Fortnightly Digest forIssue-V

Issue-V

Context

United States intends to terminate India’s designation as a beneficiary of its Gener-alised System of Preferences (GSP)

Overview of Generalized System of Pref-erences (GSP)

• Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is a preferential tariff system extended by developed countries to developing coun-tries (also known as preference receiving countries or beneficiary countries). It is a preferential arrangement in the sense that it allows concessional low/zero tariff imports from developing countries.

• Developed countries including the US, EU, UK, Japan etc., gives GSPs to imports from developing countries. GSP involves reduced/zero tariffs of eligible products exported by beneficiary countries to the markets of GSP providing countries.

• U.S. trade preference programs such as the Generalized System of Preferenc-es (GSP) provide opportunities for many of the world’s poorest countries to use trade to grow their economies and climb out of poverty. GSP is the largest and oldest U.S. trade preference program. Established by the Trade Act of 1974, GSP promotes economic development by eliminating duties on thousands of products when imported from one of 120 designated beneficiary countries and territories.

• The products covered under GSP are mainly agricultural products including animal husbandry, meat and fisheries and handicraft products. These products are generally the specialised products of the developing country.

Benefits of Generalized System of Prefer-ences

• To the beneficiary nation: GSP pro-motes sustainable development in ben-eficiary countries by helping these coun-tries to increase and diversify their trade with the United States. The GSP program provides additional benefits for products from least developed countries.

• To USA: Moving GSP imports from the docks to U.S. consumers, farmers and manufacturers supports tens of thou-sands of jobs in the United States. GSP also boosts American competitiveness by reducing costs of imported inputs used

by U.S. companies to manufacture goods in the United States. GSP is especial-ly important to U.S. small businesses, many of which rely on the programs’ duty savings to stay competitive.

Most of the 3,500 Indian products imported by the U.S. under the GSP are raw materials or important intermediaries of value chains. In many cases, Indian exports are less-ex-pensive, high-quality alternatives that re-duce the costs of final products, thereby creating value that is subsequently exported the world over by U.S. companies or directly conveyed to the U.S. consumer. Indeed, this enables the U.S. economy to be more globally competitive.

What is the difference between GSP and the usual trade arrangement under WTO?

• Under the normal trade laws, the WTO members must give equal preferences to trade partners. There should not be any discrimination between countries. This trade rule under the WTO is called the Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause.

• The MFN instructs non-discrimination that any favorable treatment to a par-ticular country. At the same time, the WTO allows members to give special and differential treatment to from de-veloping countries (like zero tariff im-ports). This is an exemption for MFN. The MSP given by developed countries including the US is an exception to MFN.

USA argument for withdrawing GSP • USA has alleges that India has imple-

mented a wide array of trade barriers that create serious negative effects on United States commerce.

• India has failed to take the necessary steps to meet the GSP criterion. The cri-teria include providing intellectual prop-erty protection and giving the USA rea-sonable and fair market access.

• The US demand for relaxation in norms for exports of medical devices and dairy products are non-negotiable to India.

• According to USA countries that are no longer developing nations shouldn’t continue to get special access from the US to help them grow - especially if they’re not providing reciprocal access.

Trade War between India and USA • The Trump administration has been ac-

cusing India of unfair trade practices and has challenged most of its export subsi-dies at the WTO.

• USA under Trump unilaterally raising tar-iffs on steel and aluminum imports from India and challenging its export subsidy regime at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

• India has also dragged the US to the WTO on higher steel and aluminum tariffs and has threatened to impose retaliatory tar-iffs worth $240 million on US imports.

• India’s new e-commerce rules, price controls on medical devices and tariffs on ICT (information and communications technology) products are among the is-sues that have caused trade frictions between the two countries.

• The US was insisting India to reduce its trade surplus. India is the 11th largest trade surplus country for the US and India enjoyed an annual trade surplus of $ 21 billion in 2017-18.

What is the impact of GSP withdrawal on India?

• Terrorism has resulted in forcible and voluntary displacement, changes in oc-cupation and increased government ex-penditure on displaced persons.

• Terrorism in India has also resulted in loss of business, tourism and manufac-turing activity and investment into new industries and isolation of the affected areas.

Why trade war is not an option for India? • The GSP removal will leave a reasonable

impact on India as the country enjoyed preferential tariff on exports worth of nearly $ 5. 6 billion under the GSP route out of the total exports of $48 billion in 2017-18. In total India exports near-ly 1,937 products to the US under GSP.

• According to the Washington Post, 90 percent of Indian/Brazilian exports to America face normal US tariffs and hence will remain unaffected from the exit of the GSP program.

• India emphasized that the products on which India receive GSP benefits belong to sectors which employ several thou-sands of men and women, especially in rural areas through micro, small and medium enterprises.

• India had threatened to drag the US to the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO, claiming withdrawal of the GSP benefits would be “discriminatory ar-bitrary and detrimental” to its develop-mental needs.

Need for Judicial Reforms in India

State Surveillance in Volatile World

Ayushman Bharat for Healthy India

The first ever global assessment of environ-mental rule of law finds weak enforcement to be a global trend that is exacerbating envi-ronmental threats, despite prolific growth in environmental laws and agencies worldwide over the last four decades.

Environmental rule of law is central to sus-tainable development. It integrates environ-mental needs with the essential elements of the rule of law, and provides the basis for improving environmental governance. It highlights environmental sustainability by connecting it with fundamental rights and obligations. Pg 19

UN Report:Environmental Rule of Law

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

India has taken a giant leap towards providing accessible and affordable healthcare to the common man with the launch of Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

Under the vision of Ayushman Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) shall be implemented so that each and every citizen receives his due share of health care. This is the “world’s largest government funded healthcare program” targeting more than 50 crore beneficiaries. It will act as a visionary step towards advancing the agenda of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Pg 20

Tackling Child Malnutrition in India

Pg 16 Pg 17 Pg 18

April-I Edition

Subject: Indian EconomySub-Topic: International Trade

USA’s Withdrawal from GSP and Impact on India

Fortnightly Digest for Civil Services Aspirants RNI : DELENG19278

Price ` : 30.00/-

April-I EditionP2

Earth’s north magnetic pole has been drifting as the magnetic north pole is wandering about 55 kilometers a year. What will be the impact of it?

1. It will effect navigation in Airplanes and boats.

2. It will affect the navigation and parachute drops in military use.

3. It will affect the navigation in birds also during migration.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 3 only

(d) All of the above

Answer is available on Page 26

Joke 1

Brain is the most outstanding organ. It works for 24 hours 365 days right from the time of birth, but stops only when we enter the exam hall.

Joke 2

Edison had rightly said: A fool can ask more questions than a wise can answer. Now we know why all of us are speechless during the viva.

Rumours (because they are not facts)

1. Certain optionals have better prospects in the examination:

• TheUPSCoffers48optionals(includingliteraturesubjects).MostIASbeginnerschoose an optional simply because it is considered ‘scoring’. All optionals offer equal chances of success. Student should choose the optional based on familiarity of the subject availability of books and other study material availability of faculty, the level of difficulty as per the syllabus and previous question papers etc.

2. The compulsory language papers do not require any preparation:

• Therearetwocompulsorypapers-IndianlanguageandEnglish.Anaspiranthasto score the passing marks to qualify it. When students attain minimum marks in it, then other copies of main examination are evaluated. As the competition is rising, the questions are becoming tougher year by year. Thus, it is safe to prepare for qualifying paper.

Events and Activities of Interest to an Aspirant

MCQ of the Week

Crossword

Humour & RumourHumour

A BREAK FOR YOUR MIND

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Across

9. Physicist featuring in TV network; covered by state on January 26 (7)

10. Visa issued in time to escape (7)

11. Not odd to have gin cocktail at the end of day (7)

12. Shaft turned at the beginning of the day to reinforce part of the sail (7)

13. Marriage is mother’s trial to get over one half of a day (9)

15. Perhaps a duct in lavatory is accidentally cut at the source (5)

16. Resistance against state organised around capital of Rajasthan by apostates (7)

19. Last month an engineer received money at unit (7)

20. Plant gets support to creep around a rod primarily (5)

21. Tending to go back on holiday, I first va-cated establishment (9)

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25. Storm will lead to trouble marooning seamen (7)

26. A coward before mother-in-law, king is given to wet (7)

28. Million years back a student chapter at England found this ancient branch of natural philosophy (7)

29. Spilt oil near part of the aircraft wing (7)

Down

1. A great meal cooked by Bright... (6)

2. ...coming in commercial; recipe is new (6)

3. Vehicle from Tesla’s a cross, uses electric current (4)

4. An eccentric individual at the middle of the block being at ease in Rome (6)

5. Innocent woman, basically young, ener-getic yuppie featuring in performance (4-4)

6. Maybe it’s a fantasy held by cashier; to be disguised in wigs (10)

7. A short account on the origin of medicine in book on essential nutrient (7,1)

8. In Cochin, mica laminates are opposed (8)

14. Unusually rained a bit, took off; a break in the middle and got drunk (10)

16. Negation of Ram in certain quarters... (8)

17. ...new article covers atrocities at the top in the channel (8)

18. Don’s X-ray reveals stone (8)

22. Commanding officer hires doctor a vet by the end of battle (6)

23. Press in India? News without substance, editor extremely upset at the end (6)

24. Spandex needs no introduction, can be made to stretch (6)

27. Beat student taking a little time (4)

Crossword Solution (Last Edition)

tion and understand the gap that needs to be filled to attain the Absolute Potential.

April-I EditionP3

Until 2014, 600 million people (approxi-mately 60% of the world’s open defeca-

tors) were practicing open defecation across the country in India. Of these, 550 million were in rural India. This has changed quite dramatically. The open defecation number has dwindled to 100 million. As many as 520 thousand villages, 530 Districts and 25 States and Union Territories are open defecation free (ODF). Rural India is poised to become open defecation free by 2nd October, 2019.

This was unthinkable a few years ago but it happened. How did it happen? And are there lessons for other schemes in the country?

The scheme had the desired political support. For any scheme to succeed in a democracy, it not merely requires political acceptance but huge amount of political support. The Swa-chh Bharat not only had political support, it was driven by the Prime Minister himself. This made a huge difference. Aligned with this was the belief in the achievability of the goal at each level of governance and delivery. The PM-CM-DM-VM (Prime Minister-Chief Minister-District Magistrate-Village Moti-vator) model worked. This connect was con-sciously created. It worked wonders.

The State Governments were taken into confidence. This happened through massive engagement with the states. The Secretary, Parameswaran Iyer set the pace by not “dic-tating” terms from Delhi but by travelling down to each state with view to interacting intensively with the Chief Secretaries and the field functionaries. The visits were not limited to the state headquarters but entailed going down to the villages to get a better under-standing of ground realities that constituted very useful input in formulating policies. This was indeed a game changer. The intensity of engagement and the passion that went with it helped “buy-in” from various stakehold-ers. A concrete value proposition in terms of benefits likely to accrue was conveyed to the stakeholders.

Organizing workshops at national and re-gional levels helped the field level function-aries to understand the nuances of imple-menting such a scheme where behavioral change was the key to success. Mere setting up of toilets would not have helped, the focus needed to be on their usage. These work-shops also provided an opportunity to get feedback from the field.

The District Magistrates were incentivized through interactions in Delhi and other ca-pacity building workshops. Swachh Sur-vekshan Grameen 2018 was constituted to provide healthy competition amongst the Districts. This yielded significant increase in the momentum on the ground.

An effective communication strategy was evolved to bring about behavioral change at the ground level. This was supplemented with mass media at the national level. Well known personalities were roped in to convey messages that had the desired impact in the context of usage of toilets and twin pit toilets. The SBM foot soldiers and Swachhagrahis participated in triggering community be-havior change and sustaining such a change through inter-personal communication.

There has been significant impact of Swachh Bharat Mission at the grass root level, both in the context of health parameters as well as economic indicators. A WHO study released in August 2018 reported that Swachh Bharat would have led to a saving of around 300,000 lives by 2019 and around 150,000 lives would be saved annually thereafter. UNICEF in its report, “The Financial and Economic Impact of SBM in India (2017)” has estimat-ed that an ODF village in rural India saves Rs 50,000 every year. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has released a study that shows significant improvements in diarrhea prevalence and stunting among children in ODF districts , compared to otherwise similar non-ODF districts.

The success of Swachh Bharat Mission has huge lessons for those that are in the busi-ness of implementing government schemes. What really stands out and needs replica-tion is the approach that was adopted by the Secretary Iyer himself. Most of the senior civil servants prefer to carry out their tasks in the comfort of their rooms in Delhi. They need to move out where there is action. When the senior most Civil Servant moves out, those below will do so as well. It requires effort but is critical because such visits not merely convey a purpose, the top officials can get a feel of the ground realities. They will also be benefitted by extremely useful feedback. Corrective steps can be taken both at the policy level as well as in operations. The dis-connect that exists between the policy mak-ers and the field can be bridged.

Effective communication (as distinct from publicity) is imperative to reach out to the beneficiaries. A lot of time gets spent on publicity to please a “select audience” and these campaigns are launched in places that are beyond the reach of the beneficiary. Swachch Bharat made an effort to influence the mind and behavior of the beneficia-ry. Publicity followed. Talking was done at an appropriate place and appropriate time and, more importantly, was accompanied with “walking”. “Talking” (sometimes only talking) before “walking” has makes lit-tle difference on the ground. There was a lot of emphasis with regard to action on the ground under Swachch Bharat. This is why this scheme different from other schemes of the government. There is a lesson for others in this context as well.Apart from the above, what is also worthy of emulation is the clarity of thought and artic-ulation at each level. The commitment and the passion of the team is quite remark-able. Roll out plans have been meticulously chalked out and critical input is welcomed.There is indeed a lot to learn from the suc-cess of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan.

EDITORIALSImportant Editorials of the FortnightIndian Express

•AfghanistanandtheTaliban:nextstage in the Great Game

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/next-stage-in-the-great-game/article26613235.ece

•Whenfreespeechistrulyfree

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/when-free-speech-is-truly-free/article26601160.ece

Indian Express

•Timeisoftheessence,stepsmustbe taken to increase consumption of renewable energy

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-next-revolution-indias-energy-basket-planning-commission-india-energy-future-ecology-renewables-niti-aayog-5651824/

•Therealissueathandisnotsolely of job creation but also of creation of quality jobs

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/lost-in-the-din-on-jobs-nsso-survey-gdp-growth-5649339/

Livemint

•First-past-the-postelectionsand their perplexities

https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/opinion-first-past-the-post-elections-and-their-perplexities-1554134816044.html

•Theworldmustavertanarmsrace in space

https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/opinion-the-world-must-avert-an-arms-race-in-space-1553796018443.html

Hindu Business Line

•Monetarypolicyintheshadowofpolls

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/ashima-goyal/monetary-policy-in-the-shadow-of-polls/article26703778.ece

•Thethreepillarsofelections

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/the-three-pillars-of-elections/article26704196.ece

Shri Anil SwarupIAS (Retd.) & Author of

bestseller “Not just A Civil Servant”

The Success of Swachh Bharat

MissionAre there lessons for other schemes?

Swachh Bharat Mission Achievements

• 7.15 crore toilets constructed in villages. • 3.6 lakh villages and 383 districts made ODF. • 4,465 open defecation free villages under Namami Ganga. • Sanitation Coverage increased from 38.70% in 2014 to 83.43%. • 2679 cities have been so far self-declared Open Defecation Free and after third party certification 2,133

cities/ ULBs have been certified as Open Defecation Free (ODF). • 62,436 urban wards covered under 100% Door to Door collection of solid waste. • Around 88 Mega Watts of energy is being produced from waste. • Sulabh International Social Service Organization has built more than 1.5 million household toilets, about

20,000 toilets in schools, 8,500 public toilets. (data till May, 2018)

April-I EditionP4

Women in PoliceSubject: Internal SecuritySub-Topic: Public Order

Poverty in India: MPI ReportSubject: GovernanceSub-Topic: Poverty

Employment of women in the police was ini-tially viewed with scepticism and disfavour. For example when the Punjab Police Commission (1961-62) sought the views of different state governments on the induction of women into the police, the then Chief Secretary and In-spector General of Police, Tamil Nadu, stated that the recruitment of women in the police would be unwise because they are not suited to the tough requirements of the job. Howev-er, changes in social conditions, necessitated employment of women in greater numbers in the police. Although women have now become an integral part of the police forc-es in the world, their numbers remain poor.

Data on Women in Police Force • Women constitute 7.28 per cent of the

police force in India. • Their presence is 2.47 per cent in Nax-

al-hit Telangana. • In militancy-affected Jammu and Kash-

mir, there are just 3.05 per cent women in a police force which has a sanctioned strength of more than 80,000 police personnel.

• In Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most-pop-ulous state, the police force has only 3.81 per cent women. It has a sanctioned strength of around 3,65,000 personnel.

• The percentage of women in police forc-es in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya was also low.

Introduction

The 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an internationally comparable measure of acute poverty for 105 countries, covering 5.7 billion people.

What is Multi-dimensional Poverty?

The global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an international measure of acute poverty. It complements traditional income-based poverty measures by capturing the severe deprivations that each person faces at the same time with respect to education, health and living standards.

Key findings of the Report • 1.3 billion people live in multidimensional

poverty in the 105 developing countries. • They are deprived in at least one-third

of overlapping deprivations in health, education and living standards, lacking such things as clean water, sanitation adequate nutrition, or primary education.

• Multidimensional poverty is found in all

• Tamil Nadu has the highest number of women police personnel, the situation in Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa was relatively better.

• Among the Union territories, Chandi-garh has the highest number of women personnel while the Delhi Police, with a sanctioned strength of around 85,000 personnel, had just 8.64 per cent women in its roll as on January 1 last year.

The situation is pathetic despite the Union Home Ministry sending advisories in 2009, 2012 and 2016 to all the state governments and Union territories to increase the strength of women police personnel to 33 per cent.

Barriers and challenges faced by Women in Police

Women face various challenges at every stage of her career in policing, from recruit-ment to postings, promotion, training. Some issues are:

• Women police, particularly at junior ranks, suffer sexual harassment within the workplace.

• Limiting the number of posts for which women are eligible to apply in service.

• Disallowing postings in home districts for specified periods of time.

• Confinement of women to desk jobs mainly.

• Lack of adequate facilities and infra-structure.

These challenges stem from both larger so-cio-cultural factors and societal prejudic-es, that feed into and shape police internal sub-cultures and institutional environments, physical and otherwise.

Recommendations

Achieving substantive equality between men and women within the police requires a mul-tipronged approach. Such as:

• Recruitment: Ensure a level playing field for women in the police to increase their numbers. Merely providing reservation is not enough; police departments should develop an action plan to achieve the target of 30% or more in a time-bound manner. This also applies to States.

• Allocation of Work: The model policy should strive to ensure that decisions on deployment of women are free of gen-der stereotyping. Women police officers should be encouraged to take on pub-lic order and investigative crimes of all types and should be given duties beyond the minimum mandated by special laws. Desk work too must be allocated evenly among men and women.

• Work-life Balance: A major burden of family and childcare responsibilities falls on women. Yet, police departments lack proper internal childcare support sys-tems. Departments need to be mindful of this social reality and exercise sen-sitivity in making decisions on transfers and posting of women personnel. As far as possible, women should be posted in their home districts in consultation with supervising officers.

• Working Environment: Police depart-ments must also ensure safe working spaces for women and adopt a zero-tol-erance policy towards the discrimination and harassment, in order to make po-licing a viable career option for women.

14 Days News Summary

developing regions, particularly acute in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. These two regions account together for 83% of all multi-dimensionally poor people in the world.

• Two-thirds of all multi-dimensional-ly poor people live in middle-income countries.

• Worldwide, over 665 million children live in multidimensional poverty. In 35 coun-tries at least half of all children are MPI poor. In South Sudan and Niger, some 93% of all children are MPI poor.

Data related to India • India has reduced its poverty rate drasti-

cally from 55% to 28% in 10 years, with 271 million people moving out of poverty between 2005-06 and 2015-16. How-ever, India still had 364 million poor in 2015-16, the largest for any country.

• In India, poverty reduction among chil-dren, the poorest states, Scheduled Tribes and Muslims was fastest.

• Although Muslims and STs reduced pov-erty the most over the 10 years, these two groups still had the highest rates of poverty.

• The four poorest states —Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Mad-hya Pradesh — were still home to 196 million MPI poor people, which was over half of all the MPI poor people in India. Jharkhand had the greatest improve-

SNIPPETSWest Nile Fever

• West Nile fever is a zoonotic disease [an animal disease affecting humans]. Disease is caused by West Nile Virus [WNV], which is a flavivirus, related to the viruses that cause St. Louis encephalitis, Japanese encephalitis and yellow fever.

• West Nile Virus is mainly transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes. West Nile Virus is maintained in nature by transmission between birds and mosquitoes, as birds are the natural host of the virus. Humans, horses and other mammals can be infected.

• West Nile fever can cause severe neurological illness and death in people, however about 80% of the people who are infected shows no symptoms.

• This virus was first isolated in the West Nile districts of Uganda in 1937.

Climate Vulnerability Index

• The Department of Science and Technology (DST) will be commissioning a study to assess the climate risks faced by States in India. This follows an assessment of the global warming risks faced by 12 Himalayan States — and discussed at last year’s U.N. climate change conference in Poland — that found States such as Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand vulnerable to climate change.

• The study was undertaken in the 12 Himalayan states viz. Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

• The vulnerability was measured on a scale 0-1 with 1 indicating the highest possible level of vulnerability The study indicates that:

9 Assam and Mizoram with a vulnera-bility score of 0.72 and 0.71 topped the vulnerability index.

9 Assam is highly vulnerable to climate change because of factors like low per capita income, deforestation, a large number of marginal farmers, least area under irrigation, lack of alternative sources of income and high rates of poverty.

9 The report finds that low per capita income, low open forest area per 1,000 households and lack of irriga-tion coverage as the most important drivers of vulnerability in Himalayan states.

ment, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Nagaland. At the other end, Kerala, one of the least poor regions in 2006, reduced its MPI by around 92%.

Recommendations of NITI Aayog for Pov-erty Alleviation

The strategy for combating poverty must rest on two legs:

• Employment-intensive Sustained Rapid Growth

Sustained rapid growth works through two channels: first, by creating jobs that pay steadily rising real wages, it directly dents poverty and, second, it leads to growth in gov-ernment revenues which in turn allow the ex-pansion of social expenditures at faster pace.

• Making Anti-poverty Programs More Effective

MGNREGA can be made more effective by al-lowing it to impart skills. This would also pave the way for many workers to exit the program. Relaxing the proportion of expenditure on materials and allowing the use of contractors in the materials component would great-ly improve the quality of assets produced.

Simultaneously, Jan Dhan Yojana aadhaar, Mobile (JAM) trinity could play a vital role in widening the reach of Government to the vulnerable sections.

About this SectionThe ‘Daily News Summary’ section covers news specifically curated over the last fortnight for the Civil Services aspirants. News covered in the section is more factual in

nature rather than analysis based.

This effort is done to ensure that you do not spend time reading news that is not relevant and can focus on news that remains relevant from the viewpoint of the examination.

The sub-section, ‘Snippets’ will provide additional information including brief news, concepts, explanation of key terms among others.

’Practice MCQs’ will also be found in this section. Questions will be based on the news covered to ensure you practice questions asked in the Prelims stage of the examination.

References: The Hindu, Indian Express, Livemint, PIB, Government websites and other national and international sources.

April-I EditionP5

1. Consider the following statements regarding Generalized System of Preferences:

1. Generalized system of pref-erences is a preferential tariff system extended by developed countries to the developing countries.

2. The objective is to give de-velopment support to least developed countries only by promoting exports from them into developed countries.

Which of the above statement is/are correct?

(a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Both 1 and 2

Ans: (a)2. On which of the following

parameters Multi-Dimensional Poverty is calculated?

1. Nutrition

2. Years of Schooling

3. Housing

4. Asset

5. Electricity Select the correct answer using the

codes given below:

(a) 1, 2 and 3 only

(b) 3, 4 and 4 only

(c) 2, 4 and 5 only

(d) All of the aboveAns: (d)

3. Which of the following country has Maximum per cent of women representation in Lower House (Lok Sabha)?

(a) Cuba (b) Rwanda (c) Bolivia (d) Mexico

Ans. (b)4. Which of the following is/are the

proposed benefits of the New Hydro Policy?

1. It will provide grid stability as compared to wind and solar energy.

2. It will result in socio-economic development of the region.

Select the correct answer using codes given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Ans. (c)

Sample MCQ’s

14 Days News SummaryAlternative Farming MethodsSubject: GeographySub-Topic: Sustainable Agriculture

India’s Anti-Satellite Missile TestSubject: Science and TechnologySub-Topic: Defence

What is Blue Revolution?

Sustainability and food security are the major challenges faced by third world countries for the past several decades. Most of the third world countries are also facing problems of climate change, increasing population, overexploitation of natural resources and resource degradation associated with rapid economic growth.

Hence the experts are recommending for the adaptation of Alternative Farming Methods.

What are Alternative Farming Methods?

Alternative farming methods include local, non-industrial farms; organic farms; hydro-ponic and aquaponic farms; and urban farms, have the potential to increase our food supply while reducing energy use.

Methodologies of Alternative Farming Methods

• Organic Farming: Organic farming is a production system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, genetically modified organisms and livestock food additives. To the maximum extent possible organic farming system rely upon crop rotations, use of crop residues animal manures, legumes, green manures, off farm organic wastes, biofertilizers, mechanical cultivation, mineral bearing rocks and aspects of biological control to maintain

Introduction

The utility of space as a medium for war has grown exponentially since the days of the Cold War Space Race. The military potential of satellites is manifold: communications, navigation, early-warning systems, recon-naissance, and signal intelligence. Any state that manages to get the upper hand in this frontier can be expected to dominate the outcome of any war. A state with command over space-based assets can jam enemy satellites or destroy them, and stop the en-emy from communicating with troops or ac-cessing vital information about troop move-ments or incoming missiles.

What is an Anti-Satellite Missile Test?

It is the technological capability to hit and destroy satellites in space through missiles launched from the ground.

ASAT around the world

So far the United States, China and Russia were the only ones who’ve reported the abil-ity to shoot down space objects from ground or airborne sources.

soil productivity and tilth to supply plant nutrients and to control insect, weeds and other pests.

• No Tillage Farming: Tillage is a crit-ical soil management practice used for weed control, seed bed preparation, root growth stimulation, soil moisture control, soil temperature control, soil compac-tion alleviation and incorporation of crop residues and manure. Usually this tilling practice affects the soil compaction, loss of organic matter, degradation of soil ag-gregates, death or disruption of soil mi-crobes including mycorrhiza arthropods and earthworms and soil erosion.

No-till farming avoids these effects by excluding the use of tillage practice. By this way of farming, crop residues or other organic amenities are retained on the soil surface, sowing and fertilizing is done with minimal soil disturbance.

• Urban and Peri-urban Farming: Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) can be defined as the growing of plants and the raising of animals within and around cities. Urban and peri-urban agriculture provides food products from different types of crops (grains, root crops, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits) animals (poultry, rabbits, goats, sheep, cattle, pigs, guinea pigs, fish, etc.) as well as non-food products (e.g. aromatic and medicinal herbs, ornamental plants, tree products). UPA includes trees managed for producing fruit and fuelwood as well as tree systems integrated and managed with crops (agroforestry) and small-scale aquaculture.

• Permaculture: Permaculture (perma-nent agriculture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally pro-ductive ecosystems which have the di-versity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. It ensures that plant pro-duction is geared to natural conditions, i.e. site-appropriate preservation of the soil structure, biological processes, soil fertility, prevention of erosion damage, control of contamination, preservation of typical landscape features, promo-tion of nature conservation, protection of species, preservation of ecologically valuable biotopes and making livestock husbandry an integral component of en-vironmentally sound agriculture.

• Integrated Pest Management: Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices. IPM programs use current, comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction with the environment. This information, in combination with available pest control methods, is used to manage pest damage by the most economical means and with the least possible hazard to people, property and the environment.

Benefits of Alternative Farming Methods • Uses less energy from reduced transport

and/or fertilizer use. • Increases crop diversity and resiliency. • Improves local access to healthy, fresh

food. • Improves our ability to withstand potential

shortages by diversifying the food supply. • Strengthens underutilized or abandoned

urban areas.

US first tested the ASAT technology in 1958 which was followed by USSR in 1964. China joined the club in 2007. Before India, the last known ASAT test was conducted by Russia in September 2018 where a new type of ASAT missile was carried by MIG-31. No country has used ASAT yet in a military conflict.

The US and Russia have the capabilities of launching an ASAT from the ship, land and space, while India, presently, has used a land installation.

Significance

ASATs can be used to intercept and jam communication or military satellites of en-emy countries in the time of war and stop them from communicating with their soldiers. It can also be used to access critical infor-mation about troop movements or incoming missiles.

The anti satellite weapons can even under-take pellet cloud attacks on enemy’s low or-bit satellites. Other ASAT capabilities include cyber-attacks on space systems, Elec-tro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) explosion devices, directed energy (laser based) weapons and targeted missiles for destruction of satellites to sabotage the enemy’s military operations.

Government SchemeGovernment Scheme

Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra

• It aims at empowering rural women through community participation to create an environment in which they realize their full potential. • The new scheme is envisaged to work at various levels. While, National level (domain based knowledge support) and State level (State Resource Centre for

Women) structures will provide technical support to the respective government on issues related to women, the District and Block level Centres will provide support to MSK and also give a foothold to Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao in 640 districts to be covered in a phased manner.

Source: Start-up Hydrabad

April-I EditionP6

SNIPPETSChitosan usage for oil spill

• Chitosan is a naturally occurring biopolymer which has been wide-ly used in a variety of biomedical applications including local antibiotic delivery due to its excellent mechan-ical properties, biodegradability and biocompatibility.

• Chitosan which is water-soluble, has been chemically modified by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati to selec-tively remove either an oil or water phase from an oil-water mixture.

• The chitosan — which is convert-ed into a stable gel — allows the researchers to selectively remove the oil or water phase from an oil-water mixture by making the material either superhydrophobic or superoleopho-bic, respectively. For example, if the oil spill (in water) is less, the material can be made water-repelling to remove or collect the oil. In case the spill is huge and the water phase relatively less, the material can be made extremely oil-repelling to collect or remove water.

Pinaki Chandra Ghosh: 1st Lokpal of India

• Former Supreme Court judge Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose was appoint-ed as the country’s first Lokpal, the anti-corruption ombudsman.

• The appointments were recom-mended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led selection committee and approved by President Ram Nath Kovind.

• The Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, which envisages appointment of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states to look into cases of corruption against certain categories of public servants, was passed in 2013.

• The Lokpal selection committee is headed by the Prime Minister and has as its members the Lok Sabha Speaker, leader of the opposition in the Lower House, Chief Justice of India or a judge of the apex court nominated by him, and an eminent jurist who could be nominated by the president or any other member.

• Upon selection, the chairperson and members shall hold office for a term of five years or till they attain 70 years of age.

• The salary and allowances of the chairman will be the same as that of the Chief Justice of India.

• The members will be paid salary and same allowances as that of a judge of the Supreme Court.

14 Days News SummaryTransforming Learning Outcomes in Education SectorSubject: GovernanceSub-Topic: Education

Global Environment Outlook ReportSubject: Ecology and EnvironmentSub-Topic: Environmental Governance

Introduction

The classroom is the nation’s laboratory, where the kind of society we aspire to live in is created. Schools can be truly visionary, creating an environment where children can engage in the quest for knowledge.

Schools can empower children to become informed and self-reliant adults. But the ground reality is disturbing. Autocratic class-rooms, mechanical rote learning procedure, negligible intrinsic motivation, uninspired and uninspiring teaching, learning divorced from reality are basic characteristic features of major schools.

Centre-State cooperation in educational development

The 42nd Amendment Act has placed educa-tion on the Concurrent list. The implications of making education a concurrent subject is that both the Centre and the States can legislate on any aspect of education from the Primary to the University level.

But schemes have been implemented with one-size-fits all format The result outcomes were poor. Hence many States have initiated local schemes for the improvement of edu-cation status.

Hereby discussing few examples and their outcomes.

The Global Environment Outlook (GEO) is a consultative and participatory process to prepare an independent assessment of the state of the environment, the effectiveness of the policy response to address these environ-mental challenges and the possible pathways to be achieve various internationally agreed environmental goals. The process also builds capacity for conducting integrated environ-mental assessments and reporting on the state, trends and outlooks of the environment.

Findings of the Report • Globally, poor environmental conditions

are seen as causing one fourth of all disease and death and annually displace millions of people; in 2016, 24.2 million people were displaced.

• Atmospheric pollution worldwide is the number one environmental cause of health problems today followed closely by water-related health risks.

• Biodiversity is critical to the survival of the human race because declines in genes, species and ecosystems impacts

a) ‘Saksham Ghoshna’ initiative of Haryana

Under this campaign, State officials nom-inate their block for the ‘Saksham Ghosh-na’ once they are reasonably confident that their block has achieved the 80% target, as a result of remedial programmes, teach-er training and internal assessments. This self-nomination is then followed by rigorous rounds of third party assessments to vet their claims. If a block is found to be ‘Saksham’, the block officials are recognised by no less than the Chief Minister and a large-scale ‘show and tell’ event is organised to hon-our them. Further, when all blocks in a dis-trict are declared as ‘Saksham’, the entire district is also accorded ‘Saksham’ status.

The valuable lesson from all this is that in-ducing competition among administrative units helps invigorate key stakeholders to work in tandem in order to achieve intended outcomes. Competition also makes abstract goals such as ‘learning outcomes’ more real by defining exact ‘actionable’ metrics on which improvement is desired. Further, with encouragement from above, such campaigns lead to a shift in the mindset of a State’s ed-ucation administrators, many of whom oth-erwise believe that high learning outcomes are almost unachievable.

b) Pota Cabins initiative of Chattisgarh

Pota Cabins aims at building schools with impermanent materials like bamboo and

plywood in Chhattisgarh. The initiative has helped reduce the number of out-of-school children and improve enrolment and reten-tion of children since its introduction in 2011.

After the construction of Pota Cabins, the personnel involved–anudeshaks (volunteers) from the local Gondi and Halbi speaking population adhikshaks (teacher-in-charge) and other teaching staff–are hired. They are given the dual responsibility of being class instructors as well as wardens for the student residents.

Anudeshaks are also given a target of en-rolling children based on the capacity of the school. After conducting a survey, they visit the designated villages in interior areas, con-vince the parents about the merits of the Pota Cabin education system and bring the chil-dren to school.

Conclusion

Similar to the above examples, many states have taken different initiatives. These can be replicated in other parts of the nations with the amalgamation of ground realities. To make this successful, competitive federalism is needed.

To incentive the states and develop competitive federalism, NITI Aayog has launched State-level ‘School Education Quality Index’ (SEQI), which seeks to make improvements in learning outcomes a focal point of governance. It gives scores to States based on their educational performance and puts this data out in the public domain so that other states can replicate that. It motivates other States to consistently improve.

Hence to bring competition, the centre should cooperate with the states by providing neces-sary autonomy and funds.

on our livelihoods. For example, declines in pollinator species has significant im-pacts on agriculture and adds to the bur-den of the farmer who already has to cope with a changing climate. Pollinators pro-vide services valued at $200 billion; and their decline can lead to critical losses.

• Biodiversity loss is linked to zoonotic diseases which are about 60 per cent of infectious diseases.

• The impacts of climate change influence the oceans by reducing the ice cover, warm-ing the water levels and raising the sea level. It affects the survival of coral reefs.

Drivers of Environmental Challenges

Population • Increasing worldwide to 10 billion

in 2050, mostly in Africa, increasing pressure on resources.

• Greying population in rich countries increasing pressure on resources.

Urbanisation • Urbanisation increases demand because

of higher incomes and power. • Urbanisation increase risks to floods and

droughts.

Economic Growth • Increases pressure on extraction of re-

sources and dumping of wastes. • Inequality is associated with high con-

sumption of private goods and lower in-vestment in public goods; and a higher growth rate is needed to meet the needs of the poor in unequal societies.

Climate Change • Temperature increases are already be-

tween 0.8-1.2°C since industrial times. Leads to climate impacts.

Way Forward

A wide range of policy instruments have been adopted to address environmental problems at the global level but these fall short of what is needed. Global treaties require consensus and individual countries whose interests are affected often hamper the treaty negotiations and implementation.

A well-designed policy needs to have a sub-stantive vision accompanied by an inclusive process.

The bottom line is that as long as environment policy remains within a relatively powerless environment ministry—without the ability to control the other more powerful ministries of economy, energy, industry, water, health and agriculture—its policies will be underfund-ed and under supported politically. GEO-6 makes a convincing case for the environment ministry to join hands with the ministries of health but also perhaps those who focus on poverty and gender issues to come together in a show of strength to demand change from the rich and powerful of this generation both within and outside India.

Quoting the Guru

Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach • The Capability Approach is defined by its choice of focus upon the moral significance of individuals’ capability of achieving the kind of lives they have rea-

son to value. This distinguishes it from more established approaches to ethical evaluation, such as utilitarianism or resourcism, which focus exclusively on subjective well-being or the availability of means to the good life, respectively.

• How to develop? Sen proposes that people lose capabilities when they lack freedom. Having freedom provides the space to develop capabilities. Therefore all development according to Sen, is development of human capabilities in the enabling environment of freedom.

• Why to develop? In the capability perspective, poverty is seen in terms of a shortfall of ‘basic capabilities’ – a kind of ‘basic capability failure’. So, to remove poverty, public policy has to convert income into capabilities.

April-I EditionP7

Electoral BondsSubject: Indian PolitySub-Topic: ElectionsContext

Election Commission raises concern over the transparency of Electoral Bond scheme in Po-litical Funding.

What is Electoral Bond Scheme? • An electoral bond is designed to be a

bearer instrument like a Promissory Note — in effect, it will be similar to a bank note that is payable to the bearer on de-mand and free of interest. It can be pur-chased by any citizen of India or a body incorporated in India.

• Electoral bonds were introduced by amendments made through the Finance Act 2017 to the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934, Representation of Peoples Act 1951 and Income Tax Act 1961 and Companies Act 2013.

• The scheme announced during the 2017 Budget aims to account the donations made to all major political parties.

• Every party that is registered under section 29A of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951 and has secured at least one per cent of the votes polled in the most recent.

• Lok Sabha or State election will be al-lotted a verified account by the Election

Commission of India. • Electoral bond transactions can be made

only via this account.

Concerns raised by Election Commission: • The Election Commission of India (EC) has

told the Supreme Court that the scheme of electoral bonds would affect transparency in political funding.

• Anonymous corporate donations could lead to the increased use of black money for political funding through shell companies.

• It is not be possible to ascertain if political parties have taken donations from govern-ment companies and foreign sources, which is prohibited under Section 29B of RPA be-cause amendment to Section 29C of the Representation of Peoples Act 1951(RPA) do not oblige political parties to report ECI the donation received through bonds.

• The amendments made to Companies Act 2013 were also flagged by the ECI. The amendment to Section 182 of the Act took away the restriction that con-tribution can be made only to the extent of 7.5% of net average profit of three preceding financial years, enabling even newly incorporated companies to donate via electoral bonds.

• This opens up the possibility of shell com-panies being set up for the sole purpose of making donations to political parties.

• Also, the amendment to Section 182(3) abolished the provision that companies

should declare their political contributions in their profit and loss accounts.

Suggestions • The ECI added that it had suggested

amendments to RPA Act to make reporting compulsory even for cash donations less than the existing limit of Rs.20,000, if the total cash contributions exceeds 20 crores or 20 percentage of total contributions, whichever is lesser.

• Reports of contributions of political parties should be uploaded in the website of ECI.

• It had also suggested that anonymous contributions above or equal to Rs.2000 should be prohibited, instead of the present limit of Rs.20,000.

Way Forward • Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y.

Quraishi has suggested a National Electoral Fund to which all donors can contribute.

• The funds would be allocated to political parties in proportion to the votes they get. Not only would this protect the identity of donors, it would also weed out black mon-ey from political funding.

• Bringing political parties under the preview of RTI act.

• Since public funds will be involved, there must be an annual audit by the CAG or an auditor approved by it.

• If the country is moving towards digitization, even the Rs.2000 which can be paid in cash to the political parties should be paid online.

New Hydro PolicySubject: Indian EconomySub-Topic: Renewable EnergyContext

Union Cabinet has approved new Hydro Policy to promote Hydro Power Sector.

About New hydro policy • Large Hydropower Projects (HPO) to be de-

clared as Renewable Energy source (as per existing practice, only hydropower projects less than 25 MW are categorized as Re-newable Energy).

• The trajectory of annual Hydropower Proj-ects targets will be notified by Ministry of Power based on the projected capacity addition plans in hydropower sector. Nec-essary amendments will be introduced in the Tariff Policy and Tariff Regulations to operationalize HPO.

• Tariff rationalization measures including providing flexibility to the developers to determine tariff.

• One of the reasons for high tariff of hydro-power is the loading of cost of flood mod-eration and enabling infrastructure in the project cost.

• In this backdrop, the decision has been taken to adopt measures to promote hy-dropower sector including providing bud-getary support for flood moderation cost and enabling infrastructure cost and tariff

rationalization measures to reduce tariff and thus the burden on the consumer.

• After the declaration of large hydropower projects as a renewable energy source, thereby making them a part of the renew-able purchase obligation, which requires power discoms to purchase a fixed amount of renewable energy to cut dependence on fossil fuels.

Why Policy change? • There has been a huge imbalance in the

thermal-hydro mix for the last few years because of a sharp growth in thermal and complete stagnation in hydro.

• The basic idea is to ramp up hydro because it provides grid stability which a renewable source like wind and solar do not. The key reasoning seems to be providing grid sta-bility and a better energy mix.

• So apart from the good to the sector, one main reason for the re-classification of hydro as renewable is to add all that ca-pacity to the renewable energy kitty.

Major Impact including employment gen-eration potential

• As most of the hydro power potential is located in the higher reaches of Himala-yas and North-East Region, it will result in overall socio-economic development of the region by providing direct employment in the power sector.

• It will also provide indirect employment/ entrepreneurial opportunities in the field of transportation, tourism and other small scale businesses.

• Another benefit would be of having a sta-ble grid considering 160 GW capacity additions by 2022 from infirm sources of power like solar and wind.

• Hydropower also provides water security, irrigation and flood moderation benefits apart from socio-economic development of the entire region, it boosts tourism etc.

Challenges to Large Hydro Projects • India commonly gets embroiled in social

and political issues mostly related to loss of significant areas of agricultural flood plains and forest lands.

• Forced relocation without compensation for affected rural communities.

• Inter-state disputes over water rights. • Environmental issues such as flood safety

concerns and agricultural needs. • Hydro-electricity requires very patient

capital and engineering technology is cer-tainly challenged.

Conclusion • The hydropower sector is currently going

through a challenging phase and the share of hydropower in the total capacity has de-clined from 50.36% in the 1960s to around 13% in 2018-19.

• India is endowed with large hydropower potential of 1, 45,320 MW of which only about 45,400 MW has been utilized so far. Only about 10,000 MW of hydropower has been added in the last 10 years. In this view the new Hydro Policy is right step for holis-tic and sustainable development of power sector.

1. Election Commission is planning to release a notification against violations made by social media platforms under which of the following act?

(a) Representation of People Act- 1950

(b) Representation of People Act- 1951

(c) Conduct of Elections Rules 1961

(d) None of the above

Ans. (b)

2. Consider the following statements with reference to Swachh Survekshan Ranking:

1. It is taken by Government of India in collaboration with World Bank.

2. It is taken for urban sector of India only.

3. Indore has been designated as the cleanest city.

Which of the above statements are correct?

(a) 2 and 3 only

(b) 1 and 3 only

(c) 3 only

(d) All of the above

Ans: (c)

3. Which of the following feature related to Lokayukta is correct?

(a) The lokayukta presents annually, to the President a consolidated report on his performance.

(b) The lokayukta is responsible to the state legislature.

(c) He can call for relevant files and documents from the centre and state government departments related to State affairs.

(d) The recommendations made by the lokayukta are not binding on the state government, but if not followed, reasons have to be given.

Ans. (d)

Sample MCQ’s

14 Days News Summary

Acceptance Theory of Chester Barnard

Acceptance Theory of Chester Barnard • The “Acceptance theory” is a philosophy which states that authority arises only when the orders gets obedience form subordinates. Authority flows to

manager through acceptance of his orders by the subordinates. There will be no authority if the subordinates do not acquire orders. Barnard emphasizes on the willingness of employees to accept that mangers have legitimate authority to act.

• Barnard acquainted that four factors influenced the willingness of employees to acquire authority:a. The employees must understand the communication. b. The employees accept the communication as being consistent with the organization’s purposes. c. The employees feel that their actions will be consistent with the needs and desires of the other employees. d. The employees feel that they are mentally and physically able to carry out the order.

April-I EditionP8

Meaning of Global Terrorist DesignationSubject: Internal SecuritySub-Topic: Terrorism

Fight Against Spurious DrugsSubject: Indian EconomySub-Topic: Pharma Sector

Context

China for the fourth time blocked the bid in the UN Security Council to designate the Masood Azhar, chief of the Pakistan-based terror group JeM as a “global terrorist” by putting a ‘technical hold’ on the proposal.

The proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council was moved by P-3 Nations (France, the UK and the US) on February 27, days after a suicide bomber of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, leading to a flare-up in tensions between India and Pakistan.

Reason for “Global Terrorist” Designation: • The terror group was responsible for the

attack on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001.

• In January 2016 a heavily armed group of JeM attacked the Pathankot airbase in which seven security personnel were killed.

• The JeM also carried out the attack on Uri brigade headquarters in September, 2016, killing 17 soldiers and injuring 30 others.

• On February 14, 2019, the JeM carried out a suicide attack on a CRPF bus in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir killing 40 Jawans.

Signification of Ban1. Asset Freeze

Once the designation is applied it freezes the funds and other financial assets or economic

India is one of the leading global producers of low-cost generic medicines due to its high domestic demand and inexpensive manu-facturing costs. The country’s pharmaceutical market is the world’s third largest in terms of volume, but the thirteenth largest in terms of value. However, counterfeiting is perva-sive, with an estimated 20% ($4.3 billion in 2013-14) of India’s drug market comprised of counterfeit drugs.

What is Adulterated Drug?

Under the Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Act 2008 any drug is deemed to be adulterated or spurious when used by any person for or in the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of any disease or disorder is likely to cause his death or is likely to cause such harm on his body.

The 54th Parliamentary Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers noted that “considering the size of the country and the huge quantum of medicines being distributed and sold in the country, this sample size is not adequate to measure the actual problem of spurious and non-stand ard quality drugs in the country”.

What drives trade in fake drugs? • Lack of adequate regulations • Shortage of drug inspectors

resources of designated individuals and entities by all member states of the United Nations Organisation.2. Travel Ban

The travel ban entails preventing the entry into or transit by all states through their territories by designated individuals.3. Arms Embargo

• It will prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale and transfer from their territories or by their nationals outside their territories, or of arms and related material of all types assistance, or training related to military activities, to designated individuals and entities.

• Azhar’s designation as a global terrorist will force Pakistan to act against him and individuals and entities associated with him. This will effectively mean total immobilisation of Azhar and shutdown of his organisation and its institutions such as terror camps and madrasas.

Why is China supporting Masood Azhar? • China and Pakistan are believed to be

‘all-weather friends’ and Beijing often views New Delhi as a competitor and, even a threat. Supporting Azhar could be a way to needle India and appease Pakistan.

• Besides, China and Pakistan share a quid pro quo relationship, representing each other in official groups of nations where the other has a scarce representation. For instance, Pakistan stands up for China in Non-Aligned Movement (where Beijing has a scanty representation) and in return, Pakistan gets China’s veto power in the UNSC.

• Another reason could be China holding a grudge against India for giving asylum to Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in 1959 after China occupied Tibet in 1950. “For the Chinese, the Dalai Lama is sort of the

equivalent of (Lashkar-e-Taiba terror-ist group leader) Hafeez Saeed for India.

• In addition, China has recently pledged $51 billion in investments and development projects, including One Road One Belt (OROB) plan. The project, when completed, is said to provide China alternate routes to connect to Africa and West Asia, whilst providing infrastructural development to the most backward regions of Pakistan including insurgency-hit Baluchistan.

Consequences of No-Ban1. India-Sino relation:

• The Chinese indifference to India’s concerns on terrorism is likely to deliver a setback to the so-called Wuhan spirit.

• At Wuhan summit India and China has laid the foundation of Innovative diplomacy to recover from the strained relationship after military standoff at Doklam in 2017

• It has also been blocking India’s membership in the Nuclear Supply Group at Pakistan’s behest and the indifferences may further worsen the situation.

• If Sino-Indian relationship sours, Chinese exports to India will suffer. There could be potential negative fallout for the Chinese companies.

2. Increased Terrorism

Azhar also developed close relations with Al-Qaeda and Taliban. Without the designation, United Nations countries will have a very limited control over the terrorist organization and it will become easy for them to plan and execute the attacks in different parts of the world.3. Economy Losses

Besides the loss-of-life and sometimes life-changing injuries for the victims, terrorism leads to significant economic effects, with businesses, cities and nations losing billions in the aftermath of attacks.

• Lack of lab facilities to check purity of drugs

• Storages of spurious drugs by the chem-ists

• Lack of awareness among consumers • Lack of law enforcement • Limited access to medical care, espe-

cially in rural areas • Fragmented supply chain: weaknesses in

drug distribution system • Prevalent practice of self-medication • High cost of genuine medicines • Weak enforcement of legislation and

corruption • Prevalence of internet pharmacies • Technology advancements in counter-

feiting

The large counterfeit trade in India has created a number of complex challenges for the health care and life science industries.

• Lost Business Opportunities: The presence of counterfeits can result in the loss of market share and business op-portunities for manufacturers of genuine pharmaceutical products. (loss of $46 billion annually to pharmaceutical com-panies worldwide).

• Undermining the Adoption of Generics: An estimated 90 per cent of the value of India’s drug market is dominated by branded generics. In order to reduce health care costs, many governments promote the use of less expensive unbranded generic medicines, but the availability of counterfeits is an obstacle to uptake.

• Increasing the Economic and Social Burden: The use of counterfeit medi-

cines results in an increase in cost to the health.

• Resourcing: To tackle the issue of counterfeits, the Indian government has employed various anti-counterfeiting strategies, but have limited impact.

India’s innovative way of tackling this menace

Indian policy think tank NITI Aayog is working to put the entire inventory of drugs made and consumed in the country on blockchain with an intent to crack down on counterfeit and spurious drugs.

Every time the medicine changes hands, the unique number (generated at the manufac-turing stage) is tracked. When the consumer gets the drug there is a QR code or a bar-code on it. One can open up an app and one can check the entire details of where it was manufactured and all the places where it ex-changed hands to travel to the shop. Once it is sold, the code gets irrevocably audited on the blockchain that this ID has been sold and no longer exist.

Conclusion

Global pharma companies are looking to India as a future growth prospect due to its fast growing economy, ageing population, growing middle-class, increasing presence of chronic diseases, etc. However, the counterfeiting sends a wrong message to foreign investors and creates trust deficit among consumers. Hence, timely punitive action along with capacity building of the enforcement agencies would generate mass awareness and maintain sanctity in this field of life.

SNIPPETSIndia gets Transports In-ternational Routiers Con-vention [TIR] shipment

• The first shipment under the United Nations ‘Transports Internationaux Routiers’ (TIR) convention arrived in India from Afghanistan through Iran’s Chabahar Port.

• TIR allows goods to be sealed in compartments and requires no need for physical checking of the contents.

• This enables shipments to pass through countries without being opened at borders.

• India joined the TIR Convention (the United Nations Customs Convention on International Transport of Goods under cover of TIR Carnets) on June 15, 2017.

• India took over the operations of a part of Shahid Beheshti Port, Chaba-har in Iran in December 2018.

Significance of TIR

• The Convention will help Indian traders to have access to fast, easy, reliable and hassle free international system for movement of goods by road or multi- modal means across the territories of other contracting parties.

• By joining the convention, the need for inspection of goods at intermedi-ate borders as well as physical es-corts en route shall be obviated due to reciprocal recognition of Customs controls.

• Customs clearance can take place at internal Customs locations thereby avoiding clearances at Border Cross-ing Points and ports that may often be congested.

• Movement under the TIR can be al-lowed by checking only the seals and the external conditions of the load compartment or the container there-by reducing border delays, transport and transaction costs thereby leading to increased competitiveness and growth for the trade and transport sectors.

• Compliance with the Convention shall ensure enhanced security in the supply chain as only approved transporters and vehicles are allowed to operate in terms of the Convention.

• As the TIR Carnet represents a guar-antee for Customs duties and taxes and traffic in transit, there is no need for payment of such taxes and duties en route.

• The TIR carnet also serves as a Customs declaration, and hence it precludes the need to file multiple declarations satisfying national laws of the different transiting countries.

• The TIR Convention can be an instru-ment for movement of goods along the International “North-South” Transport (INSTC) Corridor and would be helpful in boosting trade with the Central Asian Republics and oth-er Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), particularly using ports in Iran like the Chabahar port.

14 Days News Summary14 Days News Summary

April-I EditionP9

Code of Ethics for Social Media usage in ElectionsSubject: Indian PolitySub-topic: Electoral ProcessContext

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and various social media organisations at a meeting with the Election Commission agreed to formulate a “Code of Ethics” for online platforms. Issues ranging from the setting up of a dedicated grievance channel for expeditious action, pre-certification and ensuring transparency in expenditure of political advertisements were taken up.

The officials also discussed about evolving a notification mechanism by social media platforms for action against violations under Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act 1951.

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora asked the social media organisations to come up with a set of norms for themselves, on the lines of the Model Code of Conduct, for the ongoing election process.

Hereby, discussing the misuse of social media and steps needed.

What is social media?

Social media is any platform that gives the member a profile and a voice which includes not only Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn but also any website of a practice any blog any commentary on any article or posting by another any participation in any forum or community;

in fact any publicly accessible written piece could be classified as social media.

Inappropriate ways of using Social Media

The media plays a vital role in a democracy; informing the public about political issues and acting as a watchdog against abuses of power. During election campaigns the media provides information and analysis about the political parties’ programmes, policies, candidates and performance.

Politicians promote their controlled speech and present their point of view without being interrupted by journalists or by media format limitation through social media. Political parties or politicians can also mobilize public and invites them to participate in discussion on some issues of public interest.

However issues are: • Social Media can Post Remarks that

may Constitute Defamation: The term defamation can include verbal and written statements that are factually false.

• Cyber Bullying: which include verbal abuse using social media platform, cyber stalking, etc.

• Fake News: News that does not have an authentic source of information or the news that is false and willfully spread to create instability in the society is considered as the fake news. For example, news of a person consuming beef in the vicinity leading to his mob lynching.

Hence, the criticism related to Social Media may range from disparity of information available, issues with trustworthiness and reliability of information presented, the impact of social media use on an individual’s concentration, ownership of media content and the meaning of interactions created by social media.

Being a citizen of a nation, every person has certain fundamental duties that include avoid doing any anti-social activity or anything that disturbs peace in the society. Moreover the impact and the reach that the social media has in the present era calls for certain reasonable restrictions in its usage well within the right of speech and expression. Social media intelligence could be formed so as to track and take down the fake content from the platform.

Hence there is a need to bring a sense of ethicality in the use of Social media.

It has become big task for the Election Commission of India; they should set a panel to scrutinise the growing use of social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube. The panel should recommend processes to deal with violations. The nation has seen a rise in religious and ethnic tensions in recent times; few people are killed due to rumours spread on social media about child kidnappings, rapes and cow smuggling. Fake news and paid news are matters of concern and misuse on social media. The Election Commission should tighten rules and regulations to plug loopholes in the forthcoming general elections.

1. Concept of Eco-Sensitive Zones

2. Justice delayed is market stymied

3. India’s first electronic surveillance satellite

4. Electoral Procedure

5. Japan’s new imperial era name Reiwa

6. Systematically Important Banks

7. RBI to inject liquidity via forex swaps

8. Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency

9. National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAA)

10. Plea bargaining

11. New frog species found in Western Ghats

12. Critically Endangered porpoise

13. Indian Forest Act, 2019: Proposed Amendments

14. India’s carbon dioxide emissions up 5%

15. Nipah virus

16. Chinook helicopters

17. Hayabusa 2

18. Centre notifies new rules for drugs, clinical trials

19. Ocean Surveillance Ship

20. Second Scorpene subma-rine ready for induction

21. Cyclone Idai

22. Network of lakes found beneath Antarctica gla-cier

23. Vienna named best city to live

24. Gallantry Awards

25. Abel Prize

26. Sharda Peeth

27. Karambir Singh: Chief of Naval Staff

28. Exercise Mitra Shakti-VI

29. Theatre Level Readiness and Operational Exercise (TROPEX)-19

Other Relevant News of the

Fortnight

Read from http://blog.uniqueshiksha.com

14 Days News Summary

Issues in Swachh Survekshan Ranking Subject: GovernanceSub-Topic: SanitationIntroduction

Swachh Survekshan is a ranking exercise taken up by the Government of India to as-sess rural and urban areas for their levels of cleanliness and active implementation of Swachhata mission initiatives in a timely and innovative manner. The objective of the sur-vey is to encourage large scale citizen par-ticipation and create awareness amongst all sections of society about the importance of working together towards making towns and cities a better place to live in. Additionally, the survey also intends to foster a spirit of healthy competition among towns and cities to improve their service delivery to citizens, towards creating cleaner cities and towns.

Organisation

The Ministry of Urban Development, Gov-ernment of India takes up the Swachh Sur vekshan in urban areas and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in rural ar-eas. The Quality Council of India (QCI) has been commissioned the responsibility of carrying out the assessment.

Since the start of SBM in 2014, urban ar-eas of 23 states / UTs have become ODF and more than 94% cities are already ODF. Nearly 63 lakh individual household toi-lets (94% progress) and more than 5 lakh community / public toilet seats

(more than 100% progress) have been constructed. Parallelly, more than 42,000 public toilet blocks across 1400 cities have been mapped and visible on Google maps. The Google toilet locator also provides an option for citizens to provide their feedback after using the toilets. Waste processing has gone up to 52% (compared to a mere 18% at the start of the Mission).

Issues

A study by the Centre for Science and En-vironment (CSE) a non-profit public interest research and advocacy group based in New Delhi, did a reality check of cities that se-cured the top 50 ranks in 2019. It found that the ranking system was skewed towards cities that had only recently adopted various cleanliness measures. Swachh Survekshan 2019 had rewarded cities that implemented a cleanliness drive during the two to three months prior to the survey. Many cities that work all year towards household-level seg-regation, decentralised recycling and reuse of waste were given poor rankings.

Hence a question arises that ‘Are Swachh Survekshan rankings myopic’?

• The study found that only the top three cit-ies – Indore Ambikapur and Mysuru – had source segregation levels beyond 80%. Nearly half of the 50 cities have segrega-tion levels below 40%.

• Sustainable waste processing has been missing from most of the top-rated cities. Ujjain (rank 4) Ahmedabad (rank 6), Gha-ziabad (rank 13) still dump bulk of their waste in landfills.

• To the contrary, cities in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Sikkim and Bihar, including Alappuzha, Thiruvananthapuram and Panaji, that have invested in decentralised waste processing systems, which are more sustainable and

held up as models to be replicated, were ranked below 300.

• The study has found that nearly half of In-dia’s incineration-based Waste-to-Ener-gy plants are defunct or are working below capacity and many don’t comply with Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, but most cities have proposed and promote Waste to Energy plants.

• Some, such as Rajkot, Ranchi, Satara, Ghaziabad and Chandigarh, launched their segregation campaign just a few months before the survey and have segregation levels below 20%. Jaipur and Sagar have no source segregation practice at all.

• Bengaluru argued that it had lost 1000 marks out of total 5000, due to late dec-laration of Open Defecation Free sta-tus and for not putting Swachh Bharat hoardings in public. On the contrary visiting survey team did not inspect any of the best practices Bengaluru has been implementing, such as the leach-ate treatment plant in Bellahalli quarry, 100% composting apartments, bins and reclaimed quarry pits.

Conclusion

Swachh Survekshan 2019 considers 4,237 cities where population varies from one lakh to a couple of crores. The issues that a met-ro faces are very different to those that a small city, like Ambikapur or Mysuru, faces. They cannot be compared. It is high time the Survekshan categorises cities based on their population.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) (the Bengaluru Municipality) has from the first year argued that large metropolitan cities, like Bengaluru, cannot be compared with tier 2, 3 and 4 cities. The Survekshan needs to categorise cities based on their population.

14 Days News Summary

April-I EditionP1050 - Most Probable Geography PT Questions

1. Consider the following statements about Earth’s water:1. Out of total water present on Earth,

the fresh water available for use is less than 1% of the total water found.

2. Out of total fresh water about 95% is in the form of polar ice caps and glaciers.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?(a) 1 only (b) 2 only(c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2

2. Consider the following statements about Salinity:1. Mediterranean sea records high sa-

linity due to high evaporation. 2. Salinity is very low in Black Sea due

to fresh water influx by the rivers. 3. North Sea records low salinity due to

its location in higher latitudes. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 only(c) 1 and 3 only (d) None of the above

3. Consider the following statements related to the pressure belts:1. High pressure centre get develops

to the North of the Himalayas during winter.

2. Convergence of Tropical and sub-tropical winds result in the for-mation of cyclones in the sub-polar region.

3. Pressure belts shift northwards and southwards with the shift of thermal equator.

Which of the statements given above is/are incorrect?(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 only(c) 3 only (d) None of the above

4. Which of the following statements related to atmospheric layers is/are correct?1. Stratosphere – high altitude cirrus

clouds are present here.

2. Troposphere – water and dust are present in this lay-er so lead to cloud formation.

3. Thermosphere – “noctilucent clouds”, some-times forms in this layer near the North and South Poles.

4. Mesosphere - Most meteors from space burn up in this layer.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 2 and 3 only (b) 1, 2 and 4 only(c) 2, 3 and 4 only (d) 2 only

5. Which of the following process and their driving force has/have been correctly matched?Process Driving Force1. Weathering - Kinetic Energy2. Transportation - Potential Energy3. Mass Movement- Gravitational

forceSelect the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 only(c) 3 only (d) All of the above

6. Consider the following statements about interior of the Earth:1. The upper portion of mantle is called

Asthenosphere which is considered as source region of Mid-oceanic ridge basalt.

2. Lower Mantle is involved in plate tectonic movement and isostatic ad-justments.

3. Crust and Asthenosphere together makes up Lithosphere.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1 and 3 only (d) All of the above

7. Consider the following statements about Continental Shelf:1. Continental shelves are broad, gently

sloping plains covered by relatively shallow water.

2. Canyons and trenches are not ob-served in this region.

3. Fossil fuels and metallic nodules are present in the continental shelves.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?(a) 1 only (b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1 and 2 only (d) All of the above

8. Which of the following pairs related to the types of mountains is/are cor-rectly matched?1. Block Mountains— formed due to

faulting and folding2. Volcanic Mountain— formed due to

denudation of magma 3. Residual Mountain—formed due to

erosion Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 3 only (b) 2 only(c) 3 only (d) All of the above

9. Volcanoes are usually located on which among the following regions?(a) Convergent plate boundaries(b) Divergent plate boundaries(c) Hot spots(d) All of the above

10. Many local winds are common around the Mediterranean Sea due to the varied topography of the region. Which of the following is/are present in that region?1. Sirocco wind2. Mistral wind3. Santa Ana winds4. Zonda windsSelect the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 2 and 3 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 2 only (d) All of the above

11. Consider the following statements related to hotspots:1. The position of Hotspots on the

Earth’s surface is independent of tectonic plate boundaries.

2. The oceanic volcanoes move away from the hot spot producing older is-lands a tolls and seamounts.

3. Mantle plume formed due to the conduction of hot rocks within the mantle.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (a) 1 only (b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1 and 2 only (d) None of the above

12. According to Wegener, which of the following was the reason behind the drifting away of the continents?1. Pole-fleeing force2. Tectonic movement3. Tidal force Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 2 only(b) 2 only(c) 1 and 3 only(d) All of the above

13. Which among the following is the largest temperate desert of the world?(a) Magellanic Steppe(b) Taklamakan Desert(c) Simpson Desert (d) Gibson Desert

14. What is ‘Maunder Minimum’?(a) Name of the mountain recently dis-

covered on Jupiter by Juno Satellite.(b) A cyclone recently hit Western Aus-

tralia (c) Period of almost no sunspots.(d) None of the above

15. Consider the following statements related to the Rural Settlements:1. Clustered Settlements – formed due

to security reasons and for better utilization of resources.

2. Semi-clustered settlements – formed due to fragmented nature of the terrain and land resource base of habitable areas.

3. Hamleted settlements – found due to social and ethnic factors.

Which of the above stated characteristic features is/are correct?(a) 1 only (b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1 and 3 only (d) All of the above

16. Which of the following statement re-lated to concept of Singularity (uni-verse) is correct?(a) It is a point in which all physical laws

are indistinguishable from one an-other, where space and time are no longer interrelated realities.

(b) This theory has been predicted by the Einstein’s Theory of General Relativ-ity and Chandrasekhar Limit.

(c) Both ‘a’ and ‘b’(d) None of the above

17. With reference to agriculture prac-tice around the world 5° clock farm-ers refers to:(a) Farmers engaged in secondary oc-

cupation as well.(b) Farmers practicing shifting cultiva-

tion in South Asia.(c) Farmers with land holding less than

on hectares.(d) None of the above

18. Match the followings landforms :-Landform Geomorphic Agent 1. Cirque Glacial2. Moraines Rivers3. Sink hole Ground water4. Inselberg Wind Which among the following pair is/are matched correctly?(a) 1, 3 and 4 only(b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1 and 4 only(d) All of the above

19. Which of the following statements define the significance of tides?1. It helps in navigation.2. It helps in delta formation and in-

creases soil fertility.3. It helps in removing polluted water

from river estuaries.4. It helps in generation of electrical

power. Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 2 and 3 only (b) 2, 3 and 4 only(c) 1, 3 and 4 only(d) All of the above

20. Which of the following best describes the method of lithification?(a) Formation of soil from the parent

rocks.(b) Formation of rocks through compac-

tion of fragments via denudation and transportation.

(c) Chemical metamorphism of rocks.(d) Solidification of Igneous rocks.

21. Which of the following statement re-lated to placer deposits is correct?(a) Placer deposits contain minerals,

which are not corroded by water.(b) Placer deposits have low specific

gravity are chemically resistant to weathering.

(c) Examples of Placer deposits are ura-nium, zircon and magnetite.

(d) All of the above.

22. Which of the following different soil forming process have been correctly matched?1. Gleization: The process involves the

accumulation of sodium ions on the clay.

2. Podzolisation: The process occur due to poor drainage condition (lack of oxygen) and where waterlogged conditions prevail.

3. Illuviation: The process of deposition of soil materials in the lower layer.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 3 only(c) 2 and 3 only (d) None of the above

23. Consider the following statements related to the different planets:1. Mars has lost its original atmosphere

due to the absence of magnetic field.2. Mercury atmosphere is comprised of

carbon dioxide with thick clouds of sulphur dioxide.

3. Venus has a similar size, mass, den-sity and gravity as well as a very similar chemical composition as compared to earth.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?(a) 1 and 3 only (b) 2 and 3 only(c) 3 only (d) All of the above

24. Which of the following is/are the ev-idences of sea floor spreading?1. The age of the rocks increases as

one move away from the crest of mid-oceanic ridges.

2. The ocean crust rocks are much younger than the continental rocks.

3. There is formation of abyssal plains that lie between the continental margins and mid-oceanic ridges.

PT - 2019 Special EditionAs Prelims examination is approaching, thus in this edition we are adding 100 most probable questions on Geography (50 questions) and Environment (50 questions).

In the next edition questions on Economy and Science & Tech will be added.

April-I EditionP1150 - Most Probable Geography PT QuestionsSelect the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 2 (b) 1 only (c) 2 and 3 (d) All of the above

25. Which of the following statement re-lated to Inversion of temperature is incorrect?(a) Inversion of temperature occurs

when normal lapse rate is inverted.(b) Surface inversion promotes stabili-

ty in the lower layers of the atmo-sphere.

(c) Inversions play an important role in determining cloud forms, precipita-tion and visibility.

(d) Inversion of temperature occurs in cloudy sky and unstable air.

26. Which of the following pairs are matched correctly?1. Agro based industry – paper and pulp

industry2. Cottage industry – mats3. Weight loosing Industries – food pro-

cessing sectorCodes:(a) 1 and 2 (b) 2 and 3(c) 1 and 3 (d) All of the above

27. Which among the following correctly defines the ‘river regime’?(a) Water collected from a specific area

in certain duration.(b) Pattern of flow of water in a river

channel over a year.(c) Area drained by river and its tributar-

ies.(d) Volume of water flowing in a river

measured over time.

28. Which of the following process-es related to heating and cooling of atmosphere has been incorrectly matched?(a) The process of conduction leads to

the heating of the lower layers of the atmosphere.

(b) The process of advection leads to the vertical heating of the atmosphere.

(c) The phenomena of ‘loo’ is associated with advection process.

(d) The process of convection leads to the vertical transfer of energy which is confined only to the troposphere.

29. Consider the following statements about geological events during the evolution of peninsular drainage system:1. Subsidence of the western flank.2. Upheavel of Himalayas.3. Slight tilting of the peninsular block

from southeast to northwest direc-tion.

Which of the above stated geological events is/are correct?(a) 1 only (b) 1 and 2 only(c) 2 and 3 only (d) 1 and 3 only

30. Which of the following statements related to the cloud seeding is/are correct?1. Cloud seeding is the process in which

silver iodide or dry ice is dumped onto the clouds by using an aircraft or an artillery gun.

2. It requires clear sky and stable envi-ronment.

3. Gujarat was the first state to attempt cloud seeding in India.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 3 only (b) 1 and 2 only(c) 1 only (d) All of the above

31. Consider the following river basins with relation to shale gas resourc-es:-

1. Assam-Arakan Basin2. Indo-Gangetic plains3. Krishna-Godawari 4. Cambay Basin In which of the above river basins shale gas is/ are present?(a) 1 and 3 only (b) 3 and 4 only(c) 1,3 and 4 only (d) All of the above

32. Which of the following minerals are formed through igneous rocks?1. Diamonds 2. Tin3. Zinc 4. TalcSelect the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 2 and 3 only (b) 2, 3 and 4 only(c) 1 and 3 only (d) All of the above

33. Consider the following statements with relation to ‘Purvanchal Range’:1. Purvanchal Range lies south of the

Brahmaputra valley. 2. The Garo, Khasi, Jaintia hills are part

of Purvanchal Range. 3. Purvanchal Mountain is/are com-

posed largely of sedimentary rocks. Which of the above statements is/are correct?(a) 1 and 2 only(b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1 and 3 only(d) None of the above

34. Which of the following geological processes lead to formation of India?1. The convectional currents split the

Gondwana land leading to the drifting of the Indo-Australian plate.

2. Divergent plate boundary lead to the folding of sedimentary rocks accu-mulated in Tethys Sea to form Hima-layas.

3. Antecedent rivers lead to the forma-tion of Northern Plains.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 3 only(c) 1 and 3 only (d) All of the above

35. Himalaya represents youthful topog-raphy. Which of the following fea-tures is/are associated with it?1. Spur2. Rapids3. Deep valleys4. River capture5. Ox-bow lakeSelect the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 2, 3 and 4 only(b) 1, 3 and 5 only(c) 1, 2 and 3 only(d) 1, 2, 3 and 5 only

36. Which of the following statements related to Barbed Drainage System is/are correct?1. It is developed in a narrow valley

flanked by steep ranges. 2. It is developed due to the process of

river capture.Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 only (b) 2 only(c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2

37. Consider the following statements with reference to Black Soil:1. It has self ploughing in nature.2. It is rich in lime, magnesia, iron and

alumina.3. It has high carbon exchange capacity

and rich in organic matter.Which of the above are the characteristic features of the Black Soil?(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1 and 3 only (d) All of the above

38. Consider the following statements related to the Geology of India:1. Paleozoic period – formation of Si-

walik System in north western India2. Proterozoic era – formation of Kash-

mir valley3. Tertiary period –alluvial soil in the In-

do-Gangetic basin.Which of the above is/are correctly matched?(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only(c) 3 only (d) None of the above

39. Which of the following statements related to the classification of soil water is correct?(a) Capillary water is that part of soil

water which is very tightly held on the surface of soil particles in very thin film by adhesion and cohesion forces.

(b) Gravitational water moves freely in response to gravity and drains out of the soil when the maximum capillary capacity of a soil gets exhausted.

(c) Soil rich in organic matter content holds much greater quantity of hy-groscopic water.

(d) None of the above

40. Consider the following statements with reference to Indian Rivers:1. Kabini, Bhavani and Pambar are East

flowing Rivers.2. Narmada originates from Amarkan-

tak, which is the meeting point of Vindhya and Satpura.

3. Bhavani River is an inland drainage which rises in the talus fan of the Shiwaliks of Sirrnur near Ambala (Haryana).

Which of the above statements is/are correct?(a) 1 only(b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1 and 2 only(d) All of the above

41. Which of the following city is most eastwardly located in India?(a) Bhopal (b) Lucknow(c) Hyderabad (d) Bangalore

42. Which of the following Particular-ly Vulnerable Tribal Group belong to Andaman and Nicobar?1. Great Andamanese of Strait Island2. Onges of Little Andaman3. Sentinelese of Sentinel Islands4. Totos of Great NicobarSelect the correct answer using the codes given below: (a) 1, 2 and 3 only (b) 2, 3 and 4 only(c) 1, 3 and 4 only(d) All of the above

43. Which of the following statements related to Trans-Himalayas is/are correct?1. It mainly composed of granites and

volcanic rocks.2. Pir Panjal Range, Zanskar Range

and Kailas Range belong to the Trans-Himalayas range.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2

44. Consider the following statements with relation to Jhelum River:1. It is the western most of five rivers of

Punjab.2. It was called Vitasta and Hydaspes in

ancient times. 3. It rises from the Verinag spring at the

foothills of Pir Panjal.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1 and 3 only (d) All of the above

45. Indian Monsoon is which of the fol-lowing type of air mass?(a) Maritime Equatorial(b) Maritime Tropical(c) Continental Tropical (d) None of the above

46. Which of the following is/are the benefits of run-of-river power proj-ects?1. The run of river projects do not re-

quire impoundment of water. 2. It emits nearly no greenhouse gases.3. It ensures environmentally sustain-

able development of local resources.Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 2 only(b) 2 only(c) 2 and 3 only(d) All of the above

47. Hydroponics has emerged as the modern technology for farming. Which of the following is/are the benefits of it?1. It requires less water as compared to

soil farming.2. It uses all the mineral nutrients pres-

ent in the water thus plants grow faster.

3. It eliminates the need for herbicides and pesticides compared to tradi-tional soil gardening.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1 and 3 only (d) All of the above

48. Consider the following pairs:Type/Kind of Lake Lake1. Tectonic Lake : Wular Lake2. Lagoon Lake : Kolleru Lake3. Glacial Lake : Sambar Lake4. Wind-made Lake : Nainital LakeWhich of above pair is/are correctly matched?(a) 1 only (b) 1,2 and 3 only(c) 3 and 4 only (d) All of the above

49. Which of the following is/are the ad-vantages of No-till farming?1. It reduces water and wind erosion of

the soil.2. It increases water retention level of

the soil thus reduces amount of wa-tering required for crop.

3. It led to increase in beneficial insects and soil microbes in the soil thus re-duces the usage of herbicides.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 2 only(b) 1 only(c) 1 and 3 only(d) All of the above

50. Consider the following statements with relation to Census 2011:1. Kurung Kumey of Arunachal Pradesh

is the least populated.2. Dibang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh

registered highest population growth rate.

3. Longleng district of Nagaland reg-istered negative population growth rate.

Which of the above statement is/are correct?(a) 1 and 2 only(b) 2 and 3 only(c) 3 only(d) All of the above

April-I EditionP1250-Most Probable Environment PT Questions1. Living organisms provide many eco-

logical services free of cost that are responsible for maintaining ecosys-tem health. Which of the following can be characterized as ecosystem services?1. Biodiversity helps in regulating and

stabilizing water run-off.2. Wetlands and forests act as water

purifying systems.3. Biodiversity helps in recycling of nu-

trients found in the atmosphere.4. Biodiversity helps in climate stability.Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 2 and 3 only(b) 2, 3 and 4 only(c) 1 and 3 only(d) All of the above

2. What is a keystone species?(a) A species which makes up only a

small proportion of the total biomass of a community, yet has a huge im-pact on community’s organization.

(b) A common species that has plenty of biomass yet has a fairly low impact on the community organization.

(c) A rare species that has minimal im-pact on the biomass and on the other species in the community.

(d) A dominant species that constitute a large proportion of the biomass and which affects many other species.

3. Which among the following ecosys-tems have an inverted pyramid of biomass?1. Grassland2. Pond3. ForestSelect the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 2 only(b) 2 and 3 only(c) 3 only(d) 2 only

4. Which of the following bioremedia-tion process discussed below is/are correct?1. Phytoremediation – It is an in-si-

tu remediation technology that uses micro-organisms to biodegrade or-ganic constituents in the groundwa-ter system.

2. Mycoremediation – It is a meth-od that use living plants to clean up soil air and water contaminated with hazardous contaminants.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 only (b) 2 only(c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2

5. Which of the following factors influ-ence the Ecological Succession pro-cess?1. Landslides and mudslides.2. Type of soil.3. Type of topographic structure.4. Methodology of Species interaction.Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 2 and 3 only(b) 2 only(c) 1, 2 and 3 only(d) All of the above

6. Which of the following forms of spe-cies interaction has/have been char-acterized as ‘Ecological facilitation interaction’?1. Neutralism.2. Commensalism.

3. Symbiosis.4. Mutualism.Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 3 and 4 only(b) 2 only(c) 2 and 4 only(d) All of the above

7. Which of the following are the geo-engineering methods used for climate change mitigation?1. Placing mirrors in space2. Injecting sulphur in atmosphere3. Artificial trees4. White washing building roofs.Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 2(b) 1, 2 and 4(c) 1, 3 and 4(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

8. Which of the following statements related to food chain is/are cor-rect?1. Photosynthesis is the first step of

each food chain.2. Food chains remains short if the pri-

mary consumer is a very large animal with few predators.

3. The scavengers and decomposers help in moving energy through the food chain.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 3 only(b) 1 and 2(c) 2 and 3(d) All of the above

9. Which among the following is key faunal species that is being con-served and monitored in ‘Dachigam National Park’?(a) Musk Deer (b) Golden Oriole(c) Yellow-throated Marten(d) Hangul or Kashmir Stag

10. Which among the following are the ideal conditions for the development of mangroves?1. Mix of saline and fresh water.2. Fine-gained substrate.3. Free from strong wave action and

tidal current.4. Low seasonal variation in tempera-

ture.Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 2, 3 and 4(b) 1, 2 and 3 (c) 1 and 3 (d) 2 and 3

11. With respect to “Importance of Ge-netic Diversity”, consider the follow-ing statements:1. It is useful for adaption in environ-

mental conditions.2. It helps in speciation or evolution of

new species.Which of the above statements is/are correct?(a) 1 only(b) 1 and 2 only(c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2

12. Which of the following is/are the ex-ample of pioneer species?1. Green Algae2. Lichens3. Orchids4. Scutch Grass

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 2 and 3(b) 1, 3 and 4(c) 2, 3 and 4(d) All of the above

13. Consider the following statements regarding to National Green Tribunal:1. It has been established under Biodi-

versity Act, 2002.2. It deals with enforcement of any legal

right related to environment and giv-ing relief and compensation.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?(a) 1 only(b) 2 only(c) 1 and 2 only(d) All of the above

14. Which of the following is/are the ef-fect of global warming?1. It may lead to increase in pathogenic

diseases.2. It may lead to rise in transpiration

rates in plants.3. It may lead to poleward shifting of

vegetation.Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 only(b) 2 and 3 (c) 1 and 3 (d) 1, 2 and 3

15. Which of the following techniques are used in Ex-situ conservation?1. Botanical Gardens 2. Zoo’s3. Seed gene bank4. Germplasm bank5. Field gene bankSelect the correct answer using the codes given below.(a) 1, 2 and 3(b) 2, 3 and 5(c) 1 and 2(d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

16. Which of the following types of pop-ulation interactions between species is/are correctly matched?1. Competition - It is a condition in

which there is suppression of one organism as the two species struggle for limited resources.

2. Predation - It is an interaction be-tween organisms or species in which both the organisms derive benefit.

3. Mutualism - It is a form of inter-species cooperation in which one individual benefits while the other is unaffected.

4. Commensalism - One organism benefits and other is killed.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 4 only(b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1, 2 and 3 only(d) All of the above

17. Which of the following is the objec-tive of Critical Ecosystem Partner-ship Fund?(a) It provides grants to organizations

around the world that are working to help protect biodiversity hotspots.

(b) It provides funding to cover the “in-cremental” or additional costs as-sociated with transforming a project with national benefits into one with global environmental benefits.

(c) It is created out of “polluter pays”

principle for the purposes of financ-ing and promoting clean energy ini-tiatives.

(d) None of the above

18. Which of the following statement correctly describe the term ‘Edge Effect’?(a) Changes in the population or com-

munity structures that occur at the boundary of two biomes.

(b) The transition zone between two or more different biomes.

(c) The range of environmental factors over which an individual species can have a positive impact.

(d) Species that are very important in order to maintain a balance in the ecosystem.

19. Which of the following ecosystems are known as keystone ecosystems?1. Wetland ecosystem2. Estuary ecosystem3. Mediterranean ecosystem4. Grassland ecosystemSelect the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 2 and 3 only(b) 2, 3 and 4 only(c) 1 and 2 only(d) 3 and 4 only

20. Which among the following state-ment correctly defines the term ‘Red Tide’?(a) Red Tide is a phenomena where cer-

tain phytoplankton species contain-ing pigments, bloom over water body due to warm ocean surface tem-perature.

(b) Red tide is a phenomenon that oc-curs especially when moon appears red and it causes high tides in coastal regions.

(c) Red tides are algal blooms over water bodies due to eutrophication and is red in color only.

(d) Red tide occurs due to excessive oil spill over the water body that creates thick oil sludge of red color.

21. Which of the following statement define the term Species endemism?(a) When species richness and species

evenness occur.(b) When a species is confined entirely to

a particular area.(c) When in a given area the assemblage

and interaction of species living to-gether and the physical environment occur.

(d) When species adapt to the changing environmental conditions.

22. Consider the following statements related to chemoautotrophs:1. It is the conversion of carbon into

organic matter by organisms using oxygen as an energy source.

2. These organisms are found in pe-troleum deposits, ice caps, lava mud animal gut, hot springs and hydro-thermal vents.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?(a) 1 only(b) 2 only(c) Both 1 and 2(d) Neither 1 nor 2

23. Which of the following statement best describes biotic potential?(a) It refers to the population biomass of

a population measured as dry weight per unit area.

April-I EditionP13

(b) It refers to the possible functional roles a species can play in an ecosystem.

(c) It refers to the maximum reproduc-tive capacity of an organism under optimum environmental condition.

(d) It refers to the minimum population of a species required to sustain a food web.

24. Which of the following is/are the sources of pollution in phosphate cycle?1. Pollution from agricultural run-off.2. Domestic sewage3. Climate Change4. DeforestationSelect the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 2 and 3 only(b) 2, 3 and 4 only(c) 1, 2 and 4 only(d) All of the above

25. Which of the following ecosystem are likely to face the impact of global warming more than the others?(a) Monsoon forest(b) Grassland(c) Tundra forests(d) Desert ecosystems

26. Which of the following is a charac-teristic of Eurythermal organisms?(a) They can tolerate and thrive in a wide

range of temperatures.(b) They can only live in places with ex-

tremely low temperatures.(c) They can tolerate a very narrow range

of temperatures(d) They go into hibernation during win-

ters.

27. Which of the following correctly de-scribes Homeostasis?(a) It refers to the gradual process by

which communities in the ecosys-tems change and develop over time.

(b) It is the process of transfer of energy from one trophic level to another in a detritus food chain.

(c) It is the process by which an organ-ism maintains a stable internal envi-ronment despite changes in external conditions.

(d) None of the above.

28. Which of the following processes is/are the examples of ex-situ bio-re-mediation?1. Composting2. Bioventing 3. Slurry base bioremediationSelect the correct answer using the code given below:(a) 1 and 3 only(b) 2 and 3 only(c) 2 only(d) All of the above

29. Which of the following is known as the rain forest of the oceans?(a) Mangroves(b) Coral reefs(c) Sea grass(d) Oysters

30. As per the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 the chief wildlife warden may permit hunting of wildlife animals under which of the following condi-tions?1. A wild animal has become dangerous

to human life.2. A wild animal has become diseased

beyond recovery.3. Hunting of snakes for collecting

venom to prepare life saving drugs.

50-Most Probable Environment PT QuestionsSelect the correct answer using codes given below.(a) 1 and 3 only(b) 1 only(c) 2 and 3 only(d) All of the above

31. The term Acid shocks is related to which of the following?(a) The infusion of sulphuric acid into

lakes and rivers in spring due to melting of snow.

(b) The sudden impact of acid rain on the plankton in the oceans due to acid rains

(c) The sudden infusion of sulphuric acid into the soil when dry acid deposi-tions are washed down by rain water.

(d) Change in the texture and color of monuments due to acid rain

32. Edaphic factors are included in:(a) Abiotic components (b) Biotic components(c) Consumers(d) Producers

33. Which of the following statement correctly explains the phenomenon of Antibiosis?(a) A relationship in which one species

kills to feed on the other species.(b) An organism benefiting from the re-

lationship with the other organism.(c) It is an association between organ-

isms that is detrimental to one or more of them.

(d) It is competition between organisms of the same species.

34. Consider the following statements about estuaries:1. Estuaries are a form of Ecotone. 2. They are lined with marshes and

seagrasses that filter the water flowing to the ocean.

3. They act as buffer protecting us from coastal storms.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?(a) 1 and 2 only(b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1 and 3 only(d) All of the above

35. Which among the following are con-sidered as threats to coral reefs?1. Sunscreen 2. Blast fishing3. Global warming4. Ocean acidificationSelect the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 2, 3 and 4 only(b) 1, 3 and 4 only(c) 3 and 4 only(d) All of the above

36. Which among the following is not a constituent of Air Quality Index (AQI)?(a) NO2 (b) PM 10, PM 2.5(c) CO (d) CO2

37. Which of the following statements define the negative impacts of Tour-ism sector on the Environment?1. Depletion of ozone.2. Change in species composition by

introduction of invasive species.3. Decrease in air and water permea-

bility.4. Decreases financial support for envi-

ronmental conservationSelect the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 2 and 3 only

(b) 1 and 2 only(c) 1, 2 and 4 only(d) All of the above

38. Which of the following is/are the ap-plications of Chlorofluoro Carbons?1. Pressurizing agent in aerosol cans. 2. For the production of tubeless tyres 3. Uses as coolant and propellants. Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) None of the above

39. Which of the following statement re-lated to the Green House Gas Bulletin Report is correct?(a) It provides information about the

trends and atmospheric burden of the carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O).

(b) It has been released by IPCC.(c) It has highlighted that CO

2 has de-creased but nitrous oxide, methane and CFC-11 has increased sharply.

(d) None of the above

40. Which of the following forestation schemes and their objectives is/are correctly matched?1. National Afforestation Programme

scheme: for afforestation of degrad-ed forest lands.

2. National Mission for Green India: for encouraging efficient utilization of forest produce.

3. National Forest Policy of 1988: for maintenance of environmental sta-bility through preservation and res-toration of ecological balance.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 only(b) 1 and 3 only(c) 1 and 2 only(d) All of the above

41. In agriculture “biological control” of the pests involves the use of:(a) Antibiotics(b) Bio-fertilizers(c) Pesticides(d) Natural enemies of pests

42. Which of the following is/are the benefits of removing Bamboo from the category of “tree”?1. It would promote bamboo cultivation

by farmers resulting in the enhance-ment of their income from agricul-tural fields.

2. It will allow transit of bamboo grown in non-forest areas.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 only (b) 2 only(c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2

43. What are tropical secondary forests? (a) Forests that grow in the outer pe-

riphery of rainforests (b) Forests that grow after deforestation

of rainforests.(c) Moist deciduous forests growing in

subtropical region (d) Reforested and grassland areas in

semi-arid sub-tropical climate

44. Which of the following river is called ‘biological desert on account of its pollutants?(a) Yamuna river (b) Periyar river(c) Damodar river (d) Mahanadi river

45. Which of the following is/are the im-pacts of warmer oceans?1. It will affect weather pattern.2. It can cause more powerful tropical

storms.3. It can impact sea life.4. It causes rise in sea level.Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1, 2 and 3 only(b) 2, 3 and 4 only(c) 2 and 3 only(d) All of the above

46. Which of the following organisation declare Eco-Sensitive Zone?(a) Union Ministry of Environment, For-

ests and Climate Change (MoEFCC)(b) Indian Board for Wildlife(c) Wildlife Institute of India(d) National Green Tribunal

47. Which of the following is/are the benefits of habitat corridor?1. It helps in increasing genetic diversi-

ty.2. It helps in seasonal migration.3. It may reduce human-animal conflict

during disasters such as wildfires or floods.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:(a) 1 and 2 only(b) 2 only(c) 2 and 3 only(d) All of the above

48. The Ramsar Convention works closely with which of the following organizations known as International Organisation Partners?1. Birdlife International 2. International Water Management In-

stitute (IWMI) 3. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) 4. Convention on the Conservation of

Migratory Species of Wild AnimalsSelect the correct answer using the codes the given below:(a) 1, 2 and 3 only(b) 1 and 2 only(c) 2, 3 and 4 only(d) All of the above

49. What is Tx2 campaign related to tiger conservation? (a) It denotes the global alliance of gov-

ernments, international organiza-tions, civil society, the with the aim of working together to save wild tigers from extinction.

(b) It denotes the International Tiger Co-alition representing more than 40 non-government organizations.

(c) It denotes the software-based mon-itoring system launched across Indi-an tiger reserves.

(d) It is a global commitment to double the number of wild tigers made by the governments of 13 tiger range countries.

50. Which of the following biodiversity conservation programmes and their objectives is/are correct?(a) MIKE: to strengthen patrolling and

surveillance of the Endangered Ben-gal tiger

(b) M-STrIPES: to conserve elephants and reduce human-elephant con-flict.

(c) OPERATION THUNDERBIRD: to con-serve urban sparrow

(d) CA|TS: set standards for the tiger conservation regions.

April-I EditionP1614 days NEWS ANALYSIS

USA’s With-drawal from GSP and Impact on India

FROM PAGE ONE

About this SectionThe ’14 Days News Analysis’section covers detailed analysis of the current issues of the fortnight.

News that has multi-dimensional impact on different sectors of the society, economy, polity are covered under this section.

Each article has been designed from aperspective of WHAT, WHY, WHO, WHEN & HOW. This will help cover 3600 dimension of the topic.

Sources: The Hindu, Indian Express, Livemint, Business Line, Yojana and Kurukshetra Magazine, Government Reports, etc.

• The GSP withdrawal is expected to raise costs for the American firms and hinder strengthening of the Indo-US relations

• Unless the White House has second thoughts about the termination of the GSP, the United States will start levying tariffs beginning May on Indian goods worth approximately $5.6 billion. India has also signaled that, in retaliation, it will impose tariffs on US products worth more than $10 billion.

Why retaliation is not a good approach in this instance?

• US move in itself doesn’t constitute a significant threat to bilateral trade; only about 10% of the products ($5.6 billion) the United States imported from India last year received preferential treatment.

• If the US tariffs kicked in and India re-taliated, there are chances that Trump administration would retaliate in return.

• Trump’s trade policies are not working internationally. In contrast, the trade relationship with India looks quite good. Despite the tension on the trade front, India-US bilateral trade topped $87 billion last year, up from $73 billion in 2017

• India should keep its eye on the big pic-ture. Since the country began liberalising its economy in 1991, its bilateral trade with the United States has increased dramatically and India is the ninth largest trading partner of the US today.

• The growing bilateral trade has made businesses in both the countries stakeholders in the broader strategic relations

Conclusion • India must negotiate and the negotia-

tion must work towards achieving rap-prochement in the short-term and a partnership in the long-term.

• India should think of the long-term and envision its relationship with the US be-yond the Trump administration.

• India’s persistence in working with the current administration will not pay off in a major way over the next two years. CUTS (Consumer Unity and Trust Society) firm-ly believes that the US and India could achieve $500 billion in bilateral trade by 2030.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had issued a statutory order authorising 10 “security and intelligence agencies” to intercept, monitor and decrypt electronic information and com-munication.

The Centre has sought to justify its December 20, 2018, notification on monitoring of com-puters, saying that the rules existed since 2009 and what it had done was to restrict the exercise of powers and specify which agen-cies were authorized to do this. It further told the Supreme Court that its order was passed keeping in mind “legitimate state interest” and threats like “terrorism” and it did not vi-olate the right to privacy.

It has been stated that the order was in keeping with Section 69(1) of the Informa-tion Technology Act, 2000 and the Informa-tion Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009, proving that the order was sound in law.

The government further stated that all the 10 agencies “that each case of interception or monitoring or decryption under the Section 69…shall mandatorily require prior approval of the competent authority, i.e. Union Home Secretary; and that such cases shall be re-stricted strictly to the purposes mentioned in Section 69 (1) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

About Section 69 in the Information Technology Act, 2000

Empowers to issue directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any informa-tion through any computer resource -

• Where the Central Government or a State Government or any of its officers spe-cially authorized by the Central Gov-ernment or the State Government as the case may be, in this behalf may, if satisfied that it is necessary or expedient to do in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, se-curity of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for pre-venting incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above or for investigation of any offence, it may, subject to the provisions of sub-section (2), for reasons to be recorded in writing, by order, direct any agency of the appro-priate Government to intercept, monitor or decrypt or cause to be intercepted or

limit for the validity of an order has been prescribed as a maximum of 180 days under the rules notified in 2009. But there is nothing to prevent an agency from accessing the information and data once stored in the system irrespective of the time it was stored first.

b) Procedure of Surveillance

All authorisation orders issued by the gov-ernment under Section 69(1) must be rea-soned and written and must be subject to the procedure laid down in the Information Technology Rules. As per these rules all such orders must be scrutinised by a review com-mittee of the Centre, or the state in question, set up under Rule 419A of the Indian Tele-graph Rules, 1951. All review committees set up under Rule 419A comprise only of gov-ernment secretaries.

c) Threat to Right to Privacy • State surveillance threatens individual

privacy and must be subject to adequate safeguards. Privacy is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution of India as recognized by nine judges of the Supreme Court in August 2017. Like all other fundamental rights, the right to privacy is not absolute and can be re-stricted. According to the Supreme Court, these restrictions must be: (1) backed by law, (2) for a legitimate state aim and (3) proportionate.

• Consequently any government order under Section 69(1) of the Information Technology Act must fulfil this three-part test to be constitutional. The ab-sence of judicial or legislative oversight over the executive’s decision-making under Section 69(1) is likely to make it a disproportionate restriction on an in-dividual’s fundamental right to privacy and, therefore, unconstitutional.

• Section 69 of the IT Act a highly potent tool against privacy of individuals.

Conclusion

However, it can be concluded that though the section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act ap-pears to pass the test of ‘necessity’ and ‘pro-portionality’ of surveillance, the section 69 in its present form does not appear to do so.

However underling the “legitimate state in-terest” behind the law, the government holds that grave threats to the country from ter-rorism, radicalisation, cross-border terror-ism, cyber crime, organised crime, drug car-tels cannot be understated or ignored and a strong and robust mechanism for timely and speedy collection of actionable intelligence, including signal intelligence, is imperative to counter threats to national security.

State Surveillance: A Necessity for Today’s Volatile World

monitored or decrypted any informa-tion generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource.

• The procedure and safeguards subject to which such interception or monitoring or decryption may be carried out, shall be such as may be prescribed.

• The subscriber or intermediary or any person in-charge of the computer re-source shall, when called upon by any agency referred to in sub-section (1), extend all facilities and technical assis-tance to:

a) provide access to or secure access to the computer resource generating, transmitting, receiving or storing such information; or

b) intercept, monitor or decrypt the in-formation as the case may be; or

c) provide information stored in com-puter resource.

• The subscriber or intermediary or any person who fails to assist the agency referred to in sub-section (3) shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine.

Critical Analysis

The above judgment can be criticized on the following grounds:

a) Scope of Surveillance • According to the section 5(2) of the

Indian Telegraph Act 1885, interception and monitoring is permitted under five conditions: in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India; the security of the State; friendly relations with foreign States; to maintain public order; and prevent incitement to the commission of an offence.

• On the other hand, section 69 (1) of the IT Act has an additional sixth condition: ‘investigation of crime’. It includes not only the communication on fly but also the stored data, information and com-munication. It also enables the agencies to reach subscribers directly, besides through intermediaries.

• By including the ‘investigation of crime’, scope of the law increases many more times because eventual-ities covered under the five conditions of Indian Telegraph Act are far less than the eventualities covered under the additional sixth condition of IT Act, simply because there are lakhs of cases under investigation.

• By including the provision of storing data agencies’ reach increase both in scope and time-dimension. Although the time

Subject: Internal SecuritySub-Topic: Information Misuse

UPSC Previous Year Questions based on Internal Security

1. Data security has assumed significant importance in the digitized world due to rising cyber crimes. The Justice B. N. Srikrishna Committee Report addresses issues related to data security. What, in your view are the strengths and weakness of the Report relating to protection of personal data in cyber space? (2018)

2. Use of Internet and social media by non-state actors for subversive activities is a major concern. How these have misused in the recent past? Suggest effective guidelines to curb the above threat. (2013)

April-I EditionP17

ers, have better nutrition levels com-pared to male-dominated families.

• Role of State: Government of the re-gion and its policies have a greater role in ensuring nutrition of its subjects. Making only rice and wheat avail-able through the subsidised PDS has adversely affected the consumption pattern of poor people, Focus must be placed back on millets.

• Corruption: The ICDS Anganwa-di programme is plagued by massive systemic corruption. This is because accounting, budgeting, clearing bills auditing and all such functions are centralised. Government should del-egate powers to gram panchayats or local elected bodies to clear bills and make payments to the food suppliers.

The structure of society and the econo-my influence the pattern of distribution of physical and financial resources between communities, families and individuals; agro-climatic and geographical factors place certain groups at a disadvantage in par-taking of the fruits of development. Never-theless, the state has a crucial role to play in creating an enabling environment for the healthy development of children, backed by the advances in knowledge and technol-ogy over the past few decades. Reducing child malnutrition and bringing down child mortality sharply are important compo-nents of the Sustainable Development Goals that the nations of the world have commit-ted to; it is now imperative that these pious declarations are translated into practice.

Brazilian Success Story • There are several lessons that the

world can learn from Brazil about how to reduce child stunting. In the 1970s, 55% of children in the north east of Brazil were stunted. By 2006, the figure was reduced to 6%. There are two remarkable feats that Brazil has achieved. Firstly, the high rate of child stunting was reduced rapidly over 10 years. Secondly, the speed with which the number of stunted children has declined has been ac-celerating.

practices and develops into a stunted and underweight adolescent. This pat-tern is replicated over subsequent gen-erations of mothers.

• If a child’s dietary intake of protein, car-bohydrates, fat and micronutrients is in-adequate, she could suffer from malnu-trition adversely affecting her health and increasing her susceptibility to disease.

• Equally critical are the underlying deter-minants that operate at the household level — food security, nurture-care for the mother and child and a healthy en-vironment, including safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation, shelter and ac-cessible healthcare.

A combination of social, economic and geographic-climatic factors has contrib-uted to the current state of affairs in our Indian society. Table above shows Stunting Rates in States of India (NFHS-4 2015-16)

Challenges and Steps needed • Lack of Awareness: General aware-

ness about the health and nutrition of children would promote parents to take care of the needs and cases of malnutri-tion in educated societies are very rare.

• Poor Maternal Nutrition: In and post pregnancy period maternal nutrition has a vital role to play ensuring good nutrition of the children.

• Mindset: What is particularly intrigu-ing is that more women, especial-ly as they age, justify wife-beating and there has been little change in this percentage over the past decade. Conservative, regressive social atti-tudes have been internalized to a sig-nificant extent among women and this has major implications for their nurture and care during pregnancy as well as in the post-partum period.

• Socio-cultural background: It is found that scheduled castes and scheduled tribes do not show malnutrition among their children by virtue of their social hierarchy, but display malnutrition in pockets of the country due to over-all under development of the region.

• Decision-Making Role: It is seen in the report that families that have women as the primary decision mak-

Tackling Child Malnutrition14 days NEWS ANALYSIS

UPSC Previous Year questions based on Malnutrition

Subject: GovernanceSub-Topic: Hunger and PovertyIntroduction

The prevalence of malnutrition-encompass-ing both undernutrition and overnutrition—is an important indicator of a country’s health. Those who are either undernourished or are obese underperform in various aspects of life, missing out on opportunities to become pro-ductive members of society. India is among those countries in the world with the high-est recorded numbers of undernourished. As the country aspires to fulfill its economic and social development goals, malnutrition is one area which requires greater attention.

Present Situation

Almost half a century after the inception in 1975 of the world’s largest programme focused on children under six, the Inte-grated Child Development Services (ICDS), the fact that we are still talking about the problem of under-5 child malnutrition in India is a matter of deep concern. India, ranked at the 103rd position among 119 countr ies in Global Hunger Index, 2018. India is ranked below many neighbouring countries, including China (25th spot), Ne-pal (72), Myanmar (68), Sri Lanka (67) and Bangladesh (86). Pakistan is placed at the 106th position.

According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) data that was released in December 2017, that stunting rates have come down by 20 per cent over a decade (2006-2016) and underweight rates in the same period by 16 per cent. Wasting rates have, however, gone up by six per cent from under 20 per cent to 21 per cent. This indicates that height gains in the child population under five years of age over the decade in question have not been matched by weight gains.

Measure of Malnutrition

Anthropometric measurements, biochem-ical indicators and clinical signs are the three tests recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to establish the existence of malnutrition. Apart from its ease of large-scale use anthropometric measurements allow for a quick assess-ment of the nutrition status of the individ-ual. While Body Mass Index (BMI) is used to assess the existence of malnutrition in adults, the WHO Growth Standards (2006) for children under-5 rely on three mea-sures of nutrition: weight for age, height for age and weight for height.

Malnutrition: Due to lack of life cycle per-spective

• Malnutrition has necessarily to be ap-proached from a life cycle perspective. An underweight anaemic pregnant teen mother has to contend with early preg-nancy, inadequate spacing between successive births and poor prenatal nu-trition and healthcare.

• The resulting low birth weight baby fac-es poor healthcare, hygiene and nutrition

• Families with income below the poverty line receive a monthly sti-pend which puts them above the poverty line. Women and children in these families are required to attend primary health centres and older children must attend schools reg-ularly. The policy was designed on the premise that poverty reduction can only be achieved with a better income distribution rather than in-creased economic growth.

• The pro-poor policies also focused on increased access to essential public services. For example, the family health programme made it possible for people to access a doctor, many of whom had never been able to. And access to antenatal care was dramatically improved. In 1996 only 37% of the poorest quintile of moth-ers had access to antenatal care.

• This was increased to 80%, sub-stantially reducing the socioeco-nomic disparities in antenatal care. This was achieved with investments in primary health clinics and fami ly health teams, particularly in poor settings.There was also a massive education drive. Big investments were made in school programmes. This included allocating federal funds to support primary education. In ev-ery city, the education budget was apportioned based on the number of children who needed to go to school.

• On the other side this amounted to more than 1 million new cases of obesity per year. The challenge now is to ensure that the benefits from the pro-poor policies are not erod-ed, but that the unintended conse-quences are managed.

Conclusion

We need more public programmes with a direct or indirect impact on nutrition in the selected areas. These should cover import-ant nutrition-specific areas such as mater-nal nutrition, especially in the nine months of pregnancy and the six months of breast-feeding. They should also promote early and exclusive breastfeeding, proper feeding of the infant and provide food security through a robust public distribution system.

There should be support for healthcare for mothers — from the antenatal care visit in the first trimester of pregnancy until after delivery — and for children in their first few years of life. Messages should be spread on hygiene and sanitation, particularly the need to do away with open defecation practices. Similar-ly, education for girls should be advocated as should the importance of enabling the finan-cial independence of women through skilling and employment opportunities along with their inclusion in the formal financial network.

Programmes will have an impact only when there are sound public service delivery mech-anisms, especially in the nutrition, health and education sectors. Building a cadre of dedi-cated professionals in the government needs a high degree of political will and administra-tive commitment, centred around developing skills and knowledge and building motivation to stay the course.

1. How far do you agree with the view that the focus on lack or availability of food as the main cause of hunger takes the attention away from ineffective human development policies in India? (2018)

2. Hunger and Poverty are the biggest challenges for good governance in India still today. Evaluate how far successive governments have progressed in dealing with these humongous problems. Suggest measures for improvement. (2017)

CATEGORY A CATEGORY B CATEGORY C

STATE NFHS-4 STUNTING%

STATE NFHS-4 STUNTING%

STATE NFHS-4 STUNTING%

Bihar 48.3 Chhattisgarh 37.6 Sikkim 29.6

Uttar Pradesh 46.3 Assam 36.4 Arunachal Pradesh 29.4

Jharkhand 45.3 Karnataka 36.2 Manipur 28.9

Meghalaya 43.8 Maharashtra 34.4 Telangana 28.9

Madhya Pradesh 42.0 Odisha 34.1 Negaland 28.6

Rajasthan 39.1 Haryana 34.0 Mizoram 28.0

Gujrat 38.5 Uttarakhand 33.5 Jammu & Kashime 27.4

West Bengal 32.5 Tamil Nadu 27.1

Delhi NCR 32.3 Himachal Pradesh 26.3

Andhra Pradesh 31.5 Punjab 25.7

Tripura 24.3

Punducherry 21.1

Goa 20.1

Kerala 19.7Stunnting>38.4% Stunnting>30%-38.4% Stunnting<30%

April-I EditionP18

Context

The judiciary has two key functions -- to decide individual cases and maintain a check on the government and legislature.

The first function, isn’t being discharged satisfactorily as the majority of Indians don’t have access to its legal system, which is of-ten expensive and time-consuming. The few who do find that, cases drag on in courts for so long that the delay is akin to a denial of justice.

Additionally, systems tend to have an elitist bias. This makes it hard for slum dwellers, refugees, street vendors and others to get justice.

Hence, recently the judges of Supreme Court have raised the questions over the Indepen-dence, transparency and accountability of Indian Judiciary.

Problems associated with Indian Judiciary

The issues are: • Issue of master of the roster:

♦ The first major issue is the idea of the CJI as the “master of the roster”. The previous CJI was criticised by many for the manner in which cases were allocated to judges under his watch and for selectively choosing the benches that would hear cases of public importance.

♦ In democratic countries around the world, notably in the UK, Canada and Australia, the allocation of work and the selection of benches is a consultative process and necessarily involve a culture of trust.

• Appointments and transfers: ♦ The second issue is of how

appointments and transfers within the higher judiciary continue to be made.

♦ Every time a new cohort of judges is announced for selection a new set of problems emerges. It is almost

as though the Supreme Court Collegiums is showing us the many paths to opacity that can exist in the appointments process.

• Sealed cover concept: ♦ The third issue that concern is the

recent fascination of the Supreme Court for the “sealed cover” as a means of receiving information about cases, having used it in three highly documented litigations in the past few months. This is completely against the idea of open, transparent justice.

♦ In the National Register of Citizens case and Rafale Deal, for example, the lives of lakhs of people hinge on sealed covers.

• Post-retirement appointments: ♦ The fourth issue is about post-

retirement appointments. Without meaning any disrespect at all to the judges most recently involved, it is clear that such appointments really compromise the independence of the judiciary.

♦ They raise potential conflicts of interest, if not in reality, certainly in matters of perception.

• Appeal against the HC: ♦ The fifth issue is that of the appeal

made to the Supreme Court by itself against the order of the Delhi High Court on the applicability of the Right to Information Act, 2005, to the judiciary. The Delhi High Court judgment has been stayed and the case has been languishing in the court for a decade now.

♦ Unfortunately, our judiciary is not only opaque in its own workings but is also becoming partial to opacity in its public function as an arbiter of public disputes. Jurisprudence clearly shows that such secretive information should be resorted to only in exceptional cases.

Other issues with the Functioning of Judiciary

• Corruption: There is huge corruption in appointment especially at lower judiciary.

• Lack of Transparency: There is lack of transparency and objective appointment process.

• Culture of litigation and lack of pene-tration of alternative dispute redressal mechanism such as arbitration, medi-ation, etc.

• Frequent Transfer of Judges: Huge transfer of judges takes the interest out of them to hear the cases that their suc-cessor may give judgment to after the transfer.

• Poor dispute resolution mechanism. ♦ Filing of the frequent government

litigation keeps the courts busy instead of serving justice to the people speedily.

• The special leave petition (SLP) which the Constituent Assembly hoped would be used sparingly, but which now dwarfs the work of the Supreme Court.

♦ Increasing number of state and central legislations.

♦ Appeals against orders of quasi-judicial forums going to high courts.

• Frequent adjournments and indiscrimi-nate use of writ jurisdiction.

• Expensive and Delayed Justice: Judi-cial proceedings are prohibitively expen-sive, confusing for commoners and delay in justice delivery has denied gainful op-portunities for many.

• Lack of Expertise: Judiciary lacks ex-pertise in dealing with new age problems like Corp Tax, Cyber laws, International treaties, Climate change and its conser-vative attitude is exploited and corrupt go scot free.

• Proliferation through SLPs: A lot of cases are entertained under article 136, which would otherwise not fall in the criminal/appellate/advisory jurisdictions.

• Corruption is also an major issue in judicial system as it is any other gov-ernment department especially in low-er courts increasing transparency and accountability corruption can be bought down.

• Absence of separate Commercial Courts to adjudicate on disputes of civil nature resulting in large number of pending civil suits related to various business and services-related disputes in the high courts.

Government Initiatives to improve the functioning of Judiciary

• National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms : The mission has been set up to ensure better access to justice by:

♦ Reducing delays and arrears. ♦ Enhancing accountability through

structural change. • E-Courts Project:

♦ Computerization of district and subordinate courts

♦ ICT infrastructure of the Supreme Court and the High Court

♦ At present, Case Information System

(CIS) 2.0 is being implemented across the country

• Gram Nyalayas: ♦ The Gram Nyayalayas Act, 2008

was enacted to provide for the establishment of Gram Nyayalayas

♦ These are mobile village courts; aimed at providing inexpensive justice to people in rural areas

• National Court Management System: ♦ To address issues of case

management, court management, setting standards for measuring performance of the courts and a national system of judicial statistics

• National Litigation Policy ♦ Government regarded to be the

biggest contributor (46%) to litigation in India

♦ NLP introduced to reduce government litigations

♦ Government also launched Legal Information Management and Briefing System as a database of all the ongoing cases with the government as a party

• Fast Track Courts: for quick disposal of cases pending in the lower courts

• Nyaya Mitra Scheme: Aims at re-ducing pendency of cases with special focus on those pending for more than 10 years.

Best Practice: U.K.

• The United Kingdom uses information to design its “forward programme for judicial recruitment”.

• The recruitment cycles (selection exercises), for all tiers of the judiciary, including tribunals are mapped out for the next five years

Way Forward • Chief Justice Venkatachaliah, said

in his report, that a National Judicial Commission consist of five members of which a majority must be the three senior-most judges of the Supreme Court for appointment of judges was need of the hour.

• There should be a policy decision to introduce a cooling-off period after retirement before taking up new appointments. Or such appointments should be made by a neutral body which is free from executive influence.

• Protecting constitutional values requires an independent judiciary. For this, there is need for a systemic mechanism to deal with allegations of corruption in the higher judiciary.

• Incorporate “in-house procedure” for clean judiciary. It will serve as a safeguard for the members of the higher judiciary from being maligned or being subjected to vilification by false and frivolous.

• Modernization of court process; use of technology to be expanded. Initiatives like Case Information System should be supplemented by file tracking and knowledge management system.

• For the court and its processes to be more meaningful, effective and credible all relevant questions must be settled, without compromising the independence of the institution at the earliest.

Reforms are needed for establishment of

Independent, Transparent and Accountable Indian

Judiciary.

14 days NEWS ANALYSIS

Subject— Polity and GovernanceSub-Topic: Reforms in Judiciary

UPSC Previous Year Questions based on Judiciary

1. Critically examine the Supreme Court’s judgement on ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014’ with reference to appointment of judges of higher judiciary in India. (2017)

2. The Supreme Court of India keeps a check on arbitrary power of the Parliament in amending the Constitution. Discuss critically. (2013)

Need for Judicial Reforms in India

April-I EditionP19

Context

The first-ever global assessment of environ-mental rule of law finds weak enforcement to be a global trend that is exacerbating environ-mental threats, despite prolific growth in envi-ronmental laws and agencies worldwide over the last four decades.

What is Environmental Rule of Law?

The United Nations defines rule of law as having three related components:

• Law should be consistent with funda-mental rights.

• Law should be inclusively developed and fairly effectuated.

• Law should bring forth accountability not just on paper, but in practice—such that the law becomes operative through ob-servance of, or compliance with, the law.

Environmental rule of law is central to sus-tainable development. It integrates environ-mental needs with the essential elements of the rule of law and provides the basis for improving environmental governance. It highlights environmental sustainability by connecting it with fundamental rights and obligations. It reflects universal moral values and ethical norms of behaviour and it pro-vides a foundation for environmental rights and obligations. Without environmental rule of law and the enforcement of legal rights and obligations, environmental governance may be arbitrary, that is, discretionary, sub-jective and unpredictable.

Concern Highlighted by the report • The UN Environment report found that de-

spite a 38-fold increase in environmen-tal laws put in place since the Stockholm declaration 1972, failure to fully imple-ment and enforce these laws is one of the greatest challenges to mitigating climate change, reducing pollution and prevent-ing widespread species and habitat loss

• The report highlights the vast gaps be-tween legislation and implementation for environmental laws and agencies: under resourced; lacking enforcement meth-ods; poorly coordinated; hamstrung by a lack of data; and de-prioritized against economic gain.

• While environmental laws have become commonplace across the globe, too often they exist mostly on paper because gov-ernment implementation and enforce-ment is irregular,

• Shortcomings in implementing environ-mental law are by no means limited to developing nations. Many developed na-tions have adopted aggressive and com-prehensive environmental laws but have stumbled in their implementation.

Reasons for Ineffectiveness in Implementation

• Lack of Political will: One of the great-est challenges to environmental rule of law is a lack of political will which ham-pering an effective enforcement of envi-ronmental laws.

• Weak Financial Resources: Many de-veloping countries prioritize macro-economic development when allocating government funds and setting priorities. This results in environment ministries that are under resourced and political-ly weak in comparison to ministries for economic and natural resource devel-opment.

• Inappropriate Budgeting: While inter-national technical and financial aid has helped scores of countries to develop environmental framework laws, neither domestic budgeting nor international aid has been sufficient to create strong en-vironmental agencies.

• Imported Laws: A widespread prob-lem with the initial framework laws is that many were based on laws of oth-er countries and failed to represent the conditions, needs and priorities of the countries into which they were imported.

Contrasting Environmental Rule of Law and Environmental Governance

• Environmental rule of law focuses on ensuring compliance with and en-forcement of environmental laws, while environmental governance comprises a broader set of objectives and approaches

• For example, environmental rule of law emphasizes civic engagement as a means to improve adherence to the law, while environmental governance takes a broader view of civic engage-ment (aiming to improve the quality of decision making, enhance public voice and build civic support as well as im-prove compliance and enforcement).

• No Specific Goals: Framework envi-ronmental laws often lack key provi-sions needed for effective implementa-tion. They often did not specify concrete outcomes or set objective goals against which to measure the laws’ performance.

• Fragmented Approach: Laws may be uneven in their content and implementa-tion. Donor support may focus on a par-ticular area of the environment, such as

wildlife protection or climate adaptation, but neglect other important topics, like protection of the environmental health of children. This can lead to fragment-ed approaches that can result in robust environmental programs in some areas and no funding or attention to other areas

Benefits of the Environmental Rule of Law: • Protects Environment:

♦ Environmental rule of law protects public health as well as the envi-ronment and the sustainable use of natural resources.

♦ To be effective, wildlife conservation, climate change adaptation, pollution control and resource management, for example all depend on environ-mental rule of law.

• Preserve Financial Resources:

Through Environmental rule of law sustain-able management of natural resources and maximization of their financial value pro-vide a foundation for long-term investment, which can serve to grow markets and expand opportunities.

• Improved Governance:

Environmental rule of law serves to en-courage “inclusive and equitable econom-ic growth; support investment and promote competition; provide access to information and markets for the poor and marginalized; secure land and property title; and provide mechanisms for equitable commercial dis-pute resolution Limiting abuse of resources, such as wildlife trafficking also preserves natural capital and cultural heritage for citi-zens and allows enjoyment of these resourc-es over generations

• Build Peace and Security:

Environmental rule of law can also improve a company’s bottom line by preventing and peacefully resolving conflicts. Where social conflicts escalate, they can disrupt opera-tions and harm reputation and brand.

• Build Legitimacy: ♦ Environmental rule of law strength-

ens rule of law more broadly by increasing trust in the government and solidifying its legitimacy. Strong environmental rule of law involves public and other stakeholders in government decision making and holds decision makers accountable for the outcomes of their actions.

Environmental Laws in India • The government has passed various

legislations to curb the damage caused to the environment such as the Envi-ronmental Protection Act, 1986, Forest Conservation Act, 1980, Water Preven-tion and Control of Pollution Act, 1974, Biological Diversity Act, 2002, Public Li-ability Insurance Act 1889 and National Green Tribunal Act, 2010.

• Article 48 (A) of the Indian Constitution obliged the state to protect and improve the environment. It should also endeavor to safeguard forests and wildlife of the country.

• According to Article 51(A) (g) of the Indian Constitution, every citizen of India has a fundamental duty to protect and improve the natural environment including forest, lakes, rivers and wildlife and should have compassion for living creatures.

UN Report:Environmental

Rule of Law

Reasons for Ineffective Implementation Laws in India

• There is no independent regulatory body for environmental governance. It is looked after the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF). Due to excessive interference by government on the governance of the Ministry, there is poor implementation of environmental law.

• There is also a lack of political will and public awareness.

• Industries are obligated to take per-mission from the State Pollution Control Board to discharge effluents and causing emissions but there is laxity in compli-ance due to lack of strong penalty mea-sures.

• There is lack of independence given to the central and the state boards.

• There is also a lack of funds to the Pollu-tion Control Boards and they do not even have proper infrastructure or laborato-ries.

Recommendation in context of India • An independent regulatory body needs

to be established. The MoEF in 2009 had proposed for a “National Envi-ronmental Protection Authority’ in its discussion paper which would act as a body for ‘monitoring, regulation and enforcement’ of environmental gover-nance.

• A reward mechanism needs to be given to business, organizations etc. to detect violations and take action to address the issue. Financial subsidies, cost sharing should also be promoted.

• More decision-making power needs to be given to the boards. There is also a need to establish a body of experts just like the civil services.

• It is important that laws give environ-mental values to the society and Courts and Tribunals should refrain from carry-ing out policy functions and must focus on making a strong environmental juris-prudence in India.

• There is also a need for the government to pass the Environmental Laws Amend-ment Bill, 2015 which tries to impose a fine of 50-100 million rupees civil liabil-ity for causing substantial damage to the environment.

Conclusion

Environmental laws have taken route around the globe as Countries increasingly understand the vital linkages between en-vironment, economic growth, public health, social cohesion and security. Countries have adopted many implementing regula-tions and have started to enforce the laws. Too often, though, there remains an imple-mentation gap.

While there are technical and administra-tive aspects, the human element is essential to environmental rule of law. It is critical to understand how the regulated community, the regulators and the public understand and approach these issues. Enforcement of law is perhaps the ultimate expression of state political will and seriousness of purpose and compliance is the strongest indicator of en-vironmental rule of law.

14 days NEWS ANALYSIS

Subject: Ecology and EnvironmentSub-Topic: Environmental Governance

UPSC Previous Year Questions based on Environmental Governance

1. How does biodiversity vary in India? How is the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 helpful in conservation of flora and fauna? (2018)

2. Environmental impact assessment studies are increasingly undertaken before project is cleared by the government. Discuss the environmental impacts of coal-fired thermal plants located at Pitheads. (2014)

April-I EditionP2014 days NEWS ANALYSIS

India has taken a giant leap towards provid-ing accessible and affordable healthcare to the common man with the launch of Ayush-man Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

Under the vision of Ayushman Bharat, Prad-han Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) shall be implemented so that each and ev-ery citizen receives his due share of health care. This is the “world’s largest government funded healthcare program” targeting more than 50 crore beneficiaries. It will act as a vi-sionary step towards advancing the agenda of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Promotive, Preventive, Curative,

Palliative and Rehabili-tative in nature

Health cover of ₹5/lakh family/year

Healthcare in all public and empanelled

private hospitals

Cashless and paperless access to

services

Creation of 1,50,000/- Health and

Wellness Centres

Includes secondary and Tertiary healthcare

Benefits

Important Features • It will provide universal healthcare

through the access of Health and Well-ness Centers (HWCs) at the primary level and provision of financial protection for accessing curative care at the secondary and tertiary levels through engagement with both public and private sector.

• HWCs will provide Comprehensive Pri-mary Health Care (CPHC), covering both maternal and child health services and non-communicable diseases, including free essential drugs and diagnostic ser-vices.

• Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) which provides health protection cover to poor and vulnerable families for secondary and tertiary care.

• PMJAY primarily targets the poor, de-prived rural families and identified oc-cupational category of urban workers’ families as per the latest Socio-Eco-nomic Caste Census (SECC) data for both rural and urban areas as well as the active families under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY).

• The services will include 1350 proce-dures covering pre-and post-hospital-ization, diagnostics, medicines etc.

• The Yojana beneficiaries will be able to move across borders and access ser-vices across the country through the provider network seamlessly.

• The Scheme is principle based rather than rule based allowing States enough flexibility in terms of packages, proce-dures, scheme design, entitlements as well as other guidelines while ensuring that key benefits of portability and fraud detection are ensured at a national level.

• States can implement the Scheme through an insurance company or di-rectly through the Trust/Society/Imple-mentation Support Agency or a mixed approach.

• The scheme is creating a cadre of certi-fied frontline health service professionals called Pradhan Mantri Aarogya Mitras (PMAMs) who will be primary point of facilitation for the beneficiaries to avail treatment at the hospital and thus act as a support system to streamline health service delivery.

• Detailed guidelines have been prepared to address the issues around potential fraudulent activities that could be com-mitted by any individual or organization. Anti-fraud cells will be established at the national and state level and strong IT tools will be deployed to prevent and detect fraud.

• NHA Information Security Policy & Data Privacy Policy are being institutional-ized to provide adequate guidance and set of controls on the secure handling of Beneficiaries Personal Data & Sensi-tive Personal Data in compliance with all laws and regulations applicable. Robust measures are being put in place in the IT platform to ensure privacy and security of the data.

• MoU has been signed with Common Service Centre (CSC) for Beneficiary Identification and will utilize the over 3 lakh village level entrepreneurs for iden-tifying beneficiaries.

• Personalized Letters with unique family code are in the process of being sent to the identified families in the Additional Data Collection Data (ADCD) drive. This will drive awareness among the benefi-ciaries and further ease the identification process when they visit points of care or CSC centres.

Though in the first 100 days, 6,85,000 people have availed the scheme, various drawbacks and criticisms prevail.

Criticism • The Seventh Schedule of the Constitu-

tion makes States responsible for hos-pital services. The States have their own schemes to provide financial risk pro-tection to those seeking medical relief.

• With West Bengal, Telangana, Delhi and Odisha not joining Ayushman Bharat, the question arises whether the scheme is hurting the idea of cooperative federalism.

• The insistence to prefix Ayushman Bharat to existing State names and the despatch of a personalised letter to 7.5 crore families with only the Prime Minis-ter’s photograph were seen as attempts to attribute the entire credit to the current administration, though State govern-ments are equal partners—funding 40% of the scheme, bearing the responsibility of its implementation and covering dou-ble the number of beneficiaries.

• It is expected of the National Health Agency (NHA) to build an institution-

Ayushman Bharat: A Prede-cessor for a Healthy India

al architecture, standardise procedures, costs and access all data for effective monitoring. This is important as it is ac-countable to Parliament and the Comp-troller and Auditor General for the proper utilisation of allocated funds. But such standardisation can stifle innovation and entail costly structures that may not ac-commodate local conditions, preferences and cost-effective solutions.

• The NHA’s approach does not appear to be built on consensus. Its model con-sists of outsourcing the vital functions of pricing services, pre-authorisations, scrutiny of bills, grievance redressal and fraud detection to private companies and third-party administrators. This may increase administrative costs from the current 6% to 30%

• The policy of providing fiscal incentives to the private sector to establish hospitals in deficit areas without insulating govern-ment-owned facilities or the small and marginal hospitals that together provide 95% of hospital care will tighten the grip of corporates on secondary and tertiary markets.

• Rapid consolidation and aggregation of tertiary hospitals by foreign financial conglomerates and private equity fund-ing agencies, would impact prices and access to tertiary care hence the very sustainability of the NHPS.

Issue with the Involvement of Private Sector

• Private sector infrastructure will be utilised for delivering the services, but some government hospitals will also chip in.

• The problem is there is no regulatory mechanism in place to monitor the quality of service provided, its ethical necessity and of course whether the patient was made to pay more than what the scheme covered. And the rates under the scheme are low; hospitals say they cannot support the scheme long-term without revision of rates. The most vulnerable people are being led by the government to the mercy of the private sector with very little regulation.

• There are also enormous scope for corruption that Ayushman Bharat and similar schemes can lead to. From the enrolment stage to approvals to payments, everything could have a price.

Conclusion

Investment in primary care would very quickly reduce the overall cost of health care for the state and for the consumer. Tech-nology and innovation are further reduc-ing costs. AI-powered mobile applications will soon provide high-quality, low-cost, patient-centric, smart wellness solutions. Currently, the scaleable and inter-operable IT platform being readied for the Ayushman Bharat is encouraging.

Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Aar-ogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is a paradigm shift from sectorial, segmented and fragmented approach of service delivery through various national and State schemes to a bigger, more comprehensive and better converged and need based service delivery of secondary and tertiary care.

Other Relevant News of the

Fortnight

Read from http://blog.uniqueshiksha.com

Subject: GovernanceSub-Topic: Health

UPSC Previous Year Questions based on Health

1. Appropriate local community-level healthcare intervention is a prerequisite to achieve ‘Health for All ‘ in India. Explain. (2018)

2. Public health system has limitations in providing universal health coverage. Do you think that the private sector could help in bridging the gap? What other viable alternatives would you suggest? (2015)

Better Education is not leading to better Job

Opportunities

Ayodhya Dispute

Hiding the Underemployment Data

Significance of Women in Parliament

Man Animal Conflict

Poverty to Vulnerability: Rethinking Social

Protection

April-I EditionP21EXPERT REPORTS & REVIEWS

Model Code of Conduct

The Election Commission announced the dates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The voting will take place in seven phases be-tween April 11, 2019 to May 19, 2019. With this announcement, the Model Code of Con-duct (MCC) has comes into force. In this blog, we outline the key features of the MCC.

What is the Model Code of Conduct and who does it apply to?

The MCC is a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission to regulate political parties and candidates prior to elections, to ensure free and fair elections. This is in keep-ing with Article 324 of the Constitution, which gives the Election Commission the power to supervise elections to the Parliament and state legislatures. The MCC is operational from the date that the election schedule is announced till the date that results are an-nounced. Thus, for the general elections this year, the MCC came into force on March 10, 2019, when the election schedule was an-nounced and will operate till May 23, 2019, when the final results will be announced.

How has the Model Code of Conduct evolved over time?

According to a Press Information Bureau re-lease a form of the MCC was first introduced in the state assembly elections in Kerala in 1960. It was a set of instructions to political parties regarding election meetings, speech-es, slogans, etc. In the 1962 general elections to the Lok Sabha, the MCC was circulated to recognised parties and state governments

sought feedback from the parties. The MCC was largely followed by all parties in the 1962 elections and continued to be followed in subsequent general elections. In 1979, the Election Commission added a section to regulate the ‘party in power’ and prevent it from gaining an unfair advantage at the time of elections. In 2013, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to include guidelines regarding election manifestos, which it had included in the MCC for the 2014 general elections.

What are the key provisions of the Model Code of Conduct?

The MCC contains eight provisions dealing with general conduct, meetings, processions, polling day, polling booths, observers, party in power and election manifestos. Major provi-sions of the MCC are outlined below.

• General Conduct: Criticism of po-litical parties must be limited to their policies and programmes, past record and work. Activities such as: (a) using caste and communal feelings to secure votes, (b) criticising candidates on the basis of unverified reports, (c) bribing or intimidation of voters and (d) or-ganising demonstrations or picketing outside houses of persons to protest against their opinions are prohibited.

• Meetings: Parties must inform the lo-cal police authorities of the venue and time of any meeting in time to enable the police to make adequate security arrangements.

• Processions: If two or more candi-dates plan processions along the same route, organisers must establish con-tact in advance to ensure that the pro-cessions do not clash. Carrying and burning effigies representing members of other political parties is not allowed.

• Polling Day: All authorised party workers at polling booths should be given identity badges. These should not contain the party name, symbol or name of the candidate.

• Polling Booths: Only voters and those with a valid pass from the Election Commission, will be allowed to enter polling booths.

• Observers: The Election Commission will appoint observers to whom any candidates may report problems re-garding the conduct of the election.

• Party in Power: The MCC incorporat-ed certain restrictions in 1979, regu-lating the conduct of the party in pow-er. Ministers must not combine official visits with election work or use official machinery for the same. The party must avoid advertising at the cost of the public exchequer or using official mass media for publicity on achieve-ments to improve chances of victory in the elections. Ministers and oth-er authorities must not announce any financial grants, or promise any con-struction of roads, provision of drink-ing water, etc. Other parties must be

allowed to use public spaces and rest houses and these must not be monop-olised by the party in power.

• Election Manifestos: Added in 2013, these guidelines prohibit parties from making promises that exert an undue influence on voters and suggest that manifestos also indicate the means to achieve promises.

Is the Model Code of Conduct legally binding?

The MCC is not enforceable by law. However, certain provisions of the MCC may be en-forced through invoking corresponding pro-visions in other statutes such as the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Code of Criminal Proce-dure, 1973 and Representation of the People Act, 1951. The Election Commission has ar-gued against making the MCC legally bind-ing; stating that elections must be complet-ed within a relatively short time (close to 45 days) and judicial proceedings typically take longer, therefore it is not feasible to make it enforceable by law. On the other hand, in 2013, the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, recom-mended making the MCC legally binding. In a report on electoral reforms, the Standing Committee observed that most provisions of the MCC are already enforceable through corresponding provisions in other statutes, mentioned above. It recommended that the MCC be made a part of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

About this SectionThis section has been designed to amalgamate the views of the experts on important contemporary issues.

The articles have directly been taken from PRS, PIB, NITI Aayog, Reports, etc. These may be directly used in your answers and may help in content enrichment.

Roshni Sinha

Standing Committee Report on Status of Forests in India

The Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests (Chair: Mr. Anand Sharma) submitted its report on the ‘Status of Forests in India’ on February 12, 2019.

Key observations and recommendations of the Committee include:

• Definition of Forest:

The Committee examined the Draft National Forest Draft Policy 2018 which was circulated for public feedback during April 2018. The Committee noted that the word ‘Forest’ is not defined in the Draft Policy. It noted that the Ministry uses the definition of the term as provided by the Supreme Court. The Court defined forests to include all forests statutorily recognised under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. The Committee noted that certain stakeholders had expressed concerns that that this definition did not include ecosystems which don’t have forest-like attributes, such as wetlands or grasslands. Therefore, it recommended that Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC) come out with a comprehensive and clear definition of the term ‘Forest’.

• Forest cover:

The Committee expressed concern about the decline in the forest cover in the North-Eastern States, which constitute 65.34% of its geographical area in comparison to the national forest cover of 21.54%. It recommended that the concerned state governments and the MoEFCC take all necessary steps to ensure that the decline in forest cover in these states is stopped at the earliest. The Committee noted that no action plan has been prepared by the MoEFCC for controlling the illegal cutting of trees in forests. It stated that MoEFCC must take cognizance of the illegal felling of trees in different parts of the country and prepare an action plan for tackling this menace, in coordination with state governments.

• Deforestation:

The Committee noted that th budget allocation to National Afforestation Programme has been insufficient. This has affected the achievement of the annual targeted area of afforestation during the last few years. The Committee recommended that the MoEFCC ensure that adequate allocation is made to

the National Afforestation Programme and the targets under the Programme are achieved. Further, the Committee noted that the funding pattern for the Programme changed in 2015-16 from a 100% centrally sponsored scheme to a 60-40 sharing scheme between the centre and state. Therefore, the Committee recommended that the concerned state governments provide their share of the changed funding pattern to ensure the success of the Programme.

• Evaluation of afforestation:

The Committee noted that the mid-term evaluation study on National Afforestation Programme conducted by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education in 2008 had highlighted the successful implementation of the programme. However, the Committee stated that nearly ten years have passed since the ICFRE evaluation. Therefore, it recommended that the MoEFCC should undertake a study to assess the impact of National Afforestation Programme and the Green India Mission so that their actual impact on the forest cover is known and further strategies in this regard could be formulated accordingly.

The Committee observed that the MoEFCC has not undertaken any field survey to determine the total land available in the country for afforestation. It recommended that necessary action in this regard should be taken at the earliest so that state governments can formulate necessary strategies for taking up the afforestation activities in their respective states.

• Concerns of exploitation: The Committee observed that the general perception of the public is that the Draft Policy emphasizes the commercialization of forests and curtails the ownership of rights of tribals, tribal communities and traditional forest-dwellers. Concerns were also expressed that the Draft Policy aims to take away the rights of Gram Sabhas for management of forests and instead hands it over to the proposed centrally controlled Corporations. The Committee felt that if too much emphasis is given to the private partnership model in management of forests in the Draft Policy, forest lands may be lost. It recommended that adequate safeguards be taken after stakeholder consultations to protect the forests from over-exploitation by private parties.

PRS

April-I EditionP22EXPERT REPORTS & REVIEWSSustainable Urban Transport is the Way Forward

City and state governments to embark on a sustainable and equitable urban mobility pathway for sustainable and equitable growth.

The National Urban Transportation Policy (NUTP), launched in 2006 and revised in 2014 aims at providing better mobility and sustainability by focussing on people mobility and not vehicle mobility. The policy envisages an urban mobility framework that is contextual and is suited to the geographical, social and economic needs of our cities and citizens.

However, the progress in implementation of the NUTP in our cities is far from satisfactory. Change needs to happen before Indian cities double in population by 2050 (World Economic Forum, 2016). The present focus is on building roads and flyovers to cater to the ever-increasing vehicular traffic of India. What is missing is adequate infrastructure for moving people through means, such as bicycle tracks and dedicated pedestrian pathways. Even where such infrastructure is available, it is not being used to its full extent. For example, pedestrian pathways are being encroached upon for other uses or are not walkable because of being broken or lined with garbage, etc. making it neither obstruction free nor safe. Similar is the case with our cycle tracks. The pattern of urban growth in terms of urban sprawl has resulted in an even higher demand for motorized travel.

The need of the hour is to focus on public transportation (PT) in India, especially, low carbon non-motorised transport (NMT). As income levels increase, people too aspire to shift to private transport, due to infrequency and unreliability of public transport. As a result, the use of such desirable modes of

transportation (such as NMT or PT) is declining and the use of undesirable modes (i.e. car and 2-wheelers) is growing. To keep India walking, the government needs to oversee an incremental and mixed mode approach for a transition into a low carbon pathway. Cities and states needs to be pro-active and may consider following interventions for sustainable urban mobility solutions:

A Comprehensive and Integrated Transport Plan for Each City:

City transport is administered by various modal agencies such as the city bus corporation like DTC, the municipality, the rail and metro-rail corporation, the city development authority like DDA, etc. What is really required is an integrated process of transport planning for co-ordinated inter-city and intra-city transport. Sustainable urban transportation system, however requires, integration of Land Use and Transport Planning. The Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy will build a roadmap in integrating public transport systems with the built environment.

Doing Away with ‘One Size Fits All’ Approach:

More cities are going for MRT, LRT and monorail, despite the fact that these are capital intensive and require massive capital and operating subsidies. Tier-II and Tier-II cities require a different approach, given their population densities, urban form and socio-economic conditions of the city. Intermediate public transport (IPT) modes like e-rickshaws, shared autos and cycle rickshaws and NMT assume importance as they can meet the travel demands in small and medium size cities. Even within large cities, 20 to 30 per cent of the family income of

nearly 50 percent those living in unauthorized settlements is spent on public transport (Tiwari 2007). Therefore a mixed modal strategy is best pursued in different cities, to cater to different segments of the population.

System-based Approach is Critical:

Transport networks cannot exist in silos. Sustainable urban mobility calls for Intermodal Integration, i.e., integration of various modes of transport to provide seamless connectivity for the commuters. Last mile connectivity is an important factor for determining the success of public transport system in a city.

Empowering Municipal Governments and Citizens:

Municipalities needs to be empowered by providing autonomy in functions, finances and functionaries for better citizen engagement in city planning. The Smart Cities Mission focuses on developing sustainable and shared mobility systems, in addition to laying smart roads, street redesign and smart parking systems. Huge resources are being spent on improving urban transport projects such as real time bus tracking system, smart bus shelters and junction improvements (MoHUA 2018). There is need to create demand from the bottom-up level to increasing citizen participation and urban practitioners’ awareness.

Making Public Transportation Accountable:

For Indian cities to be livable, urban mobility, especially, public transport such as bus and bus rapid transit (BRT) systems must become a vital part of urban growth. We need to think of innovative ways of financing our PT ventures and operate to dis-incentivize private

vehicles. There is need to improve operations of PT by adopting Intelligent Transport System (ITS) and GPS tracking of buses for better route planning. This would induce a long term behavioral change where people are encouraged to go for public transport.

Providing Barrier-free Integrated Transport Solutions For Vulnerable Groups:

To make cities more inclusive and to address the requirements of the vulnerable sections of the population, planners need to take into account the concerns of different segments of the population during transport planning. Women represent the largest share of public transport users around the world, yet they face many barriers that limit their mobility and entry into the formal work-force. Therefore all experiences of public transport, such as those of women, children, the poor and the disabled needs to be taken into consideration, budgeted and planned for. The buses and train corridors, stops and junctions need to be well lit, easily accessible and located in crime-free areas.

Way Forward

For India to achieve resilient and inclusive cities, it is necessary to continuously plan for a low carbon model of growth in our cities, rather than focussing on physical infrastructure for vehicle mobility alone. The need is to build compact cities with a mixed land use and integrating transport planning with land use planning which emphasizes, on one hand, women participation and lead to inclusive sustainable urban growth, on the other. The planners, city authorities and civil society all have to join the mission to make our cities a better place to live in. The need is to implement NUTP for more mobile cities.

Challenging conventions to build a New India

India is the sixth largest economy in the world, poised to become a $5 trillion economy by 2022 and aspiring to be a $10 trillion economy by 2030. Integration of digital technologies and innovation is bringing about disruptive transformation in the country making it a land of immense opportunities.

The construction and housing sector has huge potential to change things if we want to realise the dream of New India by 2022. As per the 2011 census, 31% of India’s population lives in urban areas. This number is expected to rise drastically and cross 50% by 2050 as a result of growing aspirations and opportunities in urban areas. This scale of growth will exponentially increase the demand for basic services and housing in cities.

To achieve the vision of “Housing for All”, the government of India launched the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) in June, 2015. The validated housing demand as per the inputs received from States/UTs is about 10 million (1 Crore). Out of this, 7.3 million (73 lakh) houses have already been sanctioned under the mission and more houses are likely to be approved in the coming months. At an average cost of INR 0.6 million (6 lakh) per dwelling unit, a total investment of about INR 6 trillion or more would be required. In addition to the direct impact that this can have on the economy, it will also have a

multiplier effect on all the allied sectors, besides boosting employment opportunities and flow of knowledge and skills.

However to meet the magnitude of demand (which would be akin to building two and a half Americas in the next five decades) and ensure timely deliveries (longer gestation period of projects has a huge impact in the project costs and as a result on its affordability), we will have to ditch conventional methods and pole vault into a new construction regime. The Global Housing Technology Challenge – India (GHTC-India) has been conceptualised to bring about such a paradigm shift in the construction sector in India.

The Hon’ble Prime Minister envisaged the use of best technologies in construction from across the globe, for the building of nearly 10 million houses by 2022. The aim is to take inspiration from the best and make builders and developers in India among the best in the world.

Adoption of innovative technologies would contribute towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as laid out by the United Nations (UN), the New Urban Agenda and the Paris Climate Accord to which India is a signatory. Conventional brick and mortar constructions are usually slow paced, energy intensive and heavily dependent on natural resources, leaving large carbon foot prints,

and ultimately defeating the goal of timely, affordable and sustainable housing. Thus the goal is to accelerate construction of affordable housing, maximising resource efficiency without adversely impacting the environment and addressing the diverse geo-climatic conditions of different regions.

This Housing Technology Challenge is the result of a series of consultations with industry partners, academia, technology providers and other stakeholders, to address a wide range of issues and deliver well-conceived solutions.

The Challenge comprises three components. The first being a two day Grand Expo-cum-Conference – Construction Technology India 2019 (CTI-2019) being organised on 2 & 3 March, 2019 in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, to be opened with an inaugural address by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. The expo will see a host of cutting edge technology options being shared by global civil engineering firms, manufacturers of building technology components, turn-key contracting agencies, technical institutions, architects and planners, consulting firms and other business entities in the construction industry.

The second and most exciting component of the Challenge is the Light House Project, which will provide an opportunity to technology providers from across the world

to showcase their technology by participating live, in the development of housing, in one of six identified locations or Live Laboratories as they are being called. Needless to say that this will be an enormous gateway of opportunity for both national and international entities to compete with the best in the world. Success here could translate into opening up of newer markets that are witnessing similar urban growth phenomenon.

Diverse geo-climatic conditions call for more innovative ideas/ products/ technologies to make solutions market-ready. Thus the third component of the Challenge is Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerator (ASHA – India). Under ASHA – India, incubation centres will be set up at IITs – Bombay, Kharagpur, Madras & Roorkee and CBRI, Jorhat. Accelerator Workshops will be organised to familiarise start-ups, young entrepreneurs, practitioners and researchers, with new technology and provide a conducive environment for the development of an eco-system and market support. The incubation centres will provide technology support to innovative potential technology providers through projects approved under PMAY(U). This also augurs well for NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission, as well as integrates with the objectives of “Make in India”, “Skill India” initiatives.

Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog

Ms. Sunita Sanghi, Ms. Manshi Singh and Ms. Charrlotte Adelina

April-I EditionP23

Anti-Defection Law under the tenth schedule of Indian constitution was considered to be the panacea for the disease called defection has itself become a cause for several other troubles. Discuss.

Anti-Defection Law is contained in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which was introduced by the 52nd

Amendment in 1985. Defection is defined as “to abandon a position or association, often to join an opposing group” which essential-ly describes a situation when a member of a particular party abandons his loyalty towards that party and provide his support (in the form of his vote or otherwise) to another party. Ar-ticles 102(2) and 191(2) of the Constitution deal with anti-defection. The intention of the provision is to check the corruption/horse trading in parliament/ to check the popular phenomenon “Aaya Ram Gaya Ram” in the Indian polity which started in 1960’s.

Grounds for disqualification • If an elected member voluntarily gives up

his membership of a political party; • If he votes or abstains from voting in such

House contrary to any direction issued by his political party or anyone authorised to do so, without obtaining prior permission.

• It also applies to a nominated member if he/ she join a political party after 6 months of nomination and to an independent candidate if he/she joins a party after the election.

However the law itself has become a cause of concern in today’s political meddling and rightfully voicing genuine concerns by the

members of Parliament. Some of them in-clude:

• Affects Independence of the MPs: as they are required to strictly abide by the party whips’ directions.

• Injustice to the Constituencies: Those have elected them in the elections. Being the people’s representatives they should be allowed to boldly air their grievances and speak up for their constituencies’ requirements.

• Against the idea of Constitutional Forefathers: Though this issue was deeply discussed and analysed by the framers/Constituent Assembly. Constitution drafters didn’t intend to give the control of members to political parties. Interestingly, it’s only in the 10th schedule, which was included in 1985 that political parties are mentioned in constitution.

• Limited Deliberations: It have indeed reduced the quality of Parliamentary debates/deliberations. It could in the long run generate faulty legislations with various loopholes. It could also pave way for delegated legislation rendering Parliament ineffective in the long run.

• No incentive for MPs/MLAs to research and understand on policies.

• Misuse of law by the speaker: in order to stifle genuine dissent as seen

in the cases of Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Recommendations • Rise above party politics: Individual

MPs and MLAs need to be empowered to think independently and speak up for their constituencies.

• 170th report of Law Commission of India and Dinesh Goswami Committee recommendations: Anti-defection law should be applied only when the gov-ernment is in danger and to confidence and no-confidence motions respectively.

• The rationale that a representative is elected on the basis of the party’s programme can be extended to pre-poll alliances.

• Instead of Authorizing Speaker, for Disqualification, the decision should be made by the president or the governor on the advice of the Election Commission. This would make the process similar to the disqualification procedure as given in Representation of Peoples Act (RPA).

• There can be additional penalties for defectors as well.

Hence the spirit behind the Xth schedule needs to be respected in letter and in spirit and adequate safeguards to be put in place so as to not misuse this provision under the Constitution.

Subject: Indian Polity

Sub-Topic: Parliament

Checklist for Model An-swer

9 Introduction: What is An-ti-Defection Act and provisions related to it?

9 Main body: What are the lacun-aes associated with it? Why it was Panacea?

9 Conclusion: Conclude properly stating the recommendations for improving the situation.

Note for the Aspirants 9 The question is divided as: What

is anti-defection law, issues re-lated to it and steps needed for its improvement. Though state-ment is one but infer the question properly.

9 Add Law Commission of India and Dinesh Goswami Committee recommendations :

Last Edition’s Model Answers

QA

Robot Tax is as quaint as wrong in the era of Automation and Artificial Intelligence, the foundation of fourth industrial revolution. Discuss.

Subject: Science and Technology

Sub-Topic: Robotics

Checklist for Model Answer

9 Introduction: Introduce the concept of Robot tax and why needed?

9 Main body: Place the argu-ments in favour and against of Robot tax.

9 Conclusion: Conclude giving alternative options.

Note for the Aspirants

9 It is an analytical question.

9 Analyse the pros and cons of Robot tax giving proper justifi-cation to bring objectivity in the answer.

The Fourth industrial revolution wave is driven by the advanced robotics artificial intelligence etc. which are going to replace human labour dramatically. World Bank has predicted that robotics and machine learning will replace around 30 to 60 per cent of the jobs done by the humans.

• When robots displace human jobs, they are destroying income of individuals. The government also may lose income tax from individuals. Given this possibility, there is demand that a tax should be imposed on robots or those who deploy robots.

Why the Taxing Robot is quaint idea? • Issues with Implementation: Robots

may not be able to take over all the aspects of a laborer’s job so how it is feasible to tax them for the partial work they are going to perform.

• Double Taxation: Since the robots can’t pay the tax themselves, the manufacturer has to pay tax for producing robots, it will lead to the creation of a new kind of tax—production tax and if levied, this can lead to double taxation.

• Impact on Production Efficiency: Corporations are being taxed on their profits and not on what they produce. As a consequence of Robot tax the production efficiency — quality and/or quantity will decrease.

• Cost burden on Consumers: Higher costs of goods due to additional Robot tax will eventually are passed on to the consumers.

• Disincentives for Invention: If such a tax is imposed on automation, there could be disincentives for invention and innovation in various fields such as Health, Supply Chain and Automobile etc.

• Offsetting Profits: Taxing capital (like robots) will lead to businesses offsetting profit loss by lowering wages and raising prices.

• Problem with Definition: Robots are originally and essentially tools, not laborers in the real sense and thus no taxes should be levied on tools.

• Job Loss: Manufacturers of robots can migrate to countries that don’t tax them, which would then mean job losses for the country that loses the manufacturer.

QHowever, there are a couple of ways a ro-bot tax could work:

• The automated employees that replace humans could be taxed at the same rate as the human employee would pay income tax.

• The company could be required to pay the tax for each robot based on the displaced employee’s salary.

• The company could be taxed for using a robot, without any connection to employees.

Conclusion: • Essentially any tax on a consumer

good constitutes a larger portion of the customer’s annual income and thus hurts lower income individuals more than it hurts higher income individuals. Robot tax may not mean much to the highest 1% of the population, it would definitely be felt by the lowest tiers.

• The Government should support innovations and business to flourish, to maximize their profits and tax the earned profit by them which require no new taxes, no new regulations — simply a better, fairer, implementation of the ones we already have.

A

About this SectionThis section has been designed to teach the ‘Art of Answer Writing’. The Model Answers of the questions given in the last edition are found here. It also provides a check list for each

of the model answers and the tips for improving the answer writing.

The objective is to help aspirants improve their understanding of how to structure and write better answers to score higher than the competition.

April-I EditionP24

Briefly explains the U.S. rationale for withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and discuss its strategic relevance in a post-Cold War.

‘The partnership between the India and Saudi Arabia in finding new grounds in the form of strategic partnership council’. Critically Analyse.

USA has decided to withdraw from the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty that

marked the end of spirit behind the cold war between the two superpowers of the world. The reason behind such regressive action is alleged to be Russian violation of the treaty and China not being a party to it.

About the Treaty

The 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty required the United States and the Soviet Union to eliminate and permanently forswear all of their nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.

INF treaty held a great strategic relevance in the post cold war era:

• Extensive destruction of nuclear weapons: as per reports an estimated 2692 short, medium and intermediate range missiles were destroyed by Soviet Union and the United States of America.

• Treaty that ended cold war: By signing it in 1987, it began a new era where mu-tual suspicion and cold war tactics were drawn down. It paved for the complete end of cold war in 1990.

• Provision of open inspection: The treaty ensured that parties did not move back on the historic development. Hence maintained the power balance and status quo in the realm of global geopolitics.

• Liberated various European countries: from the clutches of their superpower masters. USSR and USA had installed dangerous missiles on the soils of differ-ent nations across Eurasia, but now the nations were relieved of the dangers as-sociated with hosting nuclear weapons.

Possible reasons behind such a move include:

• Non compliance of rules by Russia: It is alleged that Russia was developing new weapons that breached the treaty’s rule that ‘parties not produce, test or possess missiles of the range 500 to 5500km’. It is also alleged that Russia had begun deploying the missiles on the ground.

• Emergence of new nuclear powers: such as India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel has disturbed the status quo of the 20th century.

• China angle: China now becoming a major competitor for USA in every dimension and unaccountability of Chinese intermediate range missiles has hurt the interests of USA. Hence USA feels that to counter China, it should improve its arsenal and advance its edge over rival.

• North Korean belligerence: the failure of the Singapore meet has generated the need to defend US mainland and Island territories from the ballistic missile programme of North Korea.

• Militarization of space: USA’s latest plans to militarize Space needs new advancements in missile technologies and for this USA needs to get away from the treaty restrictions and obligations.

Though the parties have a grace period of 6 months to rethink about their decisions before completely annulling their treaty, various concerns have aroused due to this regressive step back into cold war period.

• New Arms Race: would become the norm in this 21st century as every na-tion would aim to secure its interests and protection from adversaries.

• Domino Effect: China and Russia would effectively utilize this move of USA to advance their military arsenals including nuclear ones in the name of self defense.

• Back to Cold War 2.0: as the tensions are seemingly high this time, but be-tween new rivals like Iran Vs USA, USA Vs China, India Vs China, India Vs Pakistan, USA Vs North Korea etc.

• Pave way for other treaty withdrawals: Withdrawal from INF treaty would pave way for USA’s backing out of several im-portant arms treaties under the protec-tionist and inward looking environment.

Hence need of the hour is peace and stability, so rather than moving out, it would be appropriate for the parties in INF to include new parties like China and India and make it more comprehensive in nature.

Subject: International AffairsSub-Topic: International Treaties

Checklist for Model Answer

9 Introduction: Introduce with the current issue of USA withdrawl from INF and salient features of INF treaty.

9 Main body: Discuss the rea-sons for withdrawl of USA from INF treaty, mainly in bul-let format to increase visibility.

9 Conclusion: Discuss the impact of USA’s withdrawl on the world.

Note for the Aspirants 9 The question is divided in parts,

hence student should give equal weightage to each.

9 It is an analytical question thus reasons and impacts of with-drawl should have multi-di-mensional approach.

Subject: International RelationsSub-Topic: India and Major Powers

Checklist for Model Answer

9 Introduction: Introduce in brief about the background of India and Saudi Arabia relations.

9 Main body: the significance of Saudi Arabia to India with re-spect to the multiple areas, not only petroleum. What are the ob-stacles in the development of India and Saudi Arabia relations

9 Conclusion: conclude with way forward.

Note for the Aspirants

9 While writing this answer, focus less on petroleum sector and dis-cuss relations in other sectors.

9 Discuss the obstacles in relations analytically giving proper exam-ples.

India and Saudi Arabia in the year 2010 had forged a strategic partner-ship through the ‘Riyadh Declara-

tion’; it is of great significance that India is one among eight Saudi’s strategic partners. However the recent visit by the Crown Prince to India gave a fillip to the strong indepen-dent strategic relationship by formation of a strategic partnership council and holding a summit meeting every two years henceforth. This has provided a new momentum to the old age relationship.

Importance of Saudi Arabia to India • Huge Indian Diaspora: Presence of 2.7

million Indians on the Saudi soil makes it an important partner in the welfare of the Indians abroad.

• Remittances: India is the largest recipient of foreign remittances from the Kingdom. It has had a great role to play in boosting our forex reserves year on year. Indian community in Kingdom also acts as a strong tool of soft diplomacy between the countries.

• Energy Security: Saudi Arabia is the largest supplier of crude oil to India. It becomes more important when India depends on 70% imports to meet its energy needs. Hence Saudi Arabia is a key player in ensuring our energy security.

• Bilateral Trade: Trade and commerce between the countries has been ascending since the last decade and

recorded a 10% growth compared to 2016-17. In 2017-18, bilateral trade stood at $27.48 billion making Saudi Arabia India’s 4th largest trading partner in the world next only to EU, USA and China.

• Defence Cooperation: Geo-strategic presence of the extended neighbours call for close defence cooperation. Various military exercises have taken place and successful counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and off Yemen coast have been carried out. India’s role in Afghanistan stability has got a lot to do with Kingdom’s active support.

• Cultural Connect: The annual Hajj and the Umra pilgrimages give the relationship a religious-cultural connect. Indian Muslims constitute one of the largest contingents of pilgrims to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.

• Connectivity: As India has been aspiring to play a larger role in the region, connectivity to Afghanistan, central Asia through International North-South Transport Corridor. etc would require a strong support of the Kingdom and its partners in the region.

However there are inherent challenges that threaten to derail the peaceful coop-eration between the partners.

• Iran Angle: Saudi-Iran regional rivalry and associated sectarian conflict as seen in the case of Yemen could strain our ties

Q

Q

A

with Iran as well as Saudi Arabia. Our attempt to balance the trio (Saudi-Iran-Israel) may face some difficulties.

• Strong nexus between the Saudi Arabia and Pakistan: could act as a bone of contention in India’s pursuit of global alienation of Pakistan for its terror support. Recent deal signing worth $20 billion between these Islamic friends is a proof of their strong relationship.

• Ideological Problem: It is alleged that Saudi money runs the extremist Wahhabi movements across the world, hence creating a problem for Peace and Stability.

• Growing Chinese Influence: in the region is a serious cause of concern. Projects like One Belt One Region are making deep in roads and acquiring significant stakes in the region. This would in itself pose a threat to Indian growth in the region.

• Weakening Saudi’s Inner Circle: like in the case of Gulf Cooperation Council crisis where Qatar moved away from the long term friend, it could vitiate the already volatile atmosphere of the Middle east.

In conclusion, though all these hindrances pose a serious threat to our growing rela-tionship, India-Saudi Arabia relationship has stood the test of the time and continue to do so. Creation of the Strategic Partnership Council would be a shot in the arm for this relevant relationship in this Asian century.

A

Last Edition’s Model Answers

April-I EditionP25

Terrorism is an age old phenomenon but has acquired new dimensions in view of technological and societal changes. Discuss the role of non-state actors in expansion of terrorism and its impact on India.

Terrorism has become one of the dominating national security threats of the 21st century. It is an age-old

phenomenon but has acquired new dimen-sions in the view of technological and soci-etal changes. Terrorism has also become a key aspect of civil war, insurgency/counter-insurgency and asymmetric warfare as well as ideological, ethnic and religious warfare.

Terrorism today, has changed from being a vehicle of intra-state violence to a transna-tional phenomenon, where loosely organized international network of terrorists use mer-cenaries, organized crimes cartels, sophisti-cated weaponry and modern communication to operate from, through and into various countries.

Non-state Actors • Non-state actors are individuals or

organizations that have powerful economic, political or social power and are able to influence at a national and sometimes international level but do not belong to or have allied themselves to any particular country or state.

• They include NGOs, MNCs, religious outfits, Drug Cartels, Mafias, terrorist groups etc. they may work in tandem for the peace, stability and development of a country or they may work against the State

Role of Non-state Actors

Terrorist Groups: • Pakistan ISI and Army have been

covertly supporting non-state actors like JEM, Hijbul Mujahidin to perpetrate terror attacks across the country.

• Non-state actors exploit all the medium of communication especially the internet and use this space to communicate, strategize and spread ideology which helps them to plot terrorist attack.

Drug Cartels and Mafias: • Today non-states actors can easily

receive financial aids from external nations and from black market trade, smuggling illicit weapons from military depots and industrial base which helps them to carry out their agenda.

Role of NGOs: • These days NGOs can easily receive

financial aids from external nations and from black market trade NGOs can provide financial support to terrorist in a country.

Role of Smugglers: • The smugglers have also acquired

high- powered speed boats, which can land at uncharted beaches and creeks. Arms are also coming through the long and porous Indo-Nepal border.

Religious outfits: • Religious outfits active in various

pockets of the country especially in Jammu and Kashmir are providing base to terrorist.

Impact on India • Bomb blasts attacks on major estab-

lishments/public places (Akshardham, 26/11 etc.) which partially dismantles India’s stability

• They are involved in counterfeit currency and drugs smuggling; thus weakening India economically.

• Support separatist movements in the target country (E.g. Chinese support to NE groups)

• They smuggle weapons, drugs (in Punjab/Northeast) in India, directly targeting the youth.

• Extremist non state actors also include religious fanatics which propagate religious hatred which can lead to communal tensions in the country

• They can also incite people for regionalism thus demanding their separate state which further increases secessionist tendencies.

Conclusion • In the recent times, internal security

of India has been facing multiple challenges due to external state & non-state actors working in collusion against the Indian state.

• With the recent move of cancelling license at large scale (of NGOs) and banning IRF (Islamic research foundation), formation of NATGRID etc is a right step in curtailing their influence and strengthening internal security.

Subject: Internal Security

Sub-Topic: Terrorism

Checklist for Model Answer

9 Introduction: Introduce about the Terrorism and its changing face.

9 Main body: What are non-state actors and how they impose threat?

9 Conclusion: What are the im-pacts of non-state actors on In-dia and discuss the recent steps taken by the government?

Note for the Aspirants

9 “Terrorism is an age old phe-nomenon but has acquired new dimensions”, explain this prop-erly.

9 Discuss different types of non-state actors properly.

9 Define the impact of non-state actors in bullet format with proper sub-headings and steps taken by the government.

QA

Discuss the issues plaguing the center and states, hampering their efficient functioning and delivery of services to the beneficiaries under Integrated Child Development Services Scheme.

Subject: GovernanceSub-Topic: Women and Child Development

Checklist for Model Answer

9 Introduction: about the Inte-grated Child Development Ser-vices (ICDS) scheme

9 Main body: Discuss the weak-nesses associated with the ICDS scheme.

9 Conclusion: Conclude with the steps needed for its improve-ment.

Note for the Aspirants

9 Write the weaknesses in bullet format with proper sub-headings to increase the visibility.

9 Conclude, focusing more on monitoring mechanism.

Integrated Child Development Ser-vices (ICDS) scheme is world’s largest community based programme aimed to improve the health, nutrition and education of the target community.

• It is open to all children below six years of age and Pregnant & Lactating Moth-ers, irrespective of their economic and social status.

• The services under the ICDS scheme are provided at the platform of Anganwadi Centre (AWC).

• The reduction in the proportion of un-dernourished children in India over the past decade has been modest and slow-er than other countries with comparable socioeconomic indicators.

Weaknesses of ICDS:

Program mismatches: • An increased emphasis on feeding to

children of four to six years old was giv-en. As a result most children under three years do not get micronutrient supple-ments.

• Not enough attention is given to the most effective interventions for child nutri-tional outcomes, e.g. improving child-care behaviors and educating parents

how to improve nutrition using the family food budget.

Program operational challenges: • Inadequate worker skills, shortage of

equipment, poor supervision and weak monitoring and evaluation.

• Community workers are overburdened, because they are expected to provide pre-school education to four to six year olds as well as nutrition services to all children under six.

Inadequate Enrolment: • Failure to raise awareness among the

target group by ICDS functionaries has resulted in several children in 0-6 year’s age group, expectant and nursing moth-ers being left out from the services due to lethargy of Anganwadi workers in conducting periodical house-to-house survey.

Supplementary Nutrition • There is ‘nutrition-interruption’ - against

the prescribed norm that beneficiaries should be provided with supplementary nutrition for 300 days a year. On several occasions, the government failed to sup-ply the food material to Anganwadi cen-ters in time.

QNo Coordination

• The lack of coordination among the health and, women and child welfare departments has always been a major concern. For instance, it is observed that there was no convergence of efforts be-tween health personnel and Anganwadi workers.

Way forward • Activities need to be better targeted to-

wards the most vulnerable age groups (children under three and pregnant women).

• Funds and new projects need to be re-directed towards the states and districts with the highest prevalence of malnutri-tion.

• Involving communities in the implemen-tation and monitoring of ICDS to improve quality of service delivery and increase accountability in the system.

• Monitoring and evaluation activities need strengthening through the collection of timely, relevant accessible, high-quality information.

• Urgent changes are needed to bridge the gap between the policy intentions of ICDS and its actual implementation.

Last Edition’s Model Answers

A

April-I EditionP26UPSC Question’s Corner

Published by Amrit Singh Chopra • © Unique Shiksha, 32B, Pusa Road, Opposite Metro Pillar No. 122, Karol Bagh, New Delhi-110005 • www.uniqueshiksha.in • e-mail: uct@uniqueshiksha.in

About this SectionThe articles covered in the ‘14 Days News Analysis’ are followed by subjective questions in this section. The objective is to ensure that aspirants can regularly practice questions on

the pattern of the examination.

Model answers will be shared in the next edition. It highly recommended for all aspirants to attempt these questions.

Question 1:What do you understand by Generalized System of Pref-erences (GPS)? Discuss the impact of its withdrawal from India by USA, amidst the trade war between those countries. Do you think is retaliation the right step?

Question 2:In the backdrop of recent stat-utory order by government in

relation to Section 69(1) of IT Act 2000, critically analyse the debate between Right to pri-vacy and security of the nation.

Question 3:India is facing a major malnu-trition crisis as it holds almost a third of the world’s burden for stunting. Discuss the rea-sons and recent steps taken by the government to meet the challenge.

Question 4:Discuss the issue of trans-parency in the appointment and transfer of judges in the Indian judicial system.

Question 5:What do you understand by the term “Environmental Rule of Law”? Explain various such laws of India and discuss the hindrances in their imple-mentation. Also throw some

light on benefits accrued by abiding them.

Question 6:Do you agree that AB-PMJAY is a game changer in Indi-an Healthcare system, given the fact that implementational structure remains the same? Critically analyse its potentials and suggest some practical measures.

Kindly send model answers on the above questions at

uct@uniqueshiksha.in

Best answers will be published alongwith your

name.

MCQ Answer from Page 2

Ans: (d)

Exp: Earth’s north magnetic pole has been drifting so fast in the last few decades that scientists say that past estimates are

no longer accurate enough for precise navigation. The magnetic north pole is wandering about 55 kilometers a year. It crossed

the International Date Line in 2017 and is leaving the Canadian Arctic on its way to Siberia. The constant shift is a problem

for compasses in smart-phones and some consumer electronics. Airplanes and boats also rely on magnetic north, usually as

backup navigation. The military depends on where magnetic north is for navigation and parachute drops. It could affect some

birds that use magnetic fields to navigate.