UPSC Daily Current Affairs - 14th October 2022 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

Context

Recently, the Minister of State for External Affairs addressed the 6th Summit of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Astana, Kazakhstan.

• India is one of the founding members of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

What is CICA?

• The CICA is an intergovernmental forum aimed at strengthening regional cooperation and ensuring peace, security, and stability in Asia.
• The idea of creating the organization was first voiced by Kazakhstan’s First President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1992 at the 47th session of the United Nations General Assembly, while the first CICA summit was held in June of 2002.
• The highest decision-making organ of CICA is the Meeting of the CICA Heads of State and Government (Summit). The CICA Summit is convened every four years in order to conduct consultations, review the progress of, and set priorities for CICA activities.
• The Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs is required to be held every two years.
• CICA members include 27 Asian countries, including Azerbaijan, Bahrain, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Russia, South Korea, and Turkey, nine observer states, and five international organizations.
• India co-chairs two CICA CBMs (Confidence Building Measures) on ‘Development of Secure and Effective Systems of Transportation Corridors,’ and ‘Energy Security’.
• The CICA Secretariat has been located in Almaty (Kazakhstan) since June 2006.

Context:

The socio-political movement that led to this phenomenon known as “Mandal” has dramatically changed the demographic diversity of people’s representatives.

• Christophe Jaffrelot called it, ‘India’s Silent Revolution’.
• ‘India’s Silent Revolution’ identified socially and educationally backward castes and communities by not letting religion become a barrier.

Historical reference:

• Historically, in Varna system, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) formed most of Shudra, the fourth category.
• They mostly engaged in activities such as agriculturalist, field workers or artisans or in the field of construction.
• OBC especially in Hindu belt and social system, situated above the untouchables, but below the twice born known as “dvij” or called as kshtriya and vaishyas.

Issues of OBC:

According to Mandal commission report of 1980, OBC formed half of Indian population and in 2006 when national sample survey organization conducted, they are found around 41%.

• Low political representation
• Caste bias in development projects and lack of political will to steer development initiatives towards backward communities.
• Long-established upper-caste patronage networks and ‘elite capture’ of government programmes.

Kaka Kalekar Commission:

• Government of India formed first backward commission in 1953 headed by Kaka Kalelkar.
• The commission presented its report in 1955.
• There were many contradictions within the report such as 5 members of the commission put a disagreement note, few opposed the clause that says backwardness should be jointly seen with cast.
• Thus, the commission didn’t present a neutral report and it was thus, not accepted by the government.

The B.P. Mandal Commission:

• Constituted in 1978 by Morarji Desai government, the second backward class commission was headed by B.P. Mandal.
• Recommendations:
  • Reservation of 27% government jobs for OBCs for those who do not qualify on merit
  • Reservation of 27% for promotions at all levels in government jobs for OBCs.
  • Quota of reservation, if didn’t fill, should be carried forward for 3 years.
  • A roster system should be prepared for backward classes on the same pattern as that of Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes and the age relaxation for OBCs to be same as SC, STs.
  • Government must make legal provision to make these recommendations a reality.
  • The VP Singh government accepted the recommendations of Mandal Commission.
• About the Mandal Movement:
  • The acceptance of Mandal Commission’s recommendations led to gradual political rise of the backward communities. There were many reasons for the same.
  • First, the demographic weight of the backward communities.
  • The second was the fact that OBCs were not a natural constituency of the Congress and preferred peasant-based formations, socialist parties and regional parties — all of which were on the ascendant then.
  • And the third was the impact of the Green Revolution which led to their economic empowerment and desire for upward professional mobility.
  • The Mandal moment saw ferocious backlash by sections of upper castes. This opposition was articulated on two axes — the fact that reservations compromised merit, and if at all reservations should open up beyond what was offered to Scheduled Castes and Tribes, it should be on economic lines.
  • These arguments hid beneath it a real fear of losing power and opportunities. And it launched an era of open hostility between upper castes and backward communities, particularly in the Hindi heartland.
  • OBCs became a force to contend with, and it is no surprise that no government in Uttar Pradesh or Bihar can now be formed without their active support.
  • But it also opened up a Pandora’s Box. For one, the resentment of those communities which did not have a share in the reservation pie increased.
  • Further, political parties, in order to appease them, continued to expand reservation — to the extent that now economically weaker sections of dominant communities avail quotas, and in many states, there is over 70% reservation in key spheres.
  • This has undermined the entire purpose of reservation, envisaged as a tool to address historic injustice, and made it an exercise in power distribution and employment generation.
  • Second, within OBCs, some communities benefited more than others, which led to a political divide and demands for sub-categorisation.
  • The role played by two Dalit icons, Kanshi Ram and Ram Vilas Paswan for mobilisation and implementation of Mandal has been immense.

Democracy & Social justice:

• The social justice discourse in modern India can be traced to the initiatives of social revolutionaries such as Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai Phule, Sahuji Maharaj and Periyar during colonial rule.
• But a sustained intervention with a concrete outcome in terms of policy prescriptions surfaced only with B.R. Ambedkar arriving on the national scene.
• The “depressed classes” (Dalits) and “tribals” (Adivasis) — as they were termed by the colonisers — were already listed as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, respectively, by 1935.
• The benefits of reservation in education and employment for these social groups in proportion to their population were adopted as soon as the Constitution of India came into force.
• But a large section of the “backward classes” and occupational caste groups remained socially and educationally backward; hence, their presence in the bureaucracy, the judiciary, academia or the media remained abysmal.
• The Constituent Assembly had debated caste-class dichotomy. It was envisioned that backward classes would be backward communities.
• This was endorsed by B.R. Ambedkar who said: “…a backward community is a community which is backward in the opinion of the government….” But the Mandal report reaffirmed this with the line “a caste can be and quite often is a social class in India”.

Constitutional provisions:

• Article 340 of the Constitution entailed egalitarian possibility that resulted in two Backward Classes commissions, the Kalelkar Commission (1953-1955) and the Mandal Commission (1978-80).
• The mobilisation campaign for implementing the recommendations of the latter led to a “Mandal movement” characterised by the announcement of 27% reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the central service in 1990.
• The 73rd and 74th Amendments have furthered the idea of social justice by extending reservation benefits to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs.
• Horizontal reservation was also extended to all women.
• In 2006, reservations were extended to OBC candidates in institutions of higher learning — popularly known as Mandal II.

Success of Mandal Movement:

• Mandal parties checkmated communal mobilisations and hate mongering by the right wing. There were two spectacular political decisions in 1990 — the arrest of L.K. Advani by the Lalu Prasad-led government in Bihar at the height of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Second, the Mulayam Singh-led government in Uttar Pradesh ordering the police to fire at kar sevaks assembled in Ayodhya near the Babri Masjid.
• Another point of merit derived from “Mandal” has been the identifying of socially and educationally backward castes and communities by not letting religion become a barrier.
• The consciousness generated by Mandal demolished a perception about Indian Muslims being a homogenous monolith.
• The churning around Mandal also led to the emergence of a pasmanda (backward in Persian) movement among backward Muslims demanding democratisation and representation.

Way forward

• Mandaite political parties have made serious blunders too by restricting key organisational positions to family members and extending favours to caste brethren.
• Hence, the entire architecture of reservations needs a review, with the aim of creating a just, inclusive and equal society, without pandering to populist movements.
• There could be possible course correction such as being more accommodative towards the aspirations of the lower castes such as the economically backward classes or most backward classes; forging alliances with parties championing Dalit and Adivasi agendas; and pushing for quota within quota in the women’s reservation Bill — which is still pending — with fresh insights, and also fielding more women candidates from the marginalised communities.

Context

Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022 after the announcement by the Union Cooperation Minister.

Provisions of the Amendment Bill 2022:

• Incorporation of provisions of the 97th Constitutional Amendment Act 2011:
• Regarding constitutional status and protection to cooperatives and guarantees democratic and independent functioning of the cooperative societies.
  • Democratic governance: The bill has provisions for setting up of cooperative election authority, cooperative information officer, cooperative ombudsman etc. to make governance of multi-state cooperative societies more democratic, transparent and accountable.
  • Reform electoral processes: The cooperative election authority will ensure fair, free and timely elections and reduce electoral complaints and malpractices.
    • The Bill also provides for debarring offenders for three years, hence will bring in more electoral discipline.
• Grievance redressal: The cooperative ombudsman will set up a mechanism for grievance redressal of the cooperative societies members in a structured fashion.
• Strengthen monitoring mechanisms: The bill empowers the Central government to suspend the Board of a MSCS for fraud or embezzlement of funds or failure to conduct elections within a stipulated time.
  • It will also debar relatives of a sitting director to be recruited as an employee in the same cooperative.
• Improved composition of the Board: For promoting the professional management of the cooperatives, the bill has provisions-
  • To bring in co-opted directors with experience in the field of banking, management, cooperative management and finance.
  • The option of including the members having specialization in any field relating to the objects and activities undertaken by such multi-state cooperative society.
• Enhance transparency and accountability: The Bill proposes to appoint a Cooperative Information Officer who will enhance the transparency in functioning by providing the members timely access to information.
  • To promote equity and facilitate inclusiveness, the bill includes provisions relating to representation of women and Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe members on the board of multi-state cooperative societies.
• Improve ease of doing business: The amendment Bill proposes-To reduce the period of registration, with a provision for the applicants to seek additional time of two months for rectification of mistakes.
  • For electronic submission and issuance of documents, thus providing for a comprehensive digital ecosystem.
• Simpler registration: Presently, India has nearly 800,000 cooperative societies of which around 1,600 are MSCS thus serve the interest of members in more than one state. For example, IFFCO, Kribhco and NAFED.
• Increase financial discipline: The bill provides for the Rehabilitation Fund for the revival of sick cooperatives and enables raising of funds in multi-state cooperative societies.
• Regulation: For cooperative banks, the banking functions will be governed by the Banking Regulation Act. However, all other operational issues will be regulated by the MSCS Act and its new amendments.

About Cooperative Societies in India:

• A co-operative society is a voluntary association of individuals having common needs who join hands for the achievement of common economic interest.
• Its aim is to serve the interest of the poorer sections of society through the principle of self-help and mutual help.

97th Constitutional Amendment Act 2011:

• It established the right to form cooperative societies as a fundamental right (Article 19).
• It included a new Directive Principle of State Policy on the Promotion of Cooperative Societies (Article 43-B).
• It added a new Part IX-B to the Constitution titled “The Co-operative Societies” (Articles 243-ZH to 243-ZT).
• It authorizes the Parliament to establish relevant laws in the case of multi-state cooperative societies (MSCS) and state legislatures in the case of other cooperative societies.
• Of the 1600 odd MSCS, the majority are in Maharashtra (570), followed by UP (150) and New Delhi (133).
• Credit cooperatives constitute the bulk of the MSCS (610), followed by agriculture-oriented MSCS (244).
• There are around 100 multi-state cooperative diaries and 70 multi-state cooperative banks.

About new Ministry of Cooperation:

• The Union Ministry of Cooperation was formed in 2021, its mandate was looked after by the Ministry of Agriculture before.

Objectives of creation of the new ministry:

• To realize the vision of “Sahakar se Samriddhi” (prosperity through cooperation).
• To streamline processes for ‘’Ease of doing business’’ for co-operatives and enable the development of Multi-State Co-operatives (MSCS).
• To provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movements in the country.
• To deepen the cooperative as a true people-based movement reaching up to the grassroot level.

Way Forward:

• The Bill is expected to be introduced during the winter session of Parliament. The bill if passed will enhance transparency, accountability and improve ease of doing business for the cooperatives.
• The Union Cooperation Minister had also announced bringing in a new national cooperative policy for holistic management and success of cooperatives movement in India.

Context

According to a report, the backlog of appeals or complaints under the Right to Information (RTI) Act is steadily increasing in Information Commissions every year.

What are the Findings of the Report?

• Pendency of Cases:
  • At present, nearly 3.15 lakh complaints or appeals pending with 26 information commissions across India.
  • The number of appeals and complaints pending in 2019 was 2,18,347 which increased to 3,14,323 in 2022.
  • The highest number of pending cases were in Maharashtra followed by Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, etc.
• Defunct Information Commissions:
  • Two out of 29 information commissions across the country are completely defunct, four of them headless at the moment, and only 5% of the positions are occupied by women.
  • Jharkhand and Tripura have been completely defuncted for 29 months and 15 months respectively. Manipur, Telangana, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh are without chiefs.
• Not Imposing Penalties:
  • The commissions did not impose penalties in 95% of the cases where penalties were potentially imposable.
• Tardy Disposal of Cases:
  • The report also flags concerns regarding tardy disposal rates in several commissions and the lack of transparency in their functioning.
• e-filing facility for RTI Applications:
  • Only 11 information commissions out of 29 provide e-filing facility for RTI applications or appeals, but only five are functional.

What is the Right to Information (RTI) Act?

• About:
  • The Right to Information Act 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information.
  • The basic object of the Right to Information Act is to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, contain corruption, and make our democracy work for the people in a real sense.

Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019:

• It provided that the Chief Information Commissioner and an Information Commissioner (of Centre as well as States) shall hold office for such term as prescribed by the Central Government. Before this amendment, their term was fixed for 5 years.
• It provided that the salary, allowances and other service conditions of the Chief Information Commissioner and an Information Commissioner (of Centre as well as States) shall be such as prescribed by the Central Government.
• Before this amendment, the salary, allowances and other service conditions of the Chief Information Commissioner were similar to those of the Chief Election Commissioner and that of an Information Commissioner were similar to those of an Election Commissioner (State Election Commissioners in case of States).
• It removed the provisions regarding deductions in salary of the Chief Information Commissioner, an Information Commissioner, the State Chief Information Commissioner and a State Information Commissioner due to pension or any other retirement benefits received by them for their previous government service.
• The RTI (Amendment) Act, 2019 was criticized on grounds of diluting the law and giving more powers to the central government.

Issues in the Implementation:

• Non-compliance in proactive disclosure by public authorities
• Hostile approach of Public Information Officers (PIOs) towards citizens and misinterpreting provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act to conceal information.
• Lack of clarity on what public interest is and right to privacy
• Lack of political will and poor infrastructure
• Rejection of information requests made by active citizens on important matters of public importance
• Covert means of attacks and threats against RTI activists and applicants to suppress their voices

Way Forward

• Proper Functioning of Information Commissions:
  • Proper functioning of information commissions is crucial for people to realise their right to information.Under the RTI law, information commissions are the final appellate authority and are mandated to safeguard and facilitate people’s fundamental right to information.
• Transparency:
  • There is an urgent need for the transparency watchdogs to function in a more effective and transparent manner.
• Digitisation of the System:
  • The digital RTI portal (website or mobile app) can deliver more efficient and citizen-friendly services which are not possible through conventional mode.
  • This will be beneficial for both transparency seekers and the government.

Context

There has been a 69% decline in the wildlife populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, across the globe in the last 50 years, according to the Living Planet Report 2022 by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

• This report is released every two years.

What are the Key Findings of the Report?

• Region-wise Decline in Wildlife Populations:
  • The highest decline in the wildlife populations (94%) was in the Latin America and the Caribbean region.
  • Africa recorded a 66% fall in its wildlife populations from 1970-2018 whereas the Asia-Pacific recorded a decline of 55%
• Decline in Freshwater Species:
  • Freshwater Species populations globally reduced by 83%.
  • Habitat loss and barriers to migration routes were responsible for about half of the threats to monitored migratory fish species.
• Collapsing Vertebrate Wildlife Populations:
  • Living Planet Index (LPI) showed that vertebrate wildlife populations are collapsing at a particularly staggering rate in tropical regions of the world.
  • Featuring about 32,000 populations of 5,230 species across the world, LPI is a measure of the state of the world's biological diversity based on population trends of vertebrate species from terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats.
• Mangrove Degradation:
  • Mangroves continue to be lost to aquaculture, agriculture and coastal development at a rate of 0.13% per year.
  • Many mangroves are also degraded by overexploitation and pollution, alongside natural stressors such as storms and coastal erosion.
  • Around 137 square kilometres of the Sundarbans mangrove forest in India and Bangladesh has been eroded since 1985, reducing land and ecosystem services for many of the 10 million people who live there.

Key Threats to Biodiversity:

WWF identified six key threats to biodiversity to highlight ‘threat hotspots' for terrestrial vertebrates:

• Agriculture
• Hunting
• Logging
• Pollution
• Invasive Species
• Climate Change

What are the Recommendations of the Report?

• The planet is experiencing double emergencies of human-induced climate change and biodiversity loss, threatening the well-being of current and future generations. Biodiversity loss and climate crisis should be dealt with as one instead of two different issues as they are intertwined.
• A nature-positive future needs transformative, game-changing shifts in how we produce, how we consume, how we govern and what we finance.
• An all-inclusive collective approach towards a more sustainable path must be adopted. It will ensure that the costs and benefits from our actions are socially just and equitably shared.

Context

Recently, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has released the Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) Report 2022.

• The LEADS is an indigenous data-driven index to assess logistics infrastructure, services, and human resources across all 36 States and UTs.
• LEADS continues to act as a guiding & bridging mechanism for the identification of interventions enhancing logistics efficiency at State/UTs. It reflects positively on international indices, like Logistics Performance Index.
• The first logistics report was released in 2018.

What are the Key Findings?

• Unlike the previous versions of LEADS which were based on ranking systems for all states, LEADS 2022 has adopted a classification-based grading, states have been now classified under four categories viz coastal states, hinterland/landlocked states, north-eastern states, and Union Territories.
• For the assessment of how well a State or UT has performed in comparison to the Top State/UT within the specific cluster.
• Three performance categories namely:
  • Achievers: States/UTs achieving 90% or more percentage.
    • Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Gujarat are in the achievers Category.
    • Maharashtra tops amongst the “Achievers” states.
  • Fast Movers: States/UTs achieving percentage scores between 80-90%.
    • Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Puducherry, Sikkim and Tripura.
  • Aspirers: States/UTs achieving percentage scores below 80% have been made.
• The LEADS 2022 survey report would assist PM Gati-Shakti National Master Plan (PMGS-NMP) and National Logistics Policy (NLP) to mapping of logistics infrastructure, services, and regulatory environment enabling State Governments to identify and fill the gaps and achieve data-driven multimodal connectivity.
• PMGS-NMP has potential to save over Rs. 10 Lakh Crore annually by improving logistics efficiency and will bringing down the logistic cost to single digits in the coming years.
• NMP to help remotest areas undertake integrated infrastructure planning and close development gaps. Through PM Gati-Shakti 197 critical infrastructure gap projects identified.

What is Logistics Performance Index?

• The Logistics Performance Index (LPI), developed by the World Bank Group, is an interactive benchmarking tool created to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities they face in their performance on trade logistics and what they can do to improve their performance.
• LPI is the weighted average of the country's scores on the six key dimensions:
  • Efficiency of the clearance process (i.e., speed, simplicity and predictability of formalities) by border control agencies, including customs.
  • Quality of trade and transport related infrastructure (e.g., ports, railroads, roads, information technology).
  • Ease of arranging competitively priced shipments.
  • Competence and quality of logistics services (e.g., transport operators, customs brokers).
  • Ability to track and trace consignments.
  • Timeliness of shipments in reaching destinations within the scheduled or expected delivery time.
  • India ranked 44th on the LPI in 2018. As of 2022 no new data has been published.

What are the Initiatives Related to Logistics?

• Multimodal Transportation of Goods Act, 1993.
• PM Gati Shakti Scheme
• Multi Modal Logistics Parks
• LEADS Report
• Dedicated Freight Corridor
• Sagarmala Projects
• Bharatmala Project

Context

Ethiopian Agricultural Minister is in Andhra Pradesh (AP) to study the first-of-its-kind Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs).

What are Rythu Bharosa Kendras?

• Set up for the first time in the country, the RBKs are unique seeds-to-sales, single-window service centres for farmers that have been set up across the state.
• They are a one-stop solution to all farmers’ needs and grievances. RBKs sell pre-tested quality seeds, certified fertilisers and animal feed.
• Farmers can purchase or hire farm equipment, and even sell their produce at the prevailing MSP in the RBKs.
• The RBKs provide services like soil testing and make recommendations — on which crops to sow, and quantity and type of fertiliser to be used.
• The state government also pays crop insurance, procures grains and makes payments to farmers through the RBKs.

Have the RBKs proved to be helpful to farmers?

• RBKs facilitate interaction between farmers, agriculture scientists, and agriculture extension officers right at the village level.
• Apart from providing services and items for sale, RBK officials demonstrate new farm equipment and provide training to farmers.
• Based on inputs provided by officials after soil testing and weather conditions, many farmers have changed their cropping patterns and benefited immensely.
• The RBKs have been responsible for elimination of spurious seeds and uncertified and dangerous fertilisers, which can cause crop damage and failures.
• The RBKs, staffed by agriculture and horticulture graduates, help farmers decide the crops they should cultivate in a scientific manner.

How has it been received by the Centre?

The Centre has recently nominated the RBK concept for the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s “Champion’’ award.