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TEST-16 EXPLANATION GENERAL STUDIES MAINS

1. Is there any need for the launch of the scheme, “BetiBachaoBetiPadhao” and the rationale

for the selective implementation of the scheme in few districts? Critically analyse the

outcomes of the scheme.

BetiBachaoBetiPadhaois a joint initiative between the Ministry of Women and Child Development

(WCD), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Human Resource Development. It

was designed to reverse the trend of declining CSR in India.

The Census (2011) data showed a significant declining trend in the Child Sex Ratio

(CSR),calculated as number of girls for every 1000 boys between age group of 0-6 years, with an

all-time low of 918 in 2011 from 976 in 1961. The decline in CSR has been unabated since 1961.

Thisis an alarming indicator for women disempowerment. It reflects both pre-birth

discriminationmanifested through gender biased sex selection, and post birth discrimination

against girls. Thedecline is widespread across the country and has expanded to rural as well as

tribal areas.

Alarmed by the sharp decline, the Government of India has introduced BetiBachao, BetiPadhao

(BBBP) programme to address the issue of decline in CSR in 100 gender criticaldistricts.

The overall goal of the BetiBachao, BetiPadhaoscheme is to celebrate the girlchild & enable her

education. The objectives of the Scheme are as under:

Prevent gender biased sex selective elimination

Ensure survival & protection of the girl child

Ensure education of the girl child

A year-end review report by the WCD ministry released in December 2015 noted that more than

50% of the 100 districts had showed signs of improvement after the scheme’s implementation.

With a total project cost of Rs.199.99 crore in the 12th five-year plan for India and 100% central

assistance, funds for this scheme are not a problem.

On-ground, activities and enforcement have increased and there are many schemes for people

with a low socio-economic status to raise a girl child. Activists say that one year isn’t enough to

gauge visible results but it is an indicator of whether the scheme is heading in the right direction.

On a critical note, the scheme rests on belief at a very superficial level. The focus of the scheme has

to shift to the reasons behind not wanting a girl child. The practice of dowry and the unsafe

environment in which girls grow up deter parents from raising girls.

The scheme launched in 2015 is the need of the hour where many girl children go missing even

before birth. But the scheme also needs to capitalise the movement and awareness generated and

push further beyond mere funding. This can ensure a sustainable and expected outcome what the

scheme aims to achieve.

2. The Chabahar project of India is indeed a remarkable agreement. But every strategic move

faces strategic impediments, and Chabahar is no exception. Critically discuss.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Iran and signed an agreement to develop the $500

million Chabahar port. The port, if materialized, would be a gateway for Indian goods into Central

Asia. Only 72 kilometers away lies Pakistan’s Gwadar port, which itself holds greater significance

and poses tangible economic, commercial, and strategic challenges to Chabahar.

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Experience: Chabahar is a geographical reach for New Delhi, since it is not in the Indian Ocean

Region (IOR) where India not only has several functional ports (Mumbai, Kolkata, and Goa) but

has the shield of Indian Navy also. In Chabahar, India would be a guest state, whose borders

and territorial waters are at a much greater distance.

Moreover, the vessels transporting goods to Chabahar would also be subject to the active

monitoring of the Pakistani Navy.

Pakistan has handed over the control of Gwadar port to China. But Tehran won’t do the same

judging by the existing agreement with India.

1) Security: After Chabahar in Iran, the next stop for Indian goods will be Afghanistan, and then

subsequently to the Central Asian states. Taliban, the major insurgent group in Afghanistan has

no love for India, since the latter historically supported the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.

2) The Iran Question: Iran recently launched a nuclear-capable missile, violating a UN Security

Council resolution (which prohibits any Iranian nuclear launch or test). Further, Supreme

Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed that Iran “will not cooperate with America over the

regional crisis.So the prospect of lifting of all sanctions on Iran is again in doubt. The

uncertainty regarding sanctions could undeniably have negative consequences for the India-

Iran Chabahar deal.

3) The Afghanistan Pressure Point: Pakistan’s role and influence in Afghanistan has not

withered. Though the central government of Afghanistan leans more toward India, Pakistan

has connections with several ethnic groups who represent a major portion of Afghan society.

China would not want such a huge investment of $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

going to waste. Thus there is every possibility that Beijing and Islamabad join hands to

obstruct India’s dreams of reaching Central Asia.

4) Partnerships and Rivalries: There is no economic competition between Pakistan and China.

Chinese investment in Pakistan is also aimed at boosting trade with the rest of Asia, and

Pakistan won’t become a hurdle in China’s quest to reach the Middle East and Persian Gulf.

However, the Iran-India dynamic is different. After the July 2015 agreement, Tehran is trying

its level best to come into the mainstream international arena by accelerating trade in order to

put its jammed economic wheel back on track. Iran will not allow India’s Central Asian dream

to come true at the cost of Iranian interests.

3. Do you think that India is on the verge of achieving the universalization of education?

Provide suitable reasons for your view and identify challenges for the same.

The Constitution under Article 45 of the Directive Principles of State Policy says that “the state

shall endeavour to provide free and compulsory Education for all children until they complete the

age of fourteen years.”

India has made progress in terms of increasing the primary education attendance rate and

expanding literacy to approximately three-quarters of the population in the 7–10 age groups, by

2011. India's improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to its

economic development.

According to 2011 survey, India holds the National Literacy Rate to be 74.07%. As per the Annual

Status of Education Report (ASER) 2012, 96.5% of all rural children between the ages of 6-14

were enrolled in school. This is the fourth annual survey to report enrolment above 96%.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/509028/gwadar-port-handed-over-to-china/

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-missiles-idUSKCN0WV2HE

http://www.businessinsider.com/iran-supreme-leader-says-wont-cooperate-with-us-2016-6

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While quantitatively India is inching closer to universal education, the quality of its education has

been questioned particularly in its government run school system.

Challenges faced:

The most important issue facing the education system in India is the lack of necessary and

essential infrastructure. Much of government run schools lack drinking water facilities and basic

sanitation facilities particularly for girls.

Modern education in India is often criticised for being based on rote learning and cramming rather

than problem solving.

A related issue is professional qualification and training received by the teachers. According to the

latest report by the Unified-District Information System for Education (U-DISE) on ‘School

Education in India’, for the country as whole, only 79 per cent of teachers are professionally

qualified.

Year after year, there is a gradual increase in budgetary expenditure on education. For the year

2016, the allocation was for Rs. 72, 394 crores which is 4% higher than the previous year. When

inflation and GDP growth rate are considered, education budget may come down to lower than the

last year allocation (as % of GDP). Even after this increased allocation, education sector budget

remains far from 6 per cent of the GDP that is desired by the education sector.

Poor growth of skill development and the reduced takers for vocational education

Some important announcements in the 2016 budget (This does not pertain directly to the answers-

only for information purposes)

The government will strive to make 10 private and 10 public institutions become world class. This

is a welcome step towards empowering select institutions of excellence to compete at the global

level.

An announcement of the capital intensive long-term plan, on the line of Chinese 985 or Korean

Brain 21, would have been more appropriate.

Digital repository of academic records is a timely move towards curbing forgeries in the

educational credentials of job seekers.

The main highlight of the budget remains, it’s focus on skills development and entrepreneurship.

Allocation of Rs 1,700 crore for 1500 multi-skill development centres, target of skilling 1 crore

youth in the next 3 years under the PM KaushalVikasYojna and allocation of Rs 500 crore for

promoting entrepreneurship among SC/ST are welcome steps.

The Finance Minister also announced an allocation of Rs 1804 crore for skill development

however, it is insufficient to gain advantages of demographic divide.

FM announced Digital Literacy Mission for rural India with target to cover 6 crore new households

within next 3 years. If this scheme is implemented successfully, it can play an important role in

increasing literacy in rural areas. The Government’s effective usage of technology for imparting

education in the remote parts can be a game changer for a large country like India.

Opening 62 new NavodayaVidyalayas to provide quality education will help in increasing

enrolments in NavodayaVidyalayas, however, deteriorating quality of existing government schools

also requires government’s immediate attention and if the FM could have addressed it in the

budget.

Creation of a Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA) has been announced with initial fund of Rs

1,000 crore. This is exactly in sync with budget expectations published in The Indian Express earlier.

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4. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2016, which was recently approved by

the Cabinet, is an utter travesty that threatens to strip away the core of the NALSA

judgment. Analyse comparing the previous version of the bill.

One of the most significant aspects of the NALSA judgment was its expansive understanding of the

transgender identity by how it embraced individuals who wanted to traverse the male-female

identification binary and those who wanted to identify outside of it.

The former version of the transgender Bill honoured this understanding through a broad

definition that included those who identified themselves by a gender other than the one assigned

to them at birth. That definition affirmed the right of a transgender person to have the option of

choosing to identify themselves either as a “man”, “woman” or “transgender”.

The current Bill completely eliminates the option of identification as either male or female. On top

of it, the Bill reinforces injurious stereotypes about transgender persons as being part male and

part female.

According to the draft, a transgender person is one who is:

(a) Neither wholly female nor wholly male; or

(b) A combination of female or male or

(c) Neither female nor male.

Even though the NALSA judgment has remained far from being ideally implemented, the principle

of self-identification and its broad understanding of gender has opened a space for transgender

persons to obtain documents that identify them by the gender of their choice. With this provision,

that space stands to be firmly shut.

Our Student, N.L. Beno Zephine, India's 1st visually challenged IFS Officer

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Chapter three of the Bill goes on to provide a mechanism for the recognition of identity. This

segment at least has the virtue of outlining a seemingly clear process. A transgender person may

apply for a certificate of identity to the district magistrate, who will then refer the application to a

district screening committee, which will issue a certificate of identity to the person.

This certificate will then be used as the basis for recording gender in all official documents and

will be the basis for conferral of rights as a transgender person.

The basis for this provision comes from the report of an expert committee constituted by the

social justice ministry in 2013. The issue here is that providing for such an onerous procedure

stands in violation of the self-identification principle. It is a mechanism that has been strongly

contested in various civil society suggestions submitted to the ministry.

Transgender groups have argued that such a certificate could be used for the specific process of

channeling entitlement to individuals. However, to make it the very basis for otherwise

recognising transgender identity in any given document again strikes at the heart of NALSA.

Moving to the question of recognition of discrimination, the Bill once again falls short. The single-

section chapter on discrimination forbids discriminatory treatment across a number of spaces,

including educational institutions, healthcare services and employment. What it fails to do,

however, is provide a definition of discrimination to begin with.

The former draft of the Bill did in fact have such a definition. It understood discrimination as a

distinction, exclusion or restriction on the basis of gender identity, which had the purpose or effect

of impairing or nullifying the enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms on an equal

basis with others, and also included denial of reasonable accommodation.

Such an understanding of discrimination would provide a guide to effectively interpreting the

duties against discrimination, which otherwise stand as hollow admonishments.

Rendering them further hollow is the truly baffling lack of enforcement provisions in this Bill. This

is a problem that has plagued earlier iterations of the law as well and even constant advocacy from

civil society on this front seems to have left no mark on the government.

There is simply no punitive mechanism in place as far as potential violation of the duty against

discrimination is concerned. There do, however, exist a number of offences correlated with

penalties that don’t represent community needs. For instance, the Bill criminalises enticing a

transgender person to indulge in the act of begging.

This not only ignores the ground reality that begging is one of the few income generating options

available to a large number of transpersons, but provides another avenue for the misuse of the

law. There have been a number of instances where transgender individuals have been

disproportionately targeted under the general law related to beggary.

There are a number of other omissions – the provision of reservations for transgender persons –

which were promised by NALSA and appeared in the former draft of the Bill, but have now,

disappeared.

A massive bureaucratic apparatus in the form of a National Council for Transgender Persons has

been created, but has also been rendered toothless without any significant powers. Male pronouns

are used instead of the language of gender inclusiveness that a law of this nature would at the very

least warrant.

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5. Defamation laws in most countries are liable to misuse, but India’s are worse than most, having a chilling effect on free speech. Discuss the need for reform of defamation laws in India. In May, 2016 the Supreme Court gave ruling that section 499 and section 500 of IPC, which criminalizes defamation are not unconstitutional. Currently, the law favours protecting the right to reputation over the right to free speech and a new law may actually be the best way to fix the situation. Defamation law makes defamation a criminal offence. This is only made worse by the fact that the current legal system is sufficiently broken to allow people with money to use defamation to intimidate critics. While the right to reputation may be protected by the Constitution, it should not be at the cost of freedom of speech. Free speech is necessary because, among other things, it enables the media to hold governments and individuals accountable. Freedom of speech should also protect the right to

offend within reasonable limits, i.e. to legitimately criticize the rich and powerful. The Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 lists defamation as a criminal offence, making it punishable by fine or imprisonment or even both. There are many reasons why this is problematic. There is the stigma of being arrested and accused of a crime. There is the fact that it was made an offence in a time when dueling to protect one’s reputation was common. There is the fact that the IPC does not recognize irony or keep truth as an absolute defence. There is the fact that having both a civil and criminal remedy for the same injury forces an already overburdened judiciary to respond to the same matter twice. But on top of all of these is the fact that criminalizing defamation is an entirely unwarranted restriction on free speech when the global norm is that a civil suit for damages is sufficient for protecting reputation. This overzealous restriction on free speech fails the constitutional test that

such restrictions be “reasonable” and clearly needs to be struck down. The chilling effect that it has had on free speech and democratic accountability is too high a price to pay for the protection of individual reputations. Reforms to defamation would best be done through the enactment of a new statute. Such a law should decriminalize defamation and reform civil defamation. Limits should also be set around civil defamation—not only must the loss to reputation be serious; the proof must also be substantial. The complainant must demonstrate that material injury was caused to their reputation as a direct result of the alleged statement. Truth, opinion and reasonable inference should also be made viable defences in defamation suits. Finally, courts should be empowered to impose exemplary costs on frivolous suits that waste their time. To ease the burden of the judiciary, it is vital that courts are required to only hear serious defamation cases that haven’t been amicably settled. One such way to ensure this could be to

make the legal notices that complainants send before filing a suit compulsory. These notices should also establish exactly how the alleged statement was false in order to prevent groundless accusations. The notice must specify where the suit will be filed and what damages will be asked for. If a complainant doesn’t file the defamation suit within a prescribed time, they should pay the person threatened in the notice a quarter of the damages requested in the notice. This will make sure that defamation claims and the damages requested are kept honest and reasonable. Legal reforms can also be supplemented by measures addressing the imbalance of resources, such as indemnification clauses in contracts for journalists and a form of defamation insurance. Ultimately, some kind of reform is necessary—free speech is meaningless without the right to reasonably offend. If the ability to legitimately criticize is not protected, voices throwing light on important issues will continue to be silenced by the rich and powerful. And without those voices,

the Indian state could be dramatically altered or compromised while Indians are kept in the dark.

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6. Rather than unparalleled transparency, the Right to Information Act, 2005 brought an era

of restrictive transparency. Do you agree with this view? Justify your proposition.

Democracy and non-transparency of Government cannot co-exist. Functions of Government are to be

hidden from public gaze, it would certainly tend to encourage corruption, oppression and even misuse

or abuse of the authority.

There is no Article in the Indian Constitution that explicitly mentioned the right to information.

Nevertheless, various Articles of the Constitution make inference that the right to information is implicit.

Article 19[1] [a] and 21 provides room for the accommodation of right to information. Article 19[1] [a]

says that all citizen of India shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression.

The enactment of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) is a historic event in the annals of

democracy in India. Information is power and now a citizen has the right to access information "held by

or under control of" the public authorities. Concurrently, it is the duty of all public authorities to provide

information sought by citizens.

Section 8 of the RTI Act deals with exemptions to the right to information. Section 8 is most important

provision of the RTI Act that exempt certain information from the disclosure, which are about 10

matters. Nevertheless, the exemption clause is not absolute; the authority has discretionary power to

disclose the exempted information when public interest outweighs the harm to individual protected

interest. Further, Sub section 3 of 8 says that exempted matter related to first categories shall be

revealed after 20 years from the occurrence of events.

All the protective norms against the exemption clause make inferences that section 8 should lead for

doctrine of maximum disclosure and least secrecy of information. Section 9 of the Act prohibits

disclosure of information which violates copy right of other person.

The Section 24 exempts organizations related to security and intelligence that are listed in the second

schedule from the coverage of the Act. There are 22 organizations in the schedule including the recent

controversial inclusion of CBI. Nevertheless, the exemption clause is not absolute because they have to

disclose the information related to the corruption and abuse of human rights.

The functioning of institutions in a democracy is most complex to understand with many pulls and

pressures at work. In addition, it is also true that not all RTI applications pertain to bring more

transparency in the governance out of public interest. There were and still many vexatious RTI

applications that simply aim to derail and subvert the democratic tool provided to every citizen.

Hence, RTI Act is entirely rational in projecting transparency as the norm and opaqueness as exception.

The exemptions too can be questioned in a court of law if aggrieved. As unparalleled transparency is a

myth and anathema to the notions of democracy, RTI Act rightfully enunciates the restrictive

transparency for the long term benefits.

7. While the fundamental rights and DPSP need to be viewed harmoniously, in case of conflict,

the former cannot be sacrificed in the pursuit of the latter. Discuss in the light of recent

judicial pronouncements protecting individual liberty in prohibition and beef ban cases.

Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh, in penning the main argument in the Bihar prohibition judgement

writes: “with expanding interpretation of the right to privacy, as contained in Article 21 of the

Constitution, a citizen has a right to choose how he lives, so long as he is not a nuisance to the

society. State cannot dictate what he will eat and what he will drink.”

This is a landmark observation since never before have the courts viewed prohibition through the

lens of personal liberty. Previous judgements on the issue, almost always upholding prohibition,

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have viewed it through the right to livelihood lens and found that the limitations on the

production and sale of alcohol were reasonable restrictions imposed by the state. This time,

however, the personal liberty aspect was specifically raised by the petitioners who included not

just alcohol traders but also individuals asserting their right to drink reasonable quantities of

alcohol in the confines of their home.

A similar line of thinking is seen in the Bombay high court’s beef ban verdict. In striking down

section 5 (d) of the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act which criminalized the

possession of the flesh of cattle slaughtered outside Maharashtra (such slaughter is banned within

the state), the court opines: “As far as the choice of eating food of the citizens is concerned, the

citizens are required to be let alone especially when the food of their choice if not injurious to

health…. The state cannot make an intrusion into his home and prevent a citizen from possessing

and eating food of his choice…. This intrusion...is prohibited by the right to privacy which is part of

personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21.”

These are hugely progressive steps in the evolving discourse on personal liberty but they aren’t

without their challenges.

The directive principles of state policy (DPSP) urge the state to prohibit the consumption of

intoxicating substances that are injurious to health (though this is not a call for a blanket ban

because drinking in moderate sums is, arguably, not injurious to health—a point that is made in

the Bihar verdict)—and the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle. What

happens when the state seeks to realize these goals but also steps on the citizens’ fundamental

rights?

The chief justice of the Patna high court argued that the framers of our Constitution did not see

alcohol consumption as a fundamental right because then they wouldn’t have listed prohibition as

a DPSP. This is a convoluted line of reasoning which, as Justice Singh rightly points out, erodes

fundamental rights to secure a DPSP—thereby militating against the principles set out famously in

the Minerva Mills case.

Similarly, in the beef ban verdict, while the court struck down section 5 (d) for violating the

fundamental right to privacy, it upheld the other sub-sections, 5 (a) to 5 (c), even though they too

could have been brought under the same umbrella. For example, enforcing section 5 (c) which

criminalizes the possession of flesh of cattle illegally slaughtered in Maharashtra requires the

same intrusion of privacy that the court objects to for Section 5 (d).

That said, it is important to keep in mind that in deciding the beef ban case, the Bombay high court

had to take into consideration several Supreme Court judgements that had previously upheld

complete beef bans. These judgements had rejected arguments based on freedom of religion and

freedom of trade because cattle preservation was considered to be in the public interest in an

agrarian economy. But evidence points to a ban on cattle slaughter being the wrong way to protect

that public interest.

It is also worth wondering if the courts’ zealous attitude towards cow slaughter will change as

India becomes an industrialized economy. The issue of laws evolving to reflect changing social

mores is touched upon in the prohibition verdict where Justice Singh writes, “We have to view this

concept(of personal liberty) in changing times, where international barriers are vanishing.” He

goes on to talk about Indian citizens who enjoy their drink being reluctant to move to a dry state,

thereby restricting their right to move and settle anywhere in the country. This might be pushing

the argument too far but nonetheless offers a progressive push to both law and society.

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8. Crimes against women rose during 2001-15 despite greater affluence and an improved sex

ratio. Why? What are the factors associated with huge inter-State variation in these crimes

in 2015?

As per National Crime Records Bureau reports, incidence of serious crimes against women rose

from 237 per day in 2001 to 313 per day in 2015. Of these crimes, 30 per cent were rapes

(including intent to rape). Higher incidence of crimes during 2001-2015 coupled with low

conviction rate of 21 per cent of cases reported suggests that women are more vulnerable to

serious crimes.

Women’s vulnerability varies enormously across States. Incidence of serious crimes was as high as

75 per lakh women in Delhi in 2015 as against approximately 5 per lakh women in Andhra

Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

There are huge gaps in incidence of crimes between the three worst and the three best States. The

three worst States in 2001 — Delhi, Haryana and Assam — remained largely unchanged in 2015,

with Assam replacing Haryana as the second worst State.

The best performers, however, changed during this period. Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Sikkim

displayed the lowest incidence of crimes in 2001 but the top two were replaced by Andhra

Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in 2015.

However, across States, the overall concentration of serious crimes did not change significantly.

For example, the three States (Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra) that accounted for 37

per cent of the crimes in 2001 were responsible for a slightly lower share of 34 per cent in 2015.

Factors behind inter-State variations

1. There is interplay of affluence of a State, religion, demographics including female/male ratio,

employment opportunities for women, their literacy, and rural/urban population ratio, quality of

governance in the State and media exposure.

2. Just 1 per cent increase in State GDP (per capita) is associated with a 0.42 per cent reduction in the

incidence of serious crimes. It follows that greater affluence is accompanied by a reduction in such

crimes. If alcoholism and substance abuse are lower among men, or if these addictions are better

treated in more affluent States, sexual or physical assaults on women are less likely.

3. The sex imbalance measured as the number of females per 1,000 males. The sex ratio norm is 950.

India’s ratio was below this (944 in 2015). A one per cent increase in the sex ratio lowers serious

crimes against women by 8 per cent. Indeed, a skewed sex ratio more than undermines the

affluence effect. So, if Delhi and Haryana continue to be the worst States despite being affluent

(relative to, say, Andhra Pradesh), it is largely because of the abysmally low sex ratio in these two

States. While the sex ratio increased in several States but remained low (Uttar Pradesh, Delhi,

Haryana and Rajasthan), in others (Bihar, Maharashtra) it remained low and barely changed.

4. Other influential factors include female literacy and labour force participation. Female bargaining

power depends on both their literacy and outside employment. However, the evidence also

suggests a backlash in which male spouses — especially those who are unemployed — assert their

superiority by retaliatory physical and sexual violence.

5. If brutality in marriage becomes unbearable, exit options for women who are both literate and

employed become more viable for them. Promoting both jointly is likely to be more effective in

curbing domestic violence against women.

6. A somewhat surprising finding is that the higher the rural/urban population ratio, the higher the

incidence of serious crimes against women. A one per cent decline in the rural/urban population

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ratio is associated with a reduction of 0.4 per cent in the incidence of such crimes. Even though

such crimes in urban areas have greater visibility in the media, the grim reality is that women in

rural areas are more vulnerable. Despite likely under-reporting of such crimes, it is revealing that

rural women more often seek remedial action against them. This, of course, doesn’t imply that

they are more likely to succeed.

7. Although cultural norms and context take diverse forms — whether, for example, it is a

matriarchal or patriarchal society — religion is one key dimension. Classifying the populations

into Hindus and Muslims, we find that in both groups women are vulnerable to serious crimes but

more so among the former. A one per cent increase in the share of the Hindus increases such

crimes by 1.64 per cent — double the incidence among Muslims. That a greater frequency of wife-

beating and dowry-related violence among Hindus — in extreme cases “bride burning” — still

persists is worrying.

8. Exposure to media — captured through readership of newspapers in English and major Indian

languages — has two effects: one is better reporting of crimes and perhaps, more importantly, a

crime deterrence effect. It is difficult to separate the two and so the combined effect is that a one

per cent increase in readership is associated with a 1.9 per cent reduction in such crimes. The

Delhi gang rape case of 2012, for example, wouldn’t have sparked a national uproar and led to the

speedy arrest of the perpetrators without sustained media activism.

9. Nobel laureate AmartyaSen has emphasised that rape and other serious crimes against women are

closely intertwined with inefficient policing and judicial systems, and callousness of society. So the

quality of governance in States is key to understanding the huge variation in incidence of serious

crimes against women.

10. In conclusion, if the crimes against women rose despite greater affluence and a slight increase in

the sex ratio during 2001-15, the answer must lie in likely deterioration of governance and

persistence of low sex ratios in certain States. Illustrative cases include Bihar, Delhi and

Maharashtra.

9. The civil servants of present day face challenges that are not known before. Comment.

As the issues pertaining to government are becoming more complex in nature, the need for

effective, informed and neutral policy makers and public servants is ever increasing. In fact, the

entire modus operandi and standard operating procedures of governance are undergoing a radical

change in the face of fundamental social, economic and political changes posed by a rapidly

changing world.

Internationalisation of local issues

Thanks to social and electronic media, small issues which a decade or so become breaking news in

major global channels creating advocacy and sympathy movements in different parts of the world.

Arab spring started from a small incident but swept the country after country.

Localisation of global issues

With the rapidly globalizing world, global issues like environmental degradation, climate change,

GMO, etc which were only discussed in the corridors of power are being debated in the drawing

rooms of countries and creating strong advocacy movements among the population.

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Outreach of domestic interest groups

Centers of actual power and decision making are shifting from local to global level with the

outreach of domestic interest groups to their sympathisers in international organisations,

multinational corporations and those in the governments of global powers.

Changing State Role

Thus, the state is gradually transferring its functions to the nongovernmental sector to reap the

efficiency and effectiveness gains. At the same time, it is in the process of decentralization and

devolution, giving more and more of its functions to the provincial and local levels.

Demographic Transition

Almost all the developing countries are passing through the most crucial phase of its demographic

transition which creates a youth bulge on the one hand and the aging bulge on the other. Add the

rapid urbanization being witnessed and you have a perfect set of challenges for the policy

formulators as well those responsible for their implementation to find apt solutions for myriad

problems these three trends are creating for a developing country.

Our Student, Dr.R.Vaithinathan (AIR-37, Tamil Nadu Rank-2) Felicitated by Mr.U.Sagayam IAS

Democratic Development

Peopleare now demanding greater say in public affairs, an open government, transparency in

public dealing, and an accountable and responsible executive.

Activism

An aggressive media is demanding transparency and openness in the government dealings

A vibrant civil society clamoring for effective service delivery

An increasingly assertive judiciary mainly interested in accountability

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A highly charged political elite which is under pressure from their respective constituencies to

perform, is demanding more role in policy implementation and is not content with just their

traditional role of policy formulation.

10. The trade links and ties between India and the CLMV countries can be much better and

the two governing principles, connectivity and economic integration with regional value

chains, are crucial. Discuss.

India’s Act East policy turns its focus to CMLV countries: Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam.

India’s economic ties with ASEAN in general, and the CMLV (Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and

Vietnam) countries in particular, have witnessed a sharp rise. Bilateral trade between India and

CMLV countries was just $460 million in 2000, and increased to $11.85 billion by 2014. Of India’s

total trade with ASEAN, over 15 percent is with CMLV countries, which have less developed

economies compared to the fellow ASEAN members.

India is also encouraging companies to invest in CMLV countries. A Rs. 5 billion ($75 million)

Project Development Fund has been approved by the Government of India for encouraging Indian

investments in CMLV countries.

Private sector companies like Tata themselves are according high priority to CMLV countries,

seeing their potential. In addition to Myanmar, Tata has been expanding their operations in

Vietnam.

The fact that these countries are engines of growth, have favorable demographics, and are signing

free trade agreements with different regions are encouraging the private sector to tap CMLV

industries. This is a significant change from earlier, where Singapore was considered to be India’s

gateway to Southeast Asia, due to the strong political and economic ties as well as the positive role

of the Indian diaspora.

Myanmar, with whom India’s ties have been strengthening over past decade, is India’s land bridge

to Southeast Asia. With Myanmar’s government trying to encourage foreign investment, and with

the recent removal of U.S. sanctions, it is likely to emerge as an important investment destination.

A number of important infrastructural projects, such as the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral

highway and the Kaladan multimodal project, are being expedited are bound to improve

connectivity between India and Myanmar, and from there to the rest of Southeast Asia. There are

also plans to further strengthen air connectivity.

While India’s presence in CMLV countries may be increasing, a number of steps need to be taken

to make this policy more effective.

The first step is stronger air connectivity, expediting infrastructural projects between India and

Myanmar. Apart from this, people-to-people contact between India-Vietnam and India-Myanmar

also needs to be enhanced to generate goodwill for India.

Second, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has on more than one occasion spoken about the

benefits for northeast India, there has to be a clear vision for benefiting the northeast itself,

beyond its role as a connector. Before encouraging private players to invest in CMLV countries, the

government should urge more private entities to invest in India’s northeast.

Finally, the Indian government should not shy away from taking up issues that Indian investors

face in other countries. For a long time, the Indian government has not been aggressive enough in

pushing the interests of Indian companies whenever they have had problems.

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Indian companies have strong potential in CMLV countries but the government and private sector

need to work closely together. While the government should back Indian businesses, the latter

needs to exhibit more of a risk appetite and not shy away from investing in transitioning societies.

11. Given the tenuous relationship between the executive and judiciary, the power of

judicial review is increasingly relevant to the functioning of our constitutional

democracy. Critically analyse.

The sterling contribution of the court in asserting the inviolability of and expounding the right to

dignity as the core constitutional value has been universally acclaimed.But questions recur about

the rightful limits of judicial intervention in the matter of policy choices in the executive and

legislative domains.

Some of the court’s transformative judgments are recalled to indicate the evolution of our

constitutional order, premised on protection against the arbitrary exercise of power, non-

discrimination and “constitutionalisation of socio-economic rights”. Establishing the procedural

fairness and reasonableness test in Maneka Gandhi (1978) to determine the constitutionality of

the exercise of executive power and declaring in M. Nagaraj (2006) that Articles 14 (right to

equality), 19 (right to fundamental freedoms) and 21 (right to life) “stand at the pinnacle of the

hierarchy of constitutional values, the court recognised that human dignity, equality and freedom

were “conjoined, reciprocal and covalent values”

While expanding human rights jurisprudence and recognising as fundamental the citizens’ right to

food, health, education and clean environment, etc., the court in an expansive interpretation in V.

Markendeya (1989) recognised the Directive Principles of State Policy as “the conscience of the

Constitution” which give shape and meaning to fundamental rights. Having thus established the

foundational principles for the exercise of a wider judicial review jurisdiction traceable to Articles

13, 32, 136, 142, 147 and 226 of the Constitution, the court declared that judicial review was a

“constituent power” and an integral component of the unalterable basic structure of the

Constitution (KesavanandaBharati, 1973).

However, moving beyond the socio-economic rights, the court’s review has been invoked in

“public interest” to question major decisions of the government concerning policy choices, for

instance, in what is now known as, 2G spectrum and coal mine allocations cases.

Challenge to proceedings of legislative assemblies and decisions of the Speaker have also been

entertained by the court (NabamRebia, 2016).

Recent decisions of the court voiding a constitutional amendment approved by Parliament to alter

the procedure for appointment of judges (National Judicial Appointments Commission or NJAC

judgment, 2016), exercising review powers in what is popularly known as the AFSPA — Armed

Forces (Special Powers) Act — case to hold that the use of excessive force by the Manipur Police

or the armed forces of the Union was not permissible, has extended the courts’ review jurisdiction

to domains hitherto regarded as the exclusive preserve of the executive and legislatures.

Protagonists of a wide judicial review jurisdiction argue that it subserves the rule of law, advances

the cause of justice, is consistent with democracy and rules out only those choices that are

obviously unreasonable and inconsistent with democracy.

But the framework of parliamentary democracy premised on the assumption that people exercise

their sovereignty through elected representatives and not through the unelected judges. “Judicial

supremacy”, “judicial excessivism” or “judicial despotism” are seen as antithetical to democracy

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and contrary to its first principles. It is argued that representative democracy is as much a part of

the basic structure of the Constitution and that judicial review, although constitutionally

sanctioned, cannot be exercised to negate or subordinate other fundamental features of its basic

structure.

In some of its recent judgments, the Supreme Court has itself cautioned against ever increasing

expectations from it. In a substantive judgment in Santosh Singh (2016), the court declined to

entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a mandamus for the inclusion of moral science

as a compulsory subject in the syllabus of school education. In its opinion in a Presidential

Reference, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court had earlier opined that “Parliament and the

legislatures, composed as they are of the representatives of the people, are supposed to know and

be aware of the needs of the people and what is good and bad for them. The Court cannot sit in

judgment over their wisdom”. In a recent order, the court declined to entertain a PIL seeking the

court’s directions to restrain the Union government from incurring security and other expenses in

respect of certain individuals in the State of Jammu and Kashmir on the ground that these writs

are “judicially unmanageable”.

The decline of Parliament as the highest forum of our democracy, the perceived insensitivity on

the part of the bureaucracy to the pressing priorities of the people at large, a general distrust of

executive power and loss of faith, generally speaking, in the moral and ideological integrity of the

political class collectively account for an expanded remit of judicial review.

12. The Constitution Bench is not looking into whether religion should be barred from

political speeches. In the light of this statement discuss the judicial pronouncements

regarding Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act (RPA).

Section 123 of the Representation of People Act (RPA) essentially prohibits a candidate or his

agent or any third person with the candidate’s consent from appealing for votes or appealing to

refrain from voting on the ground of his religion, race, caste, community or language.

In 1995-96, the Supreme Court held that the words “his religion” in the text of Section 123 (3)

cannot include any reference or appeal to religion. According to the Court, it is quite clear that the

section refers to the candidate’s religion, caste or language. The Court stated that “the appeal

prohibited is that which is made on the ground of religion of the candidate for whom the votes are

sought”. Further,“when the appeal is to refrain from voting for any candidate, the prohibition is

against an appeal on the ground of the religions of that other candidate”.

Further, the Court clarified that during an election speech, reference can be made to any religion

to “criticise any political party for practising discrimination against any religious group or

generally for preservation of the Indian culture”. This, the Court said, cannot be called an appeal to

vote on the ground of religion as prohibited under Section 123(3). It is only when religion, caste or

language is used as a basis to garner votes for or against a candidate, does it amount to corrupt

practice under Section 123(3) of the RPA.

In YeshwantPrabhoo, the Supreme Court held that the “mere use of the word ‘Hindutva’ or

‘Hinduism’ or mention of any other religion in an election speech” does not bring it within the

ambit of Section 123 (3) or 123(3A) of the RPA. The Court also went on to discuss the meaning of

“Hinduism” and “Hindutva” in detail. Speaking for the bench, Justice Verma stated that these

terms depict the “way of life of Indian people” and cannot be confined “to the narrow limits of

religion alone, excluding the content of Indian culture and heritage”. He said that their reference

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per se is not to be regarded as “promoting feelings of enmity or intolerance towards other

religious communities or professing communalism”.

A seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Oct 2016 said it cannot be expected to

give an “exhaustive list” of dos and don'ts of political speeches.

The court expressed its restraint even as three BJP-ruled States — Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and

Rajasthan — submitted that “religion can never be separated from society”.

The Constitution Bench, which is examining the 1995 ‘Hindutva’ judgement of the apex court, said

its mandate does not include going into the “permissibility of using religion in political speeches”.

Rather than a blanket bar on religion in political speeches, Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur, who is

heading the Bench, said political speeches should be judged in the context they are made.

Justice Thakur said the Constitution Bench is not looking into whether religion should be barred

from political speeches.

Instead, the Bench is only determining whether the bar on invoking religion under Article 123 (3)

of the Representation of People Act, 1951 in political speeches was limited to only the religion of

the candidate and his agent or to the religion of the voters in general. The Bench reserved the

question for judgement.

ALL INDIA SOCIOLOGY TOPPERS

MENTORED BY S.SIVARAJAVEL

2015 – Ms. SHARANYA ARI IAS (256/500) AIR-7

– Dr. R.VAITHINATHAN IAS (262/500) AIR-37

2014 – Mr.V.ATUL KULKARNI IPS (286/500)

2013 – Mr.SELVANAGARATHINAM IPS (240/500)

2012 – Mr.BASKARAN IPS (197/300)

2011 – Mr. RAMKUMAR IFS (198/300)

13. The rights to liberty and freedom of expression cannot survive if the right to privacy is

compromised. There are extensive threats to privacy contained within the Aadhaar Bill.

Discuss.

The Aadhaar Bill seeks to institutionalise an extensive, pervasive database that links multiple other databases containing our personal information. It is unconscionable for the government to

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pass the Aadhaar Bill with no public consultation about the sort of privacy safeguards that are necessary for such a database. The Aadhaar database is a dangerous thing in itself. Like dams that wall in enormous quantities of water or plants storing toxic material, this database could cause widespread disaster if breached. It is necessary to take every possible precaution when building anything this dangerous. It is also necessary that whoever puts such a hazard among us takes full responsibility for the ill-effects if anything goes wrong. The Government of India is doing no such thing with the Aadhaar database. Despite multiple assurances of safety, it has offered citizens no guarantee of compensation or recompense if its poor choices endanger them. The exception provision permits the government to access the database in two separate ways. One way is if a district judge orders disclosure of information. This is very dangerous if one bears in mind that we have inadequately trained district judges all over the country, and that they are not

given enough support to understand the implications of a database like Aadhaar. District judges in far-flung districts have been authorising mass blocking of online content and gag orders. These judges can now authorise access to Aadhaar data without any disclosure or discussion with the citizen affected — only the Aadhaar authority will have the right to contest the order if it is so inclined. The legislation offers no avenue where the affected party may appeal if her rights are affected. This creates a huge window for access and misuse of the database. There is a second way in which the government may abuse its power and access the Aadhaar database. A Joint Secretary authorised by the government can direct disclosure of information “in the interests of national security”. This direction again leaves the affected party out of the equation, and nothing in the legislation compels any kind of public or independent oversight that may help ensure that there is no abuse of power. While this order will be reviewed by a committee

consisting of the Cabinet Secretary and the Secretaries to the Government of India in the Department of Legal Affairs and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, this is an inadequate safeguard for multiple reasons. Inadequate safeguards:The safeguards contained within the Aadhaar Bill are appalling even by very outdated Indian standards. When large-scale telephone tapping was challenged in PUCL v. Union of India (1997), the government attempted the very same national security argument that is being used for Aadhaar. The Supreme Court ruled that telephone tapping would violate Article 21 of the Constitution unless it was permitted by the procedure established by law, and that it would also violate the right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 unless it came within the permissible restrictions. The Supreme Court was very clear in this context that even when the law clearly defines the

situations in which interception may take place; this law must have procedural backing to ensure that the exercise of power is just and reasonable. Ms. Pillay’s report‘The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age’ 2014stated clearly that internal procedural safeguards without independent external monitoring are inadequate for the protection of rights. This means that the system by which a Joint Secretary issues orders that are reviewed by three Secretaries is not acceptable. Ms. Pillay’s report said that effective protection of the law can only be achieved if all the branches of government as well as an independent civilian oversight agency are built into the procedural safeguards. The new Aadhaar legislation removed the independent oversight committee that was meant to monitor the operation of Aadhaar.

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14. With our nearest neighbour becoming malaria free, what are the lessons that it holds

for Indian public health management to replicate similar success in India?

Even as Indian cities are reeling under rising mosquito-borne illnesses, Sri Lanka, among the most

malaria-affected countries not long ago, has been certified malaria-free by the World Health

Organization (WHO) in September 2016.

After the Maldives, Sri Lanka is the second country in WHO's South-East Asia Region to eliminate

malaria. Sixty years ago, Sri Lanka was one of the most malaria affected countries.

By comparison, India is third among 15 countries having the highest cases of malaria and deaths due

to the disease. And while malarial deaths have fallen across the world in the last 15 years, the disease

is still an acute public health problem. In 2015 alone, there were an estimated 214 million new cases of

malaria, and approximately 4.38 lakh died of the disease.

How Sri Lanka eradicated:

Setting up mobile malaria clinics that diagnosed and treated people much earlier than waiting for

people to visit their doctor with symptoms, accompanied by regular surveillance, community

engagement and education programs to make sure people knew the symptoms and when to get

tested and treated.

Also, there was an aggressive effort to find infected humans by Sri Lanka's department of health,

with importance placed the government prioritizing the problem and funding it, as well as

continuing mosquito control efforts.

The challenge now is to keep the parasite away; and maintaining the status.

A similar eradication of dengue by Singapore happened; but the disease re-emerged; and since

many people have not been affected by dengue in their lifetimes; lack necessary immunity.

India’s status in this regard

In regard to Malaria, India is in the “control phase”, but is working to reach pre-elimination by 2017

and to complete elimination thereafter, according to a 2015 WHO report.

Their strategy included vector control in major irrigation and agriculture projects, rigorous

entomological surveillance leading to targeted spraying in high-risk areas, new classes of insecticides

for indoor spraying, insecticide-treated nets and larval control, and improved surveillance of parasites

for active case detection. This is also more relevant to India as conditions are similar with respect to

Sri Lanka.

Improving public health system and rolling out malaria control interventions in these areas is critical if

India wants to eliminate malaria by 2030, as laid out in the national framework for malaria elimination

(2016-2030).

Another point of focus should be malaria control in border districts in the north and the north-east.

The emergence of anti-malarial drug and insecticide resistance is yet another problem.

All this can work only with a strong political will to strengthen public health system at all levels,

translated into enhanced financial and managerial support.

15. The concept of ‘transforming India’ greatly emphasized by the Indian government aims

for transforming governance through ideas. Comment

The notion of “transforming India” was first enunciated by PM in his inaugural address to NITI

aayog in 2016. In his deliberation, Pm mentioned that there is a need to change laws, eliminate

unnecessary procedures and speed up processes to go beyond “mere incremental progress.

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The transformation required in the realm of governance cannot happen with an administrative

system of the 19thcentury.A transformation of governance cannot happen without a

transformation in mindset and a transformation in mindset cannot happen without

transformative ideas

To enable this, it is needed to change laws, eliminate unnecessary procedures, speed up processes

and adopt technology in the governance mechanisms which is already began to happen.

The journey the country goes through teaches that fundamental changes in administrative

mindsets usually occur through sudden shocks or crisis.

This administrative tradition has served India well in many ways. Above all, it has preserved

democracy and federalism, unity and integrity, in a country of glorious diversity. These are not

small achievements. Yet, this is an age where change is constant and all else are variables.

There was a time when development was believed to depend on the quantity of capital and labour

but today it depends as much on the quality of institutions and ideas.Lastyear, a new institution

was created, namely, the National Institution for Transforming India or NITI. NITI was created as

an evidence-based think tank to guide India’s transformation

What is needed is a collective opening of minds, to let in new, global perspectives. To do this, new

ideas have to be absorbed collectively rather than individually. It requires a concerted effort

It is in this context, the “transforming India’ lecture series was held by NITI Aayog attended by the

Cabinet ministers and secretaries to brainstorm ideas.

16. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

(Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014 is a step in the right direction. Discuss.

There are approximately 21 lakh persons estimated to be living with HIV in India and the

percentage of patients receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment currently stands at a mere

25.82% as against the global percentage of 41%, according to the 2015 Global Burden of Diseases

(GBD).

The Union Cabinet approved inOct,2016 the long-awaited amendments to the HIV Bill, granting

stronger protection to the country’s HIV community.

The Bill prohibits discrimination against people living with HIV (PLHIV) in accessing healthcare,

acquiring jobs, renting houses or in education institutions in the public and private sectors.

The “HIV and AIDS Bill, 2014” will bring legal accountability and establish a formal mechanism to

probe discrimination complaints against those who discriminate against such people.

The Bill seeks to prevent stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV. These

amendments will allow families that have faced discrimination to go to court against institutions

or persons being unfair.

Establishments keeping records of information of PLHIV (People Living with HIV) have been

asked to adopt data protection measures as the Bill requires that “no person shall be compelled to

disclose his HIV status except with his informed consent, and if required by a court order.”

The Bill lists various grounds on which discrimination against HIV-positive persons and those

living with them is prohibited. These include the denial, termination, discontinuation or unfair

treatment with regard to employment, educational establishments, health care services, residing

or renting property, standing for public or private office, and provision of insurance.

Further, requirement for HIV testing as a pre-requisite for obtaining employment or accessing

health care or education is also prohibited.

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The Bill comes at a time when the national HIV programme has weakened due to Budget slashes

and patients are facing drug shortages across the country.

“This is a step in the right direction. We also need to address the inadequate funding, the

procurement system that is resulting in drug shortages and the lack of clarity in the HIV policy.

The programme has become low priority and my hope is that this Bill will empower civil society to

hold those stigmatising the HIV community in contempt.

Our Student, Ms. Sharanya Ari (AIR-7, Tamil Nadu Rank-1)

Felicitated by Mr.U.Sagayam IAS

17. Why did India focus so much on entering into an agreement with Japan when so many

countries were willing to do business with it and have already signed agreements for the

purpose?

1. Japan is preferred because of its reliability and trustworthiness. It is not known for imposing

additionalities.

2. Its technology is considered more advanced than many of the countries active in global nuclear

reactor commerce.

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3. Important Japanese nuclear companies have bought stakes in the companies of some of the supplier countries. An agreement with Japan will solve the issue of taking consent from Japan for doing business with the companies of those countries.

4. Japan is emerging as an important strategic partner of India in managing Asian affairs. Together the two countries may push the idea of Asiatom.

5. Japan, a country with advanced technology but declining population, may provide both a base and an opportunity for the Indian scientific force. It could be a win-win situation for both the countries. It is indicated that both the countries may do some innovative work on safety and security, though other countries have the similar provision in their agreements with India.

6. It will be a big boost for India’s nuclear power industry as the two major U.S. companies planning plants in India — GE and Westinghouse — are both Japanese owned. Japanese manufacturers hold a virtual monopoly on several critical parts and forgings needed by the Indian reactors.

7. In the future, the two countries have to consolidate what they have agreed, covered and gained so far. The deal will turn out mutually beneficially for both. India will get its much-needed electricity and technological partnership and Japan will get a market for its companies which are facing a tough situation for several years even before the Fukushima incidents. Really, the sky is the limit for India and Japan in the nuclear and other strategic sectors.

8. By signing the agreement for cooperation in the peaceful uses of Nuclear energy between two reliable partners India and Japan, India is now the first non-member of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) to have signed such a deal with Japan. The move marks a significant departure in India’s nuclear diplomacy.

9. Despite India’s insistence on nuclear sovereignty India, the globe’s largest democracy, and Japan, Asia’s second largest democracy, share common values.

10. The new agreement not only provides for bilateral cooperation in the field of nuclear energy but it also provides for cooperation in satellite navigation, planetary exploration and space industry promotion. This initiative will also make it more difficult for China to keep India out of the NSG club because terms of the civil nuclear deal with Japan, de facto brings India within the NPT framework.

18. Revoking the Indus water treaty could mean a loss of credibility for India. Discuss. India hyphenates the link between terrorism and water to avenge Uri attack. This is reinforced by the frenzied talk of revoking the 56-year-old Indus Water Treaty. International experience on using water as a weapon to stop terrorism is a sobering one. Turkey used water as a weapon to punish Syria for its alleged role in supporting the terrorist activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) directed against it. In 2014, Turkey completely cut off water

from the Euphrates leaving seven million downstream Syrians without access to fresh water. By doing so, Turkey reneged on a 1994 international agreement to guarantee a minimum share of the waters of the Euphrates to Syria and Iraq. Earlier this year, Israel stopped water supply to several Palestinian towns and cities for weeks. Each of these instances brought serious collateral damage to civilian populations and proved to be a cure worse than the problem. Advocates of a similar strategy on the Indus would do well to remember that it could only end up worsening future distributional conflicts over water in the sub-region. Given that nearly 65 per cent of its territory is part of the Indus basin, Pakistan’s dependence on its flows cannot be overstated. If downstream communities hold the upper riparian state responsible for their livelihood setbacks, can India’s public diplomacy afford to ignore their sentiments?

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SOCIOLOGY OPTIONAL OVERWHELMS IN IAS 2015 – 16 FINAL RESULT

NAME ALL INDIA RANK OPTIONAL

Ms.Saranya ARI 7 Sociology

Dr.Vaithinathan R 37 Sociology

Mr.Ram Krishnan R 268 Sociology

Mr.Karthikeyan G 301 Sociology

Ms.Sruti Vijayakumar 381 Sociology

Mr.Pavankumar G Giriyappanavar 420 Sociology

Mr.Sarveshwaran 655 Sociology

Mr.Balachandar D 701 Sociology

Mr.Prakash B 906 Sociology

ALL THE ABOVE SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES WERE MENTORED BY

MR.S.SIVARAJAVEL

Article 54 of Protocol I to the Geneva Convention prohibits actions targeting civilian populations

that may result in “inadequate food or water as to cause its starvation”.

India would also do well to remember that its actions as an upper riparian country run the risk of

seriously undermining its position as a lower riparian state vis-à-vis China.

On the Brahmaputra, India has stakes in institutionalising norms of first-user rights, joint

management and consultative processes. India’s plan to build 168 mega dams in Arunachal

Pradesh and the moves to expedite hydroelectric projects on the sub-basins of the Siang, Lohit and

Subansiri rivers are part of its attempts to establish user rights. If it chooses to renege on its own

international obligations, India’s chances of getting China to invest in process-oriented,

institutionalised norms in a transboundarybasin would become unrealistic?

A planned move to abrogate international obligations is criticized by Dhaka, Kathmandu or

Thimphu. India must inspire confidence in her credentials as a leader with an inclination to design

regional norms of benefit-sharing.The contradictory political signalling can result in a high degree

of uncertainty. For instance, on the one hand, India provides flood-forecasting data to Pakistan

and Bangladesh free of cost but on the other, it has not been averse to occasionally flexing its

muscles as an upper riparian country.

It will also be in India’s interest that the exercise of its power as an upper riparian state is seen as

legitimate and credible. International experience validates this quite clearly. Be it Brazil’s binding

agreements with Paraguay on the Parana or the US-Mexico freshwater treaty on the Colorado,

hegemonic upper riparian states have found it worth their while to invest in the creation of

regional public goods.

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Political signalling is a game all nations play. Some just happen to play it better than others. But

signalling almost always involves costs, especially in fraught situations of international conflict. A

review of the Indus Water Treaty could prove to be a double-edged sword for India. Pakistan

could just as well use it to signal that the Indus framework is increasingly inadequate, call to

question India’s intentions and demand additional international guarantees to ensure

uninterrupted flows. The non-military option on the Indus is hardly the silver bullet solution it is

being bandied to be and India could end up shooting in the foot.

19. India hopes for entry into the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and there are good

reasons for that. Explain

Membership of the NSG means:

1. Access to technology for a range of uses from medicine to building nuclear power plants for India

from the NSG which is essentially a traders’ cartel. India has its own indigenously developed

technology but to get its hands on state of the art technology that countries within the NSG

possess, it has to become part of the group.

2. With India committed to reducing dependence on fossil fuels and ensuring that 40% of its energy

is sourced from renewable and clean sources, there is a pressing need to scale up nuclear power

production. This can only happen if India gains access to the NSG. Even if India today can buy

power plants from the global market thanks to the one time NSG waiver in 2008, there are still

many types of technologies India can be denied as it is outside the NSG.

3. India could sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and gain access to all this know-how but

that would mean giving up its entire nuclear arsenal. Given that it is situated in an unstable and

unpredictable neighbourhood India is unlikely to sign the NPT or accede to the Comprehensive

Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) that puts curbs on any further nuclear tests.

4. With access to latest technology, India can commercialize the production of nuclear power

equipment. This in turn will boost innovation and high tech manufacturing in India and can be

leveraged for economic and strategic benefits.

5. For example, India has signed a civil nuclear energy co-operation pact with Sri Lanka. Currently,

this entails training people in peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including use of radioisotopes,

nuclear safety, radiation safety, nuclear security, radioactive waste management and nuclear and

radiological disaster mitigation. Should India get access to advanced nuclear technologies, it can

start building updated versions of its own fast breeder reactor and sell it to countries such as Sri

Lanka or Bangladesh. Bangladesh is currently looking at buying Russian reactors for power

generation.

6. Having the ability to offer its own nuclear power plants to the world means spawning of an entire

nuclear industry and related technology development. This could give the Make in India

programme a big boost.

7. Should India get membership to the NSG, it can block Pakistan from its membership as entry into

the grouping is by consensus only. This is one of the reasons why China is pushing to include

Pakistan as well as pointing out that India as a non-signatory to the NPT cannot be a member.

8. It comes down to a power game—keep India out and deny it access to various technologies. India’s

contention is that its nuclear technologies are indigenously developed and it has a clean non-

proliferation record unlike Pakistan whose non-proliferation record was tainted with the

revelations that its nuclear scientist A.Q Khan sold nuclear technologies to countries such as North

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Korea. China’s non-proliferation record too is tainted with allegations that it has helped Pakistan

on the sly, but given its economic clout the country is unlikely to attract sanctions.

20. While excessive importance has been given for implementation of policies, its

formulation largely goes unnoticed. Analyse the contemporary issues in public policy

making in India.

Improved governance requires an integrated, long-term strategy built upon cooperation between

Governmentand citizens. This requires proper design of policies keeping all stakeholders benefits in

mind alongwith properimplementation of programmes and policies at the ground level.

Public policy making is the principal function of the state. Public policy making is a complex, dynamic

processwhose components make different contributions to it.

The problems can broadly be divided into twotypes. The first of these is structural—too much

fragmentation, too muchimplementation work load on policy-makers, poor structure and process

forinvolving outside experts and stakeholders. The second kind of problem lieswith the competence

of the people who man the structure—inadequateprofessionalism of the policy-making staff, and

inadequate competence of thespecialists.

Issues in Public Policy Making in India

One of the main problems with policy-making in India, is extreme fragmentation in the structure.

Such fragmentation fails to recognize that actions taken in one sector have serious implications on

another and may work at cross purposes with the policies of the other sector. Besides, it becomes

very difficult, even for closely related sectors, to align their policies in accordance with a common

overall agenda.

Another problem is the excessive overlap between implementation, program formulation and

policy making which creates a tendency to focus on operational convenience rather than on public

needs. Partly the problem is symptomatic of over-centralisation—excessive concentration of

implementation powers at the higher levels of the Ministries. Partly, it is also due to such officers

being more comfortable with implementation matters than with policy making. The result is that

sub-optimal policies, where adequate attention has not been paid to citizen needs, tend to emerge.

Often public policy is made without adequate input from outside government and without

adequate debate on the issues involved. The policy processes and structures of Government have

no systematic means for obtaining outside inputs, for involving those affected by policies or for

debating alternatives and their impacts on different groups. Most developed countries have a

system of widespread public debate before a policy is approved.

Policy decisions are often made without adequate analysis of costs, benefits, trade-offs and

consequences.

While there are many outstanding specialists working for the Government, there is a widespread

feeling that many in-house specialists are not on top of their specialisms. This perception of

mediocrity vis-à-vis outside experts tends to worsen the problem of inadequate consultation of even

the good in-house specialists who get tarred with the same brush. It also promotes an undue respect

for outside specialists and the error of accepting poorly formulated prescriptions from outsiders

simply because they have a more professional or expert image.

SMART LEADERS IAS



Some of our IAS Toppers with Mr.U.Sagayam IAS, Mr.S.Bharath, Former Civil Judge and our Founder-Directors Mr.S.Sivarajavel & Mr.M.A.Sadik.

smart leaders iasmedia.smartleadersias.com/downloads/test-16-explanation.pdfwas designed to reverse...

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