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General Studies – 1
Reference: New Indian Express
Introduction
Numismatics is the study/ collection of currency (coins, banknotes, or money in some other form like beads, tokens, and related objects). Historians use these to understand the past. The importance of coins as a source of reconstructing history cannot be denied, particularly in case of ancient history where very few chronicles were produced. An old coin (or currency) is a window to history.
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Significance of numismatics
- Surviving written texts that feature the ancient history of India were created as religious or literary texts.
- To reconstruct the past, historians look to other sources, such as archaeological finds and inscriptions on stone and metal.
- Coins offer another form of evidence, requiring similar care and expertise in the interpretation of engraved words, symbols, and images.
- Coins are an important source of history, as they suggest important historical processes.
- Not only the monetary situation, but broader questions related to economy and polity can be answered through numismatics.
- Each coin was developed for a special purpose during a specific era, which served as a great revelation over centuries.
- As in the vast and deep history of India there have were numerous big and small dynasties and empires spreading across every part of the country and there were no rigid proof or evidence for their presence.
- However, it is observed that nearly every Ruler tried to have their unique lineage of coins which when deciphered properly, gave umpteen information about the period.
- Coins help apprehend the socio-political, cultural and administrative aspects of past kingdoms and rulers.
- Numismatics also reveals the religious beliefs and sentiments during that time.
- For Example, it was first in the coins of Kanishka dynasty that Buddha was represented in form while earlier it was demonstrated symbolically.
- Similarly, on the coins of Gupta Empire one can witness forms of Durga, Laxmi and Ganga.
- The wide distribution of Kushana coins suggests trading activities, and the presence of ship motifs on Satvahana coinage reflects the importance of maritime trade.
- The inscribed figures of rulers, deities and legends give us an insight into social and political aspects of various kingdoms.
- It must be noted that dates are seen very rarely on early Indian coins.
- Barring western Kshatrapa coins which give dates in the Shaka era and some Gupta silver coins which give the regnal years of kings, coins in early India are mostly devoid of dates.
- Dated or undated, coins found in archaeological excavations often help date the layers of time.
- An example is a site of Sonkh near Mathura, where the excavated levels were categorised into eight periods on the basis of coin finds.
- With regard to the later development in coinage, the numismatic history of later ancient and the early medieval period saw a decline in trade and the feudal order marked stressed urban centres, and as a result, even though the circulation of coins did not stop, their purity and aesthetic quality saw degradation at many levels.
Ancient Indian coins conjure up marketplaces along the Silk Road, the trade route that connected the East and West; conquerors and their traveling mints; wars; and lost kingdoms. The complexity that Numismatics offers, is evident from the fact that the number of distinct dynasties that existed during that time tried to develop their own style of Coinage. Indeed, it is the in-depth study of coinage over the years in India that has revealed the presence of many rulers and dynasties in India which otherwise could not have been justified.
Conclusion
Thus the history of Indian Coinage is both exciting yet complicated as it is immensely vast. Over umpteen reigns there has been a great lineage of coinage set by different rulers that throw a light on the customs and traditions of that Era. Thus, Numismatics is extremely important to get details on periodical changes in history.
General Studies – 2
Reference: The Hindu , Indian Express
Introduction
The term hate speech is understood as any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender or other identity factor.
The Law Commission, in its 267th report on hate speech, said such utterances have the potential to provoke individuals and society to commit acts of terrorism, genocide, and ethnic cleansing.
There is no international legal definition of hate speech, and the characterization of what is ‘hateful’ is controversial and disputed.
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Impact on the society
- Hate speech is a discursive process of pushing marginalised groups outside of social, economic and political spheres of society by disseminating hate propaganda and encouraging discrimination.
- At its most harmful, it is widely recognized as a precursor to ethnic cleansing.
- Internal Security: The Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013 was triggered by a fake video that incited communal passions. In the West, hate speech combined with fake news on minorities has induced an anti-immigration sentiment (e.g. : France, Italy, Greece)
- User homophily and Bubble phenomenon: Users with matching political views exchange one-sided information and opinions that suit their own convictions, reinforcing them even further, even if those were based on false information. E.g. : Twitter prompts users to follow those who express similar views or posts.
- Igniting extremist sentiments: Fake news’ perpetuates, previously locally found, extremist ideas and groups together dangerously like-minded people e.g. – Neo-Nazis in Germany, Separatists in Kashmir.
- Mob lynching: Rumours of child lifting in Jharkhand led to mob lynching on innocent victims.
- Violence: An atmosphere of violence and chaos is created directly or indirectly. The Christchurch Terror attack on a mosque by an extremist was a result of Islamophobia (a direct result of hate speech).
- Misinformation and disinformation due to hate speech and fake news have led to riots as seen in the Delhi Riots case 2020.
Legal Provisions to deal with hate speech
- Indian Penal Code:
- Sections 153A and 153B of the IPC:Punishes acts that cause enmity and hatred between two groups.
- Section 295A of the IPC:Deals with punishing acts which deliberately or with malicious intention outrage the religious feelings of a class of persons.
- Sections 505(1) and 505(2):Make the publication and circulation of content which may cause ill-will or hatred between different groups an offence.
- Representation of People’s Act:
- Section 8 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 (RPA):Prevents a person convicted of the illegal use of the freedom of speech from contesting an election.
- Sections 123(3A) and 125 of the RPA:Bars the promotion of animosity on the grounds of race, religion, community, caste, or language in reference to elections and include it under corrupt electoral practices.
How sufficient are legal provisions?
- For a country like India with a massive population of diverse backgrounds and culture, subjects like hate speech become a complex issue to deal withas it is difficult to differentiate between free and hate speech.
- Several factors are to be considered while restraining speeches like the number of strong opinions, offensive to certain communities, the effect on the values of dignity, liberty, and equality.
- Certainly, there are laws for such atrocities but a major part of work is still left.
Way forward
- Clarity and technological upgradationis needed to deal with this and a mechanism to get down such material, which is prone to disturb social setup.
- Improving the level of training in equality and non-discrimination among police forces and legal bodies,improving research and encouraging reporting of such content.
- Indian government has been pushing for internet platforms to locate their serversin the country, which might help address dangerous speech in real time.
- Generating contra-narratives on social networks and raising public awarenessthrough campaigns to tackle extremism.
- There can be an internationally accepted law that places the responsibility on social media companieslike Facebook to tackle hate speech by deleting obviously illegal content within 24 hours if there is a request from the Government of a particular nation.
- Social media platforms need to take responsibility to ensuretransparency, accountability and a system of rules and guidelines that users can recognize as standards, and which when enforced in a regularized fashion can begin to act as precedents. Thus, users, police and civil society actors will have a clear sense of what kind of material is likely to be taken down.
- Public authorities must be held accountable for dereliction of the duty of care and also for non-compliance with this court’s orders by not taking action to prevent vigilante groups from inciting communal disharmony and spreading hate against citizens of the country and taking the laws into their own hands.
- Therefore giving a proper definition to hate speech would be the first step to deal with the menaceand other initiatives such as spreading awareness amongst the public is the need of the hour.
Source: The Hindu
Introduction
The three major stakeholders in the society influencing the process of development are viz. the government, Non-government Organisations (NGOs) and the corporate sector. Working separately, the impact of the above three entities is limited to a certain extent, however if all three work hand in hand with each other and realize that they are striving towards achieving the same goal, i.e., progress of the country, it would surely be the beginning of a new era in the field of development.
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Role of various entities in Development
Government
- The paradigm of development related to models and activities like: the five-year plans; setting up of public sector undertaking to command the heights of the economy; licenses and permits to control investments and resources allocations; etc.
- Over the last two decades or so, the paradigm of governance has changed – first gradually and then at an accelerated rate.
- Under the influence of national and international forces, the economy is moving towards more and more liberalization, privatization, and globalization.
- Government wants to become a facilitator and regulator rather than an active player in development.
Corporates
- The private sector can help by creating large numbers of jobs, which can result in poverty reduction for large numbers of people.
- If governments can create the right conditions, the private sector can drive equitable economic growth.
- Technology and innovative thinking have brought in new ways of enabling corporate contributions towards development.
- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a new buzz word in corporate circles.
- Enlightened corporate leaders like Azim Premji of Wipro and NR Narayana Murthy of Infosys have created corporate foundations which are dedicated to contributing in their respective chosen ways to alleviation of poverty in rural areas, eradicating illiteracy, improving healthcare facilities, etc.
- Many other companies are entering into partnerships with NGOs to contribute towards development.
- In such partnerships, the NGOs carry out the actual grass-roots activities while the corporates provide funding support as well as bring in a professional management approach to project management, efficient and effective utilization of resources, monitoring progress through pre-identified milestones, and objective assessment of impacts.
- The NGOs have emerged as a link – both for expressing people’s point of view and for providing a channel for resources delivery meant for development activities.
- Government also realized that there were lots of advantages to enrolling NGOs in the development process : NGOs are motivated and enthusiastic; they have flexibility in operations; they are close to the people; they provide additional manpower to conduct developmental activities.
- In today’s context, NGOs have become an integral part of the process of development and are shouldering more and more responsibilities in diverse fields.
- In recent years, the number of NGOs, their geographic extent, their diversity in domain areas, their resources channelisation and, in the ultimate analysis, their impact have all increased.
Need for collaboration of all 3 entities for development
- In the governments, the political superiors’ goalposts are continually shifting, the Indian bureaucratic elite lacks risk-taking and creativity, thus hindering development.
- Government also has the fear of failure, which has the unintended result of non-risk-takers rising to the top of the food chain.
- Government is strapped for resources – managerial as well as economic and has realized its limitations.
- NGOs have become more articulate, more knowledgeable, more experienced, and more impactful in development.
- NGOs, although generally lacking in funds, have the authority to function as crucial cogs in the wheel of effective government, rather than merely as actors who must ride off into the sunset once their duty is done.
- Corporates have surely realized their responsibility towards the need for development in the society and for taking an active part inter alia, for their own enlightened self-interest.
- They have a keen desire to contribute, and also have the requisite material resources and managerial expertise but are somewhat inexperienced in the field of development.
Way forward
- Thus, there is a convergence and complementarity emerging in the roles of government, NGOs, and corporates, vis-a-vis development.
- It would be optimal for corporates to pitch-in with resources, and equally valuably, bring in an attitude of higher accountability and efficiency, as well as a penchant for monitoring progress and for objectively measuring the results and the impacts.
- The NGOs could be the delivery arm for developmental activities – carrying out the actual fieldwork in a manner responsive to the people’s needs and with effective and efficient utilization of resources to achieve desired goals.
- The government could play the role of a facilitator by providing a conducive policy and regulatory framework – for example, through appropriate taxation laws which can provide incentives for corporates and NGOs to take up an increasingly extensive role for the development of our country.
- Media could play the role of a watch dog, whistle-blower, and a documenter. Through their efforts success stories could be shared, due credit, recognition and appreciation could be provided. Such stories could provide role-models to corporates and NGOs who aspire to play a more pro-active role in development.
- Of course, for this new paradigm to work effectively, each of the above mentioned entities will have to recognize one another’s role, trust one another, and accept the supra-ordinate goal that all of them are striving for a common objective- i.e. development of our country.
Reference: Polity by M. Laxmikanth
Introduction
Fundamental rights are the basic human rights that are guaranteed to the citizens of India by the Indian Constitution. They act as a limitation to the power of the State. These rights are highly revered and any law that is found to be in contravention of them can be challenged in the Supreme Court by the virtue of article 32 of the Constitution, and subsequently struck down to the extent of the inconsistency. The Supreme court can also pass any appropriate order, direction, or writ for the enforcement of these rights. Similar powers are present with the High Courts under article 226 as well.
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While the Fundamental Rights are an integral part of the Constitution, it would be incorrect to term them as unconditional. These rights, by the Constitution itself, are restricted by conditions which aim to balance the individual freedom and rights to the necessity of public good and welfare.
- The Fundamental Rights though justiciable are not absolute.
- The fundamental rights can be controlled and are subject to reasonable restrictions for the protection of general welfare.
- The Constitution empowers the government to impose certain restrictions on the enjoyment of our rights in the interest of public good
- Further, the Supreme Court has ruled that all provisions of the Constitution, including fundamental rights can be amended.
- Some of the fundamental rights and the extent of their enjoyment can be restricted or even abrogated by Parliament under Art. 33. Thus the rights of the citizens in the armed forces or the forces in charge with the maintenance of public order can be restricted or abrogated
Are restrictions justified?
- The restrictions imposed on fundamental rights are justified in the interest of safety and integrity of the country. It is totally acceptable.
- The prescribed limitations are in the interest of public good, social reforms, public order, morality and the safety of the state.
- Under social contract theory, every “right” that you have under that social contract has corresponding responsibilities. For example, your right to freedom of speech is not absolute. One cannot say anything you want about anybody, it is limited by the other person’s right to not be slandered.
- The constitution allows the state to impose ‘reasonable restrictions’ on certain rights, but the ‘reasonableness’ of the restrictions is a justiciable matter.
- It is the responsibility of the government to protect its citizens from internal as well as external disturbance. If we are not safe then there are no reasons to have rights.
- In case of violation of these rights individual can approach the court for the protection and duty of the court is to protect and safeguard them if someone’s rights are violated.
- If a government enacts a law that restricts or violates any of these rights, it will be declared invalid by courts.
- Further, these are social concepts which change with time and social environment. What is a right today may turn out to be a social liability or even a crime tomorrow. For instance, triple talaq and rights of women
- Absolute grant of rights could be prone to misuse. The fundamental rights are only limited to the degree that you cannot reduce another individual’s human rights by your actions. (Harm principle).
- Different persons have different conditions and they cannot be treated equally, which could further enhance socio-economic injustice in the society.
- absolute fundamental rights would have rendered hindrances in governance and too much of baseless writ litigations
- A qualified rights aims at striking a balance between rights of an individual liberty and social control. E.g. free speech (Ar.19) is robust but not absolute. Can be suspended on in emergency due to external aggression.
Conclusion
Thus, fundamental rights are not absolute rights and will be subjected to reasonable restrictions. The state can impose reasonable restrictions to protect the legitimate interest of the state. Any law passed by the state or action that result in an infringement of the rights will be subjected to judicial review.
General Studies – 3
Reference: The Hindu
Introduction
Global concerns about mitigating climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions have led to innovations in the energy sector. Across the world, 192 countries have announced policies to promote renewable energy and are looking to expand the installation of renewable energy. Renewable energy is considered as a win-win solution because it allows us to mitigate climate change without sacrificing economic development. Indeed, renewables are poised as the energy choice of the future.
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India and her Mega renewable energy projects:
- In 2015, under its international climate change commitments, India had promised to cut down its emissions intensity by 33-35% by 2030 and have 40% of its power, around 350,000 MW installed capacity, from renewable power.
- Consequently, India is racing to achieve a target of installing 175,000 MW of renewable energy power by 2022, a commitment it made as part of its global climate goals.
- At present, India’s installed renewable energy capacity is about 89,635 MW (as on 31 December 2020) only which means that in the next two years India needs to nearly double it to achieve the required target.
- But India is lagging behind the target of 40,000 MW of rooftop solar – which was the vital part of the 175,000 MW target.
- In such a scenario, the government is probably looking at developing large solar parks and wind parks to bridge the gap.
- Recently, the government in Gujarat cleared land allotment of about 60,000 hectares in Kutch region for the development of 41,500 MW mega solar and wind energy park that is estimated to attract investment of around Rs 1.35 trillion.
Social impacts:
- The following social benefits can be achieved by renewable energy projects: local employment, better health, job opportunities, and consumer choice.
- However, renewable power projects pose equal if not a greater threat to ecological biodiversity and cause wide-scale dispossession of lands and livelihoods.
- Large scale solar or wind energy farms require areas of contiguous land.
- The availability of land is contentious, especially in developing countries.
- Renewable energy projects, particularly wind and hydro, compete with local livelihoods, conservation interests and other development activities.
- Additionally, these projects often entail a process where development is usually prioritized over conservation, and livelihood activities.
- Shepherds, landless labourers and others depending on common lands for their livelihoods are neither being consulted before a project is set up nor are they compensated for their losses.
- This leads to slew of issues among the local people like land alienation, poverty, health issues, psychological issues, migration etc.
- Case study:
- In India all development projects, including renewable energy, are required to gain consent from village level panchayats.
- In most cases, the certificate of consent from village level panchayats provides mere lip service.
- The project developers often use empty claims of providing electricity and economic benefits to impoverished, local communities in order to jumpstart the projects.
- There is no mechanism to monitor how much electricity will be provided and to how many households at the local level.
- A case in point is the 113 MW, Andhra lake Wind power project, promoted by the multi-national Enercon, on the outskirts of Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra.
- The villagers who live next to the project site don’t have access to electricity, even though the project threatens their livelihoods and the rich biodiversity of the region.
Ecological impacts:
- One major complaint against the rapid clean energy transition is that it is usurping fertile agricultural land and massively impacting avifauna.
- In India, forest lands are the default choice of location for wind and hydel power project developers.
- It is cumbersome to negotiate private land deals and agricultural land needs to be converted to commercial land, in order to be procured for renewable energy development.
- In comparison, it is relatively easier for renewable energy projects to get approval from the federal and regional forest departments, because they are considered ‘sustainable’.
- Setting up of a renewable energy project requires felling of trees, laying transmission lines and constructing a sub-station for relaying the electricity to the grid.
- The wind turbines are massive structures that need to be hauled to higher altitudes thereby significantly affecting the ecology of the landscape.
- In high rainfall areas, these changes could lead to landslides, floods, conflicts with local livelihoods, and massive soil erosion.
- Case Study:
- In late 2020, a news report highlighted that the Gujarat government has plans to develop a 41,500-megawatt (MW) hybrid renewable energy park in Kutch.
- The state government has cleared the revenue department’s proposal for allotment of 60,000 hectares of land – nearly the size of Greater Mumbai – for this project.
- The land finalised for the Kutch project is considered “wasteland” by the government but that may not be the case for the local people and could be an important area for them.
- In Kutch, there are many protected areas and they need to be preserved.
- If one looks at Kutch there is a huge wetland Shakoor Lake which falls in both India and Pakistan.
- This region is home to hundreds of bird species and its adjoining areas are also prime habitat for the vultures and flamingos.
- There are many studies by reputed institutes like Wildlife Institute of India that have warned against the death of birds due to collisions with power lines.
- The area is also part of the Central Asian Flyway.
- The Rajasthan High Court stayed work related to a solar energy park in Rajasthan over land issues after locals filed a case against the land allocated for the project which the Rajasthan government had termed as a wasteland.
Measures needed
- RE plants need to be allotted go/no-go zones where they can and cannot be set up, based on ecological and livelihood sensitivity of the regions.
- A fair and transparent public-hearing process is crucial for any development project.
- Independent EIA Authority and Sector wide EIAs needed.
- Creation of a centralized baseline data bank.
- Dissemination of all information related to projects from notification to clearance to local communities and general public.
- All those projects where there is likely to be a significant alternation of ecosystems need to go through the process of environmental clearance, without exception.
- No industrial developmental activity should be permitted in ecologically sensitive areas.
- Public hearings should be applicable to all hitherto exempt categories of projects which have environmental impacts.
Way forward
- Even as renewable power projects pose equal if not greater threat to ecological biodiversity and cause a wide-scale dispossession of lands and livelihoods, they are rarely critiqued.
- The state should take into account the precarity of local populations that depend upon natural resources for their livelihoods while encouraging renewable energy projects.
- Some probable solutions include giving greater powers to the village level panchayats, making EIA mandatory for all renewable energy projects and ensuring economic as well as electricity access for people who live in close proximity to renewable energy projects.
- As increasing number of practitioners, policy makers across countries are focused on fostering renewable energy; it is even more crucial to examine the complex and layered ways in which such projects are operationalized.
Answer the following questions in 250 words:
General Studies – 1
Reference: The Hindu
Introduction
The Union Cabinet on December 15 took the decision to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years. The legal age of marriage for men is 21 years. With this decision, the government will be bringing the age of marriage for both men and women at par. The proposal to raise the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 was based on the recommendations of a task force headed by Jaya Jaitley.
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Background
- In June 2020, the Ministry for Women and Child Development set up a task force to look into the correlation between the age of marriage with issues of women’s nutrition, prevalence of anaemia, IMR, MMR and other social indices.
- The committee, headed by former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley, also had on board NITI Aayog member (Health) Dr V K Paul and secretaries of several ministries.
- The committee has recommended the age of marriage be increased to 21 years, on the basis of feedback they received from young adults from 16 universities across the country. Over 15 NGOs were also engaged to reach out to young adults in far-flung areas and marginalised communities.
Rationale behind raising marriageable age for women
- Nutrition levels and wellbeing: The government decided to re-examine the age of marriage for women for a number of reasons, including gender-neutrality. An early age of marriage, and consequent early pregnancies, also have impacts on nutritional levels of mothers and their children, and their overall health and mental wellbeing.
- Mortality rate: It also has an impact on Infant Mortality Rate and Maternal Mortality Rate, and the empowerment of women who are cut off from access to education and livelihood after an early marriage.
- To reduce child marriage: The recently released National Family Health Survey (NFHS) revealed that child marriage has come down marginally from 27 per cent in 2015-16 to 23 per cent in 2019-20 in the country, but the government has been pushing to bring this down further.
- Gender neutrality: Women Labour force participation is only 25% in India whereas the global average is 60%, to become world power, we cannot afford women to be out of service.
- There is a need to bring in gender-neutrality.
- Removing stereotypes: In a consultation paper of reform in family law in 2018, the Law Commission argued that having different legal standards “contributes to the stereotype that wives must be younger than their husbands”.
- Women’s rights activists too have argued that the law perpetuates the stereotype that women are more mature than men of the same age and therefore can be allowed to marry sooner.
Possible challenges that would be posed to urban and rural women
- Child and women’s rights activists, as well as population and family planning experts have not been in favour of increasing the age of marriage for women on the basis that such a legislation would push a large portion of the population into illegal marriages.
- They have contended that even with the legal age of marriage for women being kept at 18 years, child marriages continue in India and a decrease in such marriages has not been because of the existing law but because of increase in girl’s education and employment opportunities.
- They have said the law would end up being coercive, and in particular negatively impact marginalised communities, such as the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, making them law-breakers.
- According to the State of the World Report 2020 by UNFPA, in India, 51% of young women with no education and 47% of those with only a primary education had married by age 18.
- Hence lack of education is a bigger problem.
- Further, a study by the International Centre for Research on Women has found that girls out of school are 3.4 times more likely to be married or have their marriage already fixed than girls who are still in school.
Way forward and conclusion
- For any society to make sustainable progress it is necessary to empower women and for that two most important weapons are quality of education and skills and for this they should not be under any pressure to get married early.
- Early pregnancy is associated with increased child mortality rates and affects the health of the mother. Thus, there is a need to focus on a mother’s health and readiness to carry a child.
- Government needs to emphasize upon economic and social empowerment of women and girls, as well as targeted social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) campaigns. Increasing the minimum age of marriage of women will also lead to gender-neutrality.
- Extending the scope of the Right to Education for girls up to vocational studies.
General Studies – 2
Source: Polity by M. Lakshmikanth
Introduction
Federalism is a system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and constituent political units. The Constitution of India establishes a federal structure to the Indian government, declaring it to be a “Union of States”. Indian model of federalism is called quasi-federal system as it contains major features of both a federation and union
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Uniqueness of principle of federalism in India:
Federal Features of the India Union:
- Two governments i.e. Union Government and State governments
- Division of powers between the union and its constituents (Seventh Schedule of the Constitution contains three lists such as the Union List, State List, and Concurrent List)
- Supremacy of the Constitution (Basic structure of the Constitution is made indestructible by the Judiciary)
- Partial rigidity of the Constitution
- Independent Judiciary
- Bicameralism
Unitary Features of the Constitution:
- A strong centre – The Union Government becomes all powerful in certain times like emergencies. Article 200 of the Constitution of India demands that the States must comply with the central laws.
- Single Constitution
- Single citizenship
- Flexibility of Constitution
- Integrated judiciary
- Appointment of the Centre. E.g.: Governor
- All India Services
- Emergency provisions
The following four characteristics highlighting the fact that the Indian Constitution is not a “traditional federal Constitution”:
- Firstly, being that there is no provision of separate Constitutions for each State as required in a federal state. The Constitution of India is the supreme document, which governs all the states.
- Secondly, the Constitution can be altered only by the Union Parliament; whereas the States have no power to alter it.
- Thirdly, in contradiction to a federal Constitution, the Indian Constitution renders supreme power upon the Courts to invalidate any action which violates the Constitution.
- Fourthly, the distribution of powers facilitates local governance by the states and national policies by the Centre.
- The main forms of administrative units in India are the Centre and the States. But there are other forms, too, all set up to address specific local, historical and geographical contexts. Besides the Centre and the States, the country has Union Territories with a legislature, and Union Territories without a legislature.
- Just as the Centre and the States do not have matching powers in all matters, there are some differences in the way some States and other constituent units of the Indian Union relate to the Centre. This creates a notable asymmetry in the way Indian federalism works
Constitutional Asymmetry in Indian Federalism has been able to accommodate diversity in India
- The Indian Constitution is a constitution sui generis.
- On one hand, the constitution contains features which are of high importance for a federal arrangement, at the same time it contains provisions which fight for a strong Centre, thus making it quasi-federal in nature.
- The fact to be appreciated here is that these dual federalism provisions were deliberately incorporated to best fit a polyglot country like India
- These special provisions in the Constitution help in protecting fundamental rights, and compensate for initial inequalities in the social system.
- Allowance for separate laws to govern different religious groups, and provisions for various kinds of affirmative action for extremely disadvantaged groups help in ensuring justice to them.
- These provisions respects and preserve diversity of the country by protecting vulnerable group through special powers. This ensure unity in diversity leading to ‘sabka sath sabka vikas’.
- It act as a solution to satisfy different needs of various federal units, as the result of an ethnic, linguistic or cultural difference. Asymmetric federalism has helped in reducing dissatisfaction among various states
- Special powers given to the state of Jammu and Kashmir help in reducing radicalisation. The state of Jammu and Kashmir was given special power because the state though include several diverse population, but the majority of the population of the state is Muslim, and the state was also near the new country “Pakistan’ which is a major ‘Muslim’ country.
- It has helped in providing representation to minority areas and areas with less population providing them justice.
Conclusion
The Indian Constitution is neither purely federal nor purely unitary, but it’s a combination of both. Indian Constitution is mainly federal with unique safeguards for enforcing national unity and growth. Also, federalism is not dead in India, as evidenced by the fact that new regions are demanding statehood and union has yielded, thus states like Manipur, Tripura, Goa, etc. have been created
Reference: The Hindu
Introduction
In the past few years, India-China relations have gone through a tumultuous phase which include a series of disputes b/w the two countries, including the Doklam standoff, Beijing’s shielding to Pakistan and India’s principled and consistent stand at CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic corridor). On the other hand, India’s acceptance of the USA’s concept of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ and revival of the ‘Quad’ reflects the state of decline in Sino-India relationship
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Border problems in India China relations
- The Sino-Indian border dispute is an on-going territorial dispute over the sovereignty of two relatively large, and several smaller, separated pieces of territory between China and India.
- India-China border disputes cover 3,488-km along theLine of Actual Control, China-Bhutan dispute covers about 400 km.
- China claims about 90,000 sq. km of India’s territory in the northeast, including Arunachal, while India says 38,000 sq. km of land in China-occupied Aksai Chin should be a part of Ladakh.
- There are several disputed areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), including in Himachal, Uttarakhand and Sikkim.
- The 1993 and 1996 agreements have been broken by the PLA many times in the past. In the last decades, many incidents occurred in different sectors- Depsang(2013), Chumar(2014) and Doklam(2017) and Galwan Valley Incident (2020)
- The recent new law by China on land borders has come into effect from the new year.
- The new law also prohibits construction of permanent infrastructure close to the border without China’s permission.
- Beijing recently renamed 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh, following the six it had done in 2017.
- China justifies the renaming as being done on the basis that these old names existed since ancient times which had been changed by India with its illegal occupation.
Challenges before India
- India has run out of proactive options against Beijingthat will force its leadership to change course on its India policy. Tibet and the Dalai Lama are no longer effective deterrents.
- Beijing does not care for its declining popularityamong the Indian populace.
- There is a huge trade deficit between India and China, which is driven by Indian dependency on Chinese manufacturing.
- This situation has further worsened by the Government’s mishandling of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Way forward
- The Quadhas remained a non-military grouping. Moreover, the signing of the AUKUS and the humiliating American exit from Afghanistan proves that India will have to deal with the Chinese challenge on the border on its own.
- India can prevent any further loss of territory to China with extensive military deployment on the LAC, while hoping that the crisis is resolved with Moscow’s help.
- Russia has offered a Foreign Ministers meeting Russia-India-China grouping, but India has stressed on China to take some steps first to resolve the border crisis.
- Government should adopta collegial and deliberative model of decision-making, which requires cooperation and consensus among different stakeholders.
Conclusion
Value addition
About the law:
It is called the law for the “protection and exploitation of the country’s land border areas”.
- Under the law, “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China are sacred and inviolable”.
- The state needs to “take measures to safeguard territorial integrity and land boundaries and guard against and combat any act that undermines these”.
- The law encourages the development of villages for civilians in the border areas.
- The law also asks the state to follow the principles of “equality, mutual trust, and friendly consultation, handle land border related-affairs with neighbouring countries through negotiations to properly resolve disputes and longstanding border issues.
- The law lays down four conditions under which the state can impose emergency measures, including border shutdown.
General Studies – 3
Reference: BBC
Introduction
Unemployment has become a chronic problem of India and in the recent years the situation has only worsened. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) recently released the unemployment status report of India for the month of December, 2021. According to the report, the unemployment rate in the country was 7.91% in December. It was 7% in November.
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Unemployment crisis in India
- With migrant labourers retreating to their native places, the impact seems to be more severe in urban areas where the unemployment rate is now reaching 10 per cent.
- With 73.5 lakh job losses in April, the number of employees (both salaried and non-salaried) fell from 39.81 crore in March to 39.08 crore in April for the third straight month.
- In April 2020, which was the first full month of the national lockdown last year, the unemployment rate had zoomed to 23.5%.
- Women tend to face a double challenge, with lower labour participation and a higher unemployment rate for females compared with males (for ages above 15).
- For the January-April 2021 period, urban female LPR was 7.2% compared with the urban male’s 64.8%, while urban female unemployment was 18.4% against the urban male unemployment rate of 6.6%, CMIE data showed.
Causes for the sharp decline in the jobs in India
- The labour force is the sum of the employed and those unemployed who are seeking employment.
- A shrinking of the labour force is most unusual in an economy with a growing population, and thus a growing working age cohort.
- Low education and lack of skills lead to loss of many job opportunities.
- Discouraged-worker effect: A section of those hitherto willing to work may have simply dropped out of an already challenged labour market.
- Demonetization has caused demoralisation among a section of the already unemployed who may have given up all hope of finding employment.
- About 90% of Indian Workforce is in the unorganized sector which was majorly affected during Demonetization and GST introduction.
- Declining Capital formation which is not backed by Public and Private Investment.
- Low female LFPR to the tunes of 24% also adds to high unemployment rate.
- Automation and IR4.0 is a looming threat to many jobs which have repeated work or sequential work.
- Socially disadvantaged groups do not get enough exposure in the job market like the general castes and Other Backward Classes.
- Labour laws in India are complex and relatively strict. Employment protection legislation is restrictive, compared with other emerging economies and OECD countries. Thus, corporates in India tend to rely more on temporary contract labour, stay small or substitute labour for capital to avoid strict labour laws.
Measures suggested
- Increase public spending in education:
- At 3.8% of GDP, public spending on education in India is lower than countries like Brazil and Malaysia.
- The focus of the government needs to shift to spending on enhancing the quality of education and vocational training.
- Similarly, allowing foreign investment in sectors like legal and accountancy services will create employment as more foreign firms will move to India.
- Infrastructure investment can also be utilised as an engine of job-creation.
- Investing in people through healthcare, quality education, jobs and skills helps build human capital, which is key to supporting economic growth, ending extreme poverty, and creating more inclusive societies.
- Educated unemployment:
- Besides promoting technical education, the government needs to focus more on creation of jobs and demand for workers since industries are unable to create sufficient job opportunities for all the technically educated people
- Policies should ensure that the education systems prepare young people for the skill demands of employers through outreach programmes, training, apprenticeships, and access to job-search assistance measures.
- More businesses should recognise the opportunity, and need, to invest in young people so that they can help in developing the qualities necessary for education and future employment.
- NGOs should engage collectively in policy advocacy on youth They should also partner with companies to develop skills and training programmes to tackle youth unemployment.
- Singapore has launched certain programmes to establish partnerships between domestic and foreign universities to promote tertiary education. India could learn from such initiatives.
- New age sectors like defence and aerospace, education and healthcare, and burgeoning green sectors like solar energy and wind, present another massive opportunity to identify ‘upcoming jobs’ and prepare talent accordingly. India’s ambition to create more than one million new jobs in the green energy sector by 2022 is encouraging.
- Educated unemployment:
- There should be cluster development to support job creation in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Most of the unorganised sector employment is in MSMEs, which tend to be concentrated in specific geographic locations.
- Private sector leaders should build capacity among unskilled and semi-skilled workers to ensure sustainability of renewable energy projects and provide opportunities to rural communities.
- Government officials should create public training programmes to prepare the poor and less educated people especially semi-skilled and unskilled for employment in the clean-energy sector.
- People need to be made self employed by providing training in skills and latest technologies for agriculture and other avenues especially in rural areas.
- Women in rural areas who are left behind by men due to migration need to look into other sources of livelihood other than agriculture like animal husbandry etc..
Conclusion
In 2020, although the economy was in a very poor state following the deleterious effects of demonetisation, the rural economy was faring reasonably well on the back of two good monsoons.
However, after a year of distress, and with some part of the workforce still not having returned to their work places, rural incomes are expected to be under pressure. Economists say they are already seeing signs of sluggishness in rural consumption.
Value-addition
Steps taken by government in recent times
- Dedicated Shram Suvidha Portal: That would allot Labor Identification Number (LIN) to units and allow them to file online compliance for 16 out of 44 labor laws.
- Random Inspection Scheme: To eliminate human discretion in selection of units for Inspection, and uploading of Inspection Reports within 72 hours of inspection mandatory.
- Universal Account Number: Enables 4.17 crore employees to have their Provident Fund account portable, hassle-free and universally accessible.
- Apprentice Protsahan Yojana: Government will support manufacturing units mainly and other establishments by reimbursing 50% of the stipend paid to apprentices during first two years of their training.
- Revamped Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana: Introducing a Smart Card for the workers in the unorganized sector seeded with details of two more social security schemes.
- The National Career Service is being implemented as a mission mode project to provide various job-related services information on skills development courses, internships etc
Reference: The Hindu
Introduction
Development and environment are two sides of the same coin. On one hand people are concerned about the environment in which they live. Major issues like global warming, greenhouse effect, air and water pollution are increasing each day. On the other hand, to eradicate poverty and increase growth in the economy, development is mandatory. Without economic development a nation cannot come out of the vicious circle of poverty. As our population grows, finding a balance between economic advancement and consumption of natural resources is a vital question that India should address.
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Developmental goals are breaching the conservation efforts:
- Neglect of environmental principles is a key reason why natural hazards end up causing a significant number of avoidable casualties.
- Any exercise to scientifically ascertain the risk from natural hazards to a region are barely implemented in the right spirit.
- Unregulated quarrying and the unscientific cutting of slopes into hills aggravates the risk of soil erosion and subsequently increases the risk of landslides.
- In pursuit of providing welfare to vulnerable sections of society, the government has provided a bulk of subsidies.
- However, subsidised nature of services like energy and electricity leads to their overuse and undermines environmental sustainability.
- Further, subsidies also undermine the revenue base and limit the government’s capacity to invest in new, cleaner technologies.
- Access to natural resources is entirely open and no individual user bears the full cost of environmental degradation and resources are consequently overused.
- Increasing population tends to exacerbate the linkages between underdevelopment and environmental degradation.
- Further, poverty generates significant incentives to raise large families and stimulate migrations, which makes urban areas environmentally unsustainable.
- Both outcomes increase pressure on resources and consequently worsen environmental quality, diminish productivity and reinforce poverty.
Measures needed:
- Role of Enterprises:
- Production systems must become sustainable.
- Switching from non-renewable to renewable sources of energy and materials targeting cleaner production.
- Improving energy efficiency in industry is one of the most cost-effective measure.
- Maximising recycling and reuse of wastes.
- Industries across sectors must come together on a common platform to address the issues concerning economic development and environment protection.
- Market-based instruments such as pollution tax and tradable pollution permits must be carried out.
- Role of Government:
- Policies need to be simplified to create an ecosystem for new sustainable businesses to flourish.
- Economic policies such as rationalization of price subsidies, the clarification of property rights, facilitation of technology transfer may help in achieving environmental sustainability.
- ICT can help drive socio-economic achievements via e-health, e-government services and smart grids for utilities.
- Good environmental governance which limits exploitation of natural resources to sustainable levels.
- Our policy should not be based on the “pollute-first; clean-up-later” approach.
- We need to strengthen participatory processes such as public hearings in the environmental and forest clearance process.
- Developing and reporting measures of human well-being other than GDP that better account for environmental and social costs of resource use.
- The Green GDP is a step forward for India if it wishes to account for true economic growth and its holistic wealth.
- Strict environmental regulation may reduce environmental damage significantly.
- India should work with foreign governments and global organizations to find ways of subsidizing clean fuel and cleaning our rivers and aquifers.
- Regions and countries can benefit from the knowledge of indigenous people and their understanding of large ecosystems.
- Thus, Governance, including customary institutions and management systems should involve indigenous peoples and local communities to safeguard nature and understand climate change.
- The linkage of biodiversity and environmental sustainability highlights the critical need to integrate biodiversity considerations in global decision-making.
Conclusion
Development remains the greatest pursuit as well as a challenge, faced by humanity. However, despite the unprecedented economic and social progress that has been made over the last century, poverty, famine and environmental degradation still persist on a global scale. Moreover, environmental deterioration and climate change have started to show irrevocable damages to the developmental progress made so far. Thus, development goals must be pursued without breaching environment regulations.
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