[Mission 2023] INSIGHTS DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS + PIB SUMMARY 22 November 2022

GS Paper 1

Syllabus: Indian Society, Governance- Population and related issues, Geography

Source: Indian Express

Direction: Population and related issues can be asked under different themes in multiple papers. Moreover, India is said to surpass China in population is a significant change. Keep notes ready on demography

Context:

• 2022: China will for the first time register an absolute decline in its population
• 2023: India’s population, projected by the United Nationsto reach 1.428 billion, will surpass China’s425 billion

What factors are behind this shift? 

• Falling Mortality: Due to increased education levels, public health and vaccination programmes, access to food and medical care, and provision of safe drinking water and sanitation facilities.
• Increasing life expectancy at birth: Between 1950 and 2020, it went up from 43.7 to 78.1 years for China and from 41.7 to 70.1 years for India.
• A drop in fertility: It has slowed down population growth, ultimately resulting in absolute declines (in the case of China).
  • The total fertility rate (TFR) — the number of babies an average woman bears over her lifetime
  • A TFR of 2.1 is considered “replacement-level fertility”. Simply understood, a woman having two children basically replaces herself and her partner with two new lives. Since all infants may not survive to realise their reproductive potential, the replacement TFR is taken at slightly above two
  • India’s TFR is already below-replacement, but it will take a few generations for the absolute population to start declining
  • China’s TFR dipped below replacement first in 1991, which was almost 30 years before India’s

Chart 1 shows how sharply the TFR has fallen for India in the last three decades

Implications of these demographic changes:

• For China:
  • Decline in prime working age population: It creates a vicious cycle wherein the number of working people to support dependent decreases but the number of dependents starts increasing
  • In response, China officially ended its one-child policy, introduced in 1980, in 2016.
• India has an opportunity of reaping a demographic dividend’: the working-age population’s share in the overall population crossed 50% only in 2007 and will peak at 57% towards the mid-2030s (see Chart 2)
  • But reaping demographic dividend is contingent upon the creation of meaningful employment opportunities for a young population

Conclusion:

Going forward, the challenge before India’s policymakers is to promote growth that generates jobs outside of agriculture. The surplus labour from farms should find employment in sectors — manufacturing and modern services — where productivity, value-addition and average incomes are higher. In the absence of such structural transformation, the “demographic dividend” could well turn into a “demographic nightmare”

Insta Links

Moving policy away from population control

Mains Links

Q. Despite the Consistent experience of high growth, India still goes with the lowest indicators of human development. Examine the issues that make balanced and inclusive development elusive. (UPSC 2021)

Prelims Links

GS Paper 2

Syllabus: Government Policies and Interventions and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation

Source: TH

 Direction: This article demonstrates how electoral bonds have concealed funding to political parties even more, its impacts, way ahead and a best practice in the conclusion.

 Context: According to an RTI reply, electoral bonds worth ₹10,246 crore have been sold by the State Bank of India (SBI) since the instrument was launched in March 2018.

Background in which electoral bonds were introduced:

• Political parties violating FCRA: In 2014, the Delhi HC found both the Congress and BJP guilty of illegally accepting donations from a foreign company, in contravention of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 1976.
• Amending FCRA: Following this, the two parties came together to amend the FCRA to retrospectively legalise the violations, bringing in full anonymity to corporate and foreign political donors.
• Old vs new provisions:
  • Previously, only profit-making domestic companies could contribute to political parties, now, loss-making can as well.
  • Foreign companies could not previously contribute. A foreign firm operating in India or a foreign entity through a shell company may fund Indian political parties now.
• Capping cash donations: In 2017, the anonymous cash donations to political parties were reduced from ₹20,000 to ₹2,000 to ensure greater transparency in political funding.

Introduction of Electoral bonds:

• The Electoral Bond Scheme (EBS), announced in the 2017 Union Budget, was notified by the Central Government in 2018.
• These bonds can be purchased from select SBI branches by any Indian person or corporation incorporated in India under the scheme.
• The introduction of electoral bonds brought a new form of anonymity to thousands of crores of donations.

How did electoral bonds introduce a new type of anonymity?

• By reducing public and legislative oversight: For example, only the ruling party via the SBI has a full account of all donations being made via electoral bonds.
• Political parties do not disclose electoral bond donors: The only requirement is the annual audit reports with all donations received via electoral bonds. However, these reports are submitted with great delays.

Impact of anonymity:

• Dilutes one voter-one vote principle: This is because electoral bonds give political power to companies, wealthy individual donors and foreign entities, to influence public policies.
• Undue advantage to the ruling party, whether at the Centre or in a State.

Suggestions given by the SC: In 2021 (in response to ADR PIL challenging EBs as unconstitutional), the SC refused to stay the sale of electoral bonds and suggested matching the following (between the purchaser of the bond and political party) to bring in transparency.

Problems with the match the following approach:

• No ordinary person has the time or money to go through documents on government websites or go through income tax returns.
• The total number of registered companies is unknown, and many do not report political donations even if they file annual financial statements.
• All private companies’ annual reports are not easily accessible on the government’s website since they are not mandated to produce them aside from filing annual returns.

Way ahead:

• The information regarding donors and donations should be accessible to the Parliament, the Election Commission of India, and the Opposition via SBI.
• The RTI must be strengthened, as only RTI petitions filed with the SBI provide insight into the millions of dollars spent on political parties.

Conclusion: Companies and political parties can show moral leadership by voluntarily disclosing the identities of recipients and donors, as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha did recently.

Insta Links:

Opaque political financing could cost democracy dear

Mains Links:

Q. Trace the changes witnessed in political funding with the introduction of the electoral bond scheme. Critically analyse the potential of electoral bonds in fulfilling the goal of transparency in political fundraising. (250 words)

GS Paper 3

Syllabus: Internal Security

Source: IE

 Direction: The article is an example of the development vs environment debate. It also contains key points about Great Nicobar Island and its strategic significance for India.

Context: The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change gave environmental clearance for the ambitious Rs 72,000 crore development project on the strategically important Great Nicobar Island.

Background:

• The idea of developing Great Nicobar was first proposed in the 1970s, and its significance for national security and the consolidation of the Indian Ocean Region has been emphasised time and again.
• In recent years, increasing Chinese assertiveness in the Bay of Bengal and the Indo-Pacific has added urgency to this requirement.

About the Great Nicobar Island:

• The Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Islands are a cluster of about 836 islands in the eastern Bay of Bengal, the two groups of which are separated by the 150-km wide Ten Degree Channel – Andaman Islands in the north and the Nicobar Islands to the south.
• Great Nicobar, the southernmost of the A&N Islands, has an area of 910 sq km. Indira Point, the southern tip of Great Nicobar Island is India’s southernmost point and is less than 150 km from the northernmost island of the Indonesian archipelago.
• The Great Nicobar Island has tropical wet evergreen forests, mountain ranges reaching almost 650 m above sea level and coastal plains.
  • It is rich in biodiversity with some endangered species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. The leatherback sea turtle is the island’s flagship species.
• Great Nicobar is home to two national parks (Campbell Bay and Galathea), a biosphere reserve and the Shompen and Nicobarese tribal peoples.
  • An estimated 237 Shompen (hunter-gatherers who depend on forest and marine resources) and 1,094 Nicobarese (relocated after the 2004 tsunami along the west coast) now live in a tribal reserve, some of which are proposed to be denotified.
• The approximately 8,000 settlers (ex-servicemen from Punjab, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh who were settled on the island in the 1970s) who live on the island are engaged in agriculture, horticulture, and fishing.

 Strategic location of the Island: Great Nicobar is equidistant from Colombo to the southwest and Port Klang and Singapore to the southeast, and is near the East-West international shipping corridor, which handles a significant portion of the world’s shipping trade.

The proposed projects:

• A greenfield city
• An International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT)
• A greenfield international airport
• A power plant
• A township for the personnel who will implement the project

Significance of the projects:

Concerns:

• An ecologically important and fragile region: The loss of tree cover will not only affect the flora and fauna on the island, but it will also lead to increased runoff and sediment deposits in the ocean, impacting the coral reefs, and

According to the government,

• Expediting the project is of paramount national security and strategic importance.
• The development area is only a small percentage of the area of the island and its forest cover, and 15% of the development area itself will be green cover and open spaces.
• A conservation plan for the leatherback turtle is also being put in place.

Way ahead:

• India has successfully translocated a coral reef from the Gulf of Mannar to the Gulf of Kutch earlier.
• The Zoological Survey of India is currently in the process of assessing how much of the reef will have to be relocated for the project.

Insta Links:

Developing the sister islands of the Indian Ocean

Mains links:

Q. In recent years, India has adopted a proactive policy aimed at transforming the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Examine the strategic and economic importance of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands for India. (250 words)

Prelims Links: