17 Nov 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

B. GS 2 Related

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Judge recuses himself from Jagan case

Context:

Justice U.U. Lalit of the Supreme Court recused himself from hearing separate writ petitions that sought action against the Andhra Pradesh government and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for levelling “false, vague and political allegations” against Supreme Court judge N.V. Ramana and other High Court judges.

Background:

• The petitions relate to a letter by Mr. Jagan addressed to the CJI against the judges and the subsequent revelation of its contents at a press conference.
• Recently, the Attorney-General refrained from giving his statutory consent to pleas seeking contempt of court action against Mr. Jagan and his Principal Adviser Ajeya Kallam.

This topic has been covered in the 3^rd November 2020 Comprehensive News Analysis.

Read more on “Recusal” comprehensively covered in the Editorial “When can a judge opt out of a case?” in 16^th February 2020 Comprehensive News Analysis.

What Next?

• The judge (Justice Lalit), who leads a three-member Bench, withdrew from hearing the case, explaining that he had, as a lawyer, represented some of the parties involved in the case.
• The Bench then recorded a short order, requesting the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to list the case before an appropriate Bench.

E. Editorials

Category: GOVERNANCE

1. Andhra Pradesh’s capital conundrums

The editorial throws light upon the question “Will designating three capitals for the State of Andhra Pradesh promote ‘distributed development’?”

Context:

• The Andhra Pradesh government, in its previous session, proposed a three-capital plan for the state.
• As per the Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020, the State will have Visakhapatnam, Amaravati and Kurnool respectively as the executive, legislative and judicial capitals of the State.

Issues:

• The matter has become contentious and the Bill is facing myriad legal and procedural challenges.
• The proposal is set to replace the ambitious plan (of the previous government) of building Amaravati as a world-class greenfield capital city.

Origins of the three-capital plan:

• It is opined that attribution to similar plans in South Africa and elsewhere can be shallow.
  • South Africa has three capital cities: executive Pretoria, judicial Bloemfontein and legislative Cape Town.
• The K.C. Sivaramakrishnan (KCS) Committee constituted in the aftermath of a bifurcation driven by an agitation legitimised and politicised by regional imbalances in development made recommendations along similar lines.
• Though the current government’s rationalisation of the three-capital plan leans on the KCS committee’s recommendations, there is a difference between the two.
• While the government’s formula of three capitals — calling them judicial, legislative and executive capitals — appears to be an imported idea, perhaps inspired by the South African example, the KCS committee stressed distributed development through decentralised governance.
• The essence of the ‘distributed development’ concept was to make deliberate efforts to spatially deconcentrate executive power, driven by region-specific economic activities. For instance:
  • While discussing the Vizag region’s suitability, the committee recommended having government offices relevant to local economic potential, such as for ports, shipping, fisheries and industry, in Visakhapatnam. It recommended developing the Visakhapatnam region as a high-tech zone.
  • In a similar manner, it recommended developing the ‘Rayalaseema Arc’, building on the Hyderabad-Kurnool-Anantpur-Bengaluru highway.
  • It recommended the ‘Kalahasti Spine’, using the potential of the Nadikudi-Kalahasti railway line.

Challenges:

For Government’s functioning:

• Running legislative business with most of the secretariat located 400 km away can lead to logistic inefficiencies, in the absence of efficient infrastructure.
• Andhra Pradesh can learn from Maharashtra’s experience of running Winter Sessions in Nagpur, aimed essentially at placating regional sentiments.
• International experiences — including that of South Africa — of deconcentrating executive power by shifting capitals to address regional sentiments do not inspire confidence either.

Ability to cope with intense development:

• Infrastructure development within the proposed growth centres is critical. The KCS committee stressed this extensively.
• Visakhapatnam, as the executive capital, will experience much stress.
• Visakhapatnam, in spite of its excellent and natural advantages, is woefully lacking in its infrastructure. It could not even deliver a functional Bus Rapid Transit system, even with the availability of resources.

Environmental impact:

• The KCS committee has warned about the environmental impact of intensification and densification in cities, with a special reference to Visakhapatnam.
• The recent environmental disasters, including the LG Polymers gas leak, expose the city’s vulnerabilities.
• The ongoing processes of preparing the Master Plan and Strategic Plan for the Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region are an opportunity to address these challenges.
• Ad hocism and a casual approach can undo its future potential.

Way forward:

• The Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020 is thin in details but offers hope in its broad contours of pursuing inclusive development through Zonal Planning and Development Boards.
• There may be other reasons for the functionally organised, multiple-capital plan. But the key principle of distributed development must not be lost in executing it.
• The success of distributed development depends on a well-developed infrastructural network linking the growth centres.
• Andhra Pradesh lacks these linkages now, and the sooner the State focuses on these preconditions the better for it.
• A re-invigorated focus on projects like the Chennai-Visakhapatnam Industrial Corridor is important.
• The proposed three-capital plan claims to produce decentralised growth, but it should also be ensured that it achieves the primary goal of decentralised development, irrespective of how the functionalised multiple-capital plan plays out.

2. Unabating attacks on journalists

The article talks about the need for concrete laws to protect and provide accountability to media persons.

Context:

Recently, many instances of attacks on journalists have come to light.

• A 26-year-old television journalist who reported on illegal encroachment of land and the sale of ganja was hacked to death in Tamil Nadu.
• Another journalist was found brutally murdered in a jungle on the outskirts of Bhopal.
• A prominent journalist from Kashmir and the Chief Editor of Kashmir Times was shot dead by three militants in the heart of Srinagar, when he was returning home from office.

Issue:

• According to the United Nations, “Journalism is one of the most dangerous professions in the world”.
• Attacks on journalists who dare to expose corruption and misdeeds of anti-social elements, or who do not toe the line of the establishment, have proved to be a threat to journalists the world over.
• Between 2006 and 2019, over 1,200 journalists have been killed the world over.

Indian Scenario:

• A report released by an NGO in 2019 states that 40 of the 198 journalists attacked in India between 2014 and 2019 died due to the attack.
• The killing of journalists is more rampant in smaller towns, while the figures in metro towns are quite low. Only a few cases draw country-wide attention and impel the police to investigate the murder.
• Over the last few years, India has been going down on the World Press Freedom Index.
• In the annual reports of Reporters Without Borders, India has steadily gone down in the global index from a rank of 138 in 2018 to 140 in 2019, and further down to 142 in 2020.

Way forward:

• There is a need for stringent laws to protect journalists.
• Considering the rising trend in the number of journalists killed each year, the Chairman of the Press Council of India (PCI), counselled the government “to enact a special law for protection of journalists and speedy trial of cases of attacks and assaults”.
  • The PCI’s records indicate that 96% of the cases of attacks on journalists end up without conviction.
• While it is estimated that one journalist is killed every four days, sadly, in just one out of every ten such cases, the killers get convicted, while the rest go unpunished.

• Taking a cue from the Maharashtra law, Chhattisgarh is in the final stages of enacting a law known as the Chhattisgarh Protection of Mediapersons Act.
• While these two states have taken the initiative to enact laws to protect journalists, other states have to soon follow.

3. Needed, a policy framework in step with technology

The article argues that the rapid pace of technology blurring standard boundaries that dictate policy framework in the government, calls for a holistic view of schemes.

• With the evolution of technology in the latter part of the 20th century and the early part of the 21st century, the traditional boundaries between goods and services have blurred.
• Computing capabilities have surged faster than capabilities in traditional industries. These information-based technologies have been widely adopted across a broad range of industries and products that traditionally have not been perceived as electronic or software-based.

Data is the new currency:

• Information is the new currency powering economies.
• The expansion of computing power has driven the pace of information gathering and analysis.
• The new currency drives processes and decision-making across a wide range of products and services, making them more efficient and value accretive for consumers.
• There is increasing digitisation and electronification of industrial activities, products and services. This influences the evolving skill sets in the industry.
• This revolution is taking place across products (information availability drives efficiency and creates value for customers by providing greater control over the product and its surrounding environment). And, therefore such products with evolving technologies are valued more.

Working in silos:

• As governments have focused on improving the lives of people, they have looked at economic development and industry as catalysts to progress.
• Specialised departments and policies have been formulated to govern those areas.
• Over time, as each of these departments grew, they have tended to operate in silos (isolation).
• The recent developments in technology have, however, blurred standard boundaries that dictate policy frameworks in most governments.

Way forward:

Capital formation through intangibles:

• Technology is driving an increasing share of the value addition coming from digitisation and data analytics in products and services across industry segments.
• There needs to be a way of encouraging capital formation by way of intangibles in traditionally tangible industries.
  • For example: increasing electronification and digitisation of the automobile are not covered by industrial policies that govern the Electronics and Information Technology Ministry.

Inter-departmental cooperation:

• There is a need for inter-departmental cooperation and synergy not only in policy framework but also in deployment.

Taking a holistic view of policies:

• Departmentalisation of policies is facing a challenge from technology that very often blurs the boundaries served by different policies.
• There is a need to have a holistic view of policies for economic development as technology is becoming a significant enabler in most industries.
• A change in policy framework regarding economic development that enables various ministries to work together is essential.
• A sufficiently empowered policy clearing cell could ensure a holistic view on policy across departments of government, at the State and the Centre.

Developing a nourishing ecosystem for attracting investments and capital formation:

• For attracting investments, policies have always been driven by subsidies and incentives but increasingly, in a competitive scenario, these are becoming hygiene factors.
• A nourishing ecosystem for industry, including the hard infrastructure and softer areas such as education, skilling, technical institutions, laboratories, testing centres, etc., has to be cultivated.
• The creation of clusters of companies in adjacent but complementary areas could constitute an ecosystem that encourages multi and cross-disciplinary learning and spur innovation and economic development.

Conclusion:

• There is also the larger issue of a shift of value between manufacturing and services as technology changes. The policy, by and large, promotes and gives incentives for manufacturing.
• It is important to include intangibles such as software, research and development or even servicing of products even in traditional manufacturing companies to encourage innovation and technological development.
• In this evolving policy framework, it is important that there are close cooperation and alignment between the Centre and State to ensure effective implementation on the ground.
• Some of these changes would help in navigating through an ecosystem that is changing with technology.

Q1. Which of the following are the possible causes of deflation? 

Q2. Consider the following statements:

Q3. Wholesale Price Index is released by:

Q4. Which of the following is/are the mandate(s) of the Department of Investment and Public 
Asset Management (DIPAM)?

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

1. With journalists facing various kinds of harassment and false cases across the country, there is an urgent need to enact comprehensive legislations that protect media persons. Discuss. (15 Marks, 250 Words) (GS 2 Governance)
2. Judicial recusals have the potential to turn into a tool to manoeuvre justice. Critically comment. (15 Marks, 250 Words) (GS 2 Polity)

Read the previous CNA here.