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
General Studies – 1
Topic: History of the world will include events from 18th century such as industrial revolution, world wars, redrawal of national boundaries, colonization, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc.— their forms and effect on the society.
Difficulty level: Tough
Reference: Indian Express
Why the question:
Russia asked French President Emmanuel Macron to remember the fate of Napoleon Bonaparte, after he called for Russia’s defeat against Ukraine on Sunday (February 19). It also accused the president of being duplicitous in his diplomacy with Moscow
Key Demand of the question:
To write about the factors that led to the downfall of Napoleon and role of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in it.
Directive word:
Evaluate – When you are asked to evaluate, you have to pass a sound judgement about the truth of the given statement in the question or the topic based on evidence. You must appraise the worth of the statement in question. There is scope for forming an opinion here.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by giving context.
Body:
In the first part, write about the reasons for the downfall of Napoleon as the emperor of France – Overextension of Napoleon’s empire, formation of the Sixth Coalition, Continental system, Mistakes by Napoleon and Invasion of Russia by Napoleon.
Next, give context about Invasion of Russia by Napoleon and its outcome. Mention how it began the downfall of Napoleon and to what extent it was responsible for his decline.
Conclusion:
Conclude by giving a balanced opinion.
Introduction
Despite Napoleon Bonaparte’s early successes in restoring order to France at the beginning of the 1800s, the ten years after he became Emperor would be mired by failures, eventually leading to his downfall.
Body
Causes of Napoleon’s downfall
At Tilsit (1807), Napoleon was at the height of his power. But from 1808 to 1814 his power was continuously on the decline. His fall was as rapid as his rise.
- Continental blockade: One of this first moves in attempting to conquer or gain an advantage over much of Europe came with the Continental System. This decree, enacted by Napoleon, was meant to weaken England. In it, he encouraged any countries who were either neutral (meaning they didn’t take sides) or who were allies with France to stop doing business with England. It was his hope that England would suffer economically. The Continental System, however, failed, due in part to the fact that England had natural resources to sustain itself. The country that was weakened, ironically, was France.
- Peninsular war: From 1808 to 1814, France was engaged in the Peninsular War against Spain and Portugal, who were aided in the conflict by Great Britain. Napoleon had set his sights on conquering the Iberian Peninsula and actually succeeded in doing so when he conquered Spain in 1808. He installed his older brother, Joseph as the King of Spain. His short rule lasted from 1808 to 1813.
- This upset the Spaniards, who had once been allies with France. The Peninsular War turned out to be quite costly, and although the French won against Spain, this was a turning point in Napoleon’s reign: it was a moment in which his previous allies realized how land-greedy he was becoming.
- Russian invasion: On June 24, 1812, the Grande Armée, led by French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, crossed the Neman River, invading Russia from present-day Poland. The result was a disaster for the French.
Russian invasion and consequences
- In 1812, the French under Napoleon embarked on an invasion of Russia. He had hoped to gain political advantage with both Russia and Poland as a result of this invasion, and to defeat Russian troops.
- It was, however, a total disaster.
- Not only was it freezing cold, but the Russians were certainly not open to any engagements with the French.
- They retreated, but not before enacted a “scorched earth” policy, one in which they burned all of the crops as they moved further away from the French.
- This left Napoleon’s troops with little to eat. All totalled, the French army would lose hundreds of thousands of men during the six-month invasion.
- By June of 1815, Napoleon’s list of enemy countries had grown to include Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia due to his actions.
- The four countries all braced themselves for what they assumed would be a war with Napoleon’s forces, and when he got wind of this, he thought he might catch them by surprise and try to defeat them.
- He subsequently invaded Belgium, the spark which ignited the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon and his forces were defeated at this battle, which would mark the final defeat of his reign.
Conclusion
The invasion lasted six months, and the Grande Armée lost more than 300,000 men. Russia lost more than 200,000. A single battle (the Battle of Borodino) resulted in more than 70,000 casualties in one day. The invasion of Russia effectively halted Napoleon’s march across Europe, and resulted in his first exile, to the Mediterranean island of Elba.
Topic: Role of women and women’s organization
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: The Hindu
Why the question:
The recent case of allegations of sexual harassment that some of India’s sportswomen (wrestling) are said to have faced have shocked us. Those affected had to sit in protest in the capital to make themselves heard. This shows that any internal complaints committee (if there is one) does not function.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about the importance of creating safe workspaces for women and hindrances to do so.
Directive:
Analyse – When asked to analyse, you must examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts and present them in a summary.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Start by citing a statistic about harassment of women at workplace.
Body:
First, in detail, write about the importance of creating safe working place for women – improving access, ensuring equity, boosting productivity etc.
Next, write in the measures taken for to create safe working place for women – POSH act, Vishakha guidelines, setting up One Stop Centres under the Nirbhaya fund etc. Write about the limitations of the above. Suggest steps to overcome the same.
Conclusion:
Conclude by writing a way forward.
Introduction
The Union Sports Minister constituted an ‘oversight committee’ headed by a lady Olympic medal holder to investigate the charges leveled against the president of the Wrestling Federation of India. The recent case of allegations of sexual harassment some of India’s sportswomen (wrestling) have faced has once again shown the dangers lurking for women at workplace.
The female labour force participation rate was at 9.4 per cent for the period between September-December 2021, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
Body
Importance of creating a safe workplace for women
- Women are more vulnerable to exploitationby their employer as they can be easily threatened with their job continuity for indecent favors.
- Most womendo not complain of sexual harassment and the current redress mechanism is either non-existent or ineffective.
- The absence of an enabling and safe working environment has led to poor labour force of women (LFPR)
- Women’s contribution remains critical for survival, especially at a time rural household incomes are dwindling.
- Safe workplaces encourage women workers to continue their work, thus increasing equity and in turn help increase the LFPR.
- It helps them to carry out their work efficiently. A woman wants a safe place to work without any unwelcome distractions.
- It helps women to be calmer. Workplace harassment is traumatizing, and leads girls and women to suffer from depression and degrading mental health.
- If coworkers or bosses sexually harass a woman, it can lower productivity and increase absenteeism in the workplace. The employee’s health and well-being are badly harmed.
measures taken for to create safe working place for women
- Legislations in force:
- Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
- Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961
- Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986
- Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013
- Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006
- Government Initiatives:
- Nirbhaya Fund for projects for the safety and security of women
- One-Stop Centre Scheme to provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces under one roof
- the Scheme of ‘Universalisation of Women Helpline’ and
- the Scheme of ‘Mahila Police Volunteers’
- Online analytic tool for police called “Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences” to monitor and track time-bound investigation in sexual assault cases in accordance with Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2018.
- National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) to facilitate investigation and tracking of sexual offenders across the country by law enforcement agencies
- Nirbhaya Fund for projects for the safety and security of women
- A cyber-crime portal has been launched for citizens
- to report obscene content.
- Cyber Crime Forensic Labs have been set up in several States, and training of over 3,664 personnel, including 410 Public Prosecutors and Judicial Officers in identifying, detecting and resolving cyber-crimes against women and children has been imparted.
Way forward and conclusion
- The numbers matter when it comes to power emanating from the majority.
- One musters courage to voice one’s grievance when there are sufficient numbers in support of the affected person.
- Much would depend on the tooth-to-tail ratioof any organization.
- When the number of women in leadership positions is enough. It generates confidence in subordinate women.
- Unless the mindset of treating men and women as equalsis developed at an early stage of character formation during childhood, the stereotyped power relation between the two would be difficult to change later.
- Theory of criminology known as ‘nature versus nurture: While genes may decide certain features of one’s personality at birth, it is social conditioning and the environment of the family and early schooling which matter the most during the growth of children.
- Unless both parents respect each other and treat their girl and boy child on a par in all respects, they grow up learning this inequality as a normal phenomenon, which may even lead to the development of criminal tendencies in men.
- Unless society as a whole works incessantly to bring about the required changes in the existing socio-cultural and economic structures to eliminate indirect violence, root and branch, the status quo may not change.
General Studies – 2
Topic: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential; citizens charters, transparency & accountability and institutional and other measures.
Difficulty level: Easy
Reference: Insights on India
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 2 and mentioned as part of Mission-2023 Secure timetable.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about e-governance, its types and challenges associated with it.
Directive:
Examine – When asked to ‘Examine’, we must investigate the topic (content words) in detail, inspect it, investigate it and establish the key facts and issues related to the topic in question. While doing so we should explain why these facts and issues are important and their implications.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Start by defining e-governance.
Body:
First, write about the various types of e-governance in India – Government to Citizen (G2C) Initiatives, Government to Business (G2B) Initiatives, Government to Government (G2G) Initiatives, G2E (Government to Employee) etc. Cite examples of the above.
Next, write about the various challenges associated with e-governance in India and suggest measures to overcome the same.
Conclusion:
Conclude by writing a way forward.
Introduction
E-Governance is basically associated with carrying out the functions and achieving the results of governance through the utilization of what has today come to be known as Information and Communications Technology. It is basically the application of ICT to the processes of Government functioning in order to bring about ‘Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent’ (SMART) governance.
Body:
Types of Interactions in e-Governance in India:
E-Governance facilitates interaction between different stake holders in governance. These interactions may be described as follows:
- G2G (Government to Government): In this case, ICT is used not only to restructure the governmental processes involved in the functioning of government entities but also to increase the flow of information and services within and between different entities. E.g.: Khajane Project in Karnataka:It is a comprehensive online treasury computerization project of the Government of Karnataka. The project has resulted in the computerization of the entire treasury related activities of the State Government; SmartGov (Andhra Pradesh)
- G2C (Government to Citizens):In this case, an interface is created between the government and citizens which enables the citizens to benefit from efficient delivery of a large range of public services. E.g.: Computerisation of Land Records (Department of Land Resources, Government of India); Bhoomi Project in Karnataka; Revenue Administration through Computerized Energy (RACE) Billing Project, Bihar; Admission to Professional Colleges – Common Entrance Test (CET)
- G2B (Government to Business):Here, e-Governance tools are used to aid the business community – providers of goods and services – to seamlessly interact with the government. The objective is to cut red tape, save time, reduce operational costs and to create a more transparent business environment when dealing with the government. E.g.: e-Procurement Project in Andhra Pradesh; MCA 21 – The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has implemented the MCA 21 Mission Mode Project under the NeGP
- G2E (Government to Employees):Government is by far the biggest employer and like any organisation, it has to interact with its employees on a regular basis. Use of ICT tools helps in increasing the satisfaction levels of employees. E.g.: Biometric attendance project.
Challenges to e-Governance
- Different Language:India is a country where people with different cultures and different religions live. The diversity of people in context of language is a huge challenge for implementing e-Governance projects as e-Governance applications are written in English language
- Low Literacy:Literacy level of India is very low which is a huge obstacle in implementation of e-Governance projects. Illiterate people are not able to access the e-Governance applications; hence the projects do not get much success
- User friendliness of government websites:Users of e-Governance applications are often non-expert users who may not be able to use the applications in a right manner.
- Services are not accessible easily:Even if the users of Internet are growing but still there is a major part of Indian population which is not able to access e-Governance activities for variety of reasons
- Population:Population of India is probably the biggest challenge in implementing eGovernance projects.
- Lack of integrated services:Most of the egovernance services which are offered by the state or central government are not integrated
- Cost:In developing countries like India, cost is one of the most important obstacles in the path of implementation of e-Governance where major part of the population is living below poverty line
- Privacy and Security:A critical obstacle in implementing e-Governance is the privacy and security of an individual’s personal data that he/she provides to obtain government services.
Way forward
- Building a congenial environment is a sine qua non for successful implementation of e-Governance initiatives. This should be achieved by
- Creating and displaying a will to change within the government
- Providing political support at the highest level
- Incentivizing e-Governance and overcoming the resistance to change within government
- Creating awareness in the public with a view to generating a demand for change.
- The benefits of e-governance depends upon adoption by government employees and citizens themselves.
- This will bring various departments to collaborate with each other — and also with nongovernmental partners — to create a virtuous cycle of co-creation, learning, and efficiency.
- A beginning has been made through government-to-citizen services using Common Service Centres, advice to agriculturists, digital payments of welfare benefits through bank accounts etc.
Conclusion
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, has visualized e-Governance in the Indian context to mean: “A transparent, smart e-Governance with seamless access, secure and authentic flow of information crossing the interdepartmental barrier and providing a fair and unbiased service to the citizen.”
Thus, e-Governance has led to better access to information and quality services for citizens; Simplicity, efficiency and accountability in the government and expanded reach of governance. In the light of wide range of e-Governance initiatives that have been carried out in India with varying degrees of success as well as the diversity of conditions in the country, the report recognizes that e-Governance projects have to be designed for specific contexts and environments
Topic: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential; citizens charters, transparency & accountability and institutional and other measures.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: Insights on India
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 2 and mentioned as part of Mission-2023 Secure timetable.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about smart governance, its advantages and measures initiated to promote smart governance in the country.
Directive word:
Discuss – This is an all-encompassing directive – you must debate on paper by going through the details of the issues concerned by examining each one of them. You must give reasons for both for and against arguments.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by defining smart governance.
Body
First, write about the various advantages associated with smart governance – transform the way government services are delivered, improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of governance etc.
Next, write about the various initiatives in recent years to implement smart governance practices in various sectors – Digital India, Aadhaar, MyGov, Smart Cities Mission, Cowin and E-Courts etc. Write about the achievements and limitations.
Conclusion:
Conclude with a way forward.
Introduction
Smart governance mechanisms are becoming more receptive to the potentials of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) to achieve good governance in its implementation. This application of ICTs for governance is covered under the umbrella term of E-governance.
India, being the one of the largest countries democratically, demographically and geographically faces a huge challenge in the application of e-governance to empower its citizens and for overall economic development, more specifically in the rural areas.
Body
Smart Governance: Advantages
- Data Driven Governance: Technology facilitates communication. The Internet and smartphones have enabled instant transmission of high volumes of data that acts as a fodder for effective governance.
- Costs Saving: A lot of Government expenditure goes towards the cost of buying stationery for official purposes.
- Letters and written records consume a lot of stationery. However, replacing them with smartphones and the internet can save crores of money in expenses every year.
- Transparency: The use of e-governance helps make all functions of the business transparent. All official information can be uploaded onto the internet.
- The citizens specifically access whichever information they want, whenever they want it, at their convenience.
- Accountability: Transparency directly links to accountability. Once the functions and information of the governance is available to the citizens, the government is more accountable to its actions.
- Land Record Monitoring: A vast developing country like India, with its diverse land tenure system requires effective land monitoring.
- In order to ensure that transactions related to properties are not fraudulent, along with physical transactions, online record maintenance is a key feature of e-governance in India.
Initiatives to promote smart governance
- MyGov: It aims to establish a link between Government and Citizens towards meeting the goal of good governance. It encourages citizens as well as people abroad to participate in various activities i.e. ‘Do’, ‘Discuss’, ‘Poll’, ‘Talk’, ‘Blog’, etc.
- DigiLocker: It serves as a platform to enable citizens to securely store and share their documents with service providers who can directly access them electronically.
- e-Hospital-Online Registration Framework (ORF): It is an initiative to facilitate the patients to take online OPD appointments with government hospitals. This framework also covers patient care, laboratory services and medical record management.
- National Scholarships Portal (NSP): It provides a centralized platform for application and disbursement of scholarship to students under any scholarship scheme.
- DARPAN: It is an online tool that can be used to monitor and analyze the implementation of critical and high priority projects of the State. It facilitates presentation of real time data on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of selected schemes/projects to the senior functionaries of the State Government as well as district administration.
- PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation): It has been aimed at starting a culture of Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation. It is also a robust system for bringing e-transparency and e-accountability with realtime presence and exchange among the key stakeholders. It was launched in 2015.
- Common Services Centres 2.0 (CSC 2.0): It is being implemented to develop and provide support to the use of information technology in rural areas of the country. The CSCs are Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled kiosks with broadband connectivity to provide various Governments, private and social services at the doorstep of the citizen.
- Mobile Seva: It provides government services to the people through mobile phones and tablets.
- Jeevan Pramaan: It is an Aadhaar based Biometric Authentication System for Pensioners. The system provides authenticity to Digital Life Certificate without the necessity of the pensioner being present in person before his/ her Pension Dispensing Authority (PDA).
- National Centre of Geo-informatics (NCoG): Under this project, Geographic Information System (GIS) platform for sharing, collaboration, location based analytics and decision support system for Departments has been developed.
- National e-Governance Plan (NeGP): It takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives across the country, integrating them into a collective vision and a shared cause. It comprises of 31 Mission Mode Projects, approved in 2006, but later it was integrated into Digital India Program.
Conclusion
Different States in India are at different levels of e-readiness; while implementing e-Governance reforms in different parts of the country, this aspect has to be kept in mind.
Today, there are a number of successful projects running in the country. but there are very few which are on a nation-wide basis. There is a need to replicate and upscale successful models evenly throughout the country.
General Studies – 3
Topic: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: The Hindu , Insights on India
Why the question:
Meeting in person after nearly eight months, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council last Saturday reached a broad consensus on establishing GST Appellate Tribunals to resolve disputes under the tax regime launched in July 2017.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about various successes and limitations of GST and reforms that are needed in it.
Directive word:
Critically examine – When asked to ‘Examine’, we have to look into the topic (content words) in detail, inspect it, investigate it and establish the key facts and issues related to the topic in question. While doing so we should explain why these facts and issues are important and their implications. When ‘critically’ is suffixed or prefixed to a directive, one needs to look at the good and bad of the topic and give a fair judgment.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by aims and objectives behind the launch of GST.
Body:
First, write about the achievements of GST in the past 5 years. Substantiate with examples, facts or statistics. Write about the setting up of GST Appellate tribunal and advantages associated with it.
Next, write about the shortcomings of GST in the past 5 years. Substantiate with examples, facts or statistics.
Next, suggest reforms in GST.
Conclusion:
Conclude with a way forward.
Introduction
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is an indirect tax system which was rolled out in 2017 with the aim of ‘One Nation, one tax’. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has pointed out lacunae in the GST regime, saying that system-validated input tax credit through invoice matching is not in place and a non-intrusive e-tax system still remains elusive.
India’s goods and services tax (GST) regime completed five years on July 1, 2022. Meeting in person after nearly eight months, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council last Saturday reached a broad consensus on establishing GST Appellate Tribunals to resolve disputes under the tax regime launched in July 2017.
Body
Various issues with respect to goods and services tax (GST) regime
- The breakdown of trust and cooperative federalism between states and the Union government:
- It turned out to be prescient as GST failed to live up to its economic promises and states’ revenues were protected through this guarantee, despite Finance’s attempt to wriggle out of this commitment during the pandemic under the alibi of an “act of God”.
- The Union government’s proclivity to levy and appropriate cess revenues for itself without sharing them with the states has lent credence to the wisdom of guaranteed compensation for states.
- This guarantee is now set to expire..
- The recent Supreme Court’s judgment highlighting that the GST Council’s recommendations are not binding on the states:
- The SC recently observed that it is in the national interest to have both cooperative and competitive federalism, and hence, the GST Council’s decisions are not binding on the states.
- This means that states had and continue to have the right to either comply fully with the Council’s recommendations or modify them as they deem necessary.
- This has opened the window for states to override the fundamental GST premise of a “one nation one tax”.
- If pushed to a corner, states may now use the SC ruling as a shield.
- Expiry of the revenue guarantee that protected states’ revenues
- GST is too precariously perched to yank away the compensation guarantee for states.
- the Union government is not desirous of extending the compensation guarantee.
- Difficulty in tax administration:
- Goes against the canons of taxation.
- A modern tax system should be fair, uncomplicated, transparent and easy to administer.
- It must yield revenues sufficient to cover the cost of government services and public goods.
- Lack of clarity on many rules is also leading to various litigation and different interpretations (of the same laws) by Advanced Ruling Authorities in different states.
- Complicated taxation structure:
- A World Bank study published in May 2018 said that the Indian GST rate was the second highest among the 115 countries with a national value-added tax.
- It was also the most complicated, with five main tax rates, several exemptions, a cess and a special rate for gold.
- The multilateral lender said that only five countries had four or more non-zero tax rates—India, Italy, Pakistan, Luxembourg and Ghana.
- Falling revenue amid disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has continuously delayed the reform, leaving a large number of items in high tax slabs.
- High compliance costs:are also arising because the prevalence of multiple tax rates implies a need to classify inputs and outputs based on the applicable tax rate. Along with the need to apply the correct rate, firms are required to match invoices between their outputs and inputs to be eligible for full input tax credit, which increases compliance costs further.
- GST Council meetings: the meetings of the GST Council are not as frequent as they were earlier, if the recent incidents are anything to go by, and it often end up with disagreement, fight and strong letters and statements. States have also accused the Centre of cornering a substantial portion of tax in forms of cess.
- There has been lack of coordination between the Department of Revenue, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs and the GST Network.
However, there are gains too from the GST Regime
- Introduced as one of the biggest economic reforms by the incumbent government, the GST kicked off with the promise to streamline taxation and compliance burden.
- Based on the one nation one tax ideology, GST has helped in reducing the cascading effect of tax considerably.
- Also, multiplicity of compliances under various indirect taxes has been reduced.
- Hence, introduction of GST in India has brought in efficiencies in indirect tax compliance, incidence and reduced the number of indirect tax authoritiesthat a taxpayer needed to interact with
- Another positive is the concept of e-invoicingwhich seeks to ensure greater transparency in supplier-receiver transactions.
- The introduction of e-way bill coupled with the crackdown on fake invoicinghas helped in bringing in a substantial portion of GST revenues, which were either being evaded or under-reported, in order.
- The GST Appellate Tribunals will be established soon to resolve disputes leading to quicker disposal of GST disagreements that are adding to courts’ caseloads
Way Forward
- The first target should be to move to at least a three-rate structure, a lower rate for essential goods, a relatively high rate for luxury goods, and a standard rate for the majority of goods and services.
- The next step would be simplifying the tax returns process.
- The scope for lowering the GST rate is umbilically linked to direct tax reform.
- A better way to make a tax system more just is by lowering regressive indirect tax rates while widening the base for progressive direct taxeson income and corporate profits.
- The government needs to establishGST Tribunals to reduce litigation timelines and the pressure on courts.
- The state authorities for Advance Ruling should ideally also have an independent jurist member, apart from a representative from the tax department.
- Many goods are still outside the GST net, which comes in the way of seamless flow of input tax credit. Key items outside its ambit are electricity, alcohol, petroleum goods and real estate. This aspect need to be looked into.
- Emulating the best practices. The GST in New Zealand, widely regarded as the most efficient in the world, has a single standard rate of 12.5 percent across all industry groups.
- The Fifteenth finance commission, in its latest report, has addressed many issues including large shortfall in collections as compared to original forecast, high volatility in collections, accumulation of large integrated GST credit, glitches in invoice and input tax matching, and delay in refunds.
- The Commission also observed that the continuing dependence of states on compensation from the central government for making up for the shortfall in revenue is a concern.
- While at the same time it suggested that the structural implications of GST for low consumption states need to be considered.
Conclusion
While the GST’s journey has given its stakeholders some causes to celebrate, it has also given moments of worry. But then, no transformation of the scale and complexity can be achieved without its share of hiccups and challenges. The process of evolution will take a few years more for the mammoth structural change to stabilize. The four-year journey of GST has been a roller-coaster ride for all stakeholders with equitable share of hits, misses and expectations. A work-in-progress in its transformational journey, GST suffers from several shortcomings which need to be resolved quickly, but its journey to ‘Good & Simple Tax’ is still quite long.
Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: The Hindu , Insights on India
Why the question:
After the passing of the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill last December, the Centre is now in the final stages of notifying an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that would require polluting industries to achieve certain standards of energy efficiency and permit them to ‘trade’ these improvements.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about carbon market and emission trading scheme and India’s potential in using it to fight climate change.
Directive word:
Examine – When asked to ‘Examine’, we must investigate the topic (content words) in detail, inspect it, investigate it and establish the key facts and issues related to the topic in question. While doing so we should explain why these facts and issues are important and their implications.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by defining emission trading
Body:
In the first part, in detail, write about the structure and functioning of emission trading in a carbon market and its brief history.
Next, write about the potential of emission trading in reducing carbon emissions and fighting climate change. Write the ways in which it would help. Substantiate with facts and examples.
Next, write about the challenges and limitations associated with emission trading in India. Mention ways to overcome them.
Conclusion:
Conclude by writing a way forward.
Introduction
Emission trading or Carbon markets allow for buying and selling of carbon emissions with the objective of reducing global emissions. Carbon markets existed under the Kyoto Protocol, which is being replaced by the Paris Agreement in 2020. Carbon Markets can potentially deliver emissions reductions over and above what countries are doing on their own.
Body
About carbon market
- Carbon Markets and Carbon Credits are components of emissions trading, a market-based approach to to reduce the concentration of Greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. It works by providing economic incentivesfor reducing the emissions of the designated pollutants. A carbon market allows investors and corporations to trade both carbon credits and carbon offsets simultaneously.
- Carbon credits (or allowances) work like permission slips for emissions.
- When a companybuys a carbon credit, they gain permission to generate more CO2 emissions.
- One tradable carbon credit equals one tonne of carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount of a different greenhouse gas reduced, sequestered or avoided.
- Credits are measured against ‘benchmarks’ or allowed GHG emissions. If emissions are below the allowed limit, the emitter earns carbon credits (reducing 1 tonne of CO2 earns 1 carbon credit).
- If emissions are above the allowed limit, the emitter must buy carbon credits from those who have excess credits.
- Thus, crossing the emissions limit imposes a cost (amount spent on purchase of carbon credits) on the emitter. The idea is that this cost will force the emitters to be more efficient and reduce emission.
Potential to have carbon market framework In India
- First, it will help inmitigating the adverse impacts of climate change by reducing the GHG emissions.
- Second, there are multiple co-benefits of offset projectssuch as: ecosystem management, forest preservation, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy generation in third-world countries, etc.
- Third, the voluntary carbon market for offsets is smaller than the compliance market, but expected to grow much biggerin the coming years. It’s open to individuals, companies, and other organizations that want to reduce or eliminate their carbon footprint, but are not necessarily required to by law.
- Fourth, consumers are increasingly aware of the importance of carbon emissions. Consequently, they’re increasingly critical of companies that don’t take climate change seriously. By contributing to carbon offset projects, companies signal to consumers and investors that they’re paying more than just lip service to combat climate change.
- Fifth, it opens an additional revenue streamfor environmentally beneficial businesses. For instance, Tesla, the electric car maker, sold carbon credits to legacy car manufacturers to the tune of $518 million in just the first quarter of 2021.
Challenges with carbon market
- There are concerns regarding the effectiveness of carbon markets in curbing emissions.
- Some companies simply buy credits without making any effort to reduce emissions themselves.It is cheaper for them to buy carbon credit than to invest in emission reducing technologies
- The issue of old carbon credits (certified carbon emissions, or CERs), issued under — the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol — are still valid.
- Counting them as valid would slow down climate action because those who are under commitments to reducing emissions would just buy the CERs and call it a done deal.
- However, declaring them invalid would disappoint all those entities that were given the credits.
- Phenomenon of ‘double counting’ exists. If an emission reduction takes place in one country and another entity in another country buys the carbon credits, only one of the two countries should be logically allowed to use the activity against its own commitments — not both.
- Issues related to a fee levied on each carbon trading transaction for a fund to help poor countries adapt to the vagaries of the climate change.
- Buying carbon credits candeviate the rich nations from the path of reducing emissions. They can simply continue to emit and buy cheap carbon credits from developing countries.
- It is difficult to establish the amount of carbon reduced by offset projects (like afforestation or wind energy project). The complexity is in establishing baseline emissions (Emissions baseline represents what would happen if your project did not occur i.e., the emissions in the absence of the project).
- This makes it difficult to verify emission reductions and assigning carbon credits.
- India’s own PAT (Perform, Achieve, Trade) Scheme has failed to achieve meaningful emissions reduction.According to an analysis by the Center for Science and Environment, the emission reduction under the scheme has been only 1.57% and 1.44% over the two cycles.
Conclusion
The establishment of a domestic carbon market is a progressive step. However, the actual benefit will depend upon the effectiveness of the market. For this, the Government must ensure that proper regulations are established. Moreover, there must be periodic assessment of its functioning and corrective steps its necessary. Climate Change is real and imminent, Government must take all possible steps to mitigate the challenges.
General Studies – 4
Topic: social influence and persuasion.
Difficulty level: Easy
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 4 and part of ‘Conceptual Tuesdays’ in Mission-2023. Secure.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about how social influence can have both positive and negative outcomes.
Directive word:
Examine – When asked to ‘Examine’, we must investigate the topic (content words) in detail, inspect it, investigate it and establish the key facts and issues related to the topic in question. While doing so we should explain why these facts and issues are important and their implications.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by defining social influence.
Body:
First, write about the positive outcome that social influence can have – powerful tool for promoting positive behaviours and bringing about social change. Cite examples to substantiate.
Next, on the other hand, social influence can also be used to promote negative behaviours and beliefs. Cite examples to substantiate.
Conclusion:
Conclude by writing a balanced opinion.
Introduction
Social influence refers to changes in attitudes, beliefs, and behavior due to the actions or comments of other people. Social influence is ubiquitous in human societies. It takes a wide variety of forms, including obedience, conformity, persuasion, social loafing, social facilitation, deindividuation, observer effect, bystander effect, and peer pressure.
Body
Social influence takes two basic forms: implicit expectations and explicit expectations.
Implicit expectations are unspoken rules. Like the unwritten laws of middle school, implicit expectations are enforced by group norms. Unlike implicit expectations, explicit expectations are clearly and formally stated— not at all subtle. There are also two forms of explicit expectations: compliance and obedience. Compliance occurs when you behave in response to a direct or indirect request. When healthy graduate students asked people on a New York City subway to give up their seat, about two thirds of the subway riders complied— just because someone asked. With compliance, there isn’t necessarily any threat of punishment for not doing the behavior—it is a request, not a demand.
Role of Social influence in shaping behavior of a person:
Social influence is the change in behavior that one person causes in another, intentionally or unintentionally. Social influence takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing. As per Herbert Kelman, there are three broad types of social influence.
- Compliance
- Compliance is when an individual changes his or her behavior in response to an explicit or implicit request made by another person.
- Compliance is often referred to as an active form of social influence in that it is usually intentionally initiated by a person.
- It is also conceptualized as an external form of social influence in that its focus is a change in overt behavior.
- : Tax payment, following traffic rules
- Conformity:
- Conformity refers to when people adjust their behaviours, attitudes, feelings, and/or beliefs to fit to a group norm.
- Conformity is generally regarded as a passive form of influence in that members of the group do not actively attempt to influence others.
- People merely observe the actions of group members and adjust their behaviours and/or views accordingly. The focus of conformity can be either external (overt behaviours) or internal (beliefs and feelings) in nature.
- Main factor that influences conformity is social norms. Social norms are the expected behaviour within a specific culture or society.
- Example: Treating all genders equally; Coming from a poor background, helps sensitive about the concerns of poor more than just studying their problems; If other officers are corrupt, then I it may tempt a honest officer also to be corrupt; leaving footwear outside in religious places, banning of sati.
- Obedience:
- Obedience is a change in behavior as a result of a direct command from an authority figure.
- Obedience is an active form of influence in that it is usually directly initiated by an authority figure and is typically external in that overt behaviours are generally the focus of commands.
- Example: Respecting elders; an employee will follow the orders of his supervisors in order to please them; Orders from Military officer to jawans.
- Growing concerns about the use of coercive and other manipulative psychological techniques underline the need to improve understanding of the ethics of social influence.
Conclusion
Thus, there are many things that influence behaviour in people, whether that be their own beliefs and opinions or other people being around them at the time. Understanding these shortcuts and employing them in an ethical manner can significantly increase the chances that someone will be social influenced and persuaded by the public policy.
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