26 Dec 2023

#GS2: – 01. Digital Governance

Technology fosters transparency and hence accountability… Civil servants need to harness the potential of the digital revolution and embrace the latest IT innovations as a means to advance digital governance. – Union Minister Jitendra Singh Key Terms/Issues : Technology, Transparency, Accountability

#GS2–#GS3: –  02. Green Hydrogen and Tendering Issues

An industry body of green hydrogen firms has approached the Delhi high court, alleging bias towards IOCL’s JV in the tender clauses. Around 50 players had participated in the pre-bid consultation. However, only one player submitted the bid due to the right of first refusal Clause. The parties would have to agree that IOCL shall be entitled to exercise its right of refusal every time the quantity of the green hydrogen generated at the GHGU increases on account of capacity augmentation or technological up gradation, modification or restructuring.

-Commentary in news
Key Terms/Issues : Right of first refusal Clause

#GS2: – 03. Tribunal Members Quality affecting decisions

The Supreme Court questioned the practice of appointing bureaucrats as members of quasi-judicial tribunals. It highlighted the need to keep the tribunal immune from executive interference by stopping the appointment of bureaucrats to such bodies. It is always felt that the NCLT is a weak link in the IBC due to the lack of manpower, infrastructure and domain expertise. -Consumer Affairs Secretary
Key Terms/Issues : Quasi-Judicial Tribunals, Executive Interference

#GS4–#Essay: –  04. Can Trauma forge leadership?

Memories, experiences, lessons and relationships forged during ‘traumatic’ events are far stronger and longer lasting. Evolutionarily experiences of traumatic events are hard-coded into the brain to ensure their retention for the future. This phenomenon offers a powerful tool for developing leaders and exponentially increasing organizational ‘speed of trust.’ At a strategic level, leaders are expected to deal with ambiguity, take  calculated risks, have an ‘ownership’ mindset, be decisive and inspire teams. This requires them to have a high tolerance for uncertainty, make courageous calls (often with incomplete information), possess an indefatigable drive and lead with personal example. There is also an essential quality that the leadership of any organization must have as a team. And that is a high degree of ‘speed of trust’ between them, failing which even the most competent leaders will expend their energies fighting internal political battles rather than external market wars. The quintessential mono-myth of ‘The hero’s journey’ underscores the importance of an arduous path that chisels the hero into her transformed version. Take, for instance, the12-year vanvaas (forest banishment) of the Pandavas in the epic Mahabharat. It’s during this difficult time that they learn valuable life lessons and build character. Bhim, the strongest, finds that he can’t move a monkey’s tail, Draupadi, the queen of five warriors, is forced to work as a maid,
and the ultimate alpha Arjun is compelled to live in the guise of a woman. The hero is forced out of his comfort zone by adversity and it’s adversity that strengthens him. There’s this cliché about how a pearl is made by the discom fort of a grain of sand that enters an oyster by accident. There is no reason why pearls can’t be Made by the deliberate insertion of discomfort. As a matter of fact, that is how pearls are cultivated in labs. -Raghu Raman, former CEO of the National Intelligence Grid Trauma shatters the illusion of invincibility, but in that vulnerability lie the seeds of strength.
-Jayneen Sanders

Key Terms/Issues : Trauma, Speed of Trust, Ownership Mindset

#GS4: –  05. Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is the modern version of the olden-day slave trade. Suspicion of it explains why French authorities detained a Nicaragua-bound aircraft over the weekend at Vatry airport, 150 km from Paris, and put its passengers to questioning before letting it take-off. According to the 2022 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, while this scourge saw a dip in reported cases during the covid pandemic, the numbers remain alarming. The report notes that in 2020, the global count of detected victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation per million population, at 3.7, dropped to the same level as those bundled off for forced labour. In the peak year of2019, this variable was 4.8 for the former crime and 3.9 for the latter, having risen from 1.5 and 0.2 respectively back in 2003, when the UN Trafficking Protocol came into force. Sovereign nations have a right to determine who they allow in, but their barriers typically Warp labour markets. Rich
countries of ten need workers from elsewhere to fill vacancies and achieve better equilibria, but many of them let an irrational resistance to cultural diversity dictate policy. Indeed, one great irony of globalization has been its resolve to dissolve borders for capital and trade, but not for people. So while capital largely gets to maximize returns wherever it can, labour is mostly held in place by a global gridlock. This asymmetry not only worsens age gaps, it makes it impossible to test out a truly common market for the benefits promised by market theory.

-Commentary in News
Key Terms/Issues : UN Trafficking Protocol, UNODC

#GS3–#Essay: – 06. Asian Dominance?

With China being granted more than double the number of patents than the US in 2022, and India emerging as one of the fastest growing major economies in the world, it is clear that the pivot to Asia spoken of since the 1980s is already a reality. Up till this time, scholars have generally attributed this development to factors that played an important role in the rise of Western countries, with insufficient attention paid to cultural drivers unique to Asia. Indeed, the implicit assumption behind the policy of strategic engagement adopted by the US with respect to China since the
1970s was that an economically well-off Chinese population would demand democracy in much the same way as the American population. Today, China is posing difficult questions for The universalist Western conception of human societies by becoming a powerhouse of innovation while retaining its authoritarian political system. Similarly, by cleaving to democracy, albeit with varying levels of success, despite its material challenges, India bucked the trend of other newly independent colonies that regressed into authoritarian structures. These contrarian phenomena suggest that the restoration of Asian influence after about500years is not merely a geographical redistribution of power, but represents a fundamental change in the cognitive foundations that animate our civilization. In India, religion and nationalism have Become more prominent in politics than ever before. In China, Marxist-LeninistMaoist doctrines are making a major comeback, with President Xi Jinping having declared that “only socialism can save China.” Simultaneously, we are seeing the rise of populist leaders who are able to exercise a vice-like grip on power. The world is also facing the impact of natural disasters and public health crises on a colossal scale. Thus, all that Enlightenment values sought to overthrow— organized religion, all-powerful leaders and the fury of nature—is making a comeback. In this context, their mutual dynamics will be decisive. In India, the youth is highly motivated by the aim of ‘catching up with China.’ However, let us remember that leaders break new ground, they do not play the game of catch up. India needs to balance economic dynamism with a moral compass that enables it to eschew glittering prizes in favour of sustainable choices that benefit the environment as well as the vast multitude of Indians. –

MDI Gurgaon Professor Rohit Prasad

Key Terms/Issues : Pivot to Asia