SC: respond to plea against wire-tapping

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

 

Context:

 

        ★ The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to respond to a petition challenging laws that allow the government to conduct electronic surveillance of private individuals.

         

More about the news:

              ★ A  PIL by the NGO PUCL challenging the surveillance powers of the State under section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act read with Rule 419-A of the Indian Telegraph Rules of 1951.

              ★ The petition also challenges the constitutional validity of section 69 of the Information Technology Act and the Information Technology (Procedures for Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules of 2009.

              ★ The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi tagged the PIL with a string of earlier petitions challenging the Ministry of Home Affairs' order dated December 20 authorising ten Security and Intelligence agencies to intercept, monitor and decry-pt "any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer", on which the court had issued notice on January 14.

 

Petitioner Contention:

             ★ The petition places reliance on the 2017 nine-judge bench decision of the apex court declaring the right to privacy to be a fundamental right under Article 21.

                       ☆ And the subsequent Aadhaar judgment in 2018, where the Disclosure of information in the interest of national security, made pursuant to a direction of an officer not lower in rank than the Joint Secretary to the Government of India, under section 33(2) of the Aadhaar Act was held to be unconstitutional for evading judicial scrutiny.

            ★ The petitioner In its plea, PUCL has highlighted the "rampant and the indiscriminate use of surveillance powers".

                                                                                                                                       Source:- The Hindu

Odisha govt. transfers funds to sharecroppers under new scheme

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

 

Context:

        ★ Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday rolled out transfer of funds to small and marginal farmers and landless sharecroppers under the Krushak Assistant for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme.

        ★ Under the Rs 10,180 crore livelihood support and insurance scheme, a sum of Rs 5000 transferred to bank accounts of over 12.4 lakh farmers in the State.

        ★ Around 30.17 lakh small and marginal farmers would get Rs 25000 as farm assistance over five agricultural seasons for purchase of inputs like seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, labour charges.

        ★ Besides, each landless agricultural households would get one-time assistance of Rs.12,500 for agricultural allied activities like livestock, fishery and horticulture-based activities towards livelihood supports in three phases

         

KALIA scheme:

        ★ KALIA scheme stands for "Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation".

        ★ The Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme would benefit about 92% of the farmers in the state and the government has earmarked Rs 10,180 crore for the plan in 3 years.

        ★ Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme has been initiated by the State Government to provide financial assistance for farmers before the commencement of the sowing season.

         

Who is eligible under the scheme:

         ★ Small and Marginal Farmers are eligible to get benefit under support to cultivators for cultivation.

         ★ Landless agricultural households are eligible to get livelihood support under the scheme.

         ★ Vulnerable agricultural household covering vulnerable cultivators/landless agricultural labourers are eligible to get financial assistance under the KALIA scheme.

         ★ Life Insurance Support to cultivators and Landless agricultural labourers as well as the interest free crop loan component are meant for all category of beneficiary under KALIA scheme.

         

Key features of the Scheme:

      ★ Assistance for cultivation: Financial assistance of Rs 25,000 per farm family over five seasons will be provided to small and marginal farmers so that farmers can purchase inputs like seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and use assistance towards labour and other investments from 2018-19 to 2021-22.

      ★ Assistance for Livelihood: Financial Assistance of Rs 12,500 will be provided to each landless Agricultural Household for agriculture allied activities like for small goat rearing unit, mini-layer unit, duckery units, fishery kits for fisherman, mushroom cultivation and bee-keeping, etc.

      ★ Assistance for vulnerable agricultural household: Vulnerable cultivators and landless agricultural labourers will get financial assistance of Rs 10,000 per family per year to enable them to take care of their sustenance. 

              ☆ The vulnerable cultivator and landless agricultural labourers those who are in old age, having disability or disease and are vulnerable for any other reason.

      ★ Life insurance for cultivators & landless agricultural labourers: Life insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh at a very nominal premium of Rs 330/ will be provided to all savings bank account holder of age between 18-50 years.

              ☆ Odisha government will bear farmers’ share of the annual premium of Rs 165. Personal accident cover of Rs 2 lakh at a very nominal annual premium of Rs 12 for all savings bank account holder aged between 18-50 years.

              ☆ Out of Rs 12 towards premium, Rs 6 is the farmers’ share, which will be borne by the state government. A beneficiary whose age is between 51-70 years, the entire amount of Rs 12 towards annual premium will be borne by the government.

     ★ Interest-free crop loan: Vulnerable landless labourers, cultivators and agricultural families identified by Gram Panchayats will be provided with crop loans up to Rs 50,000 made available at 0% interest.

        ★ Two months after the tranquillisation of tigress Sundari, the Forest department has decided that two trained elephants will guard big cat.

         

Need of Elephants in Tiger Reserves:

       ★ Two trained elephants, Mahendra and Rajkumar, were brought to Satkosia Tiger Reserve from Simlipal National Park

       ★ In any tiger reserve, elephants play a key role in tiger protection and monitoring measures.

       ★ Trained elephants will help ground-level forest guards patrol deep in the forest where jeeps cannot go.

                                                                                                                                   Source:- The Hindu

Seven northeastern States lag behind in toilets for schoolgirls

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

 

Context:

        ★ Only one-third of schools had usable washrooms in 2018, says ASER report

         

Key Findings:

        ★ As per the data analysed from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018, average of 34.96% schools in the eight northeastern States had usable toilets for girls in 2018 compared to 36.66% in 2016.

        ★ With 75.7% schools – a marginal increase from 75% in 2016 – having usable toilets for girls.

         

Performance of North East States:

      ★ Sikkim performed better than the national average of 66.4% last year.

      ★ Nagaland was the next best State with 47%, an increase from 40.9% in 2016, followed by Mizoram with the highest percentile increase from 25.3% to 34.9% in these two years.

      ★ The other five states performed poorly, the steepest drop for Assam being 38.3% from 54.2% in 2016.

      ★ Manipur had 9.1% schools having fewer usable toilets for girls, followed by Meghalaya (8.6%), Arunachal Pradesh (7.6%) and Tripura (7.3%).

                                                                                                                                       Source:- The Hindu

Microplastic fibres found in groundwater system: study

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

 

Context:

       ★ A new study published in the journal Groundwater has reported micro plastics in fractured limestone aquifers – a groundwater source that accounts for 25% of the global drinking water supply.

         

Micro Plastic Fiber in Ground water:

     ★ The study identified microplastic fibers, along with a variety of medicines and household contaminants, in two aquifer systems in Illinois.

     ★ It is estimated that 6.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic waste have been produced since the 1940s, and 79% of that is now in landfills or the natural environment

         

Effects of Plastics:

    ★ Plastic in the environment breaks down into microscopic particles that can end up in the guts and gills of marine life, exposing the animals to chemicals in the plastic

    ★ As the plastics break down, they act like sponges that soak up contaminants and microbes and can ultimately work their way into our food supply.

    ★ The presence of microplastics in groundwater is even more harmful as groundwater flows through the cracks and voids in limestone, sometimes carrying sewage and runoff from roads, landfills and agricultural areas into the aquifers below.

           

Micro plastic: ★ Microplastics are plastic particles of less than 5 mm in diameter. ★ They enter the environment either as primary industrial products, such as those used in scrubbers and cosmetics, or via urban waste water and broken-down elements of articles discarded by consumers.

                                                                                                                                      Source:- The Hindu

Kelkar moots setting up of ‘NITI Aayog 2.0’

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies

 

Context:

        ★ Mr. Kelkar, in a paper titled ‘Towards India’s new fiscal federalism,’ Former Finance Commission Chairman Vijay Kelkar has pitched for setting up of a ‘new NITI Aayog’ and giving it the responsibility for allocating capital and revenue grants to the States.

         

Need of revamped NITI Aayog:

       ★ According to Kelkar, ever since NITI Aayog has replaced the Planning Commission (which was promoting regionally balanced growth in India), the government has lost a significant policy reach.

       ★ Therefore the need has arisen for an institution to do the job at hand related to the structural issues including removal of regional imbalances in the economy.

         

Key Suggestions:

      ★ The new Niti Aayog or Niti Aayog 2.0 will be responsible for allocating development or transformational capital or revenue grants to the states

      ★ In order to make the new Niti Aayog more effective, it is essential to ensure that the institution is at the 'High Table' of decision making of the government.

      ★ This means the vice-chairman of the new Niti Aayog will need to be a permanent invitee of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

      ★ It need not be involved with the approval of the state’s annual expenditure programmes. It should rather strive to be a think-tank with ‘praxis’ possessing considerable financial muscle and devote its energies to outline coherent medium and long term strategy and corresponding investment resources for transforming India.

                                                                                                                                      Source:- The Hindu

Removing the roots of farmers’ distress [ Editorial / Opinion ]

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

 

Context:

       ★ Recently, there has been active discussion on the strategies addressing farm distress.

       ★ There are media reports that the ‘interim Budget’ may focus on the farm sector among other things.

         

Agrarian Distress:

Price and Income

       ★ Agrarian distress is mainly a result of low agricultural prices and poor farm incomes.

       ★ Low productivity in agriculture and related supply-side factors are the major concerns.

       ★ The CPI shows that the rise in prices for agriculture was much lower than general inflation in recent years.

       ★ Market prices for several agricultural commodities have been lower than those of minimum support prices (MSP).

 

Lower Productivity:

       ★ Low productivity in agriculture (due to declining average size of farm holdings) and related supply side factors are equally distressing for farmers.

       ★ More than 60% of irrigation water is consumed by two crops: rice and sugarcane. India uses upto three times the water used to produce one tonne of grain in countries such as Brazil, China and the U.S.

 

Land Size:

     ★ The average size of farm holdings declined from 2.3 hectares in 1970-71 to 1.08 hectares in 2015-16.

     ★ The share of small and marginal farmers increased from 70% in 1980-81 to 86% in 2015-16.

         

Solutions:

Price and Income:

     ★ When output increases well beyond the market demand, market prices decline. Hence, it is the success in increasing production that has resulted in this adverse consequence.

     ★ ‘Price deficiency compensation’ is an income support scheme (eg. Rythu Bandhu Scheme of Telangana and KALIA scheme of Odisha) which amounts to paying the difference between market price and the MSP.

     ★ One more method is the ‘open procurement system’ as followed in the case of rice and wheat, where procurement is open ended at the MSP.

     ★ A third option is ‘limited procurement’. Under this scheme, government will procure the ‘excess’ not all the produce, leaving the normal production to enter the market at a remunerative price. Thus, procurement will continue until the market price rises to touch the MSP.

     ★ The government can sell the procured grain in later years or use them in welfare programmes.

 

Low Productivity:

     ★ Technology can help to reduce lacunae in productivity and ‘yield gaps’ in agriculture.

     ★ Water-use efficiency can be improved significantly with better use of technologies that include drip irrigation.

     ★ Government policies have been biased towards cereals particularly rice and wheat. There is a need to make a shift from rice and wheat-centric policies to millets, pulses, fruits, vegetables, livestock and fish.

 

Land Size:

    ★ In the context of rural poverty, B.S. Minhas had argued even in the 1970s that compulsory consolidation of land holdings alongside land development activities could enhance the incomes/livelihoods of the poor in rural areas.

    ★ Fragmentation of land could be addressed by policies that promote compulsory consolidation of land holdings alongside land development activities.

    ★ Farmers can voluntarily come together and pool land to gain the benefits of size. Through consolidation, farmers can reap the economies of scale both in input procurement and output marketing.

         

Conclusion:

     ★ Farmers’ distress is due to low prices and low productivity. Limited procurement, measures to improve low productivity, and consolidation of land holdings to gain the benefits of size, can help in reducing agrarian distress. We need a long-term policy to tackle the situation.

                                                                                                                           Source:- The Hindu

Dancing around the Supreme Court [ Editorial / Opinion ]

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary Ministries and Departments of the Government

 

Context:

        ★ The Supreme Court recently struck down several statutory provisions and rules governing Maharashtra’s dance bars.

        ★ This decision forms part of a frequentative game that has evolved over 14 years between the Maharashtra government and the courts.

         

Background:

       ★ In 2005, the Maharashtra government imposed a ban on dance performances in bars, with the exception of hotels rated three stars and above. The public rationale offered was that these performances were obscene, morally corrupt, and promoted prostitution.

       ★ Dance performance licenses were cancelled with immediate effect. Subsequently, the affected parties filed petitions in the Bombay High Court.

       ★ The High Court held against the government resulting in an appeal to the Supreme Court.

       ★ The Supreme Court affirmed the High Court’s decision in July 2013, quoting two reasons:

                ☆ The government could not discriminate between luxury hotels and other establishments seeking licenses for dance performances.

                ☆ The ban had proven to be counterproductive, resulting in the unemployment of over 75,000 women, many of whom were forced by circumstances to engage in prostitution.

       ★ Rather than implementing the Supreme Court’s decision, the government imposed an outright ban on all dance performances, whether in street bars or upmarket hotels, a strategy to side-line the judgement.

       ★ Although the government’s response addressed the court’s first concern, it failed to address the second. This led to fresh proceedings in the Supreme Court.

       ★ While the Supreme Court saw through the government’s attempt to bypass its decision, it left room for the government to prohibit obscene dances with a view to protecting the dignity of the dancers.

       ★ Yet again, the government responded in a matter of months. Rather than seeking to impose a ban on dance performances altogether, it only did so to the extent that these performances were obscene or overtly sexual. A number of other conditions were imposed:

               ☆ Applicants were required to “possess a good character” with no criminal antecedents.

               ☆ The establishment could not be within one kilometre of an educational or religious institution.

               ☆ A CCTV camera would need to be fitted at the entrance.

               ☆ Customers could not be permitted to throw coins or currency notes on the dancers, but could add tips to the bill.

               ☆ The permit room (where alcohol was served) and the dance room would need to be separated by a partition.

               ☆ The stage could not be smaller than a prescribed size.

               ☆ Some of these conditions were challenged in the Supreme Court on the basis that they were far too oppressive.

         

SC In Recent Judgement:

★ On January 17 2019, the court upheld a few of these conditions, but struck down others.

★ For example,

              ☆ it noted that the CCTV requirement violated the right to privacy of the dancers and the patrons,

              ☆ the “good character” requirement was vague,

              ☆ the partition between the permit room and the dance room was unjustified, and the one kilometre distance requirement was impractical.

         

Institutional interaction between governments and the courts in this case:

     ★ Maharashtra government has responded more swiftly to judicial decisions than the Supreme Court has to the government’s counter measures.

              ☆ The final judicial decision in the first round took around 8 years, while the government’s response took about 11 months.

              ☆ In the second round, the court took a year and three months to make its decision; the government responded in six months.

     ★ The practical implication of the government being quicker than the courts is that even when government responses are imperfect, the court produces significant delays.

     ★ The Supreme Court often deploys the writ of continuing mandamus (issuing a series of interim orders over a period of time to monitor compliance with its decisions) in public interest litigation cases that test the limits of its jurisdiction. It has chosen not to adopt that enforcement strategy in this case.

         

Conclusion:

     ★ This case outlines the vulnerability of what is otherwise seen as an all-powerful Supreme Court, especially when it depends on the government to comply with its decisions in some positive way.

     ★ While the court cannot direct the enactment of legislation, it can monitor compliance with an order to issue licenses to qualified applicants.

     ★ Even when the courts strike down legislation or rules, the level of compliance with their decisions often lies in the hands of the executive.

     ★ These developments should also lead courts to introspect about the existing remedial landscape in cases where legislation is challenged.

                                                                                                                                           Source:- The Hindu

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