Groundbreaking: On Ram temple bhoomipujan (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Governance 
Prelims level:Ayodhya Ram Temple
Mains level:  Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

Context:

• The bhoomipujan or the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a grand temple for Lord Sri Ram in Ayodhya marks an end and a beginning. 
• What it ends and what it begins can both be interpreted in different ways; how India collectively makes meaning out of it will define the future of the country hereon. 

Political ascendancy:

• One view is that the rising Ram temple signifies the end of perceived humiliation of the Hindus and the beginning of a new phase of their political ascendancy.
• The other is that it denotes the end of strife that shackled India’s potential for decades and heraldsa new dawn of fraternityamong religious communities. 
• The end and the beginning, therefore, are not just open to interpretation, they hold the possibilities of change. 
• For those who yearned for a temple at the site which they believe is the exact spot of Sri Ram’s birth, the journey so far has been tumultuousand violent. 
• A Muslim place of worship that stood there for 464 years was demolished in 1992 to make way for the temple — a serious crime according to the Supreme Court order last year that handed over the site to the Hindus. 
• The proponentsof the temple must consider this an occasion to seek conciliation over conquest, dialogue over diatribe, and tranquilityover triumphalism.

Crossing of separation:

• The ceremony itself manifested multiple possibilities for the country’s future. 
• In symbolism and rhetoric, the line of separation between state and religion was ominouslycrossed, notably by the role of Prime Minister Modi in it. 
• In his speech, however, he cited Lord Ram’s adherence to justice, fairness and empathy for the vulnerable. He emphasised the importance of these values for the present. 
• But while outlining a road map for an inclusive future, his interpretation of the past echoed familiar tropes of sectarian politics. 
• Relitigatinghistorical wrongs has rarely been the foundation for a harmonious and prosperous future. 
• In India’s case, many of them are an outcome of its unpleasant encounter with British colonialism. 
• Recent path-breaking studies in genetics have unearthed India’s past of being a melting pot of populations and cultures over millennia. 

Conclusion:

• India must put the acrimoniouspolitical mobilisations over religious issues behind it, and look forward to modern, secular governance. 
• The construction of the temple is the logical result of the Supreme Court judgment; it should mark the end of an older, bitter phase of India, and the beginning of a new, harmonious phase.
• As the Ram temple gets under way, India must put the past of a communal struggle behind.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the draft Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy 2020 (DPEPP 2020), consider the following statements:
1. It aims to achieve a turnover of Rs 1, 75, 000 Crores (US$ 25Bn) including export of Rs 35,000 Crore (US$ 5 Billion) in Aerospace and Defence goods and services by 2025.
2. It aims to create an environment that encourages research and development rewards innovation and creates Indian IP ownership.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1) Highlights the key features of the architectural elements of Nagara Style. 

Mapping the virus (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Health 
Prelims level:Serological tests
Mains level: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health

Context:

• After the results of Delhi’s first serological survey were announced, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal suggested that the capital was on the road to herd immunity. 
• The second round of the serological survey conducted by the Delhi government concluded on Friday. 

Developing antibodies:

• The results of the first survey had shown that nearly a fourth of the respondents had developed antibodies against the novel coronavirus. 
• The Delhi government intends to use the results of its latest survey “to tailor its (COVID-19) strategy to the changing circumstances”.
• It plans to make such studies a monthly affair. The health authorities of Mumbai and Ahmedabad have also conducted serological surveys. 
• These are much-needed endeavours given that several facets of the coronavirus are still in the realm of the unknown. 
• Experts, however, rightly counsel that the data generated should only be used to draw estimates about the spread of the virus, and not reach conclusions about immunity against the pathogen.
• After the results of Delhi’s first serological survey were announced, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal suggested that the capital was on the road to herd immunity. Such a sweeping inference is problematic. 
• The threshold of herd immunity with respect to COVID-19 is uncertain. We do not know what percentage of infected people will ensure immunity to a community.

Immune response:

• It would also be wrong to extrapolate the data from one pocket onto a broader community. A person starts developing an immune response in about two weeks of contracting the contagion, but we do not know how many antibodies are required to stave off a re-infection. 
• The jury is still out on whether antibodies offer lasting immunity against the virus. In any case, a positive serology report does not tell if a person has an adequate number of antibodies to repel the pathogen. 
• Experts reckon that an antibody positive person needs to be tracked for several months to ascertain if she has developed an adaptive immune response to repeated attacks by the virus.

Way forward:

• The WHO cautions against the use of serological tests for granting immunity passports. But it also recommends such tests for academic purposes that could guide nuanced public health responses. 
• For example, they can help health authorities to ascertain vulnerabilities on the basis of socio-economic status, geographic location, age-group or gender. 
• For that to happen, the data has to be disaggregated to account for such variables. 
• The Delhi government’s decision to collect samples across distinct age groups in its second serological survey is, therefore, a move in the right direction.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the SpaceX's Demo-2 Crew Dragon spacecraft, consider the following statements:
1. It was the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to carry people to and from orbit.
2. SpaceX's Demo-2 Crew Dragon spacecraft splashdown is the first water landing since 1975, when the NASA astronauts on the joint Apollo-Soyuz test mission returned home. 
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1)What are serological tests?How it is different from genetic test?How serological tests work?

Mapping the virus (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Health 
Prelims level:Serological tests
Mains level: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health

Context:

• After the results of Delhi’s first serological survey were announced, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal suggested that the capital was on the road to herd immunity. 
• The second round of the serological survey conducted by the Delhi government concluded on Friday. 

Developing antibodies:

• The results of the first survey had shown that nearly a fourth of the respondents had developed antibodies against the novel coronavirus. 
• The Delhi government intends to use the results of its latest survey “to tailor its (COVID-19) strategy to the changing circumstances”.
• It plans to make such studies a monthly affair. The health authorities of Mumbai and Ahmedabad have also conducted serological surveys. 
• These are much-needed endeavours given that several facets of the coronavirus are still in the realm of the unknown. 
• Experts, however, rightly counsel that the data generated should only be used to draw estimates about the spread of the virus, and not reach conclusions about immunity against the pathogen.
• After the results of Delhi’s first serological survey were announced, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal suggested that the capital was on the road to herd immunity. Such a sweeping inference is problematic. 
• The threshold of herd immunity with respect to COVID-19 is uncertain. We do not know what percentage of infected people will ensure immunity to a community.

Immune response:

• It would also be wrong to extrapolate the data from one pocket onto a broader community. A person starts developing an immune response in about two weeks of contracting the contagion, but we do not know how many antibodies are required to stave off a re-infection. 
• The jury is still out on whether antibodies offer lasting immunity against the virus. In any case, a positive serology report does not tell if a person has an adequate number of antibodies to repel the pathogen. 
• Experts reckon that an antibody positive person needs to be tracked for several months to ascertain if she has developed an adaptive immune response to repeated attacks by the virus.

Way forward:

• The WHO cautions against the use of serological tests for granting immunity passports. But it also recommends such tests for academic purposes that could guide nuanced public health responses. 
• For example, they can help health authorities to ascertain vulnerabilities on the basis of socio-economic status, geographic location, age-group or gender. 
• For that to happen, the data has to be disaggregated to account for such variables. 
• The Delhi government’s decision to collect samples across distinct age groups in its second serological survey is, therefore, a move in the right direction.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the SpaceX's Demo-2 Crew Dragon spacecraft, consider the following statements:
1. It was the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to carry people to and from orbit.
2. SpaceX's Demo-2 Crew Dragon spacecraft splashdown is the first water landing since 1975, when the NASA astronauts on the joint Apollo-Soyuz test mission returned home. 
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1)What are serological tests?How it is different from genetic test?How serological tests work?

Alert amid uncertainty: On RBI holding interest rates (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy 
Prelims level:CPI inflation rate
Mains level: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment

Context:

• The RBI has prudently decided to keep its powder dry for now, citing the “extreme uncertainty” that characterises the current outlook for inflation and economic activity. 
• Observing that the “unprecedented shock” from the pandemic has left the economy stressed, the RBI said that while the monetary policy committee recognised the primacy of supporting a recovery.It was necessarily mindful of its inflation targeting mandate. 

Inflation target:

• The picture on prices is clouded by many uncertainties. 
• While the provisional June CPI inflation reading of 6.1% had edged over the upper bound of the mandated medium-term goal of 4% plus/minus 2%, a spike in food prices as well as cost push pressures from higher transport fuel and raw material prices were combining to obscure the inflation outlook.
• Vowing to ensure that the policy stance remains ‘accommodative’ for as long as needed to revive growth, Governor Shaktikanta Das emphasised that the RBI was ready to act on rates once a durable reduction in inflation was sighted. 
• However, the projections remain less than encouraging. The latest round of households’ expectations of price gains in an RBI survey shows that consumers expect inflation to remain elevated in the near term — a finding that the RBI’s assessment broadly backs.

Worrisome future:

• While the RBI expects the rural economy to turn in a robust recovery on the back of a strong showing by agriculture, a deterioration in consumer sentiment in the central bank’s July survey undermines the prospects for a more broadbased revival in domestic demand. Additionally, external demand faces headwinds from a world economy in recession and as global trade shrinks. 
• Forecasting a contraction in real GDP in the current fiscal year, the RBI rather optimistically posits that an early containment of the pandemic may impart an upside surprise to its outlook. 
• Interestingly, its analysis of the macro-economic environment skirts the potential challenges that heightened tensions with China, one of India’s largest trading partners and, in recent years, a source of inbound foreign capital, could pose to the economy. 
• The central bank has therefore opted to focus its energies on trying to untangle the kinks hindering the flow of credit amid more than adequate liquidity, wary lenders and severely stressed borrowers. 
• The restructuring, resolution and enhanced gold loan proposals mooted by the RBI acknowledge the sheer scale of the pandemic’s devastation on the finances of firms and households. 

Conclusion:

• The onus now is on Governor Das to ensure that the stability of the financial sector is safeguarded even as loan terms are reset to protect otherwise viable businesses. 
• Any harm to financial stability risks undermining the economy as a whole.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the World Sanskrit Day, consider the following statements:
1. The Sanskrit organisation Samskrita Bharati is involved in promoting the day. 
2. It is celebrated on Shraavanapoornima that is the Poornima day of the Shraavana month in the Hindu calendar.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1)Highlights the various monetary policy tools of RBI. Also, analysis their impacts on Indian economy.

Cartographic challenge: On Pakistan’s new map (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International 
Prelims level:Sir creek line
Mains level:  India and its neighborhood- relations

Context:

• The Ministry of External Affairs has termed Pakistan’s announcement of a new political map, as an exercise in “political absurdity.”
• The new map asserts its claims on Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek, and lays a new claim to Junagadh.
• MEA accused Pakistan of attempting a form of “territorial aggrandisementsupported by cross-border terrorism”. 

Tit for tat:

• Pakistan’s decision to issue the map was a tit-for-tat manoeuvrein return for India’s decision to reorganise Jammu and Kashmir a year ago. 
• It appears to reset several agreements with India that have been concretisedover the past 70 years. 
• The map the Imran Khan government unveiled lays claim to all of Jammu and Kashmir, thus far shown as disputed territory and renames J&K as “Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir”. 
• The new map leaves the claim line with Ladakh unclear. While each of these acts is outrageousfor New Delhi, it should also be questioned in Islamabad. 
• Pakistan’s claim to all of J&K, but not Ladakh, goes against its own commitment to adjudicatethe future of all six parts of the erstwhileroyal state of J-K (Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, PoK and Aksai Chin) with India. 

Audacious claims:

• The claims to Siachen and Sir Creek, that have been the subject of several discussions between India and Pakistan, are also a regressivestep. 
• While both sides had reached an impasseon Siachen, the Sir Creek agreement had made considerable progress, and was reportedly even resolved, pending a political announcement in 2007. 
• Either way, both were without doubt disputed areas, and Pakistan’s unilateral claim over them is not helpful or conducive to future resolution. 
• Finally, the move on Junagadh, a former princely state whose accession to India was accepted by Pakistan, opens up a whole new dispute. 
• While Junagadh was in contention at the time of Partition, the issue was successfully resolved after a referendum was conducted there in February 1948, in which an overwhelming 95% of the state’s residents voted to stay with India.

Conjunction:

• As New Delhi considers its next moves on this provocation, it should be prepared for Pakistan taking all the issues it has raised with its new map to the international stage. 
• Pakistan’s actions, while on completely bilateral matters, come in conjunctionwith map-related issues India faces today on two other fronts.
• One with China at the Line of Actual Control on Ladakh, and another with Nepal at Kalapani and Limpiyadhura (which Nepal’s government has also issued a new map about). 
• It is surely no coincidence that all three countries objected to the map New Delhi had issued in November 2019, albeitfor different reasons. 

Conclusion:

• Pakistan’s new map is intended to provokeIndia, and internationalise the border disputes
• New Delhi must be well-prepared to deal with the three-pronged challenge it will face in the coming months.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Metamaterials, consider the following statements:
1. Metamaterials are artificially crafted materials with unique internal microstructures that give them properties not found in nature. 
2. Researchers in the IIT-Madras and the University of Nairobi have used metamaterials to improve detection of defects in large structures by guided wave ultrasound. 
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1)Recent a new political map is unveiled by Pakistan showing all of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Sir Creek and Junagadh portions on their side. In this context, what are its implication and how India well-prepared to deal such cartographic challenges?

A global solution for the digital world (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: International 
Prelims level:OECD
Mains level:  Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests

Context:

• The process to reform international tax rules, that began in 2012, arose primarily because under the existing corporate tax system, traditional businesses were taxed on conventional principles. 
• However, digital companies paid low taxes by locating their intellectual property in low tax jurisdictions and more so by having minimal or no taxable presence in the market. 
• Therefore, their profits are not commensurateto their revenues in markets such as India.

 OECD:

• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 37 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. 

Conflicting proposals:

• In trying to find a solution agreeable to all, multilateral relations have been tested repeatedly. To begin with, conflicting proposals were made by countries. 
• Some suggested that existing rules were enough and could be updated to appropriately tax profits of digital companies. 
• Others, including India, stressed that a new basis to establish the taxable presence of these remotely operable companies is necessary. 
• Nevertheless, the inescapable trade-off between consensus and tax sovereignty remained. 
• To strike a balance, the OECD weaved various proposals by the US, the UK and India into a unified approach. 
• Even though the proposal sought to implement a simplified approach, it was fraught with a series of practical complexities. 
• The most crucial among these being identifying a non-routine profit from a routine profit. 
• To add to this, the process of implementation would itself require a significant departure from the existing dispute resolution mechanisms.

 OECD:

• The OECD assured market jurisdictions that down the line, international tax rules will be re-examined and reformed so that tax is paid duly in countries that are the source of such incomes. 
• However, as the timelines for the finalisation of the programme drew closer, chances of an agreeable outcome seemed bleak.
• Heightening apprehensions of an impasse, the US announced, in February 2020, that it would implement a unified approach on a safe harbour basis. 
• The desire for such exclusion would render the agreement meaningless considering that most big technology companies are residents of the US. 
• The OECD’s estimates were no more encouraging — the proposal, if implemented, would bring 1- 2 per cent of current corporate tax revenues.

 Consensus based solution:

• Thereafter, with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent slump in economic activity, governments turned their attention to domestic issues. 
• To find an interim fix, countries began implementing digital services tax (DST) on gross revenues from online advertising and e-commerce sales. 
• India expanded the scope of equalisation levy in March 2020, earlier applicable only to online advertising, to the sale of goods and services by e-commerce operators. 
• Others, such as Indonesia, introduced the electronic transaction tax and the UK passed the digital services tax. 
• Further, the US’s vacillation over the proposal in June was no assurance of an imminentglobal solution. 
• The US Treasury Secretary expressed that the US was inclined to pause the digital tax talks.
• Shortly after, as other countries remained committed to proceed, the US clarified that a consensus based solution was ideal and it would participate in the July talks.

USTR:

• The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is the United States government agency responsible for developing and recommending United States trade policy to the president of the United States.
• It conducting trade negotiations at bilateral and multilateral levels, and coordinating trade policy within the government through the interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) and Trade Policy Review Group (TPRG).

 USTR investigations:

• In the meantime to stall the proliferationof digital taxes, USTR investigations, under Section 301 of Trade Act 1974, have also been launched against 10 countries, including India. 
• The investigation will examine if the tax is unfair, unreasonable and unequitable. Consequently, retaliatory tariffs may be imposed to recover the costs of such taxes. 
• The USTR investigations have a long history and are ironically unilaterally initiated. 
• It also isn’t the first time that the US and the EU have attempted to settle their disagreement on tax matters by invoking WTO rules. 
• In 2017, the US’s sweeping “reform” of the tax system included a foreign deduction of intangible incomes — a provision that the EU described as an export subsidy to US corporations by allowing export linked tax deductions.
• Nevertheless, investigations are underway and a group of companies in the Silicon Valley have made their submission characterising DSTs as discriminatory and a form of leverage to nudge the US to negotiate. 
• On the contrary, India has clarified that the lower thresholds for the application of the tax would apply more widely to companies of many jurisdictions and is entirely consistent with India’s position under the WTO. 
• Since it was implemented on April 1 2020, it has not been retrospectively applied and India remains committed to the multilateral process. 
• The threat of the imposition of tariffs comes at a time when there is an unprecedented slowdown in global trade. 
• The imposition of tariffs must therefore be weighed against their costs to the domestic economy. 

Conclusion:

• Despite the recent developments, the G20 remains committed to the process. OECD has set itself an ambitious target and announced that it will deliver the blueprints of design by October this year. 
• While some allude to a consensus, it is amply clear that the hopes from the process are varied. 
• To avoid the mutual costs from trade wars, perhaps efforts to modify DSTs into a simpler withholding tax may pave the way for desired reform.
• A multilateral approach is needed to resolve concerns over digital taxes.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the HAMMER missiles, consider the following statements:
1. France has recently agreed to supply HAMMER missiles to India for the Rafale combat aircraft.
2. It has been developed by Safran Electronics & Defense for the French Air Force and Navy.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1)A multilateral approach is needed to resolve concerns over digital taxes. Comment.

The new cool(Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level:National Handloom Day
Mains level: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors

Context:

• In a country of billions, what has emerged out of the recent health conundrumis the need to be “atmanirbhar”, an emotion that surpasses the human need for acquisitions. 
• Thus, the rise of the “Made in India” sentiment, which has captured both the hearts and minds of conscious millennials.                                                                       

Reviving the industry:

• Not surprising then that handlooms are the flavour of the season. After all, the sector employs almost 3.5 million people with each region paying homage to its innate culture through the fabric of freedom. 
• The movement has been gaining popularity over many years, but a noticeable momentum began four years ago, when the Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani’s #iwearhandloom became a sensation on Twitter, where handspun was celebrated with pride. 
• This renewed the pledge to both support and resuscitatethe industry.
• The results were both ingenious and innovative, with not just design interventions with the help of leading style gurus, but also a government grant to the textile ministry for providing financial assistance to languishing weavers.
• The key is in establishing a direct connection between retailers and weavers to eliminate the middleman, urging e-commerce giants to pitch in. 
• The textile industry is dominated by women — they constitute almost 72 per cent of it — and the textile minister has offered various schemes like the National Handloom Development Programme to empower them.

Need for foreign investment:

• Interestingly, Prime Minister, besides being an avid supporter of textiles, has reiterated the need for foreign investment to create employment as well as skill development. 
• Almost 30 million farmers are a part of producing 60 per cent natural fibres in India, which is the need of the hour to help boost the economy. Most importantly, sustainability is setting the new world order.
• India’s population, of which 50 per cent is below 25, and more than 65 per cent is below 35, has embraced this message. 
• Whether it is schools or colleges, handlooms have succeeded in marking their presence in youngsters’ wardrobes. 
• The fact that designers who have adopted clusters for Ikkat, Chanderi, Maheshwari among others, or even the rise of Banaras as a hotspot, is a sign of the popularity of going eco-friendly. 
• What has further generated interest is the National Crafts Museum and Hastkala Academy, Pragati Maidan, which showcase short-term courses for the discerning few who would like to equip themselves with knowledge about handloom/craft and Indian textile traditions.

Key opportunities:

• As we grasp with new realities, the education sector has made strides in incorporating this aesthetic in their curriculum by taking fashion students on trips to clusters. 
• This has opened a plethoraof opportunities for them. As they enter the real world, they stitch together endearing stories of Indian crafts through their design prowess.
• The Fashion Design Council of India has taken many steps to support handlooms. 
• They initiated on Instagram a series titled “Celebrating the Maker” last month where designers paid homage to handloom weavers that they have been associated with. 
• Another major thrust has been witnessed at the India Fashion Week where handlooms have been given a place of pride and for many years along with Ministry of Textiles, many programmes with designers and clusters have been initiated.
• On handloom day, the FDCI board has decided that it will allocate from the COVID trust fund an amount to buy unsold stocks from weavers. 
• The weavers will be identified by the DC handlooms, under the Ministry of Textiles, as well as the handloom designers.

Conclusion:

• With government support and growing awareness, handlooms have captured the hearts and minds of conscious millennials.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Rapid antigen detection test for Covid-19, consider the following statements:
1. It is a test on swabbed nasal samples that detects antigens that are found on or within the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
2. Each antigen has distinct surface features, or epitopes, resulting in specific responses.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1)What are the key opportunities in national handloom industry?

With MGNREGA’s help (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: National 
Prelims level: MGNREGA
Mains level:  Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes

Context:

• The MGNREGA has created 153.16 crore person-days of employment during April-July. 
• Not only is this way higher than the 107.24 person-days for the corresponding four months of last fiscal, but also significant compared to the 267.96 crore and 265.35 crore person-days generated in the whole of 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively. 
• Moreover, it is necessary to note that April was a washout month.

Surge in demand:

• With the focus of administrations then on enforcing the lockdown, the 11.93 crore person-days of employment was less than half of that during the same month last year. 
• The real ramp-uphappened in May (50.88 crore person-days) and June (61.44 crore, an all-time-high), before falling to 28.91 crore in July.
• In short, MGNREGA has done what it is expected to do even in normal times: Provide work in rural areas during the peak summer months when the rabi crop would already have been harvested and kharif plantings are still to gather pace. 
• The current times have, of course, been far from normal. MGNREGA is intended primarily as an employment scheme for unskilled rural manual workers. 
• This time round, though, it was supposed to also cater to migrant labourers returning to their villages. While there are reports of even engineers and graduates enrolling for work, it’s clear how widespread this phenomenon is. 
• Also, MGNREGA guarantees only 100 days of work to all adult members of a rural household at wage rates ranging from as low as Rs 190 in Chhattisgarh to Rs 309 in Haryana. 
• Clearly, it cannot substitute for what the returning migrant labourers were earning as drivers, electricians, plumbers, masons and carpenters or even as less-skilled security guards and loaders in factories. It translates into temporary relief at best.

Doing the right thing:

• Overall, the government has done the right thing by stepping up allocations both for MGNREGA and PDS grains. 
• But in the end, MGNREGA cannot be any more than a scheme that provides employment during the agricultural lean season for landless labourers and marginal cultivators. 
• Now, the focus has to be on getting people, including the migrant labourers, back to normal work.

Conclusion:

• MNREGA has helped mitigateincreased rural distress due to Covid. Now, focus on getting people back to normal work.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Tariff Rate Quota Scheme, consider the following statements:
1. Under the scheme, the government allows import of only maize and milk. 
2. Recently the Centre has notified norms for import of 5 lakh tonnes of maize under Tariff Rate Quota Scheme during the current financial year at a concessional customs duty of 15 %. 

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: B

Mains Questions:
Q.1)What are the issues involved in the proper implementation of the MGNREGAscheme?

Bank and the Covid Pain (Indian Express)

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

Context: 

• An irony of history is that PM Indira’s speech to the nation at 8.30 pm in 1969, announcing “bank nationalisation is being done to allocate credit to farmers, small enterprises and the self-employed” was drafted by I G Patel. 
• But by 1979, the then RBI Governor Patel wisely reflected: “Credit is not a gift or a subsidy and it has to be repaid. 
• Otherwise any credit expansion, no matter how worthy the recipient or cause, will only waste scarce national resources that a poor country cannot afford. 
• To encourage anybody to incur debt which cannot be repaid or to encourage wilful non-repayment, would be to mock the very concept of development and elimination of poverty.” 
• COVID creates deep pain but we must resist consistently choosing borrowers over lenders and persist with our multi-year five-pillar strategy to sustainably raise our Credit to GDP ratio from 50% to 100%.

Key lessons learned:

• A modern economy grows by lending and a modern state is a welfare state. 
• But fiscal constraints or natural disasters often create temptations to disguise spending as lending. 
• COVID’s pain is breeding unreasonable requests like interest waivers, endless moratorium extensions, blanket one-time restructurings, fudging accounting, reducing capital adequacy, 24-month IBC suspension, etc. 
• It’s also breeding an academic blame game that insists the problem pertains to personalities, not structure. 
• The last 50 years suggest that the Diet Coke approach to banking — taste without the calories — doesn’t work in raising the financial inclusion of migrants, self-employed, and MSMEs. 

The last 20 years have given three lessons:

• Giving loans is easier than getting them back (corporate credit growing from Rs 18 lakh crore in 2008 to Rs 54 lakh crore in 2014 created a Rs 12 lakh crore bad loan problem);
• The breaking the thermometer doesn’t help the fever (disallowing accounting fudging and restructuring would have saved Rs 7 lakh crore because banks would have run out of capital) and
• The government banks need more than capital (their risk-weighted assets are lower than two years ago despite a Rs 2 lakh crore capital infusion).History recommends patiently balancing financial inclusion and stability by persisting with our five-pillar strategy.

Five-pillar strategy:
Bank competition:

• India had 82 banks in 1924, 97 in 1947, and has 95 scheduled commercial banks today.
• Socialism is essentially capitalism without competition — our bank drought represents the zero-sum mentality of socialism.
• Raising credit availability and lowering its price needs competition-driven innovation.
• Capital should be chasing Indian banking given its high net interest margins, high market cap to book value ratios, and massive addressable market.
• Yet, the RBI’s on-tap licencing has few applications pending. We need many more banks.

Private Bank Governance:

• Private banks are only 30 per cent of deposits but 80 per cent of bank market capitalisation, 77 per cent of incremental deposits, and 77 per cent incremental loans.
• Private banks are a special species — society does not allow anybody else 20 times leverage, but this makes privatised gains and socialised losses possible.
• Recent accidents suggest problems with public shareholder collective action and the attention, skill, and courage of board directors.
• Private bank governance must move from a jaagir (perpetual private fiefdom) to amaanat (trustees that hand over in better condition to the next generation).

Government Bank governance:

• Government banks and companies sometimes have the wrong “tone from the top” that says the return on equity and market capitalisation doesn’t matter.
• But as Warren Buffet says, equity markets may be voting machines in the short run but they are weighing machines in the long run.
• Over 10 years, government companies have sunk from 30 per cent of India’s market capitalisation to 6 per cent.
• Government banks mirror this decline — their 70 per cent bank deposit share translates to only 20 per cent bank market capitalisation share.
• Many have irrational employee costs to market capitalisation ratios (Bank of India, 58 per cent, Canara Bank, 77 per cent, and Punjab and Sind Bank, 155 per cent).
• We need only four government banks with strong governance and no tax access for capital.

RBI’s regulation and supervision:

• Recent accidents in financial institutions reinforce the importance of statutory auditors, ethical conduct, shareholder self-interest, and risk management.
• But they also suggest a first-principles review that raises the RBI’s regulation and supervision game.
• Zero failure is impossible, but the RBI should boldly re-imagine its current mandate, structure and technology.

Non-bank regulatory space:

• A regulatory apartheid traditionally existed between banks and non-banks.
• But progress in payments, MSME lending, and consumer credit suggest that non-banks are important for financial inclusion.
• They need more regulatory space and supervision.

 Calibrating exit strategy:

• Progress is underway. Forex reserves are at a high and interest rates at a low. Borrower rate transmission is improving. 
• Our billion digital mobile payments a month target has been reached and replaced by a new target of a billion payments a day. Bank and NBFC accidents have seen orderly resolution. 
• The RBI’s bank governance note is open for comments. The RBI has an internal committee to review bank licencing and capital norms. 
• It is creating a new specialised cadre for supervision and creating a college of supervisors. 
• The RBI is raising its supervisory technology investments and revamping early warning models. It is finalising an ambitious five-year vision for HR and technology. 
• RBI has proposed licencing competitors to the NPCI. “Phone” banking and board lobbying in government banks has stopped. 
• The IBC is a world-class bankruptcy law that will soon resume with vigour.
• Deposit insurance limits have been raised with a risk-based premium framework proposed. And the RBI is calibratingan exit strategy for emergency COVID measures.

Conclusion:

• Bank nationalisation captured the idealism of the 1967 Hazari Committee (nationalising banks to democratise credit) and the 1955 Avadi Resolution (controlling a myopic private sector). 
• This idealism didn’t deliver — our credit to GDP ratio is embarrassing (same as Bangladesh and lower than Iran) and the bad loan problem is unaffordable. 
• God willing, we won’t test the RBI’s COVID worst-case scenario of 14.7 per cent bad loans but handling the inevitable COVID bank pain needs resisting short-termism.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the social media and armed forces, consider the following statements:
1. The Counter Intelligence (CI) units of the Military Intelligence (MI) have been asked to be more pro-active in detecting violation of protocols for social media and smartphones.
2. Number of social media sites and applications had been banned for serving personnel.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1) Describe the five-pillar strategy behind bank nationalisation in India. What are reasons the behind their failures? 

The new L-G (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Governance 
Prelims level:Lieutenant Governor
Mains level: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

Context:

• Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu’s abrupt departure from the Raj Bhavan at Srinagar, and the quick appointment of his successor has shone timely light on the continuing absence of democratic political processes in Jammu & Kashmir.
• Last August’s changes in J&K’s constitutional status have only served to exacerbatethis absence. 

Losing faith in Delhi:

• For two years, J&K has been ruled by an increasingly powerful bureaucracy, which has become even more empoweredsince last year’s changes. 
• Too often, it sees people as numbers and development plans as power point presentations, and lacks accountability. 
• One year after the BJP-led NDA government stripped J&K of its special status and carved it into two Union Territories, it may baskin its fait accompli.
• But its biggest failure in the former state, or even in its own cause, is to have taken away people’s agency, disempowering them while claiming to do the opposite.
• The jailing of mainstream politicians, that too for prolonged periods with no apparent justification, has led to the defenestratingof the very leaders who might have mediated between Delhi and Kashmir. 
• Some, including former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, remain under official detention, while others have been released, but are still not free to go back to their politics. 
• Those who have found their voice after months of silence, such as former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah, have spoken about losing faith in Delhi.

 Elections only way:

• Even the Jammu & Kashmir Apni Party, seen as the government’s specially curated political party, is reluctant to take Delhi’s case to the people of the Valley. 
• Either reluctant or clueless about how to restart a political process, Delhi is dependent, therefore, on the office of the Governor to do its work of outreach. 
• But an ex-bureaucrat like Murmu, or even a politician such as his successor Manoj Sinha in the Raj Bhavan at Srinagar, is no replacement for a democratically elected executive who will be accountable to its people.
• The only way out of the political cul de sacthat the NDA government may be reversing itself into in the Valley is to put the changes it brought in last year before the people. 
• That means elections, but before that, the unimpededrestoration of political discourse, release of the remaining political prisoners, restoration of freedom of assembly, and of the freedom of speech, which includes the return of full speed internet. 

Conclusion:

• A political vacuum, presided over by a governor, with the help of an all-powerful bureaucracy that has little connect with people, is a recipe for worsening the situation in Kashmir.
• But changing occupant of Raj Bhavan can be no answer in Kashmir. 
• It needs revival of political process, elected assembly.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the new insider trading norms, consider the following statements:
1. The structured digital database will be preserved for a period of at least 8 years after completion of the relevant transactions. 
2. Entities would have to file the non-compliance of code of conduct with the stock exchanges, and the amounts if any collected for such non-compliances would be credited to the Investor Protection Education Fund administered by SEBI.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1) How the state of Jammu and Kashmir will cease to exist? Elaborate 

How to pay for the stimulus (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy 
Prelims level: Debt financing and equity financing
Mains level:  Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment

Context:

• •    Former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and his colleague Praveen Chakravarty have, in these pages, written on the appropriate policy response to the currently depressed state of the economy. 
• •    They present greater public spending as the sine qua non of such a revival, and they are absolutely correct in this diagnosis.  

Public spending:

• •    Greater public spending will increase the fiscal deficit and this expansion has to be financed. 
• •    Theoretically it can be financed by higher taxes. 
• •    However, when the economy is in a recession, this is usually not in the reckoning even though the balanced-budget multiplier is one, i.e., output expands by exactly the same amount as the increase in government spending. 

Debt Vs. Money financing:

• •    They are issuing debt to the public, and borrowing from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), termed ‘money financing’ as it increases the money supply. 
• •    Example: Dr. Singh and Mr. Chakravarty plump for increased debt. While they do not rule out of court money financing, they suggest that it may be imprudent to do so. 
• •    Instead, they recommend borrowing from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, it is not clear that this is a superior strategy.
• •    The media has recently reported some economists responding to the suggestion of money financing with the Friedman-esque quip “there ain’t no free lunch”. 
• •    But it may be mentioned that there is no free lunch in the case of debt financing either. 
• •    Not only have the moneys to be repaid, they will have to be paid back in hard currency. This would involve India having to earn hard currency by stepping up exports. 
• •    If a stimulus of approximately 10% of the GDP is envisaged, with exports at 25% of the GDP, it would imply stepping up exports by close to 50%. This would be a herculean task under present circumstances. 
• •    Indian exports have been faring poorly since 2014. Since then, there have been multiple shocks to global output and trade.

 Issues with borrowing:

• •    Three more issues are relevant when considering borrowing from the World Bank and the IMF. 
• •    First, there is the issue of conditionalities. There is no reason to oppose conditionalities on principle but it is not obvious what conditionalities will come along with the loan. 
• •    Second, a loan is bound to take some time to be negotiated, taxing the energies of a government that ought to be engaged in the day to day battle with COVID-19. 
• •    Third, external debt is truly national which, arguably, government bonds held by the country’s private sector are not.
• •    The standard economic argument against money financing is that it is inflationary. 
• •    However, whether a fiscal expansion is inflationary or not is related more to the state of the economy than the medium of its financing. 
• •    When resources are unemployed, output may be expected to expand without inflation. 

 Conclusion:

• •    As COVID-19 has shocked output downwards, unemployed resources must now exist. 
• •    There is no reasoned case for denying ourselves the option of money financing to take us back to pre-COVID-19 levels of output and employment.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Modern Slavery, consider the following statements:
1. According to a report by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and an international anti-slavery organisation ‘Walk Free’ Commonwealth countries accounting for about 40% of people living in conditions of modern slavery in the world.
2. India, like all other Commonwealth countries in Asia, had not ratified the International Labour Organisation’s 2011 Domestic Workers Convention or the 2014 Forced Labour Protocol. 

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1) What are the pros and cons of the debt financing and equity financing?

Taking nuclear vulnerabilities seriously (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations 
Prelims level: Ammonium Nitrate
Mains level:  Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate

Context:

• Seventy-five years ago, the Japanese city of Hiroshima was destroyed by one single atomic bomb. Three days later, a second bomb destroyed Nagasaki. 
• Those two bombs killed over 2,00,000 people, some of them instantaneously, and others within five months. 
• Another 2,00,000 people or more who survived the bombings of these two cities, most of them injured, have been called the hibakusha. 
• Because of the long-lasting effects of radiation exposure as well as the mental trauma they underwent, the plight of these survivors has been difficult. 
• While Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been the last two cities to be destroyed by nuclear weapons, we cannot be sure that they will be the last. 
• Since 1945, the United States, the Soviet Union/Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea have armed themselves with nuclear weapons that have much more destructive power in comparison to those that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 Damage and vulnerability:

• Over 1,26,000 nuclear weapons have been built since the beginning of the atomic age. 
• Over 2,000 of them have been used in nuclear tests, above and below the ground, to demonstrate their explosive power, causing grave and long-lasting damage to the environment and public health. 
• But this damage is nothing compared to what might happen if some of the existing weapons are used against civilian populations.
• An appreciation of the scale of the potential damage and a realisation that nuclear weapons could be launched at any moment against any target around the world should instill a sense of vulnerability in all of us.
• To appreciate why we are vulnerable, we should start by realising that there is no realistic way to protect ourselves against nuclear weapons, whether they are used deliberately, inadvertently, or accidentally. 
• The invention of ballistic missiles at the end of the 1950s, with their great speed of delivery, has made it impossible to intercept nuclear weapons once they are launched. 
• Neither fallout shelters nor ballistic missile defence systems have succeeded in negating this vulnerability. 
• Nuclear weapon states are targets of other nuclear weapon states, of course, but non-nuclear weapon states are vulnerable as well. 

Deterrence:

• Deterrence, in general, is the control of behaviour that is effected because the potential offender does not consider the behaviour worth risking for fear of its consequences. 
• A “deterrent effect” of sanctions is the preventive effect of the sanction(s) resulting from the fear that the sanction(s) will be implemented. 

The problems of deterrence:

• Nuclear weapon states have reacted to this vulnerability by coming up with a comforting idea: that the use of nuclear weapons is impossible because of deterrence. 
• Nuclear weapons are so destructive that no country would use them, because such use would invite retaliation in kind. That was the idea of deterrence.
• Deterrence enthusiasts claim that nuclear weapons do not just protect countries against use of nuclear weapons by others, but even prevent war and promote stability. 
• These claims do not hold up to evidence. Nuclear threats have not always produced fear and, in turn, fear has not always induced caution. 
• To the contrary, nuclear threats in some cases have produced anger, and anger can trigger a drive to escalate, as was the case with Fidel Castro during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Moreover, the apparent efficacy of deterrence in some cases may have been due to the more credible prospect of retaliation with conventional weapons. 
• Countries with nuclear weapons have in fact gone to war quite often, even with other countries with nuclear weapons, albeit in a limited fashion or through proxies. 
• Countries, however, might not always show such restraint. Nor should nuclear deterrence be considered stable. 
• Strategic planners routinely use worst-case assumptions about the intentions and capabilities of other countries to argue for the acquisition of greater destructive capabilities. 
• It drives endless upgrades of nuclear arsenals, and offering a rationale for new countries to acquire nuclear weapons.
• Implicitly, however, all nuclear weapon states have admitted to the possibility that deterrence could fail: they have made plans for using nuclear weapons, in effect, preparing to fight nuclear war. 

 The illusion of control:

• A related illusion concerns the controllability of nuclear weapons. In the real world, it is not possible for planners to have complete control. 
• However, the desire to believe in the perfect controllability and safety of nuclear weapons creates overconfidence, which is dangerous. 
• Overconfidence, as many scholars studying safety will testify, is more likely to lead to accidents and possibly to the use of nuclear weapons.
• In several historical instances, what prevented the use of nuclear weapons was not control practices but either their failure or factors outside institutional control. 
• The most famous of these cases is the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. 
• There are likely many more cases during which the world came close to nuclear war but because of the secrecy that surrounds nuclear weapons, we might never know.
• If deterrence has not prevented nuclear war so far, what has? 
• While a comprehensive answer to this question will necessarily involve diverse and contingent factors, one essential element in key episodes is just plain luck. 
• This is, again, best illustrated by the case of the Cuban Missile Crisis, where nearly four decades of scholarship attest to the crucial role of luck. 

 Conclusion:

• While humanity has luckily survived 75 years without experiencing nuclear war, can one expect luck to last indefinitely?

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Muslim women rights day, consider the following statements:
1. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 makes all declaration of triple talaq only in electronic form to be void and illegal.
2. One year has passed since the law against Triple Talaq was passed and there is a decline of about 82 per cent in Triple Talaq cases thereafter.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: B

Mains Questions:
Q.1) What is Ammonium Nitrate? How this can be safely stored then?

The urban migrant and the ‘ritual’ tug of home (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: National 
Prelims level: Industrial Disputes Act
Mains level:  Issues relating to poverty and hunger

Context:

• The migrant worker, when in crisis, is not seeking material help from his family in the village; they are, anyway, much poorer than he is. 
• What disturbs him profoundly at such times is the fear of dying alone with nobody to perform the rites for him.

Unemployed as part of life:

• It is considerations of this kind, more than financial hardship, that prompt single migrant workers to leave for their rural homes. 
• The Indian labouring classes are much less rattled by joblessness as unemployment is a frequent visitor at their door.
• This is clearly an outcome of the fact that 93% of our economy is informal. 
• Ironically, the Industrial Disputes Act encourages this trend. 
• It mandates employers to pay severance wages, and other benefits, only if workers are hired, and on the rolls, continuously for over 248 days.
• This law has had the unintended consequence of making it attractive for management to periodically flip labour around. 
• As a result, only a minuscule minority stays employed for long. Most other workers suffer joblessness for long periods.
• Yet, it took just two days of the lockdown for a large number of male workers to start the trudge to their respective villages.

 Forget the industrial glue:

• When faced with an imminent threat to life, the tug of home and family is much stronger for the migrant worker than the industrial glue that comes with an urban occupation. 
• This job could be well paid and the worker may have even held it for some time.
• There are no laboratory conditions to settle this issue, but a comparative approach might help. 
• In Surat in 1979, when there was a widespread fear that a satellite was going to fall smack in the city centre, causing untold deaths, a large number of migrants there left for their villages.
• Again, in Surat, in 1994, the plague scare prompted over 6,00,000 to leave their work stations for the railway station. 
• In both these instances, jobs were not threatened, but there was this perceived fear of death.
• On the other hand, when demonetisation happened in 2016, only a few migrant workers left because this distress was primarily economic, without a threat to life. 
• Later, in 2020, when COVID-19 started killing people, there was a radical shift; now, men without families went home because they did not want to die alone.
• We missed paying attention to this fact in the latest pandemic exodus because it was accompanied by an economic downturn. 
• It also satisfied our middle-class mentality because, from our angle of vision, economic lenses provide the right focal point.
• For the better off, even a temporary job loss can be traumatic. 
• It is not uncommon, under these conditions, for a middle class person to turn to the family, as the first port of call.

Data from survey:

• A 2018 CBRE survey shows that 80% of young Indian millennials live with their parents. 
• Further, a YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey conducted in 2020 tells us that they depend on their parents’ real estate property and savings to give them a start.
• No wonder, Census figures show that joint families are growing, albeit slowly, in urban India, but declining in the villages. 
• But the short, bullet point is that unemployment does not send migrant workers to their villages because their families there are in no position to help them financially.
• What brings them home is the dread of dying on alien soil without the necessary prayers.

 Theatre of death:

• Forced by poverty, workers can take economic hardship on their chin and stomach at the same time. 
• They may have a face for radio and a voice for silent films, but in the theatre of survival, they move adeptly, playing their part.
• It is in the theatre of death that they need their families to provide the props. 
• If about 90% of slum dwellers in Dharavi stayed put, post lockdown, it was because most of them lived with their wives and children and did not fear a death without rituals.
• Newspapers were quick to notice that it was mostly men walking on highways, or leaving from train stations and bus stands. 
• Though the image of vulnerable women and children in the midst of all this is much more wrenching, their numbers were not that many.

 Gender factor:

• This is not a trivial observation because women actually form 55% (or, the majority) of rural migrants to urban India. 
• If there were fewer of them on highways it was because arranged marriages have brought most of them to the city, not a flimsy job prospect.
• This makes their transition more permanent because they now generally have properly anchored urban husbands. 
• These women, in the fullness of time, make a home, birth a family and nobody in that unit need any longer fear dying alone and un-prayed.
• On the other hand, rural men migrate with tentative employment prospects and it will be a long time before they can, if at all, imagine getting their families over. 
• Of course, a stable job, with entitlements, would let them live that dream. 
• Till then, the thought of death and a frantic bus ticket home will always be paired.

 Conclusion:

• Even so, despite economic uncertainties, and underemployment, about 72% of slum dwellings are owned, not rented. 
• This shows the overwhelming preference the poor have for family life, only if they could afford one.
• When urban workers rush to their rural homes, it is because they fear a death where nobody prays for them more than a life where nobody pays them.
   

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Prem Bhatia award for outstanding journalism, consider the following statements:
1. The trust had instituted the awards in 1995 in the memory of journalist Prem Bhatia. 
2. Dipankar Ghose and the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), a non-profit journalism website dedicated to reporting on rural India, has won this year’s Prem Bhatia award for outstanding journalism.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A.   1 only
B.   2 only
C.   Both 1 and 2
D.   None 

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1) What are the major causes of the unemployment problem in India?

New National Education Policy (NEP) 2020

Table of Contents :

Chapter   Contents                                 PageNo

Introduction                                                                                                           3

PART  I.  SCHOOL EDUCATION

1         Early Childhood Care and Education: The Foundation of Learning                     7

2          Foundational   Literacy   and   Numeracy:   An   Urgent   &   Necessary         8

Prerequisite to Learning

3          Curtailing Dropout Rates and Ensuring Universal Access to Education at        10

All Levels

4          Curriculum  and  Pedagogy  in  Schools:  Learning  Should  be  Holistic,        11

Integrated, Enjoyable and Engaging

5          Teachers                                                                                                               20

6          Equitable and Inclusive Educa4tion: Learning for All                                         24

7          Efficient   Resourcing   and   Effective   Governance   through   School        28

Complexes/Clusters

8          Standard-setting and Accreditation for School Education                                   30

PART II.  HIGHER EDUCATION

9          Quality Universities and Colleges: A New and Forward-looking Vision        33

for India’s Higher Education System

10         Institutional Restructuring and Consolidation                                                     34

11         Towards a More Holistic and Multidisciplinary Education                                 36

12         Optimal Learning Environments and Support for Students                                 38

13         Motivated, Energized and Capable Faculty                                                         40

14         Equity and Inclusion in Higher Education                                                           41

15         Teacher Education                                                                                                42

16         Re-imagining Vocational Education                                                                    43

17         Catalyzing  Quality  Academic  Research  in  all  Fields  through  a  New         45

National Research Foundation

18        Transforming the Regulatory System of Higher Education                                 46

National Education Policy 2020 :

Click Here to Download Full Education Policy 2020