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Answer the following questions in 150 words:
General Studies – 1
Introduction
Narendranath Datta (1862-1902), who later came to be known as Swami Vivekananda spread Ramakrishna’s message and tried to reconcile it to the needs of contemporary Indian society. He emerged as the preacher of neo-Hinduism. Certain spiritual experiences of Ramakrishna, the teachings of the Upanishads and the Gita and the examples, of the Buddha and Jesus are the basis of Vivekananda’s message to the world about human values.
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Social reforms in Pre-Independent India by Swami Vivekananda
- He believed that socio economic change can be brought about through education. He wanted both moral and secular education to be imparted to the common man of this country.
- He established the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 to what he described as creating “machinery which will bring noblest ideas to the doorstep of even the poorest and the meanest”
- Vivekananda was a great humanist and used the Ramakrishna Mission for humanitarian relief and social work. Vivekananda advocated the doctrine of service—the service of all beings.
- Under Swami Vivekananda, the Mission was running a number of schools. It offered help to those affected from calamities like famines, floods and epidemics.
- Vivekananda worked towards educational rights for women. He laid special stress on conventional values of family life and chastity for women, but was totally against their subjection. He passionately pleaded for the extension of all educational facilities to women.
- Swami Vivekananda created a national consciousness amongst all Indians. Swamiji interpreted the significance of Indians ancient culture in the modern world.
Relevance of Swami Vivekananda today
- Swami Vivekananda’s message of nationality and universality is very much relevant in the present-day world. All people without any distinction of caste, religion, race, gender on nationality.
- Human society has to wait for centuries for the advent of a leader of mankind like Swami Vivekananda.
- Swamiji was very relevant during his time. He is more relevant today and he will remain still more relevant in the years to come and till the human civilization exists.
- His message for the present moment is that, we are going forward our true destination in spite of some appearances to the country. “India will be raised, not with the power of the flesh, but with the power of the spirit; not with the flag of destruction, but with the flag of peace and love.
Conclusion
Swami Vivekananda was a spiritual mentor to all nation and civilization. Thus, one sees Swami Vivekananda is a pioneering figure in India who has played in integral part towards shaping of modern India. Socialism, secularism, mass uplift and mass power, treating the untouchables with compassion, universal literacy, informal education, women’s liberation and inculcation of social service as a part of religious worship- these constituted the basic points for reforms by Swami Vivekananda. His famous words; “Awake, arise, and stop not till the goal is reached” – still resonated among the youth of the nation, rousing their social consciousness and kindling their damp spirits.
Introduction
A landslide is defined as the movement of a mass of rock, debris, or earth down a slope. Landslides are a type of “mass wasting,” which denotes any down-slope movement of soil and rock under the direct influence of gravity.
The Himalayas are highly prone to landslides during the monsoon season from June to September. The landslides usually occur in the altitudes between 500m to 3500m. Himalayan mountains are a result of complex geological, geomorphological and geohydrological factors.
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The causes of the landslides can be studied under the following heads.
- Natural Causes:
- Earthquakes: Himalayas are situated at the convergent plate boundary zone of two continental plates viz. Indo-Australian plate in the south and Eurasian plate in the north. Thus geologically Himalayas are highly active seismic zone and Orogenesis is still in process. The earthquakes loosen the soil, which trigger the landslides.
- Rainfall: Himalayan region receives quite heavy rainfall that leads to percolation of water in the lower layers, soil erosion, solifluction & landslides.
- Slope: The steep slopes of Himalayan Mountains are one of the major reasons of frequent landslides than any other mountain ranges in India.
- Structure: large portion of Himalayas is made up of sedimentary Rock which is more fragile.
- Anthropogenic Causes:
- Jhum Cultivation: popularly known as slash & burn type of cultivation practiced particularly in the Himalayan region.
- Deforestation & Grazing: Himalayan region is centre of huge diversity when it comes to trees & this diversity has led to indiscriminate chopping of trees. The trees help in holding the soil together, curbing the erosion and landslides to maximum extent. Increased grazing has led to wiping out of many grassland areas causing soil erosion and easy prey for landslides.
- Illegal mining & Industrial activities: The rampant commercial activities have huge impact on the sensitive zones of Himalayas. The constant blasting of rocks, increased vibrations due to drilling, boring etc. lead to loosening of rocks and soil particles in turn causing landslides when there is enough fluidity.
- Infrastructure projects: Himalayas being source of many rivers has led to construction of multipurpose dam projects like Tehri. This has affected the already fragile Himalayas. There has been increase in number of developmental projects of highways, tunnels through hills which cause stress and sheer in the surrounding regions. Example: Chenani-Nashri tunnel project.
- Unsustained Urbanization and Tourism: Increasing migration to cities has led to urban sprawl clearing the forest areas. Increased vehicular traffic, clearing of forest land to build infrastructure like roads, hotels etc. have affected the geography of the region.
- Climate change: Global warming has led to quicker melting of snow and more percolation of water within the underlying surface of hill.
The impacts of the landslides are:
- Every year, landslides in the region kill dozens of people and cause widespread damage to several villages such that they have now become almost unfit for habitation.
- They create blockades in the road network and river system, which in turn, cause floods.
- The terraced farm fields have been destroyed that cannot be easily renovated or made productive again.
- The road network remains closed for long periods causing indescribable hardship to the villagers who get their basic supplies and provisions from the neighbouring areas.
- Water sources are disrupted and choked by debris from landslides.
- The river sediment load is increased considerably, causing irregular courses and frequent breaching of the banks- resulting into unexpected floods.
- The water channels are affected from the up hillside due to which the villagers are devoid of water for irrigation purposes. This adversely affects agriculture production in the region.
The measures to control landslides are
- Structural measures:
- Stopping Jhum cultivation.
- Store Excess water in catchments areas to reduce the fury of flash floods, recharge the ground water and improve the environment. Dig runoff collection ponds in the catchments.
- Grow fuel / fodder trees in all of the common lands.
- Plantation in barren areas, especially on slopes, with grass cover is an important component of integrated watershed management programme.
- Grazing should be restricted. The grasses of industrial importance should also be planted so that there is some economic return to the farmers as well.
- Use the surface vegetative cover to protect the land from raindrop’s beating action, bind the soil particles and decrease the velocity of flowing water.
- Construction of engineering structures like buttress beams, retaining walls, geogids, nailings, anchors to stabilise the slopes.
- Non-structural measures:
- Environmental Impact Assessment of the infrastructure projects before commencing the work.
- Declaration of eco-sensitive zones where mining and other industrial activities are banned. Eco-tourism should be promoted.
- Hazard mapping of the region to identify the most vulnerable zones and take measures to safeguard it.
- Local Disaster Management force for quick relief and safety of the people affected by landslides.
- Teaching people about landslides & ways to mitigate.
- Constructing a permanent assessment team comprising scientists & geologists for better mitigation and adaptation techniques.
- Involving the local people for sustainable development of Himalayas
Conclusion
Himalayas are of vital importance to India in terms of climate, monsoon, water source and a natural barrier safeguarding the peninsula. The National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem under NAPCC is a step ahead to address a variety of issues Himalayas is facing today.
3. Discuss the impact of Social media on young women in India? (150 Words)
Introduction
Today ‘s era is the era of social media whose presence and active involvement has swiftly and widely spread the ideologies for women empowerment. Social media has become the agent of social change which helped and supported women‘s empowerment in various aspects such as mobilizing attention of glocal community towards women‘s rights and challenges discrimination and stereotypes across the globe. Social media has given platform to discuss issues and challenges of women through blogs, chats, online campaign, online discussion forums, and online communities which is mostly not disseminated or propagated by mainstream media.
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Positive impacts of social media in the lives of women
- Social media is easily accessible and it’s also the meeting point of today’s internet savvy audience.
- Women’s rights
- A concrete relationship definitely exists between social media and women’s rights
- Social media has opened doors and made everything available for everybody everywhere, thus eliminating gates and gatekeeping of any sort.
- Intrinsically, women’s rights violations and women’s rights movements have been quickly capitalized on social media’s unparalleled awareness-raising potential.
- social media has become a tool for women to campaign against issues like gender stereotyping, gender suppression etc.
- Curbing violence against women
- Internet and social media can enable activists and others to challenge myths and stereotypes as well as create new forums for the perpetuation of violence against women.
- Hashtag movements to end violence and discrimination against
- Social media is a strong platform to discuss and share views, experiences to channelize hashtag movements to stop sexual violence and discrimination against
- It is a new frontier to organise campaign or rally by women‘s rights activists to come forward and fight for gender
- Through social media, women across the globe are connected and supporting each other such as lawmakers, politicians, business owners for gender equality.
- Twitter’s hashtag function in particular allows women to easily follow issues that matter to them and forge coalitions based upon shared concerns, from immediate personal needs to calls for large-scale social change. E.g: #MeToo movement, #SelfieWithDaughter etc.
- Women Entrepreneurs
- Social media is becoming one of the most powerful tools where women can start new companies, venture or start-up as they can contact and converse with customers and consumers directly.
- Female entrepreneurs can do marketing through social media which is very cost effective and can be easily channelized.
- Social media with the help of new technology pave the ground for millions of people to find online jobs for themselves or create businesses for others globally.
- For instance, Shradha Sharma is the Founder and Chief Editor at Yourstory.com, which is an online media platform for start-ups and It is India‘s leading online media technology which has narrated more than 20,000 stories in 12 Indian languages of entrepreneurs which reaches to more than 10 million readers very month.
- Making the voices heard
- In digital platforms, the cost of participating for a cause or in a protest is cheaper. This encourages more people to participate and force governments to pay heed.
- While women still remain underrepresented, social media provides a level playing field by allowing individual voices from a wider range of backgrounds to be heard, with or without the traditional power.
- It fills up the lacunae presented by the traditional media, where women receive only 38% of by-lines.
- Global Communities
- Female-based communities are evolving in a way that cuts through particular companies and physical limitations and connects female players throughout industries and geographies.
- Because the internet bypasses so many barriers that separate us, women who were formerly isolated can now access high-profile players in their field and, conversely, build an accessible, highly visible platform for self-promotion.
- Women have historically had a more difficult time capitalizing concepts and proposals, but the interplay of social media and crowdfunding is turning that paradigm on its head.
- For instance, In July of 2020, women took to Instagram to post black-and-white pictures of themselves with the caption “#challengeaccepted”. Women who participated in the challenge would nominate another woman and tag them in the post of their selfie, challenging them to post a black-and-white picture of themselves and nominate someone else.
- Breaking barriers
- Social media breaks cultural barriers, legal restrictions, economic barriers and more, enabling the better representation of women from across the globe, even from countries following misogynistic systems.
- It has played a critical role during the pandemic in enabling the continuation of activism even amid the lockdown and social distancing.
Negative impacts of social media on women
- Women are the most vulnerable to cyber abuse like online harassment.
- Increased attention of women in social media often makes them the target of repressive activities. This results in gendered barriers for women online as in public places.
- Online offences are often normalised due to the difficulty in tracing offenders and the complexity and inaccessibility of the justice delivery mechanisms
- This creates mistrust of the public towards the justice system, leading to the further marginalisation of women.
- In this backdrop, social media has become a tool for the rapists to threaten their victims to not report the crime.
- Such platforms are used by harassers to silence women who strive to break the misogynistic social norms.
- A study revealed that a third of the surveyed women stopped opinionating online due to the fear of abusers.
- Online trolling is now going beyond the digital realm, leading to cases like suicides.
- An international survey found that 20% of women being harassed offline believe that those attacks were connected to online abuse they receive.
- Some are even vulnerable to stalkers because of their online presence. This is especially prevalent in regions where law enforcement is weak, patriarchy is strong and online trolling is commonplace.
- Fake profiles are often created for sullying victims’ reputation.
- In recent years, the internet has become a tool to discriminate against women, with a high prevalence of hate campaigns across the world. E.g. Revenge porn.
- With the worldwide restrictions due to the pandemic pushing more people online, cases of online gender abuse have escalated.
Measures needed:
- Government level:
- National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal shall be designated as the national portal under-reporting requirements in the POCSO Act in case of electronic material
- Union Government shall be empowered through its designated authority to block and/or prohibit all websites/intermediaries that carry child sexual abuse material
- Law enforcement agencies should be permitted to brake end to end encryption to trace distributors of child pornography.
- A cybercrime portal was launched in 2018 to enable citizens to report obscene contents.
- Cyber police stations and cybercrime cells were set up in each state for reporting and investigating cybercrime cases.
- Use of Artificial intelligence:
- Tools can be developed which can analyse the behaviour of every internet user. So it can help prevent the user from falling into cyber bullying.
- Developing some mobile applications that can alert parents if the child is under threat of cyber bullying.
- Prevent malware attacks by tying up with antivirus agencies.
- Multipronged approach to handle cases:
- Need to handle the cases of cyber bullying through multipronged approach such as counselling through Psychiatrist, approaching police, etc.
Way forward:
- Social media platforms have moral obligations to safeguard their users.
- They must strive towards ensuring transparent and efficient reporting systems so that people can use them to curb cyberbullying.
- Making social media platforms accountable
- Countermeasures against online trolling must be encompassed within the women empowerment policies
- Online women-specific crime reporting unit must be set up for quicker disposal for complaints regarding targeted harassment of women users of social media.
- Increasing political representation of women for removing societal inequality, discrimination and misogyny
- The cybercrimes in social media platforms are mainly addressed under the IPC provisions that deal with conventional offences like sexual harassment, privacy violation etc.
- They are largely inefficient in dealing with techno-motivated crimes, which have more impact on victims than those traditional offences due to the lack of justice.
- Therefore, the cybercrimes under the IT Act must be repealed and IPC must be modified to cover all cybercrimes, including those currently covered under the IT Act.
Conclusion:
As part of a knowledge society in the new media era, social media considerably contribute to women empowerment by offering information and education that presents women users with strategies offering better informed decision making from anywhere and everywhere which may not be possible otherwise.
General Studies – 2
Introduction
Democracy is a form of government in which power ultimately comes from the people who are governed, either through direct voting or through elected representatives. India is today the largest functioning democracy in the world.
India slipped two places to 53rd position in the 2020 Democracy Index’s global ranking, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit, which said the “democratic backsliding” by authorities and “crackdowns” on civil liberties has led to a further decline in the country’s ranking.
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Reasons for India being classified as a flawed democracy:
- Illiteracy, Poverty, Gender Discrimination, Casteism, Communalism, Religious Fundamentalism, Regionalism, Corruption, and Criminalization of Politics are still plaguing Indian Democracy.
- According to the last two reports, there is a rise of “conservative religious ideologies” in the country.
- Vigilantism, violence, narrowing scope for dissent, threat to minorities and marginalised groups has affected India’s ranking.
- The new citizenship law has enraged the large Muslim population, stoked communal tensions and generated large protests in major cities.
- the repeal of both Article 370 and Article 35A and how ahead of the move, “the government deployed a large number of troops in J&K, imposed various other security measures and placed local leaders under house arrest, including those with pro-India credentials.”
- The government also restricted Internet access in J&K.
- The NRC exercise in Assam excluded 1.9 million people from the final list, and that “the vast majority of people excluded from the NRC are Muslims.”
- Important issues like horse-trading in politics, the anti-defection law, pros and cons of post-poll alliances and discretionary powers of the governor has brought to light the various challenges facing Indian democracy.
- Journalists are increasingly under attack, with murders taking place in several areas.
- As a result of limited scope for fair reportage, the Indian media is classified as only “partially free”. This is a fact which is also supported by the “Freedom in the World Report, 2018”.
- Unlike pre-poll alliances, where the voters are aware of whom they are voting for, post-poll alliances present a new set of challenges.
- Anti-Defection law does not seem to be doing much to stop MLAs from defecting.
- Dynastic politics, lack of strong opposition at the centre and Religion based politics. Ex: Government’s decision to classify Lingayats as a religious minority in Karnataka.
- The delay in disposal of cases by the courts is a concern to people.
- Misuse of data on social media sites, privacy of users and the power of social media to influence important political outcomes.
Conclusion:
Democracy is important because it gives representation to a larger section of society in the Government. But the world still witnesses full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and even authoritarian regimes. Efforts from institutions like United Nations and nations world over are needed so that representation by citizens of various nations of the world may be met and their voices be heard. At the same time, democracy also needs to have various internal checks like independence of judiciary so that its real goals are achieved.
Way Forward
- Universal literacye. education for all, poverty alleviation, elimination of gender discrimination, removal of regional imbalances, administrative and judicial reforms and sustained economic, social and environmental development.
- A set of rules which would curb the menace of defection as well as the misuse of powers of the governor’s office is required.
- A defecting MLA must be disqualified from contesting or becoming a minister for at least six years.
- A distinction needs to be drawn whether a member is leaving a party for ideological differences or for money and power.
- In case of hung assembly, whether the governor must call the single largest party first, or a post-poll alliance, the process must be uniform across the country.
- The governors’ discretionary powers must be abolished and replaced with clear guidelines based on the Sarkaria Commission.
- Stricter data protection laws are required to ensure that political parties do not indulge in practices that involve undue influencing of voting behaviour.
- Voter education, electoral reforms and periodical highlighting of the performance (or non-performance) of elected representatives should be high priority.
- People must exercise their right to vote, participate in democracy and contribute towards the development of the country.
- The youth must be aware of the problems that the country is facing and choose the candidate who is most likely to bring about a change
- Democracy cannot survive without both citizens’ participation and politicians’ accountability.
- The promises of democracy can only be realised through collective action in civil society.
- The state must respect the articulation of the politics of voice and not just the politics of the vote
Introduction
As the Constitution of India provides for a parliamentary system of government modelled on the British pattern, the council of ministers headed by the prime minister is the real executive authority is our politico-administrative system.
Article 74 deals with the status of the council of ministers while Article 75 deals with the appointment, tenure, responsibility, qualification, oath and salaries and allowances of the ministers.
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Council of Ministers vs Cabinet
- Size: Council of ministers is a wider body consisting of 60 to 70 ministers. Cabinet is a smaller body consisting of 15 to 20 ministers.
- Category: CoM includes all the three categories of ministers, that is, cabinet ministers, ministers of state, and deputy ministers. Cabinet includes the cabinet ministers only. Thus, it is a part of the council of ministers.
- Collective Function: CoM does not meet, as a body, to transact government business. It has no collective functions. Cabinet meets, as a body, frequently and usually once in a week to deliberate and take decisions regarding the transaction of government business. Thus, it has collective functions.
- Real Powers: CoM is vested with all powers but in theory. Cabinet exercises, in practice, the powers of the council of ministers and thus, acts for the latter.
- Responsibilities: CoMs functions are determined by the cabinet. Cabinet directs the council of ministers by taking policy decisions which are binding on all ministers.
- CoM implements the decisions taken by the cabinet.
- Cabinet supervises the implementation of its decisions by the council of ministers.
- Sanction: CoM is a constitutional body, dealt in detail by the Articles 74 and 75 of the Constitution. Its size and classification are, however, not mentioned in the Constitution. Its size is determined by the prime minister according to the exigencies of the time and requirements of the situation. Its classification into a three-tier body is based on the conventions of parliamentary government as developed in Britain. It has, however, got a legislative sanction. Thus, the Salaries and Allowances Act of 1952 defines a ‘minister’ as a ‘member of the council of ministers, by whatever name called, and includes a deputy minister’.
- Cabinet was inserted in Article 352 of the Constitution in 1978 by the 44th Constitutional Amendment Act. Thus, it did not find a place in the original text of the Constitution. Now also, Article 352 only defines the cabinet saying that it is ‘the council consisting of the prime minister and other ministers of cabinet rank appointed under Article 75’ and does not describe its powers and functions. In other words, its role in our politico-administrative system is based on the conventions of parliamentary government as developed in Britain.
- Accountability: CoM is collectively responsible to the Lower House of the Parliament. Cabinet enforces the collective responsibility of the council of ministers to the Lower House of Parliament.
Conclusion
Wherever the Constitution requires the satisfaction of the President, the satisfaction is not the personal satisfaction of the President but it is the satisfaction of the council of ministers with whose aid and on whose advice the President exercises his powers and functions. Hence role of the Council of Ministers, in turn the cabinet is highly important in the Indian parliamentary system.
Introduction
The concept of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism is capable of providing a substitute to the conventional methods of resolving disputes. ADR offers to resolve all type of matters including civil, commercial, industrial and family etc., where people are not being able to start any type of negotiation and reach the settlement. Generally, ADR uses neutral third party who helps the parties to communicate, discuss the differences and resolve the dispute. It is a method which enables individuals and group to maintain co-operation, social order and provides opportunity to reduce hostility.
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Various Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms in India
- Arbitration: The dispute is submitted to an arbitral tribunal which makes a decision (an “award”) on the dispute that is mostly binding on the parties.
- Conciliation: A non-binding procedure in which an impartial third party, the conciliator, assists the parties to a dispute in reaching a mutually satisfactory agreed settlement of the dispute.
- Mediation: In mediation, an impartial person called a “mediator” helps the parties try to reach a mutually acceptable resolution of the dispute.
- Negotiation: A non-binding procedure in which discussions between the parties are initiated without the intervention of any third party with the object of arriving at a negotiated settlement to the dispute
- Lok Adalat: It roughly means “People’s court”. India has had a long history of resolving disputes through the mediation of village elders. The system of Lok Adalats is an improvement on that and is based on Gandhian principles.
Draft Mediation Bill 2021
Government of India has released a Draft Mediation Bill 2021 for promotion and strengthening of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms in India.
Positives of the bill
- The Bill recognises that mediation needs to be treated as a profession over the part-time honorarium basis it has in the court-annexed mediation schemes.
- It acknowledges the importance of institutes to train mediators, and service providers to provide structured mediation under their rules. It provides for pre-litigation mediation.
- If any urgent interim order is needed, there is a possibility to bypass mediation at the first stage and return to it after resolving the interim relief issue.
- The Bill does away with the confusion arising from the terms “mediation” and “conciliation” by opting for the former in accordance with international practice, and defining it widely to include the latter.
- It recognises online dispute resolution which came in limelight during the COVID-19.
- It provides for enforcement of commercial settlements reached in international mediation viz between parties from different countries as per the Singapore Convention on Mediation.
Concerns in the draft bill
- Status of domestic mediation:
- The Bill unwisely treats international mediation when conducted in India as a domestic mediation and the settlement under the latter is given the status of a judgment or decree of a court.
- It will be disastrous when one party is foreign because the Singapore Convention does not apply to settlements which already have the status of a judgment or decree.
- Conducting cross-border mediation in India will leave out the tremendous benefits of worldwide enforceability.
- The Council:
- It has three members including a retired senior judge, a person with experience of ADR law and an academic who has taught ADR but it doesn’t have a single mediator.
- Since they are full-time members, it is clear that none of them will be active practitioners.
- This is the field of dispute resolution which is the judiciary’s domain, but has left the Chief Justice of India from the picture for making appointments.
- Disputes not to be mediated:
- There is a long list of disputes such as fraud which should not be mediated.
- In cases involving minors or persons of unsound mind, the law provides for the court to pass orders to protect them.
- In the case of telecom, there is no provision for manufacturers and service providers and consumers to talk and resolve issues.
Conclusion
ADR has proven successful in clearing the backlog of cases in various levels of the judiciary. However, there seems to be a lack of awareness about the availability of these mechanisms. The National and State Legal Services Authorities should disseminate more information regarding these, so they become the first option explored by potential litigants.
Value addition
Key features of the Draft Mediation Bill, 2021
- The Draft bill aims to enforce domestic and international mediation settlement agreements, provide for a body for the registration of mediators, encourage community mediation and make online mediation an acceptable and cost-effective process.
- The draft Bill proposes for pre-litigation mediation and at the same time safeguards the interest of the litigants to approach the competent adjudicatory forums/courts in case an urgent relief is sought.
- The successful outcome of mediation in the form of Mediation Settlement Agreement (MSA) has been made enforceable by law. Since the Mediation Settlement Agreement is out of the consensual agreement between the parties, the challenge to the same has been permitted on limited grounds.
- The mediation process protects the confidentiality of the mediation undertaken and provides for immunity in certain cases against its disclosure.
- The registration of Mediation Settlement Agreement has also been provided for with State/District/Taluk Legal Authorities within 90 days to ensure maintenance of authenticated records of the settlement so arrived.
- It provides for establishment of the Mediation Council of India.
- It also provides for community mediation.
General Studies – 3
Introduction
A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange wherein individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger existing in a form of a computerized database. It uses strong cryptography to secure transaction records, to control the creation of additional coins, and to verify the transfer of coin ownership. It typically does not exist in physical form (like paper money) and is typically not issued by a central authority.
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Pros of banning cryptocurrencies
- Sovereign guarantee: Cryptocurrencies pose risks to consumers. They do not have any sovereign guarantee and hence are not legal tender.
- Market volatility: Their speculative nature also makes them highly volatile. For instance, the value of Bitcoin fell from USD 20,000 in December 2017 to USD 3,800 in November 2018.
- Risk in security: A user loses access to their cryptocurrency if they lose their private key (unlike traditional digital banking accounts, this password cannot be reset).
- Malware threats: In some cases, these private keys are stored by technical service providers (cryptocurrency exchanges or wallets), which are prone to malware or hacking.
- Money laundering.
Issues Associated with Banning Decentralised Cryptocurrencies
- Blanket Ban: The intended ban is the essence of the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021. It seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India.
- However, categorising the cryptocurrencies as public (government-backed) or private (owned by an individual) is inaccurate as the cryptocurrencies are decentralised but not private.
- Decentralised cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin aren’t or rather, can’t be controlled by any entity, private or public.
- Brain-Drain: Ban of cryptocurrencies is most likely to result in an exodus of both talent and business from India, similar to what happened after the RBI’s 2018 ban.
- Back then, blockchain experts moved to countries where crypto was regulated, such as Switzerland, Singapore, Estonia and the US. With a blanket ban, blockchain innovation, which has uses in governance, data economy and energy, will come to a halt in India.
- Deprivation of Transformative Technology: A ban will deprive India, its entrepreneurs and citizens of a transformative technology that is being rapidly adopted across the world, including by some of the largest enterprises such as Tesla and MasterCard.
- An Unproductive Effort: Banning as opposed to regulating will only create a parallel economy, encouraging illegitimate use, defeating the very purpose of the ban.
- A ban is infeasible as any person can purchase cryptocurrency over the internet.
- Contradictory Policies: Banning cryptocurrency is inconsistent with the Draft National Strategy on Blockchain, 2021 of the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), which hailed blockchain technology as transparent, secure and efficient technology that puts a layer of trust over the internet.
Way Forward
- Regulation is the Solution: Regulation is needed to prevent serious problems, to ensure that cryptocurrencies are not misused, and to protect unsuspecting investors from excessive market volatility and possible scams.
- The regulation needs to be clear, transparent, coherent and animated by a vision of what it seeks to achieve.
- Clarity on Crypto-currency definition: A legal and regulatory framework must first define crypto-currencies as securities or other financial instruments under the relevant national laws and identify the regulatory authority in charge.
- Strong KYC Norms: Instead of a complete prohibition on cryptocurrencies, the government shall rather regulate the trading of cryptocurrencies by including stringent KYC norms, reporting and taxability.
- Ensuring Transparency: Record keeping, inspections, independent audits, investor grievance redressal and dispute resolution may also be considered to address concerns around transparency, information availability and consumer protection.
- Igniting the Entrepreneurial Wave: Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technology can reignite the entrepreneurial wave in India’s start up ecosystem and create job opportunities across different levels, from blockchain developers to designers, project managers, business analysts, promoters and marketers.
Conclusion
India is currently on the cusp of the next phase of digital revolution and has the potential to channel its human capital, expertise and resources into this revolution, and emerge as one of the winners of this wave. All that is needed to do is to get the policymaking right. Blockchain and crypto assets will be an integral part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Indians shouldn’t be made to simply bypass it.
Introduction
India began investing in Space science and technologies in the 1960s. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has historically viewed space technology applications primarily for societal development and not for addressing strategic or security objectives. India’s space programme has grown exponentially since its modest beginnings five decades ago and has finally earned its right to be considered an established space player. Today, the value of the global space industry is estimated to be $350 billion and is likely to exceed $550 billion by 2025.,
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Future planned missions of ISRO
- Gaganyaan project: It is a crewed orbital spacecraft which is expected to carry three people into the space for seven days. o It is expected to be complete before 2022. o Recently, Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) was by inaugurated to coordinate Indian Human Spaceflight Programme (HSP) and will be responsible for the implementation of Gaganyaan Project.
- Aditya-L1: It will be India’s first solar observatory to be launched around 2022 which will be placed at the first Lagrangian point (L1) between the Sun and Earth, where the dynamic gravitational attraction between these two bodies roughly cancel out. o It will observe the Sun’s surface and atmosphere with its seven instruments.
- Shukrayaan: It is a Venus orbiter mission to be launched in 2025 with the objective objectives of studying of Venus’ surface and subsurface, its atmospheric chemistry and solar wind interactions with the planet.
- The atmosphere of Venus contains a gas that on Earth can be attributed to living organisms. With this new signs of potential life beyond Earth, many missions to Venus have been proposed.
- In September 2020, scientists have detected phosphine molecules on Venus, which could be a biosignature of microbial life.
- Scientists also use Venus as a reference to understand how Earth-sized planets around other stars evolve and what conditions might exist there.
- X-ray Polarimetry Satellite (XPoSat): It will be the country’s second space telescope, will be smaller and specialized. It will study the polarization of X-rays emitted by cosmic objects from Earth orbit.
- Indian Data Relay Satellite System: India plans for its own space-tospace tracking and communication of its space assets this year by putting up a new satellite series called IDRSS.
- A set of 2 IDRSS satellites will be placed in geostationary orbit, enabling satellite to satellite communication and transfer of data.
- It will track, send and receive real-time information from other Indian satellites, in particular those in low-earth orbits (LEO) which have limited coverage of earth.
- It will also be useful in monitoring launches and benefitting crew members of the Gaganyaan mission ensuring mission control throughout their travel.
- Chandrayaan-3 in 2022 which will include a rover and a lander to Moon.
Obstacles faced by ISRO in space activities
- Training of astronauts: India lacks training facilities for astronauts, though ISRO has demanded for indigenous training centers for its astronauts since early 2000s, no action have been taken yet.
- Large investments needed in projects and possibility of failure.
- Biosciences: While ISRO has perfected the engineering aspects of the mission, bioscience is a new field for ISRO that requires greater technological knowhow and collaboration and support from other organizations.
- Upgrading GSLV Mk III: Gaganyaan needs a large rocket that can lift a heavy capsule. Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III has been designed to inject large satellites into orbit, the launcher will now have to be human rated.
- Precision in technology: The reliability of a system has to be as high as to allow a failure rate of only one in 500 launches.
Way forward
- Creating a separate Space Commerce body that is independent of ISRO, for space-related activities or a dedicated road map within ISRO for commercial space in India.
- Promoting startups as they have potential of leapfrogging product/service offerings out of India and are scalable globally.
- ISRO providing mentorship allowing private sector to leverage technical expertise built by ISRO in an appropriate manner.
- Enactment of space legislations: To define regulatory, legal and procedural regimes with transparent timelines for pursuing space activities by private space industry.
- Draft Space Activities Bill, 2017 was proposed to promote and regulate space activities of India. It talked about participation of private sector agencies in space activities in India under guidance and authorization of Department of Space.
Introduction
Genome Sequencing refers to the method through which the order of DNA nucleotides, or bases, in a genome, the order of As, Cs, Gs, and Ts that make up an organism’s DNA are figured. The human genome is made up of over 3 billion of these genetic letters
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About Genome sequencing
- A Genome is the complete genetic material of an organism. It is like an instruction manual which contains information about the make-up of the organism.
- While human genomes are made of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), a virus genome can be made of either DNA or RNA (Ribonucleic acid).
- DNA and RNA provide genetic instructions for growth and functioning of organisms.
- Coronavirus is made of RNA. Genome sequencing is a technique that reads and interprets genetic information found within DNA or RNA.
Various initiatives by India
Genome India Project
- Taking inspiration from the Human Genome Project, this year, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) initiated the ambitious “Genome India Project” (GIP) on 3rd January 2020.
- The GIP aims to collect 10,000 genetic samples from citizens across India, to build a reference genome.
- This project is led by the Centre for Brain Research at Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science, which acts as the central coordinator between a collaboration of 20 leading institutions, each collecting samples and conducting its own research.
- Institutes involved include the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru as well as several Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
- For conducting the project, investigators in hospitals will lead the data collection through a simple blood test from participants and the information will be added to biobanks.
Indigen Project
- The IndiGen initiative was undertaken by CSIR in April 2019, which was implemented by the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi and CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.
- The objective is to enable genetic epidemiology and develop public health technologies applications using population genome data.
- This has enabled benchmarking the scalability of genome sequencing and computational analysis at population scale in a defined timeline.
- The ability to decode the genetic blueprint of humans through whole genome sequencing will be a major driver for biomedical science.
- IndiGen programme aims to undertake whole genome sequencing of thousands of individuals representing diverse ethnic groups from India.
INSACOG
- It is a multi-laboratory, multi-agency, Pan-India network to monitor genomic variations in the SARS-CoV-2 by a sentinel sequencing effort which is facilitated by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi involving the Central Surveillance Unit (CSU) under Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).
- Selected private laboratories will join the Indian SARS CoV-2 Genomic Consortia (Insacog), a network of 28 government laboratories established for genomic surveillance in the country
Evaluation of Genome Sequencing projects
- Genome sequencing helps researchers understand the arrangement of the make up of DNA or RNA. Sequencing the genome will help us understand where the certain virus for instance of SARS-CoV-2 came from and how it spread
- Participants of genome-sample collections represent diversity of the country’s population. It will help in following ways:
- The first obvious use would be in personalised medicine, anticipating diseases and modulating treatment according to the genome of patients. Several diseases develop through the interplay of the environment with multiple genes, which differ across populations.
- Human genome sequencing is important to establish a link between diseases and the unique genetic make-up of each individual. For instance, cardiovascular disease generally leads to heart attacks in South Asians. If such propensities can be mapped to variations across genomes, it is believed public health interventions can be targeted better.
- While genes may render some insensitive to certain drugs, genome sequencing has shown that cancer too can be understood from the viewpoint of genetics, rather than being seen as a disease of certain organs.
- Another advantage of genome sequencing is that information regarding drug efficacy or adverse effects of drug use can be obtained. Drugs developed in the Western world and sold in India are pricey and may not be effective on the Indian gene. Mapping of India’s genetic landscape is critical for next generation medicine.
- It will enhance India’s scientific capabilities. Next step would be genome sequencing of crops that would help in better understanding of the genetic basis of susceptibility of crops to blights, rusts and pests. It may become possible to deter them genetically, and reduce dependence on chemicals.
- Global science would also benefit from genome sequencing, which would provide data useful for the mapping of the spread and migration of a range of life forms in the old World and thus would help in better understanding of human evolution.
Conclusion
WHO asserted that more the virus spreads, higher are chances of mutations and new strains to come up, so it is important to vaccinate a critical mass of people to break the chain of transmission at soon as possible and till then it is essential to follow preventive measures like social distancing, hand hygiene, wearing masks and taking the vaccine to avoid infections.
Introduction
The national security threats that India confronts today are much more diverse and complex than ever before. These threats range from nuclear-armed adversaries like China and Pakistan, to Maoists, and militancy and terrorism arising from within its borders and beyond. The question that we must ask is whether the country has a strategic measure of these challenges and the willingness and ability to confront them and, if required, pre-empt them. The tasks before India’s intelligence community are similar to those that are confronted by their counterparts across the world: they relate to strategic intelligence, anticipatory intelligence, current operations, cyber intelligence, counterterrorism, counter proliferation and counter intelligence.
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Multi Agency Centre (MAC) is a common counter-terrorism grid under the Intelligence Bureau that was made operational in 2001 following the Kargil War. As many as 28 organisations, including the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), armed forces and State police, are part of the platform. The Union government has asked the States to share more intelligence inputs through the MAC.
Need for comprehensive and coordinated approach among its security agencies
- India suffers from inadequate inter-agency coordination which, in turn, leads to lack of effective intelligence monitoring and security response.
- States are often reluctant to share information on the platform.
- There are several gaps in sharing critical information at the right time.
- Plans are afoot for more than a decade to link the system up to the district level.
- Co-ordination and tasking in need of improvement amongst intelligence agencies and between state and Central agencies
- Intelligence collection is ad-hoc in the absence of clear-cut requirements from the consumers of intelligence
- Poor cadre management and inability to recruit qualified language specialists and technical skills result in a shortage of personnel
- Lack of intellectual capacity and investment in education system exacerbate recruitment shortfalls in intelligence agencies. Engaging private players for specialist tasks is therefore necessary.
- Agencies suffer from chronic shortage of military expertise Big data analytics capabilities need to be commissioned and customised for the Indian context
- Special forces capabilities need to be ramped up and their concept of use ‘married’ with the capabilities of intelligence agencies
- China’s growth and the multiplication of its capabilities requires a more focused effort in TECHINT (Technical Intelligence) and HUMINT (Human Intelligence)
- There has been, over the years, a duplication of resources and capabilities, mainly because of ineffective coordination.
- The R&AW and the Aviation Research Centre (ARC) both are gathering electronic intelligence on China albeit on different platforms.
- The NTRO is now designated as the nodal agency for technical intelligence, but it is yet to gain control of all or acquire assets for other
- Lack of political attention and effective guidance has prevented reform and optimal functioning of the intelligence system
Way forward
- To improve the level of coordination, inter-operability amongst the agencies must be enhanced.
- There exists a necessity to co-opt the private sector in intelligence work to make up for the shortfall
- Political attention and leadership which is attuned to the security needs of the country, as well as possessing a nuanced understanding of the ways of bureaucracy
- While there exists a necessity to create additional capabilities, duplication of assets and capabilities must be rationalised given the economic costs
- Terrorism has moved beyond the physical space to the digital space. In this context, the gathering of intelligence needs to become multi-faceted as well.
- India should build robust systems to ensure uninterrupted and safe operations of the country’s digital infrastructure.
- There is a need for one agency to focus on open source information and internet-based communications which will cover all mediums, including newspapers, radio, the internet and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
- Collaboration between government, media and public to raise awareness about anti-terrorism.
Conclusion
It is imperative that intelligence agencies and the armed forces develop the capacity to deal with unpredictable threats. This calls for urgent and comprehensive reform and restructuring of the intelligence apparatus. The initiative must come from the political leadership committed to secure the country’s strategic interests in the face of phenomenal and often unexpected challenges.
Answer the following questions in 250 words:
General Studies – 1
Introduction
Indian Science and technology, including astronomy has a long history and was a Vedanga, an auxiliary discipline associated with the study of the Vedas, dating back to 1,500 BCE or earlier. Varahamihira, Aryabhata, Bhaskara, Brahmagupta and others were astronomers who even mention their scientific instruments. Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur constructed five Jantar Mantars in New Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Mathura and Varanasi. They give us a good idea of the early scientific tools.
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Background
- Indian science and technology began at Mehrgarh (now in Pakistan) and continued throughout the country’s history.
- People developed different systems of agriculture, irrigation, canals and water storage systems, including artificial lakes, by 3,000 BCE.
- Cotton was cultivated by 5,000–4,000 BCE. They farmed with animal-drawn ploughs in the Indus Civilisation in 2,500 BCE.
- The people of the Indus-Sarasvati region used weights and measures. Large numbers are used in the Vedas.
- The earliest-known dock in the world, which could berth and service ships, was situated at Lothal in Gujarat.
- Indian metallurgy was very advanced. Steel was made in India from 500 BCE. King Porus gifted Alexander a steel sword in 326 BCE.
- The iron pillar located in Delhi is seven metres high and has never rusted.
- Over 5,000 years ago, there were dentists in the Indus-Sarasvati region.
- A modern scientist who was looking at the teeth of people who had died there long ago found that ancient dentists had drilled teeth as far back as 9,000 years ago.
Science and Technology in ancient India
- Baudhayana in 800 BCE calculated the value of pi and discovered what is now known as the Pythagoras’ theorem. Pythagoras lived in sixth century BCE Greece; and the third century CE sophist Philostratus says that Pythagoras studied under Hindu sages or gymnosophists in India.
- Brahmagupta lived in seventh century Ujjain and wrote several books on mathematics and astronomy. India was the source of the number system, now called the Arabic numerals because the Arabs took it everywhere. This number system is a feat of genius. It enables all numbers to be expressed with just ten symbols—the numbers 1 through 9 and the symbol for zero.
- Brahmagupta was the first to discuss zero as a number and established the basic mathematical rules for it.
- He did a lot of work in geometry, trigonometry and discovered new theorems. He also explained how to find cubes, cube roots, squares and square roots.
- Bhaskaracharya wrote about arithmetic, geometry, algebra and calculus. Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz are given credit for being the first to introduce calculus, but Bhaskaracharya had written about it 500 years earlier.
- Sushruta was a great surgeon who used 125 different surgical instruments and herbal sprays before an operation to prevent sepsis. His greatest contribution was in the fields of plastic surgery and cataract removal.
- Charaka wrote about herbal treatments that Indians are just rediscovering.
- In 300 BCE, Patanjali codified the Yoga sutras.
- In 200 BCE, Kanada wrote about gravity and that the universe is made up of atoms.
- Nagarjuna was a great metallurgist and chemist.
Relevance today
- All these inventions became a foundation for future inventions and discoveries.
- Their contribution in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, metallurgy, chemistry havemade an impact on modem scientists.
- It is clear that progress of science and technology in India has been quite significant. Many new methods, products and better-quality goods have been developed in the country.
- India has made rapid progress in the frontier areas of science and technology like space research and atomic energy.
- At present the country has a strong base in modern technology. It also has the third largest scientific and technical manpower in the world
Conclusion
It is clear that progress of science and technology in India has been quite significant. Many new methods, products and better quality goods have been developed in the country. India has made rapid progress in the frontier areas of science and technology like space research and atomic energy. At present the country has a strong base in modem technology. It also has the third largest scientific and technical manpower in the world.
Introduction
Monsoons are seasonal winds which reverse their direction with the change of season. The monsoon is a double system of seasonal winds. They flow from sea to land during the summer and from land to sea during winter. Monsoons are peculiar to Indian Subcontinent, South East Asia, parts of Central Western Africa etc. Indian Monsoons are Convection cells on a very large scale. They are periodic or secondary winds which seasonal reversal in wind direction.
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Seasonal variation in the India monsoons
Late withdrawal and erratic progress of the monsoon winds over the country in recent years
- IMD studies have shown that last 10 years in a row that the primary rainfall season of the country will be withdrawing later than normal.
- The season’s rainfall for IMD ends September 30, when it changes its categorisation of rainfall from monsoon (June to September) to post monsoon (October to December).
- The actual rainfall has not yet stopped. Eighteen states have received excess (20 to 59 per cent excess) or large excess rains (greater than 60 per cent excess) in the first week of October.
- This happened mainly because of a series of five low pressure areas that formed in the Bay of Bengal and moved in a generally westward-north westward direction.
- Two of these systems further intensified to a deep depression and Cyclone Gulab over the Bay of Bengal, before hitting land and causing torrents of rain over eastern, central and western India.
- Factors like a developing La Nina phenomenon in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, favourable conditions of the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and the Madden Julian Oscillation may still be the cause for the continuing October rainfall.
Conclusion
Monsoon does play a big role in India. It has social, political, as well as economic implications. Thus, monsoon doesn’t only affect the crops but all the industries in the country. The monsoon-dependent Indian economy needs climate-sensitive budgeting. The excessive dependence on monsoon may be mitigated by the construction of modern irrigation canals, afforestation, and diversification of Indian industries.
Introduction
Communalism is basically an ideology which consists of three elements:
- A belief that people who follow the same religion have common secular interests i.e. they have same political, economic and social interests. So, here socio- political communalities arise.
- A notion that, in a multi-religious society like India, these common secular interests of one religion is dissimilar and divergent from the interests of the follower of another religion.
- The interests of the follower of the different religion or of different ‘communities’ are seen to be completely incompatible, antagonist and hostile.
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Constitutionalism promoting equality and fraternity
The concept of constitutionalism is a mechanism that provides legitimacy to a democratic government. It cannot and should not be confused with the legality of the acts of the officials in a government setup. Constitutionalism is far more important than having a written Constitution.
- The principles of liberty, equality and fraternity formed the core of Ambedkar’s constitutionalism. He considered fraternity to be “only another name for democracy”.
- He considered fraternity to be “only another name for democracy”.
- According to him, democracy was not “merely a form of Government”, but “essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellowmen.”
Provisions in Indian constitution to promote equality and fraternity
- Article 15 (1) prohibits the state from the discrimination against any citizen on the grounds of religion, caste, race, place of birth and sex.
- Article 15 (2) states that no citizen shall be subjected to any disability, restriction, or condition regarding the access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and place of public entertainment or the use of wells, tanks, bathing Ghats, roads and places of public resort, maintained wholly or partially out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public.
- Article 25: This article refers to the freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion. The sub clause (1) of this article states that: “subject to public order, morality and health and to other provisions of this part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice ad propagate a religion”.
- Article 28: Under the article it is stated that the freedom as to the attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in certain educational institutions.
- These articles from Article 25-28 states about religious rights of every individual who is a citizen of India.
- But these articles are quite relevant in this era where religious persecutions towards minorities takes place.
- Article 30: This article states that the minorities shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutes of their choice. Unlike article 29, this article is only applicable to linguistic or religious minorities.
- Article 350-B: This article was inserted for the appointment of special officer for minorities by the president to investigate and carry out activities related to safeguarding the rights of linguistic minorities.
Steps to be taken to prevent communalism
- Economic:
- Poverty is one of the major factors for communal violence. Poverty alleviation measures are thus important for promoting communal harmony.
- Eradicating the problem of unemployment among the youths, illiteracy and poverty and that too with honesty and without any discrimination.
- Reducing educational and economic backwardness of minorities like Muslims.
- This can uplift their socio-economic status and reduce their deprivation compared to Hindus
- Social:
- The religious leaders and preachers should promote rational and practical things through religion promoting peace and security.
- Children in schools must be taught through textbooks and pamphlets to maintain brotherhood and respect for all religions
- Creating awareness in the society about the ill effects of communism through mass media
- Political:
- Political communism should be avoided recent Supreme court’s directives
- Identification and mapping of riot prone areas. For Example, Delhi police used drones to monitor to maintain vigil during communal festivals
- Media, movies and other cultural platforms can be influential in promoting peace and harmony.
- Social Media should be monitored for violent and repulsive content and taken off immediately.
- Recommendations of Committee on National Integration
- Joint celebration of community festivals
- Observing restraint by Hindus while taking processions before the mosques
- Formation of peace and brotherhood communities at local level to prevent anti-social elements from engaging in communal riots
- Respect for religious customs, rituals and practices
Conclusion
In a vast country like India which is made up of diverse cultures, backgrounds, religions, identities etc. it really requires to maintain a sense of equality among its citizen to provide a meaning to the term democracy. The core reason behind all these discrimination are based on the nature of unacceptance of diversities. We tend to commit heinous crimes to eradicate the population which chooses a different set of traditions to follow. But these intolerance can lead India to get collapsed from being a secular country to communal. And India is known to the world by the term “diversity”. It is beautiful when the people irrespective of their differences are co-existing.
General Studies – 2
Introduction
The term hate speech is understood as any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender or other identity factor.
The Law Commission, in its 267th report on hate speech, said such utterances have the potential to provoke individuals and society to commit acts of terrorism, genocide, and ethnic cleansing.
There is no international legal definition of hate speech, and the characterization of what is ‘hateful’ is controversial and disputed.
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Impact on the society
- Hate speech is a discursive process of pushing marginalised groups outside of social, economic and political spheres of society by disseminating hate propaganda and encouraging discrimination.
- At its most harmful, it is widely recognized as a precursor to ethnic cleansing.
- Internal Security: The Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013 was triggered by a fake video that incited communal passions. In the West, hate speech combined with fake news on minorities has induced an anti-immigration sentiment (e.g. : France, Italy, Greece)
- User homophily and Bubble phenomenon: Users with matching political views exchange one-sided information and opinions that suit their own convictions, reinforcing them even further, even if those were based on false information. E.g. : Twitter prompts users to follow those who express similar views or posts.
- Igniting extremist sentiments: Fake news’ perpetuates, previously locally found, extremist ideas and groups together dangerously like-minded people e.g. – Neo-Nazis in Germany, Separatists in Kashmir.
- Mob lynching: Rumours of child lifting in Jharkhand led to mob lynching on innocent victims.
- Violence: An atmosphere of violence and chaos is created directly or indirectly. The Christchurch Terror attack on a mosque by an extremist was a result of Islamophobia (a direct result of hate speech).
- Misinformation and disinformation due to hate speech and fake news have led to riots as seen in the Delhi Riots case 2020.
Legal Provisions to deal with hate speech
- Indian Penal Code:
- Sections 153A and 153B of the IPC:Punishes acts that cause enmity and hatred between two groups.
- Section 295A of the IPC:Deals with punishing acts which deliberately or with malicious intention outrage the religious feelings of a class of persons.
- Sections 505(1) and 505(2):Make the publication and circulation of content which may cause ill-will or hatred between different groups an offence.
- Representation of People’s Act:
- Section 8 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 (RPA):Prevents a person convicted of the illegal use of the freedom of speech from contesting an election.
- Sections 123(3A) and 125 of the RPA:Bars the promotion of animosity on the grounds of race, religion, community, caste, or language in reference to elections and include it under corrupt electoral practices.
How sufficient are legal provisions?
- For a country like India with a massive population of diverse backgrounds and culture, subjects like hate speech become a complex issue to deal withas it is difficult to differentiate between free and hate speech.
- Several factors are to be considered while restraining speeches like the number of strong opinions, offensive to certain communities, the effect on the values of dignity, liberty, and equality.
- Certainly, there are laws for such atrocities but a major part of work is still left.
Way forward
- Clarity and technological upgradationis needed to deal with this and a mechanism to get down such material, which is prone to disturb social setup.
- Improving the level of training in equality and non-discrimination among police forces and legal bodies,improving research and encouraging reporting of such content.
- Indian government has been pushing for internet platforms to locate their serversin the country, which might help address dangerous speech in real time.
- Generating contra-narratives on social networks and raising public awarenessthrough campaigns to tackle extremism.
- There can be an internationally accepted law that places the responsibility on social media companieslike Facebook to tackle hate speech by deleting obviously illegal content within 24 hours if there is a request from the Government of a particular nation.
- Social media platforms need to take responsibility to ensuretransparency, accountability and a system of rules and guidelines that users can recognize as standards, and which when enforced in a regularized fashion can begin to act as precedents. Thus, users, police and civil society actors will have a clear sense of what kind of material is likely to be taken down.
- Public authorities must be held accountable for dereliction of the duty of care and also for non-compliance with this court’s orders by not taking action to prevent vigilante groups from inciting communal disharmony and spreading hate against citizens of the country and taking the laws into their own hands.
- Therefore giving a proper definition to hate speech would be the first step to deal with the menaceand other initiatives such as spreading awareness amongst the public is the need of the hour.
Introduction
With several Assembly elections coming up, one issue may need more attention than others. Elections are fought with huge funds nowadays. Estimates vary, but a candidate may spend in crores in just one constituency. This vital issue is neglected by voters in the noise and din of campaigns, leaders, celebrities and media coverage.
Money is central to the issue of political corruption in India and political parties are suspected to be the largest and most direct beneficiaries. Corruption in elections reduces accountability, distorts representation, and introduces asymmetry in policymaking and governance. This necessitates transparency in electoral funding.
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Background
- Voters vote for political parties so that they deliver benefits to the citizens. If election funds are obtained from other sources, the Governments in power are obliged to the funders more than the voters.
- For instance, the Government Budget reports that in 2019-20 the loss to the Government on account of incentives to companies and reduction in duties and taxes was ₹2. 24 lakh crore. The voters do not know this.
- Transparency in funding is absent after the introduction of Electoral Bonds. In spite of the CIC ruling, all political parties have refused to submit themselves to the transparency that comes with Right to Information. Limits on funding are also not well defined.
Issues with electoral funding
- Opacity in donations: Political parties receive majority of their funds through anonymous donations (approximately 70%) through cash. Also, parties are exempted from income tax, which provides a channel for black money hoarders.
- g.: Electoral funds is fraught with challenges and is in the courts. Transparency in funding is absent after the introduction of Electoral Bonds. Now citizens cannot know who is funding the political parties.
- Lack of action against bribes: The EC sought insertion of a new section, 58B, to RPA, 1951 to enable it to take action if parties bribe voters of a constituency, which has not come to light.
- Allowing foreign funding: Amendment of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) has opened the floodgates of foreign funding to political parties, which can lead to eventual interference in governance.
- Unlimited corporate donations: The maximum limit of 7.5% on the proportion of the profits a company can donate to a political party has been lifted, thus opening up the possibility of shell companies being set up specifically to fund parties.
- Lack of transparency: Despite provisions under section 29 of RPA, 1951, parties do not submit their annual audit reports to the Election Commission.
- RTI: Parties have also defied that they come under the ambit of RTI act. In spite of the Central Information Commission (CIC) ruling, all political parties have refused to submit themselves to the transparency that comes with Right to Information.
Measures to bring more transparency in electoral funding
- Switching to complete digital transactions.
- Donations above a certain limit be made public to break the corporate-politico nexus.
- Political parties should be brought under the ambit of RTI as followed in countries like Bhutan and Germany.
- Establish a national electoral fund where donors contribute and funds are distributed among different parties according to their respective performances in the last elections. This will also weed out black money as well as ensure anonymity to donors.
- State funding of elections has been suggested in the past in response to the high cost of elections. Law Commission of India, 2nd ARC, National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, have favoured state funding.
- Cap maximum expenditure of political parties to a multiple of half of maximum prescribed limit for individual candidates with the number of candidates fielded.
Conclusion
Donors to political campaigns can demand for favourable laws and policies, favourable government contracts, and exceptionalism in law enforcement as returns on their investments. It also inevitably leads to criminalisation of politics as money and muscle power, go hand in hand. Hence, reforms in electoral funding is a major need of the hour for India.
Introduction
In continental context, there is increased militarisation of the borders with Pakistan and China, with the Ladakh sector now increasingly looking like it will see permanent deployment on the Siachen Glacier. To meet this challenge, evolving an effective continental strategy for India will be a complex and long-term exercise. While we concentrate on continental side, maritime strategy also is equally important for India and must have a recourse of its own, without being bogged down by pressures from Western forces.
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Reasons for difficulties for India in Eurasian region
- INSTC: Difficulties have arisen in operationalising an alternative route — the International North-South Transport Corridor on account of the U.S.’s hostile attitude towards Iran.
- Blockade on Iran: It may appear strange that while we join the U.S. and others in supporting the right of freedom of navigation in the maritime domain, we do not demand with the same force the right of India to conduct interstate trade, commerce, and transit along continental routes — be it through the lifting of Pakistan’s blockade on transit or the lifting of U.S. sanctions against transit through Iran into Eurasia.
- Afghan crisis: With the recent Afghan developments, India’s physical connectivity challenges with Eurasia have only become starker.
- New threats: China’s assertive rise, the precipitous withdrawal of forces of the United States/North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) from Afghanistan, the rise of Islamic fundamentalist forces are great threats. The marginalisation of India on the Eurasian continent in terms of connectivity must be reversed.
Need for balancing continental and maritime security in India
- India’s maritime vision and ambitions have grown dramatically during the past decade, symbolised by its National Maritime Strategy, the Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) initiative for the Indian Ocean Region and major initiatives relating to the Indo-Pacific and the Quad, in which maritime security figures prominently.
- This was an overdue correction to the historic neglect of India’s maritime power.
- It was also a response to the dramatic rise of China as a military power.
- It may also be a by-product of the oversized influence over our think-tank community of Anglo-Saxon strategic thinking, which has tended to emphasise the maritime dimensions of China’s military rise more than others.
Measures for Long term security by India
- Going forward, it is clear India will not have the luxury of choosing one over the other; we would need to acquire strategic vision and deploy the necessary resources to pursue our continental interests without ignoring our interests in the maritime domain.
- This will require a more assertive push for our continental rights — namely that of transit and access, working with our partners in Central Asia, with Iran and Russia (not that we have many other options), and a more proactive engagement with economic and security agendas ranging from the SCO, Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
- Stabilising Afghanistan is a necessary but not a sufficient condition. There is need to ensure an alternate way to reach Central Asia and Eurasia.
Conclusion
Striking the right balance between continental and maritime security would be the best guarantor of our long-term security interests. But this will not be easy as we would need to work with different partners on different agendas even while their geopolitical contradictions play out in the open. India will need to define its own parameters of continental and maritime security consistent with its own interests. In doing so, at a time of major geopolitical change, maintaining our capacity for independent thought and action (namely strategic autonomy) will help our diplomacy and statecraft navigate the difficult landscape and the choppy waters that lie ahead.
General Studies – 3
Introduction
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the GDP (gross domestic product) and GVA (gross value added) data for the first quarter of the current financial year. The government used the Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) comparison method — which showed that the GDP grew by 20% in Q1 this year as against the Q1 last year — to claim that India was witnessing a V-shaped recovery.
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V-shaped recovery in India
- V-shaped recovery is underway, as demonstrated by a sustained resurgence in high frequency indicators such as power demand, e-way bills, GST collection, steel consumption, etc.
- India became the fastest country to roll-out 10 lakh vaccines in 6 days and also emerged as a leading supplier of the vaccine to neighbouring countries and Brazil.
- Total expenditure of the government surged 48.3 per cent on year-on-year (y-o-y) basis in the month of November. While, capital expenditure shrugged off a three-month contraction and expanded 248.5 per cent. This was mainly due to the introduction of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package.
- After contracting for 9 consecutive months, merchandise imports finally experienced a growth of 7.6 per cent (y-o-y) in December 2020. The revival was led by gold, electronic goods and vegetable oils.
- Rising imports of pearls and precious stones, machinery, electronic goods and textiles reflect the revival of domestic activity as they are of the nature of intermediate goods in supply chains.
- This also augurs well for exports going forward. This suggests that moribund absorptive capacity of the economy is coming back to life, backed by domestic demand
- The Covid-19 pandemic dragged the Sensex to record low in late March 2020. But, it staged a strong recovery from the lows. Both the BSE and NSE indices finally wrapped up 2020 on a bullish note, with Sensex gaining nearly 16 per cent.
Recovery has not been V-shaped
- MGNREGA employment highest: Around 64 million are families employed under MGNREGA. It is more than ten times the total number of people employed by all the companies listed on India’s stock exchanges combined. We should remember that citizens utilize MGNREGA only when the situation is extremely dire and there are no other alternative sources of income.
- Currently, 18 million families are dependent on MGNREGA, roughly the same number in August last year.
- Clearly, there is no economic recovery, ‘V’ or otherwise, for these millions of families.
- So, while stock markets are booming to all-time highs, a record number of Indians are seeking employment from MGNREGA for a bare minimum income.
- Manufacturing, construction and services are low: Manufacturing, services and construction are the real economic activities that generate good quality jobs and incomes for the vast majority of people.
- However, these are not in good state. Latest CSO data shows that manufacturing activity in June 2021 is at the same level as four years ago in 2017, construction activity is at the level of five years ago in 2016, and trade/transport services activity is at the level of six years ago in 2015 (at constant prices).
- Lack of consumption: When people do not have sufficient incomes, it affects their consumption too. This is evidenced in the fact that private consumption in the June 2021 quarter is at the same level as in 2017.
- Fixed Capital formation is lagging: When private consumption is weak, businesses refrain from undertaking new projects and investment falls. This is seen in fixed capital formation being stuck at 2017 levels.
- Finally, it is argued that easy money from the United States is finding its way to other countries, pushing up asset prices and financial market valuations. Neither does this help improve livelihoods for the vast majority of people, nor will this last long. It is thus futile to showcase foreign flows or stock market indicators as a sign of the robustness of India’s economy.
Way forward
- Rebound to be led by low base and continued normalization in economic activities as the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines gathers traction.
- A favourable monetary policy ensuring abundant liquidity and immediate relief to debtors while unclogging monetary policy transmission.
Introduction
Minimum Support Price (MSP) is the rate at which the government buys grains from farmers. Currently, it fixes MSPs for 23 crops grown in both Kharif and Rabi seasons. The government recently hiked the MSP for wheat by Rs. 40 to Rs. 2,015 per quintal and for mustard seed by Rs. 400 to Rs. 5,050 per quintal for the current crop year in order to boost crop area as well as income of farmers.
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Yes, MSP helps farmers to an extent
- MSP has been beneficial in transferring incomes to rural areas and to counter farm level inflation.
- It can also counter the agricultural distress brought on by natural hazards in the country. It gives farmers hope of earning more in the new sowing season.
- In the last few years, India has become a net importer of pulses. Massive hike in the MSP of these crops will encourage the farmers to grow nutritional crops. It will help in changing the cropping pattern which was long due.
- A higher MSP regime will also help in achieving the Government’s target of doubling farmer’s income by 2022.
- It also acts as an incentive for farmers to produce the crop which is in short supply.
- Higher profits for the farmer will also help them to invest in necessary infrastructure and equipment.
- The MSP to some extent will protect the farmer by guaranteeing a minimum floor price so that they can plan in advance for the next season.
However, MSP fails the farmers more
The trouble with MSP is that while it is touted as an all-important factor for farmers promising an instant rise in their income and stability, it also has many drawbacks in implementation. This affects the price realisation of farmers, in reality for several reasons.
- Methodology: MSP covers numerous costs such as the cost of sowing (A2) and labour (FL). These considerations are controversial with suggestions that it should be based on comprehensive costs (C2), which also include land rent costs.
- Inflation: Too much of a hike on MSP either paves way for inflationary effects on the economy, with a rise in prices of food grains and vegetables, or loss to government treasury if it decides to sell at a lower price as compared to the higher MSP it bought at.
- Diverse factors: MSP is a nationwide single price policy. However, the actual costing for production varies from place to place, more severely so in areas lacking irrigation facilities and infrastructure. Thus, not all farmers have equal benefits.
- Procurement at MSP is flawed: First, procurement of wheat and paddy for meeting the requirement of the public distribution system (PDS) is undertaken largely by state governments.
- Of the total procurement of wheat and paddy from farmers, the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI’s) share is less than 10%.
- In the north-east and many other states, procurement operations are almost non-existent and farmers are forced to sell below MSP.
- As the experiences of these schemes show, the benefit of higher MSPs for kharif crops or rabi, is unlikely to be available to most farmers as the states lack adequate storage capacity, working capital and manpower for undertaking large-scale procurement of all commodities.
- The MSP-based procurement system is also dependent on middlemen, commission agents and APMC officials, which smaller farmers find difficult to get access to.
- Agri-Infrastructure: Hiking the MSP without investing in infrastructure is just a short-term play. While it does deliver immediate results, long-term developments to back-it up are also important.
- Environmental harm: It degrades the soil because of irrespective of the soil condition, some crops are preferred which have MSP over them which results in exploitation of group water resources, alkalinity, decrease in the production of the crops in long run and much harm to environment.
Conclusion
The government should shift its focus from providing only price support to farmers and focus on building better infrastructure, minimizing the gap between farmers and the market, land reforms, policy reforms to increase flow of credit to farmers, establishing food-processing industries for perishable goods, providing better irrigation facilities etc so, that agriculture emerges as a viable means of sustenance.
Introduction
Union budget 2021-22 gave a massive push to infrastructure sector by allotting Rs 233083 crore to enhance transport infrastructure and through National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) a Rs 111 lakh crore plan for financial year 2019-25. India fared well in logistics performance index with a jump from 66th position in 2014 to 44th in 2018. However, India’s logistics cost is as high as 13-14% of GDP compared to single digits of many developed countries
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Need of critical transport infrastructure
- Infrastructure in transport is necessary to ensure 6Cs i.e. Common , connected , convenient , congestion free , clean and cutting edge technology
- Common and convenient: to ensure comfort in public transport with better end mile connectivity
- Connected: to ensure end mile connectivity throughout the country – connectivity of north east , Connectivity with neighbouring countries under central Asian connectivity projects , kaladan multimodal connectivity projects
- Congestion free: India has topped the TomTom traffic index 2019 with its 4 cities among the 10 most congested cities globally
- Clean: transport sector is major contributor to pollution in India . According Centre for science and environment – transport sector in India contributes about 15% of CO2 emissions
- Cutting edge: Need of AI aided smart public transport through big data being generated in automatic vehicle location , automatic fare collection (Fastags ) , e vehicles etc
Case study – European union
Nations bargaining power depends on economic integration of region with its market and free movement of goods through common and interconnected transport across the borders. European countries fared well with integrated inland water transport an better connected roadways and railways helping them grow into super powers of region
India’s revolution in infrastructure
- India’s transport demand grown by almost 8 times since 1980 more than any other Asian economies accompanied by thriving auto industry and allied economic growth
- India through its NIP and GHATI Shakti initiative highest focus has been on transport sector (~15% of allocation)
- Through Bharatamala project and Sagar mala projects India aims to integrate both land connectivity and coastal port connectivity helping better transport of goods to each mile
- India has been part of International north south corridor as part of central Asian connectivity and beyond central Asia to Europe and Russia
- Kaladan multimodal projects , Mekong ganga cooperation are part of India aim to connectivity and transport
- Cooperation with JICA (Japan) for DMIC and World bank over Jal Vikas Marg project aims to reduce cost of transport sector and ensure low cost , clean water transport in India
Infrastructure revolution- a panacea
- Infrastructure in mass transport ensures the following
- better connectivity: north east India roads investment programme , connectivity of dhola sadiya bridge , Atal tunnel project in Jammu and Kashmir
- Employment: through better connectivity within urban areas and rural – urban population
- Reduction in pollution: as transport sector mostly dependent on fossil fuels , with better upgradation to e vehicles , CNG , adoption of biofuel- ethanol blending can reduce pollution in India
- Better public transport with end mile connectivity can reduce traffic congestion ,save time and fuel
- Roads carry almost 85% of country’s passenger traffic and 60% of freight thus need revamp infrastructure to cut logistic cost of transport
Conclusion
Thus India needs to realign its goals on the lines of BRI ( belt and road initiative ) of China there by controlling global supply chain market. With better connectivity and infrastructure in transport sector India can unleash its aim of global economic superpower
Introduction
The National Forest Policy of India, 1988 envisaged a goal of achieving 33 per cent of the geographical area of the country under forest & tree cover. India State of Forest Report (ISFR) is a biennial publication of Forest Survey of India (FSI), an organization under the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India.
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Difference between forest area and forest cover
- The term ‘Forest Area’ (or recorded forest area) generally refers to all the geographic areas recorded as forest in government records.
- On the other hand, the term ‘Forest Cover’ refers to all lands more than 1 hectare in area, having a tree canopy density of more than 10%.
- Thus, the term ‘forest area’ denotes the legal status of the land as per the government records, whereas the term ‘forest cover’ indicates the presence of trees over any land.
Concerns of declining forest cover
- Decline in Natural Forests: There is a 1,582 sq. km decline in moderately dense forests, or “natural forests”. The decline, in conjunction with an increase of 2,621 sq. km in open forest areas – shows a degradation of forests in the country.
- Also, scrub area has increased by 5,320 sq. km – indicating the complete degradation of forests in these areas.
- Very dense forests have increased by 501 sq. km.
- Decline in Northeast Forest Cover: The forest cover in the region has shown an overall decline of 1,020 sq. km in forest cover.
- The Northeast states account for 7.98% of total geographical area but 23.75% of total forest cover.
- The decline in the North-eastern states has been attributed to a spate of natural calamities, particularly landslides and heavy rains, in the region as well as to anthropogenic activities such as shifting agriculture, pressure of developmental activities and felling of trees.
Government measures to improve forest areas
- National Mission for a Green India
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- It is one of the eight Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC).
- It was launched in February, 2014 with the objective to safeguard the biological resources of our nation and associated livelihoods against the peril of adverse climate change and to recognise the vital impact of forestry on ecological sustainability, biodiversity conservation and food-, water- and livelihood-security.
- National Afforestation Programme (NAP):
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- It has been implemented since 2000 for the afforestation of degraded forest lands.
- It is being implemented by the MoEFCC.
- Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority, (CAMPA Funds)
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- Launched in 2016, 90% of the fund is to be given to the states while 10% is to be retained by the Centre.
- The funds can be used for treatment of catchment areas, assisted natural generation, forest management, wildlife protection and management, relocation of villages from protected areas, managing human-wildlife conflicts, training and awareness generation, supply of wood saving devices and allied activities.
- National Action Programme to Combat Desertification
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- It was prepared in 2001 to address issues of increasing desertification and to take appropriate actions.
- It is implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
- Forest Fire Prevention & Management Scheme (FFPM)
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- It is the only centrally funded program specifically dedicated to assist the states in dealing with forest fires.
Conclusion
With climate change and global warming on the rise, forest hold the key in combatting the two. They are a rich source of carbon storage and are key to keep the biodiversity alive. The balance needs to be restored for which forests need to flourish. The pledge to increase forest and stop deforestation must be implemented on war footing.
Value Addition
Forest Survey Findings
- The Total Forest and Tree cover is 24.62% of the geographical area of the country.
- The Total Forest cover is 7,13,789 sq. km which is 21.71% of the geographical area of the country.
- The Tree cover is 2.91% of the geographical area of the country.
- As compared to ISFR 2019 the current assessment shows an increase of:
- 0.28% of forest and tree cover put together, at the national level.
- Forest Cover: 0.22%
- Tree Cover: 0.76%
- Change in Recorded forest Area/Green Wash (RFA/GW) as compared to previous assessment of 2019.
- Forest Cover within the RFA/GW: A slight increase of 31 sq. km.
- Forest Cover outside the RFA/GW: There is an increase of 1,509 sq. km.
