General Studies Paper 2

Context

• The 2023 summit of the G-20 under India’s presidency went exceptionally well given the group’s limited economic approach to the complex issues that the world faces, from climate change and underdevelopment, wealth concentration and poverty and, most critically for our times, falling democratic norms and principles of peace.

The G20 summit in India

• India’s remarkable success at the summit this year, in early September, was captured by the global press, except in China, for various outcomes such as the inclusion of the African Union in the G-20, a tangible offer of clean energy through a biofuel alliance, increasing substantial aid for Asia-Africa, an economic corridor that connects India, West Asia and Europe using an ambitious rail and shipping link, and the Delhi Declaration which was a joint statement of all the group.

A candid view

• The joint statement called the Delhi Declaration is newsworthy because of the fractured international order and power struggles between India and the United States with China or the U.S. with Russia.
• Despite the absence of China’s President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the summit, India still got their agreement for the declaration which sums up the achievement.
• Substantially speaking, the statement is pareve as it does not name Russia for aggression against Ukraine; but it does evoke the United Nations charter and principles of territorial sovereignty.
• But the boldest outcome, and unanticipated by many, was the announcement of the economic corridor (the “India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor”), of a rail-ship route, to transport goods to Europe from India via the United Arab Emirates-Saudi Arabia-Jordan-Israel.
• Such a project will change the geopolitics for the future. The fact that it challenges China’s Belt and Road Initiative is beside the more significant point.

Israel’s absence, possible factors

• India ‘set a precedent in G20 history by inviting the most Middle Eastern countries ever to take part as guests in the group’s key summit’, and one wonders why Israel, India’s strategic partner also from the region, was not given such an invitation.
• As a host, India invited nine non-member countries — Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates — to the summit.
• Perhaps factors such as a meet between Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Mr. Netanyahu may have been impossible unless there was diplomatic normalisation.

A push for peace

• Saudi Arabia is willing to end the diplomatic boycott of Israel.
• It is a historical change because such an acceptance of Israel by the most important, religiously speaking, Muslim country, will help Israel with other countries such as Pakistan (already willing), Indonesia and Malaysia.
• For such a change, Saudis demand that Israel commits to the two-state solution and the well-being of the Palestinian people, even if the occupation does not end soon.

Way forward

• Israel-Palestine peace is a very challenging aim and given the rise of extremism on both sides, it appears all the more impossible. Saudi Arabia is aware of it and is still interested in having deliberations to walk smoothly among Arabs and other Muslims while working with the Biden administration to make peace with the State of Israel. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor will have to wait until this happens.

General Studies Paper 2

Context

• The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, which promises 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha, and in the Legislative Assemblies of States and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, sheds the spotlight on another crucial aspect of representative democracy — the delimitation of electoral constituencies.

History

• Since the 1970s, there has been no change in the number of Lok Sabha seats. The Constitution (Forty-Second Amendment) Act, 1976 froze the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies as per the Census of 1971, up to the Census which was to be conducted in 2001.
• However, in 2001, the day of reckoning was pushed further to 2026. This was done through an amendment to Article 82 by the Constitution (Eighty-Fourth Amendment) Act.
• While the boundaries of electoral constituencies were redrawn in 2002, there was no change in the number of seats in the Lok Sabha.
• Only after 2026 will we consider changing the number of seats in the Lok Sabha.
• Strictly speaking, the relevant numbers as to population are expected to come from the 2031 Census, which will be the first census after 2026.

Delimitation as of now

• Article 81 of the Constitution says that each State gets seats in the Lok Sabha in proportion to its population.
• The freeze on delimitation effected in 1976 was to allay the concerns of States which took a lead in population control and which were faced with the prospect of reduction of their number of seats in the Lok Sabha.
• The practical consequences, however, of the 1976 freeze is that the allocation done on the basis of the 1971 Census continues to hold good for the present population figures.
• India’s population has, of course, increased significantly since then. Using figures from 1971 to represent today’s population runs contrary to the grain of the Constitution besides obviously distorting what representative democracy stands for.
• The exercise of delimitation also implicates the constitutional values of federalism and representation of States as consolidated units.
• In the preceding decades, the population of the north has increased at a faster pace as compared with the south. In practical terms, this means that MPs in States in north India represent more voters than MPs in the south.
• Given this context, the question of delimitation necessarily has serious implications for both the individual voter as well as the States.

Delimitation in the near future

• The delimitation of constituencies will need answers to certain vexed questions.
• The 2021 Census was pushed courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Union Home Minister has indicated that the next Census and subsequent delimitation will be conducted after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
• Even more vexed are the qualitative concerns that will determine how boundaries of electoral constituencies will be redrawn.
• If done entirely in terms of proportion of population, the redrawing of constituencies would yield more seats to States in the north, given their higher population.
• Besides concerns around representation, this will also lead to distrust on the part of States in the south.

Way forward

• The recently concluded delimitation in Assam, ahead of the 2024 Assembly elections, witnessed widespread concerns around how altering the boundaries of certain districts and renaming certain constituencies can have a potentially acute impact on the representation of specific communities. That is all the indication needed to start a robust conversation around delimitation sooner than later.

General Studies Paper 3

Introduction

• Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) refers to a bouquet of mechanisms that enables disputing parties to resolve their differences amicably, without the intervention of courts. Given the delays in Indian court proceedings and increasing cost of litigation, the significance of ADR in India cannot be understated.

About

• In the recent monsoon session of Parliament, both Houses passed The Mediation Bill, 2023, and upon receiving the assent of the President of India, is referred to as the Mediation Act, 2023 (“the Act”).
• The Indian legal framework already encourages courts to refer the disputing parties to ADR procedures, including mediation, if there were elements of settlement which the parties may accept.
• The Act will take this encouragement a step forward. Irrespective of a prior mediation agreement, it will obligate each party to take steps to settle their dispute through pre-litigation mediation before approaching an Indian court.
• To facilitate this process, the Act will also require courts and relevant institutions to maintain a panel of mediators.

Many benefits

• This requirement is expected to reduce the filing of frivolous claims before Indian courts.
• Owing to the confidentiality of a mediation, it may also mitigate the risk of deterioration of the parties’ relationship due to a publicly fought dispute.
• Yet, at the same time, concerns are raised about the feasibility of a mediation conducted under the sword of an obligation as opposed to a sincere desire to arrive at an amicable resolution.
• In the latter scenario, this may empower a recalcitrant defendant to delay a genuine claim.
• Subject to an extension by the parties, they must also complete the mediation within 180 days from the parties’ first appearance.
• On the other hand, the Act will not remove the refuge of Indian courts entirely.
• A party may, in exceptional circumstances, seek urgent interim reliefs from a court before the commencement or during the continuation of a mediation.
• These provisions prioritise expertise and efficiency, while ensuring that the obligation of pre-litigation mediation is not weaponised.
• The aim is to create a balanced framework which encourages the parties to focus more on their commercial dealings and less on their disputes.

The aspect of mediation and arbitration

• The Act will effectively position mediation similar to commercial arbitration in India. The similarities between their respective supporting pieces of legislation are obvious.
• Both pieces of legislation impose stringent timelines for the conduct of proceedings, mandate confidentiality, obligate Indian courts to refer the parties to mediation or arbitration, provide a default mechanism for the appointment of a mediator or arbitrator, and prescribe the procedure for the termination of their mandate.
• Likewise, both ensure the enforceability of a mediated settlement agreement and an arbitral award, respectively.
• The establishment of a Mediation Council of India equally mirrors the proposal in 2019 to establish an Arbitration Council of India.
• Parliament’s message to Indian industry is clear — in commercial matters, courts must no longer be the default venue for dispute resolution.
• Parties are expected to resolve their dispute amicably through mediation, and, alternatively, through commercial arbitration.
• While the doors of Indian courts are open if required, this access must be perceived as a matter of last resort.

Way forward

• Similar to how the recent amendments to the A&C Act prioritised institutional arbitration of disputes, the Act also places emphasis on institutional mediation in India.
• It envisages “mediation service providers” to provide not only the services of a mediator but also all the facilities, secretarial assistance, and infrastructure for the efficient conduct of mediation.
• India is already home to experienced arbitration institutions, some of which provide mediation services that are on a par with global best practices.
• Only then would India become a global hub not only for arbitration but also for all aspects of commercial dispute resolution.

General Studies Paper 2

Context

• At the G-20 summit in New Delhi earlier this month, United States President Joe Biden and others unveiled a U.S.-backed infrastructure project to connect India, West Asia and Europe with shipping lanes, rail networks, pipelines and data cables.

Two-part policy

• Biden’s West Asia strategy has two parts. One is the continuation of the Trump-era policy of bringing America’s two pillars in the region — the Gulf Arabs and Israel — closer to meet their common geopolitical challenges such as Iran’s rise.
• The second part of Mr. Biden’s approach is to reassure America’s friends and allies that the U.S. is not exiting West Asia.
• In 2012, leaders of India, Israel, the U.S. and the UAE held a virtual summit of what is now called the I2U2 minilateral.
• The idea behind I2U2 is to create a new platform that could expedite economic integration between West Asia and South Asia and offer economic and technological solutions to the problems faced by the Global South.
• India’s presence in a grouping of the Abraham Accords countries was seen as a legitimate recognition of India’s presence in the region.
• The India-Middle East-Europe Corridor, announced at the G-20 summit enhances New Delhi’s standing.
• It seeks to build an economic corridor from India’s western coast, through the Gulf (the UAE and Saudi Arabia), Jordan and Israel, to the Mediterranean, bringing India and Europe closer.
• If this project takes off, the U.S. hopes that it could retain its channels of influence in West Asia, control the major shipping lanes and reassure its allies of its staying capacity.
• America’s answer to this challenge is to forge closer ties between its allies in the region and strengthen the U.S. security architecture, and bring India in as a bigger, stable partner to write the new rules of economic engagement and integration, competing with China. India seems willing to take this bet.

Multiple avenues for India

• For India, the U.S.-China competition in West Asia opens new avenues of engagement.
• The U.S. sees India, with its size, the size of its economy and the legacy of its historical engagement and cultural connect with the region, as an important partner in its bid to continue to shape West’s Asia’s geopolitics.
• India should welcome the moment but should not look at it through the prism of another Cold War — or it should not put all its eggs in one basket as it did in Afghanistan.
• It is already part of the near-functional International North-South Transport Corridor that connects India to Russia through Iran and Central Asia.
• The ‘Middle East Corridor’ would open another economic channel.

Way forward

• India’s overall policy towards the region should stay anchored in this idea of multi-engagement — not in appeasing or containing any great power.
• With or without the U.S., or irrespective of China’s presence in the region, India should strive to play a major geopolitical role in West Asia, its extended neighbourhood, without upsetting its traditional balance.

General Studies Paper 3

Context

• The lessons from India’s LED revolution can help the country’s growing ceiling fan market.

The LED bulb story

• Even in the humid weather of August and September, as in the dry heat of May, the ceiling fan continues to provide comfort to many in India.
• The ceiling fan market is undergoing a churn too, driven by policy imperatives and a regulation change.
• But the fan market must learn from the successes and hiccups of the light-emitting diode (LED) bulb story.
• The policy imperative driving the change in the fan market is energy transition in a world that must grow sustainably with changing climate.
• India’s goal of reducing harmful emissions per unit of GDP, by 45% by 2030, relative to 2005, requires a sharp reduction in the energy consumed for economic activity.
• Households account for nearly a third of all electricity consumed in India, and ceiling fans, used by 90% of households, as per a Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) survey of 2020.
• The India Cooling Action Plan projects that the number of fans in use in India could grow to a billion by 2038, from about 500 million now, as incomes grow along with average temperatures.

The ‘star rating’ programme

• Given the importance of fans, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), India’s energy efficiency regulator under the Union Ministry of Power, made the Standards and Labelling (S&L) programme, popularly known as the ‘star-rating’ programme, mandatory for ceiling fans in May 2022.
• But ‘5-star’ fans (the star rating) cost twice as much as typical unrated fans — not a small barrier to adoption in India’s price-sensitive market.
• To tackle this, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) is planning a demand aggregation programme to sell 10 million ‘5-star’ ceiling fans.
• The programme hopes to transform the fans market much like it did for LED lamps under the famous Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) programme.
• The UJALA programme, launched in 2015, helped reduce the price of LED lamps from ₹400 to ₹90 in a span of three to four years.

Steps to a transformation

First is to maintain a technology-agnostic policy.

• Demand aggregation is most effective when a single technology specification is procured in bulk.
• In the case of LEDs, it was the nine-watt white light LED bulb. But fans have a wider spectrum of technology, each with its own trade-offs.
• A policy that covers more than one specification would be more cost-effective in the long run.
• A typical ceiling fan uses the time-tested induction motor, which is rugged but may have limits on energy performance.
• The newer kid on the block, the brushless DC (BLDC) motor, is the only commercially available technology so far that meets the ‘5-star’ performance benchmark.

Second, manage the balance between price reduction and quality.

• The intense pressure on price on LEDs during the UJALA programme led to lower-quality products entering the market, with higher failure rates.
• While replacing a bulb is easy and cheap, replacing a ceiling fan is inconvenient and costly.
• Low-quality products could lead to a deficit of consumers’ trust in the new technology, prompting them to revert to the old.

Third, foster high-quality domestic manufacturing capacity for high-efficiency fans.

• While the growth of the LED market spawned new manufacturers and brands, India arguably missed the bus on maintaining the quality of local manufacturing and reducing import dependence for components.
• India can leverage its massive domestic market to achieve economies of scale for finished products and components, and expand into the export market.
• Indian quality and performance standards must be updated to align with international ones to ensure that manufacturers are competitive.

And, finally, dedicate resources to strengthening the standard and labelling programme.

Conclusion

• Fans are undergoing their first major phase of disruption in decades. Energy-efficient fans can not only help the vulnerable population get access to a critical service for coping with events of extreme heat with lower electricity bills, but are also central to India’s clean energy transition and can play a part in its economic growth.

General Studies Paper 3

Introduction

• The conventional way to assess a country’s economic situation is to look at the quarterly (three-month) and annual (12-month) GDP (gross-domestic-product) growth rate and compare it to previous quarters as well as years. In the quarterly release of GDP figures by the NSO (National Statistical Office), the country’s performance is likened to reviewing a report card of its economic performance.

GDP growth rate

• The Q1 data covering the GDP growth rate from April to June of FY24 boasts a nominal growth rate of 8% and a real growth rate of 7.8%.
• The growth story currently posits that the numbers reflect an uptick in the agriculture sector growing at 3.5%, unlikely to be sustained due to pressure from the El Niño phenomenon, and the services industry, with financial, real estate and professional services growing at 12.2%.

Calculating GDP

• The first factor to consider is that calculating the GDP growth rate involves many complex statistical choices and sophisticated statistical operations.
• One such decision the NSO made while conducting their research was to use the income approach of calculating GDP rather than the expenditure approach.
• The income approach involves summing up all national incomes from the factors of production and accounting for other elements such as taxes, depreciation, and net foreign factor income.
• However, the expenditure approach dictates headline growth to be 4.5% rather than 7.8% which is a large discrepancy.
• Moreover, another essential statistical operation is the adjusting for inflation using the price deflator.
• Typically, the deflator is meant to adjust growth figures when they are overstated by inflation.
• In this case, deflation due to falling commodity prices, reflected in the wholesale price index, has worked to overstate the real growth.
• Furthermore, there is a base effect from the COVID-19 degrowth period, which continues to plague India’s growth figures.
• Although less pronounced in FY24, the base effect has a role in comparative statistics due to sporadic growth in the years following FY20-21.
• Additionally, one must consider whether the proposed, supposedly cooled, inflation rate calculated through the consumer price index can be sustained at current levels with the impending depreciation of the Indian rupee against the dollar due to capital outflow pressures resulting from the RBI’s reluctance to raise interest rates.

Revenue from taxes

• Moreover, the government’s tax revenue from direct taxes has weakened over the previous quarter while the indirect tax revenue remained strong, indicating a K-shaped pattern.
• The income streams from progressive taxation seem to be a laggard compared to its regressive counterpart.
• A muted growth of direct tax collected in an economy boosted by the services industry is a statistical discrepancy which remains unexplained in the proposed GDP growth story.

A nuanced approach

• In conclusion, after a meticulous analysis of India’s Q1 FY24 economic transcript, it becomes palpable that the reported growth narrative might be somewhat over embellished.
• The divergence in growth figures brought forth by the income and expenditure approaches manifest a significant disparity, raising fundamental questions about the veracity of the promulgated optimistic narrative.
• Moreover, the underpinnings of this growth story, nuanced by inflationary adjustments and conspicuous fluctuations in tax revenue streams, signal a cautious trajectory.
• Additionally, the apprehensive outlook on the agriculture sector and potential fiscal constraints paint an arguably more restrained picture than initially portrayed.

Conclusion

• Therefore, it seems prudent to assert that India’s economic performance, although showing signs of resilience, does not quite emerge as the unequivocal success story depicted in initial observations, urging a more nuanced and critical approach in assessing the trajectory ahead.

General Studies Paper 3

Context

• Enormity of climate change is no excuse to resort to risky mitigation strategies.

About

• India had its rain-wise driest August in a century this year.
• While scientists are yet to link this anomaly with the chaotic effects of climate change, it underscores the constant threat of disrupted weather, the resulting consequences for the economy, and the importance of climate mitigation.
• One of the more desperate, and dangerous, ideas to have emerged from this impetus is solar radiation management (SRM)

SRM

• It is to block some of the incoming solar radiation to cool the earth’s surface.
• SRM’s dangers emerge from the fact that it interferes with natural mechanisms with unavoidable planet-wide effects.
• For example, if an SRM experiment by one country leads to more rain over the Horn of Africa than expected, it could trigger a locust swarm that eventually destroys crops in Pakistan and India.
• There is currently no mechanism that holds a geoengineering government accountable to consequences beyond its borders nor through which affected countries can appeal for restitution.
• There has also been little research on understanding how the world’s myriad weather systems affect each other and their relative sensitivities to interventions such as SRM.

The issues

• This is why the report of the Climate Overshoot Commission, released last week, calls for more research to close crucial scientific and governance gaps before any deliberations on the implementation of SRM-like technologies.
• The commission was constituted by geoengineering researchers to assess ways to accelerate emission cuts.
• But while the report is careful to acknowledge that the scientific community does not understand SRM enough to attempt a deployment, even in experimental fashion, it also argues for retaining SRM in the mix of potential climate mitigation solutions.
• This is buttressed by appeals to lack of time as the earth’s surface is poised to warm past the 1.5°C threshold enshrined in the Paris Agreement in the next decade.
• This is a precarious suggestion because even less controversial, but nonetheless problematic, mitigation technologies such as carbon capture take resources, focus, and political will away from the most effective strategy — cutting emissions — and increase emissions limits.
• SRM will only amplify this dilution. The commission also errs by claiming to act for the interests of developing countries at a time when corporate and political actors have hijacked their ‘room to develop’ to pursue economic growth at the expense of climate justice.

Way forward

• The enormity of climate change requires quick and decisive action, but when better solutions have not been implemented as well as they can be, and while there is still time to do so, it is disingenuous to contend that more high-risk solutions should remain on the table.

General Studies Paper 2

Context

• The Women’s Reservation Bill must be implemented without delay.

The Women’s Reservation Bill

• The passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha almost three decades after it was first tabled in Parliament is a welcome move that can finally shatter a political glass ceiling.
• With women Members of Parliament comprising only about 15% of the strength of the Lok Sabha, the gender inequality in political representation is stark and disturbing.
• The 128th Constitution Amendment Bill, or the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, seeks to amend this by reserving a third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and legislative Assemblies for women.
• It has a 15-year sunset clause for the quota, that can be extended.
• Considering the fraught history of the struggle for women’s reservation, and several false starts despite the Rajya Sabha passing it in 2010, it is laudatory that the first Bill to be introduced in the new Sansad Bhavan has been passed in the Lok Sabha.
• But its implementation will be delayed as it has been tied to two factors, delimitation and the Census, and therein lies the rub.
• It is unfortunate that implementation is being linked to delimitation, for the principle of having a third of seats reserved for women has nothing to do with the territorial limits of constituencies or the number of Assembly or Lok Sabha constituencies in each State.
• Women will thus not have access to 33% reservation in the 2024 general election.
• The Bill also mandates that as nearly as one-third of the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be set aside for women.
• The Opposition is demanding an internal quota for women of Other Backward Classes, but this should not be used as a ruse to delay implementation.
• In the meantime, proposals should be fine tuned to ensure that when it becomes an Act, it is not mere tokenism for women’s political representation.
• It is a fact that local bodies are better represented, with the share of women in panchayati raj institutions well above 50% in several States.

Suggestions

• Lessons must be imbibed on how women at the grassroots level have broken all sorts of barriers, from patriarchal mindsets at home to not being taken seriously in their official duties, and made a difference.
• Women struggle on so many other counts: they have uneven access to health, nutrition and education, there is a lack of safe places, women are also falling out of the workforce.
• Among the G-20 countries, India’s female labour force participation is the lowest at 24%.

Conclusion

• India, which gave women voting rights at the very outset, should not falter when it comes to ensuring better political representation for women. For growth, and instituting change in key areas, women need to have their say.

General Studies Paper 3

Introduction

• The environment, from an academic point of view, has for centuries been understood from the lens of science. Scholars and experts have explored issues related to ecology and the environment through a utilitarian understanding of nature. While studies around the relationship between humans and nature have been more forthcoming in the last few decades, the field of environmental humanities is relatively recent.

Bias against ‘soft sciences’

• Positioning themselves as scholars working on environmental humanities in a science and technology institute where the discipline of humanities and social sciences is part of their coursework.
• The authors explain how the mere introduction of humanities as a chapter would not help remove the dichotomy between the sciences and the bias against the “soft sciences”.
• The authors explain that instead of looking at science as the only solace to providing solutions to environmental issues, disciplines of humanities and social sciences must also be taken seriously to understand indigenous epistemologies that broaden our understanding of nature.
• The nationalist project such as the Indian Knowledge Systems is dangerous as it is a mere replacement for the Western understanding of nature.
• It lacks the multitude of narratives and perspectives from various social and marginalised groups that discuss the entanglement of human beings with the environment.

The nation and nature

• In India, nature has been considered intrinsically connected to society and culture.
• The nation is seen through the lens of nature, ecology or as a sense of place.
• There are two dominant understandings of a nation. The first one considers the nation as one place where nature is universal to its citizens as an ecological reality.
• Ecological nationalism is used to justify the utilisation or restriction of nature.
• The second understanding goes beyond the unitary sense of nation or nationalism and finds multiple perspectives that define the nation in connection to nature — as the affiliation to a piece of land and to its people who have various cultural identities. It is a sense of belonging, despite diverse notions about the ecology and environment.
• In looking at the environment as a physical entity meant to be exploited according to man’s wishes, neo-liberal establishments have separated people’s indigenous experiences and narratives from our understanding of nature.
• The dominant understanding of the environment while using gender, caste and tribal experiences as case studies, still largely remains androcentric and Brahminical, according to the authors.

Indigenous narratives on nature

• The relationship that Dalits or tribal communities have with the environment is complex and much deeper than dominant narratives.
• While they have been given limited access to space, land and water due to the exclusionary practices that persist, owing to the caste system, they have a stronger connection with nature as they consider the environment to have agency and influence.
• Such narratives reject the reductionist attitude towards ecology/ environment that exists among mainstream understandings of the concept.
• Therefore, it is essential to incorporate the perspectives of different marginalised communities, such as those based on gender, caste, and tribal identities, into discussions within academic and policymaking circles to challenge the monopolistic understanding of the environment.

Way forward

• Environmental humanities is an open-ended discipline that constantly evolves and continually redefines the perception of the environment.
• In incorporating narratives about the interplay between nature and diverse communities through stories of rivers, landscapes, plants, animals, and the communities’ perspectives and ecological wisdom, the discipline enriches our understanding of the environment and helps us re-evaluate conventional notions of nature.

General Studies Paper 2

Introduction

• Even though the movement to specify frameworks for higher education qualifications had gained momentum across the world in the late 1990s, India remained without a National Higher Education Qualifications Framework (NHEQF) until recently. The idea was deliberated at the 60th meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education in 2012, which assigned the responsibility to the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The problem of plenty

• Globally, higher education qualification frameworks include details of the definition and requirements of credits.
• The UGC has chosen to prescribe two separate frameworks — the NHEQF and the National Credit Framework.
• Higher educational institutions are separately required to implement the Academic Bank of Credits as a mandated modality for recognising, accepting, and transferring credits across courses and institutions.
• Additionally, there are many other regulations that impinge on higher education qualifications. All of these could have been integrated into the NHEQF. This defeats the purpose of prescribing a qualification framework
• After all, a qualification framework must minimise ambiguities in comprehending qualifications in a cross-cultural context.

The importance

• By definition, a national higher education qualification must encompass all disciplines and must clearly provide for the eligibility conditions for the entry into, and completion of, all programmes of studies.
• The NHEQF does provide exit requirements, but eligibility conditions and pathways through which a student can enter a programme at a particular level are alluded to vaguely.
• Besides, higher education qualifications awarded by disciplines such as agriculture, law, medicine, and pharmacy are conspicuous by their absence.
• The higher education system in India is far more diverse and complex than the European Higher Education Area.
• It warrants much wider and more intense consultations with the States. Doing this could have substantially enriched the NHEQF.
• The process of formulating the NHEQF should have duly recognised the sheer size of the higher education system and the variations in it, as well as the federal structure, constitutional provisions that put education on the Concurrent List, and the fact that States spend a lot more on education than the Centre.

Difficulties in implementation

• At a practical level, there might be some serious difficulties in implementing the NHEQF.
• The document places all higher education qualifications on a continuum of 4.5 to 10.
• The framework equates postgraduate diplomas with four-year undergraduate programmes.
• This poses a problem in determining the level of such undergraduate degrees that are pursued after another-undergraduate degree, like B.Ed.
• Further, the idea that a B.Ed could be completed in one, two or four years is confusing.
• The credit framework document of the UGC mandates that each semester must have a minimum of 20 credits.
• Higher educational institutions with minimal infrastructure and meagre faculty resources may find this daunting.

Conclusion

• The mystery of the learning outcomes borrowed liberally from the Dublin descriptors remains unaddressed. Whether generic or specific to a discipline, learning outcomes may vary significantly across disciplines. Besides, they may not be measurable by the same yardstick across disciplines.