Case for Presidential System(Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2:Polity 
Prelims level: Presidential System
Mains level: Comparison of the Indian constitutional scheme with that of other countries

Context:

• The nation has witnessed disgraceful political shenanigansmost recently in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, and the horse-trading of MLAs to switch allegiances for power and pelf. 
• These are not merely an occasion for breast-beatingabout morality in politics or the opportunism of the cash-rich ruling party. 
• We never seem to look beyond the headlines to the basic problem: The system that makes this shameful conduct possible. 
• The parliamentary system we borrowed from the British has not worked in Indian conditions. It is time to demand a change.

Failure of parliamentary system:

• The facts are clear: Our parliamentary system has created a unique breed of legislator, largely unqualified to legislate, who has sought election only in order to wield executive power. 
• It has produced governments dependent on a fickle legislative majority, who are therefore obliged to focus more on politics than on policy or performance. 
• It has distorted the voting preferences of an electorate that knows which individuals it wants to vote for but not necessarily which parties. 
• It has spawned parties that are shifting alliances of selfish individual interests, not vehicles of coherent sets of ideas.
• It has forced governments to concentrate less on governing than on staying in office, and obliged them to cater to the lowest common denominator of their coalitions. 
• The parliamentary system has failed us.
• Pluralist democracy is India’s greatest strength, but its current manner of operation is the source of our major weaknesses. To suggest this is political sacrilegein India. 
• Barely any of the many politicians I have discussed this with are even willing to contemplate a change. 
• The main reason for this is that they know how to work the present system and do not wish to alter the ways they are used to.
• Yet the parliamentary system devised in Britain — a small island nation with electorates of less than a lakh voters per constituency — is based on traditions which simply do not exist in India. 

Every MPs/MLAs are significant: 

• In the absence of a real party system, the voter chooses not between parties but between individuals, usually on the basis of their caste, their public image or other personal qualities. 
• But since the individual is elected in order to be part of a majority that will form the government, party affiliations matter. 
• So, voters are told that if they want a Narendra Modi as prime minister, or a Mamata Banerjee or Jagan Reddy as their chief minister, they must vote for someone else as MP or MLA in order to indirectly accomplish that result. 
• It is a perversity only the British could have devised — to vote for a legislature not to legislate but in order to form the executive.

Limiting executive posts:

• The fact that the principal reason for entering Parliament is to attain governmental office creates four specific problems. 
• First, it limits executive posts to those who are electable rather than to those who are able. 
• The prime minister cannot appoint a cabinet of his choice; he has to cater to the wishes of the political leaders of several parties. (Yes, he can bring some members in through the Rajya Sabha, but our upper house too has been largely the preserve of full-time politicians, so the talent pool has not been significantly widened.)
• Second, it puts a premium on defections and horse-trading. 
• The anti-defection Act of 1985 has failed to cure the problem, since the bargaining has shifted to getting enough MLAs to resign to topple a government, while promising them offices when they win the subsequent by-elections.

Weakening accountability:

• Third, legislation suffers. 
• Most laws are drafted by the executive — in practice by the bureaucracy — and parliamentary input into their formulation and passage is minimal, with very many bills being passed after barely a few minutes of debate. 
• The ruling party inevitably issues a whip to its members in order to ensure unimpeded passage of a bill, and since defiance of a whip itself attracts disqualification, MPs blindly vote as their party directs. 
• The parliamentary system does not permit the existence of a legislature distinct from the executive, applying its collective mind freely to the nation’s laws. 
• Accountability of the government to the people, through their elected representatives, is weakened.

Power to disrupt:

• Fourth, for those parties who do not get into government and who realise that the outcome of most votes is a foregone conclusion, Parliament or Assembly serves not as a solemn deliberative body, but as a theatre for the demonstration of their power to disrupt. 
• The well of the house — supposed to be sacrosanct — becomes a stage for the members of the opposition to crowd and jostle, waving placards and chanting slogans until the Speaker, after several futile attempts to restore order, adjourns in despair. 
• In India’s Parliament, many opposition members feel that the best way to show the strength of their feelings is to disrupt law-making rather than debate the law. 

Ensuring effective performance:

• Apologists for the present system say in its defence that it has served to keep the country together and given every Indian a stake in the nation’s political destiny. 
• But that is what democracy has done, not the parliamentary system. 
• What our present system has not done as well as other democratic systems might, is to ensure effective performance. 
• India’s many challenges require political arrangements that permit decisive action, whereas ours increasingly promotes drift and indecision. 
• We must have a system of democracy whose leaders can focus on governance rather than on staying in power.
• The disrepute into which the political process has fallen in India, and the widespread cynicism about the motives of our politicians, can be traced directly to the workings of the parliamentary system. 
• Holding the executive hostage to the agendas of a motleybunch of legislators is nothing but a recipe for governmental instability. 
• And instability is precisely what India, with its critical economic and social challenges, cannot afford. 

Presidential system:

• The case for a presidential system has, in my view, never been clearer. 
• A directly elected chief executive in New Delhi and in each state would have stability of tenure free from legislative whim, be able to appoint a cabinet of talents, and above all, be able to devote his or her energies to governance, and not just to government. 
• The Indian voter will be able to vote directly for the individual he or she wants to be ruled by, and the president will truly be able to claim to speak for a majority of Indians rather than a majority of MPs. 
• At the end of a fixed period of time, the public would be able to judge the individual on performance in improving the lives of Indians, rather than on political skill at keeping a government in office.
• The same logic would apply to the directly elected heads of our towns and cities and village panchayats, who today are little more than glorified committee chairmen, with little power and minimal resources. 
• To give effect to meaningful local self-government, we need directly elected local officials, each with real authority and financial resources to deliver results in their own areas.

Concerns of the Presidential system:

• The only serious objection advanced by liberal democrats is that the presidential system carries with it the risk of dictatorship. 
• They conjure up the image of an imperiouspresident, immune to parliamentary defeat and imperviousto public opinion, ruling the country by fiat.
• In particular they argue that it will pave the way for a Modi dictatorship in India. 
• An independent legislature a presidential system would ensure President Modi could be less autocratic than the prime minister he is currently.
• In addition, the powers of a President Modi would be amply balanced by those of the directly elected chief executives in the states.
• These executives would be immune to dismissal by their party leader, or to toppling by defecting MLAs. 

Conclusion:

• Democracy is an end in itself, and we are right to be proud of it. But few Indians are proud of the kind of politics our democracy has inflicted upon us. 
• With the needs and challenges of one-sixth of humanity before our leaders, we must have a democracy that delivers progress to our people. 
• Changing to a presidential system is the best way of ensuring a democracy that works.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the P7 Heavy Drop System, consider the following statements:

1. DRDO has developed P7 Heavy Drop System which is capable of para dropping military stores up to 7-ton weight class from IL-76 aircraft.
2. It has been developed successfully with 100% indigenous resources.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: C

Mains Questions:

Q.1) What is theparliamentary system? Highlighting its key features? What are the major pros and cons of this system? What are the differences between Parliamentary system and Presidential system?

Locked in(Indian Express)

Mains Paper 1:Society 
Prelims level: National Commission for Women
Mains level: Role of women and women’s organisation, population and associated issues

Context:

• A study by researchers at the University of California brings confirmation that the coronavirus lockdowns are making Indian women more vulnerable to violence at home. 
• This is the fear that activists and academics have voiced from the start. 

Shadow pandemic:

• Complaints were mapped of domestic violence received by the National Commission for Women (NCW) in April-May against designated red, green and orange zones.
• The study found that complaints of domestic violence rose 131% in red zones, where there were stricter curbs on mobility, relative to green zones. 
• The study also found that cases of harassment, sexual assault, and rape decreased during the period, perhaps correlating to less exposure to “public spaces, public transport, and workplaces”. 
• It also highlighted a spike in Google searches for “domestic violence helplines”.
• Early into the pandemic, the United Nations had warned of a “shadow pandemic” of intimate partner violence as women across the world are locked in with their abusers, unable to seek help. 
• In India, too, activists have flagged a dip in calls to helplines as a sign of women’s inability to reach out for assistance. 
• The research warns against reading the dip in reported sexual violence as a sign that women are safer at home. 

Safety of women:

• It underlines that the patriarchal violence faced by Indian women, in their homes and outside, is deep-rooted and capable of taking on different forms. 
• The pandemic is not just a public health challenge. 
• It also threatens to disrupt the systems and institutions that provide a fragile immunity against toxic social inequalities. 
• For Indian women, the snapping of access to mobility, income, and circles of solidarity outside the family can have terrifying consequences.
• The research ought to serve as an urgent SOS for governments and policymakers. 
• Unfortunately, the Union minister for Women and Child Development has debunked the fears of a spike in domestic violence during the lockdown as “scaremongering”. 
• Instead of denial, local governments, police and ground-level health workers must prioritise the safety of women, innovate on ways to communicate with them, and set up shelters where they can be removed out of harm’s way. 

Conclusion:

• Women’s needs, like those of all vulnerable groups, must be placed at the heart of the emergency response to the COVID-19 crisis. 
• They cannot wait till the end of the pandemic for help to reach them.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Kurma app, consider the following statements:

1. On May 23, 2020, World Turtle Day, a mobile-based application called KURMA was launched for turtle conservation.
2. It was developed by World Wide Fund for Nature.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: A

Mains Questions:

Q.1) Highlighting the COVID 19 induced lockdown effect on domestic violence. What are the challenges faced by women? Critically analyse.

The big fight (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2:International 
Prelims level: US-China bilateral relations
Mains level: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests

Context:

• Beijing has retaliated swiftly against Washington’s decision earlier this week to close down the Chinese consulate in Houston by ordering the closure of the US consulate in Chengdu in southwestern China. 
• Beijing called it a “legitimate and necessary response to the unreasonable measures by the United States”. 
• China had also rejected the Trump Administration’s charge that its Houston consulate was engaged in espionageand theft of industrial secrets. 
• This is the first time since the US and China normalised relations in 1979 that the two sides are downgrading diplomatic ties. 
• The closure of consulates in Houston and Chengdu marks a significant escalation of tensions between the world’s two most important powers and is bound to affect all major actors in the international system, including India.

Accusations and counter-accusations:

• Although the US-China trade war had begun two years ago, with both sides imposing punitive tariffs on imports from each other, Washington and Beijing had continuing negotiations on resolving the dispute. 
• The two sides had announced a phase one of the trade deal earlier this year. 
• But recent months have seen the rapid expansion of the scope and intensity of the conflict. 
• The Trump Administration charged China with spreading the COVID-19 virus that has infected more than four million Americans and killed nearly 1,50,000. 
• Beijing retaliated by alleging that the Trump Administration was blaming China for its own failures in dealing with the pandemic. 
• It also floated the theory that the US Army might have been the original source of the deadly virus. 
• Earlier this week, the Trump Administration accused Chinese hackers of trying to steal US research on anti-COVID vaccines. 
• In recent weeks, the US stepped up its global campaign against China’s telecom giant Huawei and pressed its allies and partners to reject its technology in rolling out the 5G mobile networks.

Wide ranging consequences:

• Beyond the bilateral issues of diplomatic representation, trade, technology and the coronavirus, the conflict between the two great powers has inevitably begun to envelop other countries, especially those in Asia. 
• Last week, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, rejected Beijing’s territorial claims in the disputed waters of the South China Sea as unlawful. 
• As he sharpened the US tone on Chinese expansionism across Asia, Pompeo put Washington squarely on the Indian side in the unfolding military conflict between Delhi and Beijing in eastern Ladakh. 
• In his address to the US India Business Council earlier this week, Pompeo underlined the importance of Delhi and Washington working together in countering the China challenge. 
• For some in India, the Trump Administration’s muscular approach to Beijing generates deep concerns about being drawn into the escalating US-China conflict. 
• Many others, however, welcome Washington’s uninhibited support against Beijing in the conflict that China has imposed on India. 
• Official Delhi has been more than careful in its responses to the new US-China dynamic. 

Conclusion:

• The NDA government understands the gravity of the conflict on India’s China frontier and the import of the current inflection point in US-China relations. 
• Getting the India-US relationship right is more critical now than ever before.
• Even as India-China tensions on LAC continue, Delhi must also calibrate response to new edge of US-China dynamic.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the new Form 26AS, consider the following statements:

1. Form 26AS has been revamped to an 'Annual Information Statement' which will carry additional details on taxpayers financial transactions as specified in the Statement of Financial Transactions (SFTs) in various categories.
2. This will facilitate voluntary compliance, tax accountability and ease of e-filing of returns.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: C

Mains Questions:

Q.1) How trade war and escalating US-China conflict? What is the recent closure of consulates in Houston and Chengdu? Highlighting its effects on India’s interest. What is the significance of maintaining good relations with the US at this juncture?

A revolution in policy mindset(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Governance 
Prelims level: Sustainable Development Goals
Mains level: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

Context: 

• As lockdowns ease in countries across Asia and the Pacific in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a return to business as usual is unimaginable in a region that was already off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 
• The virtual High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development recently convened governments and stakeholders to focus on the imperativeto build back better while keeping an eye on the global goals.

Unprecedented times:

• Asia was the first to be hit by COVID-19 and feel its devastating social and economic impacts. 
• Efforts to respond to the pandemic have revealed how many people in our societies live precariouslyclose to poverty and hunger. 
• Many countries are taking bold actions to minimise the loss of life and economic costs.
• As attention shifts from the immediate health and human effects of the pandemic to addressing its social and economic effects, governments and societies face unprecedented policy, regulatory and fiscal choices. 
• The SDGs — a commitment to eradicatepoverty and achieve sustainable development, globally, by 2030 — can serve as a beaconin these turbulenttimes.

Grounds for optimism:

• The pandemic has exposed fragilityand systemic gaps in many key systems. 
• However, there are many workable strategies that countries have used to accelerate progress related to development goals and strengthen resilience.
• Countries have taken steps to extend universal health care systems and strengthen social protection systems, including cash transfer and food distribution systems for vulnerable households. 
• Accurate and regular data have been key to such efforts. Innovating to help the most disadvantaged access financing and small and medium-sized enterprise credits have also been vital. 
• Several countries have taken comprehensive approaches to various forms of discrimination, particularly related to gender and gender-based violence. 
• Partnerships, including with the private sector and financing institutions, have played a critical role in fostering creative solutions. 
• These experiences provide grounds for optimism.
• Responses to the COVID-19 crisis must be centred on the well-being of people, empowering them and advancing equality. 

A revolution needed: 

• We need a revolution in policy mindset and practice. 
• Inclusive and accountable governance systems, adaptive institutions with resilience to future shocks, universal social protection and health insurance, and stronger digital infrastructure are part of the transformations needed.
• Several countries in Asia and the Pacific are developing ambitious new strategies for green recovery and inclusive approaches to development. 
• South Korea recently announced a New Deal based on two central pillars: digitisation and decarbonisation. 
• Many countries in the Pacific are focusing on “blue recovery,” seizing the opportunity to promote more sustainable approaches to fisheries management. 
• India recently announced operating the largest solar power plant in the region. 
• China is creating more jobs in the renewable energy sector than in fossil fuel industries.

Conclusion:

• Institutions such as the United Nations and Asian Development Bank have mobilised to support a shared response to the crisis. 
• Now it is vital that we enable countries to secure the support they need to go beyond, to achieve the SDGs.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Plea bargaining, consider the following statements:

1. Plea bargaining refers to a person charged with a criminal offence negotiating with the prosecution for a lesser punishment than what is provided in law by pleading guilty to a less serious offence. 
2. In India, the concept was part of law since 1962. 

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: A

Mains Questions:

Q.1) What are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? How COVID-19 pandemic has derailed the achievement of SDGs and initiatives need to be taken to achieve sustainable development goals? Comment. 

The chilling effect of criminal contempt(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Governance 
Prelims level: Contempt of court
Mains level: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

Context:

• These are strange times we are going through right now. The pandemic has brought all activities to a virtual standstill.
• Even as workplaces and institutions are slowly and tentatively getting back on their feet, the focus is on ensuring that the more important things get done first. 
• Priorities are being identified accordingly. 
• For the Supreme Court of India, identifying priority cases to take up first (in a pandemic-constricted schedule) ought not to be very difficult.
• There are dozens of constitutional cases that need to be desperately addressed, such as the constitutionality of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the electoral bonds matter, or the issue of habeas corpus petitions from Jammu and Kashmir. 
• It is disappointing that instead of taking up matters of absolute urgency in these peculiar times, the Supreme Court chose to take umbrageat two tweets. 

Monarchical origins:

• This need to “respect the authority and dignity of the court” has monarchical origins from when the King of England delivered judgments himself. 
• But over the centuries, with this adjudicatory role now having been handed over to judges, showing extreme deferenceto judges does not sit well with the idea of a democracy. 
• The U.K. Law Commission in a 2012 report recommending the abolition of the law of contempt said that the law was originally intended to maintain a “blaze of glory” around courts. 
• It said that the purpose of the offence was not “confinedto preventing the public from getting the wrong idea about judges... but that where there are shortcomings, it is equally important to prevent the public from getting the right idea”.

A wide field in India:

• The objective for contempt is stated to be to safeguard the interests of the public. 
• if the authority of the Court is denigrated and public confidence in the administration of justice is weakened or eroded. 
• But the definition of criminal contempt in India is extremely wide, and can be easily invoked.
• Suo motu powers of the Court to initiate such proceedings only serve to complicate matters. 
• And truth and good faith were not recognised as valid defences until 2006, when the Contempt of Courts Act was amended.
• Nevertheless, the Delhi High Court, despite truth and good faith raised as defences, proceeded to sentence the employees of Mid-Day for contempt of court for portraying a retired Chief Justice of India in an unfavourable light.

Need for Change:

• It comes as no surprise that Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer famously termed the law of contempt as having a vague and wandering jurisdiction, with uncertain boundaries. 
• He said contempt law, regardless of public good, may unwittingly trample(violate) upon civil liberties. 
• On the face of it, a law for criminal contempt is completely not in tune with our democratic system which recognises freedom of speech and expression as a fundamental right.
• An excessively loose use of the test of ‘loss of public confidence’, combined with a liberal exercise of suo motu powers, can be dangerous. 
• It can amount to the Court signalling that it will not suffer any kind of critical commentaryabout the institution at all, regardless of how evidentlyproblematic its actions may be. 
• Besides needing to revisit the need for a law on criminal contempt, even the test for contempt needs to be evaluated. 
• If such a test ought to exist at all, it should be whether the contemptuous remarks in question actually obstruct the Court from functioning. 
• It should not be allowed to be used as a means to prevent any and all criticism of an institution.

Obsolete abroad:

• Already, contempt has practically become obsoletein foreign democracies, with jurisdictions recognising that it is an archaiclaw, designed for use in a bygoneera, whose utility and necessity has long vanished. 
• Canada ties its test for contempt to real, substantial and immediate dangers to the administration.
• American courts also no longer use the law of contempt in response to comments on judges or legal matters.
• In England, too, from where we have inherited the unfortunate legacy of contempt law, the legal position has evolved. 

Displaying maturity:

• But Indian courts have not been inclined — or at least, not always — to display the same maturity as their peers elsewhere. 
• It is regrettable that judges believe that silencing criticism will harbour respect for the judiciary. 
• On the contrary, surely, any efforts to artificially prevent free speech will only exacerbatethe situation further. 
• As was pointed out in the landmark U.S. case of Bridges v. California (1941), “an enforcedsilence would probably engenderresentment, suspicion, and contempt for the bench, not the respect it seeks”. 
• Surely, this is not what the Court might desire.
•  Two observations and a link:
• Pakistan Supreme Court hinted at banning YouTube and other social media platforms, for hosting what it termed ‘objectionable content’ that ‘incited hatred’ for institutions such as the army, the judiciary, the executive, and so on. 
• The eeriesimilarity between the two sets of observations raises concerns about which direction the Indian Supreme Court sees itself heading. 
• One can only hope that these fears are unwarranted.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Monoclonal antibodies, consider the following statements:

1. Monoclonal antibodies are proteins cloned in the lab to mimic antibodies produced by the immune system to counter an infection. 
2. Itolizumab is a monoclonal antibody which is used to treat acute psoriasis.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: C

Mains Questions:

Q.1) What is contempt of court? What are the major provisions? What are the criticisms of it?

A Governor’s test: On convening Rajasthan Assembly (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Polity
Prelims level: Governor 
Mains level: Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies

Context:

• Rajasthan Governor could have sought a floor test in the State Assembly to ensure that the government of Chief Minister Gehlot has a majority, as soon as a rebellion in the ruling Congress cast a shadow on it. 
• Far from that, Mr. Mishra now appears to be bending over backwards to delay a trust vote. 
• The Governor has cited six reasons for his procrastination in calling an Assembly session. 

Constitutional obligation:

• But the Supreme Court has settled that the Governor has no discretionarypowers in summoninga session of the Assembly, and he or she is bound to act according to the aid and advice of the CM and the Council of Ministers. 
• The Governor can require the CM and the Council of Ministers to seek a trust vote if he or she has reasons to believe that they have lost the confidence of the Assembly. 
• Either way, the only appropriate way forward for Mr. Mishra is to convene the session and allow the democratic process to take its course. 
• Now that the State cabinet has reiterated its demand for a session, specifying a date and an agenda as demanded by the Governor, he should not look for more excuses and bring embarrassment to the high office he holds.

Partisan politics:

• The CM has said the Governor is acting under pressure from the Centre, as he took the battle to the streets. 
• Congress MLAs supporting the CM held a dharna at the Governor’s residence, and a public protest is to be held on Monday. 
• It is instructive to compare Mr. Mishra’s conduct with that of Lalji Tandon, the former Governor of Madhya Pradesh, when similar sabotagebrought down the Congress government led by Kamal Nath in March. 
• Mr. Nath had said Congress MLAs were held captive, and the voting could be vitiated, but the Governor declared that the failure to take an immediate floor test would be presumed as a lack of majority. 
• Mr. Mishra wants to ensure that all MLAs are free to move around before a session could take place, though there is no public knowledge of anyone complaining to him being restrained. 
• He requires the government to take into consideration the spread of the novel coronavirus, but in Madhya Pradesh, the reasoning was the opposite — the Governor did not want any delay on account of the pandemic. 
• These arguments of two Governors four months apart in two States certainly appear contradictory, but also partisan in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party. 

Conclusion:

• The Raj Bhavan should not be a tool of the BJP to dislodge and install governments as and when it wants. 
• Mr. Mishra too has a test to pass, of constitutional morality.
• Governors should not act at the behestof the party ruling at the Centre. 

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the first International Chess Day, consider the following statements:

1. The first International Chess Day is being celebrated on 20 July.
2. United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 20 July as World Chess Day to mark the date of the establishment of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Paris in 1924.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: C

Mains Questions:

Q.1) What are the powers and duties of the Governors? Describe the relevant articles and Judgements associated with this.

1. What are the difficulties that arise in the application of the rule the “acceptance must be absolute, and must correspond with the terms of the offer”? (93/II/1a/20)
2. “Though offer and acceptance bring the parties together and constitute the outward semblance of contract, yet most systems of law require some further evidence of the intention of the parties and in default of such evidence refuse to recognise an obligation.” Comment upon the above statement and discuss the nature of evidence required to be supplied under the Indian Contract Act. (94/II/6a/30)
3. Explain an ‘offer’ and a ‘quotation’ and differentiate between the two. (94/II/5b/20)
4. “A contract consists of the actionable promise or promises.” Examine. (96/II/5a/20)
5. “Under the law of contract the intention of the parties must be manifested clearly so that their obligations may be demarcated with certainty.” Examine. (97/II/5a/20)
6. One of the requirements for formation of a valid contract is free consent. Why then, in some cases of absence of free consent, does it make the contract voidable, not a void agreement? Explain with illustrations. (98/II/7a/30)
7. A owes B Rs. 1,000, but the debt is time barred, C signs a written promise to pay B Rs. 500 on account of the above barred debt. Is B entitled to enforce the promise against C? (99/II/5b(ii)/10)
8. An offer cannot be accepted after it has been terminated or negatived. ‘Explain (Main) Law—Topic Wise Paper 72 when an offer ceases to be capable to acceptance. (92/II/1a/20)
9. “The test of contractual intention is objective, not subjective.” Discuss. (01/II/5a/20)
10. “An act done at the promisor’s desire furnishes a good consideration for his promise even though it is of no significance or personal benefit to him.” Discuss. (01/II/5b/20)
11. Legal framework of offer and acceptance does not favour protection of consumers interests. Critically examine with illustrations. (02/II/5b/20)
12. “In a ‘standard form contract’, it is likely that the party having stronger bargaining power may insert such exemption clauses in the contract that his duty to perform the main contractual obligation is thereby negatived.” Explain, and discuss the various rules which have been evolved to protect the weaker party. (04/II/8b/30)
13. “All contracts are agreements but all agreements are not contracts”. Explain. (05/II/5a/20)
14. “Insufficiency of consideration is immaterial but an agreement without consideration is void.” Comment. (06/II/5a/20)
15. Distinguish an offer from a quotation or an invitation to an offer with the help of illustrations. (06/II/5b/20)
16. “For giving rise to a valid contract, there must be consensus ad-idem among the contracting parties.” Explain this statement. (08/II/5a/20)
17. ‘An invitation to treat is not an offer’. Explain. (09/II/5a/20) 18. Distinguish between the following, citing relevant provisions/case laws : ‘Specific offer’ and ‘General offer’. (09/II/8b/20)

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Printed Study Material for IAS PRE cum Mains General Studies

1. Under the Consumer Protection Act, 69 (Main) Law—Topic Wise Paper 1986 discuss the procedure to be followed by the District Forum on receipt of complaint relating to any goods. (94/II/ 5d/ 20)
2. Examine the concepts of ‘consumer’ and ‘consumer dispute’ under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.(95/II/ 5d/20)
3. Explain the scope and content of the expression ‘contract of personal service’ in the exclusionary part of section 2 (1) (0) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. What is the distinction between ‘contract of service’ and ‘contract for services’? In which category would you place the contract between a doctor and his patient? Is the service rendered by a doctor under such a contract covered by the exclusionary part of the definition of ‘service’ in section 2(1) (0) of the Act? Refer to case law. (96/II/8b/30)
4. Examine the nature and scope of the remedies under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. (97/II/8b/30)
5. What tests would you apply to determine whether a person “consumer” within the meaning of Section 2(d)(i) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986? What is the scope and effect of the “Explanation” added to the above sub-clause by the Amendment Act of 1993? Explain with the aid of suitable illustrations. (99/II/7b/30)
6. X, one Ayurvedic doctor prescribed the medicine of Allopathy which caused the death of a patient. What is his liability? Explain the liability of the doctors under the Consumer Protection Act. (00/II/ 7b/30)
7. Explain the meaning of ‘consumer’ and ‘service’ under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. (01/II/4b/30)
8. Discuss in detail the meanings of ‘complaint’ and ‘unfair trade practice’under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.Are these definitions satisfactory and in consonance with the spirit of this Act? (03/II/4b/30)
9. Discuss the jurisdiction of various authorities under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 for the settlement of disputes. (04/II/3b/30)
10. Discuss the composition and objects of Consumer Protection Council under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. (07/II/4a/30)
11. “The law of consumer protection has come to meet the long felt necessity of protection to the common men from the wrongs for which the remedy under ordinary law for various reasons has become illusory.” Discuss this statement and explain to what extent the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 has succeeded in its objectives. (08/II/4a/30)
12. List briefly the procedure to be followed by a District Forum on receipt of a complaint regarding defective goods under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. (09/II/4c/20)
13. Discuss the liability of hospitals under the consumer protection Act, 1986. Refer to decided cases also. (10/II/4c/20)
14. “With the enactment and implementation of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, a new consumer jurisprudence has developed in India.” Elaborate. (11/II/4b/30)
15. “The definition given under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 gives altogether a new legal colour and scope to the term ‘Consumer’.” In the light of this statement, explain the term ‘Consumer’. (13/II/1e/10)

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1. “In the tort of malicious prosecution the plaintiff must prove, among other things, that the defendant was the person who was actively instrumental in putting the law in force.” Examine. (97/II/3a/30)
2. “In tort of malicious prosecution the plaintiff must prove among other things, that the defendant was the person who was actively instrumental in putting the law in force”. Discuss. (05/II/3b/30)
3. “It is an actionable wrong to institute, maliciously and without reasonable and probable cause, criminal proceedings which may injure person’s reputation, personal freedom or property.” Elucidate. Support your answer with the help of legal provisions and decided cases. (08/II/1d/20)

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1. “Examine the tortious liability of A in the following: (96/II/3b(i)/15) A pretends to lock the plaintiff in a room by purporting to turn the key of the door from outside and taking it away. The fact is that the door, though shut, is not locked. The plaintiff remains in the room for two hours under the belief that he has been locked inside.
2. How do you distinguish between wrongful imprisonment and wrongful restraint? Explain with illustrations. (98/II/4a/30)
3. In the scheme of the Penal Code, “culpable homicide” is the genus and “murder” its species. All murder is “culpable homicide” but not vice- versa - Supreme Court in State of A.P. Vs Punnayya - 1997 Cr.L.J.I. (S.C). Discuss and illustrate. (99/II/2a/30)
4. Distinguish between: Malicious  prosecution and False imprisonment (00/II/3b(i)/15)
5. Distinguish the following two incidents and point out regarding wrong, if any, which has been committed in these incidents. Distinguish in the context of the nature and composition of these wrongs: (02/II/ 3a/ 30)

(i) The Municipality permitted a political party to hold a meeting in a public park blocking a busy road. X wanted to go to Y’s house crossing the road but was not allowed. There was no other way to go to Y’s house.
(ii) A customer was suspected of having committed a theft in the departmental store by the staff. She was detained by the Manager for 2 days in a Store-room.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) Free Buds with Intelligent Noise Cancellation

 [NOVEMBER-2019]

Free Buds with Intelligent Noise Cancellation

• HUAWEI has introduced “FreeBuds 3”, wireless earbuds with new Kirin A1 chips. These earbuds are BT/BLE supported dual-mode Bluetooth 5.1 SoC with BT-UHD transmission protocol for 6.5 Mbps transmission pace. 
• Furthermore, HUAWEI Isochronous Dual Channel transmission technology is being used in them for low latency and low power utilisation. 
• The Kirin A1 chip can eradicate the environmental noise during calls and enhance the voice concurrently. 
• The Dolphin Bionic Design fits in the ears for a more relaxing and firm wearing.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) Ziplock — World’s first Foldable Lock

 [NOVEMBER-2019]

Ziplock — World’s first Foldable Lock

• ZIPLOCK, the world’s first foldable biometric bike guard is the best mate for frequent commuters. The proactive bike lock offers protection with advanced fingerprint and always-on theft alert. 
• The lock possesses easy storage, and reliable smart features, all secured in a fold. The lock is equipped with a 508 DPI high-resolution capacitive sensing touch panel allowing a safer and faster keyless unlocking operation. It has military standard AES 256 Bluetooth encryption.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) Phantom SE: Smart Bluetooth Running Shoes

 [NOVEMBER-2019]

Phantom SE: Smart Bluetooth Running Shoes

• HOVR Phantom SE, smart Bluetooth running shoes have been developed by American sportswear and apparel company Under Armour. BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) modules have been used with built-in accelerometer/gyro sensors and a fixed battery has been designed which can itself outlast the shoe. 
• To save battery power, they go on deep sleep while not in. These shoes are best suited for runners who need suppleness, cushioning & adaptability.
• HOVR™ technology provides ‘zero gravity feel’ to preserve energy return that helps to remove impact after every step. It also includes a 3D moulded mid-foot panel with laser perforations for increased aeration & a safe fit.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) The Case of the Missing…?

 [NOVEMBER-2019]

The Case of the Missing…?

• EVERY often repeated mumbles like ‘where did I leave my keys’ or household has heard ‘where is my phone’ or ‘has anyone seen my glasses’ when they are right on your own nose. 

What is happening here? 

• Forgetfulness – much to the amusement or ridicule for others and embarrassment for you. The question is – do we forget, or do we refuse to remember? But, take heart, Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese poet says, “Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.” While someone else goes a step further: “Wisdom is founded on memory; happiness on forgetfulness. What is more, we live in a society that depends on public amnesia.” So much for forgetfulness which means loss of memory. 

What is memory? 

• The modern English word “memory” comes from the Latin memoria and memoria, meaning “mindful” or “remembering”. Memory is the storehouse of things learned and retained from past activity or experience and gives us the capability to remember and recall for future needs.
• Memory is appealing to us because of its struggle with forgetfulness. Memory makes us. You see, if we cannot recall the what, who, when, how and where of our everyday lives, would we be able to function?
• Everything we see, hear, imagine, or think about is linked to neural responses somewhere in the brain. The brain, with all its 100 billion neurons, allows us to do incredible things like learn and speak several languages, or build superfast computers or send people to the moon and so on. 
• Yet, despite this amazing capacity, we routinely can’t remember where we put our keys, why we went to the other room and so on. This obvious contradiction in functionality leads us to the question of why we forget some things but remember others.

Processing of Memory:

• The process of registering a memory begins at birth and occurs continuously. For us to recall events, facts or processes, we commit them to memory. For that we pick chemical and physical stimuli from the outside world, by one or more of our senses and attended to with various levels of focus and purpose.
• A memory starts off on short-term basis; for example, we learn how to tie our shoes or comb our hair, and once that is done, it goes into our long-term memory and we can do it without consciously thinking about the steps involved.
• Short-term memory or working memory refers to the memory you can consciously hold in your mind at any instant and recollect events that happened immediately up to a few days; it generally holds 5-9 independent items in storage that can be readily recalled.
• Important memories typically move from short-term to long-term. The transfer of information for more permanent storage can happen in several steps, like through repetition — such as studying for a test and so on. Motivation can be another reason, events of keen interest like cricket score in 1985 or a song in an old Bollywood movies and so on.
• The processing of memory, therefore, consists of three main stages:
• Encoding: Registration, receiving, processing and combining of received information.
• Consolidation or storage: Creation of a record of the encoded information in short or long-term memory.
• Retrieval or recall: Calling back the stored information in response to some signal.
• Memory is not a perfect processor, and is affected by many factors. The manner in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved can all be corrupted by physical damage to areas of the brain such as the hippocampus, or decay within long-term memory and so on.
• We are typically not aware of what is in our memory until we need to use that bit of information, bringing it to the forefront when we need to use it. Common tasks like combing, etc. do not need much concentration. But there are other types of memories that may need a little scratching of our head.

Types of Memory:

• Implicit memory or unconscious memory uses past experiences to remember things without thinking about them; a subset of this is procedural memory – the slow and gradual learning of skills without conscious attention to learning – such as playing tennis or a musical instrument, swimming and so on. Priming is a process operating below the threshold of consciousness - indicating not all memory is consciously activated.
• Explicit memory or declarative memory requires more effort to bring to the surface; involves semantic and episodic memory.
• Semantic memory includes things that are common knowledge, such as the names of states, the capitals of countries and other basic facts.
• Episodic memory is a unique recollection of a specific event or an episode that is encoded along an emotional, spatial and temporal plane, such as your first air travel, an enjoyable holiday or your first day at a new job and so on.
• Collective memory plays an essential role in the establishment of human societies. Every social group perpetuates itself through the knowledge that has been handed down the generations, either through oral tradition or through writing.
• The invention of writing made it possible for the first time for us to preserve precise records of knowledge outside of our brains. Writing, audiovisual media and computer records can be considered a kind of external memory for humans.

Sleep, Dreams & Memory:

• Sleep has multiple purposes; sleep affects memory consolidation in a complex way. Sleep stages vary across the night. Early sleep is rich in NREM, but late sleep is rich in REM. These stage-changes relate to, and are caused by, neurochemical fluctuations during sleep.
• Levels of Cortisol – the stress hormone – exert control over hippocampal function, they may be able to switch the brain from one memory consolidating state to the other. Cortisol levels rise over the course of a night’s sleep.
• Dreams are activated memory fragments and internally constructed theme plots of perceptions, thoughts, or emotions previously experienced.
• Dreams have a home, that is to say neurons firing in the primary visual cortex create the illusion of seeing things, neurons firing in the primary auditory area create the illusion of hearing things, and so forth. Variations in activity as seen in fMRI over the course of the night reveal processing, or “memory consolidation” occurring within different neural systems.
• Dreams reported early in the night, largely during SWS, reflect normal episodic content; during slow wave sleep, the neocortex sends signals to the hippocampus, which responds via sharp wave ripples. Episodic memories should be better consolidated early in the night, when a modest cortisol level allows the hippocampus to function properly.
• Dreams reported late at night, largely during REM sleep, reflect disrupted hippocampal → neocortical communication and hence seem fragmented and often bizarre. Procedural memories are effectively consolidated throughout the night, as high cortisol levels do not disrupt the brain systems critical to these memories.

How Individual Memories are Formed?

• Memory, at its simplest, is a set of encoded neural connections in the parts of the brain – reconstructing past experiences by the synchronous firing of neurons that were involved in the original experience. 
• Each memory pulls a small subset of neurons in the brain, changing the way to communicate. Neurons send messages to one another across narrow gaps called synapses. 
• A synapse is a kind of a busy port using proteins like neurotransmitters for sending and receiving cargo of signals between neurons. 
• Memory is stored not like books on library shelves but as a kind of collage or jigsaw puzzle, but is constructed simultaneously from elements scattered throughout various areas of our brains while the brain is still engaged in other activities.
   

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) Why Vikram fell Silent?

 [NOVEMBER-2019]

Why Vikram fell Silent?

• Data showed that after 11 minutes and 28 seconds, the descent vertical velocity of Vikram was 42.9 metres per second. A minute and a half later, the speed dramatically increased to 58.9 metres per second. At that time Vikram had horizontal velocity of 48.1 m/sec and it was around 1.09 km from its designated landing spot on the Moon.
• As per the plan, Vikram should have lost most of its velocity by the time it reached 400 metres altitude and thereafter it should have been hovering above the intended landing site, set to make a soft vertical lending. The frozen screens at mission control showed that communication was lost when the lander was barely 335 meters above the surface of the Moon. The green dot representing Vikram started deviating when its altitude was just above 2 km, and continued to deviate before stopping.
• Analysis of data shows that touchdown of Vikram on the Moon occurred at a much higher velocity than intended. The data suggests a deviation during the Fine Braking Phase. It is not the purpose here to undertake any detailed failure assessment.

However, based on the assessment of the limited data available so far, the following possible reasons can be arrived for Vikram’s silence:

• Deficiency in the throttling of Vikram’s propulsion system. After rough braking, the orientation of Vikram was to be changed from horizontal to vertical. ISRO has located Vikram about 500 meters away from the designated landing spot. The deviation in Vikram’s descent trajectory (green line in Figure 3) may be due to over performance/glitch associated with imbalance in the thrust of engine triggering rotation and affecting the stability of Vikram.
• Vikram on-board computer suffered communications data overload. As the Vikram descends toward the moon at a very high speed, its computer rapidly processes large streams of data simultaneously. On-board computer has to be autonomous as a large number of real-time commands from multiple systems have to be executed in milliseconds. If there is time lag, i.e., there is no sufficient time for executing the commands, the data loss may result in malfunction.
• Inadequacy in the design of the autonomous system. Broadly, it could be inferred that the system was not adequately designed for the foreseen faults to take corrective measures. The strength of autonomy of any system would depend on the basic design factors. The design would be mainly based on the anticipated anomalies. When an autonomous system operates in complex and open-ended environments, it is difficult, but it has to be designed ruggedly and tested to identify the unforeseen changes in time and respond accordingly.
• Sensors on-board Vikram could not provide the precise measurement on the acceleration, orientation, and trajectory of the Vikram during landing. The problem could be associated with either the measure accuracy, component failure or malfunction or working on the data from different sensors in tandem.
• Power systems and/or electronic component(s) malfunction. It may be the case of power failure as observed in some of our earlier missions, like Chandrayaan-1, INSAT-3D and more recently GSAT-6A. The power failure may be triggered due to degradation of electronic components due to exposure to excessive Sun radiation or otherwise.These are some of the most probable reasons. ISRO is already conducting the detailed failure analysis. It is always important to learn lessons from failures.

Current Status:

• The Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter is currently placed in a 100 km polar lunar orbit. All the eight payloads of Orbiter are functioning normally, providing valuable scientific data of the Moon’s surface by remote sensing.
• The Orbiter was originally designed for a mission life of one year. However, due to injection of spacecraft into a better orbit by GSLV MkIII-M1 (higher apogee by 5075 km) and thereafter fuel saving by optimization of mission manoeuvring towards its journey to the Moon, its life has been extended. 
• The orbiter at launch had 1697 kg of fuel after insertion to the designated Moon orbit, the balance fuel is around 500 kg, which is sufficient for a 7.5-year life. The orbiter module of the mission with eight scientific instruments remains operational and will continue remote sensing observations of the Moon’s surface.
   

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) From White to Pink ‘Ruby Chocolates’

 [NOVEMBER-2019]

From White to Pink ‘Ruby Chocolates’

• ASwiss company has introduced a new type of chocolate – Ruby chocolate – which is naturally pink in colour. The rosy pink chocolate has since been recognized as a 2019 food trend by research agencies, media and food experts. It has also been recognized as an innovation in the United States and the Middle East.
• The chocolate is specially made from Ruby cocoa beans and it took 10 years to develop the chocolate. The pink colour of the chocolate is due to its cocoa beans. The Ruby chocolate is not that much chocolate in nature, but it tastes like fruit berries. No preservatives and no colours have been added in the chocolates, it has its own cocoa beans taste.
• Beans of Ruby chocolates are grown under proper climatic conditions in three countries: Ivory Coast, Brazil and Ecuador. The cocoa beans either become reddish or pinkish in colour after the treatment of acid and then the beans are defatted with petroleum ether (used to remove fatty acid). The beans are first dried and then fermented until the cocoa beans become edible. After that, it is heated in a liquid to separate cocoa butter and cocoa solids and then these two components are mixed to make the chocolate perfect. Fermentation is one of the most important processes to minimize the chocolate.
• Along with ruby chocolates, some of the famous products of ruby include ruby coco’s bar, ruby buttercream, ruby gia, ruby cookies, ruby toasts, ruby pills, ruby saffron bars, ruby chocolate sponge, ruby crispy balls, ruby cherry and last but not the least ruby waffles.
• Ruby chocolate is the only chocolate that was selectively available across the globe. Ruby Chocolates are being dubbed as the biggest ever innovation in the chocolate industry in the past 80 years after the launch of white, dark and milky chocolates.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) Tripartite Symbiosis

 [NOVEMBER-2019]

Tripartite Symbiosis

• Tripartite association involving three different organisms is common symbiosis, an in plants but rare in animals. However, researchers at Princeton and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental sciences studied a marine mollusc Elysia rufescens, commonly known as sea-slug which feeds on marine algae of the genus Bryopsis.
• The slug gets not only the food but also a defensive chemical found in the algae, which is a product of the bacteria named Candidatus endobryopsis kahalalidifaciens that produces about fifteen or so different toxins known as Kahalalides. These chemicals are known to act as a deterrent to surrounding fish and other marine animals. One of the toxins, kahalalide has been evaluated as a potential cancer drug due to its potent toxicity.
• The bacterial genus Candidatus does not possess the genes required for survival outside the algal species Bryopsis. Their genetic capacity is such that they can pump out toxic molecules that stop predators from eating the algae. The only one predator that can eat the toxin is the slug Elysia rufescens that stores the toxin in a more concentrated form than found in algae.
• The scientists compared the bacteria to a factory as they consume raw materials in the form of amino acids from the algae and release a finished product in the form of toxic chemicals. The bacterial symbionts make defensive molecules for the host in exchange for a protected living space.
• None of the amino acid substrates that make up the kahalalides can be produced by Candidatus itself; therefore these substances are mostly provided by the autotrophic Bryopsis species, highlighting an unusual strategy of collaborative biosynthesis between a symbiotic bacterium and its host.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) From Gimmicks to Lifeline — “Wearable Healthcare Devices”

 [NOVEMBER-2019]

From Gimmicks to Lifeline — “Wearable Healthcare Devices”

• Wearable technology took great leaps and bounds in the healthcare 21st century with the launch of the Bluetooth headset in 2002, followed by the world’s first fully digital pacemaker Vitatron C-Series in 2003.
• From 2006 to 2013, several wearable devices were released including the Nike+, Fitbit and Google Glass. FDA approved an ingestible digital health feedback system in 2012 developed by Proteus Digital Health. The highly popular Apple watch was launched in 2014 and has since been upgraded to include the latest sensors for improving data accuracy and precision.
• Wearable devices help in continuous monitoring and data collection of health information in ambulatory settings in daily life as well as in clinical environments.
• Using the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT), the device can communicate the data to a range of other devices, users and websites. This collected data is compared with existing databases through software platforms to provide a comprehensive understanding of the on-going health condition. The data thus collected can also help the doctors and physicians in assessing their patients and improve the diagnosis. 
• Wearable Health Devices can be divided into two main categories according to the type of data collection: Activity monitoring and medical data (prediction, anomaly detection and diagnose support). 
• Activity monitoring: It includes non-medical applications such as movement or footsteps and other self-monitoring applications.
• Medical data: It collected include vital signs such as ECG, heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, blood oxygen saturation, blood glucose, skin perspiration, capnography, body temperature among others.
• The complete solution includes a measuring device, a storage device or cloud platform and software. In other words, it includes a Body Area Network, Data Logger/Portable Unit and an Offline/Real-Time Monitoring system. The Body Area Network contains sensors for measuring the data in outdoor settings as well as in in-patient clinical settings. The data is collected, processed and communicated via a portable device. This data is stored in central databases and analysed by clinical practitioners.
• Developing these devices comes with a lot of challenges. Data accuracy and consistency has been a major area of research and development for wearable devices. In a study carried out by the Alexandria University, Egypt and the Appalachian College of Pharmacy, Oakwood USA, it was observed that the accuracy of the major wearable devices was between 79.8% to 99.1% while the precision was between 4% to 17.5%. 
• For measurement of complex systems, more functionality needs to be added such as better sensors, better battery capacities, reading capacities, etc.
• Across the world, disease profiles are changing, hence, continuous monitoring of vital body conditions is becoming necessary, creating a demand for wearable healthcare devices. With increasing competition, the cost of the product is expected to come down, making them accessible to a larger audience.

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The spectre of crowds in the COVID city(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Governance 
Prelims level: Not much 
Mains level: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

Context:

• Distancing, isolation and the thinning out of public spaces in Indian cities have offered up new pastoral landscapes of delight for urban dwellers, with clean air, summer blooms, and assorted wildlife crossing streets. 
• The quiet that overtook our cities during the lockdown was celebrated as a gift of the pandemic. 
• Fuel-saving work-from-home arrangements, cost-saving virtual meetings, and spare social gatherings are seen as offering new, mellower possibilities of urban inhabitation that may save us from both COVID-19 and the ongoing climate crisis.

Key attributes:

• Before we celebrate this oncoming new normal, it is important to recognise what it puts at stake. 
• Agglomeration, density and crowds have long been definitional attributes of the urban. 
• Urbanisation is premised on the scale economies that urban agglomeration affords. 
• But the transformative social effects of urban density have also been long acknowledged. 
• Cities, as close-knit, dynamic constellations of human and non-human bodies, offer ideal grounds for the spread of a virus, but also facilitate other diffusions. 
• Urban mixings have helped dissolve or remake categories of caste and gender. 
• They have enabled socio-economic mobility, widened horizons of possibility, and allowed historically discriminated groups to forge new identities, claim public resources, take risks and assert rights. 
• The unpredictability and possibility contained in motley urban communions make for the “cityness” of crowds.
• The pandemic has stigmatised social density, recalling Dickensian spectres of overcrowding, contagion and disorder. 
• Social distancing has been readily embraced by India’s caste society, which was always uncomfortable with the mingling fostered by cities. 
• Crowding in markets, mosques or transport hubs were repeatedly highlighted as irresponsible and threatening to the health of the national body.

Matrix of relationships:

• As infection numbers rose steeply in Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi by late April, COVID-19 hotspots mapped onto thickly populated zones of these cities, and congestion was singled out as a major culprit in disease spread. 
• Slums, the problem zones of pandemic management, had drones hovering overhead to monitor compliance with stay-at-home orders. 
• But in their congested lanes, with 150-square-feet houses, everyday activities of cooking, washing, and sleeping occur in spillover spaces outside the home. 
• In these liminal spaces, exchanges of information, food, labour, contacts, build a scaffolding of survival for marginalised urban residents. 
• Daily arbitrations with unfriendly and friendly bodies — strangers, migrants, stray dogs, and landlords — create a matrix of relationships that transform a housing colony into a neighbourhood.
• The months-long nationwide lockdown of Indian cities has seen spontaneous and repeated outbreaks of crowds, large and small, sparked by panic, hunger, anger, and by orchestrated celebrations of national unity. 
• These suggest an irrepressibility to the crowd in the city.

Explaining crowding in India:

• Three conditions stand out as common catalysts of crowding in the Indian city. First, scarcity. 
• Chronic scarcity, often induced by lopsided resource distributions, induces a repertoire of techniques such as the jostle, the push, the rush to reach the counter before rations or tickets run out. 
• Second, protest. The city is the staging ground for protesting crowds bringing diverse discontents from far afield, as in the jallikattu protests of January 2017 when throngs of agrarian protesters congregated on Chennai’s Marina Beach.
• Third, ritual or celebratory gatherings such as funerals and temple festivals regularly take over city streets, sidelining traffic for a public assertion of communal emotions.
• If scarcity, protest and celebration are catalysing conditions for crowds, India’s pandemic governance powerfully triggered each through its long and stringent lockdown. 
• City authorities had failed to anticipate and provide for the inevitable congregations at a large metropolitan market that generates livelihoods for a far-flung catchment of cultivators, traders and manual workers.
• Propensities for public celebration also surfaced repeatedly, from the clanging of utensils on streets during the Prime Minister’s Janata curfew in March to the masses of devotees gathering around Odisha’s Jagannath temple in June.

Migrant Distress:

• Protesting crowds repeatedly broke through city curfews. 
• The most pronounced legacy of India’s lockdown is the explosion into public visibility of lakhs of inter-State migrant workers, hitherto hidden inside the urban machinery. 
• Within days of the unplanned lockdown which had entirely ignored their existence, these workers were spilling into the streets of every city — hungry, jobless, abandoned by employers and contractors, desperate to return to their families. 
• By late May, as their appeals for transport to their homes went unheeded, the fierce yearning of urban workers for their rural homes sparked crowds everywhere. 
• They protested at industrial campuses, converged at train stations, and walked in hundreds and thousands on highways in the searing summer heat. 
• Peaceful walkers were turned into agitated crowds by the stunning ineptitude, mal-coordination and opacity of police, district authorities, shelter administrators and railway officials, who rounded them up on their journey and returned them to the city with no clear idea of what to do with them. 
• The Indian urban story is indelibly marked by the tragic conditions of these workers’ mass exodus, stranded at State borders, dying of hunger and exhaustion, run over by trains and trucks on the highway. 
• These crowds index a fundamental breakdown, not only of the lockdown solution but of the urban promise of material and social mobility toward a better future.

Conclusion:

• The pandemic has sharply exposed the faultlines of urban labour value chains.
• As cities slowly open up, a perverted normal is unfolding, wherein private vehicles and taxis with limited occupancy are permitted, but safe mass transport arrangements, the economic and social lifeline of cities, are still a far cry. 
• Our focus on urban agglomeration urges an imagination of post-pandemic cities that resists retiring into a closeted isolation that only the privileged can afford.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1)With reference to the World Intellectual Property Indicators-2019 Report, consider the following statements:

1. As per World Intellectual Property Indicators-2019 Report, India has emerged as the top tenth nation in the ranking of the total (resident and abroad) Intellectual Property (IP) filing activity.
2. The National IPR Policy, launched in May 2016, to promote strong IP regime in the country encourages innovation to achieve Country's industrial and economic development goals.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: C

Mains Questions:

Q.1) Post-pandemic habitations must resist retreating into a closeted isolation that only the privileged can afford. Comment. 

Arms and the women: On gender barrier in Indian Army(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1:Society 
Prelims level: Permanent Commission to Women Officers in Army
Mains level: Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues

Context:

• A glass ceiling was shattered on Thursday when the Ministry of Defence issued a formal letter granting permanent commission to women officers in the Indian Army. 
• The uphill battle to break a gender stereotype and provide equal opportunities for women in the Army had to be fought right up to the highest level, in the Supreme Court. 
• Even so, the MoD’s Government Sanction Letter specifying the grant of permanent commission to Short Service Commission (SSC) women officers in all the 10 streams in which they presently serve is a cause for celebration. 

Long fight:

• It will go a long way in ending a prejudice associated with the Army. True, the fight was far from easy. 
• It was long and protracted, as the government initially glossed over a Delhi High Court ruling in the litigants’ favour 10 years ago. 
• Then in the Supreme Court, just what the litigants were up against became clear from the views of the government. 
• A written note to the Court pointed at “physiological limitations” of women officers, saying that these were great challenges for women officers to meet the exigencies of service. 
• In February, the Supreme Court read the government the riot act, asking it to abide by its own policy on granting permanent commission to women in the SSC and giving them command postings in all services other than combat.

Bust that myth:

• The misogyny was called out in a 54-page judgment. The Supreme Court noted that women officers of the Indian Army had brought laurels to the force. 
• “The time has come for a realisation that women officers in the Army are not adjuncts to a male dominated establishment whose presence must be ‘tolerated’ within narrow confines,” it said. 
• The Army is often seen as the preserve of men, but enough women have fought heroic battles to bust that myth. 
• Rani of Jhansi in the past to Squadron Leader Minty Agarwal of the Indian Air Force, who last year “was part of the team that guided Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman during the Balakot airstrike carried out by the IAF”. 
• The irony is that of the 40,825 officers serving in the Army, a mere 1,653 are women, as the top court noted. 
• Elsewhere in the world, in countries such as the United States and Israel, women are allowed in active combat. 
• Here, the Supreme Court had to forcefully nudge the government to make women’s role in the Army more inclusive. 

Conclusion:

• A gender barrier may have fallen, but the war against inequity is far from over.
• After a long battle, women officers overcome the gender barrier in the Indian Army.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1)With reference to the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF), consider the following statements:

1. The eligible beneficiaries under the Scheme would be only Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).
2. Government of India will provide 3% interest subvention to eligible beneficiaries. 

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: B

Mains Questions:

Q.1) What is a Permanent Commission? What is the government's order? What was the Supreme Court verdict in this regard? Why is this significant?