21 Jan 2022: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

CNA 21 Jan 2022:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
POLITY
1. The question of OBC reservation in local bodies
C. GS 3 Related
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
GOVERNANCE
1. Drop the IAS cadre rules amendments
SOCIAL JUSTICE
1. Court and compensation
ECONOMY
1. Should the government loosen its purse strings?
F. Prelims Facts
1. Saab wins AT4 weapon contract
2. Extended range BrahMos tested
3. The shift from Jakarta to Nusantara
G. Tidbits
1. Investments fall
2. Environment Ministry plan to rank States draws ire
3. U.S. warns Russia on invading Ukraine
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

Category: SOCIAL JUSTICE

1. Court and compensation

Syllabus: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Mains: The Supreme Court’s measures in ensuring compensation to the COVID-19 Victims

Background

• With persuasion and assertiveness by the Supreme Court, the Union government agreed to pay a token compensation of ₹50,000 to the families of each of those who were claimed by COVID-19.
• Recently the Court again asserted to ensure that neither the delay by the States nor incorrect rejection of claims depriving victims of their right to the ex gratia amount will be encouraged.

Context

In the recent hearing, the Court has called upon a few States for not disbursing the amount fast enough and expressed concern about the high number of rejected claims.

Supreme Court’s Directions

• In the backdrop of reports that there has been significant under-reporting of deaths due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the court passed orders to the effect that no victim’s family shall be denied the benefit on the ground that the death certificate did not specify the cause of death as due to COVID-19.
• Experience showed that many deaths were attributed to co-morbidities rather than to the infection. Also, many died after testing negative.
  • To address this, the Court directed that any death occurring within 30 days of a person testing positive, or being clinically determined to suffer from the infection, will be eligible for the ex gratia payment.
• In addition, the Court devised an appeal mechanism in the form of grievance redress committees at the district level.

Relief Measures by the Government

• Following the SC’s directions, The Ministry of Home Affairs announced that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has recommended the payment of ₹50,000 each as ex gratia assistance to the next kin of those who died of COVID-19.
• The compensation would be provided by the States from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).
• The disbursement would be carried out by the District Disaster Management Authority/district administration concerned with the families.
• In case of grievances, district-level committees comprising the Additional District Collector, Chief Medical Officer of Health, or HOD Medicine of a medical college and a subject expert would address the grievances and facilitate necessary measures.

Image Source: The Hindu

Recent Orders by SC

• The court has directed that if a claim has been rejected due to defects in the application, the applicants should be given an opportunity to correct the flaws and then avail compensation.
• The Court has mandated the states to disclose the reasons for rejection so that they could be rectified or appealed to a committee to redress such grievances.
• Seeing that the number of claims is lower than the actual number of registered deaths, the Court has directed officials to reach out to the families.
• The Court has taken assurances from States with regard to the claims that have been cleared but yet to be handed over would be done soon.
• To ensure that eligible families are not denied the benefit, the Court has persuaded the legal services authority in every State and district to establish whether compensation has been paid and facilitate the payment if not.

Conclusion

Though the quantum may be less, the Supreme Court has done much to grant some assistance, in the backdrop of the huge impact the pandemic has had on the lives and livelihoods of the people.

1. Should the government loosen its purse strings?

Syllabus: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Mains: Trends in Inflation in India and the way forward.

Context

Upcoming Union budget.

Trends in Inflation

• Retail Inflation
  • The retail inflation is currently at 6% and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has predicted that it will remain below 6% till the end of March 2022.
  • Critics believe that there are some risks associated with inflation and inflation expectations. Because
    • International oil prices have gone up to $87 per barrel currently.
    • The inflation pressure is building up across the world, especially in countries where there was a large fiscal stimulus.
  • This poses a risk of transmission of international inflation to the domestic economy.
  • In the Indian context, inflation is driven by supply-side constraints.
  • Even though the domestic factors do not influence the inflation as the international factors, domestic factors have added to the problem, the most important factor being the increase in taxes on petroleum goods and services.
• Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI)
  • The annual WPI rate in India reduced to 13.56% in December 2021 from 14.23% in the previous month.
  • The RBI has projected CPI inflation at 5.7% for the January-March quarter.
  • The gap between WPI and CPI is wide.
  • The inflation in wholesale prices will be passed on to consumer prices, so inflation is a cause of worry not just for the fiscal policy or monetary policy, but also for the overall health of the economy because inflation is going to affect the basic economics of households.

Role of fiscal policy in supporting the economy

• Fiscal policy plays a key role in increasing the rate of capital formation both in the public and private sectors.
• Through taxation, the fiscal policy helps mobilize a considerable amount of resources for financing its numerous projects.
  • In terms of fiscal policy, the current year has performed well in terms of tax revenues.
• Fiscal policy also provides stimulus to elevate the savings rate.
  • Currently, the government wants to focus on the social sector as well as medium-term growth prospects.
  • The biggest stimulus would be to any measure that provides more employment opportunities.
• The fiscal policy gives adequate incentives to the private sector to expand its activities.
• Fiscal policy aims to minimize the imbalance in the dispersal of income and wealth.

Read more about Fiscal Policy

Risks of stagflation

• Stagflation is defined as a situation with persistently high inflation combined with high unemployment and stagnant demand in a country’s economy.
• Inflation and low growth are persisting for a long time and are causing a bit of worry.
• A lot of the inflation currently is from the supply side, if the economy does bounce back once the pandemic is over, it’s not going to lead to the softening of inflation; it actually aggravates the inflation.
• The growth numbers are also not optimistic.
• The average growth rate over the recent years has been 0.6% per annum.
• The youth unemployment rate in the country is around 23%, among the highest globally.
• Workers, farmers and small businesses are seeing negative growth.
• India’s overall macroeconomic situation is in a recovery mode but the growth is still concentrated at the top end.

Way Forward

• The measures to economic recovery have to be on a more sustainable basis rather than in the form of short-term spikes in growth.
• As inflation is currently driven by supply-side factors, a loosened fiscal policy is required to cushion its impact. The government should spend more not just in terms of improving the incomes of people using social security schemes, but also by increasing the transfers to the States.
• Aggregate consumption, which is a big part of GDP, is slowing down for quite some time now and hence there is a need to focus more on reviving the consumption thereby reviving the economy.
• Measures that were brought in to help the poor in terms of providing safety nets should continue.
• There is a threat of stagflation and carefully curated policy interventions by the government are required, in terms of managing inflation and also reviving the economy.
• The government should take measures to counter the rise in petroleum products and fertilizer prices.

Conclusion

The government should focus on the long-term measures rather than the short-term measures of generating revenues by increasing taxation. It should rather take up measures that ensure larger disposable income for the people so that consumption in the economy increases. And one way to do it, other than through income transfers, is to reduce taxes on goods and services that are witnessing high inflation.

F. Prelims Facts

1. Saab wins AT4 weapon contract

AT4 weapon:

• The AT4 is an unguided, man-portable, single-shot, disposable, recoilless smoothbore anti-tank weapon. It is one of the most common light anti-tank weapons in the world.
• The AT4 weapon is produced by the Swedish defence major Saab.
• They are lightweight, single-shot, fully disposable and truly characterised by its ease of use and handling. The weapon weighs around 9 kg and has an effective range of 200 m.
• The AT4 is intended to give infantry units a means to destroy or disable armoured vehicles and fortifications. The launcher and projectile are manufactured prepacked and issued as a single unit of ammunition, with the launcher discarded after a single use.

Context:

• The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force have selected Saab’s AT4 anti-armour weapon for induction into the forces.

2. Extended range BrahMos tested

Context:

• The BrahMos missile with increased indigenous content and improved performance was successfully test-fired from Integrated Test Range in Chandipur.

BrahMos:

• The BrahMos is a ramjet supersonic cruise missile.
• It is manufactured by a joint venture between the Russian Federation’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), who together have formed BrahMos Aerospace.
• The missile is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against surface and sea-based targets and has been long inducted by the Indian armed forces.
• It is notably one of the fastest supersonic cruise missiles in the world.
• In 2016, as India became a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), India and Russia are now planning to jointly develop a new generation of Brahmos missiles with enhanced range.

3. The shift from Jakarta to Nusantara

Context:

• Recently Indonesia’s Parliament approved a bill to relocate the country’s capital from Jakarta to a new city named as Nusantara to be built on the island of Borneo. The decision follows growing concerns about the long-term sustainability of Jakarta.
• Countries have shifted capitals throughout history for a multitude of reasons. Kazakhstan and Myanmar offer two recent examples.
  • In 1997, Kazakhstan shifted its capital from Almaty to Astana. Astana was later itself renamed in 2019 to Nur-Sultan.
  • Myanmar in 2005 shifted its capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw.

G. Tidbits

1. Investments fall

• As per the United Nations trade body findings, the foreign direct investment (FDI) flows in India have fallen by almost 26% in 2021 compared to 2020.
• This even as the global FDI flows showed a strong rebound in 2021.
• The report notes that the developed economies saw the biggest rise in foreign investments while flows in developing economies increased by 30%.

2. Environment Ministry plan to rank States draws ire

• A proposal by the Union Environment Ministry to “rank” States on how quickly they could give environmental clearances to proposed infrastructure projects has drawn criticism from environmentalists.
• Environmentalists argue that such an incentive contravenes basic principles of environmental regulation and would be violative of the spirit of the Environment (Protection) Act which calls for scientific rigour in the Environmental impact assessment process.

Q1. Which of the following is/are compiled by the Labour Bureau?

Q2. Project BOLD recently seen in news seeks to 

Q3. Consider the following statements:

Q4. With respect to Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), 
which of the following statements is/are correct?

Q5. With reference to the ‘Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 (PBPT Act)’, 
consider the following statements: (UPSC -2017)