General Studies Paper 2

Context

• On October 26, Qatar’s local court handed down the death penalty to eight former Indian Navy officers. The case has garnered international attention.

Similar incidents

• The case shares similarities with other incidents involving the arrest of Indian nationals by foreign authorities.
• For instance, Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian national, was sentenced to death in 2017 in Pakistan on charges of espionage and sabotage. Pakistan accused him of acting at the behest of India’s intelligence agency, which India denies.
• The case proceeded in a military court with no transparency. India moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found that Pakistan had breached Article 36 of the Vienna Convention requiring immediate notification of an arrest to the national’s consulate.
• In a separate incident, Indian Air Force pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman’s aircraft was shot down by Pakistani fighter jets after he took down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet.
• He was captured on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control, but was released about 60 hours later following intense back-channel communications between India and Pakistan.
• In both instances, the individuals involved were reluctant to disclose their identities, mirroring the present situation.
• India either mitigated their sentences or brought them back to their home country through diplomatic means.

India’s options

• India has the option to initiate legal appeals within the Qatari legal system.
• Espionage is legally defined as the act of collecting or transmitting confidential information or documents to a foreign state or its agents with the intent to harm Qatar’s national security or interests.
• It is noteworthy that Qatar has not disclosed information about the verdict. India can pursue a legal battle with the aim of reducing the sentence to imprisonment.
• In 2015, India and Qatar signed an agreement pertaining to the transfer of sentenced prisoners. Under the agreement, Indian citizens who are sentenced in Qatar have the choice to serve their prison sentence in their home country.
• If the legal appeals in Qatar’s judiciary do not yield the desired outcome, India could turn to the ICJ as a means of redress.
• The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations provides the framework for consular relations between sovereign states.
• The Convention’s Optional Protocol grants the ICJ compulsory jurisdiction over disputes arising from its interpretation or application.
• India has the capacity to initiate diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the case. The relationship between India and Qatar has yielded significant economic ties. Qatar is the largest provider of liquefied natural gas to India.
• While India’s defence collaboration with Qatar has been somewhat limited, it still offers an avenue for diplomatic engagement.
• The Indian community represents the largest expatriate group in Qatar.
• Moreover, a steady stream of Indian artists performs in Qatar at events organised by community associations affiliated with the Indian Cultural Centre.
• By harnessing these robust ties with Qatar, New Delhi can exert pressure on the Qatari government to adopt a more lenient approach towards the detained individuals, potentially offering them some relief.

Way forward

• Numerous global human rights organisations have been actively combating unlawful imprisonment, capital punishment, and other violations of human rights.
• Amnesty International, for instance, has consistently championed human rights on a global scale. These organisations also have the potential to mobilise and advocate for the Indian Navy officers who are facing the death penalty.

Conclusion

• This is a challenging diplomatic issue that requires careful consideration and strategic action. India’s response should take into account the implications of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, international precedents, and the broader context of India-Qatar relations. Whether through diplomatic dialogues, political interventions, legal appeals, or a blend of these strategies, India has the potential to seek a resolution.

General Studies Paper 3

Context

• At the recently concluded Bletchley Park summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI), billionaire Elon Musk highlighted the disruptive potential of AI and a future where AI would substitute for all human labour — both physical and cognitive — and hence individuals would face no pressing need for a job, but would only seek work for personal fulfilment.

The need for work

• The history of economic thought reveals different ways in which a human’s relation with work has been theorised.
• Here one looks at two thinkers with diametrically opposite views on the nature of work — John Maynard Keynes and Karl Marx.
• Keynes was a liberal thinker who extolled capitalism but wished to save it from its worst excesses. He believed that at its heart, work represented a form of drudgery, and a world in which the hours of work could be reduced was one that unequivocally increased welfare.
• Keynes theorised that technological change under capitalism would eventually lead to a reduction of working hours.
• Musk’s comments can be seen as an extension of Keynes’ thinking, where improvements in technological change, if taken to its theoretical extreme, could eliminate the need for work altogether, representing an unambiguous positive outcome.
• Karl Marx had a more nuanced analysis. For him, the essence of humanity lies in our ability to materially manipulate nature; work therefore provides meaning to human life.
• The problem arises within the economic system of capitalism, as the product of human labour is not the labourers’ to enjoy, but is seen as the property of capital to dispose of in the market for profit.

The impact of AI on the economy

• Yet the views of the above thinkers reveal an important problem in the current discussions around AI — the neglect of the economic system.
• Assume a situation where AI has advanced to the point that it is capable of substituting all kinds of labour.
• Under our current system of capitalism, the only way an individual can access material resources such as food and shelter is through income derived from work.
• In such a system, a world without work does not imply a world without drudgery, but one where individuals who cannot find work cannot access basic resources.
• One can make the caveat — as Mr. Musk has — that work would be available for those who desire it for personal reasons.
• However, in a capitalist world, labour has no choice but to seek out work if they are to feed and clothe themselves. The world as sketched out by Mr. Musk cannot emerge under modern-day capitalism.

A world without work

• Imagine an economy where a part of the surplus generated in the productive sphere — where AI is the only productive factor — is transferred to human individuals to meet their basic needs.
• There is nothing wrong, of course, with postulating such a world. But this is not a capitalist world. It is a world with very different institutional arrangements regulating production and distribution, one where a universal basic income is a major source of income and not wage labour.
• This throws up several important questions, such as what determines the amount individuals receive, what determines the division of the net product between those who own the machines and those who don’t and what determines the division between future growth versus current consumption.
• More importantly, is our current society open to devising new institutional arrangements to bring such a future to fruition, given that the current system has led to the emergence of rising inequality and a powerful billionaire class.

Conclusion

• A situation where AI reigns supreme may never come to pass, and one may dismiss this article as speculative fiction. Yet the world economy will face disruptions, and it is imperative for us to fully understand the nature of these challenges. The impact of technological innovations cannot be seen in isolation from prevailing economic institutions.

General Studies Paper 3

Context: Slowdown in industrial output growth shows low consumer confidence

Introduction

• In September, the Index of Industrial Production or IIP rose 5.8%, almost half the 14-month-high 10.3% growth in August.
• Most economists anticipated a 7% to 8% uptick in the month that marks the onset of India’s packed festive calendar.
• September’s factory output growth was the slowest in three months, but also marked a 2.4% drop in production levels compared to August.
• Index of Industrial Production (IIP)
• Index of Industrial Production data or IIP as it is commonly called is an index that tracks manufacturing activity in different sectors of an economy.
• The IIP number measures the industrial production for the period under review, usually a month, as against the reference period. IIP is a key economic indicator of the manufacturing sector of the economy.
• There is a lag of six weeks in the publication of the IIP index data after the reference month ends. IIP index is currently calculated using 2011-2012 as the base year.
• In the case of Index of Industrial Production India, IIP data is compiled and published by CSO every month. CSO or Central Statistical Organisation operates under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). The IIP index data, once released, is also available on the PIB website.

What is more worrying!

• In August, just seven of 23 manufacturing sectors had clocked a contraction but that list expanded to nine in September, with furniture dropping 20% and apparel production almost 18%.
• What is more worrying is that 12 sectors recorded a sequential decline in output this September, belying hopes that firms would ramp up inventories in anticipation of festive spending. Producers’ lack of confidence in consumers’ impulses is reflected in consumer durables and non-durables, which were up just 1% and 2.7%, respectively, on top of a 5.5%-plus contraction last September.
• Sequentially, consumer non-durables, what one may broadly consider as fast-moving consumer goods involving smaller-ticket spends, were down 3.5% with the lowest output levels seen since November 2022. Electricity generation also fell 6.6% sequentially in September, perhaps due to the higher rainfall recorded over August.

Looking at the broader picture

• On the whole, September’s IIP takes average factory output growth to 7.4% in the second quarter, lifting the uptick in the first half of 2023-24 to 6%.
• This may still weigh in well with the central bank chief’s hopes of Q2 GDP growth outpacing their official projection of 6.5%. But spliced up, the IIP indicates an asymmetry in the economy and a fresh fork lies in the road ahead.
• Consumer goods’ output was just 0.3% higher than pre-COVID-19 levels this September, with durables being the only use-based segment to record a contraction so far this year. By contrast, output has been more resilient in investment-linked sectors such as infrastructure/construction goods and capital goods, up 12.1% and 6.7%, respectively, this year.
• Public capex on infrastructure sectors has surely lifted output of items such as steel and cement through the first half of the year, while high inflation has eaten into all but the high-income consumers’ propensity to spend.

Way forward

• Going forward, capex spends that have been front-loaded this year may moderate and additional revenue spends ahead of the Lok Sabha election are likely, especially with sensitive commodities such as fuel, urea and food facing fresh volatility in prices.
• That infrastructure and construction goods’ output in September was the lowest since March 2023, suggests one growth tide may be ebbing, which makes the other, more fragile consumption story even more critical to watch.

General Studies Paper 2

Context: There needs to be proper parliamentary scrutiny of the new Bills replacing the IPC, the CrPC and the IEA to ensure a fair, just and efficient criminal justice system.

Introduction

• The Government has introduced three Bills to replace the core laws, i.e., the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, and the Indian Evidence Act (IEA), 1872, which form the basis of the criminal justice system.
• These Bills are being examined by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs. (The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill will replace the IPC; the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill will be in place of the CrPC, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill will replace the IEA.)

Criminal Justice System

• The criminal justice system is the network of government and private agencies intended to manage accused and convicted criminals. The criminal justice system is comprised of multiple interrelated pillars, consisting of academia, law enforcement, forensic services, the judiciary, and corrections.
• These pillars are fashioned to support the ideals of legal justice. Legal justice is the result of forging the rights of individuals with the government’s corresponding duty to ensure and protect those rights – referred to as due process.
• These constitutional entitlements cannot be given and protected without the abiding commitments of those professionals working in the criminal justice system. Consequently, such professionals must submit themselves to the ethical principles of the criminal justice system and evidence persistent integrity in their character.
• This is accomplished with the help of a worthy code of professional ethics that signals competence, reliability, accountability, and overall trustworthiness – when properly administered.

Questions raised by the Bills

• As these Bills replace the entire Acts — and are not merely Amendment Bills to fix some gaps — they provide an opportunity for an overhaul of the laws underlying the criminal justice system. This raises the following questions — Do they update the law to reflect the concepts of modern jurisprudence? How do these Bills relate to various special laws? Do they help unclog the criminal justice system? Are various definitions and provisions drafted well without ambiguity?

Issues related to modernising jurisprudence

• First, whether these Bills exclude civil law. Usually, criminal law deals with issues that are seen as an offence against the broader society or state while civil law deals with loss to a person.
• However, the CrPC includes provisions for maintenance of wife and children after divorce. It also allows compounding of some offences by the affected person, which means the accused person is acquitted.
• Second, whether these Bills create a reformative system rather than a punitive system. There is a move towards this by making community service as a form of punishment. However, several minor offences (such as keeping an unauthorised lottery office, which carries a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment) are not compoundable, which means they will go through the process of trial and conviction.
• Third, whether maintenance of public order and the process of criminal prosecution should be in the same law. The CrPC has provisions charting out the process of arrest and trial as well as items such as Section 144 that empower the district magistrate to impose various restrictions. The new Bill retains this structure.
• Fourth, whether various directions of the Supreme Court of India have been codified in these proposed laws. The Bill codifies the procedure for mercy petitions. However, there is no codification of various directions related to arrests and bail.
• Fifth, whether the Bills try to ensure consistency of implementation. Typically, penalties for offences specify a range, with the judge expected to specify the sentence within the range based on the circumstances of each case.
• Sixth, whether the age provisions have been updated for modern norms. The IPC specifies that a child below the age of seven years cannot be accused of an offence. It provides such exemption until 12 years of age, if the child is found not to have attained the ability to understand the nature and consequences of his conduct.
• Seventh, whether gender related offences have been updated. The Bill is in line with the Supreme Court judgment which struck down the offence of adultery. Section 377 of the IPC, which was read down by the Court to decriminalise same sex intercourse between consenting adults has been dropped; consequently, the parts retained by that judgment including rape of a male adult and bestiality have also been removed.

Duplication as well as inconsistency across the laws

• The IPC was enacted in 1860 as the principal law specifying offences and penalties. Since then, several laws have been enacted to deal with specific offences. However, the IPC and the Bill to replace it continue to specify some of these offences and the applicable penalties. This leads to duplication as well as inconsistency across these laws. In some cases, the penalties are different; also, a person may face prosecution under different laws for the same action.
• In some cases, this has been addressed. For example, the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 states that provisions of the IPC related to weights and measures will not apply; the Bill removes these provisions.
• However, the Bill (like the IPC) overlaps with several other Acts such as those related to food adulteration, sale of adulterated drugs, bonded labour, and rash driving. Abortion continues to be an offence though it is permitted under certain conditions under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971. The Bill replacing CrPC retains the provision requiring maintenance of a parent though a special Act was passed in 2007 regarding this.

Definitions and Drafting

• The Bill replacing the IPC provides a person suffering from mental illness as a general exception from being an offender (this was called unsound mind earlier).
• The definition of mental illness is the same as in the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017.
• That Act aims to provide medical treatment to persons suffering from mental illness, and, therefore, excludes mental retardation or incomplete development; it also includes abuse of alcohol or drugs. Consequently, the new Bill will provide full exemption to someone who is addicted to alcohol or drugs but not to a person who is unable to understand the consequences of their actions due to mental retardation.
• The three laws had a number of illustrations from daily life to clarify their provisions. Some of these illustrations have become obsolete but have still been retained. These include people riding chariots, firing cannons and being carried on palanquins. It may be useful to update these illustrations to events from modern life.

Conclusion

• These Bills will become the basis of the criminal justice system. Parliament should examine them with great care so that they create a fair, just and efficient criminal justice system.

General Studies Paper 2

Context: On Mahua Moitra and panel’s disqualification recommendation

Introduction

• The alacrity with which the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee went about recommending the expulsion of Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Mahua Moitra from the lower House is certainly not a sign of any fidelity to ethics, or fairness. The recommendation is a brazenly partisan attempt to silence a critic of the government.

Ethics Committee- Lok Sabha

• A Presiding Officers’ Conference held in Delhi in 1996 first mooted the idea of ethics panels for the two Houses.
• Then Vice President (and Rajya Sabha Chairman) K R Narayanan constituted the Ethics Committee of the Upper House on March 4, 1997, and it was inaugurated that May to oversee the moral and ethical conduct of members and examine cases of misconduct referred to it. The Rules applicable to the Committee of Privileges also apply to the ethics panel.
• In the case of Lok Sabha, a study group of the House Committee of Privileges, after visiting Australia, the UK, and the US in 1997 to look into practices pertaining to the conduct and ethics of legislators, recommended the constitution of an Ethics Committee, but it could not be taken up by Lok Sabha.
• The Committee of Privileges finally recommended the constitution of an Ethics Committee during the 13th Lok Sabha. The late Speaker, G M C Balayogi, constituted an ad hoc Ethics Committee in 2000, which became a permanent part of the House only in 2015.
• The members of the Ethics Committee are appointed by the Speaker for a period of one year.
• The 15-member Committee’s function is to examine every complaint relating to unethical conduct of a Member of Lok Sabha referred to it by the Speaker and make such recommendations as it may deem fit.

Concerns

• It is also a warning shot meant to intimidate MPs from doing their job of holding the executive accountable. Neither the process nor the conclusions of the committee are grounded in any decipherable principle.
• The committee, with the help of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology found that the MP’s credentials were used online from Dubai 47 times to access the Parliament portal.
• Parliamentary questions were submitted from abroad. As Opposition members in the committee have pointed out, the drafting and the submission of questions are routinely done by aides of MPs.
• And MPs raise questions in Parliament based on representations from various constituents. To assume without solid evidence that any question is in exchange of material favours and then to expel an elected MP, is an assault on parliamentary democracy itself.
• The committee is calling upon the government to investigate the allegation of ‘quid pro quo’ raised by one of its members against Ms. Moitra, after holding her guilty, turning the principle of natural justice on its head.
• If MPs are barred from sharing their login credentials with others, the rule must equally apply to one and all. Now that the committee has taken this extreme step of calling for the expulsion of an elected member from the House, thereby depriving the voters of her constituency representation, it should also investigate how other MPs prepare and submit parliamentary questions.
• The selective investigation of one MP, based on insinuations and conjectures, clearly comes out as what it is — intimidation. It is also in stark contrast with the tardy response of the Lok Sabha Committee of Privileges to a serious complaint against Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ramesh Bidhuri who used derogatory communal slurs against a fellow member in the Lok Sabha.

Conclusion

• That said, Ms. Moitra’s act of allowing a person who is not employed by her to execute official work on her behalf betrays a lack of discretion and judgement. This should act as a lesson for all those who seek to hold the government accountable: to keep themselves beyond reproach.

General Studies Paper 3

Context: As incentives for semiconductors sputter, course corrections are due

Introduction

• As funds for production-linked incentives (PLI) for manufacturing semiconductors lie under-utilised by upwards of 80%, the Union government must be far clearer on what it has achieved — and aims to accomplish — by continuing to spend crores of rupees on bringing more semiconductor fabrication capabilities to India.

Semiconductor chips

• These are the materials which have a conductivity between conductors and insulators. They can be pure elements, silicon or germanium or compounds, gallium, arsenide or cadmium selenide.
• They are essential to almost all sectors of the economy including aerospace, automobiles, communications, clean energy, information technology and medical devices etc.
• These chips are the basic building blocks that serve as the heart and brain of all modern electronics and information and communications technology products.
• India has become the hub for semiconductor design with nearly 2,000 chips being designed per year and more than 20, 000 engineers working in various aspects of chip design and verification.

India’s semiconductor mission

• India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) has been setup as an Independent Business Division within Digital India Corporation.
• ISM has all the administrative and financial powers and is tasked with the responsibility of catalysing the India Semiconductor ecosystem in manufacturing, packaging and design.
• ISM has an advisory board consisting of some of the leading global experts in the field of semiconductors.
• ISM is serving as the nodal agency for efficient, coherent and smooth implementation of the programme for development of semiconductor and manufacturing ecosystem in India.

Existing schemes and domestic implications

• While the PLI scheme for IT hardware has a ₹17,000 crore outlay, the one for semiconductors and displays has ₹38,601 crore earmarked. On the employment and substantive value addition fronts, existing schemes in and of themselves show little promise: while chips are important for most hardware and appliances, making them employs advanced and automated systems, and manufacturing facilities employ few people for the value generated in sales.
• Not all big-ticket spending in the national interest translates into domestic employment, as import-heavy defence spending shows. But the central wager with these schemes, at much cost to the exchequer, lies in attracting an “ecosystem” that will increase the value addition of India’s electronics manufacturing sector.
• This is far from a guaranteed outcome, even if PLI benefits are availed optimally. The wager also relies on global manufacturing giants giving other benefits of a globally distributed supply chain a go-by, including cheap and accessible international transport facilities for chips.

Need of other incentives

• The constellation of PLI schemes must be bolstered by other efforts to strengthen India’s hand — encouraging semiconductor design talent to develop domestically. Some efforts here, such as the design-linked incentive scheme, show promise.
• But the bulk of the capital remains focused on the assembly and subsidising of large manufacturing plants, with much of the raw and even intermediate material still being imported.
• And with the limited scope of what the PLI funds are incentivising, multinational chipmakers are staying away from making substantive commitments, despite incentives. Private capital is also in a state of flux, with advancements in chips and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence leaving policymakers guessing on how best to allocate resources to boost their technological position for the coming decade.

Issues faced

• And with the limited scope of what the PLI funds are incentivising, multinational chipmakers are staying away from making substantive commitments, despite incentives. Private capital is also in a state of flux, with advancements in chips and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence leaving policymakers guessing on how best to allocate resources to boost their technological position for the coming decade.
• India still lags in the establishment of semiconductor wafer fabrication (FAB) units due to a weak ecosystem and shortage of resources as compared to more competitive bases like China and Vietnam.

What needs to be done?

• These outlays must, therefore, be pegged to a tangible outcome: is this a matter of safeguarding cyber sovereignty to protect India from another pandemic-style supply chain shock, encouraging the domestic electronics industry to make electronics cheaper for Indian consumers, or asserting India as a global electronics manufacturing centre? Clarity on desired outcomes would make failures easier to spot. It would also make it possible to course correct before massive PLI spending has already taken place with little to show for the outflow.

General Studies Paper 2

Context: A menstrual hygiene policy should provide a range of services

Introduction

• Only in an ‘unseeing’ world would the judiciary need to set the government a deadline to do the obvious. The Supreme Court of India gave the Centre four weeks to finalise an optimum menstrual hygiene policy with focus on the distribution of sanitary napkins.

Directions by the Chief Justice of India

• The Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, further directed the government to set down a national model for the number of girls toilets per female population across government-aided and residential schools in the country.

India and Menstrual hygiene

• Menstruation is the reality for women of a particular age demographic, naturally involving a substantial percentage of half the population in the country.
• It is only now, over three quarters of a century after Independence, that India has come closest to even drawing up a menstrual hygiene policy.
• While advancements over the years, and expanding urbanisation, have brought menstrual hygiene products within reach of a larger group of young women, affordability is still an issue; access hurdles stand in the way of a wide swathe of women in semi-urban and rural areas.

Effects of poor Menstrual health

• Poor menstrual health can affect school attendance, performance, and retention of girls and transgender students due to lack of facilities, products, information, and support.
• It can lead to infections, irritation, dermatitis, alteration in pH balance, and increased risk of cervical cancer.
• This has an effect on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women, girl students drop out of school, are pushed into child marriage, and are more like to experience domestic violence, infections, reproductive illnesses, malnourishment, and poor mental health.
• It can affect the productivity, income, and career opportunities of women.
• Important data points and findings from National Family Health Survey-5
• As per the latest National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS), 73% of rural women and 90% of urban women use a hygienic method of menstrual protection.
• There was a significant improvement in the percentage of women aged 15-24 who use a hygienic method of protection during their menstrual cycle, this rose from 58% in NFHS-4 to 78% in NFHS-5, primarily sanitary napkins, cloth and locally prepared napkins.
• The survey also revealed the close link between education and preference for hygiene — women who have received 12 or more years of schooling are more than twice as likely to use a hygienic method compared to those with no schooling.
• An irrefutable link has been established between menstruation and dropping out of school, because of stigma, and patchy or no access to sanitation (in terms of access to products, toilets and water).

Way forward

• A policy is only half a revolution; to complete the circle, it is crucial the government ensures access to affordable menstrual hygiene products for all menstruating girls, but also clean toilets and water wherever the women may need them.
• Besides, the policy should also cater to the entire lifecycle of menstruation, providing for the entire range of health and social sequelae that result from it. The government must see, cognise, and commit to serve India’s women.