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The Maharashtra Assembly passed the Lokayukta Bill 2022, which brings the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers under the ambit of the anti-corruption ombudsman.
The Bill was passed without discussion as the Opposition had staged a walkout over the alleged scam in the Teachers’ Eligibility Test.
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis termed the Bill a historic legislation, adding that Maharashtra is the first State to have such a law. Mr. Fadnavis, who is also the State Home Minister, said discussion had taken place with the Opposition.
As per the draft Bill, prior approval of the Assembly has to be obtained and the motion has to be placed before the immediate session of the House before initiating any inquiry against the CM. Such a motion shall be passed by not less than two-thirds of the total members of the Assembly, states the Bill.
Mr. Fadnavis said after the Centre passed a law on Lokpal, it was expected that all State governments formulate a legislation on the same lines.
Editorial
Nepal politics, past, present, and future (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The general elections in Nepal that were held in November passed off peacefully but prospects for a stable government remain elusive. Neither of the two electoral coalitions has managed to secure a clear majority.
Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ who had broken up with the United Marxist- Leninist (UML) in 2020 and joined the Nepali Congress (NC)-led coalition, once again switched to the UML.
On Christmas day, he was appointed Prime Minister for the third time. To demonstrate his majority within 30 days, Prachanda will have to satisfy the demands of the UML and six other political parties with widely diverging agendas.
With 89 seats in a House of 275, the NC emerged as the largest party. It had an opportunity to form both the federal and six of the seven provincial governments with its coalition partners but missed the bus, thanks to the NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba’s ego (he is 76 and after five stints, remains convinced of his destiny to be Prime Minister six times) and poor advice.
Yet, 30 days is a long time in Nepal’s politics and Prachanda may again realise too late that he had been manipulated by UML leader K.P. Oli.
Nepal’s transition from a monarchy to a republic began in 2008. In 15 years, Nepal has had three NC Prime Ministers (G.P. Koirala, Sushil Koirala and Mr. Deuba twice), two Maoist Prime Ministers (Prachanda twice and Baburam Bhattarai), three UML Prime Ministers (Madhav Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal and Mr. Oli twice), and a Chief Justice as caretaker Prime Minister in 2013. In such a fluid environment, political horse trading has been rampant.
Following the adoption of the new Constitution in 2015, elections were held in 2017. Then too, Prachanda was in a coalition government with the NC, but a month before the elections, switched to form an electoral alliance with the UML.
He soon realised that he was relegated to being the junior partner with 53 seats compared to the UML’s 121. Mr. Oli assumed the post of Prime Minister in 2018 and despite promising Prachanda, never ceded control of the merged Nepal Communist Party.
Mr. Oli’s authoritarian traits soon antagonised some of his senior colleagues, Madhav Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, and Bhim Rawal, who made common cause with Prachanda.
India must build awareness on population control (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
Early in December, two Members of Parliament of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Ravi Kishan and Nishikant Dubey, introduced in the Lok Sabha a private members’ Bill aimed at population control in India.
Stating that population rise is the most significant reason for India’s slow rate of development, the Bill argues for an immediate need for population control.
The debate and the discourse around India’s rising population is not recent, having begun since Independence. India was among the first nations to address its population problem as early as 1951, raising awareness about the ills of overpopulation.
While there has been a significant rise in India’s population, there has also been a sharp decline in India’s total fertility rate (TFR). In 1950, the TFR was at around 5.9%, and is now 2% (fifth round of the National Family Health Survey, or NFHS).
There was a steep decline after the 1970s, indicating an inversely proportional relationship between economic prosperity and the fertility rate.
The debate around the need for population control has been greatly politicised in India. The entirety of this discourse around such a sensitive issue is often reduced to a petty religious issue, and, ultimately, the subject of development suffers.
Nearly six months before the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Yogi Adityanath government and the State Law Commission of Uttar Pradesh came up with a proposed draft Bill, i.e., the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill, 2021.
Population is a grave concern in the Hindi heartland, especially Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, but the suggestions were more political than practical. The visible attempt was towards an affirmation of the majoritarian politics being played out.
For instance, the Bill said that no government job would be offered to couples with more than two children. However, there was no clarification about what would happen to a person who had a third child after being in a government job or if, for some reason, a person with two children remarried and had a third child.
Explainer
A failed attempt at decriminalisation (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Last week, the Union Government tabled the Jan Vishwas Bill, 2022, (Bill) in the Parliament with the objective of “decriminalising” 183 offences across 42 legislations and enhancing the ease of living and doing business in India.
It is a welcome move and can be viewed as an attempt to reverse the trend of overcriminalisation. However, there is much that needs to be done in order to institutionalise efforts aimed at decriminalisation.
An unprincipled growth of criminal law has long been a cause of concern for scholars of law. Such growth is evident from the fact that criminal law is frequently used as a political tool; the act of criminalisation often becomes a medium for governments to put across a strong image as opposed to punishing wrongful conduct.
Governments offer little in the way of justifications to support such decisions. This phenomenon has been termed “overcriminalisation” by scholars.
The consequences are felt almost immediately. As per the National Judicial Data Grid, of the 4.3 crore pending cases, nearly 3.2 crore cases are in relation to criminal proceedings.
It is trite to say that the growing number of pending criminal cases share a direct relation with the number of criminal laws. Similarly, the rise in the prison population is also proof of overcriminalisation.
As per the National Crime Records Bureau’s Prison Statistics of 2021, a total of 5.54 lakh prisoners were confined in prisons against a capacity of 4.25 lakh.
The Jan Vishwas Bill either omits penal provisions or replaces them with fines in legislations such as the Air Act, Environment Protection Act, Forest Act, Drugs and Cosmetics Acts, Cinematograph Act, Patents Act, Trade Marks Act and Information Technology Act amongst several others.
These are primarily offences which are regulatory in nature. By and large, an examination of the provisions of the Bill reveals that stress has been on the replacement of imprisonment clauses with fines.
This can hardly be termed as ‘decriminalisation’. There is much that is required for the efforts aimed at decriminalisation to fructify in any meaningful way.
What is the proposal to ban the sale of single cigarettes? (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare in its latest report about cancer management, prevention and diagnosis recommended that the government institute a ban on the sale of single sticks of cigarettes.
It also recommended that the government increase taxes on all tobacco products and utilise the acquired revenue for cancer prevention and awareness.
The Committee observed that there is an urgent need to disincentivise the consumption of tobacco and alcohol in the country.
It noted that tobacco consumed in different ways accounts for nearly 50% of all cancers, collectively referred to as tobacco-related cancers — which can be prevented.
Broadly, the measures endeavour to curb consumption as well as the accessibility of tobacco products, including cigarettes.
The report, pointing to the National Health Policy’s (2017) endeavour for a relative reduction in current tobacco use by 30% in 2025, suggests that it is imperative that the government take effective measures to contain the sale of tobacco products.
To this effect, it recommends that the government prohibit the sale of single sticks of cigarettes and lay stringent penalties and fines on offenders.
It also suggests that the government abolish all designated smoking areas in airports, hotels and restaurants in addition to encouraging a smoke-free policy in organisations.
The Committee also foundthat India has the lowest prices for tobacco products and thus, it must look to increase taxes on them. The revenue acquired from additional taxation, it proposes, could be used for cancer prevention and awareness.
These measures flow from the observation that oral cancer accounts for the highest proportion of cancer cases in the country.
Additionally, the committee also sought a ban on gutka and pan masala alongside a prohibition on their direct and indirect advertisement.
This is based on the observation that, in India, more than 80% of tobacco consumption is in the form of chewing tobacco with or without areca nut, aggressively marketed as a mouth freshener.
Single sticks are more economical to acquire than a full pack of cigarettes. This may particularly appeal to adolescents and youth who may have limited money in hand.
Single sticks are also preferred by people who may want to take it up for experimentation and have not started smoking on a regular basis.
Text & context
Putting off caste census will only benefit the privileged groups (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Following an order by the Allahabad High Court directing that local body elections be held in Uttar Pradesh without any reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBC), Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said the State government was ready to approach the Supreme Court, if required, regarding the matter.
The High Court had added that the State had not done enough to follow the “triple test formula” as suggested by the Supreme Court. Kalaiyarasan A et al discuss why caste census is imperative to help understand the whole picture.
The debate about whether the decennial Census should collect data on caste from individuals who fall into the administrative categories of ‘General’ and ‘Other Backward Classes’ (OBCs) has been argued by public intellectuals, politicians, and government administrators for decades. As the Census currently only collects data on ‘Scheduled Castes’ (SCs) and ‘Scheduled Tribes’ (STs), it fails to provide comprehensive data on India’s graded caste hierarchy.
In the run-up to the 2011 Census, the political leadership agreed to include a full caste count in the Census. It later prevented a caste-wise enumeration in the Census.
The suppression of caste-wise data took place then because of two interconnected dynamics which are likely to reoccur unless they are collectively challenged.
First, caste elites generally believe that caste no longer matters in shaping opportunities and outcomes in the 21st century. This caste blindness, or castelessness, obscures caste privileges and conceals sources of multi-generational structural advantage.
Many caste elites view the collection of caste data about anyone but the most disadvantaged as unnecessary and a misuse of public resources.
This perspective both serves their own interests and ignores the relational nature of caste — that is, the same societal institutions, systems, and cultural norms that have led to historic and ongoing subjugation of oppressed castes have simultaneously empowered others.
To understand the full scope of disadvantage, we must also examine the full scope of privilege and advantage.
The suppression also occurred as a result of the machinery of government. Organisations tasked with designing Census questions and overseeing data collection, similar to every other key institution in society, have caste-based inequalities entrenched within them.
News
G20 campaigns for online safety, digital innovation unveiled (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Groupings)
Inviting the world to make use of the ‘India Stack’ (India’s set of open APIs and digital public goods) and announcing that India would soon also similarly open up its telecom stack, Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw launched the Stay Safe Online campaign and the Digital Innovation Alliance (DIA) programme, which G-20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant lauded as among the first-ever programmes to be launched worldwide as a G-20 initiative.
At the launch of the campaigns, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Alkesh Kumar Sharma, said that the DIA is meant to “unite the innovation ecosystems” of G-20 countries and nine invitee countries to recognise and support start-ups developing innovative digital solutions.
The DIA programme will have 174 start-ups from member countries with invitee countries sending in entries for digital solutions in six key sectors - Edtech, Healthtech, Agritech, Fintech, secured digital infrastructure and circular economy, which will be showcased at a three-day event in Bengaluru in August 2023, giving the start-ups a chance to pitch their ideas.
The entries will be judged by a diverse jury, drawn from academia, corporates, Ministers and investors, at the end of which the top three innovations in each sector will be awarded.
The event would also provide an opportunity for interactions with stakeholders, esteemed panel discussions and investor connect, Mr. Sharma said.
Meanwhile, the Stay Safe Online campaign intends to raise awareness about cyber risks and the need for cyber hygiene in an increasingly digitising world. The Ministry released a video for this campaign, which asks citizens to share instances of cyber safety online with a hashtag for wider reach and intends to reach all groups of citizens in urban and rural India.
The video is also being translated in all U.N. languages and languages of all G-20 countries and invitee countries for global reach.
Mr. Vaishnaw cited these programmes as examples of how India was on its way to make its presidency of the G-20 significantly different and path-breaking, by adhering to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to make it an action-oriented event for global good rather than just being a “talk-shop”.
Business
Trade pacts with Australia, UAE to help boost exports, say promotion councils (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Various export promotion councils (EPCs) lauded the trade agreements signed by India with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia, saying the pacts will help the country in boosting exports by granting preferential access to those markets for Indian products.
Engineering Exports Promotion Council (EEPC) said that the country had benefited from preferential market access provided by the UAE on more than 97% of its tariff lines which account for 99% of Indian exports to the region in value terms.
Eastern regional chairman of EEPC, B.D. Agarwal, said at an interactive session here that this trend had emerged after signing of the India–UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which became effective from May, 2022.
The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), which will come into force from December 29, is expected to create 10 lakh jobs, and raise Indian merchandise exports to Australia by $10 billion.
According to him, the ECTA will also allow zero duty on 100% tariff lines, and provide cheaper raw materials to steel and aluminium sectors. The trade pact will also raise the bilateral trade volume to $45-50 billion in five years.
Bipin Menon, development commissioner, Noida SEZ, said that India is the sixth largest trading partner of Australia.India's bilateral trade in goods and services with Australia rose 106.5% to $25.04 billion so far in the current financial year over the previous fiscal.
The CEPA with the UAE is also expected to increase the total value of bilateral trade in goods to over $100 billion and in services to more than $15 billion within five years.
Rowan Ainsworth, consul general of Australia in Kolkata, said that ECTA will help Australian manufacturers strengthen their supply chain resilience, and enhance trade diversification while also connecting the two complementary and stable economies.
Deputy DGFT, Kolkata, Anand Mohan Mishra, said that in recent years, the India-Australia bilateral relationship had charted a new trajectory of transformational growth.
The trade relationship facilitated through ECTA would open a new chapter in the India-Australia association thereby enhancing India's merchandised exports significantly.