[Mission 2024] Insights SECURE SYNOPSIS: 22 February 2024

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: Social empowerment

1. Addressing gender inequality in the workplace requires a comprehensive approach that tackles its root causes and fosters a culture of equality and inclusivity. Discuss.  (250 words).

Difficulty level: Moderate

Reference: The Hindu , Insights on India

Why the question:

The article discusses the long journey toward achieving gender equality at workplace.

Key Demand of the question:

To write about the causes for gender inequality at workplace and its impact and ways to overcome it.

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: 

Start by giving context.

Body:

First, write about the various causes for gender inequality at workplace – historic, educational, economic and social causes.

Next, write about the how the workplace gender inequality impacts. Cite examples and statistics to substantiate.

Next, write about the various measures needed to bridge the gender gap at workplace.

Conclusion:

Conclude by writing a way forward.

Introduction

The Supreme Court of India has come out heavily against another archaic idea with patriarchal overtones by observing that rules which penalise women employees for getting married are unconstitutional. “Terminating employment because the woman has got married is a coarse case of gender discrimination and inequality. Acceptance of such [a] patriarchal rule undermines human dignity, right to non-discrimination and fair treatment.” The observations were part of an order which upheld the rights of Selina John, a former lieutenant and Permanent Commissioner Officer in the Military Nursing Service, who was discharged from service in 1988 for getting married.

Body

Gender inequality in workplace

• Lack of Economic Empowerment:
  • Women’s Labor force participation globally is 51% while it is 80% for men as per World Development Report 2012. In India it is 23% as per the PLFS Survey.
  • Women are underrepresented in senior managerial position and overrepresented in low paying jobs. Oxford Survey shows that globally only 19% firmshave a female senior manager.
• Access to productive capital:
  • It is harder for women to access funds and capital for farming, starting a business or for other developmental works.
  • Women tend to lack access to informal networks that provide opportunities to work in high-profile projects, which include attending conferences abroad or on-the-job opportunities.
• Crisis of regular employment:
  • When women are not reported as workers, it is because of the lack of employment opportunities rather than it being on account of any “withdrawal” from the labour force.
  • This crisis of regular employment will have intensified during the pandemic and the lockdown.
• Nonfulfillment of particular criteria required for women:
  • Younger and more educated women are often not seeking work because they aspire to skilled non-agricultural work, whereas older women are more willing to engage in manual labour.
  • Secondary Education for women is lower than man in majority of countries while this stands at less than 80% in India.
• Unequal pay:
  • Women’s wages are rarely equal to men’s wages, with a few exceptions.
  • Globally women still earn 20% less than men. In a recentILO report, India was among the bottom five countries, with a gender pay gap of 34 per cent.
  • That is, women get 34 per cent less compared to men for performing the same job with same qualifications.
  • The gap between female and male wages is highest for non-agricultural tasks — the new and growing source of employment.
• Glass Ceiling effect:
  • Corporates: Women still earn on average 79 percent of what men earn, hold only 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions, and represent on average 17 percent of global Board positions.
  • When it comes to peer recognition, women are at loss as they muster less support.
  • As per Mckinsey report women were overlooked for promotion even in companies like Google for their reproductive choices.
  • Women continue to face the same kind of discrimination at work as they face in society.
  • According to a recent Accenture research report, the gender pay gap in India is as high as 67 percent in corporates.
• Exceedingly long woman’s workday:
  • Counting all forms of work — economic activity and care work or work in cooking, cleaning, child care, elderly care — a woman’s workday is exceedingly long and full of drudgery.
  • In the FAS time-use survey, the total hours worked by women (in economic activity and care) ranged upto a maximum of 91 hours (or 13 hours a day) in the peak season.
  • No woman puts in less than a 60-hour work-week.
• Safety Issues:
  • Concerns about safety and Harassment at work site, both explicit and implicit.
• Social norms:
  • Social norms about household work are against women’s mobility and participation in paid work. Childbirth and taking care of elderly parents or in-lawsaccount for the subsequent points where women drop off the employment pipeline.
  • The cultural baggage about women working outside the homeis so strong that in most traditional Indian families, quitting work is a necessary precondition to the wedding itself.
  • When increases in family incomes are there, due to the cultural factors, women leave the work to take care of the family and avoid the stigma of working outside.
  • Social norms and stereotypes:Classifying men as “bread winners” and women pursuing jobs as “career women” was reported by Oxford University Survey. It also highlighted that most of the unpaid work is seen as a women’s job.
  • Deeply ingrained bias:Ironically it exists among both men and women – against genuine equality. According PISA test data, the notion that “boys fare better at maths” is unfounded. Yet this belief still exists.

Measures needed

• Non-farm job creation for women:
  • There is a need to generate education-based jobs in rural areas in the industrial and services sectors
  • The state governments should make policies for the participation of rural women in permanent salaried jobs.
  • The governments should also generate awareness to espouse a positive attitude towards women among the public since it is one of the most important impediments in women’s participation in economic activities.
  • Local bodies, with aid from state governments, should open more crèches in towns and cities so that women with children can step out and work. The crèches will open employment opportunities for women.
• Recognition of the contribution of women:
  • As we emerge from the lockdown, it is very important to begin, first, by redrawing our picture of the rural labor market by including the contribution of women.
• Generate women-specific employment with proper conditions:
  • The immediate or short-run provision of employment of women can be through an expansion of the NREGS.
  • On the other hand, a medium and long term plan needs to generate women-specific employment in skilled occupations and in businesses and new enterprises.
  • In the proposed expansion of health infrastructure in the country, women, who already play a significant role in health care at the grass-root level, must be recognized as workers and paid a fair wage.
  • In the expansion of rural infrastructure announced by the Indian government recently specific attention must be paid to safe and easy transport for women from their homes to workplaces.
• Reduce the drudgery of care work:
  • There is a need for immediate measures to reduce the drudgery of care work. For example, healthy meals for schoolchildren as well as the elderly and the sick can reduce the tasks of home cooking.
• Skilling the women:
  • Initiatives such as Skill India, Make in India, and new gender-based quotas from corporate boards to the police force can spur a positive change. But we need to invest in skill training and job support.
  • The private sector could also take active part in training women entrepreneurs. For example: Unilever’s Shakti program, which has trained more than 70,000 rural women in India as micro-entrepreneurs to sell personal-care products as a way of making its brands available in rural India
• Equal pay:
  • The principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value that is protected by Indian law must be put to actual practice. Improved wage-transparency and gender neutral job evaluation is required to achieve this end.
• Expansion of rural infrastructure: announced by the Indian government recently specific attention must be paid to safe and easy transport for women from their homes to workplaces.
• Reduce the drudgery of care work:
  • As the lockdown is lifted, economic activity is growing but the young and old women still remain at home. 
• Addressing structural issues which keep women away from the workforce is a must.
• Policy decisions need to articulate gendered concerns during public health emergencies because gender-sensitive pandemic planning may substantially mitigate these concerns.

Conclusion

With more than 75% women not contributing to the economy, the nation is not only losing on the economic part but also the development of 50% of our population. The numeric consequences of reducing obstacles to women’s full economic participation far exceed the demographic advantages of having a larger pool of young workers. It is thus high time to talk of the gender dividend along with the demographic dividend.

There is no, one size fits all strategy as multiple issues are plaguing women workforce participation in India. If women’s workforce participation in India is realized to its full potential and given India’s demographic dividend, it can easily achieve the target of $5trillion economy.

Topic: Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.

2. Promoting learning in one’s mother tongue is essential for holistic development, cultural preservation, and academic success. Recognizing and valuing linguistic diversity in education is a step towards creating inclusive and effective learning environments for children. Analyse. (250)

Difficulty level: Moderate

Reference: Live Mint , Insights on India

Why the question:

For early stage learning, linguistic familiarity is key. Embracing the country’s rich tapestry of languages for schooling will help ensure that no child gets left behind.

Key Demand of the question:

To write about the importance of learning in mother tongue and the need to preserve the linguistic diversity of India.

Directive word: 

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: 

Briefly explain what linguistic diversity is.

Body:

First, write about the importance of learning in mother tongue – he Mother’s tongue is vital in framing the thinking and emotions of people. Learning to speak in the mother tongue is very necessary for a child’s comprehensive development.

Next, write about the importance of preserving linguistic diversity – Cultural Identity, Cultural Diversity, glimpse of our past etc. Write about the links between promoting linguistic diversity and social inclusion and national solidarity.

Conclusion:

Conclude by summarising.

Introduction

At the foundational stage, ensuring the understanding of literacy and numeracy by the learners is by far more important than thrusting the language of commerce. In a 1953 report entitled “The use of vernacular languages in Education”, by the UN, two aspects stood out. One, its iteration that “every child of school age should attend school, and the best medium of teaching is the mother tongue of the pupil.” And two, its emphasis that “all languages, even the so-called primitive ones, are capable of becoming media for school teaching; some perhaps merely as a bridge to a second language, while others maybe used at all levels of education”.

For early stage learning, linguistic familiarity is key. Embracing the country’s rich tapestry of languages for schooling will help ensure that no child gets left behind.

Body

Benefits of Education in mother tongue

• Mother tongue is critically important for cognitive, psychological and personality development, education and learning.
• Psychologists say it’s important that expressions and vocabulary are chosen with care when we talk to children.
• Research shows how the brain differently absorbs and recalls languages learnt in early childhood and later life.
• Every language spoken in the world represents a special culture, melody, colour and is an asset.
• Several psychological, social and educational experiments proved that learning through the mother tongue is deeper, faster and more effective.
• Much of a child’s future social and intellectual development hingeson the milestone of mother tongue.
• Incomplete first language skills often make learning other languages more difficult.
• Children of migrant families are finding themselves at crossroads, being unable to master either the first or the second language they are forced to study in.
• Gandhiji warned: “If the English educated neglect as they have done and even now continue, as some do, to be ignorant of mother tongue, linguistic starvation will abide.”

Challenges in implementation

• The National Education Policy, 2020 has advocated, that “wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language/mother tongue/local language/regional language” for both public and private schools. There are a few challenges in realising the NEP tenets.
• A given class may have learners from more than one mother tongue, teachers are not recruited on the basis of languages understood, spoken and written by them, and often resources are not available in the languages understood by the child.
• While there is no need for haste in making educational materials available in Indian languages, the approach and methodology should be discussed threadbare by policymakers and educationists,without political pressure or interference.
  • In Tamil Nadu, for instance, the bid to impart engineering education through the Tamil medium has not created any impact despite the principal political players using language as a political too
• What should be made obvious is that the use of English, wherever desirable, should be retained, with no aversion shown on the ground that it is a “foreign” language.

Need and Significance to preserve India’s linguistic diversity:

• Ecological diversity.
• Cultural diversity through oral traditions, stories, songs, poetry, and rituals passed down from generation to generation.
• Languages express identity
• Languages are repositories of history
• Language contribute to the sum of human knowledge
• Languages are interesting in themselves
• improved cognitive abilities in children when they are taught in their mother tongue in primary school

Conclusion

There is enough research and evidence now to prove that if children are taught in their mother tongue, particularly in the foundational years (ages 3 to 8), then higher retention, higher proficiencies, lesser repetition of grades, and improved test scores are seen. To create a student-centric environment, we cannot allow the “sink or swim’ approach of submersion. Given the available resources, bilingual teaching, with the aid of bilingual textbooks and e-content, etc. can be a great beginning to secure the future of our learners and their abilities.

Value Addition

Linguistic diversity in India

• The rich demographic mixture of India can be gauged from the fact that it has 28 states and 9 union territories.
• Each State has its own commonly spoken language, and the spoken dialect of the language can change every hundred kilometers.
• Multilingualismis the way of life in India as people in different parts of the country speak more than one language from their birth and learns additional languages during their life time.
• According to the Census of India (2011), there are 121 languages spoken across India.
• Out of these, 22 are scheduled languages, which can be given official status by respective states or be used to conduct administrative work or used in the state legislature; the remaining 99 languages have the status of non-scheduled languages.
• The two official languages of India (federal government) are Hindi and English, while the states have the authority to designate their own official language.
• Though officially there are 122 languages,Peoples Linguistic Survey of India has identified 780 languages, of which 50 are extinct in past five decades.
• The twenty-two languages that are recognised by the Constitution are: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Kannada, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu are included in the Eighth Schedule of the constitution.
• 14 of these scheduled languages have more than 10 million speakers each. To put this figure into perspective, the population of some countries, e.g. Norway is much less than 10 million.
• There are around 528 million Hindi speakers, while there are 3 million speakers of Odiya and 1.4 million speakers of Bodo.
• Tamil (declared in 2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014)have been recognised as classical languages with special status and recognition by Government of India.
• The classical languages have written and oral history of more than 1000 years. In comparison to these, English is very young as it has the history of only 300 years.
• Rabindranath Tagoreonce said “If God had so wished, he could have made all the Indians speak one language, the unity of India has been and shall always be a unity in diversity.”
• There are many more languages that are spoken in India, and astonishingly all these languages further have numerous dialects.

General Studies – 2

Topic: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary—Ministries and Departments of the Government;

3. An independent judiciary acts as a bulwark against any encroachment on the rights and liberties of citizens. In the light of above statement, write about the reforms that are needed in the Indian judiciary. (250 words)

Difficulty level: Moderate

Reference: Insights on India

Why the question:

The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 2.

Key Demand of the question:

To write about the need for reforms in Indian judiciary and how to achieve them.

Structure of the answer:

Introduction: 

Begin by giving context of judicial reforms.

 Body:

First, write about the need of judicial reforms in India. In detail, enumerate the various issues in the Indian judiciary. Substantiate with facts and examples.

Next, write what reforms are needed in its place to ensure that Indian judiciary is efficient, effective and accountable.

Conclusion:

Conclude with a way forward.

Introduction

The Judiciary is the body responsible for interpreting law and imparting meaning to it. It is the defender of the constitution and guardian of democracy systems. Under Indian Constitution the judiciary the judiciary systems is a single integrated systems of courts for the union and state with Supreme Court at apex authority.

However the Indian Judiciary is currently experiencing a number of problems. As a result the public is losing faith in the judiciary system. Since Justice delayed is justice denied it is crucial that the judiciary solve these obstacles as soon as possible.

Body

Challenges plaguing Indian Judicial systems

• Huge Pendency of Case
  • Over 10,000 cases were added to the Supreme Court’s pendency list in the last five months, which has increased from 69,766 cases as on July 1 to 80,040 on December 1.
  • It had taken three years previously, from March 2020 to July 2023, to add 10,000 cases to the SC pendency.
  • Law minister told Lok Sabha that the 25 high courts had more than 61.7 lakh cases pending while district and subordinate courts had over 4.4 crore cases, taking the total pendency in all courts in the country to over 5 crore cases.
• Lack of access to justice
  • A large section of the population in India, especially the marginalized and vulnerable groups, faces difficulties in accessing justice due to various factors such as distance, cost, and complexity of legal procedures.
  • This leads to a denial of justice and perpetuates social inequality
• Under trial Prisoners
  • Accordingly National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data shows Among the 5, 54,034 inmates across India’s prisons 77.1% were under trials and 22.2% were those who had been convicted by a court of law.
  • India’s overcrowded prisons confined more than half a million inmates at the end of 2021, with majority of them being those under trial for crimes they had allegedly committed.
• Recruitment Delays
  • Judicial posts are filled as immediately as necessary. For a country of 135 million, there are only 14.7 judges per millions populations in the country.
• Favoritism and Nepotism in appointment
  • Transparency in appointment of judges is also necessary for improvement justice systems.
• Delay in Judgment
  • Justice delayed is justice denied is legal maxim.
  • It means that if legal redress or equitable relief to an injury party is available but is not forthcoming in a timely fashion, it considered as same as having no remedy at all.
• Judicial Infrastructure and technology
  • The Indian judiciary also faces challenges in terms of infrastructure and technology, with many courts lacking basic facilities and using outdated technology, leading to inefficiencies and delays.
  • Adequacy of Judiciary infrastructure is pre requisite for reduction of pendency and backlog of case in court. Therefore it is necessary to improve judicial infrastructure scheme with help of state government and central government.
• Inequity of representation
  • Another area of concern is the composition of the higher judiciary, where woman are fairly underrepresented.

Aspects of Judicial Reforms to be looked into

• Modernization of the legal system
  • The Indian government has been implementing various technological initiatives to modernize the legal system.
  • This includes digitization of court records, online filing of cases, and e-court services.
  • This has helped to reduce delays and improve access to justice.
• Increase in the number of judges
  • There is a severe shortage of judges in India.
  • The government has taken steps to increase the number of judges in the courts by creating new positions and filling vacancies.
  • This is expected to help reduce the backlog of cases pending in the courts.
• Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Alternative Dispute Resolutions were founded in Indian Constitution under Article 14 and Article 21 which mention Equality for law and the Right to Life and Personal Liberty.
  • The government has been promoting alternative dispute resolution mechanisms such as mediation and arbitration as a means of resolving disputes outside of the court system.
  • This helps to reduce the burden on the courts and provides a quicker and less expensive means of dispute resolution
• Legal aid
  • The Indian government has been providing legal aid (Article 30A) to those who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.
  • This helps to ensure that everyone has access to justice, regardless of their financial status.
• Fast-track special courts
  • The government has established fast-track courts to deal with cases involving crimes against women and children, as well as other cases that require speedy resolution.
• Reforms in the criminal justice system
  • The government has been implementing various reforms in the criminal justice system to ensure that the innocent are not wrongly convicted, and the guilty are not let off.
  • This includes measures such as improving forensic capabilities, ensuring timely investigation and prosecution, and protecting the rights of the accused.

Way forward

• The shortage of judges is a significant cause of judicial pendency. Therefore, increasing the number of judges in the courts can help reduce the backlog of cases.
• The government should fill up the vacancies in the courts and increase the number of judges in proportion to the number of pending cases.
• There is a need to implement a robust e-court system that can streamline court processes, reduce paperwork, and improve efficiency.
• This includes digitizing case records, enabling online filing of cases, e-summons, e-payment, and video conferencing for hearings.
• Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, such as mediation and arbitration, can help reduce the burden on courts and speed up the disposal of cases.
• Encouraging parties to settle disputes outside of court can help reduce the backlog of cases.
• Effective case management can help reduce delays in the disposal of cases.
• The courts should develop a robust case management system that tracks the progress of cases, identifies cases that require priority attention, and sets realistic deadlines for the disposal of cases.
• The number of courts should be increased to ensure that the judicial system can handle the volume of cases.
• The establishment of additional courts can help reduce the backlog of cases and increase the efficiency of the judicial system.
• The time-bound disposal of cases can help reduce the backlog of cases.
• The government should set realistic timelines for the disposal of cases and ensure that the courts adhere to these timelines.

Topic: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary—Ministries and Departments of the Government

4. Taking immediate action to clear the backlog of cases will ensure timely justice delivery, reduce the burden on the courts, and enhance access to justice for all citizens. Analyse.  (250 words)

Difficulty level: Easy

Reference: Insights on India

Why the question:

The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 2.

Key Demand of the question:

To write about the causes for pendency of cases in India, its impact and suggest measures to overcome.

Directive word: 

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: 

Begin by giving context.

Body:

First write the causes for it – The cumulative effect of persisting vacancies, strained budgets, inadequate infrastructure combined with the continuous inflow of cases inevitably impacts mounting pendency and the time taken for cases to resolve.

Next bring out the impact of it – faith in the justice system, under trial prisoners their due of justice, impact on Economic reforms and foreign investors, Judiciary becomes overworked and lose its efficiency.

Suggest measures to overcome the above.

Conclusion:

Conclude with a way forward to ensure speedy delivery of justice.

Introduction

The justice system in any democracy is set up, under the Constitution to serve the public without “fear or favour, affection or ill-will” as far as judges are concerned. The Indian Judiciary plays an increasingly important role in the life and the governance of this country. A measure of the justice delivery system is the pendency of cases in courts across the country. There has been a significant deterioration in this aspect. The problem of pendency of cases is “intensifying” due to a lack of the sufficient number of judges.

Over 10,000 cases were added to the Supreme Court’s pendency list in the last five months, which has increased from 69,766 cases as on July 1 to 80,040 on December 1. It had taken three years previously, from March 2020 to July 2023, to add 10,000 cases to the SC pendency. Law minister told Lok Sabha that the 25 high courts had more than 61.7 lakh cases pending while district and subordinate courts had over 4.4 crore cases, taking the total pendency in all courts in the country to over 5 crore cases.

Body

Vacancies in the Indian Judiciary at various levels

• The courts are operating at a fraction of their authorised capacity.
• India has about 21 judges for every million people, by contrast, China has about 159 judges for every million people.
• More than four crore cases are pending in the lower courts of India, of which about 25% are pending for over five years.
• Judicial vacancies as a share of sanctioned strength in lower courts are 20% or more in some States/U.T.s.
• Due to inconsistent recruitment, in some States there is only one judge per one lakh people.
• Around 46 per cent of the total pending cases in the court system pertains to the government.
• Because of the incessant delays, undertrials as a share of total prisoners have peaked at 76% in 2020.

Causes for huge pendency of cases:

• Shifting role of SC:
  • The key reason for the mounting of pending cases can be attributed to shifting the role of the Supreme Court from adjudicating cases of constitutional significance into a regular court of appeals.
  • According to legal experts, most of the cases that the Supreme Court was handling daily are either appeals from various high courts or cases of gross violation of individual’s fundamental rights. But this role was never meant for the apex court.
• Shortage of judges:
  • From 1950 to 1921, the number of Supreme Court judgeshas increased nearly four times. Even then, case pendency has steadily kept rising.
  • Around 5,580 or 25% of posts are lying empty in the subordinate courts, which leads to poor Judges to Population Ratio, as India has only 20 judges per million population. Earlier, Law Commissionhad recommended 50 judges per million.
• Frequent adjournments:
  • The laid down procedure of allowing a maximum of three adjournments per case is not followed in over 50 per cent of the matters being heard by courts, leading to rising pendency of cases.
• Low budgetary allocation leading to poor infrastructure:
  • India spends only about 09% of its GDP to maintain the judicial infrastructure.
  • Infrastructure status of lower courts of the country is miserably grim due to which they fail to deliver quality judgements.
  • A 2016 reportpublished by the Supreme Court showed that existing infrastructure could accommodate only 15,540 judicial officers against the all-India sanctioned strength of 20,558.
• Burden of government cases:
  • Statistics provided by LIMBSshows that the Centre and the States were responsible for over 46% of the pending cases in Indian courts.
• Special leave petition:
  • cases in the Supreme Court, currently comprises to 40% of the court’s pendency.
  • It is because of frivolous PILs and various government policieswhich are challenged by the people that takes up most of judiciary’s time
• Judges Vacation:
  • Supreme Court’s works on average for 188 days a year, while apex court rules specify minimum of 225 days of work.
• Lack of court management systems:
  • Courts have created dedicated posts for court managers to help improve court operations, optimize case movement and judicial time.
  • However, only few courts have filled up such posts so far.
• Inefficient investigation:
  • Police are quite often handicapped in undertaking effective investigation for want of modern and scientific tools to collect evidences.

Rise in number of judges alone will not help reduce the pendency:

• From 1950 to 1921, the number of Supreme Court judges has increased nearly four times. Even then, case pendency has steadily kept rising.
• The key reason for the mounting of pending cases can be attributed to shifting the role of the Supreme Court from adjudicating cases of constitutional significance into a regular court of appeals.
• According to legal experts, most of the cases that the Supreme Court was handling daily are either appeals from various high courts or cases of gross violation of individual’s fundamental rights. But this role was never meant for the apex court.
• It is because of frivolous PILs and various government policies which are challenged by the people that takes up most of judiciary’s time

Other measures needed to reduce pendency of cases:

• Improving infrastructure for quality justice:
  • The Parliamentary Standing Committee which presented its report on Infrastructure Development and Strengthening of Subordinate Courts, suggested:
  • States should provide suitable land for construction of court buildings etc. It should undertake vertical construction in light of shortage of land.
  • Timeline set out for computerization of all the courts, as a necessary step towards setting up of e- courts.
• Addressing the Issue of Vacancies:
  • Ensure the appointments of the judges be done in an efficient way by arriving at an optimal judge strength to handle the cases pending in the system.
  • The 120th Law Commission of India report for the first time, suggested a judge strength fixation formula.
  • Supreme Court and High Courts should appoint efficient and experienced judges as Ad-hoc judges in accordance with the Constitution.
  • All India Judicial Service, which would benefit the subordinate judiciary by increasing quality of judges and help reduce the pendency.
• Timeframe to dispose of cases:
  • Having a definite time frame to dispose the cases by setting annual targets and action plans for the subordinate judiciary and the High Courts. The judicial officers could be issued a strict code of conduct, to ensure that the duties are adequately performed by the officials.
  • Strict regulation of adjournments and imposition of exemplary costs for seeking it on flimsy grounds especially at the trial stage and not permitting dilution of time frames specified in Civil Procedure Code.
• Better Court Management System & Reliable Data Collection:
  • For this categorization of cases on the basis of urgency and priority along with bunching of cases should be done.
• Use of Information technology (IT) solutions:
  • The use of technology for tracking and monitoring cases and in providing relevant information to make justice litigant friendly. A greater impetus should be given to
• Process reengineering:
  • Involves redesigning of core business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in productivity and quality by incorporating the use of technology in court rules. It will include:
  • Electronic filing of cases: e-Courts are a welcome step in this direction, as they give case status and case history of all the pending cases across High courts and Subordinate courts bringing ease of access to information.
  • Revamping of National Judicial Data Grid by introducing a new type of search known as elastic search, which is closer to the artificial intelligence.
• Alternate dispute resolution (ADR):
  • As stated in the Conference on National Initiative to Reduce Pendency and Delay in Judicial System- Legal Services Authorities should undertake pre-litigation mediation so that the inflow of cases into courts can be regulated.
  • The Lok Adalat should be organized regularly for settling civil and family matters.
  • Gram Nyayalayas, as an effective way to manage small claim disputes from rural areas which will help in decreasing the workload of the judicial institution.
  • Village Legal Care & Support Centre can also be established by the High Courts to work at grass root level to make the State litigation friendly.

Conclusion

The fundamental requirement of a good judicial administration is accessibility, affordability and speedy justice, which will not be realized until and unless the justice delivery system is made within the reach of the individual in a time bound manner and within a reasonable cost. Therefore, continuous formative assessment is the key to strengthen and reinforce the justice delivery system in India.

General Studies – 3

Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

5. Construction activities have various environmental impacts that can affect ecosystems, biodiversity, air and water quality, and contribute to climate change. Examine. Suggest measures to reduce the negative environmental impact of construction. (250 words)

Difficulty level: Tough

Reference: The Hindu

Why the question:

With the growing significance of the building sector and its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, it is important to address the environmental impact of construction

Key Demand of the question:

To write about the environmental important of construction and ways to address it.

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 giving context.

Body:

First, write about the construction sector’s environmental impacts throughout its lifecycle – encompassing air, water, and noise pollution, as well as waste generation and energy consumption.

Next, write about the ways in which it could be avoided and mitigate the negative impacts – green building initiatives, efficient waste management, the use of alternative materials, and community engagement.

Conclusion:

Conclude with a way forward.

Introduction

Construction and demolition wastes (CDW) are the status of building materials after the end life of buildings. CDW could be concrete, steel, wood products, asphalt shingles, and bricks from building.

With the growing significance of the building sector and its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, it is important to address the environmental impact of construction

Body

Main types of pollution associated with construction and construction waste

• Air: Disassembling and shredding of construction waste generate dust or large particulates into the surroundingsand affects the respiratory health of waste management workers and others.
• Water: Landfills are not properly designed to hold construction waste + Illegal dump sites + Improper recycling & disposal of e-waste meanscompounds leach into the ground and Groundwater get toxified due to heavy metals from demolition waste.
• Soil: Soil is contaminated by direct contact with contaminants from construction waste or its by-products from recycling & disposal + indirectly through irrigation.
  • Soils becometoxic when substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and polychlorinated biphenyl’s (PCBs) are deposited in landfills.
  • Contaminated soils have bad impacts on microbes and plants and the pollutants reach higher animals or humans through the food chain.

Adverse impact on human health and environment

• The most common effects on environment from various activities are dust, noise, smoke and odour (fugitive discharge).
• In circumstance of C & D waste management, the fundamental factors affecting the environment are dust and noise .
• Earth movements, destruction and other building activities frequently includes the generation of spreading clouds of dirt with destructive Impact on the growing figure of people suffering from respiratory diseases,and undesirable impact on the degradation surfaces.
• The dust generation activities also comprise of various restoration activities and dusting of façades.

Measures

• Need robust estimation and characterization of C&D waste to design systems for material recovery: Cities need comprehensive assessment and quantification of C&D waste generation, to plan adequate infrastructure and systems for treatment and management.
• Need of documentation:Cities must create easily accessible databases of buildings and their physical and legal attributes. Construction/demolition permits need to be inventorised with associated waste management plans attached.
• Preparing for waste management from new generation material: Expanded polystyrene insulation (EPS), Styrofoam, plastic spacers, bituminous material and asbestos embedded within new wall assemblies are a recycling challenge. This needs special attention.
• Infrastructure projects need to set up their own recycling facilities: DMRC has done so. Concrete can be easily recycled. Butt excavated waste is a challenge. Other infrastructure projects like highway and roadwork find recycling of bituminous material waste challenging. Globally, proactive prevention of waste is undertaken through modification of existing on site construction practices etc.
• Responsibility of the construction Industry: The current system provides no incentive to the construction agencies for managing their own waste via waste reduction and on-site reuse and recycling. The Rules have created a push by creating a legal requirement for waste management but the financial drivers are missing. This requires fiscal strategy.

Conclusion

Environmental and material challenges associated with the Construction and Demolition waste problem need urgent and immediate attention nation-wide to recover material, protect environment, and for clean air.

Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

6. How is the term ‘forest’ defined in India as per the law? Suggest steps to combat deforestation and promote afforestation. (250 words)

Difficulty level: Tough

Reference: Indian Express

Why the question:

In a significant interim ruling on Monday, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice asked the Centre to go back to the definition of ‘forest’ as given in its landmark 1996 judgement.

Key Demand of the question:

To write about the definition of ‘forest’ and ways to promote afforestation.

Structure of the answer:

Introduction: 

Begin by defining ‘forest’

Body:

Write about the evolution of the definition of ‘forest’ – as per Forest Rights Act of 2006, amendment to Forest Conservation Act, Judicial pronouncements defining forests etc.

Next, write about steps needed combat deforestation and promote afforestation.- government policies, community engagement, sustainable practices, and international cooperation etc.

Conclusion:

Conclude by writing a way forward.

Introduction

In a significant interim ruling on Monday, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice asked the Centre to go back to the definition of ‘forest’ as given in its landmark 1996 judgement. The Godavarman judgement of 1996 had expanded the scope for green cover conservation by using the dictionary definition of ‘forest’—in short, what would constitute a forest to the naked eye.

Body

Definition of forest as per Godavarman judgement

As per Judgement, “forest” cover includes:

• All areas recorded as “forest” in any government (Union and State) record.
• All areas that conformed to the “dictionary” meaning of forest.
• Areas identified as “forests” by an expert committee of SC.

Indiscriminate felling of trees as a result of urbanization, industrialization, mining operations, and use of wood for domestic and other purposes have caused heavy depletion of forests. This is called deforestation. Deforestation results in conversion of forest land to non-forest use.

Causes of Deforestation

• Agriculture:As per UNFCCC, agriculture is the direct cause of deforestation. Subsistence farming, commercial agriculture, shifting cultivation and industrial logging all cause deforestation.
• Developmental Projects like hydroelectric projects, reservoirs etc. require immense deforestation.
• Raw Material requirements
• Overgrazing by cattle
• Other causes like mining, overpopulation and urbanization, floods, forest fires due to climate change etc.

Impacts of Deforestation

Environmental Impacts:

• Deforestation is a contributor to global warming,and is often cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect as it causes carbon stores held in soil to be released.
• Deforestation affects wind flows, water vapor flowsand absorption of solar energy thus clearly influencing local and global climate.
• The water cycle is also affected by deforestation. Trees extract groundwater through their roots and release it into the atmosphere. When part of a forest is removed, the trees no longer transpire this water, resulting in a much drier climate.
• Increase in the rate of soil erosion. This can further lead to flooding in rivers and makes the soil susceptible to landslides.
• Removal or destruction of significant areas of forest cover has resulted in a degraded environment with reduced biodiversity.
• Deforestation can destroy genetic variations (such as crop resistance) irretrievably.

Economic Impacts:

• A short-term economic gain made by conversion of forest to agriculture, or overexploitation of wood products, typically leads to a loss of long-term income and long-term biological productivity.

Social impacts

• It has led to eviction of tribals and forest dwellers rendering them homeless and destitute.
• Many people dependent on forests for livelihood are deprived of their earnings.

Measures needed to stop deforestation

• The first and foremost task to conserve forests is to protect the existing forests from the merciless and reckless cutting of trees by greedy economic men. This task may be achieved through government legislation and by arousing public interest in the importance of the forest resources. The National Forest Policy of India has also laid down certain basic principles for proper management and conservation of the forest resources of the country such as –
  • Classification of forests according to functional aspects into protected forests, reserved forests, village forests, etc.
  • Expansion in the forest cover by planting trees in order to ameliorate the physical and climatic conditions for the welfare of the people,
  • Provision for ensuring progressive increasing supplies of fodder for animals and timber for agricultural implements and firewood to local inhabitants nearer to the forests,
  • Opposition to the reckless extension of agricultural land at the cost of forest land,
  • Extension of the forested area by the massive plan of tree plantation on a large-scale at war-footing so as to bring 33 percent of the country’s geographical area under forest etc.
• An important measure of effective conservation of natural forest is to adapt the scientific and judicious method of cutting of trees by following a selective approach. Only mature and desired trees should be cut and unwanted trees of low economic value should be avoided.
• To cover more and more wasteland and already deforested land with forests through vigorous planning of afforestation. Forests should not be replaced by commercially important fruit orchards.
• For example, the cultivation of apples in many parts of the Himalayas in general and Himachal Pradesh (India) in particular has done great damage to the original stands of natural forests.

General Studies – 4

Topic: Utilization of public funds;

7. Disbursal and utilisation of public funds is mired in opaqueness. Mention ways to ensure transparency and accountability in the utilisation of public funds. (150 words)

Difficulty level: Easy

Reference: Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude by Lexicon Publications.

Why the question:

The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 4.

Key Demand of the question:

To explain how transparency associated with utilization of public funds of the country will improve it efficacy.

Directive:

Justify – When you are asked to justify, you must 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 using suitable case studies or/ and examples.

Structure of the answer:

Introduction:

Discuss the importance of transparency and accountability in public funds.

Body:

Explain the lacunae in the country with respect to utilization of public funds such as corruption, nepotism, incomplete works, bad quality work, siphoning funds etc.

Discuss the significance of Transparency and efficiency as tools for monitoring and supervising distribution of public fund.

Explain various mechanisms through which it can be done – Public Fund Management System, Auditing agencies – CAG, Budgeting – Outcome based budgeting, zero base budgeting, Participation and transparency – Social Auditing, Financial Prudence etc.

Conclusion:

Summarize of this will aid in the developmental process of the country as well as reduce corrupt practices.

Introduction

Transparency is a fundamental requirement for the reliability and integrity of public institutions in order to promote public trust and public support. Transparency in public administration guarantees legal assurance and increases the level of legitimacy in decision making process.

‘Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous conscientiousness of honour. It is not the produce of riches only, but of the hard earnings of labour and poverty.’ – Thomas Paine

Kautilya also wrote extensively on handling public funds in Arthashastra which remains relevant even today. Government and public funds are riddled with corruption and only complete accountability and transparency can rid us of this situation.

Body

Importance of Transparency in the utilisation of public funds

• It is vital to uphold the ‘social contract’. Citizens must be confident that they are protected by the law and that public institutions and servants will act in accordance with it.
• Public institutions with operational independence from political control are more likely to be trusted to act in the public interest.
• A well-informed population is far more likely to be confident about investing for the future. This means both providing appropriate information in ways that are accessible and easy to understand, and educating citizens as well as inviting them to participate in decision making.
• Effective public financial management requires that decision-makers, citizens and other stakeholders, are able to ‘follow the money’ to see how taxes were raised, why decisions to spend it were made, how the money was actually spent and what was bought.
• Where government plans and activities are measured against expected outputs and outcomes, citizens and other stakeholders will be able to judge the performance of government. This, in turn, provides the basis for feedback and continuous improvement mechanisms.
• For the public to believe that public officials will do the right thing, a range of controls to promote integrity and ethical behaviour and to tackle fraud and corruption are required.
• Most importantly, the public must believe that individuals will be held responsible for their actions, no matter who they are.
• A climate for investment is created when investors believe a state is stable, well run and that political and fiscal risks will be managed effectively.

Conclusion

Only transparency and accountability can ensure that public funds are being used for the greater welfare and benefit of the people and society. Weeding out corruption is also necessary to ensure funds are not underutilised or siphoned off illegally. Only when we bring in more openness in working of government can there be real productivity and good governance.

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