Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

With the help of advanced technologies and newer experiments scientists have found certain clues about dark energy and made the first putative direct detection of dark energy.

Key Points

• The XENON1T experiment is the world’s most sensitive dark matter experiment and was operated deep underground at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy.
• Scientists noticed certain unexpected results in the underground experiment and write that dark energy may be responsible for it.
• The finding also suggests that experiments like XENON1T, which are designed to detect dark matter, could also be used to detect dark energy.

Dark energy Vs Dark matter

• In the universe, about 27% is dark matter and 68% is dark energy.
• While dark matter attracts and holds galaxies together, dark energy repels and causes the expansion of our universe.
• Dark energy has been noted as “the most profound mystery in all of science”.

How did they make the detection?

• Last year, the XENON1T experiment reported an unexpected signal.
• Scientists say that at energies around ~2 keV there are way more events than one expects simply due to noise and this could be due to dark energy.
• Though these sorts of excesses are often flukes, once in a while, they can also lead to fundamental discoveries.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

After two successive droughts in 2014-15 and 2015-16, Prime Minister set out an ambitious target to double farmers’ incomes by 2022-23. 

• The Ashok Dalwai Committee said that the target of doubling farmers’ incomes was in real terms and the goal was to be achieved over seven years with the base year of 2015-16. 
  • It clearly stated that a growth rate of 10.4 per cent per annum would be required to double farmers’ real income by 2022-23. 
• Lack of data about farmers’ income: According to an estimate of farmers’ income for 2015-16 by NABARD in 2016-17, the average monthly income of farmers for 2015-16 was Rs 8,931. 

Key points of data for 2018-19 based on the Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of agricultural households 

• It was conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO). 
• As per this survey, an average agricultural household earned a monthly income of Rs 10,218 in 2018-19 (July-June) in nominal terms. 
• As per SAS for 2012-13, the nominal income was Rs 6,426. 
• In nominal terms, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) turns out to be 8 per cent between 2012-13 to 2018-19. 

Need for calculation of the growth rate of real incomes

• If we deflate nominal incomes by using CPI-AL (consumer price index for agricultural labour), then the CAGR is just 3 per cent. 
• If we use WPI (wholesale price index of all commodities), the CAGR in real incomes turns out to be 6.1 per cent. This difference is just due to the choice of deflator. 
• When one compares the CAGR in farmers’ real income (deflated by CPI-AL) over 2002-03 to 2018-19, it turns out to be 3.4 per cent (and 5.3 per cent if deflated by WPI). 
• The situation in the base year and terminal year influences the growth rates dramatically.
• A better method would have been to look at average annual growth rates (AAGR), if yearly data was available. 
• The AAGR for agri-GDP is available and at an all-India level, between 2002-03 to 2018-19, it turns out to be 3.3 per cent. This is very close to the real income growth (CAGR) of 3.4 per cent for the same period. 
• State level variations: State agri-GDP growth is volatile and depends on the monsoon. 
  • For example, Punjab with almost 99 per cent irrigation cover, will have a much more stable income than say Maharashtra with just 19 per cent irrigation cover.
  • There is a huge gap between agriculture GDP and farmers’ income growth in many states — Kerala, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh. 
  • The Gujarat region had a 27 per cent deficient rainfall than its Long Period Average (LPA) and Saurashtra, Kutch and Diu were 38 per cent rainfall deficient in 2018-19. Jharkhand had 31 per cent deficient rainfall, while Kerala experienced a major flood in 2018-19. 
  • The agricultural GDP growth of Gujarat was negative (-8.7 per cent) in 2018-19. This would surely depress the farmers’ incomes in the state for 2018-19. 
  • But overall, for the period 2002-03 to 2018-19, Gujarat’s agri-GDP growth is 6.5 per cent — one of the highest in India. 

Key takeaways from SAS surveys

• It is important to consider both the indicators (growth in agri-GDP as well as farmers’ incomes based on a survey of the specific year) to get a clearer picture of the state of affairs at the farmer level.
• The share of income from rearing animals (this includes fish) has gone up dramatically from 4.3 per cent in 2002-03 to 15.7 per cent. 
• The share of income from the cultivation of crops has decreased from 45.8 per cent to 37.7 per cent. 
• The share of wages and salaries has gone up from 38.7 per cent to 40.3 per cent. 
• The share of income coming from non-farm business has come down from 11.2 per cent to 6.4 per cent.
• The scope for augmenting farmers’ incomes is going to be more and from rearing animals (including fisheries). 
  • It is worth noting that there is no minimum support price (MSP) for products of animal husbandry or fisheries and no procurement by the government. 
  • It is demand-driven, and much of its marketing takes place outside APMC mandis. 
  • This is the trend that will get reinforced in the years to come as incomes rise and diets diversify. 
• Farmers’ income cannot be increased by continuously raising the MSP of grains and government procurement. Grain stocks with the government are already overflowing and more than double the buffer stocking norms. It will lead to a very expensive food system. 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

The Uttarakhand High Court issued a notification saying that it would resume functioning through the physical mode from August 24, and no virtual hearing will be entertained.

• A petition has been filed by the All-India Jurists Association, seeking a declaration that the right to participate in court proceedings through virtual courts via video conference is a fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a) and (g) of the Constitution. 
  • According to Article 19(1)(a): All citizens shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression.
  • Article 19 ( 1) (g) of the Constitution of India provides the right to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade or business to all citizens subject to Art. 19 (6) which enumerates the nature of restriction that can be imposed by the state upon the above right of the citizens.

Key points of the litigation

• The idea of virtual courts is seen as an affordable and accessible justice system observed by the e-committee of the supreme court.
• The plea also says the use of information, communication and technology is a fundamental right available to every lawyer under Article 19(1)(a) and (g) of the Constitution of India.
• Anuradha Bhasin v Union of India (2020) case: It was held by the Supreme Court that the right to access the internet and various applications/websites is a facet of various Fundamental Rights and Freedoms available under Article 19 of the Constitution of India. 
• Swapnil Tripathi vs Supreme Court (2018): In the fast-changing globalised world, it is obligatory for the Indian Judiciary to use Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) in the most optimal manner to make Justice available at the cheapest possible price for one and all.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

A recent report, “Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region” by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) reveals that India has warmed up 0.7° C during 1901-2018. 

• The 2010-2019 decade was the hottest with a mean temperature of 0.36° C higher than average. 
• Prolonged exposure to heat is becoming detrimental to public health, especially the poor unable to afford support for coping with the heat.

India’s vulnerability to climate change

• Assessment by the MoES shows that India may experience a 4.4° C rise by the end of this century.
• India has also suffered two of the 10 most expensive climate disasters in the last two years. 
  • Super-cyclone “Cyclone Amphan” that hit India in 2020, cost more than USD13 billion. The “June-October Monsoon Flooding” cost USD10 billion and around 1,600 lives. 
  • It was India’s heaviest monsoon rain in the last 25 years and the world’s seventh costliest. 
  • In early 2021, India suffered two more cyclones: Cyclone Tauktae hitting the west coast and Cyclone Yaas from the east. 
• India’s rising IDPs: According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, India’s Internally Displaced Populations (IDPs) are rising due to damaging climate events. 
  • About 3.6 million out of 170 million living in coastal areas were displaced between 2008-2018.
  • Uttarakhand residents began deserting their homes after the Kedarnath floods in 2013 due to heavy precipitation that increases every year. Within 2050, rainfall is expected to rise by 6% and temperature by 1.6° C.
• Coastal erosion: India lost about 235 square kilometres to coastal erosion due to climate change induced sea-level rise, land erosion and natural disasters such as tropical cyclones between 1990-2016. 
• India’s Deccan plateau has seen eight out of 17 severe droughts since 1876 in the 21st century (2000-2003; 2015-2018). 
  • In Maharashtra and Karnataka (the heart of the Deccan Plateau), families deserted homes in 2019 due to an acute water crisis. 

India’s climate initiatives

• India vowed to work with COP21 by signing the Paris Agreement to limit global warming and submitted the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) with a goal of reducing the emissions intensity of GDP by 33%-35% and increasing green energy resources (non-fossil-oil based) to 40% of installed electric power capacity by 2030.
  • In their NDCs, countries communicate actions they will take to reduce their Greenhouse Gas emissions in order to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement. Countries also communicate in the NDCs actions they will take to build resilience to adapt to the impacts of rising temperatures.
• In 2015, India cofounded with France at COP21, the International Solar Alliance (ISA). It is a coalition of about 120 countries with solar rich resources— which aims at mobilising USD1 trillion in investments for the deployment of solar energy at affordable prices by 2030. 
• India held the top 10 positions for the second year in a row in 2020’s Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). The country received credit under all of the CCPI’s performance fields except renewable energy where India performed medium.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

The ‘Look East policy of 1991 gave way to the ‘Act East policy” of 2015.

Background

• In contrast to global experiences, the border districts in South Asia tend to lag behind others, especially in the East. 
• There is a vast amount of literature to show that transport and connectivity are among the major challenges to improving trade ties in the East, especially the chicken neck area in the Siliguri corridor. 
  • This corridor falls in the North Bengal region of West Bengal.
• Several of the districts in the region, which border Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, had been classified as “backward” by the erstwhile Planning Commission.

About Act East Policy

• The ‘Act East Policy’ announced in November, 2014 is the upgrade of the “Look East Policy”.
• It is a diplomatic initiative to promote economic, strategic and cultural relations with the vast Asia-Pacific region at different levels.
• It involves intensive and continuous engagement with Southeast Asian countries in the field of connectivity, trade, culture, defence and people-to-people-contact at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels.
• Objectives: To promote economic cooperation, cultural ties and strategic relationships with countries in the Asia-Pacific region. 
  • This would involve providing enhanced connectivity to India’s North Eastern Region (NER) with our bordering countries.

Key Services under ‘Act East Policy’

• The ‘Act East’ policy has led to infrastructural investment and signing of agreements in transport, power, etc. 
• The focus here is on the potential of the services sector in North Bengal and NER. 
• Producer services: Each of the border districts must develop a perspective plan identifying their comparative advantages and sync them with schemes like District Export Hubs and One District One Product. 
  • Scaling up of key sectors will require significant enhancement of what economic literature calls ‘producer service’ sectors, which include management services, research and development, financial and accounting services, and marketing.
• Financial services: Barring Sikkim, the NER lags behind in terms of financial inclusion (NCAER DBT Research). 
  • The sector can spur regional growth and it has both efficiency and equity implications. The innovations from the fintech sector can be another line of export.
• ICT connectivity: The nature of this sector is similar to financial services. Poor connectivity plagues the NER, which is largely due to its geographical terrain (NCAER DBT Research). 
  • If India can tap into Bangladesh’s submarine cable networks, then a combination of optical fibre, satellite and microwave technologies could be used to provide digital connectivity in NER. Cooperation, trade and innovations in this area will also help our neighbours.
• Tea and bamboo: Eighty-one percent of Indian tea is produced in Assam and West Bengal. The most significant product of the North Bengal economy is tea.
  • NCAER research on border tea trade in North Bengal shows that Nepal and Bangladesh also provide competition to Indian tea producers. 
  • However, India’s tea infrastructure and regulations are far superior to those of its neighbours.
• Tourism: Improved connectivity will boost tourism in this region. The natural beauty combined with its religious and historical sites can spur tourism.
  • NCAER research has found that Nepali citizens living in border regions come to Siliguri for shopping. 
  • Day trips for shopping/picnicking from neighbouring countries could be encouraged and monetised. 
  • Both short and long trips can generate foreign revenue. The border haats between India and Bangladesh must be enhanced.
• Education: The NCAER has found that the share of educational services in Darjeeling district, West Bengal, is relatively large. It houses good quality boarding schools, which can attract international students from bordering districts, with spillovers in tourism.
  • Similarly, other districts could identify their respective comparative advantage. Higher education, especially through research institutes and edtech companies, could be another potential area of service exports. 
  • Same languages being spoken in districts across neighbouring international borders may be an enabling factor.
• Logistics: The current infrastructural investment will boost demand for logistics services. India is developing several airports in the region. Bagdogra airport, Darjeeling, is the only international airport in North Bengal, and it is close to many districts in Bangladesh and Nepal. 
  • There are plans to expand this airport, and it could potentially cater to passengers from neighbouring countries.

Initiatives to Enhance Connectivity:

• Agartala-Akhaura Rail Link between India and Bangladesh.
• Intermodal transport linkages and inland waterways through Bangladesh.
• Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project and the Trilateral Highway Project connecting the North East with Myanmar and Thailand.
• Under India-Japan Act East Forum, projects such as Road and Bridges and modernization of Hydroelectric power projects have been undertaken.
  • India-Japan Act East Forum was established in 2017 which aims to provide a platform for India-Japan collaboration under the rubric of India’s “Act East Policy” and Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy”.
  • The Forum will identify specific projects for economic modernization of India’s North-East region including those pertaining to connectivity, developmental infrastructure, industrial linkages as well as people-to-people contacts through tourism, culture and sports-related activities.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

• India’s dairy industry has lately come under fire from animal rights activists and the plant-based beverage industry on social media and other platforms.

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• Usually, these negative campaigns are used to promote plant-based beverages as alternative milk. 
• False claims about the dairy businesses’ cruelty to animals, the toxicity involving milk consumption, and so on aim to polarise milk consumers and generate a false buzz about the dairy industry. 

Background

• Milk and milk products have been regarded as part of the vegetarian diet in our society since time immemorial. 
• Besides, milking neither harms the animal nor its offspring.
• The rationale for this damage is to target India’s massive dairy market. 
• Since 1998, India has been the world leader in milk production and consumption. This negative publicity erodes the dairy industry and polarizes milk consumers, particularly the young.

Role of social media

• Within a short period of time, social media has expanded at an exponential rate.
• Today’s society values attention in the form of likes, shares, subscriptions, and views. These metrics, apart from social rewards, also generate revenue. 
• According to the We Are Social & Hootsuite study, India had 448.0 million social media users in January 2021, accounting for 32.3 percent of the Indian population.
• Social media users rose by 21 per cent between 2020 and 2021, with 92 per cent being in the 18-34 age-group.
• On average, Indians spend two-and-a-half hours on social media daily. Despite tightening regulations, fake news is shared freely. 
  • As a result, the so-called animal lovers and those who wish to promote plant-based beverages as milk replacers challenge the dairy business by labelling them cruel, harmful, etc.
• Impact on Dairy Sector: It stands to reason that the dairy sector needs to respond to safeguard the interests of 100 million dairy producers. Besides, the general public needs to comprehend the Indian dairy industry’s ecosystem. 
• The Indian dairy sector is distinct from that of western countries. Around 100 million dairy farmers are milk producers. Of these, 70 per cent are marginal, whose livelihoods depend solely on dairying.
• In India, demonising dairy will lead to destroying the livelihoods of millions of dairy farmers. 
  • Dairy is critical for reducing poverty, improving health, gender equality, economic growth, and job creation. Therefore, such false claims about the dairy sector on social media are unacceptable.
• The Indian dairy cooperative system needs to be commended for weathering the Covid storm well. During the most stringent of lockdowns, dairy farmers ceaselessly delivered supplies. Defying innumerable challenges, including social media victimisation, the Indian dairy sector remained firm in assisting its farmers.
• Attacking the dairy industry requires nil effort while claiming a product as an alternative to dairy goods is simple. Plant-based beverages that utilise the term “milk” can attract more consumers with free PR. Recently, dairy producers in Australia campaigned against the labelling of plant-based drinks as “milk”.

Views of Environmentalists

• Assigning a larger share of the blame for climate change to the dairy industry is unfair. 
• Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion must bear a disproportionately greater responsibility since they have a longer-lasting impact on the environment than methane emissions, which have a short-term effect.
• According to Climate Watch’s study on sector-specific GHG emissions (2020), the energy sector is responsible for 73.2 percent of GHG emitted to the environment, followed by direct industrial process (5.2 per cent), waste (3.2 per cent), and agriculture, forestry and land use (18.4 per cent). 
• Out of 18.4 percent of agriculture, forestry, and land use, total livestock and manure account for 5.8 percent of GHG. 
  • Hence it is speculative to assert that dairy is more responsible for climate change without first assessing its impact on human health.

International Studies & Reports

• • The FAO acknowledges human and animal health interdependence, estimating that more than 70 per cent of extra animal protein would be needed to feed the world by 2050. 
  • According to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the livestock sector in developing nations accounts for up to 80 percent of agricultural GDP, with 600 million rural people relying on it.
  • FAO acknowledges livestock’s contribution to SDGs. In terms of value, milk is the most important product in India. 
  • It is worth about ₹8.7 lakh crore, accounting for 5.1 per cent of overall Gross value addition (GVA) and 30 percent of agricultural GVA. The milk business is based in rural India and is dominated by cooperatives. 
  • Referred to as a ‘near-complete food’, no product provides a higher level of nutrients than milk. Milk is a natural product, while plant-based products are synthetic. 

• Undoubtedly, there is no comparison between milk and plant-based drinks. The latter are allowed to advertise, but not by using the brand equity of the term “milk”.

Other Crisis in Dairy Sector

• Production of milk is subject to seasonal fluctuations — animals, particularly buffaloes, produce more during winter-spring and less in the summer.
• In order to cope with this fluctuation, the farmers usually convert the surplus milk of the “flush” season (winter) into skimmed milk powder (SMP) and ghee/butter for reconstitution in the “lean” months (summer).
• This demand and supply mismatch has led to a crisis in the Dairy sector.
• Dairy is currently the top-ranking commodity in India, with the value of output almost equal to the combined output value of rice and wheat. Despite the importance of the dairy sector in overall GDP, it receives less government budgeting than the agriculture sector.

Way Forward

• Short-Term Measure

• • • The government should consider temporary procurement of milk, directly by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).
    • NDDB may create a buffer stock of processed dairy products like skimmed milk powder (SMP) and butter.
    • Also, state governments may consider distributing these dairy products in Mid-May Meal, when schools reopen.
    • By this way, the crisis in the dairy sector and nutritional security both can be addressed.

• Long-Term Measures

• • Increasing Productivity: There is a need to increase the productivity of animals, better health care and breeding facilities and management of dairy animals. This can reduce the cost of milk production.
  • Also, milk production and productivity can be enhanced by ensuring the availability of veterinary services, artificial insemination (AI), feed and farmer education.
  • The Government and dairy industry can play a vital role in this direction.
  • Augmenting Production, Processing and Marketing Infrastructure: If India has to emerge as a dairy exporting country, it is imperative to develop proper production, processing and marketing infrastructure, which is capable of meeting international quality requirements.
  • Thus, there is a need for a comprehensive strategy for producing quality and safe dairy products that should be formulated with suitable legal backup.
  • Further, to address the infrastructure deficit in rural areas and address the power shortage, there is a need to invest in solar-powered dairy processing units.
  • Also, there is a need to strengthen dairy cooperatives. In this pursuit, the government should promote farmer producer organisations.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

• In the last few years number of giant businesses create millions of jobs but only gig economy workers with a lot of job uncertainty. There is a need to define gig workers as labour and not just contractors or partners.

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• Swiggy, Ola workers and others’ jobs are not ‘jobs’ in the sense of stable and secure employment. 
• These so-called jobs do not provide health insurance, nor pay for overtime, let alone allow you to take sick leave. 
• There is usually no room for wage negotiations, and unions are mostly unheard of or absent.
• Stable terms of earning have been a key demand of delivery persons and drivers through years of protests.

About gig economy:

• A gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements
• Examples of gig employees in the workforce could include freelancers, independent contractors, project-based workers and temporary or part-time hires.
• An estimated 56% of new employment in India is being generated by the gig economy companies across both the blue-collar and white-collar workforce.

‘Gig’ economy is creating lakhs of jobs, but workers don’t see a future: 

• The recent Periodic Labour Force Survey from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation shows unemployment rate at a 45-year high, at 6.1%; the highest levels of joblessness is among urban youth.
• Other reports show that over the past two years domestic consumption has reduced, industrial growth has flatlined, private investments are lower, and market volatility has hit drivers of employment.
• And so, not surprisingly, many, including undergraduates and diploma holders, now look at the gig economy as a stop-gap solution until the market turns.
• Human resources firm TeamLease estimates that 13 lakh Indians joined the gig economy in the last half of 2018-19, registering a 30% growth compared to the first half of the fiscal year.
• Better Place, a digital platform that does background verification and skill development in the informal sector, estimates that of the 21 lakh jobs that will be created in the metros in 2019-20, 14 lakh will be in the gig economy.
• Food and e-commerce delivery will account for 8 lakh positions and drivers will account for nearly 6 lakh positions, says the report, based on 11 lakh profiles in over 1,000 companies.
• Delhi, Bengaluru and other metros are expected to be the biggest drivers of this sector. And two-thirds of this workforce will be under the age of 40.

Indian Government Initiatives Three new labour codes:  Acknowledged gig workers:

• The three new labour codes acknowledge platform and gig workers as new occupational categories in the making, in a bid to keep India’s young workforce secure as it embraces ‘new kinds of work’, like delivery, in the digital economy.
• Defining an ‘employee’: The Code on Wages, 2019, tries to expand this idea by using ‘wages’ as the primary definition of who an ‘employee’ is.
• The wage relationship is an important relationship in the world of work, especially in the context of a large informal economy.
• Even so, the terms ‘gig worker’, ‘platform worker’ and ‘gig economy’ appear elsewhere in the Code on Social Security.
• Since the laws are prescriptive, what is written within them creates the limits to what rights can be demanded, and how these rights can be demanded.
• Hence, the categories and where they appear become key signs for understanding what kind of identity different workers can have under these new laws. Platform delivery people can claim benefits, but not labour rights.
• This distinction makes them beneficiaries of State programmes. This does not allow them to go to court to demand better and stable pay, or regulate the algorithms that assign the tasks.
• This also means that the government or courts cannot pull up platform companies for their choice of pay, or how long they ask people to work.
• The main role of the laws for a ‘platform worker’ is to make available benefits and safety nets from the government or platform companies.
• Even though platforms are part of the idea of how work will evolve in the future, the current laws do not see them as future industrial workers.

Concerns:

• The age of platform economics has created opportunities that can be a bonanza for small businesses but also entail high uncertainty. 
• The fact is that most people want a stable job with a salary at the end of the month. That is not the same as job security. It is about their ability to take risks. Since India has a large population below or near the poverty line, their vulnerability to an income shock (such as caused by illness in the family) is very high. So their risk-handling capacity is low and hence they display risk aversion toward entrepreneurship. 
• India lacks social security for the temporarily unemployed. The huge popularity of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is because it acts as a proxy for unemployment insurance. 
• Many farmers would rather seek jobs than subject themselves to the vagaries of weather, volatility of prices, or pests. A national survey revealed that nearly 40% would gladly leave farming if a stable job was available in industry. 
• A recent report indicates that farmers in India are earning more by serving as labour on someone else’s farm than cultivating themselves. But their labour does not get any protection from labour laws. 
  • The emerging gig economy is such that there is no employer-employee relationship. 
  • Rather, it is more like a business partnership, with gig workers often serving as independent contractors. This is not covered by conventional safeguards, which only apply to labour contracts.
• It is as if the corporations that use gig workers do not have any responsibility towards their ‘vendors’, nor do gig workers have any rights. Nearly 90% of India’s workforce is estimated to be in the unorganized or informal sector. 
  • So, much of the labour law framework anyway does not apply to most Indians at work. Also, there is the worrying multi-year trend of the country’s declining labour force participation rate. 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

Context:

Recently a speech by a Bishop in Kerala, coined the term ‘narcotic jihad’. The speech aimed at a particular religion has a divisive tone.

Understanding hate speech

• In Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942), the U.S. The Supreme Court held that their Constitution does not protect “insulting or ‘fighting’ words. These words by their very utterance, inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.” 
• This is the core principle behind hate speech prohibition. Every person is entitled to basic human dignity and decent treatment. 

Impact of hate speech

• Hate speech views members of the target group as an enemy within, refuses to accept them as legitimate and equal members of society, lowers their social standing, and subverts the very basis of a shared life. 
• It creates barriers of mistrust and hostility between individuals and groups, plants fears, obstructs normal relations.
• In Pravasi Bhalai Sangathan v. Union of India (2014), the Supreme Court of India quoted from the Canadian Supreme Court’s decision in Saskatchewan v. Whatcott (2013). 
  • It said that hate speech “impacts a protected group’s ability to respond to the substantive ideas under debate, thereby placing a serious barrier to their full participation in our democracy.” 
  • This rhetoric has not only led to a climate of fear among minorities, but to cases of violence carried out solely on the basis of their identity. 

Current laws in India 

• The Indian Penal Code has provisions that, among others, prevent hate speech (Section 153A), obscenity (Section 292), and defamation (Section 499). 
• Section 153-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) prohibits “promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony”. 
  • The provision in its erstwhile form was incorporated by way of the Penal Code Amendment Act of 1898. 
  • The Select Committee rejected the proposal to add this provision along with Section 124-A of the IPC (sedition) saying that the former is more concerned with “public tranquility” than the security of the state. 
  • It is this communitarian element that makes the law still relevant, while the sedition law has become dangerous and obsolete.
• In the 267th Report of the Law Commission of India, hate speech is stated as an incitement to hatred primarily against a group of persons defined in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief and the like.
• Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 
  • Due diligence to be followed by intermediary: Section 79 of the Information Technology Act provides a “safe harbour” to intermediaries (that host user-generated content) and exempts them from liability for the actions of users.
  • A grievance redressal mechanism: The social media platforms will need to appoint a grievance officer to deal with complaints, who must acknowledge the complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within 15 days of receipt.
  • 10 categories of content that the platform should not host: These include content that threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order; defamatory, obscene, pornographic, invasive of another’s privacy content.
    • Upon the receipt of information about the platform hosting prohibited content from a court or the appropriate government agency, it should remove the said content within 36 hours.

Concerns:

• Poor implementation of laws: On the one hand, remarks with tendencies towards hatred and violence against minorities are ignored. On the other, vague references against the majoritarian agenda are often charged under this provision.
• In India, hate speech is not defined under the Constitution or in the penal statutes. There is no specific legislation on it. It is not easy to design an accurate anti-hate speech law, due to its inherent potential for misuse. 
• India does not yet have a legal framework for data protection. The decision to ask for personal data from social media sites without public consultations on how this information will be fitted into the framework of law might end up having little effect on communal rumour-mongering and only serve to undermine the right to privacy under Article 21.
• Right to free speech: Simply handing over personal data to the government without any checks would be against the right to free speech under Article 19(1). 
• Communal hate speech, even calls for genocide, have seen little action from the administration even when the identity of the perpetrator is known.
• The use of OTT platforms such as Whatsapp in the mobilisation of crowds, and in the circulation of dangerous speech. They are end to end encrypted and not ordinarily accessible to law enforcement, which has triggered a heavy-handed approach from state governments.
  • The Supreme court had called for a “properly framed regime” to allow the government to get information about first originators of messages from “significant” social media intermediaries with end-to-end encryption technology like WhatsApp.
  • The IT Rules of 2021 mention this order of the Supreme Court as one of the reasons to justify their existence.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

Context:

The post-Covid debate of cities as “desirable or undesirable” technology mirrors a 1960s debate about food chronicled in the wonderful book The Wizard and the Prophet by Charles Mann.

Background

• Norman Borlaug- the Wizard- a Nobel-winning scientist, who believed science and technology will overcome challenges and kickstarted the agricultural Green Revolution.
• William Vogt — the prophet — believed that prosperity would lead humans to ruin without cutting back and he kickstarted the environment movement.
• One says innovate; the other says retreat. But cutting back on urbanisation would hurt the three transitions — farm to non-farm, informal to formal, and school to work — that are raising per capita incomes.
• India’s problem is not land, labour or capital. Our challenge is the productivity upside of good urbanisation. And if 50 percent of our population in rural areas generate only 18 percent of the GDP, they are condemned to poverty.

About Urbanisation

• Urbanisation gets a bad name in rich and poor countries because megacities — 10 million-plus populations — are unpleasant places to live for people who are not rich or powerful.
• Twenty-six of the world’s 33 megacities are in developing countries because their rural areas lack rule of law, infrastructure and productive commerce.
• Migrants that left our cities during the first lockdown last year are back because they were not running towards cities, but running away from sub-scale economic wastelands — estimates suggest that 2 lakh of our 6 lakh villages have less than 200 people.
• But there is no denying that even our non-megacities have inadequate planning, non-scalable infrastructure, unaffordable housing, and poor public transport.

Global Scenario

• Tokyo has a third of Japan’s population but planning and investments have ensured that essential workers like teachers, nurses, and policemen don’t commute two hours.
• The most insightful metric for city quality came from Italian physicist Cesare Marchetti who suggests that 30 minutes has been the most acceptable — or shall we say civilised — commute through history (even as the method changed from walking to horses to bicycles to trains to cars).
  • The Marchetti constant is almost impossible in Bengaluru where taxi and auto speeds average 8 km/hour.

Indian Scenario

• The golden rule in government is those with the gold rule; the annual spend of our central government is about Rs 34 lakh crore and of 28 state governments is about Rs 40 lakh crore.
• But the 15th Finance Commission estimates our 2.5 lakh plus local government bodies only spend Rs 3.7 lakh crore annually. This apartheid has many reasons.
  • First is power; local government is curtailed by state government departments in water, power, schools, healthcare, etc (property tax collection would be 100 percent if municipal bodies supplied water).
  • The second is independence — only 13 per cent and 44 per cent of the budget of rural and urban bodies was raised themselves.
  • The third is structure — a Union ministry controlling finance and governance of the states would be unacceptable at the Centre but the Department of Local Self Government in the states has almost unlimited powers.
  • Fourth, having separate central rural and urban ministries distorts policy.
  • Finally, the lack of power and resources sets off a vicious cycle of decline because ambitious and talented individuals aren’t attracted to city leadership.

Issues related to Urbanisation

• India’s local government challenge reflects what historians call path dependence.
• Our democracy didn’t evolve bottom-up with local governments rolling up into state governments that came together as a nation.
• India inherited a nationally centralised structure (a must for a colonial power) and princely states (with legitimacy, structures and resources) got strong powers in the constitution.
• Consequently, empowering local governments has been seen as a “favour” that involves “sacrifice”, and city leadership is either unelected with power (bureaucrats) or elected with limited power and unreasonable conditions (candidates are only eligible for one term in 30 years because of the six-category reservation-by-rotation policy for SC man, SC woman, ST man, ST woman, General man, General woman).
• Good urbanisation is also crucial to delivering economic justice for women, children and Dalits. Poor quality urbanisation has meant men-only migration, leaving the women with all the hard labour of farm work, raising the children, and looking after in-laws, while having virtually no recourse to health services, or to even emotional support of the spouse.
• Village children going to abysmal-quality government schools without bilingual possibilities places them at a disadvantage in English-dominated entrance tests for professional courses and civil services. Though not great by any standards, the quality of both healthcare and education in cities remains better than villages by miles.
• Most painfully, Dalits in villages are often denied the dignity that urban anonymity provides.

Way forward

• Although urbanization has become an irreversible phenomenon, we must tackle the root causes of the problem, such as improving the socio-economic situation of the urban poor.
• Some examples of policies and practices that should be considered include
  • Policies addressing urban environmental issues, such as planned urban space and taxes on the use of vehicles to reduce use or to encourage vehicles that use less fuel as well as encourage bicycle use, walking, and other forms of human transportation;
  • Greater cooperative planning between rural and urban regions to improve food security e.g., subsidies for farmers providing locally produced, unprocessed and low-cost food to urban centers.
  • Social protection and universal health coverage to reduce wealth disparity among urban dwellers; including the introduction of programs and services for health,
    • For example by establishing primary healthcare clinics accessible and affordable for all including those living in urban slums

Syllabus: General Studies Paper2

Context:

• A defence deal among Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom that seeks to check China in the Pacific has enraged France, which has lost a lucrative submarine contract with Australia.

Background

• Australia had initially wanted conventionally powered submarines, and they signed a contract with France in 2016.
• But the security situation in the region has since deteriorated significantly in terms of the threat from China.
• There has been a rethink in Canberra along the lines of, “Look, to be able to deal effectively with the expansion of Chinese naval power and China’s bullying of Australia, we will need more powerful submarines.”
  • Nuclear-powered submarines are far more powerful than conventionally powered ones, they are more stealthy, they have a far longer range, and they can operate for longer periods under water.
  • And to take on the challenge from the Chinese, who are building submarines and ships in such large numbers, there is no option but to invest in better technology.

AUKUS Alliance (Trilateral Defence agreement)

• Under the AUKUS alliance, the three nations have agreed to enhance the development of joint capabilities and technology sharing, foster deeper integration of security and defence-related science, technology, industrial bases and supply chains.
• Under the first major initiative of AUKUS, Australia would build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines with the help of the US and the UK, a capability aimed at promoting stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Rationale behind the formation of this alliance:In recent years, Beijing has been accused of raising tensions in disputed territories such as the South China Sea.
  • Western nations have been wary of China’s infrastructure investment on Pacific islands, and have also criticised China’s trade sanctions against countries like Australia.

Concerns of France

• It was a large deal, worth about AUD 90 billion, or USD 66 billion. It was billed as the “contract of the century” in France, and it was very important for the French naval industry and French presence.
• A part of the French complaint concerns the business side of the deal and the money that has been lost, so there will likely be some legal recourse, a demand for compensation, etc.
• But the signing of the contract was preceded and followed by an intensive political engagement between Paris and Canberra, and there was a sense that the countries could be strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific, with shared objectives, working together.
• The cancellation of the deal shattered this larger framework.

Implications for India

• The French have cancelled a trilateral dialogue meeting of foreign ministers that was supposed to take place in New York on the side-lines of the UN General Assembly. In the near term, there is a setback.
• But India’s relationships with the US, UK, and Australia have improved dramatically over the last five years.
• France too, has been very important for India, and there is great trust in France in New Delhi today. A quarrel among its friends is uncomfortable for India.
• To deal with this situation, India can step up its own security and defence engagement with France.
  • For example, India is planning to buy more submarines — and there is the argument that it is better to have nuclear submarines rather than conventional ones because India has the same problem as Australia with regard to the Chinese navy showing up close.
• France could be a partner here — because it is already a resident power in the Indian Ocean, and India has an interest and stake in keeping it there.
• At the same time, India is happy to be a part of the Quad, and to work with the Americans, British, and Australians.
• The submarine question could become an important opening for India and France to start taking a fresh look at more things they can do together in the Indian Ocean.