Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
- GS PAPER 1
- A judgement for women’s right – {Women Empowerment}
- GS PAPER 2
- State overreach on the campus – {Politics in educational institutions}
- Sex determination: Answer this – {Infanticide}
- Start at the bottom – {Education}
- GS PAPER 3
- India gravity wave detector 8 years away – {Science & Technology}
- Listening to the chirps of gravitational waves– {Science & Technology}
- Unravelling mysteries of coral bleaching– {Biodiversity}
- Antarctica influencing weather in tropics– {Climate Change}
- Listening to symphony of the universe – {Scientific Research}
- Consumer loans see highest incidence of fraud: Report– {Banking}
- Ministry rejects smart card plan for unorganized workers– {Unorganised Sector}
- PM Modi urged to make reality match “Make in India” hype – {Manufacturing}
- High speed railways in India: Success will ride on the details – {Infrastructure}
- Taking off– {Defence Technology}
- From plate to plough: On the farm front, make a bold move– {Agriculture}
- India’s challenge of securing the seas– {Maritime Security}
- Make in India: Learning from our success– {Manufacturing }
- The 1991 moment of Indian Banking– {Banking}
GS PAPER 1
[1]. A judgement for women’s right
Supreme court as torch bearer:-
A Supreme Court Bench has once again proved that our judiciary can be the torchbearer of progressive attitudes towards women.
In 2013, the Justice J.S. Verma Committee, while responding to the horrific December 16, 2012 gang rape in Delhi, prepared a report that drew from the observations of members of the women’s movement among other sources. The report was heralded as one of the most comprehensive reports not only in India but in the world.
Recent evidence:-
A directive is given to the Chhattisgarh government by a Bench of the Supreme Court comprising directing it to appoint a woman Excise Sub Inspector as Deputy Superintendent of Police after granting her relief in the upper age limit.
Rule:-
Age relaxation as per Rule 8 of the Rules, 2000 states that there shall be age relaxation of ten years for women candidates for direct appointment in all posts in the services under the State in addition to the upper age limit prescribed in any service rules or executive instructions.
Benefits of this directive:-
It is to encourage women to become working women, by taking up different vocations, including public employment.
It would naturally lead to empowerment of women, which is the need of the hour.
Defining women empowerment:-
Empowerment of women is perceived as equipping them to be economically independent, self-reliant, with positive esteem to enable them to face any situation and they should be able to participate in the development activities.
The role of women:-
Towards Equality: report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India’ in 1975.
The movement has been highlighting the need to recognise the vital role which women play in the economy and argues for their recognition in policy, data collection and programme design.
It has been emphasising that economic agency or a livelihood is a critical requirement for self-affirmation.
It also emphasises that economic power within and outside the household makes a difference to gender relations.
Economic development and women empowerment:-
By relating women’s economic empowerment to their ability to access, contribute to and direct economic development, the judges further expand on the value of their order.
There is a bidirectional relationship between economic development and women’s empowerment, defined as improving the ability of women to access the constituents of development — in particular health, education, earning opportunities, rights, and political participation
Recognising women as economic agents:-
Scholars who have explored and studied women’s work, especially among the poorest in the most marginalised locales and communities, have been highlighting the importance of recognising women’s work, the importance of women as economic agents.
These include those who try and understand self-employed working women and those whose work focuses on revealing the value that women bring to agriculture, food production, and the handicaps they suffer from lack of recognition.
Further, activists have been detailing how women organise themselves to escape from various types of bondage, exclusion and exploitation.
11th five year plan initiative:-
During the preparation of the 11th Five Year Plan, women scholars highlighted the kinds of changes that were required to be initiated in the development, design and allocation of funding in the Plan if women’s roles in the economy were to be taken into account.
Conclusion:-
Economic agency is one of the most enabling elements to shift gender relations of power, to release women from the kind of oppression, violence and powerlessness that they experience.
Women’s inclusion in the development design would enhance the outcomes of development it the self.
The directive is an advisory to all the Departments of States at all levels, to Ministries, to Niti Aayog and its State-level counterparts, as well as to research and policy forums about the importance of women in the economy.
GS PAPER 2
[1]. State overreach on the campus
What Happened?
Police action was taken against JNU Students union president Kanhaiya kumar. He also belongs to All India student federation of India, an organisation affiliated to the CPI.
The rationale for the police action was an event to mark the anniversary of the execution of Afzal Guru, a convict in the Parliament attack case, and it is alleged that slogans were raised against India’s sovereignty.
What was assumed by police?
Neither his union nor the party to which it is affiliated supports separatism in Kashmir or opposes parliamentary democracy.
The union has in fact disassociated itself from the views expressed by a small group of students who organised the event. Yet, an impression is sought to be created that Mr. Kumar and many other like-minded student activists in JNU are ‘anti-national’.
What is the Concern?
The Delhi Police seemed to have taken the cue from a remark made by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that “anti-national activities” would not be tolerated, and invoked the draconian pre-Constitution law of sedition.
Unless there was actual incitement to violence, there really was no case for the police to swoop down on the campus, arrest students, and slap charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy on them.
Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code, which makes sedition punishable with life imprisonment, has been casually invoked despite the Supreme Court repeatedly cautioning that even words indicating disaffection against the state will not constitute the offence, unless there is a call for violence or a pernicious tendency to create public disorder.
It is difficult to dismiss the police action as a routine or expected response by the state to reports of allegedly anti-national speeches.
Editors Suggestion:
In recent times, the suicide of a scholar in the University of Hyderabad roiled the student community across the country and created an upsurge against the ruling dispensation wielding its ideological influence on campus activities.
The misconceived manner in which Afzal Guru was commemorated by a handful of JNU students should not be a provocation for tarring the students’ union with the brush of alleged anti-nationalism.
The government should not sense in these developments an opportunity to suppress all dissent and seek to kill the ideological orientation of some student groups.
Deviation from its own notion of nationalism cannot be treated as sedition. The line between dissent and treason may be thin to some, but the ability to distinguish between the two is a constitutional duty of the state.
Given the history of its misuse and its incompatibility with a modern Constitution, Section 124-A of the IPC ought to be junked altogether.
[2]. Sex determination: Answer this
Context:-
Over the past 25 years, more than 15 million girls have been eliminated because of determination of foetal sex before birth.
This was the outcome of at least 45 million medical crimes of determination and elimination.
History of Sex selection:-
Sex selection was introduced in India as a method to control population growth.
Some researchs published in the medical journal, Indian Pediatrics, in 1975 argued that the excess girls born, for a son, was unnecessary fecundity and that elimination of girls would lead to population control.
Leading newspapers in Delhi carried advertisements for ultrasound sex determination in the late 1980s.
They argued that foetal sex determination would prevent women from dowry deaths and other forms of violence.
Glass jars with preserved female foetuses were exhibited by doctors to encourage female foeticide.
The initial phase of denial about the demographic consequences of this medical malpractice by scholars in the early 1990s assisted in the popularisation of this extreme form of violence against women.
The PCPNDT act:-
Following concerns of discrimination against women, sex determination was banned in Delhi government hospitals in 1978. But this practice spread into the private sector.
The women’s movement recognised sex selection as violence as early as in the 1980s. By 1985, public campaigns against sex selection started in Bombay and elsewhere.
Protests were made against advertisements of sex selection (“Save Rs 50,000 in dowry by doing sex determination for Rs 500”).
Finally, in 1988, Maharashtra enacted the first law against foetal sex determination and Parliament did so in 1994.
However, this was not implemented. Therefore, a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court along with two organisations against the non-implementation of the law and for including pre-foetal sex selection in the ambit of the PCPNDT Act in 2000.
And with the disastrous outcomes in the 2001 Census (child sex ratios in Punjab dropped to 798 girls per 1,000 boys; about one in five girls eliminated before birth), this created a national discourse.
Benefits of the PCPNDT act:-
The Supreme Court orders ensured that registrations of pre-natal diagnostic clinics increased from 600 in the year 2000 to 55,000-plus today.
Advertisements for sex selection had practically disappeared from print media, television and from walls around the country by 2003. Last year, Google Shopping had to remove product advertisements from the internet.
Barely 3,000 cases have been filed against violators of the act over the past 21 years though half a billion medical crimes have been committed.
Medical associations and their supporters have made continuous efforts to undermine the law.
In several districts of Punjab and Haryana, improvements in Census 2011 were only after child sex ratios fell to the low 800s or less.
Impact of the proposed scheme:-
The impact of the PCPNDT Act in Maharashtra being publicly denied is a setback to the implementation of the law.
The most worrisome trend is the spread of sex selection in UP and Bihar over the past two decades. Unlike Haryana and Punjab, which are small states, more than one in three Indian girls is born in UP or Bihar. Thus endorsement of anti-law efforts will result in serious setbacks to the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” scheme.
The endeavour to put the burden on women to stop sex selection is unforgivable — they are being punished for crimes that are being perpetrated by doctors.
If the government does not have the will to regulate 55,000 clinics, how will it track 29 million pregnancies annually?
In addition to the impossibility of this, it would undermine the abortion needs of women.
Conclusion:-
The only immediate deterrence against continuous promotion of sex selection by unethical medical professionals and agents is the implementation of the law.
The law was enacted because professionals did not follow medical ethics.
[3]. Start at the bottom
Context:-
One of India’s most important development goals has been raising the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education.
The current administration has set particularly ambitious targets, aiming for a GER of 30 per cent by 2020, a substantial increase from the present GER of slightly less than 20 per cent.
While revising the National Education Policy almost all of the themes guiding the consultation process forefront were issues of access and equity.
How to improve GER?
If we want to improve the GER, we have to start with primary schools.
Lack of technological skills:-
The rural youth found it difficult to use the internet to research programmes, fill out applications, and apply for financial aid.
Students recommended investing not only in more up-to-date technology in remote areas, but also in training teachers to incorporate technology into their lessons as early as primary school.
Lack of access to prerequisite courses:-
Most rural school do not offer physics and chemistry as they are taken for granted. In remote areas, course offerings are low quality and inconsistent, and that this should be remedied nationally.
Language issue:-
Many struggle due to a lack of preparation while enrolling. This is particularly pronounced when it comes to language: Students transitioning from vernacular systems repeatedly described their struggles to cope in both Hindi and English medium degree programmes.
They said that second language instruction — and, in particular, English — should be offered starting at the primary level. They also recommended incentivising instructors who are fluent in English to teach in remote areas, thus improving upon the current practice of employing underqualified second language teachers in regions like the Northeast.
Some students attempted to mitigate their lack of preparation by attending local colleges before applying for graduate programmes in major metros.
However, because colleges in under-resourced regions are frequently staffed by faculty who are forced to cope with a population that arrives on campus woefully behind, these degree programmes remain subpar.
Lack of role models:-
Students who hail from consistently low performing schools said before they joined their programmes, they had never met anyone with a college education.
This made higher education feel unattainable, and discouraged many from applying. The only way to drastically change mindsets was to push more members of their communities to set examples their juniors could one day follow.
Conclusion:-
It is to be noted that many students from the least developed communities intended to use their college degrees to strengthen local education systems.
Indeed, the purpose of increasing the GER is to make all of India — especially its children — stronger. To truly achieve this mission, we would do well to follow the advice of our youth by starting early.
GS PAPER 3
[1]. India gravity wave detector 8 years away
Context: Discovery of gravitational waves through LIGO. Plan to have an interferometer set up in India.
India – Ligo (INDIGO):
- Replica of LIGO detector. US has assembled many components and ready to ship.
- Earlier there was plan to set up the interferometer in Australia, but in 2011 it was rescheduled to setup in India.
- Cost – Rs. 1200 Crore.
- Site: Yet to be finalised but North India has been ruled out due to its seismicity and regular occurrence of sandstorms. Deccan plateau is best suited. From an initial set of 22 potential sites, the group has also shortlisted two for the instrument: one at Kalyanpura near Udaipur/Chittorgarh in Rajasthan and the other at Aundha near Hingoli in Maharashtra.The IPR has drawn up a plan for its construction and the Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd. has completed a feasibility study of the project.
- Timeline – 8 years
Indians associated with study of Gravitational Waves:
- C.V. Vishveshwara and Bala Iyer of Raman Research Institute, Bangalore – first to solve Einstein’s equation to derive mathematical model to explain how colliding black holes would look.
- Anand Sengupta – developed method to ensure that both the arms of LIGO detectors – seperated by 3,000 kilometres caught same gravitational waves
- Sanjib Mitra – Found out ways to tell apart gravitational waves from various exotic stars.
[2]. Listening to the chirps of gravitational waves
Context: Waves detected on September 14, 2015 has been confirmed to be gravitational waves.
The Gravitational Waves Origin: The waves are resultant of collision and merging of two black holes 1.3 billion years ago and at a distance of 1.3 billion light years from earth.
Black holes were of 36 and 29 solar masses respectively and merged to form a single black hole of 62 solar masses and emitting gravitational waves equaling 3 solar masses.
Gravitational Waves:
The 100 year old suggestion – Albert Einstein
The idea of space time given by Einstein – space time a flexible continuum which gets distorted and wrapped as large mass move through it. Lets understand it through an example.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GbWfNHtHRg]
The ripples as seen in example above caused by orbiting black holes traveled outwards as gravitational waves.
Theory of relativity – The process
Pair of black holes — orbiting around each other — loose energy and move closer to each other — as they moves closer they spin faster emitting even more gravitational waves
Before collision and merging — black holes move at speed of light
The Collision
collision of 36 and 29 solar masses — total 65 solar masses — formation of single black hole of 62 solar masses — 3 solar masses resultant was lost as gravitational waves — the output power was 50 x (all the power put out by light emitted by all the stars together in universe)
Sources of Gravitational Waves
All objects orbiting each other (even sun and earth) emit gravitational waves but these waves don’t tend to disturb fabric of time space.
Time space fabric get disturbed only when there is neutron – neutron stars or black holes orbiting each other.
The Uniqueness:
This is the first time there is an observation of black hole merger. It was a violent event releasing energy output = 50 x (all the power put out by light emitted by all the stars together in universe).
This waves made earth contract and expand by 1/100,000 of a nanometre.
Observation:
When gravitational waves hit LIGO there is a stretch in one arm while compression in other arm hence the two beams don’t cancel each other out and hence reach the detector.
Significance:
Gravitational waves move through universe unobstructed so they carry information which might not be obtained through telescopes or light particles.
New avenues of gravitational waves astronomy, where g- waves will be used to know more about the object that produce them like
- Blackholes
- Neutrino Stars
- Supernova
and study events like violent merger of very massive and dense storm.
There is a possibility now to explore early stages of universe which was not possible through light particles.
Why light particles were not enough to tell about very early future of universe?
Universe was so hot and dense in early times that it was opaque to light but gravitational waves could fully propogate through the plasma of the very early universe.
Few Facts:
LIGO is designed to catch the gravitational waves at frequency in the audible ranges of human.
Loudness of recorded signal also provides a rough measure when the merger occurs.
Interferometer is under development in Japan & India, an already existent one is there in observatory in Italy.
[3]. Unraveling mysteries of coral bleaching
Context: Study of defence mechanism of corals to resist coral bleaching in Lakshadweep Sea. Role of Mycrosporine like amino acids (MAA) in preventing coral bleaching in reefs of lakshadweep sea.
Coral Bleaching: Stress response of corals to a few biotic and abiotics factors.
Coral Bleaching Reasons:
Increased solar irradiance (photosynthetically active radiation and UV band light)
UV radiation with thermal stress could lead to loss of algal symbionts from coral tissue hence coral bleaching.
MAA – small secondary metabolites produced by organism that live in environment with high volume of sunlight.
Use of MAA:
- Protect cells from mutation due to UV radiation.
- Increase cellular tolerance to desiccation, salt and heat stress.
Importance of Corals:
- Highly sensitive ecosystem and productive ecosystem.
- Medicinal value with valuable source of pharmaceutical compounds (drugs for cancer, HIV, cardiovascular diseases, ulcers etc.)
[4]. Antarctica influencing weather in tropics
Context: Atmospheric radiation measurement west Antarctica radiation experiment (AWARE) at McMudro Station, Antrctica.
Study: It tries to find answer to how climate change and atmospheric physics affect Antarctica and ripple effect of these phenomenon on other regions of earth.
Atmospheric Circulation:
Temperature Gradient between the equator and poles drive atmospheric circulation in the southern hemisphere. in the form of three north- south systems:
- Polar cell
- Ferell cell (mid lat
itude cell) - and Hadley cell
As the polar region warms boundary between polar and Ferell will change along with the strength of circulation – which in turn will influence strength of tropical circulation on other side of Ferell Cell.
The linkage between polar regions and mid latitude is known as teleconnections.
Early Climate Model Experiment:
Warming of Antarctica – weakening of Southern hemisphere Ferell Cell — leads to strengthening of Hadley Cell on the other side — hence more rainfall in tropic region of Southern hemisphere.
Due to globally warming temperature —– Hadley Cell is expanding — Antarctica warming acts as an positive feedback hence expanding Hadley cell further.
Antarctica – serves as global heat sink.
South pole during winters — no insolation, but loses energy to space. Hence, energy and warmth transported over Antarctica by global circulation is lost to space by radiative cooling
Circumpolar Westerlies: Prevents warm air from Northern Latitudes of the Southern ocean from reaching the interior of east Antarctica which remains a cold desolated region losing energy to space.
Another features being studied: Wind traverse in form of storm tracks across Antarctica atmosphere.
Global warming effect on Antarctica:
- Slight southward shift of storm tracks.
- Intrusion of warm air which led to breaking away of large ice shelf.
[5]. Listening to symphony of the universe
The historic announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves, by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration (LSC) on February 11, marks the beginning of an entirely new way of looking at the universe.
A new paradigm
For hundreds of years since Galileo’s times, the sky was being observed with optical telescopes that looked at celestial objects either by the visible light that they emitted or by the light that was scattered off them.
With advances in technology, the universe began to be observed using different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Observational windows in radio waves, infrared and ultraviolet rays, X-rays and gamma rays opened up, and many terrestrial and space-based instruments have enabled scientists to gain new insights into the working of the universe.
Neutrino astronomy, which looks at 
neutrinos from solar and extra solar sources, is another window to the universe that has opened up in the last few decades.
Questions thrown out by recent discovery are:
- It is unusual that black holes of about 30-35 solar masses squeezed into about 150 km exist; from a stellar evolution perspective, we would expect black holes to be only a few to about 10-15 solar masses.
- Two of the black holes orbiting each other at about half the speed of light and merging into a single black hole of nearly double the individual masses. What are the kinds of stars that leave behind ‘stellar black holes’ with tens of solar masses?
- Will more such objects show up as gravitational wave astronomy evolves?l
To find Gravitational Waves effectively,a network of terrestrial instruments similar to the LIGO interferometer in the U.S. is needed — in particular, instruments in the southern hemisphere or closer to the equator that can look at the southern sky better.
With the two instruments in Washington and Louisiana, the source of the gravitational wave that signalled its discovery could be pinpointed only within a large patch of about 600 square degrees in the southern hemisphere; a crescent-like region of about 60 degrees x 10 degrees across.
The moon subtends an angle of 0.5 degrees on the Earth — a 0.25 square degree region in the sky. So, the uncertainty in the localisation was a region as wide as about 2,500 moons stacked together; an area as large as many stellar surveys cover. That, indeed, is a huge uncertainty and astronomers would like to do better by at least an order of magnitude.
Why to set up such facility in India ?
Localisation( finding the source ) of a source is done by the technique of triangulation, with a minimum of three stations, and the accuracy of this technique increases with longer baselines between any two of the instruments. The baseline between Louisiana and Washington corresponds to just a 7-10 millisecond (ms) time delay for a signal at the speed of light.
If the interferometer at Pisa in Italy called VIRGO, which collaborates with LIGO in gravitational wave observations, had been operational on September 14, 2015, the time delay would have been about 22 ms, and the localisation accuracy would have improved to a smaller 200 square degree window.
If there had been a LIGO-India set-up and working, the time delay between LIGO and India would have been much greater, about 36-39 ms, which would have narrowed down the localisation to a small 5-10 square degree patch in the sky.
Conclusion :
An Indian mega gravitational wave astronomy project, especially in the wake of this historic discovery, means a great opportunity for showcasing Indian capability at the cutting-edge of science and technology.
It will also enrich technological areas like precision metrology, photonics and control systems. But most importantly, it will inspire coming generations of young Indians to engage in international scientific research within the country.
[6]. Consumer loans see highest incidence of fraud: Report
Context: Fraud Report 2016 – Retail Banking, India by Credit Information company, Experian.
Findings of Report:
1. Consumer loans in India face the highest incidence of frauds
2. Credit card frauds is the second most targeted frauds after consumer loans.
3. The most common type of fraud is identity theft – share of this type of fraud is increasing.
(This type of fraud is increasing as sharing of confidential data like phone number, e-mail id on social networking websites without any security; and identity access to several apps on smart phones)
Measures to counter Fraud:
1. Income Tax department has recently issued a notification urging taxpayers to never divulge sensitive information over email or SMS.
2. RBI has recommended to link all credit accounts to a biometric identification such as the Aadhar to prevent banking frauds.
[7]. Ministry rejects smart card plan for unorganized workers
Context: Labour Ministry’s smart card plan for workers in unorganized sector has been rejected by Finance ministry.
What is Smart Card Plan for unorganized sector?
The Unorganized Worker’s Identification Number (U-WIN) scheme, first mooted in September 2014, proposed to provide a smart card to the unorganized workers for entitled to benefits under various schemes such as Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY) as well as the Atal Pension Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana.
Features of Smart Card:
The portable smart would have details of bank account, mobile numbers and benefits of social security schemes that can be availed by the workers.
Present Status: There are around 40 crore unorganized workers in the country, which accounts for around 89% of the total workforce, as per government estimates.
Challenges in Implementation of Smart Card Plan of Labour Ministry:
1. Labour ministry had earlier planned to provide one smart card directly to all unorganized workers, but Finance ministry rejected due to huge financial burdens.
2. Keeping budget constraints, Labour Ministry drafted another plan to provide one smart card to one family, but again it has been rejected by Finance Ministry.
3. Information Technology ministry has objected that issuing smart cards to unorganized workers may lead to duplication of work as the government is already planning to link welfare schemes with the Aadhar card.
[8]. PM Modi urged to make reality match “Make in India” hype
Context:-
Some executives complained about Make in India that It has more buzz, but actual works needs to be done, including infrastructure.
What is Make in India Programme:
Make in India is a ambitious Programme of central government to boost manufacturing sector.
Targets of Make in India Programme:
- Target of an increase in manufacturing sector growth to 12-14% per annum over the medium term.
- An increase in the share of manufacturing in the country’s Gross Domestic Product from 16% to 25% by 2022.
- To create 100 million additional jobs by 2022 in manufacturing sector.
- Creation of appropriate skill sets among rural migrants and the urban poor for inclusive growth.
- An increase in domestic value addition and technological depth in manufacturing.
- Enhancing the global competitiveness of the Indian manufacturing sector.
- Ensuring sustainability of growth, particularly with regard to environment.
Why Complain by executives:
1. Key legislation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) is still pending in parliament.
2. Key legislation on Land Acquisition is stuck in Parliament.
3. Poor Infrastructure – e.g. Roads Connectivity, Electricity, Broadband Connectivity.
4. Challenges in getting environment clearances.
5. Poor labour laws
Road Ahead: Taiwan’s Foxconn has pledged to invest $5 billion in a new electronics manufacturing facility.
[9]. High speed railways in India: Success will ride on the details
Context: India’s planning to develop high speed railways. E.g. Delhi-Chandigarh line at 200 kmph.
What is High Speed Railways?
New lines running at 250 kmph and above and existing lines that are able to run at 200 kmph and above can be called High Speed Railway lines.
Countries having High Speed Railways?
This program have been successful in Japan, China and several European countries such as France, Germany and Spain.
Benefits of High Speed Railways:
1. Reduced journey timings that impact individuals and business
2. Connectivity benefits to populations and markets
3. Increased passenger comfort
4. Mode shifts from more polluting air and road transport and consequently, lower road congestion.
Challenges in Implementation of High Speed Railways:
1. Environmental degradation along the route
2. Dislocation of people along the route
3. Noise Pollution
4. Regionally imbalanced development
Road Ahead:
1. The High Speed Rail Corporation (HSRC) of India was set up by the Government in 2012 to design and implement the country’s high speed projects.
2. Study work on Concept of “Diamond Quadrilateral”, which is a concept of high speed network of railways connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
3. Government has signed a pact with Japanese government to build bullet train between Mumbai and Surat, which is a 505 km stretch and this will be build with Rs. 980 billion.
[10]. Taking off
Context:-
The Tejas has performed phenomenally well at the recent Bahrain International Air Show.
The author feels that the government should reconsider the deal with France, because the fact is Tejas’ future will be inversely affected by the Rafale deal. If one is up, the other is out.
Fighting quality:-
The LCA’s composites-built airframe and small size enhance its stealth features, translating into a small radar signature and the greatest difficulty for enemy aircraft to detect it. Bahrain proved that fighting.
Tejas, a 4.5 generation aircraft like Rafale, has always been underfunded by government and undermined by the IAF with periodic rewriting of ASRs.
Three years ago, for instance, a mid-air refuelling probe was included, necessitating aircraft redesign that cost time, money and delays in the certification and induction cycles.
How to support Tejas?
- Bring the streamlined Defence Production Policy-2016 guidelines into play.
- Permit the DRDO to transfer source codes and flight control laws to Indian private-sector companies
- Incentivise small- and medium-scale technology innovation companies comprising an Indian mittelstand to take root,
- Motivate foreign suppliers of components and assemblies that currently comprise 70 per cent of Tejas to manufacture these in India and.
- Conjoined to a policy pushing its export,
- Germinate a viable aerospace sector-led Indian defence industrial growth.
This infusion of funds will fast-track the synergistic development of follow-on versions of Tejas, its navalised variant, along with the AMCA, and the fifth generation fighter project in partnership with Russia.
It will be the cutting-edge of a “Made in India” policy showcasing indigenous capability.
Drawbacks of Rafale Deal:-
Even after reducing the demand for Rafales by two-thirds and deducting 18 per cent of the cost as value of ToT, the new price tag exceeds the original cost by a billion dollars.
Paris is disinclined to offer sovereign guarantee regarding the delivery timeline and spares supply.
With Rafale facing production problems — only eight aircraft were outputted in 2014 — all the contracted Rafales won’t be in IAF service before 2030.
Solution:-
The defence ministry is reconciled to forking out Rs 63,000 crore for 36 Rafales. This works out to Rs 1,750 crore or nearly $270 million per aircraft — a sum that could fetch three Tejas or two Sukhoi-30 MKIs, rated the best combat aircraft in the world.
A more economical solution that will also satisfy the IAF’s apparent craving for French aircraft is to
- procure the 30-plus upgraded Mirage 2000-9s the United Arab Emirates want to be rid of,
- third Mirage squadron (with 80 per cent of its life intact) available from Qatar.
Infrastructure already exists to service and operate the Mirages. It will not complicate the logistics nightmare created by the diversity of combat aircraft in the IAF’s inventory, which Rafale’s entry will do.
[11]. From plate to plough: On the farm front, make a bold move
Context:-
The author laments at the poor situation of farmers while big buisness men are benefitting from the current government policies.
Where the focus is?
Much of the focus of the government is on Make in India, especially in the manufacturing sector. But the manufacturing sector has not yet registered impressive growth, which makes several economists sceptical of the high overall GDP growth rates.
Very few are talking about agriculture, whose pulse is sinking by the day.
Current growth trend in Agriculture:-
The optimistic growth forecast for FY16 is 1.1 per cent over the previous year’s minus 0.2 per cent.
The first two years of the new government will give an average agri GDP growth of just 0.45 per cent, way below even the population growth rate of about 1.3 to 1.4 per cent. This, in effect, means that per capita income in agriculture has declined.
Almost half of India’s workforce is engaged in agriculture, and almost three-fourths of India’s poor and malnourished reside in rural areas, where the main occupation is agriculture.
Alleviating poverty:-
With the purpose of public policy to alleviate poverty and malnutrition at the fastest rate possible the previous government in its second term had focused on the “dole” model —
- the National Food Security Act and
- the MGNREGA
Loopholes in the schemes:-
The intention was right but the model was not only conceptually weak but the programmes were destined to fail given the large leakages in them.
The PDS had leakages of more than 40 per cent, and is actually nothing short of an annual scam in the country.
Similarly, the MGNREGA, though supposed to be self-targeting and a fall-back programme in years of distress (like droughts), not only has high leakages but the most important criticism is that the quality of assets created is poor, making it more like a dole.
It is much better to spend money on programmes like the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, which helps in building infrastructure and contributes to faster growth and reduction of poverty.
What should be done?
If the objective of public policy is to wipe out poverty and malnutrition agriculture must register at least half the rate of overall GDP growth in the economy.
From that angle, targets of 8 per cent of overall GDP growth and 4 per cent for agriculture are fine and on conceptually robust ground.
In the 11th Five-Year Plan (FY08 to FY12), when agri GDP also grew at 4.1 per cent because of this high growth in agriculture poverty declined three times faster during 2004-11 than during 1993-2004.
Conclusion:-
The current years turned out to be nightmarish for farmers, with profits plunging to less than 5 per cent for most crops.
The author laments that the agenda has already been hijacked by the elites who want bank loans worth lakhs of crores of rupees to be written off for big business while the honest and hardworking farmer looks up with blank and hopeful eyes.
[12]. India’s challenge of securing the seas
Three important events:-
These events highlight India’s growing maritime interests and ambitions in order to secure them unilaterally and in partnership with others.
- Release of the Indian Maritime Security Strategy (IMSS) titled Ensuring Secure Seasin October. T
- Holding of the combined senior commanders’ conference, with top officers from all three services, on board INS Vikramaditya, the Indian Navy’s latest aircraft carrier and its largest platform, in December.
- India’s hosting of its second International Fleet Review (IFR) at Visakhapatnam in early February.
Maritime security:-
India is now willing to provide “net maritime security” either by itself or in cooperation with other navies in its primary and secondary areas of interest, which now extend from the west coast of Africa to the south-east Indian Ocean, “including sea routes to the Pacific Ocean”.
One instance of this cooperation was the IBSAMAR V exercise conducted with Brazilian and South African ships off the coast of Goa just after the IFR.
Threats:-
IMSS-2015 stresses that the principal threat “would be from states with a history of aggression against India”.
Concerns vis-à-vis China’s growing role in the Indian Ocean are not mentioned.
Instead, recognizing the complexity of an interconnected world, it cautions that even countries with “divergent national interests can be significant trade partners today (read China)” while there may be divergent security perceptions “with nations that may be traditional friends (read United States)”.
Nuclear deterrence:-
The document is also shy about the role of India’s sea-based nuclear deterrence against other nuclear-armed states.
It merely notes that the primary objective of the nuclear-powered submarine armed with nuclear-tipped missiles is to convey “credibility, effectiveness and survivability” of India’s nuclear arsenal to its nuclear-armed adversaries.
Recognising non traditional threats:-
IMSS-2015 also stresses a number of non-traditional maritime threats that now confront India, ranging from terrorism, piracy and organized crime to climate change and natural disasters.
In fact, since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Indian Navy has been increasingly involved in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, most recently in 2014 when cyclone Hudhud ravaged Visakhapatnam and other parts of Andhra Pradesh.
Moreover, following the turmoil in West Asia, naval ships have been involved in the evacuation of Indian and other nationals from Libya and Yemen.
Such operations are likely to continue until a modicum of stability is restored in the region.
Other initiatives:-
It includes Project Mausam, Blue Chakra (from the Ashoka chakra on the Indian flag) and SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region),but does not explain how they relate to each other or how they would be operationalized.
India will host the first Global Maritime Summit in April.
Conclusion:-
Clearly, despite articulating its intentions and working with several other nations, India faces formidable internal and external challenges in securing its interests at sea. While the IMSS-2015, despite its limitations, is a good beginning, it will come to naught unless there is buy-in and coordination at the highest level to ensure its implementation.
[13]. Make in India: Learning from our success
Context: Make in India week celebrations in Mumbai.
What is needed to make “Make in India” success?
The success of the Make in India programme lies in India building capabilities to manufacture world-class products at competitive prices.
Challenges: Variables which impact business are extremely fluid and require businesses to be extremely agile and adaptive to changes in the environment and technology.
The article takes some cue from the success of automotive industry to lay out how Make in India can be taken on path of success.
India’s success in the automobile industry, the government could consider creating an enabling environment for facilitating investments in new areas of growth in manufacturing such as energy storage devices, semiconductors, consumer electronics and needless to add, electric and hybrid vehicles within the auto industry itself.
Success of automotive industry has been led by:
- Technology and Skill upgradation was continous
- Huge local demand
- Intense competition ensured efficiencies in production wa passed on to end consumer.
- Different regulatory standard which gave upward spike in prices for short time but help industry adhere to gloabl standards.
- Fiscal incentives – tax reduction, tax breaks & exemptions both in VAT and excise as well as certain exemption on exports.
[14]. The 1991 moment of Indian Banking
Context: Public sectors banking (PSBs) profits plunging due to stressed assets. Specially State Bank of India profit nose dived by 62% in last quarter (Q3).
Why the profits has dived?
RBI initiated Asset Quality review (AQR) which forced bank to make more loan loss provision due to stressed assets (rising NPAs).
The reason for stressed assets and bad debts:
- Crony capitalism – where public sector banks have been arm-twisted by influence peddlers or wilfully went along in forking out loans defying commercial logic.
- Ongoing collapse in global commodity prices
- The ratio of gross NPAs, restructured loans and write-offs to loans take together for all banks averaged 14.1% in end-September (data from the latest quarter reveal this has further deteriorated as banks start providing for bad loans); for PSU banks, it was 17.1% – largest proportion of NPAs accrue to medium and large enterprises.
The Question: Is the crisis due to bad debts similar to one that Indian banks faced in 1991? – The answer according to author is yes.
But, this is an opportunity for RBI and Indian government to initiate long awaited reforms especially in the field of governance of PSBs.
Measures by RBI and their implications:
According to RBI, the measure like AQR will impair the bank profitability for a short term, but after cleaning the PSBs will be able to support economic growth in a sustainable and profitable way
The reach and popularity of PSBs among population along with access to low cost funding them fully realise their potential.
Government Initiative:
Indradhanush, the government plan to revamp PSU banks launched recently, provides the blueprint. The core of this strategy is to delink governance of banks from political influence by strengthening the bank management. Once in place, the management will have the confidence, especially with the authorities cracking down on wilful defaulters, to tell off influence peddlers.
Conclusion:
There is a need to decentralize decision making in banks along with strengthening of board and management appointment and need to find ways to incentivise which should have positive impact and help improve loan evaluation, monitoring and repayment. Banks must review their procedures to ensure they can make good credit decisions.
From government side early implementation of bankruptcy code will ensure creditors a way of collecting repayment through the judicial process in reasonable time
By: ForumIAS Editorial Team
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