Syllabus– General Studies 2 (Governance)

Issues relating to quality of life: livelihood, poverty, hunger, disease and social inclusiveness.

Context

The lessons to draw from chronic epidemics such as HIV/AIDS to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Four decades ago, on June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an unusual fungal infection of the lungs (pneumocystis carinii pneumonia) in five gay men in Los Angeles.
• That was the first time the world learnt about the devastating infection caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in people with a weak immune system.

Furthermore:

• Clio Epidemiology is the study of information from past epidemics for advice about the present.
• We have dealt with HIV infection for 40 years.

Syllabus- General Studies 2(governance)

Issues relating to quality of life: livelihood, poverty, hunger, disease and social inclusiveness.

Context

This year, the world woke up to June, pride month, gazing at the Google Doodle of Dr. Frank Kameny (1925-2011), an American astronomer, veteran, and gay rights activist.

Background:

• The global LGBTQ+ community marched ahead after the 1970s.
• But in India, the queer community is still a stigmatised and invisible minority, a fact that is alarmingly incompatible with the country’s living, liberal and inclusive Constitution.
• The Constitution was conceived by India’s founding fathers as a beacon of fundamental rights, leading once enslaved Indians to the promised land of life and freedom. Despite such a liberating Constitution, the Indian state and the law have been abusing and given many marginalised segments of the citizenry such as the queer community of India the cold shoulder.

Syllabus- General Studies 3(science and technology)

Context

During evolution, the fitness costs experienced by bacteria under constant and fluctuating environments pose a problem that has not be solved. One way of seeing this is through the example of multi-drug resistance. It is not clear why some bacteria evolve multi-drug resistance while others do not. New research from the Population Biology Lab at IISER Pune could hold a key to this and a similar class of puzzles.

Multi-drug resistance:

• It is a menace in public health, however, it is a fascinating problem to an evolutionary biologist who sees it from this angle:

• Possessing multi-drug resistance implies that the bacteria is adept at handling multiple antibiotics simultaneously.

• This would increase its fitness appreciably.
• Given that antibiotics exert a very strong selection pressure, it would appear that every bacteria in nature can become multi-drug resistant, which is not the case.

Key Highlights of the Study:

Syllabus- General Studies 2 (Polity)

Parliament and State legislatures, Structure, Organization and functioning of the Union and State Executive and the Judiciary

Context

Recently, a senior judge of the Supreme Court of India stated that frivolous cases have been making the Court dysfunctional.

• In 2014, the then Chief Justice of India, H L Dattu, said the courts of the country are struggling with a negative perception about their efficiency.
• The huge pendency of cases, he said, strikes at the very root of democracy and erodes respect for law among citizens.

Frivolous litigations are indeed a problem, but it is not the most serious problem confronting the judicial system.

Reasons behind pendency of cases:

• The government is a major litigant in the High Courts and the Supreme Court. The Ministry of Law and Justice in the Action Plan to Reduce Government Litigation (2017) stated that approximately 46 per cent pending cases before the courts pertain to the government.
  • The 230th Law Commission report on reforms in the judiciary (2009) stated that the responsibility of unclogging the judiciary was with the central and state governments since they are the biggest litigants in the courts.
  • The report suggested that governments should approach the courts only if necessary, and not just to pass the buck.
  • Government authorities have ignored the National Litigation Policy of 2010 to follow an unwritten rule that all orders against the government must be challenged till the last court.

Syllabus:

Context:

• Africa is considered a foreign policy priority by india.
• even as the covid-19 era began in march 2020, new delhi took new initiatives to assist africa through prompt despatch of medicines and later vaccines.
• But now the policy implementation needs a critical review.

Why india africa policy needs re-energizing:

1. Decline in india-africa trade: according to the confederation of indian industry, in
   2020-21, india’s exports to and imports from africa stood, respectively, at $27.7 billion and $28.2 billion, a reduction of 4.4% and 25% over the previous year.
   The bilateral trade valued at $55.9 billion in 2020-21, fell by $10.8 billion compared to 2019-20, and $15.5 billion compared to the peak year of 2014-15.
2. Decrease in investment by india in africa: india’s investments in africa saw a decrease
   from $3.2 billion in 2019-20 to $2.9 billion in 2020-21.
   The total investments over 25 years, from april 1996 to march 2021, are now just $70.7
   billion, which is about one-third of chinas investment in africa.
3. Lack of diversity india – africa trade: the composition of the india-africa trade has not
   changed much over the two decades.
4. india’s top three exports to africa are mineral fuels and oils (processed petroleum
   products), pharmaceutical products and vehicles.
   The mineral fuels and oils, (essentially crude oil) and pearls, precious or semiprecious
   stones are the top two imports accounting for over 77% of our imports from africa.
5. India’s focus is confined to indo-pacific region: the geopolitical tensions in asia and the imperative to consolidate its position in the indo-pacific region have compelled new delhi to concentrate on its ties with the united kingdom, the eu, and the quad powers.
6. Confinement of india’s security role: india’s security role in the africa’s continental
   littorals has struggled to move beyond the anti-piracy agenda.

Significance of african policy:

1. India’s top five markets today are south africa, nigeria, egypt, kenya and togo and the countries from which india imports the most are south africa, nigeria, egypt, angola and guinea
2. Geopolitical and social engagement of india in africa: india’s role in peacekeeping in africa, in lending support to african counter-terrorism operations, and contributing to african institutions through training and capacity enhancing assistance.
3. India technical cooperation with africa: information technology (it) is an important pillar given the role of the information and communication technology (ict) sector in india’s growth story and the importance most african leaders attach to ict sector development.
4. India japan africa corridor: it represents a joint indo-japanese effort
   aimed at building infrastructure in africa which is meant to be complemented with digital connectivity across africa.

Measures to be adopted:

1. Fresh allocation of financial resources to africa: india must allocate fresh financial resources for grants and concessional loans to africa as previous allocations stand almost fully exhausted.

Syllabus:

Context:

• Government has announced the setting up of a new dfi. The new dfi is expected to build a portfolio of ₹5 trillion in the next three years.

Introduction:

• The development finance institutions (dfi) are usually owned by the government or public institutions. Dfis provide funds for infrastructure and large-scale projects. Large scale banks are often not interested in lending for such projects due to viability issues.
• The prime objective of dfi is the economic development of the country via financing infrastructure activities.
• Their cost of borrowings also reduces because of the attached government guarantees.

Background:

• In india, the first dfi was operationalized in 1948 with the setting up of the industrial finance corporation (ifc).
• Dfis in india like industrial development bank of india (idbi), industrial credit and investment corporation of india (icici) and ifci did play a significant role in aiding industrial development in the past with the best of the resources made available to them.

Syllabus- General Studies 3 (economy)

Context

As India gets ready to operationalise a new bad bank, China is struggling with one of its biggest bad banks, the China Huarong Asset Management Co. Ltd. (Huarong). Recently, it skirted a potential bond default.

Bad banks in China

• In the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, China set up dedicated bad banks for each of its big four state-owned commercial banks.
• These bad banks were meant to acquire non-performing loans (NPLs) from those banks and resolve them within 10 years.
• Evergreening of loans: Recent research at University of Singapore highlights that Chinese bad banks effectively help conceal NPLs.
  • The banks finance over 90 per cent of NPL transactions through direct loans to bad banks or indirect financing vehicles.
  • The bad banks resell over 70 per cent of the NPLs at inflated prices to third parties, who happen to be borrowers of the same banks.

The researchers conclude that in the presence of binding financial regulations (for example, on provisioning) and opaque market structures, the bad bank model could create perverse incentives to hide bad loans instead of resolving them.

Lessons for India

Syllabus- General Studies 3 (economy)

Context

Three major flagship missions of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs have completed six years since their launch on June 25, 2015:

• • The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), 
  • Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and 
  • Smart Cities Mission. 
• These constitute a fascinating experiment involving a paradigm shift, subtle in its messaging but seminal in its impact.

Furthermore:

• The urban landscape is defined by cities and the cities, in turn, are defined by the people who inhabit them.
• Each of the missions delegated the powers to appraise and approve projects to the states thus justifying actual invocation of the spirit of cooperative federalism.
• Earlier, every project was appraised and approved in Delhi, in the ministry, giving scant regard to the fact that equally competent officials work in the states and the state leadership is to be trusted.
• Comparison:
  • From 2004 to 2014, the total investment in the urban sector was around Rs 1,57,000 crores.
  • While as in the seven years of the NDA from 2014 to 2021, that figure is approximately Rs 11,83,000 crore.
  • During the last government regime, around 12 lakh houses were built.
  • Since the launch of the PMAY(U), the Modi government has already sanctioned more than 1.12 crore houses, completed and handed over nearly 49 lakh houses (the rest will be completed well before March 2022).

What made these initiatives a success:

• The banes of government programmes have been tardy implementation and leakages. These are being plugged.
• Through geo-tagging, the progress of construction of houses is being monitored and tied to the release of funds.
• All missions use GIS-based tools extensively.
• To speed up construction and to bring in the best of new technologies, a Global Housing Technology Challenge was launched and based on it, six Lighthouse Projects have been identified in six geo-climatic zones of the country.
• A sustained effort is being made to mainstream these technologies with strong linkages to the engineering institutions across the country.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3 (Poverty)

Context:

The coronavirus pandemic may have shrunk india’s middle-class population by 32 million and driven 75 million below the poverty line in 2020, a pew research centre report said, as a severe recession walloped asia’s third-largest economy.

Measuring poverty:

1. In india, there is now, rightly, a consensus difficult for the government to beat down that to be able to battle covid-19 and secure india from successive waves, the exact numbers of the dead must be carefully documented.
2. Something else that needs equal attention, if the state of the decrepit indian economy is to be repaired, is to be able to meticulously count the number of the poor and to prioritise them.
3. The world bank $2-a-day (poverty line)might be inadequate but it would be a start and higher than the last line proposed by the rangarajan committee.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3 ( Agriculture)

Context:

Agricultural exports touched $41.8 billion (bn) in fy21—a growth of 18% over fy20 bringing cheer in government circles.

Juxtaposed against a target of $60 bn the modi government had set out to achieve by 2022, it falls much short.

From a strategic point of view, the key issue is whether this rate can be sustained?

Agriculture exports data:

1. Rice ranks first in agri-exports, with 17.7 million tonnes (mt) valued at $8.8 bn.
2. It is followed by marine products ($6 bn), spices ($4 bn), bovine (buffalo) meat ($3.2 bn), sugar ($2.8 bn), etc (see graphics).
3. Of these, rice and sugar raise concerns about competitiveness and environmental sustainability, as these are water guzzlers and heavily subsidisedthrough cheap/free power for irrigation as well as fertilisers.
4. On top, sugar exports have been further subsidisedto clear excessive domestic stocks.
5. This has led many sugar-exporting countries like australia, brazil, thailand, etc, to register a case against india at wto.