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Around 62% of rural households in India had fully functional tap water connections within their premises, according to a survey commissioned by the Union Ministry of Water Resources to assess the functioning of the government’s marquee Jal Jeevan Mission. In June, the Centre had reported this number to be 52%.
Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, and Puducherry reported more than 80% of households with fully functional connections, while less than half the households in Rajasthan, Kerala, Manipur, Tripura, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim had such connections.
A fully functional tap water connection is defined as a household getting at least 55 litres of per capita per day of potable water all through the year.
Close to three-fourths of households received water all seven days a week and 8% just once a week. On average, households got water for three hours every day, and 80% reported that their daily requirements of water were being met by the tap connections.
The water quality in some of the households was tested and revealed 95% of households to have within acceptable limits of pH values.
More than 90% of village-level institutions, such as schools and anganwadi centres, were getting potable water. More than half (57%) of the sampled households reported purifying water before drinking. Only around 3% of the households reported using reverse osmosis treatment for water purification prior to drinking.
However, the report mentions a concerning problem of chlorine contamination. Though 93% of the water samples were reportedly free of bacteriological contamination, “most of the anganwadi centres and schools, had higher than the permissible range of residual chlorine and indicated inappropriate local dosing. Thus, there is a need to monitor the correct dosing of chlorine in the pipe water supply system,” the report notes.
The assessment of the status of tap water connections was conducted by a private agency, HTA-Kantar Public, and relied on a sample survey that spanned 33 States and Union Territories, 712 districts, 13,299 villages, and 3,01,389 households.
City
Shameful that Capital lags in Swachh rankings, says AAP, demands early civic polls (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
A day after the SwachhSurvekshan 2022 rankings were released, in which none of the three erstwhile corporations managed to score a single point in the garbage-free city category, AAP lashed out at the BJP which governed the three civic bodies till their merger in May this year.
AAP in-charge of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi Durgesh Pathak said it was a matter of shame that the BJP, which was in power in the three erstwhile municipalities for 15 years, had driven the civic bodies to doom.He demanded that civic polls be held at the earliest.
The people of Delhi are tired of seeing garbage and filth on every nook and corner. We demand that MCD elections be held immediately so that AAP can rid the city of the three garbage mountains. We will make Delhi the cleanest city in the whole world,” Mr. Pathak said.
Among the 45 cities surveyed in the cleanliness survey, South civic body was placed at 28, North civic body at 37 and East civic body at 34.
The survey was conducted before they were merged into unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi.Mr. Pathak said Delhi is the gateway through which the world looks at India. Despite this, he added, the BJP has ensured that Delhi consistently lags behind the whole country when it comes to cleanliness.
Reacting to Mr. Pathak’s attack, BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor blamed the Delhi government for the civic bodies’ poor show in the survey.
He added that the Delhi government had, instead of providing additional resources, reduced the sanitation funds of the erstwhile municipalities over the last eight years while also withholding substantial portions of the assistance provided by the Centre.
It won’t be an exaggeration to say that Delhi lags behind in sanitation rankings due to the Kejriwal government cutting down on MCD’s sanitation funds.
Reacting to the Swachh rankings, a senior MCD official expressed pleasure at seeing the three erstwhile civic bodies improve their rankings.
SDMC has brought the corporation into the top 30. This has happened due to the various initiatives taken by the three corporations till they were merged into one MCD.
In the previous, 2021 survey, of 48 cities, this is how the three erstwhile civic bodies were placed — South civic body at 31, East civic body at 40 and North civic body at 45.
The cities were ranked based on three parameters, which include service-level progress based on data provided by urban local bodies and certification based on waste management.
Editorial
Choose ‘safe surrender’ over infant abandonment (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
Last month in Tamil Nadu, a two-year-old girl was found alone in a government bus. The crying toddler was handed over to the Dharmapuri police station which traced her mother with the help of CCTV footage. The mother said that after a quarrel with her husband she had tried to abandon their child in the bus.
In another incident in July, a two-week-old boy was found abandoned in a closed tea stall in very inclement weather in New Town, 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
He was rescued by the Technocity police station after a person alerted the police. The boy was given immediate medical aid. However, his parents could not be located.
Reports of newborn children being found abandoned in garbage piles, dustbins, in bushes by the roadside or places of religious worship are not uncommon in India.
Data by the National Crime Records Bureau show that no less than 709 criminal cases of ‘exposure and abandonment of child under twelve years’ under Section 317 of the Indian Penal Code were registered in the year 2021.
It is pertinent to note that no case is registered when a child is surrendered to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) constituted under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (or the JJ Act).
The moot question is this: If the child’s biological parents or the guardian do not want to or are unfit to raise the child, why do they abandon the child especially when there are so many people in India willing to adopt children? Especially when this number is more than the number of children available legally free for adoption?
According to the portal of the Central Adoption Resource Authority, there were 2,991 in-country adoptions and 414 inter-country adoptions in 2021-22.
Similarly, according to the 118th report on Review of Guardianship and Adoption Laws, presented to the Rajya Sabha on August 8, 2022), as on December 16, 2021, there were 2,430 children declared legally free for adoption for 26,734 adoptive parents-in-waiting.
An abandoned child means a child who is deserted by his biological or adoptive parents or guardians, while a surrendered child is relinquished on account of physical, emotional and social factors beyond their control.
The JJ Act, which has an overriding effect on other laws in force, provides that no first information report shall be registered against any biological parent in the process of inquiry relating to an abandoned and surrendered child.
The purpose of this provision is to ensure that all efforts are made to trace the parents or guardians of the child without initiating any criminal action.
Opinion
Mahatma Gandhi, the peacemaker (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 1, Significant Personalities)
Mahatma Gandhi was attentive of the fact that world peace is not possible without the spiritual growth of humanity. So far, the 22 years of the 21st century have not been peaceful. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine represents the biggest threat to peace in the world since the end of the Cold War.
Many believe that humanity will never attain peace. But we all know that peace is the result of a long process of compassionate dialogue and tireless caring across cultural, religious, and political boundaries.
Gandhi considered the problem of peace as an ethical, rather than political, issue. For him, the importance was to be on the side of the just. In a letter published in Harijan on December 9, 1939, he wrote: “The moral influence would be used on the side of peace... My nonviolence does recognise different species of violence — defensive and offensive.
It is true that in the long run the difference is obliterated, but the initial merit persists. A nonviolent person is bound, when the occasion arises, to say which side is just.
Thus, I wished success to the Abyssinians, the Spaniards, the Czechs, the Chinese, and the Poles, though in each case I wished that they could have offered nonviolent resistance… But who am I? I have no strength save what God gives me. I have no authority over my countrymen save the purely moral. If God holds me to be a pure instrument for the spread of nonviolence... He will... show me the way...”
This letter explains a great deal on Gandhi’s psychology as a moral leader at the time of war. It also shows clearly that he was a man of peace, who, beyond the violent values of his time, could struggle for nonviolence and dialogue among nations.
Based on this assumption, it appears that the most appropriate way to interpret Gandhi’s approval of violence over cowardice is to consider him as a consistent thinker on peace. Hence, it would be wrong to say that there were gradual changes in his opinions on war and peace.
If it is accepted that Gandhi always had a peace strategy even when he wrote on violence over cowardice, we can establish a continuity between his writings on war and peace in different stages of his struggle.
Many famous critics of Gandhi’s nonviolence have pointed their fingers at the impotence of Gandhian nonviolence against totalitarian regimes.
Hannah Arendt said, “If Gandhi’s enormously powerful and successful strategy of nonviolent resistance had met with a different enemy — Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, even pre-war Japan, instead of England — the outcome would not have been decolonization, but massacre and submission.”
However, unlike Arendt, Gandhi believed that in the absence of a concrete ethical foundation, the political could not function democratically and non-violently.
Explained
What happened to the Nord Stream pipelines? (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
As gas bubbled up in the Baltic sea for the fourth day on Thursday, September 29, another gas leak, the fourth successive one, was reported by Sweden in the already damaged Nord Stream pipelines linking Russia and Europe.
Three leaks were reported at different points in the pipelines since Monday. Two of the leaks were in Swedish waters while the other two were reported from Danish waters.
The European Union said they suspected “sabotage” behind the leaks without naming anyone and the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the ruptures to the pipelines took place in territory that was “fully under the control" of United States intelligence agencies.
While the EU promised a “robust” response to any international disruption to its energy infrastructure, Russia requested the United Nations Security Council to convene a meeting to discuss the damage to the pipelines that both Europe and Russia spent billions to build. The meeting has been scheduled for Friday.
The Nord Stream pipelines have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions in recent months as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.
The $7.1 (€7.4) billion Nord Stream 1 subsea pipeline, having two lines running alongside one another, has been operational since 2011, and is the largest single supply route for Russian gas to Europe.
The 1,224 km-long lines run under the Baltic Sea, starting from near S.t Petersburg in Russia and Lubmin in eastern Germany, and have a combined capacity of 55 billion cubic metres (bcm).
The Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom has a majority ownership in the pipeline, and while it was running at just 20% of its capacity since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began, the company, in early September fully cut gas flows from the pipeline on the pretext of maintenance.
According to Bloomberg, while 40% of Europe’s pipeline gas came from Russia before the war, the number now stands at just 9%.
The construction of the $11 billion-worth Nord Stream 2, which also has two parallel lines along the first one, was completed in 2021 but needed German approval to start supply.
Once thispipeline became functional, Nord Stream 1 and 2 could deliver a combined total of 110 billion cubic metres of gas a year to Europe for at least 50 years.
Germany, however, suspended the approval days before Russia sent its troops to Ukraine, meaning the pipeline never began commercial operations.
While both pipelines are not currently running commercially, they had millions of cubic metres of gas stored in them.
Text & context
The race to provide exhaustive satellite broadband services in India (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The race for providing satellite broadband connectivity in India is heating up as companies like Jio, Oneweb, Hughes and Tata-backed Nelco are preparing to provide these services.
Satellite communication has been gaining prominence globally and is seeing a lot of interest, investments, and innovations. The two biggest developments in the global satellite communication space are the emergence of LEO (low-earth orbit constellations) that promises to provide truly global coverage and lower latency service, and HTS (High Throughput Satellites Service) which offers unprecedented capacity and flexibility.
India is quickly catching up with global trends and we are optimistic about India’s prospects in the global satellite communication market, Shivaji Chatterjee, executive vice president, Hughes Communications India (HCI) said to The Hindu.
Although the satellite broadband industry in India is still at a nascent stage, the growing demand for connectivity and Internet — the Digital India drive — calls to connect all unserved terrains and this is what satellite broadband players like Hughes can do, he added.
However, different reports indicate that although India is about to see the roll out of 5G services, infrastructure woes like inadequate tower fiberisation questions the success of 5G in connecting different parts of the country which do not have even 4G access till now.
Different players offering satellite broadband services are preparing to start operations in the country.Jio has received approval from the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), in the second week of this month, to provide satellite broadband services in India.
Earlier, in February this year, Jio Platforms Ltd, the digital arm of Reliance Industries (RIL), and Luxembourg’s SES, formed a joint venture, Jio Space Technology Ltd to provide satellite-based broadband services in India.
The DoT has granted the Letter of Intent for global mobile personal communication by satellite (GMPCS) services to the company that the firm had applied for earlier this year. The licences are for a period of 20 years and include voice and data services via satellite.
Parallelly, in January this year, satellite communication companies, OneWeb and Hughes Network Systems, announced a six-year agreement, to bring low Earth orbit (LEO) connectivity services in India.
OneWeb will then bring these solutions to enterprises, governments, telcos, airline companies and maritime customers. However, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis forced OneWeb to cancel the planned launch of 36 satellites on Russia’s Soyuz rockets after Russia cancelled its agreement with the Bharti-backed U.K. based company. This led the satellite major to delay the commercial launch of its satellite communication services in India to early 2023.
News
U.K. firms ask India to unravel ‘frustrating’ red tape, take ‘broader’ view on lending norms (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2/3, IR/Economy)
Legal and regulatory impediments in India continue to be a source of “frustration” for investors looking to set up or expand operations in India, even as land acquisition and “regular delays” in Customs clearances remain problematic, the U.K. India Business Council (UKIBC) has conveyed to the Government of India.
The Council has urged India to take a “broader view” of priority sector lending norms for foreign banks operating in India and sought equitable tax treatment, while flagging rising instances of counterfeit product sales through e-commerce platforms as a deterrent for intellectual property (IP) owners.
With India and the U.K. working to seal a free trade agreement (FTA) soon, the Council has said making it easier to do business is as important as the trade pact to bolster trade and investment flows.
Its recent submissions to the government, based on inputs from British firms operating in the country, include a laundry list of procedural, taxation and other areas that need intervention.
Legal and regulatory impediments remain a frustration according to businesses. Duplication of regulation wherein two sets of regulations are administered by two different arms of Government on the same issue was cited as a key issue.
Such duplication leads to delays and costs, and are most common in areas on the Constitution’s concurrent list of legislations, such as labour, environment, food and personal care.
Unnecessary, duplicated regulations are a disincentive to investment, adding that there are several grey areas in compliance, be it in tax or telecommunications.
In essence, our recommendations are about reducing bureaucracy, simplifying legal and regulatory complexities and taxation, developing world class IP and infrastructure environments, and enshrining investor protection.
Noting that lack of enforcement of IP rights is problematic and can stifle innovation, U.K. firms have cited examples of counterfeit items in circulation, with more instances coming up in online commerce, which has assumed greater import post-pandemic. This has heightened the problem of “breakdown of intellectual rights.
U.K. firms have also sought improvements in land acquisition processes, particularly from the public sector, and stressed that conversion of land use is a long-drawn process that impedes business plans.
Businesses also struggle to expand structures in India due to complex compliance requirements, particularly the structural compliances.
Together, reforms to make greenfield and brownfield acquisition and development simpler would help businesses to open more stores, factories, and other facilities, thus enabling them to expand faster and provide gainful employment.
‘NEP prescribes no language; States can choose’ (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
The Ministry of Education in November 2021 constituted a high-powered committee, the BharatiyaBhashaSamiti, for the promotion of Indian languages, led by the RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh (RSS)-affiliated Sanskrit proponent and Padma Shri awardee Chamu Krishna Shastry.
The committee is tasked with preparing an action plan for the growth of Indian languages as prescribed under National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which requires mother tongue to be the medium of instruction in schools and higher education institutions. He spoke to The Hindu’s Jagriti Chandra on the roadmap being readied by the panel.
We are making a study of the current situation of languages in schools, higher education institutions and other domains of language use, such as jobs.
We have found that there are 35 mother tongues as mediums of instruction, and as part of the three-language formula, 160 languages as well as mother tongues are taught (for example, Hindi is a mother tongue and a language, while Garhwali is a mother tongue but not a language).
The first roadblock in implementing NEP is providing study material, and our focus for the first year is to prepare books in the languages of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution from Class 1 to the post-graduate level in all streams of education such as Science, Humanities and Commerce.
We are actively engaging with regulatory bodies, universities and professors and providing assistance in training, and conducting workshops and orientation programmes.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has readied 1st year engineering books in 12 languages and in all 270 books have been published.
Work on 2nd year books is underway. Similarly, the Bar Council of India in association with BharatiyaBhashaSamiti and UGC has constituted a committee under former CJI SharadBobde for preparing legal textbooks in Indian languages.
The Madhya Pradesh government’s Health Ministry and the State’s Medical Council have also readied 1st year books [in Hindi]. Recently, Shastra University in Thanjavur announced that they will produce 75 books in 75 subjects in Tamil in higher education.
Telangana scoops SwachhSurvekshanGramin, 2022 award (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Telangana was ranked first for the cleanliness of its villages in the SwachhSurvekshanGramin (SSG), 2022, which looked into the sanitation status of rural areas. After Telangana, Haryana was placed second followed by Tamil Nadu in the Large States category.
The SwachhSurvekshanGramin, 2022 award ranks States and districts on the basis of their performance attained on Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM-G) parameters and engagement of the rural community in improvement of their sanitation status.
Among smaller States and Union Territories, Andaman and Nicobar secured the first position, followed by Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Sikkim.
“Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin is a movement to bring in behavioural change in our populace. The use of toilets, the habit of washing hands with soap and having water supply through taps acted as a shield for the country during the pandemic,” said President DroupadiMurmu, while giving away the awards.
Ms. Murmu noted that since the launch of SBM-G in 2014, over 11 crore toilets had been built and about 60 crore people had given up open defecation.
The second phase of the mission, launched in 2020, aims to make all six lakh villages in India ‘Open Defecation Free Plus. Having achieved success against open defecation, we now have to address more complex and technical problems like solid and liquid waste management.
Having achieved success against open defecation, we now have to address more complex and technical problems like solid and liquid waste management.