IASbaba's March Monthly Magazine PDF

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PREFACE
With the present shift in examination pattern of UPSC Civil Services Examination, General
Studies II and General Studies III can safely be replaced with Current Affairs. Moreover,
following the recent trend of UPSC, almost all the questions are issue-based rather than
news-based. Therefore, the right approach to preparation is to prepare issues, rather than
just reading news.
Taking this into account, our website www.iasbaba.com will cover current affairs focusing
more on issues on a daily basis. This will help you pick up relevant news items of the day
from various national dailies such as The Hindu, Indian Express, Business Standard, LiveMint,
Business Line and other important Online sources. Over time, some of these news items will
become important issues.
UPSC has the knack of picking such issues and asking general opinion based questions.
Answering such questions will require general awareness and an overall understanding of
the issue. Therefore, we intend to create the right understanding among aspirants How to
cover these issues?
This is the Tenth edition of IASbabas Monthly Magazine. This edition covers all important
issues that were in news in the month of March 2016
Value adds from IASbaba- Must Read and Connecting the dots.
Must Read section, will give you important links to be read from exam perspective. This
will make sure that, you dont miss out on any important news/editorials from various
newspapers on daily basis.
Under each news article, Connecting the dots facilitates your thinking to connect and
ponder over various aspects of an issue. Basically, it helps you in understanding an issue
from multi-dimensional view-point. You will understand its importance while giving Mains
or Interview.
We would Achieve more if we chased our Dreams instead of our Competition

Simon Sinek
All the Best
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INDEX
BUDGET 2016-2017
(Pages 5-14)
NATIONAL
(Pages 15-56)
Women Empowerment: Time to deliver on Womens Reservation Bill

Intelligence vs Investigation (Or) CBI vs IB?
The Aadhaar Revolution
Updating Aadhar for better privacy
A tale of two communalisms
The Real Estate Bill
New regime in oil and gas exploration
Sponsored Amendment to the Motion of Thanks
Freedom from a Colonial rule book
Of love and honour killings
A coffin named Tobacco
Getting Medical Education on track
Medical Tourism in India
Is it the end of globalisation?
More power to the vaccine arsenal
Contraceptiona womans burden
On paper, electrified villages in reality, darkness
INTERNATIONAL
(Pages 57-95)
EU referendum: the big questions for Britain

WTO: The much talked about Solar panel Dispute
Indias trade pacts in a changing world
Relations require strengtheningEnergy Benefits to India
Mexican opportunity for India
Indias biggest security headacheSir Creek stand-offs
Trans-boundary Waters: Sharing Benefits, Sharing Responsibilities
The Commonwealth: Adding Global Value for greater global good
Pakistan has crippled SAARC: time to reassess
Building new alliances with BRICS
Milestones on Beijings OBOR plan
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India- Nepal: No zero sums in this great game
ECONOMICS
(Pages 96-135)
Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Tax- Is it a Healthy proposal?

Public transport: Overwhelming Needs but Limited Resources
Political pursuit of a Pensioned Society
Green Budget for sustainable development
Budget 2016 fails to lay out a clear roadmap for the petroleum industry
FRBM act: Reality check and to review the fiscal consolidation path
Patents over Patients
How reforms killed Indian manufacturing?
Need of the hour: Energy security, not energy independence
Farmer needs a new deal
Making India GI Brand conscious
A silent horticulture 'revolution'
100% FDI in e commerce: An evaluation
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(Pages 136-147)
The colonised Internet: Why the Internet isnt just free yet?
E-waste Management in India
India lagging behind in Innovation
Come clean on Nuclear Security
ENVIRONMENT
(Pages 148-154)
World Water Day (March 22nd) - The importance of Water Management

Decline of pollinators threatens food supply
DEFENCE/SECURITY
(Pages 155-163)

Upgrading Indias cyber security architecture
Towards Military self-reliance
MUST READ
(Pages 164-203)
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BUDGET 2016-2017
All you need to know about Budget 2016-2017

NOTE: This article is compilation of information from 5 different National Newspapers
Background:
The Union Budget 2016 has been crafted under the most extraordinarily challenging
economic environments India has seen.
The external environment is both uncertain and volatile, the inherited logjam caused
by stressed banks and the stressed private sector has yet to be broken, poor
monsoons have caused immense rural distress, and demand, a central pillar of
growth, has been tepid. Many of the measures needed to face up to this challenge
are not, strictly speaking, budgetary.
It has a much greater sense of purpose and direction. It signals macroeconomic
credibility by adhering to fiscal deficit targets.
The ambitious provision of LPG connections to all is quite revolutionary, for its
health, gender justice and aspirational effects, though its political-economy effects
on the subsidy bill will become clear over the next few years.
It goes to great lengths to reverse the governments pro-corporate image
Budget Basics:
1. What is a Budget ?
Budget is Estimate of inflows and outflows of the Government during a year.

Budget is presented for the ensuing Financial year.
2. What does Budget consist of?
Every budget consist of Actual figures for preceding years, Budget and revised figures
for the current year, Budget estimates for the following years
So the Budget presented in March 2001 will be estimate of Inflows and outflows of
the Funds for the period beginning from 1st April 2001 to 31st March 2002.
3. When is Budget presented?

Budget is to be presented in Lok Sabha on a day as the President directs. By convention, the
Budget is presented in Parliament on the last working day of February.
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4. Who draws the timetable for Budget?

Timetable is drawn by the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of Parliament. In the
schedule drawn up by the BAC, there is a fixed period of discussion for each ministry.
5. Who has the responsibility for Budget?

Budget Division in the Finance Ministry has the overall responsibility. It prepares the budget
on basis of proposal received from various departments and ministries and the availability
of funds. However, final approval is from the Prime Minister.
6. What if Budget is not approved by 1st April?
The Constitution empowers Lok Sabha to grant a Vote-on-Account (Article 116) so

that the government can continue with the necessary expenditure into the new
fiscal, before the Budget proposals actually get passed after necessary discussions.
The vote-on-account normally covers the expenditure requirement of the
government for two months.
7. Is it compulsory to have budget for every year?

Yes. Under Article 112 of the Constitution, a Statement of estimated receipts and
expenditure of the Union Government has to be laid before the Parliament in respect of
every financial year running from 1st April to 31st March. The Receipt and Payments of the
Government is categorised in three parts:
Consolidated Fund. : All the inflows like Tax and other Revenues as well as Loans
raised by it form part of this category. All outflow including expenses etc also form
part of this Account. For withdrawal from this fund parliament authorisation is
required.
Contingency Fund: It is the money kept at the disposal of the President to meet out
any unforeseen expenses. The corpus of the fund is merely Rs.50 Crores.
Public Account: This category comprises of money raised from various Schemes of
the Government like Provident Fund. But this was the technical framework. To put
simply it is Annual financial discipline like other corporates prepare Profit and Loss
Account and Balance Sheet. However to what disclosure norms the government
accounts are subjected to is mystery. We have seldom come across the laid down
norms like other balance sheets to disclose the information in a manner prescribed.
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8. What is the process of Budget approval?
The Finance Minister introduces the budget in the Lower House of the Parliament or
the Lok Sabha & makes a short speech, giving a overall view of the budget.
After the presentation of the Budget, Parliament allots some time for a general
discussion on the Budget. The finance minister replies at the end of the general
discussion. The reply is also of a general nature and no specifics of the Budget are
discussed. However, no motion is moved nor voting required at this stage.
After the finance minister's reply, Lok Sabha takes up for discussion each ministry's
expenditure proposals, and is known as demand for grants. The demands for grants
presented by each ministry are taken up by the House.
After, the prescribed period for the discussion on demands for grants is over, the
Speaker applies the `guillotine', and all the outstanding demands for grants, whether
discussed or not, are put to vote at once. Only the Lower House is entitled to vote.
Appropriation Bill is introduced in the Lok Sabha after it has passed all demands for
grants relating to all ministries. This is to authorise the government to draw funds
from the Consolidated Fund of India. Once this Bill is passed, it becomes the
Appropriation Act and is certified as a Money Bill.
After passing of Appropriation Bill, the Finance Bill is introduced and it incorporates
all taxation proposals. At this stage, amendments for tax proposal can be moved.
After the passing of this Bill, it enters the statute as the Finance Act. Thus the final
Budget gets approved.
Budget 2016-2017: Snapshot

Taxation:
The principal tax rates have reached stability. The rates of direct taxes are
comparable to international rates (except for personal tax brackets, which vary
across countries on account of differing price levels); and indirect taxes are in a long
process of replacement by the Goods and Services Tax, which is stuck in
disagreements between States.
For 2016-17, the Finance Minister has promised to bring this ratio down to 3.5 per
cent primarily through a 20 per cent increase in indirect taxes and as much as 39
per cent in excise duties, even as the corporate taxes go down.
A rise in indirect taxes as opposed to direct taxes is a clear case of regressive taxation
because both the poor and the rich pay the same tax per unit of purchase of an item.
That this has been the pattern of revenue mobilization of this and the previous
government goes to show their concern for the aam aadmi.
There is another problem an increase in indirect taxes brings to the table: inflation.
The fact that the economy is not witnessing high inflation today is not because of
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any prudent monetary policy but because the oil prices are at a real low that
might not be the permanent state of affairs in the coming year. If the oil prices go
up, with these hiked indirect tax rates, inflation might hit through the roof.
The odd changes in taxation provisions for future provident fund withdrawals make
it a budget hostile to the middle class.
The salaried class is likely to feel hard done by a move to tax 60 per cent of the
corpus created from contributions to the Employees Provident Fund starting April 1
as part of a move to create a pensioned society.
Addressing the slowdown

A Budget in such difficult times should address the problem of a slowdown squarely. It can
do it in two ways:
Directly by injecting demand into the economy

Indirectly by creating opportunities for other sources of demand to pick up.
Big business and the media want the government to do the latter and not the former,
whereas a pro-people government will push for the first. The strange thing about this
Budget is that it does neither.
An economy grows based on demand for its goods and services. There are broadly five
sources of demand in an economy:
Consumption by the poor,

Consumption by the rich,
Private investment,
Fiscal deficit and
Trade surplus.
Contrary to popular belief, the indirect effects of a Budget are positively related to the
direct effects of it. So, while a rise in the fiscal deficit directly increases the profits as well as
wages in the economy, thereby pushing demand up, it indirectly increases private
investment if business sentiments are low otherwise.
Fiscal consolidation quick-fixes:

The Finance Minister has maintained that he will adhere to the fiscal consolidation map,
which means bringing down further the fiscal deficit as a proportion of GDP.
Fiscal deficit is essentially government expenditure minus its tax revenue. So, bringing
it down means a fall in government expenditure and/or a rise in tax revenue as a
proportion of GDP.
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Budget for 2016-17 sticks to the commitment made under the Fiscal Responsibility
and Budget Management Act by keeping the fiscal deficit target at 3.5% of GDP.
This problem becomes doubly difficult if the estimate of the GDP itself is inflated,
which is what has happened this year.
The revised estimate of the GDP for 2015-16 is less than the Budget estimate by
about Rs. 5,41,753 crore. If the denominator itself is falling in a ratio, the numerator
has to fall further for the ratio to decrease.
The way they have managed to keep the ratio to 3.9 per cent despite such a fall in
the estimated GDP is through increased collection in the indirect taxes and excise
duties even as the non-plan expenditure has declined.
Such a strict belt-tightening shows that the long wait for the achche din is not over.
It requires the poor to pay through their nose through increased indirect taxes while
the cushion of the social sector is consistently taken away from them, and all of this
is being done in the name of creating business sentiments, which themselves are
ever elusive.
Good to see that unlike between 2012-13 and 2014-15, fiscal consolidation in 201516 is not being achieved by paring capital spending but through subsidy reduction
afforded by sharply lower crude prices. This has improved the spending mix of the
government with a tilt towards infrastructure.
What are the structural factors aiding the fiscal math?
Improved coverage and higher tax on services.

In the current fiscal, service tax collections were marginally higher than budgeted
despite slowing growth in the services sector.
Pros of the Budget:
The budget ticks the boxes on fiscal, revenue and primary deficit parameters. It has
done better on the revenue deficit target (2.5% vs 2.8%) and effective revenue
deficit target (1.5% vs 2%). Not only that, it projects an accelerated decline in the
effective revenue deficit, reaching 0% by 2018-19.
True, there has been some deviation from the goals envisaged under the Fiscal
Responsibility and Budget Management Act to support investment activity. But the
overall direction has been the correct one of consolidation: fiscal deficit as a
percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) narrowed to 3.9% in 2015-16 from 4.9%
in 2012-13, and revenue deficit as a percentage of GDP has come down to 2.5% from
3.6%.
The increased outlay on infrastructure, particularly the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak
Yojana. Rural connectivity is great for growth; and power and logistics are key to
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Indias competitiveness. Symbolically, this budget speaks to the governments

potential strengths: Power, infrastructure, railways, and petroleum and gas.
To be sure, these have helped offset the shortfall in direct tax collections because of
weak manufacturing activity, poor corporate performance, increased food subsidy,
and lower-than-anticipated nominal growth. Nominal GDP growth was 8.6% in fiscal
2016 against 11.5% assumed in the budget.
But the most pleasant surprise is the direction in which we want to go on the
environment. An additional cess on coal and taxes on cars are signals of a longoverdue resolve that the environment is no longer a luxury. There are small
administrative victories like the abolition of the distinction between plan and nonplan expenditure.
Farm sector: Nearly 65 per cent of small farmers in this country depend on rain-fed
irrigation. More than 75 per cent of Indian farmers are not covered by crop
insurance. Since shocks, such as bad weather or bad health, affect the poor
significantly more than the average citizen in the country, allocations provided for
irrigation, crop insurance and health insurance will significantly impact the rural
populations ability to withstand negative economic shocks.
In particular, farm insurance, health insurance and cooking gas connections for BPL
(below poverty line) families are superb initiatives that will focus government
spending on those sections of the population that need the governments attention
the most the poor and the downtrodden.
Fertilizer and electricity subsidies together amount to 1.6 per cent of the GDP, much
of which leaks abroad or to non-agricultural uses, or goes to inefficient producers, or
to firms given the exclusive privilege to import. Rs 40,000 crore of subsidies are
provided in the electricity sector.
But precisely for these reasons it has proved politically impossible to close the
inefficient firms or eliminate the canalization of imports. By providing a legal
framework for the Aadhaar platform, the JAM trinity of Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and
mobile would be strengthened considerably.
This will help to rationalize the regime of subsidies and lead to better targeting.
Again, better targeting of subsidies to deserving beneficiaries would help to foster
domestic demand, particularly in the rural sector.
Another key measure in the budget relates to providing a legal framework for the
Aadhaar platform, which will help to ensure that subsidies are directed to the
needy. More than Rs 40,000 crore of subsidies provided for fertilizers.
As for crude prices, they are expected to average $10 per barrel lower next fiscal
compared with $45 in the current one. This means the transitory benefit of lower oil
prices will continue and afford an offset to the extra spending being made based on
the One Rank One Pension and Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.
Increased excise duty on oil will benefit the next fiscal year more, because these
came into effect only from November 2015.
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On the financial sector front, some of the measures are welcome, though most of
them are along expected lines such as the recapitalization of banks (where the
allocation of Rs 25,000 crore may be inadequate), the strengthening of asset
reconstruction companies, a dispute resolution regime for financial firms and
enabling the setting up of a Monetary Policy Committee to set interest rates.
Education fares even worse. While there has been a slight increase in the allocation
in absolute terms, the budgetary allocation for education has declined, both as a
percentage of GDP and as a percentage of the total Budget. It was 0.5 per cent of
GDP and 3.8 per cent of the revenue expenditure for 2015-16, and it is down to 0.48
per cent of GDP and 3.7 per cent of the Budget estimates this year
Outlay of Rs.19,000 crore that the Central government will spend this year on rural
roads as part of its goal to ensure that all habitations are connected by 2019,
Push to achieve universal village electrification in the next two years. Between
improved road connectivity and the availability of electricity, the potential is
significant for a multiplier effect on the rural economy and improvements to the
quality of life for residents of the hinterland.
Social sector:
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan budget increased by 2% from 2015-16 (revised estimates)

while the Mid-Day Meal scheme budget increased by 5%.
The Budget proposes the introduction of a health insurance scheme that would
provide up to Rs.1 lakh as coverage against hospitalization costs for economically
weak households, with senior citizens above the age of 60 eligible for another
Rs.30,000 in top-up cover.
The National Health Mission budget increased by 2%, while the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which according to the finance
minister had received its highest allocation yet in this budget, increased by 4% from
the previous years.
Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), the flagship programme on rural sanitation, saw one
of the biggest jumps at 38%. However, this jump is in part due to lower revised
estimates.
Health : the big jumps in allocation are in health insurancethe old Rashtriya
Swasthya Bima Yojana has been renamed and has received a 152% hike (Rs.900
crore
The allocation for the National Social Assistance Programme (for the aged, disabled,
widows, the Annapurna Scheme) has gone up only marginally, from Rs.9,000 crore
last year to Rs.9,500 crore.
The other, equally laudable, initiative is to provide all families below the poverty
line with cooking gas. This can afford those in underprivileged homes the dignity of
a quicker and less harmful way to keep their kitchen fires running.
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Cons of the Budget:
As for the farm sector, whose welfare is purportedly the primary focus of this
Budget, the allocation of Rs.35,000 crore is woefully inadequate given the droughtrelated distress that farmers have faced for consecutive years. It covers only 20 per
cent of farmers, and there has been no effort to bring a greater number of farmers
into the net. Its a good sign that small and marginal farmers find a mention, but
there was no mention of the landless farmer
Weak growth in advanced and emerging countries has taken its toll on Indias
exports. As imports have also declined, principally on account of reduced prices of
crude oil for which the country is heavily dependent on imports, trade and current
account deficits continue to be moderate.
Growth in agriculture has slackened due to two successive years of less-than-normal
monsoon rains. Saving and investment rates are showing hardly any signs of revival.
The rupee has depreciated vis-a-vis the US dollar, like most other currencies in the
world, although less so in magnitude Given the prevalent overall macroeconomic
scenario, and assuming a normal level of rains in 2016-17, it would not be
unreasonable to conclude that the Indian economy is all set to register growth in
excess of 7 per cent for the third year in succession
Another disappointment is that the government has made a very tentative beginning
in removing corporate tax exemptions and lowering the tax rate. The measures
announced reflect revenue-consciousness rather than growth consciousness
Even the two interesting initiatives announced by the Finance Minister health
cover of Rs.1 lakh per family and a National Dialysis Service Programme betray
an anxiety to help the private sector (through the PPP framework) rather than the
Indian patient.
At the same time, two long-standing demands have been ignored: universalizing
social pension for those over 55 years old, and increasing the minimum pension
amount from the abysmal Rs.300 per month to Rs.500 per month
While the health budget has seen a marginal increase of 9-10 per cent, it is way
below the 30-40 per cent increase needed to keep India on course for a health
allocation of 2 per cent of GDP in the medium term.
The Vikas Ka Budget flyer on the new dynamic social sector included schemes like
the LPG connection, the health insurance program, the Stand Up India scheme, the
Jan Annusuddhi Yojana, but none of this can be pieced together into a coherent
narrative for what the government envisaged for social policy in India.
Many commentators have picked up on the important decision in the budget to end
the distinction between Plan and non-Plan expenditure. But an equally critical and
far-reaching change is in the decision to adopt the NITI Aayog recommendation to
streamline centrally sponsored schemes to 30, introduce a sunset clause and, above
all, undertake an outcome review.
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The Direct Taxes Code seems to have been buried permanently. There was only a
lukewarm reference to the GST bills, but there was no promise of accommodating
the legitimate criticism of the Opposition.
There is nothing in the budget for the urban middle classes, even in the form of a
symbolic rising of income tax exemption slabs that has been a feature of every single
budget in recent years.
The worrying aspect in the current budget is about the banking sector. The Rs 25,000
crore provided for the capitalization of public-sector banks in this financial year is
woefully inadequate.
In the next five years, Public sector banks (PSBs) will require several multiples of this
amount to be able to meet the capital requirements of Basel III.
Another key announcement that is worrisome in this context relates to the
consolidation of PSBs. As we have witnessed with the merger of Indian Airlines and
Air India, bunching up two large and struggling PSUs only serves to exacerbate
problems for the merged entity. Consolidating PSBs without first empowering the
boards of these banks would create more costs for the financial system than
benefits.
Iconic barometer
Coming finally to that iconic barometer of a governments welfare intentions, the

MGNREGA, the budgetary allocation of Rs.38,500 crore, while marginally higher than
last year, is way below the amount needed (estimated to be at least Rs.50,000 crore)
to keep this scheme going in any meaningful fashion.
So be it education, health, pensions for the socially vulnerable, distressed farmers, or
MGNREGA, the 2016 Union Budget has nothing radical to offer.
Way ahead :
Global economy is in a serious crisis and does not seem to be coming out of it any
time soon. With international scope limited for exports, therefore, what was
required of this Budget was a direction to the economy in terms of generating
demand domestically, which in turn would generate employment for the fastgrowing unemployed youth population of this country. This Budget does little or
nothing on that count.
Government spending will have a critical role in improving both social and physical
infrastructure, and provision of subsidies to the needy. There is certainly scope for
the restructuring of government expenditure towards investment and better
targeting subsidies using the Aadhaar platform.
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Good to see the announcements on the name change from disinvestment to

Investment and Public Asset Management and the abolition of the distinction
between Plan and Non-plan expenditure. Also welcome is the emphasis on sunset
date and outcome review on new schemes.
Given the fact that the global economy is tottering, there is a definite need to foster
domestic demand to accelerate economic growth. At the same time, it is politically
and economically imperative that jobs are created in the formal sector to avoid the
demographic dividend becoming a demographic liability. Given these twin objectives
for the country, this years budget to be an admirable exercise.
While there are concerns regarding the budgets ill effects on the banking sector, it is
an excellent budget because it helps to foster rural demand and attempts to fix risks
in the rural economy.
In the final analysis, it is a thoughtful, prudent and careful budget. But it is hard to
avoid the impression that it has been more careful than it needed to be, especially in
the critical areas of bank recapitalization and corporate tax reforms.
Connecting the dots:
Could this budget be the first step towards developing an outcome-based financing
model for social policy in India? Comment.
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NATIONAL
TOPIC:
General studies 1: Role of women and womens organization, women related

issues, Social empowerment
General studies 2: Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the
protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
Women Empowerment: Time to deliver on Womens Reservation Bill
Issue: Call for revival of the Constitution (108th) Amendment Bill to reserve for women onethird of seats in Parliament and the State legislatures.
Status: The Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha in March 2010
Change at a glacial pace Number of women legislators in the current Lok Sabha is a mere
12 per cent, it has steadily increased through the years (it was 5 per cent in 1951)
Real stumbling block to the Bill: The existing patriarchal mind-set within the very same
parties that have affirmed support to it (Congress & BJP; uniformly and strongly chauvinistic)
A country where ancient scripture placed women on a high pedestal
Gender Development Index: 132ndrank
Gender Equality Index: 127th rank
Suffers from one of the lowest sex ratios (940 in 2011) in South Asia
Gender ratio on the electoral rolls: 800 (almost)
The obstacles to political empowerment are mainly in three areas
1. Registration as voter,
2. Actual participation in voting,
3. Contesting as candidate
Coupled withOver-arching gender prejudice in their respective parties
Reasons why female voter turnout is lower
Concern for personal security

Dependence on the approval of family elders, especially men
Lack of adequate toilet facilities
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AddressedTo motivate women to come out and vote, local women icons, Sharada Sinha,
in Bihar, and Malini Awasthy in UP, became the face and voice of the voter education
campaign proving the fate of election to be a game changer
Female voters at 54.85 per cent outnumbered male voters at 50.77 per cent in Bihar (2010),
and 60.28 and 58.68 per cent in UP (2012), with similar results subsequently in all other
states
General elections of 2014
Womens turnout shot up from 55.82 to 65.63 per cent a jump of nearly 20 per
cent
16 states- Outnumbered their male counterparts
Gender gap- Used to be higher than 10 per cent, came down to an all-time low of
1.46 per cent
Participation of women as candidates

India is way behind more backward countries of South Asia; even conservative Muslim
countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh have higher female representation
Breakthrough: The enactment of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution in
1992
2009: The Union cabinet approved an increase in reservation for women from 33 to 50 per
cent in Panchayati raj institutions
Bill for womens reservation in legislatures: Been pending in Parliament
Patriarchal mind-set that plays foul:
Of the opinion that its difficult for women politicians to win

2014: Women were 7.9 per cent of total candidates, but 11.6 per cent of elected
MPs
Since 1957: Womens strike rate has always been 50 to 350 per cent higher;
demonstrating that womens ability to win is greater.
Testimonies to Affirmative Actions

1917:Sarojini Naidu had joined a delegation of women to meet the viceroy to demand
suffrage for women
1919: Madras became the first province to take the revolutionary step of allowing womens
franchise
1927: A 41-year-old medical doctor, Muthulakshmi Reddy, had become the first Indian
woman to become a member of the legislative council in Madras
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Post-independence: Equal voting rights to men and women (US took 144 years and the UK
100 years)
Today: The Lok Sabha speaker and chief ministers of four states are women
There will never be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect
lawmakers. American social reformer Susan Anthony
At the local levelArchitects of change and empowerment at the grassroots
Womens political participation is increasing not only numerically but qualitatively as well
and has thrown up some real-life political heroines
Stories From stagnation to Change(Source: The Better India)
1. ShushmaBhadu, 35 (Rural Haryana)
Elected in 2010 as the sarpanch of the DhaniMiyan Gram Panchayat in Fatehabad
district
Transformed the village in to a model when it comes to womens rights and the
survival of daughters
To put an end to the inhuman practice of female foeticide:
Announced a handsome cash reward of Rs 51,000 for informers who provide
tip-offs on those seeking and conducting sex determination tests and
backroom abortions
Instructed the local anganwadi and other health workers to remain alert and
immediately intimate the panchayat in case any such incident came to light
Result of this approach: Village has 426 females to 416 males
Educating local girls:
Panchayat has started covering the fees as well as expenses incurred on uniforms
and books for girl students up to Class Five for those parents who cannot afford to
support their daughters schooling
Result: Attendance is reportedly 100 per cent now with zero dropouts and students
of higher classes, who have to go to distant schools, have been provided with cycles
to help them continue their studies
2. Nayana Patra, 45 (Odisha)
At Baraun Gram Panchayat of Dhenkenal district in Odisha
Put an end to alcoholism in her village:
Imposed a fine on those found drunk Discourage such anti-social behaviour
With the fund, created a fund to build toilets in the village-built six public
toilets at convenient places to usher in a higher standard of public hygiene
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Education Got a residential school built for village girls

Mid-day meals to students from Class I to VIII while keeping a strict vigil on
the quality of the food served; when they realised that the Self Help Groups
were not managing the meals properly, they were immediately replaced with
a seven-member Village Education Committee
Protection of the local forests from the timber mafia Has put together a brigade of fierce women to patrol the 250-acre Sal forest
that abuts the village
Five groups of 15-20 women have been formed and they discharge their
forest protection duties by rotation, each with a stick in her hand
Has also planted around a thousand cashew plants on unused government
land
3. All-women Gram Panchayat of Sisva village in Gujarats Anand district
SisvaAs per the guidelines of the Samras Scheme
Established two Reverse Osmosis (RO) water plants that provide potable
water to families
Each house has a toilet and a few public utilities have been constructed
strategically to eliminate open defecation
All roads in this 7,000-strong village have been paved and duly lined with
solar lights that keep the streets safe after dark.
Garbage bins have been placed in all the right places and the markets area
has been cleaned and given a facelift
Working on creating a website as a first step towards making Sisva an evillage.
Setting up a small-scale industry to give a much-needed boost to womens
employment in the area is next in line.
4. PremaTimmanagoudar (Karnataka)
Spearheading the cause of better sanitation in a remote village of Khanapur in
Karnataka
Goal: A toilet in every single house of the Khanapur village within a month
Challenges:
Raise nearly Rs. 4 lakh for the construction of these toilets as this money
would be reimbursed by the government only after the completion of the
project
Convincing people to allow building a toilet in their private space and making
them overcome the dread of the resultant odour as peoplewere just too used
to defecating in the open
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Community-participation:
Every villager helped in the construction process
Women: Provided food for the labourers
30-50 youngsters worked alongside the construction workers; for every one
labourer, they deputed three villagers to speed up the work
Result: In a record time of 24 working days, 173 toilets were constructed in the
village.
Need of the hourGender Analysis
Gender analysis needs to be made a critical element of updating electoral rolls and has since
been employed from the year 2006
Gender sensitivity- Taken into account while publishing photo electoral rolls;
mandatory to give a hard copy of the rolls to recognised parties
The EC: Stopped handing out the soft copy as womens photos could be subjected to
abuses like morphing
Separate queues and the deployment of women police and polling staff
Need for the parties to push more women workers into the political arena and give
them more tickets
Voters need to be made aware of the importance of women participation &
representation and thus, should be imparted the idea of voting only for those parties
that give a fair share of tickets to women
Related Articles:
THE POWER OF PARITY: ADVANCING WOMENS EQUALITY IN INDIA
http://iasbaba.com/2015/11/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-5th-november-2015/
Women at Work
http://iasbaba.com/2016/01/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-14th-january-2016/
Gender Justice in Religious institutions: Case against Customary Exclusion
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TOPIC: General studies 2

Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and
issues arising out of their design and implementation;
Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governanceapplications, models, successes, limitations and potential
Aadhaar Project: An ambitious project that seeks to provide unique identification numbers
to each individual in a country of over a billion people, collecting demographic and
biometric information in the process
Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill,
2016: To provide for efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and
services
Legislative Vacuum?
Any advanced technology needs to be designed in a simple way to enable it to be

used conveniently on an open platform, satisfying multiple stakeholders and
ensuring privacy in the flow.
The infrastructure, if properly developed can help government go paperless,
presence-less and cashless; catapulting India to the front of the league of nations
whose governments use technology to create an effective, efficient and modern
welfare state that treats its people with dignity.
But the question over the much-required legal validity for Aadhaar has garnered
attention once again, with the Aadhaar Bill resting amidst many legal and political
challenges and a change in government; being issued already for over 98 crore in
numbers.
The regulatory legitimacy thus, is much sought after, to let it operate at its full potential.
Aadhaar Bill
Enrolment is voluntary; shall only be used as proof of identity and not as proof of
citizenship
Will enable the government to prevent fraud, corruption and waste by requiring the
Aadhaar number for delivery of any benefit, subsidy or service from the
Consolidated Fund of India, such as LPG subsidy, MGNREGA wages, various insurance
schemes, provident fund schemes, government scholarships, and much more
Does not prohibit the usage of Aadhaar for any other purpose by any public or
private entity
Provision of privacy protection
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Use limitation it can only be used for the purpose for which the user gives
consent
Collection limitation no information other than demographic (name, address,
date of birth, sex and, optionally, email id/ mobile number) and biometric
(photo, fingerprint and iris scan) will be collected. No other personal information
of an individual will be in the Aadhaar database
Access and Rectification the user can access his own information and has an
obligation to rectify it if it needs updating
No demographic information or identity information received from the Unique
Identification Authority of India can be displayed publicly
Only exception to certain confidentiality (but not security) obligations is national
security: Provided an order to disclose information is issued either (limited time
period) By a court or
By a joint secretary or
Higher officer, and
Vetted by a high-powered committee headed by the cabinet secretary
No core biometric information can be shared is a principle without exception
people saying that core biometric information will be shared are wrong because
Clause 29(1) is not overridden by Clause 33(2)
Bill includes stringent penalties, including imprisonment for breach of privacy and
other violations
Section 29(4)- No Aadhaar number or biometric information will be made public except for
the purposes as may be specified by regulations
Section (33)- The inbuilt confidentiality clauses will not stand when it concerns national
security
Potential:
To be used as a powerful instrument against retail corruption

To deepen financial inclusion
To eliminate the usage of more than 2,000 crore pages of paper (a low guesstimate)
Enable more than 300 million daily seekers of government services to save at least
two hours every day
Eliminate fraud in government subsidies of at least Rs. 50,000 crore every year
Enable linking individuals to an organisation that has a unique enterprise number,
shifting enforcement to big data
Unclog our highways and eliminate waiting rooms in hospitals as well as eliminate
fraud in degrees and substantially improve labour market matching
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Way Ahead- Danger of Digital Colonisation:
The concern over the increased access to the information over the internet is a
matter to be seriously thought over as the ball going in the field of a few internet
gatekeepers tracking all our digital activities is extremely high.
Therefore, need for the Aadhaar platform, to promise an open, secure and privacyprotected digital ID to a billion Indian residents to access the internet, will be a
critical bulwark to ensure our digital independence.
Connecting the Dots:
What do you mean by Digital Colonization? What are the steps that India can take to
overcome the danger of digital colonisation?
TOPIC: General Studies 2

issues arising out of their design and implementation
Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governanceapplications, models, successes, limitations and potential
Updating Aadhar for better privacy
Aadhaar Project: An ambitious project that seeks to provide unique identification numbers
to each individual in a country of over a billion people, collecting demographic and
biometric information in the process
Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill,
2016: To provide for efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and
services
Privacy with Aadhaar
The issue is related here with the fundamental view of how data are to be accessed and
used
Perspective behind UIDs design should assume the worst, and try to prevent linking of
databases by third parties, or unintended usage
If not, it could lead to not only an abstract violation of privacy but also very specific and
troubling asymmetries in commercial transactions and citizen empowerment/rights,
including through profiling
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Aadhar Bill says

Provision of privacy protection
Use limitation it can only be used for the purpose for which the user gives consent
Collection limitation no information other than demographic (name, address, date
of birth, sex and, optionally, email id/ mobile number) and biometric (photo,
fingerprint and iris scan) will be collected. No other personal information of an
individual will be in the Aadhaar database
Access and Rectification the user can access his own information and has an
obligation to rectify it if it needs updating
No demographic information or identity information received from the Unique
Identification Authority of India can be displayed publicly
Only exception to certain confidentiality (but not security) obligations is national security:
Provided an order to disclose information is issued either (limited time period)
By a court or
By a joint secretary or
Higher officer, and
Vetted by a high-powered committee headed by the cabinet secretary
-No core biometric information can be shared is a principle without exception people
saying that core biometric information will be shared are wrong because Clause 29(1) is not
overridden by Clause 33(2)
-Bill includes stringent penalties, including imprisonment for breach of privacy and other
violations
What if we could have a UID that was never inter-linkable across users, but yet at the
same time uniquely linked to the person through biometrics?
Possible through a base UID (like we have today) plus modifications per user (if not
per use); would use a one-way hash that would be irreversible so that the longer
number or code couldnt reveal the base UID number
Benefits:
A corporation or other user could not create a linked database for profiling
they would all have different UID+ numbers
To even get the UID+, the cryptographic process could be restricted to
authorised users; thus, preventing the UID from becoming a casual identifier
What do you mean by Digital Colonization? What are the steps that India can take to
overcome the danger of digital colonisation?
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Related Articles:
http://iasbaba.com/2016/03/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-9th-march-2016/
Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.

Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.
A tale of two communalisms
On February 18, 1983, 2,191 Muslims, mainly women, children and the old, were
hacked to death with machetes and daggers in Nellie, Assam.
For a massacre of genocidal proportions, not a single person has been brought to
book in 33 years.
Nellie does not even exist in the public memory.
The tragic irony is that a nation threatened by anti-national slogans in not
threatened by actual slaughter, whether it is Nellie, Delhi 1984, Gujarat 2002 or
Muzaffarnagar 2013.
Majoritarian logic present in India:
The majoritarian logic is based on the premise that the majority religious
community can commit any act of mass violence, but that will not be anti-national.
What is anti-national is only minority violence.
This logic was clearly evident in the response to the Malda riot in January, something
that acquires criticalness with the looming West Bengal elections.
Emergence of two communalism:
The aftermath of Malda riot, saw the emergence of Hindu majoritarian

communalism and Muslim minority communalism and thesecularism was termed as
merely pseudo-secularism.
Equalising the unequal:
There is a growing demand within the country to equalise the two communalisms
and to stop the communal tensions and riots between the two communities.
However it is precisely this demand for equivalence that is dangerous at the
moment, for it ignores some fundamental distinctions between the two types of
communalism.
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First, it equalises what cannot be equalised, for equality is not the equal treatment
of unequal entities.
And second, it participates in the increasing conflation of Hindu communalism with
nationalism.
Comparing the two communalisms:
Minority communalism can never be compared with majority communalism, for the
former is ghettoised and mainly feeds upon its own people (think the ulemas and
Shah Bano), the very people it claims to represent, while the latter thrives by
feeding off the society at large, including the minorities.
Other than the brute power that being 80 per cent of the population brings, majority
communalism is infinitely more consequential for it determines the socio-political
discourse, leaving minority communalism to defend itself and ghettoise further.
Dangerous majority communalism:
Majority communalism, dangerous in itself, becomes deadly when it becomes the

official ideology of the Indian state, as the Sangh Parivar would want it to be.
Minority communalism can never dream of state power.
Here Jawaharlal Nehrus words are valid even now: both Hindu and Muslim
communalism are bad.
But Muslim communalism cannot dominate Indian society and introduce fascism,
that only Hindu communalism can.
Therefore whether it is the communal riots of Gujarat, Moradabad, Bhagalpur,
Bombay or Muzaffarnagar, the overwhelming number of those killed are Muslims.
Thus it is counterintuitive for the minority Muslims to provoke riots, for they would
be the primary victims, as fatalities and as refugees in camps.
Second class citizens:
The Indian Muslim today feels like a second-class citizen, an emotion which can only
be understood by looking at intolerance as discrimination at a quotidian level (for
example, the state witch-hunt through draconian anti-terror laws).
No society built on religious discrimination or of caste oppression can be termed as
tolerant.
But what is new after 2014 is that this now mixes with the ballast of state-backed
Hindutva, which sees the Muslim as well as the politically radical Dalit
(RohithVemula, for instance) as dangerous anti-nationals.
The above trend is very dangerous for the political social and economic framework of the
country along with its unity in diversity.
Way ahead:
Only a coalition of the oppressed castes, classes and gender across religions can
overcome communalism.
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But that struggle for secularisation has to go along with the resistance to the
majoritarian attempt to equate majority and minority communalism.
The scourge and cycle of communal hatred and violence can be stopped only by
ending first the history of false equivalences and selective silences.
Explain the difference between communalism and fundamentalism along with

measures taken by the government to check communalism in India.

issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability
In order to regulate the real estate sector, the Rajya Sabha has cleared the Real
Estate Regulatory Bill. Real estate contributes nine per cent to the national GDP and
the Bills passage was seen as crucial to ensuring better regulatory oversight and
orderly growth in the industry.
The Bill puts a mandate for the developers to deposit, in a separate account, 70 per
cent of the projects cost inclusive of land and construction cost. This is in
opposition to the deposit of 50 per cent of the construction cost recommended by
the Parliamentary Select Committee
Global Real Estate Transparency Index compiled by property advisory JLL in 2014
India falls in the semi-transparent category; Indias tier-I property markets ranked
40th in the list, while the tier-II cities are at 42nd position
The UK and the US topped the list in the highly transparent categories.
The 70% figure:
Will ensure that builders do not squander away this amount for any other purpose,
apart from construction
Developers can pump in a major part of the sales proceeds into lucrative deals for
purchase of more land, instead of focusing on completion of the respective project
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In case of metropolitan cities, the land cost makes for a large chunk of the total
project cost and according to the bill, developers can withdraw the money stipulated
to this, leaving behind a meager amount in a separate account for taking care of the
construction
The bill allows for a one year extension to the builders for completion of the project
What is good about the bill?
Will lead to regularisation of the real estate industry, bringing relief to consumers
and other stakeholders
Enhanced credit flows will enrich the industry
Developers may get rid of exorbitant borrowing costs owing to the infrastructure
status, that may be granted by Ministry of Finance after enactment of this bill
Ensure efficiency in all property related transactions and improve accountability of
developers
Key highlights:
Laws
Setting up of Housing Regulatory Authority and Appellate Tribunal(s) within each

state and within six months time, rules will have to be made by the state
governments for its functioning. At every level, it has to be ensured that cases are
cleared within 60 days
This legislation will apply to all projects that have yet not received a completion
certificate and have an area of more than 500 sq. m or have over eight flats
It will be mandatory for the projects to be registered and the regulators website
should have all the necessary public disclosure of details related to each project; in
addition, a quarterly progress report will have to be made public on the website
If a developer does not receive a response on his application within one month, the
project will automatically get registered
Mandatory for every real estate agent to be formally registered
A committee having the Chief Justice of High Court, the law secretary and the
housing secretary will be selected by the members and chairmen of appellate
tribunals as well as regulatory authorities
Projects beyond the coverage of urban areas will also come under the regulators
purview
In case a project completion is delayed for genuine reasons, an extension of
maximum one year can be granted by the authority
If the builder fails to observe orders given by the appellate tribunal, they may face
imprisonment of up to three years and/or attract monetary fines. In case of buyers
and estate agents, the imprisonment will last for one year or/and a monetary fine
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The matters mentioned in the legislation, cannot be taken up by the Civil Courts. But
the aggrieved parties may still approach various (644 in total) consumer courts. In
case of dissatisfaction from the ruling passed by the tribunal, the party can approach
the High Court within 60 days
The Pact
A model pact between consumers and developers will have to be provided

If a developer engages in fraudulent activities, it can lead to revocation of the
registration and in case like these, the projects account may be frozen and the
money can be utilised for its completion
If builders are unnecessarily delaying the possession, they will be liable to pay
interest equivalent to what they levy on buyers who default
In order to make changes to the original plans, permission of twothirds of the
buyers is mandatory, irrespective of sanctions received by the planning body
It is obligatory for the developers to get their projects insured
Passage of property to home buyers within three months is compulsory
Till five years after completion, any structural defects are the developers liability
After three months of majority units being allotted, the buyers will have to form an
association within three months, which will take care of the common facilities and
areas
Steps will be taken to implement Single window project clearance, project grading
and digitisation of land records
IASbabas Views:
Industry figures available for the last seven years show that of the 25 lakh residential
projects launched in eight cities in the country, 88 per cent have been delayed. Thus,
the demand of the Bill to be a pro-consumer measure is an important characteristic.
For instance, the builders will be granted a one-year additional extension to finish
their projects but at the same time, some punitive measures need to be introduced
so that this one-year extension is not sought needlessly.
The Bill formulated should work upon weeding out malpractices and unscrupulous
builders from the industry. These measures will help in bringing transparency and
lead to projects getting completed on time since the punitive measures include
imprisonment of builders.
Is the inclusion of the land cost as a part of 70% rule a real-time possibility for the
future of the Real Estate business in the country? Discuss
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Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability
The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, has approved the Hydrocarbon
Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP).
Main facets of the policy:

Four main facets of this policy are:
1. Uniform license for exploration and production of all forms of hydrocarbon:
This will allow energy companies to produce whatever form of hydrocarbon is
available from a licensed blockcoal bed methane, shale gas/oil, tight gas and gas
hydrates etc without seeking separate permission for producing each of the fuels.
2. An open acreage policy:
Under this companies can bid to explore certain blocks and then the hydrocarbons
regulator will subsequently examine their geological findings.
This means that companies can start to look at blocks that have not already been put
out for bidding by the government.
3. Easy to administer revenue sharing model:
The government has prospectively replaced the existing profit-sharing
arrangement in hydrocarbon exploration with a revenue-sharing formula.
The revenue-sharing formula may help prevent future disputes over pricing
and cost recovery of the kind the government has been embroiled in with
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).
4. Marketing and pricing freedom for the crude oil and natural gas produced:
How will the new policy help?
The policy will enhance domestic oil & gas production, bring substantial
investment in the sector and generate sizable employment.
The policy is also aimed at enhancing transparency and reducing administrative
discretion.
The policy eases doing business in India:
Present fiscal system of production sharing based on Investment Multiple and cost
recovery /production linked payment will be replaced by a easy to
administer revenue sharing model.
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The earlier contracts were based on the concept of profit sharing where profits are
shared between Government and the contractor after recovery of cost.
Under the profit sharing methodology, it became necessary for the Government to
scrutinize cost details of private participants and this led to many delays and
disputes.
Under the new regime, the Government will not be concerned with the cost
incurred and will receive a share of the gross revenue from the sale of oil, gas etc.
This is in tune with Governments policy of Ease of Doing Business.
In tune with policy Minimum Government Maximum Governance:
Recognising the higher risks and costs involved in exploration and production from
offshore areas, lower royalty rates for such areas have been provided as compared
to NELP royalty rates to encourage exploration and production.
A graded system of royalty rates have been introduced, in which royalty rates
decreases from shallow water to deepwater and ultra-deep water.
At the same time, royalty rate for on land areas have been kept intact so that
revenues to the state governments are not affected.
On the lines of NELP, cess and import duty will not be applicable on blocks awarded
under the new policy.
This policy also provides for marketing freedom for crude oil and natural gas
produced from these blocks.
This is in tune with Governments policy of Minimum Government Maximum
Governance.
Critically examine the problems associated with oil and natural gas sector in India
along with measures taken by the government to overcome them.
Critically evaluate the provisions of the proposed new Hydrocarbon Exploration and
Licensing Policy (HELP).
Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, features, amendments, significant

provisions and basic structure.
Parliament and State Legislatures structure, functioning, conduct of business,
powers & privileges and issues arising out of these
Sponsored Amendment to the Motion of Thanks

Rajya Sabha has adopted an Opposition-sponsored amendment to the Motion of Thanks on
the Presidents Address; being the second one in a row.
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2015: The Motion of Thanks was amended on the issue of black money
2016: The Motion of Thanks amendment focussed on legislation passed by Bharatiya Janata
Party governments in Rajasthan and Haryana
The legislation limits the rights of citizens to contest panchayat elections (depriving
almost 50 per cent of the population from contesting elections)
The new rule disqualifies many poor rural women who have not had the benefit of
education, from contesting elections, a basic right.
Motion of Thanks:
The President makes an address to a joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget
session, which is prepared by the government and lists its achievements
It is then, discussed by both the Houses of Parliament, amendments may be suggested
and put to vote (Motion of Thanks)
This Motion must be passed, failing which it amounts to the defeat of the government
leading to resignation
Would they have to resign if passed in the Rajya Sabha
No, but it has the potential to undermine the governments ability at consensus-building
This signals the fact that Rajya Sabha cannot be taken for granted and the government
in power should work hard to reach out to the Opposition and forge a working
consensus on the legislative agenda.
History:
1980: First instance; on the issue of engineering defections
1989: Six amendments including on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute and the
India-Sri Lanka accord were approved
2001: The House adopted an amendment on the sale of a public sector undertaking, Balco,
to a private company.
India needs a quantum jump, not merely incremental progress. Discuss

Has the Haryana and Rajasthan Acts undressed the deficiency in the 73rd and 74th
amendment as well as the deficiency which lies in Article 243(F) of the Constitution?
Critically examine.
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Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments,
significant provisions and basic structure.
Freedom from a Colonial rule book
Sections 377 and 124A of the Indian Penal Code highlight how the British left their
stamp upon Indias criminal law in a manner entirely inconsistent with a democratic,
constitutional republic.
A relic of our colonial past:
Most major Indian laws are legacies of the British, the results of a great codification
movement that failed to make much headway in the colonial metropolis, and
therefore chose India as its laboratory.
Apart from the Indian Penal Code or IPC (1860), there is the Indian Evidence Act
(1872), the Indian Contract Act (1872), the Transfer of Property Act (1882), the
General Clauses Act (1897), the Code of Civil Procedure (1908), the Code of Criminal
Procedure (1898).
Crime, contract, property, and legal procedure, the bastions of any legal system have
come down to us, in 2016, largely preserved since the time of their inception.
Contemporary issue:
In recent times, two provisions of the IPC have been in the news.
1. Section 377 was back in the headlines after two years, when the Supreme Court
agreed to refer the curative petition against its earlier decision upholding its
constitutional validity to a bench of five judges.
Section 377, which imposed the completely alien term carnal intercourse
against the order of nature upon the Indian public, is one of the clearest
examples of the Victorian morality that pervades the IPC.
2. The other provision is Section 124A, the offence of sedition.
Created to deal with the rising Wahhabi movement in the 1870s, used
against Gandhi, Tilak, Besant and many other stalwarts of the freedom
movement, and in its latest avatar, invoked against sloganeering university
students, the law of sedition is perhaps amongst the most recognisable and
notorious provisions of the IPC.
Victorian morality, imperial logic:
1. Section 377 embodies a form of colonial morality, drawn from Victorian England,
famously repressed and repressive when it came to sex.
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Other sections of IPC which are repressive when it comes to sex:
It is the above colonial morality that is also the basis of Section 497 of the
IPC, for instance, which punishes a man for adultery, but exempts the
woman (who can be punished only as an abettor, and not as the primary
offender).
Section 498, which punishes enticing a married woman. It is a morality
that views women as the passive partners in a sexual relationship, led astray
by unscrupulous men, and unable to take responsibility for their own
actions.
Section 375, which places forced sexual intercourse between a husband and
a wife outside the definition of rape, is based upon a belief that marriage
entails a one-time, permanent and irrevocable consent to sex.
2. Section 124A, on the other hand, reflects a colonial logic, predicated upon a
subject-ruler relationship between the Indians and the British.
Its prohibition upon spreading disaffection against the government, and
the manner of its use, makes it clear that it was enacted to preserve the
reputation of the colonial government in the eyes of its subjects.
Two other speech-based offences follow a similar logic.
Section 295A, which was enacted in the aftermath of religious riots across north
India in the 1920s, criminalises insulting the religious beliefs of any class of citizens.
Section 153A criminalises promoting enmity between different groups.
These provisions reflect the British strategy of dividing the subcontinent into clearly
identifiable groups, and managing the relationships between them.
Comprehensive relook needed:
1. The problems with the IPC cannot be solved in a piecemeal manner by taking
isolated sections of the code and attempting to modernise them (as the Verma
Committee tried to do with the laws of sexual assault, in the aftermath of the
Nirbhaya case).
2. This is not a task that the judiciary can accomplish, with all the will in the world and
with the best of intentions.
It is for the legislature to take a comprehensive relook at the IPC for the first
time in its 156-year history and introduce reforms that do not merely tinker
at the edges but transform the very philosophy of the penal law in a manner
that is consistent with our constitutional principles.
Adherence to constitution:
Any reform w.r.t the colonial laws have to be carried out in conformity with the
basic principles of the Constitution.
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Three of those principles are individual autonomy, the freedom of speech and
conscience, and equality.
In light of these principles, laws that claim to protect individuals from moral
degradation and corruption (the package of obscenity laws) and that are based
upon stereotypical assumptions about men and women, must be reviewed and
modernised in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution.
Is colonial mentality hindering Indias development? Critically examine the

statement wrt various colonial laws that have come under scrutiny in the recent
past.
Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.

Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.

Why the issue is in news?
On March 13,2016, 22-year-old V.

Shankar and his 19-year-old wife
Kausalya were attacked by a fivemember gang in broad daylight in
Udumalpet, in Tamil Nadus
Tirupur district.
Dozens of bystanders remained
spectators as Sankar was hacked to
death, and a battered Kausalya too
left in a pool of blood.
The young woman survived the
attack.
A confirmed honour killing:
Shankar, a Dalit, and Kausalya, who hails from the OBC Thevar community, married
eight months ago in defiance of her familys objections.
And the attack was confirmed as an honour killing a day later when her father
surrendered.
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In a television interview, Kausalya said she and her husband had been receiving
threats from her family even after marriage.
The matter was taken to the police but her account suggests that nothing much was
done to ensure their safety.
Honour killings: violation of apex court judgement

1. The response of the gang clearly goes against the Supreme Court ruling in Lata Singh
v. State of U.P. (2006)ordering stern action against all those threatening or
carrying out threats against couples.
There is nothing honourable in such killings, and in fact they are nothing but
barbaric and shameful acts of murder committed by brutal, feudal-minded
persons who deserve harsh punishment, the judgment said.
2. In fact, the apex court, in BhagwanDass v. Delhi in May 2011, deemed honour
killings in the rarest of rare category of crimes that deserve the death penalty.
Government response to honour killings:
The apex court, in BhagwanDass v. Delhi in May 2011, deemed honour killings in
the rarest of rare category of crimes that deserve the death penalty.
Soon after, the Central government proposed that Section 300 of the Indian Penal
Code be amended to include honour killings within the definition of murder.
But rejecting this proposal, the Law Commission drafted the Prohibition of Unlawful
Assembly (Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances) Bill, 2011 that
sought to declare khap panchayats (katta panchayats in Tamil Nadu) unlawful.
Tamil Nadu was not among the 22 States and Union Territories which supported
the recommendation to bring a bill to prevent honour killings.
A statistical look into honour killings in Tamil Nadu:
According to National Crime Records Bureau data, the number of Dalits murdered in
2014 rose to 73 from 28 the previous year.
It is also important to note that the Chairman of the National Scheduled Castes
Commission, claimed that hardly 10 per cent of crimes against Scheduled Castes end
in conviction.
Political parties in Tamil Nadu turn deaf ears to honour killings:
The two major Dravidian parties (the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India
Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), which claim to be legatees of Periyar's SelfRespect movement, have largely remained spectators to the violent assertion of
caste identity.
In fact, the AIADMK government refused to acknowledge the growing instances of
honour killings in Tamil Nadu when the matter was raised by the Left parties in the
Assembly.
Reasons for weak reaction by political parties:

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The weak reaction from these parties to the violence stems not only from the
insecurity of losing crucial vote banks but also the financial might that some of
these groups hold.
In contrast, there are very few senior Dalit functionaries in both the DMK and the
AIADMK, though Dalits account for more than 20 per cent of Tamil Nadus
population.
To love cannot be a crime:
In Lata Singh v. State of U.P , the Supreme Court had said: inter-caste marriages
are in fact in the national interest as they will result in destroying the caste
system.
Emphasizing the issue of choosing ones own partner as a fundamental right, the All
India Democratic Womens Association had demanded enactment of a
comprehensive law on honour crimes that goes beyond just the act of murder and
focuses on aspects such as compensation to and rehabilitation of the affected
family.
That demand still hangs fire.
To love cannot be a crime in a nation that is aiming to be a superpower.
What do you understand by honour killings? Critically examine the legal sanctity of
honour killings with reference to apex court judgements.
General Studies 2:
Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector or Services
relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
General Studies 3:
Environmental pollution and degradation, Government Budgeting.
A coffin named Tobacco
Tobacco consumption in the global world today, forms one of the most preventable causes
of morality. Tobacco and its products are made entirely or partly of leaf tobacco as raw
material and all of them contain the highly addictive ingredient, nicotine.
Total health expenditure burden from all diseases due to tobacco use: Amounts to more
than Rs.1,00,000 crore (12 per cent more than the combined State and Central government
expenditure on health in 2011-12)
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Revenue earned through tobacco excise duty during the same period was a paltry 17 per
cent of the health burden of tobacco
WHO:
Almost around 6 million people die from tobacco use and exposure to tobacco
smoke
One death in every six seconds
22% of the worlds population aged 15+ is smokers
Global Youth Tobacco Survey (2009)

Nearly 15 per cent of children in India in the 13-15 age group who used some form of
tobacco:
Only 4.5 per cent smoked cigarettes;

12.5 per cent used other forms of tobacco such as bidis and chewing tobacco
Case of adults in India, of the nearly 35 per cent tobacco users in 2009-2010:
only 5.7 per cent smoked cigarettes

Bidi and chewing tobacco users were 9.2 per cent and nearly 26 per cent,
respectively.
Tobacco Fiscal Policy in India
Tax hikes do not match increase in real income
Multiplicity of tobacco taxes: Makes administration difficult and provides

opportunities for tax avoidance and tax evasion
Differentials in tax rates on cigarette, bidis and smokeless products provide

consumers flexibility to shift to cheaper products when higher taxes are imposed
Multiple slabs: Allows manufacturers to keep prices intact despite tax raises thereby
defeating the very purpose of putting up hikes in the first place
Bidi-smokers Value chain:
Bidi consumers are more responsive to tobacco price increases than cigarette
consumers
Excise on bidis can be increased by 100 percent of current excise, without any loss of
revenue
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Bidi VAT rates vary greatly across states and rationalization and equalization of bidi
taxes across the states is imperative to minimize adverse health costs and effects
Case of pictorial warnings

India: Ranked 136 among 198 countries in terms of prominence of pictorial health warnings
on tobacco packaging
Of that covering 85 per cent of the principal display area on both sides of all tobacco
products
Hit a roadblock by mentioning that increasing the size of the warning from the
current 40 per cent on only one side of the packet to 85 per cent on both sides
would be too harsh on the tobacco industry
Alternative: Increasing the size to just 50 per cent with warning on just one side of it
going against the grain of introducing larger pictorial warnings
Arguments:
Tobacco consumption in India has increased and not declined after pictorial
warnings were introduced in 2009
Claimed that pictorial warnings would encourage illicit trade (sale of illicit
tobacco products is more likely to be linked to cost of tobacco products than
larger pictorial warnings)
Why is there a need for pictorial warnings
Poor and illiterate people are unaware of all the risks associated with tobacco
use
Less exposed to awareness campaigns
Larger images on both sides of the packet
Most effective and powerful way to communicate health risks to this population
provoke a greater emotional response,
decrease tobacco consumption and
increase motivation to quit
IASbabas Views:
There is an urgent need to consolidate voices to

o Expose industry tactics,
o Spread the truth about tobacco harm,
o Creating social movements,
o Litigate against industry violations and interference
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Taxation:
o
Tax increases on tobacco products should be indexed to both consumer price

indices/inflation and rise in incomes, to reduce the affordability of tobacco
products and to minimize incentives for tobacco users to switch consumption
to lower priced brands or products in response to tax increases
Urgent reforms in removing the multiplicity of tax structure for improved tax
administration and regulation
Introduce uniform value-added taxes on cigarettes and bidis across states
Impose a special surcharge on their sales/profits and make them

compulsorily contribute towards cost of treatment of cancer in the public
hospitals
Use of alternative products (water pipes, smokeless tobacco & electronic nicotine
delivery system) are gaining in popularity and should be addressed by introducing
some control or regulation measures
Crack down of cigarette smuggling (digital tax stamp using invisible ink, barcodes or a
security mark- to keep illicit trade under check
Behavioural Approach needs to be developed to bring about an opposite trend of

staying away from it
The future of tobacco control rests on successfully enacting comprehensive tobacco

control measures. Do you think steps taken by India can serve the purpose
presented by WHO incorporating a larger perspective?

Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.
Getting Medical Education on track
Why in news?
Recently Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) submitted its report to the

parliament which stressed on the need to reform the Medical Council of India (MCI).
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Background of MCI:
The MCI was established in

1934 under the Indian
Medical Council Act, 1933,
as an elected body for
maintaining the medical
register and providing
ethical oversight, with no
specific role in medical
education.
Amendment act of 1956:

The Amendment of 1956, however, mandated the MCI
To maintain uniform standards of medical education, both under graduate and

postgraduate.
Recommend for recognition/de-recognition of medical qualifications of medical
institutions of India or foreign countries.
Accord permanent registration/provisional registration of doctors with recognised
medical qualifications.
Ensure reciprocity with foreign countries in the matter of mutual recognition of
medical qualifications.
Second amendment act of 1993:

The second amendment came in 1993, at a time when there was a new-found enthusiasm
for private colleges
Under this amendment, the role of the MCI was reduced to an advisory body with the three
critical functions of
Sanctioning medical colleges.

Approving the student intake.
Approving any expansion of the intake capacity requiring prior approval of the
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Criticisms against MCI which the PSC report highlighted:
The Committee recommended that the Common Medical Entrance Test (CMET) held
for admission to MBBS and PG courses to various medical colleges should be based
on merit and not money, which it said has become the criterion in some colleges.
The MCI was earlier also pulled up by the Central Information Commission over
quacks issuing fake MBBS degrees and was directed to take strict action to ensure
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transparency in the establishment of medical colleges in the country as well as

issuance of medical degrees.
The parliamentary committee also took a dig at the composition of the MCI,
describing it as opaque and skewed.
The committee called for scrapping of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, under which
the apex body for medical education is currently functioning.
Recommendations of the PSC:
Explicitly acknowledging the deep tentacles of corruption and miss governance that have
consumed the MCI, the PSC has made the following recommendations:
To provide a new architecture that is more in tune with current needs of the
country.
To replace the principle of election with nomination.
To replace the existing MCI with an architecture consisting of four independent
boards to deal with curriculum development, teacher training, and standard
setting for undergraduate and post-graduate education.
Accreditation and assessment processes of colleges and courses for ensuring
uniformity in standards.
The registration of doctors, licensing and overseeing adherence to ethical standards.
Way ahead:
The above stated reforms are expected to plan human resources required for
primary care by promoting family medicine and general physicians alongside
specialists.
Rationalise standards to make medical education affordable.
Enforce a uniform national entry and exit examination.
These are all critical recommendations that, if implemented, can have far-reaching
consequences for the health sector.
Critically examine the various institutional and infrastructural drawbacks associated

with health sector in India along with measures taken by the government to
overcome the same.
Critically examine the recommendations of high level empowered committee on
health.
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Medical Tourism in India
Medical tourism refers to visit by overseas patients for medical treatment and
relaxation. Thus, it is an amalgamation of two distinct services: healthcare and tourism
Soaring medical costs, high insurance premiums, increasing number of uninsured and
under insured people in developed nations, long waiting period in the home country,
availability of high quality health care services at affordable rate, and
internet/communication channels in developing countries, cheaper air fares, and
tourism aspects are the driving forces of the outbound medical tourism
2014:7.7 million foreign tourists came to India and its foreign exchange earnings from
medical tourism is estimated to be around US $ 1.8 billion
Efforts taken by India
Modernization and expansion of airports in the country, and improvement in the road
connectivity and other infrastructure facilities
Promotion of some (45) private hospitals as Centre of Excellence in its tourism brochure
Set up a National Accreditation Board for hospitals
Declared medical tourism as services export so that this sector avails tax concessions
Participation by the State Governments:
Kerala: Made concerted efforts to promote healthcare tourism, leveraging Ayurveda.
Karantaka: Setting up Bangalore International Health City Corporation
Initiatives by the Healthcare centres:
Established world class infrastructure to attract international patients
Set up comprehensive diagnostic centres, imaging centres, and world class blood
banks
Constantly upgrading technology and focussing on cost effective-customer oriented
technology
Tying up with travel/tour operators to offer healthcare tourism as a single service
package
Increasingly participating in international trade fairs/exhibitions to promote medical
tourism
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Opportunities:
Cost advantage
Hospitals:
Equipped with international standards

Indian doctors and other medical staff have world class exposure and are fluent in
English
Demand for natural healthcare system:
Exotic tourist spots

Host of alternative healing procedures
Health economies:
Major source for foreign exchange

Stimulates economic growth in other sectors including tourism, transport,
pharmaceuticals, hotels, food suppliers to hospitals and restaurants
Labour-intensive nature- Excellent generator of employment
Promotes technological advances and improved medical infrastructure
May cut down brain-drain
Greater competition from private sector may force changes in public sector health
systems
Challenges faced by Indian Medical Tourism

A. Types of Visas:
M-visa: A medical visa, issued subject to some conditions
MX-visa: For attendants/ family members
Fast-track M/ MX visas: For SAARC countries, although Bangladesh/ Pakistan
warrant additional requirements
Problems with the visa system:
Waiting periods for the grant of visas are long
Requirement of the physical presence of patients at embassies
Restrictions on multiple-entry medical visas
High transaction costs (come on tourist visas)
Solution: Streamlining the medical visa process and extending eTV (e-tourist visa) to
medical tourists
B. Poor Recording Mechanism
Due to high transaction costs medical tourists often come on tourist visas and thus,
there happens a lack of mechanism in place, to capture the complete data on
medical tourists
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C. Global Benchmark
National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers
(NABH)accreditation now covers 99 medical, 28 AYUSH and 16 wellness and
rejuvenation centres
Not marketed sufficiently well but it matches the global standards well; recognised
by the ISQua (International Society for Quality in Healthcare)
D. Lack of a defined Perspective:
Equating medical tourism with surgery and treatment in hospitals
But Medical tourism encompasses within itself:
Wellness or rejuvenation centres
AYUSH centres- Ayurveda, Sidha, Unani, Yoga, Homeopathy
Natural solutions to health- Acupuncture, Naturopathy, Aroma therapy, Herbal
Oil massage, etc.
E. Need for a Medical Tourism website- Segmented market with little formalisation
What usually happens?
A patient turns up (mostly, on tourist visa) with no prior tie-up with a hospital
Issues with transfer of money: patient carries cash (possible violation of the law)
No advisory at the time of the grant of visaPatient may not know the law on organ transplants, or that the non-near
relationship clause between donor and recipient doesnt apply to foreigners
Without a near relationship, organ transplants to foreigners are prohibited
Arrival on the Indian airport- (with or without a medical visa)
Theres no special immigration facility or information counter
Provision of a stretcher/ ambulance ends as soon as one exits the airport- falls prey
to a tout/ middleman
F. Absence of information:
Middlemen/touts: Quotes a scaled-up figure for treatment/ operation
Unaware of the fact that the hospital will get 30 per cent of it
Hospitals: Arent allowed to receive payments in foreign exchange and so these touts
converts foreign exchange to rupees at an unfavourable rate
Tie-up with Hotels: another money generating avenue for the tout
Medical tourism sector is expected to grow exponentially due to external as well as

internal factors. Discuss.
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TOPIC:
General studies 1:
Effects of globalization on Indian society.
General studies 3:
Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth,
development and employment.
Effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their
effects on industrial growth.
Is it the end of globalisation?
China has just announced that last year, for the first time since it began opening up
its economy to the world at the end of the 1970s, exports declined on an annual
basis.
And that is not all, in value terms, global trade declined in 2015.
The obvious question is why?
Is the world experiencing a contraction in GDP?

While global trade also fell in 2009, the explanation was obvious:
The world was experiencing a sharp contraction in GDP at the time.
Last year, however, the world economy grew by a respectable three per cent.
Moreover, trade barriers have not risen significantly anywhere, and transport costs
are falling, owing to the sharp decline in oil prices.
So there is no contraction in GDP, but still the global trade is declining.
All time low Baltic Dry index:
Interest to note here is, the so-called Baltic Dry Index, which measures the cost of
chartering the large ships that carry most long-distance trade, has fallen to an alltime low.
This indicates that markets do not expect a recovery, meaning that the data from
2015 could herald a new age of slowing trade.
The obvious conclusion is that the once-irresistible forces of globalisation are losing
steam.
The situation in China affirms the end is nearing:
The situation in China is telling.

In recent decades, as it became the world's leading trading economy, China
transformed the global trading system.
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Now the values of both imports and exports have fallen, though the former has
declined more, owing to the collapse of global commodity prices.
Commodity prices and trade trends:
In fact, commodity prices are the key to understanding trade trends over the past
few decades.
When they were high, they drove increased trade to the point that the share of
trade to GDP rose, fueling hype about the inevitable progress of globalisation.
But in 2012, commodity prices began to fall, soon bringing trade down with them.
Clearly, there is a direct link between the trends in trade and commodity prices.
Given that this connection affects all manufactured goods that require raw
material inputs, it should be no surprise that, as commodity prices have declined,
so has global trade.
Commodity prices affect not only the value of trade but also volume of trade:
One might argue that commodity prices concern only the value of trade, and that in
recent decades, the growth of trade by volume also has exceeded that of real GDP
growth.
But commodity prices affect trade volumes as well, because higher commodity
prices force industrial countries to increase the volume of their exports, in order to
cover the costs of the same volume of raw material imports.
And also because food, fuels, and raw materials comprise about a quarter of global
trade, when their prices fluctuate - especially as strongly as they have in recent
decades - aggregate trade figures are obviously affected.
Given the massive drop in commodity prices lately, there is little need to seek any
other explanation for the recent slowdown in trade.
Way ahead:
Most economies are more open today than they were a generation ago.
But it is now becoming clear that the perception that globalisation is some
overwhelming and inexorable force largely reflected the side effects of the last
decade's commodity boom.
If prices remain low, as seems likely, the next decade might well see global trade
stagnate, as the trade pattern "rebalances" from emerging economies to the
established industrial powers.
Make a cost benefit analysis of impact of globalisation on Indian economy and

society.
Is globalisation a boon or bane to India? Substantiate
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Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector or Services relating

to Health, Education, Human Resources.
More power to the vaccine arsenal

Strides by IndiaTowards Public Health achievements
Made possible the use of safe and effective vaccines delivered through quality programmes
leading to the successful list:
Small pox was eliminated in 1975

Polio in 2014
Maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) in August 2015
65%: is the routine immunisation coverage though, remains low

Lack of important vaccines in the immunization schedule
But
Introduction of four new vaccines

Against Rotavirus, Rubella and Polio (injectable) and an adult vaccine against Japanese
encephalitis
2011: a vaccine against Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) was introduced as part of the
pentavalent vaccine to contain diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B and Hib
Statistics:
Above-mentioned Vaccines: Can collectively prevent
at least one lakh infant deaths,

deaths of adults in the working age group
up to 10 lakh cases of hospitalisation each year
Indias UIP: Provide free vaccines against 13 life-threatening diseases to 27 million children
annually, the largest birth cohort in the world
India Newborn Action Plan (INAP)
Launched in September 2014 with the aim of reducing preventable new-born deaths and
still-births and the goal to attain single digit neonatal mortality and stillbirth rate by 2030
Current rate: 38/1,000 live births
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To reach this goal, four additional vaccines are being thought of as priority vaccines for
introduction in India Priority vaccines
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine:
Bacterial pneumonias: kill more children under the age of five than any other disease
India: Worlds highest number of deaths caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae (bacteria
most commonly associated with pneumonias)
Estimated 5-6 lakh cases of severe episodes of pneumococcal pneumonia and 95,0001,05,000 deaths in India annually
Vaccine: available (effective and safe vaccine)
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine:
Cervical cancer is one of the top three cancers affecting women in the world; Two strains of
HPV-16 and -18 are responsible for almost 80 to 85 per cent of cervical cancers
Every 4th new case: Indian; 1.32 lakh new cases every year and about 75,000 deaths
reported
Vaccine: Preventive vaccines are available and are given to adolescents (9-13 years)
Influenza Vaccine:
Immunising mothers during pregnancy against vaccine-preventable diseases has the
potential to improve health outcomes in mothers and their children
Should be leveraged as a key strategy to address neonatal mortality in particular (accounts
for almost half of the under-five mortality); have been used to eliminate MNT
Clinical trials: Influenza vaccination during pregnancy can prevent influenza disease in
pregnant women and their new-born children for the first six months of life with no
indication of harm to the recipients or their children
World Health Organisation Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE)has recommended that pregnant women having influenza vaccine receipt in countries
initiating or expanding their influenza vaccine programmes be made a priority
India: Deaths were reported during the H1N1 outbreak from 2009 onwards;;Infection in
pregnant women led to deaths in their third trimester
Maharashtra government has introduced seasonal flu vaccine for high-risk groups including
pregnant women (includes the pandemic H1N1 strain, is a priority vaccine for use in highrisk groups in India including pregnant women)
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Cholera vaccine:
Available: Interventions for the prevention and control of cholera (including an oral vaccine
produced and licensed in India) are available
Cholera: an important cause of morbidity and mortality
7-8 lakh cases every year resulting in about 20,000-24,000 deaths; 400-500 million people
are at risk
Outbreaks: after the monsoon
Vaccine:Availability of the oral vaccine (limited use)
Golden years of Immunisation in India
The challenges faced in delivering lifesaving vaccines to the targeted beneficiaries need to
be addressed from the existing knowledge and learning from the past
Challenges:
Inter- and intra-state variations in the coverage

Data recording and reporting is sub-optimal and disease surveillance system desires
a lot for improvement
Lack of supervision and monitoring is often cited and communication for increasing
immunization coverage is limited
Systematic methodological rigour is required to improve coverage with all antigens
Focus should be both on hygiene and sanitation measures and vaccination
Intervention by government is required as stringent safety regulation has made
vaccine research costly
Sub-optimal investment by public sector for vaccine research
Needs better support and funding for conducting operational research to address
programmatic issues and to improve coverage with all antigens in UIP of India
Need for better and regular interactions in government programme managers and
professional bodies to shape the vaccination efforts in the country
Steps taken/to be strengthened:
Transparent system of taking decisions to introduce new vaccines

Being sensitive to adverse events following immunisation and with the capacity to
add additional vaccines
IASbabas Views:
The benefits of vaccination need to be extended beyond traditional childhood period

and new approach of life-course immunization for including larger age groups such
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as adolescent and elderly is being contemplated globally, with an argument that not
offering the benefits of available safe and effective vaccines is an ethical issue
A number of linkages need to be explored between academia, industry and
international institutions such as National Institute of Health (NIH), Gates
Foundation, the GAVI Alliance, PATH, World Health Organization and the
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) for hosting a
healthy population
Explore the ethical issues related to non-availability of effective and safe vaccines for
the population.
TOPIC:
General Studies 1:
Women related issues
General Studies 2:
relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
General Studies 3:
Science and Technology - developments and their applications and effects in
everyday life Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of
technology and developing new technology
Contraceptiona womans burden
Dismissal of the rat-poison theory:
Issue:
On November 8, 2014, Dr. R.K. Gupta, a surgeon at Bilaspur District Hospital, conducted
laparoscopic tubectomies on 83 women in the space of 90 minutes in an abandoned
building
Background -- (Read only if interested, else this part can be skipped)
Medical Negligence
Dr. Gupta had spent approximately three-four minutes per patient

Had not followed infection control protocols
The drugs Ibuprofen and Ciprocin, prescribed to the victims as post-operative care,
were laced with rat poison (State Health Department claimed)
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Sixteen months after a mass sterilisation camp conducted by the government of

Chhattisgarh resulted in 13 deaths and 65 injuries, viscera reports from the Central
Forensic Science Laboratory in Ramanthapur, Hyderabad, and from the Central Drugs
Laboratory, Kolkata, to go with an earlier one from the State Forensic Science Laboratory in
Raipur have dismissed the rat poison theory
Stress of targets: upon government doctors is immense
Every district in Chhattisgarh was given a sterilisation target to meet, in violation of

Union Health Ministry norms
Doctors in Bilaspur had an ELA (Expected Level of Achievement) of 3,000
sterilisations and 3,000 Intrauterine Contraceptive Device (IUCD) insertions within a
fortnight
For Takhatpurnagar panchayat, the doctors had to sterilise 300 women or risk losing
the budget for the next year.
The legal death
Targets are not allowed in India but these programmes have ELAs, basically an
estimation of how many women need family planning assistance
While the Centres policy uses the right language, there is no effort made to ensure
than lower-level staff understand it
Can death be compensated
The Chhattisgarh government gave Rs.4 lakh each to the families of the dead
women; those injured received Rs.50,000 each
A fixed deposit of Rs.2 lakh was opened for children of the women who had died and
the State government announced that it would adopt the children of all affected
families.
RealityNeither of it has happened

Fault:
The surgical staff had used the same hand gloves, injections, syringes, sutures on all
the 83 women, resulting in life-threatening infections
The premises where the tubectomies were conducted had not been disinfected
properly
Dr. Gupta used only one laparoscope, without disinfecting it after each use
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Reality of Indias family planning programme

History: Achieved notoriety during the Emergency years (1975-77) when a compulsory
sterilisation programme to limit population growth was introduced by the Indira Gandhi
government.
On paper: The policy might have evolved but the programme still continues to be driven by
targets, threats and coercion
Onus of family planning:
It is on the woman, indicating the difference in numbers of female and male sterilization
procedures performed
Male sterilization:
Medically and financially more viable

Usually done through vasectomy, is reversible- The vas deferens is easily accessible
under local anaesthesia as it rests just under the skin
The procedure can be performed quickly and a man can walk away from the
operation table
While 0.2 percent of the hundred-odd men surveyed reported using condoms, none
of them reported undergoing vasectomy; Not a single man, who was a part of the
sample in the National Family Health Survey, had opted for vasectomy in 2015
Besides patriarchy, misconceptions around vasectomy including loss of sexual
potency are to be largely blamed
Five decades ago- Vasectomy was more prevalent; but today, as C-sections were
fewer many women today who opt for C-section deliveries also opt to undergo
tubectomy
Female sterilization:
Data from the latest National Family Health Survey collected between February 23
and May 9, 2015 shows 53.7 percent of women surveyed, reported undergoing
sterilization through tubectomy
The procedure is irreversible as cut fallopian tubes cannot be reconnected
The procedure carries some risk of injury to nearby organs like bowels and bladder.
State offers men from BPL families Rs. 1,300 for undergoing vasectomy in a bid to
make it attractive. While the number of men responding is visibly small, the
incentive of Rs. 850 to a woman for tubectomy has large takers, lending credence to
theories that sterilization in India is coercive
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Step towards modernizing the system
Government is introducing injectable contraceptives free of charge in government

facilities.
The World Health Organization recommends their use without restriction for women
of childbearing age
For Indian women often worn out, anaemic and at higher risk of death because
they bear children young and often urgently need methods to delay or space
pregnancies
Court forwarded the matter to Indias Drug Technical Advisory Board, which in 1995
allowed private use to continue but recommended against offering them in
government clinics. The decision was not revisited for 20 years, even as use of the
method became widespread in neighbouring Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Opponents contend that:
Activist groups filed cases with the countrys Supreme Court seeking to ban the
drugs, contending that they had not been proved safe and could be used coercively.
Indias health infrastructure is too weak to regulate use of the drugs, monitor side
effects or ensure that patients have given informed consent
Indias government spends just over 1 percent of its gross domestic product on
public health, compared with around 3 percent in Russia and China and 8 percent in
the United States.
Easy-To-Use IUD Inserter
It is more than 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy.

While IUDs have proven to be safe and effective immediately after childbirth, they
can be complicated to insert
Special training is required, as is careful sterilization, and some equipment may be
unavailable in various places.
Men do not take the responsibility of family planning even when it should be equally
shared. Critically examine.
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TOPIC:
General Studies 2:
issues arising out of their design and implementation; Governance Issues
General Studies 3:
Inclusive growth; Infrastructure

Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana
Background:
Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote
areas. Electricity is used not only for lighting and household purposes, but it also
allows for mechanization of many farming operations, such as threshing, milking,
and hoisting grain for storage. In areas facing labor shortages, this allows for greater
productivity at reduced cost
The Centre claims to be fulfilling the Prime Ministers plan for full rural
electrification. But a close check of its own real-time data shows that the gap
between official claims and ground reality is stark.
Haldu Khata, a village in Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh, is one of the 7,008 villages
that the government claims to have electrified in the last year, under the Modi
governments flagship scheme of rural electrification, Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram
Jyoti Yojana.
Recent analysis of rural electrification data shows that the number of villages said to
be electrified in the last year is exaggerated.
Note that a village is considered electrified if public places in the village and 10 per
cent of its households have access to electricity.
What is Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana all about (DUGJY)?
The flagship scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an aim to
provide 247 uninterrupted electricity supply to each rural household across the
country by 2022.
It focuses on feeder separation for rural households and agricultural purpose and
also seeks to strengthen the distribution and sub-transmission infrastructure,
including metering at all levels in rural areas.
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What are the major components of this scheme ?

Major components of the new scheme:
strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution network

feeder separation
metering at all levels including at input points
feeders and distribution transformers.
it also seeks to strengthen Micro grid and off grid distribution network of rural
electrification.
Funds:
The scheme has budgetary outlay of 76,000 crore rupees for implementation of the
projects of which Union Government will provide grant of 63,000 crore rupees.
It should be noted that, this scheme replaces Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran
Yojana (RGGVY).
What are the ways in which the process is made transparent to public?
To make the process transparent, real-time data on villages being electrified has
been made available to the public through a mobile app and a Web dashboard called
GARV. The platform was launched in October 2015.
Alongside, 309 Gram Vidyut Abhiyantas (GVAs) were deployed by the government
to monitor the electrification process and enter the data on the GARV application.
Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), the nodal agency for rural electrification
which functions under the aegis of the Ministry of Power
Discrepancies:
One major source of discrepancy is regarding those villages where the GVA has
noted that the village is un-electrified, yet it is counted as electrified on the app.
This perhaps could be one of the reasons leading to the inflated number, If there is a
pole and distribution line visible in an area then it will be termed electrified but
presence of electrical infrastructure doesnt automatically translate into
electrification.
Hindrances not allowing for real time update:
Power lines were set up in the village but they were stolen before they could be
charged.
Work not yet started in certain village located in remote location due to no road
connectivity; Situated on mountains; naxalite affected area etc. but still these
villages have been considered electrified
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Village declared electrified by discom [power distribution company] but GVA yet to
visit the village for verification. This indicates that villages have been declared as
electrified without waiting for the governments own representatives verification,
rendering the monitoring system redundant. And further, if the GVA marks it as unelectrified after visiting, the status is not updated from electrified to un-electrified.
Social and economic benefits of rural electrification:
Allow activities to occur after daylight hours, including education. In impoverished

and undeveloped areas, small amounts of electricity can free large amounts of
human time and labor. In the poorest areas, people carry water and fuel by hand,
their food storage may be limited, and their activity is limited to daylight hours.
Reduce isolation through telecoms
Improve safety with the implementation of street lighting, lit road signs.
Improve healthcare by electrifying remote rural clinics.
Reduces the need for candles and kerosene lamps and improves indoor air quality.
Improve productivity, through the use of electricity for irrigation, crop processing,
and other activities.
Way ahead:
Identify the bottle necks which are hindering real time update on to the GARV
mobile app and press Gram Vidyut Abhiyantas (GVAs) in to swift action to monitor
the progress and update the same.
In line with Smart city project Smart village project must be devised on mission
mode to self suffice a village with its own electricity generation with the help of Solar
power .
Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana is new light at the end of the tunnel to
dispel darkness for rural areas. Comment
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INTERNATIONAL
Bilateral, regional and global groupings

Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on Indias
interests, Indian Diaspora.
Important International institutions, agencies their structure, mandate.

Background:
The roots of the EU lie in the aftermath of the Second World War with the search for
ties across European boundaries to prevent the two great continental powers,
France and Germany, from ever again taking up arms against each other. Britain was
not initially on board, but became the seventh member country in the early 1970s.
At that stage, the EU was generally known as the Common Market, a free-trade zone
much more than a political alliance. The EU expanded to almost every corner of
Europe, particularly after the implosion of the Moscow-led Communist bloc in
eastern Europe. Half a billion people now live in EU member states, powerful nations
including Serbia and Turkey are queuing up to join, and no member state has ever
left the EU at least, not yet.
Britain has always been an uneasy member of the EU. In the 1980s, British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher railed against European interference in member states
monetary and fiscal policy.
What is European Union or EU?
The European Union (EU) is a politico-economic union of 28 member states that are
located primarily in Europe.
It covers an area of 4,324,782 km2, with an estimated population of over 508
million.
The EU operates through a system of supranational
institutions and intergovernmental-negotiated decisions by the member states.
The institutions are: the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of
the European Union, the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European
Union, the European Central Bank, and the Court of Auditors.
The European Parliament is elected every five years by EU citizens.
The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardized system of
laws that apply in all member states.
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EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital,
enact legislation in justice and home affairs, and maintain common policies on
trade, agriculture, fisheries, and regional development.
The monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002. It is
currently composed of 19 member states that use the euro as their legal tender.
When was the EU formed?
The EU can trace its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and
the European Economic Community (EEC), formed in 1951 and 1958 respectively by
the Inner Six countries of Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the
Netherlands.
French foreign minister Robert Schuman led the formation of the ECSC with the
Schuman Declaration in May 1950. The organization was a forerunner of several
other European Communities and what is now the European Union.
The European Union was established under its current name in 1993 following the
Maastricht Treaty.
Why was the EU created?
After the Second World War there was a new movement to create unity between
Germany and France, which would ultimately lay the foundations for the European
Union four decades later.
Which countries are in the EU?
The European Union is an economic and political union of 28 countries. Each of the
countries within the Union is independent but they agree to trade under the
agreements made between the nations.
Twenty two of the member states also belong to the Schengen Area, which is
comprised of 26 European countries that have abolished passport and border
controls at their common borders.
Of the countries that are not part of it, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania all
intend to join, while the United Kingdom and Ireland have opted out.
The European Economic Area (EEA) includes EU countries and also Iceland,
Liechtenstein and Norway. It allows them to be part of the EUs single market.
Switzerland is neither an EU nor EEA member but is part of the single market - this
means Swiss nationals have the same rights to live and work in the UK as other EEA
nationals.
What is the purpose of the EU?
The European Union operates a single market which allows free movement of goods,
capital, services and people between member states.
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When will the EU referendum be held?

The date has been set for 23 June 2016.
What will the referendum ask?
Should the UK remain a member of the EU or leave the EU?
Who can vote in the EU referendum?
Eligibility will be based on the criteria for voting in a general election, which means citizens
of most EU countries (who can vote in local and European elections in Britain) will not be
allowed to take part. Anyone over the age of 18 who falls into one of the following groups
can cast a vote:
British citizens resident in the UK

British citizens resident overseas for less than 15 years
Citizens of Ireland, Malta and Cyprus resident in the UK
Commonwealth citizens resident in the UK
Commonwealth citizens resident in Gibraltar
The pros and cons of leaving the EU

Perhaps the greatest uncertainty associated with leaving the EU is that no country has ever
done it before, so no one can predict the exact result. Nevertheless, many have tried.
Trade:
One of the biggest advantages of the EU is free trade between member nations,
making it easier and cheaper for British companies to export their goods to Europe.
Some business leaders think the boost to income outweighs the billions of pounds in
membership fees Britain would save if it left the EU.
The UK also risks losing some of its negotiation power internationally by leaving the
trading bloc, but it would be free to establish trade agreements with non-EU
countries.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage believes Britain could follow the lead of Norway, which has
access to the single market but is not bound by EU laws on areas such as agriculture,
justice and home affairs. But others argue that an "amicable divorce" would not be
possible.
Britain would still be subject to the politics and economics of Europe, but would no
longer have a seat at the table to try to influence matters.
"Brexit(Britians exit)" scenario is that the UK economy loses 2.2 per cent of its total
GDP by 2030. However, it says that GDP could rise by 1.6 per cent if the UK could
negotiate a free trade deal with Europe in long run
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Investment:
The general view is that inward investment could slow in the lead up to the vote due
to the uncertainty of the outcome and its consequences, following the precedent set
ahead of the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.
Longer term, there are diverging views: pro-Europeans reckon the UK's status as
one of the world's biggest financial centres will come under threat if it is no longer
seen as a gateway to the EU for the likes of US banks, while Brexit campaigners
argue London's unique appeal will not be diminished.
This will be seen as positive by those advocating a vote to leave. It reckons the
departure of one of the union's most powerful economies would hit its finances
and also boost populist anti-EU movements in other countries. This would open a
"Pandora's box" that could lead to the "collapse of the European project".
Jobs:
Free movement of people across the EU opens up job opportunities for UK workers
willing to travel and makes it relatively easy for UK companies to employ workers
from other EU countries.
Exit prevents the UK "managing its own borders". Limiting this freedom would deter
the "brightest and the best" of the continent from coming to Britain, create complex
new immigration controls and reduce the pool of candidates employers can choose
from.
Regulations:
Euro skeptics argue that the vast majority of small and medium sized firms do not
trade with the EU but are restricted by a huge regulatory burden imposed from
abroad.
However, on the other hand warn that millions of jobs could be lost if global
manufacturers, such as car makers, move to lower-cost EU countries, while British
farmers would lose billions in EU subsidies.
Influence:
Britain may lose some of its military influence many believe that America would
consider Britain to be a less useful ally if it was detached from Europe.
On the plus side, Britain would also be able to claim back its territorial fishing
waters, scrap caps on limits to the number of hours people can work per week,
free itself from the EU's renewable energy drive and create a freer economic
market. This would turn London into a "freewheeling hub for emerging-market
finance a sort of Singapore on steroids".
The most likely outcome is that Britain would find itself "as a scratchy outsider with
somewhat limited access to the single market, almost no influence and few friends.
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And one certainty: that having once departed, it would be all but impossible to get
back in again."
Security:
In favor of Brexit :
There is a strong belief amongst Pro exit that they are leaving the "door open" to
terrorist attacks by remaining in the European Union. "This open border does not
allow us to check and control people".
Failure to do so, significantly increase the terrorist threat and endangers people and
is a betrayal of this country.
Pro Union:
Argue that the EU is an "increasingly important pillar of our security", especially at a

time of instability in the Middle East and in the face of "resurgent Russian
nationalism and aggression".
UK benefits from being part Europe, as well as NATO and the United Nations. It is
through the EU that you exchange criminal records and passenger records and work
together on counter-terrorism. We need the collective weight of the EU when you
are dealing with Russian aggression or terrorism.
Would taxes change?
Better off out: The EU has limited power over tax, which is largely a matter for
national governments. The exception is VAT which has bands agreed at the EU level.
Outside the EU, the UK would potentially have more flexibility.
Better off in : Tax avoidance and evasion will reach crippling levels as our economy
becomes increasingly wholly owned by foreign multinationals that make tax
avoidance in Britain central to their business strategy.
Would Britain's legal system, democratic institutions and law-making process change?
Better off out:
It would be a major shot in the arm for British democracy as the Westminster
parliament regained its sovereignty and re-connected with voters.
The country would be free from the European Arrest Warrant and other law and
order measures, but would still have to deal with the European Court of Human
Rights, which is separate from the EU.
Better off in:
Britons benefit from EU employment laws and social protections, which would be
stripped away.
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Withdrawal from the European Arrest Warrant could mean delays for the UK in
extraditing suspects from other European countries; and the UK already has some
opt-outs from EU labor law, including the Working Time Directive.
Should the UK remain a member of the EU or leave the EU? Examine
TOPIC:
General Studies 2:
Bilateral, regional and global groupings

Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate
General Studies 3:
Inclusive growth and issues arising from it;

Effects of liberalization on the economy
Infrastructure: Energy (Renewable), Conservation, environmental pollution and
degradation, environmental impact assessment.
WTO: The much talked about Solar panel Dispute

Issue: The domestic content requirement imposed under Indias national solar programme
is inconsistent with its treaty obligations under the global trading regime; leading it to be
described as archaic trade rules trumping important climate imperatives
Indias National Solar Programme
Launched in 2010
Aim: To establish India as a global leader in solar energy, by creating the policy conditions
for its diffusion across the country as quickly as possible
To incentivise the production of solar energy within the country:
The government enters into long-term power purchase agreements with solar power
producers, effectively guaranteeing the sale of the energy produced and the price
that such a solar power producer could obtain
Then it would sell such energy through distribution utilities to the ultimate consumer
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Eligibility of a solar power producer to participate under the programme:

Required compulsorily to use certain domestically sourced inputs(solar cells and
modules) for certain types of solar projects (if requirement not satisfied- the
government will not guarantee the purchase of the energy produced)
Violation of the Global Trading Rules
2013: U.S. brought a complaint before the WTO arguing that the domestic content
requirement imposed under Indias national solar programme is in violation of the global
trading rules (unfavourable discriminating against imported solar cells and modules)
Origin: Discrimination was done between solar cells and modules on the basis of the
national origin of the cells and modules (a clear violation of its trade commitment)
Domestic content requirement (DCR) measures violated core norms of
Trade-related investment provisions,

National treatment provisions for treating imported products on a par with
domestically manufactured products
Financial subsidy rules
Indias Stand:
Was principally relying on the government procurement justification, which

permitted countries to derogate from their national treatment obligation provided
that the measure was related to the procurement by governmental agencies of
products purchased for governmental purposes and not with a view to commercial
resale or use in production of goods for commercial sale
The measure is justified under the general exceptions since it was necessary to
secure compliance with its domestic and international law obligations relating to
ecologically sustainable development and climate change.
The panel speaks up:

Violation: India had violated its national treatment obligation (mandatory domestic content
requirement)
Inconsistency with the product: The product being subject to the domestic content
requirement was solar cells and modules, but the product that was ultimately procured or
purchased by the government was electricity (not an instance of government
procurement)
No specific issue: India failed to point out any specific obligation having direct effect in
India or forming part of its domestic legal system, which obligated India to impose the
particular domestic content requirement (bereft of the general exception)
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Clean Energy Syndrome?

Ruling of the WTO-panel: Has come under intense criticism for undermining Indias efforts
towards promoting the use of clean energy
If Objective: To produce more clean energy, then
Free to choose: Solar power producers should be free to choose energy-generation
equipment on the basis of price and quality
Burdening the consumer: By making it mandatory for the producers to buy locally, the
government is imposing an additional cost, usually passed on to the ultimate consumer, for
the production of clean energy
Is it possible to give preferential treatment to clean energies?
Yes, in the form of tax rebates for solar power producers
Wrong move by India:
During its submissions before the WTO, India did not invoke the general exceptions
under article XX(b) or (g) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (utilized by
parties seeking to protect their domestic regulations on environmental or health
grounds)
Thus, India had no proven perspective in place regarding the local content
requirement under the programme (imposed for the conservation of clean air or
green energy)
Resist the temptation of adopting protectionist measures:
Domestic content measures, despite their immediate political gains, have a tendency
to skew competition and therefore, manufacturers must remain free to select inputs
based solely on quality and price, irrespective of the origin
Need to work towards building a business and regulatory environment which is
conducive to manufacturing which will require systemic changes in the form of
simpler, transparent and consistent laws and effective dispute resolution
mechanisms
The road ahead
India might propose to opt for the usage of the domestic content requirement
measures for buying solar panels for its own consumption such as by the railways
and defence and would decide not to sell the power generated from such subsidized
panels for commercial use.
It has the capacity to hinder Indias solar power programme and will hold
consequences for other countries planning to embark on renewable energy
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programmes. The initiative has driven dramatic growth of Indias solar capacity that
has the capacity to reduce its reliance on dirty coal and spur the development of
new clear energy jobs
US-India ties at risk?
US has consistently offered India to utilize its technologies to achieve its clean
energy goals faster and more cost-effectively.
But keeping the in mind the launch of the ambitious International Solar Alliance,
with the aim of switching sunshine nations in tropical areas to solar energy,
India might not let US take the entire credit.
Moreover, US should be applauding and encouraging India to scale up solar
energy and not striking it down with WTO.
Both the countries need to remember that an important part of any maturing
trade relationship is effectively addressing the range of issues on our trade and
investment agenda, including in areas where we might disagree and therefore,
exercising restraint and employing diplomacy while keeping the perspective of
climate change in mind will help effectively solve the issue.
TOPIC:
General Studies 2:
Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or
affecting Indias interests
Important International institutions, agencies and their structure, mandate.
Indias trade pacts in a changing world
The Economic Survey 2015-16s analysis of the impact of Indias free trade
agreements (FTAs) on the economy is a valuable attempt to address a gap in the
policymaking ecosystem.
Its conclusionControlling for potential non-FTA trade growth, Indias FTAs have on
the whole had significant impact, boosting trade without introducing inefficiency due
to trade diversion.
What are FTAs?
A free-trade area is the region encompassing a trade bloc whose member countries
have signed a free trade agreement (FTA).
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Such agreements involve cooperation between at least two countries to reduce

trade barriers import quotas and tariffs and to increase trade of goods and
services with each other.
If people are also free to move between the countries, in addition to FTA, it would
also be considered an open border. It can be considered the second stage
of economic integration.
WTO: World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization which

regulates international trade.
The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement,
signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948.
The WTO deals with regulation of trade between participating countries by providing
a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process
aimed at enforcing participants' adherence to WTO agreements, which are signed by
representatives of member governments
What are the factors guiding Indias preference for multilateralism under the aegis of
WTO?
Indias preference for multilateralism under the aegis of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) is based on two factors.
The first is the spaghetti bowl problem that bilateral and regional pacts present,
creating a tangle of trade commitments that can both overlap and work at crosspurposes.
The second is the potential for collective bargaining at the WTO, where developing
economies can push for flexibility in the rate, quantum and scope of tariff reduction
What is current status of India?
Indias attempts to exploit that potential, however, havent been particularly

successful.
Its ratification of the WTOs trade proposal agreement was a signifier of its failure to
hold the line on the organizations agricultural subsidy issues, crucial for domestic
food security. That followed increasing isolation on the issue and the concurrent
diplomatic risk of being perceived as the villain of the piece. As a consequence, the
Doha agenda with its focus on development issues is now a relic.
The WTOs Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) negotiationscrucial, given that
the vast majority of the worlds merchandise exports fall under this rubrichavent
been making significant headway either.
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Indias push for greater flexibility in NAMA-mandated tariff reductionsthe so-called

Less than Full Reciprocity principleis thus in limbo for the time being.
WTOs World Tariff Profiles 2015 report shows that the difference between Indias
bound tariff rate (the maximum customs rate under a countrys WTO obligations)
and its applied rate is substantial. This is typical of developing countries; developed
economies tend to have a far smaller binding overhang. But this also means trade
with a developing country is more unpredictable given the greater potential for tariff
creepanother liability.
Isnt it particularly surprising that an emphasis on bilateral and regional pacts is growing
globally?
The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is, of course, the poster child. Taken
together with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership currently under
negotiation, it will cover a substantial majority of global trade.
Indias focus on multilateralism is both understandable and necessary. But a parallel
push for bilateralism and regionals is now a necessity to preserve export
competitiveness. That means confronting a number of domestic and policy
challenges.
Bottom-up approaches with supply chains created across borders are more effective
in fostering regional integration that top-down diplomatic approaches.
Bottle necks:
The disappointing results of Indias trade under Bimstecthe Bay of Bengal free
trade agreementdue in substantial part to poor connectivity and supply
infrastructure, show the damage the lack of such linkages causes.
Restrictive foreign direct investment (FDI) norms serve as barriers to the trade plus
investment arrangements that typically result in greater success.
Consider the India-European Union FTA with its many setbacks: Inability to make
concessions on FDI in multi-brand retail, accountancy and legal services comes in the
way of its securing market access for services.
There are hosts of other domestic inefficienciesfrom a heavily distorted
agricultural sector to poor infrastructure undercutting exporters and the poor
regulatory regime in the drug sector that has given the EU and the US a handy
weapon against Indian genericswaiting in the wings.
Way ahead:- India must do a balancing act:
Between trying to regain lost ground at the WTO and protecting its flanks via
bilaterals;
Between securing trade pacts and checking the trade imbalance that has seen its
existing FTAs result in a sharper rise in imports than exports;
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Between protecting domestic industries and making the concessions that will allow it
to extract its own concessions for leveraging its strong services sector.
Should India place greater emphasis on FTAs or Multilateral Trade

Agreements? Evaluate.
TOPIC:
General studies 2:
affecting Indias interests.
interests, Indian diaspora.
Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.
General studies 3:
Infrastructure- Energy
Relations require strengtheningEnergy Benefits to India
The U.S.-Japan-India trilateral has gained momentum in recent years, with regular
meetings and a variety of collective exercises; but much needs to be done on the
ground limited to some meetings and naval exercises only)
This quadrilateral relationship is typically depicted in defence terms but what
remains insignificant is the fact that a closer relationship between these four key
democracies can also boost Indias tenuous energy security in a big way.
The Energy Appetite:
For Indian economic growth to return to double digits, energy supplies must increase
by three to four times over the next few decades
Deficits being immense, India is thriving on overseas energy for sustenance
Imports:
80 per cent- Oil
20 per cent-Coal; we have witnessed the coal imports increasing by as much as
56 per cent in a single year
40 per cent: Uranium
As well as increasing imports of Natural Gas
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Import-dependent energy policies: Fraught with

Geographical Risks:
Most of Indias hydrocarbon imports come from unstable or faraway regions

Two thirds of its oil comes from West Asia, and distant Venezuela
The gas-rich Central Asia Holds the key to Indias security needs as well
Pakistans denial to grant India transit rights to Afghanistan- no direct access to the
region
Has secured some cooperation with Kazakhstan w.r.t. Uranium (9th ranking oil
power; much remains undiscovered)
Turkmenistan: Worlds fourth largest gas giant-home to Galkynysh gas field
Tajikistan- Asias water giant; can generate 500 terawatt hours of electricity every
year
Looking forward to developing the Chabahar port in southern Iran for ease of access
The lifting of sanctions on Iran following its nuclear deal with the U.S. opens up
energy possibilities
Burdened by history, trapped by Geography:
Regional instability of Afghanistan
Increasing competitive importers to make use of Iran energy supplies
Pakistans creating a dent on the TAPI gas pipeline dream
Transportation: Landlocked-mountainous terrains- impenetrable forests
The entry in the quad

Australia
Can provide immense energy benefits to India; Greater research collaborations for
effective affordable solutions
4th largest producer of LNG
11th largest known reserves of Natural Gas
Expertise in large scale deployment of rooftop solar- A marriage waiting to happen
Building energy efficiency
Solar scheduling & forecasting
Two way metering and tariffs
Joint research in the area of wave energy
Indias Import Bill w.r.t. Australia comprises of
Sizeable quantities of coal

Technology Development- Clean coal technologies-Supercritical-Ultra Supercritical
Adopting best mining practices
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Environment Management: Limiting the emission of harmful pollutants (strict

pollution norms issued by MOEF)
Development of Skills: Technological-Managerial-Operational
Improvement of Safety- Proper training
Exploration and cooperation w.r.t Uranium
LNG can be a good commodity to capitalise the relations upon- The top current source
of Indias LNG imports-Qatar lies in a geographically volatile region and thus, India seeks
a more stable relationship as well as supply from the exporters end for smooth
functioning of the economy
Indonesia:
Provides India more than 60 per cent of its current coal imports
Cultivating deeper relationships with Indonesia will help boost and advance New Delhis
Act East policy; both have committed to reduce carbon emissions by 35% and 29%
respectively by 2030
Would also ease the burden on Indias naval forces of protecting energy assets in areas
more far-flung than Southeast Asia
IASbabas Views
For India, its very important to not just secure its energy engagement but also enhance
and deepen its security cooperation with these countries. This will, strengthen its
engagement with U.S and Japan as well.
Both Indonesia and Australia are relatively stable countries and would put to rest some
of Indias concerns regarding the security of Indian energy assets and imports originating
in these two countries
Clever diplomacy can help India assert its influence in Central Asia and secure greater
access to the regions abundant natural resources i.e., re-invigorating a diplomatic
activism with the CARs, Pakistan and Afghanistan and doing away with logistical
complexities.
Need to moderate the nationalist rhetoric that antagonizes Pakistan
Play a more constructive role in Afghanistan
Use the unmatched expertise in setting up refineries as well as fertilizer plants
Develop a complementary relationship with Russia though enhanced security
cooperation-stabilizing Afghanistan
Does there exist an opportunity to make inroads into the energy-rich region Central
Asia? Discuss the major impediments as well as a viable solution to it.
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India and its neighborhood- relations.

Mexican opportunity for India
India-Mexico relations have consistently been friendly, warm and cordial,

characterised by mutual
understanding and growing
bilateral trade and all-round
cooperation.
Though antipodes on the globe,
they have striking similarities and
commonalities - of geography,
history, physiognomy, culture
and civilisation, even of attitudes,
mindsets and values of the people.
Why Mexico matter to India?
The position of Mexico in Latin America is of great importance to India.

Mexico is a natural gateway for India to dive into one of the most dynamic regions in
the world.
Latin America is home to a potential market of 525 million people and includes
three G-20 economies.
Its an important region for Indias energy security, providing at least 16 per cent of
Indias crude oil import.
Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil are among the top oil providers to India.
As resource-rich countries, Latin America is filled with potential partners for
renewable energy projects.
The region is undertaking interesting projects like the Pacific Alliance, an integration
initiative between Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru.
Its one of the most ambitious agreements of its kind and would constitute the
eighth-largest economy and seventh-largest exporting entity worldwide.
India is already involved with the Pacific Alliance as an observer.
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Mexico: An exciting place to do business
The Indian private sector is discovering that Mexico is an exciting place to do

business.
Approximately 60 Indian companies, mainly from the automotive, pharma and IT
sectors, have invested in Mexico and have benefited from its position as part of two
economic blocs.
Mexico is a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and has
agreements with most Latin American countries.
Mexico is committed to free trade.
Mexico has FTAs with 45 countries and recently joined the Transpacific Partnership
Agreement (TPPA).
It is the largest Latin American investor in India, with an influx of almost $1 billion
during the last six years, comprising several Mexican companies that have made
India their home in sectors such as auto-parts and entertainment.
An opportunity for India to learn from Mexico:

Mexico and India face similar challenges which can be overcome by learning from each
other.
1. India endeavours to become a world-renowned manufacturing hub through its
Make in India programme, an effort in which Mexico already has some experience.
During the 1970s, the launch of a Made in Mexico campaign allowed
Mexico to position the country as a competitive manufacturing location.
Today, half of all Latin American advanced manufactures are produced in
Mexico and country ranks as the main exporter of flat TV screens and
medical devices, the fourth exporter of light vehicles and auto-parts and
the sixth supplier to the American industry.
2. Mexico and India also have a stimulating scientific and technological relationship,
dating back to 1975.
Through joint committee on these matters, both countries are encouraging
research that will have important implications for understanding and
advancement of topics such as biotechnology and health, seismology, solar
energy and water resources.
The implications go beyond research papers, and will surely have
repercussions that will benefit populations way of life, economies and even
security.
Additionally, Mexico is mindful of the recent accomplishments of ISRO.
Since 2014, Mexican space agencies have held a productive dialogue and are
beginning to work on disaster management techniques to be used during
geological phenomena like cyclones, floods and earthquakes.
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Tourism: A powerful tool to bridge bridges
In the new era of India- Mexican partnership, people-to-people contact should be

made even stronger.
Many believe in tourism as one of the most powerful tools for building bridges and
as an engine of development.
Last year, Mexico received more than 52,000 Indian visitors, a 52 per cent increase
since 2013, and Mexico want to do even more.
Mexico has a great variety of attractions like beaches, colonial cities, natural scenery,
cultural diversity and ancient history, and it hope Indians get to see Mexico as a
warm country that always receives its visitors with open arms.
Way ahead:
Mexico wants to take longstanding friendship with India to the next level and take
advantage of the realm of opportunities at their disposal.
It is left to the foreign policy of the present government, as to how it takes forward
the extended friendship from Mexico.
Mexico is Indian gateway to Latin America. Critically analyse the statement wrt India
Mexican relations.
TOPIC:
General studies 2:

Indias biggest security headacheSir Creek stand-offs

Whats in the name: Got its name from the British representative who negotiated the
original dispute over firewood between the local rulers
Countries: India & Pakistan
Location: 96-km estuary- between India and Pakistan, cutting through where Gujarat State
and Sindh province meet
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Classic example of cartographic dilemma

Inability of both the countries to agree on a definite border (fear of losing out on a vast
amount of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) rich with gas and mineral deposits, and
subsequent breakthroughs)
Pakistan- claims the entire Sir Creek based on a 1914 agreement signed between the
government of Sindh and rulers of Kutch
India- claims that the boundary lies mid-channel, as was depicted in a map in 1925 and
implemented with pillars placed to mark the boundary
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Sir Creek issue is defying solution because of the deep rooted syndrome of lack of
trust in Pakistan. Unless the element of trust is restored through Pakistani actions,
attitudes and utterances, any real and meaningful progress on this, as well as other
issues like Siachen, looks somewhat remote.
The Indo-Pakistan international border starts from the point where coming from the
Arabian Sea Sir Creek joins the land mass
This area had not been demarcated as it had not been properly surveyed due to its
being somewhat desolate and inhospitable
Taking advantage of a 1914 Bombay Government Resolution that sought to
demarcate Sir Creek between Sindh and Kutch divisions of the Bombay state as an
internal administrative measure, Pakistan began to lay claim over the entire Creek;
ignoring that both Sindh and Kutch have become parts of two sovereign states, India
and Pakistan, and thus their maritime boundary now needed to be settled as per
international norms, mainly the Thalweg Doctrine, which follows the meridian
principle.
In fact, another resolution of the erstwhile Bombay Government adopted in 1925 did
install mid-channel pillars in Sir Creek. Here, Pakistan does not agree with India since
an acceptance of these provisions would lead to redrawing of the maritime
boundary in the area, re-delineation of the Exclusive Economic Zone and other
fishing areas in the Arabian Sea
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Result: Convergence of the disputed water with fishermens misery + terrorist designs +
global drug
Absence of clear fishing laws
Fishermen cross boundaries in hope of a great catch; getting caught themselves

(boats and material confiscated under the premise of illegal intrusionthough there is
no cognisable territorial and maritime boundary delimitation in the area)
Deprived of their fundamental human rights + denied consular assistance; many are
allegedly tortured and languish in jails while being subjected to horrible living
conditions and without any meaningful access to judicial process. Some prisoners go
missing and may even be presumed victims of custodial killings
1,530 Indian fishermen have been released in the past five years, while India has
freed 380 Pakistanis
Also, fall prey to terrorist designs- When 10 terrorists from the Lashkar-e-Taiba left
in a Pakistani boat for Mumbai; they captured an Indian fishing vessel, Kuber, off Sir
Creek, and used it to attack Mumbai
Transaction business by the cartels in the disputed water

They are beyond the reach of both Indian and Pakistani agencies and thus, it becomes easier
for them to trade drugs their way (in terms of quantity and frequency)
Diplomatic Hurdles:
Terrorists sneaking across through the Sir Creek area

Shooting down of the other nations aircraft like what happened one month post the
Kargil War- an Indian fighter plane shot down a surveillance aircraft of the Pakistan
Navy, killing all its 16 occupants. India said the Pakistani aircraft was deep inside its
boundary; Pakistan disputed the claim as it was flying over Sir Creek.
Way Ahead:
Political considerations rather than legal issues are preventing its resolution which
has the potential to have resonances in larger economic and strategic matters
between the countries.
Steps to resolve the dispute in the interests of greater stability in the region include:
Allocation
Delimitation
Demarcation
Administration
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Is solving the dispute over Sir Creek a doable act? Can it prove to be a stepping
stone towards the resolutions of graver border conflicts between India and Pakistan?
TOPIC:
General studies 2:
India and its neighborhood- relations
Bilateral, regional , global groupings and agreement involving India and affecting its
interest
General studies 3:
Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact
assessment.
Background:
The economic, social, and environmental importance of water resources cannot be

overstated. Water is a vital resource, critical for healthy living conditions and sound
ecosystems.
Drinking water, food production, energy supply, and industrial development are
dependent on water availability. Yet, the rising demands associated with rapid
population growth and economic development place increasing pressure on this
fragile and finite resource.
This is already evidenced at the sectoral level by insufficient and inadequate
supplies, at the national level, by competing demands between sectors, and at the
international level, by conflicts or the threat thereof between nations sharing
transboundary water resources.
The situation is expected to worsen, with a quarter of the worlds population
predicted to face severe water scarcity in the next 25 years, even during years of
average rainfall.
The water management challenge is, thus, enormous. The manner in which it is
confronted will determine future patterns of development, macroeconomic growth
potentials, and the extent of poverty burdens.
The politics of water:
If developing countries with shared river basins embrace trans-boundary

cooperation, their GDP growth could rise by a percentage point
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This years World Water Day (22nd March) provides an opportunity to highlight
what in many countries has become a grim reality: The availability of fresh water is
increasingly a defining strategic factor in regional and global affairs. Unless water
resources are managed with extraordinary care, the consequences could be
devastating.
United Nations World Water Development Report highlighted how the growing gap
between supply and demand could create conflict.
The World Economic Forum has ranked water crises as the most worrying global
threat, more dangerous than terrorist attacks or financial meltdowns, and more
likely to occur than the use of weapons of mass destruction.
Research by the Strategic Foresight Group has shown the importance of wise
management: Countries engaged in the joint stewardship of water resources are
exceedingly unlikely to go to war.
Forces behind such disputes :
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around one-sixth of the 6.1
billion people in the world lack access to improved sources of water, while 40
percent are without access to improved sanitation services. Each year, 3.4 million
people, mostly children, die from water-related diseases.
A UN-backed panel, the World Commission on Water, estimated last year that
investment in water will have to double to 180 billion dollars a year to meet targets.
Only the private sector can muster capital on this scale.
Water in conflict:
West Asia:
o Iraq, Syria and Turkey have fought over every cubic meter of the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers. All have lost as a result.
o Non-state actors control important parts of the two river basins. And water
shortages have aggravated the regions refugee crisis (itself the apotheosis of
poor governance).
In southern Asia : the biggest problem is the India-Pakistan dispute over the Indus
In central Asia there are high risks of conflict between Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan over the Amu Daria and Syr Daria rivers and the already
depleted Aral Sea.
In Africa, the Chobe, a tributary of the Zambesi, has become a cause of tension
between Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe; while there have been
border incidents between Mauritania and Senegal over control of the Senegal River.
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Way ahead:
Creation of circles of cooperation:
This would have institutionalized collaboration among Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
and Turkey on water and environmental issues.
A similar arrangement would have helped manage environmental resources shared
by Jordan, Israel and Palestine.
Countries sharing rivers in Africa, South-East Asia and Latin America have recognized
that national interests and regional stability can be mutually reinforcing if human
needs are given priority over chauvinism.
It also entails jointly planning infrastructure projects, managing floods and droughts,
developing an integrated strategy to combat climate change, ensuring the quality of
water courses and holding regular summits to negotiate trade-offs between water
and other public goods.
Supranational organization:
Such organizations can introduce joint strategies to manage drought, coordinate crop
patterns, develop common standards to monitor river flows and implement investment
plans to create livelihoods and develop water-treatment technologies.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
SDG promises to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and

sanitation for all. Part of this pledge is a commitment to expand international
cooperation.
Water Cooperation Quotient: a measure of collaboration created by the Strategic
Foresight Group can help countries sharing river basins and lakes monitor the
intensity of their cooperation.
Out of 263 shared river basins, only a quarter benefit from properly functioning
collaborative organizations.
It is crucial that such organizations be extended to cover every shared river basin in
the world by the SDGs target year, 2030
Dividends for poor people in developing country:
When countries agree on the construction and management of critical

infrastructure, there are no delays.
Costs are saved and Benefits are shared in an optimum way.
If all developing countries with shared river basins embraced trans-boundary
cooperation, their GDP growth easily could rise by a percentage point.
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Secured Water infrastructure:
International community should act promptly to save critical water infrastructure

from acts of violence and terrorism. Many rivers, including the Tigris and the
Euphrates, have been and continue to be cradles of human civilization.
The UN should consider creating special peacekeeping forces to protect them.
In particular, a robust global treaty is needed to regulate emissions into bodies of
water. Today, most disagreements over water concern quantity. In the future,
conflicts will increasingly be about water quality, as irrigation practices,
industrialization and urbanization contribute to rising pollution levels.
How does trans-boundary water management and benefit sharing contribute to

social and economic development in the riparian countries? Comment.

interest
The Commonwealth: Adding Global Value for greater global good
With a Commonwealth charter crafted under the guidance of Commonwealth

Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma and accepted by the 53 members of the
Commonwealth in 2012, the organization has become an incubator for big-ticket
ideas such as the Multilateral Debt Swap for Climate Action adopted at the last
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta.
Background:
The Commonwealth of Nations or the Commonwealth (formerly the British

Commonwealth) is an intergovernmental organisation of 53 member states that
were mostly territories of the former British Empire.
The Commonwealth operates by intergovernmental consensus of the member
states, organised through the Commonwealth Secretariat and Non-governmental
organisations, organised through the Commonwealth Foundation
The Commonwealth dates back to the mid-20th century with the decolonisation of
the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was
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formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which established the

member states as "free and equal
Member states have no legal obligation to one another. Instead, they are united by
language, history, culture and their shared values of democracy, human rights, and
the rule of law.
Vision: To help create and sustain a Commonwealth that is mutually respectful,
resilient, peaceful and prosperous and that cherishes quality, diversity and shared
values.
Mission: Supporting member governments, and partner with the broader
Commonwealth family and others, to improve the well-being of all Commonwealth
citizens and to advance their shared interests globally.
The Commonwealth charter:
The Charter brings together the values and aspirations which unite the
Commonwealth - democracy, human rights and the rule of law - in a single,
accessible document.
The Charter expresses the commitment of member states to the development of
free and democratic societies and the promotion of peace and prosperity to improve
the lives of all peoples of the Commonwealth.
The Charter also acknowledges the role of civil society in supporting the goals and
values of the Commonwealth.
Core values and principles of the Commonwealth as declared by this Charter:
Democracy
Human rights
International peace and security
Tolerance, respect and understanding
Freedom of Expression
Separation of Powers
Rule of Law
Good Governance
Sustainable Development
Protecting the Environment
Access to Health, Education, Food and Shelter
Gender Equality
Importance of Young People in the Commonwealth
Recognition of the Needs of Small States
Recognition of the Needs of Vulnerable States
The Role of Civil Society
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The 16-point charter makes it incumbent on member states to hold free, fair and credible
elections; ensure the separation of the powers of the executive, legislature and judiciary;
ensure the independence of the judiciary; provide space for an opposition and civil society
to function freely; and give the media a level playing field to function in.
Tasks undertaken and recent initiatives:
For middle-income states in the Pacific and Caribbean, one typhoon or hurricane
puts them back 10 to 15 years. The Commonwealth set up programmes to cover
financial risks faced by small states in trading, like the multilateral debt swap and
the Climate Finance Access hub.
Digitization has made the slogan round the clock and round the world possible for
the Commonwealth through a programme called Commonwealth Connects.
Common Health, a dedicated Web platform to advance public health and the leading
health hub after the World Health Organization.
Commonwealth today leads in citizen and governance initiatives whether in the
fields of climate change, youth development, health, and electoral oversight.
Handling criticism:
Human rights groups and pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organizations in

Britain accused Commonwealth Secretary of soft-pedaling the human rights abuses
of the Rajapaksa regime, which in turn led to some heads of government boycotting
the meeting.
Criticism was denounced saying the most important point about the Commonwealth
is that it engages with member states to advance the values template and practical
steps taken in the form of round tables on reconciliation, and in training observers
for the elections.
Challenges remain:
There is still widespread resistance within several Commonwealth countries to the
legalization of gay rights, and to correcting gender and religious inequalities.
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM): Meet at Malta
Commonwealth leaders met in Malta in November 2015 to address global issues such as
climate change, building resilience in small states, trade and sustainable development, the
empowerment of youth, gender equality and human rights.
Way ahead:
Nevertheless the Commonwealth still serves a purpose, as a forum for informal

discussion and co-operation between nations of widely disparate cultures and
material conditions.
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The ideal it represents still flickers, only time will tell whether the Commonwealth is
a mere footnote to history, or the beginning of a new chapter.
Can Commonwealth add global value for greater global good and reinforce
sustainable development being the common goal for brighter future of the world?

interest

Background:
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and
geopolitical organization of eight countries that are primarily located in South Asia
or the Indian subcontinent.
The SAARC Secretariat is based in Kathmandu, Nepal.
SAARC nations comprise 3% of the world's area and contain 21% (around 1.7 billion)
of the world's total population and around 9.12% of the global economy as of 2015.
An idea for such a grouping was first mooted by former Bangladeshi president Ziaur
Rahman in 1980.
The first Saarc summit was held in 1985 with seven heads of states (of India,
Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives) in attendance.
Afghanistan was inducted as the eighth full member in 2007.
The 18th SAARC Summit was held in Kathmandu from 2627 November 2014. The
next summit (2016) will be held in Islamabad (Pakistan)
SAARCS Aim:
To promote welfare economics, collective self-reliance among the countries of South

Asia, and to accelerate socio-cultural development in the region.
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SAARCS Stats:
Region accounts for 2% of world trade and 1.7% of world FDI (foreign direct
investment).
Intra-regional trade is less than 6% of our global trade and intra-regional FDI
accounts for only 3% of total FDI inflows
In contrast, the share of intra-regional trade for the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN)to which SAARC is often comparedis close to 25%. Intraregional FDI accounts for 18% of the net FDI inflows in the ASEAN region.
Indias recent initiatives to revive vitality:
India occupies a unique position in the South Asian region. By the virtue of its size,
location and economic potential, India assumes a natural leadership role in the
region.
SAARC satellite that will have applications in areas such as health, education,
disaster response, weather forecasting and communications.
SAARC-wide knowledge network to connect students and academic communities,
and a Saarc annual disaster management exercise.
The cumulative impact of these developments would resuscitate the SAARC back
into action and vitality.
Why there is not much of progress in spite of such initiatives?
Reason for the lack of progress is that Pakistan pursuing its bilateral goals vis--vis
India has become an obstacle in the path of greater connectivity and
interdependence, preventing from attaining its full potential.
Despite the signing of a South Asian Free Trade Agreement in 2004 and the SAARC
Agreement on Trade in Services in 2010, there is incomplete implementation of the
same.
Are Inner currents between India and Pakistan affecting SAARC progress?
At the Kathmandu summit in November 2014, Pakistans delegation scuttled the

SAARC Motor Vehicles Agreement and the Saarc Regional Railways Agreement.
Following this, India pitched in and took the lead by getting the motor vehicles
agreement signed in June 2015 under a sub-regional framework, BBIN, involving the
countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal
The red line for PakistanRawalpindi in particularhas been the connectivity
between India and Afghanistan. India has no direct connectivity to Afghanistan due
to the illegal occupation of a portion of Kashmir by Pakistan. Given Pakistans refusal
to provide an overland transit route despite repeated exhortations from both India
and Afghanistan, Indian goods access the land-locked country though Iran.
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Recent investment by China as much as $46 billion in the China-Pakistan Economic

Corridor, Pakistan is unlikely to recognize the necessity of establishing connectivity
with the rest of the Indian subcontinent
Upon that Pakistan believes SAARC will always be dominated by India; it has hence
also pushed for Chinas entry as a full member into the grouping. Thus SAARC is
bound to remain a perpetual victim of inner currents between India and Pakistan.
BBIN-MVA: Pushing Regional Integration through Sub-regional Cooperation
In a major bid to strengthen sub-regional cooperation, four SAARC permanent

members Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) signed the historic Motor
Vehicle Agreement (BBIN-MVA) in Bhutan for the Regulation of Passenger, Personal
and Cargo Vehicular Traffic amongst them.
The main objective of the agreement is to provide seamless people-to-people
contact and enhance economic interaction by facilitating cross border movement of
people and goods.
Way ahead:
It will be wise of other nations to go ahead with securing connectivity projects

without waiting for Pakistan to become active any further such as BBIN-MVA.
Indias initiative on BBIN is a step in the right direction.
A patchwork of bilateral free trade agreements, connectivity projects and subregional agreements such as the one secured by BBIN is the way to go forward.
India and Pakistan need to compartmentalize the differences and move forward on
common ground to make cooperation a success.
Should India continue to invest in SAARC given Pakistans attempts to scupper it?
Discuss.
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Bilateral, regional , global groupings and agreement involving India and affecting
its interest

Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate
Building new alliances with BRICS

Background:
Indias assumption of the presidency of BRICS (the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South

Africa grouping) recently comes at a time when many are questioning the groups
existence.
The economic health of the group is patchy and the contemporary political
trajectories of its members are, to put it mildly, pulling in different directions.
At this juncture there is a need for India to take a long view on the purpose of BRICS
and the space it creates for India within the contemporary international order.
BRICS:
BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national

economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The grouping was originally
known as "BRIC" before the inclusion of South Africa in 2011
The BRICS members are all developing or newly industrialised countries, but they are
distinguished by their large, fast-growing economies and significant influence on
regional and global affairs; all five are G-20 members
The five nations have a combined nominal GDP of US$16.039 trillion, equivalent to
approximately 20% of the gross world product, and an estimated US$4 trillion in
combined foreign reserves
Bilateral relations among BRICS nations have mainly been conducted on the basis of
non-interference, equality, and mutual benefit
Significance and Relevance of BRICS:
The main reason for co-operation to start among the BRICs nation was the financial
crises of 2008. The crises raised scepticism on the dollar-dominated monetary
system. Already United States involvement in protracted wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq was being questioned. The 2008 financial crises further challenged the
legitimacy of US/western dominated Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank & IMF)
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The United States was squarely blamed for the crises. The loose monetary policy
followed by then Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and the irresponsible
lending practices coupled with lack of regulation was seen as root cause of the crises
While the United States and European economies suffered in wake of the financial
crises, the BRICS economies showed resilience to a certain extent. BRICS saw this as
an opportune moment to correct imbalances in the global economic governance as
result of which the Bretton Woods institutions remained dominated by the US and
Western Europe.
More importantly, the BRICs managed to push for institutional reform which led to
International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota reform in 2010. Thus the financial crises
had momentarily reduced western legitimacy and briefly let the BRICs countries
become agenda setters in multilateral institutions
The BRICs called for the reform of multilateral institutions in order that they reflect
the structural changes in the world economy and the increasingly central role that
emerging markets now play.
BRICS continues to be a relevant group in its own right. It remains a coalition of
emerging economies that will challenge western dominated discourses in some
forums and hence provide an alternative idea of global governance.
BRIC economies will surpass the G-6 economies (the United States, Germany, Japan,
the United Kingdom, France and Italy) by 2050 in US dollar terms. Therefore,
originally the BRICs were meant to be a purely economic category bounded by the
strength of their fast-paced economic growth. It was never thought to be a political
category.
Indias role as a leader in BRICS:
BRICS is not a trading bloc or an economic union nor is it a political coalition

given the divergent geopolitical trajectories of each country.
Brazil, India and South Africa broadly orient themselves towards the liberal end of
the political spectrum.
China pursues a trajectory that will, sooner than later, put it on a collision course
with the U.S., even as it leverages the Atlantic economies in the medium term for its
economic growth.
Russia has once again begun to be perceived by NATO as an all-out threat, and not
just a frenemy.
From an Indian perspective, BRICS is a strategic geo-economic alliance that seeks to
move the narrative emerging from the Bretton Woods institutions towards
alternative models of development and governance through the sheer weight of
the incongruent collective.
BRICS should be an integral part of Indias grand strategy, and a vehicle in Indias
journey from being a norm taker to a norm shaper. The bloc offers India greater
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bargaining space as India seeks to gain more prominence in institutions of global

governance, and shape them in the liberal international tradition with a southern
ethos.
For instance, India trades more with the global South than the global North. It is the
only member of BRICS that is likely to foster an open and rule-based economic
architecture with the global South. It is uniquely poised to do so, thanks to New
Delhis leadership role among the G77 and G33 groupings at the World Trade
Organization and the UN
BRICS gives India the room to continue being an important player in the liberal
international order while being part of a group which, for the old guard, could
potentially emerge as the single most important reason for its dramatic reform.
As with the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank ), India should not hesitate to
join or create other BRICS initiatives that may have strategic implications for global
trade, finance, cyberspace, and the larger economic system. Indeed, the U.S. and
other European powers should encourage it.
Internal contradiction and competition:
Firstly, all these countries aspire to be regional powers and hence at some point will
compete with each other.
Secondly, they have different political systems with Brazil, India and South Africa
being democracies while Russia and China having authoritarian characteristics.
Thirdly, Brazil and Russia are commodity exporting countries and thus benefit from
high commodity prices while India and China are commodity importers that benefit
from low commodity prices.
Fourthly, China and India have outstanding territorial issues to resolve and India
looks suspicious to any institution that has Chinese domination. Similarly, Russia
looks suspiciously at Chinas interest in its sparsely populated far eastern of Siberia.
Lastly, China economically dominates the BRICS and majority BRICS trade is
concentrated with China. Therefore China gives economic muscle and bargaining
power to BRICS. However, China has is deeply connected with United States
economically as Chinese prosperity is tied to US (and European economic growth),
hence that limits its capability to challenge the status quo. Therefore, competition
will exist among the member states of this grouping.
Factors that will bolster co-operation among BRICS members:
Firstly, the common need among developing countries to construct economic order
that reflects current situation will drive the BRICS on for conjuring up their efforts
towards global economic governance. In this matter, the idea of development bank
and CRA are defining and will have a huge geo-economic and geopolitical impact.
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(Note: BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) is a framework for the

provision of support through liquidity and precautionary instruments in response to
actual or potential short-term balance of payments pressures)
Secondly, the BRICS alternative idea in the landscape of global governance will
attract support from other countries.
Thirdly, the expansion of BRICS interaction to other sector will make it more strong
partnership.
Fourthly, the common interest for economic growth will drive co-operation among
BRICS countries.
Lastly, Chinese support to BRICS will make sure that group remains a force to reckon
with in the future. Therefore BRICS is likely to remain an effective multilateral forum
in a multi-polar international order.
Way ahead:
BRICS should be an integral part of Indias grand strategy, and a vehicle in Indias
journey from being a norm taker to a norm shaper.
The bloc offers India greater bargaining space as India seeks to gain more
prominence in institutions of global governance, and shape them in the liberal
international tradition with a southern ethos.
Atlantic powers need to recognize that Indias role within BRICS is a bulwark against
such impulses, and encourage its leadership in similar plurilateral forums.
Is BRICS an effective Multilateral Forum in a Multi-polar International Order?

its interest
Milestones on Beijings OBOR plan
In tune with its economic rise, China has taken a conscious decision to cement its
place as a great power on the global stage. Chinese aspirations have followed the
careful crafting of a grand strategy designed to best ensure Chinas peaceful rise.
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The core of this strategy is Eurasia and its instrumentality is the One Belt, One Road
(OBOR) initiative. With an economically dynamic China as its nucleus and in
partnership with resource-rich Russia, China has decided to knit the rest of Eurasia
with roads, railways, cyber-connected hubs, smart cities, and industrial parks.
With the financial reins of the initiative firmly in grasp through the $40-billion Silk
Road fund and the 57-nation Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), China
has begun the journey to generate new growth engines along all the flanks of the
new Silk Road.
Is it China which recognized Eurasia as the gateway to achieve global influence for the first
time?
The Chinese are not the first to recognize Eurasia as the gateway to achieve global
influence.
In his 1904 seminal article to the Royal Geographical Society titled The geographical
pivot of history, Halford John Mackinder zeroed in on the area from the Volga to
the Yangtze and from the Himalayas to the Arctic as the heartland of what he called
the World Island.
Those who ruled the heartland commanded the World Island comprising Asia,
Europe and Africa.
Grand Strategy employed:
Instead of pursuing the blood and iron path of former colonial powers, they are
trying to achieve a great power status through a cooperative and collegiate approach
by combining financial and economic heft with eastern soft power attributes.
China will not play the bully. Rather, China will abide by the purposes and principles
of the UN charter; and China will not engage in zero sum games. Rather it will pursue
win-win cooperation with all the countries of the world.
Growing ties with Europe
The OBOR initiative has provided China significant maneuvering space to spread
throughout and shake up Europes post-war architecture premised on the U.S.-led
Atlantic Alliance.
The Chinese managed to draw Europe, which has been unable to extricate itself from
the pitfalls of the 2008 financial crisis, into the OBOR paradigm through the
formation of the AIIB.
Chinas growing ties with Europe, amplified by Beijings membership of the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as the highlight of Chinese diplomacy in
2015 as well as a symbol of an emerging multi-polar world.
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Obstacles in Asia-Pacific:
The crises in the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea, where the interests of
China and the U.S. collide, are areas of a tense geopolitical tug of war in the Pacific.
It is in the Asia-Pacific that China confronts the U.S., which is reinforcing six decades
of Pax Pacifica through Pivot to Asia doctrine.
South China Sea has become an open contest for the exercise of hegemony in the
Asia-Pacific between the U.S. and China, a state of open war following a contest
between an established and an emerging power.
Need of the hour: Peace treaty with Korean Peninsula to rope them in to OBOR initiative
On the Korean Peninsula, the Chinese are unequivocal in advocating denuclearization, but
also insist that Pyongyangs nuclear disarmament must be tied up with the signing of a
formal peace treaty between North and South Korea.
Can such denuclearization have positive outcomes for china and to the world?
China fully backed Russia in disarming Syria of chemical weapons. This proved critical
in averting a likely regime change in Damascus.
The nuclear deal with Iran, in which both Russia and China played a major part, not
only removed the chances of a military attack but also opened the door for Irans
integration with the Eurasian core through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
and the OBOR initiative.
One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative of China is more of Win-win game than zerosum game. Comment
Related Articles: Storm on the South China Sea- http://iasbaba.com/2016/01/iasbabasdaily-current-affairs-15th-january-2016/

Bringing Indias growth online- http://iasbaba.com/2016/02/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs24th-february-2016/
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its interest
India- Nepal: No zero sums in this great game
Nepal is celebrating the outcome of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma OlisChina visit as a major
landmark in the evolution of its foreign policy.
It is driven by two objectives:
One is domestic, of consolidating the Oli regimes support from the nationalist
constituency that stands for reducing dependence on India and keeping Madhes and
Janjatis marginalized in Nepali polity.
The other is of sending a strong message to India that Nepal has a viable option in
mobilizing support from China to counter any pressure generated from the southern
neighbor.
Both objectives had been triggered by Indias support for the Madhes agitation against a
discriminatory constitution adopted in September 2015.
Indias support had resulted in restricted supply of essential goods to Nepal for nearly six
months, causing unprecedented hardship to Nepals people and generating strong anti-India
sentiments among the countrys hill communities.
Are there any historical occasions showing Nepal getting inclined towards china to secure
the regime?
Recall King Mahendras use of the China card when he had pitted himself against
democratic forces seeking and securing Indian support during the early 1960s.
A desperate King Mahendra had then breached the Himalayan barrier by making
China build a road between Kathmandu and Kodari. He flouted the India-Nepal
Treaty of 1950 by soliciting Chinese support as a security protector of Nepal.
His successors, King Birendra and King Gyanendra, made similar moves during 198889 and 2005-06, respectively, when faced with popular struggles against their
authoritarian governance.
There is a set pattern of the Kathmandu regime flashing the China card whenever it
runs into difficulties with its own people and India lends support to the Nepali
peoples cause. Struggling popular democratic forces of Nepal sought and secured
Indian support on these occasions.
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The underlying thread in all these royal moves was to whip up anti-India nationalism,
garner external/Chinese support and erode traditional ties with India to ensure
regime security.
What are the fields in which MOU were signed between Nepal and China?
Transit and trade

Rail and road connectivity and infrastructure
Energy exploration and storage
Banking
Scholarships and training.
How do these agreements appear from Nepals perspective?
Agreements are projected as historic and unprecedented, particularly those related

to transit through China and rail and road connectivity between Nepal and China.
This, in principle, breaks Nepals complete dependence on India for all its imports.
On close look, these agreements appear to be higher on symbolism than on
substantial commitments for delivery. Take, for instance, the agreement on transit
through China where China has agreed to provide the Tianjin seaport for transit of
Nepali goods imported from third countries.
MOUs without firm commitment:
Nepals infrastructure in its northern region to connect with the proposed Tianjin
transit facility is still not in place, and will take effort and investment to be
operational. This facility would come in handy in the event of a complete blockade of
transit routes from India for Nepal, but in such a situation, carrying perishable and
essential goods like foodstuffs and petroleum products will cost Nepal heavily in
time and money.
Under the present MoU on rail connectivity, Chinese commitments are for feasibility
studies and technical support only. Only by 2020, as per the current Chinese plans,
will this line be brought nearer the Nepal border within Tibet.
No firm commitment yet on how it will then be extended within Nepal linking
Kathmandu with Pokhara and Lumbini as proposed by the Nepali side. Also in
building this link, the track will have to scale mountains as high as 6,000 m, either
through tunnels or winding channels, involving heavy costs, time and effort.
What is the probable outcome of Tibet-Nepal rail connectivity which seems to be political
issue for the China?
Besides the constraints of costs and terrain, rail connectivity between Tibet and
Nepal is also a political issue for the Chinese authorities.
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They have to decide on the extent to which Tibet can be opened up to the outside
world through land connection. The proposed rail could not only facilitate the flight
of disaffected Tibetans to Nepal, but also bring in Nepalese and other foreigners into
Tibet.
What is chinas approach in accommodating Nepal in to One belt, one road initiative?
South Asia is a vital link in the Chinese OBOR plan. It is a region that borders on
Chinas vulnerable periphery of Xinjiang and Tibet. Its 1.6 billion people, growing
steadily by 4-5 per cent on average, constitute a huge economic opportunity that
China cannot ignore.
China has been both calculating and careful in accommodating the Nepali agenda.
It has bound Nepal to synergize its development planning, formulate appropriate
bilateral cooperation programmes and carry out major projects under the
framework of the Belt and Road initiative
Nepals infrastructure and connectivity projects will have to be subjected to Chinese
One Belt, One Road (OBOR) priorities. Nepal will also have to facilitate and
encourage Chinese investment.
Most of the Chinese commitments are loans, of which only 25 per cent will be
interest free. As Chinas dwindling growth rate and growing debt/GDP ratio does not
allow China to write free cheques any longer.
Nepal must also be aware of the unease and discomfort that countries like Sri Lanka
and Myanmar experienced in their deepening economic engagement with China.
Chinas economic projects invariably come with strategic underpinnings and heavy
debt burden.
China also does not want to ruffle Indian feathers on Nepal as India, besides other
considerations, is a much bigger and promising market for Chinese products and
services as compared to Nepal.
What could be Indias probable reaction to Nepals so-called flashing of the China card?
India need not press the panic button or employ knee-jerk and ill-conceived
diplomatic moves as it did in response to Nepals constitution and the Madhesi
agitation
Nor should it make an unethical compromise with Kathmandu on the legitimate
interests of Madhesis and other marginalized groups.
Resorting to pushing for a Hindu state agenda and revival of the monarchy in Nepal
to contain Chinese influence will prove counter-productive.
India has to sit up and take a serious note of the Chinese push into South Asia, which
is not simply limited to Nepal but covers all other neighbours as well.
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Way ahead:
India has to deal with its immediate neighbours with prudence and sensitivity and
ensure that they are not alienated.
There is scope also for exploring the possibility of making calibrated use of the
regions infrastructure development under OBOR.
Internal and trans-border connectivity of Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or even
Pakistan may in fact facilitate such economic integration to the long-term advantage
of India as well.
At the same time India has to guard its vital strategic space and interests, as well as
those of its neighbours that China may seek to erode under the cover of its regional
economic engagement.
What is Chinas approach in accommodating Nepal in to One belt, one road

initiative? What could be Indias probable reaction to Nepals so-called flashing of
the China card? discuss
Related Articles:India-Nepal Relationship and Issues

http://iasbaba.com/2015/09/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-28th-29th-september-2015/
http://iasbaba.com/2015/10/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-11th-12th-october-2015/
http://iasbaba.com/2015/08/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-4th-august-2015/
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ECONOMICS
TOPIC:
General Studies 3:

Government Budgeting, Taxation & its impact
General Studies 2:


A retirement benefit scheme
Structured to: Provide financial security to employees of factories and other establishments
post-retirement
Administered by: The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) whose highest body
is the Central Board of Trustees, with representation from the government,
employers and employees
Process:
Employees (earning up to Rs 15,000 per month) contribute 12% of the basic salary
and dearness allowance
Employer needs to contribute (12%) mandatorily in case of all employees
Employers component is split into
EPF (3.67%)
Employees Pension Scheme (8.33%)
Deciding Factor: Decided by the government every year

Investment in the EPF: Tax-free at all the three stages of (EEE:Exempt-Exempt-Exempt)
Investing
Interest accumulation
Withdrawal
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Budgets Proposal:
Taxing the fully tax-exempt EPF corpus at retirement; putting the tax on 60% of the
corpus, leaving 40% tax-free (both under recognised Provident Fund and NPS)
EPFO raised the age for withdrawal from 55 to 58 years
Contributions made until March 31, 2016 will attract no tax at the time of withdrawal
Applicable- On contributions made on or after April 1, 2016
6 million highly-paid private sector employees in EPF who earn more than Rs.15,000 a
month and have accepted EPF voluntarily
At retirement, 40% of the corpus will be tax-free

If the rest, that is 60%, is used to buy an annuity, there is no tax
Income from the annuity will be taxed each year at slab level (no change in this)
But
if the rich EPF subscriber wants his 60% as a lump sum, there will be a tax on it
the entire corpus will be tax free, if invested in annuity
An ambiguous act
If the entire 60% corpus is taxed at a top slab rate of 30.9%, the average tax on the
entire corpus comes to 18.54%
If just the interest on 60% of the contribution gets taxed, then the tax will be small
Mostly: It will be just the interest that will be taxed and not the full 60% corpus
How would the tax look like?
Suppose a person joins in the next fiscal and sees a salary growth of 10% a year for
the next 40 years
Assume that EPF interest remains a steady 8% over this 40-year period (an
assumption)
A tax on the interest corpus at 30.9% works out to an average tax rate of 12% on the
entire corpus.
In favour
Disproportionate gainers: Since Independence, the richest Indians have been

disproportionate gainers of government subsidies and tax breaks (on cooking,
automobile fuel, higher education and housing, opportunities of economic liberalisation)
Urgent competing demands on the Budget-There is an urgent need for the government
to control expenditure
Balancing Act: To bring greater parity in the tax treatment of different types of pension
plans
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E.g.: EPFO on a par with the National Pension System (NPS), as NPS has been languishing
because of the differential tax treatment
To encourage more number of private sector employees to go for pension security after
retirement instead of withdrawing the entire money from the Provident Fund Account
Allow investors to choose a product based on the returns they generate and the risk
exposure they carry, and not on the basis of the tax benefit they offer
Allows investments to be routed to equity markets that have the potential to generate
higher returns. Since the money can be routed to equity markets, it will free up the
capital, and can be used in the growth of the economy
Youthful India enjoying a demographic dividend:
Indias dependency ratio: Improved from 71.5 per cent in 1990 to 53.1 per cent in
2014
The incidence of additional taxation is relatively small; being an opportune time to
get wage-earners used to the minor rigours of taxation in stages
Against the Proposal:

Religious Sentiments attached
Making the EPFO partially taxable is unjustAs India lacks a social safety net and
most employees do not get pensions
With fathers getting their daughters married by breaking their PF before retirement
or the sons relying on their dads PF accounts to start businesses; or right from
running the house to having a little bit of hope in old-agethis forced compulsory
saving was transformed into a true partner in times of crisis
Paying Twice-the-Tax (TtT)
An imposition of tax at the time of withdrawal will rob them of a sizeable portion of their
long-term savings
Since the contribution to EPF goes from tax-paid income, if the government imposes tax
at the time of withdrawal, it will be like taxing them twice on the same income
Way Ahead:
The entire retirement landscape needs to be viewed at a conceptual level, taking

care of the observations by the behavioural economists to make it an opt-out
product, with a default opt-in (you are automatically put into a pension plan unless
you opt out); making the opt-out effective and on-going.
Formulating the portability options and ways between the National Pension System
(NPS) and EPF (safe and effective transitions)
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Need to develop the annuity market for a viable choice as it is still undeveloped with
a poor choice set.
What is the EPF, and why does the salaried class consider it a reliable social security
net?
Why does the government want to take it out of the Exempt-Exempt-Exempt (EEE)
category and make it Exempt-Exempt-Tax (EET)? What is the governments rationale
for making the change?
Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.


Background
In 2014-15, India added nearly 20 million vehicles, mainly two-wheelers, but also two
million cars, vans and so on to the existing 172 million registered motor vehicles.
Several million more have been added since, as public transport remains inadequate.
Personal transport has now reached saturation limit in the cities, resulting in
gridlock, rising air pollution, lost productivity and ill-health
The Union Budget for 2016-17 has made a timely intervention at such an inflection
point, with the move to expand the public transport system.
The Motor Vehicles Act is to be amended to open up the passenger segment, and
more entrepreneurs will be able to operate bus services. Budget talks of greater
investment, employment and multiplier effects for the economy stemming from
such a move.
What is the role of public transport in Indian economy?
Public transport is an important part of India's economy. Since the economic

liberalization of the 1990s, infrastructure development has progressed rapidly; today
there are a variety of modes of transport by land, water and air. However, India's
relatively low GDP per capita has meant that access to transport has not been
uniform.
Public transport remains the primary mode of transport for most of the population,
and India's public transport systems are among the most heavily used in the world.
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The demand for transport infrastructure and services has been rising by around 10%
a year with the current infrastructure being unable to meet these growing demands.
In general, the larger the city size, the higher the percentage of urban trips served by
public transport in India: 30 percent in cities with population between 1 and 2
million, 42 percent for cities with populations between 2 and 5 million, and 63
percent for cities with populations over 5 million . Thus, the especially rapid growth
of large cities suggests a further rise in future demands for public transport in India.
The Crisis of Public Transport in India:
The rapid growth of Indias urban population has put enormous strains on all
transport systems.
Travel demand far exceeds the limited supply of transport infrastructure and
services.
Public ownership and operation of most public transport services has greatly
reduced productivity and inated costs. Indias cities desperately need improved and
expanded public transport service.
Unfortunately, meager government nancial assistance and the complete lack of any
supportive policies, such as trac priority for buses, place public transport in an
almost impossible situation.
Perhaps most important, the lack of nancial resources prevents necessary
investments in maintaining and upgrading existing bus and rail systems and building
new ones. Likewise, many advanced technologies long available in Western Europe
are simply not aordable in most developing countries.
Public transport systems in the Third World are plagued by chronic corruption and
ineciency, overcrowded and undependable service, congested roadways that slow
down buses, and an operating environment that is often chaotic and completely
uncoordinated.
Those problems of public transport occur within the broader context of daunting
urban transport problems in general.
Trends in Population and Land Use
The rapid growth of Indias urban populationas in other developing countrieshas

generated an enormous need for ecient public transport services to carry high
volumes of passengers through dense, congested urban areas.
Since large cities are far more dependent on public transport than small cities, the
need for public transport services has increased faster than overall population
growth.
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Lack of eective planning and land-use controls has resulted in rampant sprawled
development extending rapidly in all directions, far beyond old city boundaries
into the distant countryside. That also has greatly increased the number and length
of trips for most Indians, including those by public transport.
Moreover, local governments have permitted scattered commercial and residential
development in outlying areas without the necessary infrastructure such as roads,
utilities, hospitals, shopping, and schools. That generates long trips between
residences and almost all other trip destinations. Just as in North America, most new
commercial development is in the distant suburbs. For example, Tidal Park is a
software center on the outskirts of Chennai; Gurgaon is a large new industrial area
outside Delhi. Similarly, Bangalore is planning several technology parks on its fringe
as well as several circumferential highways in the suburbs, both of which will induce
further decentralization.
What are the challenges and problems?
Air pollution, noise, congestion, and trac fatality levels are often much more
severe than those of developed countries.
In fact, many city residents are so poor that they cannot aord even low fares, and
routes are not designed to serve the poor at any rate. Thus, the poor in developing
countries suer even more than those in the Western World from low levels of
mobility and accessibility, especially to jobs.
With 23 percent of its urban population living in poverty, India has been forced to
keep its public transport fares extremely low. That has sharply restricted the
operating revenues of all public transport systems, making it dicult to aord even
routine maintenance and vehicle replacement, let alone system modernization and
expansion.
The nancial problems stemming from Indias low per-capita income are probably
the most important challenges facing Indian public transport, but there are many
others as well: ineciency, roadway congestion, trac accidents, lack of planning,
overcrowding, noise, and total lack of coordination of any kind.
Another crucial problem of Indian transport is ineciency, lack of productivity,
overstang, excessively high operating costs, and large subsidy needs.
Clearly, much could be done to improve the eciency of both bus and rail
operations, most of which are publicly owned, operated, and regulated. There are
many institutional obstacles to any fundamental changes, including powerful labor
unions representing employees, which have blocked changes that would
disadvantage them.
The heavy, high oor buses currently in service in most cities are noisy, polluting,
fuel-inecient, and unsafe. They are built on truck chassis with such high oors that
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boarding is slow and dicult. Moreover, they have slow acceleration as well as poor
fuel economy due to their weight, and are inappropriate to urban use.
Regulation:
Regulation is often seen as the obstacle that has affected the growth of bus
transport. Yet, a scheme of the kind that the Budget proposes cannot run without a
sound regulatory framework, if the goal is to remove erstwhile monopolies and
introduce greater competition even in those States where private provision in urban
and inter-city services already exists
Optimally, a system should lay down standards, identify areas of operation, fix prices
and enable participation by entrepreneurs.
Funding:
The main problem in Indian cities, however, is nancial. To some extent, operating
revenues of public transport rms could be greatly enhanced by targeting fare
subsidies to low-income passengers and raising considerably the fares for the middle
and upper classes.
Fares on most systems are extremely low and passenger volumes are extremely high
so that even modest increases might yield substantial revenues for system
maintenance, modernization, and expansion.
Fares cannot be raised too high, however, even among middle-class riders, since
they might then be diverted to private transport modes, which cause the most urban
transport problems. Thus, larger subsidies from the public sector will be essential.
Since passenger revenues do not cover the full costs of operation and capital
investment of public transport, government nancial assistance is obviously crucial.
As owner of Indian Railways, the Central Government must bear whatever operating
decit remains after the substantial cross-subsidies from protable freight services.
The World Bank, the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), and other
international lending agencies have also provided loans for large infrastructure
projects. For example, a JBIC loan is funding two-thirds of the capital cost of building
the Delhi Metro (Delhi Metro Rail 2003).
Most bus services are still publicly owned and operated by STUs (State Transport
Undertakings), whose operating and capital investment costs are covered by a
combination of state and local government subsidies, grants, and loans that vary
from state to state.
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Signicantly, no government level has any dedicated taxes whose proceeds would be
automatically earmarked for public transport. Thus, nancial support for public
transport is tenuous, depending on annual budgetary appropriations.
Safety of passengers:
Tens of thousands of public transport passengers are killed or injured every year in
accidents.
Many buses and trams do not even have doors and windows that can be closed, and
that only encourages passengers to ride by protruding from inside the vehicle or by
hanging on from outside.
Clearly, riding on the roofs or sides of buses and trains is inherently unsafe and
results directly from the severe under capacity of public transport systems in India.
What needs to be done to make public transport more effective and efficient?
The law enabling State road transport undertakings dates back to 1950, and many
States have failed to progressively augment their operations after opting for full or
partial nationalization, especially in the cities. Private operators, on the other hand,
have rapidly increased their share of the total number of buses. The Budget
proposal to open up the sector has the potential to reverse the effects of the
neglect and obsolescence.
Equally important, state and local governments must give trac priority to buses,
both through special bus lanes and signal priority over private transport.
With more than 90 percent of public transport passengers in Indian cities relying on
buses, it is especially important to upgrade bus services through modern, safe
vehicles and priority on the congested roadways.
Buses are also unpopular because they are not ergonomically designed as per the
national bus code. A renaissance in bus services is possible, but not without modern
design standards and service-level benchmarking that are ensured through strict
enforcement.
Encouraging private sector:
On the question of encouraging private sector participation in bus services, the

experience of London is worth studying: routes are tendered as per schedules, fares
are fixed by the city government, and buses are run by franchisee operators who are
paid according to mileage.
What stands out in this model is the use of intelligent transport systems of the
kind the new taxi companies in India use to determine whether the contractor is
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adhering to schedules, and to analyze demand-supply patterns. For passengers, they

provide efficient real-time service information.
Way ahead:
Selective privatization of Indias public transport sector:
This could be done either through opening up the market to private rms (who
would own, manage, operate and nance their own systems) or by having public
agencies contract with private rms to operate services on a system wide basis, for
selective routes, or for selected functions (like maintenance).
Rail systems have only rarely been privatized anywhere in the world (except for
certain narrow functions), while there is considerable experience with bus
privatization. Thus, privatization seems an option only for bus services, but they
account for more than 90 percent of Indias public transport.
Privatization of public transport in India was strongly encouraged by the World Bank
(2002), which accused publicly owned and operated systems of being inefcient and
highly unprotable, providing insucient and low-quality services, and failing to
respond to market demands.
Privatization in Bangalore and Hyderabad has so far been limited to the contracting
out of certain routes to private operators, but still with the overall coordination of a
public agency.
It appears that privatization does indeed have much potential to improve eciency,
but that it must be accompanied by strict regulations, performance standards, and
overall coordination to ensure an integrated network of services. In light of the
transport funding crisis in Indian cities, they may have little choice but to seek the
cost savings possible with privatization and increased competition.
Many buses do not even have closable windows and doors to protect passengers
from the weather and from falling out of the vehicle. It is essential to replace these
outdated buses with modern, safe, clean, and fuel-ecient vehicles.
Improving and expanding rail systems is also crucial, since they are insulated from
the congestion delays caused by roadway trac.
Connecting the dot:
Modernization and selective privatization of public transport play vital role in making
public transport efficient. Comment?
Related Articles:
Indias draft road transport and safety bill
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TOPIC:
General Studies 2

General studies 3

Government Budgeting, Taxation & its impact
Political pursuit of a Pensioned Society

Stuck with informal jobs: 82 per cent of the workforce
Q. Budget portrays a proper roadmap?
This shifting stance over taxing provident fund savings illustrates the lack of a clear
road map
Illustrations of three different versions on how the tax would be implemented were
put forth
Lacunaes of the Past Budgets

Welfare of Senior Citizens: 2014-15
Limited revival of the Varishtha Pension BimaYojana (VPBY)
Large amount of money lying as unclaimed amounts in Public Provident Fund, Post
Office Saving Schemes and other such accounts- To set up a committee to examine how
this amount can be used to protect and further financial interests of the senior citizens
(Deadline: 6 months; Meeting: Twice)
Social security and welfare of employees serving in the organised sector:
Extended a minimum pension of Rs.1,000 for all members of the employees pension
scheme run by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)
Raised the wage ceiling for mandatory Employees Pension Scheme (EPS)
membership from Rs.6,500 per month to Rs.15,000 per month
EPF
Mandatory for all employees earning up to Rs.15,000 per month in firms employing
over 20 workers
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24 per cent of an employees salary (12 per cent as employees share and 12 per
cent as employers share) is contributed to EPFO as a social security net for old age
a little over a third of that (8.33 per cent) is diverted to the EPS, with the
government chipping in with a 1.16 per cent subsidy
2014-15: Put in an additional Rs.250 crore that year
Present: EPF savings will remain tax-free if three-fifths of the corpus is used to buy
an annuity and get a monthly pension
Jan-Dhan to Jan Suraksha: 2015-16

Three new schemes as part of the governments commitment so that no Indian citizen will
have to worry about illness, accidents, or penury in old age
Creating a universal social security system for all Indians
Pradhan Mantri Suraksha BimaYojana- Accidental death cover of Rs.2 lakhs at Rs.12
premium a year)
Atal Pension Yojana- Would give a fixed pension, with a limited co-contribution up
to Rs.1,000 from the government
Pradhan Mantri Jeevan JyotiBimaYojana: Natural and accidental death risk cover of
Rs.2 lakh at Rs.330 premium a year)
A scheme for providing physical aids and assisted living devices for senior citizens
living below the poverty line
Senior Citizen Welfare Fund
About Rs.9,000 crore lying unclaimed in PPF and EPF accounts would be
appropriated to a new Senior Citizen Welfare Fund (violate the trust vested by
investors in the trustees of these funds- illegal)
EPF and Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC)- Provides medical care to
organised sector workers)
Caters to hostages, rather than clients
Workers with low incomes suffer on account of high statutory deductions to such
schemes
Provide employees the option to leave the EPF and opt for the New Pension
Scheme (NPS) launched by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development
Authority (PFRDA)
Employees below a certain level of monthly income could decide if they wanted
to stop their own contributions (12 per cent of salary) to the EPF
Offered an option for workers to opt for a health insurance product instead of
ESI
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Report Card of NPS:
An additional tax sop of Rs.50,000 was given for investments beyond Rs.1.5 lakh
that are tax deductible under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act
2.8 million new members joined the scheme and the corpus now stands at Rs.1.10
lakh crore from 11.5 million accounts
Issue: Law Ministry is still vetting the legislation to amend the EPF Act of 1952, while a draft
Cabinet note is doing the rounds on amending the ESI Act of 1948
What about the above mentioned announcementsStill remain a non-starter
Towards a Pensioned Society- A Big Picture
Pensioned society- One of the nine new pillars for growth (with its failure to meet the
desired goal of the previous budgets lurking in the backdrop)
The Way Ahead exists?
EPF savings, PPF and government employees PF should be taxed for true parity in tax
treatment
The government can also work on bringing the EPFO under the Finance Ministry as well
and put a fresh perspective in place to formulate a framework for payment of pensions
to those who have no formal employment contracts and access to either of the two
schemes
Will rationalising the statutory deductions from salaries (like EPF) work better than
opting for a breakthrough social security system at once? Critically examine.
Do Read: Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Tax- Is it a Healthy proposal?

http://iasbaba.com/2016/03/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-3rd-march-2016/
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TOPIC:
General Studies 3:
Government Budgeting.
Inclusive growth & related issues
assessment
Green Budget for sustainable development

BACKGROUND:
The funds for the ministry of new and renewable energy have also been reduced
even as an increase in the generation target for renewable energy has been
announced, to 175,000 megawatts by 2022.
Making a countrys budget green is not about how much money is allotted to tiger or
forest protection. It is about integrating it into every aspect of the economy and
ensuring there is no wasteful use of natural resources.
What does green budget or green accounting mean?
Green accounting is a type of accounting that attempts to factor environmental

costs into the financial results of operations.
It has been argued that gross domestic product ignores the environment and
therefore policymakers need a revised model that incorporates green accounting.
The major purpose of green accounting is to help understand the advantages of
achieving traditional economics goals in parallel with environmental goals.
It also increases the important information available for analyzing policy issues,
especially when those vital pieces of information are often overlooked.
Green accounting helps promote a sustainable future for businesses as it brings
green public procurement and green research and development into the big picture.
Penalties for polluters and incentives (such as tax breaks, polluting permits, etc.) are
also a crucial part of this type of accounting.
What are the steps taken to make our budget green?
There has been some attempt to discourage dirty coal through an increase in the
clean energy cess from Rs.100 to Rs.200 per tonne of coal to finance clean
environment initiatives. However, there is no clarity on how this money will be used
for clean environment initiatives and by which department of the government, given
that previous funds too are lying unused.
Budget has allocated around Rs.150 crore for the National Afforestation Programme
A separate programme for sustainable groundwater management and the setting up
of a Rs.400 crore fund to encourage organic farming.
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However, for all the grand commitments that India made at the Paris climate summit
what is missing in this budget is a conscious transition to a low-carbon economy.
There are some initial shoots of change that can be seen through the infrastructure
cess on private cars, but these are far from radical.
What was missing in the budget to term it as green budget?
There was any mention of allocation of funds for the protection of Indias large
swathes of existing forests, lakes, wetlands and water resources or the biodiversity
found in them as these are the drivers of the nations economic growth and health
From minerals extracted from the forests to several thousand tonnes of sand
removed from our river beds, natural resources fuel the economy in all forms by
providing raw material for high-rise buildings, water for thermal power plants.
What are we doing to restore and protect these natural resources so they continue to
power our economy?
Apart from a mention of a fund for protecting groundwater, the budget assumes that
growth can happen without these natural resources.
What does Green Economy Report released by United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) advocate?
A strategy of reallocating investments towards the green economy may lead to

slower potential economic growth for a few years, as renewable natural resources
are replenished (an effect that can be strong in some sectors, such as fisheries), but
will result in the long run in faster economic growth
The report also underlines other benefits to the economy as it reduces the risks of
adverse events associated with climate change, energy shocks and water scarcity
while creating increased employment.
What are the advantages in investing on Natural resources?
The advantages of investing in our natural resources are many. For instance, the
Center for International Forestry Research estimates that families living in and
around forests derive an average of one-fifth to one-fourth of their income from
forest-based resources.
In many countries, including India, non-timber forest products contribute
prominently to local economies and livelihoods, though their role is understated.
The Food and Agriculture Organization estimated in 2005 that the value of nontimber forest products extracted from forests worldwide amounted to $18.5 billion.
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Way ahead:
Creation of a green protection fund: This fund could be used to protect existing forest belts,
let our rivers flow free of garbage and sludge, provide front-line forest protection staff with
better equipment, and better protect our rich biodiversity.
What does green budget mean? What are the advantages of having green budget?
Can green budget help in addressing climate change?
TOPIC:
General studies 3:
General studies 2:
Budget 2016 fails to lay out a clear roadmap for the petroleum industry
Energy has been an important part of the present Prime Ministers agenda.
However the 2016 budget lacked clarity on certain principles affecting the petroleum
industry because of which the stock prices of oil companies fell (ONGC stock prices
fell by around 10%).
Fundamental outlook:
Three fundamental questions that arises at the backdrop of the announcement of budget
2016 wrt the petroleum industry are
Does the government appreciate the severity of the crisis facing the petroleum
industry?
Is it serious about reviving domestic oil and gas exploration.
Is its emphasis on clean energy substantive?
A critical evaluation of the Policy announcements in the budget 2016:

The Finance Minister(FM) made three policy announcements
1.
The first was that the price of gas from newly discovered fields would be
determined through the market and linked to the price of alternative fuels.
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It was not clear, at least initially, whether newly discovered meant

discoveries yet to be made or those already made but not monetised.
It was also not clear whether the price would be linked to low-priced coal,
the higher-priced imported liquefied natural gas or to a fuel between these
two price points.
2. The second was to switch the calculation of cess on oil production from a specific
rate (fixed rupees per barrel produced) to ad valorem (percentage of value).
This is what the companies had lobbied for and it was a sensible move.
The fixed charge of $9.1 per barrel produced was affordable when prices
were hovering around $100 per barrel but a crushing burden in the current
low price regime of around $35 per barrel.
What took the wind out of this proposal was the ad valorem rate of 20 per
cent.
For, at that rate, the tax burden came down by only $2 per barrel from $9 to
$7 and for so long as the price of oil remained in the current range.
In the event prices rise to the average level predicted by analysts of $45 per
barrel in 2016, this benefit will be wiped out and companies will find
themselves in the same financial straits they are in today.
3. The third one was to double the cess on coal production from Rs 200 to Rs 400 per
tonne, and to direct that this money be used for financing clean energy.
Again, like the switch to ad valorem, this was a positive.
However there was a lingering concern, that this money would be diverted
for other purposes.
So far, the clean energy fund has been managed by the finance ministry.
The money has not always gone towards clean energy research but for
financing unrelated activities like cleaning the Ganges.
This concern might have been allayed somewhat had the FM assured
listeners that the money would be managed by people with domain expertise
and not subject to political or financial exigency.
Hard truths that the government should digest:
The government must internalise three hard truths:
1. Indias dependence on oil and gas imports will increase in the short to medium
term.
We currently import around 75 per cent of our requirements.

This will go up to near 90 per cent by the end of this decade.
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We are and will remain hugely vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the

international market.
2. The petroleum industry is in terrible shape.
According to consultants Wood Mackenzie, every private oil company loses

cash at $30 per barrel.
All are now on a massive cost-cutting exercise.

They estimate that over the period 2015-2017, the companies will take out
$200 billion of expenditure and that exploration investment will drop from
around $95 billion in 2015 to less than $40 billion in 2016.
Cost-cutting will not save the highly leveraged companies from bankruptcy
and there will be a plethora of stranded assets available for sale at a
discount.
3. Our environment is under stress.
Our cities are amongst the most polluted in the world, our forest cover is
denuding; the water tables are receding the list is long.
Clean energy is the sine qua non for breaking the currently unhealthy linkage
between growth, energy demand and environmental degradation.
These three hard truths present the government with three clear choices.
1. If it wishes to accelerate exploration, it will have to stop milking the ONGC cow.
Private investors will not step into the breach.
A downward recalibration of the ad valorem tax rate would be a positive first
step.
2. If it wishes to increase domestic production, it should do what many oil-producing
countries, including China, the US, the UK and Malaysia, have done in response to
the current low oil price regime and offer tax credits and exemptions for incremental
production from marginal fields and enhanced oil recovery.
3. If it wishes to give a fillip to clean energy, it should put together a more robust
package of subsidies and concessions, promote electric vehicles and cement R&D
partnerships between government entities, private corporations, universities
and research laboratories.
Critically examine the problems faced by petroleum industry in India along with
measures taken by the government to overcome them.
What do you understand by clean energy? Explain various sources of clean energy in
India along with measures taken by the government to promote them.
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TOPIC:
General studies 3:
General studies 2:
Background:
Recently there was a suggestion that fiscal expansion or contraction should be

aligned with credit contraction or expansion respectively, in the economy indicating
a paradigm shift in how to determine fiscal deficit.
Currently, the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act insists on a
blanket 3 per cent arithmetical limit on fiscal deficit.
Idea is to recognize the possibility of an inverse correlation between fiscal deficit
(fiscal expansion) and bank credit (monetary expansion) i.e If credit growth falls,
fiscal deficit may need to rise and if credit rises, fiscal deficit ought to fall to
ensure adequate money supply to the economy.
As the FRBM Act ignores the possible inverse link between monetary and fiscal
economies, time is ripe for an objective basis for fiscal deficit and to recheck FRBM
act to review the Act, and if necessary, amend it significantly.
What is FRBM act all about?

The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act was legislated by the
Parliament in the year 2003.
Its objectives can be identified as:
To institutionalize fiscal discipline

Reduce Fiscal Deficit
Improve Macroeconomic Management.
The law aims at promoting Fiscal Stability for the country on a long-term basis.
It emphasizes a Transparent Fiscal Management System and a more equitable
distribution of debts over the years.
This law also gives flexibility to the Reserve Bank of India to undertake monetary
policy to tackle inflation and take corrective measures in order to give an impetus to
the economic environment.
FRBM Act was notified in response to the need felt to curb broadening Fiscal Deficit.
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The FRBM rules specify annual reduction targets for fiscal indicators.
Originally, the act envisaged Revenue Deficit to be reduced to nil in five years
beginning 2004-05 and fiscal deficit was required to be reduced to 3 percent of
GDP by 2008-09.
The Act also provides exception to the government in case of Natural Calamity and
whenever there is a threat to National Security.
As Government is in need of resources for funding various kinds of developmental schemes

and routine expenditures, resources are raised through taxes and borrowing. The
government can raise funds by borrowing from the Reserve Bank of India, financial
institutions or from the public by floating bonds.
What does fiscal deficit mean?
The difference between total revenue and total expenditure of the government is
termed as fiscal deficit. It is an indication of the total borrowings needed by the
government. While calculating the total revenue, borrowings are not included.
However, uncontrolled Fiscal Deficit is harmful not only for the health of economy
but also for the Growth of the economic indicators and finally the development
prospects in the road towards Inclusive Growth.
What was the need which compelled FRBM act to be introduced?
In 1980s, India saw a sharp deterioration of the fiscal situation, which ultimately
culminated in the balance of payments crisis of 1991.
Within a decade of economic liberalization, the fiscal deficit and debt situation again
seemed to head towards unsustainable levels around 2000. At that time, a need to
institutionalize a new fiscal discipline framework.
FRBM Bill was introduced to institutionalize the fiscal discipline at both the centre
and state level.
Under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBMA) 2003, both the
Centre and States were supposed to wipe out revenue deficit and cut fiscal deficit to
3% of GDP by 2008-09, thus bringing much needed fiscal discipline.
How rational is fixation of fiscal deficit with 3 per cent limit?
The magic number made its debut in the famous Maastricht Treaty to form the
European Union (EU) in 1992.
The treaty prescribed four criteria which EU members had to comply to be eligible to
adopt the Euro as the common currency. One criterion was the 3 per cent fiscal
deficit limit the others being limits on inflation, long-term interest rates and public
debt.
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It was an open secret that the FRBM Act enacted in 2003 and implemented from
2004, had adopted the ready-made EU limit of 3 per cent.
What is the logic behind the correlation between credit expansion and fiscal deficit?
The economic debate on the money-growth link dates back to the Great Depression of the
1930s. While the celebrated Nobel laureate, Milton Friedman, talked about inadequate
money supply as the cause of the Great Depression.
The logic of correlation between credit expansion and fiscal deficit has five sequential limbs
explaining inverse relation:
1. Money is the blood of economic growth.
2. Most money that fuels the economy is created by banks, not by government.
3. Banks and financial institutions fund business and it is that credit money which
drives the economy.
4. If there is lack of business confidence in the economy then bank credit will not grow
too and growth will also suffer due to lack of adequate money.
5. This is the situation budget needs to step in, to pump money into the economy by
incurring deficit (spending more than the income). For this money need to be
borrowed lying with the bank or print more money.
The fifth limb ensures that growth does not decelerate for want of enough money
circulating in the economy. The FRBM law has ignored the fourth and fifth limbs of the logic
and fixed the 3 per cent fiscal deficit as inviolable.
Working of FRBM act and its reality check:
The combined fiscal deficit (fiscal expansion) and credit growth (monetary expansion)
as a percentage of GDP has halved from 17.4 per cent in 2009-10 to 8.8 per cent,
which is less than nominal GDP growth.
Three things are obvious. Money supply growth has reduced. Credit expansion has
fallen. And even fiscal deficit and credit growth put together have declined, all
pointing to the growing economy being starved of the needed money needed, in
which the FRBM Act has also lent its hand.
If bank credit growth falls, fiscal deficit may need to go up. If bank credit growth
rises, fiscal deficit should reduce. This is particularly true for a growing economy
like India.
Had the fiscal deficit not been above the FRBM ideal limit of 3 per cent in the last
four years, the growth would have suffered even more. It does not need a seer to
say that the FRBM law as it stands harms the economy. Thus need of the hour is to
review FRBM act, and if necessary, amend it significantly.
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Way ahead: Review the fiscal consolidation path
Possibility of adopting a target range rather than a specific number (3 percent)

The suggestion that fiscal expansion or contraction should be aligned with credit
contraction or expansion, as mentioned in the Budget speech, is worth exploring.
Recently there was a suggestion to amend FRBM act and to review the fiscal
consolidation path. Throw light on the short fall of the current FRBM act and what
needs to done to bring more fiscal discipline?
TOPIC:
General studies 2:
Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues
arising out of their design and implementation
Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to
Health, Education, Human Resources
General studies 3:
Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-Technology, Biotechnology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights
Issue:
US industry groups recently claimed the Indian government offered them a private
assurance that compulsory licences will not be issued, save in emergencies and for noncommercial purposes
Govt.: Yet to issue any sort of public declaration/clarification
Compulsory Licences
Section 84A legal entitlement; Mandates that a compulsory licence be granted in favour of third
parties, if the patented invention (such as a drug) is excessively priced or not available
sufficiently
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NatcoVs. Bayer
Eg: Natco (Indian generic manufacturer) had applied for Indias first compulsory
licence by convncing the patent office that Bayers patented drug for kidney cancer,
SorafenibTosylate, was excessively priced and available to hardly 2 per cent of
patients
Natco offered to sell its version of the drug at Rs 8,800 per month against Bayers Rs
2.8 lakh per month
Natco was thus, granted licence upon the payment of a 6 per cent royalty rate to
Bayer, ensuring this was not a zero-sum game but one that could potentially benefit
the patent owner as well
Appeal by Bayer- Validation of the patent office decision and minor modifications in
royalty rates were done
Section 92
A provision enabling the government to notify compulsory licences (of its own
accord) on grounds of national emergency, extreme urgency or public noncommercial use
Distinct from Section 84- Vests the government with more discretion
Yet to issue any notification under Section 92
Obligation of the State:
The big data related to health needs to be removed from the shades of the
influence of private parties (hospitals, pharmacies and drug companies) and be
placed in the public forum (curing data deficiency) for further evaluation, monitoring
the progress of the ongoing initiatives and for further research w.r.t. the publicpolicy dimension.
If its Cancer: Need of a Central law mandating disclosure of data on patients,
treatment methods, drug pricing, etc.
Lack of Data- Government ended up denying the most recent compulsory
licensing application under Section 84 to Lee Pharma, which bid for a licence
against AstraZenecas Saxagliptin, a patented anti-diabetic drug
Government needs to wed its seriousness with that of its own commitment to good
health
must take steps to compel private parties to disclose drug and disease data
must ensure quasi-judicial authorities (the patent office) remain relatively
independent
Adjudicate each application on merit and enact its role as a quasi-judicial
authority
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Attract youth as experienced personnel vested with a fair degree of adjudicatory

competence and independence and infused with sufficient training to ensure a
fair, impartial and competent dispensation of justice
Need to create market incentives for innovation, guaranteeing a return on sales
for drugs
Providing a safety cushion to the generic medicine producers from bearing the
assaulting brunt of the multinational drug formulating companies (reduced prices
and improved access for the majority of population)
Are lives being viewed more as business opportunities? Present both sides of the
argument with a proper conclusion.
TOPIC:
General studies 2:
General studies 3:
How reforms killed Indian manufacturing?
This year marks 25 years since the so-called economic reforms were launched in
July 1991.
By now, broad contours of the policies and practices that characterized such reforms
are well known, viz. radical deregulation, marketization and privatization of the
industrial, technological and financial sectors, and an across-the-board induction of
foreign direct investment and foreign institutional investment, and so on.
Promotion of Indias IT software and service sector:
Based on the advice of Western governments, large foreign companies and the
trinity of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade
Organisation, the then Finance Minister, concluded around mid-1992 that we could
be globally competitive only in IT software and services and not in hardware.
Thus he reduced import duties on all IT hardware purportedly to facilitate
software promotion and growth on a globally competitive basis using imported
hardware.
Result: by 1994 our fledgling civilian IT hardware industry folded up.
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No one seems to have told the then Finance Minister that IT hardware far more
technologically sophisticated than the commercial hardware being imported by our
software companies was being manufactured by Indian defence, atomic energy and space
agencies and even exported to other developing countries such as Brazil, Malaysia, and
Indonesia.
Death by policy:
A case study of Optel:
The reforms also gave a body blow to the indigenous optic fibre
telecommunication systems industry, a project begun by the Department of
Electronics (DoE) in 1986 with the setting up of the public sector utility, Optel.
Based on a global tender, technology-transfer agreements were concluded with two
companies, Fujitsu and Furukawa, in 1987 and a blueprint for the Optel plant
prepared.
It indicated a project cost of Rs.45 crore and a construction period of 30 months;
when completed, the actual numbers were Rs.46 crore and 32 months.
Performance of Optel:
In its very first year (1989) of commercial operations Optels turnover was Rs.64
crore with a profit of Rs.11 crore. In 1990-91 the turnover zoomed to Rs.298 crore
with Rs.35 crore profit.
What happened next?
Around this time, Sterlite, a metallurgical company, and Finolex, a packaging

material producer, entered the field.
They would import fibres and merely sheath them into cables.
Even the sheathing material was imported, the cables had merely 10-15 per cent
domestic content.
This, however, ran into a roadblock in the form of the graduated customs duties
then applicable, which promoted local production.
They started lobbying with the government to reduce the import duty on fibre, a
manufactured component, from 40 per cent to 10 per cent, which was the duty on
raw materials.
The end of Optel:
Within six months, large quantities of optic fibre began to be imported.
Optel had to close down its optic fibre plant and import low-grade fibre from China
to be able to compete in our own market with the likes of Sterlite and Finolex!
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De industrialization:
1. High tech radio equipment:
In 1990-91, there were at least a dozen electronics corporations producing a
range of high-tech radio communication equipment, industrial electronics
and control and instrumentation equipment worth annually around Rs.6,000
crore.
However, the reduction in customs duties from 60 per cent to 30 per cent
overall, which led to a glut of imports, forced many of these corporations to
halt production and become import agents.
2. Cell phone handsets:
Reforms also led to large-scale import of cell-phone handsets that could
have been easily produced here had a policy of phased manufacture been
adopted.
Result? The entire market for such handsets was met by unnecessary
imports from Day One in 2005-06. In 2013-14 cell-phone imports totalled
Rs.35,000 crore.
3. Case of BHEL:
Up until 1998-1999, our heavy electrical equipment industry led by Bharat
Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) was doing very well.
However from the next year onwards, four Chinese power plant equipment
manufacturers began to seriously erode BHELs market.
This erosion was despite the quality and technical reliability of the Chinese
equipment being considerably inferior to BHELs products.
The United States, home to General Electric and Westinghouse, imposed
penal anti-dumping duties on Chinese power plant equipment.
Yet, the Indian government merely watched as BHEL lost 30 per cent
market share by 2014.
Way ahead:
The above examples indicate that in sector after sector, the reforms have led to
de industrialization.
Products that we were manufacturing in the 1990s are being imported now.
The negative impact this de industrialization has had on employment and on our
economy is gigantic.
The government must act immediately to halt the destruction of domestic industry
on such a massive.
One such act by the government to promote domestic manufacturing industry is
the Make in India policy.
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Critically examine the importance of Make in India policy in reviving the domestic
manufacturing sector of India.
Economic reforms of 1991 was both a boon and bane. Critically evaluate the
statement at the backdrop of low domestic manufacturing base in India.
Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
Need of the hour: Energy security, not energy independence

Background:
In the next one and a half decade (i.e., by 2030), India's energy demand will grow
faster than that of any other country in the G-20.
India's share in the daily oil trade then is expected to be 12.5 per cent, up from 7.4
per cent in 2014.
India will not be the biggest energy consumer; nor will it remain at the margins.
Indeed, it will be a swing voter in global energy markets with strong national interest
in well-functioning markets.
What does Energy security mean?
Energy security would mean the availability of adequate quantities of critical

resources, at prices that are affordable and predictable, with minimum risk of supply
disruptions, to ensure sustainability for the environment and future generations.
Energy security will require meeting four imperatives: assured supply, safe passage,
secure storage, and a seat at one or more international forums involved in
international energy trade and governance.
Energy security is the association between national security and the availability
of natural resources for energy consumption. It isthe continuity of energy supplies
relative to demand.
What are the challenges to be tackled to address Indias energy security?
Like China, India is a growing giant facing the critical challenge of meeting a rapidly
increasing demand for energy.
With over a billion people, a fifth of the world population, India ranks sixth in the
world in terms of energy demand.
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Indias economy is projected to grow 7%-8% over the next two decades, and in its
wake will be a substantial increase in demand for oil to fuel land, sea, and air
transportation.
While India has significant reserves of coal, it is relatively poor in oil and gas
resources. Its oil reserves amount to 5.9 billion barrels, (0.5% of global reserves) with
total proven, probable, and possible reserves of close to 11 billion barrels.
The majority of India's oil reserves are located in fields offshore Bombay and
onshore in Assam. Due to stagnating domestic crude production, India imports
approximately 70% of its oil, much of it from the Middle East. Its dependence is
growing rapidly.
Ownership of assets might have a limited role in times of crisis: it has mostly been
an ineffective strategy because of low shares of overseas production (below four per
cent of total oil and gas demand in 2014-15), a lack of financial resources to compete
with other countries, the risks of operating in politically fragile areas, and the
opportunity cost of not selling energy produced in global markets.
The World Energy Outlook, published by the International Energy Agency (IEA),
projects that India's dependence on oil imports will grow to 91.6% by the year 2020.
The Indian government is deeply concerned about the rising share of crude oil
imports, from 65 per cent of oil demand in 2000, to 83 per cent in 2013-14 and to
90 per cent in 2030.
Coal imports have been rising year on year, reaching over 20 per cent of demand. By
2030, imports of natural gas are likely to rise to five times the level in 2013-14.
What are the threats to energy security?
Political instability of several energy producing countries

Manipulation of energy supplies
Competition over energy sources
Attacks on supply infrastructure as well as accidents
Natural disasters
Terrorism and reliance on foreign countries for oil.
What are the strategies employed to secure energy security?
The first is to aspire to energy independence. This does not imply zero imports but
aims to reduce rather than increase the share of imported oil, gas and coal. For
instance, the government wants oil imports to fall to 67 per cent of demand by 2022
and to 50 per cent by 2030.
The second strategy has been to buy acreages in oil and gas fields and in coalmines
beyond India's shores. The assumption is that such overseas assets will deliver
energy resources to India's shores in times of crisis.
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Way ahead:
India's diplomatic capacity has to align with its commercial interests, while the economy
shifts from long-term contracts to relying on diverse sources, taking advantage of lower spot
market prices and hedging via forward contracts.
India will need to ensure safe passage of overseas energy supplies:
This will be, partly, a function of India's ownership of - or access to - a shipping fleet.
Compared to other major energy consumers, India's share of oil and gas tankers is
low.
Safe passage will also require naval capabilities for India to become a net security
provider in the Indian Ocean.
India has been pursuing regional as well as bilateral cooperation on maritime
security in the Indian Ocean, engagements that now need greater intensity.
It will also need naval assets that can work with other navies in protecting energy
supply routes beyond the Indian Ocean, particularly in the South China Sea, from
which new supplies of energy might flow in future.
Need of global energy regime:

India will have to identify the key functions that a regional or plurilateral energy institutions
could perform, which would otherwise be hard to do unilaterally.
Functions:
Assuring transparency in energy markets

Cooperatively managing strategic reserves
Jointly patrolling energy supply routes
Arbitrating disputes, and pooling resources to lower insurance premiums on
transporting resources.
There will be tough choices but either way India's integration into global energy markets will
be one of the key shifts in the global economy.
What does energy security mean? What are the threats and challenges faced by
Indias energy security? Throw light on how to eliminate insecurity in Indias energy
security?
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Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Agriculture & related issues, Major crops cropping patterns, Irrigation
Land reforms in India.
Farmer needs a new deal
Agrarian distress emerged as the most disturbing problem during the 1990s.
Its severity and spread witnessed a sharp increase in the post-WTO period till 200405 and it is back again which can be witnessed in the last two years.
Measure of agrarian distress:
Two common indicators used to show the severity of agrarian distress are
indebtedness of farm households and the number of farmers suicides.
Some people also cite the decline in the number of cultivators in the country as a
consequence of agrarian distress, which may be partly true, particularly in the
disadvantaged agricultural regions.
Causes for increased farmer suicides:

Evidence shows that the incidence of farmer suicides in India involves multiple causes
1. Falling farm income is first among them.
When the farmers income is chronically lower than his family expenditure,
he borrows money from some source to meet the gap.
Expenditure on social ceremonies and health expenses, which are not part
of regular household expenditure, also force the farmer to borrow,
particularly from non-institutional sources.
The accumulated debt becomes so large that it becomes impossible to repay
it from the household income.
Some farmers are forced to sell a part or whole of farm land and other family
assets to repay loans and to meet social expenditure.
Some others undergo humiliation as loan defaulters.
The loss of honour pushes many to take the extreme step of ending their
life.
2. A second cause of crisis results from a sudden income loss due to crop failure or
price crash.
In the absence of crop insurance or adequate relief, crop failure can have a
devastating effect on farm income.
Further, there is no mechanism to escape the effect of a price crash.
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Any loss of income of a severe nature on account of crop failure or market

failure becomes a source of distress and frustration.
This is more pertinent in the case of high value commercial crops.
A year or two of high prices influences many farmers to direct excessive
resources towards risky commercial crops.
The sudden increase in supply is often met with a violent price crash.
Without risk coverage, price volatility can have a killing effect on farm
income.
What can be done to remove agrarian distress?

The common answer is to raise farm incomes.
This can be done in three ways:
1. Enable farmers to get better prices for their produce and encourage crop
diversification.
One acre of land under high value crops can generate more income than
five acres under cereals.
However, better price realisation and the success of diversification critically
depend on a healthy and competitive market.
Agricultural markets in India have not moved towards competition and
efficiency after the 1970s.
Prices of farm commodities often fall in the harvest season and skyrocket
in the lean season.
Unless state governments initiate market reforms and take agriculture
marketing to the next stage, farmers will continue to suffer from excessive
intermediaries, low scale and segmentation.
Agrarian distress can be mitigated to a large extent by an efficient and competitive
agriculture market. Mechanisms like the deficiency price payment and price insurance
for different sets of crops can protect farmers from market and price risk.
Government has come up with Pradhan MantriFasalBhimaYojana in this regard.
2. The second option for augmenting farmers income is to scale-up the farms.
Average farm-size in India is very small and shrinking.
The latest available data from the agriculture census for 2010-11 shows that 47 per cent
farm households operate on plots less than an acre, with an average of 2,200 sq metres of
agricultural land.
Further, this small piece of land is fragmented and about half of it has no
access to irrigation.
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Obviously, many such farmers would like to shift to non-agricultural activities

and many would like to increase their farm-size by leasing land from other
farmers.
However, present land lease laws discourage formal and transparent land
lease arrangements.
The landowner fears any formal lease contract will make it difficult to get the
land back from the lessee while the tenant is unable to access credit and
avail other benefits available to a landowner.
The liberalisation of the existing land lease laws will help both marginal and sub-marginal
farmers.
Those who leave farming can have secured ownership and earn rent and those who stay in
farming can increase the size of operational holdings and have better access to credit and
other facilities.
3. The third option is to provide alternative sources of livelihood to needy farm
households.
The estimates of farm income show that income from agriculture alone is not enough to
keep more than 50 per cent of farm households out of poverty.
Any supply shock or price shock pushes such households deeper into poverty
and the many marginally-above-poverty families into the poverty trap.
However, many such farmers who earn an income from non-farm sources
are able to escape poverty.
The landholdings of a majority of our farmers are so small that these cannot
generate income for decent living.
Therefore, they need to be provided alternative sources of employment and income.

Way ahead:
The most common cause for crop failure is water stress.

Irrigation is the best insurance against crop failure.
The area under public sources of irrigation has not expanded to reflect the huge
investment in irrigation made after the Tenth Plan.
The thrust on irrigation envisioned under the various components of the recently
launched Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana offers hope as well as the scope
for reducing water stress in agriculture.
Connecting the dots
Critically examine various factors which determine agricultural productivity in India

with special emphasis on irrigation.
Critically examine the reasons for farmer distress in India along with measures taken
by the government to overcome the same.
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Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, biotechnology and issues relating to intellectual property rights
Making India GI Brand conscious
One of the six Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) (by Florent Gevers)
Identifies a good as originating from a particular place, where a given quality,
reputation or other characteristics of the good become essentially attributable to its
geographical origin (possess a recall value amongst consumers)
Acts as a mechanism that helps producers differentiate their products from
competing products in the market and enables producers to build a reputation and
goodwill around their products that will fetch a premium price
Note:
Supports and protects local production (as opposed to global production),
Generates local employment
Mostly untouched by industrialisation
Key socio-economic issues relating to geographical indications relevant to developing

countries
Misappropriation,
Protecting traditional and indigenous knowledge,
Improving market access,
Creating niche market,
Protection of reputation,
Potential income effect
Rural development
GI & the Make in India programme
To improve and protect the Indian intellectual property (IP) regime

The steps envisaged to achieve this objective:
increased posts in IP offices,
e-filing facilities,
major fee reduction for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises,
Holding awareness programmes etc.
Most ideal IP rights to foster and realise a programme like Make in India
GI-branded goods can be made 100 per cent in India
Without the need of any foreign direct investment (FDI)
Potential to promote socio-economic development of the respective regions
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India & the GIs
Enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act, 1999 (GI
Act)
Confers legal protection to GI in India;
Prevents unauthorized use of a registered geographical indication by others;
Enables seeking legal protection in other WTO member countries
Objectives
Adequately protect the interest of producers of GI goods & add to the prosperity of
the producers of such goods
Protect consumers from deception
Promote goods bearing GI in the export market
Has set up a registry in Chennai to register
Covers: agricultural goods, manufactured and natural goods, textiles, handicrafts and
foodstuffs (238 registered names)
E.g.: Basmati rice, Darjeeling tea and Pashmina shawls
Issues & Challenges

Ambiguity in the definition of the term producer:
No distinction between real producer, retailer or dealer

benefits of the registration may not percolate down to the real producer
Sol: right to use the registered GIs must be confined to the actual producers of the GIs from
the identified geographical area and only with their permission; the traders and others
involved in the trade could use the GIs
Appropriate Identification of products:
Need to make the process more thorough and not to just to register
Assess the commercial prospect of a GI product in the domestic and international

markets
Assess the potential of such registration in contributing towards the future growth of
the product as well as the socio-economic implication for the communities involved in
the supply chain
For preserving the consumers trust, the European law mandates:
Effective verification and controls at multiple levels in the supply chain, ensuring
compliance with product specification before placing it in the market
Market monitoring of the use of the names to ensure legal compliance
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Post-registration follow-up:
No headway in adoption of strategies for branding and promotion of GI products as well

as their marketing and distribution in both domestic and export markets
Does not protect knowledge or technology; only protects the name or indication (the
famous Banarasi sari can be produced anywhere in the world but it cannot be named
Banarasi sari)
Sol: Need for
sustained commitment of resources

building capacity and awareness about GIs among various stakeholders including
consumers
Dearth of research from the Indian perspective on potential benefits from GI protection:
Hardly any systematic assessment been undertaken by the relevant agencies in India while
identifying the products to be accorded GI status
IASbabas Views:
India needs to study the successful models and while understanding the core element that
worked elsewhere; it needs to work on a strategy that would suit Indias requirements and
conditions; of protection and enforcement in a developing country
Extensive gaps exist on operationalizing GIs and this is where the focus of the Government
needs to be
Well-crafted policies and strategies on post-GI mechanisms are required for marketing,
distribution, branding and promotion of the Indian GI products to realise the commercial
potential of Indian GIs.
The current Indian legal framework for GIs needs to be strengthened to address quality
control and consumer expectations by insisting on multi-layered quality control systems
as a precondition for registration.
Setting up a national level fund for fighting against infringement, brand building and
promotional efforts
Sensitize and make the concerned GI community aware through a series of workshops
and consultations to ensure maximum level active participation in the process for GI
registration.
Rigorous analytical studies on impact and implications
to determine the direct and indirect impact of geographical indications in the developing
world
to study the real impact of the registered GI on the producers' community
to assess the potential impact of GI protection for the goods identified for production
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to understand implications of GIs in the context of rural development

Every region in India boasts of many locally produced unique goods and this law, with a
few amendments to fill the serious missing gaps described above, coupled with diligent
implementation can turn into a magic wand for the Make in India programme.
Enlist the various concerns and constraints relevant to Indias GI Ecosystem. Suggest
a way ahead.
TOPIC:
General Studies 3:
Agriculture; Major crops cropping patterns in various parts of the country,
transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints
General Studies 2:
issues arising out of their design and implementation
A silent horticulture 'revolution'
Horticulture and the closely associated horticultural sciences are critical elements of
modern society in most developed countries and in many developing countries
around the world.
The contributions of horticultural crops, and their related industries, to society at
large are very considerable.
Today, the production of horticulture, is now larger than that of food-grains.
Horticultural output has surged by nearly 70 per cent - from around 167 million
tonnes in 2004-05 to over 283 million tonnes in 2014-15
Agricultural Census 2010-11
Over 87 per cent of the total vegetables and 90 per cent of fruits are grown by small
landholders
Growth of horticultural output is estimated at around seven per cent a year in the
past decade
The acreage under horticulture has grown by around two per cent a year
Horticultural production has either continued to grow or dip only marginally even
during bad monsoon years, including the drought years of 2004, 2009, 2014 and
2015
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The overall share of horticulture in the agriculture sector's gross domestic product
(agricultural GDP) has grown to over 30 per cent even though it accounts for only 17
per cent of farm land.
Horticultural Statistics at a Glance 2015

Covered diverse aspects such as area, production, productivity, growth trends, percentage
share, value of output and so on for major horticultural crops
Launched-Coordinated Programme on Horticulture Assessment and Management using
geoiNformatics(CHAMAN) in September, 2014
Scientific methodologies of Remote Sensing and Sample Survey is being used for
assessment of area and production of major horticulture crops
Horticulture Area and Production Information System (HAPIS) launched in February, 2015
a web portal for online submission of district level data pertaining to area and
production of horticulture crops
Contributions
Provision of safe, healthy and nutritious food

Provision of many essential vitamins and minerals (consumers achieve a balanced
diet)
Contributions to economies through export-related activities
Provides employment and the sustainability of service provision
Overall wealth generation through the activities of those involved with production,
processing, marketing, servicing, and related sectors
The Revolution
Diversification: Given the farmers an opportunity to diversify from food and other crops to
horticulture
Labour: Cultivation of horticultural crops is highly labour-intensive and, therefore, suits
small cultivators who can manage it largely with family labour
Irrigation: A sizable chunk of land has been brought under horticultural crops is irrigated
(around 73 per cent of land producing the eight main vegetables- onion, potato, tomato,
okra, cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal and tapioca)
Constraints
Lack of market support

Paucity of post-harvest produce management chain from farm to fork
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Lack of uniform price-mechanism/credit: Does not get reasonable returns for their
produce because of higher prices due to existence of multiplicity of intermediaries in
horticultural marketing
Distress sales and mass destruction of the produce in a bid to contain losses
Benefits of high prices do not generally accrue to the growers
Sizable part of horticultural output is wasted due to improper post-harvest handling
and want of processing facilities
Increased competition from other countries for horticultural products in the
international market
Unfavourable global trade/regulatory regime and other market requirements
Way Ahead:
Modern horticulture requires investments for the construction of micro-irrigation

systems, green houses and, grading and packaging of the produce
Better access to cheap institutional finance
Adequate marketing support
Expansion of the fruits and vegetable processing industry with backwards linkages
with farmers can help in value-addition and waste reduction of the horticultural
produce, thus, ensuring higher returns to growers
Creation of price stabilisation fund need to be used to prevent wide price
fluctuations which often hurt both producers and consumers
IASbabas Views:
Government needs to work upon basic need for research on horticultural crops and
challenges, that have increased in complexity given current consumer demands for
affordability, safety and continuity of supply; increasing needs to achieve sustainable
practices; and the need to deal with challenges arising from a more variable climate,
the loss of productive soils through urban encroachment, and the loss of low-cost
labour.
Research is also urgently needed to resolve issues such as the development of
drought tolerant crops, the management of crops under managed water deficits,
dealing with increased salinity, and the use of low quality water.
The concepts of sustainability of horticultural crops should relate both to the use of
resources, such as water and nutrients, in a manner which considers future needs,
and the responsible use of compounds such as pesticides which will not compromise
the quality of the environment (or the safety of the produce that is produced)
Discuss the various constraints plaguing the horticulture industry of India along
with specific solutions to plug the loopholes
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Discuss the upstream and downstream requirements for the supply-chain

management of the horticulture products.
TOPIC:
General studies 2:
General studies 3:
development and employment
100% FDI in e commerce: An evaluation
The government recently announced rules for

foreign direct investment in online retail firms to
attract more foreign investments in the fast
growing retail sector(Goldman Sachs estimates
the market for the sector to be $69 billion by
2020).
What does the policy say on percentage of FDI?

Foreign investors can now own 100 % in e-commerce firms, but only those having a market
place model.
Some important definitions:
Market based model:It means providing an IT platform and acting as a facilitator between
buyer and seller (vendor). Simply putting, the e-commerce firm is merely acting as an
intermediary.
Inventory-based model: it is a model where the e-commerce entity owns the goods and
services, and sells to consumers directly.
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How does the policy affect a market based e commerce firm?

At the outside it may look good for the firms as they can raise more foreign investments and
expand the business in India.
However two hurdles in the policy for them:
1. The new rules say that market place firms cannot offer discounts; only the vendors selling
their goods on the e-commerce sites can offer discounts.
This means that market place firms like Amazon cannot offer discounts like 80% off
etc.
If discounts are less people tend to not buy the goods online, this means less
business for the e commerce firm.
2. Any single vendor or a group company of the market place e-commerce player cannot
account for over 25 percent of the total sales.
How will this impact?
WS Retail, a familiar name to anyone who has shopped on Flipkart, is believed to

account for more than 70 per cent of total sales on the platform. This has to end now
as it crosses 25% cap.
As for Amazon India, the most prominent vendor is Cloudtail, which makes up for
about 40 per cent of the sales on the platform. Even this has to end.
What can the e commerce firms do now?
So far e-commerce firms had been chasing gross revenues by offering hefty
discounts.
While this helped show higher revenues and raise huge sums from investors, it led to
massive losses.
With the new rules banning discounts, the firms will have to differentiate themselves
through innovative services.
What do the new rules mean for consumers?

Most likely, the juicy discounts offered by e-commerce players will soon disappear, unless
the firms can find a way to get around the rules.
What are brick and mortar retail companies (offline ones) saying?
They have welcomed the rules saying it will provide a level playing field as ecommerce firms were so far hurting their business by luring consumers online with
unsustainable discount offers.
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What is IT body NASSCOMs view on the rules?
NASSCOM feels limiting sales of a vendor to only 25 percent of the sales in the
marketplace may prove to be restrictive, more so if the vendor sells high value items.
Also, there could be difficulties in case of sale of electronic items, where a vendor
maybe offering exclusive access to certain items or discounts.
Critically examine the impact of the new government policy by allowing 100% FDI in
e commerce on
a) e commerce firms
b) consumers
Critically evaluate various legislations that regulate e commerce industry in India.
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

TOPIC:
General studies 3
Science and Technology developments and their applications and effects in
technology and developing new technology.
Awareness in the fields of IT, Computers
ICANN: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers; U.S.-based body that runs
the Internets central directory and coordinates its key technical functions
Issue: ICANNs oversight moving from the U.S. government to a multi-stakeholder group
Multi-stakeholder group: elects ICANNs board of directors, transforming ICANN into an
independent organisation, with no external oversight
Consists of some sub-groups each with different technical governance roles, and
different kinds of openness to non-members (strong in-group culture and ideology,
and various kinds of meritocracies)
Dominated by the industry, which can pay for participants of high quality, with
staying power (for the endless email discussions that could culminate in decisions),
and who are well-versed in the U.S. corporate lingo (ICANNs board- real decisionmaking body)
An important step towards making ICANN a genuinely global organisation?

Steps to understand the implications:
what changes,
what does not change, and
what may even change for the worse
What happens if the proposal is accepted by the U.S. government

Present-day ICANN: A contractor carrying out some tasks, of which the substantive
authority vests with the U.S. government
The U.S. government will now be divested of this authority, and ICANN will become an
independent body in managing its domain names-related policy work, and the Internets
root zone file, containing information about Internet names and numbers, addresses, which
are copied and replicated by other servers the world over
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What doesnt changeProblem that non-U.S. actors have with the U.S. control over ICANN: is that it can
unilaterally interfere with the ICANNs policy process, and the Internets root server
(containing the authoritative root zone file)
Post transition-it will no longer be able to do so with a direct fiat to ICANN
Judicial, executive and legislative powers held by the U.S. government over ICANN as an
American organisation: Remain unchanged
The exceptional situations:
The U.S. President has various kinds of emergency powers regarding key
infrastructure, which is likely to extend to ICANN and the root server
Office of Foreign Assets Control-has seized foreign assets in the U.S. on the flimsiest
of geopolitical grounds; a countrys domain name, like .in, in the root server can be
considered as its asset inside the U.S
Federal Communications Commission: Might at will seek jurisdiction over ICANNmanaged critical Internet resources (declared Internet service as a public utility)
U.S. legislature can make any kind of law affecting any aspect of ICANN and the root
server
Judiciary:
A few adult content companies have legally challenged the ICANN-mandated
.xxx domain name. A U.S. court has taken the case on file, thus exercising its
jurisdiction over an ICANN policy decision. If the court strikes down this
decision, it will immediately unravel ICANNs pretensions of global legitimacy.
With the new round of generic top level domains (gTLDs) whereby every big
company is encouraged to get its own domain name, like .abcd, it is only a
matter of time before a U.S. court comes up with such a decision. Say, a U.S.
pharmaceutical company claims in a U.S. court that an Indian generic drug
manufacturer is infringing its patents globally, and therefore its assets,
including its gTLD, in the U.S., must be seized. The U.S. court, if it agrees, can
direct both ICANN to suspend the domain name and the root server operator
to delete it from the root file.
Jurisdiction issue
The second phase of the group that developed its proposal have been looking into this
issue (main issue to be resolved for any real change and progress)
The U.S. government and the board repeatedly put up redlines whenever there were
structural proposals that could ensure a greater latitude within the system to embrace
change (community being eager to keep the U.S. government pleased)
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Not a democratic way of decision-making but community remains most interested to

have power fully transferred to itself
This might lead to a situation wherein ICANNs oversight will shift to a group that has a
narrow base and thus, the concerned industrys narrow interests will entirely take over,
with no restraints.
IASbabas Views:
There is a strong need to get ICANN incorporated under international law, with host
country immunities for an international organisation
Though ICANN is choosing to be highly accommodative, but with an independent status
finally settled, it is likely to get much more unabashed in its narrow self-interest-based
and commercial pursuits, disregarding global public interest. Therefore, there is also a
need to come under international jurisdiction with a well-formulated external oversight
Do citizens have rights with respect to digital space? If yes, enumerate them.
TOPIC:
General Studies 1: Urbanization, their problems and their remedies.
General Studies 2: Governance Issues
General Studies 3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation
Industrial revolution followed by the advances in information technology during the

last century has radically changed people's lifestyle. Although this development has
helped the human race, mismanagement has led to new problems of contamination
and pollution.
With nearly 1.7 million tonnes of e-waste reportedly produced in India in 2014 and
increasing annually at between four and five per cent, a variety of experts have
warned of its dangers to the environment as well as health. This is because defunct
laptops, phone and other electronic goods are usually broken down by hand for
precious metals and hacked down manually or crudely burnt.
The residue is frequently thrown in rivers, drains and/or disposed in solid waste
dumps that over time can contribute to degraded land and water quality as well
neurological and skin diseases, genetic defects and cancer in the workers who deal
with them
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The technical prowess acquired during the last century has posed a new challenge in
the management of wastes. Thus, proper management is necessary while disposing
or recycling e-waste.
Waste minimization in industries involves adopting:
Inventory management: Proper control over the materials used in the

manufacturing process is an important way to reduce waste generation (Freeman,
1989)- By reducing both
The quantity of hazardous materials used in the process
Amount of excess raw materials in stock
Can be done in two ways
Establishing material-purchase review and control procedures

Inventory tracking system (only the needed quantity of a material is ordered)
Production-process modification: Changes to be made during the production

process (more efficient use of input materials)
Three-fold
1. Improved operating and maintenance procedures by reviewing current operational procedures or lack of procedures and
examination of the production process for ways to improve its efficiency
Instituting standard operation procedures
Strict maintenance program stressing on corrective maintenance
Employee-training program (correct operating and handling procedures,
proper equipment use, recommended maintenance and inspection
schedules, correct process control specifications and proper management
of waste materials)
2. Material change- minor process adjustments or extensive new process
equipment
3. Process-equipment modification:
To take advantage of better production techniques
To process materials more efficiently producing less waste
Reduces the number of rejected or off-specification products
Volume reduction: techniques that remove the hazardous portion of a waste from a
non-hazardous portion
Categories: Source segregation and Waste concentration
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Recovery and reuse:

Could eliminate waste disposal costs, reduce raw material costs and provide
income from a saleable waste
Waste recovery: on-site, or at an off-site recovery facility, or through inter
industry exchange
India: Manufacturers to set up collection centres for e-waste

Manufacturers of electrical and electronic items will have to
Set up "collection centres" to take back the e-waste generated through their products
Ensure that the e-waste, including hazardous electronic parts, thus collected is properly
recycled
E-waste management rules (2011)

Had bound manufacturers by extended producer responsibility (EPR) to channelize the
hazardous e-waste to registered recyclers
Issue: Lack of clarity on who was responsible for collecting such waste led to loose
implementation of EPR rules
Steps taken:
The new rules have plugged a number of loopholes by addressing the specific
responsibilities of various stakeholders. But, implementation will be the key.
Separate authorisation letters from the respective State Pollution Control Boards
(SPCBs), which were necessary for setting up such collection centres earlier; have now
been done away with
The complicated process, which had been cited by manufacturers as an excuse for low
compliance, has now given way to a collection mechanism that also allows buying back
waste from consumers
Various producers can have a separate Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) and
ensure collection of e-waste as well as its disposal in an environmentally sound manner.
Manufacturers have also been asked to submit detailed EPR plans whereby 30 per cent
of the waste generated by them has to be collected back during the first two years,
followed by 40 per cent in the third and fourth years and so on, to 70 per cent during the
seventh year onwards.
A provision of penalty for violation of rules has been introduced and states have also
been brought into the picture with the rules authorising industry departments to ensure
space is allocated for recycling plants.
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State labour departments have been asked to register workers involved in dismantling
and recycling at such facilities, to ensure the safety of these workers by monitoring their
health.
CFL and other mercury lamps have been brought within the ambit of the e-waste
management rules 2016, a Deposit Refund Scheme has been introduced under which
the producer of any computer, mobile phone or other electronic product will have to
persuade consumers to return the products after usage for a small sum (The 2016 rules
are in supersession of the e-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011)
IASbabas Views:
Government
Governments should set up regulatory agencies in each district, which are vested with
the responsibility of co-ordinating and consolidating the regulatory functions of the
various government authorities regarding hazardous substances
Governments must encourage research into the development and standard of
hazardous waste management, environmental monitoring and the regulation of
hazardous waste-disposal.
Governments should enforce strict regulations and heavy fines levied on industries,
which do not practice waste prevention and recovery in the production facilities.
Polluter pays principle and extended producer responsibility should be adopted.
Governments should encourage and support NGOs and other organizations to involve
actively in solving the nation's e-waste problems.
Industries:
Generators of wastes should take responsibility to determine the output characteristics

of wastes and if hazardous, should provide management options.
All personnel involved in handling e-waste in industries including those at the policy,
management, control and operational levels, should be properly qualified and trained.
Companies can and should adopt waste minimization techniques ("reverse production"
system) that designs infrastructure to recover and reuse every material contained within
e-wastes metals
Citizens: While buying electronic products opt for those that:
are made with fewer toxic constituents

use recycled content and are energy efficient
are designed for easy upgrading or disassembly
utilize minimal packaging and offer leasing or take back options
have been certified by regulatory authorities
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Customers should opt for upgrading their computers or other electronic items to the latest
versions rather than buying new equipment.

1. Is India a signatory to the Basel Convention? What are the fundamental aims of the
Basel Convention and in light of the recent spell of climate change, how can
developed countries be torchbearers of good e-waste management skills?
2. It is imperative that developing countries and India in particular wake up to the
monopoly of the developed countries and set up appropriate management measures
to prevent the hazards and mishaps due to mismanagement of e-wastes. Critically
examine

Issues relating to intellectual property rights (IPR)
India lagging behind in Innovation
Data
International patent applications filed from India dropped to 1,423 last year
Make in India initiative: Has notched up overseas investment commitments of more
than $400 billion over the past two years
Government Plans to create 100 million new factory jobs by 2022
Increase manufacturings share in the economy to 25% during the next six years
Lagging area of incidence and location of innovation

Innovation: Pre-requisite for generating new knowledge in science and technology
International patent applications filed from India to assess the innovative activity:
Dropped to 1,423 last year
2014: Indian research and manufacturing entities, both in the private and public sector,
filed 1,428 international patent applications as compared to 42,381 by Japan, 25,548 by
China, and 13,117 by South Korea
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The filing of patent applications by Indian firms and research departments over the past
three years remained almost flat with 1,320 in 2013, 1,428 in 2014 and 1,423 in 2015.
Issues:
At a time when India has eclipsed China as the worlds fastest growing major economy with
its gross domestic product forecast to increase to 7.6% in the fiscal year through March, it
has performed poorly in generating measurable innovative activity.
Saffronization of Ancient claims: of landmark scientific discoveries (the Pythagorean

theorem, zero, genetics and plastic surgery, among others), thereby undermining the
need for fresh research on the ground that everything is already there in the Vedas;
problem of demarcation between science and pseudoscience (vital social and political
relevance)
Lack of investment in basic and applied science and technology that is essential for
innovation which, in turn, accelerates the pace of intellectual property activities
No transmission of existing knowledge, which is the basis for the generation of new
knowledge
Lack of rigorous scientific study
Lack of perspective building and prioritising (solar energy)
Religious system of beliefs
Climate fostering un-questioningundermining scientific inquiry and questioning
Costly Affair impeding Innovation: Diversion of funds from productive R&D towards
litigation and discovery/licenses
Monopoly: Little choice and no incentive to work on the complaints as the market is
capture, damaging societys development
Restriction on Technological Progress& Legal Risks: More number of false claims,
thereby diverting energy of innovators towards defending and not
producing/discovering which, in turn, affects their creativity.
Low Inclusion of Indians: World Intellectual Property Organisation statistics states that
only about 22 per cent of all patents granted by the Indian Patent Office were granted to
Indian residents thus, questioning the strategic as well as economic sense behind the
protection that excludes Indians from benefiting from it.
Way Ahead
Improve conditions and incentives for business R&D and innovation, and move
towards a business centred innovation system
Reform the public R&D system by introducing competitive funding mechanisms,
efficiency and relevance-enhancing measures as well as incentives for scienceindustry cooperation
Improve framework conditions for innovation, including essentially the provision of
highly skilled labour force and the public support for entrepreneurship
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Work on the methods and ways in which existing knowledge is being transmitted as
well as priority should be given more on the concept-building and application of
knowledge
Enhance international openness
Ensure steady increase in investments in R&D and innovation as a share of GDP
Connecting the Dots
Science is the cognition of necessity; freedom is the recognition of necessity. Discuss.
TOPIC:
General Studies 2
General Studies 3
Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in
everyday life
assessment
Come clean on Nuclear Security
Background:
This week, Prime Minister NarendraModi will touch down in Washington, DC for the
fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit, a biennial conference series initiated in
2010 by the Barack Obama administration.
Mr.Modi will no doubt seek to showcase Indias nuclear regime as one that adheres
to the highest standards of transparency and safety through rigorous regulation of
nuclear products and institutions.
Interlocutors in the U.S. may be hoping for a break with Indias tradition of maintaining a
masterful silence on two questions surrounding its nuclear policy.
o First, growing concerns over the security of its nuclear materials
o Second, at a time when Indias macro strategy of rapid economic development is
premised on a climate of neighbourly peace and stability in the region, need for the
hour is that call for an end to the nuclear arms race in Asia and address
environmental risks of Indias covert weapons plants
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Indias nuclear security

First, the need for heightened nuclear security has now become urgent, especially with the
emergence of global jihadi threats such as the Islamic State.
In this context, three potential nuclear terrorist threats relate to
Extremists making or acquiring and exploding a nuclear bomb

Danger of radioactive material being fashioned into a dirty bomb
Risk of nuclear reactor sabotage.
First and second scenarios are vectors of imminent concern in Pakistan, with analysts citing
as examples a series of terrorist attacks in 2007 on nuclear weapons facilities in that
country, including a nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha and a nuclear airbase at
Kamra.
Assessment of Indias nuclear security:
Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government cautioned that U.S. officials

ranked Indian nuclear security measures as weaker than those of Pakistan and
Russia.
U.S. experts visiting the sensitive Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in 2008
described the security arrangements there as extraordinarily low key.
Harvard report notes, there are concerns about threats within Indian nuclear
facilities stemming in part from significant insider corruption, and what appears to
be inconsistent strength of regulation.
An example that the report cites relates to the 2014 case of Vijay Singh, head
constable at the Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam, who shot and killed
three people with his service rifle.
Event may have been avoided had the Central Industrial Security Forces personnel
reliability programme been able to detect Mr. Singhs deteriorating mental health,
which it failed to do despite multiple complaints raised by his colleagues that he was
about to explode like a firecracker.
With a scarcity of data points oninsider threats and the attendant concerns about
sabotage and nuclear accidents, the unsurprising conclusion of the report was:
Given the limited information available about Indias nuclear security measures, it is
difficult to judge whether Indias nuclear security is capable of protecting against the
threats it faces.
Indias clandestine weapons development programme:

Recent evidence that this shadowy realm of government activity has been proceeding apace
beyond the scrutiny of the media and public surfaced in June 2014
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IHS Janes, a U.S.-based military intelligence think tank, discovered satellite imagery
showing efforts underway to extend a Mysore nuclear centrifuge plant constructed
in 1992 at the Rare Metals Plant at that location.
According to Janes, the purpose behind this extension may have been the covert
production of uranium hexafluoride, which could be channelled towards the
manufacture of hydrogen bombs or naval reactors to power Indias nuclear
submarine fleet.
Institute for Science and International Security, revealed additional satellite imagery
suggesting that India was building a Special Material Enrichment Facility, including
constructing an industrial-scale centrifuge complex in Chitradurga district in
Karnataka.
Centre for Public Integrity (CPI), reported inForeign Policy magazine, confirmed that
Indias under-radar ambition to acquire thermonuclear weapons at the Chitradurga
site had advanced much further than many had suspected.
There are likely to be a number of other such walled-off weapons development zones across
the breadth of the country posing two critical questions:
Firstly,what are the broader implications of Indias covert nuclear programme for the
triangular standoff vis--vis Pakistan and China?
Indias search for thermonuclear weapons certainly exacerbates the nuclear arms
race with its neighbours, specifically by sparking dangerous games of tit-for-tat
weaponisation, loose talk about tactical superiority and theatre nukes, and growing
doubts about deterrence stability.
The region is already a potential hothouse of nuclear posturing a fact advocated
by the independent Stockholm International Peace Research Institutes estimates
that India has something in the range 90-110 nuclear weapons, Pakistan has around
120, and China has close to 260.
Secondly, while the Nuclear Liability Law protects its citizenry from the potentially
catastrophic fallout of a nuclear accident in the civilian nuclear sector, what guarantees do
we have that Indias nuclear black sites do not endanger the health of the people and the
environment?
Evidence suggests that the Chitradurga and Khudapura sites may be degrading the
surrounding grassland ecosystems called kavals, which are habitats for critically
endangered local species such as the Great Indian Bustard, the Lesser Florican and
the Black Buck, not to mention the livelihoods source for thousands of pastoral
communities.
In February 2014, NGOs in Karnataka including the Environment Support Group
complained about government land acquisitions for DRDO and BARC in the
Challakere in Chitradurga, and obtained a direction from the National Green
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Tribunal to halt construction activity that had commenced without securing

permission from the Karnataka Forest Department and the Union Ministry of
Environment and Forests.
Note:
The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010
Highlights of the Bill
The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010 fixes liability for nuclear damage and
specifies procedures for compensating victims.
The Bill fixes no-fault liability on operators and gives them a right of recourse against
certain persons. It caps the liability of the operator at Rs 500 crore. For damage
exceeding this amount, and up to 300 million SDR, the central government will be
liable.
All operators (except the central government) need to take insurance or provide
financial security to cover their liability.
For facilities owned by the government, the entire liability up to 300 million SDR will
be borne by the government.
The Bill specifies who can claim compensation and the authorities who will assess
and award compensation for nuclear damage.
Those not complying with the provisions of the Bill can be penalised.
Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)
It is a formal process used to predict the environmental consequences of any

development project.
Environment Impact Assessment in India is statutory backed by the Environment
Protection Act in 1986, which contains various provisions on EIA methodology and
process.
Way ahead:
If India is willing to be more open about discussing its nuclear weapons programme with a
view to ultimately denuclearising the neighbourhood, it would by far be one of the most
courageous contributions that India could make towards a lasting sub-continental security.
Indias search for thermonuclear weapons certainly exacerbates the nuclear arms
race with its neighbours. Discuss.
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ENVIRONMENT

assessment
World Water Day (March 22nd) - The importance of Water Management
India has sizeable water resources, but the country faces huge challenges in the
water sector as the distribution of water varies widely by season and region owing to
the growing scarcity; increasing pollution; enhanced competition, conflicts and transboundary water sharing issues; that have dominated the national discourse in
current times.
Although industry is the largest contributor to Indias GDP, agriculture accounts for
nearly 90% of water use. Two-thirds of Indias irrigation needs and 80% of domestic
water needs are met using groundwater, contributing to the significant groundwater
depletion rate. Although India has one of the worlds largest irrigation systems, it is
characterised by high levels of inefficient water use
The country is also facing the potent threat of climate change, which may have
complex implications on the pattern of availability of water resources including
changes in pattern and intensity of rainfall and glacial melt resulting in altered river
flows, changes in ground water recharge, more intense floods, severe droughts in
many parts of the country, salt water intrusion in coastal aquifers, and a number of
water quality issues.
For India
Improving water security is essential for Indias development
With total water demand in India expected to rise by over 70% by 2025, a huge
demand-supply gap is expected in the coming years and will act as a potentially
significant constraint on economic growth
The alarming rate of groundwater depletion is also cause for serious concern
Declining water tables means increased cost of pumping, salty irrigation water as a
result of over-abstraction leading to crop and revenue losses for farmers, and longterm consequences for water availability.
Poor water quality and lack of adequate access to sanitation are also major causes of
disease and poor health.
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Essentials for Sustainable Water Management

Comprehensive assessment of water resources:
The last time a comprehensive assessment of water resources for the entire country
was done was in 1999-2000
Planning: Needs to be based on updated data
Need for a complete assessment on water availability (use and future demand)
US National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Indias water tables are
dropping at the rate of 0.3 metre a year
Per capita availability of fresh water in India has declined from 3,000 cubic metres to
a little over a thousand cubic metres; the global average is 6,000 cubic metres
Of the countrys two sources of fresh watersurface water and groundwaterthe
latter accounts for some 55%. It also accounts for about 60% of irrigation needs,
which take up 80% of Indias total water usage.
Groundwater depletion:
Problem: Limiting groundwater extraction

No exact estimates on the number of groundwater extraction units in the country
and the number of observation wells is far too less
Urgent need: To increase the number of observation wells across different regions
to get an accurate estimate of groundwater levels
Eg: Brahmaputra has the highest total water potential of all rivers in India, but only
about 4% of this can be successfully used because the mountainous terrain through
which it flows makes further extraction impossible
Deteriorating groundwater quality
Makes a large section of our population, depending on groundwater as their major

source of drinking water, vulnerable
Central Ground Water Board: India faces the problem of arsenic, fluoride, nitrate
and heavy metal contamination
Cause of groundwater pollution: Both natural and anthropogenic
Need to look at
A complete profiling of aquifers,
Conjunctive use of surface and groundwater and
Programmes for rainwater harvesting and aquifer recharge
Improving water-use efficiency
Crucial for reducing the dependence on freshwater sources
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Agriculture accounts for 85 per cent of the total water use and therefore, resource
optimisation in this sector is vital
Massive agricultural subsidies have incentivized indiscriminate water usage and
inefficient cultivation pattern, the system encouraging using more inputs such as
fertiliser, water and power, to the detriment of soil quality, health and the environment
Water-use efficiency:
By the adoption of low-cost technologies
Better demand management
Effective recycling and reuse
Bureau of Water Use Efficiency:

Ministry of Water Resources: Been working to set up a National Bureau of Water Use
Efficiency
National Water Mission had a target of improving water-use efficiency by 20 per cent by
March 2017 (little headway)
The Economic Value:
Water has an economic value (economic good)

Suitable pricing mechanisms need to be developed
Pricing of water- politically sensitive issue, need to bring financial stability in our water
utilities
Need to set standards for water pricing according to the ability to pay
Equity and Efficiency
The basin and sub-basin need to be the unit of planning and scientific management with
an integrated social, economic and environmental perspective.
Safe drinking water and sanitation should be considered as the pre-emptive need,
subject to minimum ecosystem requirements (be allocated in a manner to promote its
conservation and efficient use)
Conservation of river corridors and water bodies need to be taken up as part of the longterm strategy for eco-management and restoration and to provide additional resilience
in the face of climate change
Adaptation to Climate Change
Enhancing water use efficiency through the adoption of climate resilient agronomic,
technological, management, and institutional approaches
Incorporating strategies for climate change in the planning and management of water
resource structures, such as dams, flood embankments and tidal embankments
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Incorporating watershed-based planning and land use so as to increase the scope for in
situ moisture conservation and use.
IASbabas views:
Water law in India continues to remain non-uniform, inconsistent, and somewhat
inadequate to deal with todays complex water situation characterized by scarcity and
depletion of this renewable but limited resource, and increased demand.
Good national water management requires a paradigm shift, comprising at least the
following:
Clear and comprehensive science-based Water Resource Policy at Central and State
levels for integrated water resource management, which focuses on both supply- and
demand-side dimensions of water use.
A Water Framework Law at Central level laying out the architecture for planning and
regulation and technical institutional support.
Effective legislation at State level (based on the Central Model Law) for regulation of
ground water and surface water providing an explicit and increasing role for Municipal
and Panchayati Raj Bodies in planning, management, and regulation.
Restructuring, strengthening, and empowerment of the existing institutions (Central,
State, and local) involved in different aspects of service delivery so as to improve
efficiency in management and sustainability of the resource.
Shift in approach in water resource management from purely engineering works to
systems that incorporate traditional practices, local materials and are manageable and
maintainable by local communities.
The Gram Panchayat as well as the local community need to be involved at all stages of
discussion, planning, implementation, management and maintenance.
Funding for capacity-building and R&D to bring in resource use efficiency and
sustainability.
A Water Portal with full disclosure of all the data in usable formats, accessible to
Government institutions, policy makers, society, and regulatory institutions.
Discuss the implications of climate change on Indias water resources. What are the
challenges that needs to be tackled on priority basis?
Critically examine if water can be treated as a commodity. Also, discuss the pricing
mechanism that government needs to work out to ensure equity and sustainability
at the same time.
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Related Article:
http://iasbaba.com/2016/03/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-21st-march-2016/

Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, Biodiversity
Decline of pollinators threatens food supply
Role of wild pollinators in the production of crops:
Crops- some pulses, sunflower seeds, cardamom, coffee, cashew nuts, oranges, mangoes
and apples
Pollinators: An army of more than 20,000 species of pollinators including birds, bats and
insects service these crops
Most important pollinators- Thousands of species of bees
Annual economic value of the crops pollinated by animals worldwide- Estimated to be
between $235 billion and $577 billion (in 2015)
Indian context
Important pollinators of food crops:
Various species of honeybee, Apis, such as A. Dorsata, A. Cerana, A. Florae, A.

Andreniformes and A. Laboriosa
The European honeybee, A. Mellifera, also pollinates many crops and fruits such as
apples
Decline of the wild pollinators Will imperil our food supply

Shrinking of bees colonies
Himalayas: Apple yields in recent years have decreased (attributed to reduction in the
number of bees)
Poor knowledge leads to poor policymaking
Very poor knowledge of the pollination systems of our animal pollinated crops
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No idea about
How best we can manage the pollinators for optimal yields
How are our wild and managed pollinators responding to ongoing loss and
fragmentation of natural habitats
What are the effects of widespread pesticide use
Is climate change implicated in the spread of new diseases among honeybee
colonies
Loss
Potential crisis not only for biodiversity but also for our agricultural economy (huge
economic stakes)
Poor management of our pollinator species- may be leading to lower crop yields and to
losses of hundreds or thousands of crores annually
Way Ahead
To restore the integrity of pollinators:

Improvements in the science of pollination,
Better land management,
Strong regulations underlying pesticide use
Restoration and protection of habitats for wild pollinators
There is an urgent need for monitoring wild pollinators, and for strengthening the
governance of natural assets.
Harness the potential of the network of Indian Long Term Ecological Observatories
(I-LTEO) established by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to
monitor the countrys ecosystems
Need of the pollinators, their behaviour and habitat to be made a significant
component of future smart cities.
Policies and governance for managing landscapes natural, agricultural, urban
are equally important and thus, the government agencies must rethink conventional
sectoral approaches and narrow disciplinary perspectives and work on wellintegrated approaches to successfully address the issues.
Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES)
Created in 2012 by more than 100 governments; established as an

intergovernmental body akin to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC)
Secretariat in Germany, is administered by the UN, including the United Nations
Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP)
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Seeks to provide scientific information about biodiversity and ecosystem services to

policymakers of the member countries
The scientific panel (UN Report) was brought together by the Intergovernmental
Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES) (Endorsed by the
governments of 124 countries)
Ecosystem services
Many benefits which society derives from nature: fresh water; fertile soil; wild plant
resources such as foods, fibres, medicinal plants and the wild relatives of crops; wild
pollinators and the natural enemies of crop pests; carbon sequestration from the
atmosphere; and the important spiritual, aesthetic and recreational values of nature.
Discuss the ecosystem services provided by the pollinators. What are the best
methods we can employ, to save them from further deterioration, both w.r.t.their
quality as well as quantity?
Poor management of our pollinator species may be leading to lower crop yields, but
our level of investment in research on pollinators has been negligibleDiscuss
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DEFENCE/SECURITY
TOPIC:
General studies 2:
Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and
institutions.
Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.
General Studies 3:
Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate.
The controversy surrounding a major confrontation between Indias premier

investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), and the nations
internal intelligence agency, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which has been aired in the
media emerges out of the Ishrat Jahan case of Gujarat.
In this case a woman and her companions were shot dead by the Gujarat Police in
what is claimed to be an encounter between a terrorist group of which Ishrat Jahan
was a member, whose objective was to target the then Chief Minister of Gujarat
personally.
Crux of the issue:
An IB officer prepared an intelligence report in which the connection between Ishrat

Jahan and her companions with a Pakistan based L-e-T terrorist group was
mentioned.
CBI which is investigating the case on the direction of the Supreme Court, wants to
interrogate, the Special Director, Intelligence Bureau based on the report which links
Ishrat with LeT, which the IB is not ready to.
At this backdrop CBI and IB have a faceoff.
Mandate of CBI:
CBI is an investigation agency and it exercises police powers in this case.

In performing police functions, the CBI has to follow in substance and in practice the
provisions of chapter XII, Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C.) and for the purpose of
proving a case, it has to function according to the provisions of the Indian Evidence
Act.
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Anything that CBI does in this behalf has to follow the rules of evidence, including
relevance and admissibility of evidence and its credibility.
Chapter XII, Cr.P.C. is very well drafted and any investigation carried out under its
provisions is bound to be just and credible.
Therefore, CBI is a police force exercising the powers of investigation of the police
when dealing with a criminal case.
This governs the Ishrat Jahan case also.
The only duty of the CBI is to arrive at the truth, not to try and mould evidence to
fulfil a predetermined theory of who is guilty, in this case the Gujarat Police.
Mandate of IB:
IB is governed by its own mandate which is to do counter espionage work within

India, neutralise espionage by hostile powers within the country, obtain information
about likely threats to law and order, internal security and the integrity of the
country and to keep a watch on all anti national activity which can result in harm to
India.
It has no power to prosecute and, therefore, it has no interaction with courts.
At the same time, it has at its disposal agents who can obtain human intelligence, it
has electronic devices for intelligence collection, it has friends and well-wishers and,
perhaps, double agents to obtain information and it has other sources, primary and
secondary, through which information is collected which might be of interest to
India.
It is the job of IB to sift through all this matter and then identify that which is of
relevance for maintaining the security of India.
Meaning of the word intelligence:
The world of intelligence and espionage is grey, hazy and all outlines are blurred.
Intelligence officers work in a grey area, because their identity and outline must be
hazy so that individuals are not compromised, all intelligence agencies work in the
background and try and merge into it.
An intelligence agency by definition must remain in the dark, must not discuss its
operations and must pass on information which can be acted upon.
Applying the above meaning to the Ishrat case:
In the Ishrat Jahan case, the CBI is attempting to question the Special Director of IB,
with a view to making him an accused, on account of some intelligence report he is
stated to have given.
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By its very nature an intelligence report has to be confidential and it is the job of IB
and CBI to respect this confidentiality.
Nor can such a report be used to incriminate an IB officer.
This would be contrary to the provisions of Article 20 of the Constitution which
prohibits an accused person to be compelled to be a witness against himself, which
is what revelation of the contents of an intelligence report would amount to.
Such a document is not a confessional statement.
It is not a document in the public domain and it is not a confession and in fact it is
not a document which can be admitted as evidence at all under the Indian Evidence
Act.
If there is a case against the IB officer concerned it would have to be proved by
evidence other than the intelligence report which has allegedly been made by the
officer concerned.
It is certainly not a public document as defined by section 74, Indian Evidence Act.
Way ahead:
CBI cannot take such monotonous stand of interrogating the IB officer at any cost.
If IB starts hitting back, we may have a turf war in which both national security and
control over heinous crime will suffer devastating body blows.
Government can no longer remain a silent spectator.
The time for action is now.
Critically examine the mandate of CBI and IB with special reference to the Ishrat
Jahan case.
Critically examine the various legitimacy and accountability issues associated with
CBI in India.
Related Articles:
Crisis of Credibility: CBI caught on the wrong foot
http://iasbaba.com/2015/10/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-19th-october-2015/
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TOPIC:
General studies 3:
Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media
and social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security;
money-laundering and its prevention.
General studies 2:
Indias National Cyber Security Policy aims to build a secure and resilient cyberspace
for citizens, business and government.
However the cyber security architecture in India lacks potential to regulate various
cyber-crimes that happen.
Comparing digital space of India and the world:

Two things set aside Indias digital spaces from that of major powers such as the United
States and China:
Design and Density
Design:
India is a net information exporter.

Its information highways point west, carrying with them the data of millions of
Indians.
This is not a design flaw, but simply reflects the popularity of social media
platforms and the lack of any serious effort by the Indian government to restrict
the flow of data.
Density:
Equally important is the density of Indias cyberspace.

Nearly 500 million Indians use the Internet today, but they do not access the
Internet from the same devices.
Apples market share in the U.S., for instance, is 44 per cent, but iPhones account for
less than 1 per cent in India.
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The massive gap between the security offered by the cheapest phone in the Indian
market and a high-end smart phone makes it impossible for regulators to set legal
and technical standards for data protection.
Digital intrusions:
Indias infrastructure is susceptible to four kinds of digital intrusions:
1. Espionage: Involves intruding into systems to steal information of strategic or
commercial value.
2. Cybercrime: Referring to electronic fraud or other acts of serious criminal
consequence.
3. Attacks: Intended at disrupting services or systems for a temporary period.
4. War: Caused by a large-scale and systematic digital assault on Indias critical
installations.
India lacks a national security architecture:
Recognising the strategic dimensions of cyberspace, the Prime Ministers Office

(PMO) created the position of the National Cyber Security Coordinator in 2014,
however it failed to deliver the various dimensions of cyber security.
There is, however, no national security architecture today that can assess the nature
of cyber threats and respond to them effectively.
Indias civilian institutions have their own fire-fighting agencies, and the armed
forces have their own insulated platforms to counter cyber-attacks.
Overall India needs an agency to supervise the cyber security aspects.
What could such an agency look like?

1. The first requirement is to house it with permanent and semi-permanent staff that
is technically proficient in cyber operations, both defensive and offensive.
India faces a shortage of officers trained in creating and breaking encrypted
platforms as well as using digital networks for intelligence gathering.
Were such a National Cyber Security Agency (NCSA) to be created, it should
have a functional nucleus or secretariat.
2. The second requirement is to coordinate the agencys policy functions and
operations.
The current cyber security policy, articulated in 2013 by the Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology, is basically a statement of first
principles.
The NCSA should be guided by a document outlining Indias cyber strategy,
much like its nuclear doctrine.
3. India should not hesitate to build its offensive cyber capabilities.
This would involve the development of software designed to intrude,
intercept and exploit digital networks.
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The deployment of cyber weapons is not a low-cost affair, as the digital trail
allows adversaries to track and possibly predict the development of future
technologies.
Nevertheless, a cyber-arsenal serves the key function of strategic
deterrence.
Indias cyber command should be the primary agency responsible for the
creation and deployment of such weapons.
Way ahead:
A fully operational cyber command will take years to complete.

It is the need of the hour, given that Indias digital capabilities lag significantly behind
regional and global players.
Whatever final form Indias cyber command takes, the government should do well to
pursue the ultimate objective of a robust cyber security platform to fight digital
intrusions.
Critically examine the need of a robust cyber security architecture for India to tackle
the growing digital intrusions.
Critically evaluate the provisions of National Cyber Security Policy 2013.
TOPIC:
General Studies 2:
General Studies 3:
Mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment
Indigenization of technology and developing new technology.
Background:
The Union Government has unveiled Defence Procurement Procedure 2016 (DPP
2016). It was unveiled on the sidelines of the Defexpo-2016 held in Goa. The DPP
2016 will replace the Defence Procurement Procedure 2013 (DPP 2013) and shall
come into force on 1 April 2016.
The DPP 2016 has been framed based on the recommendations of the Dhirendra
Singh Committee that was appointed in May 2015 to review the DPP 2013.
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The Committee was tasked to evolve a policy framework to facilitate Make in India in
defence manufacturing in order align the policy evolved with DPP-2013. It was also
tasked to suggest requisite amendments in DPP-2013 in order to remove bottlenecks
in the procurement process and also rationalize various aspects of defence
procurement.
The new policy places the highest preference to a newly incorporated procurement
class called Buy Indian-IDDM, with IDDM denoting Indigenous Designed Developed
and Manufactured.
What does Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) all about?
The DPP, the governing manual for all defence procurement, was part of a set of
military reforms undertaken to address the many deficiencies noticed during the
1999 Kargil war.
What is newly incorporated procurement class called Buy Indian-IDDM all about?
This category refers to procurement from an Indian vendor, products that are
indigenously designed, developed and manufactured with a minimum of 40 per cent
local content, or products having 60 per cent indigenous content if not designed and
developed within the country.
Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2016:
The Defence Procurement Policy 2016 made public is a step forward in increasing
the participation of Indias private sector in military manufacturing.
It replaces the last DPP unveiled in 2013, and has several recommendations for
improving indigenous procurement.
Aim of DPP:
Aim of the policy is to ensure timely procurement of defence (military) equipment,

systems, and platforms required by the armed forces through optimum utilization of
allocated budgetary resources.
Scope of DPP:
It will cover all capital acquisitions undertaken by the Union Ministry of Defence,
Defence Services and Indian Coast Guard (ICG) both from indigenous sources and
import.
What are the changes inculcated in DPP 2016?
The policy has also liberalized the threshold for offset liabilities for foreign vendors
now the obligation to invest at least 30 per cent of the contract value in India.
www.IASbaba.com
P a g e | 162
The policy lays stress on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and on
Make in India.
A 10 per cent weightage has been introduced for superior technology, instead of
selecting the lowest bidder only in financial terms.
What are the drawbacks in DPP 2016?
DPP 2016 falls far short of the expectations raised by ambitious Make in India
initiative that aims to transform the country into a global manufacturing hub as India
is the worlds largest importer of defence equipment, and indigenizing production
is need of the hour.
The DPP is noticeable for the absence of Chapter VII, titled Strategic Partners and
Partnerships, Under Strategic Partnerships, select Indian private companies were to
be given preferential status in major defence projects.
Why India needs to be self-reliant in military equipment?
India has all the necessary prerequisites for a robust military-industrial complex: a
diverse private sector, a large base of engineering institutes, and a growing
defence budget.
The fact that India faces a combination of security threats from both state and nonstate actors is an obvious reason why it needs to be self-reliant in military
equipment.
It will significantly reduce the potential for corruption in military procurement.
What are the Capital Acquisitions Schemes Under this policy?

Buy scheme:
Outright purchase of equipment and procurements under this scheme are further
categorized as
Buy (Indian- IDDM) (IDDM stands for Indigenously Designed Developed and
Manufactured.)
Buy (Indian)
Buy (Global).
Buy and Make scheme: The procurements are categorized as Buy and Make and Buy and
Make (Indian).
Make category Scheme:
It seeks developing long-term indigenous defence capabilities and procurements.

It empowers Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) to take a fast-track route in order to
acquire weapons, which were limited to the armed forces till now.
www.IASbaba.com
P a g e | 163
Buy (India-IDDM):
It seeks to boost indigenous production and procurements under it should 40%

sourced locally in terms of the content.
It will promote domestic manufacturing, including government funding R&D and
recognition of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in technology
development.
Why there is a case against higher FDI in the defence sector?
Airbus wanted the foreign direct investment (FDI) to be increased to more than 49%
if India wanted to get OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) of quality
Any further increase in FDI limit in the defence sector may not be in the long-term
national interest and surely will be a disaster for the countrys attempt to build selfreliance
There is already a provision in the new FDI policy that permits more than 49%
investment, even as high as 100%, on a case-to-case basis with the approval of the
Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).
Higher FDI would be permitted only when the investment is likely to result in access
to modern and state-of-the-art technology in the country. This carefully considered
clause also conveys that in national interest, government will bend backwards and
make exceptions.
It is for FOEMs (foreign OEMs) like Airbus to accept the challenge and provide niche
cutting-edge technologies in India to earn 100% FDI.
Higher FDI in defence would reduce Indian partners of FOEMs to passive spectators
and destroy the indigenous Indian companies.
What is the aim of Defence Procurement Procedure and what are the changes
included in DPP 2016? Discuss how does DPP help India to become self-reliant in
military equipment?
What are the challenges ahead? Do you think increasing FDI in defence sector is the
right step?
What are the steps taken by Government of India to facilitate Make in India in
defence manufacturing sector?
www.IASbaba.com
P a g e | 164
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The new energy policy makes essential changes-It could signal market-oriented reforms
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Opium crop failure: Theres no high for these farmers in times of drought- Opium growers
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One nation, one culture- To become a nation, you dont need one language or one religion.
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History in Havana- Barack Obama and Raul Castro end Cold War's last front
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Towards a law for Good Samaritans

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Brazil In Deep Crisis- Impeachment motion against Dilma Rousseff is just one strand of the
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Did climate change cause those floods?

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Steep fall in oil prices takes a toll on remittances- Indian expatriates sent home $15.8
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Can gains in the poverty battle be sustained?-Government estimates show a steep decline
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How external directors can support growth in family-owned SMEs- Outside board
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Providing transparency in rural electrification

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Why we must have water budgets

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Time for a brand new FRBM Act- The FRBM Act 2003 has many flaws and we need to reflect
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Towards military self-reliance

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On the margins in a city of dreams

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www.IASbaba.com

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Page |1

We would Achieve more if we chased our Dreams instead of our Competition

All the Best

Women Empowerment: Time to deliver on Womens Reservation Bill

EU referendum: the big questions for Britain

India- Nepal: No zero sums in this great game

Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Tax- Is it a Healthy proposal?

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

World Water Day (March 22nd) - The importance of Water Management

Intelligence vs Investigation (Or) CBI vs IB?

All you need to know about Budget 2016-2017

Budget is Estimate of inflows and outflows of the Government during a year.

2. What does Budget consist of?

3. When is Budget presented?

4. Who draws the timetable for Budget?

5. Who has the responsibility for Budget?

6. What if Budget is not approved by 1st April?

The Constitution empowers Lok Sabha to grant a Vote-on-Account (Article 116) so

7. Is it compulsory to have budget for every year?

8. What is the process of Budget approval?

Budget 2016-2017: Snapshot

Addressing the slowdown

Directly by injecting demand into the economy

Consumption by the poor,

Fiscal consolidation quick-fixes:

What are the structural factors aiding the fiscal math?

Improved coverage and higher tax on services.

Pros of the Budget:

Indias competitiveness. Symbolically, this budget speaks to the governments

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan budget increased by 2% from 2015-16 (revised estimates)

Cons of the Budget:

Coming finally to that iconic barometer of a governments welfare intentions, the

Good to see the announcements on the name change from disinvestment to

Connecting the dots:

General studies 1: Role of women and womens organization, women related

Women Empowerment: Time to deliver on Womens Reservation Bill

Concern for personal security

Participation of women as candidates

Of the opinion that its difficult for women politicians to win

Testimonies to Affirmative Actions

Education Got a residential school built for village girls

TOPIC: General studies 2

Any advanced technology needs to be designed in a simple way to enable it to be

To be used as a powerful instrument against retail corruption

Way Ahead- Danger of Digital Colonisation:

Connecting the Dots:

TOPIC: General Studies 2

Aadhar Bill says

Connecting the Dots:

TOPIC: General studies 1

Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.

A tale of two communalisms

Majoritarian logic present in India:

Emergence of two communalism:

The aftermath of Malda riot, saw the emergence of Hindu majoritarian

Equalising the unequal:

Comparing the two communalisms:

Dangerous majority communalism:

Majority communalism, dangerous in itself, becomes deadly when it becomes the

Second class citizens:

Connecting the dots:

Explain the difference between communalism and fundamentalism along with