Current affairs July (1st -6th)2019

1st July, 2019

TOPIC- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests

1. While the notion of the Indo-Pacific sounds grandiose and enticing, India must not forget that its primary area of concern is the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Securing its position here is vital before venturing elsewhere. Comment.

Ans:

Context

In last decades, India has developed its closeness with USA, and started to partake in Indo-Pacific Affairs actively. For example – Malabar Exercises, ASEAN outreach etc. Recently USA’s National Security Strategy has highlighted the importance of India as being key ally and partner of USA in its endeavour in Indo-Pacific. In this backdrop it is being argued that India’s primary concern is Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and not Indo-Pacific.

Significance of Indian Ocean Region for India

• Strategic interest: Indian ocean holds strategic interest for India due to its location and the large maritime boundary that we share in the region.

• Economic interests: All of the maritime trade of India is through the Indian ocean and hence India requires its influence in the region to secure its trade.

• Chinese incursions: The increasing Chinese incursion in the IOR in form of Military bases in Djibouti, string of the ports around India and the BRI initiative act against India’s strategic interest in the region.

• Security interests: India also faces security threat in the region as can be seen in China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea over sovereign territories.

Why should India focus upon Indian Ocean Region?

• China’s People’s Liberation Army is “planning to explore the possibility of more foreign military outposts in Africa, West Asia and other areas.

• As more powers make inroads into this strategically crucial space, India must consolidate its position and not expect others to do its job, for it would only mean ceding space in the long run.

Way forward

• Beefing up Indian capacity and securing interests and then expanding partnerships to fill voids. The tags of net security provider and leading global power would mean nothing if New Delhi cannot undertake capacity building in its own backyard, be it South Asia or the IOR.

• India should engage with like-minded countries in the region without getting entangled in groupings which are seen as being targeted or military in nature. For example- With Singapore’s assistance, India is working out modalities for joint multilateral exercises with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). India is also negotiating similar logistics agreements with several other countries.

• Another initiative which fits the bill is the Goa Maritime Conclave hosted by the Indian navy where Navy Chiefs and maritime heads of 10 Indian Ocean littoral states brainstormed on ways to improve cooperation in the region. It is an India-led initiative where the navy has offered to share information of maritime movement in real-time.

Reference: Indian Express

https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/indian-ocean-region-a-pivot-for-indias-growth/

2. Cooperation between the Centre and the states is a sine qua non for the expeditious implementation of reforms in the agriculture sector. Comment.

Ans:

Introduction

Policy reforms in the farm sector have not yielded the anticipated outcomes. Agriculture being a state subject, the central government formulates policy guidelines, advises, and allocates funds. However, the onus of proper implementation of farm and market reforms lies with state governments. In this context, some experts have argued that cooperation between the Centre and the states is a sine qua non for the expeditious implementation of reforms in the agriculture sector.

Is cooperation between the centre and the states necessary for agricultural reforms?

• The centre, in an attempt to deregulate and privatize the agricultural marketing system, has ushered in a series of structural market reforms in the last few years. The launch of e-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) is a step in the right direction.

• The government also introduced the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2017, which provides for alternative marketing channels.

• In May 2018, the agriculture ministry released the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, 2018. The Act, in addition to contract farming, provides for service contracts all along the value chain, including pre-production, production and post-production. These policy reforms have the potential to deregulate the agriculture marketing system by ushering in large-scale efficiency gains.

• However, progress in the adoption of many of these market reforms at the state level has been painfully slow.

Conclusion

In view of above points, it is proper to say that cooperation between the Centre and the states is a sine qua non for the expeditious implementation of reforms in the agriculture sector. It is time we worked towards creating a truly cooperative and federal entity like America’s NASDA for the quick implementation of reforms in India’s agriculture sector.

Reference: mint

2nd July, 2019

TOPIC- Union and State Legislatures (structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges; issues therein). Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act

1. The idea of ‘One Nation One Poll’ exposes the subversion of democracy. Discuss.

Ans:

Introduction

The idea of holding elections simultaneously is once again in news after it got a push from Prime Minister recently. While a group of constitutional experts have supported the idea, some others have opposed it saying it exposes the subversion of democracy.

Does the idea of ONOP expose the subversion of democracy?

• The ONOP puts the nationally incumbent party at an advantage in State elections.

• The incumbent can deploy government machinery for State campaigns, a mega persona birthed for a national campaign can be fed into State ones, and a last-ditch sleight-of-hand that wins the Centre may land victories in the States.

• Simultaneous elections would involve arbitrary curtailment or extension of the tenure of a House — the legal propriety of which is questionable.

• Such a measure would undermine federalism as well as representative democracy.

Conclusion

In view of above points, it only seems that such a measure would only expose the subversion of democracy. A focused group of constitutional experts, think tanks, government officials and representatives of political parties should be formed to work out appropriate implementation related details.

Reference: The Hindu

TOPIC: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests

2. What do you mean by digital non-alignment? What should India do to aim for digital non-alignment?

Ans:

What is digital non-alignment?

Global digital offerings would increasingly organise, and split, around the two global digital poles of US and China. They are also becoming more integrated right from computing chips, network equipment and user devices to software, applications and AI. Every other country will have to choose between the two digital superpowers as its primary digital supplier, and get increasingly locked into it.

In this context, digital non-alignment implies deliberate economic and political investments to avoid getting too closely hooked to either of the digital superpower’s digital products and services. Its technical, policy-legal and business model complement is to establish open digital value chains.

What should India do to aim for digital non-alignment?

• India needs a strong domestic digital industry in most, if not all, key links of the digital value chain.

• What is required is a strong and clear-headed digital industrial policy, which aims foremost at the layer of highest value: data. After all, the most important data needed to manage various sectors in India is local — arising from India.

• This provides the basis for claiming legal ownership over such data, and channelling it for development of Indian digital industry.

• India’s draft e-commerce policy attempts precisely that through the concepts of community data and national data. It also proposes adequate legal and technical frameworks to make such data available for India’s digital development.

• After establishing more open digital businesses domestically, India can also develop a global niche. Its alluring global offer can be of less extractive business models than those of the US or China, even if it affects profit margins. These models would respect local data ownership, and build respective domestic digital-industrial capacities, rather than suppressing them.

Conclusion

But it will require a clear and strong-willed nationwide vision and effort. Not just a data protection law here and an e-commerce policy there, and multiple varied perspectives arising from finance, commerce, industry, IT, and security establishments. A single anchor in the government, and a document, with a strategic digital vision, has to be created first. We must also remain prepared to face much resistance, and even setbacks.

Reference: Hindustan Times

3rd July, 2019

TOPIC: Economic Geography.

1. India has a lot of potential for discovery of minerals however regulation of mining still remains an issue for India. Comment.

Ans:

Introduction

India has a lot of potential for discovery of minerals as the continental landmass and its offshore consists of several crustal elements going back ages. India is blessed with ample resources of a number of minerals and has the geological environment for many others, but currently mining accounts only for around 2% of GDP.

Issues

• Extraction and management of minerals must be integrated into the overall industrial strategy. But India’s imports of non-fuel minerals are much higher than exports.

• Small-sized mines dominate the industry.

• In addition, mining in India is largely public-sector-driven, with public enterprises accounting for around 66% of the value of mineral production; the rest emanates from medium and small mines that are largely private-operated.

• Little is being spent on exploration of minerals.

The Way Forward

• Given the widespread regulatory failure, there is a need to create an independent mining regulatory authority for oversight at the central and state level to restore investor confidence.

• Mining in our country needs to be structured in such a way as to attract the foreign investors.

• There have been repeated violations by existing mining companies (Indian and foreign), as well as governments, of social and environmental impact assessment guidelines. As part of its industrial policy, the Union government will have to rethink mining policy.

• Data from the Geological Survey of India’s geological mapping should be available in a geographic information system format to facilitate entrepreneurs to take investment decisions for exploration.

• The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015, has made auctions as the only mode of granting mineral concessions. This implies that the Indian Bureau of Mines and the State Directorates of Mining need to have the capacity to undertake mineral resource estimate and reserve valuations. This requires their capacity-building.

• Mining has both backward and forward linkages; these need to be encouraged.

• Scientific human resources including knowledge at the frontiers of geoscience have emerged as a bottleneck. India will need more mining engineers, geologists, geophysicists, geochemists and geoinformation experts.

• Special care must be taken to deliver on rehabilitation of old mines as well as affected peoples; else, the affected will agitate and demand mines to be closed.

Reference: Financial Express

TOPIC: Important aspects of governance, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth.

2. We can grow faster and create enough jobs if we strengthen our MSME sector. Comment.

Ans:

Introduction

The MSME sector contributes 30% to GDP; India is aiming to increase this share to 50% of GDP. MSMEs are vital in generating employment, output and exports, as this sector contributes one-third to India’s manufacturing output and 45% to exports. According to a recent CII survey, MSMEs are the second-largest employment generator after agriculture.

How can we strengthen this sector?

• Successful Indian start-ups within the country and those that are moving outside due to enabling environment, encompassing tax concessions, well-developed infrastructure, ease of doing business, exit policy, etc, should be retained with suitable financial and non-financial incentives.

• The government should also facilitate collaboration between MSME clusters and companies/universities offering innovation infrastructure, R&D institutions, etc, in a specific industry or knowledge area. This is because MSME clusters are not properly equipped in areas such as tool rooms, innovation centres, testing facility, etc.

• Building networks of service providers to offer expertise to MSMEs by giving them customised solutions in areas such as technology, product development and marketing techniques will create an enabling environment for MSMEs.

Conclusion

Although MSMEs are the backbone of the economy, they suffer from access to finance, apart from low scale, technology, branding, competition, etc. We must strictly adhere to the recent recommendations of the RBI that were released recently to improve the functioning of this sector. A lot more needs to be done to improve accountability, transparency and efficiency in lending as the sector seems to suffer a lot due to lack of adequate funds.

Reference: Financial Express

4th July, 2019

TOPIC: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes;

1. The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) has a long way to go in terms of both its implementation and scope of coverage. Discuss.

Ans:

PM-Kisan is a necessary state response to assuage agrarian unrest. The scheme’s original objective, to “supplement financial needs” of the country’s Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs) and to “augment” farm incomes, has now been broadened to include all categories of agricultural landowners. This expansion would benefit an additional 10% of rural landed households.

Shortcomings

• The cash transfer is not linked to the size of the farmer’s land. Many of the landless farmers have been left out.

• The benefits of PM-Kisan have not reached farmers in most parts of the country. With kharif cultivation activity under way already, the scheme’s potential to deliver is contingent on its immediate implementation.

• There are 125 million farming households owning small and marginal holdings of land in the country, who constitute the scheme’s original intended beneficiaries. However, at present, the list of beneficiaries includes only 32% (40.27 million) of these households.

• Moreover, though the scheme is conceptualised to supplement agricultural inputs, it ceases to be so without the necessary link with scale of production (farm size) built into it. It becomes, in effect, an income supplement to landowning households. If income support is indeed the objective, the most deserving need to be given precedence.

Conclusion

For the scheme to be effective, PM-Kisan needs to be uniformly implemented across regions. However, one needs to be mindful that it is not a fix for larger structural issues. Cash transfers will cease to be effective if the state withdraws from its other long-term budgetary commitments in agricultural markets and areas of infrastructure such as irrigation.

Reference: The Hindu

2. Even as 70 per cent of our population lives in villages, healthcare is still ailing. Comment.

Ans:

Introduction

The deaths of 154 children in Bihar due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) have laid bare the precarious capacity of the State’s healthcare apparatus to handle outbreaks. As promises of bolstering the health infrastructure are being made, we cannot ignore the dismal state of healthcare in villages of our country.

What ails the healthcare system in villages?

• Villagers are forced to travel to hospitals in cities or expensive private practitioners as most village health centres and dispensaries suffer from acute shortage of doctors.

• Compounding the malaise is the irregular supply of medicines for even common ailments.

• Nearly 25 per cent of the sanctioned posts of doctors at primary health centres in villages are vacant. The condition is worse in community health centres that have a shortfall of specialists by a painful high of over 80 per cent.

• This has resulted in another quandary: overburdened doctors in civil hospitals and medical institutes in cities.

The Way Forward

• Better perks and pays for doctors in villages.

• A fixed period of mandatory rural service by graduates of government medical colleges can prove to be a balm to the ills of the millions of medically underserved patients in our villages.

• Primary healthcare services should be provided in areas near the households in villages. Timely care provided to a patient on his doorstep holds the key to a better, practicable and more effective treatment.

Reference: The Tribune

5th July, 2019

TOPIC: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes

1. Important ongoing initiatives have benefited women in recent years. But no prominent new steps have emerged. Comment.

Ans:

Introduction

As per the 2018 World Economic Forum report, India’s ranking slipped in terms of gender gaps in economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.While many important ongoing initiatives like Ujjwala, Mudra loans, Swacchh Bharat Mission etc. that have benefited women in recent years, no prominent new steps emerge.

What remains unaddressed?

• Given the expressed intention of enhancing the low, stagnant female labour force participation, the lack of focus on issues of safety and mobility — a key constraint on women working outside the home — is a glaring omission.

• Though much has been spoken of expanding and improving public transportation yet acknowledgement of the specific challenges that women face in accessing these facilities and public spaces more broadly, remains a far cry.

• Feminization of India agriculture has not happened with the desired pace.

Conclusion

If India is to decidedly transform the gender equation, women’s issues will need to form a core part of the national policy agenda and an explicit, bold campaign should be formulated and launched at the scale of recent successful initiatives such as Swachh Bharat. In order to make this initiative a much needed success some bold and important steps need to be taken in this direction.

Reference: Hindustan Times

TOPIC: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

2. Banning commercial surrogacy is a major step to protect women in our country and prevent their exploitation. Examine.

Ans:

Introduction

The government recently cleared a Bill to prohibit commercial surrogacy in India, allowing only altruistic, ethical surrogacy to the needy infertile married Indian couples, including NRIs. The Bill lists conditions requiring couples seeking surrogacy service to have been married for five years and a medical certificate for infertility for either of the spouse at the end of that period in conformity with the stated age group. Surrogacy services will be banned for persons of Indian origin, overseas citizens of India, members of the LGBT community, single parents and live-in partners.

How is this going to protect women?

• Procreation is not just about furthering the family lineage, but also about succession, tradition and legality. Having a child is about putting a biological system in place, not just caring for societal mores. There is therefore a need to define the legality and ethicality of the practice.

• Commercial surrogacy can lead to complaints of exploitation of women, especially those from the economically weaker section, because it would involve financial compensation, the adequacy of which can always be challenged.

• Pregnancy remains a biological phenomenon, with its attendant complications, necessitating proper medical care, the grossness of which could be open to challenge in case something goes wrong.

• Children born out of surrogacy can also face the problems of citizenship, abandonment and abuse, another aspect that needs to be taken care of. There is also the problem of jurisdiction because not all countries permit it.

Conclusion

In a country like ours, where women still battle to hold a strong position in society we cannot exploit them simply at the cost of flourishing a business. Given the problems they face in living a healthy life, efforts should be made to think something different for them.

Reference: The Tribune

6th July, 2019

TOPIC- Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life

1. Although the blockchain technology eliminates the need for trust there has been a lot of distrust attached to it. Examine.

Ans:

Introduction

A blockchain is an anonymous online ledger that uses data structure to simplify the way we transact. Blockchain allows users to manipulate the ledger in a secure way without the help of a third party. A blockchain is anonymous, protecting the identities of the users. This makes blockchain a more secure way to carry out transactions. The algorithm used in blockchain reduces the dependence on people to verify the transactions.

How does it eliminate the need for trust?

• Blockchain technology solved the double spending problem by designing a decentralised ledger that bundles data about transactions into blocks, timestamps them, and links each new block of transactions with the previous one in an immutable chain of blocks that are copied, authenticated, and updated continuously, and publicly, on thousands of computers.

• It maintains anonymity.

• The transactions would be fast and cheap using this technology.

• The system would become more transparent.

• The blockchain uses economic incentives (payment in the form of bitcoins or other CCs) to motivate members of the network to do the work of validating every transaction. It does away with the bank’s role as an intermediary.

• In this regard the cryptocurrencies like bitcoins give a boost to cashless economy.

• In this regard a major reason seasoned speculators find bitcoinsirresistible is its deflationary nature which makes it deflation proof.

Why the distrust?

• Every blockchain transaction must be digitally signed using a public-private cryptography scheme. The generation and verification of these signatures is computationally complex, and constitutes the primary bottleneck in products like ours. By contrast, in centralized databases, once a connection has been established, there is no need to individually verify every request that comes over it.

• The consensus mechanism used will require a lot of back and forth communication.

• The energy consumption would be very large.

• The cost of initial capital would be very high.

• The bitcoin phenomenon poses a challenge to the States and Central Banks.

• The underlying technology has the potential to unleash a new wave of destruction technology.

Conclusion

Amid all the frenzy over bitcoin’s rocketing values, it is easy to forget that it is just one version of one application (cryptocurrency) of a new technology (blockchain). If blockchain is getting traction, it is because it works with, rather than against, market logic. It so happens that right now any technology that drives decentralisation also carries some political promise by virtue of challenging the centralising tendency of power. But that is a byproduct, and not to be confused with its intent, which remains the same as with any other IT innovation of recent times: efficiency and profit.

Reference: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp

TOPIC- Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life

2. There are still massive obstacles standing in way of Blockchaintechnology, even if it has more potential than cryptocurrencies. Comment.

Ans:

Introduction

The financial services industry has been undergoing a revolution. But the driving force is not overhyped blockchain applications such as bitcoin. It is a revolution built on Artificial Intelligence, big data, and the internet of things. Already, thousands of real businesses are using these technologies to disrupt every aspect of financial intermediation. Dozens of online-payment services—PayPal, Alipay, WeChat Pay, Venmo, and so forth—have hundreds of millions of daily users. And financial institutions are making precise lending decisions in seconds rather than weeks, using these technologies. Similarly, insurance underwriting, claims assessment and management, and fraud monitoring have all become faster and more precise. And actively managed portfolios are increasingly being replaced by passive robo-advisers, which can perform just as well or better than conflicted, high-fee financial advisers. But there are a lot of hurdles in the way of Blockchain technology.

Merits of blockchain technology

• As a public ledger system, blockchain records and validate each and every transaction made, which makes it secure and reliable.

• All the transactions made are authorized by miners, which makes the transactions immutable and prevent it from the threat of hacking.

• Blockchain technology discards the need of any third-party or central authority for peer-to-peer transactions.

• It allows decentralization of the technology.

• Some telecom firms in places such as India and Kenya are already using their networks to help people settle cash transactions, but these are proprietary and meant largely for poor and underbanked areas with considerable mobile penetration.

Demerits of cryptocurrencies

• Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are so energy-intensive (and thus environmentally toxic) to produce, and carries such high transaction costs, that even Bitcoin conferences do not accept it as a valid form of payment.

• The idea that hundreds of cryptocurrencies could viably operate together not only contradicts the very concept of money (the entire point of using money is that it allows parties to transact without having to barter).

• As a currency, bitcoin should be a serviceable unit of account, means of payments, and a stable store of value. It is none of those things. No one prices anything in bitcoin.

• cryptocurrencies in general are based on a false premise. According to its promoters, bitcoin has a steady-state supply of 21 million units, so it cannot be debased like fiat currencies. But “Stable” cryptos are creating money supply and debasing it at a much faster pace than any major central bank ever has.

Obstacles in the way of blockchain technology

• It lacks the kind of basic common and universal protocols that made the Internet universally accessible (TCP/IP, HTTP, and so forth).

• its promise of decentralized transactions with no intermediary authority amounts to an untested, Utopian pipe dream

• The extremely high cost of using blockchain technology is one of the major obstacles in the way of blockchain technology.

• Most of the blockchain technologies are not user friendly and involve complex processes.

Conclusion

However, a blockchain can be customized to meet the needs and specifications of people. A blockchain can be made permissible. This means that people can access parts of the blockchain that are relevant to their tasks. Although creating such blockchains takes a sizable amount of planning and expertise, it lessens the apprehension that firms and governments have about the technology, thus making adoption more likely. What makes the blockchain truly revolutionary is its potential for applications beyond processing bitcoin transactions.

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