28 Feb 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. India gets invite for U.S.-Taliban deal event
2. U.K. threatens to pull out of EU trade talks
3. ‘We need liberal trade arrangements’
C. GS 3 Related
ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY
1. U.P. pollution control body pulled up for Ganga’s plight
2. AAP govt. to chalk out three -level action plan to curb air pollution
ECONOMY
1. Telcos seek help on ‘priority basis’
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
INTERNAL SECURITY
1. What should India’s joint command structure look like?
ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY
1. A browning east
HEALTH
1. Virus marches on
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. Aadhaar, no standout performer in welfare delivery
F. Prelims Facts
1. Light Combat Helicopter
2. Lockheed to deliver six MH-60R copters in 2021
G. Tidbits
1. India to carry out projects in Rakhine
2. India evacuates 112 people from China, 124 from Japan
3. Bank credit growth slips to 6.4%
4. Sugar output set to beat estimate: ISMA
5. Oil slumps over 4% on virus fears
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

A. GS 1 Related

Nothing here for today!!!

C. GS 3 Related

Category: ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. U.P. pollution control body pulled up for Ganga’s plight

Background:

• The Namami Gange Programme had undertaken the cleaning of some of the drains emptying into the Ganga.
  • The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the U.P Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) had been jointly monitoring 24 drains since March 2019.
  • Drains that revealed “high colour” from chemical effluents or Biochemical Oxygen Demand and Dissolved Oxygen, mostly due to higher microbial presence, were to be cleaned under the Programme.
• Errant municipal bodies or industrial units were to be fined or face shutdowns.
• Over a thousand industries in the region, including sugarcane, pulp and paper and tanneries, and slaughter houses had been identified and monitored for effluent load.

Details:

• The CPCB has pulled up the UPPCB for its inability to prevent drains in Kanpur from polluting the Ganga.
  • The inspection revealed the insufficiency of the existing tapping arrangement. The inspection revealed high total chrome content in the drain water, indicating the discharge of untreated, chrome-bearing wastewater from tannery units located in and around Kanpur.
  • Kanpur contributes the highest pollution load among all of the cities of Uttar Pradesh, which itself accounts for 75% of the pollution load in the Ganga.
• The CPCB has ordered the UPPCB to expedite surveillance of tanneries responsible for the discharge.

D. GS 4 Related

Nothing here for today!!!

E. Editorials

Category: INTERNAL SECURITY

1. What should India’s joint command structure look like?

Background:

• There has been a massive restructuring of the military command structure in India in recent times.
  • The post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) has been created backed by the formation of the Department of Military Affairs.
  • There is the decision in principle to set up theatre commands, centred on the theme of tri-service integration. A three-year timeline for rolling out theatre commands has been indicated by the CDS.

Details:

Kargil War of 1999:

• After the Kargil War, a decision was taken to overhaul the higher defence organization as several weaknesses were detected, especially in the conduct of joint operations by the three services. The imperative to create a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) assumed great importance after the war.
• There was a comprehensive review of the entire command structure after the Kargil War.
• The Kargil Review Committee (KRC) was set up by the Government of India to examine the sequence of events and make recommendations for the future.
• A nuclear dimension had also come into the equation, following the 1998 nuclear tests, the ‘no first use’ doctrine, and the need for a second strike capability through a nuclear triad.
• But unfortunately, given the fact that both the military and civilian organizations are extremely reluctant to change, no significant changes were observed.
• The Naresh Chandra task force (2011) reviewed the recommendations of the Kargil Review Committee, assessed the implementation and accordingly suggested new changes needed relating to national security.
  • According to the task force, many of the main recommendations of the Kargil Review Committee have not been implemented.
  • The task force deliberated on the theatre command concept but had recommended the formation of regional commands.

Significance of the Current Military reforms:

Theatre command structure:

• Theatre commands framework is something which is desirable for India, given its present and future interests.
• The plan is to create theatre commands: Dedicated tri-service commands that are to be deployed along the northern border with China, the western border with Pakistan, an air defence command, and in the maritime domain, a peninsular command.
• Instead of having separate commands for every service, the CDS is working on having a joint or theatre command that can carry out all war-fighting formations under a single commander.
• In the absence of theatre commands, there would be the duplication of functions and roles.

Security challenges in the neighbourhood:

• The Doklam crisis with China and the Balakot airstrikes in Pakistan can be considered critical trigger points for the current focus on military reforms in India.
• The recent reforms will sharpen the combat edge of the Indian forces through streamlined tri-service operations.

Financial sense:

• The recent decisions may also be financially driven.
• The Navy and Air Force have repeatedly been requesting for more ships and fighter jets. Given the limited resource base of India for military expenditure and also the changing nature of warfare, there is the need to pool and share costly assets, bringing down operating costs.

The negative experience of tri-service command structure:

• The Andaman and Nicobar Command is the first tri-service command, set up in 2001 to focus on India’s interests in south-east Asia and the Strait of Malacca. India has had a very patchy experience with respect to the tri-service command.
  • The joint command was not allowed to succeed because the three services did not want to share their assets, and did not post their best officers on it.
  • The Andaman and Nicobar Command did not take off because no service allocated resources. Theatre commands work best when you have dedicated assets.
• The negative experience might have convinced the current administration to create an empowered office of the CDS, capable of sweeping aside resistance from individual services.

Concerns:

DMA:

• The formation of the DMA is a key pillar of the ongoing military reforms.
• The uniformed personnel for the first time will be involved in high-level decision-making.
• There have been questions raised on whether the balance between the civilian bureaucracy and the armed forces has been achieved or not. Worryingly, the restructuring seems to have dismantled the old civil-military relationship, by bestowing far greater powers in decision-making on the armed forces.

Peninsular command:

• The CDS has stated that an Indian Ocean-centered Peninsular Command, possibly formed by merging the Eastern and Western Naval Commands, should start shaping up by the end of 2021.
• Given the vast maritime frontiers, the formation of one peninsular command, as recommended, may not be good enough. The increased reference to the Asia-Pacific, the Quad framework with the U.S., Japan and Australia has only increased India’s stakes in the oceanic region.

Way forward:

Vision document:

• With respect to the theatre commands, India needs a clear, realistic vision document about what India’s strategic interests are. Based on this vision document, specific roles for the theatre commands can be assigned.
• The Chief of Defence Staff must spell out India’s strategic interests as part of a vision document.

Addressing the aspects of command and control in designated theatres:

• The CDS heads the DMA and is the Principal Adviser to the Defence Minister and the Military Adviser to the strategic nuclear forces.
• The CDS is not an operational head of the tri-service theatre commands unlike, the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee in the United States. There are concerns that this can cause problems in command and control in the designated theatres.
• To deal with this issue, there is a need to appoint a dedicated task force in which the three services are involved and given a six-month time frame to define the desired concept and address command and control aspects over theatre commands.

Military Education:

• Under the DMA, the military has been asked to perform complex administrative roles.
• The current professional military education within the armed forces focusses exclusively on operation and training and not enough towards education. The exposure to the civilian stream is minimum.
• There is a need to encourage the officers to get a more comprehensive education.
• The U.S. and many European countries include within military education, awareness of the wider society. The setting up of the Indian version of the National Defence University may help in this regard.

The education imparted should equip the officers to perform complex inter-agency roles as demanded by institutions such as the DMA.

Category: ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. A browning east

Context:

Climate change and the Eastern Ghats.

Details:

• The Eastern Ghats are spread across 75,000 sq. km. from Odisha to southern Tamil Nadu.
• The region receives an annual average rainfall of 1,200 mm to 1,500 mm. The discontinuous mountain range is mainly composed of deciduous forests.
• The Eastern Ghats play an important role in:
• Sustaining biodiversity:
  • The Eastern Ghats are home to about 3,000 flowering plant species of which nearly 100 are endemic, occurring in the dry deciduous, moist deciduous and semi-evergreen landscapes.
  • Many animals, including tigers and elephants, and some 400 bird species are found in the region.
• Sustaining the human inhabitants:
  • The Eastern Ghats of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu provide forest produce and ecosystem services to millions of human inhabitants.
  • The mountain range has a key role in modulating the climate of the region.

Concerns:

Diminishing area:

• The forest protection policy has failed dismally with respect to the Eastern Ghats. The Eastern Ghats have shrunk by 16% over the past century, and just one region, Papikonda National Park, has lost about 650 sq. km. in two decades from 1991.

Decreased productivity:

• New research findings note that the Ghats may be facing a serious threat from climate change. The temperature variations are the major cause of worry.
• A disruption of the annual average temperature and diminished rainfall would drastically decrease the productivity of these deciduous forests.
• This implies lower biomass production in the region.

Reduced ability to store carbon:

• The decreased productivity would imply the forest’s reduced ability to store carbon.
• This would affect the carbon budget of the country and further aid Climate Change.
• The reduced ability of the critical region of Eastern Ghats to store carbon would severely disrupt India’s Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) targets and plans.

Disrupt the life of human inhabitants:

• The reduced carbon-storing ability would reduce the availability of wood, a major subsistence material for the human inhabitants.

Affecting Biodiversity:

• Existing data also reveals that areas experiencing rainfall deficiency and higher temperatures have witnessed reduced plant species diversity with herbs dominating the trees.

Way forward:

• Protecting the Eastern Ghats is an ecological imperative.

Reducing carbon emissions:

• Given the challenge of Climate Change, there is a need for decisive steps to mitigate carbon emissions.

Need for forest protection:

• Human needs have led to extreme pressure on the limited forest resources.
• Relieving the pressure on forests can be done through policies that reduce extraction of scarce resources and incentivise settled agriculture. The government should help the inhabitants pursue a different occupation and more sustainable lifestyles.

Afforestation:

• Given that India is committed, under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes through enhanced forest and tree cover, afforestation is a policy prerogative for India.
• India, however, needs to focus on scientific afforestation.
• Schemes for the restoration of forest peripheries through indigenous plant and tree species could qualify for international climate finance and must be pursued.

Moreover, improving tree cover nationally will also confer other benefits, like the modulation of the monsoons, improved air quality and wider spaces for biodiversity to persist.

Category: HEALTH

1. Virus marches on

Context:

The rapid spread of COVID-19 outside China.

Details:

• Though the number of confirmed cases in Wuhan and other parts of mainland China has come down of late, the spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19 disease remains unchecked in other countries.
  • South Korea has the most number of infections outside China as on date. Beyond the high number of cases reported from South Korea, what is indeed alarming is the rate of viral spread. From just 51 cases and no deaths on February 20, the number of cases has grown rapidly each day during the last seven days.
  • The spread of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has been equally alarming in Iran. There have been 26 deaths in Iran, the highest outside China.
  • With 528 confirmed cases so far, the number of those infected in Italy is more than double than that of Iran and there have been 14 deaths as well.
• The number of countries that have so far reported at least one confirmed case has also gone up in the past week with 3,346 cases from 49 countries. For the first time, one case each has been reported from South America (Brazil) and the WHO African Region (Algeria).
• Notably, cases have been increasing only slowly in Hong Kong. Singapore has almost cut the transmission cycle.

For more information on this issue read Feb 27th 2020 Comprehensive News Analysis.

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Aadhaar, no standout performer in welfare delivery

Context:

A new research paper, published in the National Bureau of Economic Research, details findings from an extensive empirical study of the impact of Aadhaar in reducing leakages and increasing fiscal savings.

Background:

• India spends a large amount of money every year across several core welfare programmes such as Public Distribution System (PDS), LPG, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, etc.
• The government estimates that roughly 30-40% of the money spent by the government is lost in leakages.
  • Leakages are largely due to ‘ghost’ and ‘duplicate’ beneficiaries using fake identities to avail government benefits.
• A unique identity biometric scheme could eliminate the large leakages and vastly improve efficiency in welfare delivery.
• The Aadhaar Bill was renamed ‘Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services’ Bill, to make clear the fact that Aadhaar’s primary purpose, was to improve welfare delivery efficiency.
  • The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the government have repeatedly claimed that Aadhaar has reduced leakages of government subsidies leading to fiscal savings for the government.
  • The annual report of 2017-18 claimed that through Aadhaar, savings worth ₹90,000 crores had accrued to the government.

Details:

• A new research paper offers an account of Aadhaar’s performance.

The study:

• The research team conducted a scientifically designed study of the PDS system in Jharkhand covering 15 million beneficiaries using the technique of randomised control trials (RCT).
• The study compared two sets of beneficiaries. One set of beneficiaries went through the Aadhaar-based biometric authentication while the other group used the old system of procuring their ration.

The findings:

• Comparison to check if Aadhaar-based biometric authentication had any impact in reducing leakages revealed that Aadhaar-based biometric authentication had no measurable benefit.
• Aadhaar-based biometric authentication did not reduce leakages due to elimination of ghosts and duplicates, as widely perceived.
• The research paper claims that Aadhaar-based biometric authentication increased transaction costs for beneficiaries, because of multiple trips to authenticate themselves and the opportunity cost of time spent.
• Aadhaar-based biometric authentication also introduced an error of exclusion.
  • Aadhaar authentication falsely rejected genuine PDS beneficiaries who were then denied their ration supplies.
  • The study finds that nearly 10% of legitimate beneficiaries were denied their ration either because they did not have their Aadhaar linked to their ration card or due to an exclusion error.

Concerns:

Lack of pilot studies and testing:

• Only the widespread belief among the policy elite that ghost beneficiaries and duplicates were the challenges of India’s welfare delivery was reason enough for the law of Aadhaar to be enacted.
• A robust pilot project of scale to test the accurateness of the long-held belief was not carried out.
• Many recent studies now establish that ghosts beneficiaries and duplicates are not a significant cause of leakages.
• A similar mistake was also committed with respect to the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
  • Policy economists have always claimed that the previous system of a multitude of State taxes are a drag on inter-State commerce and called for the adoption of a nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST).
  • There was no empirical evidence to back the claim of the policymakers.
  • Three years after the implementation of the GST, the promise of vastly improved inter-State trade and a two percentage point boost to GDP seem distant while States are hurting badly with sole dependence on the Centre for their taxes.

 

G. Tidbits

1. India to carry out projects in Rakhine

• As part of India’s Rakhine State Development Programme (as part of the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation mechanism), India will carry out more development projects in the Rakhine province of Myanmar, the region considered home of the Rohingya community.
• The decision was taken during the state visit of President U Win Myint of Myanmar, who is paying a four-day visit to India.
• One of the main purposes of India’s developmental work is aimed at creating hospitable conditions for the Rohingya community and ensuring their return.

H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions

Q1. Which of the following statements is/are correct?

1. Papikonda National Park is located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
2. The Polavaram irrigation project once completed will submerge parts of the Papikonda National Park.

Options:

a. 1 only
b. 2 only
c. Both 1 and 2
d. Neither 1 nor 2

See

Q2. The term MH-60 is associated with:

a. Novel wheat variety developed by CSIR
b. Drug being developed for COVID-19
c. Indigenous UAV
d. Helicopters for Navy

See

Q3. ‘India Economic Strategy’ (IES) is associated with which of the following countries?

1. Brazil
2. Australia
3. The European Union
4. The United States

See

Q4. Which of the following cities lies closest to the 82.5 degree east longitude?

1. Lucknow
2. Raipur
3. Ranchi
4. Patna

See