No 100% quota : On overzealous reservation (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Polity 
Prelims level: Scheduled Areas
Mains level: Reservations for STs in scheduled areas

Context:

• The Supreme Court is right in considering cent per cent reservation as anathema to the constitutional scheme of equality even if it is for the laudable objective of providing representation to historically deprived sections. 

Key highlights of the verdict: 

• The verdict quashing the reservation of 100% of all teaching posts in ‘Scheduled Areas’ of Andhra Pradesh for local Scheduled Tribes is not against affirmative programmes as such, but a caution against implementing them in a manner detrimental to the rest of society. 
• The Constitution Bench found that earmarking teacher posts in areas notified under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution adversely affected the interests of other candidates not only from Scheduled Castes and other backward communities but also other ST communities not native to those areas. 
• As the Bench noted, it could have come up with other incentives to ensure the attendance of teachers. 

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Chronic absenteeism:

• The State government did, in its original orders of 1986, and thereafter, in a subsequent order in 2000, was not without its own rationale. 
• It found that there was chronic absenteeism among teachers who did not belong to those remote areas where the schools were located. 

Viable solution:

• However, its solution of drafting only members of the local tribes was not a viable solution. 
• The President, under Article 371D, has issued orders that a resident of a district/zone cannot apply to another district/zone for appointment. 
• Thus, the 100% quota deprived residents of the Scheduled Areas of any opportunity to apply for teaching posts.
• Affirmative action loses its meaning if it does not leave the door slightly ajar for open competition. 
• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar observed during the debate in the Constituent Assembly on the equality clause, that any reservation normally ought to be for a “minority of seats”. This is one of the points often urged in favour of the 50% cap imposed by the Court on total reservation, albeit with some allowance for relaxation in special circumstances.

Criticism: 

• It is still a matter of debate whether the ceiling has innate sanctity, but it is clear that wherever it is imperative that the cap be breached, a special case must be made for it. 
• Such a debate should not divert attention from the fact that there is a continuing need for a significant quota for STs, especially those living in areas under the Fifth Schedule special dispensation. 
• In this backdrop, it is somewhat disappointing that courts tend to record obiter dicta advocating a revision of the list of SCs and STs. 

Conclusion: 

• While the power to amend the lists notified by the President is not in dispute, it is somewhat uncharitable to say that the advanced and “affluent” sections within SCs and STs are cornering all benefits and do not permit any trickle-down. 
• Indian society is still some distance from reaching that point.

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(Download) Old NCERT PDF : The Story of Civilization Part-I (Arjun Dev)

• Medium: English
• OLD NCERT BOOK NAME : The Story of Civilization Part-1 by Arjun Dev
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Table of Contents :

CHAPTER I

• The Heritage of Indice 
• The land and the People -The Ancient period-The Medieval Period — The Modern Period - Art and Architecture - The Development of Painting in India -Languages and Literature - Music and Dance 

CHAPTER II

• Indian Awakening
• Incllan Society in the Eighteenth Century - Impact of British Rule on India - Religious and Social Reformi Movements - Impact of the Reform Movements - Growth of Education - Modern Indian Art and Literalure -- Growth of the Press in the Ninelcenth Century

CHAPTER III

• India's Struggle for Independence 
• The Revolt of 1857 – Rise of Indian Nationalism - Early Political Movements and the Indian National Congress - Rise of Extremism – The Boycoll and Swadesht Movements - Morley-Minto Rcforms - Revolutionary Movement - Formation of the Muslim League – Nationalist Movement during the First World War - Nationalist Movement Becomes at Mass Movement -- Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movements - Communalism and its Dangerous Effects-Fron Swaraj to Complete Independence, 1927-1939  The Simon Commission - Lahore Congress and the Civil Disobedience Movement - The Nationalist Movement and the World - Constitutional Developments - The Nationalist Movement, 1935-1939 - Indian Nationalist Movement during the Second World War - Nationalist Upsurge after the Second World War - Achlevement of independence, 1947 - Building the New India
   

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What are deep nu*des?(Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3:Science and Tech 
Prelims level: Deep nu*de
Mains level: Challenges towards curbing cybercrimes

Context:

• Cybercrime officials in India have been tracking certain apps and websites that produce nu*de photographs of innocent persons using Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms. 

So, what is a deep nu*de?

• Cybercriminals use Artificial Intelligence (AI) software — now easily available on apps and websites — to superimpose a digital composite (assembling multiple media files to make a final one) on to an existing video, photo or audio.
• Deep nu*des are computer-generated images and videos. Essentially, using AI algorithms a person’s words, head movements and expressions are transferred onto another person in a seamless fashion that makes it difficult to tell that it is a deepfake, unless one closely observes the media file.

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When did deep nu*des first surface?

• In 2017, a Reddit user with the name “deepfakes” posted explicit videos of celebrities. Since then, several instances have been reported along with the development of apps and websites that were easily accessible to an average user.
• The debate around “deep nu*des” and “deep fakes” was rekindled in July 2019 with the popularity of applications such as FaceApp (used for photo-editing) and Deepnu*de that produces fake nu*des of women.

The objections:

• Because of how realistic deepfake images, audio and videos can be, the technology is vulnerable for use by cybercriminals who could spread misinformation to intimidate or blackmail people. 
• In a presentation, the Fayetteville State University in North Carolina called it one of the “modern” frauds of cyberspace, along with fake news, spam/phishing attacks, social engineering fraud, catfishing and academic fraud.

Can anyone produce a deep nu*de?

• According to a CSIRO Scope article from August 2019, Creating a convincing deepfake is an unlikely feat for the general computer user. But an individual with advanced knowledge of machine learning and access to the victim’s publicly-available social media profile for photographic, video and audio content, could do so.
• Even so, there are various websites and applications that have AI built into them and have made it much easier for a lay users to create deepfakes and deep nu*des. As the technology improves, the quality of deepfakes is also expected to get better.

Are deepfakes legal?

• At least in the US, the legality of deepfakes is complicated. 
• While a person being harassed by deepfakes may claim defamation, removing such content could be considered censorship, a violation of the First Amendment which guarantees Americans the freedom concerning religion, expression, assembly and the right to petition.
• According to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, 46 states in the US have “revenge porn” laws. 
• Revenge porn refers to the creation of sexually explicit videos or images that are posted on the Internet without the consent of the subject as a way to harass them.

What are catfish accounts?

• According to the Cyberbullying Research Centre (CRC), catfishing refers to the practice of setting up fictitious online profiles, “most often for the purpose of luring another into a fraudulent romantic relationship.”
• An article on CRC says that to “catfish” someone, “is to set up a fake social media profile with the goal of duping that person into falling for the false persona.”

What can you do to protect yourself?

• While it is not easy to keep track of who downloads or misuses your images, the best way to protect yourself is to ensure you are using privacy settings on your social media profiles that suit you.
• If you feel your image has been used without your permission, you could use freely available reverse image search tools to find images that are similar to yours.
• You can also be mindful of who you are conversing with on the web. 
• A basic check of their social media profiles, comments on their images and whether similar profiles exist could help you determine if the person is genuine.

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Oil price crash impacts sugar (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3:Economy 
Prelims level: Sugar Prices 
Mains level: Oil prices implications on Sugar 

Context:

• The prices of raw sugar for May 2020 delivery at New York crashed to 9.75 cents per pound, the lowest closing for a nearest-month futures contract since June 2008.

Why have global sugar prices collapsed?

• All commodities have taken a demand hit from subdued economic activity and lockdowns imposed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
• But sugar is one commodity that, until quite recently, was on growth phase.
• One reason for the collapse now is the closure of restaurants, weddings and other social functions not taking place.
• People are also avoiding ice-creams and sweetened cold beverages that might cause throat infections.

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Have oil prices played a role?

• The juice from crushing sugarcane can be crystallised into sugar or fermented into alcohol.
• When oil prices are high, mills (especially in Brazil) tend to divert cane for making ethanol (alcohol of 99%-plus purity) to be blended with petrol.
• In 2019-20 (April-March), only 34.32% of cane crushed by Brazilian mills went for manufacturing 26.73 mt of sugar.
• The rest was used to produce 31.62 billion litres of ethanol.
• But with oil prices falling, mills will not find it attractive to divert cane for ethanol.
• Brazil’s mills are thus seen to produce up to 36 mt of sugar and hardly 26 billion litres of ethanol this year.

Will this affect India?

• Before COVID-19 happened, the Indian industry was expecting to export 5.5-6 mt of raw sugar in 2019-20.
• Mills had already entered into contracts of some 3.8 mt, out of which 3.05 mt have been shipped out so far.
• The sugar industry’s woes from excess stocks are thus slow to happen aided by both exports and lower production.
• However, dip in sugar consumption, together with higher Brazilian output, is unfavourable for both Indian sugar mills and cane farmers.
• Nevertheless, in Indonesia, there is an increased import requirement.
• Also, it decided recently to slash the duty on Indian raw sugar from 15% to 5%.
• Indonesian refiners are projected to import 3.3 mt of raw sugar this year, up from 2.6 mt in 2019.
• They buy mostly from Thailand but Thailand is experiencing a bad drought which could lead to its production falling.
• This offers an opportunity for India.

What is the situation with respect to cane farmers?

• Decreasing exports and falling domestic use of sugar by institutional consumers has significantly undermined the mills' ability to make cane payments.
• E.g. Uttar Pradesh’s factories have till now crushed cane worth roughly Rs 32,000 crore in the 2019-20 season.
• But they have managed to pay only around Rs 16,400 crore.
• The state government recently announced a scheme of mills giving “willing farmers” one quintal each of sugar for the next 3 months, instead of payments due.
• Moreover, the industry’s problem is not from sugar alone.
• The lockdown has reduced off-take of alcohol, be it potable liquor or ethanol for blending with petrol.
• With cars and two-wheelers not running, oil market companies are not very keen to procure ethanol.

Other implications of oil price fall:

• The oil price crash has affected other agri-commodities as well.
• Prices of corn, which is also used for making ethanol, fell to their lowest since 2009 at Chicago.
• Likewise, palm oil, again a feedstock for bio-diesel, ended 7.5% lower at the Bursa Malaysia futures exchange.
• Corn prices can, in turn, drag down other cereals, just as palm oil could do to soyabean and other oilseeds.
• All these are ultimately linked to oil, whose prices matter as much to farmers as petroleum companies.

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Protecting the healers (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Polity 
Prelims level: Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020
Mains level: Details about the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020

Context:

• The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 is ensure to promulgated the healthcare workers.

About the ordinance: 

• This 2020 ordinance will amend the Epidemic Act, 1867. 
• It will criminalise attacks on healthcare personnel, including doctors, nurses, paramedics and ASHA workers.
• It will make them a non-bailable offence.
• Ordinarily, the guilty can be sent to jail for 3 months to 5 years, with a fine of Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh.

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Reasons behind the promulgation: 

• There are several incidences of frontline workers being attacked or facing harassment across the country. 
• Frontline workers, be it healthcare workers, civic workers, emergency responders, or even police personnel, are working under great duress at the moment.
• India’s shortage in healthcare manpower already places a heavy burden on the existing workforce.
• The pandemic has compounded this burden many times over. 
• If India ends up seeing the infection spread and hospitalisation numbers projected for it, it will need every healthcare hand available.
• So, protecting these healthcare workers is a need of the time.

Is this Ordinance enough?

• The ordinance’s provision for harsher punishment and its strict enforcement should serve as a deterrent. 
• However, the government must look at a more permanent way to protect healthcare workers.
• It framed the Healthcare Service Personnel and Clinical Establishments Bill 2019 to deter attacks on, and harassment of hospital staff.
• However, this is yet to be enacted. 

Way forward:

• Sensitizing the masses to support frontline workers is needed.
• If not, India’s battle against the disease will truly be lost. 
• The government must run awareness campaigns to address citizens’ fears about exposure to the pathogen via healthcare workers.
• It must pass the 2019 Bill to protect healthcare workers in a more permanent way.

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Free foodgrains should reach the needy (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Governance 
Prelims level: Garib Kalyan scheme
Mains level: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States

Context:

• It was heartening to hear that from the Centre that four million tonnes of foodgrains have been lifted by 36 States under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana in the course of this month. 
• It is true that scores of urban migrant workers, many of them desperate to return to their villages, are going hungry despite rice and wheat stocks of 77 million tonnes lying in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India. 

About:

• Stocks are not reaching the hunger hotspots quickly enough, even as food has been moved, largely by rail, to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Karnataka and the North-East, where food demand possibly outstrips supply. 
• About 50-60 million tonnes are estimated to be distributed through mid-day meals and under the National Food Security Act. 

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Reliance on PDS: 

• The reliance on PDS is expected to increase this year, and it is just as well that both the Centre and States have topped up the NFSA entitlement — which meets the needs of 80 crore people. 
• The immediate need is to now reach out to the millions of migrants who do not have a ration card and are outside the NFSA ambit. 
• States and NGOs have stepped up community kitchens and other forms of emergency food distribution, but their efforts are not enough.

Garib Kalyan scheme: 

• The Centre should release more foodgrains to the States (over and above transfers under the Garib Kalyan scheme) free of cost rather than at the issue price, relieving the States’ fiscal burden. 
• Worrying about the ₹2 lakh crore plus food subsidy bill (the difference between the procurement, transport and storage cost on the one hand and the issue price on the other) is a case of misplaced priorities. 
• It is a violation of the NFSA that any individual should go hungry when food is available. 
• Besides, distributing grain free amounts to a saving on storage costs; godowns also need to be cleared to make way for the new, bumper wheat crop. Decentralised procurement and storage can reduce distribution costs and hassles. 
• India has made significant gains in this regard since 2012-13, with States such as Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh emerging as major contributors to the grain pool. 
• In fact, the recent movement of grains by rail has been from storages in central India as well.
• States and private agencies have been allowed to buy from FCI depots without going through the usual process of e-auctions through open market sales.

Way forward:

• However, there can be no escaping the impression that governments — both Central and State — have been slow to act. 
• States receiving migrants such as Bihar must step up efforts to create kitchens and begin MGNREGA works that are consistent with social distancing. 
• This is not the time for political one-upmanship between the Centre and States, or preoccupation with deficit numbers.

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Small units in distress as pandemic drives away business (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Economy 
Prelims level: MSME sector
Mains level: Pandemic impact on MSME sector 

Context:

• The MSME sector, comprising 6.33 crore enterprises, is predominantly ‘micro’ (99.4 per cent), with small and medium enterprises accounting for 0.52 per cent and 0.007 per cent of the sector respectively. 
• A survey of MSMEs a week before the announcement of the lockdown, to estimate the impact of Covid on current and future business and the sector’s response.

SOS from MSMEs:

• About 50 per cent of the MSMEs surveyed reported lower order books in Q4 2020 (January-March 2020) compared to the corresponding quarter in the previous year, as also compared to the previous quarter (Q3 2020), 29 per cent expected order books to shrink by more than 50 per cent. 
• About 25 per cent of those surveyed reported a 20 per cent increase in finished goods and raw material inventories each in Q4 compared to the previous quarter due to Covid, and 17.5 per cent reported 50 per cent lower capacity utilisation compared to the previous quarter.
• However, paradoxically, while 72 per cent agreed (strongly) that their receivables had been affected by the pandemic, an overwhelming majority (78 per cent) felt that their receivables would be affected only up to 30 days. 

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How does one interpret these results? 

• The absence of a tangible policy response such as a declared lockdown, led to most respondents failing to factor in the true nature and impact of Covid. 
• The MSME distress call could only be greater in the aftermath of the lock-down.
• The survey also revealed the global inter-connectedness of the Indian MSME sector. 
• More than 50 per cent of the respondents confirmed that the pandemic would impact their global sourcing, while an equal proportion confirmed the impact on their global markets. 
• Thus, any volatility in global markets would prove to be a double-whammy for Indian MSMEs.

Jobs on the line:

• The survey revealed the high employment-elasticity of the MSME sector. 
• At the national level, statistics point to 97 per cent of the total MSME employment being generated in the micro sector, 2.88 per cent in the small and 0.16 per cent in the medium sectors.
• This was corroborated by our survey as well. 
• Thus, ‘small’ manufacturing plants and service firms across India typically provide employment to 300-700, while most ‘micro’ manufacturing enterprises employ 20-50 people, with micro service enterprises employing a lesser number.
• It is this employment which would bear the brunt of the pandemic. The largest item constituting financial burden according to the respondents was labour costs (34 per cent). 
• This was followed by raw material costs (18.8 per cent) and interest on loans (18.8 per cent). 
• Faced with distress, SMEs would opt to survive, and the first casualty would be a cut in labour. 
• Anecdotally, the number of SMEs keen on seeking counsel for dealing with tricky labour contracts when sales have dried up, has increased.

Conclusion: 

• While government financial incentives and packages are the need of the hour to ‘save’ the SMEs, the SMEs themselves need to heed to the economy’s distress call and understand their role in saving the economy. 
• Inefficient SMEs, seeking self-preservation through government relief packages at the cost of labour, may rightfully be allowed to succumb.

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Corona crisis prompts reimagining of justice delivery (Financial Express)

Mains Paper 2:Polity 
Prelims level: Judiciary 
Mains level: Role of AI to build virtual courtrooms 

Context:

• The rapid onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has been a shock to most existing systems and structures. This is apparent even in the delivery of, and access to, justice. 

Measures taken across the world: 

• These are times unlike any other, and extraordinary measures are being taken across the world. 
• The Supreme Court of the United States has, for the first time in a century, indefinitely closed its doors to oral hearings. 
• Entire continents are in virtual lockdowns, and systems are under strain. For the Indian justice system, disruption through technology will be key. 

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Necessary to ensure distancing norms: 

• In the long term, it will be even more necessary, to ensure distancing norms, and to help reduce pendency and burden on the courts. 
• This is crucial to make positive inroads into the staggering number of matters pending, which are in excess of 3.5 crore.
• This will ensure that access to justice and efficiency of dispute resolution in India is forever altered. 
• Significant work has already been done to harmonise technology, innovation, engagement, and frameworks. 
• It is merely a question of getting into mission mode to expedite reforms, and move from dialogues toward immediate action.

Decriminalising minor and petty offences

• Today, authorities globally are using their discretion to differentiate between petty, non-violent crimes and other crimes so as to reduce the number of imprisonments, and therefore mitigate the risk of community spread. 
• In this regard, the Government of India’s ongoing effort to decriminalise minor and petty offences by making them compoundable remains visionary and citizen-friendly. 
• Recently-enacted laws are also working with this concept, as well as enabling innovative options such as class action suits to help reduce the volume of lower-value matters reaching the courts as individual lawsuits. 
• Enabling groups of petitioners with compiled grievances to jointly file suit will streamline the cause of action, and lower the number of matters filed, helping reduce the burden over time. 
• For ease of doing business, with protection for bona fide decisions, the decriminalisation of certain offences will go a long way toward increasing investor confidence. 
• This is supported by the repeal of more than 1,500 archaic and redundant laws thus far.

Virtual courtrooms: Role of technology

• In the near future, technology can no longer just be a support, but must also be an enabler of justice for those who haven’t been able to easily access it until now. 
• A framework for the development of virtual courtrooms and remote hearing centres that enables all concerned, including the judges, to operate remotely and efficiently was perhaps due even before the pandemic, which has turned it into a necessity. 

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Uses of Artificial Intelligence: 

• AI, for aspects not related to objective and discretionary decision-making, has significant potential. 
• ROSS, an AI solution for legal services, is said to have launched a revolutionary contextual search technology, which actually enables lawyers to research 80% faster. 
• India, too, has innovators in this space for case-law research and litigation support, with potential for achieving scale. 
• This is a major pivot for support services in the legal and judicial ecosystem. 
• A conversation between service providers and dispute resolvers could help add cohesion-led problem solving, with the option of imminent scale.

Relying on data:

• An important first step from collaboration would be to help ensure the downstream usability of reliable and verifiable data. 
• The data could be generated from filings, judgments, and related documents to assess and analyse the efficiency impact. Machine-readable laws will also help. 
• By standardising inputs in a way that are technology-adaptable, analysis will be possible with a large data set and, presumably, more reliable than anecdotal evidence generated through current data-gathering and analysis. 
• Technological tweaks to help data could perhaps, in future, be analysed for identifying under-trials who have already served their term waiting for a court date in the case of petty, non-violent offences. 
• Augmenting reforms, both legal and judicial, with technology interventions could perhaps help unclog prisons and courts, assess efficiency and streamline access to data and result in better case-flow management for judges.

Continuing legal education for qualitative improvements:

• The legal fraternity can also help in increasing capacity and capability to help the most vulnerable. 
• Widening the importance of continuing legal education can help streamline and update knowledge of processes and laws for all lawyers practising across the various tiers, bringing qualitative improvements. Virtual classrooms for these can allow pan-India dissemination in a cost-efficient manner. 
• A concerted drive can also be initiated to improve processes for legal aid, including through a broad-based pro bono initiative to help those who need it the most.

The time for disruptive reform is now:

• The Supreme Court, to its credit, has been increasingly progressive in recent times. Successive Chief Justices of India have expressed their willingness to evolve the judiciary into a technology-friendly landscape. 
• Chief Justice SA Bobde in particular has welcomed the use of AI and machine learning for non-invasive aspects, to enhance efficiency in judicial functioning. 
• The court as a whole has been open to innovation and cognisant of the need to change the status quo. 
• The e-Courts project, and aligned initiatives, are indicative of that mindset. But, now, novel technology-led ideas should be initiated as pilots, and pilots should be rolled out widely, without further delay.
• Technology-led solutions will help flatten the curve for access while, in the long term, reducing the stress on courts.

Conclusion: 

• There will, as with all disruptors, be a learning curve, and longer-term implications in providing a sustainable framework. 
• Continuous dialogues will help bridge many of those gaps. Positive, visionary responses to emergencies define institutional legacies. 

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No transparency in West Bengal (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Health 
Prelims level: International standard practices
Mains level: Health infrastructure in West Bengal 

Context:

• While the global media is painting a medical apocalypse, sections of the Indian media fear that reporting the Central and State governments’ speciousimage management during this extraordinary viral outbreak will come with consequences. 
• Meanwhile, front line health workers — doctors, nurses and trainees, who are under-equipped and not always fully appreciated — look like lambs to the slaughter. 
• As the fight against more infections rages, stoic and selfless, hospital staff continue to do what they are trained to do.

Delays and data issues:

• In West Bengal, the medical fraternity claims that the State is reporting fewer cases as only a minuscule proportion of the population is getting tested. 
• Recently, at least three healthcare workers, including interns, tested positive for the virus after delivering babies of COVID-19-positive mothers in the Kolkata Medical College and Hospital. 

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Dubious reputation:

• West Bengal has acquired the dubiousreputation of conducting the least number of COVID-19 tests among the larger Indian States (62.7 per million of population). To make matters worse, its methodology for aggregating ‘asymptomatic and those under observation’, ‘sick’ and ‘deaths’ leaves important questions unanswered. 
• Doctors complain that the Standard Operating Procedure for COVID-19 death certification has not been followed. 
• In Kolkata Medical College and Hospital, for instance, when doctors clinically assess a person to have died of COVID-19, and is yet to be lab-tested (test results may take up to two days), the bodies in their highly infectious states have been released to family members for last rites. 
• No tests are being conducted posthumously outside of the specialised (Level 4) hospitals converted for treating COVID-19 positive patients, doctors say. With the testing rate low, we don’t know if there are COVID-19 deaths outside Level 4 hospitals. How many are succumbing in general wards, homes and villages? Who is checking?

International standard practices: 

• West Bengal’s numbers come under further doubt as the State government is instructing doctors to be cautious while recording COVID-19 as the cause of death in the case of those patients who have other underlying medical conditions. This is not in keeping with international standard practices. 
• In the U.K., doctors record a wider set as having succumbed to COVID-19, including deaths strongly suspected as being by COVID-19, even if no laboratory test has taken place, or if there are co-morbidities such as kidney, lung or heart disease. West Bengal authorities are telling doctors to do the opposite.

Delay:

• As more healthcare workers test positive, their calls for testing much more are stonewalled. Authorities, they say, have “no intention” of doing enough tests. This is unconscionablea failure of the State government’s duty of care towards medical professionals and the public.
• Then there is the newspeak: how do surveillance, quarantine and being under observation differ? Do these numbers (31,023<) include those in self-isolation? Who collects, collates and checks these figures from hospitals and District Collectors’ offices before they reach the panicking public? Is it only up to the hospitals to track COVID-19 deaths?

More question than answers:

• Is there bureaucratic delay in reporting or are there other unforeseen limiting circumstances such as a State budget shortage or delays from the Central government in releasing funds? If there are inevitable delays, how long will the delays be on average? Can the gaps be narrowed and closed for better estimates? Can the true numbers then be higher? 

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The village is still relevant (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Economy 
Prelims level: Not much 
Mains level: Role of villages in an economy 

Context:

• The upheaval caused by the novel coronavirus should inspire a review of past choices and policies. Some of these policies had gained so much acceptance that one felt there was no point left in questioning them. 
• Public health and education are two areas in which India took a decisive turn in the 1990s. 
• When several States decided to stop giving permanent appointment letters to doctors and teachers in the mid-1990s, they were guided by an ideological shift at the national level towards allowing health and education to be opened up for private enterprise. 
• This was viewed as a major policy reform, a necessary part of the bigger package of economic reforms. They were presented as a package, offering little choice for specific areas. 

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Taking a back seat:

• The new buzz was public-private partnership. It covered everything from roads to schools. 
• The form it took made it amply clear that the state would take a back seat after issuing a set of rules for private operators while the state’s own infrastructure will shrink. 
• The cost-effective measures became the priority in both health and education. 
• Chronic shortage of functionaries became the norm while young persons learned to wait for years for vacancies to be announced. 
• Working on short-term contracts, with little security or dignity, became common. 

Imbalance and invisibility:

• This general framework justified discriminatory funding in every sphere, including health and education. 
• No serious public investment could be made in villages. 
• Even as medical education and teacher training became increasingly privatised, the availability of qualified doctors and teachers willing to work in villages dwindled. 
• Ideologically-inspired pursuit of economic reforms swept State after State, leaving little room for dissent or longer term thinking. 
• A veneer of welfarism was maintained. It allowed the expansion of essential facilities of a rudimentary kind in villages. 
• They served as sites for special schemes for the poor and provided minimalist provisions. 
• The goal was to keep the poor alive and occupied. Privately-run facilities burgeoned, creating an ethos that boosted commercial goals in health care and schooling. 
• Stuck between state minimalism and commercial entrepreneurship, villages lost what capacity they had for regenerating their economy or intellectual resources. 

Obsolete debates:

• The novel coronavirus has demonstrated how unsustainable this socio-economic arrangement was, apart from being ethically indefensible. It was characterised by sharp and growing regional disparities. 
• No matter how hard we will try to rebuild the world as it was before the virus struck it, its unsustainability will not go away. 
• It is rooted in the structural imbalance between the urban and the rural on one hand and the predominance of a skewed vision of economic growth on the other. 
• In this vision, the village has no future other than becoming a pale copy of the urban and eventually dissolving into it.
• Once upon a time, there were debates over the nature of India’s rural society — on whether it was intrinsically good or bad. These debates are no longer relevant. 
• The village is, however, still relevant, at least for the vast number of urban workers. Similarly, while the problem of defining a village in an academic sense has ceased to matter, its existential reality has asserted itself, and we need to recognise this assertion.
• If we do, we might agree to notice a problem in policies that do not acknowledge the right of villages to flourish as human habitations with their own distinctive future. 

Conclusion: 

• They deserve to have new sites and forms of livelihood. 
• They also deserve systems of health and education that are not designed as feeders to distant centres. 
• Initiatives in this direction will make both cities and villages more sustainable and capable of coping with the kind of crisis we are currently facing.

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Why workers need unions(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:National 
Prelims level: Gig economy 
Mains level: Social issues 

Context:

• Covid-19 and the resultant distress in the job market have once again highlighted the importance of trade unions, especially in ensuring that worker welfare becomes a key agenda of policymakers as well as companies. 
• Inarguably, one of the biggest and most immediate casualties of the Covid-19 crisis are workers in sectors where unions are non-existent. 
• The very absence of collective bargaining powers has exposed these workers to extreme uncertainty, and they fall prey to the draconian measures taken by their companies. 
• The gig economy is a worthy example. 

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Three crucial factors in gig economy:

• It is the total absence of workers’ unions which makes them silent spectators to preemptive measures so much so that most of the sacked are asked to stop working immediately and leave without any monetary compensation. 
• The remaining employees work under extremely stressful conditions without adequate safety measures. 
• It is the ironical way in which these workers are defined by the companies — a stark reflection of the fact that unions or any other forms of workers collectives do not play any role in the way they are classified, both in India and advanced markets. Workers in non-unionised sectors are going to pay dearly in the future. 

Way forward: 

• Given the sheer disregard with which labour policies are framed in countries such as India and the US,— two large economies where the business sector is infested with anti-union practices — the economic crisis triggered by Covid will become even more telling. 
• Hence, this calamity must come as a wake-up for workers usually reluctant to join or form unions, especially belonging to the Left parties, which seem to have given up on their aggressive enthusiasm in furthering working class goalsand have compromised along the way.

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India’s IT services sector faces grave challenges (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Economy 
Prelims level: Information Technology service 
Mains level: COVID 19 challenges towards IT services sector 

Context:

• Just when India’s information technology services companies had adapted to the changing business models arising out of the emergence of new digital platforms, they are faced with yet another disruption in their delivery models. 

Work from home:

• The ongoing economic lockdown due to Covid-19 has disrupted the way IT companies function as more than 85 per cent of the workforce now has to work from home. 
• From a centralised architecture, IT services companies have had to restructure their entire organisation — a transformation that is here to stay even after the lockdown ends. 
• In the pre-Covid era, companies such as TCS had a highly centralised delivery model. 

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Future working model:

• In future, not more than 25 per cent of employees would be working from offices. 
• This means companies will have to rejig cybersecurity mechanisms, their project management practices, and put in place systems to ensure that proper work allocation, monitoring, and reporting is done. 
• Under this model, costs related to real estate and managing offices will go down over a period of time but higher spending will go into collaboration and other kinds of productivity tools. 
• Dependence on H-1B visas will also come down as on-site delivery of services will not be relevant. 
• The sector is up against massive demand destruction with lockdown-induced slowdown coming on top of the ongoing contraction in key markets. 
• India’s top three IT companies — TCS, Infosys and Wipro — signalled the distress ahead, as they all missed street estimates in March quarter earnings and suspended revenue guidance for the year ahead.

Reforms needed: 

• IT companies must reduce over-reliance on big-ticket deals from traditional markets like the US and the UK. 
• There should be a quick transformation into a distributed delivery architecture instead of the centralised one today. 

Conclusion:

• In the long term, behavioural shifts as a result of Covid-19 will help the sector. 
• The human interface will reduce and technology will be required to take over many functions. 
• This behavioural change can open up opportunities for Indian IT companies to earn higher margins doing consulting-led work.

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The key strategy is fiscal empowerment of States (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Economy 
Prelims level: COVID-19 pandemic
Mains level: Boosting resources by centre to states for combating COVID 19

Context:

• The scale of disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has never been seen before. 
• Even as we are in the midst of the second phase of the national lockdown, there is no clarity on the time it will take to come out of the crisis, the extent of damage it will inflict, and the cost of relief and rehabilitation required. 
• At a time when governments, both at the Centre and in the States, are fiscally stressed, the pandemic has forced them to undertake huge expenditures to save lives, livelihoods and reduce distresses and even more, to create a stimulus to revive the economy as we map the exit strategy.

Need for relief:

• The speed of economic revival will depend on how long it will take to revive economic activities and the volume of stimulus through public spending the government is able to provide. 
• It now appears that the lockdown will be lifted in stages and the recovery process will be prolonged. 
• The country is literally placed in financing a war-like situation and the government will have to postpone the fiscal consolidation process for the present, loosen its purse strings and finance its deficits substantially through monetisation. 

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States responsibility: 

• Being closer to the people, the States have a much larger responsibility in fighting this war. Public health as well as public order are State subjects in the Constitution. 
• In fact, some States were proactive in dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak by involving the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, even before the Government of India declared a universal lockdown invoking the Disaster Management Act, 2005. 
• Of course, the Centre under Entry 29 of the Concurrent List has the powers to set the rules of implementation which states, “Prevention of the extension from one State to another of infectious or contagious diseases or pests affecting men, animals or plants”. 
• While Central intervention was done to enable, “consistency in the application and implementation of various measures across the country”, the actual implementation on the ground level will have to be done at the State level. 
• Furthermore, States are better informed to decide the areas and activities where relaxations should be done as the coronavirus curve is flattened. 
• Hopefully, there will be better coordination between the Union and State governments instead of claiming credit and apportioning blame.

Focus on health and economy

• The acute shortage of protective gear, testing kits, ventilators and hospital beds has been a major handicap and the immediate task of States is to ramp up their availability and supply. 
• In addition, the disruption caused by the lockdown has caused untold misery, and providing relief and rehabilitation to migrant labourers and informal sector workers had to the focus. 

Historical negligence in the health-care sector:

• The pandemic has underlined the historical neglect of the health-care sector in the country. 
• The total public expenditures of Centre and States works out to a mere 1.3% of GDP. In 2017-18, in per capita terms, the public expenditure on medical and public health varied from an abysmal ₹690 in Bihar and ₹814 in Uttar Pradesh to the highest of ₹2,092 in Kerala. 
• The centrally sponsored scheme, the National Health Mission, is inadequately funded, micromanaged with grants given under more than 2,000 heads and poorly targeted. 
• The focus of “Ayushman Bharat” has been to advocate insurance rather than building wellness centres.

Facilitate economic revival: 

• Besides protecting lives and livelihoods, States will have to initiate and facilitate economic revival, and that too would require substantial additional spending. 
• Hand holding small and medium enterprises which have completely ceased production, providing relief to farmers who have lost their perishable crops and preparing them for sowing in the kharif season are other tasks that require spending. 
• In fact, States have been proactive. Kerala came out with a comprehensive package allocating ₹20,000 crore to fight the pandemic. 
• Almost all States have taken measures to provide food to the needy besides ramping up health-care requirements.

Extensive revenue losses:

• While the requirement of States for immediate expenditures is large, they are severely crippled in their resources. 
• In the lockdown period, there has virtually been no economic activity and they have not been able to generate any revenue from State excise duty, stamp duties and registration fees, motor vehicles tax or sales tax on high speed diesel and motor spirit. 
• The revenue from Goods and Services Tax is stagnant and compensation on time for the loss of revenue has not been forthcoming. 
• In Karnataka, it is reported that as against the estimated ₹12,000 crore every month, the State may not be able to generate even ₹300 crore in April. 

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Tax devolution:

• The position regarding tax devolution from the Centre is even more precarious. 
• To begin with, the tax devolution in the Union Budget estimate is lower than the Commission’s estimate by ₹70,995 crore. 
• The Budget estimate for 2020-21 itself is a huge overestimate when seen against the 11-month actual collections in 2019-20. The required growth to achieve the Budget estimate is 33.3% over the annualised actual collection. 
• The projections are that the growth of nominal GDP in 2020-21 will be just about 4% and if the tax revenue increases by the same rate, devolution to the States would be lower by ₹2.2-lakh crore than the Finance Commission’s estimate. 
• This results in a loss of ₹9,173 crore for Tamil Nadu, ₹9,000 crore for Andhra Pradesh, ₹8,000 crore for Karnataka, ₹4,671 crore for Telangana, and ₹4,255 crore for Kerala. 
• There is a strong case for the States to go back to the Finance Commission with a request to make and give a supplementary report.

Way forward: 

• The war on COVID-19 can be effectively won only when the States are armed with enough resources to meet the crisis. But they are faced with stagnant revenues while their expenditure commitments are huge. 
• There is only limited scope for expenditure switching and reprioritisation now. Their borrowing space too is limited by the fiscal responsibility and budget management limit of 3% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). 
• Faced with an acute fund crunch, Kerala floated 15-year bonds but was faced with a huge upsurge in the yield to 8.96%. 
• The announcement by the Reserve Bank of India on the increase in the limit of ways and means advances by 60% of the levels prescribed in March 31 could help States to plan their borrowing better; but that is too little to provide much relief.

Conclusion:

• Therefore, it is important for the Central government to provide additional borrowing space by 2% of GSDP from the prevailing 3% of GSDP. 
• This is the time to fiscally empower States to wage the COVID-19 war and trust them to spend on protecting lives, livelihoods and initiate an economic recovery.

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Putting the SAGAR vision to the test (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:International 
Prelims level: Indian Ocean Commission
Mains level: How India can contribute to the Indian Ocean Commission

Context:

• In March 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited three small but significant Indian Ocean island states — Seychelles, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka. 
• During this tour, he unveiled India’s strategic vision for the Indian Ocean: Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR). 

About SAGAR: 

• SAGAR seeks to differentiate India’s leadership from the modus operandi of other regionally active major powers and to reassure littoral states as India’s maritime influence grows. 
• As External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar signalled at the fourth Indian Ocean Conference in September last year, India’s SAGAR vision is intended to be “consultative, democratic and equitable”. 
• India’s recent admission as observer to the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) will put this vision to the test.

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IOC, a trusted regional actor

• Following a request from New Delhi, the IOC granted observer status to India on March 6 at the Commission’s 34th Council of Ministers. 
• Founded in 1982, the IOC is an intergovernmental organisation comprising five small-island states in the Western Indian Ocean: the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion (a French department), and Seychelles. 
• Though Réunion brings a major power, France, into this small-state equation, decisions in the IOC are consensus-based, and while France’s foreign policy interests are represented, the specifics of Réunion’s regional decision-making emerge from its local governance structures. 
• Over the years, the IOC has emerged as an active and trusted regional actor, working in and for the Western Indian Ocean and implementing a range of projects.

Leadership role played by IOC:

• More recently, the IOC has demonstrated leadership in the maritime security domain. Since maritime security is a prominent feature of India’s relations with Indian Ocean littoral states, India’s interest in the IOC should be understood in this context. 
• However, India has preferred to engage bilaterally with smaller states in the region. What India will not find in the IOC is a cluster of small states seeking a ‘big brother’ partnership. 
• The IOC has its own regional agenda, and has made impressive headway in the design and implementation of a regional maritime security architecture in the Western Indian Ocean.

MASE Programme:

• In 2012, the IOC was one of the four regional organisations to launch the MASE Programme — the European Union-funded programme to promote Maritime Security in Eastern and Southern Africa and Indian Ocean. 
• Under MASE, the IOC has established a mechanism for surveillance and control of the Western Indian Ocean with two regional centres. 
• The Regional Maritime Information Fusion Center (RMIFC), based in Madagascar, is designed to deepen maritime domain awareness by monitoring maritime activities and promoting information sharing and exchange. 
• The Regional Coordination Operations Centre (RCOC), based in Seychelles, will eventually facilitate joint or jointly coordinated interventions at sea based on information gathered through the RMIFC. 
• These centres are a response to the limitations that the states in the region face in policing and patrolling their often enormous Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). 
• They deliver an urgently needed deterrent against unabating maritime crime at sea, only partly addressed by the high-level counter-piracy presence of naval forces from the EU, the Combined Maritime Forces, and Independent Forces. 
• Seven states in the region have signed agreements to participate in this multilateral maritime security architecture, and once ratified, will provide its legal foundation. Many major powers have expressed interest in accessing the RMIFC.

Learn from IOC:

• The IOC’s achievements offer an opportunity for India to learn, and also to support. 
• The IOC style of ‘bottom-up regionalism’ has produced a sub-regional view and definition of maritime security problems and local ownership of pathways towards workable solutions. 
• A 2019 policy brief published by the IOC (with inputs from this author), ‘Strengthening Maritime Security in the Western Indian Ocean’, sets out how the counter-piracy response off the coast of Somalia delivered unprecedented regional and international cooperation in the domain of maritime security. 
• However, it resulted in multiple players, the duplication of actions, and regional dependence on international navies. 
• The IOC has been seeking more sustainable ways of addressing maritime security threats in the region, with the RMIFC and RCOC as part of this response. 
• Its regional maritime security architecture is viewed locally as the most effective and sustainable framework to improve maritime control and surveillance and allow littoral States to shape their own destiny. 
• Moreover, with proper regional coordination, local successes at curbing maritime threats will have broader security dividends for the Indian Ocean space.

How can India contribute?

• The IOC’s maritime security activities have a strong foundation, but they require support and buy-in from additional regional actors. 
• India has already signalled a strong interest in the work of the IOC through its request to be admitted as an observer. 
• The view from Ebène, where the IOC is headquartered, and from where its maritime security strategy is directed, is that major powers are warmly invited to support its initiatives. 
• Nearly all littoral states in the Western Indian Ocean need assistance in developing their maritime domain awareness and in building capacity to patrol their EEZs. 
• All would benefit from national information fusion centres that can link to those of the wider region. 
• With its observer status, India will be called upon to extend its expertise to the region, put its satellite imagery to the service of the RMIFC, and establish links with its own Information Fusion Centre.

Way forward: 

• As a major stakeholder in the Indian Ocean with maritime security high on the agenda, India will continue to pursue its interests and tackle maritime security challenges at the macro level in the region. 
• However, as an observer of the IOC, a specific, parallel opportunity to embrace bottom-up regionalism presents itself. 
• There are those in the Western Indian Ocean who are closely watching how India’s “consultative, democratic and equitable” leadership will take shape.

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