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.
General Studies – 1
Topic: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
Difficulty level: Tough
Reference: New Indian Express
Key Demand of the question:
To write about the need for protecting intangible heritage of India.
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 about the glorious and rich Indian sculpture.
Body:
In the first part, trace the development of Indian sculupture, divide your anser in to various time period starting from Indus Valley, Maruayn age, Post Mauryan age, Gupta age and Post Gupta age. Also, cover about the development of Sculpture in South India under the Pallavas, Cholas and Vijayanagar empire.
Next, mention about major themes in India sculptures – religious Buddhist, Jain and Hindu and also mention the development of secular sculptures. Substantiate with examples.
Conclusion:
Conclude by stating a balanced view of nature of sculpture in ancient and medieval India.
Introduction
Sculpture art is one of the most ancient art forms in India. Archaeological studies have confirmed that Indians were familiar with sculptures about 4000 years before. Sculpture was the favoured medium of artistic expression on the Indian subcontinent. Indian buildings were profusely adorned with it and indeed are often inseparable from it. The subject matter of Indian sculpture was almost invariably abstracted human forms that were used to instruct people in the truths of the Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain religions.
Body
Tracing development of sculpture from ancient to medieval India
- Indus Valley Civilization: Sculpture representation started with knowledge of Terracotta and effective chiselling of stones. The Lost Wax Technique or the ‘Cire-Perdu’ process has been known from the time of the Indus Valley Civilization itself.
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- The statue of the Dancing Girl found from Mohenjo Daro is one of the finest examples of Indus Valley art.
- The figurine is about 4 inches tall. Datable to 2500 BC. It is said to be in the tribhanga it is one of the oldest bronze sculpture.
- Bronze sculptures and statuettes of various icons of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism have been found from various parts of India dating from the 2nd century CE to the 16th century CE.
- Most of the images were used for religious and ritualistic purposes.
- The metal casting process was also used for making articles of daily use like utensils.
- Gupta and pre-Gupta period: Buddha sculptures were abundantly found. The Sanghati or the robe is wrapped over the shoulders and turn over the right arm, while the other end of the robe covers the left arm.
- The clothes of the Buddha figures are thin.
- Youthful and proportionate figures.
- Pallavas: Best Pallava bronze is the Icon of Shiva in Ardhaparyanka asana (one leg kept dangling).
- Right hand in Achamana Mudra (indicating he is about to consume poison).
- Cholas (10th -12th Century): Chola bronze art is the most sought-after today in the world of art and exquisite pieces of art developed during this period. This technique is still practised in south India, particularly in Kumbakonam.
- Their World-famous work is Shiva as Nataraja where Shiva’s dance is associated with the end of the cosmic world.
- Ardhanarisvara image: Union of Shiva and Parvati is represented.
- Vijayanagar (16th century): Portrait sculpture is seen wherein artists tried to preserve the knowledge of the royal patrons for the future generation. Tirupati: There is a life-size standing bronze sculpture of King Krishnadevaraya with his 2 queens Tirumalamba and Chinnadevi.
Religion as influence in scultpure art
- It is universally accepted that art and culture is the mirror of society. Even during stone ages, ancient people used cave drawings to express and communicate their experiences and thoughts. India is a land of art and culture.
- Indian art is considered to have originated during the Indus Valley Civilization, around 2500 BC. Indian paintings during the time were often inspired by nature, and spirituality, making it stands out in terms of religious content and aesthetics, an aspect that is appreciated worldwide even today.
- Hinduism: Sculptures of Hindu deities from mythology, puranas, scriptures are depicted widely throughout the centuries.
- Buddhism: Buddhism has influenced the artists from the time of its origin and continues to inspire them even today. Ajanta caves in Maharashtra have stones carved in the shape and imagery of Gautam Buddha, depicting stories from his life. It is mindboggling to see how hills were cut to make caves, and how huge rock was transformed into huge human figurines with limited resources.
- Influence of Islam: Buland Darwaza of Fatehpur Sikri, Taj Mahal in Agra and Shalimar Bagh in Kashmir are some primary examples of Mughal art and architecture.
Conclusion
All in all, India and its art sector have a history to depict the saga of those religions. In return, these religions are known to supply space to Indian paintings, sculptures, music, or allied art in their inheritance. While religion influences art, art also features a reaction to religion. The religious influence of art has defiantly been around for hundreds of years and plays a crucial role to the history of art. These art works help folks that are trying to find peace, security, and hope. Religious paintings are expressions of spiritual themes and principles from the attitude of people who are of various denominations and non-secular groups. Religious paintings are used for both decorative and reflective purposes.
General Studies – 2
Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: dnaindia.com
Why the question:
The wait for the 10th installment of the farmers under PM Kisan Yojana is about to end as the date of release of installment of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi has been announced. A message has also been sent to the beneficiaries. On January 1, PM Modi will also interact with farmers through video conferencing.
Key Demand of the question:
To evaluate the performance of PM-Kisan in achieving its sated objectives.
Directive word:
Evaluate – When you are asked to evaluate, you have to pass a sound judgement about the truth of the given statement in the question or the topic based on evidence. You must appraise the worth of the statement in question. There is scope for forming an opinion here.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by writing the aims and objectives of PM Kisan.
Body:
First, in brief mention the various features of PM-Kisan.
Next, mention to what extent it has been able to achieve liquidity availability among farmers, help them access to cash in times of distress etc.
Next, mention the various limitations – exclusion errors, lack of timely disbursal, need for documentation etc.
Conclusion:
Conclude with a way forward.
Introduction
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a central sector scheme under the government of India which provides income support to the farmers and their families. PM-KISAN scheme was first implemented as the Rythu Bandhu scheme by the Government of Telangana where a certain amount was handed directly to the eligible farmers
Body
About Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi
- The scheme was started with a view to augment the income of the farmers by providing income support to all landholding farmers’ families across the country, to enable them to take care of expenses related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs.
- Under the Scheme an amount of Rs.6000/- per year is transferred in three 4-monthly instalments of Rs.2000/- directly into the bank accounts of the farmers, subject to certain exclusion criteria relating to higher income status.
- The entire responsibility of identification of beneficiaries rests with the State / UT Governments.
- The Scheme initially provided income support to all Small and Marginal Farmers’ families across the country, holding cultivable land upto 2 hectares. Its ambit was later expanded w.e.f. 01.06.2019 to cover all farmer families in the country irrespective of the size of their land holdings.
Success of PM-KISAN
- The revised Scheme is expected to cover around 2 crore more farmers, increasing the coverage of PM-KISAN to around 14.5 crore beneficiaries, with an estimated expenditure by Central Government of Rs. 87,217.50 crores for year 2019-20.
- Earlier, under the scheme, financial benefit has been provided to all Small and Marginal landholder farmer families with total cultivable holding upto 2 hectares with a benefit of Rs.6000 per annum per family payable in three equal instalments, every four months.
- Now the cash transfer is not linked to the size of the farmer’s land, unlike Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu scheme, under which farmers receive ₹8,000 per annum for every acre owned.
- Though what the programme offers is meagre, it promises some relief to poor farmers by partially supplementing their input costs or consumption needs.
Shortcomings reported
- Practical Difficulties: The benefits of PM-KISAN have not reached farmers in most parts of the country. There are 125 million farming households owning small and marginal holdings of land in the country, who constitute the scheme’s original intended beneficiaries.
- However, at present, the list of beneficiaries includes only 32% (40.27 million) of these households.
- Further, a majority of the intended beneficiary households are yet to receive even their first instalment of ₹2,000. Only 27% (33.99 million) received the first instalment, and only 24% (29.76 million) received the second.
- In budgetary terms, only 17% of the estimated ₹75,000 crore expenditure has been spent.
- Structural Issues: PM-KISAN offers ₹6,000 a year per household in three instalments. Broadly speaking, this amounts to only about a tenth of the production cost per hectare or consumption expenditure for a poor household.
- While landless tenants have been left out in both the schemes (PM KISAN, Rythu Bandhu) the link with land size makes the support provided by the Telangana scheme more substantial.
- Uneven implementation: Moreover, implementation in certain States has been prioritized.
- P., for instance, accounts for one-third of total beneficiary households 33% (11.16 million) in the first instalment and 36% (10.84 million) in the second.
- About half of the State’s SMF households have been covered, a total of 17 States have received a negligible share of the first instalment, accounting for less than 9%.
- Further, the scheme recognizes only landowners as farmers, Tenants who constitute 13.7% of farm households and incur the additional input cost of land rent, don’t stand to gain anything if no part of the cultivated land is owned.
Way forward
- For the scheme to be effective, PM-KISAN needs to be uniformly implemented across regions.
- Cash transfers will cease to be effective if the state withdraws from its other long-term budgetary commitments in agricultural markets and areas of infrastructure such as irrigation.
- Subsidies for inputs, extension services, and procurement assurances provide a semblance of stability to agricultural production.
- There is a strong case to include landless tenants and other poor families to the scheme.
- PM-KISAN can be formulated in the side-lines of Odisha’s Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme, which includes even poor rural households that do not own land.
- Moreover, though the scheme is conceptualized to supplement agricultural inputs, it ceases to be so without the necessary link with scale of production (farm size) built into it. It becomes, in effect, an income supplement to landowning households. Thus if income support is indeed the objective, the most deserving need to be given precedence.
Topic: Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: Indian Express , The Hindu
Why the question:
The Government has rushed the passage of the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in Parliament, also amending the Representation of the People Act, 1950 by facilitating the linking of a person’s Aadhaar number with electoral roll data.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about the consequences of Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
Directive word:
Critically analyze – 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. When ‘critically’ is suffixed or prefixed to a directive, one needs to look at the good and bad of the topic and give a balanced judgment on the topic.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by giving context about Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and what it seeks to acheieve.
Body:
In the first part, mention the need and benefits of linking Aadhar with voter ID – weeding out bogus voters, more transparency, ease of registrations for new voters, eliminating duplicity etc.
Next, write about the potential limitations of the above – disenfranchisement, procedural concerns, undermining the voluntary premise, burden of proof, Political profiling, beyond the stated “welfare” purpose of aadhar etc.
Conclusion:
Conclude by way forward for addressing the above issues.
Introduction
Recently, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed in the Lok Sabha which seeks to link electoral roll data and voter ID cards with the Aadhaar ecosystem. The bill seeks to ensure de-duplication of electoral rolls and provide multiple qualifying dates to the voters. However, there are a lot of lacunae in this bill.
Body
Need and benefits of linking Aadhar with voter ID
- This has been a demand of the Election Commission ever since 2015. The EC had launched the National Electoral Law Purification and Authentication Programme to link the Aadhaar number with the voter ID number. It said the linking will weed out multiple enrolments in the name of one person.
- This aims to curb the menace of multiple enrolment of the same person in different places.
- The seeding of Aadhar data with voter identities will allow for remote voting, a measure that could help migrant voters.
- Aadhar linking is believed to be helpful in stopping bogus voting and fraudulent votes.
Other Provisions of the bill
- The bill proposes four qualifying dates (the first day of the months – January, April, July and October) for updating the voting rolls to include those who have turned 18 as compared to only one date previously (1st January).
- Gender-sensitive: The language for registration of ‘wives of service voters’ will now be replaced by ‘spouse’.
- Changing the language from ‘wives’ to ‘spouse’ will make the laws more “gender-neutral”.
Potential limitations
- Central govt supreme: It is the Central government who has the final say in prescribing the conditions under which an individual will be permitted to enter or remain on the electoral rolls, in case of her “inability” to furnish their Aadhaar.
- This means that the Central government will decide what reasons are considered acceptable for a voter to remain on the electoral roll.
- Burden Shifting: Instead of the Government proactively ensuring registration on the electoral rolls to achieve universal adult franchise, the burden now shifts to individuals who may be unable/unwilling to link their Aadhaar to justify their retention on the rolls.
- Moreover, it will lead to the deletion from the voter rolls without any procedural safeguards since at the moment, the law does not provide for a right to a hearing before such deletion.
- Privacy Concerns: Electoral data at present is held by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in its own database and is separate from other government databases.
- The proposed linkage Aadhaar and election database will make it available to the ECI and UIDAI. This could lead to infringement of the privacy of citizens.
- The legitimate voters will be disenfranchised merely upon their unwillingness/inability to submit Aadhaar
- Identification of Beneficiary Voters: The amendment will result in political profiling. By linking electoral IDs with Aadhaar numbers, it is much easier for the Government to track any voter who has accessed welfare subsidies and benefits using their Aadhaar.
- This can be used by political parties to selectively target their messages to specific voters, using information that is not publicly available.
Conclusion
The Government must invite public opinion and allow deeper parliamentary scrutiny before implementing any new provisions. It is of utmost importance in a Parliamentary democracy like India that not just the ordinary citizens but also the elected representatives are not being deprived of their rights and opportunities. A productive debate raising the concerns as well as the significance of a proposed bill is essential to identify and eliminate the concerns a legislation may pose.
General Studies – 3
Topic: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: Live Mint
Why the question:
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a ₹76,000 crore scheme to boost semiconductor and display manufacturing in the country, taking the total amount of incentives announced for the electronics sector to ₹2.30 lakh crore, a government statement said.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about the India Semiconductor Mission and its strategic significance.
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 by mentioning the aims and objectives of India Semiconductor Mission.
Body:
In the first part, mention the various applications of Semiconductors and reasons for their shortage.
Next, write about salient features of India Semiconductor Mission and how it will help us achieve self-sufficiency.
Next, write about the limitations of the above and measures to overcome them.
Conclusion:
Conclude by way forward.
Introduction
The Union Cabinet’s decision to set aside ₹76,000 crore for supporting the development of a ‘semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem’ is a belated but welcome acknowledgment of the strategic significance of integrated circuits, or chips, to a modern economy.
The Cabinet decision to simultaneously establish an India Semiconductor Mission helmed by ‘global industry experts’ to drive long-term strategies for the sustainable development of the chip and display industry is therefore a step in the right direction.
Body
Various applications of Semiconductors and reasons for their shortage
- Semiconductors and displays are the foundation of modern electronics driving the next phase of digital transformation under Industry 4.0. Semiconductors and display manufacturing is very complex and technology-intensive sector involving huge capital investments, high risk, long gestation and payback periods, and rapid changes in technology, which require significant and sustained investments.
- The program will give an impetus to semiconductor and display manufacturing by facilitating capital support and technological collaborations.
- The basic building blocks that serve as the heart and brain of all modern electronics and information and communications technology products, the ubiquitous chips are now an integral part of contemporary automobiles, household gadgets such as refrigerators, and essential medical devices such as ECG machines.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically thrown into sharp relief the vulnerability that a range of manufacturing industries and, by extension, national economies are exposed to in the face of disruptions in the supply of these vital semiconductors.
- The pandemic-driven push to take sizeable parts of daily economic and essential activity online, or at least digitally enable them, has also highlighted the centrality of the chip-powered computers and smartphones in people’s lives.
- With the bulk of semiconductor manufacturing and supply capability concentrated in a handful of countries including Taiwan, South Korea, U.S., Japan and, more recently, China, governments worldwide have realised that it is in the national interest to treat chip manufacturing as a strategic imperative.
Salient features of India Semiconductor Mission
- Semiconductor Fabs and Display Fabs:
- It would provide fiscal support of up to 50% of the project cost for setting up semiconductor and display fabrication units.
- The Union government will work with the States to set up high-tech clusters with the required infrastructure such as land and semiconductor-grade water.
- Semi-conductor Laboratory (SCL):
- MeitY will take requisite steps for modernization and commercialization of Semi-conductor Laboratory (SCL).
- MeitY will explore the possibility for the Joint Venture of SCL with a commercial fab partner to modernise the brownfield fab facility.
- Compound Semiconductors:
- It will support fiscal support of 30% of capital expenditure to approved units.
- At Least 15 such units of Compound Semiconductors and Semiconductor Packaging are expected to be established with Government support under this scheme.
- Semiconductor Design Companies:
- The Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme shall extend product design linked incentive of up to 50% of eligible expenditure and product deployment linked incentive of 6% – 4% on net sales for five years.
- Support will be provided to 100 domestic companies of semiconductor design for Integrated Circuits (ICs), Chipsets, System on Chips (SoCs), Systems & IP Cores and semiconductor linked design.
- India Semiconductor Mission:
- In order to drive the long-term strategies for developing a sustainable semiconductors and display ecosystem, a specialised and independent India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) will be set up.
- ISM will be led by global experts in the semiconductor and display industry. It will act as the nodal agency for efficient and smooth implementation of the schemes on Semiconductors and Display ecosystem.
- Production Linked Incentives:
- Incentive support to the tune of Rs.55,392 crore (7.5 billion USD) have been approved under PLI for Largest Scale Electronics Manufacturing, PLI for IT Hardware, SPECS Scheme and Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC 2.0) Scheme.
- In addition, PLI incentives to the quantum of Rs.98,000 crore (USD 13 billion) are approved for allied sectors comprising ACC battery, auto components, telecom & networking products, solar PV modules and white goods.
Limitations of the above and measures to overcome them.
- For one, the level of fiscal support currently envisioned is minuscule when one considers the scale of investments typically required to set up manufacturing capacities in the various sub sectors of the semiconductor industry.
- A semiconductor fabrication facility, or fab, can cost multiples of a billion dollars to set up even on a relatively small scale and lagging by a generation or two behind the latest in technology.
- Even granting that India’s Production Linked Incentive scheme intends to give only 50% of the cost of setting up at least two greenfield semiconductor fabs by way of fiscal support, not much of the current scheme outlay of approximately $10 billion is likely to be left to support other elements including display fabs, packaging and testing facilities, and chip design centres.
- Chip fabs are also very thirsty units requiring millions of litres of clean water and extremely stable power supply.
- India has a decent chip design talent but it never built up chip fab capacity. The ISRO and the DRDO have their respective fab foundries but they are primarily for their own requirements and also not as sophisticated as the latest in the world.
- It may be best if the new mission focuses fiscal support, for now, on other parts of the chip-making chain including design, where surely India already has considerable talent and experience.
Way Forward:
- Given the long gestation periods and rapid technology changes, India must out-strategize on design and functionality as the end product will be out only after three-four years from the moment work begins, by which point the prevailing chip shortage would have been resolved, while technology would have advanced further.
- India needs to push for a Quad Supply Chain Resilience Fund to immunise the supply chain from geopolitical and geographic risks
- India and Taiwan have started negotiations for a free-trade agreement and setting up a semiconductor manufacturing hub in an Indian city, signalling their resolve to further expand the two-way economic engagement.
Conclusion:
The program will usher in a new era in electronics manufacturing by providing a globally competitive incentive package to companies in semiconductors and display manufacturing as well as design. The program will promote higher domestic value addition in electronics manufacturing and will contribute significantly to achieving a USD 1 Trillion digital economy and a USD 5 Trillion GDP by 2025. This shall pave the way for India’s technological leadership in these areas of strategic importance and economic self-reliance.
Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: Insights on India
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 3 and mentioned as part of Mission-2022 Secure timetable.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about the adverse effects of climate change on the planet.
Elucidate – Give 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 defining climate change.
Body:
Write about the various impacts of climate change on various regions – water cycle, rainfall patterns, Coastal areas, extreme sea level events, melting of glaciers and ice sheets, Changes to the ocean, marine heatwaves, ocean acidification, and reduced oxygen levels etc. Cite statistic to substantiate your points.
Next, write about the urgent steps that are required to combat climate change.
Conclusion:
Conclude by writing a way forward.
Introduction
Climate Change is a periodic modification of Earth’s climate brought about due to the changes in the atmosphere as well as the interactions between the atmosphere and various other geological, chemical, biological and geographical factors within the Earth’s system.
Climate change is accelerating due to global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and there is resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns.
Body
- Rising temperature and heat waves: Green House gases release by power plants, automobiles, deforestation and other sources are heating up the planet.
- In fact, the five hottest years on record have all occurred since 1997 and the 10 hottest since 1990, including the warmest years on record – 2005 and 2010.
- Increased temperatures are to blame for an increase in heat-related deaths and illness, rising seas, increased storm intensity, and many of the other dangerous consequences of climate change.
- Wildlife/Ecosystem at Risk: Increased temperatures are changing weather and vegetation patterns across the globe, forcing animal species to migrate to new, cooler areas in order to survive.
- Coral bleaching is happening in large scale due to increasing ocean temperatures.
- Ocean Acidification /Rising Seas level: As the Earth heats up, sea levels rise up because warmer water takes up more area than colder water, a process known as thermal expansion.
- Melting glaciers compound the problem by dumping even more fresh water into the oceans.
- Rising seas threaten the populated low-lying areas, islands and dense coastal populations, erode shorelines, damage property and destroy ecosystems such as mangroves and wetlands that protect coasts against storms.
- Severe droughts: As temperatures rise globally, droughts will become more frequent and more severe, with potentially devastating consequences for agriculture, water supply and human health.
- This phenomenon has already been observed in some parts of Asia and Africa, where droughts have become longer and more intense.
- Agriculture and food security: Solar radiation, temperature, and precipitation are the essential drivers of crop growth; therefore agriculture has always been highly dependent on climate patterns and variations.
Impact of Climate Change on India
- Coastal areas: 7500 km long coastline is already vulnerable to various disasters like cyclone, coastal flooding, storm surges, heavy rainfall (as seen in Mumbai) etc.
- The rise in the sea temperature and level will only increase the frequency of such hazards endangering the life and livelihood of the coastal population.
- Also, India being close to the equator will experience much higher increase in sea level than higher latitudes
- Monsoon: Phenomenon such as El Nino will increase the variability of the monsoon worsening the agricultural crisis with more than 50% area still being rain-fed and threatening the food security.
- Climate change has about 4-9 per cent impact on agriculture each year.
- As agriculture contributes 15 per cent to India’s GDP, climate change presumably causes about 1.5 per cent loss in GDP(1).
- Disasters: More weather aberrations as recently seen in Mumbai and Chennai and increase incidence of the disasters like flood and drought will threaten both rural and urban economy
- Biodiversity: Loss of biodiversity put the livelihood of the forest dependent and hill communities at risk and disturb the biogeochemical cycles that help maintain the flow of nutrient, water and pure air.
- Increase in human-wildlife conflict as observed in State like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand is another threat.
- Health: Increased disease outbreaks especially of the tropical diseases like Malaria and Dengue, heat waves aggravating the urban heat island effect and water scarcity compelling people to consume polluted water will increase the burden of mortality and morbidity.
- Migration: Rising inequalities as poor will be most affected due to climate change will increase the burden of migration and cripple the urban economies.
- Illegal migration from the neighbour countries will also cause security threats.
Measure taken to combat climate change in India
- India’s Nationally Determined Contributions
- Reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from 2005 level
- 40% of cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 with financial and technical help from other countries and GCF
- Additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent by 2030
- Enhancing investments in development programs in sectors vulnerable to climate change, particularly agriculture, water resources etc.
- Joint collaborative R&D for such future technologies
- National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC): The Action plan covers eight major missions on Solar, Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Habitat, Water, Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, Green India, Sustainable Agriculture and Strategic Knowledge on Climate Change.
- International Solar Alliance (ISA): ISA was jointly launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the then President of France, Francois Hollande in Paris on the side-lines of CoP 21 in 2015. The vision and mission of the alliance is to provide a dedicated platform for cooperation among solar resource rich countries that lie completely or partial between the Tropics of Capricorn & Cancer.
- State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC): State governments have drafted climate strategies aligned with the eight National Missions under the NAPCC. The strategies focus on issues ranging from climate mitigation, energy efficiency, and resource conservation to climate adaptation.
- FAME Scheme for E-mobility: Union Government in April 2015 launched Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) – India Scheme with an aim to boost sales of eco-friendly vehicles in the country. It is a part of the National Mission for Electric Mobility.
- Atal Mission for Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT) for Smart Cities : To make cities sustainable and increasing the green spaces in cities.
- Environment Impact Assessment: Management tool to regulate the impact of industries on the environment for ensuring optimal use of natural resources for sustainable developmen
- Applicable for major projects like infrastructure, thermal and nuclear power, industries, mining etc.
- Industrial categorization (Red, Orange, Green and White) according to their impact to maintain balance between regulation and ease of doing business.
- White industries do not require EIA approval
- Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana: The scheme provides LPG connections to five crore below-poverty-line beneficiaries. The connections are given in the name of women beneficiaries to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and conventional fuel like cow dung for cooking food, thus reducing air pollution.
- UJALA scheme: The scheme was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2015 with a target of replacing 77 crore incandescent lamps with LED bulbs. The usage of LED bulbs will not only result in reducing electricity bills but also help in environment protection.
- Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC), 2017: Developed by Power Ministry and BEE, ECBC seeks to promote low carbon growth by integrating the renewable energy sources in the design of the buildings.
- For a building to be ECBC compliant it has to show at least 25% savings in the energy consumption.
- It is estimated that adoption of ECBC throughout the country would reduce at least 50% of the energy use by 2030.
Conclusion
All nations collectively should work on climate change as the threat is becoming bigger with each year passing. Combatting carbon emissions and strictly ensuring implementation of Paris Agreement is the need of the hour. This combined with focus on renewable energy and green technology can combat climate change. Least developed nations and developing nations must be financed by developed countries with technology transfer to adapt to climate change.
Value addition
Other Measures
- Addressing the distortion in the cropping towards water intensive crops like rice and promoting agro-climatic farming.
- Increased community engagement in the adaptation measures such as in the Jal Swavlamban Yojana of Rajasthan wherein people are provided incentives to create water storage structures.
- Expansion in the community forestry and Joint forest management to contain the loss to green cover due to industrial activity.
- Decentralized water management through revival of traditional mechanisms like baolis and adoption of eco-friendly methods like ‘four water concept’ to address the water shortage. Preventing the exploitation of ground water resources.
- Investing in R&D for developing crop varieties more suited to changed climatic conditions (e.g. drought resistant) and diversification of rural economy to reduce pressure on land for agriculture.
- Investments in the agricultural value chain to reduce post-harvest losses and increase the income of farmers.
- Development of better forecasting model and climate change atlas that highlights the challenges for difference regions for evidence—based policymaking.
- Increased international collaboration for finances and technology with an outcome based approach.
- Strict enforcement of building code and expansion of rooftop solar power program to reduce dependence on the coal energy.
- Better urban planning focusing on solid waste management and public transport.
Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: Insights on India
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 3 and mentioned as part of Mission-2022 Secure timetable.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) potential to achieve sustainable development.
Elucidate – Give 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 mentioning the aims and objectives of climate change.
Body:
Write about 8 parts of NAPCC – which are aimed at ensuring both developments and combat climate crisis. Cite examples to substantiate the points as to how they achieve convergence. Hint: National solar mission is aimed achieving energy security as well as clean energy.
Next, write about the limitation of the above to tackle climate change.
Conclusion:
Conclude by writing a way forward.
Introduction
The National Action Plan on Climate change was formally launched on June 30th, 2008. The NAPCC identifies measures that promote development objectives while also yielding co-benefits for addressing climate change effectively. There are eight “National Missions” which form the core of the National action plan. They focus on promoting understanding of climate change, adaptation and mitigation, energy efficiency and natural resource conservation.
Body
The eight missions are:
- National Solar Mission
- The objective of the mission is to increase the share of solar energy in the total energy mix of the country, while also expanding the scope of other renewable sources.
- National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency
- Mandating specific energy consumption decreases in large energy consuming industries and creating a framework to certify excess energy savings along with market based mechanisms to trade these savings.
- Innovative measures to make energy efficient appliances/products in certain sectors more affordable.
- National Mission on Sustainable Habitat
- The aim of the Mission is to make habitats more sustainable through a threefold approach that includes: Improvements in energy efficiency of buildings in residential and commercial sector; Management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW); Promote urban public transport
- National Water Mission
- The National Water Mission aims at conserving water, minimizing wastage and ensuring more equitable distribution through integrated water resource management.
- The Water Mission will develop a framework to increase the water use efficiency by 20%.
- It calls for strategies to tackle variability in rainfall and river flows such as enhancing surface and underground water storage, rainwater harvesting and more efficient irrigation systems like sprinklers or drip irrigation.
- National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem
- The Plan calls for empowering local communities especially Panchayats to play a greater role in managing ecological resources.
- It also reaffirms the following measures mentioned in the National Environment Policy, 2006.
- National Mission for a Green India
- This Mission aims at enhancing ecosystem services such as carbon sinks.
- It builds on the Prime Minister’s Green India campaign for afforestation of 6 million hectares and the national target of increasing land area under forest cover from 23% to 33%.
- It is to be implemented on degraded forest land through Joint Forest Management Committees set up under State Departments of Forests.
- These Committees will promote direct action by communities.
- National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture
- The aim is to make Indian agriculture more resilient to climate change by identifying new varieties of crops, especially thermal resistant ones and alternative cropping patterns.
- This is to be supported by integration of traditional knowledge and practical systems, information technology and biotechnology, as well as new credit and insurance mechanisms.
- National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change
- This Mission strives to work with the global community in research and technology development and collaboration through a variety of mechanisms and, in addition, will also have its own research agenda supported by a network of dedicated climate change related institutions and universities and a Climate Research Fund.
- The Mission will also encourage private sector initiatives for developing innovative technologies for adaptation and mitigation.
Limitation of the above to tackle climate change
- The plan report makes no commitment to cut the country’s carbon emissionwhich should have been an integral part of it.
- Thefocal point of NAPCC seems to be solar power mission only and the government’s efforts to maximise the solar energy seemingly approve it.
- Missions related to sustainable habitat, water, and agriculture and forestry are multi-sectoral, overlapping, multi-departmental, advisory and very slow moving in nature.
- Several ongoing activities are in principle aligned with the objectives of these missions which should either be integrated with the missions or scrapped to save the time and cost.
- Another challenge is the monitoring systems, which are either ineffective or absent.
- Progress reports for NSM, NMEEE, and NWM are currently available but mapping of progress for other missions has been difficult due to their cross-cutting nature.
- The cross-cutting subjects of the missions have not yielded any positive results on grounds yet so a new approach is needed to solve this and bring the agenda of climate change to the mainstream.
Conclusion
By releasing the NAPCC, the Indian government has shown its commitment to address climate change issues and also sent a positive message to the public, industries, and civil society about the government’s concern to address the climate change issue through concerted action. Issues related to the awareness regarding global warming and climate change among the general population and the issue related to agriculture and health hazards due to climate change must be addressed strongly and effectively.
General Studies – 4
Topic: Attitude: content, structure, function; its influence and relation with thought and behaviour;
Difficulty level: Moderate
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 4 and part of ‘Abstract Thursdays’ in Mission-2022 Secure.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about cost of speaking the truth.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by writing about importance of speaking truth in civil service.
Body:
With examples mentions how civil servants are targeted for speaking truth to those in power – transfers, punishment posting, threats, suspensions and even harm to their life etc.
Mention steps to protect and safeguard those who speak truth to the authorities.
Conclusion:
Conclude that truth is cover value of country and must be spoken irrespective of who it is being spoken to.
Introduction
Honesty or absolute integrity, truthfulness and hard work without indulgences form an inherent part of the life a civil servant whose sole objective is to efficiently deliver services to the public. But the world is not too idealistic and political pressure often weighs down on an honest officer. For instance, Ashok Khemka has been transferred more than 56 times in his career. That is the price he paid for being honest.
Body
Honest decisions and truthful implementation of law do entail risks and difficulties in a society which fails to respect the rule of law in letter and spirit. Indeed, a society infected by various forms of perversions and delusions does not deserve to find absolute virtues in the instruments of State, be that legislature, executive or judiciary, which are mandated to serve without discrimination and to deliver justice efficiently without fear or favour. It thus follows that in the rat-race to grab key posts, competing claims are not necessarily based on merit; desired prerequisites at times are superseded by undesirable additional attributes of incumbents. Such carefully hidden distortions do get manifest ultimately. When the so-called ‘go-getters’ fail to fulfil their master’s expectations, the going get tough for them — and a ‘fishing and roving’ shining career sometimes suffers ‘fishing and roving’ enquiries’. Arm-twisting or blackmail is a crude expression to describe this syndrome.
Even though there might be instances of large number of corrupt prevailing over few honest individuals, it’s these few upright men that sustain the faith of people in humanity and society. They act as check against larger wrongdoings, constraining their power and also exposing and uprooting them. They act as role model for larger society to adhere to what is right. For example, Anna Hazare stood up as a crusader against corruption; T.N. Seshan, the chief election commissioner, countermanded elections in Bihar, U.P. citing mass rigging.
To preserve the ethical and moral values it is important that both means and ends are right. Trying to achieve a noble goal with unethical means impinges upon the ethical fabric of individual and society at large, prompting a person for further compromises in the future. For example; Gandhiji emphasised upon the means to be ethical through way of Ahimsa as much as he emphasised on the result, the independence.
Conclusion
Even though adherence to ethical conduct may produce disaffection from inability to reach certain short term career goals, but mere attainment of materialistic goals cannot be essence of life. Achieving goals by unfair means would prick our conscience and erode strength of character. In the long run ethical conduct always helps in achieving life’s larger goals, such as mental peace, clear conscience, strength of character and brings harmony and balance in life.
