Explained: Who are the 19 lakh excluded from Assam NRC, and what next for them? (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: NRC draft
Mains level: Final draft of NRC and its consequences

Context

• On Saturday, the final draft of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam listed 3.11 crore citizens.
• These were out of 3.30 crore applicants for inclusion.

Why is it called an “updated” NRC?

• Witness to decades of migration from Bangladesh formerly East Bengal and then East Pakistan Assam already has an NRC, which was published in 1951 on the basis of that year’s Census.
• The only state with such a document, Assam is currently updating it to identify its citizens.
• The update, mandated and monitored by the Supreme Court, is a fallout of the Assam Accord of 1985, which sets March 24, 1971 as the cutoff date for citizenship. Those who entered Assam before that date are recognised as citizens.

But was there not an updated NRC last year itself?

• That was a draft, published in July 2018.
• In that list, 2.89 crore residents were included as Indian citizens, while 40 lakh were left out. After that, those who were left out were allowed to file claims for inclusion.
• Meanwhile, citizens had the option of filing objections against anyone who they felt was wrongly included.
• Earlier this year, NRC authorities put out an additional exclusion list, with 1 lakh individuals, who had originally been included in the NRC draft but were later found eligible.
• Saturday’s NRC is the result of all those included an excluded.

Does this mean that the 19 lakh are illegal migrants?

• Not necessarily. They still have the option of appealing.
• They can approach, within a deadline, a Foreigners Tribunal with a certified copy of the rejection order from the NRC, along with the grounds for appeal.
• In addition to the 100 existing Foreigners Tribunals, 200 more will be functional soon, state government officials said.
• If the applicant loses their case before such a Tribunal, he or she can appeal in the High Court, and then the Supreme Court if necessary.
• Someone who is not only excluded from the final NRC but also loses his or her case in a Foreigners Tribunal, however, faces possible arrest, and the prospect of being sent to a detention centre.

How do those excluded back up their claims for inclusion?

• They will need to prove that they or their ancestors were citizens on or before March 24, 1971.
• This is the cutoff date in the Assam Accord of 1985, agreed upon by the Centre, the state and the All Assam Students’ Union, at the end of a six-year movement against migration from Bangladesh.
• Surviving citizens from the 1951 NRC are automatically eligible for inclusion in the updated version. So are descendants of the survivors and of the deceased provided that they can prove their lineage. Linkage to the 1951 NRC is, however, not compulsory.
• Going by the cutoff under the Assam Accord, anyone who figured in electoral rolls up to March 24, 1971, or who are descendants of such citizens, are eligible for inclusion in the updated NRC.
• Various other documents are admissible such as birth certificates and land records as long as these were issued before the cutoff date.

Wouldn’t those rejected have already submitted such papers?

• Since the NRC includes only those who could establish their linkage to March 24, 1971 or earlier, it would suggest that the excluded 19 lakh submitted papers that were not enough to establish this linkage.
• Those who were rejected on the basis of submitted papers will face an additional concern, for they could face rejection again if they submit the same papers a second time.
• They face the task of finding documents other than those that were rejected.
  If even legal recourse fails for those excluded, will they be deported?
• Although the Assam movement was for deportation, Bangladesh has never officially acknowledged that any of its citizens migrated illegally to Assam.
• The state also has six detention camps (with plants to build more) for illegal migrants within existing jails, and proposes to build a seventh with a capacity for 3,000. These cannot, however, be expected to accommodate all the exclusions, which could finally run into lakhs.

If not deported or detained in a camp, how would life change for the finally excluded individuals?

• They would officially be non-citizens, but what happens to them remains a grey area. India has no fixed policy for “stateless” persons, Home Ministry sources said.
• The only aspect that is more or less clear is that a “stateless” person will not have voting rights.
• As of now, nothing is clear about their rights to work, housing and government healthcare and education.
• There have been suggestions in Assam that they be given work permits Home Ministry sources said that this may come under consideration but certain sections have been opposing this idea, too.

But aren’t there policies for refugees?

• Being “stateless” is not the same as being a refugee. India has refugees from Tibet, Sri Lanka (Tamils) and West Pakistan.
• Among them, only the last group has the right to vote — in Lok Sabha elections but not in Assembly polls.
• For Tibetans, the government allows Indian citizenship with a rider that they move out of Tibetan settlements and forgo refugee benefits.
• Under the Tibetan Rehabilitation Policy, 2014, adopted in part by a few states, refugees are eligible for certain benefits under government schemes for labour, rations, housing and loans.

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CSR spending obligation on companies needs to be jettisoned in its entirety (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Corporate Social Responsibility
Mains level: Amending companies act and its effect

Context

• Faced with scathing criticism of recent amendments to the Companies Act that made Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spending a statutory requirement for India Inc and non-compliance a criminal offence.

Background

• One of the announcements that found place in the Finance Minister’s recent stimulus package, ostensibly to facilitate wealth creators, was that officials of companies that failed to meet their CSR spending obligations would now be subject to only civil and not criminal penalties.
• The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has been asked to review the relevant sections of the amended Act.
• But while the Centre appears to believe that it has handed India Inc a big concession in doing away with criminal penalties for not fulfilling their quota of CSR spending, this measure is woefully inadequate.
• If it is really serious about championing enterprise in India, the Government must look at doing away with Section 135 of the Companies Act, which imposes a CSR spending obligation on companies, in its entirety.

Highlighting the current law

• Under current law, companies with a net worth of ₹500 crore, turnover of ₹1,000 crore or net profit of ₹5 crore or more are required to set aside 2 per cent of their average net profits over the last three years towards ‘approved’ CSR activities laid down in Schedule VII.
• If unspent for three years, the sum is appropriated to the Central government’s coffers.
• In case of non-compliance, companies and their officials are liable for monetary penalties; officials can also be punished with a three-year jail term.
• It is only the last provision on imprisonment that the Centre is now looking to relax. While the Government seems to believe that for-profit corporations in India must accept welfare spending as a statutory duty, imposing such spends is draconian on several counts.
• A 2 per cent CSR liability on for-profit entities is tantamount to a back-door tax.
• Indian companies are already subject to usurious rates of taxation by global standards.
• The large domestic companies in India, apart from coughing up a 30 per cent tax on profits, pay a 12 per cent surcharge, a 4 per cent health and education cess and a Minimum Alternate Tax, and also shell out an additional 20 per cent distribution tax on dividends and buybacks.
• Even without such back-door levies, the ultra-high corporate tax rates are a serious deterrent to domiciling businesses in India.

Conclusion

• Mandatory CSR spending for private corporations is also unique to Indian law and no other country, including welfare states across Europe, goes so far as to appropriate corporate profits which rightfully belong to shareholders, towards welfare.
• Most regimes enable companies to fulfil their social responsibility by mandating detailed public disclosures of the external social and environmental impacts of their operations.
• Ensuring welfare of the underprivileged and providing basic public amenities are the primary functions of the state; given the plethora of taxes it levies, it cannot outsource this job to the private sector.

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Liberalism runs into national populism (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: G-20
Mains level: Impact of globalization

• Just before the G-20 meeting in Osaka in June this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin made headlines in the world media with an interview which he stated that liberalism had “become obsolete”.

Defining liberalism?

• This complex term, much used in India today in various contexts of opposition to the present Union government and used in a derogatory sense by supporters of the government in respect of its detractors might broadly encompass three definitions.
• There is economic liberalism, which ‘emphasises free competition and the self-regulating market, and which is commonly associated with globalisation and minimal state intervention in the economy’.
• There is political liberalism, which for most commentators is founded on ‘belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human being, the autonomy of the individual, and standing for political and civil liberties’ as laid out in various United Nations Covenants.
• And then there is social liberalism, ‘linked to the protection of minority groups, and such issues as LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage’.
• Liberalism has been the dominant socio-political ideology in the West since the end of the Second World War, where it has been regarded as the norm until recently.
• The financial downturn in 2008 marked a major turning point, with impunity for corrupt bankers and an attempt to return to status quo globalisation that allowed markets to determine everything and led to major questions of identity and culture.
• Now globalisation is heading for a backlash, leading to protection, local solutions and stronger nation states, and the growing conclusion that liberalism needs urgently to justify itself by addressing issues of inequality and the loss of a sense of community.

Liberty vs. protest

• The Russian President’s position is that ‘his country has a specific and different kind of civilisation, where sovereignty trumps democracy and national unity, and stability trumps human rights’.
• Western-style liberalism that prioritises individual rights over those of society is regarded as a ‘challenge to his style of government’, which presents an alternative model.
• The same view is shared by China.
• The desire for liberty is recognised as universal, but the freedom to protest in unauthorised demonstrations and wilfully shatter the economy and tourism as in Hong Kong, or the freedom to blaspheme and outrage the sentiments of the devout, as in the French Charlie Hebdo case, or the freedom to bear arms as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, are only random examples that show that liberty has limitations, even if they are self-imposed.
• Russia and China, with good reason, believe that unauthorised demonstrations open the way to foreign interference and ‘colour revolutions’.

Conclusion

• No country has found the golden mean between free-range liberalism and statism.
• When liberal government and liberal models are under pressure even in the flagship West, it is probably ‘as good a time as any for Mr. Putin to make his case’.

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Big bank theory: On Public Sector Bank mergers (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Bank mergers and its impact on economy

• The mega bank mergers announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday must go down as the most significant the banking industry has seen in the five decades since nationalisation.
• Mergers are driven by synergies in products, costs, business, geographies or technology and the most important, cost synergies.
• While there may be some geographical synergies between the banks being merged, unless they realise cost synergies through branch and staff rationalisation, the mergers may not mean much to them or to the economy.

Background

• It was the Narasimham Committee in the late 1990s that recommended consolidation through a process of merging strong banks.
• The bottomline is clear to create banks of global level that can leverage economies of scale and balance sheet size to serve the needs of a $5-trillion economy by 2025.
• This is where the government’s strategy will be tested. It is no secret that public sector banks are overstaffed.
• There is also bound to be overlap in branch networks such as in the Canara-Syndicate Bank merger, especially in Karnataka and a couple of other southern States.
• Ditto with Punjab National Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce, both of which have strong networks in the north and the west.
• The success of these mergers, therefore, will hinge on how well these banks handle the sensitive issue of staff rationalisation.
• The All India Bank Employees Association has already raised the red flag.

Key benefits from these mergers

• What the committee also recommended was shutting down the weaker banks and not merging them with the strong ones as is being done now.
• But this is obviously not an option politically even for a government with a brute majority in Parliament.
• The biggest plus of the mergers is that they will create banks of scale there are too many banks in India with sizes that are minuscule by global standards with their growth constricted by their inability to expand.
• Yet, this advantage of scale cannot be leveraged without adequate reforms in governance and management of these banks.
• To be sure, Ms. Sitharaman did announce a few measures to make managements better accountable to the board.
• But the key reforms to be made are at the board level, including in appointments, especially of government nominees.

Conclusion

• These are often political appointees, with little exposure to banking.
• Surely, such practices need to be curbed as the definition of global banks is not just about size but also professionalism in governance.
• The government will also have to manage the fallout of unleashing four mergers simultaneously which is bound to cause upheaval in the industry.
• Would it have been better if these mergers had been done one by one? The future will colour the past.

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Reforms needed to achieve the objectives of Ujjwala (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Governance
Prelims level: Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana
Mains level: Welfare schemes for the vulnerable sections

Context

• The political will and a well-meaning execution machinery was what delivered the astounding results of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in distributing deposit-free LPG cylinder connections to women.

• It is rare to find a scheme that has so successfully involved stakeholders down to the level of panchayats and had a perfect programme governance.

• It is learnt that the minister of petroleum and natural gas, the secretaries in the ministries and the chairpersons and managing directors of oil marketing companies personally supervised the work.
 

• They visited at least one district to understand the issues on the ground coming in the way and provided solutions.

Background

• The scheme took the household coverage from about 56% to about 81% in just three years.

• Almost everyone in the beneficiary segment and the industry is complementing the doers most deservedly.

• The delivery was cost-effective with numbers indicating about ₹1,600 spend per beneficiary.

• The Ujjwala scheme was possible only because of the robust foundation created by the subsidy payment scheme, direct benefits transfer (DBT), which was another significant achievement of the government.

• The government plans to cover more women with additional budgetary provisions made in the interim budget of 2019.

Aim of this scheme

• The objective of the scheme was to make the rural households climb the energy ladder and stop using agro-waste as fuel at homes.

• The argument was that women face a health hazard, spend time of the day collecting agro-waste fuel, and are unduly held responsible for collecting fuel when men arguably are earning bread.

• Agro-waste usage cannot be done away with yet because of unaffordability and often non-availability of refill, though cylinders are already at home.

• The subsidy against that refill is credited to their bank accounts with no delay.

• Many newly enrolled consumers, however, do not have the capacity to make upfront payment for the refill.

• Many micro issues lead to the consumers not updating their phone numbers and a vast majority of them, in turn, cannot order a refill with ease.

• Delivering low volumes, especially in sparsely populated, hilly and far flung areas, is not feasible and costly. Also, strengthening supply chain in new areas will take time.

Scope of this scheme

• The efficiency of the private sector will make it sustainable. The size of the sector and the growth it promises makes it imperative to assess the possibility of courageously unbundling, decentralizing, and democratizing activities.

• The scope is in the whole value chain from sourcing infrastructure to storage and transportation, and from bottling to distribution.

• Aggregation of demand from low-demand areas using technology, servicing them by vehicles that also carry other goods, and using private sector services may be a solution. Tech-enabled, Aadhaar-based micro-financing may help bridge the finance gap for refill purchase.

• The possibility of avoiding full payment, as subsidy follows immediately, can be explored in case of digital payments as the payer’s credentials are established while paying.

• Refill bookings need to become easy and quicker by making the interface simpler, including possibly by voice.

• Startups and tech companies have a potential to demonstrate their prowess here.

Way forward

• However, a new issue is being put across by social analysts.

• If women had the freedom to come out of homes and indulge in recreation while gathering agro-waste.

• How can we ensure they find other avenues of recreation instead of being restricted to their homes as they are in some sections of society.

• Also, the argument is that men benefit as much as women, as the indoor combustion of agro-waste is a health hazard for them as well, and in most households the economic benefits of subsidy are accruing to the earning members, the men.

• The DBT and PMUY are all set to be followed by reforms which will be far reaching in meeting the objectives

• The success is already a benchmark, with many countries reaching out to India to help them replicate it.

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Moving towards an efficient transport infrastructure (Live Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Bharatmala
Mains level: Infrastructure, roads, port, railways

Context

• Transport infrastructure in India has grown at an unprecedented rate during nearly the last five years.

• At the highest ever pace of construction, we have built more than 35,000 km of national highways in four and a half years.

• The country had never before seen world-class expressways such as the Eastern Peripheral Expressway and Western Peripheral Expressway or engineering marvels such as the Dhola Sadiya Bridge and Chenani Nashri Tunnel.

• The Bharatmala Pariyojana is unique and unprecedented in terms of its size and design, as is the idea of developing ports as engines of growth under Sagarmala.

• The development of 111 waterways for transport, with multinational companies already carrying their cargo over the Ganga, is also a first ever, as are FASTags, the promotion of alternative fuels such as ethanol, methanol, biofuels, and electricity, as well as innovative modes of travel such as seaplanes and aeroboats.

Need of an efficient infrastructure

• An efficient transport infrastructure is the biggest enabler for growth.

• It has been one of the foremost priorities of our government to build a transport infrastructure that is indigenous and cost-effective, links the remotest corners of the country, is optimally integrated across various modes and is safe and environment friendly.

• A lack of good transport infrastructure has been a major hindrance for growth in the country in the past and our focus has been on rectifying this. Bharatmala and Sagarmala programmes are going to be game changers in this regard.

• They will improve both penetration and efficiency of transport movement on land and water, respectively.

• In the process, they will help connect places of production with markets more efficiently, help reduce logistics costs, create jobs and promote regionally balanced socioeconomic growth in the country.

• It is also on improving the overall convenience and on-road experience of the road users.

• This involves ensuring their safety, reducing congestion and pollution levels and providing roadside amenities.

Improving safety measures

• To prevent the colossal loss of lives in road accidents, we are giving priority to rectifying accident black spots through engineering means, employing road safety features at the design stage for highways, conducting road safety audits, setting up driver training and post-trauma care centres as well as generating awareness.

• The high rate of accidents continues to be a matter of grave concern for us and we are continuously making efforts in this direction.

• Ring roads, expressways and bypasses are being constructed around many big and small cities and towns to beat traffic congestion and reduce pollution.

• Innovative solutions like seaplanes, ropeways, aeroboats and double-decker buses are being actively explored for adoption.

• These will bring down the traffic pressure and congestion on roads. Seaplanes have already been tested, and trials are soon to be conducted on aeroboats.

• A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed with Austrian ropeway company Doppelmayr for building ropeways through congested cities and hilly areas, and another MoU has been signed with Transport for London to help us overhaul our urban transport.

• The concept of ‘waste to wealth’ is being employed for generating alternative fuels. Ministries concerned are working to promote generation of alternative fuels from agricultural and other waste, and also on a road map for the development of electric vehicles.

• Apart from the above, we are also giving priority to the greening of roads and FASTag-based electronic toll collection, which will prevent congestion at toll plazas and bring down pollution.

Way forward

• The development of transport infrastructure will also create huge employment opportunities in the country, improving the socioeconomic condition of people.

• The youth are being trained to take advantage of the emerging job opportunities.

• In the roads sector, training is being given in construction-related trades, while under Sagarmala, training is being provided in job opportunities that can come up in the maritime sector, in the factories that are slated to be built in port areas, the service industry, fisheries, tourism and many more.

• Already, the total number of seafarers employed in Indian and foreign ships has grown by 35% this year.

• Our government is determined that India’s growth story should no longer be impeded by a lack of efficient transport infrastructure, and the fruits of this growth should reach everyone in the remotest part of the country.

• Our success so far and our continuing efforts will be the prime enablers for realizing this objective.

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Case for Commons sense (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Environment
Prelims level: Convention on Biological Diversity
Mains level: Environmental impact assessment

Context

• The 14th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a key question on top of the agenda was how to govern biological resources (or biodiversity) at different levels for the world’s sustainable future.

• The meeting had come at a significant time: it was the CBD’s 25th year of implementation, countries had approximately 350 days to meet global biodiversity targets, and there was the backdrop of a damning report that humans have mismanaged biodiversity so badly that we have lost 60% of resources (which can never be recouped).

• There was growing concern on how the Convention’s objectives of conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits were being compromised, including by the parties themselves.

CBD process

• All developments we see in the establishment of civilisations across the world as well as agricultural development feeding the world today are a result of such ‘Commons’ being managed by communities for centuries.

• Then came the urge of those with money and power to privatise these resources for individual prosperity in the form of property management principles, intellectual property rights and others.

• In one form the CBD a multi-lateral environmental agreement that has provided legal certainty to countries through the principle of sovereign rights over biodiversity also contributed to states now owning the resources, including their rights on use and management.

• Today, states control and manage biodiversity with strict oversight of who can use what and how.

• The intent of the CBD and having sovereign rights was to manage resources better. But the results of such management have been questionable.

• A key reason cited is that ‘Commons’ and common property resource management principles and approaches are ignored and compromised.

Why ‘Commons’?

• According to estimates, a third of the global population depends on ‘Commons’ for their survival; 65% of global land area is under ‘Commons’, in different forms.

• At least 293,061 million metric tonnes of carbon (MtC) are stored in the collective forestlands of indigenous peoples and local communities.

• This is 33 times the global energy emissions in 2017. The significance of ‘Commons’ in supporting pollination cannot be overlooked.

• In India, the extent of ‘Common’ land ranges between 48.69 million and 84.2 million hectares, constituting 15-25% of its total geographical area.

• ‘Common’-pool resources contribute $5 billion a year to the incomes of poor Indian households. Around 77% of India’s livestock is kept in grazing-based or extensive systems and dependent on ‘Commons’ pool resources.

• And 53% of India’s milk and 74% of its meat requirements are met from livestock kept in extensive ‘Common’ systems.

• National Sample Survey Office data show a 1.9% quinquennial rate of decline in the area of ‘Common’ lands, though microstudies show a much more rapid decline of 31-55% over 50 years, jeopardising the health of systemic drivers such as soil, moisture, nutrient, biomass and biodiversity, in turn aggravating food, fodder and water crises.

• As of 2013, India’s annual cost of environmental degradation has been estimated to be ₹3.75 trillion per year, i.e. 5.7% of GDP according to the World Bank.

Why the concern?

• ‘Commons’ becoming uncommon is a major socio-political, economic and environmental problem. While the state can have oversight over resource management, keeping people away from using and managing ‘Commons’ is against effective governance of ‘Commons’.

• The sovereign rights provided for, legally, under the CBD should not be misunderstood by the state as a handle to do away with ‘Commons’-based approaches to managing biodiversity, land, water and other resources.

• Current discussions under the United Nations should focus on how and why ‘Commons’ have been negatively impacted by progressive pronouncements to save the earth and people.

• Another key concern is the changing socio-political impact of migration.

• ‘Commons’ are now a major provider of livelihood options for both urban and peri-urban populations.

• The relevance of ‘Commons’ impacting urban dwellers cannot be overlooked with more urbanisation happening.

Way forward

• There needs to be a review of current governance of biodiversity and natural resources.

• After 18 years of action to reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity, it is very likely that the same 196 countries will meet in 2020 to apologise to the world for having failed to meet the objectives of the convention.

• In addition to seeking more money, time and capacities to deal with biodiversity and natural resource management, we need to focus on three specific approaches.

• To re-introduce more strongly, the management and governance principles of ‘Commons’ approaches into decision-making and implementation of conservation, use and benefit sharing action;

• To use Joseph Schumpeter’s approach of creative destruction to put resource management in the hands of the people; and three, to re-look at Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel Prize winning principles of dealing with ‘Commons’.

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Startups can ease India’s job crisis (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Venture capitalist
Mains level: Indian economy growth and development

Context

• The year 2018 has been a watershed for Indian startups and the venture capital industry.

• With landmark deals led by the Walmart-Flipkart acquisition, increased investments by the likes of SoftBank and Alibaba and a surge in young professionals wanting to become entrepreneurs, India continues to consolidate its position as the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem.

• Now there is no looking back.

• We should now strive to become the world’s largest and the best startup ecosystem.

• These are not just lofty, feel-good goals but ones that can transform our country at multiple levels.

Role and responsibilities of VC

• It considers the conventional role and responsibilities of a venture capitalist (VC).

• At present, the VC sits at the centre of a universe that has investors at one end and founders at another, managing the funds of the former and guiding the latter to scale so that there are handsome returns for everyone who has skin in the game.

• While this remains the primary reason for a VC’s existence, there are two more stakeholders in this domain the government and the average citizen.

• As part of a larger ecosystem, VCs have a significant responsibility to facilitate dialogue and cooperation with the government so that policymaking is realistic, enabling, and also creates a conducive framework to encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship in India. We need to ensure that progress is not derailed by sudden jolts such as the “angel tax" and the new e-commerce policy. We need continuity and stability at both the planning and execution stages at the policy level, combined with a robust involvement of the stakeholders in the entire decision-making process.

VC is a solution

• At another level, VCs owe it to every Indian to show her (or him) a solution to both job creation and wealth generation. Jobs (or the lack of them) are at the top of the minds of our youth.

• The public sector is a major employer of youth, but its share as a job provider has been shrinking despite government jobs being the preferred option for 80% of rural and urban youth.

• Several reports indicate that unemployment is almost becoming endemic in this country at 6.1%, as per the officially unannounced National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data.

• The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a private think tank, has calculated India’s unemployment rate at 7.38%. Both the NSSO and CMIE have found the jobless rate among the youth is significantly higher.

Conclusion

• So, with inadequate government jobs and a slow uptick in private sector jobs, it is time entrepreneurship is seen as a serious alternative.

• A whole new chain of startups will develop, from manufacturing to agriculture to agri-tech and many more.

• Domain experts will find it easier to get funded and India will see thousands of startup enterprises across sectors funded by millions of citizens.

• Nothing will boost employment more than this one move.

• Every household will contribute to job creation and wealth generation and India will become a benchmark for other economies to emulate.

• We will be a nation that sources funds from within, for deployment to our own startups of which many will, in time, grow to a global scale.

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Educational reforms require teachers to play a central role (Mint)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: NEP
Mains level: Education reforms and role of NEP

Context

• The late evening drizzle did not dampen the spirit of the teachers.
• There were 45 of them, from public (government) schools around Chamba in Uttarakhand, gathered for a dialogue on the draft National Education Policy 2019 (NEP) at our Teacher Learning Centre.
• At 7pm, no one seemed in a mood to end the session, having started at 5, though many of them had a long ride ahead back home along the winding mountain roads.

Background

• During those two hours, the group discussed the NEP, often expressing how its aspects were resonant with their aspirations and hopes.
• Their worry was how much of it will get implemented. Most of them did mention that given the size and expansive nature of the NEP document, they had read only those topics that were of interest to them.
• Their one peeve seemed to be that with the introduction of breakfast at school for all students, in addition to the currently available “midday meal", they may have to spend more time supervising the kitchen—though they did acknowledge that breakfast was much needed for their students.

Key principles

Engage and motivated

• The NEP gives the teacher the importance that she or he deserves in education. One key underlying principle of the policy is that education is a social-human process and, therefore, good education requires high-capacity, engaged teachers.
• How can we expect teachers to remain engaged and motivated if the most basic physical working conditions are inadequate to appalling?
• If they don’t have access to functioning toilets and running water, electricity supply is disrupted, and not even a small working space to themselves?
• If we respect the profession of teaching, then it will first reflect in the education system providing them these basic things.

Adequacy learning resources

• Their struggle to get even the most rudimentary of learning resources and material must be put to a stop.
• All teachers will have adequate learning material to transact the curriculum. This ranges from books and experimental kits to pencils and paper.

Allocate for particular task

• The teachers must not be given other tasks. They must be allowed to focus on their teaching and on their students.
• Teachers will not be pulled out for other kinds of work such as surveys, distribution of public services, local elections, etc.
• Repetitious data demands on the teacher from the system will be eliminated by intelligent use of information technology.

Maintain number of teacher

• An adequate number of teachers will be appointed. Today, an estimated 2 million teaching jobs are vacant across the country, while we altogether have 9 million teachers.
• That’s a large deficit. Teachers are handling more students than they can, across multiple grades, and often teaching subjects that they have themselves not studied. This will be addressed immediately.

Not discriminatory service conditions

• The teachers must not face discriminatory service conditions. Lakhs of “para-teachers" across the country perform the same role as other teachers in their schools, but get paid half to one-fourth.
• All such cadres of teachers will be regularized given service conditions and compensation equivalent to other teachers, after going through the relevant qualifications where required.
• Also, compensation and service conditions will be equalized across primary to high school.

Provided support for professional development and growth

• The teachers will be provided support for professional development and growth. This will be based on their own needs and not driven by some centralized, impersonal system.
• This will entail providing sustained high-quality education and opportunities for peer learning.
• It will also mean objective assessment of their work and recognition for good work, enabled by development-oriented supervision.
• This in turn will be enabled by appropriate capacity development of school leaders and other leaders of the education system.

Culture of the education system

• The culture of the education system including in schools will be based on trust, and will empower and enable teachers.
• It will foster creativity and initiative, and curricular innovation.
• Teachers will be treated as valued professionals, not as the bottom-most rung in the vast government hierarchy. This will reflect in the daily behaviour of the education system’s leaders.

Teacher preparation system

• The teacher preparation system (B. Ed), which has about 18,000 teacher education institutions (TEI), will be overhauled to eliminate rampant corruption and dysfunction; TEIs that are nothing more than “degree-selling-shops" will be shut down.
• The curricula will be re-imaginedappropriate to the complex and critical role that teachers play, and all TEIs will have high-quality teaching-learning.

Conclusion

• All this is music to the ear of teachers, as it should be.
• And, therefore, the natural question is whether all this will get implemented.

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Rediscovering development banks (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Banking
Mains level: Evolution of development banks

Context

• The Union Finance Minster recently announced the setting up of a development bank.
• The announcement could have far-reaching implications for India’s financial system.

What are development banks?

• Development banks are financial institutions that provide long-term credit.
• They are also known as term-lending institutions or development finance institutions.
• It generally supports capital-intensive investments spread over a long period and yielding low rates of return.
• E.g. urban infrastructure, mining and heavy industry, irrigation systems
• Such banks often lend at low and stable rates of interest to promote long-term investments with considerable social benefits.

How do they work?

• To lend for long term, development banks require correspondingly long-term sources of finance.
• This is usually obtained by issuing long-dated securities in capital market.
• These are subscribed by long-term savings institutions such as pension and life insurance funds and post office deposits.
• The long-term investments associated here have notable social benefits as well as involve considerable uncertainties.
• Given this, development banks are often supported by governments or international institutions.
• Such support can be in the form of tax incentives and administrative mandates for private sector banks and financial institutions.This is to help them invest in securities issued by development banks.

What is the recent proposal?

• It was proposed to establish an organisation to provide credit enhancement for infrastructure and housing projects.
• A development bank would enhance debt flow toward such projects.
• It comes in the context of India not having a development bank and also for the need to have an institutional mechanism in this regard.
• The overall aim is to improve access to long-term finance.
• The announcement could have far-reaching implications for India’s financial system.

How did development banks evolve in India?

• IFCI, previously the Industrial Finance Corporation of India, was set up in 1949.
• This was probably India’s first development bank for financing industrial investments.
• In 1955, the World Bank prompted the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI).
• [This is the parent of the largest private commercial bank in India today, the ICICI Bank.]
• It was a collaborative effort between the government with majority equity holding and India’s leading industrialists with nominal equity ownership.
• The objective was to finance modern and relatively large private corporate enterprises.
• In 1964, IDBI (Industrial Development Bank of India) was set up as an apex body of all development finance institutions.
• As the domestic saving rate was low, and capital market was absent, development finance institutions were financed by - lines of credit from the RBI e. some of its profits were channeled as long-term credit, Statutory Liquidity Ratio bonds, into which commercial banks had to invest a proportion of their deposits.
• In other words, with government’s role, short-term bank deposits got transformed into long-term resources for development banks.

How did they perform?

• Development banks got discredited for mounting non-performing assets.
• This was allegedly caused by politically motivated lending.
• Inadequate professionalism in assessing investment projects for economic, technical and financial viability was also a reason.
• After 1991, following the Narasimham Committee reports on financial sector reforms, development finance institutions were disbanded and got converted to commercial banks.
• The result was a steep fall in long-term credit from a tenure of 10-15 years to 5 years.

How has it been for China?

• China’s development banks include the Agricultural Development Bank of China, China Development Bank, and the Export-Import Bank of China.
• These have been at the forefront of financing its industrial prowess.
• After the global financial crisis, these institutions have underwritten China’s risky technological investments.
• This helped it gain global dominance in IT hardware and software companies.
• Likewise, Germany’s development bank, KfW, has been supporting long-term investment in green technologies and sustainable development efforts requiring long-term capital.

Way forward

• The greater the backwardness of a country, the greater the role of the state in economic development.
• This is particularly true in providing long-term finance to catch up with the advanced economies in the shortest possible time.
• In this light, the Finance Minister’s agenda for setting up a development bank is welcome.
• However, a few hard questions need to be addressed in designing the proposed institution.
• The key one among them is the source of finance.
• If foreign private capital is expected to contribute equity capital (hence part ownership), such an option needs to be carefully analysed.
• The political and administrative leadership should carefully analyse the past lessons to lay a firm foundation for the new institution.

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Why women are still being treated as unequal to men (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Social Justice
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Gender Equality and improvement

Context

• According to a study published in American Psychologist, for the first time in history, 86% of US adults have admitted that men and women are equally intelligent.
• The researchers had tracked the responses of more than 30,000 US adults since 1946 to 2018.
• In 1946, only 35% of those surveyed thought both men and women are equally intelligent. It is heartening to know that there has been a huge shift in attitudes towards women.

World Employment and Social Outlook Trends for Women

• According to the World Employment and Social Outlook Trends for Women 2018 report, more women than ever before are both educated and participating in the labour market today.
• Even as opportunities for people without a college education shrink, men’s rates of graduation remain relatively stagnant, while women across socioeconomic classes are increasingly enrolling for and completing post-secondary degrees. In 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, 72.5% of females in the US who had recently graduated high school were enrolled in a two-year or four-year college programme, compared to 65.8% of men.
• However, The Global Gender Gap Report 2018 by the World Economic Forum does not provide much scope for optimism.
• According to this report, it will take 108 years to close the gender gap and 202 years to achieve parity in the workforce.
• Gender parity seems too far a goal to achieve. No doubt, we need a fresh and re-energized approach to solve the issue of gender inequality.
• Many studies have shown that though many admit that women are equal to men at a conscious level, at an implicit level, many tend to harbour many biases towards women. The plague and power of bias are too consequential to let them go unacknowledged and unchecked.
• Merely having more awareness of a bias does not help overcome it. One needs to understand the root causes of it to mitigate its effects.

What are the significant forces that hinder our progress towards gender parity?

• For millions of years, except in few matriarchal societies, the man has always been considered the head of the family.
• The provider-role he played was always seen superior to the nurturer-role that women played in a family.
• The man’s decision was always the final word. Gender parity was not a norm in families across societies.
• It was hoped that with the arrival of the knowledge economy and women earning better salaries, those norms would change.
• Peoples, every religion churns out stories that give shape to the beliefs we live by.
• According to some of those stories, male bodies are created in God’s own image and so are considered better than female bodies, which are somehow deficient and in need of purification.
• All the key functions of organized religion, such as conducting religious ceremonies and heading the religious hierarchy, are reserved for men.
• No organized religion treats women equal to men.

Conclusion

• Achieving gender parity is not about organizing awareness programmes and pasting a few posters in offices.
• It is all about fundamentally altering beliefs upheld by the two strongest institutions of any society: the family and religion.

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Murder most foul: On Kerala ‘honour killing’ case (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Honour killing
Mains level: Measures taken by government to curb honour killing incident.

Context

• The use of murderous violence in the face of imagined threats to family or community honour is an unfortunate reality in most parts of the country.

About the term

• The term ‘honour killing’ is being used widely to describe the class of murders that family members commit while seeking to impose on young couples their medieval view that all marriages should be within their community.
• The Supreme Court, which has been intervening repeatedly to preserve the freedom of marital choice of individuals, once remarked that there is no ‘honour’ in ‘honour killing’.
• Various judgments have highlighted the need to come down on such crimes, as well as the social structures that keep such a communal outlook alive.

Steps taken by the court

• The court rightly chose not to award the death penalty. Instead it handed down two separate life terms, one each for kidnapping with intention to threaten the victim with death, and for murder.
• Even though there is a Supreme Court judgment allowing trial courts to deem ‘honour killings’ as those that fall under the ‘rarest of rare cases’ category, the trial judge chose to take note of the fact that the accused were young and had no previous criminal background. It is disquieting that the ‘honour killing’ phenomenon persists in highly literate societies too. Discrimination against Dalits is not limited to Hindu communities listed as Scheduled Castes, but extends to those who have converted to other religions too.

Way forward

• At a time when caste groups have become politically organised and caste associations attract the young and the educated, there is a need for a redoubled effort to eliminate the evils of a stratified society.
• In particular, administrators must give full effect to the various preventive, remedial and punitive measures recommended by the Supreme Court.
• The Centre may also examine the need for a comprehensive law to curb killings in the name of honour and prohibit interference in matrimonial choice of individuals.

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Writ in flame (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Environment
Prelims level: INPE
Mains level: Amazon forest burning impact assessment

Context

• Stretching across 5.5 million sq km, the Amazon is home to more than 30 million people, about two million of them belong to the region’s 400-odd indigenous communities

Background

• Forest fires are not exceptional in the Amazon.
• Flames are used routinely to clear overgrown pastures, crop residues, and roadside vegetation.
• But this year, fires in the rainforests have assumed alarming proportions. Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (INPE) has reported nearly 72,000 fires in the Amazon this year, more than 9,000 of them over the past 10 days.

Affected areas

• Stretching across 5.5 million sq km, the Amazon is home to more than 30 million people, about two million of them belong to the region’s 400-odd indigenous communities. The rainforests contain more than 10 per cent of the Earth’s biodiversity.
• They produce nearly 20 per cent of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere and play a major role in many of the processes that make the planet habitable.
• The forests are a buffer against climate change.

Significance of Amazon forest

• According to a paper published in 2007 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, the Amazon can absorb 9-14 decades of human-induced carbon dioxide emissions.
• Deforestation will put all these ecosystem services of the rainforests in peril.
• Brazil, which controls a lion’s share of the Amazon, is the world’s largest exporter of beef last year, the country exported a record 1.64 million tonnes.
• Brazil also exported a record 83.3 million tonnes of soya in 2018, up 22.2 per cent from 2017.

Way forward

• The US-China trade war has led to Beijing increasing its soya imports from Brazil. Environmental groups allege that the surge in Brazil’s beef and soya exports has come at the cost of the Amazon. Such links could be tendentious.
• But there is no doubt that Bolsonaro’s government has thrown its weight behind the commercial exploitation of the rainforest.
   
• He has cut the budget of the country’s environmental protection agency, IBAMA, by 24 per cent and made FUNAI, the agency responsible for supporting indigenous people, subordinate to the country’s agriculture ministry.
• Brazil has lost nearly 3,000 sq km of forest cover since Bolsonaro assumed office in January, according to INPE data. The Amazon fires should be a warning the president must heed.

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The Jalan committee strikes a good balance (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Bimal Jalan Committee
Mains level: Bimal Jalan Committee recommendations

Context

• RBI’s Board accepting the Bimal Jalan committee’s recommendations on a prudent economic capital framework, the annual skirmishes between the Bank and the Government on surplus transfers will hopefully cease.
• The committee, after reviewing RBI’s finances and global practices, has recommended that the bank transfer ₹1.76-lakh crore to the Centre for FY19, comprising of ₹1.23-lakh crore from its net income for the year and ₹52,637 crore from past reserves.
• This windfall is significantly lower than the ₹3-4 lakh crore that the Centre was angling for, it strikes a good balance between meeting the Centre’s fiscal needs and ensuring that RBI has adequate reserves to fulfil its wide mandate.

Inclusion the excess reserves

• In evaluating the excess reserves on the RBI balance sheet, the committee has taken the pragmatic view that only realised equity built from profits must be distributed, while revaluation gains from market fluctuations on foreign currency, gold or other assets must be retained.
• The committee has thus upheld conservative accounting practises and ensured that the bulk of RBI’s legacy reserves (nearly ₹9-lakh crore going by the FY18 balance sheet) are ring-fenced from dividend demands.
• Likely market disruptions from RBI liquidating its forex or gold holdings have also been deftly avoided by effecting this transfer through a book entry.
• By ruling that the RBI already holds more than enough reserves to meet contingencies, the committee has enabled the Bank to share the bulk of its FY19 income with the Centre.
• Subjective judgments have been put to rest by pegging the RBI’s Contingent Risk Buffer at 5.5-6.5 per cent and its overall reserves at 20-24.5 per cent of its balance sheet.
• The latter capital requirement is high compared to RBI’s global peers (Economic Survey 2015-16 had cited a global median of 16 per cent).
• But given RBI’s role as a full-service central bank tasked with everything from monetary policy making to bank and NBFC regulation, a higher reserve level appears prudent.
• However, there are two grey areas in the committee’s prescriptions. It isn’t clear why the committee, having made a case for a contingency buffer, has pegged it at just 5.5-6.5 per cent, when earlier committees preferred 12 per cent.
• Prescribing a wide range for the required reserves instead of a definitive number, also tempts the Government to push RBI to make do with the lower end of the range, as it has done this year.

Way forward

• Having claimed an unusual windfall this year, it is important that the Centre doesn’t come to regard the central bank as a cash cow to be milked every year.
• There has been an unusual spike in the RBI’s net income in FY19, which is unlikely to be sustained.
• The Centre must also devise ways to use the surpluses gained from the RBI to create long term capital assets, rather than frittering them away on revenue expenses or sinkholes such as Air India and BSNL.

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Chandrayaan-2 another step closer to Moon, enters new lunar orbit (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Science and Tech
Prelims level: Chandrayaan-2
Mains level: Chandrayaan-2 manoeuvres observation

Context

• Chandrayaan-2 launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 22.
• Chandrayaan-2, which carries a dream of placing a rover on the lunar surface, has lowered its orbit around the Moon with just days to go for the D-Day when the lander Vikram will separate from the spacecraft.
• The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully carried out a manoeuvre Wednesday morning, placing Chandrayaan-2 into an elliptical orbit of about 200 km x 1,500 km around the Moon.
• The third lunar bound orbit manoeuvre for Chandrayaan-2 was completed successfully at around 9:30 am, putting the spacecraft in an orbit achieved of 179 km x 1412 km. The next lunar bound orbit manoeuvre is  scheduled on August 30.

Background

• At the closest point of the new orbit, Chandrayaan-2 is 179 kms away from the lunar surface; at the farthest the spacecraft is 1412 kms away from the Moon. The orbit manoeuvre performed Wednesday morning was the third such operation carried out around the Moon.
• Chandrayaan-2 will perform two more similar manoeuvres later this week to bring itself even closer to the Moon. By the evening of Saturday, September 1, Chandrayaan-2 will be in a near circular orbit of 114 km x 128 km around the Moon.
• A day later on September 2, the lander Vikram will separate from the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft and get into an orbit of its own around the Moon. And then on September 7, Vikram will being a 15-minute powered descent to land near the lunar south pole, where it will set free the six-wheeled Pragyaan rover.

India's second moon mission

• India's second mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-2 launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 22. The Chandrayaan-2 mission consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover.
• The orbiter will revolve around the Moon for around a year, studying the satellite's outer atmosphere. The rover, on the other hand, will roam area near the lunar south pole for around 14 Earth days, carrying out surface and sub-surface experiments.
• Chandrayaan-2 will make India only the fourth country in the world to land a rover on the Moon and the only country in the world to perform a 'soft landing' in the lunar south pole region.

Water

• One of the key focus areas of the Chandrayaan-2 mission is water on the Moon. Chandrayaan-2's predecessor Chandrayaan-1 made history in 2008 when it confirmed the presence of water on the Moon.
• With Chandrayaan-2, the Indian Space Research Organisation aims to further Chandrayaan-1's discovery of water on the Moon. And, Chandrayaan-2's landing site has been chosen keeping this goal in mind.

Conclusion

• The Moon's south polar region has not received sunlight for billions of years, making it a prime area to house water.
• Over its 14-day mission period, the six-wheeled Pragyaan will conduct several experiments to determine the extent to which water is present on the Moon.
• The other experiments that Chandrayaan-2 will perform will aim to expand humanity's understanding of the origins of the Solar System.

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Government should use RBI funds in a prudent manner (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Bimal Jalan Committee
Mains level: Fund transfer to boosting economy

Context

• After a long tug of war, the government has eventually had its way with the Reserve Bank of India, managing to get it to part with a portion of its accumulated reserves.
• The RBI board has decided to transfer a massive ₹1,76,051 crore to the government, including a sum of ₹52,637 crore from its contingency reserve built over the last several years.

Consequences behind the surplus transfer

• The outflow from the RBI’s reserves was limited to this amount only because the Bimal Jalan Committee, appointed to recommend the economic capital framework for the RBI, decided to keep a major part of the reserves locked up and out of the reach of the government while opening up the remainder with strict stipulations.
• The Committee has recommended, and rightly so, that the Currency and Gold Revaluation Reserve Account (₹6.91 lakh crore as of June 30, 2018), at least half of which was eyed by the government, represents unrealised gains and hence is not distributable to the government.
• In the case of the Contingency Reserve (built out of retained earnings), which was ₹2.32 lakh crore as of the same date, the committee said that it should be maintained within a band of 6.5-5.5% of total assets.
• It left it to the RBI board to decide the precise percentage it was comfortable within this band and transfer the excess to the government.
• The board has decided to peg this ratio at 5.5% thus enabling it to transfer a sum of ₹52,637 crore to the government immediately.
• The committee should also be complimented for clearly specifying that the revaluation reserve cannot be used to bridge shortfalls in other reserves.
• In principle, it could be argued that the government as sovereign owns the RBI and hence there is nothing wrong if it decides to tap the central bank’s reserves.
• Yet, that it actually chose to do so is unfortunate because these reserves represent inter-generational equity built up over several years by the RBI by squirrelling away a part of its annual surplus.
• It is morally unacceptable that any one government can swallow even a part of such funds to help meet its expenditure in a particular year.

Way forward

• The reserves, as the Jalan Committee has pointed out, represent the country’s savings for a ‘rainy day’, which is a monetary or financial crisis.
• Interestingly, the net surplus of ₹1,23,414 crore posted by the RBI in 2018-19 is more than double that of the previous year and is considerably higher than the ₹65,876 crore that it netted in 2015-16.
• Only the release of the RBI’s Annual Report in the next few days will help in the understanding of the reasons behind the sharp jump in the surplus.
• The big transfer from the RBI will free up the hands of the government at a time when tax revenues are undershooting the target by a long chalk. The money, it is hoped, will be put to use in a prudent manner.

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The evolving peace process in Afghanistan (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: International Criminal Court
Mains level: Measures taken towards peace process in Afshanistan

Context

• In the last 18 years, the situation in Afghanistan has remained as tenuous as it had been in the three decades that preceded them.
• Since 2017 when the so-called “mother-of-all-bombs” was dropped in Nangarhar to deter the extremists.
• Or in 2001 when 25 international stakeholders came together “determined to help the Afghan people end the tragic conflicts in their country...”

American push for peace and reconciliation

• The American push for peace and reconciliation has been contrasted by its stance on justice and accountability.
• What could have been a massive trial of crimes against humanity (allegedly) committed by the members of American military and intelligence on Afghan soil, the US arm-twisted its way out of this situation at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
• By “threatening reprisals” against the ICC and cancelling the visa of the chief prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, the US ensured that the proposed investigation against it and “its allies” was dropped, even as 1.17 million statements were submitted to the Court in connection with the alleged crimes.
• While the US has demonstrated a flippant, self-contradictory attitude from time-to-time, the man of the hour in the present scenario, Zalmay Khalilzad US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation inspires little confidence.
• From (effectively) sabotaging the return of Zahir Shah as the political leader of Afghanistan in 2001 to his purported negotiations with then-President Hamid Karzai to be made (an unaccountable) Prime Minister of Afghanistan in 2009 to his successive engagements with the Taliban since 1990s, Khalilzad has a checkered past.
• The US, itself, seems to take two steps backwards for every step it takes forward. For example, President Obama’s 2011 contrarian commands, along with the surge, had given a deadline for American troops to exit Afghanistan.
• In any counter-insurgency situation, the insurgents have the time even if the counter-insurgents have the most advanced watch. The US wants to get out of Afghanistan, and it must. It just does not know how.

Is India turning the tide?

• In what appears to be a prelude to a shift in India’s effective stance towards Afghanistan, we are witnessing a change in discourse.
• Following the controversial “reorganisation” of the Indian province of Jammu and Kashmir (J and K), speculations have been aplenty about the intended audience of this internal act.
• The internal reorganisation of J and K was more than a mere attempt at setting the house straight.
• It is said that India had the geo-political space to tinker with the political make-up of what is essentially a disputed territory, knowing full well the bilateral and even international ripples it might create.

The JandK move

• The Indian move in JandK most likely, then, came as a reaction to President Trump’s unsolicited mediation offers.
• The drummed-up narrative on national security, which became the pretext for positioning as many as 38,000 extra troops in the region, were meant for something more than just maintaining uneasy calm in the Kashmir Valley, but to decouple Kashmir from Afghanistan.
• With Pakistan stopped in its tracks, India appeared to be ready for another move an (indirect) outreach to the Taliban.
• Although not entirely independent of the Pakistani influence, Shakti Sinha (Afghanistan’s Ex-Head, UN Governance and Development) conceded that the Taliban ought to be recognised for what it is worth a group that has been granted legitimacy not only by international stakeholders, but by Afghans themselves.
• He further added that the mainstreaming of the Taliban could potentially make them mend their ways since they will be constrained by formal regulations and commitments.
• Drawing a fine line between engagement and endorsement, the discourse that seems to be shaping up is one in which India is projecting itself as a partner that no Afghan actor should do without.
• It went on to say that one should not be on the wrong side of India, demonstrating a more robust and confident line of thought vis-à-vis the situation in Afghanistan.
• This statement has been interpreted in two contrasting ways.
• On one hand, it is said to be directed at India, which, in exerting its dominance over Kashmir, appears to have leveraged its move to outwit Pakistan in Afghanistan, thereby unwittingly connecting Kashmir and Afghanistan.
• On the other, it can be read as a prelude to the aforementioned change in the Indian narratives, signalling that the process of engagement with the Taliban has, perhaps, already been under way.Conclusion
• As a peace deal looks more realistic than ever before, it is advisable for India to not be as diffident as it had once been.
• The situation in Afghanistan has often been described as a “line in the sand,” one which changes too often. India needs to be agile in “playing the game.”
• It knowing full well it will have to walk on eggshells as it changes course.
• However, basking in the goodwill it has generated in Afghanistan, it can be assured that a change in approach will be received kindly by the larger Afghan population, which is both embracing and resigning itself to the unfolding changes.

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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 27 August 2019

 ::NATIONAL::

Plea in supreme court seeking establishment of RTI web portal in all states

• The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and 25 States to respond to a writ petition for a direction to establish Right to Information (RTI) web portals across all States to enable citizens, especially those living abroad, to file RTI applications online.

• The Central government established an online RTI portal whereby any Indian citizen, including Non-Residential Indians (NRIs), can apply for information under the RTI Act with the desired Ministry or Department under the Central government. An applicant can also pay the requisite fee through online payment in this portal and submit the RTI application, the petition said.

• The Centre had also requested, via a letter dated December 13, 2013, the various State governments to explore the feasibility of implementing online RTI portals. It had even offered to provide technical support for this purpose through the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to the States.

• “However, only the States of Maharashtra and Delhi have established their respective online portals for obtaining information from the departments of their respective governments,” the petition pointed out.

• It said that a person seeking information under the RTI Act of 2005 from any State department, is compelled to make a physical application. This has become difficult for NRIs.

More than 80 % decline in HIV cases in India

• The government today said that there has been more than 80 per cent decline in new HIV infection cases in the country since its peak in 1995. The global average of decline in new infection is estimated at 47 per cent.

• Talking to reporters at a function in New Delhi, Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said, National Aids Control Organization has signed anMoU with 18 Ministries and Departments to augment a comprehensive AIDS response mechanism. He said the government is committed for meeting all the set goals to eradicate HIV from the country.

• National Aids Control Organization, NACO today signed anMoU with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for prevention and control of HIV related disease. The MoU intends to create awareness and educate people about the ill-effects of drugs abuse on the individual, family, workplace and society at large.

• It aims to reduce stigmatization of and discrimination against, groups and individuals dependent on drugs in order to integrate them back into society.

• Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Rattan LalKataria said, both the Ministries will work together, to spread awareness and to reduce HIV related diseases drastically.

::ECONOMY::

BimalJalan committee recommends transfer of funds to government

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), at its board meeting on Monday, decided to transfer Rs. 1.76 lakh crore to the Centre including the interim dividend of Rs. 28,000 crore paid in February which is likely to address the precarious fiscal situation of the government to a great extent.

• The RBI had formed a committee, chaired by former Governor BimalJalan, to review its economic capital framework and suggest the quantum of excess provision to be transferred to the government. The committee was formed after a demand from the government for more money. The RBI Board has accepted all the recommendations of the Jalan committee.

• The panel recommended a clear distinction between the two components of economic capital - realized equity and revaluation balances. It was recommended that realized equity could be used for meeting all risks/ losses as they were primarily built up from retained earnings, while revaluation balances could be reckoned only as risk buffers against market risks as they represented unrealized valuation gains and hence were not distributable.

• The committee also recognised that RBI’s provisioning for monetary, financial and external stability risks is the country’s savings for a ‘rainy day’, (a monetary or financial stability crisis), which has been consciously maintained with the RBI in view of its role as the Monetary Authority and the Lender of Last Resort.

• The ‘Surplus Distribution Policy’, as recommended by the committee, says only if realized equity is above its requirement, the entire net income will be transferable to the government.

Analysts claim economic issues will take time to fade away

• Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman’s announcements pertaining to revival of the economy Friday last may have improved sentiments and might augment liquidity in the system, but it will take time for the current slowdown to fade away.

• Any further job loss is expected be curbed and consumer spend in the upcoming festive season will decide the quantum of bounce-back in the economy and the fortunes of companies affected by the slowdown.

• While analysts are unanimous about the positive impact of the announcements on the economy, they feel that revival would be a gradual process.

• Analyts expect markets to react positively to these moves and recommend investors to use these ‘turbulent times’ to build the portfolio of companies with ‘moats in their business and ability to withstand technology disruptions’.

• The government’s intention and willingness to take feedback and act promptly may offset the pessimistic market narrative, felt analysts at MototalOswal Financial Services Ltd (MOFSL).

• Though the measures announced by the FM will result in more sales of all class of vehicles, the auto sector will take time to come out of the woods.

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General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

::INTERNATIONAL::

G7 hails India’s effort to conserve water and eliminate single use plastic

• At G7 Summit, Prime Minister Narendra highlighted India's large scale efforts towards eliminating single-use plastic, conserving water, harnessing solar energy and protecting flora and fauna for a sustainable future.

• Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted that reiterating India's commitment to tackle global challenges Prime Minister underlined India's contribution to address reducing biodiversity, climate change, water stress & ocean pollution.

• AIR correspondent reports, clouds covered the sky of Biarritz yesterday, but there is a new dawn waiting for India today which was invited as a partner country in G7 summit. Apart from getting a diplomatic win on the Kashmir issue, India also gave an idea to the world on the forum of G7 that how to fight against the natural calamities.

• In his one to one talk with UN general secretary, Antonio Guterres Prime Minister NarendraModi suggested about how the world could come together to create a pool of trained volunteers which will help the countries in case of disaster.

• He also asserted that India is moving towards the renewable and clear forms of energy and there is a strong case for India's membership of Nuclear suppliers group. Mr Guterres also said that he is willing to help India on this issue.

Trump confirms resuming talks with Chinese traders

• United States President Donald Trump today said that US and Chinese trade negotiators would very shortly resume trade talks.

• Talking to reporters at the G-7 summit in Biarritz, Trump said China called last night and stressed to make a deal over the issue.

• Trump's remarks came amidst reports of Asian stock markets tumbling today. On Friday, US President announced tariff hikes on effectively all Chinese imports to the US. It came after Beijing said it would impose fresh duties and raise tariffs on US imports into China.

• Meanwhile, the Chinese yuan weakened to a fresh 11-year low against the US dollar. The onshore yuan was around 7.15 per dollar in morning Asian trade.

• Trump later said talks with China were “more meaningful than at any time” because the United States was doing well while China was “losing millions of jobs”.

• Mr. Trump’s comments followed moves by China’s most powerful trade negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He, to take the edge off the soaring tensions.

• “We are willing to solve the problem through consultation and cooperation with a calm attitude,” said Mr. Liu, according to a report by a Chinese news outlet.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Study reveals higher levels of physical activity lowers risk of death in middle ages

• Higher levels of physical activity, regardless of intensity, are associated with a lower risk of early death in middle aged and older people, says a study.

• The findings, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), also show that being sedentary, for example sitting for 9.5 hours or more a day, excluding sleeping time, is associated with an increased risk of death.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity each week for adults aged between 18 and 64 years.

• However, these are based mainly on self-reported activity, which is often imprecise. So exactly how much activity, and at what intensity, is needed to protect health remains unclear.

• Deaths fell steeply as total volume of physical activity increased up to a plateau of about 300 minutes (five hours) per day of light-intensity physical activity or about 24 minutes per day moderate intensity physical activity.

• At these levels the risk of death was halved compared to those engaging in little or no physical activity.

• “Also, a large risk reduction was seen between the least and the second least active group suggesting that incorporating some time doing physical activity, light or moderate intensity, in daily life is associated with a big health benefit,” said Mr.Edwardson.

::SPORTS::

Indian archers shine at world championships

• India's Komalika Bari became recurve cadet world champion at the World Archery Youth Championships in Madrid, Spain, today. She defeated higher-ranked SonodaWaka of Japan 7-3 in the final and earn India's second gold on the final day of the Championships.

• India also won a gold in the compound junior mixed pair event yesterday and a bronze in the compound junior men's team event on Friday.

• India concluded their campaign with two gold and one bronze medal in their last event. The 17-year-old Komalika is now India's second recurvecadet world champion (under-18) after DeepikaKumari who won the title in 2009.

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Seaborne reactor (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Science and Tech
Prelims level: Chernobyl
Mains level: Seaborne Nuclear reactor

Context

• Nuclear reactors, as they stand, produce nuclear waste and there is always a likelihood of accidents

About Chernobyl

• Despite the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown and the recent explosion at a military testing site, Russia seems keen to tempt fate again.
• It launched the world’s first floating nuclear reactor on a journey across the Arctic to north-eastern Siberia.
• Russia’s nuclear agency, Rosatom, wants to sell seaborne reactors globally.
• The very concept has a dangerous ring to it.

Is it a floating nuclear disaster waiting to happen?

• Nuclear reactors, as they stand, produce nuclear waste and there is always a likelihood of accidents.
• This one is susceptible to sea storms, too.
• Since potentially hazardous spent fuel will be stored on board, there is the risk of a nuclear spill that could irradiate the Arctic.
• It’s an environmental danger of a new kind, one that the world is ill-prepared to deal with.
• Russia and other Arctic countries may not have the wherewithal for a clean-up in case something untoward happens.

Conclusion

• However, perhaps the floating reactor deserves a chance before it’s judged.
• Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that the Russians have taken proper stock of the risks involved, and are not blithely skating on thin ice.

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The Last Window (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Environment
Prelims level: IPCC report
Mains level: Environmental impact assessment

Context

• The 2018 IPCC Special Report on Global warming of 1.5°C delivered a clear message: Human activities have caused an approximately 0.87°C rise in global average temperature over pre-industrial times.
• The latest IPCC report on ‘Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse gas fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems’ takes the warning further and states that the land surface air temperature has risen by nearly twice the global average temperature, at about 1.3°C.

Key concerns

• Desertification of land under agricultural use will exacerbate the already worsening dangers of declining crop yields and crop failures.
• Combating it requires the urgent implementation of measures from the set of several remedial options proposed in the report, including reduced tillage, planting cover crops, improvements in grazing management and greater use of agroforestry.
• However, another key component is maintaining and extending forest cover, as forests act as enormous natural carbon sinks.
• In this context recent news that suggests the dilution of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) in India seems regressive.
• Industrial development and environmental protection can be planned prudently to be compatible.
• Land sparing industrialisation, appropriate zoning and environmental safeguards are possible without being in conflict with replacement of the ecological services provided by the natural growth-forest ecosystem.
• Global assessment reports have also shown that consulting indigenous people is an important way of integrating local knowledge with scientific knowledge.

Critical water management system

• Agriculture in India accounts for more an estimated 86 per cent of the country’s freshwater use. The water intensity of Indian paddy is also below global best practices.
• The 2019 HIMAP report by ICIMOD has shown that with receding glaciers, there is need to manage water better both in the short and in the long run — especially in India — to address the challenge of food security.

Steps taken by the government so far

• The Union government has commendably taken up the goal of “irrigation water productivity”.
• Yet, promoting compatible irrigation practices like drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, shifting away from water-intensive cash crops, alternate wetting and drying (AWR) practices in paddy cultivation, extension services for providing access and sensitising farmers to the efficient water use technologies and practices and the use of water efficient agricultural practices needs to be taken up on a war footing.
• The largely forgotten traditional rainwater harvesting practices like building tanks and artificial ponds in low-lying catchment areas need to be scaled up across the nation.

Way ahead

• Consumption and waste management in the food sector is considered to have climate implications as well.
• A shift towards a more plant-based based diet is considered a healthy sustainable dietary option in the IPCC report.
• The UN estimates that the world’s population could breach 9.7 billion by 2050, so the need to augment food supplies per unit availability of land and water is a necessary target.
• The shift is even more pertinent for India as its yet largely poor population will be one of the first to be affected by constrained food supplies.Diversification of the food system, balanced diets, low meat diets are all identified with health benefits, adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development benefits.
• Livestock sector management with crop management is necessary for multiple benefits.
• Unlike many countries which have crossed the health safety limits of meat consumption with rising incomes, India need not follow the same path.
• Here, education can play an important role in managing meat consumption. Market incentives too need to be aligned with human health benefits.
• Like for many other countries, there is a very small window left for India’s policymakers to respond to the severity of the threat.

Conclusion

• However, there are some cultural advantages for India and multiple options for adopting sustainable practices to avoid a carbon-intensive development path.
• It is hoped that the well-being of the masses will take precedence over short-term economic gains for a few.

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