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NOTE: Please remember that following ‘answers’ are NOT ‘model answers’. They are NOT synopsis too if we go by definition of the term. What we are providing is content that both meets demand of the question and at the same time gives you extra points in the form of background information.
General Studies – 1
Topic: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
1. Pallavas were the pioneers of South Indian art and architecture. Comment. (250 words)
Difficulty level: Easy
Reference: New Indian Express
Why the question:
A demand has been raised to declared Kanchipuram as an UNESCO world heritage site.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about the transformation in Pallava architecture from rock cut to stone built temples.
Directive word:
Discuss – This is an all-encompassing directive – you must debate on paper by going through the details of the issues concerned by examining each one of them. You must give reasons for both for and against arguments.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by mentioning how Pallavas laid the foundation of south Indian architecture.
Body:
Discuss about the four stages of temple development and explain how they evolved from rock cut structure to stone built temples. Mention the major features of early stages of Dravidian architecture under Pallavas. Highlight along with examples.
Next, write about development of sculpture along with examples under Pallavas.
Conclusion:
Conclude by commenting on the pioneer nature of Pallavan contributions to Indian art and architecture.
Introduction
The Pallava dynasty existed between the 3rd and 9th centuries CE, ruling a portion of what is today Andhra Pradesh (early Pallavas) and Tamil Nadu (later Pallavas).The tradition of direct patronization of the temples began with the Pallavas. Starting with rock-cut temples, Pallava sculptors later graduated to free-standing structural shrines which inspired Chola temples of a later age.
Body
Perhaps no other empire has garnered appreciation for their contribution to rock-cut architecture as Pallavas. Some of the monuments created by Pallavas during their rule through rock excavation have garnered the worldwide admiration for its beauty and the skills displayed by the artists. Pallava sculpture shows greater details of workmanship, lighter anatomy and more developed artistic finishing.
They were the pioneers of South Indian art and architecture as they had introduced the stone architecture in the Tamil country. Even as a building material, stone was not or rarely used here, possibly because of its strong association with funerary customs. The fascination of carving whole temples into the living rock which spread over India during the first millennium AD had not yet seized the South by the end of the 6th century. Their contributions are still extant because granite was used for building temples and carving sculptures.
Evolution of architecture of Pallavas
- Pallava architecture can be now sub-divided into two phases – the rock cut phase and the structural phase.
- Rock cut phase:
- The rock cut phase lasted from the 610 to 668 AD and consisted of two groups of monuments – the Mahendra group and the Mamalla group.
- The Mahendra groupis the name given to monuments constructed during the reign of Mahendravarman I
- The monuments of this group are invariably pillared halls hewn out of mountain faces.
- These pillared halls or mandapas follow the prototype of Jain temples of the period.
- The best examples of Mahendra group of monuments are the cave temples at Mandagapattu, Pallavaram and Mamandur.
- The second group of rock cut monuments belong to the Mamalla group .
- During this period free-standing monolithic shrines called rathas were constructed alongside pillared halls.
- Some of the best examples of this style are the Pancha Rathas and Arjuna’s Penance at Mahabalipuram.
- Free standing temples:
- The second phase of Pallava architecture is the structural phase when free-standing shrines were constructed with stone and mortar brought in for the purpose.
- The Rajasimha group encompasses the early structural temples of the Pallavas when a lot of experimentation was carried out.
- The best examples of this period are the Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram and the Kanchi Kailasanathar Templeat Kanchipuram both constructed by Narasimhavarman II who was known as Rajasimha.
- The best example of the Nandivarman group of monuments is the Vaikunta Perumal Temple at Kanchipuram.
Conclusion
During this period, Pallava architecture attained full maturity and provided the models upon which the massive Brihadeeswarar Temple of the Cholas at Thanjavur and Gangaikonda Cholapuram and various other architectural works of note were constructed.
The recent announcement of 11 ancient temples in Kancheepuram making it to the UNESCO’s tentative list of world heritage sites opens an avenue for the region to be back on the tourism map. This will ensure better care of the structures as the final honour brings with it international recognition.
General Studies – 2
Topic: Role of women and women’s organization
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: Live Mint
Why the question:
Women of today have proven themselves in all fields, including those heavily dominated by men. However, even in today’s day and age, women rarely achieve victory without facing numerous challenges of gender-based and other related social biases. Some of the obstacles that women commonly encounter, especially in a male-dominated field of human endeavour, are as follows:
Key Demand of the question:
To examine how empowerment of women is being hindered by various social biases.
Directive word:
Examine – When asked to ‘Examine’, we must investigate the topic (content words) in detail, inspect it, investigate it and establish the key facts and issues related to the topic in question. While doing so we should explain why these facts and issues are important and their implications.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by giving context of gender discrimination faced by women.
Body:
First, examine the various types of gender discrimination which exists at entrepreneurial level – Societal biases on capabilities, biases on cerebral capacities of women, Familial constraints, restrained access to funds, Lack of networks and mentors etc.
Suggest ways to overcome the above
Conclusion:
Conclude with a way forward.
Introduction
India has made significant economic progress in recent decades. Such economic growth has not been matched by progress towards women’s equal economic participation. India has a gender wage gap, despite the existence of India’s Equal Remuneration Act 1976 which mandates equal pay for equal work.
An increasing number of startups and new businesses have been founded in India over the last decade, the majority of them by men. While many Indian women have entrepreneurial ambitions, it is often more difficult for them to succeed.
Body
Current scenario in India:
- While success stories about women are on a rise, a recent report by the World Economic Forum stated that “eight out of every 10 media reports worldwide are about men: only two of them have women in focus”.
- The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021shows that on one hand the proportion of women among skilled professionals is continuously increasing, along with the progress towards wage equality, albeit at a slower pace.
- However, on the other hand, overall income disparities are still only part-way towards being bridged and there is a persistent lack of women in leadership positions, with women representing just 27% of all manager positions.
- According to the WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2021, India has slipped 28 places to be ranked 140th out of 156 countries, amongst the lowest in South Asia.
- The gender gap in India has widened to 62.5%, largely due to women’s inadequate representation in politics, technical and leadership roles, decrease in women’s labour force participation rate, poor healthcare, lagging female-to-male literacy ratio and income inequality.
- Among India’s senior officials and managers, women account for only 14% of leadership roles — putting India at 136th in WEF’s Global Gender Gap Index — and just 30% of professional and technical workers.
- GoI has reported that only 10% of startup founders are women, and women fill just 22% of positions in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), despite India having the second-largest AI workforce in the world.
Reasons for the Gender Disparity:
- Patriarchal Mindset:
- Preference for male employees over female employees
- Preference for promoting male employees to higher positions
- Glass ceiling: Women in India face artificial barriers like stereotypes, media-related issues, informal boundaries, which prevent them from advancing upward in their organization into management-level positions
- In rural areas, women are given lighter work deliberately in agriculture or other sectors thus making them eligible for low payments.
- Lack of Transparency:
- Due to lack of transparency in salaries in private sector, many women are unaware of salaries which they should actually get.
- In Government sector jobs, this disparity is much less because people working on same posts are entitled for same compensation.
- Socio-Cultural Reasons:
- Career breaks taken by women due to socio-cultural issues, marriage or pregnancy and parenthood duties.
- Higher Education levels of women also allow them to pursue leisure and other non-work activities, all of which reduce female labour force participation.
- Insufficient availability of the type of jobs that women say they would like to do, such as regular part-time jobs that provide steady income and allow women to reconcile household duties with work.
- Concerns about safety and Harassment at work site, both explicit and implicit.
- Sexual harassment at the workplace: #Metoo movement sheds light on numerous instances of sexual harassment at the workplace. However, due to the slow judicial system, justice hasn’t been delivered to these women.
- The cultural baggage about women working outside the home is so strong that in most traditional Indian families, quitting work is a necessary precondition to the wedding itself.
- When increases in family incomes are there, due to the cultural factors, women leave the work to take care of the family and avoid the stigma of working outside.
- Pink collarisation of jobs: The women are mostly deemed fit for “pink-collar jobs” only, such as teachers, nurses, receptionists, babysitter, lecturer, etc. which have been stereotyped for women. This denies them opportunities in other fields.
Measures needed
- As the experience with rural self-help groups shows, women are remarkably prompt at repaying loans and the government should step up the amounts and ease loan disbursement for women.
- Policy measures could include addressing or reducing the amount of unpaid work and rebalancing it between men and women, supporting employer or state-funded provision of childcare, and interventions to address digital and financial inclusion.
- The family needs to adjust to the changing role of women and volunteer to share household work.
- Introducing part-time and flexi-time work facilities to avoid their burnout.
- Online restaurant guide and food ordering platform Zomato said it is introducing up to ten days of ‘period leaves’ for all women employees to build a more inclusive work culture in the organisation.
- Results suggest that men’s wages will also increase as a result of greater inclusion of women in the labour force since productivity will increase.
- Menstruation Benefits Bill was tabled as a private member bill in the Parliament in 2018. It is imperative to look at the significance of the provisions, for a gender sensitive labour policy.
- To improve working conditions of the 10% women who are in the formal workforce, we must not forget about the remaining 90% women workers who are in the informal sector.
- Skilling the women:
- Initiatives such as Skill India, Make in India, and new gender-based quotas from corporate boards to the police force can spur a positive change. But we need to invest in skill training and job support.
- The private sector could also take active part in training women entrepreneurs. For example: Unilever’s Shakti program, which has trained more than 70,000 rural women in India as micro-entrepreneurs to sell personal-care products as a way of making its brands available in rural India
- Equal pay: The principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value that is protected by Indian law must be put to actual practice. Improved wage-transparency and gender neutral job evaluation is required to achieve this end.
- Assuring safe access to work: It is important to improve existing transport and communication networks and provide safe accommodation for women who travel to or has migrated for work.
- A useful and easily implementable idea would be to give income tax benefits to women. It would be a bold and effective step to increasing India’s female workforce participation.
- For political empowerment of women, their representation in Parliament and in decision making roles in public sphere is one of the key indicators of empowerment.
- Gig Economy provides women flexible work options to pursue their career while not missing important milestones in their family lives.
Conclusion
Unlocking the potential of women definitely requires an increase and shift in the composition of overall employment opportunities as well as questioning of societal strictures. As the country commends itself on world-leading economic growth and aspires towards a $20 trillion economy, it becomes necessary to take women along to make this goal a reality. Societal change will be the largest needle mover, but a constant push through the government, organizations and individuals is critical to bend societal norms for the better.
Topic: Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: The Print
Why the question:
Recognising that online dispute resolution, or ODR, is here to revolutionise dispute resolution in India, the NITI Aayog has taken multiple initiatives over the past year to further research on the subject.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about ODR as an effective tool for mediation and addressing legal disputes.
Directive word:
Analyse – When asked to analyse, you must examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts and present them in a summary.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by defining ODR.
Body:
In the first part, briefly mention the importance of Alternative Dispute Resolution
Next, write about the advantages and potential of ODR in India – efficient, costs, time, process etc,
Next, bring out limitations of ODR in India – digital divide, privacy, record maintenance, legal processes.
Conclusion:
Conclude by way forward for developing a comprehensive action plan is the solution.
Introduction
Alternative Dispute Resolution has become an integral part of the justice system in the current times since it involves rapid settlements and results in outcomes that are often favorable to both parties. Online dispute resolution is a further extension of the same, and the only differentiation is that it involves the utilization or assistance of technology to resolve the disputes.
Retired justice AK Sikri-led committee on the action plan for online dispute resolution, set up by the NITI Aayog, has suggested in its report that the government builds up requisite infrastructure and sufficiently enhances capacity if it intends to mainstream ODR and make it broad-based in India.
Body
Advantages of online dispute resolution to the Indian judiciary:
- The key advantages of establishment of Electronic Courts in India is bringing in a justice serving mechanism that is transparent, efficient, affordable, time saving, protects the interests of witnesses, reduces the backlog of pending cases and most importantly reduces the number of unscrupulous activities.
- Entire information related to a particular case would be available online. It would be available to the attorneys, parties and the general public through the help of internet.
- Registered attorneys can file their case document directly from their home or office. They do not have to worry about postage, traffic congestion or messenger services. They can create a docket sheet and update it immediately, when the documents are filed.
- With the help of internet, the documents of a case can be accessed easily from anywhere at anytime.
- E-courts would help in the computerization of work flow management in courts. Thus, it would help to create a better court and case management. Video conferencing facilities would be installed in every court complex. Evidence of eyewitness, who are unable to attend the court can be recorded through this method.
- The information would not be misplaced as all the information regarding the case would be carefully recorded and stored. Data keeping would include maintaining the records of e-file minute entries, bail orders, warrants etc.
- In many cases, the witnesses are not able to come to the court and make their statement as the other party is too strong and scares them of the consequences. e-Courts can help in dealing with such cases.
Limitations of online dispute resolution in judiciary:
- E-courts in India is an endless and complicating process. The process of e-filing a document is a difficult process. All the evidence cannot be produced in a digital format.
- Lack of techno legal expertise is the main reason for the poor status of e-courts in India. With the absence of techno legal expertise, electronic courts cannot be established in India. The country requires more techno legal e-court centers so that the project of e-court can achieve success.
- The project of e-court involves a lot of expenditure. It involves the use of a lot of computers and infrastructures. In the long run, e-courts may face the issue of lack of funds.
- Hackers are getting stronger with every passing day. The possibility of e-Courts getting hacked in such a case cannot be denied.
Measures needed:
- It is critical to draw up a well-defined and pre-decided framework as it can help in laying a concrete roadmap and direction to the e-courts scheme of India.
- To achieve this, the government must establish an effective task force consisting of judges, technologists, court administrators, skill developers and system analysts to draw up a blueprint for institutionalizing online access to justice.
- Such a task force must be charged with the responsibility of establishing hardware, software and IT systems for courts; examining application of artificial intelligence benefiting from the data base generated through e-courts projects; establishing appropriate e-filing systems and procedures.
- Creating skill training and recognition for paralegals to understand and to help advocates and others to access the system to file their cases and add to their pleadings and documents as the case moves along.
- Once the blueprint is ready, the High Courts across the country may refer the same to the Rule Committee of the High Court to frame appropriate rules to operationalise the e-court system.
- One aspect that needs to be focused on is the deployment of a robust security system that provides secure access to case information for appropriate parties. The security of e-courts infrastructure and system is of paramount importance.
- Also, user friendly e-courts mechanism, which is simple and easily accessible by the common public will encourage litigants to use such facilities in India.
- The government must also make dedicated efforts in the training of personnel to maintain all the e-data.
- Also, conducting training sessions to familiarize the Judges with the e-courts framework and procedure can give a huge impetus to the successful running of e-courts.
Way forward
- An important balance has to be struck between protecting the rights and interests of its users while ensuring that over-regulation does not stifle innovation.
- The need of the hour is to strengthen the existing legislative framework for ADR and introduce ODR-related amendments.
- This can take the form of an umbrella legislation for mediation, introduction of a data protection law, digitisation of legal processes like notarisation, and requiring mandatory pre-litigation mediation for pre-determined classes of cases.
- Introducing guidelines or principles that, though presently voluntary, should be adopted in letter and spirit by ODR service providers.
- The policy plan recommends that these service providers, which include technology platforms, ODR service centres and neutrals adopt design and ethical principles.
- To ensure that capacity considerations are adequately met, ODR should be rolled out in a phased manner with lessons from each of these phases informing future steps.
Conclusion
Government should take targeted initiatives like setting up legal tech hubs and tax incentives for the private sector to enable faster adoption of ODR. ODR exists at the cusp of these developments and is set to re-structure dispute resolution not just in India but in other nations that are looking at India for inspiration.
Topic: Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: The Hindu
Why the question:
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that the government is proceeding with the exercise to find the successor of the deceased Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about the importance of CDS to the nations security.s
Directive word:
Discuss – This is an all-encompassing directive – you must debate on paper by going through the details of the issues concerned by examining each one of them. You must give reasons for both for and against arguments.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by mentioning the rationale behind creation of the post of CDS.
Body:
In the first part, He will be the single-point military adviser to the government as suggested by the Kargil Review Committee in 1999.
Next, mention the roles and responsibilities of CDS – oversees and coordinates the working of the three Services. The charter of the CDS, if implemented properly, will prepare the 15-lakh strong armed forces for the wars of the future. The CDS is mandated to ensure the Army, Navy and IAF, which often pull in different directions, truly integrate to slash wasteful expenditure amidst the ongoing severe fund crunch for military modernization because of the ballooning pay and pension bills.
Conclusion:
Conclude by stressing on the need of CDS to make India ready for new generation warfare.
Introduction
Indian Government had approved the creation of the post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and the Department of Military Affairs as the fifth department within the Ministry of Defence. The CDS is be a four-star General/Officer who will act as the Principal Military Advisor to the Defence Minister on all tri-services (Army, Navy and Indian Air Force) matters.
Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife, an Army Brigadier, and 10 others were killed, when an Indian Air Force helicopter carrying them crashed into a heavily wooded area of the Coonoor ghat in the Nilgiris in western Tamil Nadu, recently.
Body
Chief of Defence staff (CDS) solves issues in planning, budgeting and force structuring for a military based on a coherent strategic vision:
- Need for CDS
- With the increasing complexity of security challenges in the modern warfare arena, there was a need for an integrated approach towards defence strategy.
- There are communication issues, budgetary overruns by individual commands, inter-alia which demanded joint working of Army, Navy and Air Force.
- Jointness:
- CDS will ensure and promote thejointness (functioning together of the three services independently) through joint planning of command operations, logistics, transport, training, communications, repairs and maintenance of the three services within three years of operation.
- This will ensure close cooperation and collaborationamongst the defence forces.
- Integration:
- There is a need for inducing integration (putting together the three Services at different levels and placing them under one commander) in different services.
- However, there is a difference between integration and jointnessof command.
- Lack of Resources:
- CDS as‘first among equals’ will act as a single point advisor and could be held accountable for his actions and decisions taken.
- Restructured military commands for optimal utilization of resources will avoid unnecessary duplication and wasteful expenditure.
- Expertise:
- Being into the services for so long, the expertise and knowledge of CDS to deal with the adverse situations could be appropriately utilized in order to achieve the desired aims, creating an architecture for joint commands.
Responsibility of CDS:
- CDS will administer the tri-services organisations/agencies related to Cyber and Space.
- CDS will look into monitoring of contracts, promoting the use of indigenous equipment, leveraging of current systems and transforming them, and prioritising the procurement of defence equipment in a better way.
- He will also assigninter-services prioritisation to capital acquisition proposals based on the anticipated budget.
- CDS will bring reforms to augment the combat capabilities of the forces and is expected to evaluate plans for ‘out of area contingencies’ for countries in India’s neighbourhood.
Challenges:
- Mandate for defence of the nation is still with the Department of Defence but the procurement process except capital acquisitions lies with CDS.
- This gives birth to dichotomy as on one hand CDS is expected to prioritise the expenditure between the three services but the wherewithal still lies with the Defence Secretary.
- Hence, the budgetary power still lies with the bureaucratswhich demands timely intervention by the government.
- CDS has the mandate of force planning(planning associated with the creation and maintenance of military capabilities).
- Changing role of warfare- being more technology-oriented over rationalisation/rightsizing of manpower needs to be addressed properly.
- India faces frequent conflicts on its land frontiers. Balancing this realisation that both maritime and air power are going to play an increasingly important rolein India’s rise as a leading power will be among the initial strategic challenges that would be faced by the CDS.
How do other countries work?
- All major countries, especially the nuclear weapon states, have a CDS. The U.K. from which the Indian armed forces and the Defence Ministry are modelled on has a Permanent Secretary, equivalent to the Defence Secretary, and also a CDS.
- The U.K. Government guidelines state that the CDS is the professional head of the British armed forces and, as military strategic commander, is responsible for how operations are carried out. He is also the most senior military adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and the Prime Minister.
- The Permanent Secretary is the government’s principal civilian adviser on Defence, has primary responsibility for policy, finance and planning, and is also the Departmental Accounting Officer.
Way forward
- The appointment of a CDS, can lead to the development of theatre commands in the future.
- Theaterisation has its advantages but the debate among the services on the need for such a move is far from over.
- The success of the CDS will depend on the kind of powers the person appointed to the post enjoys. For the CDS to be effective, he would need to have control on the decision-making apparatus.
- If the Ministry of Defence has the power to overrule the CDS, especially in the case of procurement of equipment for the three services, the move may yield low dividends.
- The positives that this move may have can’t be ascertained until the government reveals the nuts and bolts of its plan.
Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: InsightsonIndia.com
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 3 and mentioned as part of Mission-2022 Secure timetable.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) potential to achieve sustainable development.
Elucidate – Give a detailed account as to how and why it occurred, or what is the context. You must be defining key terms wherever appropriate and substantiate with relevant associated facts.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by mentioning the aims and objectives of climate change.
Body:
Write about 8 parts of NAPCC – which are aimed at ensuring both developments and combat climate crisis. Cite examples to substantiate the points as to how they achieve convergence. Hint: National solar mission is aimed achieving energy security as well as clean energy.
Next, write about the limitation of the above to tackle climate change.
Conclusion:
Conclude by writing a way forward.
Introduction
The National Action Plan on Climate change was formally launched on June 30th, 2008. The NAPCC identifies measures that promote development objectives while also yielding co-benefits for addressing climate change effectively. There are eight “National Missions” which form the core of the National action plan. They focus on promoting understanding of climate change, adaptation and mitigation, energy efficiency and natural resource conservation.
Body
The eight missions are:
- National Solar Mission
- The objective of the mission is to increase the share of solar energy in the total energy mix of the country, while also expanding the scope of other renewable sources.
- National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency
- Mandating specific energy consumption decreases in large energy consuming industries and creating a framework to certify excess energy savings along with market based mechanisms to trade these savings.
- Innovative measures to make energy efficient appliances/products in certain sectors more affordable.
- National Mission on Sustainable Habitat
- The aim of the Mission is to make habitats more sustainable through a threefold approach that includes: Improvements in energy efficiency of buildings in residential and commercial sector; Management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW); Promote urban public transport
- National Water Mission
- The National Water Mission aims at conserving water, minimizing wastage and ensuring more equitable distribution through integrated water resource management.
- The Water Mission will develop a framework to increase the water use efficiency by 20%.
- It calls for strategies to tackle variability in rainfall and river flows such as enhancing surface and underground water storage, rainwater harvesting and more efficient irrigation systems like sprinklers or drip irrigation.
- National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem
- The Plan calls for empowering local communities especially Panchayats to play a greater role in managing ecological resources.
- It also reaffirms the following measures mentioned in the National Environment Policy, 2006.
- National Mission for a Green India
- This Mission aims at enhancing ecosystem services such as carbon sinks.
- It builds on the Prime Minister’s Green India campaign for afforestation of 6 million hectares and the national target of increasing land area under forest cover from 23% to 33%.
- It is to be implemented on degraded forest land through Joint Forest Management Committees set up under State Departments of Forests.
- These Committees will promote direct action by communities.
- National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture
- The aim is to make Indian agriculture more resilient to climate change by identifying new varieties of crops, especially thermal resistant ones and alternative cropping patterns.
- This is to be supported by integration of traditional knowledge and practical systems, information technology and biotechnology, as well as new credit and insurance mechanisms.
- National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change
- This Mission strives to work with the global community in research and technology development and collaboration through a variety of mechanisms and, in addition, will also have its own research agenda supported by a network of dedicated climate change related institutions and universities and a Climate Research Fund.
- The Mission will also encourage private sector initiatives for developing innovative technologies for adaptation and mitigation.
Limitation of the above to tackle climate change
- The plan report makes no commitment to cut the country’s carbon emissionwhich should have been an integral part of it.
- Thefocal point of NAPCC seems to be solar power mission only and the government’s efforts to maximise the solar energy seemingly approve it.
- Missions related to sustainable habitat, water, and agriculture and forestry are multi-sectoral, overlapping, multi-departmental, advisory and very slow moving in nature.
- Several ongoing activities are in principle aligned with the objectives of these missions which should either be integrated with the missions or scrapped to save the time and cost.
- Another challenge is the monitoring systems, which are either ineffective or absent.
- Progress reports for NSM, NMEEE, and NWM are currently available but mapping of progress for other missions has been difficult due to their cross-cutting nature.
- The cross-cutting subjects of the missions have not yielded any positive results on grounds yet so a new approach is needed to solve this and bring the agenda of climate change to the mainstream.
Conclusion
By releasing the NAPCC, the Indian government has shown its commitment to address climate change issues and also sent a positive message to the public, industries, and civil society about the government’s concern to address the climate change issue through concerted action. Issues related to the awareness regarding global warming and climate change among the general population and the issue related to agriculture and health hazards due to climate change must be addressed strongly and effectively.
Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment
Difficulty level: Easy
Reference: Environment by Shankar
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 3 and mentioned as part of Mission-2022 Secure timetable.
Key Demand of the question:
To analyse if Geo-engineering could be a viable option to overcome the climate crisis.
Directive word:
Critically analyse – When asked to analyse, you must examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts and present them in a summary. When ‘critically’ is suffixed or prefixed to a directive, one needs to look at the good and bad of the topic and give a fair judgement.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin the answer by defining geo-engineering.
Body:
You can use a bubble diagram to show the various modes of geo-engineering such as Shoot Mirrors into Space (Solar Sunscreen), Copy a Volcano, Build Fake Trees etc.
In the first part of the body, write about how the above strategies work and will be beneficial for the planet above and over existing mitigation strategies to tide over the climate crisis. Clearly outline as to why it may be needed.
In the next part, mention about the major drawbacks, impediments and concerns regarding the implementation of the above strategies
Conclusion:
End your answer that existing strategies should be implemented on a war footing, but alternative ideas must also be considered, planned and studied about just in case of a climate emergency.
Introduction
Geoengineering interventions are large-scale attempts to purposefully alter the climate system in order to offset the effects of global warming. Most geoengineering proposals can be divided into two types: solar radiation management (SRM) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Geoengineering offers the hope of temporarily reversing some aspects of global warming and allowing the natural climate to be substantially preserved whilst greenhouse gas emissions are brought under control and removed from the atmosphere by natural or artificial processes.
Body:
Positives of geoengineering:
- As expected, the climate would begin to cool once geoengineering commences. This initial cooling phase, would provide relief, particularly for species that were unable to keep up with past warming.
- Also, birds and fish which may have moved in response to elevated temperatures in the past will possibly turn back.
- If solar geoengineering were ramped up slowly to half the rate of warming over the coming decades, then it seems likely it would reduce many climate risks. Solar geoengineering deployment can be ended without the impacts of a termination shock if it is gradually ramped down over decades.
- The climate models reveal that the large-scale action would indeed calm things down a bit and potentially reduce the number of North Atlantic cyclones.
Negatives of geoengineering:
- A recent study shows that rapid application, followed by abrupt termination of this temporary tech-fix can in fact accelerate climate change.
- The increase in temperature from the abrupt termination is so quick that most species, terrestrial or marine, may not be able to keep up with it and eventually perish.
- The increase in temperature is two to four times more rapid than climate change without geoengineering. This increase would be dangerous for biodiversity and ecosystems.
- Reptiles, mammals, fish and birds that have been moving at 1.7 km/year on average will now have to move faster than 10 km/year to remain in their preferred climatic zones. This raises serious concerns, especially for less-mobile animals like amphibians and corals.
- Not just species but entire ecosystems could collapse by suddenly hitting the stop button on geoengineering.
- For example, temperate grassland and savannahs, which are maintained by specific combinations of temperature and rainfall, may experience increasing rates of temperatures, but an opposing trend in rainfall, after 2070.
- Ineffectiveness
- The effectiveness of the techniques proposed may fall short of predictions.
- In ocean iron fertilization, for example, the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere may be much lower than predicted, as carbon taken up by plankton may be released back into the atmosphere from dead plankton, rather than being carried to the bottom of the sea and sequestered.
- Model results from a 2016 study, suggest that blooming algae could even accelerate Arctic warming.
- Moral hazard or risk compensation
- The existence of such techniques may reduce the political and social impetus to reduce carbon emissions
- Albedo modification strategies could rapidly cool the planet’s surface but pose environmental and other risksthat are not well understood and therefore should not be deployed at climate-altering scales.
- In the case of environmental risks, the offsetting of greenhouse gases by increasing the reflection of sunlight is not going to be perfect. Some people, potentially a small minority, will get less rainfall. There is concern about what particles might do to the ozone layer.
- The drop off of tropical storms in one area would actually lead to a spike in drought in parts of Africa, according to the data.
Way forward:
- The potential of natural systems as an effective solution for sequestering carbon dioxide has led to several efforts to scale nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change.
- These proliferating efforts, however, must take cognisance of the fact that these solutions are effective only when applied while protecting the already existing forest.
- Additionally, we must not run blindly after planting trees; instead, we must back reason with science.
- Trees should be planted where they belong, that too with native species, and in consultation with local communities.
Conclusion:
In any case in the meantime, two aspects are certain: under no scenario could climate engineering serve as a substitute to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and it would be better to implement such technologies with more nuanced research.
Value addition
Some geoengineering techniques and its drawbacks:
Carbon capture and storage technologies:
- This carbon dioxide removal approach focuses on removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and locking them away.
- The process starts with the capture of generated CO2 which undergoes a compression process to form a dense fluid. This eases the transport and storage of the captured CO2.
- The dense fluid is transported via pipelines and then injected into an underground storage facility.
- Captured CO2 can also be used as a raw material in other industrial processes such as bicarbonates.
- The CCS has significant backing from the International Energy Agency and the IPCC.
- However, it still is hanging in uncertainty due to high upfront costs in the instalment of such plants.
- A growing number of corporations are pouring money into so-called engineered carbon removal techniques.
- However, these technologies are at a nascent stage and need an overhaul to be exploited.
- Carbon dioxide may be stored deep underground. Reservoir design faults, rock fissures, and tectonic processes may act to release the gas stored into the ocean or atmosphere leading to unintended consequences such as ocean acidification etc.
solar radiation modification:
- This process does not affect atmospheric greenhouse gases but aims to reflect the solar radiation coming to the earth.
- The science of the method is, however, largely model-based, and the impacts of deflecting the solar radiations could be unpredictable.
- Additionally, due to the thermal inertia of the climate system, removal of the radiation modification could result in the escalation of temperature very quickly, giving significantly less time to adapt.
- Another side effect of the radiation modification process could be natural vegetation.
- Since solar radiation is responsible for photosynthesis, sudden masking of solar radiation could significantly affect the process.
- While these questions remain unanswered, the futures of these technologies remain uncertain.
General Studies – 4
Topic: Case study.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 4 and part of ‘Case Study Fridays’ in Mission-2022 Secure.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
You may begin by bringing out the gravity of the issue of mob violence in India and its impact.
Body:
- In the light of recent events, analyse the causes behind rise of mob lynching. State your arguments for and against if it symbolises a moral decay in our society.
- Give your arguments for and against need for a separate law for mob lynching.
Conclusion:
Suggest measures to prevent mob lynching in India.
Introduction
Mob lynching is a form of violence in which mob under the pretext of administering justice, takes laws into their hand and tries to inflict punishment without due process of law. It is not just “mobocracy”; it is a collective hate crime. Intolerance in various forms such as lynching, communalism, rioting etc is dividing our society and tearing into our social fabric.
Body
Causes behind growing instances of Mob lynching
- With modernity, there is growth of individualism and an erosion of associational life and intolerance towards pluralism.
- Associations encourage us to appreciate others culture and moderate our aggressive instincts.
- Mob has no-face, this impunity leads mob to take extreme steps
- Weakening of civil society organizations and other organic institutional links.
- A culture of political mobilization that uses violence as a tool of politics.
- Indifferent attitude towards other cultures and religions.
- Indifferent attitude of Police leads people to take law in their own hands. e.g. Tamil Nadu Lynching
- According to India spend report, in 21% of the cases, the police filed cases against the victims/survivors.
- Rise in penetration of Social media and its usage to spread rumours and hatred. E.g.: Bangalore Exodus of North east people.
- Growing Prevalence of Fake news and Hate News. E.g.: Dadri Lynching. There are instances of organized hate campaigns as well.
- According to ‘India spend’ 52% of attacks in last 8 years are based on rumours.
- The silence of political class. They are ineffective to create deterrence through strong law.
- Ineffective and delayed justice. E.g.: Manipur Lynching of rape accused.
- High Unemployment rates leave millions of youth unengaged. E.g.: Manesar Maruti Plant Incident
Moral decay of society
- The country is witnessing a series of incidents of lynching and targeted mob violence against vulnerable groups.
- Supreme Court, anguished and described it as ‘horrific acts of mobocracy’, in the shadow of four years of surging hate violence targeting religious and caste minorities.
- Such acts shows loss of tolerance in the society and people are being swayed by emotions, prejudices.
- The increasing ‘suspicion’, ‘hatred’, ‘paranoia’ gradually erase the difference between ‘animal instinct’ and ‘human-instinct’.
Yes, a separate law for mob lynching is need of the hour
- Helps control the mobocracy and safeguard the social fabric of India.
- The law acts as a deterrent against mob crimes and assures the prevalence of “Rule of Law”.
- Protects and safeguards the minorities and vulnerable.
- Prevents a hostile environment against people of the community, who have been lynched.
- Protection of victims and witnesses against any kind of intimidation, coercion, inducement, violence
No, a separate law is not needed
- some experts feel that the lynch mob is a law and order challenge.
- There are enough provisions in IPC related to murder, attempt to murder, acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention to tackle such menace if implemented strongly and effectively
Conclusion
Parliament must create a special law against lynching, asserting that “fear of law and veneration for the command of law constitutes the foundation of a civilised society”. Lynching should be nipped in the bud and Manipur has shown the way forward. It has taken the leadership in creating the new India, where every citizen should claim – of safety, fairness and fraternity.
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