UPSC Mains 2020 GS Paper 3 with Solutions - 3 | UPSC Previous Year Question Papers and Video Analysis PDF Download

Q.16. Describe the benefits of deriving electric energy from sunlight in contrast to the conventional energy generation. What are the initiatives offered by our government for this purpose? (Answer in 250 words) 15 Marks

The sun provides more than enough energy to meet the whole world’s energy needs, and unlike fossil fuels, it won’t run out anytime soon. As a renewable energy source, the only limitation of solar power is our ability to turn it into electricity in an efficient and cost-effective way.

Solar energy – a clean source:
No greenhouse gas emissions are released into the atmosphere when you use solar panels to create electricity. And because the sun provides more energy than we’ll ever need, electricity from solar power is a very important energy source in the move to clean energy production.

No fuel to burn:
After solar panels have been installed, operational costs are quite low compared to other forms of power generation. Fuel isn’t required, and this means that solar power can create large amounts of electricity without the uncertainty and expense of securing a fuel supply.

Solar power and the environment:
As a renewable CO2-free power source, the environmental impact of solar power is significantly smaller than other power generation methods. The impact is mainly related to the production and supply of the special materials and metals that are required to produce solar panels. The location and the water used to clean the solar panels also affect the environment. We are working hard to find alternative ways to clean our solar panels.

Government Initiatives:

• The target of installing 100 GW of solar energy capacity by December 2022 was announced by the MNRE under National solar Mission.
• Solar projects commissioned up to the same period shall be exempted from Inter State Transmission System (ISTS) charges and losses for inter-state sale of solar power. Further, up to 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has also been permitted under the automatic route.
• Distribution licensees would be notified about standard bidding guidelines to aid them in procuring solar and wind power at competitive rates in a cost-effective and transparent way, stated Singh. Norms for following the Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) up to 2022.
• The Green Energy Corridor project has been put in place to support the grid integration of large scale renewable energy capacity addition.Stakeholders are being notified about the quality standards guidelines for deploying solar photovoltaic systems/devices.
• Several schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahabhiyan Yojana (PM-KUSUM), CPSU (Government Producers) Scheme – Phase II and Solar Rooftop Phase II program aimed at the improvement of the generation as well as the adoption of solar energy in the country have been introduced.

Q.17. What are the features of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) initiated by the government of India? (Answer in 250 words) 15 Marks

Air pollution is one of the biggest global environmental challenges of today. A time bound national level strategy for pan India implementation to tackle the increasing air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner in the form of National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was today launched by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

“Overall objective of the NCAP is comprehensive mitigation actions for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution besides augmenting the air quality monitoring network across the country and strengthening the awareness and capacity building activities.”

The tentative national level target of 20%–30% reduction of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration by 2024 is proposed under the NCAP taking 2017 as the base year for the comparison of concentration.

“Today cities occupy just 3% of the land, but contribute to 82% of GDP and responsible for 78% of Carbon dioxide emissions; cities though are engines of growth and equity but they have to be sustainable and it is in this context that NCAP being a very inclusive program holds special relevance.

Features:

• The NCAP will be a mid-term, five-year action plan with 2019 as the first year. However, the international experiences and national studies indicate that significant outcome in terms of air pollution initiatives are visible only in the long-term, and hence the programme may be further extended to a longer time horizon after a mid-term review of the outcomes.
• The approach for NCAP includes collaborative, multi-scale and cross-sectoral coordination between the relevant central ministries, state governments and local bodies. Dovetailing of the existing policies and programmes including the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and other initiatives of Government of India in reference to climate change will be done while execution of NCAP.
• There will be use of the Smart Cities program to launch the NCAP in the 43 smart cities falling in the list of the 102 non-attainment cities.
• The NCAP is envisaged to be dynamic and will continue to evolve based on the additional scientific and technical information as they emerge.
• The NCAP will be institutionalized by respective ministries and will be organized through inter-sectoral groups, which include, Ministry of Road Transport and Highway, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, NITI Aayog, CPCB, experts from the industry, academia, and civil society.
• The program will partner with multilateral and bilateral international organizations, and philanthropic foundations and leading technical institutions to achieve its outcomes.
• City specific action plans are being formulated for 102 non-attainment cities identified for implementing mitigation actions under NCAP.
• Cities have already prepared action plans in consultation with CPCB. Institutional Framework at Centre and State Level comprising of Apex Committee at the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change in the Centre and at Chief Secretary Level in the States are to be constituted.
• In addition, sectoral working groups, national level Project Monitoring Unit, Project Implementation Unit, state level project monitoring unit, city level review committee under the Municipal Commissioner and DM level Committee in the Districts are to be constituted under NCAP for effective implementation and success of the Programme.

Other features of NCAP include, increasing number of monitoring stations in the country including rural monitoring stations, technology support, emphasis on awareness and capacity building initiatives, setting up of certification agencies for monitoring equipment, source apportionment studies, emphasis on enforcement, specific sectoral interventions etc.

Q.18. Discuss the recent measures initiated in the disaster management by the Government of India departing from the earlier reactive approach. (Answer in 250 words)   15 Marks

Introduction
India is a disaster prone country, therefore disaster management is of paramount importance in the context of sustainable development.

Recent Steps
First Asia Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) after the advent of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR

Body

• Disaster management in India has undergone substantive changes in its composition, nature and policy. The Disaster Management Act, 2005, provides for setting up of a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), amongst various other provisions
• The government has brought about a change in the approach to disaster management from a relief-centric to a holistic and integrated approach covering the entire gamut of disasters encompassing prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation.
• The approach is based on the conviction that development cannot be sustainable unless disaster mitigation is built into the development process. Therefore, ‘disaster management’ is not confined to ‘disaster response’ alone.
• India has moved ahead from disaster mitigation to risk reduction. Our national policies include mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction and development programmes, besides community resilience building
• The Disaster Management Act, 2005 lays down the institutional mechanism for drawing up and monitoring the implementation of the disaster management plans, ensuring measures by various wings of the government for prevention and mitigation of the effects of disasters and prompt response to any disaster situation
• The Act also provides for a specific role for local bodies in disaster management
• During the British administration, relief departments were set up for emergencies during disasters. Such an activity-based setup with a reactive approach was functional only during the post disaster scenarios. The policy was relief-oriented and activities included designing the relief codes and initialising food for work programmes
• permanent and institutionalised setup began during 1990s with the set up of a disaster management cell under the Central Ministry of Agriculture, following the declaration of the decade of 1990 as the ‘International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction’ (IDNDR) by the UN General Assembly
• Satellite technologies are enabling countries to effectively address disasters across all scenarios (pre, during and post). They help in understanding disaster triggers, enhancing predictive analytics and forecasting to enable early warning systems, assessing pre- and post-disaster physical damages, ensuring accuracy and timeliness of response strategies and information dissemination, and increasing knowledge of economic impact and social behaviours post-disaster
• India has developed seismic maps, cyclone maps, and hazard prone area maps. The technology, satellites by ISRO has been developed so much so that modelling based on the mapping and understanding the sort of damage is possible
• Disasters have to be turned towards the development sector. The building codes have changed, become better and are area specific. In a recent fire accident which took place in Odisha everyone was worried about not following the safety standards
• There is awareness among people; they ask whether the building is earth quake resistant while buying it. But the things are not to a satisfactory level.

Conclusion

With each disaster, there are numerous lessons to be learnt. India needs to document best practices that were observed during each disaster and ensure that these are captured in the form of a knowledge management platform

Q.19. What are the determinants of left-wing extremism in the Eastern part of India? What strategy should the Government of India, civil administration and security forces adopt to counter the threat in the affected areas? (Answer in 250 words) 15 Marks

Left Wing Extremism or Naxalism (as it called in India, because of its origin from a village called Naxalbari in West Bengal) is an ideology based on far left radical thoughts. It drives its thoughts from communism and emphasizes advancement of people’s social and economic life by establishing classless society through armed revolution.

Causes for spread of LWE:
Lack of development is one of the major factors for spread of LWE. It will be appalling to be told that the area has not been surveyed to date and that it has hardly any revenue or police presence on a regular basis. Even in areas which are not so much in the interior, the absence of adequate public intervention, especially in education, health and employment has allowed the non-state actors to push their agenda among the people. Let now see the other factors that causes spread of LWE

Land related factors
Below are the some of the factors that are related to land that have led the landless people to get empathized with LWEs propaganda.

• The origin of the popular slogan “land to the tiller” is in absentee landlordism, where the landlord would merely take the lion’s share of the produce without contributing anything to the production of the crop.
• The focus of the Naxalite movement is on trying to provide land, whether the land of landlords or government land, to the landless.
• In occupying landlords’ land, the Naxalites have not taken law as their reference point. It is not the ceiling-surplus land of the landlords that they have sought to put in the possession of the landless. Rather, they have targeted land holders whose holding is sizeable as they see it, or who are otherwise oppressive or cruel in their conduct, or hostile towards the Naxalite movement, even if they are not big landlords. Such landholders have in many cases been driven away from the villages and the irland sought to be put in the possession of the landless poor.
• It is a fact that in some cases the Naxalite movement has succeeded in helping the landless to occupy a substantial extent of government land whether for homesteads or for cultivation
• In the case of forest land, occupation by the adivasis with the encouragement and assistance of the Naxalites, has taken place . Properly conducted forest settlement proceedings should have protected at least the pre-existing rights, but much of forest settlement proceedings has taken place behind the back and over the head of the adivasi forest dwellers.

Displacement and forced evictions

• Internal displacement caused by irrigation / mining / industrial projects, resulting in landlessness and hunger, is a major cause of distress among the poor, especially the adivasis. It is well known that 40% of all the peopledisplaced by dams in the last sixty years are forest-dwelling adivasis. The law and administration provides no succour to displaced people, and in fact often treats them with hostility since such internally displacedforest-dwellers tend to settle down again in some forest region, which is prohibited by the law. The Naxalite movement has come to the aid of such victims of enforced migration in the teeth of the law. The victims have received that help from the Naxalites. The trauma of displacement for which the state does not provide succour creates space for violent movement.
• Displacement caused by major projects is not the only cause of migration. Landlessness, extremes of poverty and social oppression can also be causes of displacement. Through this process of forced migration, many tribals have left their villages and even State and migrated into neighbouring States. This involuntary displacement and migration has caused further distress among the tribals and created administrative problems for the host State. In the State of Bihar, through social oppression, many dalits had to move from their traditional habitat and moved Elsewhere . They were victims of upper casteatro cities. New habitats of such migrant dalits have become a source of further social tension. Often the displaced persons look on hopelessly and sometimes they seek support of the naxalite groups. Such situations create space for naxalite interventions.

Livelihood

• The Minimum Wages Act remains an act on paper in much of rural India. Agricultural labour is governed by the Act but the minimum wage rates under the Act are not implemented, except where the prosperity of the farmers and the demand for labour makes it unavoidable. In the areas of their activity, it is reported that Naxalites have ensured payment of decent wage rates. Their orientation to rights is in general not governed by statutory entitlement but what they regard as just and fair, taking all factors that they believe to be relevant into consideration.
• There are also large areas of labour not governed by the Minimum Wages Act. Since the Naxalites are in any case not bothered whether or not there is a law governing the right they are espousing, they have intervened and determined fair wage rates in their perception in all labour processes in their areas of influence.
• Enjoyment of common property resources as a traditional right by cattle-herds, fishing communities, toddy toppers, stoneworkers, has become vulnerable due to the appropriation of these resources by the dominant sections of society or by the others with their support. The Naxalites have tried to ensure the protection of this right wherever they are active. This is an area where there is in general no legislative protection at all of traditional rights, though some States have some policies which tend in that direction. Legislative protection of an umbrella nature should be considered by the Central Government

Social oppression

• The fight against the social oppression that the dalits and the lower among the OBCs have been regularly subjected to is perhaps the most significant among the issues used by the Naxalite movement.
• Apart from the concrete issues undertaken by the Naxalites against social oppression, the fact that the cadre and also most of local leaders of the Naxalite organisations consist of poor villagers of castes looked upon as lowly has endowed the oppressed with much strength.
• A sense of powerlessness is a characteristic of the psychological make up of oppressed classes. The typical Naxalite cadre, however, is a confident (most probably gun-wielding) teenager from those very classes. To see young boys and girls of their own villages and their own class/caste active in the Naxalite movement, and wielding power over the ‘big’ men of the village and the high and mighty tahsildar has given a sense of empowerment to the oppressed that has inestimable value

Issues arising out of mal-governance or non governance

• Dissatisfaction with improper and often mal-governance created anger among the suffering population. The Naxalites exploit the situation for their own political gain by giving the affected persons some semblance of relief or response. Thereby they tend to legitimise in the eyes of the masses their own legal or even illegal activities.
• In the matter of physical infrastructure like roads, school buildings, etc., the Naxalite movement has on certain occasion’s exerted pressure for its improvement, but in many places they have themselves obstructed the laying of roads for the reason that it would increase police and paramilitary raids. In Chhattisgarh they have demolished pucca buildings such as schools so that the police and paramilitary may have no shelter in the forests. All said and done, it cannot be said that there has been any general improvement in the administration in the areas of Naxalite influence.
• There is in general no administrative or judicial mechanism in our country for resolution of day-to-day conflicts and disputes. The people have been traditionally taking these disputes to local dispute-resolution mechanisms. In the best case the entire community sits and hears the dispute. Disputes between persons of different castes are decided by the two sides getting their respective caste elders (or persons they trust) to sit together. In some places disputes are commonly taken to the dominant person or persons in the village, whether or not justice is done. Sometimes there is acompulsion that all disputes must be brought to the village landlord, where the dispensation of justice is usually in favour of the strong. There is need for quick, fair and effective dispute resolution mechanism remains.
• The Naxalite movement has provided a mechanism (usually described as a ‘Peoples Court’) whereby these disputes are resolved in a rough and ready manner, and generally in the interests of the weaker party. It has the two elements of speed and effectiveness.

Policing

• Efficient and impartial policing is an important requirement of good administration .But the fact is that the weaker sections of the people do not have much faith in the police. They have no faith that justice will be done to them against the powerful. The movement does provide protection to the weak against the powerful, and takes the security of, and justice for, the weak and the socially marginal seriously.
• However, the Naxalite movement itself brings further police repression on the poor as a matter of State policy. Any agitation supported or encouraged by the Naxalites is brutally suppressed without regard to the justice of its demands. The search for Naxalite cadre leads to severe harassment and torture of its supporters and sympathisers, and the kith and kin of the cadre. What is to be pointed out here is that the method chosen by the Government to deal with the Naxalite phenomenon has increased the  people’s distrust of the police and consequent unrest. Protest against police harassment is itself a major instance of unrest, frequently leading to further violence by the police, in the areas under Naxalite influence. The response of the Naxalites has been to target the police and subject them to violence, which in effect triggers the second round of the spiral.

State’s Response:

It has been widely acknowledged that the Naxalite movement is the single biggest threat to the internal security of the country. The salient features of government policy to deal with the Naxal problem, as outlined in the Ministry of Home Affairs Status Paper brought out in May 2006, are summarized below:

1. deal sternly with the Naxalites indulging in violence;
2. address the problem simultaneously on political, security and development fronts
3. in a holistic manner;
4. ensure inter-state coordination in dealing with the problem;
5. accord priority to faster socio-economic development in the Naxal affected or
6. prone areas;
7. supplement the efforts and resources of the affected states on both security and
8. development fronts;
9. promote local resistance groups against the Naxalites;
10. use mass media to highlight the futility of Naxal violence and the loss of life
11. and property caused by it;
12. have a proper surrender and rehabilitation policyfor the Naxalites; and
13. affected states will not have any peace dialogue with the Naxal groups, unless
14. the latter agree to give up violence and arms.

To counter LWE a multi-pronged approach is needed

Effective implementation of protective legislation:

It is necessary to build up an impregnable protective shield of the State, against multi-faceted exploitation of these communities. This should be done by effective implementation of the existing constitutional provisions, protection of civil rights and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act laws and programmes in place for this purpose. National Commission of SC and ST should be made effective, they should be given power of investigation and to pass orders which they could enforce. This is because the recommendations are not carried out by different authorities. So the commission will implement.

Land Related measures

It is important to effective implement the land ceiling laws so that the ceiling surplus land thereby obtained is made available for distribution amongst the most vulnerable sections of the landless poor. The various loop holes in the respective state to ceiling legislations have resulted in bogus claims aimed at evading the law. Such loopholes should be done away with and all cultivable land, irrespective of the legal form in which it is held, should be brought under ceiling laws. The ceiling limit of lands which were earlier unirrigated but have become irrigated after the coming into effect of ceiling laws should be re-determined as per their existing status. At the same time interest of small and marginal farmers and tribal peasants would have to be protected against reverse tenancy. All types of agricultural tenancies should be recorded and rights of tenants should be secured and the rights of such tenants should be fully secured through enforced land to the tiller policy and ensure accessibility of tenants to non-land inputs

Universalization of basic social services:
The area affected by extremist’s movement in central India has concentration of tribal population, hilly topography and undulating terrain. The area has much less density of population than the plains. The failure to provide infrastructure and services as per national norms is one of the many discriminatory manifestations of Governance here. These disparities therefore result in non-available/poorly provided services. Universalisation of basic services to standards among the people in this area should be given top priority to remove this disparity.

Livelihood security:
The government should saturate the entire rain-fed and dry farming area with Participatory Watershed Development Projects for conservation of soil and water and development of natural resources with suitable changes in cropping pattern under the common guidelines issued by Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development for National Watershed Development Projects for Rainfed areas.
Strengthening subsidiary and supportive activities in animal husbandry, fisheries, horticulture, sericulture and poultry through establishment of quality infrastructure, supportive technical services and efficient market linkages at the village or a cluster of village level.

Good governance and socioeconomic development: This would necessitate high priority being given to development work and its actual implementation on the ground for which a clean, corruption-free and accountable administration at all levels is an imperative necessity.

Respect for rule of law: Governmental agencies must not be allowed to transgress law even in dealing with critical situations caused by insurgency or terrorism. If an extraordinary situation cannot be dealt with by the existing laws, new laws may be enacted so that law enforcement agencies are not provoked or tempted to resort to extra-legal or illegal methods. Police and all other governmental forces must adhere to some basic codes of conduct.

Countering the subversive activities of terrorists: Government must give priority to defeating political subversions (e.g. by terrorists and Maoists). The emphasis should be on civil as opposed to military measures to counter terrorism and insurgency. Psychological ‘warfare’ or management of information services and the media, in conjunction with the intelligence wing of the police, can play an important role in achieving this objective.

Building capacity: The capacity building exercise should extend to the intelligence gathering machinery, security agencies, civil administration and the society at large. As was highlighted in the Report on Crisis Management, the strategy should encompass preventive, mitigation, relief and rehabilitative measures.

If the above basic countermeasure principles are built into the national strategy, the end results will be

• Government =legality +construction + results
• LWE/insurgents = illegality +destruction + promises.
• SAMADHAN doctrine is the one-stop solution for the LWE problem. It encompasses the entire strategy of government from short-term policy to long-term policy formulated at different levels. SAMADHAN stands for-
  • S- Smart Leadership,
  • Aggressive Strategy,
  • M- Motivation and Training,
  • Actionable Intelligence,
  • D- Dashboard Based KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and KRAs (Key Result Areas),
  • H- Harnessing Technology,
  • Action plan for each Theatre,
  • N- No access to Financing.
• Some of theameliorative measures like National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), 2005,The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, National Rehabilitation & Resettlement Policy, 2007 have been introduced
• The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 is a significant step in dealing with discontent, unrest and tension arising out of widespread forcible displacement. There is an urgent need to implement it justly and with empathy to all by requiring authority /agencies / bodies to remove the trauma suffered by displaced person.
• The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is an important element in providing livelihood support and protection to the poorest of the poor. However, the experience so far suggests that in backward and remote districts with poor administrative structures the implementation is not at all satisfactory. There has been inadequate focus on systems, mechanisms and capacity in these areas, which need to be strengthened so that NREGA fulfil sits promise to enhance livelihood support.
• Transparency in the functioning of the government is an essential requirement of good governance. The initiative taken by the Government in enacting the Right to Information Act of 2005 and will go a long way in promoting transparency, provided the factors that impede its enforcement are removed, especially in so far as its use by the weaker sections is concerned.

Q.20. Analyze internal security threats and transborder crimes along Myanmar, Bangladesh and Pakistan borders including Line of Control (LoC). Also, discuss the role played by various security forces in this regard. (Answer in 250 words)   15 Marks

Model Answer:
India faces myriad security challenges both external and internal. Because of the historical and geographical reasons India’s border has been

Indian –Bangladesh border

• Illegal migration
• smuggling
• trans-border movement of insurgents

India-Myanmar border

• The normality of crossing the border
• Gun running and drug trafficking across the India-Myanmar border
• Narcotics and the ‘Golden Triangle’

India –Pakistan border

• The penetration of armed mercenary terrorists from Pakistan
• Counterfeit currency
• Narcotics trade and Golden crescent

Role played by security forces

Role Played by BSF

• The role of the Border Security Force has become more important as “our neighbouring countries” are planning against India

During peace time, the BSF’s role is to

1. Promote a sense of security among people living in the border areas
2. Preventing trans-border crimes
3. Unauthorised entry into or exit from the territory of India
4. Smuggling and other illegal activities
5. Performing special tasks connected with intelligence, including raids.
6. Protection of vital installations, particularly air-fields, against enemy commandoes, para troopers.