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Contents GS-1 ......................................................................................................................................................... 3

Geography ........................................................................................................................................... 3

The Shrinking Shola Forests in the Nilgiris ...................................................................................... 3

Biorock Accretion Technology ........................................................................................................ 6

Annual Solar Eclipse ........................................................................................................................ 8

GS-2 ....................................................................................................................................................... 12

POLITY ............................................................................................................................................... 12

Supreme Court Verdict on AGR .................................................................................................... 12

Gram Nyayalayas .......................................................................................................................... 15

Office of the Speaker .................................................................................................................... 16

Parliamentary Speech and Conduct .............................................................................................. 19

Global Gender Gap Index .............................................................................................................. 21

Recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission ................................................................... 24

Divisible Pool of Taxes .................................................................................................................. 25

Major recommendations of 15th FC ............................................................................................ 25

IR ....................................................................................................................................................... 27

Ujh Multi-purpose Project ............................................................................................................ 27

Indus Waters Treaty, 1960 ........................................................................................................... 28

SOCIAL SECTOR (HEALTH) ................................................................................................................. 29

Global Report on Medical Data Leak ............................................................................................ 29

GS-3 ....................................................................................................................................................... 30

ECONOMY ......................................................................................................................................... 30

Global Talent Competitive Index-2020 ......................................................................................... 30

Highlights of Economic Survey 2019-20........................................................................................ 32

Fiscal Space Management in India ................................................................................................ 44

ENVIRONMENT ................................................................................................................................. 47

SNOWEX ........................................................................................................................................ 47

SCI AND TECH .................................................................................................................................... 50

The Blue Dot Network ................................................................................................................... 50

AVANGARD: The Hypersonic Glide Vehicle................................................................................... 54

Global intellectual property index. ............................................................................................... 56

Quantum Technology? .................................................................................................................. 57



Space Internet ............................................................................................................................... 60

Spitzer Space Telescope ................................................................................................................ 62

What is InSight .............................................................................................................................. 65

SECURITY ........................................................................................................................................... 67

BODO ACCORD .............................................................................................................................. 67

ENVIRONMENT ................................................................................................................................. 70

Reintroduction of African Cheetahs in Indian Forests .................................................................. 70

Corona Virus .................................................................................................................................. 72

Ramsar Wetland Sites in India ...................................................................................................... 77

GS-4 ....................................................................................................................................................... 78

GS-1

Geography

The Shrinking Shola Forests in the Nilgiris

• The Shola forests of South India derive their name from the Tamil word solai, which means a ‘tropical rain forest’.

• Classified as ‘Southern Montane Wet Temperate Forest’ the Sholas are found in the upper reaches of the Nilgiris, Annamalai’s, Palni hills, Kalakadu, Mundanthurai and Kanyakumari in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

• These forests are found sheltered in valleys with sufficient moisture and proper drainage, at an altitude of more than 1,500 metres.

https://www.imbibedu.com/the-shrinking-shola-forests-in-the-nilgiris/



Vegetation

• The upper reaches are covered with grasslands, known as Shola grasslands.

• The vegetation that grows in Shola forests is evergreen. The trees are stunted and have many branches. Their rounded and dense canopies appear in different colours.

• Generally, the leaves are small in size and leathery. Red-coloured young leaves turning into different colours on maturity is a prominent characteristic of the Shola forests.

• Epiphytes like lichens, ferns and bryophytes usually grow on the trees. • The occurrence of Himalayan plants like rhododendron in these Shola

forests is a mystery.

Significance of Sholas

• Sholas thus act as ‘overhead water tanks’. They play a major role in conserving water supply of the Nilgiris’ streams.



• The trees are slow-growing varieties which produce timber of little or no value and probably take at least a century to mature.

• The rolling grasslands found on top of the Western Ghats, enhance the beauty of the region. Usually, Shola forests and grasslands are found in a ratio of 1:5.

• The rain received from the Southwest and Northeast monsoons is harvested by the Shola forest-grassland ecosystem, leading to the formation of the Bhavani river that finally drains into the Cauvery.

• Thus, the Shola forest-grassland ecosystem of the Nilgiris, also supports the prosperity of Cauvery delta farmers.

• As tree species of the montane, evergreen forests are flammable, regeneration of any Shola tree species is completely prevented except for Rhododendron nilagiricum, the only Shola tree that can tolerate fire.

Threats to Shola forests

• the Sholas have begun to gradually shrink due to the introduction of alien plant species and annual fire occurrences.

• Alien species like Sticky Snakeroot, Gorse and Scotch Broom introduced during British rule, have encroached upon the grasslands.

• During 1840, tree species such as Acacia and Eucalyptus were introduced from Australia.

• Afterwards, between 1886 and 1891, Pine and Cypress were introduced, again from Australia. As the alien species grew, the forests and grasslands gradually became degraded and shrank.

• In addition, unscientific agricultural practices like growing tea on the slopes, cattle grazing and fuel wood collection have become serious causes for degradation.

• Unregulated tourism has created concrete jungles, traffic congestion and caused the generation of garbage.

Wrath of Eucalyptus

• During 1849, the extent of Shola forests was 8,600 hectares (ha), grasslands 29,875 ha and agriculture was 10,875 ha.

• No wattle or eucalyptus was planted in the area at that time. • The comparison of the results of the 1849 and 1992 studies shows that

cultivation of tea, wattle and eucalyptus has reduced the Shola forest-grassland ecosystem to a great extent.

Protective measures



• After realizing the seriousness of the situation, the government banned the planting of wattle and eucalyptus completely in 1987.

• Ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation were given importance.

• Under the Hill Area Development Programme since the mid-1980s, seedlings have been planted in degraded patches and protected with chain-link fences to restore the forests.

• Special Shola forest protection committees were formed involving teachers, nature lovers, ecologists, environmentalists, students and villagers in the Nilgiris.

• They were motivated to remove plastic garbage from the nearby forests, protect Shola trees, remove alien species and learn about the importance of the Sholas.

• Presently, the Tamil Nadu forest department is now focusing on eradicating wattle, providing fencing and planting shola seedlings in degraded shola forests.

Biorock Accretion Technology

The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), with help from Gujarat’s forest department, is attempting for the first time a process to restore coral reefs using biorock or mineral accretion technology.

https://www.imbibedu.com/biorock-accretion-technology/



What is Biorock Technique?

• Biorock is the name given to the substance formed by electro accumulation of minerals dissolved in seawater on steel structures that are lowered onto the sea bed and are connected to a power source, in this case solar panels that float on the surface.

• The technology works by passing a small amount of electrical current through electrodes in the water.



• When a positively charged anode and negatively charged cathode are placed on the sea floor, with an electric current flowing between them, calcium ions combine with carbonate ions and adhere to the structure (cathode).

• This results in calcium carbonate formation. Coral larvae adhere to the CaCO3 and grow quickly.

• Fragments of broken corals are also tied to the biorock structure, where they are able to grow at least four to six times faster than their actual growth as they need not spend their energy in building their own calcium carbonate skeletons.

Significance of the Move

• The technology helps corals, including the highly sensitive branching corals, to counter the threats posed by global warming.

• In 2015, the same group of ZSI scientists had successfully restored branching coral species (staghorn corals) belonging to the family Acroporidae (Acropora formosa, Acropora humilis, Montipora digitata) that had gone extinct about 10,000 years ago to the Gulf of Kachchh.

Coral Bleaching

• The stunning colours in corals come from a marine alga called zooxanthellae, which live inside their tissues.

• This alga provides the corals with an easy food supply thanks to photosynthesis, which gives the corals energy, allowing them to grow and reproduce.

• When corals get stressed, from things such as heat or pollution, they react by expelling this alga, leaving a ghostly, transparent skeleton behind.

• This is known as ‘coral bleaching’. Some corals can feed themselves, but without the zooxanthellae most corals starve.

Annual Solar Eclipse

Recently, parts of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu witnessed an annular solar eclipse. Rest of the country witnessed a partial solar eclipse.

https://www.prathamias.com/annual-solar-eclipse/



About Solar eclipse

Solar eclipse happens when the moon, while orbiting the Earth, comes in between the Sun and the Earth, thereby blocking the sun’s light, fully or partially.

There are four types of eclipses:

1) Total solar eclipse

Total solar eclipses are rare at any particular location because totality exists only along a narrow path on the Earth’s surface traced by the Moon’s full shadow or umbra.

It happens when

• it is New Moon • the Moon is near perigee (the closest point of the Moon from Earth) • and the Sun are aligned in a straight (or nearly straight) line.

It is visible only from a small area on Earth.

People who are able to view the total solar eclipse are in the centre of the moon’s shadow as and when it hits the Earth.

2) Partial solar eclipse:

In it the shadow of the moon appears on a small part of the sun.

3) Annular solar eclipse (ASE):

➢ It occurs when the angular diameter of the Moon falls short of that of the Sun so that it cannot cover up the latter completely.

Since the moon does not block the sun completely, it looks like a “dark disk on top of a larger sun-colored disk” forming a “ring of fire” (or annulus).

For an ASE to take place, three things need to happen-

• there should be a New Moon • the Moon should be at or very near a lunar node so that the Sun, Moon

and the Earth all are in a straight line



• the Moon should be near the apogee (the farthest point of the Moon from Earth) so that the outer edge of the Sun is visible.

➢ During one of the phases of the ASE a phenomena called Bailey’s

Beads’ are visible. This is a thin fragmented ring caused by passage of sunlight through the rough edge of the Moon.

➢ This is the only time when one can find two shadows for everything in all the sides under the sunlight because the light source during Annularity is a giant illuminating ring.

➢ During an ASE, NASA uses ground and space instruments to view top layer of the sun or corona when the sun’s glare is blocked by the moon.

➢ During partial and annular solar eclipses, it is dangerous to view sun without proper equipment and techniques. Not using proper methods and equipment for viewing can cause permanent eye damage or severe visual loss.

4) Hybrid Eclipse:

This is a very rare eclipse where the eclipse will only be annular for the first few seconds. For the rest it will be a total eclipse.



Lunar nodes ➢ The Moon’s orbit around the Earth is tilted with relation to the Earth’s

orbital plane by 5 degrees with two intersecting points – ‘Ascending Node’ and ‘Descending Node.’



➢ Thus, despite the Moon being between the Earth and Sun on every new Moon, the three do not always come on a straight line or cause an eclipse.

➢ These nodes also rotate around the Earth once in 18 years. ➢ In this way, if a new Moon takes place when a node is also between the

Earth and Sun, the three come in a straight line and an eclipse takes place.

GS-2

POLITY

Supreme Court Verdict on AGR

Context

• The Supreme Court recently upheld the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR), a contentious point among India’s telecom players and the source of a running battle between the government and industry for years. The ruling will have major ramifications for the telecom companies, especially the older service providers such as Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

AGR-Adjusted Gross Revenue

https://www.imbibedu.com/supreme-court-verdict-on-agr/



Telecom operators are required to pay license fee and spectrum charges in the form of ‘revenue share’ to the Centre. The revenue amount used to calculate this revenue share is termed as the AGR.

• According to the DoT, the calculations should incorporate all revenues earned by a telecom company – including from non-telecom sources such as deposit interests and sale of assets.

• The companies, however, have been of the view that AGR should comprise the revenues generated from telecom services only and non-telecom revenues should be kept out of it.

The definition of AGR has been such a contentious issue because it has huge financial implications for both Telecom service providers (TSP) and the government.

Timeline of the Issue

The dispute between DoT and the mobile operators was mainly on the definition of AGR.

1. The issue between DoT and the telecom companies has been on since 2005, when the the Cellular Operators Association of India — the lobby group for players such as Airtel and Vodafone Idea — challenged the DoT’s definition for AGR

2. In 2015, the TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) stayed the case in favour of telecom companies and held that AGR includes all receipts except capital receipts and revenue from non-core sources such as rent, profit on the sale of fixed assets, dividend, interest and miscellaneous income.



3. The government, meanwhile, continued to raise the issue of under-reporting of revenues to duck charges.

4. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), in a recent report, blamed the telecom companies for “understating revenues” to the tune of Rs 61,064.5 crore.

5. The Supreme Court upheld DoT’s definition on what constitutes AGR as provided in clause 19.1 of the Telecom License agreement between the service providers and the government.

SC verdict

• The top court had upheld the government’s position on including revenue from non-telecommunication businesses in calculating the annual AGR of telecom companies, paving the way for the Centre to recover dues of over a whopping Rs 92,000 crore from telecom service providers (TSPs) in the form of adjusted gross revenue (AGR),

• The SC also termed as the conduct of the TSPs highly unfair even after they benefited from the scheme of a fixed license fee under the National Telecom Policy of 1994 to revenue sharing under the revised telecom policy of 1999.

• The judgment requires private telecom service providers to pay out higher sums towards license fee and spectrum usage fee, which are dependent on the value of AGR.

Possible Effects/Outcomes

• This judgment is a huge blow to the industry. Most telcoms are likely to report one-off losses and lead to more debt or financial instability

• The financial implications for telecom companies are serious at the current juncture, when profits for telcos are under pressure from severe competition and the falling ARPUs (average revenue per user).

• This is a big worry for telecom users, as the failure of a few large players could lead to one or two players emerging near-monopolies,

• The higher contribution to the exchequer, could help bridge gaps in the fiscal deficit and bolster government revenues to rescue an ailing economy.

• If the financial viability of the companies is impacted it may lead to large scale job losses



• This could lead to bigger bills which may affect affordability, considering it was the cutthroat competition in the sector that made mobile telephony and Internet almost universally affordable.

• The AGR issue may cause problems in the banking industry, given that the telecom sector is highly leveraged. Vodafone Idea alone has a debt of Rs 2.2 lakh crore that it has used to expand infrastructure and fund spectrum payments over the years.

Gram Nyayalayas

➢ The Supreme Court has directed the states, which are yet to come out with notifications for establishing ‘Gram Nyayalayas’, to do so within four weeks, and asked the high courts to expedite the process of consultation with state governments on this issue.

What’s the issue?

➢ So far only 11 states have taken steps to notify Gram Nyayalayas. Several states have issued notifications for establishing ‘Gram Nyayalayas’ but all of them were not functioning except in Kerala, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

➢ Only 208 ‘Gram Nyayalayas’ are functioning in the country as against 2,500 estimated to be required by the 12th five-year plan.

About Gram Nyayalayas:

➢ Gram Nyayalayas or village courts are established under the Gram Nyayalayas Act, 2008 for speedy and easy access to justice system in the rural areas of India. The Act came into force from 2 October 2009.

Composition:

➢ The Gram Nyayalayas are presided over by a Nyayadhikari, who will have the same power, enjoy same salary and benefits of a Judicial Magistrate of First Class. Such Nyayadhikari are to be appointed by the State Government in consultation with the respective High Court.

Jurisdiction:



➢ A Gram Nyayalaya have jurisdiction over an area specified by a notification by the State Government in consultation with the respective High Court.

➢ The Court can function as a mobile court at any place within the jurisdiction of such Gram Nyayalaya, after giving wide publicity to that regards.

➢ They have both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the offences. ➢ The pecuniary jurisdiction of the Nyayalayas are fixed by the respective

High Courts. ➢ Gram Nyayalayas has been given power to accept certain evidences

which would otherwise not be acceptable under Indian Evidence Act.

Procedure to be followed:

➢ Gram Nyayalayas can follow special procedures in civil matters, in a manner it deem just and reasonable in the interest of justice.

➢ Gram Nyayalayas allow for conciliation of the dispute and settlement of the same in the first instance.

Appeals:

➢ Appeal in criminal cases shall lie to the Court of Session, which shall be heard and disposed of within a period of six months from the date of filing of such appeal.

➢ Appeal in civil cases shall lie to the District Court, which shall be heard and disposed of within a period of six months from the date of filing of the appeal.

Significance:

➢ The setting up of Gram Nyayalayas is considered as an important measure to reduce arrears and is a part of the judicial reforms. It is estimated that Gram Nyayalayas can reduce around 50% of the pendency of cases in subordinate courts and can take care of the new litigations which will be disposed within six months.

Office of the Speaker

https://www.prathamias.com/office-of-the-speaker-and-the-debate-around-it/



➢ Recently the Supreme Court of India recommended that Parliament should rethink as to whether disqualification petitions ought to be entrusted to a Speaker as a quasi-judicial authority when such a Speaker continues to belong to a particular political party either de jure or de facto.

SUPREME COURT RECOMMENDATION

Provision of a ‘Permanent Tribunal’:

The SC was of the opinion that Parliament may seriously consider a Constitutional amendment to substitute-

“The Speaker of the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies with a ‘permanent Tribunal headed by a retired Supreme Court judge or a retired Chief Justice of a High Court.

Or

some other outside independent mechanism.”

What the ‘Permanent Tribunal’ achieve?

➢ Impartiality and timely decisions in case of disputes. ➢ It will give teeth to the provisions contained in the Tenth Schedule,

which are so vital in the proper functioning of India’s democracy’.

Range of functions of the Speaker

➢ Role under 10th schedule: Under 10th Schedule, the nature of duties of the Speaker, is as an “arbiter” or a “quasi-judicial body”. But it also extends to a range of its functions.

➢ Other functions performed by the Speaker. While facilitating the business of the House and to maintain decorum in the House, the Speaker has ‘extensive functions to perform in matters regulatory, administrative and judicial, falling under her domain.

➢ She enjoys vast authority under the Constitution and the Rules, as well as inherently’.

➢ Ultimate interpreter: She is the ‘ultimate interpreter and arbiter of those provisions which relate to the functioning of the House. Her decisions are final and binding and ordinarily cannot be easily challenged.



She decides the duration of debates, can discipline members and even override decisions by committees.

A representative of the House: She represents the collective voice of the House and is the sole representative of the House in the international arena’

Issue of alleged bias

• On several occasions, the Speaker’s role has been questioned on the allegation of bias. The office has been criticised for being an agent of pernicious partisan politics.

• The Supreme Court has observed in “Jagjit Singh versus State of Haryana”…”certain questions have been raised about the confidence in the matter of impartiality on some issues having political overtones which are decided by the Speaker in his capacity as a Tribunal.”

• As a minority view, Justice J.S. Verma in Kihoto Hollohan vs Zachillhu And Others observed: “The Speaker being an authority within the House and his tenure being dependent on the will of the majority therein, the likelihood of suspicion of bias could not be ruled out.”

• What is the problem with the neutrality of the Speaker? Howsoever desirable the proposition of neutrality maybe, in the present circumstances, it would be unrealistic to expect a Speaker to completely abjure all party considerations.

• There are structural issues regarding the manner of appointment of the Speaker and her tenure in office.

• Why the Speaker prefers to maintain party membership: A member is appointed to the office of the Speaker if a motion nominating her is carried in the House. Since the electoral system and conventions in India have ‘not developed to ensure protection to the office, there are cogent reasons for Speakers to retain party membership.

• Elections are not always by consensus and there have been cases when different parties have fielded their own candidates.

• All political parties’ campaign in the constituency of the Speaker. • Even if the Speaker is re-elected to the House, the office of the Speaker in

India is still open for elections.

Way forward



➢ What is required is not merely incidental changes in the powers of the Speaker; rather a major revamp in the structure of the office itself is necessary.

➢ The scheme should be brought wherein Speakers should renounce all political affiliations, membership and activity once they have been elected, both within the Assembly and in the country as a whole.

Replicating the UK model:

➢ Reference can be sought from the United Kingdom where the ‘main characteristic of the Speaker of the House of Commons is neutrality.

➢ Once elected, the Speaker gives up all-partisan affiliation, as in other Parliaments of British tradition, but remains in office until retirement, even though the majority may change.

➢ She does not express any political views during debates and is an election candidate without any ticket.

➢ Impartiality, fairness and autonomy in decision-making are the hallmarks of a robust institution.

➢ It is the freedom from interference and pressures which provide the necessary atmosphere where one can work with an absolute commitment to the cause of neutrality as a constitutional value.

Conclusion

➢ At a time when India’s fall in ranks in the latest Democracy Index has evoked concern, it is expected that Parliament will pay heed to the reasoning of the Supreme Court and take steps to strengthen the institution of the Speaker.

Parliamentary Speech and Conduct

➢ Recent instances of heated exchanges in Parliament have brought back recurring questions around “unparliamentary” speech and conduct.

What are the checks available on MPs’ speech?

https://www.prathamias.com/parliamentary-speech-and-conduct/



➢ Despite Article 105(2) of the constitution, Whatever an MP says is subject to the discipline of the Rules of Parliament, the “good sense” of Members, and the control of proceedings by the Speaker.

➢ These checks ensure that MPs cannot use “defamatory or indecent or undignified or unparliamentary words” inside the House.

Rules in this regard:

➢ Rule 380 (“Expunction”) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha says: “If the Speaker is of opinion that words have been used in debate which are defamatory or indecent or unparliamentary or undignified, the Speaker may, while exercising discretion order that such words be expunged from the proceedings of the House.”

➢ Rule 381 says: “The portion of the proceedings of the House so expunged shall be marked by asterisks and an explanatory footnote shall be inserted in the proceedings as follows: ‘Expunged as ordered by the Chair’.”

What are Unparliamentary expressions? Who decides on it.

➢ There are phrases and words, literally in thousands, both in English and in other Indian languages, that are “unparliamentary”.

➢ The Presiding Officers — Speaker of Lok Sabha and Chairperson of Rajya Sabha — have the job of keeping these bad words out of Parliament’s records.

➢ For their reference and help, the Lok Sabha Secretariat has brought out a bulky tome titled ‘Unparliamentary Expressions’, the 2004 edition of which ran into 900 pages.

➢ The list contains several words and expressions that would probably be considered rude or offensive in most cultures; however, it also has stuff that is likely to be thought of as being fairly harmless or innocuous.

➢ The state legislatures too are guided mainly by the same book, which also draws heavily from unparliamentary words and phrases used in the Vidhan Sabhas and Vidhan Parishads of India.

Examples of unparliamentary speeches and behaviour

➢ Among the words and phrases that have been deemed unparliamentary are “scumbag”, “shit”, “badmashi”, “bad” (as in “An MP is a bad man”),



and “bandicoot”, which is unparliamentary if an MP uses it for another, but which is fine if he uses it for himself.

➢ If the Presiding Officer is a “lady”, no MP can address her as “beloved Chairperson”.

➢ The government or another MP cannot be accused of “bluffing”. “Bribe”, “blackmail”, “bribery”, “thief”, “thieves”, “dacoits”, “bucket of shit”, “damn”, “deceive”, “degrade”, and “darling”, are all unparliamentary.

➢ MPs or Presiding Officers can’t be accused of being “double minded”, having “double standards”, being of “doubtful honesty”, being “downtrodden”, indulging in “double talk”, being “lazy”, “lousy”, a “nuisance” or a “loudmouth”.

➢ The government can’t be called “andhi-goongi”, or one of “Ali Baba aur 40 chor”. An illiterate MP can’t be called “angootha chhaap”, and it is unparliamentary to suggest that a member should be sent to the “ajayabghar” (museum).

Global Gender Gap Index

• The Global Gender Gap Index was first introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006 as a framework for capturing the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress over time.

• Global Gender Gap Report,2020 benchmarks 153 countries on their progress towards gender parity across four thematic dimensions:

o Economic Participation and Opportunity o Educational Attainment o Health and Survival, and o Political Empowerment.

• In addition, this year’s report examines gender gap prospects in the professions of the future.

Key Findings

• Gender Parity: World has closed 68.6% of its gender gap and at the current rate of change, it will take 99.5 years to close the overall gender gap. This is a marked improvement on the 108 years in the 2018 index.

Sectoral Performance:

https://www.prathamias.com/global-gender-gap-index/



• Political Empowerment: It has the largest gender disparity with women in 2019 holding just 25.2% of parliamentary (lower-house) seats and 21.2% of ministerial positions.But it is also the most improved dimension this year and has driven the overall positive performance. This can be attributed to the “Role model effect” which may be reaping dividends in terms of leadership and wages.

• Economic Participation and Opportunity: It has the second-largest gap. It is the only dimension where progress has regressed. At this rate it will take 257 years to close this gap. The report highlights three primary reasons for this:

• Automation: women have greater representation in roles that are being automated.

• Less representation in technology-driven profession: Not enough women are entering technology-driven profession where wage growth has been the most pronounced. As a result, women in work too often find themselves in middle-low wage categories that have been stagnant since the financial crisis 10 years ago.

• Perennial factors: Women spend at least twice as much time on care and voluntary work in every country where data is available, and lack of access to capital prevents women from pursuing entrepreneurial activity.

• Educational Attainment and Health and Survival: Progress in bridging both of these gaps are more advanced. Gender parity in the Health and survival gender gap has been already fully achieved in 40 countries.

Performance of India:

India slipped four places to 112th rank and has closed two-thirds of its overall gender gap (score of 66.8%).

While India has improved in political empowerment, it has fallen in other three indicators.

India is the only among the 153 countries studied where the economic gender gap is larger than the political one.

• Only one-third of the Economic gap has been bridged. This can be attributed to below facts.

• Only one-quarter of women, compared with 82% of men, engage actively in the labour market.



• The female estimated earned income is mere one-fifth of the male income (among the world’s lowest).

• Women representation on company boards is also very low (13.8%). • Widening of Health and survival gap is mainly due to abnormally low sex

ratios at birth in India (91 girls for every 100 boys), violence against women, forced marriages and discrimination in access to health.

• The trend is more positive in terms of gender gaps in education. o From primary to tertiary education, the share of women attending school is systematically larger than the share of men.

• However only 66% of women are literate compared with 82% of men.

The Future of Gender Parity

• The greatest challenge preventing the economic gender gap from closing is women’s under-representation in emerging roles.

• Report finds that even in countries where education attainment is relatively high, women’s skills are not always in line with those required to succeed in the professions of the future like AI, engineering and cloud computing.

• In cloud computing, just 12% of professionals are women. Similarly, in engineering and Data and AI, the numbers are 15% and 26% respectively.

• To address these deficiencies the report suggests: • Workforce strategies to ensure that women are better equipped (in terms

of improved skills or reskilling) to deal with the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

• Diverse hiring to address the current situation that sees gender parity in an in-demand skillset but not equal representation.

• Creating inclusive work cultures



Recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission

• The Fifteenth Finance Commission (FC) has considered the 2011 population along with forest cover, tax effort, area of the state, and “demographic performance” to arrive at the states’ share in the divisible pool of taxes.

https://www.imbibedu.com/recommendations-of-the-15th-finance-commission/



• The FC is a constitutionally mandated body that decides, among other things, the sharing of taxes between the Centre and the states.

• Article 280 (1) requires the President to constitute, “within two years from the commencement of this Constitution.

• And thereafter constitute FC at the expiration of every fifth year or at such earlier time as the President considers necessary.

• An FC “which shall consist of a Chairman and four other members”.

Divisible Pool of Taxes

• Under Article 280(3) (a) the FC must make recommendations to the President “as the distribution between the Union and the States of the net proceeds of taxes which are to be, or may be, divided between them under this Chapter and the allocation between the States of the respective shares of such proceeds”.

• Accordingly, the FC determines a formula for tax-sharing between the states, which is a weighted sum of the states’ population, area, forest cover, tax capacity, tax effort and demographic performance, with the weights expressed in percentages.

• This crucial role of the Commission makes it instrumental in the implementation of fiscal federalism.

Major recommendations of 15th FC

• The Commission has reduced the vertical devolution — the share of tax revenues that the Centre shares with the states — from 42% to 41%.

• The 1 per cent decrease in the vertical devolution is roughly equal to the share of the erstwhile state of J&K, which would have been 0.85% as per the formula described by the Commission.

• The Commission has said that it intends to set up an expert group to initiate a non-lapsable fund for defence expenditure.

• The terms of reference of the Commission included considering the Centre’s demand for funds for defence and national security.

• It may do so by creating a separate fund from the gross tax revenue before computing the divisible pool — which means that states would get a smaller share of the taxes.

The new parameter: 2011 census Population

• As had been widely anticipated, shares of the southern states, except Tamil Nadu, have fallen — with Karnataka losing the most.



• The population parameter used by the Commission has been criticised by the governments of the southern states.

• The previous FC used both the 1971 and the 2011 populations to calculate the states’ shares, giving greater weight to the 1971 population (17.5%) as compared to the 2011 population (10%).

Why 2011 census was used?

• The 15th FC has reasoned that the terms of reference leave it with no choice but to use the 2011 population; it has also argued that in the interest of fiscal equalization, it is necessary to use the latest Census figures.

• The use of 2011 population figures has resulted in states with larger populations like UP and Bihar getting larger shares, while smaller states with lower fertility rates have lost out.

• The combined population of the Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand is 47.8 crore.

• This is over 39.48% of India’s total population, and is spread over 32.4% of the country’s area, as per the 2011 Census.

• On the other hand, the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and undivided Andhra Pradesh are home to only 20.75% of the population living in 19.34% of the area, with a 13.89% share of the taxes.

• This means that the terms decided by the Commission are loaded against the more progressive (and prosperous) southern states.

Various criteria used

➢ In order to reward population control efforts by states, the Commission developed a criterion for demographic effort — which is essentially the ratio of the state’s population in 1971 to its fertility rate in 2011 — with a weight of 12.5%.

➢ The total area of states, area under forest cover, and “income distance” were also used by the FC to arrive at the tax-sharing formula.

➢ Income distance is calculated as the difference between the per capita gross state domestic product (GSDP) of the state from that of the state with the highest per capita GSDP, with states with less income getting a higher share in order to allow them to provide services comparable to those provided by the richer ones.



➢ The Commission used the per capita GSDP of Haryana as the reference for calculating the income distance, and gave it a weight of 45%, down from the 50% assigned by the 14th FC.

➢ The weight assigned to state area was unchanged at 15%, and that of forest cover was increased from 7.5% to 10%.

Ambiguity over the criterion

The effect of the demographic effort in increasing states’ devolution is not clear.

Shares of states like Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, along with Tamil Nadu, all of which have fertility rates below the replacement level, have increased slightly.

• On the other hand, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, and West Bengal’s shares have fallen, even though their fertility rates are also low.

• Incidentally, Karnataka, the biggest loser in this exercise, also had the highest tax-GSDP ratio in 2017-18, as per an RBI report on state finances.

• Tax effort was also used by the Commission to decide the states’ shares, with a weight of 2.5%.

IR

Ujh Multi-purpose Project

The Union government has approved a nearly ₹6,000-crore multi-purpose project for the Ujh multi-purpose project.

Ujh Multi-purpose Project

• The project will store around 781 million cubic meters of water of river Ujh, a tributary of river Ravi.

• It aims to provide uninterrupted water for irrigation to farmers in J&K’s Kathua district and to produce power.

https://www.prathamias.com/ujh-multi-purpose-project/#1



• After completion of the project, utilization of waters of eastern rivers allotted to India as per the Indus Water Treaty would be enhanced by utilising the flow that presently goes across the border to Pakistan.

Indus Waters Treaty, 1960

• The IWT is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, brokered by the World Bank signed in Karachi in 1960.

• According to this agreement, control over the water flowing in three “eastern” rivers of India — the Beas, the Ravi and the Sutlej was given to India

• The control over the water flowing in three “western” rivers of India — the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum was given to Pakistan

• The treaty allowed India to use western rivers water for limited irrigation use and unrestricted use for power generation, domestic, industrial and non-consumptive uses such as navigation, floating of property, fish culture, etc. while laying down precise regulations for India to build projects

• India has also been given the right to generate hydroelectricity through run of the river (RoR) projects on the Western Rivers which, subject to specific criteria for design and operation is unrestricted.

Present Status of Development

• To utilize the waters of the Eastern rivers which have been allocated to India for exclusive use, India has constructed Bhakra Dam on Satluj, Pong and Pandoh Dam on Beas and Thein (Ranjitsagar) on Ravi.

• These storage works, together with other works like Beas-Sutlej Link, Madhopur-Beas Link, Indira Gandhi Nahar Project etc has helped India utilize nearly entire share (95 %) of waters of Eastern rivers.

• However, about 2 MAF of water annually from Ravi is reported to be still flowing unutilized to Pakistan below Madhopur.

The three projects will help India to utilize its entire share of waters given under the Indus Waters Treaty 1960:

1. Resumption of Construction of Shahpur Kandi project: It is a dam project under construction on Ravi River.

2. Construction of Ujh multipurpose project: It is a dam project under construction on Ujh, a tributary of Ravi River.



III. 2nd Ravi Beas link below Ujh : This project is being planned to tap excess water flowing down to Pakistan through river Ravi, even after construction of Thein Dam.

It aims constructing a barrage across river Ravi for diverting water through a tunnel link to Beas basin.

SOCIAL SECTOR (HEALTH)

Global Report on Medical Data Leak

• Medical details of over 120 million Indian patients have been leaked and made freely available on the Internet, according to a recent report.

Global Report on Medical Data Leak

• It is published by Greenbone Sustainable Resilience, a German cybersecurity firm.

• The first report was published in October 2019 in which Greenbone revealed a widespread data leak of a massive number of records, including images of CT scans, X-rays, MRIs and even pictures of the patients.

• The follow-up report, which was published, classifies countries in the “good”, “bad” and “ugly” categories based on the action taken by their governments after the first report was made public.

• India ranks second in the “ugly” category, after the U.S.

Highlights of the report

• As per the follow-up report, Maharashtra ranks the highest in terms of the number of data troves available online, with 3,08,451 troves offering access to 6,97,89,685 images.

• The next is Karnataka, with 1,82,865 data troves giving access to 1,37,31,001 images.

https://www.prathamias.com/global-report-on-medical-data-leak/#1



• The number of data troves containing this sensitive data went up by a significant number in the Indian context a month after the initial report was published.

• It is a notable fact for the systems located in India, that almost 100% of the studies (data troves) allow full access to related images stated the report.

What led to the leaks?

• Greenbone’s original report says the leak was facilitated by the fact that the Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) servers, where these details are stored.

• These servers are not secure and linked to the public Internet without any protection, making them easily accessible to malicious elements.

Impact of leaks

• The leak is worrying because the affected patients can include anyone from the common working man to politicians and celebrities.

• In image-driven fields like politics or entertainment, knowledge about certain ailments faced by people from these fields could deal a huge blow to their image.

• The other concern is of fake identities being created using the details, which can be misused in any possible number of ways.

GS-3

ECONOMY

Global Talent Competitive Index-2020

https://www.imbibedu.com/global-talent-competitive-index-2020/



About the report

• The GTCI report is compiled by INSEAD in collaboration with human resource firm Adecco and Google.

• The report, which measures countries based on six pillars — 1. Enable 2. Attract 3. Grow 4. Retain talent 5. Vocation and technical skills 6. Global knowledge skills

Performance Analysis

• India has climbed eight places to 72nd rank in the GTCI which was topped by Switzerland, the US and Singapore.

• Sweden (4th), Denmark (5th), the Netherlands (6th), Finland (7th), Luxembourg (8th), Norway (9th) and Australia (10th) complete the top 10 league table.

• In the BRICS grouping, China was ranked 42nd, Russia (48th), South Africa (70th) and Brazil at 80th position.

• This year’s GTCI report explores how the development of AI is not only changing the nature of work but also forcing a re-evaluation of workplace practices, corporate structures and innovation ecosystems.

India’s Performance



• India’s highest-ranked sub-pillar is employability, but the ability to match labour market demand and supply stands in contrast to the country’s poor “mid-level skills”, which result in a mediocre score in vocational and technical skills.

• India’s poor ability to attract and retain talent is its greatest challenge.

Highlights of Economic Survey 2019-20

The Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Economic Survey 2019-20 in the Parliament.

The Key Highlights of the Survey are as follows:

Survey posts that India’s aspiration to become a $5 trillion economy depends critically on:

• Strengthening the invisible hand of the market. • Supporting it with the hand of trust. • Pro-business versus Pro-markets Strategy • Promoting ‘pro-business’ policy that unleashes the power of competitive

markets to generate wealth. • Weaning away from ‘pro-crony’ policy that may favour specific private

interests, especially powerful incumbents. • Pro-crony policies such as discretionary allocation of natural resources till

2011 led to rent-seeking by beneficiaries while competitive allocation of the same post 2014 ended such rent extraction.

Strengthening the invisible hand by promoting pro-business policies to:

– Provide equal opportunities for new entrants. – Enable fair competition and ease doing business. – Eliminate policies unnecessarily undermining markets through

government intervention. – Enable trade for job creation. – Efficiently scale up the banking sector. – Introducing the idea of trust as a public good, which gets enhanced

with greater use.



– Survey suggests that policies must empower transparency and effective enforcement using data and technology.

– Entrepreneurship at the Grassroots

• Entrepreneurship as a strategy to fuel productivity growth and wealth creation.

• India ranks third in number of new firms created, as per the World Bank. • New firm creation in India increased dramatically since 2014: • 2 % cumulative annual growth rate of new firms in the formal sector

during 2014-18, compared to 3.8 % during 2006-2014. • About 1.24 lakh new firms created in 2018, an increase of about 80 % from

about 70,000 in 2014. • Survey examines the content and drivers of entrepreneurial activity at the

bottom of the administrative pyramid – over 500 districts in India. • New firm creation in services is significantly higher than that in

manufacturing, infrastructure or agriculture. • Survey notes that grassroots entrepreneurship is not just driven by

necessity. • A 10 percent increase in registration of new firms in a district yields a 1.8

% increase in Gross Domestic District Product (GDDP).

Impact of education on entrepreneurship…

• Literacy and education in a district foster local entrepreneurship significantly:

• Impact is most pronounced when literacy is above 70 per cent. • New firm formation is the lowest in eastern India with lowest literacy

rate (59.6 % as per 2011 Census). • Physical infrastructure quality in the district influences new firm

creation significantly.

• Ease of Doing Business and flexible labour regulation enable new firm creation, especially in the manufacturing sector.



• Survey suggests enhancing ease of doing business and implementing flexible labour laws can create maximum jobs in districts and thereby in the states.

Divestment in public sector undertakings (PSU)

• The Survey has aggressively pitched for divestment in PSUs by proposing a separate corporate entity wherein the government’s stake can be transferred and divested over a period of time.

• The survey analysed the data of 11 PSUs that had been divested from 1999-2000 and 2003-04 and compared the data with their peers in the same industry.

• Further, the survey has said privatized entities have performed better than their peers in terms of net worth, profit, return on equity and sales, among others.

• The government can transfer its stake in listed CPSEs to a separate corporate entity.

• This entity would be managed by an independent board and would be mandated to divest the government stake in these CPSEs over a period of time.

• This will lend professionalism and autonomy to the disinvestment programme which, in turn, would improve the economic performance of the CPSEs.

Bank nationalization: A STOCK TAKING

• The survey observes 2019 as the golden jubilee year of bank nationalization

• Accomplishments of lakhs of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) employees cherished and an objective assessment of PSBs suggested by the Survey.

• Since 1969, India’s Banking sector has not developed proportionately to the growth in the size of the economy.

• India has only one bank in the global top 100 – same as countries that are a fraction of its size: Finland (about 1/11th), Denmark (1/8th), etc.

• A large economy needs an efficient banking sector to support its growth. • The onus of supporting the economy falls on the PSBs accounting for 70 %

of the market share in Indian banking: • PSBs are inefficient compared to their peer groups on every performance

parameter.



• In 2019, investment for every rupee in PSBs, on average, led to the loss of 23 paise, while in NPBs it led to the gain of 9.6 paise.

• Credit growth in PSBs has been much lower than NPBs for the last several years.

GDP GROWTH TREND

– GDP growth is a critical variable for decision-making by investors and policymakers. Therefore, the recent debate about accuracy of India’s GDP estimation following the revised estimation methodology in 2011 is extremely significant.

– As countries differ in several observed and unobserved ways, cross-country comparisons have to be undertaken by separating the effect of other confounding factors and isolating effect of methodology revision alone on GDP growth estimates.

– Models that incorrectly over-estimate GDP growth by 2.7 % for India post-2011 also misestimate GDP growth over the same period for 51 out of 95 countries in the sample.

Fiscal Developments

• Revenue Receipts registered a higher growth during the first eight months of 2019-20, compared to the same period last year, led by considerable growth in Non-Tax revenue.

• Gross GST monthly collections have crossed the mark of Rs. 1 lakh crore for a total of five times during 2019-20 (up to December 2019).



• Structural reforms undertaken in taxation during the current financial year:

• Change in corporate tax rate.

• Measures to ease the implementation of GST.

• Fiscal deficit of states within the targets set out by the FRBM Act.

• Survey notes that the General Government (Centre plus States) has been on the path of fiscal consolidation.

External Sector

(a) Balance of Payments (BoP):

• India’s BoP position improved from US$ 412.9 bn of forex reserves in end March, 2019 to US$ 433.7 bn in end September, 2019.

• Current account deficit (CAD) narrowed from 2.1% in 2018-19 to 1.5% of GDP in H1 of 2019-20.

• Foreign reserves stood at US$ 461.2 bn as on 10th January, 2020.

(b) Global trade:

• India’s merchandise trade balance improved from 2009-14 to 2014-19, although most of the improvement in the latter period was due to more than 50% decline in crude prices in 2016-17.

• India’s top five trading partners continue to be USA, China, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong.

(c ) Exports:

• Top export items: Petroleum products, precious stones, drug formulations & biologicals, gold and other precious metals.

• Largest export destinations in 2019-20 (April-November): United States of America (USA), followed by United Arab Emirates (UAE), China and Hong Kong.

• The merchandise exports to GDP ratio declined, entailing a negative impact on BoP position.

• Slowdown of world output had an impact on reducing the export to GDP ratio, particularly from 2018-19 to H1 of 2019-20.

• Growth in Non-POL exports dropped significantly from 2009-14 to 2014-19.



(d) Imports:

• Top import items: Crude petroleum, gold, petroleum products, coal, coke & briquittes.

• India’s imports continue to be largest from China, followed by USA, UAE and Saudi Arabia.

• Merchandise imports to GDP ratio declined for India, entailing a net positive impact on BoP.

• Large Crude oil imports in the import basket correlates India’s total imports with crude prices. As crude price raises so does the share of crude in total imports, increasing imports to GDP ratio.

Logistics industry of India:

• Currently estimated to be around US$ 160 billion.

• Expected to touch US$ 215 billion by 2020.

• According to World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index, India ranks 44th in 2018 globally, up from 54th rank in 2014.

Direct investments and remittances:

• Net FDI inflows continued to be buoyant in 2019-20 attracting US$ 24.4 bn in the first eight months, higher than the corresponding period of 2018-19.

• Net FPI in the first eight months of 2019-20 stood at US$ 12.6 bn.

• Net remittances from Indians employed overseas continued to increase, receiving US$ 38.4 billion in H1 of 2019-20 which is more than 50% of the previous year level.

External debt:

• Remains low at 20.1% of GDP as at end September, 2019. • After significant decline since 2014-15, India’s external liabilities (debt and

equity) to GDP increased at the end of June, 2019 primarily by increase in FDI, portfolio flows and external commercial borrowings (ECBs).

• Monetary Management and Financial Intermediation

Monetary policy:

• Remained accommodative in 2019-20.



• Repo rate was cut by 110 basis points in four consecutive MPC meetings in the financial year due to slower growth and lower inflation.

Inflation Trends:

• Inflation witnessing moderation since 2014

Drivers of CPI – Combined (C) inflation:

• Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation increased from 3.7 per cent in 2018-19 (April to December, 2018) to 4.1 per cent in 2019-20 (April to December, 2019).

• During 2018-19, the major driver was the miscellaneous group

• During 2019-20 (April-December), food and beverages was the main contributor.

• Among food and beverages, inflation in vegetables and pulses was particularly high due to low base effect and production side disruptions like untimely rain.

Cob-web Phenomenon (Cyclical fluctuations in inflation) for Pulses:

· Farmers base their sowing decisions on prices witnessed in the previous marketing period.

· Measures to safeguard farmers like procurement under Price Stabilization Fund (PSF), Minimum Support Price (MSP) need to be made more effective.

• Volatility of prices for most of the essential food commodities with the exception of some of the pulses has actually come down in the period 2014-19 as compared to the period 2009-14.

• Lower volatility might indicate the presence of better marketing channels, storage facilities and effective MSP system.

• Essential Commodities Act is outdated

• The Centre’s imposition of stock limits in a bid to control the soaring prices of onions over the last few months actually increased price volatility.

• The finding came in a hard-hitting attack in the report against the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) and other “anachronistic



legislations” and interventionist government policies, including drug price control, grain procurement and farm loan waivers.

• The Centre invoked the Act’s provisions to impose stock limits on onions after heavy rains wiped out a quarter of the kharif crop and led to a sustained spike in prices.

• However, the Survey showed that there was actually an increase in price volatility and a widening wedge between wholesale and retail prices.

• The lower stock limits must have led the traders and wholesalers to offload most of the kharif crop in October itself which led to a sharp increase in the price volatility.

Agriculture

• Agricultural productivity is also constrained by lower level of mechanization in agriculture which is about 40 % in India, much lower than China (59.5 %) and Brazil (75 %).

• With regard to the agri sector, the Survey argued that the beneficiaries of farm loan waivers consume less, save less, invest less and are less productive.

• It added that the government procurement of foodgrains led to a burgeoning food subsidy burden and inefficiencies in the markets, arguing for a shift to cash transfers instead.

Food Management

The share of agriculture and allied sectors in the total Gross Value Added (GVA) of the country has been continuously declining on account of relatively higher growth performance of non-agricultural sectors.

GVA at Basic Prices for 2019-20 from ‘Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing’ sector is estimated to grow by 2.8 %.

Services Sector

• Increasing significance of services sector in the Indian economy:

• About 55 % of the total size of the economy and GVA growth.

• Two-thirds of total FDI inflows into India.

• About 38 per cent of total exports.



• More than 50 % of GVA in 15 out of the 33 states and UTs.

Social Infrastructure, Employment and Human Development

• The expenditure on social services (health, education and others) by the Centre and States as a proportion of GDP increased from 6.2 % in 2014-15 to 7.7 % in 2019-20 (BE).

• India’s ranking in Human Development Index improved to 129 in 2018 from 130 in 2017:

• With 1.34 % average annual HDI growth, India is among the fastest improving countries

• Gross Enrolment Ratio at secondary, higher secondary and higher education level needs to be improved.

• Gender disparity in India’s labour market widened due to decline in female labour force participation especially in rural areas:

• Around 60 % of productive age (15-59) group engaged in full time domestic duties.

Sustainable Development and Climate Change

• India moving forward on the path of SDG implementation through well-designed initiatives

• SDG India Index: • Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh are front runners. • Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh come under the category of Aspirants. • India hosted COP-14 to UNCCD which adopted the Delhi Declaration:

Investing in Land and Unlocking Opportunities. • COP-25 of UNFCCC at Mandrid: • India reiterated its commitment to implement Paris Agreement. • COP-25 decisions include efforts for climate change mitigation, adaptation

and means of implementation from developed country parties to developing country parties.

Forest and tree cover:

• Increasing and has reached 80.73 million hectares. • 56 % of the geographical area of the country. • The numbers of stubble-burning incidents in 2019 were the least in four

years, the Economic Survey says.

Thalinomics: The Economics of a plate of food in India



• The Economic Survey 2019-20 states that affordability of vegetarian Thalis improved 29 per cent from 2006-07 to 2019-20 while that for non-vegetarian Thalis by 18 per cent.

• Affordability of Thalis vis-à-vis a day’s pay of a worker has improved over time, indicating improved welfare of the common person.

• The Survey says that food is not just an end in itself but also an essential ingredient in the growth human capital and therefore important for national wealth creation.

• The conclusion has been drawn on the basis of “Thalinomics. The Economics of a plate of food in India” – an attempt to quantify what a common person pays for a Thali across India.

• Price data from the Consumer Price Index for industrial workers for around 80 centres in 25 States and UTs from April 2006 to October 2019 has been used for the study.

• Using the dietary guidelines for Indians, the price of Thalis is constructed. • The Survey states that across India and also the 4 regions- North, South,

East and West- it is found that the absolute prices of a vegetarian Thali have decreased significantly since 2015-16 though the price has increased in 2019.

• This is owing to the sharp downward trend in the prices of vegetables and dal in contrast to the previous trend of increasing prices.

• As a result, an average household of 5 individuals that eats two vegetarian Thalis a day, gained around Rupees 10887, on average per year, while a non-vegetarian household gained Rupees 11787, on average per year.

• The Survey states that 2015-16 can be considered as a year when there was a shift in the dynamics of Thali prices.

• Many reform measures were introduced since 2014-15 to enhance the productivity of the agricultural sector as well as efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural markets for better and more transparent price discovery.

Strategy for boosting Wealth Creation

• The big idea from the Economic Survey 2019-20 is the need to push towards increasing the number of wealth creators in the Indian economy.

• The Survey states that to achieve the goal of becoming a $5-trillion economy, the invisible hand of markets will need the support of “the hand of trust”.



• Wealth Creation means that regulation and rules in the economy should be such that they make it easy to do business but not turn it into crony capitalism.

• The Survey states: “The invisible hand needs to be strengthened by promoting pro-business policies to:

• Provide equal opportunities for new entrants, enable fair competition and ease doing business,

• Eliminate policies that unnecessarily undermine markets through government intervention,

• Enable trade for job creation, and • Efficiently scale up the banking sector to be proportionate to the size of

the Indian economy.”

How can this be done?

• The Survey introduces the idea of “trust as a public good that gets enhanced with greater use”.

• In other words, it states that policies must empower transparency and effective enforcement using data and technology to enhance this public good.

• A key element here is the need to increase the opportunities for new entrants.

• “Equal opportunity for new entrants is important because… a 10 per cent increase in new firms in a district yields a 1.8 per cent increase in Gross Domestic District Product (GDDP)”.

• According to the Survey, the right policy mix can boost job creation.

Levers for furthering the Wealth Creation

• Entrepreneurship at the grassroots as reflected in new firm creation in India’s districts;

• promote ‘pro-business’ policies that unleash the power of competitive markets to generate wealth as against ‘pro-crony’ policies that may favour incumbent private interests;

• eliminate policies that undermine markets through government intervention, even where it is not necessary;

• integrate ‘Assemble in India’ into ‘Make in India’ to focus on labour intensive exports and thereby create jobs at a large scale;



• efficiently scale up the banking sector to be proportionate to the size of the Indian economy and track the health of the shadow banking sector;

• use privatization to foster efficiency. The Survey provides careful evidence that India’s GDP growth estimates can be trusted.

Integrating “Assemble in India” into Make in India

• Giving a new dimension to ‘Make in India’, the Economic Survey 2019-20 suggested that the government should integrate ‘Assemble in India for the world’ into ‘Make in India’ to boost exports and generate jobs.

• Survey says India has unprecedented opportunity to chart a China-like, labour-intensive, export trajectory.

• By integrating “Assemble in India for the world” into Make in India, India can:

• Raise its export market share to about 3.5 % by 2025 and 6 % by 2030. • Create 4 crore well-paid jobs by 2025 and 8 crore by 2030. • Exports of network products can provide one-quarter of the increase in

value added required for making India a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

How to harness the situation?

• The US-China trade war is causing major adjustments in global value chains and firms are scouring alternative locations for operations.

• Even before the trade war began, China’s image as a low-cost location for final assembly of industrial products was rapidly changing due to labour shortages and increases in wages.

• These developments present India an unprecedented opportunity to chart a similar export trajectory as that pursued by China and create unparalleled job opportunities for its youth.

• As no other country can match China in the abundance of its labour, we must grab the space getting vacated in labour-intensive sectors.

Key suggestions made by the Survey

• Survey suggests a strategy similar to one used by China to grab this opportunity.

• Specialization at large scale in labour-intensive sectors, especially network products.



• Laser-like focus on enabling assembling operations at mammoth scale in network products.

• Export primarily to markets in rich countries. • Trade policy must be an enabler.

Fiscal Space Management in India

Fiscal deficit has become a key factor to watch out for in every Budget presentation.

• It is considered the most important marker of a government’s financial health.

• A government that abides by the FRBM rules enjoys greater credibility among the rating agencies and market participants – both national and international.

FRBM Act

• The FRBM is an act of the parliament that set targets for the Government of India to establish financial discipline, improve the management of public funds, strengthen fiscal prudence and reduce its fiscal deficits.

• It was first introduced in the parliament of India in the year 2000 by Vajpayee Government for providing legal backing to the fiscal discipline to be institutionalized in the country.

• Subsequently, the FRBM Act was passed in the year 2003.

Features of the FRBM Act

• It was mandated by the act that the following must be placed along with the Budget documents annually in the Parliament:

1. Macroeconomic Framework Statement 2. Medium Term Fiscal Policy Statement and 3. Fiscal Policy Strategy Statement

Fiscal Indicators

It was proposed that the four fiscal indicators be projected in the medium-term fiscal policy statement viz.

https://www.prathamias.com/fiscal-space-managent-in-india/



1. Revenue deficit as a percentage of GDP, 2. Fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP, 3. Tax revenue as a percentage of GDP and 4. Total outstanding liabilities as a percentage of GDP

Why FRBM is back in debate?

• Not letting the fiscal deficit go completely out of control has been one of the standout achievements of the incumbent NDA government.

• However, as India’s economic growth has decelerated, there have been growing pressures on the government to breach the FRBM orthodoxy and spend in excess of fiscal deficit targets to reboot domestic growth.

• Others, however, continue to caution that the “real” fiscal deficit is already far more than the official number, and as such, there is no room for further increasing the expenditure by the government.

Which of these narratives is true?

• Actually, neither. But to understand that one has to first understand what are the different types of deficits and why does it matter to limit them.

Different types of deficits

• Fiscal is the excess of what the amount the government plans to spend over what the government expects to receive.

• Obviously, to make up this gap, the government has to borrow money from the market. But all government expenditure is not of the same kind.

• For instance, if the expenditure is for paying salaries then it is counted as “revenue” expenditure but if it goes into building a road or a factory – that is, something that in turn increases the economy’s capacity to produce more – then it is characterized as “capital” expenditure.

• The fiscal deficit is another key marker and it maps the excess of revenue expenditure over revenue receipts.

• The difference between fiscal deficit and revenue deficit is the government’s capital expenditure.

What FRBM says on deficits?



• As a broad rule, it is considered fiscally imprudent for a government to borrow money for “revenue” purposes.

• As a result, the FRBM Act of 2003 had mandated that, apart from limiting the fiscal deficit to 3% of the nominal GDP, the revenue deficit should be brought down to 0%.

• This would have meant that all the government borrowing (or fiscal deficit) for the year would have funded only capital expenditure by the government.

Why prefer capital expenditure over revenue expenditure?

• In any economy, when the government spends money or cuts taxes it has an impact on the economic activity of the country.

• But this impact (also called the “Multiplier” effect) is quite different for revenue expenditure and capital expenditure.

• In other words, when the government spends Rs 100 on increasing salaries in India, the economy grows by a little less than Rs 100.

• But, when the government uses that money to make a road or a bridge, the economy’s GDP grows by Rs 250.

• The question then is: How to get governments to switch from revenue expenditure to capital expenditure? That’s where the FRBM Act comes in handy.

What is the significance of an FRBM Act?

• The popular understanding of the FRBM Act is that it is meant to “compress” or restrict government expenditure. But that is a flawed understanding.

• The truth is that FRBM Act is not an expenditure compressing mechanism, rather an expenditure switching one.

• In other words, the FRBM Act – by limiting the total fiscal deficit (to 3% of nominal GDP) and asking for revenue deficit to be eliminated altogether – is helping the governments to switch their expenditure from revenue to capital.

• This also means that – again, contrary to popular understanding – adhering to the FRBM Act should not reduce India’s GDP, rather increase it.

Here’s how: When you cut on revenue deficit – that is, reduce your borrowings for funding revenue expenditure – and instead borrow to only spend on



building capital, you increase the overall GDP by 2.5 times the amount of money borrowed. So adhering to FRBM Act is a win-win.

What has been India’s record on adhering to FRBM Act?

• Between 2004 and 2008, the Indian government had made giant strides on reducing both revenue deficit and fiscal deficit.

• But this process was reversed thereafter thanks largely to the Global Financial Crisis and a domestic slowdown.

• Since then, there have been several amendments to the Act essentially postponing the targets.

• But the worst development happened in 2018 when the Union government stopped targeting revenue deficit and instead focussed only on fiscal deficit.

Way Forward

• There is a need to revert back to the original FRBM Act if 2003 by recognising and prioritizing the reduction in revenue deficit.

• Doing this will help the government boost the kind of expenditure that actually increases the GDP.

ENVIRONMENT

SNOWEX

Introduction

• For a better understanding of how much water is contained in each winter’s snowfall and how much will be available when it melts in the spring, NASA has launched a seasonal campaign called SnowEx in 2016-17

• SnowEx is a five year program initiated and funded by NASA to address the most important gaps in snow remote sensing knowledge. It focuses on airborne campaigns and field work, and on comparing the various sensing technologies, from the mature to the more experimental, in globally-representative types of snow.



Reasons to start the program

1. Despite snow’s unique importance to the global Earth system, no single satellite-borne sensor has been demonstrated to accurately measure all of the planet’s snow water equivalent.

2. To understand the time and space variation in the snow’s energy and mass balances along with the extensive feedbacks with the Earth’s climate, water cycle, and carbon cycle, it is critical to accurately measure snowpack.

3. NASA’s overall target is optimal strategies for mapping global snow water equivalent (SWE) with remote sensing and models leading to a Decadal Survey “Earth System Explorer” mission

Main Aims and Objectives

• The project aims to quantify and compare capabilities and limitations of traditional and newer snow estimation techniques across a range of environmental conditions, with an emphasis on articulating satellite remote sensing strategies and requirements.



• The goal is to address the most important gaps in our snow remote sensing knowledge, and thus lay the groundwork for a future snow satellite mission.

Methodology

It uses airborne measurements, ground measurements and computer modelling.

• The Airborne campaign will 1. Fly RADAR and LIDAR (light detection and ranging) to measure snow

depth, 2. Microwave radar and radiometers to measure SWE, 3. Optical cameras to photograph the surface, 4. Infrared radiometers to measure surface temperature, and 5. Hyperspectral imagers for snow cover and composition.

• Ground teams will measure 1. Snow depth and density, 2. Accumulation layers, 3. Snow temperature, wetness and snow grain size — the size of a

typical particle. • This year, real-time computer modelling will be integrated into the

campaign as well. 1. Application of process-based snow models and data assimilation

experiments will provide further insights into optimal strategies and concepts for monitoring global snowpack in a future mission.

Geographical Coverage

The geographical focus of SnowEx is proposed as North America which contains the six broad snow climate categories



1. Tundra (alpine or Arctic), 2. Taiga (Boreal forest), 3. Warm (temperate) forest 4. Maritime,(Pacific Northwest Region) 5. Prairie, and 6. Ephemeral

Benefits of SnowEx

1. The high variability of global snowpack conditions requires a systematic investigation of sensor capabilities and sensitivities across a range of environments and spatial and temporal scales.

2. SnowEx will provide key insights into optimal strategies for mapping global SWE with remote sensing and models, which will enable a competitive proposal for a Decadal Survey “Earth System Explorer” mission.

3. Provide unprecedented knowledge of snowpack quantity and how it varies over seasonal and annual scales across the globe, thereby transforming watershed and ecological management and climate monitoring.

4. A future snow satellite mission, informed by SnowEx experiments, would enable estimation of the critical snow properties on a global scale

SCI AND TECH

The Blue Dot Network

The first meeting of the Blue Dot Network ‘s embryonic steering committee was held recently in Washington, with Australia and Japan as partners.

What is the Blue dot network?

• The U.S., Australia and Japan announced the network during the November 4, 2019, Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Bangkok. The initiative aligns with the G20’s Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment, particularly on governance, environmental standards and transparency.



• It is a new S.-led certification plan. A “blue dot” will be awarded to projects the initiative endorses. The Network will not itself directly invest in projects.

• At present the project is led by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (boasting access to $60 billion in capital), in partnership with the government-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs.

• Once running, the new network will bring together governments, the private sector and other organizations behind a set of high-quality global infrastructure development standards.

Significance:

It will act as a globally recognized seal of approval for major infrastructure projects, letting people know the projects are sustainable and not exploitative.

How the network will work:

• Any country or company can participate in the network, as long as it agrees to adhere to the network’s high standards of promoting quality, private sector-led investment. Projects that seek to be certified by the Blue Dot Network will complete an online application.

• Countries, companies and local communities will all benefit from the Blue Dot Network. When projects are certified by the Blue Dot Network, communities and investors can be confident about the high standards and sustainability of the infrastructure.

Facial Recognition Technology and Issues Surrounding

• Facial recognition technology is becoming an integral part of the law enforcement mechanism tool. The major question is, does it need to be regulated before it intervenes in our personal spaces. Does facial recognition is another technological intervention to take away the right to privacy of citizens?

Major Use of Facial Recognition Technology

• Detectives have been using facial recognition to solve crimes for almost as long as the camera has been in existence.

https://www.imbibedu.com/facial-recognition-technology-and-issues-surrounding-it/



• Use of AI for facial recognition: It is but a logical extension of the modern crime solver’s toolkit to use artificial intelligence (AI) on the most identifiable physical feature of people, their face.

• Screening faces within hours:An image captured at the scene of a crime can now be screened against photographs of entire populations for a match within a matter of hours.

• Better border controls and countering terrorism. • Aid the Police: In India, a severely under-policed nation, facial recognition

surely offers many benefits.

Major concerns against facial recognition

• Surveillance capitalism and surveillance state: The companies were seen as monetising the data generated by the widespread use of digital platforms like Google and Facebook.

• Surveillance state: China became the prime example of states using data and information to exercise ever more control over its citizens.

• Accuracy:At the other end are concerns that facial recognition is not entirely accurate and could lead to punitive actions against innocent people.

• Racial bias misogyny:There is also a concern in the US that the algorithms behind facial recognition carry the baggage of racism and misogyny.

• Concerns in India: It also remains a fact that the Indian state has always been tempted to empower itself against its citizens in the name of collective security.

• It has also tended to weaponize information against political opponents and dissidents.

• Uneasiness with being watched: The idea of being watched by devices linked to vast databases far out of sight makes liberal societies uneasy.

• Invasion of privacy: The intrusion that is causing alarm, however, has nothing to do with the technology itself, and everything to do with the all-pervasive surveillance it enables.

International Debate on Its Regulation

• Google calls for partial ban: Google CEO’s recent support for a temporary ban on facial recognition technologies seems uncharacteristic.

• It is not often that companies developing a technology call for its ban. Their interest is in promoting the use of technology, not barring it. Not



every one of the leading tech companies agrees with Google on facial recognition.

• Microsoft is against the ban: Microsoft has questioned the idea of a ban. Calling facial recognition, a “young technology”, it said “it will get better. The only way to make it better is actually to continue developing it which means having more people using it.

• IBM’s precision regulation:IBM has taken a step forward in developing the policies for the use of technology by setting up a “lab”. The lab will generate actionable ideas for policymakers to manage the emergence of new technologies like facial recognition that are shaping our digital future. Precision regulation vs. complete ban: The idea is to develop “precision regulation” rather than enforce “blunt” instruments like the ban.

• The EU’s plans for temporary ban:The debate on finding the right balance between regulation and promotion of emerging technologies comes in the wake of leaked plans of the EU to issue a temporary ban. And Ban on use in public places only.

• India’s own plans for law enforcement agencies:The intensifying global debate also coincides with India’s own plans to roll out a massive project on deploying facial recognition technologies, essentially for law enforcement.

• The international discourse provides the context for developing a broad and effective Indian policy framework for the use of facial recognition.

Problems with regulations

• The main argument was that regulation constrains technological innovation and retards its progress.

• AI and Big data: The urge to regulate has triggered widespread concerns about the dangers of digitalisation, especially the use of big data and AI by private companies as well as governments.

Shall There Be Rules Governing This New Techological Landscape?

• Issue of accuracy: How accurately faces are identified by machines is a major point of concern. Deployed in law enforcement, false matches could possibly result in a miscarriage of justice.

• Judicial scrutiny:Even a low rate of error could mean evidence faces judicial rejection. It is in the judiciary’s interest, all the same, to let technology aid police-work.



• Racial bias: First up for addressal is the criticism that facial recognition is still not smart enough to read emotions or work equally well for all racial groups.

• Mala fide use: Since such tools can be put to mala fide use as-rogue drones equipped with the technology, for example, should never be in a position to carry out an assassination. Nor should an unauthorized agent be able to spy on or stalk anyone.

• Caution in the developed countries:Apart from California, the European Union has also decided to exercise some caution before exposing people to it.

• Privacy as fundamental rights in India: India, which has recently accepted privacy as a fundamental right, would do well to tilt the Western way on this.

Conclusion

• We need regulations that restrict the use of facial recognition to the minimum required to serve justice and ease commercial operations.

• India shall develop a productive alignment between India’s national interests and the development of new digital norms.

AVANGARD: The Hypersonic Glide Vehicle

Russia announced that its new hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), Avangard, had been made operational.

What is HGV?

• Speed over 5 Mach: A hypersonic delivery system is essentially a ballistic or cruise missile that can fly for long distances and at speeds higher than 5 Mach at lower altitudes.

• Invulnerable to interception:This allows it to evade interception from current Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD).

• High manoeuvrability:It can also execute a high degree of manoeuvres. • Avangard-Developed by Russia: Russia claims that this HGV can fly at over

20 times the speed of sound. • Invulnerable to interception:and is capable of such manoeuvring as to be

invulnerable to interception by any existing and prospective missile defence means of the potential adversary.

https://www.imbibedu.com/avangard-the-hypersonic-glide-vehicle/



China and the U.S. are also close on the heels

The U.S. has moved from the research to the development stage. Whereas China demonstrated the DF-17, a medium-range missile with the HGV, at the military parade in 2019.

The U.S. walked out of anti-ballistic missile treaty in 2002, prompted by the U.S. exit from the treaty and fear of the U.S. anti-ballistic missile defence system, Russia had to develop its capabilities to counter any adverse situation.

Hypersonic can complicate the security concerns

1. Increase in the possibility of miscalculation: These missiles are being added to the military capabilities of countries that possess nuclear weapons.For these nations, the concern is always an attack on nuclear assets to degrade retaliation

o Destination ambiguities: Another layer of complication is added by the fact that these missiles bring in warhead and destination ambiguities.

o Increasing tendency to assume worst:In both cases, when an adversary’s early warning detects such missiles headed in its direction, but cannot be sure whether they are conventional or nuclear-armed, nor ascertain the target they are headed towards, the tendency would be to assume the worst.

o For an adversary that faces a country with a BMD but itself has a small nuclear arsenal, it would fear that even conventionally armed hypersonic missiles could destroy a portion of its nuclear assets.

o The tendency to shift to trigger-ready postures:The tendency could then be to shift to more trigger-ready postures such as launch on warning or launch under attack to ostensibly enhance deterrence.

o Risk of miscalculation: But such shifts would also bring risks of misperception and miscalculation in moments of crisis.

2. Offence defence spiral: According to reports, the U.S. has begun finding ways of either strengthening its BMD or looking for countermeasures to defeat hypersonics, besides having an arsenal of its own of the same kind.

o Possibility of arms race:The stage appears set for an arms race instability given that the three major players in this game have the financial wherewithal and technological capability to play along.

o This looks particularly imminent in the absence of any strategic dialogue or arms control.



3. Possibility of the arms race into outer space: o Sensors are already placed into space: Counter-measures to

hypersonics have been envisaged through the placement of sensors and interceptors in outer space.

o While none of this is going to be weaponization of outer space would, nevertheless, be a distinct possibility once hypersonic inductions become the norm.

Conclusion

The induction of this technology would likely prove to be a transitory advantage eventually leading nations into a strategic trap. India needs to make a cool-headed assessment of its own deterrence requirements and choose its pathways wisely.

Global intellectual property index.

India has been ranked 40th out of 53 countries on a global intellectual property index. India has shown improvement in terms of scores when it comes to the protection of IP and copyright issues.

GIP Index

• The Global IP Index was released by Global Innovation Policy Centre or GIPC of the US Chambers of Commerce.

• The GIPC Index consists of five key sets of indicators to map the national intellectual property environment for the surveyed countries.

The major indicator categories are:

• patents, related rights, and limitations; • copyrights, related rights, and limitations; • trademarks, related rights, and limitations; • enforcement; • membership and ratification of international treaties.

India’s performance

• India was placed at 36th position among 50 countries in 2019.



• India’s score, however, increased from 36.04 per cent (16.22 out of 45) in 2019 to 38.46 per cent (19.23 out of 50) in 2020, a 2.42 per cent jump in absolute score.

• However, India’s relative score increased by 6.71 per cent. India also continues to score well in the Systemic Efficiency indicator, scoring ahead of 28 other economies in these indicators.

Challenges for India

• GIPC has identified several challenges for India. Prominent among them are:

• Patentability requirements, patent enforcement, compulsory licensing, patent opposition, regulatory data protection, transparency in reporting seizures by customs, and Singapore Treaty of Law of TMs and Patent Law Treaty

Measures to protect IPs in India

• Since the release of the 2016 National IPR Policy, the government of India has made a focused effort to support investments in innovation and creativity through increasingly robust IP protection and enforcement.

• Since 2016, India has improved the speed of processing for patent and trademark applications, increased awareness of IP rights among Indian innovators and creators, and facilitated the registration and enforcement of those rights.

• To continue this upward trajectory, much work remains to be done to introduce transformative changes to India’s overall IP framework and take serious steps to consistently implement strong IP standards.

Quantum Technology?

https://www.prathamias.com/national-mission-on-quantum-technologies-and-national-logistics-policy/#1



The Finance Minister in budget 2020 has announced a National Mission on Quantum Technologies & Applications (NM-QTA).

What is Quantum Technology?

• Quantum Technology is based on the principles of quantum theory, which explains the nature of energy and matter on the atomic and subatomic level.

• It concerns the control and manipulation of quantum systems, with the goal of achieving information processing beyond the limits of the classical world.

• Its principles will be used for engineering solutions to extremely complex problems in computing, communications, sensing, chemistry, cryptography, imaging and mechanics.



• This key ability makes quantum computers extremely powerful compared to conventional computers when solving certain kinds of problems like finding prime factors of large numbers and searching large databases.

What is Quantum Mechanics?

• It is a fundamental theory in physics which describes nature at the smallest – including atomic and subatomic – scales.

• At the scale of atoms and electrons, many of the equations of classical mechanics, which describe how things move at everyday sizes and speeds, cease to be useful.

• In classical mechanics, objects exist in a specific place at a specific time. • However, in quantum mechanics, objects instead exist in a haze of

probability; they have a certain chance of being at point A, another chance of being at point B and so on.

About NM-QTA

• The mission will function under the Department of Science & Technology (DST).

• It will be able address the ever increasing technological requirements of the society, and take into account the international technology trends.

• The mission will help prepare next generation skilled manpower, boost translational research and also encourage entrepreneurship and start-up ecosystem development.

Why such mission?

• Quantum technologies are rapidly developing globally with a huge disruptive potential.

• The range of quantum technologies is expected to be one of the major technology disruptions that will change entire paradigm of computation, communication and encryption.

• It is perceived that the countries who achieve an edge in this emerging field will have a greater advantage in garnering multifold economic growth and dominant leadership role.

• It has become imperative both for government and industries to be prepared to develop these emerging and disruptive changes.

It will establish standards to be applied to all research and help stimulate a pipeline to support research and applications well into the future



Space Internet

• The SpaceX, the world’s leading private company in space technology, last week fired a spray of 60 satellites into orbit. Following last week’s launch, the company has now deployed 122 satellites in orbit with a target of 12000 in all.

• SpaceX announced the satellite Internet constellation in January 2015, and launched two test satellites in February 2018.

• The Starlink network, as the project is called, is one of several ongoing efforts to start beaming data signals from space, and also the most ambitious.

https://www.imbibedu.com/space-internet/



• This launch is the first operational batch of what is intended to eventually evolve into a constellation of nearly 12,000 satellites.

• They are aimed at providing low-cost and reliable space-based Internet services to the world.

Why Space internet services?

• This is mainly to ensure that reliable and uninterrupted Internet services is ensured across the world

• Currently, about 4 billion people, more than half the world’s population, do not have access to reliable Internet networks.

• And that is because the traditional ways to deliver the Internet — fibre-optic cables or wireless networks — cannot take it everywhere on Earth.

• In many remote areas, or places with difficult terrain, it is not feasible or viable to set up cables or mobile towers.

• Signals from satellites in space can overcome this obstacle easily.

Orbital Details

• Space-based Internet systems have, in fact, been in use for several years now — but only for a small number of users.

• Also, most of the existing systems use satellites in geostationary orbit. • This orbit is located at a height of 35,786 km over the Earth’s surface,

directly above the Equator. • Satellites in this orbit move at speeds of about 11,000 km per hour, and

complete one revolution of the Earth in the same time that the earth rotates once on its axis.



• To the observer on the ground, therefore, a satellite in geostationary orbit appears stationary.

• Owing to their lower height, their signals cover a relatively small area. As a result, many more satellites are needed in order to reach signals to every part of the planet.

• Additionally, satellites in these orbits travel at more than double the speed of satellites in geostationary orbit — about 27,000 km per hour — to balance the effects of gravity.

So how will placing satellites in lower orbits help?

• One big advantage of beaming signals from geostationary orbit is that the satellite can cover a very large part of the Earth.

• Signals from one satellite can cover roughly a third of the planet — and three to four satellites would be enough to cover the entire Earth.

• Also, because they appear to be stationary, it is easier to link to them. • But satellites in geostationary orbit also have a major disadvantage. The

Internet is all about transmission of data in (nearly) real time. • However, there is a time lag — called latency — between a user seeking

data, and the server sending that data. • And because data transfers cannot happen faster than the speed of light

(in reality, they take place at significantly lower speeds), the longer the distance that needs to be covered the greater is the time lag, or latency.

Limitations

• Three issues have been flagged — increased space debris, increased risk of collisions, and the concern of astronomers that these constellations of space Internet satellites will make it difficult to observe other space objects, and to detect their signals.

• To put things in perspective, there are fewer than 2,000 operational satellites at present, and fewer than 9,000 satellites have been launched into space since the beginning of the Space Age in 1957.

• Most of the operational satellites are located in the lower orbits. • The European Space Agency (ESA) this year had to perform, for the first

time ever, a “collision avoidance manoeuvre” to protect one of its live satellites from colliding with a “mega constellation”.

Spitzer Space Telescope



• The Spitzer Space Telescope is a space-borne observatory, one of the elements of NASA’s Great Observatories that include the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray.

• Using different infrared wavelengths, Spitzer was able to see and reveal features of the universe including objects that were too cold to emit visible light.

• Apart from enabling researchers to see distant cold objects, Spitzer could also see through large amounts of gas using infrared wavelengths to find objects that may otherwise have been invisible to human beings.

• These included exoplanets, brown dwarfs and cold matter found in the space between stars.

• Spitzer was originally built to last for a minimum of 2.5 years, but it lasted in the “cold” phase for over 5.5 years. On May 15, 2009 the coolant was finally depleted and the “warm mission” began.

Major discoveries

• Spitzer also studied some of the most distant galaxies ever detected. • The light from these galaxies reached us after traveling for billions of

years, enabling scientists “to see those objects as they were long, long ago”.

• Hubble and Spitzer in 2016 identified and studied the most distant galaxy ever observed.

• Using these two telescopes, scientists were able to see a bright infant galaxy as it was over 13.4 billion years ago, roughly 400 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was less than 5% of its current age.

• It assisted in the discovery of planets beyond our solar system, including the detection of seven Earth-size exo-planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1.

• Three of its seven planets were located in the “habitable zone,” where the temperature might be right for liquid water to exist on the planets’ surfaces.

Other landmarks

• Spitzer has logged over 106,000 hours of observation time. • Thousands of scientists around the world have utilized Spitzer data in their

studies, and Spitzer data is cited in more than 8,000 published papers. • Spitzer’s primary mission ended up lasting 5.5 years, during which time the

spacecraft operated in a “cold phase,” with a supply of liquid helium cooling three onboard instruments to just above absolute zero.



• The cooling system reduced excess heat from the instruments themselves that could contaminate their observations.

• This gave Spitzer very high sensitivity for “cold” objects. • In July 2009, after Spitzer’s helium supply ran out, the spacecraft entered a

so-called “warm phase.” • Spitzer’s main instrument, called the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), has

four cameras, two of which continue to operate in the warm phase with the same sensitivity they maintained during the cold phase

India, a partner in the construction of one of the largest telescopes in the world, TMT, has said it wants the project to be moved out of the proposed site at Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawaii.

Thirty Metre Telescope

• The TMT is a proposed astronomical observatory with an extremely large telescope (ELT) that has become the source of controversy over its planned location on Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii in the US state of Hawaii.

• It is being built by an international collaboration of government organisations and educational institutions, at a cost of $1.4 billion.

• “Thirty Metre” refers to the 30-metre diameter of the mirror, with 492 segments of glass pieced together, which makes it three times as wide as the world’s largest existing visible-light telescope.

• The larger the mirror, the more light a telescope can collect, which means, in turn, that it can “see” farther, fainter objects.

• It would be more than 200 times more sensitive than current telescopes and would be able to resolve objects 12 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope.

Utility of the telescope

• One of its key uses will be the study of exoplanets, many of which have been detected in the last few years, and whether their atmospheres contain water vapour or methane — the signatures of possible life.

• For the first time in history, this telescope will be capable of detecting extraterrestrial life.

• The study of black holes is another objective.



• While these have been observed in detail within the Milky Way, the next galaxy is 100 times farther away; the TMT will help bring them closer.

What is InSight

• It’s now more than a year since NASA’s InSight lander mission touched down on Mars on November 26, 2018. What lessons has the mission provided in its first year on the Red Planet? This week, NASA published a set of six papers – five in the journal Nature, one in Nature Geoscience – to reveal “a planet alive with quakes, dust devils and strange magnetic pulses”.

What is InSight

• InSight is the first mission dedicated to looking deep beneath the Martian surface. Among its science tools are a seismometer for detecting quakes, sensors for gauging wind and air pressure, a magnetometer, and a heat flow probe designed to take the planet’s temperature.

• The InSight mission is part of NASA’s Discovery Program. It is being supported by a number of European partners, which include France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA).

https://www.prathamias.com/what-insight-has-told-us-about-mars-so-far/#1



• Mars trembles more often than expected, but also more mildly. This emerged from readings of the ultra-sensitive seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS). The instrument enables scientists to “hear” multiple trembling events from hundreds to thousands of miles away.

• Mars doesn’t have tectonic plates like Earth, but it does have volcanically active regions that can cause rumbles. SEIS has found more than 450 seismic signals to date, the majority of which are believed to be quakes (as opposed to data noise created by environmental factors, like wind). The largest quake was just about magnitude 4.0 in size.

• Seismic waves are affected by the materials they move through. As such, they help scientists study the composition of the planet’s inner structure. Mars can help the team better understand how all rocky planets — including Earth — first formed.

The surface: magentism

• Billions of years ago, Mars had a magnetic field. Although it is no longer present, it left behind what NASA describes as “ghosts” – magnetised rocks that are now between 61 m to several km below ground. InSight is equipped with a magnetometer, which has detected magnetic signals.

• At a Martian site called Homestead hollow, the magnetic signals are 10 times stronger than what was predicted earlier (based on data from orbiting spacecraft). Because InSight’s measurements are more local, they ate more precise.

• At InSight’s location, most surface rocks are too young to have been magnetised by the former magnetic field. “This magnetism must be coming from ancient rocks underground,” Catherine Johnson, planetary scientist with the University of British Columbia and the Planetary Science Institute, said in a statement issued by NASA. Scientists are now using these data and what was previously known to understand the magnetised layers below InSight.

• In addition, scientists on Earth are intrigued by how these Martian signals change over time. The measurements vary by day and night; they also tend to pulse around midnight. Theories are still being formed as to what causes such changes.

In the wind: dust devils



• InSight measures wind speed, direction and air pressure nearly continuously. Weather sensors have detected thousands of passing whirlwinds, which are called dust devils when they pick up grit and become visible. The site has more whirlwinds than any other place where a landing has been made on Mars while carrying weather sensors.

• Despite all that activity in the wind and frequent imaging, InSight’s cameras have yet to see dust devils. But SEIS can feel these whirlwinds pulling on the surface. “Whirlwinds are perfect for subsurface seismic exploration,” said Philippe Lognonné of Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), principal investigator of SEIS.

The core: still to come

• InSight has two radios. One is for regularly sending and receiving data. The other radio, which is more powerful, is designed to measure the “wobble” of Mars as it spins. This X-band radio, also known as the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE), can eventually reveal whether the planet’s core is solid or liquid. A solid core would cause Mars to wobble less than a liquid one would.

• This first year of data is just a start, NASA said in the statement. When it is two years on Earth, Mars will have completed one year. A full Martian year will give scientists a much better idea of the size and speed of the planet’s wobble, NASA said.

SECURITY

BODO ACCORD

History of Bodo Accord

• The government of India has been signed three agreements with Bodo tribes so far for 27 years. Several clashes between extremists’ groups of Assam and the government have claimed hundreds of lives.

• The All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) and the Government of India have signed the first accord in 1993. This agreement resulted to the creation of a Bodoland Autonomous Council with some political powers.



• The second Bodo accord was signed in 2003 between Government of India and extremist group Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT).

• The second agreement resulted to the formation of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) with four districts – Udalguri, Chirang, Baska and Kokrajhar. These areas are commonly called Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD).

• The BTAD and other areas mentioned under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution have been exempted from the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

About Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC)

• Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) was constituted to look after issues of Bodo tribes like education, horticulture and forests. However, police, general administration and revenue are controlled by the Government of Assam. The BTC was established under the 6th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

What is Bodoland Movement?

• The Bodo people are the largest tribe of Assam settled in the northern part of the Brahmaputra river valley. These tribes claimed themselves as natives of the Assam. According to an estimate, the Bodo tribe is about 28 percent of Assam’s population. The Bodo tribe has been complaining that their land in Assam was occupied by other cultures and communities with different identities. In 1966 the Bodo tribals formed the Plains Tribal Council of Assam (PTCA) and demanded a separate union territory Udayachal.

• The Bodo movement started witnessing violence post-1980s.

Now, this movement divided into three streams.

• The first group NDFB is demanding for a separate state for itself.

• The second group Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) is demanding greater autonomy and targeted non-Bodo groups.

• The third group All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) is looking for more political powers and involvement in state administration.

Comprehensive Bodo Settlement Agreement

• The MHA, the Assam government and the Bodo groups have signed an agreement to redraw and rename the Bodoland Territorial Area District



(BTAD) in Assam, currently spread over four districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri.

• Several Bodo groups led have been demanding a separate land for the ethnic community since 1972, a movement that has claimed nearly 4,000 lives.

Highlights of the Agreement

• As per the agreement, villages dominated by Bodos that were presently outside the BTAD would be included and those with non-Bodo population would be excluded.

• Bodos living in the hills would be conferred a Scheduled Hill Tribe status. • The BTAD is to be renamed as the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).

Rehabilitation and relief

• The criminal cases registered against members of the NDFB factions for “non-heinous” crimes shall be withdrawn by the Assam government and in cases of heinous crimes it will be reviewed.

• A Special Development Package of Rs. 1500 Crore would be given by the Centre to undertake specific projects for the development of Bodo areas.

A separate Commission

• It proposes to set up a commission under Section 14 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution which will recommend the inclusion or exclusion of tribal population residing in villages adjoining BTAD areas.

• In this commission, besides State government, there will be representatives from ABSU and BTC. It will submit its recommendation within six months.

Changes in Legislature

• The total number of Assembly seats will go up to 60, from the existing 40. • The present settlement has a proposal to give more legislative, executive,

administrative and financial powers to BTC.

Bodo as an official language

• The Assam government will also notify Bodo language as an associate official language in the state and will set up a separate directorate for Bodo medium schools.



• Bodo with Devnagri script would be the associate official language for the entire Assam.

Significance of the agreement

• The signing of the agreement would “end the 50-year-old Bodo crisis.” • Around 1500 cadres of BODO militant factions will be rehabilitated by

Centre and Assam Government.

ENVIRONMENT

Reintroduction of African Cheetahs in Indian Forests

• Cheetah is a flagship species of a highly endangered ecosystem of the country — the grasslands. Cheetah is also the only species to go extinct in peninsular India in historical times.

• The Supreme Court lifted its seven-year stay on a proposal to introduce African cheetahs from Namibia into the Indian habitat on an experimental basis. The plan was to revive the Indian cheetah population.

Asiatic cheetahs in India

• In 1947, Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh of Deoghar of Koriya, Chhattisgarh — who was infamous for shooting over 1,150 tigers — reportedly killed the last known Asiatic cheetah in India.

• In that year, a few miles from Ramgarh village in the state, the Maharaja killed three of the animals — brothers — during a night drive.

• After that, the Maharaja’s kin continued to report the presence of a few stragglers in the forests of Surguja district, including a pregnant female, up until the late 1960s.

• Some more unconfirmed sightings were reported in 1951 and 1952, from the Orissa-Andhra Pradesh border and Chittoor district.

• The latter sighting is generally accepted to be the final credible sighting of a cheetah in India. In 1952, the cheetah was officially declared extinct from India.

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• There are very few Asiatic cheetahs left in the world and therefore we could not get them from anywhere. Moreover, under the guidelines of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), foreign species cannot be introduced.

• DNA tests of the African Cheetah from Namibia have found that the species’ DNA is 89 per cent similar to the Asiatic Cheetah.

• Former prime minister Indira Gandhi had signed an agreement with Iran to exchange Asiatic lions for Asiatic cheetahs in the late 1970s. At the time, there were around 250 Asiatic cheetahs in Iran. Now, there are only around 28.

African cheetah and Asiatic cheetah

• Before Namibia, India had approached Iran for Asiatic cheetahs, but had been refused.

• The Asiatic cheetah is classified as a “critically endangered” species by the IUCN Red List, and is believed to survive only in Iran.

• From 400 in the 1990s, their numbers are estimated to have plummetted to 50-70 today, because of poaching, hunting of their main prey (gazelles) and encroachment on their habitat.

• ‘Critically endangered’ means that the species faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.

Why does NTCA want to reintroduce cheetahs?

• A section of conservationists has long advocated the reintroduction of the species in the country.

• Reintroductions of large carnivores have increasingly been recognised as a strategy to conserve threatened species and restore ecosystem functions.

• The cheetah is the only large carnivore that has been extirpated, mainly by over-hunting in India in historical times.



• India now has the economic ability to consider restoring its lost natural heritage for ethical as well as ecological reasons.

Why was the project halted?

• The court was also worried whether the African cheetahs would find the sanctuary a favourable clime as far as abundance of prey is concerned.

• Those who challenged the plan argued that the habitat of cheetahs needed to support a genetically viable population.

Supreme court views

• The court has now asked NTCA to conduct a survey to find a new site for the re-introduction to reassess the potential of Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary and also see if there are any sites which might prove to be better. The court has asked NTCA to submit reports every four months.

• Every effort should be taken to ensure that they adapt to the Indian conditions.

• The committee would help, advice and monitor the NTCA on these issues. The action of the introduction of the animal would be left to the NTCA’s discretion.

Corona Virus

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the coronavirus outbreak a global emergency, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China.

What is coronavirus?

• Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that are often the source of respiratory infections, including the common cold.

• A small number of common infecting virus: Most of the viruses are common among animals and only a small number of them infect humans.

• Mutation of animal base virus: Sometimes, an animal-based coronavirus mutates and successfully finds a human host.

• Dangers of rapid urbanisation: Rapid urbanisation that forces animals and humans into closer proximity (as in the “wet market” in Wuhan)

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creates a perfect petri dish from where such zoonotic outbreaks can originate.

Origin of the outbreak and deadly it could turn out?

• Outbreak of unknown virus: In December 2019, an outbreak of viral pneumonia of unknown aetiology emerged in Wuhan, a city in the central Chinese province of Hubei.

• Discovery of novel coronavirus: A few weeks later, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese health authorities announced the discovery of a novel coronavirus, known now as 2019-nCoV, as being responsible for the pneumonia.

• Important questions: The two most important questions asked in a fast-evolving pandemic of this nature are:

o 1) How deadly is the disease, and; o 2) Can it be contained? o The latest available figures suggest that the death toll in China is 304

and 14,411 have been infected. The current fatality rate estimate of 2% is unstable and is likely to fall as more cases are detected.

Containment attempts by China and spread to the other countries

• Unprecedented attempt by China: The attempt at containment started late, but has never been attempted in the fashion that China has gone about it.

o Wuhan lockdown: Belatedly, on 23 January, China locked down Wuhan and 12 other cities, quarantining 52 million people in one sweeping action.

o This is the first known case in modern history of any country locking down an entire large city.

Concern for India

• Reported case in Nepal and cause of concern for India: For India, the most critical is cases being reported in Nepal since India and Nepal share an open border though so far.

• All tests undertaken in India have been negative. Reports of confirmed cases from other countries: Confirmed cases have since been reported from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Australia and the US.



o India reported its first case from Kerala of a medical student from Wuhan University, followed by two more.

o Singapore and the US have now banned foreign nationals who have recently been in China from entering the country.

o Russia, Canada, the UK and India have begun evacuating citizens from Hubei province.

Understanding the new virus

• The possible mode of transmission: According to the World Health Organization, during previous outbreaks due to other coronavirus, human-to-human transmission occurred through droplets, contact and fomites (objects or materials which are likely to carry infection, such as clothes, utensils, and furniture).

• This suggests that the transmission mode of the 2019-nCoV can be identical.

• The transmission even in incubation period: More significant is the new understanding that the virus is contagious even during incubation, that is even before a patient exhibits any symptoms.

Experience from the past outbreaks

• Comparison with SARS: Comparisons are being drawn the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2002-03.

• Zoonotic case: SARS is also a zoonotic case, part of the coronavirus family with clues pointing to horseshoe bats in China as the likely source.

Late reporting by China in SARS:

• The first incidents were reported in Guangdong province in November 2002 but WHO was officially informed only after three months.

• Different response this time: Comparison with SARS: Comparisons are being drawn the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2002-03.

• Zoonotic case: SARS is also a zoonotic case, part of the coronavirus family with clues pointing to horseshoe bats in China as the likely source.

• Late reporting by China in SARS: The first incidents were reported in Guangdong province in November 2002 but WHO was officially informed only after three months.



• Different response this time: This time around, the Chinese government has been more open but the question being asked is whether it has been open enough?

• The difference in time to develop vaccine: For SARS, it took 20 months from the genome sequencing to the first human vaccine trials; for the 2019-nCoV, authorities in the U.S. are working on a deadline of 90 days.

Lessons from Kerala in Nipah outbreak

• Managing an outbreak with few casualties: Kerala managed to curtail the Nipah outbreak with few casualties.

• Nipah is also zoonotic and made the jump from fruit bats to humans.

• Though there were 17 deaths in India, effective quarantine measures by local authorities prevented the spread.

• Infectious disease on the rise: Infectious diseases including those of the zoonotic variety are on the rise in India.

• In addition, regions in India suffer from seasonal outbreaks of dengue, malaria and influenza strains.

• The nation-wide disease surveillance programme needs to be strengthened.

Research on coronavirus so far

• Coronaviruses (CoVs) are characterized by club-like spikes that project from their surface, an unusually large RNA genome and a unique replication strategy.

o CoVs cause a variety of diseases in mammals and birds, ranging from enteritis in hoofed animals to potentially lethal human respiratory infections.

o Genome sequence: The 2019-nCov genome was sequenced in China in early January and reported in The Lancet last week.

o It suggests that the original host of this coronavirus was a bat reservoir, though it is unclear whether there was an intermediate host.

• A recent entry to the human host: The uniformity of the sequenced genome suggests that the virus has entered human hosts very recently.

• Recent emergence from the animal reservoir: Several other countries, including the US and France, have sequenced the RNA of the 2019-nCoV as well. These sequences and their similarity to the initial samples from China suggest a single, recent emergence from an animal reservoir.



Tests and vaccine development

• How is the virus tested? Testing for 2019-nCoV requires a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test (RT-PCR) which converts RNA into DNA, making study and comparison easier.

• No vaccine yet: There are no vaccines yet for this virus, but promising paths have been identified, borrowed from the SARS related vaccines.

o Development of an effective vaccine may only come after the 2019-nCoV is contained, but it may still be useful if there were to be a subsequent outbreak.

o The frequency of future outbreaks is only likely to increase because of climate change, global travel and fast mutating viruses.

What lessons can India learn?

• Develop framework and capacity: For India, this global health emergency should serve as an eye-opener.

o If lockdown turns out to be a useful tool to prevent the spread of a deadly virus, India will need to develop the framework and capacity to implement such a drastic measure.

o Under-equipped municipalities: Our municipalities are hopelessly under-equipped to implement strict isolation and containment strategies.

o We will need to develop the capacity to build large facilities for housing patients in isolation wards.

o Use of pre-cast: This will require India to accelerate the use of construction methods like pre-cast technology.

• Protocol and instructions: The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has been proactive in updating its protocol related to the 2019-nCov and has clear instructions for reporting and assay preparation.

• Develop capacity in geographically diverse regions: Samples in India need to be sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune.

o While the public health and epidemic escalation framework appears capable of handling a small number of cases well, it is not clear how it will stand up to a large number of cases in a specific geographic region.

Conclusion

“Nothing happens quite by chance. It is a question of accretion of information and experience,” said Jonas Salk, the virologist who developed the polio



vaccine, in some ways, China is setting the standard for a public health response that may become a necessary way of life in the 21st century. India must use this as a guidepost to greater preparedness.

Ramsar Wetland Sites in India

Ramsar has declared 10 more wetland sites from India as sites of international importance.

News Ramsar Wetlands

• With this, the numbers of Ramsar sites in India are now 37 and the surface area covered by these sites is now 1,067,939 hectares.

• Maharashtra gets its first Ramsar site (Nandur Madhameshwar),

• Punjab which already had 3 Ramsar sites adds 3 more (Keshopur-Miani, Beas Conservation Reserve, Nangal) and

• UP with 1 Ramsar site has added 6 more (Nawabganj, Parvati Agra, Saman, Samaspur, Sandi and Sarsai Nawar).

Why conservation of wetlands is needed?

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• Wetlands provide a wide range of important resources and ecosystem services such as food, water, fibre, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control and climate regulation.

• They are, in fact, are a major source of water and our main supply of freshwater comes from an array of wetlands which help soak rainfall and recharge groundwater.

What is Ramsar Convention?

• The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (better known as the Ramsar Convention) is an international agreement promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands.

• It is the only global treaty to focus on a single ecosystem. • The convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and

came into force in 1975. • Traditionally viewed as a wasteland or breeding ground of disease,

wetlands actually provide freshwater and food, and serve as nature’s shock absorber.

• Wetlands, critical for biodiversity, are disappearing rapidly, with recent estimates showing that 64% or more of the world’s wetlands have vanished since 1900.

• Major changes in land use for agriculture and grazing, water diversion for dams and canals and infrastructure development are considered to be some of the main causes of loss and degradation of wetlands.

GS-4

Question: Mr. X is the engineering manager for the County Road Commission (CRC), with the primary responsibility for county road safety. Along a given stretch of the road, many people have died over the course of last 5 years by crashing into roadside trees. Many other accidents have also occurred. Two lawsuits had been filed regarding the unsafe segment of the road, but were dismissed because the drivers were exceeding the 45 mph speed limit. Mr. X recommends that the road be widened, cutting down a large number of trees in the process.



This leads to a protest by environmental groups and they file a petition to save the trees; and instead educate people about following the road safety rules like speed limit etc. The public sentiment is divided on the issue with no sight of a wide consensus. Discuss how Mr. X should proceed at this point. Answer: In discussion of this situation, one can try responding to the following:

• What do societal values require in this case? • What do professional ethical standards require in this case? • What would you do?

Societal values:

• A consideration of a variety of societal values would be relevant in this situation. For instance, since society values human life, so this would favor widening the road and sacrificing the trees.

• However, society also values environmental preservation, in which case a solution that does not kill the trees should be found

Professional standards demand that efforts be made in improving the public knowledge regarding the issue -this indicates that whatever decision is made, an effort should be made to educate the public holistically on all the related issues. Recommended action for Mr. X:

(1) First, hold a public meeting to inform the public about the decision you may have arrived at. However, it should be noted that presently there may not be wide ranging consensus on the issue. This is because the people who have presented the petition may not constitute the entire population of the town. There may be a silent majority who hold a different view.

(2) One way to resolve the issue is to widen the road and remove trees from the right-of-way for optimal safety.

(3) But the county should relocate the displaced trees to other public property (a park, etc).



This solution accommodates both public safety as well as environmental preservation

Question: Imagine that you have been recently appointed as the head of the accounts department in a municipal corporation. Soon after you assumed your duties, you discovered that a clerk in your department was falsifying the payroll account by continuing to carry the names of some employees who have already been terminated. When the clerk picked up the payroll, he would pull out those cheques, endorse and cash them and keep the money. You have no difficulty in recognizing that this clerk is not only involved in unethical conduct but is also clearly violating the law. In this situation, the following two options are available to you. Which amongst these two would you choose as your response? Give logical arguments in the support of your answer.

• Your responsibility for the image of the corporation may suggest firing the clerk quietly, involving as few other people as possible.

• Your responsibility for maintaining the public trust may demand you to consider formal charges and prosecution.

Answer: 1st Approach

• It is not difficult to recognize that this clerk is not only involved in unethical conduct but is also clearly violating the law. Both moral and legal sanctions against stealing are well established and generally accepted. You are immediately aware that his behaviour is unacceptable and must be stopped, although you would probably pause to think carefully about the best course of action. While your responsibility for the image of the organization may suggest firing the clerk quietly, involving as few other people as possible, but your responsibility for maintaining the public trust may lead you to consider formal charges and prosecution.

• While the ethical situation, in this case, is quite clear, but the demands of administrative responsibility for resolving it are much less so. The



ethical issue and its implications for administrative responsibility are complex and ambiguous.

• While you are responsible towards ensuring the image of the organization, it needs to be remembered that your obligation to the public as a whole entails an additional and more rigorous set of standards and constraints associated with the concept of public trust. In this case, your precepts about loyalty to the organization do not help.

• Here the best way is that you begin to reflect on the things that you value most. You will probably realize that if you are to remain true to your profession, you must maintain your obligation to a central principle – the public trust. You must have taken an oath to uphold the public trust when you accepted the position. All other commitments and values must be viewed in relation to that responsibility to a basic principle.

• The right of the people to know the details of the issue must be upheld. Ultimately the principles of democracy and the integrity of democratic governance are also at stake. People need to know what is going on in public agencies and organizations if they are to truly participate in governing. Information about matters that concern the public in any way should not be withheld from reaching the people. The orderly conduct of public services requires that subordinates as well as their superiors exhibit accountability and efficiency. Loyalty to the organization is not an end in itself; it exists for the ultimate benefit of the citizenry, for the public interest

2nd Approach I will proceed with the formal charges and prosecution because of the following reasons.

• Any organization cannot sustain without public trust. There may be short term gain without it.

• The clerk should get fair and free chance to defend himself. He might get smaller punishment then loosing the job. Thus, organization will not loose an employee.

• My image in my subordinates will be strengthened that I believe in justice and fair play. Thus my authority and leadership will be enhanced.



• If I fire him quietly, he becomes a mean to achieve the others’ goals. • I cannot expect that any situation might arise where I do not get a fair

chance to defend myself.

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