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Patna High Court allowed the Bihar government to go ahead with its caste survey, taking into account its assurance on data protection in the Assembly.
The court had stayed the caste survey through an interim order, saying that the state government was not competent to conduct the caste survey.
A division bench of Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Partha Sarthy said in their order: “We find the action of the State to be perfectly valid, initiated with due competence, with the legitimate aim of providing development with justice.”
The court said that as the survey does not involve any coercion to divulge details — as announced in the Assembly — it does not violate “the rights of privacy of the individual, especially since it is in furtherance of a ‘compelling public interest’ which in effect is the ‘legitimate State interest’”.
The court order came on six petitions challenging the caste survey on the grounds of data protection, competency of the state government to carry out the exercise and the expenditure of over Rs 500 crore on it.
After the verdict, Dinu Kumar, advocate for one of the petitioners, said: “We are not convinced with the court order and will soon move the Supreme Court against it.
The same high court had said in its interim that the state government was not competent to conduct the caste survey and had called it census under the garb of survey.”
Sharp skew in national big cat map: 20% of tiger area has less than 1% of tiger population (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
One-fifth of India’s tiger area spanning 16 tiger reserves harbours only 25 — or less than one per cent — of India’s 3,682 tigers, show figures in the latest All-India Tiger Estimate (AITE) report by the Environment Ministry.
None of these 16 “bottom reserves,” — the lowest 16 by number of tigers per 100 sq km — has more than five tigers. Seven have one tiger each, and five reported none.
In all, there are 53 tiger reserves covering a combined area of 75,797 sq km. While the latest quadrennial AITE records a net gain of 715 tigers over the previous estimate in 2018, the national count shows the shrinking range of the big cat since 45% of India’s tigers are concentrated in another set of 16 reserves that also account for roughly one-fifth of India’s tiger area. (See chart)
In the previous AITE in 2018, 14 of the 16 bottom reserves (two were not in existence then) together reported 40 tigers. That number is now down to 19.
“This is why the overall growth (in tiger numbers) should not make us complacent. The situation is not good in states such as Jharkhand (only one tiger recorded), Orissa, Chhattisgarh and many areas in the Northeast.
We need to invest in protection and prey base, and possibly look at the option of reintroducing tigers in some of these reserves.
In Parliament
Press and Registration of periodicals bill introduced in RS (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Amid uproar from the Opposition benches, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur introduced the Press and Registration of Periodicals (PRP) Bill, 2023 in the Rajya Sabha.
The Bill seeks to replace the existing Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act, 1867, which governs the registration of print and publishing industry in the country.
The Union Cabinet had recently approved the PRP Bill that seeks to simplify the registration process for periodicals and do away with the provision for prosecution and imprisonment of publishers.
The aim of the new Bill is to bring transparency and ease of doing business. It will provide for a simple process that will help small and medium publishers.
In the 1867 Act, only the district magistrate (DM) could cancel the declaration of a periodical, while the Press Registrar General (PRG) did not have suo motu powers to cancel or suspend the Certificate of Registration granted by it. But PRP Bill, 2023 empowers the PRG to suspend/cancel registration.
A person who has been convicted by any court for an offence involving terrorist act or unlawful activity, or having done anything against the security of the state shall not be permitted to bring out a periodical, as per the new Bill.
The Bill also seeks to do away with two provisions that required publishers and printers to file a declaration before the DM.
It waters down the penal provisions of the PRB Act, which made improper declaration of information a punishable offence with a prison term of up to six months.
Editorial
Fading green (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Greenwashing refers to actions that claim to provide positive environmental benefits but don’t achieve much. With the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill 2023, the government is going one step further and indulging in “green-gutting” — using pro-environment language while actually undermining regulations.
The Bill introduces a preamble that sounds wonderfully pro-conservation. But then it goes on to nullify the Supreme Court’s 1996 Godavarman order, and provides exemptions that further weaken the already emaciated regulations around forest diversion.
The Forest Conservation Act, 1980 (FCA) originated in the belief that state governments were being too liberal in doling out forest land for non-forest activities, particularly for cultivation.
The 42nd constitutional amendment brought forests into the concurrent list, and that enabled the passing of a central Act that required states to get the central government’s approval before diverting forests for non-forest activities.
Nevertheless, the regulatory process did slow down diversions. The compensatory afforestation requirement was largely window dressing — plantations often failed to come up, but it served to expand the estates of the forest departments.
Ideas Page
South Asia is open for business (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The recent visits to Delhi by Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe highlight the shifting currents in South Asian regionalism. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi’s recent travels to Delhi, Colombo, and Male and a surprising visit to Sri Lanka by French President Emmanuel Macron last week underline the new external impetus to the Subcontinent’s economic integration.
But the pessimistic discourse on South Asian regionalism is trapped in two old propositions. One, South Asia is the least integrated region and insufficiently connected to the world.
The second is the belief that the road to regional integration in the Subcontinent must necessarily run through the SAARC — the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
The first proposition has been true for a long time, and the second has become irrelevant to the region’s future. Let us briefly review the two and how new forces are producing significant change on the ground.
The post-colonial and partitioned Subcontinent deliberately chose economic autarky and devalued regional integration. Endless conflict reinforced the lack of political appetite for cross-border commercial engagement.
Worse still, the trans-regional connectivity inherited from the British Raj steadily withered as the newly-independent economies focused on import substitution.
Explained
WHO report on tobacco control: Key Findings, how India fares (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Bengaluru finds special mention in a World Health Organisation (WHO) report on tobacco control measures released Monday.
Hundreds of enforcement drives, putting up ‘No Smoking’ signs, and creating awareness about the effects of smoking and second-hand smoke resulted in a 27% reduction in smoking in public places in the city.
Across the world, there are 300 million fewer smokers today,with the prevalence of smoking declining from 22.8% in 2007 to 17% in 2021.
Fifteen years ago, WHO had developed the MPOWER measures – monitor tobacco use and prevention policies; protect people from tobacco smoke; offer help to quit tobacco; warn about dangers of tobacco; enforce bans on tobacco advertising; and raise taxes on tobacco products. The report assesses the implementation of these measures.
In the 15 years since the MPOWER measures were first introduced, 5.6 billion people in the world – or 71% of the entire population – remain protected by at least one of the measures. This has increased from just 5% of the population in 2008.
Sub categorisation of OBCs (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
The long awaited report of a commission set up to examine the sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) was submitted to President Droupadi Murmu on Monday (July 31), the last working day of the commission.
The four-member commission headed by Justice G Rohini, a retired Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, was appointed on October 2, 2017, and received as many as 13 extensions to its tenure.
The commission was set up in recognition of the perceived distortions in the affirmative action policy, which was seen as leading to a situation in which a few castes cornered the bulk of benefits available under the 27% quota for OBCs, and tasked with suggesting corrective actions.
The report of the commission is widely expected to be politically sensitive, with a direct bearing on the electoral calculations of parties ahead of Lok Sabha elections. The contents of the report have not been made public as yet.
OBCs get 27% reservation in central government jobs and admission to educational institutions. There are more than 2,600 entries in the Central List of OBCs, but over the years, a perception has taken root that only a few affluent communities among them have benefited from the quota.
Therefore, there is an argument that a “sub-categorisation” of OBCs — quotas within the 27% quota — is needed in order to ensure “equitable distribution” of the benefits of reservation.
In LS, a bill on IIMs, and the concerns it raises over their autonomy (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The government has brought a Bill in Parliament giving itself significant say in the appointment and removal of Directors of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and in initiating inquiries.
The Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023, introduced in Lok Sabha on July 28, seeks to make changes in the law that governs the administration and running of IIMs. The proposed changes have triggered concern over their potential to erode the autonomy of the IIMs.
The Bill seeks to amend the Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017 which declared 20 existing IIMs as “institutions of national importance with a view to empower these institutions to attain standards of global excellence in management, management research and allied areas of knowledge”.
Under the 2017 Act, the Director of an IIM is appointed by a Board of Governors, and the government has a limited say in the process.
The proposed amendments essentially seek to alter this situation, and to give the government an expanded role in the appointment of the IIM Director.
Section 5 of the amendment Bill says that “After section 10 of the principal Act, the following section shall be inserted, namely: ’10A. (1) The President of India shall be the Visitor of every Institute’” covered under the IIM Act.
Economy
Touching a record high, Urals volumes boost India’s Russian oil imports (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
After falling sequentially in June, India’s Russian oil imports in July recovered to almost touch the all-time high level of 1.93 million barrels per day (bpd) seen in May, thanks to a jump in import volumes of Moscow’s flagship Urals crude, data shared by energy cargo tracker Vortexa showed.
Going ahead, however, imports of Russian oil by Indian refiners could see some moderation due to various factors, which include export cuts by Russia and higher demand from Russian refineries, erosion in discounts offered by Moscow on its oil, and Urals breaching the G7 price cap of $60 per barrel.
In July, Russian oil imported by Indian refiners rose 5.3 per cent over June to 1.92 million bpd. Of this, Urals alone accounted for 83.3 per cent.
Import of Urals crude rose 17.9 per cent sequentially in July to 1.60 million bpd. Russian oil accounted for 41.9 per cent of India’s overall oil imports of 4.58 million bpd in July, and dwarfed the cumulative volumes of at least the next four large suppliers–Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United states.
Urals, which is a medium-sour crude, has been the mainstay of India’s Russian oil purchases. However, its price recently breached the price cap imposed by G7 countries and the discounts being offered by Russian oil exporters have eroded substantially, which could have a bearing on India-Russia oil trade, which has been booming since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Russia began offering deep discounts on its oil exports as major Western economies started weaning themselves off Moscow’s crude.
Indian refiners lapped up the opportunity, snapping up the discounted barrels in huge quantities, resulting in Russia emerging as India’s largest source of crude.
From a share of less than 2 per cent in India’s oil imports prior to the war in Ukraine, Russian crude now accounts for over 40 per cent of Delhi’s oil import pie.