General Studies Paper 2

Context:

The Supreme Court has recently ruled that a governor cannot unreasonably delay or refuse to ratify a bill passed by a state legislature, highlighting the fact that doing so compromises the legitimacy of elected officials and the legislative process.

Introduction

• The 27-page judgment in the State of Punjab v Principal Secretary to the Governor of Punjab and Another ruled that the governor, who is chosen by the President, only acts as a symbolic head and cannot indefinitely withhold action on bills.
• The Supreme Court’s decision has clarified that should the governor choose not to sign a bill, they must send the bill back to the legislature, along with a statement outlining their reasons for not accepting it.
• This ruling becomes even more significant in the context of the recent disputes between governors and elected governments in several states. Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Punjab have all petitioned the Supreme Court to request orders concerning their individual governors.

Clarification of Article 200 of the Constitution

• The main point of contention in this case was that the Punjab governor had detained four bills that were passed by the Punjab legislative assembly in June 2023. The ruling offers a definitive clarification of Article 200 of the Constitution, which deals with “Assent to Bills” in the states.
• According to Article 200, after a bill has been approved by the legislative assembly, or by both houses in a bicameral legislature, it shall be sent to the governor.
• There are three choices available to the governor when a bill is presen­ted to them. The governor can declare:
• his assent to the bill;
• his withholding of assent; or
• his reserving of the bill for the President’s consideration.
• The Supreme Court judgment heavily emphasised the words “shall declare” and “as soon as possible” in Article 200 to suggest that the governor cannot indefinitely keep the bills pending without any action whatsoever.

Two major takeaways from the Judgment

• The ruling unambiguously affirms that the governor, as a constitutional but unelected authority, does not have the right to virtually veto the functioning of an elected legislature. The constitutional powers of the governor to grant their assent to the bills passed by the legislature must operate in such a way that they do not obstruct the “normal course of lawmaking.” According to the Supreme Court, indefinitely withholding assent amounts to a violation of the “fundamental principles of a constitutional demo­cracy based on a Parliamentary pattern of governance.”
• The judgment also cited S R Bommai v Union of India to emphasise that the constitutional powers of the governor cannot disregard the principles of federalism, which forms a part of the basic structure of the Constitution. In the course of India’s legal–political history, one has seen umpteen instances where the position of the governor has been misused for furthering the dominance of the union government over state governments ruled by opposition parties. The many disputes bet­ween governors and select state governments in contemporary India also bear witness to this contestation between different political parties.

Not only a legal dispute

• Thus, it is not merely a legal dispute between the governor and the union government on the one hand, and certain state governments, on the other. It is also a political dispute between different ruling and opposition parties.
• In effect, the Supreme Court ruling in this case has pointed towards the dangers posed by such political disputes to the constitutional cause of federalism in India.
• Although the constitutional concept of a federal polity with a power-balance favouring the union was an institutional arrangement, the majority of federal disputes observed in recent times are not indicative of institutional misalignment but are rather instances of party dominance.

Conclusion

• The position of the governor is subject to what this Supreme Court judgment terms as “the tuning fork of demo­cracy and federalism.” Through this judgment, the Court has sought to reaffirm the dignity and composure required for fulfilling the constitutional obligations expected from gov­ernors. More importantly, it carries a strict warning against the partisan misuse of the post of the governor in contemporary India.

General Studies Paper 2

Context: The inclusion of persons with disabilities into the economy can help boost global GDP between 3% to 7%.

Introduction

• Globally, 1.3 billion people (which is equivalent to nearly the entire population of India) live with some form of disability. Of them, 80% live in developing countries; further, 70% of them live in rural areas.
• Current systems are designed for persons without disabilities and end up being exclusionary to people with disabilities, resulting in them experiencing higher instances of poverty, lack of access to education and opportunities, informality, and other forms of social and economic discrimination.

Disability

• A disability is any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions).
• Disability results from the interaction between individuals with a health condition, such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and depression, with personal and environmental factors including negative attitudes, inaccessible transportation and public buildings, and limited social support.
• Disability as an identity and entity exists at the intersection of multiple vulnerabilities — social, economic and gender — with each facet requiring careful consideration when conceptualising action for equity.

‘For and By’

• According to the English dictionary, “For” is often used when a person is receiving something and “By” is to “identify the agent performing an action”. This difference is crucial when it comes to disability inclusion, as the approach is completely different if it is “by” persons with disabilities being a part of the process and not “for” them, without them in the process.

A case for inclusion

• At the outset, the inclusion of persons with disabilities into the economy can help boost global GDP between 3% to 7%, as per the study by the International Labour Organization (ILO), “The price of exclusion: The economic consequences of excluding people with disabilities from the world of work”.
• We believe that everyone has the right to equal treatment and opportunities at work, agnostic of any attributes other than the ability to do the job. The reality, however, is mixed. The current employment scenario is limited, providing fewer jobs for persons with disabilities and perpetuating stereotypes that create further barriers for people with disabilities to access the labour market.
• It is also in direct contravention of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which advocates changing attitudes and perceptions towards persons with disabilities and viewing inclusion from a social development dimension. Disability inclusion is rooted in assuring the rights of persons with disabilities and recognising the economic benefits of inclusion.

Challenges in rural areas

• In India, the Central and State governments have various schemes for persons with disabilities and a unique id for persons with disabilities (UDID) card, established as part of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (2016).
• The first step is awareness to ensure last-mile connectivity of the benefits enumerated for people with disabilities by the government, which begins with the capacity-building of community leaders who can advocate for this at the grass-roots level.
• This is especially important in rural areas, where persons with disabilities tend to face greater challenges when compared to their urban counterparts, with even more limited access to education and employment. Some developmental schemes, too, exclude them.
• They are viewed as objects of charity and not as persons with agency with an ability to participate in decision-making processes.
• Rural areas also have high agricultural dependence and face the heightened risk of climate calamities arising from rising sea levels, reduced access to clean water and food, hurricanes, heatwaves, and floods, with rural people at the frontlines of these challenges.
• A bottom-up approach to disability inclusion is crucial to build productive pathways out of poverty and ensure that persons with disabilities are recognised as active members of society and the economy.
• The private sector holds a key in promoting the employment of persons with disabilities. In addition to a robust legal framework, experience shows the importance of engaging the private sector and building the confidence of companies to hire and retain workers with disabilities.
• Additionally, engagement of employers’ federations, including those representing small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as with trade unions, has shown to have great potential to promote the employment of persons with disabilities.

The SPARK project.

• The ILO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in collaboration with the Women’s Development Corporation in Maharashtra, are implementing the Sparking Disability Inclusive Rural Transformation (SPARK) project.
• Through this project, persons with disabilities were put in the lead, being identified from the villages, and trained as Disability Inclusion Facilitators (DIFs). The DIFs engage with the community, persons with disabilities, caregivers of persons with disabilities, women from self-help groups and other stakeholders to raise awareness about disability inclusion and barriers to inclusion.
• The DIFs identify women with disabilities and mainstream them in existing self-help groups for social and economic development, where these women have been able to access funds to start an enterprise. The SPARK project has been able to bring an attitudinal shift towards persons with disabilities, right from the societal to administrative levels.

Conclusion

• The goal of social justice cannot be achieved without the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all spheres of development, starting with rural areas and rural resilience.
• Evidence shows a bi-directional link to poverty, nutrition, and hunger, and as a consequence, there needs to be more inclusive opportunities and employment in rural areas.
• Given the historic marginalisation of persons with disabilities and the backsliding of the progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, a fundamental shift in commitment, solidarity, financing, and action is critical. It is about time that the voices and needs of persons with disabilities be prioritised at the centre of the global development agenda.

General Studies Paper -3

Context:

The latest provisional estimates of GDP for the quarter ended September 30, released by the National Statistical Office, project real economic growth at 7.6%, a slight deceleration from the 7.8% logged in the preceding three months.

Introduction

• Gross Value Added (GVA) across the eight broad sectors of the economy reflected a marginal slowing, with second quarter GVA registering a 7.4% expansion, 40 basis points slower than the April-June period’s 7.8%.
• Robust double-digit expansions in manufacturing, mining, utilities and construction offset the loss of momentum across the other four sectors and helped ensure that the year-on-year growth in GVA comfortably exceeded the 7% pace for a second straight quarter.

Gross Value Added (GVA)

• Gross Value Added (GVA) is the value that producers have added to the goods and services they have bought. When they sell their wares, producers’ income should be more than their costs, and the difference between the two is the value they have added.
• For example, a brewer will buy barley, hops, and yeast and turn it into beer which they will sell for more than they paid for the ingredients. They will also have overheads for their brewery like heat, light, and insurance. The difference between all these costs and ingredient costs and what the brewer receives in payment for their goods is their Gross Value Added.
• Gross Value Added can be calculated in two ways. First, as we said, by subtraction like this:
• Total Output (similar to turnover)
• Minus total Intermediate Consumption (cost of goods and services).
• Gross Value Added can also be calculated by addition like this:
• Gross Operating Surplus and Gross Mixed Income (like profit)
• Plus, Compensation of Employees (like wages and salaries).

Growth in different sectors

• Manufacturing, buoyed by a favourable base effect due to the contraction in the year-earlier period, was the strongest performer by registering growth of 13.9%, a nine-quarter high.
• Construction witnessed its best showing in five quarters, expanding 13.3%. Of the four other sectors, the crucial ones of agriculture and the two services sectors of trade, hotels, transport and communication, and financial, real estate and professional services saw the pace of growth almost halving from the fiscal first quarter.
• While year-on-year growth in the agriculture, livestock and fishing sector slowed sharply to an 18-quarter low of 1.2%, the sector also experienced a sequential contraction for the third straight quarter, underscoring the precarity plaguing large portions of those earning from farming and allied activities in the rural hinterland.
• The slowdown in two key components of the services economy — trade, hotels, transport, and communication saw growth slide to 4.3%, from 9.2% in the June quarter, and the expansion in financial and realty services more than halved from the preceding period to 6% — also merits a closer watch as the post-pandemic rebound in services appears to have lost steam.

Eight Core Sectors

• Coal, crude oil, natural gas, products from refineries, fertilizer, steel, cement, and electricity are the eight main sectors.
• Of the weighted items in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), these make up 40.27%.
• The eight core sector industries are listed in decreasing weight order as follows: Products from Refineries: Energy; Steel; Coal; Crude Oil; Natural Gas; Cement; Fertilizers.

Role of Demand side

• Adding to the need to view the headline growth number with circumspection is the fact that the lynchpin private final consumption expenditure, the single-largest component of demand in the economy, is struggling for traction.
• Growth in private consumption spending slowed appreciably to 3.1% in the September quarter, from 6% in the preceding three-month period, as rural demand remained affected by the vagaries of a below-average monsoon.
• The NSO data also reveal that the recent economic momentum owes its fillip in large measure to front-loaded government spending, both in terms of consumption demand and asset-creating capital investments.

Conclusion

• The challenge for policymakers will be to help broaden the growth base so as to ensure that all boats are lifted equally, both to sustain the momentum and reduce inequality.

General Studies Paper -3

Context:

A healthy loss and damage (L&D) fund, a three-decade-old demand, is a fundamental expression of climate justice.

Introduction

• Loss and damage refer to the negative consequences that arise from the unavoidable risks of climate change, like rising sea levels, prolonged heatwaves, desertification, the acidification of the sea and extreme events, such as bushfires, species extinction and crop failures.
• The L&D fund is a corpus of money and technologies that will be replenished by developed countries and used by the rest to respond to the more unavoidable effects of climate change.
• On the first day of the COP28 climate talks under way in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), representatives of the member-states agreed to operationalise the L&D fund.

Steadfast efforts of the G-77 bloc

• The announcement was dearly won at the end of the COP27 talks in Egypt last year, member-states agreed to launch such a fund, thanks largely to the steadfast efforts of the G-77 bloc of countries plus China, led by Pakistan. Four meetings of the Transitional Committee (TC) were to follow to determine how its money would be disbursed.

Advantages of Loss and Damage Fund

• In addition to financial losses, loss and damage also refers to human casualties, ecosystem and cultural heritage degradation, and ecosystem degradation. As a result, the fund will fully compensate for all losses brought on by climate change.
• The fund guarantees climate justice to the most developing countries and small island nations’ vulnerable communities, who have paid the price without even causing environmental pollution.
• Climate finance has till now focused only on mitigation and adaptation. Two-third of the finance has gone into climate change mitigation and one third has gone into adaptation. The LDF draws the focus of climate finance towards reparations for the loss and damage.

Major issues

• It will be hosted by the World Bank for an interim period of four years and will be overseen by an independent secretariat. The Bank is expected to charge a significant overhead fee.
• While some countries have committed amounts to the fund — from $10 million by Japan to $100 million each by Germany and the UAE — whether they will be periodically replenished is not clear.
• The committed amounts are also insufficient, totalling $450 million (for now) against an actual demand of several billion dollars. This shortfall, though it is premature to deem it so, comes against the backdrop of developed countries missing their 2020 deadline to mobilise a promised $100 billion in climate finance and managing to deliver only $89.6 billion in 2021.
• The contributions are voluntary even as every country has been invited to contribute.
• Finally, the World Bank will have to meet some conditions on managing the fund, including a degree of transparency it has not brooked so far, and submit a report to the Parties to the Paris Agreement. If its stewardship is determined to be unsuitable, the fund can ‘exit’ the World Bank.

Ensuring effectiveness

• It is important that a Loss and Damage Fund tackles the gaps that current climate finance institutions such as the Green Climate Fund do not fill.
• Combined adaptation and mitigation finance flows in 2020 fell at least US$17 billion short of the US$100 billion pledged to developing countries.
• The Transitional Committee will provide recommendations for the set up and operations of the fund. The Committee will also recommend which countries should receive funding and who should be paying into the fund. All that needs to be decided upon.
• But for the fund to be effective, the root cause of climate change must be tackled – and that involves reducing emissions. Unless emissions are drastically reduced, more and more countries will face the devastating effects of climate change. The world urgently needs to find more resources for mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage so that climate change will not erode humanity’s chances to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Way forward

• The L&D fund’s contents need to be easily accessible to those who need it most, in timely fashion, sans pedantic bureaucratic hurdles, and in sufficient quantities. As things stand, there is little guarantee that any of these requirements will be met. While the L&D fund is finally online, a lot more needs to be done.

General Studies Paper 2

Context:

There are numerous apprehensions that arise from the Broadcasting Bill’s manifest scope as well as its noteworthy silences.

Introduction

• The Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill released in November by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is part of an arc of endeavours to regulate broadcasting in an integrated manner. The last initiative to take on this ambitious task was back in 2007, in the form of the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill.
• The recent rendition of a Broadcasting Bill comes on the heels of a pre-consultation paper on ‘National Broadcasting Policy’ by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), a document initiated following a reference from the MIB.

Salient features of the bill

• The Bill essentially provides regulatory provisions for various broadcasting services under a single legislative framework.
• It seeks to replace the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act of 1995 and other policy guidelines currently governing the broadcasting sector in India.
• The Bill extends its regulatory purview to encompass broadcasting OTT content, digital news and current affairs currently regulated through the IT Act, 2000.
• The Bill provides comprehensive definitions for contemporary broadcasting terms along with other important technical terms to be defined in the statute for the first time.
• It introduces ‘Content evaluation committees’ for self-regulation and ‘Broadcast Advisory Council’ to “advise the central government on programme code and advertisement code violations.”
• The Bill provides statutory penalties like advisory, warning, censure, or monetary penalties, for operators and broadcasters. Provision for imprisonment and/or fines is also there, but only for very serious offences, such as obtaining registration with a false affidavit.

Positive propositions in the Bill

• It obliges broadcasting network operators and broadcasters to maintain records of subscriber data, and subject this to periodic external audits, as is the international norm.
• The Bill seeks to stipulate a methodology for audience measurement, and the sale of ratings data. Both mechanisms will bring the much-needed transparency in the opaque value chain of the cable and satellite television business in our country.
• The Bill completely lacks any guardrails to shield the privacy of subscribers and audiences in such practices of data collection.
• The provision to permit private actors in terrestrial broadcasting will encourage competition to Doordarshan, the state broadcaster, as is in many G-20 countries.

Concerns in the Bill

• A major concern is the Bill including Over-the-Top (OTT) content suppliers in the definition of broadcasting services — as also proposed in TRAI’s ‘National Broadcasting Policy’.
• Intriguingly, both moves come amidst intense discussions catalysed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) (hitherto mandated to deal with the online media) on licensing OTT players. Now, the MIB appears to poach on MEITy’s jurisdiction — a territorial slugfest typical in countries with a fragmented regulatory architecture.
• The Bill’s expanded definition of broadcasting constricts the conditions in which journalists and news outlets that are not a part of large, multi-lingual television networks can continue their professional pursuits.
• While it is fruitful for a news outlet to have an oversight body, warranting a ‘Content Evaluation Committee’ takes the Bill in a questionable direction: mandating an internal body to self-certify news programming. The issue is not only of feasibility and costs but also of desirability. Since the role of an internal oversight mechanism is to maintain the accuracy of news and quality of journalism, its design is best left to individual news outlets.

Silent on some areas

• The Bill is mum on issues of ownership. While the Bill is keen to stipulate a methodology for audience measurement, there is no desire to measure the extent of cross-media and vertical ownership. Both these forms of media power thwart the diversity of suppliers, and perhaps, consequently, that of viewpoints, in the marketplace of news.
• The Bill is equally silent on creating an independent broadcast regulator, as hinted in TRAI’s paper. This was first mooted in the ‘airwaves’ judgment of 1995, subsequently in the 1997 Broadcasting Bill, and reiterated in the 2007 iteration of the Bill. Instead, this Bill plans a ‘Broadcast Advisory Council’ to examine viewers’ grievances and violations of the Programme Code and Advertisement Code.
• This raises two concerns: first, the capacity of such a Council to track and address grievances, genuine or motivated, raised by over 800 million TV viewers; and second, the lack of autonomy accorded to this body, since the Bill empowers the Central government to ultimately decide on the Council’s advice.

Some more concerns

• In addition, the Bill empowers the government to inspect broadcasters without intimating them in advance, and to impound their equipment, presumably including those issued to their employees.
• Furthermore, violations of the Programme Code and Advertisement Code attract deleting or modifying content, in addition to existing measures such as ceasing transmissions for durations.
• Finally, the Bill grants tremendous leeway to government to curtail broadcasting and its distribution in “public interest”, a term that is distressingly left undefined. All these intrusive mechanisms augment the vulnerabilities of professional news suppliers to external pressure groups. This should worry those who will deliberate over legislating the Bill, irrespective of which benches they occupy in Parliament.

Conclusion

• As the latest extension of the arc of endeavours to devise an integrated regulatory framework for broadcasting, this Bill must not lose the opportunity to protect press freedom and diversity. To do so, it has to will its way to incorporate some startling omissions, review its intrusive commissions, and fine-tune potentially positive provisions.

General Studies Paper 2

Context:

The United Nations says 1.3 million of the 2.3 million residents of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have been displaced, and almost half of all homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.

Introduction

• All wars end. The Israeli-Hamas war will also end. When and how are still to be determined. But doing so is urgent. One outcome of a war is when both sides gain something of value to them. The Israeli-Hamas war is likely to end in that kind of scenario.
• Israel will win in military terms, no doubt about that. But Hamas is likely to win in terms of a greatly increased following among Arab populations everywhere, including, especially, in the occupied West Bank.

Failing Palestinian authority

• The Palestine Authority, which has been ruling there for the past 30 years, has become vastly unpopular and corrupt. Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the most moderate Palestine leader Israel could have ever hoped for, has failed singularly in making any progress towards the objective of establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank.

Emergence of Hamas

• The year 1987 saw the founding of Hamas, a violent wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt that wanted to use violent jihad to further its goals.
• The U.S. government views Hamas as a terrorist organization. The Palestinian Authority held legislative elections in 2006, which Hamas won. In 2007, it drove Fatah out of Gaza and split the Palestinian movement geographically.
• 1987: The First Intifada (Palestinian Uprising) began as tensions in the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank reached a breaking point. Between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army, it developed into a minor conflict.

U.N. Charters, and the rights

• Under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, Israel has the inherent right of self-defence. The same article lays down that after acting in self-defence, the state concerned must report the action taken by it to the UN Security Council (UNSC). This does not seem to have been done.
• In any case, self-defence does not authorise the disproportionate or indiscriminate use of force against civilians. It has been reported that Gaza’s rate of death during Israel’s assault has few precedents in this century — almost 15,000, most of them women and children. This goes well beyond the prevailing customary law of self-defence.

Feasibility of two-state solution

• Meanwhile, the proposal for a two-state solution, long pushed aside, has come alive. Everyone seems to be repeating the two-state mantra. But how feasible is the two-state concept today?
• The 1993 Oslo Accord envisaged Palestine to be based in the West Bank.
• Today, the West Bank is heavily populated by Israeli settlers, 4,50,000 at latest count. No Israeli government will succeed in persuading the settlers to return. Force would be required. The land is like Swiss cheese, having settler roads and innumerable settlements, with more planned. The current Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will never agree to a Palestinian state, however truncated.
• What is needed, as soon as conditions permit, is to have a reality check of the two-state proposal — what is feasible and what is not. Painful concessions will be required, including land swaps, and a monitoring mechanism established to hold each side to the commitments they make.
• The only lasting solution is for Israel to vacate its occupation of the West Bank and let a viable Palestinian state emerge.

Importance of Abraham Accords

• To ensure Israel’s legitimate concern for the safety of its people, the new state should be demilitarised. Other measures can be thought of to assure the Israelis of their safety. Israel’s neighbouring Arab states should all be engaged in this process. The Abraham Accords provide a foundation.
• If Israel has the vision of living in harmony in the region with its Arab neighbours, this is the only way. When that happens, Iran will lose its proclaimed reason for its anti-Israel tirades; Hezbollah will, likewise, lose its most important plank for threatening Israel.

Conclusion

• For decades, Israeli-Palestinian relations have been locked in a never-ending cycle of death, destruction, and misery. The war in Gaza is the latest iteration. It should be the last. The Middle East could, finally, enjoy stable peace and security.

General Studies Paper 3

Current events of national and international importance.

Context

• Two scientific methods of mining — vertical drilling and auger or horizontal drilling — were employed to rescue 41 workers on November 28 after 17 days of being trapped in the partially collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand. The last leg of the rescue involved rat hole mining. In the coal mines of Meghalaya, this crude method was banned by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2014.

What is rat hole mining?

• Rat Hole mining, of two types, is so named as it involves digging tunnels 34 feet deep, barely allowing workers to crawl in and out. They have to squat while extracting coal with pickaxes. The side cutting type of mining is usually done on hill slopes by following a coal seam — dark brown or black banded coal deposited within layers of rock— visible from the outside.
• The second type called box cutting entails digging a circular or squarish pit at least 5 sq. metre in width up to a depth of 400 feet. Miners who drop down in makeshift cranes or using rope and bamboo ladders dig horizontally after finding the coal seam. The tunnels are dug in every direction from the edge of the pit, resembling the tentacles of an octopus.

Why is such mining banned?

• The government has little control over the land in Meghalaya, a Sixth Schedule State where the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act of 1973 does not apply. The landowners are thus also the owners of the minerals beneath. Coal mining boomed after Meghalaya attained statehood in 1972.
• However, the terrain and expenses involved discouraged mine owners from employing advanced drilling machines. So, labourers mainly from Assam, Nepal, and adjoining Bangladesh risked the hazards of rat hole mining — to earn thrice or four times as much as working in farms or construction sites.

Dangers and adverse impacts of rat hole mining:

• It includes asphyxiation because of poor ventilation, collapse of mines due to lack of structural support, and flooding.
• Apart from issues of safety and health, unregulated mining has led to land degradation, deforestation, and water with high concentrations of sulphates, iron, and toxic heavy metals, low dissolved oxygen, and high biochemical oxygen demand. At least two rivers, Lukha and Myntdu, became too acidic to sustain aquatic life.
• These factors led to the NGT banning rat hole mining in Meghalaya in 2014 while observing: “…there is umpteen number of cases where, by virtue of rat hole mining, during the rainy season, water flooded into the mining areas resulting in the death of many…”
• Illegal mining and transportation of coal, as mentioned in the interim reports of a one man committee appointed by the High Court of Meghalaya, has continued despite the ban and the loss of lives.

What led to the NGT ban?

• Environmentalists and human rights activists began flagging the hazards of rat hole mining in Meghalaya two decades ago. The campaign intensified after Impulse, a Meghalaya based NGO, began addressing the issue of human trafficking and child labour in such mines. They estimated that about 70,000 children mostly from Bangladesh and Nepal were employed in these mines because they were the right size to work in them. The NGT ban came a year later.

Current Status

• Unlike in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, coal seams in Meghalaya are very thin. This, miners say, makes rat hole mining more economically viable than open-cast mining. The State has an estimated reserve of 576.48 million tonnes of lowash, high sulphur coal belonging to the Eocene age (3356 million years ago).
• The stakes for a section of locals have been so high that the State government has been under pressure to facilitate the resumption of mining legally.
• In May 2023, Meghalaya Chief Minister said that the Coal Ministry approved mining leases for 4 of the 17 prospective licence applicants. This would lead to the commencement of ‘scientific’ mining ensuring minimal environmental impact through sustainable and legally compliant extraction procedures.
• Anti-Mining activists, who are assaulted by miners off and on, said that ‘scientific’ would eventually be a fancy tag in a State where profit has driven coal mining.

Conclusion

• Government should examine completely banning rat hole mining except for use in rescue operations, as seen in the recent Silkyara tunnel rescue.

General Studies Paper 2

Introductions

• It is well known that collaborations between industry and academia can be mutually beneficial. However, most Indian higher education institutions (HEIs) have not focused on such collaborations or on intellectual property rights (IPRs) and transfer of technology (ToT).

Issues with Indian HEIs

• While universities conduct and encourage basic research, many of them do not capitalise on the same research by commercialising their IPR; they miss out on likely gains from patents, licensing, or startup companies. Determining and managing impediments to collaborations between industry and academia requires a multipronged approach.

Industry- Academia collaboration

• First, HEIs and industry can only collaborate if they evolve shared goals. HEIs predominantly seek to educate students and conduct research. They often focus on creating theoretical knowledge. On the other hand, industries are profit driven and pursue practical applications of knowledge to enhance productivity and innovation.
• To resolve these issues, the two parties must engage in an open dialogue, develop a flexible attitude, and find common ground where theoretical knowledge and practical applications can coexist.

Cultural differences

• Second, there are cultural differences between how HEIs and industrial partners approach the issue of collaboration.
• Let us say an HEI is collaborating with an industrial partner (a renewable energy company) on a research project associated with sustainable energy. When researchers at the HEI scrutinise the data furnished by the company, they may find that it needs more academic rigour and theoretical profoundness. Consequently, they might suppose that the data is of restricted use for publishing in a prestigious academic journal.
• Conversely, the company will focus more on practical outcomes. It may not have the time or expertise to have theoretical discussions since its immediate concern is to implement solutions in the real world by improving processes or by devising new products. So, both sides must find a middle path to bridge this cultural gap.
• HEI researchers could refine their findings into practical recommendations that the industrial partner can understand and implement, while the industrial partner could provide more context to the data.

Communication and training

• Third, Indian HEIs must establish good communication channels with the industry. If a research team from a university is partnering with a pharmaceutical company, it needs to be acquainted with the industry’s regulatory processes.
• Training programmes could be implemented so that researchers and industry professionals get familiar with the other’s language and expectations.

Trust building

• Fourth, Indian HEIs must focus on building trust. Let us suppose a university and a tech company are collaborating to develop a new software application. A professor may be an expert in developing algorithms, but the industrial partner may want solutions that can be implemented in real world products. Both parties can work out a mutually agreeable IPR arrangement to address this.
• Such an arrangement will also help alleviate certain fears. For instance, the university might agree to fasttrack the development of a prototype software application that the company can use and refine for commercial purposes.
• But the industrial partner may fear that the university researchers will publish the research results without considering the commercial implications of their research. To overcome this, the university and the industrial partner can sign nondisclosure agreements to ensure that sensitive information shared during collaboration remains confidential.
• Both parties can also agree on which results may be earmarked for academic publications and which may be kept confidential or jointly published.

Types of collaborations

• Colleges or universities with minimal research facilities can focus on short term collaborations with local manufacturing companies facing technical problems in their production line that need a quick resolution. A team of students and faculty members from a college can provide a tangible solution that benefits the industry and brings returns to the college.
• On the other hand, universities with good research facilities and faculty expertise can partner with an industry for long term research collaborations that aim to develop cutting edge technologies. The additional benefit of such long term collaborations is that students can work as interns on research projects. They will then learn to handle deadlines, navigate failures, and collaborate with colleagues in the industry. HEIs and industries should, therefore, work on developing a symbiotic relationship.
• Industries in specific domains should collaborate with research groups across different universities in the same domain to keep themselves abreast of new research developments.

Conclusion

• All this will become easier if government funding agencies announce suitable research grants and call for joint project proposals from HEIs and industry partners. There should also be critical annual reviews by a team of experts appointed by the funding agency to examine the deliverables promised by the stakeholders.

General Studies Paper 2

Context:

Good intentions do not always make for sound policy. President Droupadi Murmu’s suggestion that the creation of an All India Judicial Service (AIJS) will help diversify the judiciary by allowing bright youngsters from varied backgrounds to become judges through a merit based process revives the debate on whether a national system of recruitment at the district judge level is desirable.

All India Judicial Service (AIJS) :

• AIJS is a proposed service at all India level, on same lines as IAS, IPS etc, to recruit and nurture talented individuals into judicial service, ensuring representation from underrepresented social groups.
• Currently, under Articles 233 and 234 of the Constitution, states manage district judge appointments. State Public Service Commissions conduct recruitment, supervised by High Courts.
• The idea of AIJS has been part of discussions on official policy in the Union government for years. However, as the Union Law Minister disclosed last year in the Rajya Sabha, there is no consensus on the proposal. Only two High Courts agreed to the idea, while 13 were against it.

Advantages/ need for AIJS:

• Clear pendency of cases: The lower judiciary faces about 5400 vacancies and a backlog of 2.78 crore cases.
• Financial Incentives: State services often fail to attract top talent due to lower salaries.
• Training and Subjectivity: State-run institutions lack adequate training resources;
• Prevent favouritism and nepotism in selection of judges: current appointments are marred by subjectivity and nepotism.
• Ensure quality of justice: The declining quality of judicial officers necessitates a better mode of recruitment.
• Other advantages: AIJS aims to enhance judicial efficiency, standardise compensation, expedite recruitment, and ensure uniform training.

Arguments against AIJS:

• The AIJS may not be the panacea it appears to be. The current system of recruitment of district judges through the respective High Courts and other subordinate judicial officers through public service commissions is more conducive to ensuring diversity, as there is scope for both reservation and a clear understanding of local practices and conditions.
• Unlike the civil service, judges are not assisted by an experienced lower bureaucracy in decision making, and they require to be well versed in the issues involved for judicial functioning.
• Article 312 of the Constitution, as amended by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment, provides for the creation of an AIJS, and requires a resolution adopted by the Council of States with two thirds majority, and a parliamentary law. This Constitution recognises that rules governing the subordinate judiciary in the States will have to be superseded by a central law for this proposal to achieve fruition. It is unlikely that all States will agree to one more subject from their domain being consumed by centralisation.
• On the face of it, it may appear that a national service for judges not inferior to the post of district judges, with a superannuation age of 60, will be an attractive proposition for young lawyers to apply for it. However, it cannot be forgotten that legal education lacks country wide uniformity.
• After enrolling, lawyers typically consider judicial service based on practical experience rather than academic brilliance. Toppers, especially from the few elite law schools, are unlikely to sit for a national judicial service recruitment examination. In comparison, options such as litigation, joining law firms and going into the corporate sector will appear more beneficial.
• Further, given that the number of district judges elevated to the High Courts is much lower than those from the Bar, the lack of certainty on career progression may also render a national judicial service unattractive.

Conclusion:

• The idea of AIJS has been recommended over the years by many law commissions, Parliamentary panels, and recently, by NITI Aayog as well. Parliament and the Supreme Court should together deliberate on the merits and demerits of the same and take a policy decision.

General Studies Paper 3

Introduction

• The next fortnight will see world leaders, industrialists, activists, and indigenous peoples converge at the 28th edition of the Conference of the Parties (COP). This annual affair is an attempt to inch ahead on getting at least 190 countries, all members of the United Nations Framework for Climate Change (UNFCCC), to act on weaning their economies off fossil fuels.

Goal of UNFCCC Conference of Parties

• The current goal is to make good on a collective commitment made by countries in Paris, in 2015, to strive to hold global temperatures to no higher than 1.5°C above pre industrial levels by the end of the century and definitely below 2°C.
• Despite countries unanimously agreeing that humanity will collectively bear a huge price if these limits are breached, and nearly all major economies are framing grand national plans to show how they are doing ‘their bit’, the science says that instead of being cut 8% annually, emissions have grown 1.2% from 20212-2.
• At this rate, the world will warm 2.53°C by the end of the century. There have already been 86 instances just this year of global temperatures breaching the dreaded 1.5°C threshold.

Principles of climate action

• In the nearly three decades of COP meetings, the major economies have agreed on three broad principles.
• Countries that rapidly industrialised in the 20th century have disproportionately emitted more carbon than their ‘fair share’ given the population sustained.
• Economic growth premised on fossil fuel consumption, while cheaper per unit than renewable energy, spells disaster.
• Developing countries and those with minimal industrial infrastructure today must be compensated for adopting costlier, but cleaner, non-fossil fuel sources for growing their economies.
• There is also a consensus that the countries already weathering climate disasters must be compensated and also paid to bolster their infrastructure.
• However, getting all countries to actually act on these principles is onerous given the mutual suspicion, the spirit of deglobalisation, and the fear of political reprisal that heads of governments face within their constituencies.
• These themes are expected to play out this year too. Two major issues are expected to take the stage: the conclusion of the Global Stocktake and the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund (L&D Fund or LDF). However, there is no clarity on the size of the fund and the individual contributions by countries.
• The L&D Fund is based on the “polluters pay principle“ which says that the polluter is liable for paying the cost of remedial action and compensation for the victims of environmental damage caused by their actions. The developed nations, which are mostly responsible for industrial emissions, must pay the poorer nations that have made negligible contribution to global warming.
• At UNFCCC COP 27 in Egypt in 2022, it was agreed that the Loss and Damage Fund (LDF) must be provided to nations vulnerable to or impacted by climate change consequences. COP 28 is expected to finalise and declare the rulebook on the LDF.

Conclusion

While COPs, by nature, are self congratulatory when all they deliver are agreements with elaborate caveats, COP28 must strive to live up to its declared goal of being a conclave that compels its signatories to take definitive action.