[Mission 2023] Insights SECURE SYNOPSIS: 22 October 2022

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

Answer the following questions in 150 words:

General Studies – 1

1. India is historically secular. Democracy and plurality go hand in hand in the country and provide the Indian society the vibrancy that one sees within it. Comment.

Reference: Indian Express ,  Insights on India

Introduction

India always followed the great tradition of ‘Sarva dharma sambhava’ i.e. all religions are harmonious with each other and lead to God and thus one can follow the path he or she chooses. Tolerance and harmony is a weave through Indian philosophy, culture and society since ages.

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India is historically secular

• Born out of the great Hindu Vedic Dharmic tradition,  between 200 BC and 300 CE, Buddhism swept through the length and breadth of the Indian sub-continent catching the imagination of the rulers and the people alike.
• India from a 100% Hindu nation became a Buddhist majority nation and remained so for nearly 500 years.
• Many Emperors and Kings converted to Buddhism and so did vast majority of the subjects but never did the converted rulers or their subjects persecute followers of the old faith i.e. Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism, as we know it popularly.
• The Guptas, who were Hindus, reined greater part of India from 320 CE to 550 CE. They not only ushered in India’s golden age but also presided over a golden Hindu renaissance.
• Being staunch Hindus they gave impetus to Vedic Hinduism but also continued to patronize Buddhism by donating and supporting various Buddhist monasteries and universities. The state supported and promoted all denomination of faiths with an even hand.
• Even during the period of Islamic invasion and occupation starting earnestly in 1200 CE many Hindu kings during these very disturbing times continued to maintain Dharmic equanimity and promoted religious tolerance and equality.
• The Vijaynagar Empire (1336 CE to 1565 CE) the bulwark of Hindu resistance to Islamic onslaught in the Deccan and Peninsular India had a sizeable Muslim population residing within the city wall as well as in various parts of the empire but never during the interminable strife with the Bahamani Muslim sultans were these minorities mistreated.
• In fact, the rulers of Vijaynagar provided them patronage and privileges during their festivals and daily life. Whereas all the while neighbouring Bahamani Sultans persecuted and mistreated their Hindu subjects.
• Parsees, the fire worshipping Mazdians of Persia arrived in India around the 10 century escaping Muslim persecution in Iran. Parsees were welcomed and integrated into India society with local Raja’s patronizing their fire temples and have gone on to contribute to India inversely proportional to their small numbers.

Democracy and plurality go hand in hand in the country

• In the diverse society of India, pluralism is crucial for its smooth functioning.
• A pluralist democracy, allowing the masses the freedom of association, is necessary for the democratic culture to flow.
• India has experienced life from every conceivable angle, height and depth.
• India’s cultural life has a rare quality of richness, variety, and maturity.
• One of the most glorious aspects of India’s pluralist cultural history is the treatment that her states and people gave to the religious and minority groups that came to India as refugees.
• Be it the Tibetans under the leadership of HH Dalai Lama or the recent refugees from Myanmar, India has been a safe refuge.
• Our  age-old traditions of tolerance and hospitality, attracted them and they found their hopes and aspirations fulfilled.
• We have intense pride for Ajanta caves, the Kashi temple, the Taj Mahal, Gommatesvara of Shravanabelagola, the Golden Temple of Amritsar, etc.
• Though they embody different faiths, there is a sense of the emotional experience of being Indian. This explains the plurality of beliefs.
• Concerning language, India never had a monopoly on one language.
• Various local, regional, national and international languages are spoken and learnt by Indians.
• We have the willingness to learn different languages.
• Indian culture encourages the learning abilities of several streams at a time and does not discard one for the other.
• We do not adhere to the policy of worshipping one God throughout India or following one religion with one or two sects. Each community and caste have different Gods to worship and follow their customs and traditions.
• At present, Indian democracy is unique for its multi-political party system. Thus, society is seen as different from the position and political power.
• We also notice that an Indian lives with many identities, such as you can be a Bengali or Tamilian, Goan, a Hindu, Muslim or a Christian, etc. They all have their identities within the structure of homogeneous living.

Way forward

• Since secularism has been declared as a part of the basic structure of the Constitution, governments must be made accountable for implementing it.
• Define the word “minority”. The concept of secularism is based on recognition and protection of minorities. The two cannot be separated.
• Setting up of a commission on secularism for ensuring adherence to the constitutional mandate on secularism.
• Separation of religion from politics. It is of such urgency that no time should be wasted in bringing this about.
• It is the duty of the secular and democratic forces to rally behind those political forces that really profess and practice secularism.
• In a secular state, religion is expected to be a purely personal and private matter and is not supposed to have anything to do with the governance of the country.

General Studies – 2

2. Despite the giant strides made at poverty alleviation, the task of ending poverty remains daunting for India. Analyse.

Reference: The Hindu , Insights on India

Introduction

According to World Bank, Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one’s life.

In India, 21.9% of the population lives below the national poverty line in 2011. In 2018, almost 8% of the world’s workers and their families lived on less than US$1.90 per person per day (international poverty line).

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Poverty : A massive challenge in India

• Population Explosion: India’s population has steadily increased through the years. During the past 45 years, it has risen at a rate of 2.2% per year, which means, on average, about 17 million people are added to the country’s population each year. This also increases the demand for consumption goods tremendously.
• Low Agricultural Productivity: A major reason for poverty in the low productivity in the agriculture sector. The reason for low productivity is manifold. Chiefly, it is because of fragmented and subdivided land holdings, lack of capital, illiteracy about new technologies in farming, the use of traditional methods of cultivation, wastage during storage, etc.
• Inefficient Resource utilisation: There is underemployment and disguised unemployment in the country, particularly in the farming sector. This has resulted in low agricultural output and also led to a dip in the standard of living.
• Low Rate of Economic Development: Economic development has been low in India especially in the first 40 years of independence before the LPG reforms in 1991.
• Price Rise: Price rise has been steady in the country and this has added to the burden the poor carry. Although a few people have benefited from this, the lower income groups have suffered because of it, and are not even able to satisfy their basic minimum wants.
• Unemployment: Unemployment is another factor causing poverty in India. The ever-increasing population has led to a higher number of job-seekers. However, there is not enough expansion in opportunities to match this demand for jobs.

Achievements in poverty alleviation over the years

• Decline in Extreme Poverty: Extreme poverty in India was 3% points lower in 2019 compared with 2011,as poverty headcount rate declined from 22.5% in 2011 to 10.2% in 2019, with a comparatively sharper decline in rural areas.
  • Slight moderation in consumption inequality since 2011, but by a margin smaller than what is reported in the unreleased National Sample Survey -2017.
  • The extent of poverty reduction during 2015-2019 is estimated to be notably lower than earlier projections based on growth in private final consumption expenditure reported in national account statistics.
  • The World Bank defines “extreme poverty” as living on less than USD 1.90 per person per day.
• Rural vs Urban Poverty: Poverty reduction washigher in rural areas compared with urban India as rural poverty declined from 26.3% in 2011 to 11.6% in 2019, while in urban areas the decline was from 14.2% to 6.3% in the corresponding period.
  • Rural and urban poverty dropped by 7 and 7.9% points during 2011-2019.
  • Urban poverty in India rose by 2% in 2016, coinciding with the demonetisation, and rural poverty rose by 10% in 2019.
• Small Farmers: Smallholder farmers have experienced higher income growth.Real incomes for farmers with the smallest landholdings have grown by 10% in annualized terms between the two survey rounds (2013 and 2019) compared to a 2% growth for farmers with the largest landholding.
  • The growth in incomes of smallest landholders in rural areas provides more evidence of moderation in income disparity in rural areas.
  • Smallest landholders comprise a larger share of the poor population.This income includes wages, net receipt from crop production, net receipt from farming of animal farming and net receipt from non-farm business. Income from leasing out land has been exempted.

Measures needed

• Immediate support package will need to quickly reach both the existing and new poor.
  • While existing safety net programs can be mobilized to get cash into the pockets of some of the existing poor relatively quickly, this is not the case for the new poor.
  • In fact, the new poor are likely to look different from the existing poor, particularly in their location (mostly urban) and employment (mostly informal services, construction, and manufacturing).
  • the identification of poor and vulnerable groups is need of the hour.
  • India should consider fixing a universal basic income in the post-Covid period through a combination of cash transfers, expansion of MGNREGA, and introduction of an urban employment guarantee scheme
• Employment generation for the masses:
  • A large fiscal stimulus along with intermediate informal employment insurgency through MGNREGA and other employment generation programmes are urgent to rein the adverse impact of covid-19 on the welfare of the masses.
• Multilateral global institutions must support the developing nations:
  • Oxfam is calling on world leaders to agree on an Emergency Rescue Package of 2.5 trillion USD paid for through the immediate cancellation or postponement of 1 trillion in debt repayments, a 1 trillion increase in IMF Special Drawing Rights (international financial reserves), and an additional 500 billion in aid.
• An effective response in support of poor and vulnerable households will require significant additional fiscal resources.
  • Providing all the existing and new extreme poor with a cash transfer of $1/day (about half the value of the international extreme poverty line) for a month would amount to $20 billion —or $665 million per day over 30 days.
  • Given that impacts are likely to be felt by many non-poor households as well and that many households are likely to need support for much longer than a month, the sum needed for effective protection could be far higher.
• Decision-makers need timely and policy-relevant information on impacts and the effectiveness of policy responses.
  • This can be done using existing, publicly available data to monitor the unfolding economic and social impacts of the crisis, including prices, service delivery, and economic activity, as well as social sentiment and behaviours.
  • In addition, governments can use mobile technology to safely gather information from a representative sample of households or individuals.
  • Phone surveys can collect information on health and employment status, food security, coping strategies, access to basic services and safety nets and other outcomes closely related to the risk of falling (further) into poverty.

Conclusion and way forward

• The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index-2018released by the UN noted that 271 million people moved out of poverty between 2005-06 and 2015-16 in India. The poverty rate in the country has nearly halved, falling from 55% to 28% over the ten-year period. Still a big part of the population in India is living Below the Poverty Line.
• Rapid economic growth and the use of technology for social sector programs have helped make a significant dent in extreme poverty in the country.
• Despite rapid growth and development, an unacceptably high proportion of our population continues to suffer from severe and multidimensional deprivation. Thus, a more comprehensive and inclusive approach is required to eradicate poverty in India.

3. Do you think there is need for a central anti-superstition law in order to deal strictly with crimes associated with superstition, occult practices and black magic?

Reference: The Hindu

Introduction

Superstition is a kind of blind belief in supernatural powers that don’t have any scientific explanations behind that. Superstitions in India are a serious problem. Superstitions in India are not a fresh introduction. It has been prevalent for decades. The brutal murders of two women as part of “ritualistic human sacrifices” in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala have left the country in shock.

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Current measures against superstition

• Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code:
  • It criminalizes “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs”.
• Article 51 A (h)of the Constitution of India:
  • It lists “to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform” as a fundamental duty for every Indian citizen.
• Article 25:
  • It guarantees freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion.
• Article 21:
  • It guarantees protection of life and personal liberty. No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

Need for a central anti superstition law

• In India many people link religion with superstitions. Many believe age old beliefs as the truth without necessary rational outlook.
• When some scientists and well educated person believes in superstitions it gives legitimacy to the people to follow it.
• Also In India still many are uneducated. The development and fostering of scientific temper is neglected entirely in Indian education system where reasoning is put behind.
• Moreover people tend to look for godmen to get their problems solved especially in rural areas where adequate public health infrastructure is unavailable.
• Sometimes people who are facing problems and have personal issues etc are superstitious as they want faster resolutions.
• Even hard-core cynics can occasionally fall prey to superstitions like, if the stakes are high and the effort implemented is low, many rational people say they don’t believe, but they also don’t want to take a chance.
• People prefer to take the safer route believing in superstitions in order to avoid any adversity, harm or injury. This is the reason why most superstitions are associated with fear of some harm that may strike the person if he or she does or fails to do a particular thing.
• The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB),which maintains data on crimes in the country, provides data for deaths due to witchcraft and human sacrifices.
• As per the 2021 report, six deaths were linked to human sacrifices, while witchcraft was the motive for 68 killings. The maximum number of witchcraft cases were reported from Chhattisgarh (20), followed by Madhya Pradesh (18) and Telangana (11). Kerala saw two cases of human sacrifice.
• In 2020, India saw 88 deaths due to witchcraft and 11 died as part of ‘human sacrifices’, as per the NCRB report.
• The cognizance of human sacrifice is in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) only after the murder is committed.
• The present IPC is not equipped to take care of all crimes committed on account of black magic and other superstitious practices.
• Thus, legislation has the capacity to act as a deterrent.

Conclusion & Way forward

• Secular temptations and anxieties of money and power in the modern world explain better perhaps the rise in need-based rituals for placating deities than inner tendencies within religion.
• Lacking access to proper health care and poverty will also make victims fall to such methods.
• If the executive is serious about curbing such practices, active implementation and enforcement of existing laws need to be made more effective. Studies in criminology have already established that certainty of punishment curbs the rate of crime and not the type or the quantum of punishment.
• The enforcement machinery needs a major overhaul to make criminal justice more accessible.
• Moral resources for replacing unacceptable practices are explored within tradition.
• Inhuman practices in the name of religion in the country are a cause of worry.
• In Maharashtra, there were several cases where people murdered or brutally injured others and held them responsible for some deaths in their families, merely on suspicion.
• So, a law to prevent exploitation in the name of religion is necessary.

General Studies – 3

4. What are ecotones? Ecotones deserve high conservation investment, potentially serving as speciation and biodiversity centres. Elaborate on their importance.

Reference: Insights on India

Introduction

The transition zone between two ecosystems is called an ecotone. It is an area that represents the boundary between two ecosystems.  This area is of high environmental and scientific importance. Marshy land, grassland ecosystem are few examples of Ecotones.

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Significance of Ecotones

• Ecotones, in simple terms, are transitional lands, which is why they provide such valuable insights and information regarding the evolution of the topography.
• Ecotones are also very special when it comes to species diversity.
• The transitioning region boasts species richnessand elaborate biodiversity.
• This is because they contain animal and plant species from both the adjacent ecosystems.
• This phenomenon is formally referred to as the edge effect.
• Ecotones act as biodiversity hotspotsbetween two ecosystems.
• Because this region borders two well-defined ecosystems, it promotes gene flowfrom one community to another, thereby giving rise to interesting variations.
• As such, ecotones hold evolutionary significance for researchers.
• Ecotones are the biological analogues of buffer states. They act as buffer regions when catastrophic conditions strike and protect the adjacent ecosystem from any prospective dangers.
• For instance, if a tsunami hits a coast, it’s usually the mangrove vegetation that acts as the shock absorbers. It prevents a massive amount of danger from infiltrating the terrestrial region.

Conclusion

Moreover, such a region is also very susceptible to climate- and human-induced changes. These changes result in modifications related to the biodiversity, structure, and functioning of the thriving flora and fauna.

5. What are stem cells? Throw light on various types of stem cells and discuss the applications of stem cell technology.

Reference: The Hindu , Insights on India

Introduction

Stem cells are undifferentiated biological cells that can differentiate into specialized cells and can divide to produce more stem cells. They are the body’s raw materials — cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated. Treatments or therapies are used stem cells to prevent or treat any disease are known as stem cell therapy. Stem cell therapy promotes the reparative treatment of diseased, dead or injured tissue.

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Types of Stem Cells

• Embryonic Stem Cells:
  • These are stem cells derived from the blastocyst stage of the embryo.
  • The blastocyst is a pre-implantation stage, formed 4 to 5 days after fertilisation.
  • They are pluripotent in nature and found in the inner cell mass.
  • Totipotent: These stem cells can differentiate into all possible cell types. The first few cells that appear as the zygote starts to divide are totipotent.
  • Pluripotent: These cells can turn into almost any cell. Cells from the early embryo are pluripotent.
  • Multipotent: These cells can differentiate into a closely related family of cells. Adult hematopoietic stem cells, for example, can become red and white blood cells or platelets.
  • Oligopotent: These can differentiate into a few different cell types. Adult lymphoid or myeloid stem cells can do this.
  • Unipotent: These can only produce cells of one kind, which is their own type. However, they are still stem cells because they can renew themselves. Examples include adult muscle stem cells.
• Adult Stem Cells:
  • Adult stem cells or somatic stem cells are found in both adult and juvenile animals, unlike embryonic stem cells.
  • They have the ability to differentiate into any cell of the organ from which they originate.
• Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells:
  • These are stem cells that are derived from somatic cells.
  • It is a pluripotent stem cell generated by introducing ‘reprogramming factors’ called Yamanaka factorsinto mature cells.

Applications of stem cell technology

• Tissue regeneration
  • Tissue regeneration is probably the most important use of stem cells.
  • Until now, a person who needed a new kidney, for example, had to wait for a donor and then undergo a transplant.
  • There is a shortage of donor organs but, by instructing stem cells to differentiate in a certain way, scientists could use them to grow a specific tissue type or organ.
• Cardiovascular disease treatment
  • In 2013, a team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital reported in PNAS Early Editionthat they had created blood vessels in laboratory mice, using human stem cells.
  • Within 2 weeks of implanting the stem cells, networks of blood-perfused vessels had formed. The quality of these new blood vessels was as good as the nearby natural ones.
• Brain disease treatment
  • Doctors may one day be able to use replacement cells and tissues to treat brain diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
  • In Parkinson’s, for example, damage to brain cells leads to uncontrolled muscle movements. Scientists could use stem cells to replenish the damaged brain tissue.
  • This could bring back the specialized brain cells that stop the uncontrolled muscle movements.
• Cell deficiency therapy
  • Scientists hope one day to be able to develop healthy heart cells in a laboratory that they can transplant into people with heart disease.
  • These new cells could repair heart damage by repopulating the heart with healthy tissue.
  • Similarly, people with type I diabetes could receive pancreatic cells to replace the insulin-producing cells that their own immune systems have lost or destroyed.
• Blood disease treatments
  • Doctors now routinely use adult hematopoietic stem cells to treat diseases, such as leukemia, sickle cell anemia, and other immunodeficiency problems.
  • Hematopoietic stem cells occur in blood and bone marrow and can produce all blood cell types, including red blood cells that carry oxygen and white blood cells that fight disease.

Way forward

• There is a need for implementation of the rules framed by the centre. Despite the existence of regulatory frameworks, scientists, clinics and doctors continue to work with stem cells without proper approval.
• There is a need to encourage reporting of the effects of stem cell therapies’ trials. Evidence-based progress is vital in a dynamic and much-hyped field like stem cell technology.
• There is a need to create awareness about the real benefits and limitations of stem cell therapies to protect patients from unproven therapies offered by profit-driven clinics.
• Regulation of IVF clinics is essential to break the image of India as an ‘embryo supplier’ for dubious research.
• Instead of depending on stem cells derived from embryos, adult stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells can be worked with to a greater extent.
• Certification of clinics approved for providing stem cell therapy.
• An internationally applicable guideline must be developed by organisations like WHO as this is not an issue to be solved by one country in isolation.

Conclusion

Though advancement in stem cell technology is making strides, there is a need to funnel it through appropriate testing and clinical trials before being used on the general public. For this, a well-functioning regulatory mechanism and responsible research and application are of vital importance.

Answer the following questions in 250 words(15 marks each):

General Studies – 1

6. Examine the reasons for the high rate of crimes against women. Suggest ways to have a zero-tolerance approach towards crimes against women in order to build safe, resilient and inclusive spaces for women.

Reference: The Hindu , Insights on India

Introduction

The latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) paints a frightful picture of a steady rise in rape cases.  According to National Crime Records Bureau statistics, a whopping 4,28,278 lakh crimes against women happened in 2021.

These horrific, unrelated crimes point to a common denominator: India remains unsafe for women. The Delhi gang rape of 2012, which led to stricter laws, is now a distant memory, as horrific cases of sexual violence continue to shock the country.

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Crimes against Women: Statistics

In 2019, 400,000 cases of crimes against women were reported, up from about 378,000 in 2018. These account for only 10% of the crimes against women. The conviction rate for rape cases is a dismal 30%.

Reason for crimes against women in India

• Entrenched Patriarchy: India is a deeply patriarchal society. Popular culture equates masculinity with sexual aggression and encourages men and boys to bully and harass women, even rape them, to “tame” them and teach them a lesson.
• Gender and caste violence: Raping Dalit women takes thismisogyny further. A Dalit woman is raped not just to punish and humiliate the woman but also her family and community. It is aimed at underscoring the powerlessness of Dalit men and the larger Dalit community to protect “their” women.
• Justice system: It is a social fact that the criminal legal system often merely re-arranges a system of illegalities. For example, rape survivors are routinely pressurized to “compromise” illegally and turn hostile in trials, failing which they may be threatened or even killed.
• Humiliation to victim:Victims, instead of getting justice, had to face several unnecessary humiliating questions.
• Crime in home:Most crimes still happen within the confines of homes & victims are raped by people they know well like relatives/friends/etc, most of these cases don’t even make it to the statistics.
• No preventive measures:In case of any crime committed against women, the discussion always goes towards punishment for the crime only, but never towards the prevention of crime.

Rethinking policies to make safer spaces for women

• Law enforcement must swiftly bring the perpetrators to book and state governments must ascertainareas of high crime rates and double safety protocolsin those areas.
• Men and young boys must be brought into the conversation to dismantle patriarchy and power structures that destroy the lives of women.
• Plugging Gaps in Justice Delivery: The most severe gaps in the justice delivery system are reporting a police complaint. Therefore, the focus of the criminal justice system needs to shift from sentencing and punishment to the stages of reporting, investigation, and victim-support mechanisms. In this context, the following measures must be ensured:
  • The victim reports a case without any fear.
  • Police to conduct a sound investigation.
  • Victim protection throughout the trial.
  • Making testification as easy and as quick as possible.
  • Allocation of resources and more robust implementation of the law than is currently evident.
• Sensitisation At a Broader Level:Despite the ever-increasing ambit of the death sentence, there has been little effort to address prejudices in society.
  • Addressing the prejudicesin the society against sexual offences requires sensitisation of functionaries of the justice system & more importantly society.
• Victim protection: Adequate protection must be given to the victim until the case is closed to ensure they are not threatened.

Conclusion

Crimes against women are on the rise in recent times. Safety of women is of utmost important to ensure that the society will prosper. The extent of violence against women in India is shameful, and shows little sign of abating. While, as a community, it is possible to pass laws to criminalise the violence, law alone will not ask men to respect the opposite gender. What needs to be ingrained in the society is this “stronger people don’t put others down; they lift them up”. The year 2012 brought a drastic change in the way the State and society began viewing the epidemic of sexual violence; nine years later, India still has a long way to go.

General Studies – 2

7. Analyse the reasons behind low voter turnout in the elections across the country. Suggest steps to improve voter participation in the electoral process and measures that Election Commission of India (ECI) can take in this regard.

Reference: Indian Express

Introduction

Voter turnout refers to the number or percentage of eligible voters who cast their ballots. A high turnout is indicative of the vitality of democracy, while a low turnout is associated with voter apathy and mistrust of the political process.  The Lok Sabha elections of 2019 registered the highest-ever voter turnout of 67.47%, till date.

Recently, the Election Commission had signed MoUs with over 1,000 corporate houses undertaking to monitor “electoral participation of their workforce” and publish on their websites and notice boards those who do not vote.

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Reasons behind low voter turnout in elections across country

• Widespread disillusionment with politicians and parties alike is one reason given by political observers.
• In every election, there will be those who do not vote out of conviction or for ideological reasons.
• More importantly, there are millions of daily wage workers, and many homeless and ill.
• shifting of polling stations and voters from one division to the other has created considerable confusion, which might prompt a few more to abstain.
• Non-distribution of voter slips has contributed in an unexpected way. Polling stations of quite a few voters have been inexplicably shifted to other divisions, and due to lack of voter slips, they could not figure it out.
• A few others choose to remain home rather than travel to the changed polling station.
• Experts also cite population dynamics and migration as one of the reasons for the low turnout, especially in urban seats
• Loss of employment in city could be one more prominent reason for the low voter turnout.
• During Covid times, Covid curbs that advised the elderly to avoid crowded places and the plethora of weddings on Sunday may have also played a role in keeping some people away from the polling booths.
• Post the COVID-19 pandemic, several business establishments have either shut down, or removed large number of employees from the jobs.
• Several daily wage labourers voluntarily shifted out of the city, which may have brought down the number of voters, some observers say.
• IT employees, on the other hand, moved to their native places following the option to work from home, which may explain the very low turnout in rural circles

Measures undertaken

• Scientific Approach:Voting is not a homogeneous entity. All the people who vote or not vote, don’t have a same reason. ECI has developed a scientific base to research on voting behaviour of people.
  • in Jharkhand, two elections back, when certain people didn’t vote, a survey was conducted to find the reason.
• Addition of ‘NOTA’option has further enabled the people to realise importance of their vote in elections. By choosing NOTA, voters have right to not to choose any nominated candidate.
• National Voters’ Day:To ensure that new voter or the 18+ who gets registered, finds a way to understand that ‘voting is an important responsibility, and at certain point of time, s/he has to go to vote.
• ECI is continuously taking care to ensure the access to polling station to Divyangs,people in far-off places and for distant remote placed voters.
• Model Polling Boothshave been developed to facilitate women, children and old people.
• Systematic Voter’s Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP):To fill the gaps in the areas where people do not participate, fail to participate or don’t come and join enthusiastically. The program is basically, to educate voters and to ensure their effective participation in elections.
• Ensuring flexibility in Indian Election System:Whenever people or political parties have a complaint regarding anything, ECI always have a solution for that. Recently, when transparency in EVMs was in question, ECI introduced VVPAT machines.
• For decriminalization of Indian Elections,ECI and the Court has ensured together that the candidates declare their criminal record and any cases, pending or not.

Measures to improve voter participation

• Some challenges like financing of elections, unfair use of social mediain elections and proxy voting for NRIs are yet to be addressed.
• Measures should be undertaken by government to facilitate inter-migrantsto vote in the place, where they are living.
• Employers must be encouraged to create similar facilities in their offices. They are legally obliged to close their establishments on poll day
• The EC’s consistent assertion that motivation and facilitation, rather than compulsion, are the best ways to address the issue
• The voter education programme must motivate the youth to participate in democracy by registering as voters, voting in every election and voting ethically —that is, without inducement.
• It has to involve schools and colleges to take the registration facility to the doorstep by introducing voter clubs, campus ambassadors and youth icons and placing drop boxes in colleges for new applications.
• Protection of elector’s identity and affording secrecy is therefore integral to free and fair elections and an arbitrary distinction between a voter who casts and a voter who does not cast his vote is violative of Article 14. Thus, secrecy is to be maintained for both categories of persons.
• Political class and ECI need to come together to find the ways and means to decriminalize the elections.Entry of the criminals into politics should be taken in more serious manner.
• Indian Democracy will get strengthened, when all political parties, stakeholders including media take their responsibility seriously and help each other in strengthening democratic institutions like Electoral System.

Conclusion

The noble objective of enhanced voter participation can be best achieved through systematic voter education, amply demonstrated by the ECI in elections in all the states and Union territories since 2010 when a voter education division was set up.

8. Indus Waters Treaty is often cited as an example of the possibilities of peaceful coexistence that exist despite the troubled relationship between both neighbouring countries. Analyse.

Reference: The Hindu , Insights on India

Introduction

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

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Reasons behind success of Indus Water Treaty

• First, the treaty has unequal sharing of the waters. Pakistan has been allocated ~80% of the Indus basin waters.
• Experts have termed this the most generous water sharing treaty. It is the only water-sharing pact in the world that compels upper riparian State to defer to the interests of the downstream State.
• Second, it prevents India from building any storage systemson the western rivers.
• Even though the treaty lays out that under certain exceptional circumstances storage systems can be built, Pakistan deliberately stops any such effort. The extensively technical nature of the treaty allows Pakistan to stall legitimate Indian Projects.
• Third, the basin’s size and volume is getting altered by climate changeand this alteration is going to intensify in future. There would be instances of more high-intensity rainfall as well as long stretches of scanty rainfall.
• There would be a high influx of water due to glacial melt. The contribution of glaciers in the Indus basin is higher than in the Ganges or Brahmaputra basins.
• A change in the flow conditions may classify as ‘change of circumstances’ which can justify renegotiation or termination in the future.
• Fourth, the recent report of the Standing Committee of Water resources noted that canals in Punjab and Rajasthan (Rajasthan Feeder and the Sirhind Feeder) had become old and were not maintained properly. This had resulted in the lowering of their water carrying capacity.
• Thus, the water from the Harike Barrage on the confluence of the Beas and Sutlej in Punjab was usually released downstream into Pakistan. Pakistan is getting more waters than its entitlement in the Eastern Rivers.

Way forward for India

• India should take steps to completely utilize its entitlement of waters of Western Rivers. The infrastructure to utilize the waters has remained under-developed in J&K.
• Some experts suggest that in case of escalation of hostilities by Pakistan in future, India can suspend the meetings of Permanent Commission. If the first state of dispute redressal is not functional, the subsequent two steps of 3-tier dispute redressal don’t kick in. Thus India can use this as a pressure tactic on Pakistan.
• India should explore the possibility of using climate change as a ‘change in circumstances’ to initiate conversation on renegotiation of the IWT. This will also put pressure on Pakistan.
• Experts in India and Pakistan should assess how much of the waters in the Eastern and Western rivers are snow or rain-fed within their respective territories. Such estimates would add to the accuracy of each side’s dependence on the other in sharing the waters of these rivers.
• As per the standing committee of water resources, the canal systems in Punjab and Rajasthan should be repaired to increase their water carrying capacity.

Conclusion

The Indus Waters Treaty is considered one of the most successful water-sharing endeavours in the world today. However, there is a need to update certain technical specifications and expand the scope of the agreement to address climate change.

General Studies – 3

9. The advantage of a Public private partnership model (PPP) is that the management skills and financial acumen of private businesses could create better value for money for taxpayers when proper cooperative arrangements between the public and private sectors are used. Elaborate.

Reference: Insights on India

Introduction

According to World Bank, public-private partnership (PPP) is a long-term contract between a private party and a government entity, for providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management responsibility, and remuneration is linked to performance.  Public-private partnerships typically are long-term and involve large corporations on the private side. Some of the commonly adopted forms of PPPs include build-operate-transfer (BOT), build-lease-transfer (BLT), design-build-operate-transfer (DBFO), operate-maintain-transfer (OMT), etc. A key element of these contracts is that the private party takes on a significant portion of the risk.

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Advantages of PPP model

• Access to private sector finance: India has a very large infrastructure need and an associated funding gap. PPPs can help both to meet the need and to fill the funding gap. PPP projects often involve the private sector arranging and providing finance. This frees the public sector from the need to meet financing requirements from its own revenues (taxes) or through borrowing.
• Better infrastructure: They provide better infrastructure solutions than an initiative that is wholly public or wholly private. By shifting the responsibility for finance away from the public sector PPPs can enable more investment in infrastructure and increased access to infrastructure services.
• Increased transparency in the use of funds: A well-designed PPP process can bring procurement out from behind closed doors. The PPP tender and award process based on open competitive bidding following international best practice procedures lead to transparency.
• Less delays: They result in faster project completion and reduced delays on infrastructure projects by including time-to-completion as a measure of performance and therefore of profit.
• Risk distribution:Transfer of risks is the most important advantage of PPP projects. In PPP projects, there is a possibility to transfer most or all of the risks to the private entity. The private entities explore opportunities, even though they involve risks.
• Constant cash flow:The state budget is formed of fixed budgets for each ministry. Major investments are temporary modifications of the budget of a ministry, and this problem can be difficult to deal with within the budgetary process. Avoiding major investments by having a constant cash flow is an important driver when the state looks at the advantages of PPP.

Issues with PPP that need to be resolved

• Uncertainties: PPPs often cover a long-term period of service provision (eg. 15-30 years). Any agreement covering such a long period into the future is naturally subject to uncertainty. If the requirements of the public sponsor or the conditions facing the private sector change during the lifetime of the PPP, the contract may need to be modified to reflect the changes. This can entail large costs to the public sector.
• Policy and regulatory gaps:Inadequate regulatory framework and inefficiency in the approval process have been considered as serious disincentives for developers and contractors. For example, more than two years were needed for the Gujarat Pipavav port project to receive the necessary clearances after achieving financial closure. Moreover, most of the large projects involve dealings with various ministries where coordination remains inefficient.
• Crony capitalism: In many sectors, PPP projects have turned into conduits of crony capitalism. It is worth noting that a large chunk of politically connected firms in India are in the infrastructure sector, which have used political connections to win contracts in the past.
• Renegotiation: While private firms accept stringent terms of PPP contracts initially, they lose no opportunity for renegotiating contracts, in effect garnering a larger share of public resources than originally planned. Rather than being an exceptional clause, renegotiation has become the norm in PPP projects in India.

Conclusion

The success of Public-Private Partnership to a large extent depends on optimal risk allocation among stakeholders, the environment of trust and robust institutional capacity to timely implementation of PPP projects. To foster the successful implementation of a PPP project, a robust PPP enabling ecosystem and sound regulatory framework is essential.

10. With traditional encryption models at risk and increasing military applications of quantum technology, the deployment of “quantum-resistant” systems has become the need of the hour to secure India’s cyberspace. Examine.

Reference: Indian Express , Insights on India

Introduction

Cyber security or information technology security are the techniques of protecting computers, networks, programs and data from unauthorized access or attacks that are aimed for exploitation. It protects cyberspace from damage, sabotage and economic espionage.

According to Symantec Report, India is the 5th most vulnerable nation to cybersecurity breach. With traditional encryption models at risk and increasing military applications of quantum technology, the deployment of “quantum-resistant” systems has become the need of the hour.

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Background

• Last month, there were reports that the Indian Army is developing cryptographic techniques to make its networks resistant to attacks by systems with quantum capabilities.
• The Army has collaborated with industry and academia to build secure communications and cryptography applications.
• This step builds on last year’s initiative to establish a quantum computing laboratory at the military engineering institute in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh.

Current threats to cyber security

• Outdated protocols
  • Current protocols like theRSAwill quickly become outdated.
  • This means that quantum cyberattacks can potentially breach any hardened target.
• Threat to digital infrastructure
  • China’s quantum advances expand the spectre of quantum cyberattacks against India’s digital infrastructure, which already faces a barrage of attacks from Chinese state-sponsored hackers.
  • Particularly worrying for India is the fact that China now hosts two of the world’s fastest quantum computers.
• India’s dependence on foreign, particularly Chinese hardware, is an additional vulnerability.

India’s efforts towards quantum computing

• India is getting there slowly but steadily. In February 2022, a joint team of the DRDO and IIT-Delhi successfully demonstrated a QKD link between two cities in UP — Prayagraj and Vindhyachal.
• In 2019,the Centre declared quantum technology a “mission of national importance”.
• The Union Budget 2020-21 had proposed to spend Rs 8,000 croreon the newly launchedNational Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications.
• The Army has collaborated with industry and academia to build secure communications and cryptography applications.

Way forward

• Procurement from other nations:India must consider procuring the United States National Security Agency’s (NSA) Suite B Cryptography Quantum-Resistant Suiteas its official encryption mechanism.
• Emulating cryptographic standards: the Indian defence establishment can consider emulating the cryptographic standards set by the US’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) which has developed a series of encryption tools to handle quantum computer attacks.
• Develop quantum-resistant systems: India should start implementing and developing capabilities in quantum-resistant communications, specifically for critical strategic sectors.
• Funding: government can fund and encourage existing open-source projectsrelated to post-quantum cryptography.
• Participating in the global initiative:India can participate in the Open Quantum Safe project — a global initiative started in 2016 for prototyping and integrating quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms.
• Prioritising QKDs over long distances, especially connecting military outposts for sensitive communications, can be prioritised to ensure secure communications whilst protecting key intelligence from potential quantum cyberattacks.
• Diplomatic partnerships with other “techno-democracies” — countries with top technology sectors, advanced economies, and a commitment to liberal democracy — can help India pool resources and mitigate emerging quantum cyber threats.

Conclusion

India must develop core skills in data integrity and data security fields, to ensure protection of user data as well as security of critical infrastructure. Expertise of the private sector must be leveraged to build capabilities. Meanwhile user awareness is equally necessary to prevent them from becoming victims of cybersecurity threats.

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