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Centre’s disinvestment decisions warrant concern (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Disinvestment
Mains level: Major objective of the disinvestment process

Context:

• The Centre has once again set a very ambitious target for funds to be raised through disinvestment in FY21, at ₹2.1 lakh crore.

Aim of the government:

• There is no disputing that the government needs to either exit or reduce its stake in state-owned enterprises over time; private ownership could increase operational efficiency and bring more transparency in their functioning.
• The Centre needs to have a cogent policy, and the divestment decision should be driven by the benefit to the PSE and the public at large, rather than the need to fill gaps in the Centre’s fiscal deficit.
• The budgeted amount of ₹90,000 crore to be raised by selling stakes in public sector banks and other financial institutions, and another ₹1.2 lakh crore through stake sales in other CPSEs.
• This appears unrealistic given that the Centre has been able to raise less than one-third of its budgeted divestment receipts so far this fiscal year.

Disinvestment of the sectors:

• The strategic sales of Air India, CONCOR, BPCL and SCI, that are already on the drawing board, could bring in some funds in FY21 and the initial public offer of insurance giant LIC could rake in a substantial amount, once it goes through.
• The public listing of LIC will, however, be beneficial to both the Centre as well as investors.
• Policy-holders will benefit through the additional disclosures that public listing will entail.
• It will also give investors the opportunity to own a share in the insurance behemoth, that owns close to ₹27.6 lakh crore of assets under management and has almost 11.95 lakh agents on its rolls.
• The Centre will, of course, gain from the large inflow in the form of non-tax receipts.

Reducing the fiscal deficit:

• The Centre needs to weigh the consequences of reducing stake in relatively better-run CPSEs against the resulting fall in its annual revenue from these entities in the form of dividends.
• The budgeted amount for dividends and profits from public sector enterprises for FY21 is 36 per cent higher than the revised estimates for FY20.
• The greater concern is the fact that the Centre’s reliance on the sums raised through disinvestment to bridge its fiscal deficit has increased over the last five years.
• While the amount from stake sales in CPSEs amounted to 8 per cent of the fiscal deficit in FY15, it stands at 26 per cent of the fiscal deficit for FY21.\
• Also, while earlier, stakes in CPSEs were mainly sold through the initial public offer route, the Centre is relying on other routes such as exchange traded funds, sales to employees and to other CPSEs to meet its disinvestment target.

Way forward:

• This struggle to sell government’s stake in a piecemeal manner clearly shows that there aren’t too many buyers for the Centre’s stake in these companies.
• This is not surprising, given the governance risk, poor productivity and inefficient usage of resources by these entities.
• If the Centre wants to realise reasonable value from these sales, it needs to first address these concerns.

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Algorithmic governance must be inclusive, adhere to privacy rights (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: System Risk Indication
Mains level: E-governance- applications

Context:

• Two recent judicial interventions, both from abroad, which upheld citizens’ right to privacy against the hurried implementation of algorithm-based governance tools.
• This must act as a wake-up call for advocates of algorithmic governance in India.

Background:

• The District Court of the Hague in the Netherlands asked authorities to halt immediately a digital tool that used predictive analysis to detect fraud in welfare distribution, citing that the algorithmic programme violated basic human rights.
• The Dutch court’s comments involve System Risk Indication or SyRI, which uses algorithmic prediction methods to track and spot individuals who can be potential welfare cheats.
• The tool is armed with big data analytics and uses individuals’ private data on consumption and other significant activities to rank them and create risk profiles that authorities can use in the detection of fraud. Such tools can be misused.
• SyRI allegedly helped Dutch authorities spy on people in poor neighbourhoods only based on algorithmic evidence and no other proof.
• The court found that SyRI impinges on the principles of transparency and held that technology should respect privacy.

Challenges for algorithmic governance:

• The fact that such large-scale personal data was made easily available digitally could pose risks to individuals.
• In India, too, fears have been voiced over the scope for distortions in using citizens’ biometric data in welfare distribution and fraud detection.
• Such automated digital tools are acknowledged to reflect human biases and prejudices, and can imperil welfare distribution.
• They could end up aggravating discrimination to new levels.
• Reports of mistargeting post-Aadhaar, in the case of Direct Benefit Transfer schemes, have been reported from central India.
• It is important to be cognisant of the pitfalls of digitisation to ensure that DBT’s benefits are not sacrificed in the bargain.

Way forward:

• In 2018, the Supreme Court, while upholding the constitutional validity of Aadhaar, had asked the government to introduce strong data protection rules to ensure an individual’s right to privacy.
• India must use the global rulings as an opportunity for introspection before opting for digital solutions without checks and balances.

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Seeking a more progressive abortion law (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: MTP Act
Mains level: Limitations of the MTP Act

Context:

• Report says that, more than 10 women die everyday due to unsafe abortions in India.

Reason behind:

• Backward abortion laws only contribute to women seeking illegal and unsafe options.

Initiative taken by the government:

• The Cabinet has recently approved the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (MTP Bill, 2020) which will soon be tabled in Parliament.
• It seeks to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 (MTP Act) and follows the MTP Bills of 2014, 2017 and 2018, all of which previously lapsed in Parliament.

Regulatory framework of the MTP Act:

• The MTP Act divides its regulatory framework for allowing abortions into categories, according to the gestational age of the foetus.
• Under Section 3, for foetuses that are aged up to 12 weeks, only one medical practitioner’s opinion is required to the effect that the continuance of the pregnancy would pose a risk to the life of the mother or cause grave injury to her physical or mental health; or there is a substantial risk that if the child is born.
• It would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.
• But if the foetus is aged between 12 weeks and 20 weeks, at least two medical practitioners’ opinions conforming to either of the two conditions are required.
• The MTP Act also specifies that ‘grave injury’ may be explained as the anguish caused by a pregnancy arising out of rape, or the anguish caused by an unwanted pregnancy arising out of the failure of a contraceptive used by a married woman or her husband.
• Beyond 20 weeks, termination may be carried out where it is necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman.

Issues with the current law:

• At all stages of the pregnancy, the healthcare providers, rather than the women seeking abortion, have the final say on whether the abortion can be carried out.
• This is unlike the abortion laws in 67 other countries where a woman can get an abortion ‘on request’ with or without a specific gestational limit (which is usually 12 weeks).

Exempting factors:

• It is true that factors such as failure of contraceptives or grave injury are not required to be proved under the MTP Act.
• To get a pregnancy terminated solely based on her will, the woman may be compelled to lie or plead with the doctor.
• At present, pregnant women lack autonomy in making the decision to terminate their pregnancy, and have to bear additional mental stress, as well as the financial burden of getting a doctor’s approval.

Restrictive interpretation:

• The MTP Act embodies a clear prejudice against unmarried women.
• According to ‘Explanation 2’ provided under Section 3(2) of the Act, where a pregnancy occurs due to failure of any birth control device or method used by any “married woman or her husband”, the anguish caused is presumed to constitute a “grave injury” to the mental health of the pregnant woman.
• While the applicability of this provision to unmarried women is contested, there is always the danger of a more restrictive interpretation, especially when the final decision rests with the doctor and not the woman herself.

Lack of advancement in the process:

• Due to advancements in science, foetal abnormalities can now be detected even after 20 weeks.
• The MTP Act presently allows abortion post 20 weeks only where it is necessary to save the life of the mother.
• This means that even if a substantial foetal abnormality is detected and the mother doesn’t want to bear life-long caregiving responsibilities and the mental agony associated with it, the law gives her no recourse unless there is a prospect of her death.

Problems with the MTP Act:

• It doesn’t allow abortion on request at any point after the pregnancy.
• It doesn’t take a step towards removing the prejudice against unmarried women by amending the relevant provision.
• It enhances the gestational limit for legal abortion from 20 to 24 weeks only for specific categories of women such as survivors of rape, victims of incest, and minors.

In case of foetal abnormality:

• The Bill does make the upper gestational limit irrelevant in procuring an abortion if there are substantial foetal abnormalities diagnosed by the Medical Board.
• This means that even if there is no threat to the mother’s life, she would be able to procure an abortion as soon as a substantial foetal abnormality comes to light.
• While this is an important step and would have in the past helped many women who fought long battles in Court without recourse.
• It is crucial that it is accompanied by appropriate rules for the Medical Boards that guard against unnecessary delays, which only increase the risks associated with a late abortion.

Way forward:

• The Supreme Court has recognised women’s right to make reproductive choices and their decision to abort as a dimension of their personal liberty and as falling within the realm of the fundamental right to privacy.
• Yet, current abortion laws fail to allow the exercise of this right. While it is hoped that MTP Bill, 2020 will not lapse in Parliament like its predecessors.
• It is evident that it does not do enough to secure women’s interests, and there is still a long road ahead for progressive abortion laws.

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(The Gist of PIB) Cabinet approves National Policy on Electronics 2019 [MARCH-2019]

Cabinet approves National Policy on Electronics 2019

• The Union Cabinet gave its approval to the National Policy on Electronics 2019 (NPE 2019), proposed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
• The Policy envisions positioning India as a global hub for Electronics System Design and Manufacturing.
• It encouraging and driving capabilities in the country for developing core components, including chipsets, and
• It creates an enabling environment for the industry to compete globally.

Background

• The implementation of the Schemes/ Programmes under the aegis of the National Policy on Electronics 2012 (NPE 2012) has successfully consolidated the foundations for a competitive Indian ESDM value chain.
• The National Policy of Electronics 2019 (NPE 2019) replaces the National Policy of Electronics 2012 (NPE 2012).
• NPE 2019 proposes to build on that foundation to propel the growth of ESDM industry in the country.

Salient Features of NPE 2019

• Creation of ecosystem for globally competitive ESDM sector by promoting domestic manufacturing and export in the entire electronics system value-chain.
• Providing incentives and support for manufacturing of core electronic components.
• Providing special package of incentives for mega projects which are extremely high-tech and entail huge investments, such as semiconductor facilities display fabrication, etc.
• Formulation of suitable schemes and incentive mechanisms to encourage new units and expansion of existing units.
• Promotion of Industry-led R and D and innovation in all sub-sectors of electronics, including grass root level innovations and early stage Startups in emerging technology areas such as 5G, Internet of Things (IoT) Sensors, Artificial Intelligence (Al), Machine Learning, Virtual Reality (VR), Drones, Robotics, Additive Manufacturing, Photonics, Nanobased devices, etc.
• Providing incentives and support for significantly enhancing availability of skilled manpower, including re-skilling.
• Providing special thrust on Fabless Chip Design Industry, Medical Electronic Devices Industry, Automotive Electronics Industry and Power Electronics for Mobility and Strategic Electronics Industry.
• Creation of Sovereign Patent Fund (SPF) to promote the development and acquisition of Intellectual Properties(IPs) in ESDM sector.
• Promotion of trusted electronics value chain initiatives to improve national cyber security profile.

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(The Gist of PIB) National Survey on Extent and Pattern of Substance Use in India [MARCH-2019]

National Survey on Extent and Pattern of Substance Use in India

• National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC) of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi submitted its Report “Magnitude of Substance Use in India” sponsored by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot in his office here today. Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Vijay Sampla was present on the occasion.
• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has conducted a “National Survey on Extent and Pattern of Substance Use in India” through the NDDTC of AIIMS, New Delhi during 2018 which provides data at the National level as well as at the State level.
• The last National Survey on the extent, pattern and trend of drug abuse was sponsored by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in the year 2000-2001. A combination of two data collection approaches was employed in this Survey:
• A Household Survey (HHS) was conducted among the representative, general population (10-75 years old) of all the 36 states and UTs of the country. This was aimed primarily at studying the use of common, legal substances (like Alcohol and Cannabis). At the national level, a total of 200,111 households were visited in 186 districts and a total of 473,569 individuals were interviewed.
• A Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) survey along with multiplier approach was conducted in 123 districts among 70,293 people suffering from dependence on illicit drugs. This was aimed primarily for estimating the prevalence of dependence on illicit drug (since the HHS tends to underestimate illicit drug use).
• Substance categories studied were: Alcohol, Cannabis (Bhang and Ganja/Charas), Opioids (Opium, Heroin and Pharmaceutical Opioids), Cocaine, Amphetamine Type Stimulants (ATS), Sedatives, Inhalants and Hallucinogens. Major findings of this Survey at the National level as well as at the State

level are as follows :

Alcohol :

• At the national level, about 14.6% of people (among 10-75 year old) are current users of alcohol, i.e. about 16 Crore people. Prevalence is 17 times higher among men than women.
• Among people consuming alcohol in India, Country liquor (‘desi’) (about 30%) and spirits (IMFL – Indian Made Foreign Liquor) (about 30%) are the predominantly consumed beverages.
• About 5.2% of Indians (more than 5.7 crore people) are estimated to be affected by harmful or dependent alcohol use. In other words, every third alcohol user in India needs help for alcohol related problems.
• States with the high prevalence of alcohol use are Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Punjab, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa.
• States with high prevalence (more than 10%) of alcohol use disorders are: Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, and Arunachal Pradesh.

Cannabis :

• About 2.8% of Indians (3.1 Crore individuals) report having used any cannabis product within past 12 months (Bhang – 2% or 2.2 crore people; Ganja/Charas – 1.2% or 1.3 Crore people).
• About 0.66% of Indian (or approximately 72 lakh individuals) need help for their cannabis use problems.
• Though bhang use is more common than ganja/charas, prevalence of harmful/dependent use is proportionately higher for ganja/charas users.
• States with the higher than national prevalence of cannabis use are Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.
• In some states the prevalence of cannabis use disorders is considerably higher (more than thrice) than the national average (e.g. Sikkim, Punjab).

Opioids :

• At the national level, the most common opioid used is Heroin, (current use 1.14%) followed by Pharmaceutical opioids (current use 0.96%) and then Opium (current use 0.52%).
• Prevalence of current use of opioids, overall is 2.06% and about 0.55% of Indians are estimated to need help for their opioid use problems (harmful use and dependence). More people are dependent upon Heroin than Opium and Pharmaceutical Opioids.
• Of the total estimated approximately 60 lakh people with opioid use disorders (harmful or dependent pattern) in the country, more than half are contributed by just a few states: Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
• In terms of percentage of population affected, the top states in the country are those in the north east (Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Manipur) along with Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

Sedatives and Inhalants :

• About 1.08% of 10-75 year old Indians (approximately 1.18 crore people) are current users of sedatives (non-medical, nonprescription use).
• States with the highest prevalence of current Sedative use are Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. However, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat are the top five states which house the largest populations of people using sedatives.
• Inhalants are the only category of substances for which the prevalence of current use among children and adolescents is higher (1.17%) than adults (0.58%).
• At the national level, an estimated 4.6 lakh children and 18 lakh adults need help for their inhalant use (harmful use / dependence).
• In terms of absolute numbers, states with high population of children needing help for inhalant use are: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi and Haryana.
• Cocaine (0.10%) Amphetamine Type Stimulants (0.18%) and Hallucinogens (0.12%) are the categories with lowest prevalence of current use in India.
• Nationally, it is estimated that there are about 8.5 Lakh People Who Inject Drugs (PWID). High numbers of PWID are estimated in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur and Nagaland. Opioid group of drugs are predominantly injected by PWID (heroin – 46% and pharmaceutical opioids – 46%). A substantial proportion of PWID report risky injecting practices.

Access to treatment Services:

• In general, access to treatment services for people affected by substance use disorders is grossly inadequate.
• Just about one in 38 people with alcohol dependence report getting any treatment. Only about one in 180 people with alcohol dependence report getting inpatient treatment hospitalization for help with alcohol problems.
• Among people suffering from dependence on illicit drugs, one among 20 people has ever received inpatient treatment hospitalization for help with drug problems.

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(The Gist of PIB) Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) and Safe City Implementation Monitoring Portal launched (ITSSO) and Safe City Implementation Monitoring Portal launched [MARCH-2019]

Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) and Safe City Implementation Monitoring Portal launched (ITSSO) and Safe City Implementation Monitoring Portal launched

• The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh and Minister for Women and Child Development, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi here today jointly launched the Women Safety initiative of Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) in 16 States/UTs and Mumbai city.

Highlighting the importance

• People in these states and UTs can now call a single pan India number 112 for any emergency. In addition, Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences(ITSSO) and Safe City Implementation Monitoring Portal  were also launched. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Rajnath Singh said launch of ERSS is a “milestone in women safety in the country.”
• The 16 States/UTs where the ERSS has been launched today are Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, UP, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Andaman, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, J and K.
• It will be implemented across the whole country. One can dial 112 or use Panic Button on their phones or 112 India Mobile App to connect to a single emergency services number 112 which will combine Police, Fire, Health and other helplines through an Emergency Response Centre in the State.

The emergency response system can be triggered in the following manners:

• On the smartphones, the power button (which is dedicated panic button) when pressed three times quickly.
• Dialing 112 from any phone.
• In case of feature phones, long press of the touch key 5 or 9.
• Using 112 India Mobile App which is available for free downloading.
• For women and children, 112 India App provides a special SHOUT feature which alerts registered volunteers in the vicinity of victim for immediate assistance

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(The Gist of PIB) VIVID 2019 [MARCH-2019]

VIVID 2019

• VIVID-Vision Insight and Voices as India goes Digital- the District Informatics Officer (DIO) meet, was organised by National Informatics Centre (NIC).

National Informatics Centre

• NIC provides nationwide ICT infrastructure to support eGovernance services and various initiatives of Digital India.
• It is part of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s Department of Electronics & Information Technology.
• The meet is held as an initiative to interact with the DIO’s and to share their experiences as well as contribution, as the digital changemakers at the grassroot level in the States.
• VIVID started in 2017, as an annual event, with the objective to empower NIC officials in the field of technology.

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(The Gist of PIB) Guru Ravidas [MARCH-2019]

Guru Ravidas

• Sant Ravidas Jayanti was celebrated on February 19th. This year is said to be the 642nd birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas.

About Guru Ravidas:

• Guru Ravidas was a North Indian mystic poet of the bhakti movement.
• While the exact year of his birth is not known, it is believed that the saint was born in 1377 C.E.
• Guru Ravidas Jayanti is celebrated on Magh Purnima, which is the full moon day in the Hindu calendar month of Magha.
• The Adi Granth of Sikhs, in addition to the Panchvani are the two of the oldest documented sources of the literary works of Guru Ravidas.
• Notably, he belonged to an untouchable caste and suffered a lot of atrocities as a result. However, the saint chose to focus on spiritual pursuits and also penned several devotional songs which made a huge impact in the Bhakti movement during the 14th to 16th century CE.

His Teachings:

• Guru Ravidas spoke against the caste divisions and spoke of removing them to promote unity. His teachings resonated with the people, leading to a religion being born called the Ravidassia religion, or Ravidassia Dharam based on his teachings.
• He taught about the omnipresence of God and said that a human soul is a particle of God and hence Ravidas rejected the idea that people considered lower caste cannot meet God. He said in his teachings that the only way to meet God was to free the mind from the duality.

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On the front foot: On RBI holding rates (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Inflation rate
Mains level: Growth in economy and curbing inflation

Context:

• Governor Shaktikanta Das declared that the proceedings of the Monetary Policy Committee, which decided to hold rates, had already been discounted by the market.
• The RBI unleashed several measures that had an electric effect on the markets, driving down bond yields by 10-20 basis points in a matter of a minutes.

Measures taken by RBI:

• The exemption to banks from providing for cash reserve ratio on fresh retail loans disbursed after January 31 to purchase automobiles and residential houses, and to MSMEs, will help banks shave off a part of their costs.
• The introduction of one- and three-year term repos at policy rate of 5.15% for a total of ₹1 lakh crore is also aimed at prodding rates downward as banks now pay 6%-6.5% on deposits.
• The RBI has fine-tuned its liquidity management process in a manner designed to help banks manage their interest costs better.
• Banks really do what the RBI has signalled to them — transmit lower rates to borrowers — depends on various factors, not the least of which is demand for credit.
• The RBI’s statement that it would maintain an accommodative stance “as long as necessary to revive growth” clearly signals its commitment to growth.
• By explicitly saying that there is “policy space available for future action”, the RBI has signalled that there could be at least one more cut in the months ahead in this rate-easing cycle.
• The decision to extend the one-time restructuring of MSME loans, linking pricing of loans to medium enterprises to an external benchmark, and the nod for permitting extension of date of commencement of commercial operations for loans to commercial real estate that raise questions of excessive forbearance but will certainly help the industry.
• The inflation projection — 6.5% in the current quarter and 5.4%-5.0% in the first half of 2020-21 — reflects the current realities.
• The projected GDP growth of 6% for 2020-21 appears achievable, assuming that the nascent signs of recovery sustain.

Way forward:

• The RBI has gone on the front foot to boost growth in this policy after the conservative Budget presented last week. It is to be hoped that these steps will change the sentiment in the economy.

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On the front foot: On RBI holding rates (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Inflation rate
Mains level: Growth in economy and curbing inflation

Context:

• Governor Shaktikanta Das declared that the proceedings of the Monetary Policy Committee, which decided to hold rates, had already been discounted by the market.
• The RBI unleashed several measures that had an electric effect on the markets, driving down bond yields by 10-20 basis points in a matter of a minutes.

Measures taken by RBI:

• The exemption to banks from providing for cash reserve ratio on fresh retail loans disbursed after January 31 to purchase automobiles and residential houses, and to MSMEs, will help banks shave off a part of their costs.
• The introduction of one- and three-year term repos at policy rate of 5.15% for a total of ₹1 lakh crore is also aimed at prodding rates downward as banks now pay 6%-6.5% on deposits.
• The RBI has fine-tuned its liquidity management process in a manner designed to help banks manage their interest costs better.
• Banks really do what the RBI has signalled to them — transmit lower rates to borrowers — depends on various factors, not the least of which is demand for credit.
• The RBI’s statement that it would maintain an accommodative stance “as long as necessary to revive growth” clearly signals its commitment to growth.
• By explicitly saying that there is “policy space available for future action”, the RBI has signalled that there could be at least one more cut in the months ahead in this rate-easing cycle.
• The decision to extend the one-time restructuring of MSME loans, linking pricing of loans to medium enterprises to an external benchmark, and the nod for permitting extension of date of commencement of commercial operations for loans to commercial real estate that raise questions of excessive forbearance but will certainly help the industry.
• The inflation projection — 6.5% in the current quarter and 5.4%-5.0% in the first half of 2020-21 — reflects the current realities.
• The projected GDP growth of 6% for 2020-21 appears achievable, assuming that the nascent signs of recovery sustain.

Way forward:

• The RBI has gone on the front foot to boost growth in this policy after the conservative Budget presented last week. It is to be hoped that these steps will change the sentiment in the economy.

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  General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Electric vehicle ecosystem’s taking solid shape in India (Mint)

Mains Paper 2: Economy
Prelims level: Electric vehicles
Mains level: Electric vehicle market in India

Context:

• There are 4,000 EVs in India, which is about 0.1% of close to 3.5 mn cars sold in the last year

Climate concern:

• Following the Paris agreement in 2015, India announced its commitment to reduce its emission intensity by 2030.
• However, it is going to be a herculean task, unless India goes the whole hog in adopting less carbon-emitting ways, especially in the automobile sector.
• India has a long way to go where electric vehicles (EVs) can play a big role.

Electric vehicle market in India:

• India is a market that provides a tremendous opportunity in the EV space—just like it does in petrol and diesel car segments.
• The opportunity is so big that every player in the ecosystem can benefit from it.
• EVs are going to be a key focus area when it comes to providing eco-friendly mobility solutions, overall.
• Under ‘Strategy 2025’, we plan to build the capacity and capability so that we can sell 670,000 battery EVs and fuel cell EVs annually.
• We also plan to offer most of our new models with an EV drive train by 2030 in major markets and by 2035 in emerging markets.
• India will be one of the most important markets for the EV ecosystem.
• It has a set a target of 30% electric vehicles on Indian roads.
• Just like Hyundai and other automobile firms, the government is doing laudable work in creating an enabling environment for EVs. Recently, the GST Council reduced the taxes on EVs from 12% to 5%.
• Similarly, to promote ‘Made In India’ EVs, the finance minister increased the customs duty on completely built units and SKD to 40% and 30%, respectively. This will definitely boost Indian manufacturing of EVs—as we did for the Kona EV.

FAME scheme:

• Phase 2 of the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles) scheme is now gathering momentum, which again will augur well for the EV ecosystem, including charging and battery change infrastructure in the country.
• Achieving the target of 30% electric mobility by 2030 looks challenging, and investment, innovation, research and development (R&D) across the right technologies will be key. What will also be crucial is the affordability factor and more than that the mindset of the common man.
• India’s commitment towards cleaner mobility is commendable and the automobile sector has to do its bit to make it possible.
• Currently, the sector as a whole is religiously working towards implementing the BS-VI emission norms.

Way forward:

• However, this probably would not be enough, considering the millions of tonnes of CO2 emissions the sector contributes. It needs long-term solutions, which lies in electric mobility.
• The players in the automobile sector are taking various steps. From charging infrastructure to investment in R&D for EV products suitable for the Indian roads, the industry is up for the task.
• It is indeed heartening to see that all the stakeholders are working towards one common goal, which is going to shape up a cleaner world, a cleaner tomorrow!

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The billion standard (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Science and Tech
Prelims level: Universal Payment Interface
Mains level: Role of technology in and economy

Context:

• Google’s letter to the US Federal Reserve two months ago asking them to learn from Indian digital payments must be an unfamiliar feeling for the central bank.
• We make the case that digital payment transactions on the Universal Payment Interface (UPI) platform rising from 0.1 million in October 2016 to 1.3 billion in January 2020 represents the magic of entrepreneurs, nonprofits and policymakers working together. And gives us a new target — a billion transactions a day.

Background:

• India was long a financially excluded nation — only 17 per cent of Indians had a bank account in 2011.
• The World Bank suggests it would have taken 50 more years for 80 per cent of Indians to get a bank account at the pre-2011 speed. Yet, we reached that milestone in 2018.
• A magical combination of political will (Jan Dhana Yojana and Aadhaar embedding), a proactive central bank (creating a non-profit market participant entity and leveling the playing field between non-banks and banks), and a technology stack with three layers (identity, payments, and data).

UPI five policy lessons:

• How the India stack: The independent platforms or open APIs — are a public good that lowers costs, spurs innovation, and blunts the natural digital winner-takes-all. Replicating this in education, healthcare, and government services are likely to be a harbinger of large scale multi-domain collaborative innovation.
• Collaboration can create ecosystems: That overcome the birth defects of its constituents — the execution deficit of government, the trust deficit of private companies, and the scale deficit of nonprofits.
• Complementary policy interventions are important: Demonetisation and GST are changing the stories that firms and individuals tell themselves around cash and informality.
• Human capital and diversity matter: This revolution needed career bureaucrats to partner with academics, tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, global giants and private firms.
• India doesn’t need to be Western or Chinese to be modern: If our policymakers had copied Alipay or US banks, we wouldn’t have leapfrogged their birth defects.

Challenges ahead:

• The central government must deadline digitising all its payments.
• The RBI must implement the 100-plus action items arising from its own Vision 2021 document and the Nandan Nilekani Committee for Deepening Digital Payments.
• It must also make UPI and RuPay fit for use in our $70 billion inward remittances that currently come through exploitative financial institutions which don’t have clients but hostages.
• The RBI must replicate the core design of UPI — fierce but sustainable private and public competition — in bank credit because our 50 per cent credit-to -GDP ratio is one of the reasons India is poor.
• China’s 300 per cent is the wrong number, but reaching the OECD average of 100 per cent needs the RBI to do many things.
• To raising its human capital and technology game in regulation and supervision
• Catalysing an ecosystem for lending against the rapidly expanding digital exhaust of small firms and individuals,
• To issuing more private bank licences, facilitating management changes in old private banks with market caps that signal questions about book value, and
• Shepherding a governance and human capital revolution at PSU banks (their risk-weighted assets being lower than two years ago despite a capital injection of Rs 2.5 lakh crore should be unacceptable).

Way ahead:

• Converting the collective independence our citizens got in 1947 to individual freedom surely involved universal financial inclusion.
• The gap between this aspiration and reality was not a lie but a disappointment because our capital got handicapped without labour and our labour got handicapped without capital.
• Change has begun – the RBI, the finance ministry, and many individuals deserve our gratitude and duas for a billion digital payments a month.
• We now ask you for a billion digital payments a day.

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Point is to raise growth without inflation (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Monetary Policy Committee
Mains level: Role and performance of Monetary Policy Committee

Context:

• The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at its meeting on unanimously resolved to keep the policy repo rate unchanged at 5.15 per cent.
• In line with market expectations, at its sixth and last bi-monthly for the financial year, it was resolved that the accommodative stance would continue to revive growth with the inflation rate at the targeted level of 4 per cent, +/- 2 per cent.
• The monetary policy has run its full course for the current fiscal with a policy repo rate reduction by 110 basis points or bps (135 bps including the February 2019 rate reduction).

Background:

• The Indian economy has been witnessing a weakening real economic growth measured in terms of GDP at constant prices (base year 2011-12), with accelerating retail inflation measured in terms of Consumer Price Index (Combined).
• In the December 2019 print, retail inflation was at 7.35 per cent on a year-on-year basis with a high food inflation component of 12.2 per cent.
• Core inflation (excluding food and fuel) was higher at 3.8 per cent in December 2019 than that of 3.4 per cent in October 2019. Household inflation expectations, as evident from the January 2020 round of the RBI survey, declined by 60 bps and 70 basis points, respectively, for a three-month and one-year horizon.

Economic projections:

• The inflation outlook in the near future appears to be gloomy, as the MPC in its resolution has revised the retail inflation projection upwards to 6.5 per cent for Q4 of 2019-20 and 5-5.4 per cent in H1 of 2020-21.
• This has been much higher than the target rate of average 4 per cent.
• The upward revision of inflation outlook stems from the rise in non-vegetable food items (particularly milk, due to a rise in input cost and pulses on account of shortfall in kharif production); upward pressure on fuel prices (due to the uncertain global economic outlook and geopolitical tensions in the Middle-East); increase in input cost for services; and the announcement of an increase in customs duties on items of retail consumption in the Union Budget for 2020-21.
• Domestic economic activity measured in terms of real GDP for 2019-20 has been estimated at 5 per cent, according to data from the National Statistical Office (NSO).
• In this regard, it is important to mention that real economic growth has been continuously slowing down since 2016-17.
• After recording a growth rate of 8.3 per cent in 2016-17, the economy decelerated to 7 per cent, 6.1 per cent and 5.0 per cent in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively.
• Capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector as per the RBI’s Order Books, Inventory and Capacity Utilisation Survey (OBICUS) declined to 69.1 per cent in Q2 from 73.6 per cent in Q1.
• The state of the economy remains weak, with a continued negative output gap. The Budget has assumed that in 2020-21, the real GDP growth will be in the range of 6-6.5 per cent.
• However, the MPC’s growth outlook for 2020-21 is at 6 per cent — 5.5-6 per cent in H1 and 6.2 per cent in Q3 of 2020-21.

Revival of growth:

• Against this backdrop, it is important to mention that a smooth running of the economy is needed for a sustainable level of non-inflationary growth.
• This requires moving to a higher growth trajectory, with a retail inflation rate of average 4 per cent.
• The Economic Survey for 2019-20 has mentioned that the deceleration in GDP growth has to be seen in the context of a “slowing cycle of growth with the financial sector acting as a drag on the real sector”. \
• The Survey further mentions that a resurgence in growth is expected to begin in H2 of 2019-20.
• Simply speaking, conceptually, economic growth is critically dependent upon the investment rate (gross capital formation as a proportion of the GDP) limited by the savings rate (the ratio of gross savings to the gross national disposable income or GNDI).

Way forward:

• However, this could not be sustained further because of the weakening consumption demand and, more importantly, investment demand.
• The investment demand measured in terms of the increase in gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) has been recorded at 2.3 per cent as against 9.8 per cent in 2018-19.
• Economic growth could also be revived with consumption demand originating from the government, but this cannot be sustained as consumption-led growth is not tenable in the long-run.
• The transmission of the monetary policy to the real sector through lower bank lending rates has been weak so far, as the lending rate declined only by 55 bps on fresh loans as against the 135 bps reduction in policy repo rates.

Conclusion:

• The banks and the private sector are also partners of growth, and have to be proactively engaged in the process of revival. Otherwise, non-inflationary growth will remain a far cry.

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For a data firewall: On need for a data protection law (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: B.N. Srikrishna committee
Mains level: Requirement of data protection law

Context:

• According to German cyber security firm that medical details of millions of Indian patients were leaked and are freely available on the Internet.
• The firm listed 1.02 million studies of Indian patients and 121 million medical images, including CT Scans, MRIs and even photos of the patients, as being available.

Key implications:

• Such information has the potential to be mined for deeper data analysis and for creating profiles that could be used for social engineering, phishing and online identity theft, among other practices that thrive on the availability of such data on the Darknet.
• It restricted computer networks which exchange information using means such as peer-to-peer file sharing.
• The reason for the availability of this data is the absence of any security in the Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) servers used by medical professionals and which seem to have been connected to the public Internet without protection.
• Public data leaks have been quite common in India — from government websites enabling the download of Aadhaar numbers to electoral data rolls being downloaded in bulk, among others.

Need regulation:

• Unlike the data protection regulations in place in the European Union and in the U.S., India still lacks a comprehensive legal framework to protect data privacy.
• The Draft Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 is still to be tabled but could enable protection of privacy.
• The draft Bill follows up on the provisions submitted by a committee of experts chaired by Justice B.N. Srikrishna to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in 2018.
• The committee sought to codify the relationship between individuals and firms/state institutions as one between “data principals” (whose information is collected) and “data fiduciaries” (those processing the data) so that privacy is safeguarded by design.
• While the 2019 version of the Bill seeks to retain the intent and many of the recommendations of the Justice Srikrishna committee, it has also diluted a few provisions.
• The Bill tasks the fiduciary to seek the consent in a free, informed, specific, clear form (and which is capable of being withdrawn later) from the principal.
• It has removed the proviso from the 2018 version of the Bill that said selling or transferring sensitive personal data by the fiduciary to a third party is an offence.

Way forward:

• There are other substantive issues with the Bill pertaining to the situations when state institutions are granted exemption from seeking consent from principals to process or obtain their information.
• Yet, considering the manner in which public data are being stored and used by both the state and private entities, a comprehensive Data Protection Act is the need of the hour.

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(The Gist of PIB) HOPE Portal [MARCH-2019]

HOPE Portal

• National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations (NABH) has revamped Entry-Level Certification Process to make it simpler, digital, fasterand user-friendly.
• The revised process is driven through a new portal called HOPE – Healthcare Organizations’ Platform for Entry-LevelCertification with a focus to promote quality at nascent stages by enrolling a wide range of hospitals across the country including Healthcare Organizations (HCOs) and Small Healthcare Organizations (SHCOs).

Key highlights

• The aim is to create a momentum for HCOs and SHCOs that want to avail benefits associated with Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and Ayushman Bharat by getting themselves NABH certified along with the primary aim of creating a quality healthcare ecosystem in India.
• The idea of cashless payment to patients under insurance coverage has been promoted by IRDAI to reduce financial burden on households.
• The IRDAI has mandated hospitals to ensure a quality healthcare ecosystem through NABH EntryLevel Certification Process.
• HOPE is not just confined to certification of HCOs/SHCOs but also enables them to comply with quality protocols, improve patient safety and the overall healthcare facility of the organization.
• It is an online platform for smooth and secure registration. It provides a self-explanatory questionnaire to be filled by the HCO/SHCOs.
• A mobile application has also been developed to support HCO/SHCOs for directly uploading geotagged and timestamped evidences required for compliance to the standards.
• It has also changed the assessment process which is now carried out on a technology based application where the data is captured and validated on a realtime basis.

Various activities have been initiated:

• Nationwide awareness workshops to sensitize the hospitals on the entire process of assessment.
• Call center support to hospitals through an active helpline for resolving issues while filling the application form.
• Platform to connect hospitals with certified consultants for assistance in the certification process following a cost effective manner.
• Knowledge bank providing a comprehensive guidebook, presentation etc. with detailed information of the step-by-step certification procedure.
• Created a larger and stronger network of qualified assessors.

About QCI

• Established in 1997 Quality Council of India (QCI) is an autonomous organization under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• It is the Quality Apex and National Accreditation Body for accreditation and quality promotion in the country.
• The Council was established to provide a credible, reliable mechanism for third party assessment of products, services and processes which is accepted and recognized globally.

About NABH

• NABH, a constituent body of QCI, has been working to ensure reliability, efficiency and global accreditation in Indian healthcare sector using contemporary methodologies and tools, standards of patient safety and infection control.
• NABH accreditation provides assurance of quality and care in hospitals at par with international benchmarks.
• NABH has designed an exhaustive healthcare standard for hospitals and healthcare providers that have been accredited by ISQUA the apex international accreditation body.

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(The Gist of PIB) Cabinet approves proposal for Constitution of Development and Welfare Board for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities [MARCH-2019]

Cabinet approves proposal for Constitution of Development and Welfare Board for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities

• The Union Cabinet has given its approval for constitution of Development and Welfare Board for Denotified, Nomadic and Seminomadic Communities (DNCs).

Who are they?

• Amongst the most disadvantaged communities in the country are the Denotified, Nomadic and SemiNomadic Communities (DNCs).
• These communities are hard to reach, less visible, and therefore frequently left out.
• While most DNTs are spread across the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories, some DNTs are not covered in any of the SC. ST or OBC categories.

Need for protection:

• Denotified, Nomadic and SemiNomadic Communities are considered to be the most deprived sections of Indian society.
• The nomadic and semi-nomadic communities move from place to place in search of livelihood.
• As a result, they are frequently left out. Hence to address the issues related to these communities there is a need for special attention.

Challenges faced by them:

• The Denotified Tribes are communities that were listed or notified as ‘born criminal ‘by the British under a number of laws.
• The term, ‘Denotified and Nomadic Tribes’, can be traced to the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) of 1871.
• The colonial government notified nearly 200 tribal communities to be hereditary criminals, cementing their societal identity as outcasts and subjecting them to constant harassment by the administration.
• Forest laws that came into force from the mid-nineteenth century onwards deprived a large number of communities of their traditional rights of hunting and gathering. The new laws criminalised their very source of livelihood when it practiced.
• When the forests were cleared by the British for commercial use and forest communities asked to contribute to labour, some communities resisted and were declared ‘criminal’.
• The British thought that communities had lost their legitimate means of livelihood, they must have been living by indulging in criminal activities due to arrival of road and railway networks. After India gained Independence, these tribes were ‘de-notified’ from the list of Criminal Tribes.

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(The Gist of PIB) Indus Waters Treaty 1960: Present Status of Development in India [MARCH-2019]

Indus Waters Treaty 1960: Present Status of Development in India

• The Indus system comprises of main Indus River, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. The basin is mainly shared by India and Pakistan with a small share for China and Afghanistan.
• Under the Indus Waters Treaty signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, all the waters of three rivers, namely Ravi,Sutlej and Beas ( Eastern Rivers)averaging around 33 million acre feet ( MAF) were allocated to India for exclusive use.The waters of Western rivers – Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab averaging to around 135 MAF were allocated to Pakistan except for specified domestic , non-consumptive and agricultural use permitted to India as provided in the Treaty.
• India has also been given the right to generate hydroelectricity through run of the river (RoR) projects on the Western Rivers which, subject to specific criteria for design and operation isunrestricted.

PRESENT STATUS OF DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

• To utilize the waters of the Eastern rivers which have been allocated to India for exclusive use, India hasconstructed Bhakra Dam on Satluj, Pong and Pandoh Dam on Beas and Thein (Ranjit Sagar) on Ravi.
• These storage works, together with other works like Beas-Sutlej Link, Madhopur-Beas Link, Indira Gandhi Nahar Project etc has helped India utilize nearly entire share (95 %) of waters of Eastern rivers.
• However, about 2 MAF of water annually from Ravi is reported to be still flowing unutilized to Pakistan below Madhopur.
• To stop the flow of these waters that belong to India for its utilization in India, following steps have been taken:

Resumption of Construction of Shahpurkandi project:

• This project will help in utilizing the waters coming out from powerhouse of Thein dam to irrigate 37000 hectares of land in J&K and Punjab and generate 206 MW of power.
• The project was scheduled to be completed by September 2016. However, following a dispute between the state of J and K and Punjab, the work on the project had been suspended since
  30.08.2014. Consequent upon agreement reached on 8 September 2018 between J and K and Punjab.
• The cost of the project is. 2715.70 Crore. Government of India vide order dated 19 December 2018 has approved the Central Assistance of Rs. 485.38 crore towards balance cost of works of irrigated component of the project. The construction work has now resumed by Govt of Punjab under monitoring of Govt of India.

Construction of Ujh multipurpose project:

• This project will create a storage of about 781 million cu m of water on river Ujh , a tributary of Ravi for irrigation and power generation in India itself and provide a total irrigation benefits of 31,380 ha in Kathua, Hiranagar and Samba district of J&K apart from providing water for the district Kathua of J and K.
• The DPR of the project has been technically approved for the total estimated cost of Rs.5850 crore (July, 2017).
• This project is a National Project and the Central Assistance of Rs. 4892.47 crore on works portion of irrigation component as well as the special grant is under consideration. The implementation of the project will be 6 years from beginning of the implementation.

The 2nd Ravi Beas link below Ujh:

• This project is being planned to tap excess water flowing down to Pakistan through river Ravi, even after construction of Thein Dam, by constructing a barrage across river Ravi for diverting water through a tunnel link to Beas basin.
• The project is expected to utilize about 0.58 MAF of surplus waters below Ujh Dam by diverting the same to Beas basin for benefits of other co-basin states. Govt. of India declared this project as National Project.

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(The Gist of PIB) Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG) [MARCH-2019]

Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG)

• Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has unveiled its new product, the Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG), an innovative solution to meet the ever-increasing need for drinking water worldwide, today at Aero India 2019.

Key highlights

• BEL’s Atmospheric Water Generator can be used to generate water straight from the humidity present in the atmosphere.
• The day is not far when drinking water becomes the most precious commodity on the planet.
• Groundwater, currently the main source of drinking water, is being depleted at alarming and unsustainable rates even as the search for alternate water sources continues.
• BEL’s Atmospheric Water Generator employs a novel technology to extract water from the humidity present in the atmosphere and purify it. It uses heat exchanger for condensing the atmospheric moisture to produce pure, safe and clean potable water.
• The AWG comes with a Mineralisation Unit, which is used to add minerals which are required to make the water potable.
• The AWG is configurable in static and mobile (vehicular) versions and is available in 30 litres/day, 100 litres/day, 500 litres/day and 1,000 litres/day capacities.

Benefits of the AWG

• The Atmospheric Water Generator can be used to provide drinking water in community centres and public places like health care centres, schools, colleges, offices, railway stations, bus stands, airports, sea ports, offshore oil rigs, military establishments, remote field areas and remote establishments and residential complexes.
• The Atmospheric Water Generator is being manufactured by BEL in collaboration with CSIR-IICT and MAITHRI, a start-up company based in Hyderabad.
• It is on display at the BEL stall at Hall-E at Aero India 2019. BEL has, as part of the Government of India’s Start-up India Initiative, extending its support to start-up Companies.

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(The Gist of PIB) Bharatnet Programme Launched [MARCH-2019]

Bharatnet Programme Launched

• Digital Communications Commission (DCC), the highest decision-making body for the telecom sector.
• It has given an in-principle approval to monetise 2.5 lakh km of fibre laid under the government’s flagship BharatNet programme, by leasing or selling the assets to private players.

About Bharatnet Programme

• BharatNet is a project of national importance to establish, a highly scalable network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis, to provide on demand, affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all institutions, to realise the vision of Digital India, in partnership with States and the private sector.
• The entire project is being funded by Universal service Obligation Fund (USOF), which was set up for improving telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country. The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to the rural India.

About Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)

• Apart from the higher capital cost of providing telecom services in rural and remote areas, these areas also generate lower revenue due to lower population density, low income and lack of commercial activity. Thus normal market forces alone would not direct the telecom sector to adequately serve backward and rural areas.
• Keeping in mind the inadequacy of the market mechanism to serve rural and inaccessible areas on one hand and the importance of providing vital telecom connectivity on the other, most countries of the world have put in place policies to provide Universal Access and Universal Service to ICT.
• The New Telecom Policy – 1999 (NTP’99) provided that the resources for meeting the Universal Service Obligation (USO) would be raised through a ‘Universal Access Levy (UAL)’, which would be a percentage of the revenue earned by the operators under various licenses.
• The Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, 2003 giving statutory status to the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) was passed by both Houses of Parliament in December 2003. The Fund is to be utilized exclusively for meeting the Universal Service Obligation.

About Digital Communication Commission

• The Telecom Commission was set up in 1989 by the Government of India with administrative and financial powers of the Government of India to deal with various aspects of Telecommunications.
• The Government, has redesignated the ‘Telecom Commission’ as the ‘Digital Communications Commission’ in 2018.

Composition

• The Digital Communications Commission consists of a Chairman, four full time members, who are ex-officio Secretaries to the Government of India in the Department of Telecommunications and four part time members who are the Secretaries to the Government of India in the concerned Departments.
• The Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Telecommunications is the exofficio Chairman of the Digital Communications Commission.
• The full-time Members of the Digital Communications Commission are Member (Finance), Member (Production), Member (Services) and Member (Technology).
• The part-time Members of the Digital Communications Commission are Chief Executive Officer, NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog, Secretary (Department of Economic Affairs), Secretary (Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology) and Secretary (Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion).

Functions

• Formulating the policy of Department of Telecommunications for approval of the Government;
• Preparing the budget for the Department of Telecommunications for each financial year and getting it approved by the Government; &
• Implementation of Government’s policy in all matters concerning telecommunication.

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(The Gist of PIB) All India Citizens Survey of Police Services [MARCH-2019]

All India Citizens Survey of Police Services

• Ministry of Home Affairs has commissioned the Bureau of Police Research and Development to conduct a pan-India survey called “ALL INDIA CITIZENS SURVEY OF POLICE SERVICES”.

Aim:

• The survey is aimed to understand public perceptions about Police, gauge the level of non-reporting of crimes or incidents to Police.
• The position on ground relating to crime reporting and recording, timeliness and quality of police response and action, and to assess citizens’ perception and
  experience about women and children’s safety.

Significance:

• The outcome of the survey is expected to bring out useful suggestions for stakeholders in formulating and implementing appropriate policy responses and changes in the functioning of police at the cutting edge and for improving crime prevention and investigation, transformation in community policing, improvement in the access to the justice and increased appropriate resource allocation for police in a systematic manner.

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