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(The Gist of PIB) ECI Reaffirms Non-Tamperability of EVMs [FEBRUARY-2019]

ECI reaffirms Non-Tamperability of EVMs

• In the wake of the motivated controversy about ECI EVMs, attempted to be created by one so called ‘cyber expert’ Mr Syed Shuja, the Technical Experts Committee (TEC) members - Prof D T Shahani, Prof Emeritus IIT Delhi and Prof Rajat Moona, Director IIT Bhilai and Prof D K Sharma, Prof Emeritus IIT Bombay (Mumbai), have reconfirmed to the ECI today that :

Key highlights mentioned about the EVM

• The ECI-EVMs are stand-alone machines designed to connect only amongst ECI-EVM units (Ballot Unit, Control Unit and VVPAT) through cables that remain in full public view.
• There is no mechanism in ECI-EVMs to communicate with any device through wireless communication on any Radio Frequency.
• All versions of ECI-EVMs are regularly and rigorously tested against low to high wireless frequencies. These tests include and go beyond the standard tests specified for electronic equipments.
• ECI-EVMs are regularly tested for proper functioning under all kind of operating conditions.
• ECI-EVMs are also regularly tested for code authentication and verification.

A fake propaganda

• In the context of Sh Syed Shuja alleging about the two side printing of VVPAT paper which allegedly retains lower tampered print while the front side print as verified by the voter, getting erased,
• The TEC clarified that VVPATs use thermal printers which can print only on one side of thermal paper.
• The print is fully visible through the viewing window.
• The paper rolls used in VVPATs have only one-sided thermal coating and hence can be printed only on one side. The VVPAT paper print lasts at least for five years.
• ECI-EVMs might malfunction sometimes like any other machine due to component failures and stop working, but even such a malfunctioning ECI-EVM would not record any vote incorrectly.
• It is reaffirmed that ECI-EVMs are not tamperable.
• ECI has also lodged an FIR u/s 505(1)(b) of IPC against Mr Shuja with DCP, New Delhi district.

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(The Gist of PIB) Exercise Sea Vigil [FEBRUARY-2019]

Exercise Sea Vigil

• The first coastal defence Exercise Sea Vigil, conducted by the Navy and Coast Guard, in close coordination with State Governments and Union Territories concluded today, 23 Jan 2019.
• It was the largest such exercise the country had ever witnessed in recent times and saw participation by more than 100 ships, aircraft and patrol boats manned and operated by various security agencies.

Key highlights

• The exercise had commenced yesterday morning and comprised two distinct phases. In the first phase, all stakeholders assessed the robustness of their own organisations.
• During the second phase, simulated attacks were carried out on vital installations and assets by infiltrating through the sea, in Kerala and Lakshadweep.
• The security agencies were able to thwart attempts by the opposing force to infiltrate into the coast using commandeered fishing boats.
• Response of agencies to other security contingencies such as hijacking of a ship and attack on offshore installations off Kochi Harbour was also assessed.
• All infiltration attempts will be analysed promptly to identify gaps in the multi-tier security layers at sea, close to the land and also in the hinterland in close coordination with concerned stakeholders.

About Sea Vigil exercise

• Sea Vigil that lasted for over two days, including the mobilisation phase, witnessed a high tempo of operations by all agencies and large-scale deployment of forces.
• All operational centres of the Navy and Coast Guard and control rooms of Police and Kochi Port were fully activated and exchanged information with each other.
• During the exercise, multi-agency teams also evaluated the security set up implemented by agencies including at fishing harbours, fish landing centres, police control rooms and ports amongst others.
• Sea Vigil conducted by Indian Navy and assisted by all stakeholders will facilitate in establishing shortfalls, working out new ways to optimise resources, recommend solutions to higher authorities and refine Standard Operating Procedures.
• With active support from all stakeholders, such exercises further strengthen the overall security architecture and enhance confidence to thwart any misadventure by anti-national elements.

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(The Gist of PIB) Cabinet Approves Creation of the National [FEBRUARY-2019]

Cabinet approves creation of the National

Bench of GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT)

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved the creation of National Bench of the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT).
• The National Bench of the Appellate Tribunal shall be situated at New Delhi. GSTAT shall be presided over by its President and shall consist of one Technical Member (Centre) and one Technical Member (State).
• The creation of the National Bench of the GSTAT would amount to one time expenditure of Rs.92.50 lakh while the recurring expenditure would be Rs.6.86 crore per annum.

Details:

• Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal is the forum of second appeal in GST laws and the first common forum of dispute resolution between Centre and States.
• The appeals against the orders in first appeals issued by the Appellate Authorities under the Central and State GST Acts lie before the GST Appellate Tribunal, which is common under the Central as well as State GST Acts.
• Being a common forum, GST Appellate Tribunal will ensure that there is uniformity in redressal of disputes arising under GST, and therefore, in implementation of GST across the country.
• Chapter XVIII of the CGST Act provides for the Appeal and Review Mechanism for dispute resolution under the GST Regime.
• Section 109 of this Chapter under CGST Act empowers the Central Government to constitute, on the recommendation of Council, by notification, with effect from such date as may be specified therein.
• An Appellate Tribunal known as the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by the Appellate Authority or the Revisional Authority.

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(The Gist of PIB) Government Institutes Subhash Chandra [FEBRUARY-2019]

Government institutes Subhash Chandra

Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar

• Government has instituted an annual award titled Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar.
• The award is to be announced every year on 23rd January on the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Vital highlights

• All Indian Citizens and organizations, who have excelled in areas of Disaster Management; like Prevention, Mitigation, Preparedness, Rescue, Response, Relief, Rehabilitation, Research/ Innovations or Early Warning are eligible for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar.
• The award scheme for the year 2019 was given wide publicity and nominations of the award were solicited from 19th Dec 2018 onwards. Last date for receipt of Nominations was 07th Jan 2019.
• The response to the award scheme was overwhelming with over 300 nominations from Institutions and Individuals.
• For the year 2019, 8th Battalion of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) located at Ghaziabad has been selected for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar for its commendable work in Disaster Management. The Award recipient will receive a certificate and a cash prize of Rs. 51 lakh:

Issues raised by NDRF

• The 8th Battalion of NDRF was raised in 2006 and is a highly specialised Rescue and Response Force with large area of responsibility covering National Capital Region (NCR), Uttarakhand, Western UP & Haryana.
• It has participated in 314 major Operations and rescued over 50,000 people. In the recent Kerala Floods, the battalion rescued 5338 victims & evacuated 24,000 persons to safety. Other major disasters in which this NDRF battalion participated are Leh Cloudburst (2011), Kedarnath Floods (2013), Cyclone Hudhud (2014), Chennai Floods (2015) and Tripura Floods (2018). The battalion had worked efficiently to neutralise the threat during Radiation Incident at Mayapuri, Delhi during the year 2010.
• They have also done commendable Disaster Management related work internationally. In the aftermath of Nepal Earthquake in 2015, six teams of the battalion were amongst the first responders to land at Kathmandu. Their teams were also sent to Japan during Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (2011) and recent Tsunami in Indonesia (2108).
• In addition to the response and relief work, the 8th Battalion NDRF has trained large number of first responders from SDRF, NCC, Civil Defense, Homeguard, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan and Nepal Police. The Community based Capacity Building Programmes run by the battalion has benefited over nine lakh people.

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(The Gist of PIB) eCourts Services through Common Service Centres [FEBRUARY-2019]

eCourts Services through Common Service Centres

• Court case information such as judicial proceedings/decisions, case registration, cause list, case status, daily orders, and final judgments of all computerized
  district and subordinate courts of the country will now be available across all Common Service Centers in the country.
• The Government of India had initiated second phase of the eCourts project as one of the National e-Governance projects, in August, 2015 with an outlay of Rs.1670 crores.
• As on date, 16845 district and subordinate courts has been IT enabled.

Key highlights about the eCourts project

• The eCourts project has made significant progress under the guidance of e-Committee of Supreme Court of India in computerizing district and subordinate courts of the country through installation of case information software, hardware and local area network in courts.
• They are also being connected on Wide Area Network through a dedicated network offering bandwidth upto 100 Mbps.
• eCourts services have now been successfully rolled out through SMS, email, web, mobile app etc. benefiting millions of litigants and advocates.
• In order to provide efficient and time-bound access to the Courts services to litigant public, who are on the other side of the digital divide and don’t have access to internet.
• The Department of Justice has decided to deliver eCourts services to them through around 2 lakh Common Service Centres (CSCs).

About CSCs

• The rural reach of the CSC's is extensive, envisaging a minimum of one CSC in each Gram Panchayat, thus enabling eCourts services to reach all corners of the country.
• The collaboration between Department of Justice and Common Service Centers would thus mean that litigants can access easily, and readily case status information available on eCourts database from any CSC. The eCourts database contains case information in respect of over 10 crore cases and more than 7 crore orders  judgments.
• To ensure affordability, Department of Justice has decided not to charge any fee from the customers for eCourts related services delivered through CSC's.
• However towards cost of service, CSC's has been authorized to charge Rs.5/- for any of the 23 services available on Courts portal.
• Printing charges will be Rs.5/- per page, if it is more than one page.

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Vyommitra, ISRO's newly introduced half-humanoid (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3 : Science and Tech
Prelims level : Vyommitra
Mains level : Half-humanoid robot and its uses

Context:

• Vyommitra, a half-humanoid is being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for an unmanned space mission later in 2020.

About Vyommitra:

• ISRO’s Vyommitra (vyoma = space, mitra = friend) is the prototype for a “half-humanoid”.
• She is also being called a half-humanoid since she will only have a head, two hands and a torso, and will not have lower limbs.
• She is under development at a robotics laboratory at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.
• She will fly to space on an unmanned mission later this year, aiming to lay the ground for ISRO’s manned mission Gaganyaan in 2022.

Defining a half-humanoid:

• A humanoid is basically a robot with the appearance of a human being.
• Like any robot, a humanoid’s functions are determined by the computer systems to which it is connected.
• With the growth of artificial intelligence and robotics, humanoids are being increasingly used for repetitive jobs.
• The artificial intelligence technologies are used in a humanoid to perform simple functions that include walking, moving things, communicating and obeying commands.

Reasons behind ISRO’s developing:

• ISRO plans to send a human into space for the first time by 2022.
• It is racing against time to develop a crew module and rocket systems that will ensure the safe travel and return of the Indian astronaut.
• Other countries that have successfully launched humans into space did so after having used animals for conducting tests of their rockets and crew recovery systems.
• ISRO will use the humanoid to test the efficacy of its GSLV Mk III rocket to transport a human to space and back.

What are all under development?

• GSLV Mk III rocket is undergoing improvisation to ensure that it is human-rated or declared safe to transport a human being to space.
• Its first unmanned mission with the human-rated rocket is planned for December 2020.
• The crew module system, too, is under development, and ISRO will attempt to carry out several tests over the next few months to launch and recover the module using new test launch rockets.
• ISRO has considerable experience in building robotic systems for its space projects.
• Once flown into space, ISRO’s half-humanoid will be able to test systems in the crew module meant for the survival and safe travel of the first Indian astronaut in 2022.

Tasks that Vyommitra will perform in space:

• The Vyommitra humanoid will test the ground for the human spaceflight.
• Once fully developed for the unmanned flight, she will be able to perform activities which will include, Procedures to use equipment on board the spacecraft’s crew module such as safety mechanisms and switches, Receiving and acting on commands sent from ground stations.
• The functions listed for the humanoid include attaining launch and orbital postures, responding to the environment, generating warnings, replacing CO2 canisters, monitoring the crew module, etc.
• Vyommitra will have lip movement synchronised to mimic speech.
• She can also double up as an artificial buddy to an astronaut - providing audio inputs on aspects like the health of the spacecraft during the launch, landing and orbital phases of the manned mission.
• She will report back to Earth on the changes occurring in the crew module during the spaceflight and return.
• This willl enable ISRO to understand the safety levels required in the crew module that will eventually fly a human being.

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Here’s looking at you (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3 : Science and Tech
Prelims level : Automated facial recognition
Mains level : Advantages and Disadvantages of the automated facial recognition

Context:

• The debate on finding the right balance between regulation and promotion of emerging technologies comes in the wake of leaked plans of the EU to issue a temporary ban on the use of facial recognition technologies by private and public entities.
• The ban could be up to five years. The proposed ban is not a comprehensive one, and will be applicable to the use of facial recognition in public spaces.

Automated facial recognition:

• The new thinking on facial recognition is part of an EU white paper, likely to be issued next month, on guidelines to regulate the use of artificial intelligence and other digital technologies.
• The intensifying global debate also coincides with India’s own plans to roll out a massive project on deploying facial recognition technologies, essentially for law enforcement. The international discourse, hopefully, provides the context for developing a broad and effective Indian policy framework for the use of facial recognition.
• For nearly two decades, the idea that “digital is different” and does not need public oversight had triumphed in most capitals of the world.
• The main argument was that regulation constrains technological innovation and retards progress.
• The urge to regulate has triggered widespread concerns about the dangers of digitalisation, especially the use of big data and AI by private companies as well as governments.

Many facial recognition systems are biased:

• If companies were seen as monetising the data generated by the widespread use of digital platforms like Google and Facebook, China became the prime example of states using data and information to exercise ever more control over their citizens.
• Civil society groups, which saw both “surveillance capitalism” and “surveillance state” as evils of the digital age that threaten individual rights, began to press for legislative action at the provincial and municipal levels.
• These pressures from multiple directions have compelled the dominant technology companies to recognise that regulation is inevitable and that they should focus on shaping the outcomes.
• The technology companies also saw the need for some collective understanding at the international level for a set of universal rules for the conduct of digital business across the world. Microsoft’s promotion of a global code of conduct for the digital domain is an example.\
• Tech companies fear that too many constraints in democratic societies will weaken them against competition from China, where the party-state is actively developing and deploying AI.
• But no aspect of AI triggers greater anxiety than facial recognition technology, the use of which has become widespread. China’s use of facial recognition to track and control its Muslim citizens in Xinjiang to using the technology to control the prolonged protests in Hong Kong are at one end of potential concerns.

Is India ready for facial recognition technology?

• At the other end are concerns that facial recognition is not entirely accurate and could lead to punitive actions against innocent people. There is also concern in the US that the algorithms behind facial recognition carry the baggage of racism and misogyny that are inherent in the political culture shaping the development of technology.
• Few can deny some of the advantages of the use of facial recognition for governments in the control of crime, better border controls and countering terrorism.
• In India, a severely under-policed nation, facial recognition surely offers many benefits.
• It also remains a fact that the Indian state has always been tempted to empower itself against its citizens in the name of collective security.
• It has also tended to weaponise information against political opponents and dissidents.

Way ahead:

• Delhi’s statist impulses have also tended to stifle the role of the private sector in the development of new technologies and their innovative use.
• In the immediate post-war years, Delhi punched way above its weight in debates on the global governance of new technologies like nuclear and space.
• Its voice has become increasingly marginal in the digital era where the private sector is driving technological development.
• The foreign office must reclaim India’s place in the international discourse on AI and facial recognition and develop a productive alignment between India’s national interests and the development of new digital norms.

Conclusion:

• The government needs a more comprehensive domestic framework that promotes the use of new technologies for public good as well as imposes necessary constraints against their abuse by both state and capital.

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Anti-satellite missile capability showcased in R-Day parade (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3 : Science and Tech
Prelims level : Air Defence Tactical Control Radar
Mains level : Various missile technologies and defense technologies

Context:

• India showcased its Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile capability to the world as the ASAT weapon, Mission Shakthi, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) rolled out on the Rajpath during the 71st Republic Day parade.
• The IAF’s newest inductions, Chinook heavy lift helicopters and Apache attack helicopters, also made their debut during the flypast.
• A DRDO marching contingent displayed the ASAT missile along with a second equipment, the Air Defence Tactical Control Radar (ADTCR).

ASAT missile:

• Anti satellites: It is designed to incapacitate or destroy satellite.
• There are two types of Anti satellites viz, Kinetic and Non-kinetic.

Uses of ASAT missile:

• It has to jam enemy countries satellites.
• Provide critical information like troop movements and incoming missiles.
• To launch cyber attacks on space systems.

Pin point accuracy:

• On March 27, 2019 the DRDO shot down a live satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) of 300 km using a modified interceptor of the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system in ‘hit to kill’ mode with 10-cm accuracy.
• The test a major breakthrough in demonstrating the ASAT technology and that the ASAT weapons “play a critical role in providing the necessary strategic deterrence”.
• The covert technology of ‘hit to kill’ developed for the first time in India for such applications enables it to destroy an enemy satellite by directly colliding with it with pin-point accuracy.
• The ADTCR is used for volumetric surveillance, detection, tracking and friend/foe identification of aerial targets of different types and transmission of prioritised target data to multiple command posts and weapon systems.
• Three CH-47F(I) Chinook helicopters flew in a ‘vic’ formation followed by five AH-64E Apache helicopters which flew in ‘arrowhead’ formation.
• Both these helicopters were inducted into service last year.
• India has contracted 22 Apache helicopters and 15 Chinook helicopters from Boeing through the Foreign Military Sales programme of the U.S. government in September 2015 under a $3-billion deal.

Mission Shakti:

• It has led by Defense Research Development Organisation (DRDO).
• It is aimed at to strengthening overall security.

Guard of honour:

• In a change of tradition, before commencement of the parade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid homage to fallen soldiers by laying a wreath at the flame of the immortal warrior at the National War Memorial (NWM), instead of the Amar Jawan Jyoti (AJJ) at the India Gate.
• The NWM, inaugurated in February last year, is located at the ‘C’ Hexagon near the India Gate and was built in memory of about 22,500 Indian soldiers who laid down their lives for the country in the post-independence period.
• The AJJ will now be used only for regimental events and visiting dignitaries.
• Among the Army’s marching contingents, marching for the first time on the Republic Day was a contingent from the Corps of Army Air Defence.
• The Army’s Signal Corps contingent was led by Capt. Tanya Shergill, a fourth generation officer.
• The Army showcased its recent induction, the 155-mm Dhanush towed howitzer and K9-Vajra self-propelled artillery gun.
• The Army is likely to constitute its first Dhanush regiment in March.
• This is also the first Republic Day parade with a fourth four-star officer in attendance following the creation of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).
• Gen. Bipin Rawat was present along with the three Service Chiefs. Symbolising this was a tri-service helicopter formation of three Advanced Light Helicopters from the three Services.

Way forward:

• With a bright sun and fairly clear sky, the audience got a good view of the flypast and the parade culminated with a lone SU-30MKI performing a “vertical charlie” menuvore which drew the maximum applause.

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Crime and politics: on political candidates with criminal records (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Polity
Prelims level : Election Commission of India
Mains level : Governance transparency, accountability

Context:

• The Supreme Court has taken a timely decision by agreeing to hear a plea from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to direct political parties to not field candidates with criminal antecedents.
• The immediate provocation is the finding that 46% of Members of Parliament have criminal records.

Background:

• Many politicians tend to be charged with relatively minor offences —“unlawful assembly” and “defamation” — the real worry is that the current cohort of Lok Sabha MPs has the highest (29%) proportion of those with serious declared criminal cases compared to its recent predecessors.
• Researchers have found that such candidates with serious records seem to do well despite their public image, largely due to their ability to finance their own elections and bring substantive resources to their respective parties.
• Some voters tend to view such candidates through a narrow prism: of being able to represent their interests by hook or by crook.
• Others do not seek to punish these candidates in instances where they are in contest with other candidates with similar records.
• These unhealthy tendencies in the democratic system reflect a poor image of the nature of India’s state institutions and the quality of its elected representatives.

Supreme Court observations:

• The Supreme Court has come up with a series of landmark judgments on addressing this issue.
• It removed the statutory protection of convicted legislators from immediate disqualification in 2013, and in 2014, directed the completion of trials involving elected representatives within a year.
• In 2017, it asked the Centre to frame a scheme to appoint special courts to exclusively try cases against politicians, and for political parties to publicise pending criminal cases faced by their candidates in 2018.

Limitations:

• But these have not been a deterrent to legislators with dubious credentials.
• Perhaps what would do the trick is a rule that disallows candidates against whom charges have been framed in court for serious offences, but this is something for Parliament to consider as an amendment to the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
• This denouement, however, is still a pie in the sky given the composition of the Lower House with a number of representatives facing serious cases.

Way forward:

• Ultimately, this is a consequence of a structural problem in Indian democracy and the nature of the Indian state.
• While formally, the institutions of the state are present and subject to the electoral will of the people, substantively, they are still relatively weak and lackadaisical in governance and delivery of public goods, which has allowed cynical voters to elect candidates despite their dubious credentials and for their ability to work on a patronage system.
• While judicial pronouncements on making it difficult for criminal candidates to contest are necessary, only enhanced awareness and increased democratic participation could create the right conditions for the decriminalisation of politics.

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Abolition politics: on A.P. Cabinet nod to abolish Legislative Council (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Polity
Prelims level : Legislative Council
Mains level : State Legislatures - structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these

Context:

• The abolition and revival of the second chamber in State legislatures have become matters of political expediency.
• Andhra Pradesh is the latest State to favour the alteration of the status quo regarding the Upper House, in an Assembly resolution for its Legislative Council’s abolition.
• A.P. Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s drastic step comes after key legislation intended to take forward his three-capital proposal was referred to a select committee by the Council, in which his party does not have a majority.

His grievance:

• The Council is working with a political agenda to block his proposal.
• While the need for a bicameral legislature in the States has often been questioned, few would support the idea that the potential difficulty in getting the Council’s approval should be a reason for its abolition.
• Chief Ministers ought to bear the possible delay that the Council’s opinion or course of action may cause, and seek to build a legislative consensus instead of pushing their agenda through.
• Mr. Reddy will have to listen to different voices on his proposal to locate the State High Court in Kurnool, its legislature in Amaravati, and the government secretariat in Visakhapatnam.

Pass the resolution process:

• A.P.’s proposal will bear fruit only if Parliament passes a law to that effect, based on the State’s request. Recent experience suggests that States without a Legislative Council favour its revival.
• Rajasthan, Assam, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh have passed resolutions for a revival, but are yet to get parliamentary approval.
• In Tamil Nadu, at least two erstwhile DMK regimes had favoured revival, and even parliamentary approval given in 2010 did not result in the actual re-establishment of the Council, which was dissolved in 1986.
• In A.P., the N.T. Rama Rao regime sought its abolition in 1983, and it was approved by Parliament in 1985. Under the Congress’s Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the Legislative Council was revived in 2007.
• It is quite clear that wherever the Council is sought to be revived or abolished, there is no consensus.
• A parliamentary committee that went into the Bills introduced in respect of Assam and Rajasthan suggested that the Centre evolve a national policy on having an Upper House in the States.
• The larger question is whether the Councils are serving their intended purpose — to take a considered view on matters without being influenced by electoral considerations.

Conclusion:

• If the Upper Houses are used only for accommodating leaders who have lost general elections, there may not be much meaning in their existence.
• There is less justification for having separate representation in Councils for graduates and local bodies when democracy has taken roots and Assemblies are representative of all sections.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) Technology Delivery to Empower Women

Technology Delivery to Empower Women

Introduction

• Urban women these days are using technologies that reduce their drudgery and improve lifestyles. Modem household appliances.
• ICT applications, computers, and gadgets for office going women have all made jobs simpler. However, in the rural scenario, life is somewhat different.

“Science & Technology for Women”

• The Government of India has floated many schemes for women empowerment and gender equity. There is a concern towards nutrition, literacy, skill development and income generation for women. The Department of Science & Technology has been implementing a scheme “Science & Technology for Women” with a view to empower women through inputs of Science and Technology, since the 1980 The broad objectives of this scheme are to promote development and adaptation of appropriate technologies, transfer of proven technologies and demonstration of live technology models to benefit women. Numerous priority areas, with women as specific target groups, have been identified for proper scientific/technical interventions for empowerment and sustainable livelihoods.
• Besides individual projects for technology development, upgradation, modulation and replication, the scheme also focuses on establishing “Women Technology Parks (WTP)" dial are envisaged to act as resource centres where all necessary support is made available to women from a single platform for improving the living conditions of women. Recognizing the likely benefits of an improved and structured mechanism for delivering technologies to the women in rural areas, a number of “Women Technology Parks" have been set up in different geographic/agro-climatic regions of the country. These Parks act as windows for providing information, creating awareness, giving training for appropriate technologies leading to skill upgradation and also to help establish the all-important forward and backward linkages for income generation through micro enterprises for women besides on-field trials for R&D and modulation of the technology packages to address location-specific needs.

Empowering Women

• Many technologies have been demonstrated, popularised and encouraged for adoption as an income generating model. To name a few - Biomass Dryers, Sanitary napkin making unit, Millet products. Mushroom Cultivation, Virgin coconut oil making, etc.
• Under the scheme “Science for Equity Empowerment & Development (SEED)" of the Department of Science &. Technology, S&T based agencies, agricultural extension divisions of universities, R&D laboratories and others are encouraged to submit proposals for technology development, adaptation, demonstration, etc. These technologies generally use locally available resources like bamboo, coconut, areca nut, banana and so on for value addition and preservation.
• Proposals are evaluated by experts and those that satisfy all the parameters are supported financially for a period of two to three years. Financial support is for manpower, logistics, consumables, raw materials, capital, equipment, training, etc. Women participants in the programme receive on-site training for the technologies. There is a mid-term review and mid-course corrections.
• Tamil Nadu is doing a project to upscale hatchery production of marine aquarium fishes by adopting innovative recirculation method and technology transfer to the coastal tribal women as their livelihood option, A demonstration hatchery with re circulatory system is being established to culture marine ornamental clownfish and others, This will help in conserving marine biodiversity and also help coastal tribal women.

The Need

• The world over it has been observed that when women work, economies grow. As women have more control over income, through their own earnings or cash transfer, more money is spent for the benefit of children. Increasing women and girls, education contributes to higher economic growth.

Way forward

• However, more women than men work in vulnerable, low-paid, or undervalued jobs. The UN Women data of 141 countries indicates that women and children who are poverty stricken are more vulnerable to natural disasters compared to their male counterparts. Where the socio-economic status of women is high, men and women die in roughly equal numbers during and after natural disasters, whereas more women than men die (or die at a younger age) where the socio-economic status of women is low. Therefore, we may the status improves the hazard say, as the vulnerability decreases,
• The programmes under S&T for Women" scheme of the government of India focus on employment generation through training, value addition to local resources, health & nutrition related projects aim at reduction of occupational hazards, address problems like malnutrition, anaemia, osteoporosis, etc. Introducing women-friendly technologies could lead to economic growth, sustainability and several other benefits.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) Producing Alternative Fuels From Renewable Sources

Producing alternative fuels from renewable sources

Introduction

• The source of fossil fuel is finite, non-renewable and ever depleting. India is heavily dependent on fossil fuels for its energy requirements and therefore, needs to identify renewable fuel sources which would help reduce import of petroleum crude.
• There are several important steps that the country needs to take to carry forward research on renewable sources for production of alternative fuel and reaching the output to the remotest corners so that the poorest of the poor can be provided fuel at an affordable price.
• The only non-renewable solid fuel that is still controlling the world's energy sector is coal, in view of the restricted utilisation of nuclear energy. The replacement of liquid fuel is a near difficult task in the coming several decades. So the world is slowly towards the use of hydrogen as the replacement of liquid fuels.

Types of Alternative Fuels

1. Ethanol: Primarily alcohol is produced from fermentation and further distillation of crops like corn, barley, sugarcane bagasse, wheat. etc. It is blended with gasoline to increase octane level and improve emission quality.
2. Natural Gas: It is already in use in several countries through utilities that provide natural gas to homes and it burns clean. Cars and trucks with specially designed engines run through natural gas with less Harmful emissions.
3. Propane: The other name of propane is Liquefied Petroleum gas (LPG); it is a byproduct of crude oil refining and natural gas processing. It is widely used as cooking gas and a popular alternative fuel.
4. Biodiesel: it is one of the fuels whose source is always renewable, It can be produced from vegetable oils or animal fats and also the cooking wastes of restaurants. Vehicle engines can be converted to run by pure biodiesel and it is also blended with petroleum diesel to run in modified engines also.
5. Methanol: One of the present day important alternative fuels – much attention has been paid on cost-effective production of methanol, which can be used as a source of alternative fuel. It is an important raw material for production of fuel cell grade hydrogen to run hydrogen powered vehicles.
6. Electricity: Electricity can be used as a transportation alternative fuel for battery-powered electric and fuel-cell vehicles.
7. Hydrogen: U can be mixed with natural gas to create an alternative fuel which can be used in some types of internal combustion engines. Hydrogen is the fuel for fuel-cell vehicles and is produced by the petrochemical reaction.
8. P-series Fuels: These are blends of ethanol, LNG and methyltetrahydrofuran (MeTHE) in different proportions. The P-Series alternative fuels are clear and have high octane number with flexibility of choices of vehicles. It has the option of addition to normal gasoline.

Study Material for UPSC General Studies Pre Cum Mains

Nagardhan excavations (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 1 : History
Prelims level : Vakataka dynasty
Mains level : Key findings about Vakataka dynasty

Context:

• Recent archaeological excavations at Nagardhan in Ramtek taluka, near Nagpur, have provided concrete evidence on the life, religious affiliations and trade practices of the Vakataka dynasty that ruled parts of Central and South India between the third and fifth centuries.
• After a 1,500 year-old sealing was excavated for the first time, a new study in Numismatic Digest has tried to understand the Vakataka rule under Queen Prabhavatigupta.

What is the excavated site?

• Nagardhan is a large village in Nagpur district, about 6 km south of Ramtek taluka headquarters.
• Archaeological remains were found on a surface spread over a 1 km × 1.5 km area. The researchers excavated the site during 2015-2018.
• A Koteshwar temple dating back to the 15th-16th centuries stands on the banks of a stream.
• The existing village sits on top of the ancient habitation. The Nagardhan Fort stands south of present-day Nagardhan village.
• This was constructed during the Gond Raja period and later renovated and re-used by the Bhosales of Nagpur during the late 18th and 19th centuries.
• The area surrounding the fort is under cultivation and has archaeological remains.

Why is the excavation important?

• Very little was known about the Vakatakas, the Shaivite rulers of Central India between the third and fifth centuries.
• All that was known about the dynasty, believed to hail from the Vidarbha region, was largely through some literature and copperplates.
• There were assumptions that the excavated site of Nagardhan is the same as Nandhivardhan, the capital city of the eastern branch of the Vakatakas.
• It was after archaeological evidence from here that Nagardhan was understood to have served as a capital of the Vakataka kingdom.

What is the significance of these finds?

• It is the first time clay sealings have been excavated from Nagardhan. The oval-shaped sealing belongs to the period when Prabhavatigupta was the queen of the Vakataka dynasty.
• It bears her name in the Brahmi script, along with the depiction of a conch.
• The 6.40-gram sealing, which is 1,500 years old, measures 35.71 mm by 24.20 mm, with a thickness of 9.50mm. The presence of the conch, scholars say, is a sign of the Vaishnava affiliation that the Guptas held.
• The sealing was traced on top of a mega wall that researchers now think could have been part of a royal structure at the capital city of the kingdom. So far, no archaeological evidence had emerged about the types of houses or palatial structures of the Vakataka people or rulers.
• The copperplate issued by Queen Prabhavatigupta starts with a genealogy of the Guptas, mentioning the Queen’s grandfather Samudragupta and her father Chandragupta II.
• These are strong indicators of Vaishnava signatures on the royal seals of the Vakatakas, reiterate that Queen Prabhavatigupta was indeed a powerful woman ruler.
• Since the Vakataka people traded with Iran and beyond through the Mediterranean Sea, scholars suggest that these sealings could have been used as an official royal permission issued from the capital city. Besides, these were used on documents that sought mandatory royal permissions.

Why are the findings on Queen Prabhavatigupta significant?

• The Vakataka rulers were known to have forged several matrimonial alliances with other dynasties of their times. One of the key alliances was with Prabhavatigupta of the mighty Gupta dynasty, which was then ruling north India. The Guptas, researchers say, were way more powerful than the Vakatakas.
• After marrying Vakataka king Rudrasena II, Prabhavatigupta enjoyed the position of Chief Queen. When she took over the Vakataka kingdom, after the sudden demise of Rudrasena II, her stature as a woman Vakataka ruler rose significantly.
• This is evident from the fact that the sealings were introduced and issued during her period as a ruler, that too from the capital city of Nagardhan.
• Scholars say Queen Prabhavatigupta was among a handful of women rulers in India to have reigned over any kingdom during ancient times.
• Also, there had been no evidence so far of any successor female ruler within the Vakataka dynasty, the researchers suggest.

Why is the sign of Vaishnava affiliation important?

• The Vakataka rulers followed the Shaiva sect of Hinduism while the Guptas were staunch Vaishnavites.
• Excavators say that many religious structures indicating affinity to the Vaishnava sect, and found in Ramtek, were built during the reign of Queen Prabhavatigupta. While she was married into a family that belonged to the Shaiva sect, the queen’s powers allowed her to choose a deity of worship, that is, Lord Vishnu.
• The researchers believe that the practice of worshipping Narasimha in Maharashtra emerged from Ramtek, and that Queen Prabhavatigupta had a pivotal role in propagation of Vaishnava practices in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.
• Some of the temples identified as Keval Narasihma, Rudra Narasimha and the one dedicated to Varaha could be traced to Ramtek, and showcase strong affinity to the incarnations of Lord Vishnu.
• None of these religious structures was, however, present here until the Queen took the throne. Queen Prabhavatigupta ruled for about 10 years until her son Pravarasena II succeeded.

What else has been excavated from Nagardhan so far?

• Earlier results from the excavations here had traced evidence in the form of ceramics, ear studs of glass, antiquities, bowls and pots, a votive shrine and tank, an iron chisel, a stone depicting a deer, and terracotta bangles.
• Some terracotta objects even depicted images of gods, animals and humans, along with amulets, scotches, wheels, skin rubbers and spindle whorls.
• An intact idol of Lord Ganesha, which had no ornaments adorned, too was found from the site. \

Conclusion:

• This confirmed that the elephant god was a commonly worshipped deity in those times. On the means of living of the Vakataka people, researchers found animal rearing to be one of the main occupations.
• Remains of seven species of domestic animals — cattle, goat, sheep, pig, cat, horse and fowl — were traced in an earlier study by the team.

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To skilling India (Mint)

Mains Paper 3 : Economy
Prelims level : Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana
Mains level : Improving employment through skilling

Context:

• Over the last 10 years, the Indian government has undertaken significant efforts in improving both the scale and quality of skilling, like setting up the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) in 2009.
• It launching the Skill India mission in 2015, and the flagship skilling initiative, the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMVKY) in 2016.
• This, in turn, is expected to drive economic gains and social mobility for individuals as well as trigger a productivity dividend for enterprises.

Major challenges

• Despite the progress made so far, today, learners face a multitude of challenges on their skilling journey.
• Two ecosystem barriers contribute directly to this: Informational asymmetries and limited quality assurance.\
• As far as the first barrier is concerned, there is a fundamental lack of awareness around why skills matter at the individual level. \
• There is also a paucity of timely and reliable data on the supply of and demand for jobs, which makes it difficult for those seeking employment to identify what opportunities they should pursue. \
• There also exists limited access to impartial and credible sources of information on high-quality service providers and high-potential opportunities, which means that jobseekers and learners end up relying on personal networks or proximate training providers. As a result, they end up training in skills that are not responsive to the local and changing market needs.

Quality skilling

• Regarding quality assurance, currently, there are three primary overseeing bodies that manage the quality assurance process.
• The National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) manages long-term skilling programmes while the National Skills Development Agency (NSDA) and the NSDC regulate short-term programmes.
• There is also an imbalance at various levels of the process that need correction, for example, incentives for different service providers are misaligned leading to situations where outcome-based disbursement models favour assessment agencies over training providers.

Potential of the skills ecosystem

• To unlock the potential of the skills ecosystem, these frictions must be smoothened through technology-led change, as well as through market-enabling governance.
• Until now, technology has played an enabling role in making existing systems and processes become smoother and more efficient (for example, digitisation of course curriculums). \
• Moving to a technology-led transformation will help reach scale, promote inter-operability and create digital public goods for all to use, that is, the internet equivalent for skills.
• Automated and scalable forms of interactions can help improve trust and credibility in the ecosystem and enable better decision-making by learners, service providers and employers.

Two leading initiatives:

• To creating and adopting digital certificates that allow consent-based sharing of information in a machine-readable format, to ensure better security and authenticity and
• To open APIs that can enable stakeholders in the ecosystem to tap into large, centralised sets of information (e.g. public registries of trainers, students etc.) and build market solutions (e.g. ratings for training centres).

Consolidated and market-enabling governance

• Consolidated and market-enabling governance can also help create the right incentives for service providers to cater to the needs of learners and employers effectively.
• A seminal step in this direction has been the creation of an overarching skilling regulator, the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) by merging NCVT, NSDA and regulatory functions of NSDC.
• Over the next year, it is expected that NCVET will develop minimalistic and user-friendly guidelines to recognise and regulate two of the most important stakeholders in the skilling ecosystem the awarding bodies, who accredit training institutions, and, the assessment agencies, who assess learner performance.
• In turn, it will be incumbent upon the awarding bodies to monitor and regulate the functioning of affiliated training providers.
• NCVET will be a forward-looking regulator and will support disruptive innovation in the ecosystem like models that reduce the gap in market-based data between learners and service providers.
• NCVET will be a presence-less and paper-less regulator: It will take decisions that are rooted in evidence and real-time data driven, and, adopt a spirit of disclosure and transparency in its interactions.
• Most significantly, NCVET will adopt a learner-centric lens to its decision making.

Conclusion

• To push the skilling agenda forward, it is important for the government to adopt the role of an ecosystem facilitator.
• This can foster informed decision-making by learners and employers, increase employer trust, and, enable upward and horizontal mobility of skilled workers.
• Technology and governance must work closely together to drive this transformative change.

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Missing link in B-schools (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2 : International
Prelims level : Blue chip companies
Mains level : Blue chip companies and their relevance

Context:

• Blue-chip companies going to only Tier 1 institutions could be attributed to two primary reasons.
• First, matching external branding of the blue-chip recruiting organisation with the stock pool of recruits in equally well-known and pedigreed institutions.
• And, second, rigour.
• The first level of rigour is the scores obtained by the top ranked institutions’ students in a very tough entrance examination followed by an equally demanding personal interview.
• The second level is the extremely demanding work and study schedules at such institutions. Tier 2 schools shy away from both rigours.

But are they really better?

• There are examples of students from Tier 1 B-schools not always being great leaders and there have been great business leaders from lesser known schools too.
• However, pro-rata, the incidence of CEOs from B-schools is skewed in favour of the top schools.
• Tier 1 B-schools are able to enhance the emotionally mature attitude of students better than non-Tier 1 schools through specific courses and a range of out-of-class activities.
• The responsibility of emotionally developing individuals has rarely been embraced by Tier 2 B-schools leading to long-term negative effects.
• Technical and hard skills development are their professed goals.
• But high performing, culturally developed organisations are increasingly demanding such skills.
• Long lasting soft skills can only be built on the bedrock of self-awareness. This is where aspiring B-schools need to broaden their vision.

Self aware leaders:

• After the collapse of the US economy in 2008-09, there was a serious rethink at Ivy League institutions about the social and ethical implications of their management curriculum which was churning out superbly capable business leaders but without a soul.
• The soul factor is often missing from B-schools.
• There is a growing demand for self-aware leader-managers.
• The soul factor comes from a deep sense of self-awareness. However, often in tightly scheduled business management programmes focussing on hard skills, this finds little favour.
• The consequent loss is being felt across corporations, industry, the nation and beyond.

Evaluation method:

• We posit SF = IQ x EQ x SQ where IQ is Intelligence Quotient (verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed), EQ is Emotional Quotient (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills) and SQ is Societal Quotient (encompassing concern for intra- and inter-society harmony, foundational value systems, and active environmental defence).
• We propose a multiplicative equation to explain SF as it prevents a low score on one element being offset by a high score on another and helps in equally focussing on all three aspects of a student’s development.

India’s scenario

• In India, EQ and SQ are where we have fallen short. These are two factors which are critical for an individual’s long-term success.
• A growing number of businesses now realise that they are mere trustees of the earth’s resources.
• They also realise that profit-making is pointless if it is not underpinned by a sustainability-seeking world view.
• Educational institutions which build individuals in this direction would be the preferred destination for blue-chip companies and society.

Way forward

• In modern higher education, there has been a marked departure away from the integration of ethics, social sciences and self-awareness toward an overwhelming focus on the hard skills.
• Analytics, finance, marketing, operations and strategy excellence form one-half of the story.
• Future business leaders must pursue the other half comprising humility, humanity, empathy, humour and hope, all of which need a high degree of self-awareness and soul.
• B-schools are doing rather fine in one and not so well in the other.

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The hype over hypersonics (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3 : Science and Tech
Prelims level : Hypersonic glide vehicle
Mains level : Defense technology and improvements

Context:

• On December 27, 2019, Russia announced that its new hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), Avangard, launched atop an intercontinental ballistic missile, had been made operational.
• Russia claims that this nuclear-armed HGV can fly at over 20 times the speed of sound and is capable of such manoeuvring as to be “invulnerable to interception by any existing and prospective missile defence means of the potential adversary”.

Background:

• With this induction, it appears that Russia has beaten the U.S. and China in deploying the HGV. But China and the U.S. are also close on the heels:
• The U.S. has moved from the research to the development stage, and China demonstrated the DF-17, a medium-range missile with the HGV, at the military parade in October 2019.
• The induction of such capability is inevitable in the next few years.

But is it going to be a game changer?

• A hypersonic delivery system is essentially a ballistic or cruise missile that can fly for long distances and at speeds higher than 5 Mach at lower altitudes.
• This allows it to evade interception from current Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD).
• It can also execute a high degree of manoeuvres.
• U.S. BMD that can intercept ballistic missiles would erode their nuclear deterrence, Russia and China had been in search of such a capability ever since the U.S. walked out of the anti-ballistic missile treaty in 2002.
• Hypersonic HGVs and hypersonic cruise missiles will re-establish lost strategic stability, Russia has declared such missiles as nuclear capable, while China has declared them dual-use capable.
• On the other hand, the U.S. explains this capability mainly for attacking time-sensitive targets as part of its prompt global strike strategy and hence has designated them a conventional role.

Risks of misperception

• How would the induction of hypersonics complicate security concerns?
• We must realise that these missiles are being added to the military capabilities of countries that possess nuclear weapons.
• For these nations, the concern is always an attack on nuclear assets to degrade retaliation.
• Another layer of complication is added by the fact that these missiles bring in warhead and destination ambiguities.
• In both cases, when an adversary’s early warning detects such missiles headed in its direction, but cannot be sure whether they are conventional or nuclear-armed, nor ascertain the target they are headed towards, the tendency would be to assume the worst.
• For an adversary that faces a country with a BMD but itself has a small nuclear arsenal, it would fear that even conventionally armed hypersonic missiles could destroy a portion of its nuclear assets.
• The tendency could then be to shift to more trigger-ready postures such as launch on warning or launch under attack to ostensibly enhance deterrence. \
• But such shifts would also bring risks of misperception and miscalculation in moments of crisis.

Offence-defence spiral

• The induction of hypersonics would lead to an offence-defence spiral.
• According to reports, the U.S. has begun finding ways of either strengthening its BMD or looking for countermeasures to defeat hypersonics, besides having an arsenal of its own of the same kind.
• The stage appears set for an arms race instability given that the three major players in this game have the financial wherewithal and technological capability to play along.
• This looks particularly imminent in the absence of any strategic dialogue or arms control.

Defence developments into outer space:

• The offence-defence developments into outer space. Counter-measures to hypersonics have been envisaged through placement of sensors and interceptors in outer space.
• While none of this is going to be easy or quick, weaponisation of outer space would, neverthless, be a distinct possibility once hypersonic inductions become the norm.

Way forward:

• Thus induction of this technology would likely prove to be a transitory advantage eventually leading nations into a strategic trap.
• India needs to make a cool-headed assessment of its own deterrence requirements and choose its pathways wisely.

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Tax reforms can help revive the economy (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3 : Economy
Prelims level : Fastag
Mains level : Tax reforms significance for economic revival

Context:

• Indian GDP growth has slowed to a six-year low of 4.5 per cent in the July-September quarter, and leading indicators like imports and exports, capital goods and electricity consumption show signs of a severe economic slowdown.
• The crises in the banking sector, compounded by the slowdown in other key sectors, calls for serious introspection and corrective measures.

Tax structure to blame

• The GST still remains the best and boldest step taken by the government in recent years. Its implementation, in hindsight, could have been better, as the legislation did not take into account the innovative ways that rogue taxpayers can find to cheat on taxes.
• The recent spurt in revenue with the introduction of FASTags in the national highway system only goes to show the continued high instance of tax evasion in the system.
• Invoice matching is long overdue, and needs to be implemented on a war footing to curb GST leakages.
• On the other hand, increasing GST rates — as some people are suggesting — will be a recipe for further disaster in a negative economic environment.
• The GST on cars and two-wheelers in India is applicable between 12 per cent and 28 per cent, though the latter is the prevalent rate on most personal and commercial vehicles.
• However, the GST is not the only tax applicable, as a compensation cess of up to 22 per cent is levied on certain segments in addition to the 28 per cent rate. Add to this the RTO tax, road tax, registration fees. etc.
• The total tax incidence on cars after GST introduction can be as high as 50 per cent.
• This implies that for a vehicle with an ex-factory price of ₹5 lakh, the consumer is shelling out at least ₹10 lakh, if not more.
• In the real estate sector, a home-buyer is subjected to multiple taxes, including GST, stamp duty, registration, TDS, etc,, as well as the additional recurring annual property tax and corruption costs.
• Also, when one intends to capitalise the investment in real estate, there is imposition of an income tax, capital gain tax, etc.
• On a house worth ₹50 lakh, the home-buyer must pay an additional ₹12-15 lakh in the form of various taxes.

Widen scope:

• Over the years, governments have focussed on increasing tax revenues only through the existing taxpayers.
• It is also imperative to focus on widening the scope of taxpayers. In a country with a population of over 1.35 billion people, there were only around 8.45 crore taxpayers in 2018-19.
• A large section of India’s population (nearly 58 per cent) which is associated with agriculture enjoys exemption of tax from agricultural income.
• Agriculture has been portrayed as a troubled sector for a variety of reasons.
• Dependency on natural resources, declining land holdings, cost of production and cartelisation of produce purchase are some of the factors impacting the sector and overall livelihood of farmers.

Need to introduce agricultural income tax:

• Nearly 70 crore people are non-taxable. The government should decide on a threshold for agriculture income and bring it under the tax regime.
• It suggested that agricultural income of over ₹10 lakh should be made taxable.
• In addition, all agriculture owners with income above a certain threshold should file returns like salaried payers.
• This will significantly decrease leakages coming from over-reporting of agriculture income as well as widen the taxpayer base.
• All agriculture subsidies like fertilisers and seeds need to move to a direct benefit transfer system rather than the current highly inefficient and corrupt system with distortions at every level.
• The over-burdening of taxes on a select few has eventually decelerated consumption, leading to the slowdown in the economy, job creation and new investments.

Plug leakages:

• Another major area to focus on to increase revenue is the curbing of widespread leakages in imports.
• Consumption figures in India are grossly under-reported, as import values are understated to avoid duties. This has a cascading effect as it impacts GST revenues when these goods flow through the distribution channel in India. This large-scale evasion of import duties, mostly on traded consumer goods coming through China and the Middle East, needs to be plugged to increase tax revenues and protect the domestic industry which is playing by the rules.
• Demonetisation was an attempt to plug the leakages from the parallel economy but this has not been able to dent the widespread evasion in under-reporting of import values in certain sectors.
• The government needs to use modern technology tools and big data analysis, which can detect evasion without being obtrusive or hurting genuine business transactions.

Way forward:

• If the government wants to increase revenue, they should have a near uniform moderate taxation for all categories of citizens above a certain income and minimise leakages through the use of technology.
• This will lead to higher disposable income for the honest taxpayer, leading to higher consumption and an improved economy.
• Unless the minority taxpayers are not unburdened with taxes, the GDP and the economy will continue to report slowdowns quarter after quarter.

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Frame rules to govern how devices identify us (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Science and Tech
Prelims level : Artificial intelligence
Mains level : Regulation needed to uses of Artificial intelligence

Context:

• Artificial intelligence (AI) on the most identifiable physical feature of people, their face. Facial recognition opens enormous possibilities for law enforcement, no doubt.
• An image captured at the scene of a crime can now be screened against photographs of entire populations for a match within a matter of hours.

Background:

• Most people are not lawbreakers. Yet, the idea of being watched by devices linked to vast databases far out of sight makes liberal societies uneasy, even those which have already yielded their fingerprints and iris scans to official and commercial data gatherers.
• It’s just too creepy, complain some, and civil liberty activists in the West consider it an invasion of privacy that is simply unacceptable.
• San Francisco, for instance, has banned its police from using facial recognition.
• The intrusion that is causing alarm, however, has nothing to do with the technology itself, and everything to do with the all-pervasive surveillance it enables.
• Today, very few of our public spaces are hidden from cameras, some of which hover over us in the air.

Matter of accuracy:

• How accurately faces are identified by machines is a major point of concern.
• Deployed in law enforcement, false matches could possibly result in miscarriage of justice.
• Even a low rate of error could mean such evidence faces judicial rejection.
• It is in the judiciary’s interest, all the same, to let technology aid police-work.
• The algorithms being used to identify individuals may have moved beyond geometric and photometric approaches to three-dimensional recognition, skin texture analysis and thermal imaging, but further advances are needed for the technology to gain reliability.
• First up for addressal is the criticism that facial recognition is still not smart enough to read emotions or work equally well for all racial groups.
• With iterative use, it will improve. It is thus a foregone conclusion that justice systems will increasingly rely on its forensic applications.

Should there be no rules governing it?

• Since such tools can be put to mala fide use as well, it is imperative that we frame rules for it well in time.
• Rogue drones equipped with the technology, for example, should never be in a position to carry out an assassination.
• Nor should an unauthorized agent be able to spy on or stalk anyone. Apart from California, the European Union has also decided to exercise some caution before exposing people to it. Privacy is paramount in these jurisdictions.
• At the other end of the spectrum, China has placed hundreds of millions under state surveillance in public, though a few protests have erupted there, too.

Conclusion:

• India, which has recently accepted privacy as a fundamental right, would do well to tilt the Western way on this.
• We need regulations that restrict its use to the minimum required to serve justice and ease commercial operations.

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Separating fact from economic fiction (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level : Absolute poverty
Mains level : Economic growth and development

Context:

• Some political economy experts believe that demonetisation is responsible for the 2019 slowdown, while others believe that the GDP data are flawed because it does not adequately capture informal sector activity.

Background:

• It needs to address the confusion that has erupted because of the steep slide in GDP growth in 2019-20.
• Many commentators have conflated two distinct episodes and are presenting them as one.
• Their contention is that the recent slowdown has been a permanent fixture of the Indian economy, especially since Modi took over the reins in 2014.
• Some experts say that India is already back to its pre-liberalisation era of slow economic growth of around 3-5 per cent.
• Now, couple this with the fact that the Modi government has dumped the NSS consumer expenditure survey for 2017-18.
• Incidentally, we are in full agreement with the decision to treat the report with the disdain it deserves. But, we are not in agreement with the decision to not release the unit-level data.
• The unit-level data must be released, if only to document the reality that there is something wrong with the NSS architecture in collecting data.

Is 2019 different from the 2014-2018 period?

• The nightlights data is available with the Earth Observation Group at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
• It comprises low-light imaging data collected by satellites and filtered to measure the quantity of artificial (human-generated) light in an area.
• The data enabled us to capture economic activity between 2012 and 2017.
• Data for the first four months of the first four years (for 2019, data is only available till April) shows an average growth of 12.5 per cent per year; growth for the first two quarters (January to June) between 2014 and 2018 averages 7.1 per cent annually.
• In the first two quarters of the 2019 calendar year, GDP growth averaged 5.4 per cent, while night lights averaged 5.8 per cent.
• Both very distinct measures of economic activity suggest that 2019 was a bad year and that the prior years had significantly higher economic activity.
• Some political economy experts believe that demonetisation is responsible for the 2019 slowdown, while others believe that the GDP data are flawed because it does not adequately capture informal sector activity.
• The months immediately following demonetisation (November-January) do show an average growth of minus 20 per cent, while over the next 16 months, growth averaged 23 per cent.
• This strongly indicates that something happened to cause growth to sharply decelerate in late 2018. But, it was not demonetisation or GST.
• The evidence is supportive of the argument that the ultra-tight monetary policy followed by the Urjit Patel-Viral Acharya duo and the NBFC crisis (exaggerated by tight monetary policy) precipitated our recent growth slowdown.

Was 2017-18 a bad year for economic activity?

• According to the NSS data, real per capita consumption declined by 3.7 per cent between 2011-12 and 2017-18.
• This is almost unheard of in most mature economies; even in our worst growth year in recent memory (1991 or 2009) per capita GDP growth declined by 0.5 per cent (1991) or increased by 2.5 per cent (2008).
• We strongly believe that a misdiagnosis of what happened in 2017-18, or in 2019, can lead to faulty policy prescriptions.
• As it happens, 2017-18 was a very good year for economic activity.
• The night lights data consistently find 2017-18 to be the best year for economic activity in the last seven years.
• Rice, wheat and cereal production (accounting for about 8 per cent of the consumption basket in 2011-12) shows an average per capita annual decline of 0.02 per cent between 2011-2017.
• But, per capita consumption of meat, eggs, pulses, edible oils, and even turmeric shows a healthy increase between 2011 and 2017.
• The food and tobacco consumption components — these account for 42 per cent of the consumption basket — show an annual real per capita increase of 2.6 per cent over 2011-12.

Conclusion:

• The analysis has implications for poverty analysis and for the analysis of policies that the Modi government has followed.
• The conservative estimate is that absolute poverty in 2017-18 was in the low to mid-single digits — a decline of 6-8 percentage points from the 14 per cent level in 2011-12.
• This is indeed a happy note as we celebrate 70 years of the creation of the Indian Republic.

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Bureaucracy shouldn’t snuff out dissent (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level : Model Code of Conduct
Mains level : Bureaucracy reforms and commute

Context:

• The last General Elections were different. Their outcomes but what came to be known about the internal deliberations within the Election Commission.
• There haven’t been very many occasions in the past when the differences between the Election Commissioners come out in the open when the election process is under way.
• One of the Election Commissioners had apparently dissented when issues relating to violation of the Model Code of Conduct by Narendra Modi came up for consideration before the Commission. The issue was highlighted in some segments of the media.

Fear of being penalized:

• However, what is troublesome within the bureaucracy is the increasing tendency amongst the civil servants not to air their views even during the course of internal discussions on account of the perceived risks associated with airing such views.
• Moreover, such views don’t get to be known generally except when they get revealed in the context of an inquiry/investigation or in a subsequently written memoir.
• The risks entailed in airing such differences of opinion in a hierarchical structure are much more as the superior authority can hold such a view against the officer and penalise the officer concerned through adverse mention in the Annual Confidential Report, transfer to a “punishment” post and the like.
• But, despite such risks, there are officers who do air their views in hierarchical structures as well.
• However, barring a few exceptions, they don’t necessarily go to town with such views.

Take the honourable route:

• These were instances of not merely harbouring a dissenting view, these were public display of “dissent”.
• It may be a “sacrilege” to advise the honourable judges (one of them rose to become the Chief Justice) because only they decide what is right and what is wrong but as far as other institutions are concerned, they would best be advised not to resort to a public spat.
• There are honourable ways of settling a dispute.

Way ahead:

• The debate so far has been around the judicial and quasi-judicial domain where the dissenting individual(s) enjoyed the same status as others but had a differing point of view.
• There are indeed differences in opinions, as there should be, within hierarchical structures, like the bureaucracy, as well.
• However, rarely do they take the shape of dissent as, once a decision gets taken, everyone down the hierarchy abides by the decisions and there is no public display of differences that may have existed.

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