16-Feb-2024
#GS2–#GS4 –01. Right to log off
For citizens entitled to basic rights, here’s another one to consider: the employee’s “right to disconnect”. Lawmakers in Australia are discussing a bill that will give workers legislative backing not to be contacted by bosses after work.What the bill addresses is a global problem.
With technology enabling hybrid work, the line between work and personal life has blurred mostly everywhere. Many workers are now almost always “logged in”, regardless of where they are, clocking extra hours at the cost of their personal lives. As few can afford to lose their jobs and private-sector employers tend to drive a hard bargain, profit- focused as they are, a law is probably a good way to shield the interests of people on pay rolls.Of course, such a law may need to make exceptions for special circumstances,which could be enough of a loop hole for workers to be put back at the other end of an electronic leash even after-hours.
– Commentary in News
Key Terms/Issues : Right to Disconnect / Log off
#GS2 — 02. Electoral Bonds Ban
Amendments made to laws governing elections, taxation and corporate donations to facilitate the roll out of the scheme were unconstitutional and violated citizens’ right to information.
State Bank of India (SBI),the sole issuer of electoral bonds, to stop it immediately, and the bank to submit names of bond buyers, the dates of purchase and amounts donated to the Election Commission (EC) by 6 March; the EC must publish these on its website by13 March.
Electoral Bond scheme is not the only means to curb black money, and there are alternative methods. There is a legitimate possibility that financial contributions to apolitical party would lead to quid pro quo arrangements because of the close nexus between money and politics.
-SC (CJI DY Chandrachud)
Key Terms/Issues : Transparency, Quid Pro Quo, RTI
#GS4 –03. Corporate Poaching
Large private sector banks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank have informally agreed among themselves not to poach employees from each other, as they seek to stem attrition, particularly at the junior level.
They are ensuring that candidates with less than 2 years of work experience are not hired from a rival lender. Banks have been seeing attrition levels as high as 60% among the junior executives.
It’s a similar problem that the IT industry had faced.
– Commentary in News
Key Terms/Issues : Corporate Poaching
#GS3 — 04. Pulse Imports
India has imported 3,000 tonnes of black matpe or urad beans from Brazil and is likely to procure another 20,000 tonnes this year. There are two issues,afford ability and availability ,and both are inter-related. As we are predominantly a vegetarian country and as income levels are rising,the consumption of protein via pulses is also increasing.To cater to the rising demand,we cannot rely only on Myanmar.We must diversify our risk and production of it could be thought of in Brazil and Argentina.
–Union consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh
#GS2 — 05. Social Schemes
As of 2022,there were 740 Central sector schemes (fully funded by the Centre) and 65 centrally sponso’red schemes (financed by the Centre and implemented by State governments). As Per “The Indian Economy: A Review released by the department of economic affairs, the government’s expenditure on social services has increase data compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9% between fiscal years 2011-12 and 2022-23,with capitals pending On these services growing at a CAGR of 8.1% Over the same period.How ever,in 2022-23, the share of social-sector expenditure fell below 20%, at 18% of the annual budget.Looking at centrally sponsored schemes,an 8.9% change has been observed between the 2023-24 revised and 2024-25 budget estimates.We see a 3.3% change for central sector schemes between the2023-24 revised and 2024-25 budget estimates,with the latest allocation set at ₹14,94,296 crore. The 2024-25 interim budget also saw an increase Of 28.4% in the allocation for the social justice and empowerment ministry from the 2023-24 revised estimate.
At the same time, we see that the total expenditure in subsidies fell in2023-24 by 28.3% from the revised estimate of 2022-23.Fertilizer and other subsidies, such as for agricultural price support, also fell. This trend continued in the 2024-25 budget,with the expenditure on food subsidies down by 3.3% over the 2023-24 revised estimate,and the fertilizer-subsidy out lay down by about 13%.Total out lay son subsidies fell by 7% in the current budget. Identifying Beneficiaries for multiple schemes involves Many logistical and bureaucratic steps that can cause delays in their implementation.Additionally, these welfare schemes can be Used for political gains, which leads to over-crowding, confusion, fiscal leakages and under-funding. The question facing us is whet her we need more schemes or adequate funding to streng then existing schemes.The answer is the latter.
– Institute of Competitiveness Chair Amit Kapoor
#GS1 –06. Opium Wars
The US opioid crisis is mostly self-inflicted. Regulatory approval of oxycodone for pain relief was obtained by profit- seekers on the false claim that its opium-derived stuff was safe.This set off a wave of recreational use,which, Amplified by Purdue Pharma’s aggressive oxy-marketing,created legions of addicts as well as a lucrative grey market which, in turn, set the stage for usage escalation to fentanyl,a fully synthetic pill that’s approved for terminal pain but is far more potent.Described as ‘mega morphine,’ it’s a pill that can kill its popper.Of American lives lost to overdoses, an official count that soared above 100,000 in 2021, over two-thirds are pinned squarely on fentanyl,which has been taking a rapidly rising toll since 2015. Fatalities from heroin,that has-been opium derivative, saw a drop-off around the same time.The US drug police have been trying to plug fentanyl’s inflow, but plenty still gets smuggled in,some of it via Mexico. Did supply create demand for demand to suck in supply?The story has an eerie echo of what led up to The Opium Wars. Alarmed by this addictive menace, China sought to block opium imports in the mid-19th century, but its barriers were battered down by the force of arms deployed by a British-led coalition of victors,who had trade interests to ‘defend’ and ports to control (yes,Hong Kong) for smooth market access. China,Of course, saw invasive shipments as a profound loss of sovereignty, and this memory is said to inform its view of the West till this day. Does it,per chance,also animate its relations with today’s great power, the US?
– Commentary in News