Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 01-02-2021

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 01-02-2021

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Science and Technology - SpaceX to use natural gas for rockets to Mars: World's richest person Elon Musk-led SpaceX is reportedly planning to use natural gas (NG) to launch its Starship rockets designed to carry people to Moon and Mars. This is a totally new idea. The company's short-term goals will depend on fossil fuel extraction and it intends to drill gas wells to make its own fuel and electricity. This was revealed in the US Federal Aviation Administration documents. Elon Musk wants to establish human colonies on the Moon and Mars.
2. Healthcare and Medicine - Govt. denies Indian vaccine less effective compared to other nations' vaccines: The government has debunked the 'myth' that Indian vaccine is less effective as compared to other nations' vaccines. "Indian vaccine underwent multiple tests and trials. It is accurate and effective to fight Covid-19," the government said, stating it as a fact. India has approved Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Serum Institute of India's Covishield for emergency use. There have been strong reactions to Covaxin across medical community, and the Ministry had issued strict orders against anyone questioning the same.
3. Indian Economy - Highest monthly GST revenue collection in Jan 2021 at Rs. 1.2L crore: The Finance Ministry has announced that GST revenues during January 2021 are the highest since introduction of GST and has almost touched the Rs. 1.2 lakh crore mark, exceeding January 2021's record of Rs. 1.15 lakh crore. The GST revenue collected in January is Rs. 1,19,847 crore, of which CGST is ?21,923 crore, SGST is Rs. 29,014 crore and IGST is Rs. 60,288 crore. For both Union and State governments, this is a high mark, and is good news as both are revenue starved. GST system has remained hit with glitches from July 2017, the month of rollout, and collections have been sub-par compared to expectations. Infosys, the firm that made the online GSTN software, hasn't been able to resolve all glitches till date.
4. World Politics - Trump's trial in trouble: Only five Republican senators joined Democrats in a vote that will allow the impeachment trial of Donald Trump to proceed. The lack of support from Republicans suggests that the two-thirds majority required in the Senate for a conviction does not exist. The trial is due to start on February 9th, 2021. Many Republican lawmakers are shirking from accepting the 6th January violence on Capitol Hill as an insurrection, making it clear that 'Rule of Law' only means a convenient interpretation nothing else.
5. Healthcare and Medicine - Covovax: Third COVID-19 vaccine may soon be available in India - A third type of coronavirus vaccine may soon be made available in India. This was informed by Serum Institute of India’s CEO Adar Poonawala. Poonawala said in a tweet that Serum Institute's partnership for a COVID-19 vaccine with Novavax has also published excellent efficacy results. He added saying that they have applied to start trials in India and hope to launch the vaccine-COVOVAX by June 2021!
6. World Politics - Europe's vaccine nationalism: The spectre of vaccine nationalism stalked Europe as a row erupted between Britain and the European Commission over supply of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine. Because of manufacturing problems at one of its European factories, AstraZeneca has said it will deliver less to the eu than it had planned in the coming months. The commission wants some of the shortfall to be made up with vaccine allotted for Britain. That risks breaching contractual obligations. But there are threats from the eu that if AstraZeneca does not agree, then supplies to Britain of other vaccines made in Europe, in particular the Pfizer jab, may be affected.
7. Governance and Institutions - Rs. 945-cr seed fund for startups: The government has approved the creation of a Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) worth ?945 crore for 2021-25. The fund will work to offer "early-stage funding to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialisation". PM Modi had earlier announced the seed fund at Startup India's international summit Prarambh. India wants more startups to come up, to innovate for wealth creation. Jobs generation is currently at a historic low, and a contracted economy further hit new jobs creation as manufacturers now choose machines over men.
8. Science and Technology - Multi-planetary system with 1 hot 'super-Earth' found: MIT Astronomers have found a multi-planetary system with a large, rocky and hot inner planet, or "super-Earth", and three gaseous outer planets. The planets orbit a Sun-like star over 200 light years away. Compared to our Solar System, these planets live very close to the star with their orbits ranging from 19 days to just under four days. Research like this is of no immediate practical use back on Earth, but deepens the understanding of the evolution of Universe.
9. World Politics - US to befriend Palestinians again: The Biden administration announced that it would restore diplomatic relations with the Palestinians and resume sending aid, reversing Donald Trump’s punitive approach. The new government also reaffirmed America’s support for a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Trump had taken a unilateral approach towards Israel, strengthening Netanyahu's aggressive nationalism that is bent on wiping out Palestinian claims.
10. Governance and Institutions - Government condemns vandalisation of Gandhi's statue in USA: On 28 January 2021, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the Central Park in the City of Davis, California was vandalised by unknown persons. It was a gift to the City of Davis by the Government of India in 2016. The Government of India strongly condemns this malicious and despicable act against a universally respected icon of peace and justice. The Consulate General of India in San Francisco has separately taken up the matter with the City of Davis and local law enforcement authorities, which have initiated the investigations. The Mayor of Davis deeply regretted the incident and informed that they have initiated an investigation. The US Department of State has conveyed that this act of vandalism is unacceptable and expressed the hope that perpetrators will be brought to justice as quickly as possible.

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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• 1. ECONOMY (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper)

Summary learnings from Economic Survey of India 2020-21

 

1. GDP Growth rate: The Survey says the economy will grow by 11% in real terms (adjusted for inflation) (nominal growth 15.4%) during 2021-22. This is near the 11.5% forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This will after the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will have contracted by 7.7% during 2020-21 to just about ?134.4 lakh crore (in real terms). The 11% growth expected in 2021-22 is on this low base. So, the 11% growth from this base means that the Indian GDP in 2021-22 will be at ?149.2 lakh crore (in real terms), which is just 2.4% more than the GDP of ?145.7 lakh crore in 2019-20. So, the Indian GDP in 2021-22 will be just a bit more than what it was in 2019-20. So, two years of economic growth has been turned to zero.
2. Government taxes: The gross tax revenue (GTR) earned by the government during April 2020 to November 2020 fell by 12.6% to Rs. 10.26 lakh crore. Other than the excise duty, taxes earned by the government have gone down sharply, due to the economy contracting. The excise duty collections are up due to higher prices per litre of petrol and diesel, during 2020. The GTR for FY 21 will be well short of the budgeted Rs. 24.2 lakh crore. A portion of the gross tax revenue earned by the union government is shared with the state governments. This devolution has fallen by 20.7% to Rs. 3.34 lakh crore between April and November 2020. State governments of India are hit hugely by the pandemic. Some recovery during the second half was seen in higher collections of GST. The monthly GST collections in December 2020 was Rs. 1.15 lakh crore (12% more than in December 2019). The Survey attributes this increase to "the combined effect of the rapid economic recovery post pandemic and the nation-wide drive against GST evaders and fake bills along with many systemic changes introduced recently, which have led to improved compliance." There is a darker explanation: lakhs of small businesses have shut down, and their business has moved to the formal sector which pays GST (but doesn't employ as many).
3. Other revenue sources: The disinvestment of PSUs was supposed to fetch huge sums, by selling of govt. stake. Of the targeted Rs. 2.1 lakh crore, by 20th January, 2021, the government was able to earn only Rs. 15,220 crore (7.2% of the targeted amount). More than half of this money came by selling shares in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC). Who is responsible? The Survey says Covid is. It seems that despite the BSE Sensex (India’s famous stock market index) crossing 50,000 points, govt. couldn't fetch good prices for its holdings.
4. Fiscal deficit: It is the difference between what a government earns and what it spends during the year. This difference is funded through the govt. borrowing from the markets, by issuing bonds. Lower GTR and disinvestment means that fiscal deficit will go up this year. As of January 8, the union government had borrowed a total of ?10.72 lakh crore, which was 65% more than what it had borrowed in the corresponding period in the previous financial year. The state governments had borrowed a total of ?5.71 lakh crore during the period, which was 41% more than the previous financial year. So the fiscal deficit of the union government for 2020-21 will be higher than 3.5% of the GDP, perhaps close to 7% of the GDP. General government deficit (states also added) will be much more.
5. Stock markets are unreal: While the RBI's Financial Stability Report (Jan 2021) spoke of the disconnect between the stock market levels and the real economy, the Economic Survey too says the same. How did the markets go up so much? Due to the FPIs, who between April and December 2020, net invested a massive $30 billion in buying Indian stocks (five times the amount invested in 2019). The future expected earnings of companies doesn't justify this.
6. Components of GDP expenditure: The Survey says the Indian economy will recover during the second half of 2020-21. This is due to government consumption (GFCE) in the second half expected to grow by 17%, after contracting by 3.9% during the first half. The private consumption (PFCE) which forms more than half of the Indian economy is expected to contract by 0.6% in the second half, after having contracted by 18.9% during the first half. The investment in the Indian economy (GFCF) is expected to contract by 0.8% in the second half of the year, against a contraction of 29% in the first half. So the ability of the economy to create jobs continues to remain limited. So demand uptick will be muted. Per capita incomes will drop.
7. Story of agriculture: Of the major sectors - agriculture, industry and services - the only sector expected to grow in 2020-21 is agriculture which is expected to grow by 3.4%. In 2019-20, agriculture's GVA stood at 14.7%. In 2020-21, it is expected to grow to 16.3%, due to the contraction of other major sectors. This is the first time the sector’s share in the economy will grow, in close to a decade.
8. Bank credit growth: The impact of covid has also been seen on bank credit growth or the increase in loans given by banks in comparison to the previous year. As of January 1, bank credit growth stood at 6.7%. Since September 2019, bank credit growth has been in single digits, a reason to worry. In fact, one of the reasons for this is the fact that banks continue to remain undercapitalized. The Survey feels that this might lead to banks lending to zombie companies, firms that are not making enough money to even be able to repay the interest on their loans. Under-capitalized banks may again resort to risk-shifting and zombie lending, thereby severely worsening the problem. The adverse impact could then spill over to the real economy through good borrowers and projects being denied credit."
9. Inflation: High inflation has been the norm recently. Inflation as measured by the consumer price inflation between April and December 2020 stood at 6.6% in comparison to the previous year. This has been on account of high food inflation of 9.1%. The Survey feels that "supply chain bottlenecks owing to COVID-19 induced disruptions" have been the main cause behind this inflation. As the economy opens up, food inflation has also been coming down and that’s clearly good news.
10. Summary: The Survey says that the "contraction this year reflects the ‘once in a century crisis’ unleashed by the pandemic and associated public health measures". Further, it expects 2021-22 to much better than 2020-21.

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• 2. ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper

Climate-fuelled disasters killed 4,75,000 people over 20 years

 

1. Deaths: Nearly five lakh people, mostly from the world’s poorest countries, died over the past two decades from conditions associated with climate disasters, according to new findings from the nonprofit Germanwatch.
2. Germanwatch: In its annual “Global Climate Risk Index” report, Germanwatch identified Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, as suffering the greatest impacts from such disasters from 2000 to 2019.
3. More: It was followed by Myanmar in Southeast Asia and Haiti, just 700 nautical miles from the Florida Keys, and where tropical storms and other climate stressors threaten to compound long-standing political, economic, environmental and health crises affecting the country.
4. Huge losses: Rounding out the top 10 for climate disasters between 2000 and 2019 were the Philippines, Mozambique, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand and Nepal. Total losses from countries analyzed were estimated at $2.5 trillion.
5. Puerto Rico: For the first time, the index does not include the United States beyond Puerto Rico because the underlying database lacked information about the U.S., the authors said. Data from Puerto Rico was collected independently, according to Germanwatch.
6. Developing in trauma: Wealthy countries like the U.S. and many European countries face significant climate risk, the group said, but generally have greater resources to blunt those impacts and implement risk reduction strategies. “Developed countries are also affected, and they have to ramp up their mitigation and adaptation action very urgently. However, developing countries suffer much more existentially from the impacts of extreme weather events,” Vera Künzel, a Germanwatch senior adviser for climate change adaptation and human rights, said in a Monday press briefing from Germany.
7. The US story: In its 2020 report, the United States ranked 27th among all countries for climate disaster impacts between 1999 and 2018. Had U.S. data been included in the 2021 report, the financial losses from extreme events would have been roughly $1 trillion higher. As in prior years, the 2021 report is based on data from Munich Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurers. The analysis accounts for events such as storms, floods and heat waves but does not include “slow-onset risks” such as sea-level rise, ocean warming and glacial melting, said David Eckstein, a report co-author and Germanwatch policy adviser on climate finance and investment.
8. Extreme weather disasters: There were roughly 11,000 extreme weather disasters worldwide between 2000 and 2019. Those events caused roughly 475,000 deaths and $2.5 trillion in economic losses for more than 160 countries. For the single year 2019, half of the 10 countries most affected by extreme weather are categorized as low- to lower middle-income countries, based on U.N. classifications. The greatest climate impacts for that year were felt in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and the Bahamas, all of which suffered severe losses from storms, according to Germanwatch.
9. Policy signal: While the index reveals much about the effects of climate warming across every continent, it also provides a policy signal to the Biden administration as the United States looks to restore its standing among climate-engaged nations. The mass disruption caused by extreme events, especially developing nations, has national security implications for the United States. That’s because governments can be destabilized by natural disasters, often leading to broader political, social and economic problems.
10. Migrant pressure: Human displacement caused by extreme events can also trigger tension between nations as “survivor migrants” flee areas destroyed by storms, floods, droughts and other disasters. The index relies on data from past events and is not intended to make projections about future climate scenarios. But the index shows a strong story and shows a level of exposure and vulnerability to extreme weather events that countries should understand as a warning signal.
11. Download PDF of report here - https://germanwatch.org/sites/germanwatch.org/files Global%20Climate%20Risk%20Index%202021_1.pdf

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• 3. FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper)

Why India needs to study China more deeply - MEA S Jaishankar, January 28, 2021

 

1. When: This was at the commencement of the 13th All India Conference of China Studies, by the Institute of Chinese Studies and IIT Madras China Studies Centre.
2. The need for it: It was to discuss China studies from different perspectives. This included developments within China, matters pertaining to India-China relations, China’s ties with the rest of the world, and our own understanding of that society. There is no question that India needs to invest more deeply in the study of China. It’s salience in the global order is self-evident; and recent decades if anything have only heightened that prominence. The two nations of course have some similarities, especially of size and of history. But they are also a very interesting contrast in many ways, whether you think of it culturally, politically or economically. Both are in the process of building a modern nation state from a civilizational society and their parallel rise in the contemporary era, albeit at a differential pace and intensity, that is a relatively unique happening in human history.
3. MEA initiatives on studying China: From a policy perspective, it is naturally to our advantage that there is solid expertise on China in India. The Ministry of External Affairs has set up a dedicated study centre on China. There also is something much broader than a strategic requirement. As both India and China have grown in recent decades, it was inevitable that they would have much more to do with each other. They both have seen that expressed in trade and in finance, in tourism and culture, and indeed, as we are seeing just now, in think-tanks and academia as well. Exchanges in all domains are obviously facilitated by a more informed understanding of the polity and society with which we are dealing. But, while policy itself may benefit from a wider pool of expertise and talent, it is equally necessary that the world of China studies also has a sound grasp of policy.
4. Historical update: After the 1962 conflict, both exchanged Ambassadors only in 1976. The first Prime Ministerial visit to China after 1954 actually happened only in 1988. And indeed, the re-building of our ties was actually a very painstaking and arduous endeavour. The quality of our ties in many ways was impacted, both by the border conflict and the lost decades thereafter. There is also a strategic explanation to this, given how close China was – in contrast to India - to the West in this period. Nevertheless, for the last three decades, interactions and exchanges grew steadily in many areas. China became one of India's largest trading partners, a very significant source of investment, even of technology, a participant in projects and infrastructure building and a very substantial destination for tourism and education. As for the border areas, a complex but practical set of understandings and agreements focused on their management even as negotiations were conducted on the boundary dispute.
5. LAC story: The advancement of ties in this period was clearly predicated on ensuring that peace and tranquillity was not disturbed and that the Line of Actual Control was both observed and respected by both sides. For this reason, it was explicitly agreed that the two countries would refrain from massing troops on their common border. There was also increasing construction of border infrastructure, especially on the Chinese side. Since 2014, there may have been more efforts by India to reduce this very considerable gap, including greater budget commitments and a better road building record. Nevertheless, the infrastructure differential remains significant and, as we saw last year, consequential.
6. Fundamentally peaceful: For all the differences and disagreements on the boundary, the central fact was that border areas still remained fundamentally peaceful. The last loss of life before 2020 was, in fact, as far back as 1975. That is why the events in Eastern Ladakh last year have so profoundly disturbed the relationship. Because they not only signalled a disregard for commitments about minimizing troop levels, but also showed a willingness to breach peace and tranquillity.
7. Trade angle: Even before 2020, the India-China relationship witnessed decisions and events that reflected the duality of cooperation and competition. Trade grew dramatically, though it’s one-sided nature made it increasingly controversial. In sectors like power and telecom, Chinese companies obtained access to the Indian market. The number of Indian students in China grew, as indeed did Indian tourists who visited there. When it came to interests and aspirations, some of the divergences were also apparent. You may recall the practice of stapled-visas; or the reluctance to deal with some of our military commands. Then there was China’s opposition to India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and to a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. When it came to trade, promises of market access did not match delivery. The blocking of UN listing of Pakistani terrorists involved in attacks on India had its own resonance. And of course, the violation of Indian sovereignty by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Even the border areas saw frictions on some occasions. As the cumulative impact of these developments began to be felt, the two nations agreed at Astana in 2017 not to allow differences to become disputes. At the same time, they also endeavoured to enhance the factors of stability in the relationship. Subsequent Summits were largely in that direction and infact affirmed that very consensus. But far from mitigating differences, the events of 2020 have actually put our relationship under exceptional stress.
8. Eight broad propositions. (a) First and foremost, agreements already reached must be adhered to in their entirety, both in letter and spirit. (b) Second, where the handling of the border areas are concerned, the LAC must be strictly observed and respected; any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo is completely unacceptable. (c) Third, peace and tranquillity in the border areas is the basis for development of relations in other domains. If they are disturbed, so inevitably will the rest of the relationship. This is quite apart from the issue of progress in the boundary negotiations. (d) Fourth, while both nations are committed to a multi-polar world, there should be a recognition that a multi-polar Asia is one of its essential constituents. (e) Fifth, obviously each state will have its own interests, concerns and priorities; but sensitivity to them cannot be one-sided. At the end of the day, relationships between major states are reciprocal in nature. (f) Sixth, as rising powers, each will have their own set of aspirations and their pursuit too cannot be ignored. (g) Seventh, there will always be divergences and differences but their management is essential to our ties. (h) And eighth, civilizational states like India and China must always take the long view.

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• 4. GOVERNMENT SCHEMES (Prelims, GS Paper 2, Essay paper)

Ayushman CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces) 

 

The “Ayushman CAPF” scheme was launched to extend the benefits of the central health insurance program to all members of the Country’s Armed Police Forces.

• Highlights:

1. According to this scheme, approximately 28 lakh personnel of CAPF, Assamese rifles and the National Security Guard (NSG) and their families will be covered by "Ayushman Bharat: Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana" (AB PM-JAY).
2. Key Features of PM-JAY: The world's largest health insurance/guarantee scheme fully funded by the government.
3. It provides insurance of 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary nursing hospitalizations in public and private intensive hospitals in India.
4. Insurance: More than 1.074 million poor and vulnerable eligible families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) are eligible for these benefits.
5. Provide beneficiaries with cashless access to health services at the service point.
6. Eligibility: There are no restrictions on the number of families, age or gender. From the first day, all pre-existing conditions are covered. Cover up to 3 days before hospitalization and up to 15 days after hospitalization, such as diagnosis and medicines. The benefits of the scheme can be used throughout the country. The service includes approximately 1,393 procedures, covering all costs related to treatment, including but not limited to drugs, supplies, diagnostic services, physician fees, room fees, surgeon fees, OT and ICU fees, etc. The health care service reimbursement of public hospitals is the same as that of private hospitals.

Fourteen Minor Forest Produce Items included under MSP Scheme

 

Highlights:

1. The government has focused on raising the income levels of tribals and others. This new mechanism will help to provide remunerative and fair prices to tribal gatherers of forest produces. The items which have been included in the scheme include- Tasar Cocoon, bamboo shoot, elephant apple dry, wild dry mushroom and malkangani seed.
2. Minimum Support Price (MSP): It is an agricultural product price which is set by the Government of India to purchase directly from the farmer. MSP is not enforceable by law. This MSP rate is decided to safeguard the farmer to a minimum profit for the harvest in case the open market has lesser price than the cost incurred. Price is set for 23 commodities twice a year. It is set on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) since 2009.
3. Background: The Minimum Support Price was announced for the first time in the year 1966-67 for wheat. The MSP was decided in the light of Green Revolution and extended harvest in order to save the farmers from depleting profits.
4. Minor Forest Produce (MFP): It includes all non-timber forest produce of plant origin. It also includes bamboo, fodder, leaves, canes, waxes dyes, gums, resins and many forms of food like nuts, honey wild fruits, lac, tusser etc. MFP It provides both subsistence and cash income for people living in or near the forests.
5. MFP through MSP scheme: It is a centrally sponsored scheme (CSS). The scheme ensures that the tribal population gets remunerative prices for the MFP and seeks to provide them alternative employment avenues. The mechanism for marketing of minor forest produce through minimum support price and development of value chain for MFP’ scheme is done by the State designated agencies. To assure the market price, the services of market correspondents are availed by the designated agencies.

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• 5. POLITY AND CONSTITUTION (Prelims, GS Paper 2, GS Paper 3)

The unique Collegium System of Indian higher judiciary

• Nowhere in the world is any such system followed. The constitution of India also does not mention any such system. It was evolved as a Sui Generis system by the Supreme Court, from the 1980s onwards.
• In 2021, the Indian Supreme Court (SC) questioned the government about the delay in clearing Collegium recommendations for judicial appointments to various High Courts (HCs).
• What is the system: Collegium system is for appointment and transfer of judges, evolved through various judgments of the SC, and not by an Act of Parliament or by a provision of the Constitution.
• Milestones in this system:

1. First Judges Case (1981): It declared that the “primacy” of the Chief Justice of India (CJI)s recommendation on judicial appointments and transfers can be refused for “cogent reasons.” The ruling gave the Executive primacy over the Judiciary in judicial appointments for the next 12 years.
2. Second Judges Case (1993): The SC introduced the Collegium system, holding that “consultation” really meant “concurrence”. It added that it was not the CJI’s individual opinion, but an institutional opinion formed in consultation with the two senior-most judges in the SC.
3. Third Judges Case (1998): The SC on President’s reference expanded the Collegium to a five-member body, comprising the CJI and four of his senior-most colleagues.

• Nature of the Collegium: The SC collegium is headed by the CJI and comprises four other senior most judges of the court. A HC collegium is led by its Chief Justice and four other senior most judges of that court. Names recommended for appointment by a HC collegium reaches the government only after approval by the CJI and the SC collegium. Judges of the higher judiciary are appointed only through the collegium system and the government has a role only after names have been decided by the collegium. The government’s role is limited to getting an inquiry conducted by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) if a lawyer is to be elevated as a judge in a High Court or the Supreme Court. The Intelligence Bureau (IB), controlled by the Ministry of Home Affairs, can raise objections. If the collegium reiterates the same names, the government is bound, under Constitution Bench judgments, to appoint them as judges.
• Procedure for appointments: For the Chief Justice of India (CJI), the President of India appoints the CJI and the other SC judges. The outgoing CJI recommends his successor. In practice, it has been strictly by seniority ever since the supersession controversy of the 1970s. For other SC Judges, the proposal is initiated by the CJI. The CJI consults the rest of the Collegium members, as well as the senior-most judge of the court hailing from the High Court to which the recommended person belongs. The consultees must record their opinions in writing and it should form part of the file. The Collegium sends the recommendation to the Law Minister, who forwards it to the Prime Minister to advise the President. For Chief Justices of High Courts, he/she is appointed as per the policy of having Chief Justices from outside the respective States. The Collegium takes the call on the elevation. High Court judges are recommended by a Collegium comprising the CJI and two senior-most judges. The proposal is initiated by the outgoing Chief Justice of the High Court concerned in consultation with two senior-most colleagues. The recommendation is sent to the Chief Minister, who advises the Governor to send the proposal to the Union Law Minister.
• Criticism: There has been vigorous criticism of it, due to the opaqueness. The scope for nepotism is very high, it is alleged. Many senior lawyers alleged over time that it overlooks several talented junior judges and advocates. Some families of judges have come to dominate the Indian judiciary, it's said. (brother judges, uncle judges)
• Reforming the system: The attempt made to replace it by a ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission’ was struck down by the court in 2015 on the ground that it posed a threat to the independence of the judiciary. The law was scrapped.
• Constitutional provisions: The Article 124(2) of the Indian Constitution provides that the Judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President after consultation with such a number of the Judges of the Supreme Court and of the High Courts in the States as the President may deem necessary for the purpose. Article 217 of the Indian Constitution states that the Judge of a High Court shall be appointed by the President consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the Governor of the State, and, in the case of appointment of a Judge other than the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice of the High Court.
• What India needs: Judicial processes are dynamic, and vacancies are filled continuously via a collaborative process involving the executive and the judiciary, and there cannot be a time frame for it. India now needs a permanent, independent body to institutionalize the process with adequate safeguards to preserve the judiciary’s independence guaranteeing judicial primacy but not judicial exclusivity. Goal has to be independence, reflecting diversity, demonstrating professional competence and integrity. It seems India is way off from this for now.

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• 6. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Prelims, Various GS Papers)

Why Biden is buying 6,45,000 new cars

 

1. US Government Fleet: The U.S. federal government owns 6,45,047 motor vehicles, according to most recent report. This fleet is, for the most part, a menagerie of trucks: construction vehicles, Ford F-150s, armored vans that sit next to NASA launchpads so astronauts can quickly flee in case of an emergency. Many of those trucks—about a third of the federal fleet—are the white, cube-like U.S. Postal Service vans. Another third are passenger cars. The government owns a lot of vehicles.
2. Biden's action plan: Since he took office in Jan 2021, President Joe Biden has recommitted the United States to the Paris Agreement and canceled the Keystone XL pipeline. His most interesting climate actions so far haven’t taken the form of executive orders or really appeared in writing at all. Yet they offer a clearer view of Biden’s approach to climate change—and its aspiration to reshape the American economy—than anything we’ve seen so far. His plan for the federal fleet, in particular, encapsulates Biden-era climate policy in its ambition and limits. He debuted the initiative yesterday while signing an executive order pledging that the government would buy more American-made goods.
3. Clean Electric Vehicles: The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which will now be replaced with clean electric vehicles made right here in America, by American workers. This initiative will create 1 million electric-automaking jobs, it is claimed. (That’s a big goal: At the end of last year, about 9,30,000 Americans worked in automaking, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics.)
4. Is this a sensible decision? By going electric, Biden’s government is making the same choice that hundreds of thousands of Americans have already made. Electric vehicles have cheaper fuel costs, and lower lifetime-maintenance costs, than gas vehicles, according to AAA. The government will spend less over time to run an electric fleet. Yet this type of policy isn’t meant to reflect the present-day market so much as influence the country’s future political economy. It rewards two of Biden’s strategic constituencies: unions in the Upper Midwest and young climate advocates. It is practicable: Democrats can accomplish it using only their narrow congressional majorities and Biden’s authority as chief of the executive branch.
5. Various Questions:  Will Biden replace federal gas-burning vehicles earlier than otherwise planned? Will the changeover take four years or 14? These details will shape how much electric automakers notice and benefit from the policy. Only about 1.6 million plug-in electric vehicles have been sold in the U.S. ever; in 2019, for instance, fewer than a quarter million EVs were sold. If Biden were to replace, say, the entire federal fleet over five years, the government would buy about 129,000 new cars every year—a huge total, equivalent to about a quarter of Tesla’s worldwide production last year. But if the fleet isn’t fully replaced until 2035, the policy will make a much smaller dent.
6. Not too big really: It is limited in other ways. The federal fleet, although it is truly enormous, pales in comparison with the American private fleet. In 2019, the federal fleet consumed the equivalent of 386 million gallons of gasoline, emitting about 3.4 million tons of carbon dioxide. But the country as a whole used 142 billion gallons of gasoline that year. The federal fleet was responsible for about a 20th of 1 percent of U.S. carbon emissions in 2019. Every ounce of carbon reduction matters, but this policy will succeed or fail based on whether it accelerates electric-car adoption nationwide—not on whether it has a noticeable effect on American carbon emissions.
7. Action is needed indeed: It is clear that climate change is real and dealing with it will require federal action. Many senior Trump officials were foggy on the first axiom and hostile to the second. Their policy reflected it. Biden is trickier: His administration seems intent on actually doing things. It has already outpaced Donald Trump’s standard. So what new standard should it meet? The goal of international climate policy might be atmospheric stabilization, but that exceeds the ambit of any one country or president.
8. The grand goal:  The lodestar is net zero by 2050, which Biden has laid out as a national goal. According to a recent landmark study from the ZERO Lab at Princeton, meeting that goal in the U.S. would require, by 2030, closing virtually all coal plants, expanding the power grid by 60 percent, and making sure that at least half of all new cars sold are EVs. That 2030 goal is close enough in time for us to have a sense of how much work remains to be done. And it shows why, for Biden’s federal-fleet plan to get results, it must happen quickly. Turning over the federal fleet by 2035, for instance, is not enough.

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• 7. SOCIAL ISSUES (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

America's COVID lessons 2020-21

• America's 3 lessons: Since the coronavirus pandemic hit the American economy like a bulldozer, last spring, it has learned three important lessons.

1. Getting the policy response right matters enormously.
2. Aggregate economic statistics can disguise a great deal of individual hardship.
3. The most effective remedy for reviving the economy is defeating the virus.

• GDP impacted: By Jan end, the Commerce Department reported that the gross domestic product, which is the broadest measure of the economy’s output, fell by 3.5 per cent in 2020. That was the biggest decline in a single year since 1946, but it was a considerably better outcome than many economists were forecasting last spring, as many factories, stores, and other businesses were forced to close. When members of the Federal Reserve’s main policymaking committee met in June 2021, their median prediction was that G.D.P. would fall by 6.5 per cent in 2020 as a whole, and that the unemployment rate at the end of the year would be 9.3 per cent. The actual decline in G.D.P. was barely half of what was projected, and the jobless rate also undershot the Fed’s projections: in December it stood at 6.7 per cent.
• Why not as bad: A big reason for this better-than-expected performance was that policymakers—Congress and the Fed itself—provided an unprecedented amount of support for the economy when it needed it most. The $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which Congress passed on a bipartisan basis in March, “delivered the most extensive fiscal relief in U.S. history. Moreover, it was targeted primarily to vulnerable families, workers, and small businesses,” the White House Council of Economic Advisers noted in a recent report. On the monetary side, the Fed rolled out a series of emergency lending programs, cut interest rates to near-zero, and pumped trillions of dollars into the bond markets.
• Downward spiral prevented: Taken together, these programs prevented what policymakers feared most at the time: a downward spiral, in which layoffs caused by the pandemic would lead to big falls in income and spending, which, in turn, would prompt further layoffs, and so on. This feedback process is what turns recessions into depressions. By sending cash to households, jobless workers, and small businesses, and making it easier for large corporations to raise money (through the Fed programs), the federal government propped up aggregate income and spending, which otherwise would have cratered. In fact, these programs were so successful that over-all personal disposable income—the total amount of income that Americans have left to spend after paying taxes—didn’t fall at all.
• Supporting households: This unprecedented operation to prop up household incomes helped to support spending by consumers, which accounts for about two-thirds of the gross domestic product. In April, as many people were stuck at home and many stores closed, consumer spending collapsed. However, it then recovered strongly for six months, before falling slightly again in the final two months of the year, as the second wave of the virus kicked in.
• The sad stories: To repeat Lesson 2, these aggregate figures don’t capture the fate of millions of Americans who have suffered greatly during the past eleven months. Many of these people work in the industries hardest hit by the closures—hotels, restaurants, and hospitality or leisure businesses. Others have been forced to give up work to look after their children or other family members. According to the Labor Department, the official jobless total was 10.7 million in December, of whom four million had been out of work for twenty-seven weeks or more. Even these dire numbers fail to give a full picture, however.
• Missing them: They don’t count Americans who have dropped out of the labour force. Thanks to population growth, the workforce usually grows every year, but between December, 2019, and December, 2020, it declined by four million people. The jobless figures also don’t tell us about workers who have had their hours cut or have experienced a cut in their wages.
• Worst hit: The burden of the pandemic has fallen hardest on members of minority groups and low-paid workers—including undocumented workers—who can’t work from home and don’t have the financial reserves to weather an extended recession.
• Continuing pain: Despite the expansion in jobless benefits, which Congress allowed to lapse briefly before renewing the program in December 2020, the pandemic is continuing to cause a great deal of anxiety and hardship.
• New support: The coronavirus spending bill that Congress passed in December, which was worth about nine hundred billion dollars, is already providing some additional support to hard-hit households, and the $1.9 trillion package being pushed by the Biden Administration, if it gets enacted, would provide a good deal more. However, virtually all economists agree that the real key to reviving the economy, and alleviating hardship, is to defeat the virus. Given the resistance to strict lockdown measures in the United States and other Western countries, that equates to vaccinating most of the population in the next few months.
• Vaccination: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), 22.9 million Americans (6.9 per cent of population) had received at least one vaccine shot. That puts the United States ahead of many countries, but far behind Israel, where 52.6 per cent of the population has been vaccinated, and quite a bit behind the United Kingdom, where 12.3 per cent has been immunized. President Biden has pledged to raise the vaccinated figure to a hundred million by the end of April 2021, which would have a big impact.

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• 8. MISCELLANEOUS (Prelims, GS Paper 1, GS Paper 2)

1. The virus of inequality: The world economy is slowly recovering from the devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the recovery is uneven among countries and within countries. It is an emerging universal truth that, in the post-pandemic world, economic inequality is rising sharply in all countries. The new report by Oxfam revealed that the 1,000 wealthiest people worldwide recovered their losses from the pandemic within nine months as opposed to the world’s poorest, who might take a decade to limp back to their pre-pandemic standing. The World Economic Forum has proposed ‘the Great Reset of Capitalism,’ which says it is a “commitment to jointly and urgently build the foundations of our economic and social system for a more fair, sustainable and resilient future.” The current world economic order can be termed neo-capitalism or neo-liberalism, which focuses on Laissez-faire (market freedom), globalization, intellectual property rights, free movement of goods, services investment, and ideas.
2. Inequalities in India: Inequality was alarmingly high and destabilizing social and political order in much of the world even before the pandemic struck. Inequality is widening across the world, and India is no exception. According to the recent Oxfam report, Inequality in India has risen to levels last seen when it was colonized. The additional wealth acquired by India’s 100 billionaires since March when the lockdown was imposed is enough to give every one of the 138 million poorest ?94,045. An unskilled worker in India would take three years to earn the richest person earned in one second last year. A key concern with discussion on inequalities is "Normalization of Inequalities". Many try to justify growing inequalities as an inevitable by-product of economic growth that led to the reduction of absolute poverty!
3. Worldwide economic reality: The worsening inequality in income and opportunities impacts some sections disproportionately due to discrimination based on race, gender, caste, and other factors. Despite the commitment to market competition, the neoliberal economic agenda instead brought the decline of competition and the rise of close to monopoly power in vast swaths of the economy: pharmaceuticals, telecom, airlines, agriculture, banking, industrials, retail. In India, just three corporate groups are gaining ground dangerously fast, with others edged out. Economic development worldwide is also built on the intensification of energy use. There is an unprecedented concentration of high energy density in all economic development strategies. The bulk of the energy continues to be generated from non-renewable sources. The developed world captured energy-generating resources from across continents and put them to use to push their GDP growth to greater heights. That led to US intervention in Middle East for decades, something Trump tried to reduce.
4. Sustainable economic models being searched: The Nordic Economic Model tries making the current redistribution of wealth more equitable. It consists of effective welfare safety nets for all, corruption-free governance, the fundamental right to quality education & healthcare, high taxes for the rich, etc. The new buzzword seems to be "4P Model of Capitalism" - focus on ‘Profit, People, Planet, Purpose. If India can get its internal inequality issues right, it may contribute to the framing of new rules to govern global capitalism and the reshaping of international institutions. But if the damagingly dangerous internal inequalities in India keep growing, its voice won't carry due weight in the global debate at all.
5. Learning during the Pandemic - role of digital education: The Covid-19 outbreak has disrupted Indian children’s lives, pushed out many, and stalled classes and examinations. Most schools shifted the classes to online mode, and the education system has faced an upheaval. The 2017-18 National Sample Survey suggested that less than 15% of rural Indian households have Internet as opposed to 42% of their urban counterparts, which is a recipe for more inequality being bred for the new decade. Digital education is the innovative use of digital tools and technologies during teaching and learning and is often referred to as Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) or e-Learning. Government has launched some initiatives for smooth conduct of E-Learning, like (a) E-PG Pathshala: An initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development to provide e-content for studies, (b) SWAYAM: it provides for an integrated platform for online courses, (c) NEAT: It aims to use Artificial Intelligence to make learning more personalized and customized as per the requirements of the learner, (d) National Project on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), National Knowledge Network, (NKN), and National Academic Depository (NAD), among others. Going forward, we need flexible rescheduling of the academic timetable and exploring options in collaboration with schools, teachers, and parents for providing access to education to a larger section of students. We ought to prioritise the less advantaged students who do not have access to e-learning. The system should not just heartlessly push the students and teachers in only finishing the course regardless of any gain of knowledge, stress should be upon quality learning and not quantity cramming. If ‘Equality of Opportunity’ is one of the basic principles of the Indian Constitution, then shifting to a system that benefits only a section of people and leaves behind the neediest is its anti-thesis.
6. DRDO successfully test fires Akash-NG missile: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully test-fired the surface-to-air Akash-NG (New Generation) Missile off the Odisha coast. The missile can intercept the aerial threats. The missile has been launched in order to boost the Indian Air Force (IAF) defence system. The Akash-NG is a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile defense system, produced jointly by the Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) that developed the Missile Systems and the Bharat Electronics (BEL), Tata Power Strategic Engineering Division & Larsen & Toubro that developed the radars, control centers, launcher systems. This missile has the capability of targeting the aircraft up to 50-60 km away at altitudes of 18,000 m, and can neutralize the aerial targets such as the fighter jets, cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles. It's now live with the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force. It utilizes an integrated ramjet-rocket propulsion system. This propulsion system provides sustained thrust for the missile after initial rocket motor burnout until its interception. The Akash battery comprises of a single Rajendra 3D passive electronically scanned array radar or Simple the Rajendra Radar and four launchers with three missiles each. Each battery can track up to 64 targets and attack up to 12. It comprises of a 60 Kg high-explosive, pre-fragmented warhead. The missile is capable of protecting the moving convoy of vehicles. It provides air defence missile coverage for the area of 2,000 km². The Passive Electronically Scanned Array (PESA) is also called as the passive phased array. PESA is an antenna in which beam of radio waves can be electronically directed to point in different directions in which all the antenna elements are connected with the single transmitter.
7. Global Climate Risk Index 2021: It was released by Germanwatch-a NGO based in Bonn, Germany. In the index, India has been ranked at seventh position among the countries that are most effected by climate change in 2019. Key findings include the learning that monsoon continued for a month longer than normal in India in the year 2019. In the period of June to September 2019, 110% of the long-period average was recorded. Heavy rain caused the severe flooding in India that resulted into death of 1,800 across14 states. The flood also caused the displacement of 1.8 million people. As per the report, eight tropical cyclones cam in India. Six of them intensified to be very severe. Report further highlights that, ‘Extremely severe’ cyclone Fani affected 28 million people and killed 90 people in India and Bangladesh. Around 4,75,000 people have lost their lives as a direct result of more than 11,000 extreme weather events globally in between the 2000 to 2019.
8. The STARS Project: The Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education, and the World Bank have signed the Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program (STARS) project on January 28, 2021. The project is a financial support agreement. The STARS project is a centrally sponsored scheme that seeks to strengthen the school education system. The agreement has been signed with an aim of improving the quality and governance of school education in six states of India viz., Kerala, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Odisha. It will benefit approximately 25 crore students in the age group of 6 to 17 years coming from the 15 lakh schools. Apart from the students, the project will also benefit 1 crore teachers across the six states.  The project was launched with the aim of strengthening the public-school education, and supports India’s aim of “Education for All”. The total cost of the STARS project is Rs 5718 crore. The World Bank has provided financial support worth $500 million which stands around Rs. 3700 crores.

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• SECTION 3 - MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)

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