[Mission 2023] INSIGHTS DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS + PIB SUMMARY 3 February 2023

GS Paper 2

Source: Th

 Context: The Supreme Court has refused to set aside a provision in the election law which allows candidates to contest polls from two constituencies simultaneously.

• Previously, a petition had sought the court to declare Section 33(7) of the Representation of People Act invalid and ultra vires.

Why has SC rejected the Plea? 

The SC said that this is a policy matter and an issue concerning political democracy. It is for the Parliament to take a call (thus maintaining the Separation of Power Doctrine).

Legal Provisions:

As per Section 33(7) of the RPA (Representation of the People Act), 1951, one candidate can contest from a maximum of two constituencies.

• More than two constituencies were allowed until 1996 when the RPA was amended to set the cap at two constituencies.

Issues with contesting from two seats:

• Conflicts in the RPA laws: While 33(7)allows candidates to contest from two seats, Section 70 bars candidates from representing two constituencies in the Lok Sabha/state. Assembly.
• The strain on public finances: Lakhs of taxpayer rupees need to be shelled out because of a by-election that could have been easily avoided.
• Loss of electoral interest of voters: Repeated elections and a by-election would see fewer voters turn out to vote when compared to the first election.

Positives: It provides a “wider choice to the polity as well as candidates”. 

Previous Recommendations on the issues:

• Last year the Chief Election Commissionerhad asked the Ministry of Law & Justice to limit the seats from which a candidate can contest to just one.
• Candidates to bear the financial burden of conducting the subsequent by-election in one of the constituencies (if one wins in both seats) 

Conclusion

It is time to modify “One person, one vote” and expand that principle to “One person, one vote; one candidate, one constituency. 

Insta Links:

• Election Commission wants people to run from one seat
• To read RPA 1951: Click here
• One constituency one candidate

 Prelims links:

GS Paper 2

Syllabus: Indian Constitution

Source: TH

 Context: Sonam Wangchuk claimed that the Centre’s approach was alienating the youth by sowing the seeds of militancy as the demand for the preservation of land, culture, and jobs under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution grew in Ladakh.

Background:

• On August 5, 2019, the former State of J&K was bifurcated into two Union Territories (UTs) – J&K and Ladakh, the latter without a Legislative Assembly.
• After its special status (under Article 370) was removed, several political groups in Ladakh have been demanding protection under the 6th Schedule.
• According to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs report, as the tribal population in the UT is ~80% (2,18,355) of the total population, the special status may be granted (under the 5th/6th Schedule) to the UT.
• However, the Union government responded that sufficient funds are being provided to UT and the UT had recently increased the reservation for STs in direct recruitment from 10% to 45%.

About the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution:

• The Schedule protects tribal populations, providing autonomy to communities through the creation of Autonomous Development Councils (ADCs), which can frame laws on land, public health and agriculture.
• According to Article 244 of the Indian Constitution, the Sixth Schedule consists of provisions for the administration of tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
  • As of now, 10 autonomous councils exist in the above 4 states.
• Along with ADCs, the 6th Schedule also provides for separate Regional Councils for each area constituted as an autonomous region.

Concerns raised by Sonam Wangchuk and others:

• 12,000 jobs were promised but the recruitment was completed only for 800 positions.
• Common people and journalists were booked for raising their voices in favour of the 6th Schedule.
• Earlier the UT had four MLAs in the State Assembly (J&K] but now has zero representation.
• One man (L-G, who is an outsider) decides everything and 90% of the ₹6,000 crores allocated to Ladakh is at the dispensation of a non-elected person.

Demands of civil society/political groups in the region:

• Restoration of full-fledged Statehood,
• Constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule,
• Separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts and
• Job reservation for locals

Conclusion: The legitimate concerns raised by the UT need to be addressed soon, otherwise love for India will subside and will benefit those looking to cause trouble.

Insta Links:

Ministry evades direct reply on demand to include Ladakh under the 6th schedule

High-powered committee for Ladakh

Mains Links:

Q. For effective border area management, discuss the steps required to be taken to deny local support to militants and also suggest ways to manage favourable perceptions among locals. (UPSC 2020)

GS Paper 2

 Syllabus: Governance

Source: LM, ET

 Context: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasized trust-based governance in her budget speech

Recent steps taken by the government for TBG (including those announced in the recent Budget):

• Legislative steps:
  • The government has introduced the Jan Vishwas Bill to amend 42 Central Acts
  • Ease of doing business: The government has proposed to reduce 39,000 compliances and decriminalize 3,400 legal provisions.

• E-Government steps
  • Paperless Governance: Third time in a row that the government presented the budget in a paperless form.
  • Entity Digi Locker: It will be set up for use by MSMEs, large businesses and charitable trusts, to share documents online securely, whenever needed by authorities for regulatory purposes
  • A permanent Account Number (PAN)will be made a common identifier for all digital systems of specified government agencies.
  • National Data Governance Policy will be brought out. This will enable access to anonymized data

• Delayering, the delegation of power and digitalisation in governance: Initiatives –
  • E-Office 7.0: Enables users to create and manage electronic documents that can be viewed, searched and shared.
  • Swachhta Special Campaign 2.0
  • Prashasan Gaon Ki Ore 2022: It is a nationwide campaign for the redressal of public grievances and improving service delivery which is being held in all Districts, States, and UTs of India.

• Executive steps:
  • Unified Filing Process: For obviating the need for separate submission of the same information to different government agencies, a system of ‘Unified Filing Process’ will be set-up
  • Simplifying the KYC process by adopting a ‘risk-based’ instead of a ‘one size fits all’ approach
  • Delegate powers under the SEZ Act to International Financial Services Centres Authority. It will avoid dual regulation and set up a single-window IT system for registration and approval from IFSCA, SEZ authorities, GSTN, RBI, SEBI and IRDAI.
  • The whole of government Approach: So that departments don’t work in ‘Silos’ e.g. 3C (Collaboration, Congruence, Competition) approach to Aspirational District Programme.

• Financing measures:
  • Result-Based Financing of schemes: To better allocate scarce resources for competing for development needs, the financing of select schemes will be changed, on a pilot basis, from ‘input-based’ to ‘result-based’.

• Dispute settlement:
  • Vivad Se Vishwas 2: The government will bring another dispute resolution scheme under Vivad Se Vishwas-2 to settle commercial disputes
    • The Vivad Se Vishwas scheme provides for the settlement of commercial disputes on payment of 100 per cent of the disputed tax and 25 per cent of the disputed penalty or interest or fee.
  • A voluntary settlement schemewill be introduced to settle the contractual disputes between the government and government undertakings, under court proceedings.

Some concerns:

• The budget had widened the tax authorities’ power to withhold any refunds to a taxpayer.
• It could result in an increased load of over-burdened constitutional courts

Insta Links:

• Governance
• Good Governance
• Good Governance Practices

Mains Links:

Trust-based Governance is quintessential to achieving Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas. Elaborate. (10M)

GS Paper 2

Syllabus: Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources

Source: TH

 Direction: The article highlights the implications of reduced allocations for the social sector program in the Union Budget 2023-24.

Context: The Union Budget 2023-24 reiterates the strategic vision of the government in which both economic recovery and job creation rest on increased capital expenditure (capex) while welfare segment has taken a toll.

The Budget announcements:

Increase in capex and its implications:

• A capex of ₹10 lakh crore, a 33% increase over last year.
• The budget estimate (BE) for effective capex is now is 4.5% of the GDP, up from 3.9% last year.
• Government remains on its ‘path of fiscal consolidation,’ with the fiscal deficit for FY24 projected to be 5.9% of the GDP (6.4% for the current year).
• The Finance Minister reiterated the commitment to reach a fiscal deficit below 4.5% by 2025-26.
• Critic: essential schemes that provide a safety net and contribute to better human development outcomes have been underfunded.

Decreased allocations for social sector programs:

• For subsidy: The BE for food subsidy is ₹1.97 lakh crore compared to the revised estimate (RE) of ₹2.8 lakh crore for 2022-23 (withdrawal of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana)
• For MGNREGS also seen a massive budget cut (BE for 2023-24 is ₹60,000 crore compared to the RE of ₹89,400 crore for 2022-23).
• For programmes that provide nutritional support for women and children:
  • For Saksham Anganwadi, which includes anganwadi services, Poshan Abhiyan and a scheme for adolescent girls, allocation remains almost the same at ₹20,554 crore.
  • The school meals scheme, rechristened PM-POSHAN, has seen a slight decline.
  • Samarthya, the maternity entitlements scheme, has been allocated ₹2,582 crore compared to the previous year’s allocation of ₹2,622 crore (BE).
• For other initiatives:
  • The allocations for old age, widow and disabled pensions under the National Social Assistance Programme have remained stagnant (around ₹9,600 crore).
  • The important areas in the social sector – education and health – have not seen any substantial increase.

Implications of these decreased allocations:

Way ahead:

• To achieve the spending goals set by the national policies on education (6% of GDP) and health (2.5% of GDP), the allocations need to be doubled.
• The removal of barriers to the timely and appropriate implementation of social sector programs is necessary, along with an increase in budgetary support.
  • For example, the app-based attendance monitoring system to ensure timely and error-free payments under MGNREGS.

Conclusion:

• It must be acknowledged that spending on these various social sector efforts significantly contributes to both economic recovery and long-term improvements in people’s lives.
• India cannot achieve the vision for Amrit Kaal without ensuring access to quality and affordable education, health, nutrition and social security.

Mains Links:

In order to enhance the prospects of social development, sound and adequate healthcare policies are needed particularly in the fields of geriatric and maternal health care. Discuss. (UPSC 2020)

GS Paper 3

Syllabus: Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources

Source: IE

 Direction: The article focuses on angel investors and how concerned they are about the proposed changes to the angel tax.

Context: According to a proposal made in the Finance Bill, 2023, foreign/angel investors may be required to pay the “angel tax,” which was previously only supposed to be paid for investments raised by resident Indian investors.

What exactly is the proposed change?

• The Finance Bill 2023, has proposed to amend Section 56(2) VII B of the Income Tax Act.
• According to the clause (introduced in 2012 and commonly known as the ‘angel tax’), equity investments from residents for the issuance of shares at a price above their face value are treated as income for unlisted businesses like start-ups.
  • For instance, if a start-up share has a fair market value of Rs 10 per unit and is sold to an investor for Rs 20 during a subsequent funding round, the difference of Rs 10 would be taxable as income (at 30%).
  • By subscribing to shares of a closely held company at a price over the shares’ fair market value, it aims to prevent the creation and use of unaccounted money.
• However, with the latest amendment, the government has proposed to also include foreign investors in the ambit.

Why are start-ups concerned?

• According to a PwC India report, funding for India’s start-ups dropped by 33% to $24 billion in 2022 as compared to the previous year.
• Foreign investors are a key source of funding for start-ups and have played a big role in increasing the valuation.
  • For instance, Tiger Global has invested in over a third of the start-ups that have turned unicorns (valuation of at least $1 billion).
• The proposed amendment will accelerate flipping overseas, as foreign investors may not want to deal with additional tax liability.

Insta Links:

Angel Tax

Prelims Links: (UPSC 2014)

GS Paper 3

Syllabus: Disaster Management

Source: The Hindu 

Context: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued directions to the Uttarakhand Government to conduct a study of the specific carrying capacity of the hill station.

• Also, Last year a panel was formed to assess the carrying capacity of eco-sensitive zones in Shimla (Himachal Pradesh)

Key highlights:

• A nine-member committee has been formed to suggest remedial measures for preventing environmental damage to the town.
• A study on Mussoorie’s carrying capacity by the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in 2001 suggested that no further construction was viable.
• An analysis of the carrying capacity of eco-sensitive areas in Himalayan regions in a holistic manner is necessary for the protection of the environment.
• Terms of reference for the committee:
  • Suggest remedial measures to prevent environmental damage in the light of carrying capacity
  • Hydro-geology studies
  • Geo-morphological studies
  • Covering other allied and incidental issues.

About Carrying Capacity:

The total number of individuals of a species that can live in an ecosystem under certain conditions.

• More recently the concept has been expanded beyond ecology by including economic, social, and infrastructure imperatives.
• Urban Carrying Capacity (UCC): It provides a theoretical foundation for determining the maximum potential population that could be supported without environmental degradation, based on the inherent limitations of a city 

Global Practices on Urban Carrying Capacity:

• China’s mega-cities demonstrate that the UCC framework can be simplified to quantify and evaluate indicators across sectors and use them appropriately for sustainable urban land management practices. 

Insta Links:

• Geology to unplanned construction: Decoding why Joshimath is sinking
• Land Subsidence

Mains Link:

Define the concept of the carrying capacity of an ecosystem as relevant to an environment. Explain how understanding this concept is vital while planning for sustainable development of a region. (250 words) UPSC CSE paper GS-3 2017

Land subsidence is a silent disaster that is taking hold of the Himalayan region. Examine the causes behind it, its impact and measures need to prevent this silent disaster. (10M)