GS Score 2017 Mains Test 4 With Solutions - Governance PDF

SCORE
Test - 4
GS Mains
Test Series
IAS - 2017
Governance
TEST - 4
GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017
GOVERNANCE
Time Allowed: 3 hr. Max. Marks: 250
1. The Indian government has been increasingly focusing on Digital India, E-biz portal and other
online interfaces, but is e-governance only a supply-side aspect, as there is still a significant
proportion of population, which doesn't have access to smartphones and internet? Critically
analyse.
2. Do you think passage of HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014 would prevent
E
stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV. Critically analyse.
3.
4.
OR
India's push for e-governance faces a serious challenge from the weak cyber security system
and infrastructure in India. Analyse in context of recent high profile hacking episodes.
Triple talaq, which has been banned in more than 20 Islamic countries is still a practice
followed in India. What is the reason behind it? How far the judicial pronouncements in India
have been successful in opposing this practice? Critically Analyse.
SC
5. India ranks very poorly in the latest global hunger index. Why despite the food security act and
increased rural spending year after year, India continues to find itself in an embarrassing
group? Suggest measures to eradicate this problem?
6. What is the role of India in global internet governance? Has India played a greater role in
ICANN? Critically comment.
GS
7. Studies show that in the last 20 years, three inmates on average have been found dead daily
in Indian prisons. Discuss the problem of custodial deaths in India and what are the measures
that are to be taken to avert this issue?
8. Illustrate the meaning of 'minimum government' and 'maximum governance'? How it could be
achieved?
9. Does more contact hours in classroom mean better quality of teaching? Critically analyze in the
light of India's higher education.
10. Despite adopting gender budgeting there is a widening gender gap in workforce in India. How
successful has gender budgeting been in reducing this gap. Critically comment.
11. Across the Globe, a growing disillusionment with democracy is a visible phenomenon. Are
democratic institutions weakened by this development? Critically Examine.
12. Given the diversity in development between states, it is only prudent that land acquisition laws
be customised to suit local requirements. Critically comment.
13. Examine 'Atal Mission for rejuvenation and Urban Transformation Scheme' with respect to
thrust areas focused in the scheme priority. Do you think such schemes will make cities more
livens and inclusive as the Mission statement of this scheme suggest?
14. To roll out its ambitious JAM trinity plan to directly transfer subsidies to intended beneficiaries
and eliminate intermediaries and leakages government has started to link the Jan Dhan scheme,
Account numbers and Mobile numbers of individuals. Discuss in domain of JAM trinity, benefits
and challenges ahead.
Governance [1]
15. A Parliamentary Standing Committee report opined that medical education and profession in
the country is at its "lowest ebb" and suffering from "total system failure "due to corruption and
delay. Comment on statement in reference with proposed National Medical Commission.
16. "Universities and institutions of higher learning are best forum for debates, discussions, free
exchange of views". Elaborate your opinion in the light of recent debate on political activism
Indian University Campuses.
17. Does sport administration in India requires a radical overhaul? Discuss this in the context of
Cricket in India and bring out what extent implementation of Lodha Committee recommendations
would help in reforming Indian Cricket.
18. "Reducing corruption, illicit money and market informality are worthy objectives. But as yet,
there is no road map for creating the institutional architecture needed for a cashless society".
Critically analyze in the recent demonetization initiative, a logical step towards India becoming
a cashless society.
E
19. Citizen Charters are nothing, but a code of conduct on the part of public officials imposed by
them to provide services on a better note to citizens. Discuss why citizen charter has not
OR
succeeded in India?
20. "It said that everyone in the Indian Railways is responsible for safety without safety being
anybody's responsibility in particular". Political incentives and organizational structure contribute
to a disregard for safety. In the backdrop of the recent accident, analyze the challenges faced
by Indian Railways.
SC
GS

[ 2 ] Governance
TEST - 4
GOVERNANCE
Time Allowed: 3 hrs. Max. Marks: 250
Q. Marks Instructions to Candidate
1.
• There are 20 questions.
2.
3.
4. • All questions are compulsory
5.
6. • The number of marks carried by a question is indicated
7. against it.
8.
9.
• Answer the questions in NOT MORE THAN 200 words each.
10.
Contents of the answer is more important than its length.
11.
12.
• Answers must be written within the space provided.
13.
14.
15. Any page or portion of the page left blank in the Question-
16. cum-Answer Booklet must be clearly struck off.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Name _______________________________
Roll No.___________________________
1. Invigilator Signature _______________ Mobile No.___________________________
2. Invigilator Signature _______________ Date ________________________________
Signature ____________________________
2
REMARKS GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017
Remarks
3
Roll No.____________
Q1. The Indian government has been increasingly focusing on Digital India, E-biz portal
and other online interfaces, but is e-governance only a supply-side aspect, as there is
still a significant proportion of population, which doesn't have access to smartphones
and internet? Critically analyse. (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
4
Remarks
5
Q2. Do you think passage of HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014 would prevent
(12.5 Marks)
Remarks
6
Remarks
7
Q3. India's push for e-governance faces a serious challenge from the weak cyber security
system and infrastructure in India. Analyse in context of recent high profile hacking
episodes. (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
8
Remarks
9
Q4. Triple talaq, which has been banned in more than 20 Islamic countries is still a practice
followed in India. What is the reason behind it? How far the judicial pronouncements in
India have been successful in opposing this practice? Critically Analyse.
(12.5 Marks)
Remarks
10
Remarks
11
Q5. India ranks very poorly in the latest global hunger index. Why despite the food security
act and increased rural spending year after year, India continues to find itself in an
embarrassing group? Suggest measures to eradicate this problem? (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
12
Remarks
13
Q6. What is the role of India in global internet governance? Has India played a greater role
in ICANN? Critically comment. (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
14
Remarks
15
Q7. Studies show that in the last 20 years, three inmates on average have been found dead
daily in Indian prisons. Discuss the problem of custodial deaths in India and what are
the measures that are to be taken to avert this issue? (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
16
Remarks
17
Q8. Illustrate the meaning of 'minimum government' and 'maximum governance'? How it
could be achieved? (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
18
Remarks
19
Q9. Does more contact hours in classroom mean better quality of teaching? Critically analyze
in the light of India's higher education. (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
20
Remarks
21
Q10. Despite adopting gender budgeting there is a widening gender gap in workforce in
India. How successful has gender budgeting been in reducing this gap. Critically
comment. (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
22
Remarks
23
Q11. Across the Globe, a growing disillusionment with democracy is a visible phenomenon.
Are democratic institutions weakened by this development? Critically Examine.
(12.5 Marks)
Remarks
24
Remarks
25
Q12. Given the diversity in development between states, it is only prudent that land acquisition
laws be customised to suit local requirements. Critically comment. (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
26
Remarks
27
Q13. Examine 'Atal Mission for rejuvenation and Urban Transformation Scheme' with respect
to thrust areas focused in the scheme priority. Do you think such schemes will make
cities more livens and inclusive as the Mission statement of this scheme suggest?
(12.5 Marks)
Remarks
28
Remarks
29
Q14. To roll out its ambitious JAM trinity plan to directly transfer subsidies to intended
beneficiaries and eliminate intermediaries and leakages government has started to link
the Jan Dhan scheme, Account numbers and Mobile numbers of individuals. Discuss in
domain of JAM trinity, benefits and challenges ahead. (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
30
Remarks
31
Q15. A Parliamentary Standing Committee report opined that medical education and profession
in the country is at its "lowest ebb" and suffering from "total system failure "due to
corruption and delay. Comment on statement in reference with proposed National
Medical Commission. (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
32
Remarks
33
Q16. "Universities and institutions of higher learning are best forum for debates, discussions,
free exchange of views". Elaborate your opinion in the light of recent debate on political
activism Indian University Campuses. (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
34
Remarks
35
Q17. Does sport administration in India requires a radical overhaul? Discuss this in the context
of Cricket in India and bring out what extent implementation of Lodha Committee
recommendations would help in reforming Indian Cricket. (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
36
Remarks
37
Q18. "Reducing corruption, illicit money and market informality are worthy objectives. But
as yet, there is no road map for creating the institutional architecture needed for a cashless
society". Critically analyze in the recent demonetization initiative, a logical step towards
India becoming a cashless society. (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
38
Remarks
39
Q19. Citizen Charters are nothing, but a code of conduct on the part of public officials imposed
by them to provide services on a better note to citizens. Discuss why citizen charter has
not succeeded in India? (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
40
Remarks
41
Q20. "It said that everyone in the Indian Railways is responsible for safety without safety
being anybody's responsibility in particular". Political incentives and organizational
structure contribute to a disregard for safety. In the backdrop of the recent accident,
analyze the challenges faced by Indian Railways. (12.5 Marks)
Remarks
42
Remarks
GS Mains Test Series 2017
Answer Hints: Test No.4 www.iasscore.in
GOVERNANCE
1. The Indian government has been increasingly focusing on Digital India, E-biz portal and
other online interfaces, but is e-governance only a supply-side aspect, as there is still a
significant proportion of population, which doesn't have access to smartphones and internet?
Critically analyse.
E
Hints:
Background: OR
E-governance has been one of the most important goals of Indian governments. In the current
digital world and the efforts made by the government to turn India into a cashless economy, this
topic holds important.
Reasons for lack of demand for e-governance from rural areas:
SC
Lack of effective infrastructure at ground level

• India has a low Internet penetration of 34.8%(2016), according to the Internet Live Stats,
and only 26.3% of all mobile phone users have a smartphone (2015), as per Statistical
figures.
• Despite digital India Program rural areas are still largely devoid of the infrastructure to make
e- governance successful.
GS
• Besides the practical difficulty of going digital, a bigger block is the psychological shift.
Lack of digital literacy
• A large part of the population is still outside the banking net and not in a position to reduce
its dependence on cash.
• Even for the people with proper banking accounts the ability to use debit and credit cards
is abysmal as there is general preference of cash transactions in India.
• As government policy and programs increasingly move to digital platforms, citizens could
find themselves vulnerable to data misuse and without any rights to protect that information
and data.
• Norton’s report shows that Indians are largely unaware how to be safe online.
Legal limitations:
• The current Information Technology Act, with its limited data protection and privacy-
related provisions, does not provide for an all-encompassing, comprehensive legal framework
for privacy and data security.
Hints: Governance [1]

• Inadequate redressal mechanism:
o With the poor redressal system in India it will make life tough for the people. There is no
stringent legal process to deal with this kind or scale of fraud
E- Governance has many benefits:
Expanding digital transactions in Indian economy has obvious advantages.

• payment of salaries of employees can be made fully online so that bogus employees can be
eliminated
• Promotion of direct benefit transfer system directly through personal bank account of the
beneficiaries will provide benefits to the targeted. Thus, it helps to curb the loopholes used
by the middlemen.
Ease of conducting financial transactions:
E
• No need to carry cash, single window system of governance ensures that transactions are
made easier. This is preferred especially in cities.
•
OR
E-courts and e-seva are some of the Mechanisms through which people benefit via e
governance.
• People don’t have to be physically present to conduct a transaction or be forced to do so only
during office hours
Tracking spends
SC
• If all transactions are on record, it will be very easy for people to keep track of their
spending.
• It will also help while filing income tax returns and, in case of a scrutiny, people will find
it easy to explain their spends
Lower risk:
GS
• If stolen, it is easy to block a credit card or mobile wallet remotely, but it’s impossible to get
your cash back.
Other:
Government is also giving some discounts and benefits for digital transactions, especially to
transactions made by Rupey cards.
Measures needed to improve E-governance in India:
• However, the creation of the digital payments ecosystem needs to be well-planned, keeping
the citizen in mind. There are critical issues relating to the rights, privacy and data security
of transactions that must be addressed.
• Reforms in IT Act needed:
o Expansion of the definition of sensitive personal data under Rule 3 of the Sensitive Personal
Data Rules:
– Categories of information such as mobile big data, machine-to-machine (M2M) data,
and user behavior should also fall in the ambit of sensitive personal data
[ 2 ] Hints: Governance
o Government agencies and departments, non-profits must also be accountable to ensure
data protection:
– At present, Section 43A of the Information Technology Act only covers body corporates
engaged in “commercial or professional activities”. This excludes from any
accountability government agencies such as the Unique Identification Authority of
India, which issues Aadhar numbers, and others that are among the biggest gatherers
of data in the country.
Section 72A of the Information Technology Act needs revisiting.
Digishala:
To push digital transactions, and bring awarness among the citizen the Indian government has
launched the TV channel named Digishala which would be managed by Doordarshan (DD).
Further, it helps to brin accountability and transparency through videos produced by various
government departments as NITI Aayog and Rural Development Ministry to provide a knowledge
E
of digitising various types of payments, explanning the usage of point-of-sale machnies and the
benefit of Aadhar based payments.
Supplementary Notes
Digital India:
OR
Digital India is the latest initiative which is being coordinated and implemented by the Department
of Electronics and IT, it is a program that aims at transforming the country through leveraging
information and communication technologies in every sphere of economy and society.
SC
It is centred around providing digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen, governance and
services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens. This was launched keeping in view that
despite the successful implementation of many e-Governance projects across the country, e-
Governance as a whole has not been able to make the desired impact and fulfil all its objectives.
The approach and methodology being adopted for the programme according to the Digital India
portal are:
GS
• Ministries, Departments and States would fully leverage the Common and Support ICT
Infrastructure established by Government of India. Department of Electronics and Information
Technology (DeitY) would also evolve or lay down standards and policy guidelines, provide
technical and handholding support, undertake capacity building, R&D, etc.
• The existing or on-going e-Governance initiatives would be suitably revamped to align them
with the principles of Digital India. Scope enhancement, Process Reengineering, use of
integrated & interoperable systems and deployment of emerging technologies like cloud &
mobile would be undertaken to enhance the delivery of Government services to citizens.
• States would be given flexibility to identify for inclusion additional state-specific projects,
which are relevant for their socio-economic needs.
• E-Governance would be promoted through a centralized initiative to the extent necessary,
to ensure citizen centric service orientation, interoperability of various e-Governance
applications and optimal utilization of ICT infrastructure/resources, while adopting a
decentralized implementation model.
• Successes would be identified and their replication promoted proactively with the required
productization and customization wherever needed.
• Public Private Partnerships would be preferred wherever feasible to implement e-Governance
projects with adequate management and strategic control.
• Adoption of Unique ID would be promoted to facilitate identification, authentication and

delivery of benefits.
• Restructuring of NIC would be undertaken to strengthen the IT support to all government

departments at Centre and State levels.
• The positions of Chief Information Officers (CIO) would be created in at least 10 key Ministries
so that various e-Governance projects could be designed, developed and implemented faster.
CIO positions will be at Additional Secretary/Joint Secretary level with over-riding powers
on IT in the respective Ministry.
Some of the projects which have already been implemented or are in the process of being
implemented in the Digital India initiative are:
E
• MyGov.in which is a platform that has been implemented for citizens to interactively engage
within the government.
•
OR
An Aadhar based biometric attendance system is being implemented in the central government
offices in Delhi to begin with.
• JeevanPramaan Portal: A portal which allows pensioners to submit their life certificate,
which can later be disbursed to the agencies for necessary processing.
• e-Greetings a portal for government greetings

SC
• www.ebasta.in which is an eBook Platform has been developed; this can be used to upload
e-books.
• e-SAMPARK which is operational is an IT Platform for Messages to Elected Representatives
• Digital Locker
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• Revamping of Mission Mode and Other e-Governance Projects like Transport, PDS, e-Prisons,
National Scholarship Portal, Pay online, Check post online, etc.
• Policies to help departments in speedy implementation of e-governance projects have been

developed. There are also hurdles that are needed to be sorted out. To begin with, there is
a lack of digital infrastructure.
Another prime concern has been broadband penetration. According to a report released by The
UN Broadband Commission released India ranked 131 out of 189 countries on fixed-broadband
subscriptions in 2014.Then there is a concern about rural connectivity, the government is this with
the aim to connect more than 2 lakh village panchayats. The monitoring and evaluation system is
also weak and needs to be improved.
For e-governance initiatives to be truly successful government support at the highest level is required,
next application of Information Technology should be preceded by process re-engineering; then an
intellectual and empowered leader with a dedicated team who can conceptualize and implement
e-Governance projects with the help of officials at all levels and technological solution providers are
needed; Issues of connectivity and electricity supply are of paramount importance; and In case of
complex projects, all components need to be identified and analysed at the outset, followed by
meticulous planning and project implementation.
2. Do you think passage of HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014 would prevent
Hints:
Background:
• The Bill comes at a time when the national HIV program has weakened due to Budget
slashes and patients are facing drug shortages across the country.
Facts:
• There are approximately 21 lakh persons estimated to be living with HIV in India
• The percentage of patients receiving Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) treatment currently stands
at a mere 25. 82% as against the global percentage of 41%, according to the 2015 Global
Burden of Diseases (GBD).
Provisions and positive points of the bill:
E
• The Bill prohibits discrimination against people living with HIV (PLHIV) in accessing
healthcare, acquiring jobs, renting houses or in education institutions in the public and
•
private sectors.
OR
It will bring legal accountability and establish a formal mechanism to probe discrimination
complaints against those who discriminate against such people
• Establishments keeping records of information of PLHIV have been asked to adopt data
SC
protection measures as the Bill requires that “no person shall be compelled to disclose his
HIV status except with his informed consent, and if required by a court order.”
• Every HIV infected or affected person below the age of 18 years has the right to reside in
a shared household and enjoy the facilities of the household.
• Role of the Ombudsman: An ombudsman shall be appointed by each state government to
inquire into complaints related to the violation of the Act and the provision of health care
GS
services.
• The Bill lists various grounds on which discrimination against HIV-positive persons and
those living with them is prohibited. These include the denial, termination, discontinuation
or unfair treatment with regard to employment, educational establishments.
• Requirement for HIV testing as a pre-requisite for obtaining employment or accessing
health care or education is also prohibited.
• The Bill would provide essential support to National AIDS Control Program in arresting new
spread of HIV infections and thereby achieving the target of “Ending the epidemic by
2030” to meet goal Sustainable Development Goals.
• The Bill takes a human-rights approach to public health, and makes antiretroviral treatment
a legal right of HIV/AIDS patients. This would mean that it is now obligatory for the
Central and State governments to provide for anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and arrange for
the management of risk reduction of vulnerable populations.
Concerns with the bill:
• Inadequate funding
• There had been a stock-out of drugs in many parts of the country, and this could potentially
lead to people defaulting on their treatment regimen.
• lack of clarity in the HIV policy:
o Lack of clarity on property and inheritance rights of children also needed to be looked
into
• There are questions whether it will be able to protect those who are most vulnerable to
infections, namely the high-risk groups’ intravenous drug-users, transgendered individuals,
etc.
• Moreover, the Bill does not elucidate on the legal dissonance between its provisions of
non-discrimination and other actsthat discriminate against sex-workers, homosexuals and
transgenders. By not safeguarding the rights of sex-workers, MSMs and transgenders, the
State continues to push them into further victimhood.
E
o The government amended the draft Bill to remove the protection to the Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community.
o It will not make complete sense
OR
o Without the passing of an Anti-Trafficking Bill that does not incriminate all sex-workers
o The ratifying of the Transgender Persons Bill, 2016 that provides for a comprehensive
understanding of the transgender identity
SC
o The five-judge Constitution Bench that will decide the fate of Section 377
o Still, it is having minimum scope to deal with social stigma problems which suffers by the
vitims and social security were attached with the age old mentality and Actual
Implimentation of the norms.
• Government asked for these stipulations to be implemented “as far as possible” and
thus it remains to be seen how eagerly states will rise to this challenge.
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• Meanwhile, testing is still not at 100 percent – with high-risk groupsstill having significant
room for improved testing rates. For female sex workers, it is at 72 percent, for drug users
it is at 71 percent.
Conclusion:
The bill and the amendment are key first steps in ending rampant discrimination against people
living with HIV and AIDS in India today. The hope is that they set the foundation for weeding out
the prevalence of these conditions entirely.
3. India's push for e-governance faces a serious challenge from the weak cyber security system
and infrastructure in India. Analyse in context of recent high profile hacking episodes.
Hints:
Background:
• Recently Yahoo confirmed huge data breach and it affected around 500 million accounts.
India has the second largest online users in the world and also is one of the most vulnerable
countries to cyber-attacks.
Challenges related to cyber security in India:
Policy:
• Lack of cyber security agency: there is currently no national agency to assess the nature of
cyberthreatsand respond to them effectively.
• Lack of cooperation between NTRO and Ministry of communication & Information
Technology.
• No measures for handling data privacy along with low digital literacy.
• As the Digital India initiative progresses, cyber-attacks have doubled year over year, and
Indian businesses and government sites have become more vulnerable.
Lack of expertise:
• Number of recruits to this field or employees active in this field is much below than the other
countries.
E
Companies:
• OR
As more companies incorporate cloud-based systems into their infrastructure to move processes
online, the threat of a cyber-security breach and the damage it can cause is increasing
dramatically.
Recent attacks:
• The data breach at 19 Indian banks that has led to more than 32 lakh debit cards being
SC
blocked or recalled is a wake-up call for the banking industry.

• The “2016 Cost of Data Breach Study: India” reported that the average total cost of a data
breach paid by Indian companies increased by 9. 5 percent.
• Recently several personal and institutional Twitter handles have been hacked and filled with
abusive posts
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Lack of awareness:
• Indians top when it comes to falling victim to ransom ware, and still seem unable to stop
clicking on links from unknown sources
Measures needed:
Infrastructure needed:
• India is also in the process of setting up national cyber security architecture. The architecture
will provide a framework for designated agencies to monitor, certify and fortify India’s
networks in accordance with the law.
• Establishing a national cyber security command center, such as the recently
announced National Cyber Security Center created by IBM for Australia, would boost India’s
cyber security defenses, make Indian businesses globally competitive and create a safer
Digital India
• Adoption of big data to detect threats
• Cyber security law and strategy which are the first steps taken by USA in fighting cyber
security are needed in India too.

Legal:
• Strong laws and penalties are crucial to send out the message that a fraudulent money
transfer of even Rs 50 would be dealt with severely. Given that our digital payment
platforms are also linked to the Aadhar platform, there is a powerful case for the government.
Policy:
• Holistic approach needed:
o Enterprises, governments and service providers need to architect their systems and network
to adopt new technology.
• Management of risks by banks when it comes to taking on third-party vendors
• More investment in more resilient platform based security platforms.
• Bring manpower like preparing students for 1 million odd unfilled cyber security jobs
E
worldwide.
•
OR
Implementing BASELIII which requires financial institutions to have robust data architecture
and IT infrastructureto provide an automated process to correctly identify and combine all
material enterprise risks
• Cooperate with internet service providers for better security of national cyberspace as is the
case in US, UK, Japan.
SC
• Implement Gulshan Rai committee recommendations
• Amending the evidence act suiting the present scenario, setup agencies for online cyber-
crime registration, new cyber Indian coordination center etc.
• Use of BLOCKCHAIN will ensure more security in transactions

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• Recruitment: Cyber Technology experts and intelectuals need to be recruited in every industry
& organizations to secure it from the cyber threats.
Lessons from International experiences:
• Cyber threat alliance:
o A group of cyber security solutions provides coming together to share threat intelligence
on attacks taking place across the region.
• Cyber security information sharing act in US:
o Helps US companies to work with US government to combat hackers.
o India can look to foster the sharing of cyber threat information and ensure that there are
responsible primary protections in place for the purpose of identifying, preventing cyber
threats.
• India has to learn from Israel which has made huge advances in cyber security especially
startup from the employees of defense organization with strong entrepreneurial spirit led to
cyber security powerhouses there.
4. Triple talaq, which has been banned in more than 20 Islamic countries is still a practice
followed in India. What is the reason behind it? How far the judicial pronouncements in
India have been successful in opposing this practice? Critically Analyse.
Hints:
Background:
• Triple talaq is banned in Pakistan, Bangladesh and across the Islamic world;the practice of
talaq-ul-bidat or “triple talaq” persists in India, home to the world’s third-largest Muslim
population.
Why it is still practiced in India?
• Under British colonial rule, India’s various religious groups were permitted to organize
their own personal affairs, including marriage and divorce. To this day, Indian law says
Muslims can be being governed by the shariah, or Islamic jurisprudence
• One of the reasons triple talaq has remained legal so long is the fear, propounded by
E
Muslim community leaders, that if the government is allowed to tamper with Islamic
personal laws, it might one day scrap them completely, and the Hindu majority domination
•
will increase. OR
Political will: To gain a command over vote bank an the ground of the religious attachement
& sensitivity many political leaders partially supported to the system.
Judicial pronouncements have been successful:
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• Indian Judiciary has always seen Triple Talaq cases with the lenses of Fundamental
Rights(Article 14, 15, 29 &30) and Uniform Civil Code (Article 44).
• Some famous legal a judicial provisions against triple talaq:
o Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce)
Act, 1986 have been liberally interpreted & used by courts to award justified grants to
divorced women.
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o Shah bano case supreme court tried to justify gender equality and upheld the general
enshrined in the constitution.
o 2008 case titled Masroor Ahmad vs. state of the Delhi High Court ruled that triple talaq
in India should be deemed as a single revocable talaq.
o Again, in Jiauddin Ahmed vs Anwara Begum, the Guwahati High Court said that a talaq
must be “for a reasonable cause” and must be preceded by attempts at reconciliation.
o Shayra Bano has again forced SC to ask Govt. for creating consensus for UCC.
• India’s Supreme Court looks set to declare triple talaq unconstitutional. Banning the custom
would free up to 90 million Muslim women in the country from a potential trapdoor divorce
• Recently government also said women in India should not be denied their constitutional
rights even as several Muslim countries have undergone extensive reforms.
No:
• The complication arises because there is no law under which a Muslim husband can
approach court for divorce. If a Muslim husband were to do so, his application will be
dismissed by courts.
• The law doesn’t state the minimum age of marriage, the procedure for divorce, or polygamy,
or the guardianship of children. Male-dominated groups such as the All-India Muslim
Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) have filled the gap, pushing an interpretation of the Qur’an
• Article 44 is a directive principle and courts can’t directly enforce thisuntil the Parliament
decides to convert them into enforceable goal.
• India’s people also need to grasp the fact that laws alone cannot solve all problems and they
need to be aware of their rights.
Supplementary Notes
• India has separate sets of personal laws for each religion governing marriage, divorce,
succession, adoption and maintenance. While Hindu law has been overhauled to a great
extent, activists have long argued that Muslim personal law, which has remained mostly
unchanged, is tilted against women. To end the confusion over personal laws, the Supreme
Court has been advocating a uniform civil code, a political hot potato.
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• But Article 44 says the state shall work towards securing a uniform civil code across the
country replacing personal laws of various religious communities. The provision is a part of
OR
the Directive Principles of State Policy that are not enforceable by any court.
• Law Commission of India recently took the initiative to invite public opinion on the issue.
But many Muslim groups, including the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB)
have opposed it.
• The commission seeks the public opinion with the intent to begin a healthy conversation
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about the viability of a uniform civil code and will focus on family laws of all religions and
the diversity of customary practices, to address social injustice rather than plurality of laws.
• The Commission emphasized that the family law reform has to view women’s rights as an
end in itself rather than a matter of constitutional provision, religious right and political
debate.
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• The Commission will then, responding to the demands for social change, consider the opinions
of all stake-holders and the general public to ensure that the norms of no one class, group
or community dominate the tone and tenor of family law reforms.
• Several Muslim women have moved the Supreme Court seeking to declare the practice of
triple talaq, polygamy and nikah halaha unconstitutional. Under nikah halala, a woman can
remarry a divorced partner only after she consummates a marriage with someone else.
5. India ranks very poorly in the latest global hunger index. Why despite the food security act
and increased rural spending year after year, India continues to find itself in an embarrassing
group? Suggest measures to eradicate this problem?
Hints:
Background:
• India continues to have serious levels of widespread hunger forcing it to be ranked a lowly
97 among 118 developing countries for which the Global Hunger Index (GHI)has been
calculated this year.
• This year, for the first time, two measures of child hunger -wasting and stunting -have been
used to give a more complete picture.
[10] Hints: Governance
Why India is failing:
• Historical:
o Historically oppressed and disenfranchised lower castes and vulnerable tribal populations
are the poorest of the poor and the most at risk.
• Socio economic reasons:
o Endemic poverty
o Unemployment
o lack of sanitation and safe drinking water
o Inadequate nutrition:
• 15% population is undernourished -lacking in adequate and balanced food intake, both in
quantity and quality.
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• The under-5 mortality rate is 4. 8% in India, partially reflecting the fatal synergy of inadequate
nutrition and unhealthy environments.
•
•
lack of effective healthcare
OR
38.4% of children under age three are stunted & 46% are underweight. Malnutrition and its
prevalence is slightly higher in rural-areas and among non-educated mothers.
o Women Inequality:
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• unequal status of women, patriarchy mindset, frequent deliveries

o Also a problem of ‘Hidden Hunger’ in India where food lacks in micro-nutrients
o purchasing capacity of the households for nutritious and quality food:
• The households living below poverty line (BPL) do not have sufficient means to ensure food
and nutritional security.
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• NSSO data reveals that BPL households in rural India are spending as high as 70% of the
consumption expenditure meeting their food requirements.
• Political:
o Inefficient planning leaves grain rotting in government warehouses rather than getting
to the hungry.
o Botched government surveys leave poor families without the ration cards to which they
are supposed to be entitled.
o Corrupt ration shop dealers pilfer food and sell it on the black market rather than to
intended beneficiaries.
o Failure of government programs:
o PDS system is gain partially as per its oriented goals, middlemen are palying the disgraceful
role in the distribution system.
• Although India runs two of the world’s biggest children’s nutrition programs, the ICDS for
children under 6 years and the mid-day meal program for school going kids up to the age
of 14, malnutrition continues to haunt India.
Measures needed to improve the situation:
• More focus on women literacy and health, making use of ASHA workers and ANM for
institutional deliveries, mobile clinics, Bring babies to the clinic for weighing, check-ups and
immunizations,etc.
• Now India can focus more on R&D like carotene rich rice, food fortification, Iron Folic
tablets, make best use of Food security program, distributing nutritious food etc to poor or
undernourished
• Encourage practice of supplying those nutrients which lack in a food from outside is called
‘food fortification’. This can be followed in India. For e. g, millets can be incorporated in
the mid-day meal scheme to tackle the problem of hidden hunger.
• Government has to increase health expenditureand India needs to invest heavily in the
agriculture sector which employs almost 50% of the country’s workforce.
• Women education is very significant in this scenario.
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• Ensure that households and mothers across the country adopt appropriate child feeding
practices, mothers and young children get the necessary health care they need, and all have
access to safe water and sanitation.
OR
• Measures that ensure health and good nutrition for mothers such as delaying the age of
marriage and child birth and providing pregnant women with adequate antenatal care and
dietary intake, including iron supplementation, will need to be complemented with the full
set of interventions for the child.
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• Programs to address all the critical determinants of nutrition exist and are being strengthened:
the Integrated Child Development Services scheme has been restructured; a National Nutrition
Mission is being developed.
o ‘Maa Program’ to solve the issue ofImproper Neo Natal Care, Improper Breast feeding
Activities
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Supplementary Notes

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger globally
and by country and region. Calculated each year by the International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI), the GHI highlights successes and failures in hunger reduction and provides insights into
the drivers of hunger. By raising awareness and understanding of regional and country differences
in hunger, the GHI aims to trigger actions to reduce hunger.
Methodology
Here is how the Global Hunger Index (GHI) scores are calculated:
STEP 1 - Determine values for the component indicators:
PUN Proportion of the population that is undernourished (in %)
CWA Prevalence of wasting in children under five years old (in %)
CST Prevalence of stunting in children under five years old (in %)
CM Proportion of children dying before the age of five (in %)
STEP 2 - Standardize component indicators:
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• Standardized PUN = PUND 80 x 100
Standardized CWA = CWAD 30 x 100
Standardized CST = CSTD 70 x 100
OR
Standardized CM = CMD 35 x 100
STEP 3 - Aggregate component indicators:
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• 1D 3 Standardized PUN
+ 1D 6 Standardized CWA
+ 1D 6 Standardized CST
+ 1D 3 Standardized CM
= GHI Score
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The following paragraphs describe in more detail the three-step process for calculating GHI scores.
First, values for each of the four component indicators are determined from the available data for
each country. The four indicators are:
• The percentage of the population that is undernourished,
• The percentage of children under five years old who suffer from wasting (low weight for
height),
• The percentage of children under five years old who suffer from stunting (low height for
age), and
• The percentage of children who die before the age of five (child mortality).
Second, each of the four component indicators is given a standardized score based on thresholds
set slightly above the highest country-level values observed worldwide for that indicator between
1988 and 2013. For example, the highest value for undernourishment estimated in this period is
76.5 percent, so the threshold for standardization was set a bit higher, at 80 percent. In a given
year, if a country has undernourishment prevalence of 40 percent, its standardized
undernourishment score for that year is 50. In other words, that country is approximately halfway
between having no undernourishment and reaching the maximum observed levels.
Third, the standardized scores are aggregated to calculate the GHI score for each country.
Undernourishment and child mortality each contribute one-third of the GHI score, while the child
under nutrition indicators–child wasting and child stunting–each contribute one-sixth of the score.
This calculation results in GHI scores on a 100-point scale where 0 is the best score (no hunger) and
100 the worst. In practice, neither of these extremes is reached. A value of 100 would signify that a
country’s undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting, and child mortality levels each exactly
meet the thresholds set slightly above the highest levels observed worldwide in recent decades. A
value of zero would mean that a country had no undernourished people in the population, no
children younger than five who were wasted or stunted, and no children who died before their
fifth birthday.
GHI Severity Scale
The severity scale shows the severity of hunger–from low to extremely alarming–associated with
the range of possible GHI scores using the revised formula.
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OR
6. What is the role of India in global internet governance? Has India played a greater role in
ICANN? Critically comment.
Hints:
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Role of India in global internet governance:

• In the recent Russia-India-China joint communiqué, India made a reference to “multi-
stakeholder” internet governance. The countriesagreed to this inclusion, reflecting India’s
ability to inject a “Western” norm in a decidedly different setting.
• This is testament to India’s role as the bridge between the liberal international regime and
its counter-construct.
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• The recent signing of the US-India Cyber framework capped off a landmark year in India’s
digital diplomacy
India’s role in ICANN:
• India is actively engaged both at the ITU and in multi-stakeholder venues like the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN),
• In addition to bilateral agreements, India played an important role in negotiations at
international fora like the Ten Year Review of the World Summit on Information Society
(WSIS+10 Review)
• India recently appealed to the ICANN community to make more local languages available
to users. ICANN is currently in the middle of an exercise to localize domain names which
will enable web addresses in 22 local languages in India. This puts India in the leadership
position for having the most number of local language domains.
Measures India needs for greater role in internet governance are:
• It is important to address critical information infrastructure and capacity building in cyber
security.

• To have greater impact at these institutions, there needs to be greater engagement of Indian
stakeholders from across stakeholder groups. This is only possible if there is a domestic
multi-stakeholder environment that encourages greater participation of Indian
stakeholders while also serving as a discursive space for policy discussions.
• The India Internet Governance Forum, conceived in 2013 is a multi-stakeholder body that
was supposed to fill this gap.
Supplementary Notes
ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit partnership of people from all over the world
dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and
develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers.
ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access
to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an
important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.
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What is ICANN’s role?
ICANN’s role is to oversee the huge and complex interconnected network of unique identifiers that
allow computers on the Internet to find one another.
OR
This is commonly termed “universal resolvability” and means that wherever you are on the network
– and hence the world – that you receive the same predictable results when you access the network.
Without this, you could end up with an Internet that worked entirely differently depending on
your location on the globe.
How is ICANN structured?
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ICANN is made up of a number of different groups, each of which represent a different interest on
the Internet and all of which contribute to any final decisions that ICANN’s makes.
There are three “supporting organisations” that represent:
• The organisations that deal with IP addresses
• The organisations that deal with domain names
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• The managers of country code top-level domains (a special exception as explained at the
bottom).
Then there are four “advisory committees” that provide ICANN with advice and recommendations.
These represent:
• Governments and international treaty organisations
• Root server operators
• Those concerned with the Internet’s security
• The “at large” community, meaning average Internet users.
And finally, there is a Technical Liaison Group, which works with the organisations that devise the
basic protocols for Internet technologies.
ICANN’s final decisions are made by a Board of Directors. The Board is made up of 21 members: 15
of which have voting rights and six are non-voting liaisons. The majority of the voting members
(eight of them) are chosen by an independent Nominating Committee and the remainder are
nominated members from supporting organisations.

ICANN then has a President and CEO who is also a Board member and who directs the work
of ICANN staff, which are based across the globe and help co-ordinate, manage and finally
implement all the different discussions and decisions made by the supporting organisations and
advisory committees. An ICANNOmbudsman acts as an independent reviewer of the work of
the ICANN staff and Board.
How does ICANN make decisions?
When it comes to making technical changes to the Internet, here is a simplified rundown of the
process:
Any issue of concern or suggested changes to the existing network is typically raised within one of
the supporting organisations (often following a report by one of the advisory committees), where it
is discussed and a report produced which is then put out for public review. If the suggested changes
impact on any other group within ICANN’s system, that group also reviews the suggested changes
and makes its views known. The result is then put out for public review a second time.
At the end of that process, the ICANN Board is provided with a report outlining all the previous
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discussions and with a list of recommendations. The Board then discusses the matter and either
approves the changes, approves some and rejects others, rejects all of them, or sends the issue back
down to one of the supporting organisations to review, often with an explanation as to what the
OR
problems are that need to be resolved before it can be approved.
The process is then rerun until all the different parts of ICANN can agree a compromise or the
Board of Directors make a decision on a report it is presented with.
How ICANN is held accountable?
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ICANN has external as well as internal accountabilities.

Externally, ICANN is an organisation incorporated under the law of the State of California in the
United States. That means ICANN must abide by the laws of the United States and can be called to
account by the judicial system i.e. ICANN can be taken to court.
ICANN is also a non-profit public benefit corporation and its directors are legally responsible for
upholding their duties under corporation law.
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Internally, ICANN is accountable to the community through:

• Its by laws
• The representative composition of the ICANN Board from across the globe
• An independent Nominating Committee that selects a majority of the voting Board members
• Senior staff who must be elected annually by the Board
• Three different dispute resolution procedures (Board reconsideration committee; Independent
Review Panel; Ombudsman)
7. Studies show that in the last 20 years, three inmates on average have been found dead daily
in Indian prisons. Discuss the problem of custodial deaths in India and what are the
measures that are to be taken to avert this issue?
Hints:
Background:
• Custodial violence primarily refers to violence in police custody and judicial custody.
Besides death, rape and torture are two other forms of custodial violence.
• Sections 330, 331 & 348 of IPC; Sections 25 & 26 of the Indian Evidence Act; Section 76 of
CrPC and Section 29 of the Police Act, 1861 were enacted to curb the tendency of policemen
to resort to torture to extract confessions etc.
Problem of custodial deaths in India:
• In the report of the Asian Center for Human Rights (ACHR), Torment in India 2011, the
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recorded a sum of 14, 231 deaths in custody in
India between 2001 and 2010. These do not include all instances of custodial deaths but the
ones reported to NHRC.
• As many as 1, 275 people died in police custody in India between 2001 and 2013 but less
than 50% of custodial deaths led to a case being registered, data from the National Crime
Records Bureau (NCRB) show.
Measures that are needed:
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Reforms in Police System:
• They should be trained in matters pertaining to human rights and prison management.
•
OR
Inculcation of scientific method of investigation in Police force and curtailing the practice
of third degree torture.
NHRC recommendation:
• In the opinion of the NHRC, the Human Rights Cells established by the State Governments
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should play a more proactive role in improving conditions in the prisons, including the
provision of health and related facilities.
Supreme Court suggestions:
• Implementation of SC’s recent directive topublish FIRs online within 24 hours, video
conferencing through prisons and passing of The Prevention of Torture Bill will go a
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long way in curbing this menace.

• All the state governments to compulsorily fill vacancies in their respective state human rights
commissions (SHRC) within three months.
• It has directed state governments to set up human rights courts
• Identify police stations which are located in “sensitive areas prone to human rights violations”
and install CCTV cameras there to protect jail inmates.
• At least two women constables are to be deployed in police stations
• Improvising the creativity and mental health of the prisons: the living canditions and building
positive approach of life among prisons, enhancing their creativity skill with mental health,
effective health measures are also the important issues & must be look after.
Suggestions by the three member committee in Maharashtra:
• CCTV, cameras must be installed inside the lock-ups, which would be continuously monitored
by the senior police inspector or duty officer.
o It will also help the authorities in maintaining proper discipline among the inmates and
taking corrective measures wherever abuses are noticed
• Policemen should thoroughly check inmates to ensure that they were not carrying any sharp
things while in the lock-up.
• As soon as a suspect is arrested, he should be checked for any medical illness. If found,
proper medical treatment should be provided immediately.
Other:
• 1987 Legal Services Authorities Act mandates free legal aid to persons in custody. But
absence of schematic and practical procedures to get lawyers in the police station leaves
them vulnerable in police custody.
• To avoid suicidal deaths there is a need for proper grievances mechanisms and some regular
interaction with family.
Supplementary Notes
• A staggering 1,275 people died in police custody in India between 2001 and 2013 but less
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than 50 per cent of custodial deaths led to a case being registered, data from the National
Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows.
•
OR
The deaths in judicial custody - or in prisons-reported by the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) are much higher. About 12,727 people are reported to have died in
judicial custody between 2001 and 2010.The data for the later years (2013 onwards) are
being compiled, according to the Home Minister’s reply to a Lok Sabha question.
• Since the turn of the century, the least deaths were reported in 2010 (70), while the most
were reported in 2005 (128 deaths). On an average, 98 people die in police custody every
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year in India.
• The data does not reflect the “true picture”, according to Torture in India 2011, a report by
the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), as it does not include deaths in the custody
of the armed forces. The report also cites instances where custodial deaths were not reported
to or recorded by the NHRC.
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• Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat had the most custodial deaths during 2001-2013

while Bihar reported only six such cases.
• Among the large states, Haryana filed a case for every custodial death during the period.
The states of Manipur, Jharkhand and Bihar also registered cases for 100 per cent of custodial
deaths, but they had reported only two, three and six deaths, respectively.
• In comparison, Maharashtra registered cases for only 11.4 per cent of the custodial deaths.
It is, however, possible that multiple deaths were clubbed under one case.
• Only two policemen were convicted for every 100 deaths in police custody - nationally, only
26 police officers have been convicted for custodial deaths.
• The possibility of police officers being convicted dwindles at the charge sheeting stage itself:
34 policemen are charge sheeted for every 100 cases registered, and 12 per cent of the charge
sheeted policemen are convicted.
• In Maharashtra, only 14 percent of cases saw policemen being charge sheeted, and none
was convicted. In Uttar Pradesh, 71 policemen were charge sheeted and 17 were convicted.
In Chhattisgarh, 80 percent of charge sheeted policemen were convicted.

8. Illustrate the meaning of 'minimum government' and 'maximum governance'? How it could
be achieved?
Hints:
For decades, we have had extraordinarily large governments while ironically the quality of
governance has been quite poor. There has been more attention paid to the size of the government
and not so much to its quality. Thus the new concept of New Public Management has come up
under which Government’s role changes to a facilitator which fits to the slogan Minimum
government and maximum governance.
It can be achieved by:
• OPEN GOVERNMENT:
This implies inaugurating an era of disclosure and transparency. It should lead to better and
accountable government, with procedures of governance, including commercial agreements, tenders
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and modes of public procurement, being shared with the people using new technologies such as the
Internet. The goal here must be maximum governance, minimum government.
•
OR
Efficient decentralization of Administration- empowers people locally to guide the growth
process through a sub district citizen-centric approach where governance and development
is activated at the grass root level.
• Government should be trustee of public assets:

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The government must rationalize its overwhelming commercial powers and understand that it is
merely the trustee of public assets.
• Strengthening independent institutions:
Build New independent institutions and rebuild those that have been destroyed or corroded with
political interference. The current discretionary power within the executive needs significant the
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checks and balances with independent institutions and regulators. The recent conduct of the
Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) and the judiciary needs to be replicated many
institutions and the government.
• Develop A Culture Of Valuing Public Money:
Tax revenues that the government spends belong to taxpayers. The government must develop a
culture of judicious spending with specific outcomes; a culture of money being spent as a trustee of
the people of India that reinforces the truth that the government only a trustee of public money and
assets.
• Improve implementation of Programs
There has been a dramatic rise in expenditure on programs of social inclusion in the last five years
but this is accompanied by growing complaints about implementation. The weaker sections of the
society, for whom these schemes are primarily intended, are often not able to benefit because they
are not sufficiently empowered to access the benefits due to them. Thus improve the existing centrally
sponsored schemes.

9. Does more contact hours in classroom mean better quality of teaching? Critically analyze
in the light of India's higher education.
Hints:
Background:
• Contact hours are the amount of time spent in the classroom within the interface of student-
teacher. This has been the basic foundation in India’s education system.
• There have been many studies all over the world about the efficacy of this system
It means better quality of teaching:
• Very little class contact may lead to student uncertainty about what they should be
studying
• A lack of a conceptual framework within which subsequent study can be framed, a lack of
engagement with the subject, a lack of oral feedback on their understanding, and so on.
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No:
•
OR
In fact, the number of class contact hours has little to do with educational quality. It is
independent study hours that predict learning gains, not class contact hours.
• Research in the Netherlands showed that study hours, to a large extent, have an inverse
relationship with class contact hours: if there is less teaching, students tend to study more
and vice versa.
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• Students’ skill development is greater when they spend more time in independent study.
• What seems to matter is the nature of the class contact. “Close contact” that involves at
least some interaction between teachers and students on a personal basis is associated with
greater educational gains independently of the total number of class contact hours.
• The norm in West seems to be 15 hours of classroom teaching thus translates into 45 hours
of weekly learning. However in India based on the Delhi University study it suns to
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around 120 hours which gives students hardly time to think on their own.
• The education system makes students risk-averse and kills innovative thinking. By forcing
students to conform to a standardized template, it discourages failure and thereby
discourages deviation from the standardized average. Outliers are not encouraged.
What is needed to be done?
• Delinking classroom teaching from student learning, a distinction advanced countries have
now accepted.
• Teacher’s quality has to be effectively improved by adhering to the recent UGC guidelines
where teachers’performance is graded.
Supplementary Notes
On May 4, UGC notified significant amendments in its 2010 regulations, including altering teachers’
workload requirements by redefining “direct teaching hours”.
The definition of “direct teaching hours” has been changed. It included lectures, practicals, project
supervision and tutorials, all of which were treated at par. Tutorials have now been removed, and
the definition narrowed to “Lectures/Practicals/Project Supervision”.

The number of teaching hours was increased. An Assistant Professor was required to teach 16
hours weekly; Associate Professors and Professors 14 hours — including time spent on tutorials
and practicals. This was changed to 18+6 hours per week for Assistant Professors, 16+6 for Associate
Professors, and 14+6 for Professors. The “six hours per week include… hours spent on tutorials,
remedial classes, seminars, administrative responsibilities, innovation and updating of course
contents”.
10. Despite adopting gender budgeting there is a widening gender gap in workforce in India.
How successful has gender budgeting been in reducing this gap. Critically comment.
Hints:
Background:
• Gender budgeting is a continuous process of incorporating a gender perspective over the
entire cycle of policymaking and implementation from legislation to planning, policy,
programs, schemes, budgets and impact.
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• Since the time it was adopted in 2005, the Indian budget lists out schemes exclusively for
women like Janani Suraksha Yojna, MAA Program, Dhanalaxmi etc were all enrolled to
benefit women and increase gender equality.
Positives:
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• IMF study stated that states which have adopted gender budgeting have tended to move
towards greater gender equality measured by female to male enrolment ratios at different
levels of schooling. The impact is more intense when it comes to primary rather than secondary
schooling
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• According to IMF study, Gender Budgeting at department/ministry brought more focus on

issues of women’s inequality and empowerment and thereby led to more specific allocation
on such schemes.
o Ministry of agriculture, under NRLM has launched Mahila Kisan Shashtikaran Yojana to
allocate 30% of its budget for women welfare following gender budgeting initiative.
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o Similarly, Women entrepreneurship has been encouraged through various schemes such
as stand up India, Mahila e - Haat etc.
o In DBT scheme for LPG, where cash transfer is done to the account of female head of
family.
• It has brought change in outlook and behavior of govt. in working towards gender centric
welfare.
Negatives:
• Gender budgeting alone is unlikely to solve the massive problem of gender inequality that
not only prevents women from living a full life but also hurts economic growth.
o For example, India has the lowest level of female participation in the labour force
when compared to most other regional economies.
o Indian women enter the labour force only when there is economic distress while they
retreat back into their homes once the situation improves.
• Recently the India Skills Report 2017 highlighted the gaping gap between men and women
in gaining employment across all sectors.
o While the report tracked gender diversity across 12 core sectors, women were employed
in far lower number than men in all sectors, thus highlighting striking inequalities.
• Policy:
o The allocations for women as a proportion of the total budget have remained constant at
approximately 5. 5 per cent.
o Inactive Gender Budgeting Cells
o Transfer of officers who have been sensitized to the issue
o Short turnaround time between the receipt of budget provisions by the ministries and the
submission of the same after disaggregating for gender for inclusion in the budget.
o The NREGA Act does not give the right to demand work to all adult men and women and
instead vests this right at the level of the household. This meant that women’s right to
demand work was subsumed within the entitlement of the household
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• States efforts:
o Despite Tamilnadu and Maharashtra allowing women to work at night shifts, there hasn’t
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been much of an improvement in female labour force participation rate in Tamil Nadu.
• Other issues:
o Social norms do prevent women from exercising these freedoms.
o The lack of certain core public goods such as safe streets or lack of clean drinking water
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is more likely to hurt the economic prospects of women more than men.
o Within the manufacturing and services sectors, the areas where night shift is required
constitute only a small proportion of the total jobs. Hence, the impact of this legislation
will be statistically insignificant.
o Moreover, overall employment growth has been slack and unless this picks up, female job
participation would remain low
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Measures needed to reduce gender gap are:

• Eliminating violence against women
• Eliminating discrimination by employers against women
• Passing of the reservation Bill for women’s participation in Parliament so that we have
more women political leaders to look into the needs of the women of our country.
• The recent proposal by the government that states should allow women to work during
night shifts will give a further impetus to the participation rate.
• At Bain in India, it has recently implemented a 10+2 model, which allows any employee
male or female the option to work 10 months in the year and take two months off. The
benefits are much larger, including enabling fulfillment of one’s personal aspirations and
helping individuals avoid burnout.
• Implimentation of women participation in various.
• Panchayat level body and reservation in municipal level bodies are need to be strictly
regularised. Defence and police force is slowely widence their women enrollment rather is
a positive impact to adress the gender budgetting.
• Another positive move is the increasing openness of organizations to extend paid maternity
leave beyond the grossly insufficient three months mandated by law
• Incorporating gender perspective in expenditure and performance audit by CAG can prove
a crucial steps in achieving the objective of gender budgeting.
Supplementary Notes
What is Gender Budgeting?
The term Gender Budgeting has been defined differently in various documents on the subject. A
comprehensive definition is as under:
Gender Budgeting is a dissection of the Government budget to establish its gender-differential impacts
and to translate gender commitments into budgetary commitments.
Thus Gender Budgeting looks at the Government budget from a gender perspective to assess how it
addresses the needs of women in the areas like health, education, employment, etc.
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Gender Budgeting does not seek to create a separate budget but seeks affirmative action to address
specific needs of women.
Gender Responsive Budgeting initiatives provide a way of assessing the impact of Government
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revenue and expenditure on women.
Why Gender Budgeting?
Budgets are universally accepted as a powerful tool in achieving development objectives and act as
an indicator of commitment to the stated policy of the Government. National budgets reflect how
governments mobilize and allocate public resources, and how they aim to meet the social and
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economic needs of their people. The rationale of gender budgeting arises from recognition of the
fact that national budgets impact various sections of the society differently through the pattern of
resource allocation and priority accorded to competing sectors. The budgetary policy of the
Government has a major role to play in achieving objectives of gender equality and growth through
content and direction of Fiscal and Monetary Policies, measures for resource mobilization, affirmative
action for under privileged sections etc. Women stand apart as one segment of the population that
warrants special attention due to their vulnerability and lack of access to state resources. Thus
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gender responsive budgets policies can contribute to achieving the objectives of gender equality,
human development and economic efficiency. The purpose of gender budgeting exercise is to assess
quantum and adequacy of allocation of resources for women and establish the extent to which
Gender commitments are translated in to budgetary commitments. This exercise facilitates increase
in accountability, transparency and participation of the community. The macro policies of the
Government can have a significant impact on gender gaps in various macro indicators related to
health, education, income, etc. Gender mainstreaming requires gender responsive policy. When
gender equality considerations are incorporated into policy making, the concerns and needs of
both women and men become integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of policies and programmes in all sections of society.
11. Across the Globe, a growing disillusionment with democracy is a visible phenomenon. Are
democratic institutions weakened by this development? Critically Examine.
Hints:
Yes:
• The trend towards the acceptance of authoritarianism is one of a set of symptoms suggesting
that what were once thought to be unassailably stable democracies - such the United States
or even Australia - are not as healthy as previously thought.
o Middle classes around the world that had seen prolonged wage stagnation, class
consolidation and ineffective governance were more drawn to authoritarianism
o The rising strength of authoritarian powers, principally China but also Russia, Saudi
Arabia, and other states, has helped forestall democratization
• Studies:
o The Economist recently reported that 25% of Americans born since 1980 believe democracy
is a bad form of government.
o The researchers found that the share of Americans who say that army rule would be a
“good” or “very good” thing had risen to 1 in 6 in 2014, compared with 1 in 16 in 1995.
o The research by Harvard university suggests that the rise of Donald Trump, Pauline
Hanson as well as Marine Le Pen in France and Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party
are symptomatic of a deeper malaise in the liberal democratic tradition.
• Failing democratic institutions:
E
o Recently in US, there was a mass rejection the result of an election which essentially
equates to rejection of the election as an institution do raise questions about democratic
stability
OR
o In the recent times political parties lose their souls and become merely means for professional
politicians to accumulate power for their own ends
o Money corrupts democratic institutions. Electoral campaigns are becoming very expensive.
SC
If one candidate can spend a lot, election freebies are changing the pure form of democracy,
others must spend even more for the fear of losing whatever they have invested in.
o Thus, financiers of candidates and political parties, and owners of mainstream media,
have acquired great power in democracies.
o The experience from BREXIT shows that power to the people which is the pillar of
democracy doesn’t necessarily yield positive results with long term thinking.
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No:-
• Democracy has provided an avenue for marginalized, discriminated in many countries to be
treated as equals with others.
• In India, the other huge democracy, the Aam Aadmi Party, running on the plank of a new,
people’s politics against the political establishment, made a clean sweep in the Delhi state
election.
• Democracy is still largely respected around the world and still ensures that public interest
is the ultimate prerogative.
12. Given the diversity in development between states, it is only prudent that land acquisition
laws be customised to suit local requirements. Critically comment.
Hints:
Yes, it’s prudent to suit local requirements:
• Controversies regarding the Land Acquisition Bill have brought the rural development to a
standstill which led the states to appeal to the center to frame their own laws rather than
waiting for the consensus endlessly.
• It has been found that the states have much more experience and expertise in land acquisition
and have also given, at times, better compensation than stipulated by the Central law.
• Prior to the enactment of 2013 law, the land acquisition was done by the states according
to their own laws rather than the 1894 colonial law.
• The LARR Act itself diluted the Social impact assessment requirement.
o The Act states that even if the SIA authority and the Expert Group reject a particular land
acquisition, the government can proceed with the acquisition as long as “its reasons for
doing so are recorded in writing”.
o In case of the Consent Clause, the law does not make consent necessary for land acquired
for government projects.
o The time needed to clear a project after following all procedures can go up to 6-7 years
to start a project. This is a long frame and can bring losses to capitalists.
o Due to the increasing urbanization, many farmers are themselves willing to sell their lands
E
and settle in the city. Such long procedures can be hectic for them too, as the act makes
no exception to consider such cases.
•
OR
The Constitution allows for a State law to override the Central law in case of the
Concurrent List if the former gets presidential assent. This exception was made to provide
for a ‘genuine hurdle’ in implementing the Central law due to challenges peculiar to a
region.
o Due to the staggering differences in growth and development in various States in India the
SC
states of Bihar, TN wanting to have their own state law for land acquisition is natural.
o Land is basically a state subject. It should be governed by state-specific legislations which
are framed keeping in mind the situation of the state. Punjab and Haryana which have
irrigated land are concerned with the current central law.
• The Centre cannot not enforce its will on states on sensitive issues like land as it will serve
as a big blow to cooperative federalism. Rather than dominance of Centre over land issue,
GS
the states which want to amend their laws can be given an opportunity to do so.
No:
• Some believe that by encouraging states to enact their own versions of the land acquisition
law, the central government is diluting the law.
• The Central Land acquisition law has been formed after thorough consultations &
negotiations by the Parliament.
o Encouraging states to dilute the laws implies attempt to undermine the authority of the
Parliament.
• Though many States have strict consent clauses, the LARR Act’s requirement is (usually)
a higher percentage of the population accepting acquisition than what the State laws
have stipulated.
• The charge is that the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) requirement and the Consent Clause
in the Act have been diluted by various State laws.
• Provisions of Article 254 meant be used in case genuine problems exist for a state in
implementing Central Laws and not simply because they are inconvenient.
13. Examine 'Atal Mission for rejuvenation and Urban Transformation Scheme' with respect to
thrust areas focused in the scheme priority. Do you think such schemes will make cities
more livens and inclusive as the Mission statement of this scheme suggest?
Hints:
Atal mission for rejuvenation and urban transformation scheme aims to create urban infrastructure
for providing basic services to households and build amenities in cities to improve the quality of life,
especially the poor and the disadvantaged thus providing better services to people. 500 cities are to
be covered under the scheme and this would include all cities with a population above 1, 00, 000.
In this regard the scheme focuses on the thrust areas like
- Water supply
- Sewerage facilities and septage management
- Storm water drains to reduce flooding
E
- pedestrian, non-motorized and public transport facilities, parking spaces, and
- Enhancing amenity value of cities by creating and upgrading green spaces, parks and recreation
centers, especially for children.
OR
The states get the flexibility of designing schemes based on the needs of identified cities and in their
execution and monitoring. States will only submit State Annual Action Plans to the Centre for
broad concurrence based on which funds will be released.
- The primary purpose of the scheme is to provide all the households with basic services.
SC
- AMRUT and Housing Mission would help the urban poor through increased access to water
supply, sewer connections, public transportation, housing, improved urban governance
ensuring transparency and accountability and better delivery of services, enhanced employment
opportunities etc
- States are being given full liberty and flexibility in formulation, appraisal and approval of
projects, thus making states active partners throughout the execution of the scheme.
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- increase the amenity value of cities by developing greenery and well maintained open spaces
(parks)
- reduce pollution by switching to public transport or constructing facilities for non-motorized
transport (e. g. walking and cycling)
- scheme promotes urban reforms such as
o E-governance increases the accessibility to services, reduces corruption and red-tapism.
o Constitution of professional municipal cadre, devolving funds and functions to urban local
bodies, review of Building bye-laws to increase the efficiency of administration.
o Improvement in assessment and collection of municipal taxes, credit rating of urban local
bodies, energy and water audit and
o Citizen-centric urban planning through participative bottom-up approach.
- The mission helps in meeting the challenges of growing urbanization in the country in a
sustainable manner as well as ensuring the benefits of urban development to the poor
through increased access to urban spaces and enhanced employment opportunities.
Supplementary Notes
AMRUT attributes
Cooperative federalism- Freedom to States/ULBs to design and implement
Service Delivery – Focus on infrastructure that leads to delivery of services to citizens.
Reforms Incentivized – 10% incentive for Achievement of Reforms
Capacity building strategy
O&M of infrastructure built-in at Planning stage itself.
Focus on Planning before hand –
- Service Level Improvement Plans (SLIP),
- State Annual Action Plan (SAAP).
E
Funds for allocation
- Formula for Allocation to States - total population and number of statutory urban towns
-
(50:50)
OR
State contribution to the project cost shall not be less than 20%. Funds distribution –
- Project fund - 80% of the annual budgetary allocation (90% during first year).
- Incentive for Reforms - 10%
SC
- State funds for A&OE - 8%

- MoUD funds for A&OE - 2%
Reforms
The Mission mandates a set of 11 reforms which have to be implemented by all the States and
Mission cities
GS
- Each year some Reforms to be implemented and 10% has been set aside as incentives for
States/ULBs graded on basis of each year’s reform achievement.
- Technical and Financial assistance will be given for Reform implementation
1. E Governance
2. Constitution and Professionalization of Municipal Cadre
3. Augmenting Double Entry Accounting
4. Urban Planning and City Development Plans
5. Devolution of Funds and Functions
6. Review of Building by-laws
7. Set-up financial intermediary at State level
8. (a) Municipal tax and fees Improvement(b) Improvement in levy and collection of user
charges
9. Credit Rating.
10. Energy and Water Audit
11. Swachh Bharat Mission
14. To roll out its ambitious JAM trinity plan to directly transfer subsidies to intended
beneficiaries and eliminate intermediaries and leakages government has started to link the
Jan Dhan scheme, Account numbers and Mobile numbers of individuals. Discuss in domain
of JAM trinity, benefits and challenges ahead.
Hints:
JAM Trinity—Jan Dhan, Aadhar, Mobile – is a large-scale, technology-enabled, real-time Direct
Benefit Transfers scheme that aims at cash transfers that can directly improve the economic lives of
India’s poor, and raise economic efficiency by reducing leakages and market distortions and thus
efficiently allocate resources.
Domain of JAM trinity
E
The domain is spread across various programs of the government like:-
- Direct transfer of LPG subsidy OR
- Pension and scholarship schemes
- Banking and women programs
- MGNREGA
- Food and Kerosene
SC
- Fertilizers.
Benefits
- Reduces widespread administrative and political discretion involved in earlier database
management. JAM replaces human discretion with technology and thus prevents duplication.
GS
- Use of JAM in PAHAL scheme – to give LPG subsidy through bank accounts -lead to
elimination ‘ghost’ and duplicate households from beneficiary rolls.
o JAM has helped in reducing leakages rather than excluding the poor.
o Helped in checking the sale of unauthorized non-commercial cylinders to commercial
establishments.
- Most successful DBT programs was seen MGNREGA in Andhra Pradesh, which had 92
percent customer satisfaction rates due to timely receiving of payments to beneficiary bank
accounts, elimination of ghost workers.
o Significant savings and efficiency gains can be achieved by transferring funds directly from
the state/central government to the worker rather than layer by layer (Centre State District
Block Panchayat), with leakages along the way.
- JAM was involved in distributing education and pensions (in national social assistance
program, women, labour banking.
- It will limit the diversion of goods to black markets. Eg. current black marketing of urea to
Bangladesh, Nepal etc.

Challenges of JAM:-
- Government Beneficiary: the challenge of identification
o There is a need for database of eligible individuals Prevent inclusion errors.
- Transferring money to beneficiary -the bank challenge.
o Linking of every beneficiary to the bank account and government access to this account.
o Penetration of bank accounts is low and not even across states. Average penetration is
only 46% with only Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh having 75%.
- Enabling beneficiaries the access to the money
o In rural India, however, there is a serious “last-mile” problem of getting money from
banks into household’s hands: only 27 per cent of villages have a bank within 5 km4.
o Here the government is relying on mobile phone penetrationwhich is stronger than bank
E
penetration. With 60% penetration in rural areas.
o BCs are sparsely populated in India. Need to develop business correspondents to help
-
OR
distribute money in remote rural areas.
Reforms will require development of IT systems and strong coordination under the auspices
of the Controller General of Accounts.
- The administrative challenge of coordinating government actors - center, state, different
departments.
SC
- The political economy challenge of sharing rents with supply chain interest groups.
Commodity’s supply chain can obstruct the spread of JAM if their interests are threatened.
Ex the fair price shops reluctance to adopt point of sale machines.
15. A Parliamentary Standing Committee report opined that medical education and profession
in the country is at its "lowest ebb" and suffering from "total system failure "due to
corruption and delay. Comment on statement in reference with proposed National Medical
GS
Commission.
Hints:
Medical education is under the medical council of India.
- Medical council of India was estabilished in 1934 under Indian medical council Act as an
elected body for maintaining medical register and providing ethical oversight.
- In 1956, it was tasked with- maintaining uniform standards in medical education at both
under-graduate and post graduate level. Recognition/de-recognition of medical colleges, its
function is to grant permissions to colleges, registration of doctors.
- With further amendment in 1993 it was responsible for sanctioning medical colleges, approving
the student intake, and approving any expansion of the intake capacity requiring prior
approval of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Issues with Medical Council of India
- Corruption: while seat allocation and sanctioning of medical colleges. It is in working in the
interest of medical colleges.

- Lack of accountability- the health ministry has no power over the functioning of MCI.
- medical colleges bring ghost faculty and patients when MCI comes for inspection and MCI
doesn’t take action for these irregularities
- MCI takes action against government medical colleges on flimsy grounds
A parliamentary committee report delivered a scathing indictment of the Medical Council of India’s
(MCI) functioning following which NITI Aayog was given task of drafting a bill for revamping
MCI.
- The proposed national medical commission bill 2016 proposes for a national medical
commission
- The commission shall assess the changing requirements of the health care scenario, human
resources for health, health care infrastructure and develop a road map for meeting these
requirements.
E
- The Central Government shall, by notification, establish autonomous Boards under the overall
supervision of this Commission, to fulfill the functions related to the conduct of under-
graduate and post-graduate education, assessment and rating of medical institutions and
OR
registration of medical practitioners and enforcement of medical ethics.
- To frame requisite policies for the governance of Medical Education
- To frame regulations for smooth working of the Commission and the Boards without
undermining the autonomy of the Boards and within the provisions of this Act and Rules
SC
framed under it.

- To provide overarching policy coordination among the Boards with due regard to their
autonomy.
- To ensure that State Councils effectively enforce the provisions of the Act and in event of
inaction on their part, take such action as it deems fit to ensure compliance.
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- To exercise Appellate Authority with respect to decisions of the UGMEB (under graduate
medical education board), PGMEB (post graduate medical education board) and MARB
(Medical assessment and rating board).
- To prescribe norms for determination of fees for a proportion of seats, not exceeding 40%,
in the Private Medical Educational Institutions.
- To exercise such other powers and duties as the Central Government may confer upon it
from time to time under the Rules framed under the Act.
Analysis of the national medical commission
- The proposed National Medical Commission shall have only 20 members, with a full-time
chairperson and secretary.
- With the MCI now an unwieldy body comprising more than 100 members, this proposal is
a good idea, but it would be sensible that at least a section of the membership of the
commission should be elected.
- A mix of nominated and elected members will encourage a healthy tension between various
points of view and is more likely to ensure thoughtful debate.
- Bodies with only nominated members tend to become narrow-minded with all members
overly concerned with pleasing the government of the day and being unable or unwilling
to speak truth to power.
National Medical Commission Composition
- The Commission shall comprise a Chairperson, a Member Secretary, 8 ex-officio members
and 10 part time members.
- Of the ex-officio members, four shall be the Presidents of the Boards constituted under this
Act; and the remaining four shall be nominees–one each of the Ministries of Health and
Family Welfare, Department of Pharmaceuticals and Human Resources Development and
one of the Director General of Health Services; Provided that the nominees of the Ministries
shall be officials not below the rank of Joint Secretary; Provided further that the nominee of
Director General of Health Services shall not be an official below the rank of Deputy Director
General.
- Of the part-time members, five shall be persons to be appointed by the Central Government
E
from diverse backgrounds including management, economics, law, consumer or patient
rights advocacy, health research, science and technology.
- OR
The remaining five part-time members shall be from amongst the nominees of the States and
Union Territories in the Medical Advisory Council, who shall be appointed on a rotational
basis for two-year terms by the Central Government in the manner prescribed.
- The general superintendence, direction and control of the administration of the Commission
shall vest in the Chairperson.
SC
16. "Universities and institutions of higher learning are best forum for debates, discussions,
free exchange of views". Elaborate your opinion in the light of recent debate on political
activism Indian University Campuses.
Hints:
- Freedom for having debates, discussions and free exchange of ideas in universities is a
GS
fundamental right to free speech under article 19 of the constitution.

- Universities area an arena where diverse and conflicting thoughts contend. There should be
no room for intolerance, prejudice and hatred within the spaces of this institution. Further,
it must act as the flag bearer for co-existence of multiple views, thoughts and philosophies.
- Universities are the centers for creation of new knowledge, development of new ideologies
and this requires an atmosphere that is free to exchange their views.
- Universities and institutions of higher learning must be bastions of free speech and expression
and debates should be encouraged.
- Promoting greater understanding of academic freedom has a significant bearing on the
purpose of higher education, quality of academic work produced.
- Interestingly, the universities where most of high profile protests have been observed so far
are all among elite universities that also produce significant research output.
- Thus, until the activism comes at the cost of academic output, it shall not be a cause of
worry. Similarly, in most countries, it is the students, who have led the most civil rights
movements and protests. Thus, activism shall not be seen mutually exclusive from the academic
learning and performance.

17. Does sport administration in India requires a radical overhaul? Discuss this in the context
of Cricket in India and bring out what extent implementation of Lodha Committee
recommendations would help in reforming Indian Cricket.
Hints:
Problems in Indian cricket that calls for a radical overhaul:
- Sports administration in India has historically been top-down, flowing from state-funded
entities focused on control.
- The number of politicians involved in sports federations. BCCI, which was under fire for its
ex-chairman - a businessman - who is loath to resign despite his son-in-law’s involvement
in the spot-fixing ring is a case in point.
o Suresh Kalmadi headed the Olympic association.
o Sharad Pawar served as BCCI president.
E
- Sports governing bodies which run unprofessionally. The headswho have no knowledge of
sports federation run for infinite terms.
OR
- Inequality in finances is a major threat to most of the sports.
- No development of sports at the grass roots level.
- Corruption and lack of transparency in governing of sports federations.
The Lodha Committee was appointed after the ‘conflict of interest’ issue sparked a controversy in
SC
Indian cricket post 2013 spot fixingcase.

- Organization: there have been restrictions on age and term limits and number of bureaucrats
from entering. There is a cooling off period between 2 offices. This ensures regular elections
are held, there are no vested interests.
o No BCCI office-bearer can have more than two consecutive terms
GS
o The Lodha panel recommends a maximum of three terms for office bearers with no more
than two consecutive terms. It further says there should be a cooling period after each
term.
o Panel recommends separate governing bodies for the IPL and BCCI
- Betting and match fixing: criminalize spot and match fixing. But legalizes betting with
licensed betting houses. But officials are barred from it.
- State associations:- only one vote for one state and one association per state with uniformity
instructure and functioning to ensure that no one state yields un-limited power
- Transparency: - to bring the functioning of BCCI under a law made by parliament. Players,
officials to give their asset reports to BCCI. And BCCI to be bought under RTI ambit.
The Lodha committee recommendations which have still not been accepted by the 30-member
BCCI committee include
- One-state one-vote
- Age limit of 70 years
- Cooling-off period of three years which included the tenure of the administrators

- Continue with the five-selectors and keeping to retaining the powers of the president and
secretary as per the earlier constitution of the board.
18. "Reducing corruption, illicit money and market informality are worthy objectives. But as
yet, there is no road map for creating the institutional architecture needed for a cashless
society". Critically analyze in the recent demonetization initiative, a logical step towards
India becoming a cashless society.
Hints:
Some of the pros and cons of demonetization are:
Pros
- Informal economy becomes formal as GST comes into effect
- Reduction in banks NPAs, reduction in interest rate
- Increased foreign investment
E
- High savings rate
-
-
OR
Exponential increase in cashless mechanisms – e-wallets, online banking.
Stocks will benefit due to shift from physical assets to financial assets.
- Increase in tax-GDP ratio.
- Long term- Appreciation in rupee, slowing in inflation
SC
Cons
- Contraction of output in the short run which would impact the GDP
- Impact growth in cash-heavy sectors like real-estate, gold and jewelry and their consumption
will go down.
With the demonetization drive there has been a tremendous increase in cashless transaction where
GS
the shortage of cash has pushed people touse variouse-payment interfaces – e-wallets, Aadhar
enabled payments etc.
Cashless society can be defined as a situation in which the flow of cash within an economy is non-
existent and all transactions have to be through electronic channels such as direct debit, credit and
debit cards, electronic clearing, payment systems such as Immediate Payment Service (IMPS),
National Electronic Funds Transfer and Real Time Gross Settlement in India
Going cashless brings better tax revenue, more financial inclusion and benefits individuals too. It
can curb black money, prevent money laundering etc. It gives the convenience of banking from
anywhere by smartphones, funds are on tap and money in the bank earns interest and there is no
risk of carrying currency notes. However some of the issues in going to a cashless society are:
- In India till now only 5% of all payments happen electronically.
- Given an economy which has more than 125 crores people, more than 25 crores households,
90% of transactions in cash, 50% of population is under-banked and less than 10% having
cards
- Feasibility of such a move on the existing technology infrastructure is less.
- Only 53 percent of the population has access to a bank account according to the World
Bank. India still has an inadequate telecom network, which fails to reach the most remote
parts and the total number of smartphone users (approx. 210 million users) is comparatively
less in relation to the mobile users.
- Governance problems: - with the government even going as far as to declare that no one has
the right to privacy before the country’s Supreme Court. Security is a huge issue as the
country is still reeling from a massive leak of debit card data that hit at least 3. 2 million debit
card holders.
o The cyber security infrastructure in India is weak and there is a potential threat from
hackers.
- Nearly 40 percent of Indians can’t read or write and there is a need to develop their skills
in enabling them move to cashless transactions.
19. Citizen Charters are nothing, but a code of conduct on the part of public officials imposed
by them to provide services on a better note to citizens. Discuss why citizen charter has
not succeeded in India?
E
Hints:
The Citizens’ Charter (CC) is an instrument which seeks to make an organization transparent,
OR
accountable and citizen friendly. This helps the users to understand the type of services they can
expect from a particular service provider. In May 1997, the program was launched in India.
The CC has not been a success in India, because:
• In a majority of cases, the Charters were not formulated through a consultative process;
• By and large, service providers were not familiar with the philosophy, goals, and main
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features of the Charter;

• Adequate publicity to the Charters had not been given in any of the Departments evaluated.
In most Departments, the Charters are only in the initial or middle stage of implementation;
• No funds have been specifically earmarked for awareness generation of Citizens’ Charter or
for orientation of the staff on various components of the Charter.
GS
Thus to be effective CC should follow following guidelines:

• The Charter must be framed not only by senior experts, but by interaction with the cutting
edge staff who will finally implement it and with the users (individual organizations);
• Merely announcing the Charter will not change the way we function. It is important to
create conditions through interaction and training for generating a responsive climate;
• Citizens’ Charters must be precise and make firm commitments of service delivery standards
to the citizens/consumers in quantifiable terms wherever possible.
• Citizens’ Charter should clearly lay down the relief which the organization is bound to
provide if it has defaulted on the promised standards of delivery. In addition, wherever there
is a default in the service delivery by the organization, citizens must also have recourse to
a grievances redressal mechanism.
• Every organization must conduct periodic evaluation of its Citizens’ Charter preferably
through an external agency on lines of audit and credit ratings done in private sector. This
agency while evaluating the Charter of the organization should also make an objective
analysis of whether the promises made therein are being delivered within the defined
parameters.

20. "It said that everyone in the Indian Railways is responsible for safety without safety being
anybody's responsibility in particular". Political incentives and organizational structure
contribute to a disregard for safety. In the backdrop of the recent accident, analyze the
challenges faced by Indian Railways.
Hints:
Challenges with regard to safety in Indian railways are:-
- Investments in safety have also suffered on account of low internal generation of resources.
Although the safety record of Indian Railways compares well with other European countries,
the fact remains that there is considerable room for improvement. Unmanned level crossings
are a major area of concern apart from accidents that arise on other accounts.
Prioritized electrification and signaling& telecom works are also of importance for reasons of safety
and efficiency. Major accidents occur on Indian Railways in the following forms:(i) Level Crossing
Accidents (ii) Derailments (iii) Fire (iv) Collisions
E
Arrears of track renewal are accumulating which will result in disproportionately high maintenance
effort. This will also result in reduced reliability of assets.
OR
Highest numbers of fatalities over IR occur due to accidents at unmanned level crossings. They take
place mainly due to the negligence of road vehicle users in not observing the precautions laid down
in the Motor Vehicles Act while negotiating unmanned level crossings
Solutions
- Railways are also removing the unmanned level crossings by building Road Over Bridges
SC
and Low Height Subways – Setu-bharatam projects

- Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF)- It involved primarily replacement of worn out assets
relating to Bridges, Signaling systems, Track and Rolling Stock.
- “Anmol Jeevan’-a concerted effort by School children, NGOs, RPF and commercial
departments- is organized at regular intervals for the awareness of passengers
- Installation of unique anti-collision device (ACD) across the Indian Railways network in the
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country could prevent many of the railway collisions.

o Raksha Kavach, ACD is designed as a signal-free system. This provides the required safety
enhancement layer and blocks gaps in safety levels due to limitations of the existing signal-
based train protection systems.
o Inputs from a GPS satellite system for position updates and network with track-side ACDs
located within a radius of three kms are taken.
State of the art Signaling and Telecommunication systems being used by advanced world railways
to realize safety and capacity enhancements compared with signaling and communication systems
adopted on IR.
Supplementary Notes
A High Level Safety Review Committee under the Chairmanship of Shri Anil Kakodkar to
recommend measures to prevent rail accidents. The committee has the following suggestions:
- The Kakodkar committee’s analysis of data for the last five years showed that in the Indian
Railway system spread across 64, 000 route kilometers, derailments accounted for nearly
half the total accidents followed by accidents at unmanned level crossing gates (36 per cent).
Level crossing incidents contributed to 59 per cent of the deaths and 42 per cent of casualties.
- There should be an independent body like Railway Safety Authority under the government
with chairman and experts from outside.
- A robust and powerful Safety Architecture should be there to have a safety oversight on the
operational mode of Railways.
- Elimination of both manned and unmanned level crossings within the next five years as a
measure of avoiding accidents and deaths. Such a step would “not only eliminate the
accidents at level crossings which account for 65 per cent of total deaths due to train
accidents but will also improve the line capacity as trains get held up at busy LC gates. It
will also save operation and maintenance costs incurred in the gates.
- The Panel said that if all the recommendations will be accepted there will be a total financial
implication of one lakh crore rupees in five years.
- While proposing funds to the tune of Rs. 50, 000 crore for doing away with level crossings,
the panel has noted that apart from saving lives, the investment could be recouped in about
8 years as the monetary saving from a phase-out of level crossings would be in the region
E
of Rs. 7, 000 crore per annum.
- Committee recommended monitoring of all the bridges in terms of scientific measurements
OR
of deflections/displacements, water level and flow velocity on a continuous basis and data
should be communicated to the office of the concerned Chief Bridge Engineer for monitoring.
- Panel notes that Railways had classified at least 3, 000 bridges to be 100 years old or more
and 32 bridges as distressed structures, wanted vulnerable bridges fitted with water level
gauges and turbine flow meters to measure flow which should be interlocked in a way to
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warn the driver of the approaching train.

- The panel has recommended an advanced signaling system based on continuous track
circuiting and cab signaling similar to European train control system Level-II on the entire
trunk route of about 19, 000 route kilometers at an estimated cost of Rs. 20, 000 crore within
five years.
GS


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GS Score 2017 Mains Test 4 With Solutions - Governance PDF

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SCORE

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

Q. Marks Instructions to Candidate

REMARKS GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

GS MAINS TEST SERIES 2017

Lack of effective infrastructure at ground level

Hints: Governance [1]

Expanding digital transactions in Indian economy has obvious advantages.

Ease of conducting financial transactions:

• Adoption of Unique ID would be promoted to facilitate identification, authentication and

• Restructuring of NIC would be undertaken to strengthen the IT support to all government

• e-Greetings a portal for government greetings

• e-SAMPARK which is operational is an IT Platform for Messages to Elected Representatives

• Policies to help departments in speedy implementation of e-governance projects have been

blocked or recalled is a wake-up call for the banking industry.

Hints: Governance [7]

• Holistic approach needed:

• Management of risks by banks when it comes to taking on third-party vendors

• More investment in more resilient platform based security platforms.

• Implement Gulshan Rai committee recommendations

• Use of BLOCKCHAIN will ensure more security in transactions

Lessons from International experiences:

• Cyber threat alliance:

• Cyber security information sharing act in US: