Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

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

Background

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

About Act East Policy

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

Key Services under ‘Act East Policy’

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

Initiatives to Enhance Connectivity:

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

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

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

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

Background

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

Role of social media

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

Views of Environmentalists

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

International Studies & Reports

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

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

Other Crisis in Dairy Sector

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

Way Forward

• Short-Term Measure

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

• Long-Term Measures

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

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

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

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

About gig economy:

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

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

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

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

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

Concerns:

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

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

Context:

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

Understanding hate speech

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

Impact of hate speech

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

Current laws in India 

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

Concerns:

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

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

Context:

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

Background

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

About Urbanisation

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

Global Scenario

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

Indian Scenario

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

Issues related to Urbanisation

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

Way forward

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

Syllabus: General Studies Paper2

Context:

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

Background

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

AUKUS Alliance (Trilateral Defence agreement)

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

Concerns of France

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

Implications for India

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

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

The devastating impact of the covid pandemic on essential services, especially family planning and sexual and reproductive health, has worsened access to healthcare, especially for women.

• It has put millions of women at high risk of unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, illnesses and even death.

Challenges for family planning measures in India

• High population growth: Phase-1 data from the fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) shows an impressive decline in the fertility rate in almost all states. 
  • India’s total fertility rate (TFR) is declining. It is now 2.2 per woman, nearing the replacement rate of 2.1, according to the latest government data.
  • TFR indicates the average number of children expected to be born to a woman during her reproductive span of 15-49 years.
  • The replacement level is the number of children needed to replace the parents, after accounting for fatalities, skewed sex ratio, infant mortality, etc. Population starts falling below this level.
  • But overall population growth still appears high because India has a high proportion—about 30%—of young people and adolescents who are either of reproductive age or will soon be. 
  • Therefore the population continues to grow even if its fertility rate is declining. 
  • Some modelling studies project that India will reach a peak population of 1.6 billion by 2048 and it will then decline steeply to 1.12 billion by 2065.
• Lack of access to family planning measures: NFHS-4 showed that in 2015-16, nearly 13% women in the reproductive age group (15-49 years) had an unmet need for family planning, including 6% of women who had an unmet need for spacing methods.
• Contraceptive use is the lowest among women from Schedule Tribes, at 48%, followed by Other Backward Classes, at 54%, and Schedule Castes, at 55%. 
• Inequities in access to family planning have translated into poor health and development outcomes.
• Myths about demographic trends in the country: Many believe that certain religious minorities contribute greatly to India’s population growth, a notion that is not supported by data. 
  • The decadal growth rate decline has been sharper among Muslims than Hindus over the last three decades, at 4.7% and 3.1% respectively between 2001 and 2011 . 
  • The share of Hindus in India’s population reduced marginally, from 80.5% in 2001 to 79.8% in 2011, while the Muslim population registered a slight increase, from 13.4% in 2001 to 14.2%. 
  • Contrary to popular belief, the steepest decline in total fertility rate (TFR) was observed among Muslims (0.8%) followed by Hindus (0.5%), Sikhs (0.4%), and Christians (0.3%), between 2005-06 and 2015-16.

For a large proportion of India’s backward communities, social development programmes remain out of reach. 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

The UN working group on ‘human rights, transnational corporations (TNCs) and other businesses’ has published a new report on human rights-compatible international investment agreements. 

• The  term  “transnational  corporation”   means  an  enterprise whether  of  public, private  or  mixed  ownership,  comprising  entities  in  two  or  more countries, which operates under a system of decision-making, permitting coherent policies and a common strategy through one or more decision-making centres

Key points of the UN report

• Bilateral Investment Treaties can be harnessed to hold TNCs accountable under international law. 
• It emphasises investor obligations at the international level i.e., the accountability of TNCs in international law. 
• It urges states to ensure that their bilateral investment treaties (BITs) are compatible with international human rights obligations. 

Need for holding TNCs accountable under international law. 

• Transparency issues: There have been many instances where the misconduct of TNCs has come to light such as the corruption scandal involving Siemens in Germany.
• Loopholes in Bilateral investment treaties: These treaties promised protection to foreign investors under international law by bestowing rights on them and imposing obligations on states. 
  • This structural asymmetry in BITs, which confer rights on foreign investors but impose no obligations, relegated the demand for investor accountability.
• States do not impose positive and binding obligations on foreign investors. They fall short of creating a framework to hold TNCs accountable under international law.

Past efforts

• Effort was made at the UN to develop a multilateral code of conduct on TNCs. However, due to differences between developed and developing countries, it was abandoned in 1992.
• It aimed to use international law to institutionalise the forces of economic globalisation, leading to the spread of BITs. 
• In 2014, the UN Human Rights Council established an open-ended working group with the mandate to elaborate on an international legally binding instrument on TNCs and other businesses concerning human rights. 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison launched the AUKUS security partnership in a joint virtual appearance. It will supplement Quad and ASEAN. 

• The strategic implications of AUKUS for the geopolitics of the extended Indo-Pacific region in general, and the maritime domain in particular, are significant and multi-layered.
• This major policy decision comes just ahead of the first in-person Quad summit to be held in Washington and the annual United Nations (UN) General Assembly deliberations.

What is AUKUS?

• AUKUS will strive over the next 18 months to equip Australia with nuclear propulsion technology.
• As part of this, Australia will acquire nuclear-powered submarines with help from the UK and the US.
• So far, the United States has shared only with the United Kingdom under a decades-old arrangement put together in the face of the threat from the then Soviet Union.
• Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines, when they deploy, will be armed with conventional weapons only and not nuclear weapons

Rationale: 

• The future of each involved nation and the world depends on a free and open Indo-Pacific.
• The strategic environment of the Indo-Pacific has been disturbed by China’s muscular assertiveness in the South China Sea in recent years. 
• Beijing blatantly rejects international law, the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), related to the maritime domain.
• The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy resorted to unilateral muscle-flexing to advance its own interpretation of historical territorial claims over disputed waters. 
• Smaller Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (Asean) neighbours were intimidated by China. 
• Also China has contested the “free and open Indo-Pacific” formulation of the global community.

Geopolitical significance of AUKUS

• • United States: In the Pacific, the U.S. and others have been concerned about China’s actions in the South China Sea and its antipathy toward Japan, Taiwan and Australia.
    • AUKUS is the first step that conveys the US resolve to punctuate the maritime domain in a manner that will not only protect Australia’s core security interests, but shape the regional strategic environment. 
  • Australia: Under the arrangement, Australia will build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines using U.S. expertise.
    • A nuclear submarine has reach and stealth that is of a much higher order than a conventional diesel boat, and will be able to ensure a very high degree of sea-denial to any potential adversary.
    • Barring the US, there is no other navy that has nuclear submarines in China’s proximity, and the inclusion of Australia into this category will inhibit the PLA Navy in a variety of ways.
    • In the context of the AUKUS agreement, nuclear-powered submarines will give the Royal Australian Navy the capability to go into the South China Sea, where China is increasingly getting aggressive.
  • Britain: The US said it was about ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific over the long term. 
    • Leaving the EU under Brexit has left Britain seeking to reassert its global position. Part of that has been an increased focus towards the Indo-Pacific.
  • France: Australia told France it would end its contract with state majority-owned DCNS to build 12 of the world’s largest conventional submarines. 
    • The contract was worth tens of billions of dollars. France is furious and demanding explanations from Australia.
    • A harsh legal battle over the contract appears inevitable.
  • New Zealand: Australia’s neighbour New Zealand has been left out of the new alliance. It has a long-standing nuclear-free policy that includes a ban on nuclear-powered ships entering its ports. 
    • AUKUS leaves New Zealand out of a deal to share a range of information, including artificial intelligence, cyber and underwater defence capabilities.
  • China: China has criticised the US for building “exclusionary blocs targeting and harming the interests of third parties”, and accused Washington of being in transgression of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). 
    • The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, otherwise commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty with an objective to limit the escalation of a nuclear arms race and the technology related to it.

• Impact on QUAD

• The new alliance does not and will not supersede or outrank existing arrangements in the Indo-Pacific region such as the Quad, which the US and Australia form with India and Japan, and Asean, and that it will complement these groups and others.
• Japan, India, Australia and the U.S. already have a strategic dialogue known as ‘the Quad’. 
• Quad nations have been consistent in upholding the principle of freedom of navigation, as contained in UNCLOS, at the political and diplomatic levels. 

Advantages of nuclear-propelled submarines

• Conventional diesel-engine submarines have batteries that keep and propel the vessel underwater. The life of these batteries can vary from a few hours to a few days.
• The newer Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP) submarines have additional fuel cells that allow them to stay underwater for longer and move faster than the conventional vessels. 
• Both conventional and AIP subs need to come to the surface to recharge their batteries using the diesel engine. 
• Nuclear-powered propulsion gives the submarine a near-infinite capacity to stay dived. Since it is propelled by a nuclear-powered engine rather than by batteries, it does not have to emerge on the surface at all, except to replenish supplies for the crew.
• They are also able to move faster underwater than conventional submarines. 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper2

Context:

The Union Cabinet has approved a crucial plan to provide relief to the ailing telecom sector.The relief package will provide much-needed relief to telecom companies like Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel.As per earlier reports, the relief package is likely to include a four-year moratorium on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) related dues besides allowing telecom firms to surrender unused spectrum.

About Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) in Telecom Sector:

Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) is the usage and licensing fee that telecom operators are charged by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

The AGR directly impacts the outgo from the pockets of telcos to the DoT as it is used to calculate the levies payable by operators.

It is divided into spectrum usage charges and licensing fees, pegged between 3-5 percent and 8 percent respectively. The definition of AGR has been under litigation for 14 years.

While telecom companies argued that it should comprise revenue from telecom services, the DoT’s stand was that the AGR should include all revenue earned by an operator, including that from non-core telecom operations.

Currently, telecom operators pay 8% of the AGR as licence fee, while spectrum usage charges (SUC) vary between 3-5% of AGR.

Why Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) has been a contentious issue?

• When the AGR issue, first went under litigation there were about 15 operators. However, until now 10 of them have either closed operations or are undergoing insolvency proceedings in the last 14 years.
• Further, at the current juncture, profits for telcos are under pressure from severe competition and the falling ARPUs (Average Revenue Per User).
• Given this, AGR due will seriously hurt financial stability of whatever telecom companies are doing business in the Indian market.
• Also, Telecom equipment suppliers may also go down as their dues will not be paid.
• In 2019, the Supreme Court of India upheld the Department of Telecom (DoT)’s interpretation of Adjusted Gross revenue (AGR).
• This meant a huge blow to telecom service providers, as the telcos had to pay an estimated ₹1.4 lakh crore to the government.
• The definition of AGR has been such a contentious issue because it has huge financial implications for not only telcos, government but on the Indian economy at large.

Government choses reforms in Telecom sector:

• In the backdrop of the outstanding performance of the Telecom Sector in meeting COVID-19 challenges, with huge surge in data consumption, online education, work from home, interpersonal connect through social media, virtual meetings etc., the Reform measures will further boost the proliferation and penetration of broadband and telecom connectivity.
• The Cabinet decision reinforces the Prime Minister’s vision of a robust Telecom Sector.
• With competition and customer choice, antyodaya for inclusive development and bringing the marginalized areas into the mainstream and universal broadband access to connect the unconnected.
• The package is also expected to boost 4G proliferation, infuse liquidity and create an enabling environment for investment in 5G networks.
• A number of structural and process reforms in the Telecom sector. These are expected to protect and generate employment opportunities, promote healthy competition, protect interests of consumers, infuse liquidity, encourage investment and reduce regulatory burden on Telecom Service Providers (TSPs).

Structural Reforms by the government:

• Rationalization of Adjusted Gross Revenue:  Non-telecom revenue will be excluded on prospective basis from the definition of AGR.
• Bank Guarantees (BGs) rationalized: Huge reduction in BG requirements (80%) against License Fee (LF) and other similar Levies. No requirements for multiple BGs in different Licenced Service Areas (LSAs) regions in the country. Instead, One BG will be enough.
• Interest rates rationalized/ Penalties removed: From 1st October, 2021, Delayed payments of License Fee (LF)/Spectrum Usage Charge (SUC) will attract interest rate of SBI’s MCLR plus 2% instead of MCLR plus 4%; interest compounded annually instead of monthly; penalty and interest on penalty removed.
• For Auctions held henceforth, no BGs will be required to secure instalment payments. Industry has matured and the past practice of BG is no longer required.
• Spectrum Tenure: In future Auctions, tenure of spectrum increased from 20 to 30 years.
• Surrender of spectrum will be permitted after 10 years for spectrum acquired in the future auctions.
• No Spectrum Usage Charge (SUC) for spectrum acquired in future spectrum auctions.
• Spectrum sharing encouraged- additional SUC of 0.5% for spectrum sharing removed.
• To encourage investment, 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) under automatic route permitted in Telecom Sector.

However, concerns that need to be take care:

• Gross revenue has dropped by 15% to 20% for the year 2017-18 over the preceding year for the incumbents and overall sector revenue has dropped. Also, there is drop in voice and data revenue per user.
• Service providers have to incur huge initial fixed cost to enter semirural and rural areas. Key reasons behind these costs are lack of basic infrastructure like power and roads, resulting in delays in rolling out the infrastructure.
• The change in definition of AGR that will reduce the burden on telcos, applies only prospectively, so those past dues remain payable.
• While it provides time to put their house in order, the telcos’ overall liability does not come down and ultimately they will have to raise tariffs to generate sufficient cash flows. AGR dues will have to be paid with interest.
• A long-standing demand for the government’s intervention in setting telecom floor tariffs, as it has done in the civil aviation sector to protect competition, did not find a place in the relief package.
• Available spectrum is less than 40% as compared to European nations and 50% as compared to China. Hence, it is imperative that spectrum auctioning at sustainable prices is the need of the hour.
• Also, government auction spectrum at an exorbitant cost which makes it difficult for mobile operators to provide services at reasonable speeds.
• However, the government was keen on ensuring that there were more players in the sector and customer retaining choices. Competition in the sector will always lead to better prices and better technology.