Future Officers

Daily UPSC Mains Question – July 14/2020

GS – 2

Concluding a trade deal between India-EU is imperative. Explain 150 Words

In the News:

The need for a trade deal between the two sides looms large. India has restarted trade talks with the EU for a preferential trade agreement, with the ultimate goal of actualising a free trade agreement.
It will be recalled that negotiations for a bilateral trade and investment agreement between India and the EU were suspended in 2013 as the two sides had hit a dead end on issues such as tariffs on European cars and wine, data security and India’s pitch to include services and more visas for Indian professionals in the agreement.

Roadblocks:

Among the roadblocks was India’s decision to cancel bilateral investment treaties with 22 EU countries in 2016. This slowed interest from European companies, who did not want to risk investing unless a solid investment protection agreement was put in place.
But having already pulled out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement last year over fears of China dominating that trade grouping, India has to do trade deals elsewhere if it seriously wants to entrench itself in global supply chains.

Way ahead:

A trade deal with the US will be big which is why a trade deal with the EU – and a separate one with the UK – becomes important. Besides, both India and the EU today are concerned about China’s predatory trade and investment practices and are taking steps to counter them.
This should create enough synergy to deliver an India-EU trade accord without getting sidetracked by local lobbies and vested interests.

Economic reforms are sustained, deep and pronounced because of bold decisions and strong political will. Analyse the statement 250 Words

In the News:

Economic reforms are a matter of continuing interest in India. Even from 1989, the brewing balance of payments crisis was getting noticed.
India had to undertake higher levels of borrowing, and correspondence with the IMF and World Bank had commenced by late 1990. Without the borrowing, India would have had to default on its external payment obligations.

Structural adjustments:

The IMF pegged the release of the credit tranches to our quarterly performances based on specified criteria. The World Bank provided the structural adjustment loans linked to specified benchmarks.
India was to open its economy to be market driven and out of the licence quota raj. To dismantle the four-decade-old command and control model required immense political will, which despite running a minority government Rao had shown. India had to be pulled out of a near bankruptcy.
A leadership and its vision for India adds strength to the required political will to undertake reforms which seems to be lacking. It doesn’t take a crisis to reform, nor should a crisis be allowed to overwhelm India.

Major reforms:

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and setting up of the National Company Law Tribunal in 2016 provide a major relief for companies looking for an exit policy. Long pending resolutions are happening now.
The Code may be on insolvency but now resolutions most often are for going concerns. Speedy disposal also ensures reasonable value realisation. Corporate tax was reduced to 15% for new manufacturing companies and for the old to 22%.
Options were provided for those who wished to continue benefiting from accumulated exemptions to remain in the old scheme. So was personal income tax simplified and made exemption free. To remove any perception of harassment, tax assessment and scrutiny were made faceless.
Using technology, every correspondence with the assessed has a centralised Document Identification Number. Also, to strengthen existing indigenous capacities in defence production invited greater investment has been made in the Indian space sector. Reforms have continued even as the necessary stimulus is being provided for restarting the Covid-hit economy. Reforms are sustained, deep and pronounced.

Daily UPSC Mains Question – July 11/2020

GS – 2

Despite the renewed policy focus on cities, the pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in handling a public emergency. Critically analyse the statement. 150 Words

In the News:

The novel coronavirus pandemic has largely been an urban crisis so far, with megacities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai accounting for most of the COVID-19 positive cases. Indian cities are not only facing a public health crisis but also a larger emergency of economic issues and livelihoods.
A high percentage of urban residents have lost employment during the lockdown and continue to face an uncertain future.

Still an urban dream:

Over the last decade-and-a-half, cities have started receiving more policy attention from the government, with dedicated national-level programmes on urban development.
The ‘Smart Cities Mission’, a flagship programme of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, completed five years, in June 2020. The Mission had sought to make 100 selected cities “smart”, primarily through an “Area-Based Development” model under which a small portion of the city would be upgraded by retrofitting or redevelopment.
According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, of the 5,151 smart city projects across the 100 cities, while around 4,700 projects have been tendered, only 1,638 projects have been completed. In terms of expenditure, of the total investment of 2, 05,018 crore, only projects worth 26,700 crore have been completed.
Hence, the idea of completely transforming India’s derelict cities into “smart cities” within five years now seems a pipe dream.

Strengthening local capacities:

The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the weaknesses in the institutional and human capacity of Indian cities to handle a public health emergency.
The relative success of Kerala in containing the pandemic has shown how a decentralised political and administrative system with strong local governments and high investment in local public health care can be effective.
In the absence of such participative local government institutions, authorities in some cities have roped in resident welfare associations to monitor COVID-19 cases.
In this process, resident welfare associations have become emboldened and are often imposing draconian rules as they exercise a form of private authoritarianism in their neighbourhoods.
To tackle the COVID-19 crisis, it is important to strengthen local government capacities, invest heavily in urban public health systems, and promote programmes that improve the livelihoods of urban vulnerable communities.

The proposed move of rationalising the syllabus strikes at the target of training good citizens. Explain. 250 Words

In the News:

The list of jettisoned subjects is comprehensive; the apprehension that it is purposeful is unavoidable; the conclusion that a ‘happening’ has been converted into a ‘penalty goal’ is inescapable.
In the recent decision by MoHRD, it was decided to exclude certain subjects from the list of topics of study in the social science curriculum for Classes 9 to 12 with the objective of reducing by 30% the “load” while retaining “core concepts”.

Being politically conscious:

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on its website indicates nine salient features of the senior secondary school curriculum for Classes 11 and 12 for the years 2020-2021. It mentions that the curriculum strives to “provide ample scope for physical, intellectual and social development of students”.
The curriculum also strives to uphold Constitutional values. Our system of democratic governance is based on the Constitution that prescribes universal adult suffrage with the voting age now being 18, after the 61st Amendment of 1988.
It was then argued formally in Parliament that “the present-day youth are literate and enlightened and the lowering of the voting age would provide to the unrepresented youth of the country an opportunity to give vent to their feelings and help them become a part of the political process.
The present-day youth are very much politically conscious. It is, therefore, proposed to reduce the voting age from 21 years to 18 years.’
It is useful to examine the relevant portions of the Draft National Education Policy 2019 with a Message from the Minister of Human Resource Development. It has on page 96 a section on ‘Development of Constitutional Values’.

Focus on the next generation:

In several places the objective of good governance and of putting in places for it “a framework of governance which will yield rich dividends over the next generation”. This focus on the next generation requires good citizens who in turn need to be educated in good governance.
This is precisely what the objective of the jettisoned items of the curriculum was intended to be. The proposed move of load-shedding goes counter to this and strikes at the target of training good citizens and teaching them civility.

Daily UPSC Mains Question – July 12/2020

GS – 2

Migration is India’s largest and most successful avenue though not an official policy of reducing poverty. Explain.150 Words

In the News:

Census data shows that individuals migrating for work rose from 30 million in 2001 to 41 million in 2011. This was the very period when India’s GDP growth skyrocketed to 8% and poverty declined sharply (by 137 million during 2005-12).
Assuming each individual migrant supported four more people back home, 164 million people benefited from migration.

Significant numbers:

A significant number of people have migrated abroad, mostly to the Gulf, and would not show up in census data. But millions of workers fall into this category and total forex remittances to India have been around $80 billion a year.
However, the remittances are not all from poor labourers – some are from software engineers and other well-off migrants. The 2001-10 trends would mean an enormous increase in migrants, with or without families.
The statistics on migrants with the number of people who are likely to benefit from MGNREGA. Migration benefits a much larger number of poor than MGNREGA, and the sums remitted are much larger than MGNREGA outlays.

India – the migrant economy:

India has a huge migrant economy. The first order of benefit from migration goes towards lifting migrants and their families out of poverty. They bring back a capital surplus that opens new opportunities for families earlier at subsistence levels.
Out migration from rural UP or Bihar reduces the supply of agricultural workers in these states, increasing wages and lowering poverty there. It also ameliorates worker shortages in the destination economies, raising productivity.
Migrant workers crowd into townships, small cities, and mega cities and in prosperous rural states. A study by Aajeevika Bureau in five states, Bihar, UP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat found that 60% of migrants and 83% of long distance migrants had not voted in the last election because they were away from home.
Hence no political parties are prominent in championing their cause. Remarkably, respondents in the Aajeevika Bureau study were on average working in their current location for 10 years. Even long-time migrants find it difficult to register themselves as voters in the cities, and remain excluded from the electoral system.

India’s solar strategy should look at tapping the best globally to make locally. Explain in detail.250 Words

In the News:

By tapping the energy of the sun to substantially power the economy and everyday life is to be welcomed, because it could help chart a green deal for the future. The case for greater reliance on solar power, for energy and as a path for self-reliant industrialisation, at the inauguration of a 750 MW photovoltaic project at Rewa, in Madhya Pradesh last week.
The idea of building a domestic solar manufacturing industry that delivers increasing volumes of quality photovoltaic cells, modules and associated equipment is long in the tooth.

Manufacturing capability:

India’s installed base of this green power source is about 35 gigawatts (GW), and its projected addition of capacity until 2024 in a COVID-19 affected future is estimated by the industry to be of the order of 50 GW.
Viewed against the goals set five years ago for the Paris Agreement on climate, of installing 100 GW of solar power by 2022, there could be a sharp deficit. Combined with low domestic cell manufacturing capacity at 3.1 GW last year, and heavy reliance on China, high ambition must now be supported by aggressive official policy.
The Chinese story is one of a steady rise from insignificant manufacturing capability in the 1990s, to virtual dominance through active government support in identifying and acquiring top technologies globally, importing critical raw materials such as polysilicon, acquiring solar manufacturers abroad, and investing in third countries with ready capability.
Importantly, the domestic market was treated with great importance while promoting exports.

Critical opportunity:

The pandemic presents a critical opportunity for India to plan a green deal, on the lines of what the EU has committed itself to: that future growth and employment should align itself to environmental and sustainability objectives, particularly in energy production, away from dirty fuels such as coal.
There is no better time than now to make solar energy a strategic sector, giving it as much importance as defence. As the architect of the International Solar Alliance, which attracted about 120 nations at its launch, India needs to show leadership to advance the manufacture and absorption of solar photovoltaic infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries.
Rapid progress requires a strategic shift to aid competitive domestic manufacturing.

Daily UPSC Mains Question – July 13/2020

GS – 3

Financial sector is the fulcrum of government’s economic revival plan. Explain in detail about the unclogging credit and the fixing it requires.150 Words

In the News:

The trend of lock down undermines economic recovery. Also, it makes policy making difficult. It’s in this backdrop that we must locate observations on the financial sector as it is the fulcrum of the economic revival package announced by the centre.

Economic impact:

RBI believes that the economic impact of Covid-19 may result in an increase in bad loans. Overall bad loans of commercial banks were 8.3% of advances at the end of March 2020 against 9.1% a year earlier.
If there is an increase from this level, government as the primary shareholder in the banking system needs to think of ways to infuse more capital. It’s important for government and RBI to work harmoniously to get the financial system working better.
The weakness here acted as a drag on the economy even before Covid-19. The fallout of the pandemic comes at a time when it is already shaky. But unless the financial sector weathers the storm, India is unlikely to witness a meaningful economic recovery.

Charting a new course:

The financial sector today is very risk averse when lending and parts of it are dealing with reputational damage when it comes to mobilising savings. Two reforms are needed to deal with these challenges.
Governance reforms in financial firms are necessary to both improve the capital allocation process and avoid scandals which undermine the confidence of savers. Government, as the major shareholder in 70% of the banking system, needs to play a proactive role.
Separately, RBI and government need to transition to a better resolution process of distressed financial intermediaries – although it’s not prudent to experiment now with measures which can spook savers. We are in a situation which has no precedent. It requires government and RBI to chart a new course.

China has cultivated influential friends and they are by no means confined to those who still wave a red flag. Explain in detail about how Indo-China engagement in the present context.250 Words

In the News:

For the past two decades at least, there has been a debate in India over how to view China: as a competitor or an adversary. The emergence of a national consensus has been marred by internal political calculations.
China has set its sights on overtaking the United States as the number one global power and considers India to be at best an Asian irritant. The culture of “expansionism” is tantamount to India punching above its weight.

Daunting challenges before India:

There is a policy prescription that it is futile for India to resist the emergence of a unipolar Asia, and that it is best to negotiate the terms of honourable subordination with Beijing. Although this is never stated explicitly, this ‘Vichy mentality’ is discernible.
It has been craftily masqueraded in the assertion that the Belt and Road doctrine is a meaningful alternative to West-dominated globalisation and promises a ‘community of shared destiny’; that with a hostile Pakistan in the western border, India must avoid a second front at all costs; and that pan-Asian resurgence is a loftier goal than intransigence over fuzzy borders.
From the Bandung Conference to the 1962 war, Jawaharlal Nehru’s China policy was centred on a misplaced faith in pan-Asian solidarity.

Eye on kickbacks:

China has cultivated influential friends and they are by no means confined to those who still wave a red flag. It is a testimony to China’s successful global soft power outreach that hegemonic designs have been cast in a benign garb.
The China lobby is formidable and more varied than anything the Soviet Union was able to build during the Cold War.
It is prudent to acknowledge that a lone struggle by India against a rampaging China would have made limited headway. Fortunately, in the wake of Covid-19, there is greater global appreciation of the fact that China has gone too far.
The West may be in decline and the centre of economic power may be shifting eastwards, but it is still resourceful enough to mount a fight back. Now India must shape its diplomacy and economic outreach to align with all those who cherish prosperity with democracy and national independence.

NABARD development Day – July 12

Context:

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is an Apex Development Financial Institution in India.
The Bank has been entrusted with “matters concerning Policy Planning and Operations in the field of credit for Agriculture and other Economic activities in rural areas in India”.
NABARD is active in developing Financial Inclusion policy.

Background:

NABARD was established on the recommendations of B. Sivaramman Committee, (by Act 61, 1981 of Parliament) on 12 July 1982 to implement the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act 1981.
It replaced the Agricultural Credit Department (ACD) and Rural Planning and Credit Cell (RPCC) of Reserve Bank of India, and Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation (ARDC). It is one of the premier agencies providing developmental credit in rural areas.
NABARD is India’s specialised bank for Agriculture and Rural Development in India.

Role:

NABARD is the most important institution in the country which looks after the development of the cottage industry, small scale industry and village industry, and other rural industries.
NABARD also reaches out to allied economies and supports and promotes integrated development.
NABARD discharge its duty by undertaking the following roles :
Serves as an apex financing agency for the institutions providing investment and production credit for promoting the various developmental activities in rural areas
Takes measures towards institution building for improving absorptive capacity of the credit delivery system, including monitoring, formulation of rehabilitation schemes, restructuring of credit institutions, training of personnel, etc.
Co-ordinates the rural financing activities of all institutions engaged in developmental work at the field level and maintains liaison with Government of India, state governments, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other national level institutions concerned with policy formulation
Undertakes monitoring and evaluation of projects refinanced by it.
NABARD refinances the financial institutions which finances the rural sector.
NABARD partakes in development of institutions which help the rural economy.
NABARD also keeps a check on its client institutes.
It regulates the institutions which provide financial help to the rural economy.
It provides training facilities to the institutions working in the field of rural upliftment.
It regulates and supervise the cooperative banks and the RRB’s, throughout entire India.

NABARD has its head office at Mumbai, India.

Conclusion:

NABARD is also known for its ‘SHG Bank Linkage Programme’ which encourages India’s banks to lend to self-help groups (SHGs). Largely because SHGs are composed mainly of poor women, this has evolved into an important Indian tool for microfinance.
By March 2006, 22 lakh SHGs representing 3.3 crore members had to be linked to credit through this programme.
NABARD also has a portfolio of Natural Resource Management Programmes involving diverse fields like Watershed Development, Tribal Development and Farm Innovation through dedicated funds set up for the purpose.

Daily UPSC Mains Question – July 10/2020

GS – 2

The truncations suggested by CBSE violate the holistic nature of the planned curriculum. Analyse the statement in relation to the current context. 150 Words

In the News:

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced a reduction in the curriculum for the year 2020-2021 for Classes IX to XII.
This is a measure they have adopted in view of the reduced number of class hours available this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Basic topics removed:

Many basic topics have been removed; more advanced topics have been retained. Teachers will have to teach the deleted portions anyway, in order to build the next level of concepts.
Reduced syllabus will not be part of the topics for internal assessment and year-end board exams. The resultant syllabus is twice damaging — first, the deletion being only nominal adds an invisible burden on teachers, and second, that it is not going to be used to examine the students may just encourage rote learning.
In basic science topics, it is much better to retain the fundamentals and, if need be, remove the higher application levels.

Tragic and ironic:

It is not just that various topics connect the student to real-life situations; it is ironic that such a deletion should happen at the time of the pandemic. The point has been noted by the group, Indian Society of Evolutionary Biologists (ISEB), which has released a note addressing these deletions.
According to the observations of ISEB, The pandemic has tragically highlighted the consequences of our neglect of evolution and ecology in school and higher education in India. Understanding practically every aspect of a zoonotic pandemic requires a thorough grounding in diverse areas of ecology and evolution, including species interactions, population dynamics, co evolutionary dynamics, evolution of host range expansions, and the transmission dynamics of pathogens.
A direct consequence of our neglect of ecology and evolution is the relative paucity of epidemiologists in India.

MGNREGS is important in the rescue of the poor during a time of distress. Explain in detail the about the rural jobs scheme. 250 Words

In the News:

The finding that 8.4 lakh poor households have completed at least 80 days of the 100-day limit for work under the MGNREGS and 1.4 lakh among those have completed the full quota, should come as no surprise.
While these numbers are a fraction of the 4.6 crore households which have benefited from MGNREGS this year, the fact that many poor households have nearly completed their full quota of employment under the scheme in just the last two months (May-June 2020) is a reflection of the distress that has driven them to take recourse to it.

In times of distress:

With the economy reeling after extended lockdowns following the COVID-19 pandemic and migrant labourers losing jobs in urban areas and returning to their rural homes to avoid destitution, the scheme has come as a huge relief to poor families.
The government’s decision to extend it into the monsoon season has also benefited households. Data from this year show that in nearly two-thirds of the States, demand for MGNREGS work has doubled or even tripled in a number of districts compared to the previous year.
Only in States where kharif crop was sown, the demand was relatively lower. But with some States resorting to their own shutdowns to curtail the spread of COVID-19, the prospects of a robust economic recovery that would benefit those engaged in casual labour and daily wage-labour remain dim.
The swell in agrarian employment in the monsoon season notwithstanding, the excess supply of labour owing to reverse migration from the cities could depress wages. This makes an extension of the limit of work days under the MGNREGS even more imperative.

The first step:

The scheme has acted as insurance for rural dwellers during crop failures and agrarian crisis. But the Centre’s outlook towards it continues to limit it only as a “fall-back” option for the poor.
Even before the COVID-19-induced crisis, a lack of demand and falling consumption among the poor were constraining the economy. The lessons from its successes and failures could be used for a more comprehensive job guarantee plan that covers urban India too. Besides alleviating distress, this could also boost consumption and aid economic recovery.
An extension of the 100-day limit and comprehensive implementation of the scheme in rural areas can be the first step.

Daily UPSC Mains Question – July 9

GS – 2

Amidst a pandemic, project in critical forest habitats are being considered or have been given clearance by Environment ministry. Critically Analyse the statement.150 Words.

In the News:

The 21st century has seen multiple lethal epidemics. Two were serious enough for the World Health Organization to designate as pandemics.
The accelerating destruction of wild habitats, forests and diversified food systems for urbanisation, mining, and industry means pathogens which were once largely confined to animals and plants in the wild are now better positioned to infect humans. As long as we do not address this march to unsustainability, we will remain vulnerable to pandemic outbreaks.

Drawing the wrong lesson:

It is troubling then that our governments are drawing the opposite lesson from the COVID-19 challenge. Through the lockdown, ‘expert’ bodies of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) have considered, and in many cases cleared, multiple industrial, mining and infrastructure proposals in critical wildlife habitats, and life and livelihood-sustaining forests.
As several groups have pointed out to the government, its draft Environment Impact Assessment will undermine environmental protection.
As per the draft, starting a project before obtaining environmental approvals will no longer be a violation, and it can be regularised post-facto. The draft even allows for a class of projects to secure clearance without putting out any information in the public domain.

Sum effect:

The sum effect of the moves will be further environmental degradation. India already has an abysmal record of environmental destruction and development-induced displacement.
The effects of these are overwhelmingly borne by Adivasi and other marginalised groups. It takes a steadfast commitment to ecological illiteracy to argue that wanton environmental destruction will deliver never-ending, seamless growth.
These giant leaps backward will not make us at manirbhar (self-reliant). Rather, they will further endanger habitats and lives, and intensify our vulnerability to infectious diseases and related socio-economic shocks.

The pandemic crisis can be overcome only when a state is sensitive, has decentralised steps and ensures empowerment. Explain in detail.250 Words

In the News:

The novel corona virus pandemic has affected the lives of many and its catastrophic impact goes far beyond the disease itself. Governments across the world have dealt with the problem in different ways.
Posterity will judge how good or how bad any government performed in 2020 on this count.

Finding cause:

Some small countries have claimed victory in containing the impact of the disease, but their claim appears to be hollow and even myopic; the fact is that these countries are affluent, and have sealed their boundaries.
Democratically elected governments have found it more difficult to derive the same legitimacy. With the growth of fundamental freedoms, such as those of speech and expression, unquestioning obedience to governmental authority began to fade. Unquestioned obedience is the holy grail of every autocrat.
Their fundamental credo is that society is best-served if a government or other type of institution takes on executive or sovereign power, with the consent of the people.

Consolidating power:

There is a bending of individual free will towards the collective will. Ironically most such leaders constantly invoke “the will of the people” when consolidating executive power. So, the social contract is being used by modern governments to justify greater aggrandisement of power in the hands of the sovereign, under the garb of “public good”.
In fact, if the world events that occurred in 2018-19 were to be examined later by future historians, they would be excused for having an image that people across the world had voluntarily surrendered their individual rights to their governments, who exercised these powers with discipline and benevolence.
There are two India’s. The first is an India that observes social distancing, buys its groceries and provisions by observing all precautions and largely obeys governmental directives about COVID-19 prevention.
The second is an India that crowds railway terminals to travel long distances, sometimes for days, to get back to native towns, and when that fails, decides to resort to the drastic step of even walking those hundreds of kilometres, defying all governmental directives.
It is for the second India that the impact of COVID-19 has hit hardest and the impact has nearly nothing to do with the disease. “Social distancing” was a stirring phrase and call that those of us who are privileged responded to with gusto.

For those in governance:

The centralised sovereign will work well against a mighty external aggressor, but not against a microscopic pathogen. What is required is not just a decentralised approach but also a state which is sensitive and responds not only to the needs of those who cry out for help but also meets the requirements of those who are voiceless.
While no elected government would publicly espouse such a position, it is the unwritten premise underlying every rule and diktat which is issued.COVID-19 can only be defeated by an empowered populace.
The social contract requires to be rewritten. It does not require anything drastic such as a revolution or anarchy. Rather, it only needs fundamental introspection and rethinking by the governing classes including bureaucrats.

Daily UPSC Mains Question – July 8/2020

GS – 2

Without proper rule of law, citizens are condemned to live in local tyrannies. What does the present incident reveal about the nature of our state and the link between law and violence? 150 Words

In the News:

The modern state emerged by gathering power dispersed among rivalries’, local strongmen and depositing it in a single set of inter-related institutions, now endowed with a monopoly of force and violence.
These institutions were meant to function independently of the ruler — they do not belong to him, are not part of his personal estate. Instead, they work for the entire public.

Political Institutions:

First our political institutions, including the judicial machinery, are far from independent of the will of the rulers.
Second, local policemen think of themselves as sovereigns in their own little territory, executors of ‘laws’ they invent on the go. Indian society continues to consist of rival power groups, each with a ‘private’ police force at their mercy, coercing local populations to behave according to rules crafted at will.
The police uniform plays a symbolic role expressing that anyone who dons it has power, prestige and the backing of the entire official apparatus. This social superiority sanctions extra-legal behaviour that often has the stamp of rampaging criminality.

Law as performance:

Our society is meant to be governed by the rule of law implemented by a state above it, impartially arbitrating social disputes. The performance of law courts is like theatre or a film that seduces spectators into a reality of its own making.
On most occasions, the lower courts are seen to be doing something when in fact they get nothing legally substantive done.
The proper functioning of the legal system then is the exception, the absence of rule of law and the lawlessness of local powers, the norm. Winners at the ballot box appear to earn the right to rule by arbitrary power.
So, it goes unsaid to have a proper rule of law implemented in the first place so that the violence is kept under check

Chinese muscularity in the South China Sea is leading to a growing chorus of protest. Explain.250 Words

In the News

The Philippines invoked the dispute settlement mechanism of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to test the legality of China’s ‘nine-dash line’ regarding the disputed Spratlys.
The South China Sea (SCS) is important not just to its littoral countries. It has been a transit point for trade since early medieval times, contains abundantly rich fisheries, and is a repository of mineral deposits and hydrocarbon reserves.

The PCA verdict:

The PCA award undermined the Chinese claim. It held that none of the features of the Spratlys qualified them as islands, and there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights and to the resources within the ‘nine-dash line’.
The UNCLOS provides that islands must sustain habitation and the capacity for non-extractive economic activity. Reefs and shoals that are unable to do so are considered low-tide elevations. The award implied that China violated the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Growing Chinese Muscularity:

Growing Chinese muscularity in the SCS is visible in the increased patrolling and live-fire exercising by Chinese naval vessels; ramming and sinking of fishing vessels of other claimant countries; renaming of SCS features; and building of runways, bunkers, and habitation for possible long-term stationing of personnel on the atolls claimed by China.
Chinese exploration and drilling vessels compete aggressively with those of other littoral countries in the disputed waters. A complicating factor for China is Russia’s growing military and economic equities in the SCS.
Russia and Vietnam have a defence cooperation relationship, which they are committed to strengthening.

India’s relevant options:

From India’s perspective, foreign and security policy in its larger neighbourhood covers the entire expanse of the Asia-Pacific and extends to the Persian Gulf and West Asia.
India must continue to actively pursue its defence diplomacy outreach in the Indo-Pacific region: increase military training and conduct exercises and exchanges at a higher level of complexity, extend Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief activities, share patrolling of the Malacca Strait with the littoral countries, etc.
The Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships that India has concluded with Australia, Japan, Indonesia, the U.S., and Vietnam could be extended to Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore.
India must also buttress the military capacity of the tri-service Andaman and Nicobar Command. In this time of turbulence, India cannot afford to continue undervaluing one of its biggest assets.

Government Policy’s and Schemes of India

The Indian Government announces Welfare Schemes and policies for its citizens from time to time. These schemes could be either Central, State specific or a joint collaboration between the Centre and the States. The schemes are launched by central and state governments of India for alleviation of poverty, general welfare, women empowerment and rural development.

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Daily UPSC Mains Question – July 7/2020

GS – 2

Monuments are open, but more needs to be done to bring back tourists. Describe the statement in terms of reviving tourism during pandemic crisis.150 Words

In the News:

Government allowed the opening of all centrally protected monuments, subject to approval of local authorities, nearly a 100 days after they were ordered to close. Monuments that are located in Covid-19 hotspots will remain shut.
In fact, the country’s most popular monument, the Taj Mahal, remains shut for now as it falls within a containment zone. Similar decisions have also been taken by local authorities vis-a-vis monuments in Prayagraj, Varanasi and Hyderabad.

Reviving tourism:

For those monuments that have opened, this is a good opportunity to slowly revive tourism and related activities. Tourism is the industry that creates most jobs per rupee invested.
At a time when the country’s economic outlook remains bleak, we need the tourism industry to revive and bring back jobs.
All necessary precautions have to be taken given that Covid cases in the country are rising which is why visits to the opened monuments will require e-tickets, mandatory use of Aarogya Setu mobile app, compulsory wearing of masks, thermal scanning at entry points, and a cap on the number of people who can be on the premises at a given time.

Stringent rules:

More needs to be done to give tourism a boost. While international flights remain banned, domestic flights are yet to see even half of pre-Covid volumes. Trains too are taking time to become freely operational.
The most important element needed here is confidence in our anti-Covid protocols. It’s only then that we can negotiate travel bubbles with other countries to bring in foreign tourists.
In that sense, the tourism industry can set the standards for managing Covid by stringently following safety guidelines and inculcating behavioural change. It’s time we invite people to enjoy once again the wonders of India.

There is a pandemic of fake news and hate on social media. Explain in detail to address the root cause and fight against it.250 Words

In the News:

In the current climate where pandemic conspiracy theories are on the rise and racial injustice is being played out on the world stage, Face book and Twitter’s billionaire founders have an increasing responsibility to moderate such content.
Both Twitter and Face book have been removing posts that promote violence, suspending accounts for repetitive hate content and doing their best to address the fake news and hate on social media platforms.

Hate and Fake news on social media:

Since the democratisation of content creation following the launch of social media platforms, each one of us have become content creators creating and publishing our own content, which in turn has created a system where the quality of published content can no longer be controlled.
The impact of the last two decades’ technology revolution is now impacting businesses, political systems, family lives, society and individuals.
The problem has been exasperated and amplified in recent months, perhaps as people have spent an increasing time online during lockdown. From the well-known to the unknown, fake news, misinformation and hate rhetoric are causing harm to many individuals.

Circulation of misinformation:

A 2020 University of Michigan study found that India’s misinformation issue has now entered a new troubling era, where misinformation has moved from fake facts that can quickly be disproved to cultural content that play on emotion and identity, which are harder to verify and therefore make it even more likely that people will believe them or act on them.
Fake news on WhatsApp is perhaps the bigger problem to solve given that the app has over 400 million users in India alone and messages are encrypted making it challenging to identify report and remove content in the same way as it can on other platforms.

Challenges ahead:

The challenge of fake news and hate speech requires careful consideration and collaboration between government, academia, publishers, social media platforms and civil rights groups.
As individuals, we must ask ourselves whether something we read is true before sharing or spreading the same. Whilst a long term solution is developed for the problem that has been created as a by product of the past decade’s technology revolution, each one of us has the responsibility to question what we read, post and share.
Each one of us should take responsibility for the content we create, the content we consume and the content we forward to others.