9 PM Daily Brief – 28 March 2016

Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation

What is 9 PM brief?


GS PAPER 2


 

[1] CAG report can’t be sole basis for liability or prosecution: HC

The Hindu

What happened?

Karnataka High Court have said that the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) cannot be the sole basis for any liability being caused or for prosecution to be launched.

 

In which case, HC has given this verdict?

The court has directed the State-owned Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd. (KPCL) “not to initiate recovery against” Kolkata-based EMTA Coal Ltd. and Karnataka EMTA Coal Mines Ltd. “solely on the basis of the CAG report of March 2013”

 

View of  the Supreme Court in this matter

In Arun Kumar Agarwal vs. Union of India 2013, SC had held that reliefs cannot be granted merely based on CAG reports as they are subject to Parliamentary debates and scrutiny before being accepted or rejected.

[2] Hasty cure for a familiar malady

The Hindu

Issue

President’s rule imposed in uttarakhand

 

Why was it imposed

Harish Rawat government was asked to prove his majority in the state. This has led to imposition of President’s rule in Uttarakhand until his majority is proven.

 

About rule in Uttarakhand

  • While it is highly doubtful that there was a breakdown of the constitutional machinery as the Centre claims

 

  • What is required is some judicial clarity on the limits, if any, of a Speaker’s power to alter the composition of the House in the run-up to a floor test.

 

  • It is unlikely that a complete breakdown of political morality can be set right by law alone.

 

  • There is an urgent need to evolve a further set of norms that inhibit the blatant misuse of Article 356 on the one hand and the cynical use of a Speaker’s power to sustain a sinking regime on the other.

What is President’s rule

  • Article 356 of the Constitution of India on a State, whose constitutional machinery has failed. In the event that a State government is not able to function as per the Constitution, the State comes under the direct control of the central government.

 

  • During President’s rule, the Governor has the authority to appoint retired civil servants or other administrators, to assist him.
  • Thus imposition of President’s Rule negates the federal character

 

  • Administration usually is shared between the Union and State governments

 

  • Dr. Ambedkar, chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution of India, referred to Article 356 as a dead letter of the Constitution

 

  1. R. Bommai v. Union of India 1994 case
  2. R. Bommai v. Union of India raised serious question of law relating to Proclamation of President’s Rule and dissolution of Legislative assemblies according to Article 356 of the Constitution of India.
  • Supreme Court had to determine was whether the Presidential Proclamation under Article 356 was justiciable and if so to what extent.

The second contention was whether the President has full powers to issue Proclamation under Article 356(1) of the Constitution.

[3] Updating Aadhar for better piracy

The Hindu

Issue
Aadhaar in its current form is not secure, so it needs to be updated for better privacy.

 

Why it is not secure in its current form?

  • UID (Unique Identification Number) can be used beyond the intended and appealing aspects, by its partners and systems providers.
  • Currently, there is interlinking of databases by third parties, which can lead to unintended use of the identity number.
  • Currently, the 12 digit number if once accessed by the bank (or any other authorised user) can be accessed by other users, because of inter-linkability of data.
  • It can lead to violation of the privacy of an individual.

 

How it can be updated and made more secured?

  • The design of UID should be such that it should prevent linking of databases by third parties.
  • The data need to be segregated, so that a user can only can have access to what is required for the purpose.
  • For this, we should have a UID that is not inter-linkable across users, and at the same time uniquely linked to the person through biometrics.

 

UID+ can be the solution

  • Instead of using the base UID number, we should have a modified number that is cryptographically generated to be unique.
  • This modified number should be based on the base UID number in such a way that it could be functionally the same as UID number, and it will not reveal the base UID number.

 

Advantages of UID+ number

  • A corporation or other user could not create a linked database for profiling — they would all have different UID+ numbers.
  • To even get the UID+, the cryptographic process could be restricted to authorised users.

 

Conclusion

Aadhaar needs to be updated for better privacy, but it should be done without disrupting the existing UID databases. We should not let UID to become a casual identifier.

[4] From Swachh to Swasth

The Indian Express

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan target 12 crore toilets by October 2019

  • Target for 2014-15 was 60 lakhs toilets, Govt worked hard and made 87 lakh toilets in one year.

Does India need 12 crore toilets?

  • Yes, Because half a million people defecate in open. This is highest in world.

Open defecation leads to?

  • Infection
  • Stunted growth of children
  • High child mortality
  • A massive economic cost due to ill health

Economic loss?

  • World bank report show that India loses 6.4 % of GDP every year for illness caused by lack of sanitation.

Now govt made 87 lakh toilets in different parts of the country, Are people using the toilets?

  • Some but many not.
  • 90 families in a village in Bareilly district in Uttar Pradesh demolished the toilets made under the scheme.
  • The government had borne the entire cost of Rs 12,000 per toilet.

NSSO survey shows that only half of the toilets built are being used.

  • Remaining are being used to stock grains or animals, while the people continue to go in the open.

Why this is happening?

  • Lack of education.
  • People are not aware of ill effects of defecation in open.

Solution

  • Government had tried to educate the villagers through documentaries and lectures on the harmful effects of defecating in the open

How the message is delivered is of the greatest importance.

  • Efficiency of “edutainment” in changing behaviour is great.
  • The Population Foundation of India (PFI) in March 2014 sought to change deeply entrenched thinking and practices on child marriage, early pregnancy, sex selection, the acceptance of domestic violence and the non-use of contraception through Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon, a transmedia initiative.

Example:

  • To educate people there was an initiative in selected districts of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
  • 52 episodes (aired by All India Radio and broadcast by Doordarshan) over eight months.

Results:

  • There was a shift in people’s’ views on dangers of early marriage, the necessity to space pregnancies, the laws on sex selection and child marriage. They had become confident in accessing family planning services.
  • When demand is there, people go out to get the service, they are now ready even to pay for the service.
  • There are many example where people are making toilets in their homes, after they understood the ill effects of open defecation.
  • Because toilets offers them dignity, privacy, hygiene, and personal safety.

Conclusion

  • Communities should involve in the initiative. When this happens, there is no doubt that health services improve. The administration is forced to act.
  • Construction is important but most important is to create demand.

[5] The Strong Arm

The Indian Express

Issue?

  • President rule has been imposed in Uttarakhand invoking Article 356 of the constitution. According to this article president rule can be imposed in a state in case of breakdown of constitutional machinery in that state.

What is the principle laid down by Supreme Court for invoking Article 356?

  • In its landmark 1994 S.R. Bommai judgment, the court had said that the majority enjoyed by any government has to be tested on the floor of the House.
  • But President rule is imposed a day before the vote was to be held. Central government has justified it by holding that the Rawat government has lost majority, rendering its continuation “unconstitutional and immoral”.
  • The Governor has apparently cited possible pandemonium during the scheduled trial of strength. But mere apprehension could not qualified as “breakdown of constitutional machinery”, which was the main criteria laid down in the Bommai ruling for invoking Article 356.

Its implication

  • At a time when important legislation, especially those relating to the economy, need to be passed and the ruling coalition does not have the required numbers in the Rajya Sabha, such unnecessary confrontation with main opposition party does no help.

GS PAPER 3


[1] Focus on local demand to win WTO solar dispute, says Timothy Meyer

The Hindu

Issue

  • India may succeed in its solar dispute with the U.S. at the World Trade Organisation.

Ruling of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body

  • It  ruled that India’s requirement for companies that sell solar power to the government use only locally-made parts and components in its national solar power program is discriminatory against U.S. manufacturers.

Arguments given by India during hearing

India argued that solar manufacturing capacity is in short supply relative to the demand for solar panels in India.

  • So,  it  claimed exception under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) for measures “essential to the acquisition or distribution of products in general or local short supply.”
  • This was considered a broad argument and ruled against India.The WTO panel had ruled that the exception only applies when supply, both domestic and international, exceeds demand.

How can India succeed in this matter?

  • It can  succeed if it takes steps to develop its manufacturing capacity to serve domestic demand which is not addressed by global companies.
  • And, Local content requirements for renewable energy were quite common at states and local level in the USA.

[2] Public sector bank consolidation: A painful journey ahead

The Hindu

Issue

  • Not a perfect time for banks consolidation.

What is the need of the hour?

  • To strengthen the banks by empowering them with operational flexibility be it in the area of recruitment, or in differentiation on core capabilities

What is Gyan Sangam?

    • Two days’ “Retreat for Banks and Financial Institutions” called “ज्ञान संगम” “Gyan Sangam”

 

  • First one was held last year in January, 2015 at Pune.

 

  • March 4, 2016 is second Gyan Sangam.
  • This retreat has been held to take forward the Government’s commitment to reforms in the banking and financial sector.  The growth and change in the financial sector ought to be in tune with the development in the real sector.

Second Gyan Sangam

  • Discussion focused on how to consolidate.
  • Highlighting the government’s resolve to push mergers among public sector bank.
  • Consolidation will increase capital efficiency, apart from improving the ability of banks to recover bad loans which are rising

Advantages of consolidation

  1. capital can be used more efficiently. The merged entity will have more leg-room to raise capital
  2. At a time when non-performing assets are high, the recovery will be far more focussed.

Key for successful merger

  • Cost rationalisation (cutting down branches, particularly in urban areas where there are too many branches of different banks in the area)
  • banks from different geographies should be chosen for mergers (North Indian bank + South Indian Bank)
  • But some economist feel that merger should take place between same geographical area. And merger of large bank and small bank will be more effective in urban area not in  rural area.

Integration of human resources

  • The integration of human resources and their culture will also be easier if banks are merged from the same geographies.
  • The other criterion to identify banks for mergers is the technology platform. Different banks have different platform developed by IT majors. To merge two banks having different platforms could lead to challenges during integration.

Employee unions

  • The government may not find it easy to circumvent employee unions in banks in the consolidation journey.

Conclusion

  • Cost rationalisation is key to make consolidation a success and this may reduce branches in urban areas

[3] 1991’s golden transaction

The Indian Express

Context

How RBI managed to prevent the economic  crisis in the early 90’s.

What were the steps taken by the RBI at that time?

  • Banks’ gold holdings were activated, by revaluing it at market price.
  • And using this gold, foreign exchanges reserves were raised.

What were the issues that were raised before taking the above decision?

  • As gold has sentimental option, so sale of gold was not an option.
  • There were issues connected with the physical task of selecting, packing and sending out gold.
  • Pledging gold and raising a foreign exchange loan was the only option left at that time.

Conclusion

  • The total loan raised against the pledge of gold was $405 million.
  • Today, it may look small, but this amount was crucial to prevent a default at the time.
  • The shipment of gold made everyone aware of the enormity of the crisis facing India, and paved the way for economic reforms.

[4] Why Belgium?

The Indian Express

Issue?

Number of youths in Belgium are being radicalised and are fighting for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Belgium has also recorded the highest rate of foreign fighters per capita of all Europe.

How it is radicalised?

There is a major Wahabi influence in Belgium.

 

These Wahabi preachers were sponsored by Saudi Arabia through the Grand Mosque in Brussels. This has led to a major radicalization exercise in the country thus making it a hot spot for terrorism related activities.

 

Moreover it is this fragmentation of the Muslim community which has made the problem so immense. Belgium has a complex structure of government, which makes exchanging of information between police and intelligence services difficult.

Why most of this radicalised youth come from Molenbeek, Brussels?

  1.   It is a place where there has been a huge demographic explosion between 1995 (68,000 inhabitants) and 2015 (96,000 regularly staying and 4,000 undocumented inhabitants).
  2.   Its population density is enormous by Belgian standards.
  3.   It has a very young population.
  4.   One-third of the families with children are without a father present at home.
  5.   Youth unemployment is high.
  6.   It has a street culture where drug dealing and commerce in weapons is not absent.
  7.   It is also at the centre of a “crescent of poverty”.

Other reasons

  1.    A number of jihadis are drugs dealers before their “conversion”.
  2.    Cyberjihadism recruits another kind of population, young men and women, victims of conspiracy theories, who naively put their trust in the Syrian-Iraqi caliphate.

[5] When they return

The Indian Express

Low oil prices, which helped cut India’s import bill, are now affecting remittances.

 

Issue

  • The Current account deficit has come down because oil prices came down, but at the same time the Indian migrants working in other countries, especially oil countries are retrenching workers and there is rise of unemployment, so the remittances or the money they send back home has also reduced
  • Current account deficit= $22bn in 2015
  • Deficit in 2014 was $26.2bn

Why is this a concern

  • remittances constitute the country’s second largest export item — with annual earnings of $66.3 bn in 2014-15, only behind the $70.4 bn from software services

What is current account deficit

  • A current account deficit means the value of imports of goods / services / investment incomes is greater than the value of exports. It is sometimes referred to as a trade deficit.

Affected places

  • one million foreign workers may have to leave Saudi Arabia by this year-end
  • the kingdom, grappling with a $98 bn budget deficit in 2015
  • official unemployment rate of 11.5 per cent

Similar pressures are building up in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, which are all suffering reversal of a decade-long economic boom primarily fuelled by oil.

Kerala

  • Kerala, which, in 2014, was estimated to have 2.4 million emigrants remitting around Rs 71,150 crore.
  • Kerala today also houses three million-odd domestic migrant labourers —mainly from West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh — who send back over Rs 20,000 crore annually to their home states.

This phenomenon of Indians literally going places within and outside the country to find work was enabled by improved connectivity (think mobile phones and rural roads) and global economic growth creating all-round employment opportunities.

[6] Raising Farmer’s income by 2022

The Indian Express

Background

Prime Minister Modi’s plans to ensure the incomes of farmers grow in coming years has been combined efforts of the different schemes that have been launched

How will the Agriculture plan work

three pillars for a meaningful agri strategy

  • Paramparagat kheti (traditional agriculture)

 

  • Diversification into agro-forestry by planting trees on the boundaries of farmers’ fields

 

  • Encouraging livestock and bee-keeping, duly supported by food processing.

 

  • Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (crop insurance) and e-market platform that is going to launch on April 14 will complete the picture

Soil health cards and neem-coated urea to take care of “mother earth’s” health; giving more resources for irrigation and using the MGNREGA for recharging groundwater through check dams and farm ponds, thus, getting more crop from every drop of water.

Minimum Support Price (MSP) is a form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices.

How other states have fared

  • Madhya Pradesh has registered 14.2 per cent growth in real agri-GDP over the last five years
  • Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and even Bihar have witnessed agri-growth in excess of 7 per cent.

 

In China

  • China’s farm incomes grew at 14 per cent per annum, and the agri-GDP at 7.1 per cent

 

  • This helped in halving its poverty in just six years.

 

  • It generated a huge demand for industrial products in rural areas, which were met by scaling up town and village enterprises (TVEs).

 

  • This also gave political legitimacy to carry on economic reforms more aggressively.
  • They incentivised the peasantry by dismantling the commune system in land, and freeing up agri-prices.

 

  • Lately, China has been heavily supporting farm prices. For instance, their MSP for wheat in 2014-15 was $385/tonne compared to India’s $226/tonne.

Doubling farmer incomes

  • Letting price increases raise incomes which has been done by previous governments
  • If food price inflation below 5-6 per cent, can raise farmers’ nominal incomes by 12 per cent per annum


Science and Technology and Environment articles has been left out, they will be covered in weekly compilation for next week.


BY: ForumIAS Editorial Team 


Comments

10 responses to “9 PM Daily Brief – 28 March 2016”

  1. thanks sir

  2. thanks sir

  3. Gaurav pandey Avatar
    Gaurav pandey

    can anyone tell me how 2 make notes from these articles.plz help me m new to forum ias.

  4. Nice

  5. Suraj Mahajan Avatar
    Suraj Mahajan

    Raising farmers income discussion lacking depth and could have been covered exhaustively… Though good initiative..

  6. thank you…

  7. sanima_nhi_dekhte_ka Avatar
    sanima_nhi_dekhte_ka

    India Nepal China topic is missing

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