a holistic manner in primary, secondary and tertiary care systems, covering both prevention and health promotion. The National Health Policy 2017 has envisioned Health and Wellness Centres as the foundation of India's health system. It is expected that under this, 1.5 lakh centres will bring healthcare system closer to the homes of people.
•  Also that these centres will provide comprehensive healthcare, including for non-communicable diseases and maternal and child health services, free essential drugs and diagnostic services. The Interim Budget 2019-20 has allocated Rs.1,200 crore for this flagship programme. Contribution of private sector through Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) and philanthropic institutions in adopting these centres is also envisaged.
•  The National Nutrition Mission: The National Nutrition Mission (NNM) has been set up with a three year budget of Rs.9046.17 crore commencing from 2017-18. The NNM is a comprehensive approach towards raising nutrition level in the country on a war footing. It is comprising mapping of various Schemes contributing towards addressing malnutrition, including a very robust convergence mechanism, ICT based Real Time Monitoring system, incentivizing States/UTs for meeting the targets, incentivizing Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) for using IT based tools, eliminating registers used by AWWs, introducing measurement of height of children at the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs), Social Audits, setting-up Nutrition Resource Centres, involving masses through Jan Andolan for their participation on nutrition through various activities, among others.
•  NNM targets to reduce stunting, undernutrition, Anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2 per cent, 2 percent, 3 per cent and 2 per cent per
  annum respectively. Although the target to reduce Stunting is at least 2 per cent p.a.,  All About UPSC Exams Mission would strive to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4 per cent (NFHS-4) to 25 per cent by 2022 (Mission 25 by 2022).
•  All the States and districts will be covered in a phased manner i.e, 315 districts in 2017-18, 235 districts in 2018-19 and remaining districts in 2019-20.

Poshan Abhiyan:

•  This is based on convergence and collaboration of all important sectors considered to be important for healthy growth of the child for first 1,000 days. Thus, it covers all schemes, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Swachh Bharat, Adolescent Care, Prenatal and Postnatal Care, Supplementary Nutrition, Breastfeeding Counseling, Immunization, Growth Monitoring. Under Poshan Abhiyan, the Government has fixed targets to reduce stunting, undernutrition, Anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2 per cent, 2 percent, 3 per cent and 2 per cent per annum respectively.
•  Mission also strives to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4 per cent (NFHS-4) to 25 per cent by 2022, Outreach worker or frontline worker will cover all the aspects of essential healthcare for the mother and child. Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and Anganwadi Worker (AWW) are supposed to work in collaboration to improve the institutional visits, nutrition outcomes, physical and mental growth of the child through home visits to create awareness for proper utilisation of all the facilities and benefits provided under this scheme.\

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana:

•  The Maternity Benefit Programme is implemented from 01.01.2017, in all the districts of the country. The programme is named as 'Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana' (PMMVY). Under PMMVY, a cash incentive of Rs 5,000/- is provided directly to the Bank / Post Office Account of Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers (PW&LM) for first living child of the family subject to fulfilling specific conditions relating to Maternal and Child Health.
•  PMMVY is implemented using the platform of Anganwadi Services scheme of Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) under Ministry of Women and Child Development in respect of States/UTs implementing scheme through Women and Child Development Department/ Social Welfare Department and through Health system in respect of States/ UTs where scheme is implemented by Health and Family Welfare Department. PMMVY is implemented through a centrally deployed Web Based MIS Software application and the focal point of implementation would be the Anganwadi Centre (AWC) and ASHA/ANM workers. In the Interim Budget (2019-20), the key highlights related to health sector provisioning especially for women, children and poor are as follows:
•  World's largest healthcare programme, Ayushman Bharat, for nearly 50 crore people.
•  Jan Aushadhi Kendras providing medicines at affordable prices to poor and middle class.
•  Allocation for Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) increased by over 18 per cent to Rs. 27,584 crore in BE 2019-20.
•  Maternity leave extended to 26 weeks.
•  Financial support for pregnant women under Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana.
•  6 crore free LPG gas connections provided under Ujjwala Yojana ; Ail 8 crore by next year.
• India has achieved 98 per cent rural sanitation coverage and 5.45 lakh villages have been declared "Open Defecation Free".
•  Aspirational Districts Programme launched for development in 115 most backward districts.
•  Rs. 1,70,000 crore spent during 2018-19 for cheaper food grains to poor and middle class.
•  70 percent of MUDRA Loan availed by Women.
•  Rural roads' construction tripled under the PMGSY.
•  Targeted expenditure to bridge urban-rural divide and to improve quality of life in villages.

Way Forward

•  The Rural India is exposed to challenges that are having direct impact on health of women and children living in this area. Focus on primary healthcare through outreach activity household coverage, availability of quality public healthcare services and appropriate financial support for secondary and tertiary care with more accountable and transparent system is required.
•  The strengthening of primary healthcare system is required in order to address the factors that have direct impact on health status of rural population. The expansion of Public Health Education to create more professionals is required, as many programme and schemes required skilled personnel with sound knowledge of socio-economic and cultural aspects of health and medicine.
•  To assess the standards of public health services, government developed Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) and all the healthcare facility should be monitored and regulated according to these standards.

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(The Gist of Kurukshetra) The Vision areas of Digital India Infrastructure as Utility to Every Citizen:

[MARCH-2019]

The Vision areas of Digital India Infrastructure as Utility to Every Citizen:

•  High speed internet as a core utility shall be made available in all Gram Panchayats.
•  Cradle to grave digital identity - unique, lifelong, online and authenticate.
•  Mobile phone and Bank account would enable participation in digital and financial space at individual level.
•  Easy access to a Common Service Centre within their locality.
•  Shareable private space on a public Cloud. Safe and secure Cyberspace in the  country.

Governance and Services on Demand:

•  Seamlessly integrated across departments or jurisdictions to provide easy and a single window access to all persons.
•  Government services available in real time from online and mobile platforms.
•  AII citizen entitlements to be available on the Cloud to ensure easy access.
•  Government services digitally transformed for improving Ease of Doing Business.
•  Making financial transactions above a threshold, electronic and cashless,
•  Leveraging GIS for decision support systems and development.

Digital Empowerment of Citizens:

•  Universal digital literacy.
•  All digital resources universally accessible.
•  All Government documents/ certificates to be available on the Cloud.
•  Availability of digital resources / services in Indian languages.
•  Collaborative digital platforms for participative governance.
•  Portability of all entitlements for individuals through the Cloud.
   

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(GIST OF YOJANA) KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF THE INTERIM BUDGET 2019-20 Farmers

[MARCH-2019]

KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF THE INTERIM BUDGET 2019-20 Farmers

•  12 crore small and marginal farmers to be provided with assured yearly income of Rs.6000 per annum under PM-KISAN.
•  Outlay of Rs.75,000 crore for FY 2019-20 with additional Rs.20,000 crore in RE 2018-19
•  Out lay for Rashtriya Gokul mission increased to Rs750 crore.
•  Rashtriya Kamdhenu Ayog to be setup for sustainable genetic up-gradation of the Cow resource New separate Department of Fisheries for welfare of 1.5crore fishermen.
•  2 percent interest subvention to Farmers for Animal husbandry and Fisheries activities; additional 3 per cent in case of timely repayment.
•  Interest subvention of 2 per cent during disaster will now be provided for the entire period of reschedulement of loan.

Labour

•  Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan scheme to ensure fixed monthly pension to 10 crore unorganized sector workers.
•  Rs 3000 per month after 60 years of age with an affordable contribution of only Rs 100/55 per month.

Health

•  22nd AIIMS to be set up in Haryana. MGNREGA
•  Rs. 60,000 crore allocation for MGNREGA in BE 2019-20.

Direct Tax proposals

•  Income upto Rs. 5 lakh exempted from Income Tax
•  More than Rs. 23,000 crore tax relief to 3 crore middle class taxpayers
•  Standard Deduction to be raised to Rs. 50,000 from Rs. 40,000
•  TDS threshold to be raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs. 40,000 on interest earned on bank/post office deposits
•  Existing rates of income tax to continue
•  Tax exempted on notional rent on a second self occupied house.
•  Housing and real estate sector to get boost TDS threshold for deduction of tax on rent to be increased from Rs. 1,80,000to Rs. 2,40,000
•  Benefit of rollover of capital gains increased from investment in one residential house to two residential houses for capital gains up to Rs. 2 crore.
•  Tax benefits for affordable housing extended till 31st March, 2020 under Section 80-IBA of Income Tax Act.
•  Tax exemption period on notional rent, on unsold inventories, extended from one year to two years.

Fiscal Programme

•  Fiscal deficit pegged at 3.4 percent of GDP for 2019-20.
•  Target of 3 percent of fiscal deficit to be achieved by 2020-21.
•  Fiscal deficit brought down to 3.4 per cent in 2018-19 RE from almost 6 per cent seven years ago.
•  Total expenditure increased by over 13 percent to Rs.27,84,200 crore in 2019-20 BE.
•  Capital Expenditure for 2019-20 BE estimated at Rs. 3,36,292 crore.
•  Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) allocation increased to Rs. 3,27,679 crore in BE 2019-20.
•  National Education Mission allocation increased by about 20 per cent to Rs. 38,572 crore in BE 2019-20.
•  Allocation for Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) increased by over 18 per cent to Rs. 27,584 crore in BE 2019-20.
•  Substantial increase in allocation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Allocation for SCs increased by 35.6 percent - from Rs. 56,619 crore in BE 2018-19 to Rs. 76,801 crore in BE for 2019-20.
•  Allocation for the STs increased by 28 per cent - from 39,135 crore in BE 2018-19 to Rs. 50,086 crore in
•  2019-20 BE.
•  Government confident of achieving the disinvestment target of 80,000 crore.
•  Focus now on debt consolidation along with fiscal deficit consolidation programme. Poor and Backward Classes
•  "First right on the resources of country is that of the poor": FM
•  25 percent additional seats in educational institutions to meet the 10 per cent reservation for the poor
•  Targeted expenditure to bridge urban-rural divide and to improve quality of life in villages
•  All willing households to be provided electricity connections by March 2019 North East
•  Allocation to be increased by 21 per cent to Rs. 58,166 crore in 2019-20 BE over 2018-19 BE.
•  Arunachal Pradesh came on the air map recently.
•  Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram came on India's rail map for the first time.
•  Container cargo movement through improved navigation capacity of the Brahmaputra Vulnerable sections.
•  A new committee under NITI Aayog to identify all the remaining Denotified nomadic and semi-Nomadic tribes.
•  New Welfare development Board under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for development and welfare of Denotified nomadic and semi nomadic tribes.

Defence

•  Defence budget to cross Rs 3,00,000 crore for the first time ever. Railways
•  Capital support of Rs.64,587 crore proposed in 2019-20 from the budget
•  Overall capital expenditure programme to be of Rs. 1,58,658 crore
•  Operating Ratio expected to improve from 98.4 per cent in 2017-18, to 96.2 percent in 2018-19 (RE) and
•  to 95 percent in 2019- 20 (BE). Entertainment Industry
•  Indian filmmakers to get access to Single window clearance as well for ease of shooting films.
•  Regulatory provisions to rely more on selfdeclaration.
•  To introduce anti-camcording provisions in the Cinematograph Act to control piracy. MSME and Traders
•  2 percent interest subvention on an incremental loan of Rs 1 crore for GST registered SMEs.
•  At least 3 percent of the 25 per cent sourcing for the Government undertakings will be from women owned SMEs.
•  Renewed Focus on Internal trade; DIPP renamed to Department for Promotion of Industries and Internal trade.

Digital Villages

•  The Government to make 1 lakh villages into Digital Villages over next five years.
   

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(GIST OF YOJANA) Paving the Way for Better Home

[MARCH-2019]

Paving the Way for Better Home

Introduction

•  In the recent years, the health and economic growth linkage bas become an important rationale and rallying point for countries to work towards advancing universal health coverage (UHC) by focusing on improving services provisions and developing mechanisms for financial protection. India has also committed to achieve UHC as part of the country's National Health Policy 20 J7 (NHP-2017).

Improving Health Services

•  In the last 15 years, there have been initiatives by both Union and State governments in India to improve health outcomes. First, the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and then National Urban Health Mission has created a foundation for strengthening provision of health services in India. Ayushman Bharat Program (ABP) has components to strengthen primary health care and health insurance for 40 percent of the poorest families in India. By 31 January 2019, a total of 6,600 HWCs have been made functional and under PMJAY, nearly 10 lakh beneficiaries received treatment worth Rs 1,000 crore.
•  The states have also taken up initiatives to strengthen health services. In February 2017, Tamil Nadu started an UHC pilot where 67 sub-centres in three blocks in three districts, were strengthened by improving infrastructure, provision of additional health workers, and ensuring supplies of medicines and diagnostics.
•  A year later, in February 201 8, an independent evaluation documented that this initiative had resulted in increased patient attendance at these facilities and reduced out of pocket expenditure (OOPE)
  by patients.
•  This approach is now being scaled up in other districts of Tamil Nadu.
•  Broad Ranging of Health Services Improving health outcomes require provision of a broad range (promotive, preventive, curative, diagnostic, rehabilitative) of health services available to all citizens. India has a mixed health care system, where private sector provides majority (75 percent of out-patients and 65 percent of in patient) of health services.
•  One of the challenges in private sector dominant mix health systems is that the private sector incentives are very differently aligned from population health needs.
•  The private sector mostly focuses on care for sick people and provision of curative and diagnostic services and risk the system becoming curative focused.
•  Therefore, the onus lies on the government to intervene to ensure sufficient supply of all types of health services with special focus on preventive, promotive and other public health services. Considering that the government is, in most settings, the only provider of such services, there is need for rapid increase in spending in public health services in India, as recognized in NHP
  2017 as well. In addition, there is need for setting up public health management cadre by all states of India.

Increasing Government Spending

•  Globally, the average government spending on health as a proportion of GDP stands at around 5 per cent and government expenditure on health in Indians around 1.15 per cent of GDP and nearly 4 percent of government budget.
•  In nominal terms, per capita government expenditure on health in India (in 2014-15) was Rs. 1,108 of in terms of proportion of government budget at 10 per cent.
•  The level of the total per capita health expenditure (MoHFW, 2016).

The NHP 2017 proposed

•  To increase government funding to 2.5 per cent GDP by year 2025 and;
•  That states should spend 8 percent of their budget on health by 2020. The current level of spending on health by states is variable and most spend around 5 percent of state budget on health.
•  Considering that Union to State government share in health expenditure is nearly 1:2, there is need to increase budgetary allocation by both Union and States to achieve NHP 2017 target in India.

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Interim Budget

•  In the interim Union Budget 2019-20 which was presented to the Parliament on 1 February 2019.
•  Total allocation of Rs. 63,371 crore has been made for MoHFW.
•  The total allocation to the Ayushman Bharat (AB) Program Rs 8,000 crore and NHM has received 31,745 crore.
•  In addition, a new AIIMS is proposed to be set up in Haryana, making total number of AIIMS in India to 22.
•  ‘Healthy India' has been identified as one of the 10 dimensions under Vision for India by 2030. (PHC) first:
•  The government spending on PHC makes health services efficient; reduces the cost and helps in delivery of preventive and promotive health services.
•  The PHC system can tackle up to 80 percent of health needs and can reduce the need for specialized health services, Indian states have an elaborate network of primary healthcare facilities.
•  The existing network of nearly 1 92,000 primary healthcare facilities in India delivers only 10 percent of total out-patient services (excluding mother and child health services); while it has capacity to deliver much more. There is need for boosting and rapid strengthening of the PHC system in India.
•  Focus on Financial Protection and not ‘Notional Coverage' only: In 2015-16, only an estimated 22-25 percent of Indian population was covered with am health insurance schemes. The PMJAY,
  supplemented by state specific schemes, is expected to increase coverage to around 55 per cent of the Indian population.
•  NITI Aayog's 5 year strategic plan for new India has proposed to increase health insurance coverage to 75 percent of the population by 2022.
•  India needs to learn from experiences in other countries and design and implement mechanisms where coverage from health insurance schemes will reduce both catastrophic expenditure and out of pocket expenditure (OOPH) and would contribute to improved health outcomes. Indian States to Take Lead and Innovate:
•  Health is a state subject as per Indian constitution. The experience from National Health Mission (NHM) has pointed that Union Government led initiatives can only be guiding and catalytical.
•  The impact of Union Government led health initiatives is dependent upon leadership and additional measures by the state governments. There is need for stronger engagement and ownership at state level, to transform health outcomes in India.

Conclusion

•  Better health of people is intrinsically linked to and contributes to economic growth and development of a nation. Health is a social contract between people and government.
•  The global discourse on advancing universal health coverage is an opportunity' for the governments at all levels to increase government spending on health, improve overall health services provision; make provision for public health services; and to  develop mechanisms for providing financial protection. In a federal system such as India, the states have to assume increasingly more responsibilities and build upon existing/ongoing initiatives. With recent focus and attention on improving health outcomes and financial protection in India, it is another opportunity to pave the path to better health outcomes as well as sustained rapid economic growth in India.

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If you ban PUBG, why not cricket as well?(Mint)

Mains Paper 4: Ethics
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Emotional Intelligence

Context

•  Between 2011 and 2017, 159 people died in the country while taking selfies, the world’s highest in that period, according to an AIIMS study last year.
•  While Indians still flood social media with selfies from all angles, some states are instead busy banning PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile (better known as PUBG Mobile), one of the most popular video games of our time.
•  There is no question that media exposure in any form can “incite" a certain kind of behaviour; interactive media, perhaps even more so.
•  But does that justify depriving people of it?
•  We must make a distinction between what’s designed to incite and what some folk get incited by. But arbitrary intervention has no time for nuances.
•  Perhaps the worst example of an ad hoc ban by Indian authorities was that of Shaktimaan, a popular superhero.
•  Actor Mukesh Khanna fought and won a case against Doordarshan in the 1990s after allegations arose that children had died performing dangerous acts in the hope that their fictional hero would save them.

About the game

•  As a game, PUBG is not extraordinary. It has 100 players fighting each other to death, armed with everything from a frying pan to a machine gun, and the last man standing wins.
•  In conceptual terms, this may sound horrific.
•  Yet, it’s just another game, like dozens of others, that offers the simulated thrills of battle victory. It’s not even the most violent game ever (to confirm, try playing Dead Trigger).
•  Shorn of graphic appeal, its amusement value is no different from that of a squirt-gun fight on Holi.
•  It does evoke aggression, but then so does almost anything that is competitive.

Arguments and contrary effects

•  If that is all we need to banish it from our midst, we might as well ban cricket as well (remember Eden Gardens?), or perhaps all sports.
•  Another argument made is that PUBG Mobile is too addictive and this affects children’s studies.
•  What would affect their studies a lot more, though, is getting arrested for playing the game—as several students indeed have.
•  In any case, as the example of tobacco shows, addiction has never been cause for a ban in India.
•  All said, no valid explanation has yet been offered for why playing PUBG calls for punitive action.
•  On the contrary, PUBG Mobile is showing youngsters how gaming can actually be rewarding in financial terms.
•  Children as young as 16 have won lakhs in contests simply because they are good at this game.
•  E-sports are going professional worldwide, and this trend is catching on in India as well.
•  As PUBG Mobile lends itself to team play, it can create professional gamers, an audience for on-screen action, and even generate revenues. In short, it is an opportunity.

Way forward

•  Moreover, there is no evidence yet that virtual violence translates to real-world bloodshed. Even studies in the West that hint at such a correlation have not been able to confirm causation.
•  Crucially, too, no video game is created with an intention to inculcate evil attitudes. Forced on the defensive, the creators of PUBG may have reiterated their commitment to a “healthy gameplay system", but they need not have.
•  If the authorities still feel games are leading Indian youth astray, then it is for lawmakers to deliberate upon the matter and frame a response.
•  Ad hoc action will not do.
•  We didn’t ban phone cameras because it wasn’t the selfies that were killing people, it was the people.

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Missing workers (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: PLFS
Mains level: Highlights of the labour survey

Context

•  India’s total workforce the sum of persons in employment has fallen from 42 crore to 37.3 crore between 2011-12 and 2017-18.
•  According to an official Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report cited by this newspaper.
•  There are apparent differences in data collection methodology used in the latest survey vis-à-vis the ones for the earlier years, but the findings raise concern.
•  To start with, this is probably the first time that the total number of employed persons has actually registered a decline.
•  Such a decline can happen with rising education levels, which makes people that much more reluctant to take up casual labour work.
•  The ones joining may do so only after attaining a certain age the so-called working age population includes all individuals who are at least 15 years old, which is definitely too young for the job market and accumulating skills that enable them to command a higher salary or wage rate.

Major highlights observed by CMIE

•  However, the above optimism is not borne out by other evidence, whether hard survey-based or anecdotal.
•  The Labour Bureau’s data on rural wages, for instance, shows the average annual growth during the last four years at just over 4.5 per cent in nominal terms and a mere 0.5 per cent in real terms after netting out inflation.
•  If the supply of workers has fallen, even for good reasons, it should have led to a tightening of the labour market, which clearly isn’t the case.
•  Moreover, the private data analytics firm, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), has systematically been putting out data pointing to both a falling labour participation rate (the proportion of working-age population either employed or actively seeking jobs) and rising unemployment rate (the proportion of labour force that is unemployed) since early 2017.
•  It is for the National Sample Survey Office, which has done the PLFS, to release its report and clarify the methodology employed that might even make comparisons with previous surveys inappropriate.

Way forward

•  The more the delay, the more likely it is that people including global investors are going to read motives.
•  Also, they would increasingly depend on alternative data sources, be it the CMIE or two-wheeler and car sales, cement dispatches, bank credit off take, unsold real estate inventory and other such numbers having strong correlation with jobs and incomes.
•  The government, both the current one and the one that will take over in about two months, must acknowledge that the situation on the jobs front is serious.
•  India is now in a position where its rising numbers of young people and declining fertility have the potential to reap a “demographic dividend”.
•  The lack of reasonably-paying jobs risks turning that into a spectre.

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A new red line (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: RPA
Mains level: Basic structure of the Indian Constitution

Context

•  Since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, new media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, have become political battlegrounds.
•  These spaces of electioneering have, however, remained unregulated because the Representation of People Act (RPA), 1951, does not cover social media.
•  The Election Commission (EC) and Internet and Mobile Association of India the body that represents social media firms took a decisive step towards plugging this gap.
•  The two agencies agreed on a Code of Ethics, which social media outfits will follow during the Lok Sabha elections.

Background

•  The Code that came into effect on March 20 ticks several boxes it emphasises transparency and stresses on measures to “prevent abuse of social media platforms”.
•  However, as Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora put it, “the document should be seen as a work in progress”. Since adherence to the Code is voluntary, much will depend on the measures taken by individual social media outfits to put the document’s guidelines into practice.
•  Section 126 of the RPA prohibits political parties and candidates from campaigning in the two days before voting.

Suggestive measures highlighted by EC

•  In January, an EC panel suggested bringing social media platforms under the Act’s ambit so that voters are “afforded a period of reflection”.
•  The panel suggested that these new media platforms should abide by the EC’s guidelines about taking down “objectionable content”.
•  Social media outfits, however, did not agree with the recommendation that such content “be taken down within three hours of a notice”.
•  Valid legal orders will be acknowledged and/ or processed within three hours for violations reported under Section 126.
•  Also welcome is the Code’s insistence on “transparency in paid political advertisements”.
•  Any political advertisement posted without the EC’s certification and notified as such by the EC will be acted upon expeditiously, the Code says.

Way forward

•  The Code asks social media firms to train the EC’s nodal officers on how their “platforms work and on mechanisms for sending requests on dealing with offensive material”.
•  These companies will also develop a “reporting mechanism” through which the poll watchdog can inform the platforms about “potential violations of Section 126”.
•  The Code’s success will depend, in large measure, on how these channels of communication work.
•  In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, the conduct of the social media firms and the EC will be watched.

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Next stage in the Great Game (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: India and neighbourhood relations

Context

•  As international talks with the Taliban leadership gain momentum, India’s foreign policy establishment has gone through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
•  After the initial denial that several countries, including the U.S., Russia, U.A.E., Qatar and Saudi Arabia, were engaging with Pakistan in order to bring senior Taliban leaders to the table in late 2017, India protested against being cut out of the talks.
•  It then negotiated to join them, followed by expressions of deep misgiving over where the talks would lead.
•  And finally this has given way to acceptance today that the talks have not only progressed, but are being given priority over every other process in Afghanistan.

Valid concerns

•  The misgivings are well placed, and confirmed by the results of the last round of talks between U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban leaders in Doha (February 25-March 12).
•  The talks appeared to be held on the Taliban’s terms, and at a venue of its choice.
•  Therefore, while clear agreements have been forged on the withdrawal of foreign forces and on not allowing Afghan soil for use by foreign terror groups, agreements on a comprehensive ceasefire and an intra-Afghan dialogue, once considered the minimum “redlines” or starting point of engaging with the Taliban, have now been made the last priority.
•  These talks have also broken the most important redline, that of being led by, or at least held with the full backing and knowledge of, the democratically-led government in Kabul. This became evident a few days ago.
•  During a visit to Washington on March 14, Afghan National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib lashed out at Mr. Khalilzad for “delegitimising” the Ashraf Ghani government by carrying out talks in the dark.

Afghanistan future steps

•  There is the uncertainty for Afghanistan’s future that these talks have wrought that worries India.
•  When talks with the Taliban began, the objective was to try to mainstream the insurgents into the political process, and at least have a working ceasefire by the time presidential elections, scheduled for April 2019, were held.
•  The reality is far from that. The Taliban continues to carry out terror attacks in Afghanistan even as its leadership talks with the U.S. Despite the Ministry of External Affairs issuing a statement on the importance of holding the presidential elections, the Afghan vote has been further postponed to September 28.
•  This makes Mr. Ghani’s continuance more tenuous under the constitution, which could mean an interim government will be installed, something India has been opposed to as well.
•  New Delhi is worried about the prospect of chaos and civil war, akin to the scene after the previous U.S. pullout in the early 1990s that cut India out and brought the Taliban to power in Kabul with Pakistan’s support.
•  Despite the restricted room for manoeuvre, however, there are several steps New Delhi can and must take in the present scenario to ensure both its own relevance in Afghanistan and stability in the region.

Talks with Taliban

•  To begin with, there is the question of talks with the Taliban, which India has thus far refused. In the recent past, the Modi government has shown some flexibility on the issue, by sending a “non-official” representation to the Moscow talks with the Taliban.
•  After a visit to Delhi in January by Mr. Khalilzad, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat even suggested that India should “jump on the bandwagon” of engaging the Taliban.
•  Direct, open talks between India and the Taliban at this point would serve little purpose for either side. For India, it would mean casting aside a consistently held moral principle and speaking to a non-state actor that espouses terrorism.
•  While backchannel talks between intelligence agencies and the Taliban have been conducted for years, recognising the Taliban as a legitimate interlocutor for India at this point would be a betrayal of India’s values without any visible gains.
•  India’s policy for the past two decades is to deal with the government in Kabul, and this will hold it in good stead if the Taliban were to eventually be a part of the government there.
  India’s move
•  India is also host to a sizeable population of Afghans who live, work and study in the country, and an outreach is important.
•  Vladimir Putin government brought Taliban representatives and Afghan leaders to the table for the ‘Moscow process’, it was under the aegis of an association of Afghans resident in Russia.
•  It was public support for talks with the Taliban that gave the reconciliation process legitimacy, and it is necessary that public opinion on issues like democracy, women’s rights, education and the media also be allowed to hold sway.
•  The world must see Afghans as they see themselves, and not according to the often-skewed ideas generated at conferences on Afghanistan’s future that sometimes don’t even include an Afghan representation.
•  Both India and Pakistan have a shared responsibility in building a dialogue over Afghanistan post-reconciliation.
•  It is necessary that officials on both sides find a way to sit across the table on Afghanistan some day.

Conclusion

•  Despite all the many reasons for despondency, it is necessary that Indian strategists don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.
•  India’s longstanding relationship with the people of Afghanistan.
•  This is a relationship nurtured by every government in New Delhi, with more than $3 billion invested by India since 2001, which has reaped manifold returns in terms of goodwill and friendship across Afghanistan.
•  Defeatism or a lack of ambition for the India-Afghanistan relationship at this juncture would be much more detrimental to India’s interests than anything the Taliban’s return to Afghanistan’s political centrestage can do

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(GIST OF YOJANA) Strengthening the Financial System

[MARCH-2019]

Strengthening the Financial System

Introduction

● Financial Inclusion is globally considered to be a critical indicator of development and well-being of society. Inclusive Financial Development is the need of the hour. For Financial Inclusion to be more effective there is a need for digital infrastructure and digital literacy in small towns and rural India.

● Financial Inclusion facilitates access to the
financial system allowing them to build financial and physical assets, seek credit for their education, healthcare and businesses and also save for the unexpected exigencies and old age. It helps in reducing poverty and inequality. It also offers an array of financial services that provide protection in case of untimely death or accident of the bread earner and also provides a safety net in the old age.

Key highlights of the data

● It is estimated that globally there are 1.7 billion adults worldwide i.e. 31 per cent of adults who don't have a basic transaction account and are deprived of the benefits that financial services offer. Steps have been taken towards financial inclusion such as No-Frill accounts, overdraft in savings accounts, BC/BF Model, KCC/GCC guidelines, liberalized Branch expansion, introducing technology products and services, prepaid cards, mobile banking etc, allowing RRBs/ cooperative banks to sell insurance and financial products, financial literacy programs, SHC, core banking system (CBS), National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), National Electronic Clearing Service (NECS) immediate Payments Service (IMPS) and Aadhar Enabled Payment Systems (AIPS) etc.

● The financial inclusion program known as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) with zero balance is helping people to become part and parcel of the mainstream of economic development. As on 23 January, 2019 as many as 34.03 crore bank accounts were opened entitling these people to the benefits of various Government schemes.

● It is also found that about 20.14 crore people belong to the rural and semi-urban regions. The PMJDY provides access to different financial services like availability of basic savings bank account, access to need based credit, remittances facility, insurance and pension to the excluded sections i.e. weaker sections and low income groups. It provides interest on deposit, accidental insurance cover of Rs. one lakh, no minimum balance requirement, a life insurance cover of Rs.30,000, overdraft facility after 6 months, access to pension, insurance product, RuPay Debit Card and Overdraft facility up to Rs.5000/- to only one account per household.

● As part of financial inclusion, the Mudra Yojana aims to generate employment and promote start ups to strengthen the availability of credit up to 10 lakhs to poor and small entrepreneurs. Besides, several other schemes have been initiated to ensure access to the social security system through the Atal Pension Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana etc.

● Demonetization, GST and digitalization, internet banking and mobile banking converting 1.5 lakh post offices spread through the length and breadth of the country into payment banks to reach in the most remote areas and giving permission to 11 payment banks to operate etc. is
helping in making the process of financial development inclusive.

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Features relating to financial inclusion

● Features relating to financial inclusion in the Interim Union Budget 2019 are, direct income support of Rs. 6,000 per annum lo
12 crore farmers to be transferred directly to their bank accounts, under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, pension plan under Pradhan Mantri Shram
-Yogi Maindhan for 10 crore shramiks or workers; extension of Kisan Credit card scheme to Animal Husbandry, Interest subvention, private sector lending to provide an access to credit for those who are vulnerable and marginalized.

● To encourage savings and investment, exemption will be available for another Rs. 1.5 lakh. The RBI has been supportive of the financial inclusion drive where the priority sector lending (PSL) mechanism by banks seeks to provide an access to credit for those vulnerable sections of the society, who are often deprived of it due to their perceived lack of credit worthiness.

Way forward

● There is a need to encourage FINTECH (financial technology) use of software and modem technology i.e. use of smartphones, for mobile banking, investing services and crypto currency; (to be issued by Reserve Bank) blockchain to help make financial services more accessible to the general public. Financial literacy drives need to be more aggressive and driven at the school level where student develop a culture of understanding and transacting through the account and continue to do so for their lifetime. It would be possible if people better understand the financial products and services and their role in their dad) lives

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Revolutionary ideas that live on (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1: History
Prelims level: Bhagat Singh
Mains level: Describe his revolutionary leadership

Context

•  Bhagat Singh went to the gallows, along with two of his comrades, Sukhdev and Rajguru, on March 23, 1931.
•  Bhagat Singh stands out in bold relief as someone who, at a young age, defined nation and nationalism for us.
•  He had an alternative framework of governance, which is strongly reflected in the corpus of writings that he has left behind.
•  Sadly, we hardly care to revisit this serious intellectual inheritance and only venerate him as a martyr. This veneration is laudable but incomplete.

Incisive commentary

•  Singh was barely 17 when he published his first article, in 1924, in Matwala , a Hindi magazine from Calcutta.
•  The subject was ‘Universal Brotherhood’, which was not a very easy issue to write on at such a young age.
•  He imagined a world where “all of us being one and none is the other. It will really be a comforting time when the world will have no strangers.”
•  All those who are busy “othering” and creating strangers out of their own fellow citizens need to grapple with Bhagat Singh’s views, instead of merely glorifying him as a martyr.
•  He emphatically exclaimed that “as long as words like black and white, civilized and uncivilized, ruler and the ruled, rich and poor, touchable and untouchable, etc., are in vogue there was no scope for universal brotherhood”.
•  He went on to say, “We will have to campaign for equality and equity.
•  Will have to punish those who oppose the creation of such a world.” Among the heroes of our freedom struggle, he was perhaps the only one who had this vision at such a young age.
•  His strongest critique was of untouchability and communalism, which continue to torment us as a nation.
•  He was fiercely frank and bold enough to critically comment on the politics of senior leaders such as Lala Lajpat Rai and express his differences.
•  He was also conscious of the international revolutionary struggles and ideologies, which is evident in a series of articles he wrote on ‘Anarchism’.

Inclusiveness came first

•  The decade of the 1920s saw a rise in communal politics, from both Hindu and Muslim groups. However, Bhagat Singh steadfastly remained committed to the idea of a plural and inclusive India.
•  He founded the Naujawan Bharat Sabha in Lahore in 1926, whose manifesto said, “Religious superstitions and bigotry are a great hindrance in our progress.
•  They have proved an obstacle in our way and we must do away with them. ‘The thing that cannot bear free thought must perish’.”

As a revolutionary leader

•  Singh was aware of international revolutionary struggles as well.
•  His three-part article on anarchism (1928), appeared before he authored his masterly essay, ‘Why I am an Atheist’.
•  Thus we can see here the evolution of his ideas on politics, society, religion and even faith in god.
•  While writing on anarchism, Bhagat Singh observed: “Our retrogressive thinking is destroying us.
•  We keep ourselves entangled in futile discussions about God and heaven, and remain busy in talking about the soul and God.
•  We are quick to dub Europe as capitalist and don’t think about their great ideas or pay any attention to them.
•  We love divinity and remain aloof from the world.”

Conclusion

•  This is what an anarchist stood for, Singh reaffirmed; he was not a blood-thirsty young man who believed in the bomb and the pistol, as the colonial government labelled all revolutionaries.
•  Today, we need to remember his revolutionary ideas.
•  Mere valorisation of his nationalism and ultimate sacrifice is true but sadly incomplete.
•  In these rancorous times, his intellectual bequest should be a beacon to build a new India.

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(The Gist of Kurukshetra) AGRICULTURE - A KEY COMPONENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

[MARCH-2019]

AGRICULTURE - A KEY COMPONENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Introduction

•  The agriculture sector is facing several challenges, The Economic Survey (2017-18) had I stated, "the last few seasons have witnessed a problem of plenty: farm revenues declining for a number of crops despite increasing production and market prices falling below the Minimum Support Price (MSP)".
•  To meet the challenges faced by the agriculture sector and improving the economic condition of the farmers, an InterMinisterial Committee has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Chief Executive Officer, National Rainfed Area Authority, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare to examine issues relating to doubling of farmers' income in real terms by the year 2022.

Major highlights observed by the committee

•  The committee has identified seven sources of income growth- improvement in crop and livestock productivity; resource use efficiency or savings in the cost of production; increase in the cropping intensity; diversification towards high value crops; improvement in real prices received by farmers; and shift from farm to non-farm occupations. The committee is also looking into the investments in and for agriculture - increasing public investments for agriculture-rural roads, rural electricity, irrigation; the need for policy support to enable investments by corporate sector in= agriculture.
•  Other Schemes are - Soil Health Card (SHC) Scheme, Neem Coated Urea (NCU), Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PMAASHA), Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), National Agriculture Market scheme (e-NAM), Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).
•  Schemes like National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), National Mission on Oilseeds & Oil Palm (NMOOP), National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), National Mission on Agricultural Extension & Technology (NMAET) and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) have been and revamped for ensuring overall development of farm sector. Hike in MSP
•  The Minimum Support Prices (MSPs} has been increased for all notified Kharif & Rabi Crops and other commercial crops for the season 2018-19 with a return of at least 50 per cent over cost of production. This has redeemed the promise of fixing the MSPs at least at a level of 50 percent return over cost of production as announced in the Union Budget 2018-19. PM-AASHA
•  The umbrella scheme Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PMAASHA)' provides for a holistic arrangement for assurance of a remunerative and stable price environment for growers/farmers to increase agriculture production and productivity. This umbrella scheme comprises the Price Support Scheme for pulses & oilseeds, Price Deficiency Payment Scheme & Pilot of Private Procurement & Stockist Scheme for oilseeds to ensure MSP to the farmers.

e-NAM

•  In order to provide an alternative to farmers for marketing avenues, the electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) was launched in April, 2016. The scheme envisages initiation of marketing platform at national level and support creation of infrastructure to enable e-marketing in 585 regulated markets across the country by March 2018. All the regulated markets have been linked electronically. This innovative market process is revolutionizing agri-markets by ensuring better price discovery, bringing in transparency and competition to enable farmers to get improved remuneration for their produce moving towards 'One Nation One Market'.

•  As per Union Budget announcement (2018-19)/ decision has been taken to develop and upgrade existing rural haats into Gramin Agricultural Markets (GRAMs). These GRAMs, electronically linked to eNAM portal and exempted from regulations  of Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs), will provide farmers facility to make direct sale to consumers and bulk purchasers. PMFBY

•  In April, 2016, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was launched after rolling back the earlier insurance schemes - National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS), Weather-based Crop Insurance scheme and Modified National Agricultural insurance Scheme.

•  Under the PMFBY, farmers pay a uniform premium of just 2 per cent for the more rain-dependent kharif crops and 1.5 per cent for all rabi crops. The remaining share of the premium is borne equally by the Centre and the respective State Governments.

•  In the schemes that existed earlier, the premiums paid by farmers was in the range of 4-8 percent of the insured value. The number of farmers who received claims due to crop loss under PMFBY has increased from 1.44 crore in 2016-17 to 1.62 crore in 2017-18.

Launch of PM KISAN

•  To provide an assured income support to the small and marginal farmers, 'Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)' programme has been launched. Under this programme, vulnerable landholding farmer families, having cultivable land upto two hectares, will be provided direct income support at the rate of Rs 6,000 per year. Around 12 crore small and marginal farmer families are expected to benefit from PMKISAN.
•  Under the programme the income support will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiary farmers in three equal installments of Rs 2,000 each. The programme would be made effective from 1st December 2018 and the first installment for the period upto 31st March 2019 would be paid during this year itself. This programme would not only provide assured supplemental income to the most vulnerable farmer families, but would also meet their emergent needs especially before the harvest season. Kisan Credit Card to Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Farmers
•  The KCC programme was announced in 1998 with the aim to provide short-term credit needs of the farmers during the sowing and harvesting of crops. It was also introduced to reduce the dependence of farmers on the informal banking channels like moneylenders. According to National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), a total number of 5.37 crore farmers have 'live and operative' KCCs issued by Public Sector Banks, Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks so far.
•  Those who have KCCs get agriculture credit at a reduced interest rate of 7 per cent per annum while Agriculture Ministry implements "an interest subvention scheme" for short-term crop loans up to Rs. 3 lakh. Under the subvention scheme, additional subvention of 3 per cent is given to those farmers who repay their short term crop loan on time, thus reducing the effective rate of interest to only 4 per cent per annum. All farmers who own cultivable and, tenant farmers, share croppers and SHGs of farmers could get credit under KKCs. However KCC was never expanded to include those farmers who carry out activities like fisheries, dairy etc.

Way forward

•  Several announcements have been made to improve rural infrastructure which would directly support improving efficiency of the agricultural sector.
•  Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), 15.80 lakh habitations out of a total of 17.84 lakh habitations have already been connected with pucca roads and the work Is expected to be completed soon.
•  PMGSY is being allocated Rs. 19,000 crore for 2019-20 (budget estimate) as against Rs. 15,500 crore in 2018-19 (revised estimate).
   

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(The Gist of Kurukshetra) RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE INTERIM BUDGET 2019-20

[MARCH-2019]

RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE INTERIM BUDGET 2019-20

•  Under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana { PM-KISAN), vulnerable landholding farmer families, having cultivable land upto 2 hectares, will be provided direct income support at the rate of Rs, 6,000 per year This income support will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiary farmers, in three equal instalments of Rs. 2,000 each. It is expected to benefit 12 crore small and marginal farmers.
•  Outlay for Rashtriya Gokul Mission increased to Rs. 750 crore.
•  Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog to be set up for sustainable genetic up-gradation of the Cow resources.
•  New separate Department of Fisheries for welfare of 1.5 crore fishermen.
•  2 percent interest subvention to Farmers for Animal husbandry and Fisheries activities; additional 3 percent in case of timely repayment.
•  Interest subvention of 2 per cent during disaster will now be provided for the entire period of reschedulement of loan.
•  Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan scheme to ensure fixed monthly pension to 10 crore unorganized sector workers, Rs. 3,000 per month after 60 years of age with an affordable contribution of only Rs 100/55 per month.
•  22nd AIIMS to be set up in Haryana.
•  Rs. 60,000 crore allocation for MGNREGA in BE 2019-20.
•  National Education Mission allocation increased by about 20 per cent to Rs. 38,572 crore in BE 2019-20.
•  25 per cent additional seats in educational institutions to meet the 10 per cent reservation for the poor.
•  10 percent reservation for the poor in educational institutions and government jobs.
•  Allocation for Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) increased by over 18 per cent to Rs. 27,584 crore in BE 2019-20.
•  Allocation for SCs increased by 35.6 per cent - from Rs. 56,619 crore in BE 2018-19 to Rs. 76,801 crore in BE for 2019-20. Allocation for the STs increased by 28 percent – from 39,135 crore in BE 2018-19 to Rs. 50,086 crore in 2019-20 BE.
•  Targeted expenditure to bridge urban-rural divide and to improve quality of life in villages. All willing households to be provided electricity connections by March 2019.
•  New Welfare Development Board under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for development and welfare of Denotified nomadic and semi nomadic tribes. 2 percent interest subvention on an incremental loan of Rs.1 crore for GST registered SMEs. At least 3 percent of the 25 per cent sourcing for the Government undertakings will be from women owned SMEs.
•  The Government to make 1 lakh villages into Digital Villages over next five years.

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(GIST OF YOJANA) Good Governance: Cornerstone to Development

[MARCH-2019]

Good Governance: Cornerstone to Development

Introduction

•  The definition of good governance continues to evolve, the Tenth Plan document had highlighted some manifestations of bad governance which include poor management of economy, denial of basic needs, threat to life and personal security, marginalization and exclusion, lack of sensitivity, transparency and accountability in state machinery, delayed justice and existence of voiceless poor with little opportunity for participating in governance and deterioration of physical environment.
•  The United Nations has defined eight pillars of good governance as- consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsible, equitable and inclusive, effective and efficient, rule of law, and participatory.
•  Under the Sustainable Development goals also, Goal 16 can be considered to be directly linked as it is dedicated towards improvement in governance, inclusion, participation, rights and security.

Development Agenda lndia(@ 75

•  NITI Aayog has brought out a comprehensive document viz. "Strategy for New India @75 spelling out the broad roadmap for the 75th year of India's Independence. This comprehensive document, comprising 41 chapters covering almost all sectors, spells out current status, binding constraints and strategies to not only enable India to become a 4 trillion dollar economy by 2022 but also lay a solid foundation for clean, inclusive, sustained and sustainable growth for the next three decades. Of these, as many as 7 chapters focus on governance, covering subjects such as balanced regional development, legal, judicial and police reforms, transforming  aspirational districts, civil service reforms, city governance, optimizing use of land resources, and data led governance. In the bound manner. Anchored in NITI, the programme is aimed at transforming 115 most backward districts with focused remaining chapters also, especially those relating to social sectors, good governance remains the key for better service delivery and more effective outcomes
• In the area of education one of the key  interventions in the field of health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water management, financial inclusion and skill development.
• The ADP is a landmark initiative that aims reforms suggested is a revamped governance system to improve monitoring and accountability. Thus, Slates should develop and formulate robust mechanisms to enforce regulations on teacher qualifications, teacher absenteeism and learning outcomes. Further, learning outcomes should be regularly assessed by bodies independent of the line ministries.
•  Another reform entails an electronic national educational registry for tracking each child's learning outcomes and final exams through a unique ID. This will not only assist in preparing a list of children who drop out after elementary education, but will also enable focused attention to the needs of children from socially deprived groups and those with physical or intellectual disabilities.
•  In the health sector, the document recommends improved governance in medical, nursing, dentistry and pharmacy education. It also suggests revamping the AYUSH, nursing, dentistry and pharmacy councils along the lines of the proposed National Medical Commission Bill, 2017. It is also proposed to establish a Council for Allied Health Professionals to ensure standardization of education and putting in place quality control mechanisms for educational institutions, teaching methods, clinical protocols and workforce management.

Aspirational Districts Programme

•  The Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) was launched in January 2018 to transform the lives of people in the under- developed areas of the country in a time to address governance issues by using a combination of approaches: lifting levels of aspirations through a vision and district plan, adequate institutional arrangements, convergence in all stakeholders' efforts and above all, ranking-based public competition among the districts by setting up a real-time monitoring mechanism.

Direct Benefits Transfer

•  Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) aims to develop a governance regime which ensures a simple and user-friendly Government to People (G2P) interface and directly delivers entitlements to eligible individuals and households in a fair, transparent, efficient and reliable manner. It helps in achieving multiple benefits. First of all, it cuts down the multiple layers for delivery of any benefit. Secondly, it reduces the delay in payments.
•  Thirdly it helps in accurate targeting of the beneficiaries and finally it facilitates curbing pilferage and duplication of beneficiaries.

Civil Service, Legal, Judicial and Police Reforms

•  A major area of governance reforms is the reorientation of the administrative set up, legal/ judicial system and maintaining law and order. With change in the socio- economic fabric, emergence of new mechanisms of service delivery and over 2.7 crore cases pending in various courts, this is an area requiring urgent attention.
•  NITI Aayog, in its document on New India @75, has made a number of suggestions in the areas of civil Service, legal/judicial and police reforms.

Civil Service Reforms

•  Improve the teeth to tail ratio and promote an officer-oriented culture.
•  Reduce the number of current 60 plus separate civil services at the central and state level through rationalization and harmonization of services.
•  Encourage lateral entry by inducting specialists especially at higher levels.
•  Bring down entry age in civil services.
•  Strengthen municipal cadres and outsource service delivery in possible areas.
•  Develop an inclusive citizen-centric framework in terms of service delivery, grievance redressal and public access to information with enhanced use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
• Ensure probity in governance by strengthening institutional mechanisms for prevention and detection of corruption, while at the same time protect honest civil servants.

Legal Reforms

•  Create a repository of all existing central and state laws, rules and regulations.
•  Repeal redundant laws and remove restrictive clauses in existing laws.
•  Reform criminal justice procedural laws with focus on pre-institution mediation.
•  Reduce the criminalization of violations, and move towards compounding of minor offences.
•  Prioritize court process automation and ICT enablement for electronic court and case management.
•  Introduce an administrative cadre in the judicial system.

Police Reforms

•  Modernising police forces and implementing the Model Police Act of 2015.
•  States to ensure greater representation of women in the police force.
•  Introduction of remodeled training modules, refresher courses and continuing education for police personnel.
•  Reform of the First Information Report (FIR) lodging mechanism, including introducing filing e-FLRs for minor offences.
•  Launch a common nation-wide emergency contact number to attend to emergency security needs of citizens.
•  Instituting a separate cadre for cyber- crimes, cyber threats and fraud.

E-Governance

•  To ensure a New India by 2022, some fundamental principles may need to be prioritized. These include making services available to the public in a faceless, paperless and cashless mode; providing connectivity and digital identity to all; targeting benefits through Aadhaar enabled DBT; simplifying forms and processes and providing e-platforms.
•  Every Ministry/Department needs to have a closer look at the schemes, its implementation, monitoring and evaluation framework with thrust on outcomes, not mere outputs or expenditure incurred.
•  Wherever possible, ICT and in due course.

Artificial Intelligence should be used for better outcomes. Likewise civil society, corporates, markets and citizens at large need to be involved in holistic development.

•  Artificial Intelligence can, in due course, play a major role in better implementation. At the same time, portals such as Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMs), the Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) and the MyGov need to be made more effective in information exchange, seeking feedback and addressing the grievances of citizens.

Conclusion

•  To summarize, good governance needs to continue being the cornerstone of various initiatives.
•  Once implemented in letter and spirit, the goals set for not only New India 2022, but also Sustainable Development Goals 2030 will be in the greater realm of achievement, more sooner than later.
   

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Travesty of justice: On Samjhauta case acquittals ties (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1: Society
Prelims level: Samjhauta Case
Mains level: Regionalism, Communalism, Secularism

Context

• The acquittal of Swami Aseemanand and three others brought to trial for the killing of 68 people on board the Delhi-Lahore Samjhauta Express near Panipat in February 2007 is bound to be seen as a travesty of justice.
• Any acquittal in a heinous crime will raise questions about the credibility of the investigation or the effectiveness of the prosecution;
• There are some cases in which the outcome may also spark cynical responses ranging from attribution of political motive to suspicion of institutional bias.

Highlights of the incident

• The train blast case, in which both Indian and Pakistani citizens died, may evoke all such responses.
• It casts a shadow on India’s ability and resolve to probe and prosecute major acts of terrorism. It is the third case in which Aseemanand has been acquitted.
• He was earlier cleared of involvement in the Ajmer Dargah blast, which killed three persons in October 2007, and the Mecca Masjid blast that left nine dead in Hyderabad in May 2007.
• Aseemanand, a.k.a. Naba Kumar Sarkar, was a key figure, according to the prosecution, behind a Hindu right-wing group that wanted to avenge incidents such as the Akshardham temple massacre of 2002.

Implication

• The contours of ‘saffron terror’ were revealed by Aseemanand in 2010 when he gave a lengthy statement before a magistrate, detailing the planning and execution of some key terrorist attacks between 2006 and 2008.
• This confession failed to convince the trial courts, mainly because of his subsequent retraction. That he was in police custody at the time also cast a doubt whether it was voluntary.
• There appears little doubt that the blast was aimed at destroying attempts to build friendly ties between India and Pakistan, and it is possible that extremists of any hue may have been behind it.
• However, the change of regime at the Centre in 2014 seemed to have weakened the National Investigation Agency’s resolve. Details of the verdict are not yet available, but it is clear that the prosecution case collapsed after key witnesses turned hostile.
• The trial proceedings opened in February 2014, but by early 2015 witnesses began turning hostile.

Conclusion

• Among these were one who removed a mobile phone from the body of Sunil Joshi, a prime accused in the case who was murdered in December 2007, and another who bought mobile phones and electric detonators.
• On the flip side, the fact that some early suspects were Muslims and that the U.S. and the UN had linked Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives such as Arif Qasmani to the blasts could have been important factors.
• The larger concern for the criminal justice system is whether such acquittals indicate innocence, or the prosecution’s lack of freedom and resolve to obtain a conviction.

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The REIT choice ties (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: REIT
Mains level: REIT impacts on financial Market

Context

•  Indian investors are partial to real estate and vastly prefer fixed income instruments over market-linked ones.
•  Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), which combine regular rental income with capital appreciation from property prices, have had a difficult time getting off the ground.
•  It has taken five sets of amendments to SEBI’s original REIT Regulations of 2014 and multiple tax tweaks, before India’s first REIT from Embassy Office Parks could flag off its initial public offer this week.
•  The institutional investors have lapped up the offer, individual investors have been hesitant in their response.
•  The tentative response reflects the lack of investor awareness about the vehicle and the peculiar challenges that the Indian market poses to the REIT structure.

REIT listings requirements

•  With 33 million sq ft of prime office assets under its belt, 95 per cent occupancy and rental income flowing mainly from multinational and IT firms, Embassy Office Parks is a good candidate to flag off REIT listings in India.
•  The offer also comes at a time when demand for commercial space has been outpacing supply, resulting in soaring commercial rental yields.
•  SEBI has set a high governance bar on Indian REITs by requiring sponsor skin-in-the-game, independent valuation of assets, mandating 90 per cent distribution of surpluses and empowering unit-holders to change management, approve asset disposals and borrowings.
•  But Indian REITs face multiple operational challenges relative to their developed market counterparts.
•  The fragmented property market and complicated land acquisition rules make it necessary for REITs to take on leverage and adopt a multi-layered holding structure.
•  The grey component in property deals and the illiquid nature of the market render NAV calculations tricky.
•  Taxation of REIT returns for investors is a complicated affair too, with different tax rates applicable on dividend, rental and interest income.
•  But most important, with risk-free government schemes offering guaranteed returns as high as 8 per cent, Indian REITs need to manage very high yields as well as capital appreciation to attract domestic investors.
•  For the Embassy IPO, being the first REIT offer, lack of investor familiarity with the vehicle has also been a challenge, with confusion over the offer structure, gross versus net yield, applicable costs and taxation aspects.

Way forward

•  REITs have an important role to play in the formalisation of the Indian real estate sector. REIT IPOs also offer a good route for the beleaguered real estate developers to deleverage.
•  Therefore, before more such offers can tap the markets, SEBI must kick off an investor education initiative to create greater awareness about REITs.
•  A rejig of standard IPO offer documents/disclosures to reflect their unique characteristics is also in order.
•  Advisors, who have struggled to evaluate this product, need to equip themselves.
•  The post-listing performance of the Embassy Office REIT is likely to be closely watched by other property market participants.

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People, not the state, must own their data ties (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Security
Prelims level: The draft national e-commerce policy
Mains level: The draft national e-commerce policy highlights

Context

• The draft national e-commerce policy argues that the personal data of Indians should be treated as a “national asset”.
• It pushes for government access to the source code and algorithms used by foreign companies.
• Additionally, the data protection Bill includes a mandate to force all public and private entities that process Indians’ data — including foreign companies — to store a copy of all personal data in the country.

Steps taken by the government

• On a parallel track, the government has also sought to expand the state’s surveillance powers by issuing a notice at the end of last year empowering 10 government agencies to monitor, intercept, and collect data from any computer.
• We first argue that data is a personal asset and not a national asset.
• The EU has taken the lead in ensuring consumer protection and consumer rights over data.
• The General Data Protection Regulation was formulated in 2016 and enforced in 2018.
• This is arguably the most comprehensive law on data protection existing in the world today.
• Under this law, the consumer is the sole owner of the data and the companies collecting data have the onus of informing the consumer about how the data is going to be used after suitable pseudonymization/anonymization and whether they share it with a third party.
• The consumer has the right to revoke any rights given to the company collecting the data and a right to data portability.

Core principles guidelines

• As we formulate our e-commerce policy and our norms around data, we must ensure that the core principles guiding regulation regarding data must be centred around the following:
• Notice: Data collectors should disclose their use and disclosure practices before they collect personal information from consumers.
• Choice: Consumers must be given options as to whether and how the personal information collected may be used for other than the original purpose for the data collection. Consumers should have data portability and should be allowed to take their personal data to another platform.
• Access: Consumers should be able to view and contest the accuracy and completeness of the data collected about them.
• Security: Data collectors should take reasonable steps to ensure information collected from consumers is accurate and secure from unauthorised use.
• Enforcement: There must be an efficient mechanism to enforce all the above.

What needs to be done?

• Data that has been appropriately ‘pseudonymized/anonymized’ after individual owners have allowed for itsgreater use, can be made available as a public good for common use on fair and non-discriminatory terms.
• Data generated by users on e-commerce platforms is currently managed by the platform under its own rules of whom to share with.
• There is clear need to democratise the process of data sharing and allow all stakeholders to access relevant data.
• Data is indeed a common resource which needs a regulatory authority to ensure fair access for all market participants but this should not devolve into the regulator becoming the owner of the data.
• For free and fair markets, everyone must have equal access to data.
• The government’s role must be in ensuring the free and fair access to data and at the same time protecting the rights of the individual.
• Data generated by consumers which is being used for commercial purposes by e-commerce entities must be available to vendors on the platform and also to potential entrants.
• The consumer must first give an informed consent for the use of such data.

Way forward

• An e-commerce platform is in the best position to monitor market demand and trends.
• If the platform is also a supplier on its own platform, then as a supplier it can pick the best products to focus on.
• This makes the other vendors’ situation very precarious because if they have a product that sells very well, the in-house production is likely to replicate that same product and become a competitor.
• This not only harms competition but is also detrimental to consumer surplus in the long run.
• The control of data collected on the platform by the e-commerce entity additionally gives the platform a knowledge advantage a newcomer cannot easily surmount.
• At the same time, data makes it more likely that users of the platform prefer to stay with the platform rather than switch to another platform.
• At any different platform the experience will not be as good as in the current one due to the other platform’s lack of individual level data.
• Again this not only harms competition today but is also detrimental to consumer surplus in the long run.

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