General Studies Paper – 2

Context:

Threats from contracting glaciers should be in the same category of risk as cyclones and earthquakes.

Introduction

• Few barometers measure the climate crisis as evocatively as the state of glaciers, a key component of the cryosphere. The World Meteorological Organization’s recent report, The Global Climate 2011-2020, gives a broad view of the planet’s response to greenhouse gas emissions.

Cryosphere

• The cryosphere contains the frozen parts of the planet. It includes snow and ice on land, ice caps, glaciers, permafrost, and sea ice.
• This sphere helps maintain Earth’s climate by reflecting incoming solar radiation back into space.
• As the world warms due to increasing greenhouse gases being added to the atmosphere by humans, the snow and ice are melting. At sea, this exposes more of the dark ocean below the ice, and on land, the dark vegetation below.
• These dark surfaces then absorb the solar radiation causing more melting. This creates a positive feedback loop, which exacerbates the impacts of climate change.

Section on the state of glacier health

• In the section on the state of glacier health, it points out that, on average, the world’s glaciers thinned by approximately a metre a year from 2011 to 2020.
• When compared across decades, there is significant regional variability, but the overall pattern remains that glaciers in all regions of the world are becoming smaller. In fact, some of the reference glaciers, which are used to make long-term assessments of glacier health, have already melted away as the nourishing winter snow is completely melting away during summer.
• In Africa, glaciers on the Rwenzori Mountains and Mount Kenya are projected to disappear by 2030, and those on Kilimanjaro by 2040.
• The report points to the rapid growth of pro-glacial lakes and the likelihood of glacier lake outburst flood (GLOF), posing additional threats to ecosystems and livelihoods.

Glacier Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF)

• A Glacial Lake Outburst Flood, or GLOF, is sudden release of water from a lake fed by glacier melt that has formed at the side, in front, within, beneath, or on the surface of a glacier.
• GLOF can be impounded by moraine complexes, glacial ice or even bedrock and, as a result of breaching, slope failure, overtopping or other failure mechanisms, lead to catastrophic phenomena in the high mountains that threaten people’s lives, livelihoods and regional infrastructure.

Fury of Glacier Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF)

• The fury of a GLOF event was brought home this year by the destruction of the Chungthang dam in Sikkim after the South Lhonak Lake flooded from a melting glacier, triggering catastrophe downstream.
• Earlier this year, a separate report by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development found that the disappearance of glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayas was “65% faster in the 2010s than in the previous decade”.
• At the current rate of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is expected to see temperatures increase by 2.5°-3°C by the end of the century, the volume of glaciers is forecast to decline anywhere from 55% to 75%.
• This means sharp reductions in freshwater supply in the immediate vicinity of 2050. The sensitivity of glacier systems to warming underlines the need for their careful monitoring. Despite awareness of the risks posed by Himalayan glaciers there is no early warning system for the likelihood of GLOF events.

Conclusion

• Much like warnings before cyclones, floods and earthquakes, authorities must elevate threats from contracting glaciers to the same category of risk. Correspondingly, there is a need to make comprehensive risk assessments, map regions of vulnerability and commission infrastructure development with the highest standards of care.

General Studies Paper – 2

Context:

Most South Asian states are sceptical of India’s primacy in their own ways.

Introduction

• The proverbial Achilles heel of Indian foreign policy continues to be its neighbourhood. Contemporary Indian foreign policy has an ambitious vision — from being the leader of the global South, to be an arbiter in global geopolitical contestations, to making a serious claim to be a pole in world politics.
• But South Asia is not only not keen to jump on the bandwagon of the India story, but it is also seemingly holding India back, albeit indirectly. Neighbourhoods are difficult for any major power, but contemporary India is faced with an exceptionally hard one, complicated by a rising superpower in its neighbourhood, for the first time in its history.

Types of dilemmas that India faces in the neighbourhood.

• The rise of politically anti-India regimes in South Asia such as the one in the Maldives where the new government is effectively asking Indians to pack up and leave. While the Maldives is anti-India in an instrumental sense, a Khaleda Zia-led government in Dhaka, which goes to the elections early next year, could turn out to be ideologically anti-India.
• The second type of dilemma India faces in the neighbourhood is structural, resulting from Beijing’s growing influence in South Asia.
• The growing entanglement of the region’s smaller states in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and other Chinese projects.
• Beijing’s assiduous outreach to South Asian states when the rest of the international community abandons or avoids them for normative or other reasons — as was the case with Taliban-led Afghanistan, military-ruled Myanmar and crisis-hit Sri Lanka. India does too, but the overall impact of China’s outreach is far higher than that of India primarily as a function of deeper pockets.
• Finally, China’s desire to settle border disputes with its neighbours (minus India), as seen in the case of Bhutan, is also a strategy to win over the region.

Causes behind the dilemmas.

• The first is the regional geopolitical architecture characterised by five overlapping elements.
• Contemporary South Asia is characterised by a diminishing presence of the United States, which, for a long time, was a geopolitical constant in the region. For New Delhi, Washington’s presence in South Asia was not always advantageous, but its departure is disadvantageous, in particular given how China has filled the power vacuum created by Washington’s departure.
• The aggressive and stupendous rise of China has come as a ‘geopolitical buffer’, at least for now, for the smaller states in the region which have become adept at using the ‘China card’ in their foreign policy assertions. While our neighbours are keen to practise strategic autonomy with us, there is little appetite to do so vis-à-vis China.
• Third, in one of the least interconnected regions in the world, and poor, it is natural that the inhabitants of the region will tilt towards a power with the ability to cater to their material needs. With India’s ability to meet those needs being limited, China is that power.
• Fourth, India, for the most part, has had a normative and political approach towards the region, with the states in the region acquiescing, rebelling, and falling in line given the absence of choices. Beijing has changed that India-centric calculus by offering itself as the no-frills non-normative alternative. For the first time in modern South Asian history, the region is a ‘norms-free-zone’.
• Finally, for much of its independent existence, New Delhi enjoyed unrivalled primacy in the region. Today, the downside of being the resident power in South Asia — with all its attendant cultural, ethnic, refugee and other spillovers — is felt more sharply than being the primary power. China, on the other hand, is the region’s non-resident power which benefits from the absence of complications — ethnic, linguistic, religious — arising out of being a resident power.
• The second cause behind India’s regional dilemma is related to its policy stance which exhibits a deep-seated status quo bias when it comes to dealing with the region’s domestic politics and the multiplicity of actors/power centres therein.
• Furthermore, India’s dilemmas are also caused by two mistaken assumptions that we have long held.
• For one, there has, for some time, been a strong belief in India that South Asia minus Pakistan would be amenable to Indian geopolitical reasoning which prompted an attempt to deal proactively with South Asia without Pakistan. However, in retrospect, one has to admit that this policy has not exactly panned out that way India imagined.
• The second (mistaken) assumption that New Delhi approached the neighbourhood with was that India’s special relationship with the region rooted in culture, soft power, history and ethnicity would help the country deal with the neighbourhood better than those without intimate knowledge of the region, namely China.

What can be done?

• It is the time in which India should made a mental switch and acknowledged that South Asia and its balance of power have changed fundamentally.
• Old South Asia where India enjoyed primacy no longer exists. ‘Southern Asia’ which has pretty much replaced South Asia is a space where China has emerged as a serious contender for regional primacy.
• India’s neighbours and periphery are China’s too, even if we do not like it.
• Such a realistic and pragmatic framing would help India deal with the reality as it is rather than working with the mental frame of Indian primacy which is long gone.
• New Delhi must proactively pursue the involvement of friendly external actors in the region. That is the only way to deal with the impending possibility of the region becoming Sino-centric.
• Indian diplomacy must be flexible enough to engage multiple actors in each of the neighbouring countries. The art of diplomacy is not about hating the anti-India elements in the neighbourhood, but, instead, lessening their anti-India attitude.
• Finally, here is the highlighting of an issue that has been spoken of ad nauseum — India needs more hands for its diplomatic pursuits. The glaring shortage of sufficient diplomats to implement the foreign policy of a country of 1.4 billion people will prove to be India’s single most crucial challenge going forward.

Conclusion

• The more India’s role in world affairs grows, the more the shortage of personnel will be felt by us and others. If the current state of affairs continues, there will be no one to show up with the Indian flag when opportunities beckon, or crises emerge.

General Studies Paper – 2

Introduction

• It has been more than five and a half years since an elected government collapsed and Governor’s rule was imposed in Jammu & Kashmir amidst the suspension of the elected Assembly — a step that heralded dramatic changes in the erstwhile State.
• Subsequently, Article 370 that provided for special status for the erstwhile State was removed, the State bifurcated with the region encompassing Jammu and the Kashmir Valley made into a new Union Territory and Ladakh hived off into another.

Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019

• The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act divides the Indian-administered state into two Indian-administered union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
• Whereas the former, Jammu and Kashmir, will have a legislative assembly, the latter, Ladakh, will be administered by a lieutenant governor alone.
• The union territory of Ladakh will include the districts of Leh and Kargil, while all other districts will be accorded to Jammu and Kashmir.
• Of six Lok Sabha seats allocated to the former state, one will be allocated to Ladakh and five to the Jammu and Kashmir union territory. The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir will function as the High Court for both the union territories.
• The act provides that the administration of the Jammu and Kashmir will be as per Article 239A of the Indian constitution. Article 239A, originally formulated for the union territory of Puducherry, will also be applicable to Jammu and Kashmir.
• A lieutenant governor appointed by the president will administer the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which will have a legislative assembly of 107 to 114 members. The legislative assembly may make laws for any of the matters in the state list except “public order” and “police”, which will remain as the law-making powers of the union government.

Constitutionality of these changes

• The constitutionality of these changes is still under question and the Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on it. But this has not deterred the Union government from bringing about legislation that will change the make-up of the UT’s prospective Legislative Assembly beyond the completion of the delimitation exercise.

Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

• On Wednesday, the Lok Sabha passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
• These Bills do not necessarily bring about any significant change.
• The first increases the total number of Assembly seats from 107 to 114, with reservation of nine seats for Scheduled Tribes (a first), besides empowering the Lieutenant-Governor to effect some nominations.
• The second seeks to replace the term “weak and underprivileged classes (social castes)” in the J&K Reservation Act, 2004, enacted by the State legislature, to “Other Backward Classes” as declared by the UT.

Feeling of Alienation

• Propriety would have demanded that even these changes could have waited for the Supreme Court’s verdict, which is due soon, on the legality of the abrogation of special status besides the bifurcation of the erstwhile State and the procedure adopted to do so.
• Without the involvement of elected representatives from J&K in the process, the changes proposed in the Lok Sabha would only seem to be acts that are presented as fait accompli to the UT’s citizens.
• This should also be taken together with the fact that the last five and a half years have seen the suspension of political and civil liberties of politicians; arbitrary arrests and detentions; communication shutdowns; a chilling effect on the media; and, more recently, long power cuts. Any change to the political life of J&K, citing its status as a region affected by separatism and terrorism, should not be done in a way that the citizens feel alienated.

Conclusion

• The first order of business in J&K has to be the restoration of the democratic process by holding popular elections and the restoration of its Statehood. This should help not just fill a glaring void in public life in the region in the immediate but also set the stage for addressing the long-pending issues that have led to the persistence of militancy.

General Studies Paper 2

Context: The Multidimensional Poverty Index exaggerates the National Democratic Alliance’s success in fighting deprivation.

Introduction

• Samuel Johnson, a profound literary critic, and essayist, wrote, “Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.” In sharp contrast, conventional measures of poverty in terms of income are limited and narrowly focused on scarcity of resources to eke out a bare subsistence. But there is much more to poverty than a bare subsistence, as emphasised by Johnson and others.

Concept of capability

• Nobel Laurate Amartya Sen pioneered a rich, innovative, and broader perspective on well-being, focusing on capabilities and functioning’s. While capabilities are abilities to do this or that in a free and fair environment, functioning reflect achievements.
• An ability to live a healthy life, for example, is not necessarily related to affluence as it could result in obesity and vulnerability to non-communicable diseases.
• Achievements such as being healthy, on the other hand, require a nourishing diet and physical exercise.
• Professor Sen has, however, resisted aggregation of concepts such as capabilities into an overall measure of well-being as he believes that each capability is important in itself.

The MPI story

• Unfortunately, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) seized upon capabilities to construct an overall measure of human development with uniform weights of the three components: health, education and standard of living and their sub-indices.
• Following this methodology, NITI Aayog and the UNDP released recently a National Multidimensional Poverty Index/MPI: A Progress Review 2023, also replicated in the UNDP Report, Making Our Future: New Directions for Human Development in Asia and the Pacific, released on November 7, 2023.
• Hence, these reports suffer from the same flaws as the UNDP human development index: aggregation with uniform weighting. But, the MPI story is further distorted, as elaborated on below.
• Astonishingly, the MPI 2023 estimates show a near-halving of India’s national MPI value and a decline from 24.85% to 14.96% between 2015-16 and 2019-21. This reduction of 9.89 percentage points implies that about 135.5 million people have exited poverty between 2015-16 and 2019-21.
• Besides, the intensity of poverty, which measures the average deprivation among the people living in multidimensional poverty, reduced from 47.14% to 44.39%.

Estimates, misleading and ill-informed.

• The MPI relies upon National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 and 5, which are not detailed enough for its estimation. Moreover, NFHS 5 is blocked as its estimate of open defecation contradicted exaggerated official claim of its complete elimination.
• Ideally, NFHS 4 and 5 should have been combined with the 75th Round of the NSS on household consumption expenditure. Unfortunately, this was abandoned too, as leaked poverty estimates indicated a rise.
• What casts further doubts is the havoc caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21. Millions lost their livelihoods, thousands died in reverse migration and from a lack of access to vaccines and medical care.
• In fact, as a consequence of this epidemic, there was a huge economic shock from which the Indian economy has been struggling to recover. To illustrate, GDP growth has declined from 8% in 2015-16 to 3.78 % in 2019-20 and slumped -6.60 in 2020-21, as also per capita income.

Focus on covariates

• Our recent analysis focuses on covariates of the MPI that include per capita state income, its square, share of criminals among State MPs, share of urban population, and health and education expenditure and unobserved state fixed effects (e.g., how progressive a State is).
• If we compare elasticities of MPI with respect to each covariate (i.e., proportionate change in MPI due to a proportionate change in a covariate such as State per capita income), the largest reduction in MPI is due to higher State per capita income. But since income decreased drastically, MPI spiked.
• The next in order of importance is urban location. A 1% increase in urban location results in a 0.90% increase in MPI. This is not surprising as rural-urban migration is associated with growth of slums and sub-human living conditions.
• However, reverse migration during COVID-19 may explain why the effect on MPI is less than proportionate.
• Both health care and education expenditure are associated with lower MPI — the elasticity of the latter is higher (in absolute value), implying that a 1% increase in the latter reduces MPI more than the same increase in the former.
• As State-level estimates suggest a decline in educational expenditure, a rise in MPI is likely. Although State-level health expenditure rose to combat COVID-19, it fell far short of what was needed.
• If the share of Members of Parliament with criminal cases in total State MPs exceeded 20%, the higher was the MPI. This is not surprising as criminal Members of the Legislative Assembly and MPs are notoriously corrupt and siphon-off funds allocated for social safety nets and area development programmes.
• Indeed, what is alarming is their rising share — 24% of the winners in the Lok Sabha election in 2004 had a criminal background; it rose to 30% in the 2009 general election, 34% in the 2014 election, and 43% in the 2019 election.

Reduction between 2015 and 2019-21 is considerably lower than the official estimate.

• If we go by our estimates of MPI, the reduction between 2015 and 2019-21 is considerably lower than the official estimate: 4.7 percentage points compared with 9.89 percentage points.
• Our selective review of MPI estimates shows that poverty rose in India’s most populous State, Uttar Pradesh, by over seven percentage points.
• Of the States that went to the elections in November (Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana), we find that the MPI fell in Chhattisgarh (by over six percentage points), in Rajasthan (by two percentage points) and, most strikingly, in Madhya Pradesh (by about eight percentage points).

Conclusion

In conclusion, not only does the MPI exaggerate the NDA’s success in fighting deprivation but also perhaps more seriously obfuscates conventional measures of it which may unravel a contradictory story of poverty.

General Studies Paper 3

Context: Healthier inflows from GST offer policy makers the bandwidth to fix its flaws.

 Introduction

• The Goods and Services Tax (GST), which turns six and a half years old this month, has yielded almost ₹3.4 lakh crore through October and November. While revenues in October marked the second highest monthly collections, November’s kitty is the third highest.
• Both these months also recorded accelerated revenue growth after a sequence of slowing upticks that culminated with September recording a 27-month trough of 10.2%.

Goods and services tax (GST)

• GST is a unified tax system that replaced multiple indirect taxes levied by both the Central and State Governments. Under GST, both the Central and State Governments share the authority to levy and collect taxes on goods and services. This has led to greater harmonization and uniformity in the tax structure across States, promoting economic integration.
• The GST system follows a dual structure, comprising Central GST (CGST) and State GST (SGST), levied concurrently by the Central and State governments, respectively. Additionally, an Integrated GST (IGST) is levied on interstate supplies and imports, which is collected by the Central Government but apportioned to the destination state.

Festive fervour

• Festive fervour surely bolstered last month’s nearly ₹1.68 lakh crore of GST revenues, which were based on transactions in October, and that trend may persist this month as well on the back of anticipated last-minute Deepavali spending.
• Prior to this two-month spike, GST revenues had crossed ₹1.65 lakh crore on only three occasions, which were typically driven by year-end compliances.
• Now, the average monthly collection so far in 2023-24 stands at ₹1.66 lakh crore, and economists believe central GST receipts may surpass Budget estimates even if one factors in a relative slowdown in the final quarter of this year.

GST Council

• The process for creating GST Council started in India when the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-second Amendment) Bill 2016, for the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) was accorded assent by the President on 8th September 2016. As per Article 279A (1) of the amended Constitution, the president should approve to constitute within 60 days of the commencement of Article 279A.
• The GST Council, consisting of the Union Finance Minister and representatives from all States and Union Territories, was established to make decisions on various aspects of GST, including tax rates, exemptions, and administrative procedures. It played a crucial role in shaping the GST framework in India.
• The GST Council will make recommendations on:
• GST shall include taxes, cesses, and surcharges;
• Goods and services which possibly will be subject to, or exempt from GST;
• The threshold maximum value of turnover for the function of GST;
• Rates of GST;
• GST laws, principles of levy, apportionment of IGST and principles associated with place of supply;
• Special provisions with respect to the eight northeastern states, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Uttarakhand; and other associated matters.
• Other matters pertaining to the implementation and regulation of GST in India.

Moving from “uncertainty to certainty”

• With revenues buoyant, in no small part due to tighter compliance and a crackdown on tax evaders, the government must consider resetting its ambitions and work towards making the GST a truly good and simple tax, as it was promised to be.
• At a recent industry interaction, responding to concerns about the manner in which a spate of GST demand notices and investigations have unfolded in recent months, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the GST is still at a stage of moving from “uncertainty to certainty” on some grounds and those aspects are being sorted out now.
• That certainty needs to be pursued at a broader level to provide genuine comfort to investors about India’s tax regime being stable and predictable. For one, pending taxpayer appeals against central GST levies have risen by a quarter this year to hit nearly 15,000 cases by October and it is necessary that appellate tribunals cleared by the GST Council become operational at the earliest to unwind this pendency and set clear precedents for future tax treatment disputes.
• It is equally critical to lay down a road map to bring in excluded items such as petroleum and electricity into the GST framework as well as the rejig of its complicated multiple rate structure.

Conclusion

• With the general election ahead, some dithering on such reforms may be understandable, but the GST Council must not lose focus of the unfinished agenda and keep deliberating on its to-do list, so that these steps can be fast-tracked after the Lok Sabha election.

General Studies Paper 3

Context: Major world economies seem unwilling to move away from fossil fuel.

Introduction

• The boundary wall enclosing discussions around global climate is 1.5°C, or the average increase in global temperatures since pre-industrial times. Now that 1°C is crossed, all the wrangling under way at the climate summit in Dubai is to cap the half-degree rise.

Fossil Fuels

• Fossil energy sources, including oil, coal and natural gas, are non-renewable resources that formed when prehistoric plants and animals died and were gradually buried by layers of rock. Over millions of years, different types of fossil fuels formed — depending on what combination of organic matter was present, how long it was buried and what temperature and pressure conditions existed as time passed.
• Today, fossil fuel industries drill or mine for these energy sources, burn them to produce electricity, or refine them for use as fuel for heating or transportation. Over the past 20 years, nearly three-fourths of human-caused emissions came from the burning of fossil fuels.

Insufficiency of Global pledges

• Global pledges to cut emissions are insufficient to achieve this. Current estimates are that to limit warming to 1.5°C, the world requires three times more renewable energy capacity by 2030, or at least 11,000 GW.
• That there is wide global consensus on the need for this tripling was first formally articulated in the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration at the G-20 summit in Delhi in September.

UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – UNFCCC

• The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) sets out the basic legal framework and principles for international climate change cooperation with the aim of stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”
• To boost the effectiveness of the 1992 UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in December 1997. It committed industrialized countries and countries in transition to a market economy to achieve quantified emissions reduction targets for a basket of six GHGs.
• The Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period took place from 2008 to 2012. The 2012 Doha Amendment established the second commitment period from 2013 to 2020. In December 2015, parties adopted the Paris Agreement, which requires all parties to determine, plan, and regularly report on the nationally determined contribution (NDC) that it undertakes to mitigate climate change.
• Parties also submit aggregate progress on mitigation, adaptation, and means of implementation, which are reviewed every five years through a Global Stocktake.

Run up to the Dubai summit.

• In the run-up to the Dubai summit, it was perceived that this would be widely endorsed by the larger group of about 190 countries signatory to the UN convention on climate. It turns out that, so far, 118 countries have endorsed the pledge and two major countries, i.e., India and China, have so far abstained from signing.
• The Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge, while still a draft text, says that in their pursuit of tripling renewable energy capacity, signatories should also commit to “…phase down of unabated coal power, in particular ending the continued investment in unabated new coal-fired power plants”. This is a major red line for India.

India’s stand

• While India has positioned itself as a champion for renewable energy — its 2030 targets as articulated in its formal, nationally determined contributions (NDC) speak of tripling renewable energy capacity to 500 GW from the current 170 GW — it has reiterated several times that it could not be forced to give up certain fuels. Coal-fired plants are responsible for nearly 70% of India’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Other Developed countries stand.

• Developed countries that have made commitments to give up coal often have other large, fossil-fuel resources as back-up. The United States joined 56 other countries at Dubai in a commitment to completely eschew coal for its energy use, by 2035. However, the U.S. only draws about 20% of its energy from coal and at least 55% from oil and gas, with plans to produce more of it in 2030 than at present.

Conclusion

• The paradox of the world’s major economies’ commitment to renewable energy is that it is not, as of now, actively geared to replace fossil fuel. Till there is an honest commitment to actually replace existing and future fossil capacity with clean energy, pledges and declarations are worth little more than the paper they are drafted on.

General Studies Paper 2

Context: As both the State and Central government were perceived to be corrupt, the Congress benefited

Introduction

• We define corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Corruption erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development, and further exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division and the environmental crisis.
• Exposing corruption and holding the corrupt to account can only happen if we understand the way corruption works and the systems that enable it.

Prevention of Corruption act, 1988.

• On September 9, 1988, the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (henceforth abbreviated as PCA) became operative. Its goal was to increase the overall effectiveness of anti-corruption statutes by broadening their scope and fortifying their provisions.
• Features of the act:
• With minor modifications to the original language, it combines the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1952, the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, and Sections 161 to 165-A of the Indian Penal Code.
• The definition now includes terms like “public servant” and “public duty.”
• As stated in the CrPC, it has moved the burden of proof from the prosecution to the person facing charges.
• The Act’s provisions make it very clear that an officer, not a person lower in rank than Deputy Superintendent of Police, must conduct the investigation.
• Bribery, misappropriation, gaining a financial advantage, having assets that are out of proportion to one’s income, and similar corrupt practices are all covered by the Act.

Impact on electoral politics

• The political atmosphere during the Telangana Assembly elections was marked by accusations from the Congress and the BJP against the BRS government. The K. Chandrashekar Rao-led government was alleged to be involved in corruption throughout its tenure. The findings of the CSDS-Lokniti post-poll study indicate that corruption emerged as a prominent source of dissatisfaction for the voters.
• Approximately half the voters in the State felt that corruption had increased over the past five years. Only about a quarter believed that there was a decrease in corruption. Two in 10 voters felt that there was no change in corruption in the last five years. Public discontent can also be gleaned from the fact that the issue of corruption was ranked as the second most unacceptable action of the BRS government. One in 10 voters identified this issue as a significant concern.
• This has an impact on voter choices. The perception of corruption in the BRS and BJP governments, coupled with the attribution of anti-corruption efforts to the Congress, played a significant role in shaping voters’ preferences towards Congress.

The Representation of the People Act (RPA),1951

• Important features:
• It controls how elections and by-elections are actually conducted.
• It offers the administrative tools needed to hold elections.
• It has to do with political party registration.
• It outlines the requirements as well as the exclusions from House membership.
• It has measures to stop other offenses and corrupt behaviour.
• It establishes the process for resolving questions and disagreements following elections.

Conclusion

• This has an impact on voter choices. The perception of corruption in the BRS and BJP governments, coupled with the attribution of anti-corruption efforts to the Congress, played a significant role in shaping voters’ preferences towards Congress.

General Studies Paper 3

Context:

The lasting impact of the episode of the American indictment against an Indian national will lie in the image India wishes to project to the world.

Introduction

• In the shadowy world of espionage, intelligence and covert operations, the only rule is to never get caught carrying out a mission. In the more visible world of public diplomacy, the only rule is to never get caught telling a lie or denying what might turn out to be true.
• The recent publication of a United States Department of Justice indictment against an Indian national for targeting wanted Khalistani separatists in North America, at the behest of a government official who may or may not have been acting alone, is as yet an unproven allegation that must stand trial, but is one that has nonetheless cast a dark shadow on New Delhi’s credibility in terms of both covert capacity and public messaging, which must be addressed.

Other operations in the limelight

• The indictment also comes on the heels of a number of intelligence operations that have been challenged in courts in other friendly countries in recent years: from the forcible return of a United Arab Emirates princess, Latifah, by the Indian Coast Guard in international waters in 2018 that has been criticised by a court in the United Kingdom, to the “attempted kidnap” of businessman-on-the-run Mehul Choksi from Antigua to Dominica by British nationals alleged to have been working for Indian agencies in 2021, and the conviction of eight former Indian naval officers in Qatar for espionage, which is now in appeal.
• While the extra-judicial military court trial against former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan since 2016 has been challenged by India at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the fact that he was operating his business from Iran, a friendly neighbour, has no doubt been noted.
• Meanwhile, the circulation of a list of alleged operations against wanted Khalistani and Pakistani operatives not just in Pakistan but also in Nepal, Italy, the United Kingdom and Thailand, has been hailed in the media as proof of the Indian security establishment’s global reach.

Troubling questions thrown up.

• It is in this context that the government must engage with the troubling questions thrown up by the latest allegations — by the U.S. of a conspiracy to murder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York, that also indicates a link to the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, and the direct allegation by Canada, made by its Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the Nijjar killing.
• To begin with, the text of the American indictment unravels two conspiracies — one carried out by the Indian who has been indicted, Nikhil Gupta, who was allegedly directed by a senior government intelligence official, and the other carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration, to entrap him by providing an undercover officer to him as the hitman.
• The fact that the U.S. government did not share all that it knew with India questions the claims made otherwise that the two countries have, between them, reached the pinnacle of security cooperation this year.

Trust is still an issue.

• For the U.S., it is also obvious that it does not trust the information India has shared on Mr. Pannun, Nijjar and the Khalistani separatist movement, and hence is more focused on the plot against them than it is on curbing their activities. For India, given India’s deep concerns with Mr. Pannun’s radical rhetoric, even broadcasting a threat against Air India flights, and threats to diplomats and embassies, the U.S.’s actions are a breach of trust.
• The actions hark back to the nature of intelligence sharing in 2008, when the U.S. warned India about the impending 26/11 terror threat (November 2008 Mumbai attacks), but did not divulge that the source of the information was Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley, who even re-entered India with another diabolical plan in 2009.
• What this indicates is that while bilateral ties and strategic ties are growing in different spheres, trust between both countries has not kept apace. While much commentary is focused in the short term on whether Mr. Biden will confirm his attendance at the Republic Day parade and the Quad summit (Australia, India, Japan and U.S.) in January, it is the impact on the longer arc of the relationship that both sides must focus on.
• By extension, South Block must also look at the impact of its actions among western allies including the “Five Eyes” intelligence partnership (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.). By rejecting Canadian allegations outright, expelling diplomats and suspending visas, while accepting the U.S.’s allegations more calmly and setting up a high-level inquiry to investigate them, New Delhi has demonstrated a double standard in its international engagements.

Impact on the neighbourhood

• Further afield, India must address the impact of the case on the neighbourhood. Countries such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh stood with India on the Canada issue, but as details of the U.S. indictment are revealed, South Asian capitals, and not just Islamabad, will be studying the footprint of Indian agencies in their countries as well.
• South Block and its embassies in the neighbourhood will have to go the extra mile to assure the neighbours, especially in Kathmandu, Dhaka, Male and Colombo, where reports about India’s “hand” in domestic politics is often discussed in exaggerated tones.

Conclusion

• Eventually, the lasting impact of the episode will lie in the image India wishes to project to the world — as a “hard power” that is willing to risk international ire and ties in pursuing those it considers a threat in any corner of the world in any manner it deems fit.
• Or that of an adherent to international law that builds its case through its diplomats, turning global opinion in its favour to achieve its ends, albeit at the risk of being seen as a “soft power”. The Ministry of External Affairs has said categorically that covert, extra-judicial assassinations are not this government’s policy and that the allegations will be investigated. A deeper investigation would reveal whether India’s actions align with its values and interests.

General Studies Paper 2

Context:

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

Introduction

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

Clarification of Article 200 of the Constitution

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

Two major takeaways from the Judgment

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

Not only a legal dispute

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

Conclusion

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

General Studies Paper 2

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

Introduction

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

Disability

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

‘For and By’

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

A case for inclusion

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

Challenges in rural areas

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

The SPARK project.

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

Conclusion

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