iasbaba's march monthly magazine (1).pdf

8/18/2019 IASbaba's March Monthly Magazine (1).pdf

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PREFACE

With the present shift in examination pattern of UPSC Civil Services Examination, ‘General

Studies – II and General Studies III’ can safely be replaced with ‘Current Affairs’. Moreover,following the recent trend of UPSC, almost all the questions are issue-based rather than

news-based. Therefore, the right approach to preparation is to prepare issues, rather than

just reading news.

Taking this into account, our website www.iasbaba.com will cover current affairs focusing

more on ‘issues’ on a daily basis. This will help you pick up relevant news items of the day

from various national dailies such as The Hindu, Indian Express, Business Standard, LiveMint,

Business Line and other important Online sources. Over time, some of these news items will

become important issues.

UPSC has the knack of picking such issues and asking general opinion based questions.

Answering such questions will require general awareness and an overall understanding of

the issue. Therefore, we intend to create the right understanding among aspirants – ‘How to

cover these issues?

This is the Tenth edition of IASbaba’s Monthly Magazine. This edition covers all important

issues that were in news in the month of March 2016

Value add’s from IASbaba- Must Read and Connecting the dots.

‘Must Read’ section, will give you important links to be read from exam perspective. This

will make sure that, you don’t miss out on any important news/editorials from various

newspapers on daily basis.

Under each news article, ‘Connecting the dots’ facilitates your thinking to connect and

ponder over various aspects of an issue. Basically, it helps you in understanding an issue

from multi-dimensional view-point. You will understand its importance while giving Mains

or Interview.

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

– Simon Sinek

All the Best

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INDEX

BUDGET 2016-2017 (Pages 5-14)

NATIONAL (Pages 15-56)

Women Empowerment: Time to deliver on Women’s Reservation Bill

Intelligence vs Investigation (Or) CBI vs IB?

The Aadhaar Revolution

Updating Aadhar for better privacy

A tale of two communalisms The Real Estate Bill

New regime in oil and gas exploration

Sponsored Amendment to the Motion of Thanks

Freedom from a Colonial rule book

Of love and honour killings

A coffin named Tobacco

Getting Medical Education on track

Medical Tourism in India

Is it the end of globalisation?

More power to the vaccine arsenal

Contraception—a woman’s burden

On paper, electrified villages — in reality, darkness

INTERNATIONAL (Pages 57-95)

EU referendum: the big questions for Britain

WTO: The much talked about Solar panel Dispute

India’s trade pacts in a changing world

Relations require strengthening—Energy Benefits to India

Mexican opportunity for India

India’s biggest security headache—Sir Creek stand-off’s

Trans-boundary Waters: Sharing Benefits, Sharing Responsibilities

The Commonwealth: Adding Global Value for greater global good

Pakistan has crippled SAARC: time to reassess

Building new alliances with BRICS Milestones on Beijing’s OBOR plan


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India- Nepal: No zero sums in this great game

ECONOMICS (Pages 96-135)

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

Public transport: Overwhelming Needs but Limited Resources

Political pursuit of a Pensioned Society

Green Budget for sustainable development

Budget 2016 fails to lay out a clear roadmap for the petroleum industry

FRBM act: Reality check and to review the fiscal consolidation path

Patents over Patients

How reforms killed Indian manufacturing?

Need of the hour: Energy security, not energy independence

Farmer needs a new deal

Making India GI Brand conscious

A silent horticulture 'revolution'

100% FDI in e commerce: An evaluation

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Pages 136-147)

The colonised Internet: Why the Internet isn’t just free yet?

E-waste Management in India

India lagging behind in Innovation

Come clean on Nuclear Security

ENVIRONMENT (Pages 148-154)

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

Decline of pollinators threatens food supply

DEFENCE/SECURITY (Pages 155-163)

Intelligence vs Investigation (Or) CBI vs IB?

Upgrading India’s cyber security architecture

Towards Military self-reliance

MUST READ (Pages 164-203)


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BUDGET 2016-2017

All you need to know about – ‘Budget 2016-2017’

NOTE: This article is compilation of information from 5 different National Newspapers’

Background:

The Union Budget 2016 has been crafted under the most extraordinarily challenging

economic environments India has seen.

The external environment is both uncertain and volatile, the inherited logjam caused

by stressed banks and the stressed private sector has yet to be broken, poormonsoons have caused immense rural distress, and demand, a central pillar of

growth, has been tepid. Many of the measures needed to face up to this challenge

are not, strictly speaking, budgetary.

It has a much greater sense of purpose and direction. It signals macroeconomic

credibility by adhering to fiscal deficit targets.

The ambitious provision of LPG connections to all is quite revolutionary, for its

health, gender justice and aspirational effects, though its political-economy effects

on the subsidy bill will become clear over the next few years.

It goes to great lengths to reverse the government’s pro-corporate image

Budget Basics:

1. What is a Budget ?

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

Budget is presented for the ensuing Financial year.

2. What does Budget consist of?

Every budget consist of Actual figures for preceding years, Budget and revised figures

for the current year, Budget estimates for the following years

So the Budget presented in March 2001 will be estimate of Inflows and outflows of

the Funds for the period beginning from 1st April 2001 to 31st March 2002.

3. When is Budget presented?

Budget is to be presented in Lok Sabha on a day as the President directs. By convention, the

Budget is presented in Parliament on the last working day of February.


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4. Who draws the timetable for Budget?

Timetable is drawn by the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of Parliament. In the

schedule drawn up by the BAC, there is a fixed period of discussion for each ministry.

5. Who has the responsibility for Budget?

Budget Division in the Finance Ministry has the overall responsibility. It prepares the budget

on basis of proposal received from various departments and ministries and the availability

of funds. However, final approval is from the Prime Minister.

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

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

that the government can continue with the necessary expenditure into the new

fiscal, before the Budget proposals actually get passed after necessary discussions.

The vote-on-account normally covers the expenditure requirement of the

government for two months.

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

Yes. Under Article 112 of the Constitution, a Statement of estimated receipts and

expenditure of the Union Government has to be laid before the Parliament in respect of

every financial year running from 1st April to 31st March. The Receipt and Payments of the

Government is categorised in three parts:

Consolidated Fund. : All the inflows like Tax and other Revenues as well as Loans

raised by it form part of this category. All outflow including expenses etc also form

part of this Account. For withdrawal from this fund parliament authorisation is

required. Contingency Fund: It is the money kept at the disposal of the President to meet out

any unforeseen expenses. The corpus of the fund is merely Rs.50 Crores.

Public Account: This category comprises of money raised from various Schemes of

the Government like Provident Fund. But this was the technical framework. To put

simply it is Annual financial discipline like other corporates prepare Profit and Loss

Account and Balance Sheet. However to what disclosure norms the government

accounts are subjected to is mystery. We have seldom come across the laid down

norms like other balance sheets to disclose the information in a manner prescribed.


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8. What is the process of Budget approval?

The Finance Minister introduces the budget in the Lower House of the Parliament or

the Lok Sabha & makes a short speech, giving a overall view of the budget.

After the presentation of the Budget, Parliament allots some time for a general

discussion on the Budget. The finance minister replies at the end of the general

discussion. The reply is also of a general nature and no specifics of the Budget are

discussed. However, no motion is moved nor voting required at this stage.

After the finance minister's reply, Lok Sabha takes up for discussion each ministry's

expenditure proposals, and is known as demand for grants. The demands for grants

presented by each ministry are taken up by the House.

After, the prescribed period for the discussion on demands for grants is over, the

Speaker applies the `guillotine', and all the outstanding demands for grants, whether

discussed or not, are put to vote at once. Only the Lower House is entitled to vote. Appropriation Bill is introduced in the Lok Sabha after it has passed all demands for

grants relating to all ministries. This is to authorise the government to draw funds

from the Consolidated Fund of India. Once this Bill is passed, it becomes the

Appropriation Act and is certified as a Money Bill.

After passing of Appropriation Bill, the Finance Bill is introduced and it incorporates

all taxation proposals. At this stage, amendments for tax proposal can be moved.

After the passing of this Bill, it enters the statute as the Finance Act. Thus the final

Budget gets approved.

Budget 2016-2017: Snapshot

Taxation:

The principal tax rates have reached stability. The rates of direct taxes are

comparable to international rates (except for personal tax brackets, which vary

across countries on account of differing price levels); and indirect taxes are in a long

process of replacement by the Goods and Services Tax, which is stuck indisagreements between States.

For 2016-17, the Finance Minister has promised to bring this ratio down to 3.5 per

cent primarily through a 20 per cent increase in indirect taxes and as much as 39

per cent in excise duties, even as the corporate taxes go down.

A rise in indirect taxes as opposed to direct taxes is a clear case of regressive taxation

because both the poor and the rich pay the same tax per unit of purchase of an item.

That this has been the pattern of revenue mobilization of this and the previous

government goes to show their concern for the ‘aam aadmi’.

There is another problem an increase in indirect taxes brings to the table: inflation.The fact that the economy is not witnessing high inflation today is not because of


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Budget for 2016-17 sticks to the commitment made under the Fiscal Responsibility

and Budget Management Act by keeping the fiscal deficit target at 3.5% of GDP.

This problem becomes doubly difficult if the estimate of the GDP itself is inflated,

which is what has happened this year.

The revised estimate of the GDP for 2015-16 is less than the Budget estimate byabout Rs. 5,41,753 crore. If the denominator itself is falling in a ratio, the numerator

has to fall further for the ratio to decrease.

The way they have managed to keep the ratio to 3.9 per cent despite such a fall in

the estimated GDP is through increased collection in the indirect taxes and excise

duties even as the non-plan expenditure has declined.

Such a strict belt-tightening shows that the long wait for the ‘achche din’ is not over.

It requires the poor to pay through their nose through increased indirect taxes while

the cushion of the social sector is consistently taken away from them, and all of this

is being done in the name of creating ‘business sentiments’, which themselves are

ever elusive.

Good to see that unlike between 2012-13 and 2014-15, fiscal consolidation in 2015-

16 is not being achieved by paring capital spending but through subsidy reduction

afforded by sharply lower crude prices. This has improved the spending mix of the

government with a tilt towards infrastructure.

What are the structural factors aiding the fiscal math?

Improved coverage and higher tax on services. In the current fiscal, service tax collections were marginally higher than budgeted

despite slowing growth in the services sector.

Pros of the Budget:

The budget ticks the boxes on fiscal, revenue and primary deficit parameters. It has

done better on the revenue deficit target (2.5% vs 2.8%) and effective revenue

deficit target (1.5% vs 2%). Not only that, it projects an accelerated decline in theeffective revenue deficit, reaching 0% by 2018-19.

True, there has been some deviation from the goals envisaged under the Fiscal

Responsibility and Budget Management Act to support investment activity. But the

overall direction has been the correct one of consolidation: fiscal deficit as a

percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) narrowed to 3.9% in 2015-16 from 4.9%

in 2012-13, and revenue deficit as a percentage of GDP has come down to 2.5% from

3.6%.

The increased outlay on infrastructure, particularly the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak

Yojana. Rural connectivity is great for growth; and power and logistics are key to


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India’s competitiveness. Symbolically, this budget speaks to the government’s

potential strengths: Power, infrastructure, railways, and petroleum and gas.

To be sure, these have helped offset the shortfall in direct tax collections because of

weak manufacturing activity, poor corporate performance, increased food subsidy,

and lower-than-anticipated nominal growth. Nominal GDP growth was 8.6% in fiscal2016 against 11.5% assumed in the budget.

But the most pleasant surprise is the direction in which we want to go on the

environment. An additional cess on coal and taxes on cars are signals of a long-

overdue resolve that the environment is no longer a luxury. There are small

administrative victories like the abolition of the distinction between plan and non-

plan expenditure.

Farm sector: Nearly 65 per cent of small farmers in this country depend on rain-fed

irrigation. More than 75 per cent of Indian farmers are not covered by crop

insurance. Since shocks, such as bad weather or bad health, affect the poor

significantly more than the average citizen in the country, allocations provided for

irrigation, crop insurance and health insurance will significantly impact the rural

population’ s ability to withstand negative economic shocks.

In particular, farm insurance, health insurance and cooking gas connections for BPL

(below poverty line) families are superb initiatives that will focus government

spending on those sections of the population that need the government’s attention

the most — the poor and the downtrodden.

Fertilizer and electricity subsidies together amount to 1.6 per cent of the GDP, much

of which leaks abroad or to non-agricultural uses, or goes to inefficient producers, or

to firms given the exclusive privilege to import. Rs 40,000 crore of subsidies are

provided in the electricity sector.

But precisely for these reasons it has proved politically impossible to close the

inefficient firms or eliminate the canalization of imports. By providing a legal

framework for the Aadhaar platform, the “JAM trinity” of Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and

mobile would be strengthened considerably.

This will help to rationalize the regime of subsidies and lead to better targeting.

Again, better targeting of subsidies to deserving beneficiaries would help to fosterdomestic demand, particularly in the rural sector.

Another key measure in the budget relates to providing a legal framework for the

Aadhaar platform, which will help to ensure that subsidies are directed to the

needy. More than Rs 40,000 crore of subsidies provided for fertilizers.

As for crude prices, they are expected to average $10 per barrel lower next fiscal

compared with $45 in the current one. This means the transitory benefit of lower oil

prices will continue and afford an offset to the extra spending being made based on

the One Rank One Pension and Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.

Increased excise duty on oil will benefit the next fiscal year more, because thesecame into effect only from November 2015.


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On the financial sector front, some of the measures are welcome, though most of

them are along expected lines — such as the recapitalization of banks (where the

allocation of Rs 25,000 crore may be inadequate), the strengthening of asset

reconstruction companies, a dispute resolution regime for financial firms and

enabling the setting up of a Monetary Policy Committee to set interest rates. Education fares even worse. While there has been a slight increase in the allocation

in absolute terms, the budgetary allocation for education has declined, both as a

percentage of GDP and as a percentage of the total Budget. It was 0.5 per cent of

GDP and 3.8 per cent of the revenue expenditure for 2015-16, and it is down to 0.48

per cent of GDP and 3.7 per cent of the Budget estimates this year

Outlay of Rs.19,000 crore that the Central government will spend this year on rural

roads as part of its goal to ensure that all habitations are connected by 2019,

Push to achieve universal village electrification in the next two years. Between

improved road connectivity and the availability of electricity, the potential is

significant for a multiplier effect on the rural economy and improvements to the

quality of life for residents of the hinterland.

Social sector:

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

while the Mid-Day Meal scheme budget increased by 5%.

The Budget proposes the introduction of a health insurance scheme that would

provide up to Rs.1 lakh as coverage against hospitalization costs for economicallyweak households, with senior citizens above the age of 60 eligible for another

Rs.30,000 in top-up cover.

The National Health Mission budget increased by 2%, while the Mahatma Gandhi

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which according to the finance

minister had received its highest allocation yet in this budget, increased by 4% from

the previous years.

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), the flagship programme on rural sanitation, saw one

of the biggest jumps at 38%. However, this jump is in part due to lower revised

estimates. Health : the big jumps in allocation are in health insurance—the old Rashtriya

Swasthya Bima Yojana has been renamed and has received a 152% hike (Rs.900

crore

The allocation for the National Social Assistance Programme (for the aged, disabled,

widows, the Annapurna Scheme) has gone up only marginally, from Rs.9,000 crore

last year to Rs.9,500 crore.

The other, equally laudable, initiative is to provide all families below the poverty

line with cooking gas. This can afford those in underprivileged homes the dignity of

a quicker and less harmful way to keep their kitchen fires running.


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Cons of the Budget:

As for the farm sector, whose welfare is purportedly the primary focus of this

Budget, the allocation of Rs.35,000 crore is woefully inadequate given the drought-

related distress that farmers have faced for consecutive years. It covers only 20 per

cent of farmers, and there has been no effort to bring a greater number of farmers

into the net. It’s a good sign that small and marginal farmers find a mention, but

there was no mention of the landless farmer

Weak growth in advanced and emerging countries has taken its toll on India’s

exports. As imports have also declined, principally on account of reduced prices of

crude oil for which the country is heavily dependent on imports, trade and current

account deficits continue to be moderate.

Growth in agriculture has slackened due to two successive years of less-than-normal

monsoon rains. Saving and investment rates are showing hardly any signs of revival.The rupee has depreciated vis-a-vis the US dollar, like most other currencies in the

world, although less so in magnitude… Given the prevalent overall macroeconomic

scenario, and assuming a normal level of rains in 2016-17, it would not be

unreasonable to conclude that the Indian economy is all set to register growth in

excess of 7 per cent for the third year in succession

Another disappointment is that the government has made a very tentative beginning

in removing corporate tax exemptions and lowering the tax rate. The measures

announced reflect revenue-consciousness rather than growth consciousness

Even the two interesting initiatives announced by the Finance Minister – healthcover of Rs.1 lakh per family and a National Dialysis Service Programme — betray

an anxiety to help the private sector (through the PPP framework) rather than the

Indian patient.

At the same time, two long-standing demands have been ignored: universalizing

social pension for those over 55 years old, and increasing the minimum pension

amount from the abysmal Rs.300 per month to Rs.500 per month

While the health budget has seen a marginal increase of 9-10 per cent, it is way

below the 30-40 per cent increase needed to keep India on course for a health

allocation of 2 per cent of GDP in the medium term.

The ‘Vikas Ka Budget’ flyer on the new dynamic social sector included schemes like

the LPG connection, the health insurance program, the Stand Up India scheme, the

Jan Annusuddhi Yojana, but none of this can be pieced together into a coherent

narrative for what the government envisaged for social policy in India.

Many commentators have picked up on the important decision in the budget to end

the distinction between Plan and non-Plan expenditure. But an equally critical and

far-reaching change is in the decision to adopt the NITI Aayog recommendation to

streamline centrally sponsored schemes to 30, introduce a sunset clause and, above

all, undertake an outcome review.


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The Direct Taxes Code seems to have been buried permanently. There was only a

lukewarm reference to the GST bills, but there was no promise of accommodating

the legitimate criticism of the Opposition.

There is nothing in the budget for the urban middle classes, even in the form of a

symbolic rising of income tax exemption slabs that has been a feature of every singlebudget in recent years.

The worrying aspect in the current budget is about the banking sector. The Rs 25,000

crore provided for the capitalization of public-sector banks in this financial year is

woefully inadequate.

In the next five years, Public sector banks (PSBs) will require several multiples of this

amount to be able to meet the capital requirements of Basel III.

Another key announcement that is worrisome in this context relates to the

consolidation of PSBs. As we have witnessed with the merger of Indian Airlines and

Air India, bunching up two large and struggling PSUs only serves to exacerbate

problems for the merged entity. Consolidating PSBs without first empowering the

boards of these banks would create more costs for the financial system than

benefits.

Iconic barometer

Coming f inally to that iconic barometer of a government’s welfare intentions, the

MGNREGA, the budgetary allocation of Rs.38,500 crore, while marginally higher than

last year, is way below the amount needed (estimated to be at least Rs.50,000 crore)

to keep this scheme going in any meaningful fashion.

So be it education, health, pensions for the socially vulnerable, distressed farmers, or

MGNREGA, the 2016 Union Budget has nothing radical to offer.

Way ahead :

Global economy is in a serious crisis and does not seem to be coming out of it any

time soon. With international scope limited for exports, therefore, what was

required of this Budget was a direction to the economy in terms of generating

demand domestically, which in turn would generate employment for the fast-

growing unemployed youth population of this country. This Budget does little or

nothing on that count.

Government spending will have a critical role in improving both social and physical

infrastructure, and provision of subsidies to the needy. There is certainly scope for

the restructuring of government expenditure towards investment and better

targeting subsidies using the Aadhaar platform.


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

Investment and Public Asset Management and the abolition of the distinction

between Plan and Non-plan expenditure. Also welcome is the emphasis on sunset

date and outcome review on new schemes.

Given the fact that the global economy is tottering, there is a definite need to fosterdomestic demand to accelerate economic growth. At the same time, it is politically

and economically imperative that jobs are created in the formal sector to avoid the

demographic dividend becoming a demographic liability. Given these twin objectives

for the country, this year’s budget to be an admirable exercise.

While there are concerns regarding the budget’s ill effects on the banking sector, it is

an excellent budget because it helps to foster rural demand and attempts to fix risks

in the rural economy.

In the final analysis, it is a thoughtful, prudent and careful budget. But it is hard to

avoid the impression that it has been more careful than it needed to be, especially in

the critical areas of bank recapitalization and corporate tax reforms.

Connecting the dots:

Could this budget be the first step towards developing an outcome-based financing

model for social policy in India? Comment.


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NATIONAL

TOPIC: General studies 1: Role of women and women’s organization, women related

issues, Social empowerment

General studies 2: Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the

protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

Women Empowerment: Time to deliver on Women’s Reservation Bill

Issue: Call for revival of the Constitution (108th) Amendment Bill to reserve for women one-third of seats in Parliament and the State legislatures.

Status: The Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha in March 2010

Change at a glacial pace— Number of women legislators in the current Lok Sabha is a mere

12 per cent, it has steadily increased through the years (it was 5 per cent in 1951)

Real stumbling block to the Bill: The existing patriarchal mind-set within the very same

parties that have affirmed support to it (Congress & BJP; uniformly and strongly chauvinistic)

A country where ancient scripture placed women on a high pedestal—

Gender Development Index: 132nd

rank

Gender Equality Index: 127th

rank

Suffers from one of the lowest sex ratios (940 in 2011) in South Asia

Gender ratio on the electoral rolls: 800 (almost)

The obstacles to political empowerment are mainly in three areas —

1. Registration as voter,

2. Actual participation in voting,

3. Contesting as candidate

Coupled with—Over-arching gender prejudice in their respective parties

Reasons why female voter turnout is lower—

Concern for personal security

Dependence on the approval of family elders, especially men Lack of adequate toilet facilities


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Addressed—To motivate women to come out and vote, local women icons, Sharada Sinha,

in Bihar, and Malini Awasthy in UP, became the face and voice of the voter education

campaign proving the fate of election to be a game changer

Female voters at 54.85 per cent outnumbered male voters at 50.77 per cent in Bihar (2010),

and 60.28 and 58.68 per cent in UP (2012), with similar results subsequently in all other

states

General elections of 2014-

Women’s turnout shot up from 55.82 to 65.63 per cent — a jump of nearly 20 per

cent

16 states- Outnumbered their male counterparts

Gender gap- Used to be higher than 10 per cent, came down to an all-time low of

1.46 per cent

Participation of women as candidates—

India is way behind more backward countries of South Asia; even conservative Muslim

countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh have higher female representation

Breakthrough: The enactment of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution in

1992

2009: The Union cabinet approved an increase in reservation for women from 33 to 50 per

cent in Panchayati raj institutions

Bill for women’s reservation in legislatures: Been pending in Parliament

Patriarchal mind-set that plays foul:

Of the opinion that it’s difficult for women politicians to win

2014: Women were 7.9 per cent of total candidates, but 11.6 per cent of elected

MPs

Since 1957: Women’s “strike rate” has always been 50 to 350 per cent higher;

demonstrating that women’s ability to win is greater.

Testimonies to Affirmative Actions—

1917:Sarojini Naidu had joined a delegation of women to meet the viceroy to demand

suffrage for women

1919: Madras became the first province to take the revolutionary step of allowing women’s

franchise

1927: A 41-year-old medical doctor, Muthulakshmi Reddy, had become the first Indian

woman to become a member of the legislative council in Madras


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Post-independence: Equal voting rights to men and women (US took 144 years and the UK

100 years)

Today: The Lok Sabha speaker and chief ministers of four states are women

“There will never be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and electlawmakers.” – American social reformer Susan Anthony

At the local level—Architects of change and empowerment at the grassroots

Women’s political participation is increasing not only numerically but qualitatively as well

and has thrown up some real-life political heroines

Stories— From stagnation to Change(Source: The Better India)

1. ShushmaBhadu, 35 (Rural Haryana)

Elected in 2010 as the sarpanch of the DhaniMiyan Gram Panchayat in Fatehabad

district

Transformed the village in to a ‘model’ when it comes to women’s rights and the

survival of daughters

To put an end to the inhuman practice of female foeticide:

Announced a handsome cash reward of Rs 51,000 for informers who provide

tip-offs on those seeking and conducting sex determination tests and

backroom abortions

Instructed the local anganwadi and other health workers to remain alert and

immediately intimate the panchayat in case any such incident came to light

Result of this approach: Village has 426 females to 416 males

Educating local girls:

Panchayat has started covering the fees as well as expenses incurred on uniforms

and books for girl students up to Class Five for those parents who cannot afford to

support their daughters’ schooling

Result: Attendance is reportedly 100 per cent now with zero dropouts and students

of higher classes, who have to go to distant schools, have been provided with cycles

to help them continue their studies

2. Nayana Patra, 45 (Odisha)

At Baraun Gram Panchayat of Dhenkenal district in Odisha

Put an end to alcoholism in her village:

Imposed a fine on those found drunk-

Discourage such anti-social behaviour

With the fund, created a fund to build toilets in the village-built six public

toilets at convenient places to usher in a higher standard of public hygiene


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Education-

Got a residential school built for village girls

Mid-day meals to students from Class I to VIII while keeping a strict vigil on

the quality of the food served; when they realised that the Self Help Groups

were not managing the meals properly, they were immediately replaced witha seven-member Village Education Committee

Protection of the local forests from the timber mafia-

Has put together a brigade of fierce women to patrol the 250-acre Sal forest

that abuts the village

Five groups of 15-20 women have been formed and they discharge their

forest protection duties by rotation, each with a stick in her hand

Has also planted around a thousand cashew plants on unused government

land

3.

All-women Gram Panchayat of Sisva village in Gujarat’s Anand district

Sisva—As per the guidelines of the Samras Scheme

Established two Reverse Osmosis (RO) water plants that provide potable

water to families

Each house has a toilet and a few public utilities have been constructed

strategically to eliminate open defecation

All roads in this 7,000-strong village have been paved and duly lined with

solar lights that keep the streets safe after dark.

Garbage bins have been placed in all the right places and the markets area

has been cleaned and given a facelift

Working on creating a website as a first step towards making Sisva an e-

village.

Setting up a small-scale industry to give a much-needed boost to women’s

employment in the area is next in line.

4. PremaTimmanagoudar (Karnataka)

Spearheading the cause of better sanitation in a remote village of Khanapur in

Karnataka

Goal: A toilet in every single house of the Khanapur village within a monthChallenges:

Raise nearly Rs. 4 lakh for the construction of these toilets as this money

would be reimbursed by the government only after the completion of the

project

Convincing people to allow building a toilet in their private space and making

them overcome the dread of the resultant odour as peoplewere just too used

to defecating in the open


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Community-participation:

Every villager helped in the construction process

Women: Provided food for the labourers

30-50 youngsters worked alongside the construction workers; for every one

labourer, they deputed three villagers to speed up the workResult: In a record time of 24 working days, 173 toilets were constructed in the

village.

Need of the hour—Gender Analysis

Gender analysis needs to be made a critical element of updating electoral rolls and has since

been employed from the year 2006

Gender sensitivity- Taken into account while publishing photo electoral rolls;

mandatory to give a hard copy of the rolls to recognised parties The EC: Stopped handing out the soft copy as women’s photos could be subjected to

abuses like morphing

Separate queues and the deployment of women police and polling staff

Need for the parties to push more women workers into the political arena and give

them more tickets

Voters need to be made aware of the importance of women participation &

representation and thus, should be imparted the idea of voting only for those parties

that give a fair share of tickets to women

Related Articles:

THE POWER OF PARITY: ADVANCING WOMEN’S EQUALITY IN INDIA

http://iasbaba.com/2015/11/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-5th-november-2015/

Women at Work

http://iasbaba.com/2016/01/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-14th-january-2016/

Gender Justice in Religious institutions: Case against Customary Exclusion

http://iasbaba.com/2016/01/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-15th-january-2016/

http://iasbaba.com/2015/11/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-5th-november-2015/http://iasbaba.com/2015/11/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-5th-november-2015/http://iasbaba.com/2016/01/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-14th-january-2016/http://iasbaba.com/2016/01/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-14th-january-2016/http://iasbaba.com/2016/01/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-15th-january-2016/http://iasbaba.com/2016/01/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-15th-january-2016/http://iasbaba.com/2016/01/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-15th-january-2016/http://iasbaba.com/2016/01/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-14th-january-2016/http://iasbaba.com/2015/11/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-5th-november-2015/


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TOPIC: General studies 2

Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and

issues arising out of their design and implementation;

Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance-

applications, models, successes, limitations and potential


Aadhaar Project: An ambitious project that seeks to provide unique identification numbers

to each individual in a country of over a billion people, collecting demographic and

biometric information in the process

Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill,

2016: To provide for “efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and

services”

Legislative Vacuum?

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

used conveniently on an open platform, satisfying multiple stakeholders and

ensuring privacy in the flow.

The infrastructure, if properly developed can help government go paperless,

presence-less and cashless; catapulting India to the front of the league of nations

whose governments use technology to create an effective, efficient and modernwelfare state that treats its people with dignity.

But the question over the much-required legal validity for Aadhaar has garnered

attention once again, with the Aadhaar Bill resting amidst many legal and political

challenges and a change in government; being issued already for over 98 crore in

numbers.

The regulatory legitimacy thus, is much sought after, to let it operate at its full potential.

Aadhaar Bill—

Enrolment is voluntary; shall only be used as proof of identity and not as proof of

citizenship

Will enable the government to prevent fraud, corruption and waste by requiring the

Aadhaar number for delivery of any benefit, subsidy or service from the

Consolidated Fund of India, such as LPG subsidy, MGNREGA wages, various insurance

schemes, provident fund schemes, government scholarships, and much more

Does not prohibit the usage of Aadhaar for any other purpose by any public or

private entity

Provision of privacy protection –


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Use limitation— it can only be used for the purpose for which the user gives

consent

Collection limitation— no information other than demographic (name, address,

date of birth, sex and, optionally, email id/ mobile number) and biometric

(photo, fingerprint and iris scan) will be collected. No other personal informationof an individual will be in the Aadhaar database

Access and Rectification— the user can access his own information and has an

obligation to rectify it if it needs updating

No demographic information or identity information received from the Unique

Identification Authority of India can be displayed publicly

Only exception to certain confidentiality (but not security) obligations is national

security : Provided an order to disclose information is issued either (limited time

period)-

By a court or By a joint secretary or

Higher officer, and

Vetted by a high-powered committee headed by the cabinet secretary

No core biometric information can be shared is a principle without exception —

people saying that core biometric information will be shared are wrong because

Clause 29(1) is not overridden by Clause 33(2)

Bill includes stringent penalties, including imprisonment for breach of privacy and

other violations

Section 29(4)- No Aadhaar number or biometric information will be made public “except for

the purposes as may be specified by regulations”

Section (33)- The inbuilt confidentiality clauses will not stand when it concerns national

security

Potential:

To be used as a powerful instrument against retail corruption

To deepen financial inclusion To eliminate the usage of more than 2,000 crore pages of paper (a low guesstimate)

Enable more than 300 million daily seekers of government services to save at least

two hours every day

Eliminate fraud in government subsidies of at least Rs. 50,000 crore every year

Enable linking individuals to an organisation that has a unique enterprise number,

shifting enforcement to big data

Unclog our highways and eliminate waiting rooms in hospitals as well as eliminate

fraud in degrees and substantially improve labour market matching


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Way Ahead- Danger of “Digital Colonisation”:

The concern over the increased access to the information over the internet is a

matter to be seriously thought over as the ball going in the field of a few internet

‘gatekeepers’ tracking all our digital activities is extremely high.

Therefore, need for the Aadhaar platform, to promise an open, secure and privacy-

protected digital ID to a billion Indian residents to access the internet, will be a

critical bulwark to ensure our digital independence.

Connecting the Dots:

What do you mean by Digital Colonization? What are the steps that India can take to

overcome the danger of digital colonisation?

TOPIC: General Studies 2


issues arising out of their design and implementation

Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance-

applications, models, successes, limitations and potential

Updating Aadhar for better privacy

Aadhaar Project: An ambitious project that seeks to provide unique identification numbersto each individual in a country of over a billion people, collecting demographic and

biometric information in the process

Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill,

2016: To provide for “efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and

services”

Privacy with Aadhaar—

The issue is related here with the fundamental view of how data are to be accessed andused

Perspective behind UID’s design should assume the worst, and try to prevent linking of

databases by third parties, or unintended usage

If not, it could lead to not only an abstract violation of privacy but also very specific and

troubling asymmetries in commercial transactions and citizen empowerment/rights,

including through profiling


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Aadhar Bill says—

Provision of privacy protection

Use limitation— it can only be used for the purpose for which the user gives consent

Collection limitation— no information other than demographic (name, address, date

of birth, sex and, optionally, email id/ mobile number) and biometric (photo,

fingerprint and iris scan) will be collected. No other personal information of an

individual will be in the Aadhaar database

Access and Rectification— the user can access his own information and has an

obligation to rectify it if it needs updating

No demographic information or identity information received from the Unique

Identification Authority of India can be displayed publicly

Only exception to certain confidentiality (but not security) obligations is national security:Provided an order to disclose information is issued either (limited time period)-

By a court or

By a joint secretary or

Higher officer, and

Vetted by a high-powered committee headed by the cabinet secretary

-No core biometric information can be shared is a principle without exception — people

saying that core biometric information will be shared are wrong because Clause 29(1) is not

overridden by Clause 33(2)

-Bill includes stringent penalties, including imprisonment for breach of privacy and other

violations

What if we could have a UID that was never inter-linkable across users, but yet at the

same time uniquely linked to the person through biometrics?

Possible through a base UID (like we have today) plus modifications per user (if not

per use); would use a one-way hash that would be irreversible so that the longer

number or code couldn’t reveal the base UID number

Benefits:

A corporation or other user could not create a linked database for profiling —

they would all have different UID+ numbers

To even get the UID+, the cryptographic process could be restricted to

authorised users; thus, preventing the UID from becoming a casual identifier


What do you mean by Digital Colonization? What are the steps that India can take toovercome the danger of digital colonisation?


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Related Articles:


http://iasbaba.com/2016/03/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-9th-march-2016/


Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.

Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.

A tale of two communalisms

On February 18, 1983, 2,191 Muslims, mainly women, children and the old, were

hacked to death with machetes and daggers in Nellie, Assam.

For a massacre of genocidal proportions, not a single person has been brought to

book in 33 years.

Nellie does not even exist in the public memory.

The tragic irony is that a nation threatened by anti-national slogans in not

threatened by actual slaughter, whether it is Nellie, Delhi 1984, Gujarat 2002 or

Muzaffarnagar 2013.

Majoritarian logic present in India:

The majoritarian logic is based on the premise that the majority religious

community can commit any act of mass violence, but that will not be anti-national.

What is anti-national is only minority violence.

This logic was clearly evident in the response to the Malda riot in January, something

that acquires criticalness with the looming West Bengal elections.

Emergence of two communalism:

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

communalism and Muslim minority communalism and thesecularism was termed as

merely pseudo-secularism.

Equalising the unequal:

There is a growing demand within the country to equalise the two communalisms

and to stop the communal tensions and riots between the two communities.

However it is precisely this demand for equivalence that is dangerous at the

moment, for it ignores some fundamental distinctions between the two types of

communalism.

http://iasbaba.com/2016/03/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-9th-march-2016/http://iasbaba.com/2016/03/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-9th-march-2016/http://iasbaba.com/2016/03/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-9th-march-2016/


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First, it equalises what cannot be equalised, for equality is not the equal treatment

of unequal entities.

And second, it participates in the increasing conflation of Hindu communalism with

nationalism.

Comparing the two communalisms:

Minority communalism can never be compared with majority communalism, for the

former is ghettoised and mainly feeds upon its own people (think the ulemas and

Shah Bano), the very people it claims to represent, while the latter thrives by

feeding off the society at large, including the minorities.

Other than the brute power that being 80 per cent of the population brings, majority

communalism is infinitely more consequential for it determines the socio-political

discourse, leaving minority communalism to defend itself and ghettoise further.

Dangerous majority communalism:

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

official ideology of the Indian state, as the Sangh Parivar would want it to be.

Minority communalism can never dream of state power.

Here Jawaharlal Nehru’s words are valid even now: both Hindu and Muslim

communalism are bad.

“But Muslim communalism cannot dominate Indian society and introduce fascism,

that only Hindu communalism can.”

Therefore whether it is the communal riots of Gujarat, Moradabad, Bhagalpur,

Bombay or Muzaffarnagar, the overwhelming number of those killed are Muslims.

Thus it is counterintuitive for the minority Muslims to provoke riots, for they would

be the primary victims, as fatalities and as refugees in camps.

Second class citizens:

The Indian Muslim today feels like a second-class citizen, an emotion which can only

be understood by looking at intolerance as discrimination at a quotidian level (for

example, the state witch-hunt through draconian anti-terror laws).

No society built on religious discrimination or of caste oppression can be termed as

tolerant.

But what is new after 2014 is that this now mixes with the ballast of state-backed

Hindutva, which sees the Muslim as well as the politically radical Dalit

(RohithVemula, for instance) as dangerous anti-nationals.

The above trend is very dangerous for the political social and economic framework of the

country along with its unity in diversity.

Way ahead:

Only a coalition of the oppressed castes, classes and gender across religions canovercome communalism.


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But that struggle for secularisation has to go along with the resistance to the

majoritarian attempt to equate majority and minority communalism.

The scourge and cycle of communal hatred and violence can be stopped only by

ending first the history of false equivalences and selective silences.


Explain the difference between communalism and fundamentalism along with

measures taken by the government to check communalism in India.


Government policies and interventions for development i n various sectors andissues arising out of their design and implementation.

Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

The Real Estate Bill

In order to regulate the real estate sector, the Rajya Sabha has cleared the Real

Estate Regulatory Bill. Real estate contributes nine per cent to the national GDP and

the Bill’s passage was seen as crucial to ensuring better regulatory oversight and

orderly growth in the industry. The Bill puts a mandate for the developers to deposit, in a separate account, 70 per

cent of the project’s cost – inclusive of land and construction cost. This is in

opposition to the deposit of 50 per cent of the construction cost recommended by

the Parliamentary Select Committee

Global Real Estate Transparency Index compiled by property advisory JLL in 2014—

India falls in the ‘semi-transparent’ category; India’s tier-I property markets ranked

40th in the list, while the tier-II cities are at 42nd position

The UK and the US topped the list in the ‘highly transparent’ categories.

The 70% figure:

Will ensure that builders do not squander away this amount for any other purpose,

apart from construction

Developers can pump in a major part of the sales proceeds into lucrative deals for

purchase of more land, instead of focusing on completion of the respective project


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In case of metropolitan cities, the land cost makes for a large chunk of the total

project cost and according to the bill, developers can withdraw the money stipulated

to this, leaving behind a meager amount in a separate account for taking care of the

construction

The bill allows for a one year extension to the builders for completion of the project

What is good about the bill?

Will lead to regularisation of the real estate industry, bringing relief to consumers

and other stakeholders

Enhanced credit flows will enrich the industry

Developers may get rid of exorbitant borrowing costs owing to the infrastructure

status, that may be granted by Ministry of Finance after enactment of this bill

Ensure efficiency in all property related transactions and improve accountability of

developers

Key highlights:

Laws—

Setting up of Housing Regulatory Authority and Appellate Tribunal(s) within each

state and within six months’ time, rules will have to be made by the state

governments for its functioning. At every level, it has to be ensured that cases are

cleared within 60 days

This legislation will apply to all projects that have yet not received a completion

certificate and have an area of more than 500 sq. m or have over eight flats

It will be mandatory for the projects to be registered and the regulator’s website

should have all the necessary public disclosure of details related to each project; in

addition, a quarterly progress report will have to be made public on the website

If a developer does not receive a response on his application within one month, the

project will automatically get registered

Mandatory for every real estate agent to be formally registered

A committee having the Chief Justice of High Court, the law secretary and thehousing secretary will be selected by the members and chairmen of appellate

tribunals as well as regulatory authorities

Projects beyond the coverage of urban areas will also come under the regulator’s

purview

In case a project completion is delayed for genuine reasons, an extension of

maximum one year can be granted by the authority

If the builder fails to observe orders given by the appellate tribunal, they may face

imprisonment of up to three years and/or attract monetary fines. In case of buyers

and estate agents, the imprisonment will last for one year or/and a monetary fine


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The matters mentioned in the legislation, cannot be taken up by the Civil Courts. But

the aggrieved parties may still approach various (644 in total) consumer courts. In

case of dissatisfaction from the ruling passed by the tribunal, the party can approach

the High Court within 60 days

The Pact—

A model pact between consumers and developers will have to be provided

If a developer engages in fraudulent activities, it can lead to revocation of the

registration and in case like these, the project’s account may be frozen and the

money can be utilised for its completion

If builders are unnecessarily delaying the possession, they will be liable to pay

interest equivalent to what they levy on buyers who default

In order to make changes to the original plans, permission of two- thirds of the

buyers is mandatory, irrespective of sanctions received by the planning body

It is obligatory for the developers to get their projects insured

Passage of property to home buyers within three months is compulsory

Till five years af ter completion, any structural defects are the developer’s liability

After three months of majority units being allotted, the buyers will have to form an

association within three months, which will take care of the common facilities and

areas

Steps will be taken to implement Single window project clearance, project grading

and digitisation of land records

IASbaba’s Views:

Industry figures available for the last seven years show that of the 25 lakh residential

projects launched in eight cities in the country, 88 per cent have been delayed. Thus,

the demand of the Bill to be a pro-consumer measure is an important characteristic.

For instance, the builders will be granted a one-year additional extension to finish

their projects but at the same time, some punitive measures need to be introduced

so that this one-year extension is not sought needlessly.

The Bill formulated should work upon weeding out malpractices and unscrupulous

builders from the industry. These measures will help in bringing transparency and

lead to projects getting completed on time since the punitive measures include

imprisonment of builders.


Is the inclusion of the land cost as a part of 70% rule— a real-time possibility for the

future of the Real Estate business in the country? Discuss


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issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

New regime in oil and gas exploration

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, has approved the Hydrocarbon

Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP).

Main facets of the policy:

Four main facets of this policy are:

1.

Uniform license for exploration and production of all forms of hydrocarbon:

This will allow energy companies to produce whatever form of hydrocarbon is

available from a licensed block—coal bed methane, shale gas/oil, tight gas and gas

hydrates etc without seeking separate permission for producing each of the fuels.

2. An open acreage policy:

Under this companies can bid to explore certain blocks and then the hydrocarbons

regulator will subsequently examine their geological findings.

This means that companies can start to look at blocks that have not already been put

out for bidding by the government.

3.

Easy to administer revenue sharing model: The government has prospectively replaced the existing profit-sharing

arrangement in hydrocarbon exploration with a revenue-sharing formula.

The revenue-sharing formula may help prevent future disputes over pricing

and cost recovery of the kind the government has been embroiled in with

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).

4. Marketing and pricing freedom for the crude oil and natural gas produced:

How will the new policy help?

The policy will enhance domestic oil & gas production, bring substantialinvestment in the sector and generate sizable employment.

The policy is also aimed at enhancing transparency and reducing administrative

discretion.

The policy eases doing business in India:

Present fiscal system of production sharing based on Investment Multiple and cost

recovery /production linked payment will be replaced by a easy to

administer revenue sharing model.


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The earlier contracts were based on the concept of profit sharing where profits are

shared between Government and the contractor after recovery of cost.

Under the profit sharing methodology, it became necessary for the Government to

scrutinize cost details of private participants and this led to many delays and

disputes. Under the new regime, the Government will not be concerned with the cost

incurred and will receive a share of the gross revenue from the sale of oil, gas etc.

This is in tune with Government’s policy of “Ease of Doing Business”.

In tune with policy “Minimum Government –Maximum Governance”:

Recognising the higher risks and costs involved in exploration and production from

offshore areas, lower royalty rates for such areas have been provided as compared

to NELP royalty rates to encourage exploration and production.

A graded system of royalty rates have been introduced, in which royalty ratesdecreases from shallow water to deepwater and ultra-deep water.

At the same time, royalty rate for on land areas have been kept intact so that

revenues to the state governments are not affected.

On the lines of NELP, cess and import duty will not be applicable on blocks awarded

under the new policy.

This policy also provides for marketing freedom for crude oil and natural gas

produced from these blocks.

This is in tune with Government’s policy of “Minimum Government –Maximum

Governance”.


Critically examine the problems associated with oil and natural gas sector in India

along with measures taken by the government to overcome them.

Critically evaluate the provisions of the proposed new Hydrocarbon Exploration and

Licensing Policy (HELP).


Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, features, amendments, significant

provisions and basic structure.

Parliament and State Legislatures – structure, functioning, conduct of business,

powers & privileges and issues arising out of these

Sponsored Amendment to the Motion of Thanks

Rajya Sabha has adopted an Opposition-sponsored amendment to the Motion of Thanks on

the President’s Address; being the second one in a row.


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2015: The Motion of Thanks was amended on the issue of black money

2016: The Motion of Thanks amendment focussed on legislation passed by Bharatiya Janata

Party governments in Rajasthan and Haryana

The legislation limits the rights of citizens to contest panchayat elections (deprivingalmost 50 per cent of the population from contesting elections)

The new rule disqualifies many poor rural women who have not had the benefit of

education, from contesting elections, a basic right.

Motion of Thanks:

The President makes an address to a joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget

session, which is prepared by the government and lists its achievements

It is then, discussed by both the Houses of Parliament, amendments may be suggested

and put to vote (Motion of Thanks)

This Motion must be passed, failing which it amounts to the defeat of the government

leading to resignation

Would they have to resign if passed in the Rajya Sabha—

No, but it has the potential to undermine the government’s ability at consensus-building

This signals the fact that ‘Rajya Sabha’ cannot be taken for granted and the government

in power should work hard to reach out to the Opposition and forge a working

consensus on the legislative agenda.

History:

1980: First instance; on the issue of engineering defections

1989: Six amendments— including on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute and the

India-Sri Lanka accord — were approved

2001: The House adopted an amendment on the sale of a public sector undertaking, Balco,

to a private company.


India needs a quantum jump, not merely incremental progress. Discuss

Has the Haryana and Rajasthan Acts undressed the deficiency in the 73rd and 74th

amendment as well as the deficiency which lies in Article 243(F) of the Constitution?

Critically examine.


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Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments,

significant provisions and basic structure.

Freedom from a Colonial rule book

Sections 377 and 124A of the Indian Penal Code highlight how the British left their

stamp upon India’s criminal law in a manner entirely inconsistent with a democratic,

constitutional republic.

A relic of our colonial past:

Most major Indian laws are legacies of the British, the results of a great codificationmovement that failed to make much headway in the colonial metropolis, and

therefore chose India as its laboratory.

Apart from the Indian Penal Code or IPC (1860), there is the Indian Evidence Act

(1872), the Indian Contract Act (1872), the Transfer of Property Act (1882), the

General Clauses Act (1897), the Code of Civil Procedure (1908), the Code of Criminal

Procedure (1898).

Crime, contract, property, and legal procedure, the bastions of any legal system have

come down to us, in 2016, largely preserved since the time of their inception.

Contemporary issue:

In recent times, two provisions of the IPC have been in the news.

1. Section 377 was back in the headlines after two years, when the Supreme Court

agreed to refer the curative petition against its earlier decision upholding its

constitutional validity to a bench of five judges.

Section 377, which imposed the completely alien term “carnal intercourse

against the order of nature” upon the Indian public, is one of the clearest

examples of the Victorian morality that pervades the IPC.

2. The other provision is Section 124A, the offence of sedition.

Created to deal with the rising Wahhabi movement in the 1870s, used

against Gandhi, Tilak, Besant and many other stalwarts of the freedom

movement, and in its latest avatar, invoked against sloganeering university

students, the law of sedition is perhaps amongst the most recognisable and

notorious provisions of the IPC.

Victorian morality, imperial logic:

1.

Section 377 embodies a form of colonial morality, drawn from Victorian England,famously repressed and repressive when it came to sex.


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Other sections of IPC which are repressive when it comes to sex:

It is the above colonial morality that is also the basis of Section 497 of the

IPC, f or instance, which punishes a man for adultery, but exempts the

woman (who can be punished only as an “abettor”, and not as the primary

offender).

Section 498, which punishes “enticing” a married woman. It is a morality

that views women as the passive partners in a sexual relationship, led astray

by unscrupulous men, and unable to take responsibility for their own

actions.

Section 375, which places forced sexual intercourse between a husband and

a wife outside the definition of “rape”, is based upon a belief that marriage

entails a one-time, permanent and irrevocable consent to sex.

2.

Section 124A, on the other hand, reflects a colonial logic, predicated upon asubject-ruler relationship between the Indians and the British.

Its prohibition upon spreading “disaffection” against the government, and

the manner of its use, makes it clear that it was enacted to preserve the

reputation of the colonial government in the eyes of its subjects.

Two other speech-based offences follow a similar logic.

Section 295A, which was enacted in the aftermath of religious riots across north

India in the 1920s, criminalises insulting the religious beliefs of any “class” of citizens.

Section 153A criminalises promoting “enmity” between different groups.

These provisions reflect the British strategy of dividing the subcontinent into clearly

identifiable “groups”, and managing the relationships between them.

Comprehensive relook needed:

1. The problems with the IPC cannot be solved in a piecemeal manner by taking

isolated sections of the code and attempting to modernise them (as the Verma

Committee tried to do with the laws of sexual assault, in the aftermath of the

Nirbhaya case).

2. This is not a task that the judiciary can accomplish, with all the will in the world and

with the best of intentions.

It is for the legislature to take a comprehensive relook at the IPC for the first

time in its 156-year history and introduce reforms that do not merely tinker

at the edges but transform the very philosophy of the penal law in a manner

that is consistent with our constitutional principles.

Adherence to constitution:

Any reform w.r.t the colonial laws have to be carried out in conformity with the

basic principles of the Constitution.


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Three of those principles are individual autonomy, the freedom of speech and

conscience, and equality.

In light of these principles, laws that claim to protect individuals from moral

degradation and corruption (the package of obscenity laws) and that are based

upon stereotypical assumptions about men and women, must be reviewed andmodernised in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution.


Is colonial mentality hindering India’s development? Critically examine the

statement wrt various colonial laws that have come under scrutiny in the recent

past.


Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.

Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.

Of love and honour killings

Why the issue is in news?

On March 13,2016, 22-year-old V.

Shankar and his 19-year-old wife

Kausalya were attacked by a five-member gang in broad daylight in

Udumalpet, in Tamil Nadu’s

Tirupur district.

Dozens of bystanders remained

spectators as Sankar was hacked to

death, and a battered Kausalya too

left in a pool of blood.

The young woman survived the

attack.

A confirmed honour killing:

Shankar, a Dalit, and Kausalya, who hails from the OBC Thevar community, married

eight months ago in defiance of her family’s objections.

And the attack was confirmed as an “honour” killing a day later when her father

surrendered.


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In a television interview, Kausalya said she and her husband had been receiving

threats from her family even after marriage.

The matter was taken to the police but her account suggests that nothing much was

done to ensure their safety.

Honour killings: violation of apex court judgement

1. The response of the gang clearly goes against the Supreme Court ruling in Lata Singh

v. State of U.P. (2006)ordering “stern action” against all those threatening or

carrying out threats against couples.

“There is nothing honourable in such killings, and in fact they are nothing but

barbaric and shameful acts of murder committed by brutal, feudal-minded

persons who deserve harsh punishment,” the judgment said.

2. In fact, the apex court, in BhagwanDass v. Delhi in May 2011, deemed honour

killings in the “rarest of rare” category of crimes that deserve the death penalty.

Government response to honour killings:

The apex court, in BhagwanDass v. Delhi in May 2011, deemed honour killings in

the “rarest of rare” category of crimes that deserve the death penalty.

Soon after, the Central government proposed that Section 300 of the Indian Penal

Code be amended to include ‘honour killings’ within the definition of murder.

But rejecting this proposal, the Law Commission drafted the Prohibition of Unlawful

Assembly (Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances) Bill, 2011 that

sought to declare khap panchayats (katta panchayats in Tamil Nadu) unlawful.

Tamil Nadu was not among the 22 States and Union Territories which supported

the recommendation to bring a bill to prevent ‘honour killings’.

A statistical look into honour killings in Tamil Nadu:

According to National Crime Records Bureau data, the number of Dalits murdered in

2014 rose to 73 from 28 the previous year.

It is also important to note that the Chairman of the National Scheduled Castes

Commission, claimed that hardly 10 per cent of crimes against Scheduled Castes end

in conviction.

Political parties in Tamil Nadu turn deaf ears to honour killings:

The two major Dravidian parties (the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India

Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), which claim to be legatees of Periyar's Self-

Respect movement, have largely remained spectators to the violent assertion of

caste identity.

In fact, the AIADMK government refused to acknowledge the growing instances of

honour killings in Tamil Nadu when the matter was raised by the Left parties in the

Assembly.

Reasons for weak reaction by political parties:


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The weak reaction from these parties to the violence stems not only from the

insecurity of losing crucial vote banks but also the financial might that some of

these groups hold.

In contrast, there are very few senior Dalit functionaries in both the DMK and the

AIADMK, though Dalits account for more than 20 per cent of Tamil Nadu’spopulation.

To love cannot be a crime:

In Lata Singh v. State of U.P , the Supreme Court had said:“… inter-caste marriages

are in fact in the national interest as they will result in destroying the caste

system.”

Emphasizing the issue of choosing one’s own partner as a fundamental right, the All

India Democratic Women’s Association had demanded enactment of a

comprehensive law on honour crimes that goes beyond just the act of murder and

focuses on aspects such as compensation to and rehabilitation of the affected

family.

That demand still hangs fire.

To love cannot be a crime in a nation that is aiming to be a superpower.


What do you understand by honour killings? Critically examine the legal sanctity of

honour killings with reference to apex court judgements.

General Studies 2:



Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector or Services

relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

General Studies 3:

Environmental pollution and degradation, Government Budgeting.

A coffin named Tobacco

Tobacco consumption in the global world today, forms one of the most preventable causes

of morality. Tobacco and its products are made entirely or partly of leaf tobacco as raw

material and all of them contain the highly addictive ingredient, nicotine.

Total health expenditure burden from all diseases due to tobacco use: Amounts to more

than Rs.1,00,000 crore (12 per cent more than the combined State and Central government

expenditure on health in 2011-12)


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Revenue earned through tobacco excise duty during the same period was a paltry 17 per

cent of the health burden of tobacco

WHO:

Almost around 6 million people die from tobacco use and exposure to tobaccosmoke

One death in every six seconds

22% of the world’s population aged 15+ is smokers

Global Youth Tobacco Survey (2009)

Nearly 15 per cent of children in India in the 13-15 age group who used some form of

tobacco:

Only 4.5 per cent smoked cigarettes;

12.5 per cent used other forms of tobacco such as bidis and chewing tobacco

Case of adults in India, of the nearly 35 per cent tobacco users in 2009-2010:

only 5.7 per cent smoked cigarettes

Bidi and chewing tobacco users were 9.2 per cent and nearly 26 per cent,

respectively.

Tobacco Fiscal Policy in India

Tax hikes do not match increase in real income

Multiplicity of tobacco taxes: Makes administration difficult and provides

opportunities for tax avoidance and tax evasion

Differentials in tax rates on cigarette, bidis and smokeless products provide

consumers flexibility to shift to cheaper products when higher taxes are imposed

Multiple slabs: Allows manufacturers to keep prices intact despite tax raises thereby

defeating the very purpose of putting up hikes in the first place

Bidi-smokers Value chain:

Bidi consumers are more responsive to tobacco price increases than cigarette

consumers

Excise on bidis can be increased by 100 percent of current excise, without any loss of

revenue


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Bidi VAT rates vary greatly across states and rationalization and equalization of bidi

taxes across the states is imperative to minimize adverse health costs and effects

Case of pictorial warnings—

India: Ranked 136 among 198 countries in terms of prominence of pictorial health warningson tobacco packaging

Of that covering 85 per cent of the principal display area on both sides of all tobacco

products

Hit a roadblock by mentioning that increasing the size of the warning from the

current 40 per cent on only one side of the packet to 85 per cent on both sides

would be “too harsh” on the tobacco industry

Alternative: Increasing the size to just 50 per cent with warning on just one side of it

going against the grain of introducing larger pictorial warnings Arguments:

Tobacco consumption in India has increased and not declined after pictorial

warnings were introduced in 2009

Claimed that pictorial warnings would encourage illicit trade (sale of illicit

tobacco products is more likely to be linked to cost of tobacco products than

larger pictorial warnings)

Why is there a need for pictorial warnings—

Poor and illiterate people are unaware of all the risks associated with tobacco

use

Less exposed to awareness campaigns

Larger images on both sides of the packet—

Most effective and powerful way to communicate health risks to this population

provoke a greater emotional response,

decrease tobacco consumption and

increase motivation to quit

IASbaba’s Views:

There is an urgent need to consolidate voices to

o Expose industry tactics,

o Spread the truth about tobacco harm,

o Creating social movements,

o Litigate against industry violations and interference


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Taxation:

o Tax increases on tobacco products should be indexed to both consumer price

indices/inflation and rise in incomes, to reduce the affordability of tobacco

products and to minimize incentives for tobacco users to switch consumption

to lower priced brands or products in response to tax increases

o Urgent reforms in removing the multiplicity of tax structure for improved tax

administration and regulation

o Introduce uniform value-added taxes on cigarettes and bidis across states

o Impose a special surcharge on their sales/profits and make them

compulsorily contribute towards cost of treatment of cancer in the public

hospitals

Use of alternative products (water pipes, smokeless tobacco & electronic nicotine

delivery system) are gaining in popularity and should be addressed by introducing

some control or regulation measures

Crack down of cigarette smuggling (digital tax stamp using invisible ink, barcodes or a

security mark- to keep illicit trade under check

Behavioural Approach needs to be developed to bring about an opposite trend of

staying away from it


‘The future of tobacco control rests on successfully enacting comprehensive tobacco

control measures’. Do you think steps taken by India can serve the purpose

presented by WHO incorporating a larger perspective?




Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.

Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector or Services

relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Getting Medical Education on track

Why in news?

Recently Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) submitted its report to the

parliament which stressed on the need to reform the Medical Council of India (MCI).


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iasbaba's march monthly magazine (1).pdf

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