Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

 It has been reported that the government continues to work on its stated position that most of the public sector banks will be eventually privatised.

• Banking will be one of the sectors where a bare minimum of the public sector will remain. This is the government’s stated policy.
• Earlier the government announced a Public Enterprise Policy, where it identified areas where public sector presence will be there. 
  • Under the New Policy: Strategic: Atomic energy, space, defence, trans and telecom, power, petro, coal, other minerals, banking, insurance and financial services will be classified as strategic sectors.

Case for privatising banks

• Non-performing assets: The major problem faced by banks is on account of non-performing assets, which is common for both the private and public sector banks.
• Capital Adequacy ratio: The government also has difficulty in providing additional capital to the government banks on account of fiscal constraint.
  • The banks are in need of additional capital to maintain Capital Adequacy Ratio for continuing their lending operations. 
  • Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) is the ratio of a bank’s capital to its risk.
  • It is decided by central banks and bank regulators to prevent commercial banks from taking excess leverage and becoming insolvent in the process.
  • The Basel III norms stipulated a capital to risk-weighted assets of 8%.
  • In India, scheduled commercial banks are required to maintain a CAR of 9% while Indian public sector banks are emphasized to maintain a CAR of 12% as per RBI norms.

Concerns with privatisation of banks:

• Equitable growth: As an institution, PSBs are vehicles of the Indian economy’s growth and development, and they have become the trustees of people’s savings and confidence. 
  • The PSBs played a huge role in making the country self-sufficient by supporting the green, blue, and dairy revolutions. 
  • They have also contributed significantly to infrastructural development.
• Financial Inclusion:: The nationalisation of private banks in 1969 resulted in the opening of tens of thousands of branches in remote corners of the country. 
  • Forty-two crore ordinary people have opened bank accounts as a result of the immense contribution of state-owned banks in opening the Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana account.
• Employment generation by PSBs: Banks were used to bring about a revolution in agriculture and to carry out activities related to it. 
• Generated employment: Nationalised banking improved the working conditions of employees in the banking sector, as the state ensured higher wages, security of services, and other fringe benefits.
• Neglected areas prioritized: Neglected areas like agriculture, employment-generating productive activities, poverty alleviation plans, rural development, health, education, exports, infrastructure, women’s empowerment, small scale and medium industry, and small and micro industries, became priority sectors for these banks.
  • Bank loans were available to the weaker sections and small entrepreneurs.
• Market risks: While improving efficiency has been cited as the reason for privatisation of banks, it is not clear whether privatisation brings efficiency or reduces associated risks.
  • Around the world, innumerable private banks have failed, thus challenging the notion that only private banks are efficient.
  • Already we have a substantial presence of new generation private sector banks which are giving enough competition to the government banks.
• Monopolisation: It could lead to denial of convenient and economical banking services to the common man; the risks of monopoly and cartelisation may only complicate the issue.
• Large NPAs: Private corporate entities have large volumes of NPAs.
• Comfort level: Banks owned by the sovereign government provides tremendous comfort level to depositors. In his subconscious mind the common man feels that a government bank cannot fail and his money is safe.
• Wilful default by large corporate borrowers and subsequent recovery haircuts, imposed through the ill-conceived Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, has resulted in a heap of write-offs.
  • This has not only affected the profitability of the banks, but has also become an excuse to allege inefficiency.
• Risks of failure: Banks operate with a small portion of shareholders’ funds with a disproportionately higher outlay of common man’s deposit. Banks basically lend depositors’ money.
  • Any failure of banks will have a tremendous contagion effect and will derail the economy. 
  • We should keep in mind the historical factors that had led to bank nationalisation in 1969.
  • After the formation of Reserve Bank of India in 1935, up to the period of our getting Independence (1947) there were 900 bank failures in our country. From 1947 to 1969, 665 banks failed.
  • The depositors of all these banks lost their deposited money. Even after 1969, 36 banks failed but these were rescued by merging them with other government banks.
  • Recently, we have seen the failure of old generation Lakshmi Vilas Bank and new generation YES Bank.
  • The 1,926 town cooperative banks in 2004 have shrunk to 1,551 in 2018, as per an RBI report. 
• Profit motive: Private Banks often operates for profit only. But state-owned banks, while trying to be profitable on the one hand, provide many services in public interest. Only government banks provide services to the common people at affordable cost.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

• The resumption of North Korea’s largest fissile material production reactor, after operations were ceased in December 2018, has sparked speculation about its real and symbolic significance. 
  • The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has underlined that the restart of activity in Yongbyon constitutes a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

Background

• In June 2008, in order to buttress its denuclearisation commitment to the U.S. and four other countries, Pyongyang blew up the cooling tower at the Yongbyon complex. 
• The move did little to assuage the concerns of critics, either regarding the plutonium stockpile the regime had amassed or its engagement in clandestine nuclear proliferation.
  • But it nevertheless led former U.S. President George W. Bush to ease some sanctions against North Korea, which he had in 2002 dubbed part of the “axis of evil”. 
• More controversial was Washington’s decision to revoke, less than two years after Pyongyang’s first nuclear explosion of 2006, the designation of “state sponsor of terrorism”. 
  • North Korea was placed on the terrorism list after the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airplane.
• A few months after blowing up the cooling tower in 2008, Pyongyang barred IAEA inspectors access to its reprocessing plant in the Yongbyon complex and eventually expelled them

More in News

• The above is the same reactor that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in a bilateral summit in 2019 with then U.S. President Donald Trump, offered to fully dismantle in exchange for securing complete relief from international economic sanctions, but to little avail. 
• The ageing five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon complex has been central to the North Korean reprocessing of spent fuel rods to generate plutonium, besides the production of highly enriched uranium for the development of atomic bombs. 
• Indeed, the opaque nature of Pyongyang’s nuclear programme partly accounts for the current confusion over the motives behind the restart of the reactor. 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

Facebook has released its first “smart glasses” in association with Ray-Ban.

Background:

• Facebook’s first ‘smart’ glasses capitalise on the iconic Wayfarer design that has been associated with the iconic eyewear brand. 
• Facebook’s smart glasses will let users record the world around them, and take pictures. 
• For now, users can record 30-second videos or take photos by using either the capture button or going hands-free with Facebook Assistant voice commands.
• Facebook’s glasses also come with built-in “open-ear speakers” and a three-microphone audio array, which will ensure that users can take calls as well.
• According to Facebook, these glasses can capture and sync up to 50 videos or up to 200 photos per full charge. 

Augmented Reality

• Augmented Reality (AR) is the technology that superimposes an image onto a user’s view of the real world and enhances it with sound, touch, and even smell. It is a combination of the real scene viewed by the user and a virtual scene generated by the computer. AR is a technology that is going to blur the lines of reality.
• Augmented Reality has moved beyond headsets and gaming and permeated into numerous industries. In general terms, Augmented Reality is increasingly being adopted for a variety of uses like assembly, maintenance, repair, education, training, retail showcasing, and diagnostics.
• AR makes workers more efficient by providing them with an additional layer of knowledge and insights. The workforce is already being enhanced in industries such as Pharmaceuticals, Oil and Gas, military, aerospace, automotive, and manufacturing. Augmented Reality remote assistance can improve training in situations where new hires need assistance. This tech enables real-time collaboration between field personnel and remote experts.

Applications of Augmented Reality

Defence

It helps in improving the situational awareness of the soldiers using AR technology. The tech is named Tactical Augmented Reality (TAR). This tech has an eyepiece that assists soldiers on the battlefield to precisely locate their positions in addition to the location of others (friends and enemy soldiers).

Impact of this technology

• TAR will one day replace night vision goggles, as this technology can help soldiers in the dark.
• It will replace the handheld GPS that soldiers carry today to locate their positions.
• The eyepiece is wirelessly connected to a thermal site on the soldiers’ rifle or carbine. When the soldier is pointing the weapon, the image of the target, plus other details, such as the distance to the target can be seen through the eyepiece.

Advertising

For example, Jaguar Land Rover put prospective car buyers in the virtual driver’s seat of its latest models without visiting the dealership. Consumers could launch the AR capability directly from a banner ad without any need to install an app. Customers can see the outside view seated at the driving seat through transparent windows.

Healthcare

Traditionally handheld ultrasound scanners are used in reconstruction surgery for locating blood vessels, and bones. However, AR technology has the potential to replace ultrasound scanners as it will help in locating the blood vessels very accurately and in a shorter period.

Pharmaceuticals

Augmented Reality tools can help scientists to picture the structure of complex molecules. Drug developers usually work with static models. The AR will help the developers to step inside the molecule and see how it moves and responds to different stimuli and situations. This will reduce errors and reduce the years-long drug development cycle.

Logistics

AR will benefit logistics industries at multiple levels of their operations.

• Optimizing warehouse operations
• Optimizing transportation
• Last-mile delivery
• Enhanced value-added services

Other applications of Augmented Reality

• Various filters on Snapchat and Instagram are an example of Augmented Reality.
• Scanning your QR code using your phone’s camera provides additional information on the screen.
• Google Glass and other Head-up Displays (HUD) put Augmented Reality directly into the glasses. These glasses could be used as reminders for patients undergoing medication.
• Retail companies use it to help customers envisage aesthetics when new furniture is placed to redesign the interiors of their homes.
• Gaming – Pokemon is one of the most famous games to hit a big chord with the public.
• AR is used in the field of language translation
• Law enforcement agencies can use AR tech to recognize criminals in huge crowds.
• If a car breaks down people can fix their cars using AR tech, repair and maintenance can be carried out without the help of mechanics. This tech will recognize the vehicle parts via object recognition, describe and picture all required repair and maintenance steps in detail, and in real-time, along with information about any equipment requirements.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

Context:

Marital rapes has not been criminalised in India

Background:

• In 2017, the Supreme Court, in Independent Thought v. Union of India, refused to delve into the question of marital rape of adult women.
• SC examined an exception to Section 375 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which allows a man to force sex on his wife. 
• Recent rulings by High Courts have been contradictory — one backed marital rape as a valid ground for divorce, while another granted anticipatory bail to a man while concluding that forcible sex is not an “illegal thing”. 
• Recent rulings by High Courts pointing out that any sexual act between a man and his wife, even if it involves force, is not rape.

Marital Rape

• Marital rape, the act of forcing your spouse into having sex without proper consent
• It is an unjust yet not uncommon way to degrade and disempower women. 

Recommendation of committees regarding Marital Rape

• In 2013, the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) recommended that the Indian government should criminalize marital rape. 
• The JS Verma committee set up in the aftermath of nationwide protests over the December 16, 2012 gang rape case had also recommended the same.

Indian Law on Marital Rape?

• One of the most horrifying and repressive issues with the Indian legal regime is that marital rape is perfectly legal
• Section 375 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) defines the offence of rape with the help of six descriptions. One of the exceptions to this offence is “Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 15 years of age, is not rape”.

Criticism of India’s Law on Marital Rape

• Against International Norm: Today, it has been impeached in more than 100 countries but, unfortunately, India is one of the only 36 countries where marital rape is still not criminalized
• Concerns of Implied Consent: The concept of marital rape in India is the epitome of what we call an “implied consent”. Marriage between a man and a woman here implies that both have consented to sexual intercourse and it cannot be otherwise. The Indian Penal Code, 1860, also communicates the same.
• Against Right to Life and Right to Equality: The Supreme Court has included sanctity of women, and freedom to make choices related to sexual activity under the ambit of Article 21. Therefore, this exception clause is violative of Article 14 and Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
• Patriarchal outlook of Laws: Rape laws in our country continue with the patriarchal outlook of considering women to be the property of men post marriage, with no autonomy or agency over their bodies. They deny married women equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Indian constitution.
• Differentiates Married & Unmarried women: A married woman has the same right to control her own body as does an unmarried woman. Unfortunately, this principle is not upheld in Indian rape laws.
• Marital Rape is more dangerous to Women’s life: Rape is rape, irrespective of the identity of the perpetrator, and age of the survivor. A woman who is raped by a stranger, lives with a memory of a horrible attack; a woman who is raped by her husband lives with her rapist.
• Colonial Hangover:  Our penal laws, handed down from the British, have by and large remained untouched even after 73 years of independence. But English laws have been amended and marital rape was criminalised way back in 1991. No Indian government has, however, so far shown an active interest in remedying this problem.
• Violative of UN Convention: Section 375 (Exception) of IPC is inconsistent with and violative of these principles of United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women
• Does not pass the test of “intelligible differentia”: Essentially, Section 375 (Exception) creates a classification not only between consent given by a married and unmarried woman, but also between married females below 15 years of age and over 15 years old. Such a classification does not pass the test of “intelligible differentia

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released the information gathered by the scientific payloads till now, some of which were still to be analysed and assessed.

Background 

• The failure of Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the Moon, to make a soft-landing on the lunar surface had led to much disappointment. 
• The Orbiter part of the mission has been functioning normally, and in the two years gathered a wealth of new information.

Information Gathered

• The Orbiter is carrying eight instruments. 
• Through different methods, these instruments are meant to carry out a few broad tasks such as 
  • Study in more detail the elemental composition of the lunar surface and environment, 
  • Assess the presence of different minerals, and 
  • Do a more detailed mapping of the lunar terrain.
• Water Molecule
  • The presence of water on the Moon had already been confirmed by Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the Moon that flew in 2008. 
    • But the instrument used on Chandrayaan-1 was not sensitive enough to detect whether the signals came from the hydroxyl radical (OH) or the water molecule (H2O, which too has OH ).
  • Before that, NASA missions Clementine and Lunar Prospector too had picked up signals of water presence. 
  • Using far more sensitive instruments, the Imaging Infra-Red Spectrometer (IIRS) on board Chandrayaan-2 has been able to distinguish between hydroxyl and water molecules, and found unique signatures of both. 
    • This is the most precise information about the presence of H2O molecules on the Moon till date.
  • Previously, water was known to be present mainly in the polar regions of the Moon. 
    • Chandrayaan-2 has now found signatures of water at all latitudes, although its abundance varies from place to place. 
    • The IIRS characterised hydration features in the north polar region on the far side of the Moon and has also quantified the hydration within a crater.
  • Besides, the Dual Frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar, a microwave imaging instrument, has reported unambiguous detection of potential water ice at the poles.
• Minor Elements
  • The Large Area Soft X-Ray Spectrometer (CLASS) measures the Moon’s X-ray spectrum to examine the presence of major elements such as magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, titanium, iron, etc. 
  • This instrument has detected the minor elements chromium and manganese for the first time through remote sensing, thanks to a better detector. 
  • The finding can lay the path for understanding magmatic evolution on the Moon and deeper insights into the nebular conditions as well as planetary differentiation.
  • CLASS has mapped nearly 95% of the lunar surface in X-rays for the first time.
  • Sodium, also a minor element on the Moon surface, was detected without any ambiguity for the first time. 
    • Direct link of exospheric sodium to the surface can be established (with global data), a correlation that remains elusive till date. 
    • The finding also opens up the avenue to explore processes causing the sodium to be present on the surface as well as the exosphere.
• Study of the Sun
  • One of the payloads, called Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM), besides studying the Moon through the radiation coming in from the Sun, has collected information about solar flares. 
  • XSM has observed a large number of microflares outside the active region for the first time. 
  • According to ISRO, this has great implications on the understanding of the mechanism behind heating of the solar corona, which has been an open problem for many decades.

What are the future prospects of the Lunar Missions?

• While the Orbiter payloads build upon existing knowledge of the Moon in terms of its surface, sub-surface and exosphere, it also paves the path for future Moon missions.
• Four aspects: mineralogical and volatile mapping of the lunar surface, surface and subsurface properties and processes involved, quantifying water in its various forms across the Moon surface, and maps of elements present on the moon will be key for future scope of work.
• Key Outcomes of the Chandrayaan 2 Mission
  • A key outcome from Chandrayaan-2 has been the exploration of the permanently shadowed regions as well as craters and boulders underneath the regolith (the loose deposit comprising the top surface extending up to 3-4m in depth). 

• This is expected to help scientists to zero in on future landing and drilling sites, including for human missions.

• Some key future Moon missions that hope to make use of such data include the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)-ISRO collaboration Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) mission scheduled for launch in 2023/2024. 
  • Its aim is to obtain knowledge of lunar water resources and to explore the suitability of the lunar polar region for setting up a lunar base.
• NASA’s Artemis missions plan to enable human landing on the Moon beginning 2024 and target sustainable lunar exploration by 2028. 
• The Chinese Lunar Exploration Programme too plans to establish a prototype of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) at the lunar south pole and build a platform supporting large-scale scientific exploration.

What India has missed due to crash landing?

• The opportunity to demonstrate the technology to make a soft-landing in outer space. 
• ISRO scientists maintain that the accident was caused by a relatively small error that has been identified and corrected. 
• But, to demonstrate this technology all over again, ISRO would have to send a fresh mission, Chandrayaan-3, planned for next year. 
  • It is expected to have only a lander and rover, and no Orbiter.

Syllabus: General Studies paper 3

Context:

India’s second wave has not fully dipped and over the past seven days, daily infections of COVID-19 have logged over 40,000 cases.

The rise in daily infections is primarily seen in Kerala and Maharashtra, which paradoxically are also among the States which have a high rate of vaccination.

In this context, there are concerns about the rise in ‘breakthrough infections’ or confirmed infections in those who have got the second dose of the vaccine at least two weeks earlier

What is ‘breakthrough infection’?

• If a person gets infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus14 days after the second shot of the vaccine, it is called a ‘breakthrough infection’.
• Any infection that occurs either after the first dose or after the second dose of the vaccine is a breakthrough infection. These vaccines that we are using currently are disease-modifying vaccines, not infection-preventing vaccines.
• The two-week window is the time it takes for the body to produce necessary antibodies following a shot of the vaccine.
• A ‘breakthrough infection refers to the virus being able to penetrate the protective barrier of antibodies.
• There are no official estimates, nationally, of how many ‘breakthrough infections’ have been reported in India but news reports in mid-August, quoting unnamed officials, estimated that 80,000-100,000 people got infected, nearly half in Kerala.
• The State has a COVID-19 genome surveillance programmethat periodically monitors the prominent coronavirus variants as well as whether some variants are more closely linked to instances of ‘breakthrough infections’.
• With over 66 crore vaccine doses administered since the vaccination drive commenced in January, India has now inoculated at least half its adult population with at least one dose, and 16% with two.
• The  Centers for Disease Control and Preventionreports that the viral load in those with a ‘breakthrough infection’ can be as much as those unvaccinated, which is why mask mandates are back despite significant vaccination coverage.
• The ‘breakthrough infections’ occur is not a surprise. In clinical trials, all vaccines available have reported efficacy rates between 70% and 90%.
• This implies that between 10% and 30% of a vaccinated population will be vulnerable to infection.
• Vaccines, however, were premised on inuring the body to disease and so far the evidence is that they are overwhelmingly effective.
• The bigger concern, however, is that those with a ‘breakthrough infection’, under the belief that they are fully protected, may be less stringent with using masks and could be carriers of infection.

No surprise if thousands of breakthrough infections:

• The role of vaccines is in their “drastic reduction” of hospitalisations, serious disease, and the need for oxygen or ventilators.
• There have been many reports of Indians being infected with the SARS-COV2 virus even after they have received the vaccines.
• India is currently using three vaccines— the Serum Institute of India’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, and the Russian vaccine Sputnik V that is currently available only in the private sector.
• Covisheld claims a vaccine efficacy of 82 per cent (two doses administered at 12 weeks interval), Covaxin claims 77.8 per cent efficacy, and Sputnik V over 91 per cent efficacy.
• All vaccines were tested for whether they prevent serious disease, hospitalisation, and death.
• The ICMR’s stand is in line with that of the Centers for Disease Control. According to the CDC, Vaccine breakthrough cases are expected. Covid-19 vaccines are effective and are a critical tool to bring the pandemic under control.
• However, no vaccines are 100 per cent effective at preventing illness in vaccinated people.
• There will be a small percentage of fully vaccinated people who still get sick, are hospitalised, or die from COVID-19.

Is the Delta variant responsible for the rise in cases?

• When the underlying coronavirus variants were analysed in the Kerala study, 126 were found to have the Delta variant (B.1.617.2), nine had the Kappa variant (B.1.617.1)and six had Delta-Plus variants, that is sub-lineages of the Delta with one or more of its defining mutations.
• These mutations mostly help the virus escape detection by antibodies. The India SARS-CoV-2 Genome Consortium (INSACOG), which monitors emerging variants nationally, has analysed 51,651 coronavirus genomes.
• Delta has also been demonstrated to reduce antibody levels elicited by vaccines. Antibody levels are not the only measure of protection and immunity by T-cells, which cannot be easily evaluated in a lab, are also important for neutralising the virus.
• However, vaccine production technologies such as m-RNA and DNA are premised on their ability to be tweaked quickly for newer variants.
• The makers of Covaxin claim that their vaccine, being an inactivated whole virus, is geared up to be more effective against variants than other vaccines primarily targeted at the spike protein.
• An ICMR study showed a 2% protection against the Delta variant in a double-blind, randomised, multicentre, Phase 3 clinical trial of Covaxin.

India’s Vaccination drive:

• PM Modi said that the Government has been working hard from over a year to ensure that maximum numbers of Indians are able to get the vaccine in the shortest possible of time.
• Government insisting that India is vaccinating people at world record pace& we will continue this with even greater momentum.
• India’s National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy has been built on a systematic and strategic end-to-end approach, proactively building capacity across R&D, Manufacturing and Administration since April 2020.
• While pushing for scale and speed, it has simultaneously been anchored in the stability necessary to sustainably execute the World’s Largest Vaccination Drive.
• India has been following a dynamic mapping modelbased on availability of vaccines & coverage of vulnerable priority groups to take decisions of when to open up vaccinations to other age-groups.
• Government of India has proactively engaged and coordinated with stakeholders across the spectrum, from research institutes to national and international manufacturers, global regulators etc.
• The strength of India’s private sector vaccine manufacturing capability has been strategically empowered through unprecedented decisive steps, from facilitating public-private collaborative research, trials and product development, to targeted public grants and far-reaching governance reforms in India’s regulatory system.
• However, the WHO had urged India to increase vigilance in hospitals, clinics, health centres, and wholesalers, distributors, pharmacies and suppliers of medical products.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

Recently, the central government approved reservation for the OBC and EWS (Economically Weaker Section) categories within the All India Quota (AIQ) for NEET, the uniform entrance examination for medical and dental colleges across the country.

Hoardings and posters lauding the government for introducing reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) examinations and a renewed debate on caste census have once again brought the debate on affirmative action in the limelight.

Reservation system in India:

Reservation in Indian law is a form of affirmative action whereby a percentage of seats are reserved in the public sector units, union and state civil services, union and state government departments and in all public and private educational institutions, except in the religious/ linguistic minority edu­cational institutions, for the socially and educationally backward communities who are inadequately represented in these services and institutions.

• The affirmative action programme that was envisaged during the founding moments of the republic is indeed one of the remarkable provisions to have been worked out by our Constitution makers.
• It has been historically significant in enunciating the principle of justicein a deeply unequal and oppressive social order such as ours.
• Part XVI deals with reservation of SC and ST in Central and State legislatures.
• Article 15(4) and 16(4)of the Constitution enabled the State and Central Governments to reserve seats in government services for the members of the SC and ST.
• The issue of reservation has remained a cause of disagreementbetween the reserved and the non- reserved sections of the society.
• While the unreserved segments, keep on opposing the provision, the neediest sections from within the reserved segmentsare hardly aware about how to get benefited from the provision or even whether there are such provisions.
• On the contrary, the creamy layer among the same segmentis enjoying special privileges in the name of reservation and political factions are supporting them for vote banks.

Still no visible equity translation:

The reservation system aims to uplift the lower sections of society which, through the ages, have been exploited and deprived of rights and basic amenities.

They are supposed to become a part of mainstream society and, as a result, people will start accepting them.

While it is undeniable that these provisions have been one of the protagonists of Indian democracy’s success stories, these have also accumulated a fair share of problems and call for immediate policy attention and debate.

Through reservation of seats in political and public institutions of the state, it was thought that the hitherto marginalised groups which have suffered generations of oppression and humiliation would, finally, be able to find place in the power sharing and decision-making processes.

However, this strategy of removal of disabilities has not translated into an equalisation of life chances for many groups in our heterogeneous society.

Problems with current policy:

• There is now a strong demand from those who have not been able to accrue the benefits of reservations from within the marginalised sections, to devise some policy option which may be able to supplement the existing system of reservation.
• The fact that the current system suffers from the “problem of reification” is not just wishful thinking, but a hard fact.
• The data released by the Justice G. Rohini Commission’s report on the sub-categorisation of OBCsgives a good synoptic view to understanding this.
• Based on the last five years’ data on appointments in central government jobs and OBC admissions to central higher education institutions, the commission concluded that 97% of central OBC quota benefits go to just under 25% of its castes.
• As many as 983 OBC communities — 37% of the total have zero representation in both central government jobs and admissions to central universities.
• Also, the report states that just 10% of the OBC communities have accrued 24.95% of jobs and admissions.
• Clearly, the assumption that the disadvantages of every sub-group within each category are the same is severely misplaced.
• It is important to note that the Rohini Commission’s data are based just on the institutions that come under the purview of the central government.
• We hardly have any legible data on the socio-economic conditions of varied social groups at more local levels of State and society.
• Consequently, asymmetrical distribution of reservation has severely deterred political projects of unified subaltern solidarity.
• Parties that were once able to build large Bahujan solidarities are now finding it difficult to garner such support.
• This should give us hints about the extent of the problem rather than ruling them out as mere conspiracies of breaking lower caste unity.

Need of the Hour: Affirmative action and Equality in opportunities:

What is urgently required is a mechanism that can address this lacuna and make the system more accountable and sensitive to intra-group demands.

Since every further categorisation will only lead to reification and fragmentation in the long run, two things are required.

• One, we urgently need to develop a wide variety of context-sensitive, evidence-based policy options that can be tailored to meet specific requirements of specific groups.
• Two, we need an institution like the Equal Opportunities Commission of the United States or the United Kingdom which can undertake two important but interrelated things: make a deprivation index correlating data from the socio-economic-based census of different communities including caste, gender, religion, and other group inequalities and rank them to make tailor-made policies.
• Undertake an audit on the performance of employers and educational institutions on non-discrimination and equal opportunity and issue codes of good practice in different sectors.
• This will make the formulation of policy and its monitoring simpler at an institutional level.

Context: The crisis caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic has underscored the need for economic reform to enable resilience in the economy and ensure a robust health system, together with research and development.

Lessons from the past economic reforms

• LPG reforms, 1991: India’s New Economic Policy was announced on July 24, 1991, known as the LPG or Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation model.
• Liberalization- It refers to the process of making policies less constraining of economic activity and also reduction of tariff or removal of non-tariff barriers.
• Abolition of Industrial licensing/ Permit Raj: Except for 18 controlled industries, licenses were abolished across the board.
• Industrialists were free to enter any sector and expand capacities without govt.’s approval.
• The monopoly law was abolished.
• Public sector role diluted
• Beginning of privatisation
• Reduction in import tariffs
• Deregulation of markets
• Reduction of taxes
• Benefits:

  Evidence shows that the 1991 economic reforms and subsequent government interventions for liberalisation of economy and trade have given following benefits:

  • Large foreign exchange reserves
  • Sustained manufacturing contribution in GDP ( The Indian Manufacturing sector currently contributes 16-17% to GDP and gives employment to around 12% of the country’s workforce. )
  • Increased share in global exports (from a mere 0.6% in the early 1990s to 1.8%),
  • Robust information and communication technology software exports, and
  • Sustained economic growth in the range of 6%-8%

  Drawbacks of past reforms

  The economic reforms, so far, have been more focused on the technical nature of the economy than the system, process and people.

  • Low human resource capital (HRC) formation: Human capital is the economic value that comes from things like the worker’s experience, skills, knowledge, and abilities. Human capital is an intangible asset, unlike tangible assets like buildings and equipment.
    • The HRC rank for India stands at 103; Sri Lanka is at 70, China at 34, and South Korea at 27, as brought out by the Global Human Capital Report, 2017.
    • Recently, the World Bank released the Human Capital Index (HCI) report for 2020. The index benchmarks key components of human capital across countries. India has been ranked at the 116^th position in the HCI 2020.
    • The lack of quality education, low skilled manpower and inadequacies in basic health care have resulted in low HRC.
  • Low per capita GDP: The World Bank database on GDP for 2019 highlights the low per capita GDP in India, at $2,104 (at $6,997 in PPP terms, ranked 125th globally).
    • The world average is $11,429 (at $17,678 in PPP terms). It has direct links to low per capita family income.
    • Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is a metric that breaks down a country’s economic output per person and is calculated by dividing the GDP of a country by its population.
  • Low hourly wages: The report by Deloitte Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index (2016), reflects that the hourly wages in India have been $1.7. They are $38, $24, $20.7 and $3.3 for the United States, Japan, South Korea, and China, respectively.
    • Low wages have a direct bearing on the disposable income of families. Majority of households don’t have enough disposable income to purchase consumer durables or industrial products. It affects demand.
    • Disposable income or disposable personal income is an economic term for the money that is available for household consumption, savings, and spending after accounting for income tax.
    • Disposable income = Personal income – Personal income taxes
  • Low research and development expenditure at 0.8% of GDP, is resulting in lower capacity for innovation in technologies and reduced ‘technology readiness’, especially for manufacturing.
    • There is a higher value of R&D expenditure for other fast-emerging economies such as South Korea (4.5%), China (2.1%) and Taiwan (3.3%),
  • Low Labour productivity: Labor productivity measures the hourly output of a country’s economy. Specifically, it charts the amount of real gross domestic product (GDP) produced by an hour of labour.
    • The lack of HRC and low technology readiness have impacted labour productivity adversely.
    • In India, labour productivity in manufacturing is less than 10% of the advanced economies including Germany and South Korea, and is about 40% of China, as reflected in a World Bank publication of 2018, The Future of Manufacturing-Led Development.
    • Low productivity has badly affected competitiveness, manufacturing growth, exports and economic growth.
  • Lack of capital expenditure and inefficiency in business service processes: Due to this there are difficulties in acquiring land for businesses, inefficient utilisation of economic infrastructure, and in providing business services.
    • It leads to a long time and more cost in setting up enterprises, resulting in a loss of creative energy of entrepreneurs.

  For years, the economy has been hit internally due to low consumer demand as a result of low household incomes as well as externally on account of lesser competitiveness and inadequacies in integration with global supply chains for trade.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

China is engaging with the Taliban, with an eye to complete the new Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) investment. And a Chinese presence in Afghanistan with an all-weather ally Pakistan is a concern for India.

• In fact, the return of the Taliban is seen as a victory of Chinese diplomacy and a debacle for the United States.

 Poor economic condition of Afghanistan

• For an economy driven by the opium trade and ruled by tribal leaders, the new normal is bound to be governed by instability, fighting groups.
• Since 2001, the U.S. has spent $2.26 trillion, out of which $1.53 trillion was spent on defence. 
• The Afghan economy did not flourish, with 90% of its population still living below the poverty line, with less than $2 a day. 
• But then Afghanistan has a few other valuable things like rare-earth metals and huge deposits of copper. The Chinese have the technology to excavate them. 
• Without Afghanistan, the bulk of Chinese investment in the China-Pakistan corridor will be at risk.

Afghanistan- a crucial link in the BRI

• The Chinese want to mimic the same strategies in the case of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• Success in these two countries would imply that China will be able to bring together a large part of the Indian Ocean littoral and Eurasia through high speed rail lines, pipelines, and maritime linkages. 
• The idea of connecting to the rest of the world stems from China’s aspiration to get out of manufacturing, go up the global value chains, and start focusing on product designing and innovation. 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

• In the last hundred years, the national Indian media — traditional and now “new” media — has grown exponentially in number and influence.
  • Citing the centenary of journalism education in India, never before has the need for journalism education been as pressing as it is now, with new threats of disinformation emerging brutally and with the COVID-19 crisis revealing that information is actually a lifesaver.

Back Ground

• In India, the discipline of “Journalism Education” was introduced by British activist Annie Besant in the 1920s, when she launched a course on journalism at the National University at Adyar, Madras. 
• There are now about 900 Indian colleges and institutes offering mass communication and journalism programmes at different levels.
• The last two decades witnessed a boom in commercial media and numerous digital journalism platforms have emerged, which has also opened avenues for citizen journalism. 
  • All these factors have only compounded the need for certificated courses in journalism, and its rising demand in the region.

Importance of Journalism 

• The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) mandate upholds freedom of the press and the free flow of information. 
• The challenge is to ensure that this flow includes high quality information — which is where journalism education comes in. 
  • Hence, the long-standing work of UNESCO to strengthen journalism education. 
• We believe that professional news media act as guardians of the public interest. Citizens cannot exercise and enjoy their citizenship in the absence of crucial information and knowledge, which well-trained journalists are better placed to provide. 
  • Professional journalistic standards are, therefore, essential to bring out the potential of media systems to foster democracy, dialogue and development.

Concern

• A range of factors are transforming the communications landscape, raising questions about the quality, impact and credibility of journalism.
• The other pressing concern relates to the dynamic nature of the communication and information technologies that are reshaping the media landscape. Social media, with their huge numbers of contributors, cannot replace the production of proper news journalism, even if they compete very seriously for time and advertising.

Steps taken

• UNESCO set up the Global Initiative for Excellence in Journalism Education in 2014 to leverage lessons learned during our support to African schools of journalism, and apply them in the wider context of our support for journalism education globally. 
  • This included supporting the development of “new literacies” in response to the challenges of a fast-changing world.