Protest against proposed bird sanctuary in Manipur

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

 

Context:

         ★ The Manipur government’s plan to set up a bird sanctuary at the Loktak lake in Bishnupur district has met with stiff opposition from the villagers in nearby areas.

         ★ Villagers claim fishing ban in Loktak lake will hit their livelihood

         

Need of Sanctuary:

       ★ Thousands of migratory birds flock to the Loktak lake, the largest freshwater lake in north-eastern India, every year.

       ★ However, in the past few years there has been a sharp decline in the number of migratory birds coming to the lake.

       ★ Reports indicate that bird poachers are active in the area, targeting the winged guests.

       ★ Bird poaching and hydroelectric power project near the lake for the decline in the number of migratory birds and brow-antlered deer in the Keibul Lamjao national park in the vicinity.

       ★ The widespread bird poaching at the lake, setting up of the sanctuary is a must.

         

Loktak Lake:         ★ Loktak Lake is the largest freshwater lake in Northeast India and is famous for the phumdis floating over it.         ★ Phumdis are the heterogeneous mass of vegetation, soil and organic matter at various stages of decomposition.         ★ Keibul Lamjao National Park is also one of Phumdis in the lake.         ★ It is only floating national park in world and is last natural refuge of endangered Sangai deer.         ★ This ancient lake plays an important role in the economy of Manipur.         ★ It serves as a source of water for irrigation, drinking water supply and hydropower generation.         ★ Considering the ecological status and its biodiversity values, Loktak lake was initially designated as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention in 1990.         ★ Later it was also listed under the Montreux Record in 1993.         ★ Human activity has led to severe pressure on the lake ecosystem.

                                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                  Source:- The Hindu

Steel pipes will link Godavari and Cauvery, says Gadkari

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

 

Context:

         ★ The Detailed Project Report (DPR) for linking the Godavari and Cauvery rivers at a cost of Rs.60,000 crore is ready and will be submitted to the cabinet soon,says Union Water Resources and River Development Minister.

         

Godavari and Cauvery - linking project:

       ★ After approval by the cabinet the funds would be raised from the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

       ★ The project comes under the national river connectivity programme

       ★ the project would resolve the water disputes among four southern states - Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

 

Aim:

         ☪ To make good use of about 1100 tmc ft of Godavari water that currently drained into the sea.

                ★ The project will take backwaters of Godavari to Krishna and from Krishna to Pennar and then to the tail end of Cauvery in Tamil Nadu.

                ★ The minister also revealed that under the project water would be carried through steel pipes instead of canals to ensure that there is no water loss.

         

National river connectivity programme: ★ The National River Linking Project (NRLP), envisages the transfer of water from water ‘surplus’ basins where there is flooding to water ‘deficit’ basins where there is drought/scarcity, through inter-basin water transfer projects. ★ It links rivers by a network of reservoirs and canals that will allow for their water capacities to be shared and redistributed. ★ This is an engineered panacea that will reduce persistent floods in some parts and water shortages in other parts besides facilitating the generation of hydroelectricity for an increasingly power hungry country.   Components of River Linking Projects It has been split into three parts: 1. Northern Himalayan Rivers interlink component. 2. A southern peninsular component. 3. An intra-State rivers linking component.   Benefits of the River Linking Projects: ★ The river interlinking project claims to generate total power of 34,000 MW (34 GW). ★ The project claims to provide additional irrigation to 35 million hectares (m ha) in the water-scarce western and peninsular regions, which includes 25 m ha through surface irrigation and 10 m ha through groundwater. ★ It will lead to Ground water Recharging. ★ The inter-link would create a path for aquatic ecosystems to migrate from one river to another, which in turn may support the livelihoods of people who rely on fishery as their income.

                                                                                                         

                                                                                                   Source:- The Hindu

‘Plastic waste imports to India go up’

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

 

Context: 

         ★ According to environmentalist organisation, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Smriti Manch (PDUSM), De spite of a ban on the import of plastic waste into India, the influx of PET bottles has quadrupled from 2017 to 2018.

         

Import of Plastic:

          ★ The import of PET bottle scrap & flakes has increased from 12,000 tonnes in FY 16-17 to 48,000 tonnes in FY 17-18 growing @ 290%.

          ★ India has already imported 25,000 MT in the first 3 months of FY 18-19

          ★ Indian firms are importing plastic scraps from China, Italy, Japan and Malawi for recycling.

          ★ As per the UN Comtrade Database, India is the 10th largest importer of plastic scrap .

          ★ It imports plastic waste in four of the five categories banned by China from over 50 nations, shows data from the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Widening Gaps:

           ★ Government and industry estimates suggest that India consumes about 13 million tonnes of plastic and recycles only about 4 million tonnes.

           ★ A lack of an efficient waste segregation system and inadequate collection is the root cause

         

Causes of Increasing Imports:

         ★ The PDUSM has observed that legal loophole has led to increasing imports of plastic waste.

         ★ In 2016, an amendment allowed plastic imports as long as they were carried out by agencies situated in SEZs. This provision has been exploited making way for plastic imports.

         ★ The easy availability and competitive cheaper costs are attracting Indian recyclers to import plastic waste

         

Way forward:

         ★ Impose a ban on importing plastic waste

         ★ The government, society and the corporate sector should work together with the aim to reduce the domestic plastic waste.

         ★ The government should welcome and provide facilities to those coming forward to recycle plastic waste.

         ★ There should be a network of recycled machines across all major cities and towns.

                                                                                                                             Source:- The Hindu

Bihar top state in terms of GDP growth in FY18: Crisil report

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Growth, development and employment.

 

Context:

         ★ According to the report by Crisil, Bihar has been ranked the top state in terms of GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) growth in financial year 2017-18.

         

GSDP Ranking:

        ★ 12 large states have registered a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of above 6.7, which is the national average in FY18.

        ★ With a GDP of 11.3, Bihar registered the highest growth rate in the country in the FY18 followed by Andhra Pradesh at 11.2, Gujarat - 11.1, Telangana - 10.4 and Karnataka 9.3 taking the top five spots.

        ★ Jharkhand - 4.6, Kerala - 5.0, Punjab - 6.2, UP -6.4 and Chhattisgarh 6.7 were at the bottom of the list in terms of GDP growth in the same period.

      

         

Key findings of the report:

      ★ In fact, 12 out of 17 non-special states saw faster growth in fiscal 2018 compared with the previous five years despite the national trend of a slowdown in GDP growth in fiscal 2018.

      ★ However, it noted that this growth was not equitable, with the gap between the per capita incomes in low-income and high-income States widening over the last five years.

      ★ In fiscal 2008, 8 of 17 states had per capita income lower than the national average. Of these, only 4 grew faster than the all-India rate in the following 5 years.

                   ☆ only half of the low-income states started catching up with faster growth. These states were Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Jharkhand.

                   ☆ Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Odisha continued to lag.

                   ☆ Among the 9 high-income states which had higher per capita income than the national average in fiscal 2008, 6 recorded faster growth in the following five years. These were Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Gujarat, Kerala, Haryana and Maharashtra.

      ★ The report also stated that the faster growth rate has however not translated into job creation.

                   ☆ The report says that, Eleven of 17 states recorded lower than all-India growth in ‘employment-intensive’ sectors (namely manufacturing, construction and trade, hotels transport and communication services).

      ★ The report further says that, Most states are not spending as they ought to, in areas such as health, irrigation, and education.

      ★ On the fiscal front, most states veered off the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBM) line.

                                                                                                      Source:- Financial Express

19 amphibian species are critically endangered: ZSI list

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

 

Context:

         ★ According to Zoological Survey of India, 19 amphibian species critically endangered.

        

More about the news:

        ★ According to IUCN, critically endangered species are the ones that are facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.

        ★ Among the amphibians listed, 19 species are treated as critically endangered and 33 species as endangered

        ★ There are around 40 per cent amphibians across the globe which are threatened with extinction.

           

Zoological Survey of India: ★ The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) was established on 1st July, 1916 to promote survey, exploration and research leading to the advancement in our knowledge of various aspects of exceptionally rich life of the erstwhile ´ British Indian Empire. ★ Institution Headquartered in Kolkata.   Objective: ★ Exploration, Survey, Inventorying and Monitoring of faunal diversity in various States, Ecosystems and Protected areas of India. ★ Periodic review of the Status of Threatened and Endemic species. ★ Preparation of Red Data Book, Fauna of India and Fauna of States. ★ Bio ecological studies on selected important communities/species. ★ GIS and Remote Sensing studies for animal diversity as well as for selected threatened ★ Chromosomal Mapping and DNA finger printing.

                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                        Source:- The Hindu

The ambiguity of reservations for the poor [ Editorial / Opinion]

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes

 

Context:

          ★ The 103rd Constitution Amendment Act introducing special measures and reservations for ‘economically weaker sections’ (EWS) has been perceived as being obviously unconstitutional.

          ★ The view that a constitutional challenge to the amendment will take us into unclear constitutional territories.

          ★ The strongest constitutional challenge might not be to the amendment itself but to the manner in which governments implement it.

         

Special Measures:

           ★ Article 15 stands amended enabling the state to take special measures (not limited to reservations) in favour of EWS generally with an explicit sub-article on admissions to educational institutions with maximum 10% reservations.

           ★ The amendment to Article 16 allows 10% reservations (and not special measures) for EWS in public employment and does so in a manner that is different from reservations for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

           ★ The amendment leaves the definition of ‘economically weaker sections’ to be determined by the state on the basis of ‘family income’ and other economic indicators.

           ★ Also critical to this Amendment is the exclusion of SC/STs, OBCs and other beneficiary groups under Articles 15(4), 15(5) and 16(4) as beneficiaries of the 10% EWS reservation.

         

Indra Sawhney Case:

         ★ The consitutional examination is the Supreme Court’s view on reservations based purely on economic criteria.

         ★ Eight of the nine judges in Indra Sawhney (November 1992) held that the Narasimha Rao government’s executive order (and not a constitutional amendment) providing for 10% reservations based purely on economic criteria was unconstitutional.

         ★ Their reasons included the position that income/property holdings cannot be the basis for exclusion from government jobs, and that the Constitution was primarily concerned with addressing social backwardness.

         

Basic structure doctrine:

            ★ However, the decision in Indra Sawhney involved testing an executive order against existing constitutional provisions.

            ★ In the current situation, we are concerned with a constitutional amendment brought into force using the constituent power of Parliament.

            ★ The fact that we are not concerned with legislative or executive power means that the amendment will be tested against the ‘basic structure’ and not the constitutional provisions existing before the amendment.

            ★ Experts believe, it is a sufficient answer to say that ‘backwardness’ in the Constitution can only mean ‘social and educational backwardness’.

            ★ It is difficult to see an argument that measures purely on economic criteria are per se violative of the ‘basic structure’.

            ★ EWS reservations might not able to alleviate poverty but that is not really the nature of ‘basic structure’ enquiry.

            ★ Economic criteria (if seen as poverty) forms the basis for differential treatment by the state in many ways and it would be a stretch to suddenly see it as constitutionally suspect when it comes to ‘special measures’ and reservations in education and public employment.

            ★ Poverty inflicts serious disadvantages and the prerogative of the state to use special measures/ reservations as one of the means to address it (however misplaced it might be as a policy) is unlikely to fall foul of the ‘basic structure’ doctrine.

         

Challenges for the Government:

           ★ A challenge to the amendment may lie in the context of Article 16 by virtue of shifting the manner in which reservations can be provided in public employment.

           ★ Under Article 16(4), reservations for backward classes (SC/STs, OBCs) are dependent on beneficiary groups not being ‘adequately represented’ but that has been omitted in the newly inserted Article 16(6) for EWS.

           ★ The amendment through Article 16(6) ends up making it easier for the state to provide reservations in public employment for EWS than the requirements to provide reservations for ‘backward classes’ under Article 16(4).

           ★ In a sense that is potentially a normative minefield for the Supreme Court. On the one hand, it is confronted with the reality that ‘backward classes’ like SC/STs and OBCs are disadvantaged along multiple axes and on the other, it is now far more difficult for the state to provide reservations to these groups compared to the EWS.

           ★ The response might well be that ‘representation’ is not the aim of EWS reservation and questions of ‘adequacy’ are relevant only in the context of representation claims like those of the backward classes under Article 16(4).

         

Breaching 50% Ceiling:

             ★ The amendment, breaching the 50% ceiling on reservations has been cited as its greatest weakness.

             ★ It is hard to see the merit of that argument because the amendment by itself does not push the reservations beyond 50%.

             ★ While it might be a ground to challenge the subsequent legislative/executive actions, the amendment itself is secure from this challenge.

             ★ But even beyond this narrow technical response, the 50% ceiling argument is far from clear.

             ★ In Indra Sawhney, the majority of judges held that the 50% ceiling must be the general rule and a higher proportion may be possible in ‘extraordinary situations’.

             ★ Fundamentally this argument stems from an unresolved normative tension in Indra Sawhney.

             ★ While committing to the constitutional position that reservations are not an ‘exception’ but a ‘facet’ of equality, the majority in Indra Sawhney also invokes the idea of balancing the equality of opportunity of backward classes ‘against’ the right to equality of everyone else.

             ★ When governments implement the EWS reservations and push quotas beyond 50%, the Supreme Court will be forced to confront this normative tension.

             ★ If reservations further equality, what then are the justifications to limit it to 50% when the identified beneficiaries constitute significantly more than 50%?

             ★ The answer to that question might lie in Indra Sawhney’s position that the constitutional imagination is not one of ‘proportional representation’ but one of ‘adequate representation’.

             ★ However, as discussed above, if abandoning the ‘adequacy’ requirement per se is upheld for EWS reservations, the basis for a 50% ceiling becomes unclear.

         

Way forward:

           ★ While the constitutional amendment by itself might survive the ‘basic structure’ test, the hardest test for governments will be the manner in which they give effect to the amendment.

           ★ The definition of ‘economically weaker sections’ will be a major hurdle because the political temptation will be to go as broad as possible and include large sections of citizens.

           ★ But broader the definition, greater will be the constitutional risk. For example, if beneficiaries are defined as all those with family income of less than ₹8 lakh per annum, it must necessarily fail constitutional scrutiny.

           ★ To justify that an individual ‘below poverty line’ and another with a family income of ₹8 lakh per annum belong to the same group for purposes of affirmative action will involve constitutional jugglery at an unprecedented level.

                                                                                                      Source:- The Hindu

Justice delayed is markets stymied [ Editorial / Opinion]

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY  - Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

 

Context:

        ★ Since the 1991 economic reforms, India has improved tremendously in almost all economic indicators.

        ★ Various economic policies, like IBC Code, and tax reforms, like GST, have enabled the economy to move faster than ever before.

        ★ But India’s institutions, like the judicial system, though having strong roots, have simply failed to grow with the growing population and with increasing demands.

         

Effective Judiciary:

         ★ Three things are crucial for efficient functioning of a market economy:

                     ☪ Transparency in information

                     ☪ Efficient dispute settlements

                     ☪Contract enforcement in a time-bound manner powered by an effective judiciary.

       ★ In a market economy, the government has little role to play in transactions among players but it plays an effective role by setting up efficient dispute settlement mechanisms, so that the costs of transactions are minimal.

       ★ In such an economy, the judiciary plays the pivotal role by enforcing contracts in the case of disputes through minimal costs.

       ★ Economic Survey 2017-18 noted that the current working capacity of the High Courts and the Supreme Court is only 63.6% and there are huge numbers of pending cases.

       ★ In 2017, India spent about Rs 0.24 per person on the judiciary and the U.S. spent Rs12.

       ★ Low focus on judiciary implies that not following contracts is not costly in India as players are willing to bypass the system by paying rents to government officials.

         

Problem with Economic Theory:

      ★ There is a problem with the economic theories we follow in India (currently) because unlike our policymakers, those in other countries seem to have realised the importance of the judiciary in the efficient functioning of a market economy.

      ★ The proponents of reform (in India) belong to the school of neoclassical economics*, and are taught that transactions are costless.

      ★ However, in reality, the rules and regulations that affect economic activity determine whether transactions are costless or not.

      ★ This theory of new institutional economics questions the two crucial assumptions of neoclassical economics — costless transactions and perfect information — and stresses the role of institutions in facilitating market exchange by reducing transaction costs, providing a predictable framework for exchange, and overcoming imperfect information.

      ★ In India, there are few practitioners of new institutional economics and that could explain why this aspect has not been addressed in the past decade.

 

Way Forward:

     ★ There is a major role of institutions in facilitating market exchange by reducing transaction costs and providing a predictable framework for exchange.

     ★ Strengthening institutions and political power enjoyed by the incumbent are in conflict of interest. Thus, the Opposition also has a major role to play in the solidification of institutions, including the judiciary.

                                                                                                                           Source:- The Hindu

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