Power thieves drain India’s electric car hopes (Live Mint)

Mains Paper 5: Economy
Prelims level : Electric Vehicles
Mains level : Electrification

The difference between a job and work (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 4 : Ethics
Prelims level : Not Much
Mains level : Work Culture

The difference between a job and work (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3 : Ethics
Prelims level : Not Much
Mains level : Work Culture

What we need today is socialism (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Society
Prelims level : Karl Marx
Mains level : Socialism

Talking fair trade in Delhi (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1 : International
Prelims level : WTO
Mains level : International Trade and its impact

On EVMs: Checks and balance (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 5: Polity
Prelims level: VVPAT
Mains level: Election mechanism and their mandate

Context

• Opposition parties met the Election Commission (ECI) to demand changes to the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail counting process during the general elections.
• Returning to paper ballots will be regressive.
• The Electronic Voting Machine process, despite the plethora of grievances about its functioning from the Opposition parties, is a major improvement over paper-based voting.

Allegation of EVM tampering

• There has been no evidence of EVM-tampering as claimed by some parties, and administrative and technical safeguards instituted by the ECI and EVM manufacturers have held steady since the introduction of the EVM.
• The ECI had fast-tracked the implementation of the VVPAT, an adjunct to the EVM that allows for a paper trail for voting and later verification of the electronically registered mandate in the ballot unit of the EVM.
• VVPATs are now deployed in all Assembly and parliamentary elections with EVMs. This implementation has not been without some misgivings.
• The Opposition’s demand for a count of 50% of the VVPAT slips, as opposed to the current system of counting VVPAT slips in one randomly selected booth of each constituency, is aimed at ensuring that EVMs have not been tampered with.

Safeguards highlighted by the ECI

• ECI safeguards are robust enough to prevent this, but VVPAT recounts could eliminate any remaining doubt about possible “insider fraud” by errant officials or manufacturers.
• The demand to count half of all the slips is an over-reaction, as a scientifically and randomly chosen sample of booths is a reasonable enough verification for the process.
• There remains the question whether counting one booth per constituency is a statistically significant sample to rule out errors.
• A more robust sampling technique that factors in the average size of the electorate in any constituency for each State and voter turnout, involving the counting of more than a single booth in some States, may be a better method.
• The ECI’s response that it is waiting for a report on this from the Indian Statistical Institute should be encouraging.
• The other issue with the VVPAT is more significant: machine glitches.
• During the parliamentary by-elections in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and Assembly elections in Karnataka in 2018, VVPAT glitches resulted in machine replacement rates rising to 20% and 4%, respectively.

Conclusion

• Glitches in the VVPAT machines were largely due to spooling issues in the print unit, which was sensitive to extreme weather.
• Some hardware-related changes were introduced, which improved its functioning in the recent elections in five States.
• Machine replacement rates due to VVPAT failures came down to 1.89% for Chhattisgarh.
• Deployment of improved machines should help curb glitches in the Lok Sabha elections.

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Don’t give in to polarisation (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 4 : Security
Prelims level : Easter Sunday attacks
Mains level : Extremism - Terrorism

Context

• As reports about those behind the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka emerge, many questions remain about the motives of the extremists.
• The full picture of the formation of this extremist force and the objectives behind their heinous crimes may take time.
• However, they have succeeded in creating a spectacle of death, mayhem and fear.
• The political leadership in the country has descended into a blame game with this being an election year.
• The progressive forces committed to a plural and democratic society have a historical challenge before them, as Sri Lanka is on the verge of falling into the abyss of polarisation.

Historical turn

• The Easter attacks have implanted horrendous images in the minds of Sri Lankans.
• The fallout can tear apart the body politic of Sri Lanka with political shifts similar to the U.S. after September 11, 2001 and the July 1983 pogrom in Sri Lanka.
• The “war on terror” in the U.S. after 2001 led to the draconian USA PATRIOT Act, the detention and surveillance of Muslims and the institution of Homeland Security, undermining the democratic and liberal structures within the U.S.
• With many other countries sucked into the “war on terror” coupled with the Bush regime’s military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq, great social and political turmoil was created in West and South Asia, and fuelled extremist Islamist forces.
• In Sri Lanka, the “war on terror” manoeuvred an internationalised peace process between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), by pushing for a deal between a so-called “failed state” and a “terrorist organisation”.
• Eventually, as the peace process failed with heightened international engagement, Sri Lanka’s version of a brutal “war on terror” cataclysmically ended the civil war with tens of thousands of lives lost in May 2009.
• On the other hand, the armed conflict itself escalated following the government-orchestrated July 1983 pogroms where over 2,000 Tamil civilians were massacred.
• That pogrom over-determined the political economy of the country with an ethnic conflict over the next two and a half decades.
• Indeed, the Easter massacre leading to hundreds of casualties is loaded with dangers of religious forces entering the mix of a country historically fraught with ethno-nationalist tensions and conflicts.

Polarised politics

• Some actors are drawing parallels between the perpetrators of the Easter attacks and the LTTE.
• However, the similarities are limited to the LTTE’s use of suicide bombings and targeting of civilians.
• The LTTE had a clear agenda of creating a separate state and worked to build a base within the Tamil community through a combination of separatist nationalist mobilisations, totalitarian control and ruthless elimination of dissent.
• The extremist Muslim youth behind the Easter attacks are a fringe group and their nihilist politics without a social base is one of divisiveness and isolation.
• They have drawn as much on globally circulating contemporary technologies of terror as on the alienation of Muslim youth with rising global Islamophobia, but their politics are eschewed by the Muslim communities in Sri Lanka.

Hasty solutions

• There are social and political dangers in projecting hasty solutions either removed from or with limited understanding of problems.
• While security in the aftermath of the attacks is a real concern, a solution solely focussed on militarised policing and surveillance is worrying.
• For close to a decade, progressives have called for demilitarisation.
• However, the current state of Emergency with militarised check points and surveillance are further militarising the country.
• In weeks before the Easter attacks there was much discussion of repealing the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act enacted in 1979, which in no small measure was linked to torturing and alienating Tamil youth during the war and Sinhala youth during the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna insurrection.

Political ramifications

• Drawing on Islamophobic discourse, Muslims characterised as the “other” are called to explain and take responsibility for the Easter attacks.
• There are escalating demands to ban madrasas and Muslim women’s attire without extensively consulting the Muslim community.
• Furthermore, as with the previous riots that targeted Muslim businesses, scapegoating Muslims for future economic problems is a real fear.
• The fragile national economy is bound to decline with a major hit on the significant tourist industry. \
• The July 1983 pogrom and the armed conflict brought tremendous disorder and isolated Sri Lanka at a time when its peers such as Malaysia and Thailand gained economically from major foreign investments.
• In these times of protectionism, an economic shock affecting international investment, capital flows and trade with Sri Lanka can lead to a national economic crisis.

Way forward

• The challenge now beyond the immediate security concerns is mainly of social and political proportions.
• The attacks by extremist Islamist forces on the Christian churches can shift into conflicts that involve chauvinist Buddhist and for that matter Hindu reactionary forces.
• Hindutva in India, Buddhist extremism in Myanmar and the circulation of their ideologies and practices are imminent dangers for an already fraught Sri Lankan polity.
• The liberal and left forces in the country, and the Sinhala intelligentsia in particular, have to find the courage and discourse to take on the chauvinist anti-Muslim rhetorical barrage.
• A likely casualty of the Easter attacks is going to be the rights of Muslim youth and the broader freedoms of the citizenry.
• The challenge before the country is to turn national mourning and grief into a call for coexistence and democracy.

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An image makeover of the Belt and Road Initiative (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3 : Economy
Prelims level : BRI
Mains level : Infrastructure

Context

• As the Second Belt and Road Forum (BRF), reviewing progress of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), concluded in Beijing on April 27, China had reason to be satisfied.
• The summit segment was attended by 37 heads of state or government.
• The list included strategic partner Russia and almost all from Central and Southeast Asia, two important areas of BRI operation.

Litany of complaints

• The Chinese leadership claimed the attendance rebutted allegations that BRI is a geopolitical tool and exploitative “debt trap” driving countries into dependence on China.
• It would be more realistic to see it as indicating China’s economic clout and the desire of most countries to hedge their bets in the current turbulence in great power relations.
• Concerns about the viability of BRI projects have not dissolved; it is just that immediate benefits sometimes obscure the direness of future consequences.

Background of BRI

• Over the years, the structure and implementation of the BRI have attracted negative comment, including from some of the countries represented at the forum.
• There is a litany of complaints: that projects are selected as per Chinese priorities, with inadequate consultation with recipients; terms are agreed bilaterally and non-transparently with the leadership, and benefits do not trickle down to the population; contracts go to Chinese companies, are implemented by Chinese labour, with raw materials and products from China;
• The most projects are over-valued and economically unviable; most financing is by Chinese loans on unrealistic terms, leading eventually to “debt traps”; foreign companies and private investment are spurned; corruption flourishes in the absence of transparency, labour laws are flouted and environmental compliance is lax.
• Above all, the BRI exhibits China’s geostrategic ambition for economic dominance and political hegemony.

China promises a makeover

• President Xi Jinping’s speeches and the final forum communique silenced this criticism by promising a total makeover of the BRI.
• They declared that it will be guided by extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. Cooperation should be transparent, people-centric, green and clean, with zero tolerance for corruption.
• Project evaluation, tendering, bidding and implementation would meet international standards.
• The right of participating countries to define their developmental priorities would be respected, as also their laws, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Foreign investment would be welcomed.
• Economic, social, fiscal and environmental sustainability of projects should be ensured, with emphasis on debt sustainability.
• In short, it was a promise to transform the BRI, in one fell swoop, from all that it was into all that it should have been.
• The question is how this rhetoric will translate into action.

The other feature of BRI

• The other remarkable feature was the launch of the “Belt and Road” as an overarching framework for bilateral and plurilateral cooperation. China announced a clutch of “Belt and Road” scholarships, training courses and exchange programmes.
• Groups of countries launched cooperation mechanisms for ports administration, accounting standards, tax administration, banking, intellectual property, sustainable cities, energy and dispute settlement, among many others.
• Some of these mechanisms were facilitated by UN agencies. China listed 283 “deliverables” from the forum, comprising Chinese initiatives, bilateral and multilateral agreements, investment projects and financing arrangements.
• An important potentially the most impactful initiative of the BRI has gone relatively unnoticed.
• Mr. Xi announced in 2017 that it would enhance digital connectivity and integration of big data to build the “digital silk road of the 21st century”.
• Digital connectivity infrastructure is to be built in tandem with physical connectivity.
• This arouses U.S. (and wider) concerns that with its lead in 5G network technology and deep pockets, China will establish dominance of its 5G standards and equipment in Eurasia and beyond.
• The sudden image makeover of the BRI may well be intended to open up a more accommodating attitude to this technology insertion.

India and the BRI

• The debate in India about whether or not we should join the BRI will probably be reignited in the wake of its new avatar.
• The opposition to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor determined absence at the forum. There is no specific opportunity for India in any other element of the BRI.
• India’s attitude to it has to be set in the larger picture of the relationship with China, which combines a strong economic partnership with major strategic challenges, further complicated by the global geopolitical flux.

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GST buoyancy (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Economy
Prelims level : GST
Mains level : Rise of GST collections and its impact on economy

Context

• The final month of financial year 2018-19 has given the government some reason for cheer.
• Targets for indirect tax collections may have been missed for the last year, but collections from the Goods and Services Tax in April for economic activity in March scaled a new high.

Rise of GST collection

• The GST inflows of ₹1,13,865 crore in April are the highest recorded since the tax regime was introduced in July 2017.
• They represent an increase of over 10% compared to the same month a year ago, and over 15% buoyancy over the average monthly GST collections in 2018-19 of ₹98,114 crore.
• GST revenues have crossed the ₹1 lakh crore mark in March, January and October as well.
• The government has acknowledged that economic growth did slow down in 2018-19, owing to declining private consumption growth, a tepid increase in fixed investments and muted exports.
• The hope would be that the latest GST numbers are a harbinger of better growth momentum for 2019-20.
• The growth rate of the economy fell from 8.2% in the first quarter to 7.1% in the second and 6.6% in the third, so any improvement in the final quarter numbers due at the end of May should provide some succour.
• Healthier GST collections, if sustained, will also mean less pressure on the Centre to cover its fiscal deficit.

Significance of the GST filings

•  This perplexing trend may be attributed to increasing compliance among businesses amidst the aggressive push by the tax authorities to widen the tax base. GST filings, for instance, were the highest in March this year.
•  However, the April surge has occurred despite a decrease in the total number of GSTR-3B returns filed by businesses, from 75.95 lakh in March to 72.13 lakh in April.
•  In the absence of more disaggregated data, it could be argued that tax rate cuts by the GST Council in December too may have spurred higher volumes for some goods and services.
•  The rush to pay tax arrears at the end of the financial year may have been another seasonal factor contributing to better tax collection during the last month.
•  Enforcement action by the taxman to collect more revenue from registered taxpayers who have not been filing returns could be yet another factor.

What lies ahead?

•  It is still too early to assume that this is the beginning of a secular trend. One must not lose sight of the need for further simplification of the GST regime once the election season is over.
•  A significant number of businesses have already been brought into the tax net since the advent of the GST.
•  In order to encourage greater compliance, there must be efforts to make it easier for small firms to remain in the tax net by cutting down the time and energy required to fill myriad tax returns.
•  A nudge would be preferable to the stick.

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Spanish steps: on Spin’s generl election (The Hindu)

Mins Pper 1 : Interntionl
Prelims level : Not Much
Mins level : Spin election process

Context

• convincing victory for the Socilist prty (PSOE) in Spin’s generl election on Sundy hs delt  blow to the prospect of  rightwing colition with the fr-right Vox.
• The verdict is  personl triumph for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who filed to sve his minority government in Februry despite hving regined the prty ledership.
• The PSOE is short of the 176 required for  governing mjority.
• It is in some wys spoilt for choice: it cn either enter into  forml llince or rule on its own.

Support for Mr. Sánchez

• Mr. Sánchez cn count on issue-bsed support.
• The nti-cpitlist Podemos hs indicted  rediness to work in  PSOE-led colition.
• It hd nurtured mbitions of overtking the PSOE s the principl force on the politicl left fter the 2015 elections, but now its current stnce stems from wht it sees s  lrger role to isolte the conservtives nd the fr-right.
• The chnces of the liberl Ciuddnos supporting the PSOE re remote, s the former seems set on replcing the conservtive Populr Prty s Spin’s min centre-right lterntive.
• In ny cse, Ciuddnos’s more recent proclivity to cohbit in  colition with theVox my not go down well with the PSOE rnk nd file. Collbortion with the Ctln secessionists would be eqully hrd.
• They hd in Februry joined the Opposition to vote out Mr. Sánchez’s government, which insisted on negotiting  settlement within the frmework of the Constitution.
• One of the prties hs demnded  second Ctln referendum nd the withdrwl of the sedition tril ginst seprtist leders s  condition for supporting Mr. Sánchez gin.

Wht lies hed?

• The victory in Spin is the ltest in  string of successes for socil democrts in the Europen Union, since the xenophobic bcklsh in mny countries fter Germny welcomed bout  million Syrin refugees in 2015.
• Yet, the unfolding politicl frgmenttion nd the erosion of two-prty dominnce cross Europe lso mens these gins cnnot be exggerted.
• s voters in the 28-ntion bloc brce themselves to elect  prliment this month, this new relity could become more mnifest. Hlting the populist surge s exemplified in Britin’s vote to leve the EU opposed to freedom of movement nd closer Europen integrtion is their biggest chllenge.
• Centrist forces hve responded to the extremist thret by lening either too much to the left or to the right, hollowing out the middle ground.
• Such pndering to populists hs cost them derly. It is time moderte prties bndoned this perilous course.
• The ner-unmbiguity of Mr. Sánchez’s ltest mndte is the envy of most governments round Europe. Hving been hnded one, he must ensure  full term in office, something tht hs eluded Spin for some yers.

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Why Cyclone Fani in Odisha is an unusual storm (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 4 : Geography
Prelims level : Cyclone Fani
Mains level : Geographical Phenomena

Lost lives: on Gadchiroli naxal attack (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Security
Prelims level : Gadchiroli naxal attack
Mains level : Naxalite attack

Willful defaulters must not be allowed to buy back their assets (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Polity
Prelims level : Section 29A
Mains level : Banking regulations norms

Cracking the NSE colocation controversy (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1 : Economy
Prelims level : NSE colocation controversy
Mains level : Highlights of the NSE colocation controversy

Q1. Consider the following statements with respect to India’s energy consumption pattern :

1) India is home to 18% of the world’s population but uses only 6% of the world’s primary energy.
2) India’s energy consumption has almost doubled since 2000 and the potential for further rapid growth is enormous.
3) Per capita final energy consumption in India is very high and there is wide disparity between urban and rural areas.

Which of the above statements are true ?
a) 1 & 2 only
b) 2 & 3 only
c) 1 & 3 only
d) all of the above

Q2. India’s dependence of gold imports has been increasing readily for the last decade, which of the following are the only gold mines in India?

1) Hutti,Karnataka
2) Hirabuddini,Jharkhand
3) Uti,Karnataka

a) 1 & 2 only
b) 2 & 3 only
c) 1 & 3 only
d) all of the above

Q3. Which of the following statements regarding disqualification of member of parliament in India are not true ?

1) In India, a member of parliament can be disqualified under representation of People act 1951 if he has been under preventive detention for more than 2 years.
2) The question whether a member is subject to disqualification in all other matters except under 10th schedule (disqualification) is decided by President even without consulting the election commission.
3) He can also get disqualified if he is a director or managing personnel in a company / organization in which government has at least 25% share.

a) 1 & 2 only
b) 2 & 3 only
c) 1 & 3 only
d) all of the above

Q4. With respect to the Chandrayaan -2 mission of the ISRO, which of the following statements are true ?

1) The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) via Chandrayaan -2, attempts to land a rover on the lunar South Pole, a region on the moon to which no one has gone till now.
2) Chandrayaan-2 has three modules namely Orbiter, Lander (Vikram) & Rover (Pragyan).The Orbiter and Lander modules will be interfaced mechanically and stacked together as an integrated module and accommodated inside the GSLV MK-3.
3) All the ISRO missions to the moon have all landed near the moon’s equator only.

a) 1 & 2 only
b) 2 & 3 only
c) 1 & 3 only
d) all of the above

Q5. On the occasion of 750th anniversary of Vedanta Desika, Indian postal department unveiled a stamp to commemorate the great philosopher's life and highly valued works.
He was a famous proponent of which of the following philosophies ?

a) Buddhism
b) Jainism
c) Vaishnavism
d) Shaivism

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UPSC Pre Postal Test Series

Q1. Consider the following statements regarding oil imports to India :

1) Iran was India’s second biggest supplier of crude oil after Saudi Arabia till 2010-11, but western sanctions over its suspected nuclear programme relegated it to the seventh spot in subsequent years.
2) While U.S lifting of sanctions on Iran recently has led to shifting of Iran’s position to number two supplier of crude oil to India in 2018-2019.
3) Iraq has, for the second year in a row, become India’s top crude oil supplier, meeting more than a fifth of the country’s oil needs in 2018-19 fiscal year.

Which of the above statements are true ?

a) 1 & 2 only
b) 2 & 3 only
c) 1 & 3 only
d) all of the above

Q2. Which of the following national parks in India are also under UNESCO world heritage sites ?

1) Periyar national park
2) Khangchendzonga national park
3) Jim Corbett national park
4) Keoladeo national park
5) Great Himalayan national park

a) 1,2 & 3 only
b) 2,4 & 5 only
c) 1,3 & 5 only
d) 3,4 &5 only

Q3. Which of the following statements regarding Indian fishing industry are true ?

1) India is the 2nd largest producer of fish in the world and exports a large quantity of fish products to various parts of the world.
2) Over the years India’s fishing sector has increased its sources from marine resources than inland resources for exports.
3) The recently formed Fishing and Aquaculture infrastructure development fund would help attract private investment in creation and management of fisheries infrastructure facilities along with employment generation in the sector.

a) 1 & 2 only
b) 2 & 3 only
c) 1 & 3 only
d) all of the above

Q4. With respect to constitution and composition of ward committees under article 243-S of constitution ,which of the following statements are true ?

1) There shall be constituted Wards Committees, consisting of one or more wards, within the territorial area of a Municipality having a population of 10lakhs or more.
2) The Legislature of a State may, by law, make provision with respect to the composition and the territorial area of a Wards Committee and the manner in which the seats in a Wards Committee shall be filled.
3) Nothing in this article shall be deemed to prevent the Legislature of a State from making any provision for the constitution of Committees in addition to the Wards Committees.

a) 1 & 2 only
b) 2 & 3 only
c) 1 & 3 only
d) all of the above

Q5. The National Coastal Zone Management Authority ( NCZMA ) responsible for protection and improving the quality of the coastal environment and preventing, abating and controlling environmental pollution in the coastal areas is chaired by which of the following offices/personalities in India ?

a) Cabinet secretary
b) Secretary, Ministry of environment & forests
c) Chairman of central water commission ( CWC)
d) Prime minister

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The cost of antimicrobial resistance (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Health
Prelims level : IACG report
Mains level : Highlights of the IACG report

Fighting polio in Pakistan (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Health
Prelims level : cVDPV
Mains level : Basic health related issues