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Following are today’s Mains Marathon Questions.
About Mains Marathon – This is an initiative of ForumIAS to help/aid aspirants in their writing skills, which is crucial to conquering mains examination.
Every morning, we post 3 questions are based on current affairs. The questions framed are meaningful and relevant to the exam.
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Questions
1. To what extent, in your opinion, electoral bond scheme has been able to ensure the trustworthiness of elections in the country?
2. Central Asia’s location, its geographical proximity to India, ancient linkages render the region highly relevant to India’s strategic interests. Discuss and highlight the major bottlenecks in promoting and expanding ties with Central Asia?
3. Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is necessary for the well-being of the millions of young children in low-income households. In the light of the statement, explain the significance of Early Childhood Care and Education and how Anganwadis can be instrumental in delivering it?
3)
The pandemic has put lakhs of children out of school and hindered their primary education and Healthcare. The initiative of Aganwadis provided mid day meals as an sop for attending primary schools. Aganwadis empowered by ASHA workers will ensure the optimal growth of the child and give him an opportunity for leading a better life. Early childhood is critical for the life cycle development of the individual and the Aganwadis can help the BPL families in giving their children a better and healthy life. The various initiatives such BBBP, sarvasikshan Abhiyan etc can be delivered through Aganwadis.
Thankyou forumias
Thanks for appreciation 🙂
Thanks for the questions. I will write today, please review my answer
The Electoral Bonds are the non-interest-bearing financial instruments which allow donors to donate funds to eligible political parties using banks as an intermediary. The Electoral Bonds were launched with the purpose to ensure transparency in the funding of political parties and reduce the use of anonymous cash donations and black money in electoral financing.
Several organizations have raised concerns about electoral funding in India. A report by Association of Democratic Reforms had pointed out that almost 70% of the funding received by top political parties in India is from unknown sources.
The Electoral Bonds were supposed to solve this problem. However, they have not achieved this purpose because:
1. There is no provision to reveal the identity of the donor of the political party. This violates the right to information.
2. The amendments made through Finance Act 2017 allow companies less than 3 years of existence to donate money. The EC has raised concern that it can give rise to inflow of black money through shell companies.
3. The limit of donation by corporates to 7.5% of their profits has been removed.
4. The 2017 amendment also removed the requirement of political parties to report to ECI the donations received through electoral bonds.
Thus the electoral bond scheme will not be able to solve the problem of use of black money in electoral funding. In this regard the recommendations of Law Commission (255th Report, 2015) should be implemented:
1. Public disclosure of electoral expenses documents submitted by the candidates.
2. Submission of audited annual reports by Political Parties detailing all the funds received and the expenditure incurred which shall be disclosed publicly by the ECI.
3. Disclosure of contributions less than Rs. 20,000 if such contributions exceed Rs. 20 crore or 20 % of the party’s total contributions, whichever is less.
4. Failure to disclose expenses results in disqualification for 3 years. This should be extended to 5 years to render the candidate ineligible for next election.
Free and Fair elections are fundamental to Democracy. Clean electoral funding is the basic requirement to ensure fair elections, hence the
Good Answer
Q1. To what extent, in your opinion, the electoral bond scheme has been able to ensure the trustworthiness of elections in the country?
Answer: Electoral bonds were introduced with the Finance Bill in 2017. The Govt notified the Electoral bond scheme in 2018. Electoral Bonds are interest-free bearer instruments used to donate funds to the political parties anonymously. Only the State Bank of India is authorised to sell them.
Donors can purchase and then donate them to the party of their choice. Parties can then cash these bonds through its verified account.
A major objective of the Electoral Bond scheme is to ensure transparency in the funding of political parties. As proper KYC norms are followed in the process, so only white money is used for donations.
Yet despite its intended objectives and provisions, the scheme suffers from various challenges:
– Issue of anonymity: Identity of the donor is not required to be disclosed to the Election Commission. This means that a random company can donate millions to a political party without ever running the risk of being exposed in the public domain.
– Moreover, as the SBI is the only authorised seller of the bonds, the ruling dispensation is always in a position to know about the donors.
Following suggestions need to be implemented to realise the aim of a transparent electoral process:
– Full or partial state funding of political parties
– There needs to be a complete ban on cash donations. Presently political parties can accept cash donations below Rs 2000.
– A National Electoral Fund can be created wherein all the donors can add their donations.
Integrity of the electoral process is the cornerstone of our democracy. Towards that end, the Electoral Bond scheme is a step in the right direction. By plugging its loopholes, Govt can ensure that it does achieve its intended objective.
Missed out on a couple of dimensions like the present rules do not preclude use of black money through shell companies, there is no limit on the amount the corporates can contribute (earlier it was 7.5% of profits) etc. If talking about the state funding of elections, do mention about the Committees (Indrajit Gupt Committee) or Commissions (ARC, NCRWC) recommending for or against it, gives more authenticity to the argument.
Yeah. I’ll take care of including these points from hereon. Thanks for the review 🙂
Q2. Central Asia’s location, its geographical proximity to India, ancient linkages render the region highly relevant to India’s strategic interests. Discuss and highlight the major bottlenecks in promoting and expanding ties with Central Asia?
The location of Central Asia, connecting South Asia, South East Asia to West Asia and Eastern Europe provide not only strategic opportunity but also provide economic, social opportunity for India. But the low engagement with Central Asia is one of the weakest link in India’s international relations.
They are vital for India’s strategic interest because,
– The Central Asian Republics are resource rich. Eg, Kazakhstan in Uranium.
-They can provide energy security to India, thereby reduce India’s oil import bill.
-Along with Afghanistan, smooth relations with CARs can bring peace in the region there by reducing India’s external vulnerability.
But there are certain bottlenecks in engaging with CARs. Some of them are,
-Lack of connectivity with CARs by land since Pakistan rejected India’s transit trade.
-The connectivity through Chabahar port is hard as the road and rail link has to be built to connect with CARs.
-China is the dominant player in the CARs development through projects like BRI, infrastructure investments,
-India is not playing active role in CAR as it is playing in South east Asia due to reasons such as US sanctions in Iran, Afghanistan’s terror threat, etc.
But these can be rectified by following steps like,
-Engaging more with CARs through trade and economically by signing FTAs.
-Pushing for faster implementation of projects such as TAPI pipeline project,
-Better utilisation of regional organisations like SCO’s
You didn’t mention the US exit and the rise of Taliban in Afghanistan which has hampered India’s plan to connect with CAR through Iran and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. Can also mention INSTC etc. Overall good answer in my opinion.
Where can we find the essay?
question 3 jan 29 2022