A new Britain (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: Conservative Party
Mains level: India-UK relations

Context:

• Conservative leader and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s promise to “get Brexit done” has found unexpectedly wide resonance with the people of Great Britain.
• With 364 seats out of 650 in the House of Commons, the election marks the largest victory for the Tories in recent memory.
• The Conservatives were able to breach traditional bastions of the Labour Party, including in North England, and erode its working class base, signals the entrenching of the disenchantment with globalisation and European integration.

Background:

• In 2016, when Britain chose to exit the EU after a referendum, it marked the beginning of the West’s retreat from the global order it had set up, and the liberal values that shored it up.
• Nearly four years later, even as the complexities and costs of Brexit have become apparent, the British people have chosen to overwhelmingly back it once again.
• For the UK, in the short term, the verdict holds an answer on how to proceed on a vexed question.
• But it has also raised more fundamental and complex concerns on the relationship between democracy, liberal values and populism.

Why the elections result is significant?

• This election was, first and foremost, an attempt by Johnson to secure legitimacy for a hurried Brexit deal — Parliament had insisted on a more considered approach.
• The Conservative PM can now ensure that the deal is pushed through by the January 31 deadline. For Jeremy Corbyn, who has pushed Labour more to the Left, this is the third consecutive electoral defeat.
• In the near future, the prospects for both Corbyn and Labour appear dim. But even for PM Johnson, the road ahead will be challenging.
• He must now rise to the more arduous task of steering Britain through life after Brexit.
• This will involve negotiating new trading arrangements with the EU — the UK’s largest trading partner — along with rejoining the WTO and unveiling a new strategy for the country’s economic growth.
• Another problem that will confront the new government comes from within the UK: The anti-Brexit Scottish National Party has won in 48 of the 59 seats in Scotland, and it could push for another referendum on Scottish independence. As new border mechanisms come into play between the UK and Ireland after Brexit, Johnson must pay heed to Irish concerns.

Way ahead:

• As Britain leaves Europe, India may need to boldly reimagine the bilateral relationship. Delhi needs to look beyond the questions of Pakistan and Kashmir and seize the new opportunities for trade with Britain.
• As Tories revive the British interest in the Commonwealth, India has an opportunity to restructure this organisation.
• Britain will now likely try and recover a global role for itself, and reclaim its maritime orientation — on this front, there will be much Delhi could do with London.\

Conclusion:

• To succeed, though, Delhi needs to get its own house in order, especially on the economic front. An India that turns on itself at home and retreats into protectionist mode will find it hard to engage the new Britain.

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Centre plays foul on GST compensation (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: GST compensations
Mains level: Impact of GST on fiscal economy

Context:

• The GST Council has been hailed as a model federal institution, where both the States and the Centre are represented and consensus is arrived through a detailed deliberative processes.
• There has not been a single instance of voting, despite strong differences of opinion voiced on many issues. They were settled in a spirit of give and take.

GST compensation:

• The GST compensation is an integral part of the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill passed by Parliament.
• The compensation is provided in the law to insulate State finances from the shortfall in revenues during the transition to GST, especially since most of the States’ powers in commodity taxation were subsumed in the GST.

Impact of GST on fiscal economy:

• Introduction of the GST also implied serious erosion of States’ fiscal autonomy, and there were also serious doubts regarding how much revenue from the new tax will be available during the initial years.
• The States finally agreed to the GST after being guaranteed a 14 per cent GST revenue per annum.
• Any shortfall from this revenue path would be compensated by the Centre. For this purpose, a cess was imposed on selected luxury and sin goods, from which compensation would be paid to the relevant States in bi monthly instalments.
• In fact, on the suggestion of the GST Council, even the wording in the draft Constitutional Amendment was changed to categorically assert payment of compensation for five years.
• The Compensation Act passed by Parliament provided that: “The compensation payable to a State shall be provisionally calculated and released at the end of every two-month period, and shall be finally calculated for every financial year after the receipt of final revenue figures, as audited by the Comptroller and Audit General of India...”

Available funds

• During 2017-18, the cess collection amounted to ₹62,612 crore, from which ₹41,146 crore was released as compensation payment, leaving a closing balance of ₹21,466 crore.
• In 2018-19, ₹95,081 crore was collected as cess, and ₹69,275 crore was released as compensation, leaving a fund balance of ₹47,272 crore.
• During the first six months of the current financial year, ₹41,574 crore was collected as cess and ₹65,151 crore released as compensation.
• So, at the end of the half-year period, there would be a fund balance of ₹23,695 crore.

Conclusion:

• The simplest solution would be to, if necessary, take a short-term loan to fill up the gap in funds.
• The compensation cess collection can be extended for an additional year or so, till the borrowed amount is recouped.
• However, the Central government seems to be toying with the idea of another rejig of the GST rates

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Improving the Code (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code
Mains level: Highlights of the IBC amendments

Context:

• The decision to ring-fence assets of companies comes at a time when there have been instances of government agencies initiating action against companies whose resolution process has been completed.

Highlights about the IBC amendments:

• The Union cabinet approved amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) aimed at strengthening its functioning.
• The amendments seek to ring-fence assets of companies from offences committed by the previous management or promoters.
• They have also sought to raise the minimum threshold for initiating the resolution process, and have clarified that licences, permits and clearances cannot be suspended during the moratorium period.

Impact of these amendments:

• It will help reduce investor uncertainty, and go a long way in shoring up confidence in the resolution process.
• The decision to ring-fence assets of companies comes at a time when there have been instances of government agencies initiating action against companies whose resolution process has been completed.
• A case in point is the complication that arose in JSW Steel’s plan to acquire Bhushan Power and Steel (BPSL) with the Enforcement Directorate attaching some of BPSL’s assets.
• While under the law, dues owed to the central government rank below those due to financial creditors, the lack of clarity on the issue injected a degree of uncertainty in the process, led to delays, and disincentivised buyers.
• The amendment now seeks to address this issue. The cabinet has also increased the minimum threshold for initiating the resolution process.
• In the case of real estate projects, the minimum number of applicants has been increased to 100 or 10 per cent of the total applicants.
• This is designed to bring an end to the filing of frivolous cases in the NCLT.
• It is ensuring that licences, permits, concessions, and clearances are not terminated, suspended or renewed during the moratorium period, the amendment seeks to ensure the continuation of a business as a going concern.
• It will help preserve its value and retain its attractiveness for prospective buyers.

Way forward:

• These latest amendments come after the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Essar Steel that restored the primacy of the committee of creditors on the issue of distribution of funds from the sale of stressed assets.
• Coupled with that judgment, these amendments address some of the remaining contentious issues surrounding the functioning of the IBC.
• The government should now step up its efforts to ensure that the promise of speedy resolution, one of the most appealing aspects of the IBC, is delivered upon.

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Twin troubles: On low growth and high inflation (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Stagflations
Mains level: Stagflation effect on Indian economy

Context:

• Economic data indicates India may be stepping even closer to stagflation.
• The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) contracted 3.8% in October, as against a healthy growth rate of 8.4% witnessed during the same month last year.
• Industrial output, it is worth noting, had shrunk by 4.3% in September.
• At the same time, retail inflation jumped to a 40-month high of 5.5% in November fuelled mainly by a sharp jump in food prices.

Stagflation effect:

• Retail inflation is now in the upper band of the inflation range targeted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) but might drop as fresh food supplies hit the market.
• Low growth combined with high price inflation is sure to cause further headaches for policymakers.
• Economic growth has declined for six consecutive quarters now, making it one of the longest downturns in recent history.
• With inflation raising its ugly head now, the RBI, which held rates stable in its recent policy meet, is unlikely to cut rates aggressively in the next few months at least.
• So it is entirely up to the government now to find ways to boost growth.
• Given the seriousness of the slowdown, the government cannot delay reforms.

Role of government:

• The government maintained that the country’s growth rate was held back by the tight monetary policy stance adopted by the RBI under its previous governors.
• But with the benchmark interest rate being cut five times so far this year, the government can no longer shift blame on to the RBI.
• The favourite defence of the government right now is that the slowdown in growth is merely a cyclical one that will end sooner than later.
• Except for the recent cut in corporate tax rates, the government has not come up with any other significant reform in response to the slowdown.
• The presence of low growth along with high inflation also raises questions about the root cause of the slowdown, which has been attributed to a drastic fall in consumer demand.
• But aggressive rate cuts by the RBI that have extended over most of the year cannot stop the continuous slide in growth rate; it may well be that supply-side is also in deep trouble.

Conclusion:

• The answer to the current slowdown lies in economic reforms that can first lift the potential growth rate of the economy. Otherwise, further rate cuts by the RBI will only add to the government’s troubles by stoking inflation in the wider economy.

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(Download) UPSC IFoS (Main) Exam Paper 2019 "Agriculture Engineering"

Exam Name: IFoS (Main) Exam
Exam Year: 2019
Subject: "Agriculture Engineering"

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(Download) UPSC IFoS (Main) Exam Paper 2019 "Agriculture"

Exam Name: IFoS (Main) Exam
Exam Year: 2019
Subject: "Agriculture"

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Not enough to repair investor disinterest in PSUs (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: IRCTC
Mains level: Reasons behind IRCTC privatisation success

Context:

• The runaway response to the IRCTC Initial Public Offer, where the ₹645-crore offer was deluged by applications worth ₹72,000 crore, has infused renewed cheer into India’s moribund primary market and prompted market watchers to revise their opinions on the fate of the public sector disinvestment programme this year.
• Unlike other public sector IPOs before it, where subscription numbers were massaged by obliging domestic institutions such as LIC, the response to the IRCTC offer appears to be genuine, with the foreign institutional investor, retail and employee quotas all boasting good over-subscription numbers.
• But if the Centre is hoping that it can simply replicate IRCTC’s success with its future offers, it would be quite mistaken.
• It would take a lot more than the subscription numbers to one IPO to repair Indian investors’ disillusionment with PSU stocks as a class.

Key reasons behind IRCTC’s success:

• There are three reasons why IRCTC’s success is unlikely to presage a bumper response to future PSU offers.

First reason:

• Unlike a majority of PSUs which operate in capital-intensive, cyclical and B2B sectors, IRCTC is a consumer-facing and asset-light e-commerce play on Bharat’s rising travel spends.
• The Centre left money on the table with its unambitious asking price valuing IRCTC at 19 times its past earnings and less than 15 times forward earnings.
• This is at a steep discount to the prevailing market multiple of 26 times.
• While IRCTC’s business model or its prospects needed little promotion given consumer familiarity with the brand, both the government and its lead managers have been quite poor at showcasing the strengths of more complex PSU businesses in the past.
• Offers from IRCON, RITES, MIDHANI or GIC had wound up even before most retail investors could come to grips with their business.

Second reason:

• Even PSU offers that have flaunted big over-subscription numbers have delivered poor post-listing performance to their investors in the past.
• Seven out of the 10 PSU IPOs preceding IRCTC’s languish below their issue price, with some (GIC and New India Assurance) sporting losses of over 75 per cent.
• While institutional investors often exploit discounted PSU IPOs by flipping them for listing gains, retail investors staying long-term have burnt their fingers.

Third reason:

• The government’s own lackadaisical attitude towards minority shareholder rights has actively contributed to PSU businesses in general quoting at steep valuation discounts in the secondary market to their private sector peers.
• As the promoter of disinvested firms, the government has gleefully trampled over public shareholder interests by regularly raiding PSU balance sheets for dividends and buybacks (Coal India, NTPC, ONGC), forcing them into arranged marriages (ONGC with HPCL) and co-opting them into social projects without the concurrence of their Boards (PSU bank loan melas).

Conclusion

• Staying off such interference is critical to make sure that future IPOs from public sector firms can command a good response.

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India’s food basket must be enlarged (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Health
Prelims level: Global Hunger Index
Mains level: Promoting agro biodiversity

Context:

• Hunger is defined by caloric deprivation; protein hunger; hidden hunger by deficiency of micronutrients.
• India is ranked 102 in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) out of 117 qualified countries.
• Nearly 47 million or four out of 10 children in India do not meet their potential because of chronic undernutrition or stunting.
• This leads to diminished learning capacity, increased chronic diseases, low birthweight infants from malnourished parents.
• The global nutrition report pegs 614 million women and more than half the women in India aged 15-49 as being anaemic.

Measures to improve nutrition status:

• Nutrition garden guidelines.
• ‘Nutrition garden’ guidelines encourages eco-club students to identify fruits and vegetables best suited to topography, soil and climate.
• These gardens can give students lifelong social, numerical and presentation skills, care for living organisms and team work, besides being used in the noon-meal scheme.
• Students also learn to cultivate fruits and vegetables in their homes and this could address micronutrient deficiencies.
• This was introduced recently by the Ministry of Human Resources Development at school level.

Agro biodiversity:

• Agrobiodiversity ( relating to diversity of crops and varieties) is crucial in food security, nutrition, health and essential in agricultural landscapes.

Importance of ensuring agro biodiversity:

• Today, Only 30 crops form the basis of the world’s agriculture and just three species of maize, rice and wheat supply more than half the world’s daily calories Out of 2,50,000 globally identified plant species, and about 7,000 species historically used in human diets.
• Genetic diversity of crops, livestock and their wild relatives, are fundamental to improve crop varieties and livestock breeds.
• Agrobiodiversity helps nutrition-sensitive farming and bio-fortified foods. For instance, moringa (drumstick) has micro nutrients and sweet potato is rich in Vitamin A. There are varieties of pearl
  millet and sorghum rich in iron and zinc.

Genetic diversity and India:

• India is a centre of origin of rice, brinjal, citrus, banana, cucumber species.
• Across the world, 37 sites are designated as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), of which three are Indian — Kashmir (saffron), Koraput (traditional agriculture) and Kuttanad (below sea-level farming).
• Our promising genetic resources include rice from Tamil Nadu (Konamani), Assam (Agni bora) and Kerala (Pokkali), Bhalia Wheat and mushroom (Guchhi) from Himachal Pradesh and rich farm animal native breeds — cattle (42), buffaloes (15), goat (34), sheep (43) and chicken (19).

Developmental Goals:

• The UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 advocates for Zero Hunger and the Aichi Biodiversity Target focuses on countries conserving genetic diversity of plants, farm
  livestock and wild relatives.
• It emphasises that countries develop strategies and action plans to halt biodiversity loss and reduce direct pressure on biodiversity.

Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011-2020):

• Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011-2020) was adopted by the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the tenth Conference of the Parties (COP10) in October, 2010.
• The plan encompasses a ten-year framework for action by all countries and stakeholders along with twenty targets known as the Aichi biodiversity targets which aim at safeguarding biodiversity and the benefits it provides along with its sustainable use.

Aichi Biodiversity Target:

• A set of 20 global targets under the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. They are grouped under five strategic goals:
• Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society.
• Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use.
• Improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity.
• Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services.
• Enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building.

Measures to improve agri biodiversity:

• The Centre for Biodiversity Policy and Law (CEBPOL), a policy advocacy unit of the National Biodiversity Authority, came out with recommendations to increase India’s agrobiodiversity in 2019. These include;
• A comprehensive policy on ‘ecological agriculture’ to enhance native pest and pollinator population providing ecosystem services for the agricultural landscape.
• The promotion of the bio-village concept of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) for ecologically sensitive farming;
• To conserving crop wild relatives of cereals, millets, oilseeds, fibres, forages, fruits and nuts, vegetables, spices etc. for crop genetic diversity healthier food;
• To providing incentives for farmers cultivating native landrace varieties and those conserving indigenous breeds of livestock and poultry varieties.
• To encouraging community seed banks in each agro-climatic zone so that regional biotic properties are saved and used by new generation farmers;
• To preparing an agrobiodiversity index, documenting traditional practices through People’s Biodiversity Registers, identifying Biodiversity Heritage Sites under provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002;
• To strengthening Biodiversity Management Committees to conserve agrobiodiversity and traditional knowledge.
• Developing a national level invasive alien species policy is required to identify pathways, mapping, monitoring, managing, controlling and eradicating the invasive species and prioritising problematic
  species based on risk assessment studies.
• Loss of crop genetic resources is mainly a result of adopting new crop varieties without conserving traditional varieties.
• The consumption pattern and culinary diversity must be enlarged to increase India’s food basket.

Conclusion:

• To conserve indigenous crop, livestock and poultry breeds, it is recommended to mainstream biodiversity into agricultural policies, schemes, programmes and projects to achieve India’s
  food and nutrition security and minimize genetic erosion.

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Legislative Impact Assessment (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Legislative Impact Assessment
Mains level: Essential elements of Legislative Impact Assessment

Context:

• Recently, the Chairman of Rajya Sabha advocated the idea of Legislative Impact Assessment and called for informed lawmaking process in the country by bringing out social, economic, environmental, and institutional impacts of legislative proposals which will help in realizing the
  stated objectives of various laws.
• He also stressed on the need of Parliamentary reforms in the form of 15 point charter.

About Legislative Impact Assessment:

• The study of the impact of a law (being made and enforced) on the society over a period of time is known as Legislative Impact Assessment (LIA).
• LIA is a method of estimating the likely impacts of legislative proposals and government policies, before and after they are adopted and enacted, and comparing them with different policy designs to
  determine which policy produces the best result.

What are the essential elements of LIA?

• Identification of the policy problem.
• Identification of potential legislative/policy options.
• Comparative analysis of potential legislative/policy options with each other.
• Stakeholder consultation.
• Selection of the preferred legislative/policy option.
• Impact analysis of the preferred option.
• Identification of impact mitigation measures required (if any)
• Cost-benefit analysis of the preferred option.
• Reporting

What is the requirement for LIA?

• Quick decision-making raises the questions regarding implementation of the law, associated costs and most importantly, the negative impacts that the laws may have like Biological Diversity Act, 2002, which aims to protect India’s biological resources.
• The inherent contradictions between some of its provisions have caused significant barriers to conservation, use and development of biodiversity, thus undermining the fundamental purpose of
  the Act.
• It is essential that laws are analysed in detail before their enactment, as the country cannot afford to make expensive or irreversible mistakes with already limited resources.

What is Delegated legislation?

• Delegated legislation is referred to as secondary legislation.
• It is made by a person or body other than Parliament.
• Parliament, through an Act, can permit another person or body to make such legislation.
• Parliament creates the broader framework of a particular law and gives the authority for legislation to other persons or bodies to provide more details to the passed Act.

Challenges ahead:

• Currently, no such institutionalized study is conducted to analyse the impact of the legislations being made on the society.
• Sometimes, the hasty passage of laws by the bureaucracy creates various hurdles in the effective implementation of that law.
• In India, the intent of the legislature is great but the implementation of the law suffers from certain drawbacks. Parliament is reflective of the society, hence it needs to evolve the laws having social and economic impact with time.
• There is a need to address this legislation mismatch with the changing pace of societal needs, which can be effectively done by the LIA.

Way forward:

• Undertaking an Impact Assessment on legislation provides analysis of the potential effects and effectiveness of a legislative proposal before its enactment.
• It could have the following benefits: improve the quality of legislation; increase the productivity of legislature; improve governance; help make informed choices; identify potential effective alternatives, and reduce redundant legislation.
• In the Social Impact Assessment under the Land Acquisition Law there is proper mechanism to carry out social impact of the project.
• Similarly, the Environmental Impact Assessment is done for big manufacturing mines and plants before approving them for the set up.
• On similar lines, LIA can be made mandatory for improving the implementation and achieving the intended objectives of the laws.

Conclusion:

• It is the accountability and responsibility of the Parliament to ensure the effectiveness of the passed legislation.
• On the sidelines of Australian practise where an institution outside the Parliament specifically performs the post enactment assessment of the passed law, similar institutions can be established in India.

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DTH v/s OTT (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Science and tech
Prelims level: DTH, OTT
Mains level: Problems faced by DTH service providers

Context:

• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in it’s recent report said that the average active subscriber base of DTH services has seen a sharp decline of 25 percent in this quarter coming down to 54.26 million in April to June quarter in comparison to 72.44 million in January to March this year.

Background:

• The trends coincides with the new DTH tariff regime implemented from 1st April.
• The decline in subscriber base highlights the challenges faced by DTH operators during the transition to new tariff regime.
• The rise of OTT services also seems to have impacted the DTH subscription numbers.
• A recent survey suggests that almost 55% Indians prefer OTT over DTH services and almost 87% of Indians use mobile to watch videos these days.

What do we understand by DTH?

• DTH is an acronym for ‘Direct To Home’ service.
• It is a digital satellite service that provides television viewing services directly to subscribers through satellite transmission anywhere in the country.
• The signals are digital by nature and are received directly from the satellite.
• The content and the context of DTH and OTT are completely different.
• OTT platforms are very personal whereas DTH connections are more social in nature.
• They complement each other as well like the OTT platforms suggest about the material available on DTH by advertisements.

What do we understand by OTT?

• An ‘Over The Top’ media service is any online content provider that offers streaming media as a standalone product.
• The term is commonly applied to video-ondemand platforms, but also refers to audio streaming, messaging services, or internetbased voice calling solutions.
• It needs access to the internet and smartphones, tablets, laptop/computers.

What are the problems faced by DTH service providers?

• The information about the reduction of 25% is not entirely correct because TRAI has changed the method of computation, worked out the numbers in a new and more accurate way by which some
  phantom figures have been removed and the loss of subscribers is not that huge.
• The price factor and the tariffs of OTT platforms have not really gone down to the extent of wiping out DTH or reducing the subscribers significantly.
• New tariff order has changed the bill empowering consumers to pay only for what they want to watch.
• Bundling or packages of channels makes it easy for the consumer to choose because selecting content to watch with minimal tariff is an extremely difficult exercise. It is not fully developed plan but the sector is working on it.
• It is about the customers preferences also about what and how they want to watch and on which platform. There will always be a place for the conventional broadcast tv and there will be a space for newer options like OTT platforms as well.
• TRAI has taken measures by making an app to help consumers choose channel combinations and minimise their bills.

What are the prospectus for OTT in India?

• OTT is going to be on the rise for sure.
• The ease in information collection and more importantly the trust towards the phones show that the base of OTT is going to increase further.
• It is the question of convenience where quality is improving with more young people getting involved with the OTT platforms.
• According to KPMG Report, India will have more than 500 million subscribers on all OTT platforms by 2023.

What are the regulatory aspects involved?

• OTT providers are governed by the Information Technology Act, 2000 Section 79 where the intermediate liabilities lie.
• OTT providers do not have to get involved in the inception, transmission and reception of the content which make them not liable for the content.
• Our licence services are very heavily regulated so the issue is not the regulation but reduction in the high level regulations of the Telecom service in order to empower everyone to choose their ways of consumption.
• Clear ways under the Information Technology Act are mentioned to deal with the content after it is made available to the OTT platforms.

Conclusion:

• The need for transparency on the OTT platforms is a very important, especially for an industry that touches so many people and with limited regulations on it, because it is an entertainment platform mainly and this will further provide choices to the consumers.

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Status Symbol or Protection (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Defense and Security
Prelims level: SPG Act
Mains level: Different categories of security status

Context:

• The Special Protection Group cover which was given to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh was replaced with the ‘Z Plus’ security of the Central Reserve Police Force as decided by the Home Ministry.

What are the aims and objectives of SPG Act, 1985?

• It was introduced in the wake of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1985.
• The Special Protection Unit (SPU) to provide protection to the Prime Ministers was recommended by Birbal Nath Committee.
• The law initially did not include protection to the former Prime Ministers and thus the protection was withdrawn when Rajiv Gandhi stepped down as the Prime Minister.
• The act was amended to offer protection to all former PMs and their families for at least 10 years following Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.
• “An Act to provide for the constitution and regulation of an armed force of the Union for providing proximate security to the Prime Minister of India and former Prime Ministers of India and members of their immediate families and for matters connected therewith.”
• The Act was amended again in 2003 to bring the period of automatic protection from 10 years to “a period of one year from the date on which the former prime minister ceased to hold office” and thereafter based on the level of threat as decided by the government.

How are the threat perceptions decided?

• The Home Ministry takes the decision based on inputs from intelligence agencies, which include the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing.
• The intelligence inputs largely give a subjective measure of threat to life or injury to a person from terrorists or any other group, based on information from their sources.
• The inputs from all sources are incorporated, assessed and the decision is made in a very precise and transparent manner based on the logical need and the threat faced by the individual.

The different categories:

• The X category entails one gunman for the protection of the individual.
• The Y category allows for two police personnel, one for mobile and one for static plus four for rotation.
• The Z category allows for six gunmen for mobile security and two for residence security, while eight are for rotation purposes.
• The Z+ category entitles 10 personnel for mobile security and two for residence security while eight are for rotation purposes.

Challenges ahead:

• The carefree allotment of security causes a huge drain on the resources of the state.
• It has to be kept in mind that this is at the cost of public security and public welfare.
• Security allotment has to be made realistic.
• The allotment has to be on the basis of actual need and requirement instead of on the whimsical imagination and ambition of a person.

Conclusion:

• It is the job of the state to analyze and give protection to a person who needs it, as security is a matter of utmost importance.
• We have to move towards a more politically mature system of allotment of security for an individual instead of setting it as a parameter for social status. SPG is a distinctive force that is made for a
  specialized role and shouldn’t deviate from that.

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(Download) UPSC IFoS (Main) Exam Paper 2019 "General English"

Exam Name: IFoS (Main) Exam
Exam Year: 2019
Subject: General English

Q1. Write an essay of 800 to 1000 words on any one of the following topics : 100 Marks

(a) Global Warming and Climate Change
(b) What lies ahead for the Indian Economy ?
(c) Quality education as an indicator of social development
(d) The influence of the internet on youth

Q2. (a) Write a letter to the editor of an English newspaper complaining about the lack of basic amenities for the disposal of garbage in your locality. (Kindly do not write your name or address anywhere in your answer. You may use fictitious name such as XYZ instead.)  25 Marks
(b) Write a report on a programme you organised in your institute on the theme “Renewable Energy Sources are the need of the hour”. (Kindly do not write your name or address anywhere in your answer. You may use fictitious name such as XYZ' instead.)  25 Marks

Q3. Write a précis of the passage given below in about one-third of its length. Please do not give any title to it. 50 Marks

The habit of reading needs to be developed and cultivated. It can be one of the pleasures of your life and in the bargain you gain new knowledge, new words and new styles of expression. Reading books, periodicals and magazines gives a unique type of pleasure. Everybody can't enjoy reading because it requires a level of intelligence, personal interest, understanding, language skills and above all, solitude or the ability to detach the mind from other things. Reading demands concentrated attention to make sense.
Childhood is the best period when the habit of reading can be developed. Unfortunately, today, reading is getting limited to notebooks, exam guides, answer keys and guess papers. The purpose is just to get through tests and not to understand culture or develop learning. Reading is getting replaced by viewing movies, watching T.V. serials and game shows, visiting chat rooms, browsing websites, surfing the internet, fiddling with multifunctional mobile phones and SMSing. They can't expand the knowledge base of a student like books can.
The company of books is much more rewarding than the company of a mobile phone. The former adds to your knowledge and the latter makes you shallower only. Go to the fold of book-reading and make your mind richer. Just as we need food for growth and proper functioning of our body, similarly, we need food for the mind. Reading provides food for the mind.
Reading may be classified as light or serious. It may be adventurous or spiritual. Every reading has its distinct pleasure. Some people like to read newspapers, periodicals, journals, etc. They are storehouses of general information about current events and various socio-political and economic problems. They offer us a peep into the world through which we can see the events taking place in various parts of the world. This type of reading is essential as it keeps us well-informed. In the fast moving world of today, we can hardly afford to ignore the happenings of the world. In today's globalised world, the events taking place in one part of one country have a bearing on the situation of another country. This kind of reading is informative and inculcating. Many people seek delight in reading books on travel and adventure. Reading such books instils a spirit of fight, fearlessness and adventure. It takes us far away from the dull and dreary world.
Many people enjoy reading books on religion and philosophy. Such reading enriches the soul and enlightens the readers. It removes darkness from their mind. This type of reading serves as a guide. It teaches us lessons on morals and ethics. Works of literature, philosophy and history make serious reading. Reading of these books gives an insight into our glorious past. We come to know about our culture, art, tradition and architecture. We learn about the socio-cultural and political life of contemporary society. While books on literature provide food for our thought, they are appealing to people of all ages and their reading enriches our knowledge and broadens our outlook. (501 words)

Q4. Read the passage and answer the questions given below: 10x5=50 Marks

Almost everyone agrees that we need good research to help improve education. There are two kinds of research that can be done and have been done. The first one asks research questions from within the field of education. This is informed by educational thought and epistemic issues, the aims of education and its practices, and the perspectives of the students, teachers and communities involved. The second kind takes the aims, concerns and practices of education for granted, and investigates issues in education from the perspective of other disciplines. The anchors and lenses of such research are of that discipline and other areas of social policy, not the field of education. This kind may also have relevance and is usually done by economists, political scientists, sociologists and scholars from similar intellectual backgrounds. In Indian context, there is too little of the former and so the second kind gets disproportionate attention of policymakers and the public. Since education is not the primary perspective of such research, it also often focuses on issues of peripheral importance to the reality of education.
For research to help educational policy and practice, in improving the educational experience and attainment of the millions of students in our schools, we need to pay adequate attention to the first kind of research. This requires focus on understanding two important elements in our education system.
Most teachers in India deal with student groups that present complex challenges. A typical situation is where a teacher has to work with a group of thirty-odd children, in the age group of six to ten. That means she is teaching students across classes I to V together. A large number of these children would have parents who have never gone to school, and even for others, the brutal struggle for livelihood leaves little possibility of educational support at home. In most cases, the language that the child knows is different from the language used as the medium of instruction at the school. For many of these children, the only full meal is the mid-day meal provided by the schools. Before and after school, most of them are engulfed with their share of daily chores.
How does a teacher deal with this situation ? How can she be effective as an educator ? How does she tackle the issue of multiple languages ? How does she provide the required support to those children facing the most acute deprivation ? What are her struggles in doing all this, day after day, for years ? These are some of the most important questions. That's because education in India will improve or stagnate in the reality of the teacher and her students.
There is no one right answer to any of these questions. There are likely to be multiple valid approaches, influenced by the particular mix of factors in any context, which in itself may change over time. Given the extreme variability and fluidity of education because of its social-human nature, there can be no definitive, universally applicable answers to such questions. However, with experience and rigorous reflection, one can arrive at relevant operating principles that can help in flexibly responding to multiple contexts and situations. Given our dynamic social reality, even these need constant critical interrogation.

Questions :

(a) What are the two kinds of research discussed in the passage ?
(b) What do you understand by the concept ‘epistemic issues'?
(c) Why does the author say ‘research on education focuses on issues of peripheral importance'?
(d) How should teachers deal with student groups ?
(e) In your opinion, why do you think that the author says that there can be ‘no definitive, universally applicable answers to such questions' ? |

Q5. (a) Rewrite the following sentences after correcting the grammatical errors in each : 1x10=10 Marks

(i). When I reached the station, the train left it.
(ii) Kolkata is at the bank of the river Hooghly.
(iii) She is one of the best author in the genre.
(iv) Will you return back the book I lent you ?
(v) At one time were houses where the large factory now stands.
(vi) You should read from page no. 13 and 17.
(vii) Although it was raining, but we walked in the street.
(viii) Ravi's mango is more sweeter than Rani's.
(ix) You can't buy all what you like.
(x) After this he made no farther remarks.

(b) Make sentences using the following words in such a way that the meaning of each word is clear from the context : 2x5=10 Marks

(i) Desert; Dessert
(ii) Current; Currant
(iii) Disinterested; Uninterested
(iv) Wise; Vice
(v) Perspective; Prospective

(c) Use the following idiomatic expressions in sentences in order to bring out their meaning : 2x5=10 Marks

(i) Let the cat out of the bag
(ii) Go for gold
(iii) A penny for your thoughts
(iv) Once in a blue moon
(v) Hit the nail on the head :

(d) Write the adjectival forms of the following words: 1x5=5 Marks

(i) Accident
(ii) Complacency
(iii) Attraction
(iv) Competency
(v) Invention

(e) Write the noun forms of he following words: 1x5=5 Marks

(i) Admire
(ii) Accept
(iii) Complicate
(iv) Invade
(v) Complain

Q6. Rewrite the following sentences as directed :  2x5=10 Marks

(a) I could not finish the project on time. (Rewrite the sentence using ‘able to’)
(b) He will not pay unless he is compelled. (Change the sentence into a simple sentence)
(c)  My captors were taking me to prison. (Change into passive voice)  Who could expect that Hari would be so stupid ? (Change into a negative sentence)
(e)  She told me that she would speak to me the following day. (Change to direct speech)

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(Download) UPSC IFoS (Main) Exam Paper 2019 "General Knowledge"

Exam Name: IFoS (Main) Exam
Exam Year: 2019
Subject: General Knowledge

1. (a) Describe the Roman trade with India during post-Mauryan period with emphasis on main ports, internal trade routes and commodities. (200 words) 15 marks
(b) Trace the rise of Bhakti Movement. Discuss its nature with reference to Dvaita and Advaita Vada. (200 words) 15 marks
(c) Discuss administrative policies of king Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara empire. (125 words) 10 marks
(d) Elaborate the main tenets of Samrat Ashoka's Dhamma. (125 words) 10 marks

2. (a) What is meant by recession? What steps has the Government of India taken so far to tackle the current ongoing recession in the country? (200 words) 15 marks
(b) What are the major environmental policies till the date in India to address the problem of environmental pollution and degradation? Do you think these policies are sufficient to resolve the environmental pollution and degradation in India? (200 words) 15 marks
(c) What do you mean by Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of the public sector banks  in India? What steps has the Government of India adopted in recent time to reduce the NPAs of the public sector banks? (125 words) 10 marks
(d) Do you think that Paris Agreement on Climate Change is loaded against the developing countries like India? (125 words) 10 marks

3. (a) To what extent has the asymmetrical federal scheme offering differential autonomy for territorially concentrated ethnic groups helped in protecting the rights of minorities within these sub-units, or the rights of inter-state migrants in India? Critically analyze. (200 words) 15 marks
(b) While civil-political rights merely ask the state to refrain from acting in a certain way, the satisfaction of social rights requires the state to act affirmatively. Comment while assessing the success and limitations of state's affirmative actions in providing social and economic justice in India. (200 words) 15 marks
(c) Comment on the nature of ordinance-making power of the President of India. Also discuss the various safeguards which can help to prevent possible misuse of such a power. (125 words) 10 marks
(d) While contextualizing the Panchayats in their larger institutional and functional framework, outline the critically important role they play in ensuring democratic decentralization in India. (125 words)10 marks

4. (a) “Sustainable management of tropical rainforest ecosystem is difficult.” Examine the statement in the light of recent forest fires of Amazon. (200 words) 15 marks
(b) India wants to become a global hub of manufacturing of electric vehicles. Do we have the competitive advantage to become a global leader? (200 words) 15 marks
(c) Explain the topographical and structural characteristics of Western Ghats. (125 words) 10 marks
(d) Infant mortality rates in India are still one of the highest in the world with significant regional variations. Elaborate. (125 words) 10 marks

5. (a) What are the sources of plant fibres? Describe the classification of fibres based on nature, use and structure. (200 words) 15 marks
(b) Write an account on household insects affecting human health and also mention briefly on prevention and control. (200 words) 15 marks
(c) How has golden rice been developed? Write a note on its importance in human nutrition. (125 words) 10 marks
(d) What is phytoremediation? Discuss its importance. (125 words) 10 marks

6. (a) What are liquid crystals? Discuss in brief the characteristic useful features of liquid crystals and their great range of applications in diverse fields.  (200 words) 15 marks
(b) In what ways are laser light and starlight similar? In what ways are they different? Explain the usefulness of laser in barcode scanners, laser printers and cautery instruments. (200 words) 15 marks
(c) What is the idea of neurocomputing? What are the biological inspirations of the neuromorphic technology? (125 words) 10 marks
(d) Why was the south pole of the Moon chosen for landing of the Chandrayaan-2's lander? Highlight one of the key objectives of Chandrayaan-2 Mission which will demonstrate the advancement of technologies in Indian space research.  (125 words) 10 marks

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Brute majority (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019
Mains level: Basic structure of Indian constitution

Context:

• The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 is “historic” but not for the reasons that Union Home Minister Amit Shah called it so, while moving the Bill in the Rajya Sabha.
• In the guise of righting what it calls a Partition wrong, and giving refuge to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries.
• The Narendra Modi government has bulldozed a poisonous bill through Parliament which effects a majoritarian recasting of the very idea of Indian citizenship, makes religion a criterion.

Key concerns:

• This is not a law that concerns those it seeks to include — six minority groups from three countries.
• It is a political signal of a terrible narrowing, a chilling exclusion, directed at India’s own largest minority.
• India is to be redefined as the natural home of Hindus, it says to India’s Muslims. And that they must, therefore, be content with a less natural citizenship.
• The responsibility and blame for this offensive law, this tragic moment, rests squarely on the BJP, the party of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
• The party that proclaimed “sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas” has diminished the people’s mandate in interpreting it as a license to push through this impoverished and shrunken idea of citizenship after piloting a National Register of Citizens process in Assam that has ignited religious and ethnic faultlines and pushed lakhs of Indians to the edge of statelessness the region is seeing renewed violence on the CAB.
• It brings in this law not long after revoking Article 370 in Kashmir in a way that silenced and relegated the Kashmiri people, and continues to isolate them.

Way ahead:

• It has been assured the Muslims of India that they have no reason to fear, that they are and will remain citizens of the country.
• India is a constitutional democracy with a basic structure that assures a secure and spacious home for all Indians, including and especially its minorities, and this architecture has endured, by and large.
• The Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 should have been stopped by the legislature, things should not have come to this pass.
• The judiciary must rise again to the Constitution’s defence, as it has done at several turning points before, and protect the spirit of the Republic, its very soul.

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More equal care (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 1: Society
Prelims level: Gender Gap Index
Mains level: Curbing gender discriminations and role of PMJAY

Context:

• The “2018 Gender Gap Index” of the World Economic Forum and its sub-index, “Health and Survival.”
• India ranks 108 in the overall index and 147th out of 149 in the sub-index — shine a light on this challenge.

Facing discrimination:

• Girl children face discrimination even before they are born and continue to experience bias during their life, including in the provision of nutrition and use of health services.
• Faced with limited resources, families, in general, prioritise the healthcare, nutrition and other needs of men at the cost of women.
• Some cultural factors, such as the reluctance of women in some regions to consult male doctors, also constrain their access to healthcare services.

Major objectives:

• The National Family Health Survey (4th round) shows that the main reasons women do not seek healthcare services are because these services are unaffordable, they are not easily available and there aren’t enough women healthcare providers.
• Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY seeks to bridge the gender gap in the use of healthcare services by addressing a key constraint — healthcare costs.
• Cashless services through PM-JAY are helping to narrow the gender gap in availing healthcare.
• Learning from the experience of earlier schemes like the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, PM-JAY’s design incorporates several features that will improve the use of healthcare services by women and girls.

Salient features of PM-JAY:

• Families with no adult male members is one of the deprivation criteria for identifying target beneficiaries, which will help a large number of women.
• There is no cap on the size of families. A cap of five beneficiaries from a family in earlier schemes worked against women. It was observed that large families preferred that their male members be beneficiaries.
• The packages include a large number of health conditions that exclusively, or primarily, affect women. Of the 1,393 health benefit packages under PM-JAY, 116 are women centric, 64 are for only men while 1,213 are common to both.

Data for utilisation of services:

• In under PM-JAY shows that the use of services is more or less evenly balanced among men and women.
• Of all hospital admission requests, 52 per cent were for men and 48 per cent were for women.
• In fact, the gender gap starts to show up at only above 50 years. In the age groups from 0 to 50 years, use of services by women is either equal to or greater than that by men.
• It is important to note that some health conditions are prevalent either only among women or men.
• Looking at conditions that are likely to affect both men and women equally provides better insights.
• The disaggregation of data on utilisation of major specialty services shows mixed patterns.
• Women patients is higher in 10 specialties — OPD diagnostics, radiation oncology, follow-ups, palliative care, burns management, ophthalmology, pediatric cancer, PHC and surgical oncology.
• However, in others like pediatric surgery, general medicine, urology and cardiology utilisation by male patients is higher.

Variations with examples:

• There are variations across states as well. For example, at the national level, 66 per cent of all treatment in orthopedics were received by men. However, in Kerala, the proportion is 53 per cent while it is much greater in UP and Maharashtra — 70 per cent.
• There are variations at the level of procedures. For example, within orthopedics, women are the majority users of packages such as total knee replacement — 57 per cent. There are state-level variations in this respect as well — with 83 per cent utilisation by women in Kerala, and only 40 per cent in Jharkhand and Punjab.
• The three major specialty services provided by PM-JAY— oncology, cardiology and nephrology — a majority of the users of oncology services are women.
• There are large gender gaps in the use of cardiology and nephrology-related services. PM-JAY will need to analyse the reasons for this.

Reasons behind the variations:

• Some of the variation may be explained by the gender-wise difference in the prevalence of various diseases.
• Men and women may also have varying incidence of certain diseases because of the degree of exposure to the proximate cause or an individual’s biological disposition.

Positive impacts of PM-JAY:

• An analysis of these factors will need to be undertaken to effectively assess the potential gender gap in the use of services.
• The overall message from the analysis of initial PM-JAY data is that the scheme seems to be on the right track, even though more effort is needed to achieve total gender parity.
• There is no gender-gap when it comes to people seeking several specialty services in many states.
• Up-to-date data available with PM-JAY will help in continuously assessing the gender pattern of health-service use, analysing the reasons for any gender-based discrimination and providing cues for corrective action.

Way ahead:

• Monitoring the disaggregated service utilisation data will help sensitise implementing agencies and district authorities about possible gender gaps.
• Gaps, if any, can be addressed by more informed and gender-sensitive planning, including targeted IEC (information, education and communication) campaigns.
• Women might need to be informed about their eligibility for the scheme so that they can get their e-cards made and seek treatment in time.
• In addition, tele-consultations with women healthcare providers might be required in case there are cultural barriers in consulting with male doctors.

Conclusion:

• PMJAY has a strong potential to empower women to take decisions on their health and wipe out the gender gap in use of health services.
• Within the deprived and vulnerable population that PMJAY seeks to serve, women constitute a particularly marginalised section.
• The scheme will be successful only when it can ensure that women and girls receive their due in the use of healthcare services.

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BHU lets down BHU (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Education
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Institutional courage in educational institutions

Context:

• A month-long protest by students of the Faculty of Sanskrit in Banaras Hindu University, newly appointed professor Firoz Khan has had to step away to the Sanskrit programme at the Faculty of Arts.

Background:

• This is despite the support of several colleagues at the university, including the teacher who had appointed him, who insist that he is perfectly qualified to teach Sanskrit literature, and that his religious affiliation is immaterial.
• Therefore, the blame for this breach of the fundamental right to freedom conferred by Article 19 of the Constitution, which includes the right to work as one wishes, must rest with the vice-chancellor’s office.
• The BHU administration put its weight resolutely behind Firoz Khan, he would not have been forced to seek alternative employment.
• Khan’s case is ironic because the faculty whose students have forced him out was established in 1918 by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, shortly after he founded the BHU, with the purpose of purging society of misconceptions and fundamentalisms in matters of faith and spirit.
• It was a progressive project for promoting the study of the Sanskrit shastras and literature.

Influence of Sanskrit language:

• The case is doubly ironic because the study of Sanskrit texts crossed the religious divide centuries ago.
• Neither the Panchatantra nor ancient Indian mathematics would have reached the rest of the world without the energetic intervention of Central Asian and Middle Eastern translators.
• Dara Shikoh is remembered for his interest in translating Sanskrit literature into Persian, it was a project patronised by the state repeatedly through the Mughal period.
• Firoz Khan himself comes from a Sanskrit-literate family. All his siblings are conversant in the language, though not enough to teach, and his father makes a living singing bhajans.
• The history of Sanskrit stretches far beyond the footprint of Hinduism, to the Caucasus and the Hellenistic world.
• It is rich and layered, and cannot be reduced to the stiflingly narrow rubric of religion.
• If students deny a professor the right to teach Sanskrit literature only because he bears a Muslim name, they do not understand the subject they study.
• The university bows to their pressure instead of sticking up for the teacher, it is in desperate need of a more broad-minded and courageous administration.

Conclusion:

• Indeed, the administration must bear the brunt of the blame for this incident, since it is presumed in this case, erroneously to know better than the student body.

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Strength in numbers: On judge vacancies (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Collegium system
Mains level: Judicial appointments and role of government

Context:

• On December 10, the Supreme Court of India said that 213 names recommended for appointment to various High Courts are pending with the government.
• It show that 38% of all sanctioned posts for High Court judges are lying vacant as of December 1, with the High Courts of some States including Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan functioning at below half their actual capacity.

Highlights about the collegium system:

• The court has fixed a time period of six months to appoint as judges at least those whose names the Supreme Court collegiums which has been agreed by both the High Courts and the Government.
• At each level of the appointment process of judges to the higher judiciary, prior to the names reaching the Prime Minister and President for final approval, there are time periods specified.
• The Memorandum of Procedure states that appointments should be initiated at least six months before a vacancy arises and six weeks of time is then specified for the State to send the recommendation to the Union Law Minister, after which the brief is to be sent to the Supreme Court collegium in four weeks.
• Once the collegium clears the names, the Law Ministry has to put up the recommendation to the Prime Minister in three weeks who will in turn advise the President.
• Thereafter no time limit is prescribed and the process, seemingly, comes to a standstill.

Key recommendation made by the Supreme Court:

• The Supreme Court’s recommendation now of a time limit to these appointments.
• It is no secret perhaps, that the equation between the court and the Union Government has been strained by the former’s decision to strike down as unconstitutional in 2015 the move to set up a National Judicial Appointments Commission which would have been responsible for appointments and transfers to the higher judiciary in place of the Supreme Court collegium.
• Since then, reports of delays in appointments have become increasingly commonplace, with both sides testy over procedure.
• The same Bench of the Supreme Court chastised the government for not acting on another set of nominations on which the government had sent back objections.
• If the collegium reiterates the names, the court said, the government has no option but to appoint the judges.

Way ahead:

• As grievous as it is for the government to disrupt the process through delays, it is for the court to take an increasingly firm hand to ensure that the collegium system that it fought so hard to protect, despite flaws, actually functions effectively.
• Vacancies in the higher judiciary threaten every aspect of the justice delivery system and it is the courts, and very seldom the government, that always take the blame for any shortfall in justice.

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The not-so bright idea of selling the family silver (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited
Mains level: Disinvestment of PSUs

Context:

• When we examine the proposed stake sale of profit-making public sector undertakings (PSUs), a few strategic issues of national importance need to be considered.

Question behind the sale of stake:

• This is an ideological one — that Government must get out of business.
• There is the need to bring the fiscal deficit down.
• There is a long-term financial one: which option, public- or privately-owned, is better for the Government treasury?
• A fourth is about national security and self reliance: can India be under pressure if we do not have full control over petroleum?
• Why do the United States, China and other superpowers have control over their petroleum reserves?

Number crunching:

The long-term financial issue:

• The Burmah Shell (Acquisition of Undertakings in India) Act 1976 enabled the Government of India to take ownership by paying ₹27.75 crore.
• One estimate of that amount in today’s terms is to use the inflation factor, which is about 22.42 (between the year 1976 and now). This means that the Government would have paid ₹622.06 crore today.
• The current market value of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) varies between ₹85,000 crore and ₹115,000 crore.
• The government’s share at present is about 53.3% (which it is contemplating selling), that is worth between ₹45,000 crore and ₹61,500 crore. We got the company for a song.

How much has the Government earned meanwhile?

• Since 2011, the total dividend it has earned is about ₹15,000 crore, which is several times the present value of the investment of ₹622 crore.
• One way is to use inflation and calculate what the value of all future flows would be, based on the present value of all future incomes.
• The average inflation in the last three years has been 4.5%, 3.6% and 3.48% in 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively, or an average of 3.86%.
• If the Government sells its entire stake, it would forego future income of about ₹78,589 crore. In addition the BPCL has also paid taxes of about ₹25,000 crore to the Government since 2011.
• No doubt the Government will continue to get taxes from the private sector as well.
• However, the effective tax rate on profits before tax for the BPCL is about 34%, whereas for the private sector player it is between 25% and 28%.
• So there will be a loss in tax revenue for the Government after any privatisation.
• As the case of the BPCL and several other PSU ‘Navratnas’ show, they have given super normal returns to the public exchequer.
• Instead of selling such high performing PSUs, should we not be selling the loss-making ones?

Issue of fiscal deficit target

• Another issue underlying the disinvestment is the fiscal deficit target of 3.4%, now reduced to 3.3%.
• There are many ideological debates among economists about the importance of reducing the fiscal deficit, but we leave that to the experts.
• The revenue collections are not enough, the Government is perhaps planning the sale of well-running PSUs to meet the fiscal deficit target.
• If the Government does meet its fiscal deficit target by the stake sale of various PSUs including the BPCL this year, how would it meet that target next year?
• These strategic sales and dividends cannot be repeated every year. We will be back to the same levels of fiscal deficit.
• The real way of meeting this target is to cut out wasteful Government expenditure, most of which is on salaries and pensions, and ensuring that the bureaucracy delivers. Unfortunately, the cuts will be in the social sector.

On national security

• The ideological issue of Government versus private ownership is related to the strategic issue about national security.
• Natural resources, especially oil, are a strategic national resource.
• The United States maintains such an underground crude oil reserve to mitigate any supply disruptions.
• Some comparative figures for such reserves are: the U.S. over 600 billion barrels, China 400, South Korea 146, Spain 120 and India 39.1.
• India does have a target to substantially increase its reserves.
• Meanwhile with the strategic disinvestments, we will lose Government control over both crude and refining. Nothing prevents China or any other country for that matter from buying up refining capacity in India.

Conclusion:

• We need to see through the ideological narrative coming from the developed nations.
• They embraced free trade when it suited them and are now trying to embrace protectionism.
• China adopted a market system but does not allow this to cloud its thinking when it comes to strategic national issues;
• The control then remains with the Government. India too needs to re-think its strategy.

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Human trafficking: Forced rescues are not the answer (Mint)

Mains Paper 1: Society
Prelims level: Human trafficking
Mains level: Institutional care for victims of sex trafficking

Context:

• 10 December is celebrated as International Human Rights day. Among the issues crying out for our attention is the scourge of human trafficking.
• It is also an enormously lucrative business, and there are significant challenges in determining its prevalence throughout the country.

Statics of NCRB in India:

• According to statistics of India’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), trafficking has manifold objectives.
• These include forced labour, prostitution, and other forms of sexual exploitation.
• According to the NCRB, three out of five people trafficked in 2016 were children below the age of 18 years.
• Of these, 4,911 were girls and 4,123 were boys. NCRB data shows that sexual exploitation for prostitution was the second major purpose for human trafficking in India, after forced labour.
• The inadequacy of legal machinery, lack of institutional accountability and poor rehabilitative processes for those rescued are some of the factors that explain the increase in sex trafficking in India.
• There is no concrete prevention and protection strategy in place and the current law, The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) is not survivor-centric.
• A lot of work needs to be done in a collaborative manner, between key stakeholders such as the government and civil society organizations, for any substantial change to be seen.

Forced institutionalization:

• One nationwide issue is the forced institutionalization of girls and women in shelter homes, wherein girls and women ‘rescued’ from brothels by the police, along with destitute women who have no families are institutionalized.
• This is done on the pretext of ensuring their ‘safety’ and ‘protection’.
• The ITPA says that after the police has rescued a victim of sex trafficking, the victim has to be produced to the court (in case of an adult) within 28 days, along with a detailed report of the family and the family’s willingness and capacity to protect the woman from further exploitation.
• In case family reunification does not seem to be in the best interests of the woman, she is to be placed in a protective home for rehabilitation with appropriate services.
• Nowhere does the ITPA specify that this home should be an institution wherein the freedom of the survivor is monitored and controlled.

Institutional care for victims of sex trafficking:

• Shelters are needed when the family of the victim may not be equipped to protect the victim, provide support for recovery or rehabilitation.
• The victim may have been trafficked by someone in the family or amongst relatives, and therefore, returning to the family means risking the safety of the victim and putting her in danger of being re-trafficked.
• In such cases, the children or women may require longer term rehabilitation and reintegration with a new community without having to return to her family or village.
• The threat of traffickers is another reason for running heavily guarded shelter homes.
• When a child or woman is rescued from a brothel, pimps, madams and brothel managers try to get in contact with her and threaten, coerce or manipulate her to not give a deposition in court and deny being trafficked or exploited.
• A child, or even a young woman in her late teens, is vulnerable to such manipulation, coercion or threat.
• The relationship between exploiters and victims of abuse is complex—and a victim is often under strong control of abusers.
• Therefore, agencies running these NGOs maintain strong control over outsiders’ access to children and women in shelter homes, monitor phone calls and minimize contact with the outside world.

Way ahead:

• There are certain measures which can be taken to correct the situation.
• These include taking the consent of the woman/girl rescued within the period of 28 days.
• She should have the right to reject institutionalization and shelter based rehabilitation even if she is a victim of trafficking.
• The process of consent taking should be done by independent professionals, mental health professionals who do not have a stake in running of shelters or have biased positions on prostitution.
• Community based rehabilitation (CBR) should be explored an alternative wherein a survivor of trafficking and/or sexual exploitation stays in an independent shelter or with her family, and social workers assist her in availing health services, legal aid, access welfare schemes and income opportunities.
• The accountability of the NGO (and other NGOs like it) must be set, the ITPA must be challenged and efforts should be made to see that the processes of consent taking, independent legal aid to survivors should be set in place.

Conclusion:

• Several changes need to be made to the provisions of the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018, and that is what Indian Leadership Forum Against Trafficking.
• A national forum that comprises of a group of survivors of human trafficking, is moving towards, advocating for these changes and bringing about substantial impact.

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Macroeconomics may not have the answers we are looking for (Mint)

Mains Paper 2 : Economy
Prelims level : Not much
Mains level : Populism of macroeconomics

Context:

• Given the huge failures of macroeconomic policymaking over the last 25 years, with growth not delivering enough jobs and inflation refusing to rise no matter how much interest rates were cut or public spending raised in Europe, the US and Japan, we need to question our touching faith in macroeconomics.

Promise of high growth:

• if the fiscal deficit is magically brought to 3%,
• if GST is implemented “correctly",
• if trade tariffs are cut to the bone,
• if taxes are cut, or
• if inflation is kept low by keeping interest rates high. Now, we are being told the opposite—that we need more fiscal latitude and lower rates to get growth up and boost consumption.
• The macro forecasts in 2016 on the impact of demonetization ranged from 0.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) to 3.5%, suggesting that these predictions were no better guided than apes throwing darts at a dartboard. Someone was sure to get close to the bull’s eye.

Populism of macroeconomics:

• Macroeconomics gained popular appeal in the 20th century because of two factors:
• One was the emergence of US from the Great Depression by following broadly Keynesian policies, and
• The other was the invention of mathematical modelling in the heyday of the US’s post-war industrial boom.
• When economists such as Wassily Leontief used input-output analysis to make macroeconomics seem like the physics of social sciences, capable of predicting precise changes in economic direction.
• Another kind of disruption is creeping up on the global economy, one led by huge leaps of productivity, thanks to technology that is drastically driving prices down.
• These changes could even be reducing GDP, as gains in quality are often left uncaptured by the financial economy.

Has this qualitative change pushed GDP up or down?

• Post-demonetization and digitization, the financial services industry derives more bang for the buck from the same infrastructure.
• Business expansion needs very little additional investment in overheads.
• In many technology markets, there are free versions available of high-priced software.
• The Internet of Things (IoT), where sensors are being embedded in more and more products, will at some point make the entire service sector support jobs redundant.
• There is a huge collaborative economy for free products, from free publications on the web to electronic marketplaces that let borrowers and lenders, buyers and sellers, do business at zero or low cost.
• Bigger changes could occur once people change their mind about owning products. This is happening with cars, as app-based taxi services proliferate.
• It could happen in hospitality and home ownership, too, as millions of underused properties are put up for rental, both for long-term use and holiday homestays.

Way ahead:

• Cheap net connectivity will enable people to produce and exchange goods and services for free or barter.
• Even those items still being purchased in the exchange economy are becoming fewer in number as more people redistribute and recycle previously purchased goods in the sharable economy, extending their usable lifecycle, with a concomitant loss of GDP.

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