[Mission 2022] Insights SECURE SYNOPSIS: 10 September 2021

 

NOTE: Please remember that following ‘answers’ are NOT ‘model answers’. They are NOT synopsis too if we go by definition of the term. What we are providing is content that both meets demand of the question and at the same time gives you extra points in the form of background information.

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General Studies – 1

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Topic: Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues;

1. The land revenue systems of the Permanent Settlement and Mahalwari Settlement, introduced by the British, although distinct on some fronts, had almost the same impact on Indian Agriculture. Explain. (250 words)

Difficulty: Easy

Reference: A Brief History of Modern India by Spectrum Publishers

Why the question: 

The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 1.

Key Demand of the question:

To bring out the major differences between Permanent settlement and Mahalwari settlement and to write about the overall impact of Permanent, Ryotwari and Mahawlari settlement on Indian agriculture.

Directive:

Explain – Clarify the topic by giving a detailed account as to how and why it occurred, or what is the context. You must be defining key terms wherever appropriate and substantiate with relevant associated facts.

Structure of the answer:

Introduction:

Begin by briefly writing about the nature of the two settlements.

Body:

In detail, bring out the differences between both the settlement systems – context of introduction, areas of introduction, fixation of Land revenue, collection of revenue and revision of land revenue etc.

Next, write about the overall impact these Land Revenue systems on Indian agriculture – Commercialization of Agriculture, Fragmentation of Lands, Absentee Landlordism, indebtedness of peasants and depressing effect upon the rural economy etc.

Conclusion:

Write about how these impacts led to mobilization of peasants and over a period of time, the peasant issues became a part of mainstream national movement.

Introduction

British got Diwani rights of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa in 1765. The major aim of British East India Company was to increase their land revenue collection. Consequently, their policies were aimed at getting maximum income from land without caring about its consequences on cultivators and peasants. Three major systems of land revenue collection existed in India viz. Zamindari, Ryotwari and Mahalwari.

Body:

Permanent Settlement and Mahalwari Settlement were distinct on some fronts:

Impact of British land revenue policies:

• Pauperisation of the rural economy:
  • The rural economy as a whole was affected. All the classes from zamindars to peasants were affected.
  • Many lost their livelihoods due to loss of land and right to cultivate.
• Shifting from food crops to cash crops:
  • In order to meet the high revenue demand the farmers had to shift from food to cash corps like indigo, cotton, which led them to buy food grains at higher prices and sell the cash crops at low prices.
• Food scarcity and famines:
  • The shifting to cash crops and decreasing productivity of land badly affected the society in the form of famines.
  • This led to many famines in India, causing death of millions.
• Increase in money-lending: 
  • The land settlements introduced a market economy with cash payments of revenue.
  • This led to an increase in money-lending activities, which put Indian peasants under debt, which were exploited by money lenders.
• Led to inequalities: 
  • The Land tenure system led to increase in social inequalities.
  • While rich defended their properties, the poor didn’t have any resources to do so.
  • Further due to illiteracy they were exploited by money lenders for interests.
• Handicrafts and industries affected:
  • It impacted circular economy.
  • The peasants and zamindars earlier had purchasing power to buy handicrafts. Loss of income of peasants affected the handicrafts industry too.
  • Handicrafts men resorted to agriculture that further put pressure on land.
  • The industries were affected due to lack of raw materials.
• Impact on local administration: 
  • It deprived village panchayats of their two main functions: land settlements and judicial and executive functions.
  • Thus the old politico-economic-social framework of village communities broke down.

Conclusion:

The overall impact of the all this was stagnation and deterioration of agriculture. It led to series of famines in 19th century. The unsustainable system led to series of peasant revolts. The miseries of the peasant were one of the important cause for the revolt.

 

Topic: Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues;

2. Although the Ghadar movement failed to achieve its stated objectives, it cannot be termed as a failure. Critically Analyze. (250 words)

Difficulty: Moderate

Reference: India’s Struggle for Independence by Bipan Chandra.

Why the question:

The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 1.

Key Demand of the question:

To Analyze critically as to whether or not the Ghadar movement was a failure.

Directive:

Critically analyze – When asked to analyse, you have to examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts and present them as a whole in a summary. When ‘critically’ is suffixed or prefixed to a directive, one needs to look at the good and bad of the topic and give a fair judgment.

Structure of the answer:

Introduction:

In brief, write about the Ghadar Movement and its aims and objectives it sought to achieve.

Body:

In first part, in line with its aims and objectives, write about how Ghadar movement in India and abroad took shape. Write briefly about its leaders and their attempts to overthrow the British rule.

In the next part, in detail analyze the success and failure of the Ghadarites in achieving their stated objectives. Mention about the preparation of the Ghadarites, the lack of secrecy and the suppression of the movement by the colonial government. Also, their relative failure in causing mass defections from the India army.

Mention the contributions of Ghadar movement in further deepening nationalist consciousness and ideology, the economic critique, impact on revolutionary nationalists and spread of nationalism abroad.

Conclusion:

Mention that the success or failure of a political movement is not always to be measured in terms of its achievement of stated objectives but by overall contribution and the legacy it created.

Introduction

Ghadar movement was started by leaders like Lal Hardayal, Sohan Singh, Kartar Singh & others on the foreign land in the year 1914. It started with the opposition against the discriminatory policies of host countries towards immigrant Indians and lack of support by British. Gradually, it took the shape of nationalism in the form of armed struggle. Despite its failure to achieve the stated objectives, in later years Ghadarites helped in foundation of secular national peasant movement in Punjab.

Body:

Ghadar movement failed to achieve its objectives:

• They completely underestimated the level of preparation needed – financially, organizational, ideological, which was needed before the launch of armed revolt.
• They underestimated the strength of British in India in terms of their armed and organizational might, using which Ghadar movement was suppressed.
• The movement was sustained more by the zeal and enthusiasm of the militants rather than any effective organization.
• There was also Leadership crisis, due to lack of consistent leadership. Once Lala Hardayal escaped, there was no one to lead the Ghadarites. In India after a continuous search, they found Ras Bihari Bose as their leader.

However, it cannot be completely termed as a failure:

• Contributions of Ghadar movement in further deepening nationalist consciousness and ideology, the economic critique, impact on revolutionary nationalists and spread of nationalism abroad was truly immense.
• It united the immigrant Indians for opposing and fighting against the British authorities. The Ghadar paper was published and distributed not only in USA and Canada, but it also reached to the Indians residing in Philippines, Singapore, Fiji, etc an acted as unifying factor.
• It helped in sustaining the freedom struggle post Swadeshi movement, when Congress was not much politically active. So, the flame of patriotism and nationalism was kept alive by Ghadar movement.
• The Ghadar paper was nationalist critique of colonialism and was a huge propaganda effort motivated and educated Indians.
• The movement set out secular consciousness as the leaders were from diverse religious background worked together with peace and cooperation. As, Lala Har dayal was Hindu, Ras Bihari Bose was Bengali, Barkatullah was Muslim.
• Leaders tried to give it democratic and egalitarian outlook, by incorporating people from diverse background like laborers, agriculture farmers and others. Their objective was to establish independent republic of India.

Conclusion:

Success or failure of a movement will not always be measured by its achievement or by its objectives. But by the deepening of nationalist consciousness, testing new strategies, secularism, egalitarianism and time bound executions of activities had contributed their share to freedom struggle which motivated further struggles which took place.

Value addition:

Relevance of Ghadar Movement

• The Ghadar movement can be described as tale of extreme valour, hard-work, toil which has reached the heart of every Indian settled on distant lines.
• The powerful speeches by its leaders did shape the NRI opinion against the misrule of British in India.
• It truly qualifies for a major struggle which aroused the people internationally and sowed seeds for any other future course of action.
• The immediate results would have been different had the then leaders introduced proper organization and had given more time to study the general mood of the population.

 

Topic: Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues;

3. In the history of India’s national movement, Quit India movement was by far the most radical and most divergent from Gandhian method of mass struggle. Analyse. (250 words)

Difficulty: Tough

Reference: India’s Struggle for Independence by Bipan Chandra.

Why the question:

The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 1.

Key Demand of the question:

To wrote about the nature of Quit India movement and how it radically differed from other movements making it the August revolution.

Directive:

Analyse – When asked to analyse, you must examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts and present them in a summary.

Structure of the answer:

Introduction:

Write about the start of the quit India movement which led to what some historians term as ‘August Revolution’

Body:

Begin the body by mentioning the fiery speech by Mahatma Gandhi and his calls to various sections of the population and the leadership. His refusal to condone violence.

In the next part, mention the unprecedented features that were seen as the part of the movement in terms of participation of the masses, the repression by the governments, the emergency of new leadership, parallel governments, violence witnessed, new innovative and secretive form of organization and arson caused which made Quit India movement a revolution in itself.

Conclusion:

Highlight the overall importance of the Quit India Movement which got India to the cusp of freedom.

Introduction

The Quit India Movement, also known as ‘August Kranti’, was a freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. It began on 8th August, 1942 and turned out to be one of the most popular and powerful mass movements for independence. The immediate trigger for the movement was the failure of Cripps Mission and its offerings.

Body:

Quit India movement was by far the most radical and most divergent from Gandhian method of mass struggle

• Social radicalism of Gandhi:
  • In a sharp contrast to Non-cooperation movement, where Gandhi withdrew after Chauri Chaura incident, in Quit India movement he not only refused to condemn the people’s resort to violence but unequivocally held government responsible for it.
  • Though the need for non-violence was always reiterated, Gandhi’s mantra of Do or Die represents the militant mood of Gandhi.
  • Gandhi also gave a call to all sections of the people, the princes, the Jaghirdars, the Zamindars, the propertied and moneyed classes, who derive their wealth and property from the workers in the fields and factories and elsewhere, to whom eventually power and authority belong.
  • This  indicates Gandhi’s social radicalism and shift in the philosophy of the Congress, by now people with the goals of socialism and communism have become a part of the broad-based Congress organization.
  • Mahatma Gandhi refused to condemn the violence of the masses and held the government responsible for this violence.
• The spontaneous participation of the massesin the Quit India movement made it one of the most popular mass movements.
  • Even before the formal launching of the movement, the government in a single sweep arrested all the top leaders of the Congress. This led to spontaneous outburst of mass anger against the arrest of leaders. 
• This historic movement placed the demand for independence on the immediate agendaof the national movement.
  • The spirit unleashed was carried further by Indian National Army of Subhas Chandra Bose. After ‘Quit India’ there could be no retreat. Independence was no longer a matter of bargain. It accelerated and sustained the urge for freedom and enabled India to achieve freedom in 1947.
• The movement had a local impact in some areas, especially at Satara in Maharashtra, Talcher in Odisha, and Midnapore.
  • In Tamluk and Contai subdivisions of Midnapore in West Bengal, the local populace were successful in establishing parallel governments, which continued to function.
• QIM surpassed all previous mass movements organized by Congress in its level of anti-British militancy.
  • Gandhi’s slogan of “Do or Die” stirred the emotions of people across the country.
  • It exhibited people’s fighting spirit and their longing for freedom. It also demonstrated determined attitude of Indian masses of accepting nothing less than the realization of freedom.
  • People devised a variety of ways of expressing their anger. In some places, huge crowds attacked police stations, post offices, courts, railway stations and other symbols of a government authority.
• It was a historic event. It was not merely a movement against foreign occupation but also awakening of Indian masses.
  • The history of this movement is full of unsung heroes. There are untold stories of farmers, factory workers, journalists, artists, students, educationists, religious saints and Dalits.
• Quit India movement was unique in the sense that it saw women participation where they not only participated as equals but also led the movement. There was Matangini Hazra, who lead a procession of 6,000 people, mostly women, to ransack a local police station.

Conclusion:

Quit India Movement was a watershed movement in the sense, that it prepared the ground for future politics in India. It is in the Quit India Movement that freedom struggle was owned by “We the People” who fought for India’s freedom.

 

 

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General Studies – 2

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Topic: Role of civil services in a democracy.

4. What are the drawbacks of reserving cadre posts for certain particular civil services? Examine its impact on administration of India. (250 words)

Difficulty level: Moderate

Reference: Indian Express

Why the question:

A recent report about the Haryana government’s order appointing an IPS officer as principal secretary (transport) — a cadre post of the IAS — was being resisted by the Home Department of the state government.

Key Demand of the question:

To write about the drawbacks of cadre system of civil services and its impact.

Directive word: 

Examine – When asked to ‘Examine’, we must investigate the topic (content words) in detail, inspect it, investigate it and establish the key facts and issues related to the topic in question. While doing so we should explain why these facts and issues are important and their implications.

Structure of the answer:

Introduction: 

Begin by writing in brief about cadre system and its need in civil services.

Body:

In the first part, mention about the drawbacks of cadre reservation for Glass ceiling, less choice, anomalies, talent wastage etc.

Next, write about its impact on the administration – create entry barriers, thwart competition and impact our administrative efficiency.

Conclusion:

Conclude with a way forward.

Introduction

India has a system where certain posts, both at the Centre and in states, are reserved for certain services by declaring them as cadre posts. This has resulted in exclusionary behaviour by all services to keep members of other services away. The recent case in the Supreme Court between CAPF officers and IPS officers is but one such example.

Body

Drawbacks of reserving cadre posts for certain services

• First, it acts as a glass ceiling for all the members of a service, whatever the skill set possessed by an individual member and hence, acts as a de-motivator.
• Second, since officers from a particular service have to be posted to a particular post, less than optimal choices often have to be made with the full knowledge that a net cast wider may be better from a national perspective.
• Third, it creates strange anomalies where batchmates from the same examination are promoted slower or faster just because they belong to different services, not because they are less or more competent.
• Fourth and most importantly, it prevents the government from optimally utilising the talent it possesses, especially when the government feels that there is a talent gap that it seeks to fill by hiring from the private sector.
• Finally, it makes all the services top-heavy because, in the absence of lateral movement, all members remain within the core functional area and hence need to be promoted periodically, mostly simultaneously.
• Every service has a core role for which it has been trained. For example, a customs officer is trained differently than a police or income tax officer. However, some people outgrow their core functional areas and pick up new skills along the way.
• However, the system of cadre posts ensures that they cannot fully express the skills that they may have developed. And the nation does not benefit from the skills possessed by these officers, which are acquired at the tax payer’s cost.

Way forward

• By declaring all senior positions as cadre posts, we seem to have killed the fluidity and nimbleness needed to face the challenges of a fast-changing world.
• It also gives the different services a handle to keep others away from their turf through legal challenges.
• We need to examine whether the concept of cadre posts has benefitted the nation or has been counter-productive.
• On the face of it, it does not seem to be a good human resource management practice as it reduces the universe of available choices.
• It may not be advisable to completely do away with the concept as we need specialised and trained departmental officers to man the bottom and middle of the administrative pyramid.
• Beyond that level, we may like to either make posts cadre-neutral or at the least make multiple services with relevant experience eligible for the post — a way of widening the talent pool available for the cadre post.
• Objective criteria rooted in domain knowledge can go a long way in making the selection process more meaningful in either of the two models.
• The concept of cadre posts is just one example of archaic ideas that create entry barriers, thwart competition and impact our administrative efficiency.
• Many of them have outlived their utility but continue because they help the services protect their turf.

Conclusion

It is high time we identify similar limiting concepts in our administrative dogma and seriously review them in the light of enlightened HRM practices. We need to bring the concept of “ease of doing business” into our administrative thought and practices. Only then we can optimally harness the talent pool that we abundantly possess, both inside and outside the government.

 

Topic: India and its neighborhood- relations.

5. The economic emergency in Sri Lanka is a challenge as well as an opportunity for India to improve bilateral relations with the island nation. Comment. (250 words)

Difficulty level: Moderate

Reference: Live Mint

Why the question:

Sri Lanka’s government declared an economic emergency last week amid rising food prices, a depreciating currency, and rapidly depleting forex reserves.

Key Demand of the question:

To write about the challenges posed to India because of the economic crisis in Sri Lanka and also the opportunities it presents.

Directive word: 

Comment– here we must express our knowledge and understanding of the issue and form an overall opinion thereupon.

Structure of the answer:

Introduction: 

Begin by giving context of the economic crisis in Sri Lanka.

Body:

Firstly, account for the crisis in Sri Lanka and then write about the challenges it creates for India – further alignment Beijing, Strategic Interests of India in SL, Economic ties, Infrastructural investments in various projects etc.

Next, write how India can use this as opportunity to help SL tide the crisis as part of India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.

Conclusion:

Conclude with a way forward.

Introduction.

On 31 August 2021, Sri Lanka declared a state of economic emergency, as it is running out of foreign exchange reserves for essential imports like food. Tourism, a big dollar earner for Sri Lanka, has suffered since the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019, followed by the pandemic. Earnings fell from $3.6 billion in 2019 to $0.7 billion in 2020, even as FDI inflows halved from $1.2 billion to $670 million over the same period.

Body

Sri Lanka’s crisis: A Challenge for India

• Sri Lanka’s economic crisis may further push it to align its policies with Beijing’s interests. This comes at a time when India is already on a diplomatic tightrope with Afghanistan and Myanmar.
• Other South Asian nations like Bangladesh, Nepal and the Maldives have also been turning to China to finance large-scale infrastructure projects.
• In February, Sri Lanka backed out from a tripartite partnership with India and Japan for its East Container Terminal Project at the Colombo Port, citing domestic issues.
• Sri Lanka lost the unviable Hambantota port to China for a 99-year lease. This impacts India as the port is located strategically in the Indian Ocean region, giving China a good vantage point.
• Nevertheless, Sri Lanka has increasingly relied on Chinese credit to address its foreign debt burden.
  • Many loans have been negotiated between Colombo and Chinese institutions, including a recent syndicated loan for budgetary support of $1.3 billion from China Development Bank and a $1.5 billion currency swap pact with the People’s Bank of China this March.
  • This is a concern for India, as it may push Sri Lanka more towards China.
• China’s exports to Sri Lanka surpassed those of India in 2020 and stood at $3.8 billion (India’s exports were $3.2 billion).

Opportunity to improve bilateral relations

• Nurturing the Neighbourhood First policy with Sri Lanka will be important for India, albeit with due caution, to preserve its strategic interests in the Indian Ocean region.
• The Colombo port is crucial for India as it handles 60% of India’s trans-shipment cargo.
• Regional platforms like the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation and the Indian Ocean Rim Association could be leveraged to foster cooperation in common areas of interest like technology-driven agriculture and marine sector development, IT and communication infrastructure, renewable energy, and transport and connectivity.
• India’s development partnership with Colombo has always been demand-driven, with projects covering social infrastructure like education, health, housing, access to clean water and sanitation, besides industrial development.
  • India must pursue this in spirit of Neighbourhood Policy.
• Concessional financing of about $ 2 billion has been provided to Sri Lanka through various Indian government-supported Lines of Credit across sectors (for railway connectivity, infrastructure, supply of defence equipment, security, and counter-terrorism and solar projects, among others).
  • This can be augmented further to increase their infrastructure and other requirements to make Sri Lanka self-sufficient.
• Both countries could also cooperate on enhancing private sector investments to create economic resilience

Conclusion

India’s bilateral relation with Sri Lanka has followed Gujral Doctrine which is based on non-reciprocity. India must once again step up and show its magnanimity by providing soft loans and credit lines, so that Sri Lanka can come out of this crisis. Our development agenda in Sri Lanka will also help build soft power and lead to better future ties.

Value addition

• India shares a common cultural and security space with the countries in the South Asian region especially Sri Lanka.
• Sri Lanka’s location in the Indian Ocean region as an island State has been of strategic geopolitical relevance to several major powers.
• As a prominent Asian nation with critical national interests in South Asia, India has a special responsibility to ensure peace and stability in its closest neighbourhood.
• India should shed its big brother image and actively take part to rebuild the war-torn country.
• India needs the support of Sri Lanka to emerge as a Blue water navy in the Indian Ocean and also in pursuing the permanent membership in United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
• China’s string of pearl’s strategy is aimed at encircling India to establish dominance in the Indian Ocean.
• Post 2015, Sri Lanka still relies heavily on China for Port city project and for continuation of Chinese funded infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka.
• Sri Lanka’s location can thus serve both commercial and industrial purposes and be used as a military base.

 

 

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General Studies – 3

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Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

6. How is climate change impacting agriculture in India? Discuss the steps that are needed to adapt to the ongoing climate crisis. (250 words)

Difficulty level: Moderate

Reference: Indian Express

Key Demand of the question:

To write about the impact of climate change on Indian agriculture and suggest steps to adapt to it.

Directive word: 

Discuss – This is an all-encompassing directive – you must debate on paper by going through the details of the issues concerned by examining each one of them. You must give reasons for both for and against arguments.

Structure of the answer:

Introduction: 

Begin the answer by context.

Body:

Mention the way in which climate change in impacting agriculture. Reduced yields, encouraging weed and pest proliferation. Changes in precipitation patterns, crop failures and long-run production declines etc. Cite statistics to substantiate your points.

Write about the measures that are needed to mitigate its impact.

Conclusion:

Conclude with a way forward.

Introduction

India’s agricultural sector, which contributed 16 percent of the country’s GDP in 2017, supports the livelihoods of 43.9 percent of the population. Employment in this sector has decreased by 10 percentage points within a decade, from 53.1 percent in 2008 to 43.9 percent in 2018. The sector is facing manifold problems such as crop failures, non-remunerative prices for crops, and poor returns on yield. Agrarian distress is so severe, that it is pushing many farmers to despair; about 39 percent of the cases of farmer suicides in 2015 were attributed to bankruptcy and indebtedness

Body

India’s risk profile to climate change:

• India is fortunate to have the monsoon, but it is also uniquely vulnerable to rising temperatures.
• India is ranked 14th on the Global Climate Risk Index 2019.
• With rain-fed agriculture practised in over 67% of our total crop area, weather variability can lead to heavy costs, especially for coarse grains (which are mostly grown in rain-fed areas).
• Farms emitted 6 billion tonnes of GHGs in 2011, orabout 13 percent of total global emissions. That makes the agricultural sector the world’s second-largest emitter, after the energy sector.
• With over 60% of Indian agriculture dependent on rainfall, farming is a high-risk gamble dependent upon the vagaries of the monsoons and local meteorological conditions.
• With increasing climate variability, the need for advance warning to farmers of the likely occurrence of irregular or extreme weather events is becoming urgent.
• Climate change affects all the three aspects of food security: availability, access and absorption. When production decreases, availability of food decreases. Climate change hits poor the most. They don’t have income to buy the food, so their access to it is affected. This, in turn, has an impact on health and affects absorption.
• Around 570 million farms across the world are facing the threat of climate change at present. Climate change has about 4-9 per cent impact on agricultureeach year. As agriculture contributes 15 per cent to India’s GDP, climate change presumably causes about 5 per cent loss in GDP.
• According to one estimate, they may face a 24-58% decline in household income and 12-33% rise in household poverty through exacerbated droughts.
• India has over 120 million hectares suffering from some form of degradation.
• Rise in average temperatures would significantly impact our kharif crops.

The potential solutions:

Climate-smart agriculture:

• Promotion of conservation farming and dryland agriculture
• Providing each village with timely rainfall forecasts, along with weather-based forewarnings regarding crop pests and epidemics in various seasons
• Refocussing our agricultural research programmes on dryland research, with adoption of drought-tolerant breeds that could reduce production risks by up to 50%.
• A mandate to change planting dates, particularly for wheat, should be considered, which could reduce climate change induced damage by 60-75%.
• Organic agriculture enhances natural nutrient cycling and builds soil organic matter, which can also support resilience to climate change and sequester carbon in soils.

Finance & Credit:

• Expansion of insurance coverage to cover all crops, and an expanded Rural Insurance Development Fund
• Increase in supply of credit
• Subsidized interest rates through government support
• Basic income by the government to the most vulnerable farmers, as was recently announced

Compensatory afforestation:

• India is estimated to have lost over 26 million hectares of forest land and 20 million hectares of grasslands/shrublands between 1880 and 2013. Even now, urbanisation means that India consumes about 135 hectares of forest land a day.
• Actual on-ground implementation of compensatory afforestation is required to ensure we do not lose any net forest cover.
• State CAMPAs (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority) should be mandated to meet regularly.
• State-level forest departments record keeping must be revamped, particularly on assessment and realisation of dues on compensatory afforestation activities.

Empowering the Indian Forest Service:

• The Indian Forest Service (IFS) also needs restructuring. This needs to remain a specialised service, and not be run through deputations from other services.
• In the environmental domain, the IFS needs to be given the status equivalent to the police or the army.
• State-of-the-art training to its personnel must be provided.
• Specialisation should be encouraged in wildlife, tourism and protection for new recruits.

Green smart cities:

• Cities adjacent to national parks and sanctuaries, need to be converted into green smart cities with upgraded waste recycling processes.

Van Dhan Yojana:

• The Van Dhan Yojana, as adopted by the State government in Rajasthan, can be scaled up towards building a green mission to save our non-protected forests i.e. . outside the existing national parks and sanctuaries.
• Heritage towns should be given more attention — cities like Sawai Madhopur, Bharatpur, Chikmagalur and Jabalpur

Way forward

• Prudent investments and policy reform can help make India resilient to climate change.
• Any adaptation to ongoing climate change will require climate justice.
• This can be induced by expansion of joint research and development partnerships like the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Centre, pairing India’s emerging smart cities with green cities in the West.
• India needs to decarbonise by reducing emissions, there is no doubt about that. But the West needs to pay its bills too.

 

Topic: Case Study

7. You are Commissioner of transport of a metropolitan city. You come to know that corruption is rampant across the administration in the entire department. Not only that, those officers who do not fall in line are coerced to give in by force of politicians.

You witness that many of vehicles are issued clearance without due diligence and driving licenses issues without proper testing. Mostly importantly at the check posts, overly loaded vehicles or vehicles without proper documentation are let go on paying bribe. This corruption is systemic and despite over loaded vehicles causing frequent traffic accidents, it has not stopped.

You visit the minister of transport and apprise him of the situation. He asks you to stop the corruption in the department at all costs and take any measures that are needed.

What actions will you take to remove the systemic corruption in the department? (250 words)

Why the question:

The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 4 and part of ‘Case Study Fridays’ in Mission-2022 Secure.

Structure of the answer:

Introduction:

In brief, mention the facts of the case and the major ethical issues involved along with the stakeholders.

Body:

Write in detail about the course of action that you will take to address the problem. Strict vigilance, action against errant officials, creating awareness, leveraging technology etc.

Conclusion:

Stress on the importance of change and removing corruption systemically.

Introduction

Commute in a metropolitan city is a major part of ‘quality of life’, especially with traffic congestion and long commute hours. Amidst this, ensuring safe transport by giving valid licenses to learned and experienced drivers and ensuring that over loaded vehicles do not move around the city are important factors in public safety.

Corruption in such major departments can invariably lead to inefficiency that can cause innocent civilian deaths.

Body

Stakeholders involved

• Myself as commissioner of transport
• Officers in the transport department
• General Public safety
• Bribe givers who violate legal laws endangering others.
• Transport minister
• Corrupt politicians and officers.

Ethical issues involved

• Corruption in governance leads to bad governance.
• Public trust in government is at stake.
• Safety of the general public and threat to life.
• Right to safe commute and right to life is jeopardized.
• Systemic corruption can be death spell of good governance.

Actions to take to remove the systemic corruption in the department

• Automated weighing scales to check overloaded vehicles and digitally monitoring such vehicles will lead to less corruption. Action will be taken against those who routinely pass overloaded vehicles, as it is easy to identify those personnel due to digital trail.
• Body cameras for inspecting officers can help in elimination of corruption. It will also stop them from issuing licenses to erratic and unexperienced drivers.
• Dedicated district transport officers (DTOs) will be appointed to remove middle men who cheat the public by taking hefty fees in lieu of getting license.
• Learning licenses will be issued online and tests will be simulation based assessment. This will also increase ease of getting license while conforming to the rules.
• To minimise deaths in road accidents, there will be creation of an Integrated Road Accident Data Base (IRAD), a central accident database management system, that would help in analysing causes of road accidents and devising safety interventions.
• Surprise inspections under disguise in RTO’s and at check posts will ensure that corrupt officers are held.
• Suspension and thorough enquiries on officers held for corruption will be strictly taken.
• Institutional training from time to time to instil integrity and honesty amongst ground level officials, and nudge them to provide services without enriching themselves fraudulently.

Conclusion

For efficient bureaucratic functioning of transport department, the key is to maintain transparency and keep corruption at bay in their day-to-day work. Digital revolution will hold the key to unboxing the era of good governance without avenues for corruption.

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