9 PM Daily Brief – 26 November 2015

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

 


Science & Technology


[1]. This technology is hundred times faster than WiFi

What has happened?

Scientists have achieved speeds in the lab of up to 224 GB per second. Office tests in Tallin, Estonia achieved speeds of 1 GB per second, 100 times the speed of traditional WiFi. Technology is named as LiFi or Light Fidelity.

Drawbacks of WiFi

  • Running out of space: WiFi is achieved by transmitting data through radio waves, but can only transfer so much at a time. By 2019, it is estimated that the world will be exchanging roughly 35 quintillion bytes of information each month. Because radio frequencies are already in use and heavily regulated, that data is going to struggle to find a spot in line
  • Poor efficiency: The base stations responsible for transmitting radio waves only function at about 5% efficiency , most of the energy being used to cool the stations.
  • Security of data: For those Base stations that transmit sensitive data, security is also a problem, as radio waves travel through solid objects such as walls and doors.
A

How LiFi works?

LiFi works by flashing LED lights on and off at incredibly fast speeds, sending data to a receiver in binary code. It’s essentially an ultra-fast version of turning your flashlight on and off to create Morse code. The flashes occur so fast that they are not seen by the naked eye.

All one need to do is fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device and this would then combine two basic functionalities -illumination and wireless data transmission. In other words, the infrastructure is already there. We can use the LED bulbs we already have, with some tweaking


International


[1]. 2015 set to be ‘hottest year on record’, says UN

What has happened?

2015 is set to be the hottest on record and 2016 could be even hotter due to the current El Nino weather pattern, says WMO (World Meteorological Organisation)

WMO’s observations,

  • Global average surface temperatures in 2015 were likely to reach what it called the “symbolic and significant milestone” of 1° Celsius above the pre-industrial era. Why? It is because of a combination of a strong El Nino and human-induced global warming
  • The years 2011-2015 have also been the hottest five year period on record, with temperatures about 0.57 °C (1.01 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1961-1990 reference period.
A

The world’s ten warmest years have all occurred since 1998, with eight of them being since 2005


Opinions & Editorials


 [1]. Looking for a winter turnaround

Background: The monsoon session of the parliament was incredibly unproductive. No business could be conducted in both the houses of the parliament. Lok Sabha worked for a 47 hours out of stipulated 82 hours while Rajya Sabha worked for a meagre 9 hours with 82 hours being washed away.

What is a session of the parliament?

The period during which house meets to conduct its business is called a session

Types of sessions

  • Budget session: From February to May (longest)
  • Monsoon session: From July to September
  • Winter session: From November to December (shortest)
A

Winter session of the Parliament is going to be convened from Nov 30th 2015

Bills shortlisted by the government to be considered and passed in this session – 20

Important bills to be considered are,

  • Constitution Amendment Bill, to enable the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) – Constitutional amendments are covered under Article 368 of the constitution has to be passed by both the houses of the parliament by a two-thirds majority. Then it needs be ratified by 15 state legislatures before being sent to President. This Bill was referred by the Rajya Sabha to a select committee. The success of the government in getting this Bill passed will depend on its ability to find a mutually agreeable position on many of these issues.
  • Electricity (Amendment) Bill – is a significant move towards greater competition in the sector. The Electricity Act 2003 trifurcated the sector into generation, transmission and distribution. This Bill further bifurcates distribution by enabling supply companies. The Bill envisages multiple supply companies in a geographical area which would compete for business and lead to improved customer service and lower tariffs.
  • Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill – seeks to regulate the transactions between developers of residential property and buyers. It recognises the information and power asymmetry between developers and customers, and establishes various norms for developers. These include registering all projects, disclosure on websites of the layout plan and completion date, separate bank account for each project and ensuring that 70 per cent of the funds collected are used for construction of the project.
  • Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill – Child labour act is being amended. Currently, children below 14 years of age cannot be employed in hazardous industries (which include domestic service). The Bill amends this to prohibit the employment of children below 14 years in all occupations except when the child helps his/her family after school hours. The Bill prohibits children between the ages of 14 and 18 years from entering hazardous occupations.
  • Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill – The Juvenile Justice Bill has been passed by the Lok Sabha and has to be taken up by the Rajya Sabha. The age at which a person may be tried as an adult is being reduced from 18 years to 16 years in case of heinous crimes (which carry a maximum punishment of at least seven years imprisonment). The Bill also has provisions for children in need of care and protection, and adoptions (a single male cannot adopt a girl child). It sets punishment for offences, some of which do not appear proportional to the gradation of the offence. For example, giving a child (that is, a person below 18 years of age) any intoxicating liquor or tobacco product may lead to a prison sentence of seven years, while the maximum punishment for selling or buying a child is five years imprisonment.
  • Whistle Blowers Protection (Amendment) Bill– The Whistle Blowers Protection Act was passed last year to protect persons making disclosures related to corruption. This Act is being amended to prohibit disclosures under 10 categories (the same list under which information may be denied in the Right to Information Act).
  • Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill– Currently, the Prevention of Corruption Act makes giving a bribe to a public servant an abetment to the main offence. The Bill amends this provision to explicitly make this an offence. The Act requires prior sanction for prosecution of public officials; the Bill extends this protection to former officials
A

[2]. Victims of War, apostles of peace

What is genocide?

A Polish Jew, a one-time student of Philology, coined the term “genocide.” The term was a legalistic one and referred to nations that eliminate a people for being just that.

What is this article about?

In this article, author says the following things,

  • Media should report important happenings. Events that are important, that can influence, impact and force people to look for solutions to the existing problems around them should be given space in the press and media. One such event was organised by Women in Black, in Bangalore, an international group. In this seminar witnesses of genocide recounted their tales and stories but no coverage was given to them.
  • India has forgotten the two major genocidal events on the back of whom it was formed, namely, the partition and the Bengal famine. Lots of people died in these events but there are no memorials or monuments for them.
  • Women, in the seminar, were from Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, women from Bosnia, Rwanda. Rape was the common thread that linked all the narratives. Genocide seemed to love the rituals of rape as its accompaniment.
  • Development can also be as genocidal as war. For eg: Development of dams has led to around 40million refugees in India. India has more refugees from dams than wars.
A

Women in the seminar seem to be suggesting that the standard reaction to the acts of terror in the world is not sufficient. A proper discourse on peace should be initiated around the world to counter such violence and hatred.

India has no proactive theory of peace and it should be put back on the agenda

[3]. Going Solar

What has happened?

A recently concluded solar power auction in Andhra Pradesh earlier this month has shown that solar power is finally here to stay. This was an international auction for a commercial, grid-connected plant of 500 MW, in which 30 Indian and foreign companies participated.

All the bids in this auction were for setting up Photovoltaic (PV) power plants, which can deliver power only during daylight hours and at full efficiency for only a part of those hours. Why?

Storing electricity is prohibitively expensive because doing so through batteries would entail economic and environmental costs.

The result

Along with its plans to increase the solar output to 1,00,000 MW government is also planning to increase the coal-fired power output by establishing 455 coal-based power plants by 2030.

Instead of going down that road, where we have to sacrifice our environment for growth, author suggest following things,

Concentrated Solar thermal power – Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies use mirrors to concentrate (focus) the sun’s light energy and convert it into heat to create steam to drive a turbine that generates electrical power

Benefits of CSP

  • Can provide electricity day and night without any fossil fuel backup so they need not be paired with conventional sources of energy to fulfil the energy demand
  • Distribution cost is less: CSP plants can produce steam at well above the 593 degrees Celsius required for supercritical power stations and can, therefore, be used with the same ultramodern turbines that are being used in our ultra-mega power plants. This makes it possible to feed the power directly into the existing national grid, without having to step up the voltage.
A

Crucial breakthrough in CSP

The crucial breakthrough came in 2011, when Gemasolar, a 20 MW Solar thermal power plant, began delivering 6,500 hours of power a year to a small city in Seville, Spain, for the past three years. This is 10 per cent more than what the coal-fired power plants have been delivering in India in recent years.

Why PV should not be preferred over CSP?

  • Loss in efficiency – PV panels lose half a per cent of their efficiency for every degree of temperature rise above ambient levels. This amounts to a 2 per cent fall in delivered power for every extra degree of heat.
  • Transmission Cost- PV power also needs to be stepped up to grid voltages. This increases the cost of transmission by up to three times.
A

Conclusion

Hence, it is better if government focuses on CSP instead of PV power plants for a sustainable and long term solution to India’s power needs

[4]. Way of the committee

What author says?

Author feels that in last few years the political stand-offs have resulted in very unproductive parliament session. Last, monsoon session is a very good example of this as no substantial work could be done in either houses of the parliament. Hence, there should be a mechanism to isolate the parliament from the unexpected and inexplicable changes in the politics.

The system of departmentally related standing committees was instituted by Parliament in 1993.

What is a parliamentary standing committee?

Work done by the parliament in modern times is considerable in volume but the time at its disposal is quite limited. So, in order that all legislative and other matters are considered in detail, parliamentary committees were formed.

These are of two types,

  • Ad-HocAd hoc Committees are appointed for a specific purpose and they cease to exist when they finish the task assigned to them and submit a report.
  • Parliamentary standing committee– Standing Committees are Committees appointed every year or periodically, and their work goes on in a continuous basis. The three most important Standing Committees (which deal with finance) are worth special mention
    • Committee on Estimates
    • Committee on Public Accounts
    • Committee on Public Undertakings
A

Additionally, there are 24 Departmentally Related Standing Committees that deal with affairs of a specific Department/Ministry

Significance of Parliamentary committees

  • They examine ministerial budgets
  • analyse legislation
  • Scrutinise the government’s working – Their strength lies in the depth and rigour of their reports. If these committees work effectively, they can keep a close watch on government functioning
A

They do this without any populist or political considerations. More significantly, they function through the year. They are important forums for debate.

Improving Parliamentary committees

1). Dedicated research staff– Parliamentary committees don’t have dedicated subject-wise research support available. Their working can be strengthened by providing them with full-time sector-specific research staff.

In 2002, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) pointed out that committees were “handicapped by lack of specialist advisers”. The commission recommended that in order to strengthen the committee system, research support should be made available to them.

2). Building consensus– Parliamentary committee forums can be used to garner public opinion and evolve political consensus on contentious issues.

3). Mandatory scrutiny of bills– Mandatory scrutiny of bills by parliamentary committees would ensure better planning of legislative business. At present it is not required to send every bill to parliamentary standing committees for scrutiny.

Conclusion

The deliberations and scrutiny by committees ensure that Parliament is able to fulfil some of its constitutional obligations in a politically charged environment


Economic Digest


[1]. From non-performing to performing

What has happened?

The ministry of finance recently released the draft Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), proposed by the Bankruptcy Law Reforms Committee.

A strong insolvency resolution framework is necessary,

  • To deal with the business failures that occur in an economy
  • To address the issue of low recovery rates by banks which are facing a rising number non-performing assets and bad loans
A

Existing mechanisms to deal with NPAs

  • The Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993
  • Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, 2002- Asset reconstruction companies were instituted under SARFARESI to buy bad debts from banks and recover from defaulters.
  • Debt restructuring
A

Despite all the existing mechanism, NPAs have risen and debt recovery rate is quite low. A weak legal framework for resolving failure is the major reason behind this.

Accumulation of Bad debt slows the economy- Banks are not able to extend fresh credit.

Creation of future lenders is hampered by a weak legal setup to protect creditors’ rights

Benefits of IBC

With the proposed IBC, the labyrinth of extant Indian laws dealing with corporate insolvency are being replaced by a single comprehensive law that,

  • Empowers all creditors—secured, unsecured, financial and operational to trigger resolution
  • Enables the resolution process to start at the earliest sign of financial distress,
  • Enables a calm period where other proceedings do not derail existing ones,
  • Replaces existing management during insolvency proceedings while keeping the enterprise as a going concern,
  • Offers a finite time limit within which debtor’s viability can be assessed
A

Conclusion

While this will not necessarily be a magic bullet that will make NPAs vanish from bank balance sheets but it can facilitate better recovery and faster closure of troubled assets.

[2]. New agency to give teeth to A/C frauds

What has happened?

The government will soon set up a specialised agency to investigate large corporate accounting frauds. The threshold of accounting frauds to be probed by the upcoming agency is likely to be `. 500 crore and above

This agency was first suggested in the aftermath of the Satyam fraud, in which the auditor was also implicated

A recent study by Assocham and Grant Thornton India said there was a 45% increase in Indian corporate fraud in the past two years.

What would be the mandate of proposed agency?

  • To examine accounting frauds of certain classes of listed companies
  • To investigate auditing and accounting frauds, either suo moto (on its own)or on referral by the Centre
  • The agency will make recommendations on formulation and laying down of accounting and auditing standards for companies. It will also monitor and enforce compliance and oversee quality of service of professionals in the industry.
A

Existing mechanism

At present, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has authority to investigate and take disciplinary action in cases in which an auditor is involved. Any fraud below the threshold set by the government could still be investigated by the professional association.

ICAI’s stand on the proposed body

They have made a representation to the government that ICAI’s mandate should not be diluted and authority to initiate probe and take disciplinary action against auditors should rest with the institute

Author’s opinion

India already has a specialised agency, SFIO (Serious Fraud Investigation Office) to do cutting edge investigation on financial frauds.

ICAI can take disciplinary action against the errant auditors. So, instead of creating a new agency steps should be taken to strengthen SFIO. Experts from the fields of cyber-security, forensic auditors should be roped in to improve the quality of the investigation but to ensure that best talent is tapped in the salaries should also be market-linked.

By: ForumIAS Editorial Team

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