UPSC : Cadre Allocation Policy for IAS/IPS/IFoS

The significance of Arihant

Mains Paper 3: Internal Security 
Prelims level: SSBN
Mains level:  Security challenges and their management

Introduction 

• As a nation committed to “no first use” (NFU), should never be in doubt about the credibility of India’s nuclear deterrent and the assurance of a swift, devastating response.
• The kind of transparency provided by satellites and other technical means, the land-based legs of our nuclear triad (missile sites and air-bases) remain exposed to enemy attack.
• The submarine disappears underwater, it becomes virtually impossible to locate and can remain on patrol for months, with its ballistic missiles ready for launch on the PM’s orders.

Credibility of Arihant 

• This is the kind of credibility that Arihant and her sisters will provide India’s nuclear deterrent in the future.
• It is also proof of crew proficiency in operating its nuclear-plant and other complex systems, establishment of standard operating procedures and functionality of the navy’s crucial long-range underwater radio communication system.
• While this is a good augury excessive jubilation or hyperbole, at this stage, could erode the credibility of the “third leg of the nuclear triad”, for three reasons.
• First, there is the issue of missile ranges.
• From a submarine patrol area in mid-Bay of Bengal, Islamabad is 2,500 km, while Beijing and Shanghai are over 4,000 km.
• India needs a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) of 6,000-8,000-km range.
• Second, India has, so far, followed an unorthodox system, in which the National Command Authority (NCA) manages the nuclear deterrent through a “troika” consisting of the Strategic Forces Command (SFC), the Department of Atomic Energy and DRDO.
• Arihant and her sisters will carry “cannisterised” missiles.
• The third area of concern is an effective command and control structure to cater for this new capability.
• The Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) is, notionally, a key functionary in the nuclear command chain, responsible to the PM for functioning of the SFC.

Way forward 

• The context of the nuclear triad, the Chairman COSC, in his current avatar, needs to be urgently replaced either by a Chief of Defence Staff or a Permanent Chairman COSC, with an independent charter and a fixed tenure.
• A number of major private-sector companies contributed to the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) programme.
• The nuclear-reactors of our SSBNs will need re-fuelling (with fresh Uranium rods) every few years.
• A small force of nuclear attack submarines (SSN) would be required for protection of SSBNs and other roles.
• There are key areas of R&D which call for urgent focus and where we may need assistance.
• These include propellant technology for SLBMs of inter-continental range; the design of a SSBN which will accommodate a battery of 16-24 such SLBMs; and the indigenous development of a powerful nuclear-reactor to drive a 10,000-12,000 ton SSBN.
• India’s nuclear triad and its accessories are going to cost the nation trillions of rupees in the decades ahead.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

UPSC Prelims Questions: 

Q.1) In which of the following species did the scientists found microplastics recently in Kochi coast?
A.    Echiura and Chaetognatha
B.    Porifera and Bryozoa    
C.    Sternaspls scutata and Magelona cinta
D.    Eschrichtius robustus and Calypte anna
Answer: B

UPSC Mains Questions:
Q.1) What is SSBN? To what extent arihant is important to maintain security from nuclear thread?
 

Fissures amidst growth

Mains Paper 2: Social Justice 
Prelims level: Female foeticide and infanticide
Mains level:  Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources

Introduction 

• India is now among the fastest-growing large economies of the world.
• We clocked 7 per cent real GDP growth during October-December 2017; followed by 7.7 per cent in January-March 2018 and then 8 per cent in April to June 2018.
• Far more worrisome are some serious fractures that have emerged and show no signs of healing.
• We discuss four such: Female foeticide and infanticide; Failure of education; Rising inequalities; and Huge economic differences between regions of the country.
• With a sex ratio of 775 girls of 0-6 years for every 1,000 boys as per the 2011 Census, Mahendragarh is the nastiest district in India in the worst state of the country for female foeticide and infanticide.
• Simply put, much of north India, western UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the northern part of Madhya Pradesh rampantly engage in ultrasonography to detect and then illegally abort female fetuses.
• Despite tough laws against sex-determination and female foeticide, there is no police action to speak of.

 Failure of education:

• According to the 2011 Census, 14 per cent of men aged 25-34 years hadn’t studied beyond class 10, 11.5 per cent hadn’t progressed beyond Class 12 and only 14.6 per cent were graduates.
• According to the Annual Status of Education Report for 2017, 25 per cent of rural students of 14-18 years could not read basic text fluently in their own language.
• Over 50 per cent struggled with dividing three-digits by one-digit.

Rise in inequalities:

• Though there are over 240 million desperately poor people in the country, poverty has clearly reduced in both rural and urban India.

Districts being left behind:

• Pucca house, electricity, latrine, separate bathroom, bank account, television, phone, two-wheeler and LPG connection.
• Based on these, one can construct a ranking of each district of India, from the “richest” to the “poorest”. What do we see?

Way forward 

• The north (Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Western UP), the irrigated parts of Rajasthan, most of Gujarat, parts of Maharashtra, Goa, parts of Karnataka, most of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, all of Kerala and much of Tamil Nadu do well.
• These are some of our fractures that we should fear. And so fearing, work on fixing them.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

UPSC Prelims Questions: 

Q.1) With reference to Janani Suraksha Yojana, onsider the following statements.
1. It aims to reduce maternal mortality by promoting institutional delivery.
2. Pregnant women are entitled for cash assistance under the scheme.
Which of the statements given above is/arecorrect?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer: C

UPSC Mains Questions:
Q.1) How Indian society can resolve female foeticide and infanticide problem in society? 
 

Ram diplomacy

Mains Paper 2: International Relation 
Prelims level: Act East policy
Mains level:  Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests

Introduction 

• Indonesia, of course, is one of the members of ASEAN, with whom India has forged close links as part of its Act East policy.
• At the India-ASEAN Commemorative Summit in New Delhi in January this year, Modi said that the Ramayana continues to be a valuable shared legacy in the ASEAN region and the Indian subcontinent.
• In fact, the dance drama Rama Hari, based on the Ramayana, was also part of the opening ceremony of the ASEAN Summit in Manila, in the Philippines, in 2017.

Impact of Ram diplomacy

• The legend of Queen Suriratna, originally of Ayodhya, who travelled to Korea in the first century AD, and married the Korean King Suro.
• The two sides agreed to upgrade the monument for Queen Suriratna in Ayodhya as a joint project.
• India also invited Korea to participate in a seminar on the subject “Shared Heritage as New Variable in the Indo-Korean Relations:
• Historicising the Legend of Princess from Ayodhya and its Legacy”.
• Spiritual links between India and Nepal have been a constant factor in Modi’s interactions with the leadership of that country.
• His visit to Janakpur, the birthplace of Sita, in May 2018, marked the launch of the Nepal-India Ramayana Circuit, which connects Ayodhya and Janakpur with other sites associated with the Ramayana.
• Modi also announced Rs 100 crore for the development of Janakpur.

Conclusion 

• Indeed, the two towns were linked by a sister-city agreement between India and Nepal in 2014.
• During a pathbreaking visit to Central Asia in July 2015, the prime minister had presented to President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, a set of books relating to religions born in India.
• Among the books was a Persian translation of Valmiki’s Ramayana in Nastaliq script.
• Speaking at a conference in Tehran in May 2016, on the theme “India and Iran, Two Great Civilisations,” the prime minister noted that the Ramayana has seen over a dozen translations in Persian.
• India’s cultural richness and the wide expanse of its spiritual knowledge and icons, are important pillars in his approach to diplomacy.
• And, who better than Lord Rama to connect India and the world!

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

UPSC Prelims Questions: 

Q.1) India and Japan signed a Loan Agreement worth Rs. 1,817 crore for the construction of hydel power project in ____________.

A.    Assam
B.    West Bengal
C.    Gujarat
D.    Uttar Pradesh
Answer: B

UPSC Mains Questions:
Q.1) How India can use Ram policy to their act east policy? 

Plain tales from the hills

Mains Paper 1: Geography 
Prelims level: Aravallis
Mains level: Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location- changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

Introduction 

• The hills are melting away before our eyes. 
• About 50 km before you reach Jaipur on NH 8, you drive past an imposing hill of quartzite looming over a small hamlet called Deo ka Harmara, near Chandwaji.
• Like a giant cone of shawarma, the rock is being pared away layer by layer and eventually ground into gravel-sized stones to be used for road-building.
• It shrinking by noticeable increments each time.
• This is not an illegal mining operation, just one of hundreds of tekra outcrops that are being dismantled and crushed for roadworks all over Rajasthan, and no doubt, elsewhere in this country.

What are the hidden issues? 

• Mining is big, easy money in Rajasthan today.
• The state boasts a long list of valuable minerals hidden in its hills and below ground zinc, silver, uranium, copper, limestone, some of the most colourful marble in the world, mica, dolomite  but not that all of these minerals add up to a tenth of what is actually mined in small, reckless, fly-by-night operations.
• Most of the mining is about relatively less-valuable Aravalli quartzite and granite. Or drive out in almost any direction from Jaisalmer town and the stony ground is pitted and broken by shallow digging for the ochre limestone that lies exposed on the surface. 
• There is no reason to doubt that someone needs to restrain the unregulated digging and looting of rocks and minerals before Rajasthan disappears down a large dusty hole of its own making.
• The Supreme Court that steps in and not an enlightened and concerned state government.
• Environmental degradation in other countries 
• Countries like South Africa and Australia, which do a colossal amount of mining have their problems too, but they have evolved policies that address important issues of how to steer a course between challenge and opportunity.
• It can be nobody’s case that mining is all bad and should be banned.
• These countries recognise that along with economic benefits and employment, mining threatens to severely pollute and degrade the environment and have created strong regulatory regimes to encourage compliance with environmental and mitigatory rules.

Why do we find it so difficult to do anything like this in India?

• The problem is a lack of probity and enforcement, because there are rules and regulations in place although no one can seriously argue that the rules have been framed with any serious intent or rigour. Naam ke vaaste is the name of the game.
• This applies all around, to every parameter of the environment in this country. 
• Whether we look at the quality of water in our rivers and lakes, at the contamination of fossil water in our aquifers, at the fouling of the air or the stripping of topsoil from fields, at pesticide residues in our food, at natural old-growth forests and wilderness being lost  and this is by no means an exhaustive list.
• It is painfully evident that India has simply not summoned up the will to enact and enforce regulations to curb degradation. 
• No aspect of the environment figures in the election planks or promises of any political party. 
• It is foolish or at best naïve to expect environmental legislation to arrive unbidden from our legislatures. 
• It needs a groundswell of public support and pressure for any of this to happen just like it needed insistent demand from the outdoor recreational angling community to push through the Clean Water Act in the US.

Way forward 

• The National Capital Region’s dreadful plight is seen as an opportunity, but this is the sad reality in India today.
• It is the first high-profile crisis we have faced that everyone recognises is squarely an environmental one. 
• It is seen as having a set of discrete, preventable causes and even if everyone doesn’t agree about how to ameliorate the situation, everyone does agree that it can be mitigated by a set of measures that curbs some things and outlaws others.
• Delhi’s bad air presents itself as an opportunity to underline linkages between the degradation of our air, soil, food and water, and the need for good legislation, and indeed, better enforcement of such legislation.
• Delhi’s crisis to usher in a new general understanding of how important it is to protect our environment.
• The sad truth is we sometimes need to come to the very brink before we pull back and learn to act sensibly.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

UPSC Prelims Questions: 

Q.1) The well-known diamond mines of Panna in India forms part of which of the following rock system?
(a) Gondwana rock system
(b) Cuddapah rock system
(c) Vindhyan rock system
(d) Deccan traps
Answer: C

UPSC Mains Questions:
Q.1) In the context of Aravallis geophysical and environmental degradation why do we find it so difficult to do anything like this in India?
 

Too faint for comfort? on GST collection 

Mains Paper 3: Economy 
Prelims level: GST 
Mains level: Government Budgeting

Introduction 

• Goods and services tax (GST) collections in the month of October crossed the ₹1 lakh crore mark, with total collections for the month standing at ₹1,00,710 crore.
• This momentum, coming in the midst of a marginal increase in the total number of filings compared to September, is expected to be sustained in the coming months, supported by the festive season that is under way. 
• GST collections had crossed the comfort level of ₹1 lakh crore for the first time in April this year.
• The average GST revenue during 2017-18 was ₹89,885 crore. 
• The reduction in tax rates under GST in July seems to have helped improve compliance among small businesses, leading to an increase in overall tax collection. 
• It also helps to reduce the distortionary effect of indirect taxes. The increase in GST collections comes at a time when the Centre has been unable to control its spending in the run-up to the general election due by next summer. 
• According to data released last week, the government’s fiscal deficit reached 95.3% of its budgeted estimate by the first half of the year.

Reasons behind this tax increases 

• Direct tax collections too have increased over the past few years, reaching an all-time high of ₹10 lakh crore in 2017-18, helping to fund the deficit.
• The festive season too has failed to meet expectations as of now with many consumer-facing businesses reporting lacklustre sales. 
• Car sales reported by major companies until now, for instance, are flat.
• Various other economic indicators also have failed to impress in recent months. 
• Core sector growth dropped to a four-month low in September. 
• These growth-related factors will weigh negatively on tax collection in the coming months. 
• Apart from the general macroeconomic environment, there are specific implementation issues that plague the indirect tax system. 

Way forward 

• The export sector, for example, has been affected by undue delays in GST refunds worth thousands of crores of rupees. 
• The GST collection in October is also still significantly below the expectations of ₹1.10 lakh crore. 
• The current spurt may be simply owing to the festival season.
• It may also be too soon to say that GST collections are on a sustainable uptrend simply based on the October collections.
• Collections during the first six months of the current fiscal year fell short of target by over ₹22,000 crore despite record collections in April. 
• The government should continue the effort to make the GST more taxpayer-friendly, bringing down the cost and hassle of compliance, to achieve a sustained rise in collections.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

UPSC Prelims Questions: 

Q.1) With reference to Goods and Services Tax (GST), consider the following statements:
1. It is a type of value added tax.
2. The tax under GST regime is imposed at the point of consumption.
3. It is not applicable on imports of goods and services.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: A

UPSC Mains Questions:
Q.1) How GST can boost Indian economic development? 

A tough balancing act between geopolitical realities and energy security

Mains Paper 2: Economy 
Prelims level: Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
Mains level: Energy, Infrastructure etc.  

Introduction 

• The US oil and banking sanctions against Iran will come into effect on 4 November. 
• The oil market is unusually calm. Crude prices have fallen during October. 
• The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) crude price basket went down by 8.6 %, while the Brent benchmark fell by 9.4 % during the month.
• The short-term fluctuations, a different picture emerges if we take the long-term view. Over a one-year horizon.
• The Opec benchmark has gone up by 50%, while Brent crude went up by 30%.

Reasons  behind this price increase 

• Opec has said that the market is well supplied. 
• For most of the consuming countries, it is not simply a question of finding replacement oil. Crude import has to be at prices they can afford. 
• The price has already gone up.
• The Indian crude oil basket is up by nearly 30% since last year, which would add more than ₹2 trillion to our annual oil import bill if the trend persists.
• If rupee depreciation is factored in, the effect will be even more pronounced.
• Prime Minister Modi has said that high oil prices are hurting global economic growth and oil producing countries should do more to bring down prices.

Importance of Chabahar Port

• India is committed to develop Chabahar Port. 
• The port will expand Afghanistan’s options and reduce its dependence on transit trade through Pakistan. The project has been welcomed by all the Central Asian countries.
• The expansion of Chabahar Port is in no way linked to Iran’s oil exports, which go through the Kharg terminal in the Gulf. 
• The port does not add much to Iran’s revenue; it currently handles less than 1.5% of Iran’s total maritime trade. It is a civilian facility open to all countries.

Way forward 

• Iran’s compliance with the nuclear accord has been confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). As “provisional measures”.
• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled against the US sanctions. Nevertheless, the US sanctions remain a potent force.
• The increase in oil prices is not only due to impact of sanctions against Iran, but is also driven by policies pursued by Opec and non-Opec producers to restrict crude oil production to keep the prices high.
• The only option that remains for India is reviving rupee payment arrangement to bring down current account deficit, and ensure continuity in Indian exports, which are largely limited to food and pharmaceuticals.
• India has an extremely important and growing relationship with the US. It also has geo-political compulsions, and an age-old relationship with Iran as well as its Arab neighbours.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

UPSC Prelims Questions: 

Q.1) The term 'Asian premium' which is seen in news refers to
(a) a world famous rice variety found in Asia.
(b) a type of insurance contract leading to slowdown in Asian financial markets.
(c) Asian countries being charged high oil prices by Gulf suppliers.
(d) highly educated skilled workers from Asia.
Answer: C

UPSC Mains Questions:
Q.1) Why Chabahar Port is so important for OPEC?

UPSC IAS Mains Public Administration Solved Exam Paper - 2011

Paper - I

Section - A

Q1. Answer the following questions in not more than 200 words each: 20x3 = 60

(a) 'A crisis of credibility' in the administrative system can be overcome only by 'reinventing government'. Comment.
(b) 'Media is a Parliament of citizens.' Explain.
(c) E-governance is the' final arrival of Max Weber's 'iron cage of rationality', Discuss,

Answer:

(a) 'A crisis of credibility' in the administrative system can be overcome only by 'reinventing government'. Comment.

The New Public Management is a concept articulated by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler in their 1992 book, Reinventing Government. It applies the business customer service model to government.

Citizens are seen as customers and the administrative role is streamlined by converting policy alternatives into market choices. This approach focuses on results and promotes competition inside and outside government.

It focuses on the mission of government, and how to determine the collective public interest. They believe that there are considerations that should come before cost and efficiency, and that citizen participation should be a major factor in decisions.

They see the role of the administrator as very complex: synthesizing the needs of citizens, interest groups, elected representatives, etc.

The principles of Reinventing Government :

• Catalytic government: steering rather than rowing
• Community-owned government: empowering rather than serving
• Competitive government: injecting competition into service delivery
• Mission driven government: transforming rule-driven organisations
• Results-oriented government: funding outcomes, not inputs
• Customer-driven government: meeting the needs of the customer, not the bureaucracy
• Enterprising government: earning rather than spending
• Anticipatory government: prevention rather than cure
• Decentralized government: from hierarchy to participation and teamwork
• Market-oriented government: leveraging change through the market

(b) 'Media is a Parliament of citizens.' Explain.

In contemporary polity, the media serves as the Parliament of the citizens. The media has two main aspects, as a part of what is known as information industry and as a factor in the formulation of opinion.

In both respects, it has to act with responsibility to be effective or reliable. The media is still the main medium of mass communication. Besides its educative role, it can help in exposing the weaknesses of the democratic system and point out how these can be rectified.

Often the media struggles hard to unearth the administrative lapses, scandals and shortcomings, gives expression to public grievances and difficulties and reports on how policies are being carried out.