21-Feb-2024

#GS3 01. Contractual Disputes

MoRTH has launched a one-time settlement scheme to end a backlog of contractual disputes blocking much-needed capital for the roads sector. It is model led on marquee Vivad Se Vishwas scheme that aims to settle contractual disputes involving the government and its undertakings. The ministry has fixed two cut-of dates to be eligible for settlement: arbitration awards up to 30 September,2023 and court a wards up to 31December, 2023.Claims under the scheme can be submitted up to 31 March, 2024 through the government e-market- place (GeM), for which the portal will provide a dedicated link. The scheme will be applicable for settlement of disputes involving only the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL). The scheme will cover all domestic contractual disputes where one of the parties is either the Union or an organization working under it.

– Commentary in News

Key Terms/Issues : GeM, NHAI, NHIDCL

#GS3 – 02. Maritime Development Fund (MDF)

Government is considering Setting up a maritime development fund (MDF) with a view to providing low cost, long-term financial support to the shipping sector. Two options for setting up MDF are—setting up dedicated maritime vertical under the newly proposed development finance institution, or constituting stand alone MDF as a company with majority ownership by multilateral/bilateral. agency.

– Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways Secretary TK Ramachandran

#GS2 03. ADR vs Union of India Electoral Bonds Case

In Association for Democratic Reforms vs Union of India, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the government’s electoral bonds scheme, finding that the voter’s right to know trumps a donor’s right to privacy. The judgement is welcome for its significant expansion of the voter’s right to know. However, while it strikes down funding through the seemingly anonymou selectoral bonds route, it does not ban corporations from funding political parties altogether. The petitioners in the case argued that although the scheme provided formal anonymity, the party receiving the bond would likely know the donor’s identity. There was a real possibility of quid proquo benefits to the donor by way of licences or influence on policy. Voters, thus, have a right to know.

The government argued that donors have a right to privacy which extends to their political affiliations, including political donations, and the scheme helped curb black money in politics as donors could make donations freely, without the fear of retaliation by a donee’s political opponents. The judgement is significant for many reasons. First, the voter’s right to know has been extended to the funding of political parties. Till now, this right was limited to information on the criminal antecedents and assets of election candidates. Second, the government argued that the scheme was an economic policy, in which courts typically do not interfere. But the court held that it is related to electoral policy, and thus well within the scope of judicial review. Further, the government argued that the scheme was intended to curb black money and corruption, objectives that had earlier led the court to uphold the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and demonetization. In this case, the court found that transparency, and not anonymity, would reduce black money and corruption in politics. Third, the court fleshed out a proportionality test for administrative actions. It held that black money could only be curbed by a method that least restricted the fundamental rights of voters. The government had less restrictive options, such as electoral trusts under the Income Tax Act, and hence could not justify electoral bonds.
– Supreme Court Lawyer Arundhati Katju

#GS3 – 04. Renewables & Developing countries

Developing countries taking climate action should watch out for the costs that a rushed transition to renewables may impose. Abundant, reliable and cheap energy was the life blood that powered the Industrial Revolution and enabled the development of today’s rich nations. Humanity has transitioned from dirty and inefficient fuels like wood to still dirty but less inefficient coal, and onward to oil and gas. These transitions took half-a-century each and were mostly driven by the reality that new fuels were more efficient and cheaper than older alternatives. Now that the world faces the challenge of climate change, many are pushing for an ultra-rapid transition over just a few decades from fossil fuels to clean energy, which is mostly seen as renewables.

It is often claimed that the shift to renewable makes countries more energy secure, but most clean energy supply chains are dominated by China, leaving future green energy heavily dependent on one supplier. And prioritizing renewable will have real environmental impacts. Renewables take up much more land, which could have been used form any other purposes, including for nature. India, in particular, has the lowest land mass given its population among members of the G20. In other words, it has the highest population density in theG20.Land is a very scarce resource in India and it has to be judiciously applied. The trade-offs have to be thought out. Solar can need 300 times as much space as nuclear, and biomass more than 8,000 times. At the same time,wind turbine blades and solar panels have to be replaced every couple of decades, resulting in potentially enormous waste problems. Currently, recycling is difficult and costly, and if these costs were added to solar calculations, it could double its overall cost.

Apart from space and waste issues, the main challenge preventing a swift transition is that—despite claims to the contrary—solar and wind power are only cheaper than fossil fuels when the sun shines and wind blows. Industrialization and development require power and energy 24/7. Even factoring in four hours of storage makes solar and wind go from the cheapest power available to much more expensive than gas and coal power. Moreover, to provide firmly reliable power, studies (tinyurl.com/mry5fnd4) show that a 100% solar and Wind system would need thousands of hours of storage (tinyurl.com/2awmxvz6), which is impossibly expensive. Whatever technologies are available, they have not been tested on scale.

More importantly, India taxes fossil fuels heavily and rightly so. But, the more India switches to renewable energy from fossil fuel consumption, tax revenues will fall, resulting in less resources available to fund the energy transition. We need to tackle climate change, but we must do so smartly. Currently, we’re on a pathway that could be phenomenally costly compared to the benefits. The whole world needs greater long-term investment in renewable energy R&D to drive down costs and increase the reliability of fossil fuel alternatives

-CEA V. Anantha Nageswaran

#GS3 – 05. Social Media & Echo Chambers

The popularity of social media has ensured that anyone with access to a smart phone and an internet connection can say what they want to say, and if it catches the fancy of people, the message can go viral. Take the case of an info graphic showing that the size of Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) economy had overtaken the size of Tamil Nadu’s ;it recently went viral on everything from LinkedIn to WhatsApp. P.Thiaga Rajan, minister of IT and digital services in the government of Tamil Nadu, wrote apiece in Frontline debunking the same. Indeed, Tamil Nadu’s gross state domestic product (GSD Pin constant prices, base 2011-12) in 2022-23 stood at ₹14.53 trillion or 11.4% more than UP’s GSDP of ₹13.05 trillion. In 2011-12,the GSDP of Tamil Nadu was 3.8% more than that of UP. The difference has grown since then and peaked at 13.9% in 2020-21. Another piece of information that tends to go viral is that of India growing faster than China. Recent forecasts from the World Bank suggest that China is expected to grow slower than India in 2023, 2024 and 2025.While that makes for a great whatsApp forward, we also need to take into account the size of the Chinese economy, which in 2022stood at $16.32 trillion. So, slower Chinese growth is on a much larger base. Further, social media lends itself well to repetition of a message and feeding it into echo chambers, where people wait to hear things that confirm their political biases. And the more a message is repeated, the truer it sounds. The truer a message sounds, the more people are ready to share it.

– Commentary in News

#GS1 06. Sallekhan

Sant Shiromani Acharya Shri 108 Vidhya sagar Ji Maharaj Ji Attained Samadhi and left us all saddened. His life is a spiritually rich epoch graced with profound wisdom, boundless compassion and an unwavering commitment to up lift humanity.

Acharya Ji will always be remembered as a Triveni of wisdom, compassion and service.He was a true Tapasvi,whose life epitomized the ideals of Bhagwan Mahavir. His life exemplified the core principles of Jainism, embodying its ideals through his own actions and teachings. His care towards all living beings mirrored Jainism’s profound respect for life.He lived a life of truthfulness, reflecting Jainism’s emphasis on honesty in thought, word, and deed. He also led a very simple life style.His impact and influence were not limited to only one community. People across faiths, regions and cultures came to him and he worked tirelessly towards spiritual awakening, particularly among the youth.
–PM Modi

Key Terms/Issues : Mahavir, Sallekhan