Reservations for Divyangjan- Persons with Disability

GS-PAPER-1 Social issue (MAINS- IV)

The Supreme Court, in a significant decision, confirmed that persons with disabilities are also socially backward. The decision highlighted that Divyangjan are entitled to the same benefits of relaxation as Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates in public employment and education.

SC upheld a 2012 judgment of the Delhi High Court in Anamol Bhandari vs. Delhi Technological University.

Constitutional provisions on reservations

• Article 15 (4) empowers the State to make special provisions for the advancement of the SCs and the STs.
• E.g. providing fee concession in admission to any educational institution, building hostels for SCs/STs.
• Article 15 (5) empowers the State to reserve seats for SCs and STs in admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State.
• However, it excludes minority educational institutions referred to in Article 30 (1).
• Article 16 (4) empowers the State to make provisions for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of SCs/STs.
• Article 46 - Empower the state to promote educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, SC & ST and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act

A study conducted by the Disability Rights India Foundation (DRIF) on the implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, across 24 States, has revealed that more than half have not notified the State rules.

• Only ten states including Bihar, Chandigarh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have notified the rules.
• Recently, Rajasthan was recognised as the best State in implementation of Accessible India Campaign on the occasion of International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3rd).
  • This year's theme for International Day of Persons with Disabilities was- "Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality"- declared by the United Nations (UN).
  • It focuses on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and pledges to "leave no one behind". This year also marks the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• Article 41 of the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) states that State shall make effective provision for securing right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, within the limits of its economic capacity and development.
• The subject of ‘relief of the disabled and unemployable’ is specified in state list of the Seventh schedule of the constitution.

Accessible India Campaign (AIC)

• Accessible India Campaign (AIC) is the nationwide flagship campaign of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• The aim of the Campaign is to make a barrier free and conducive environment for Divyangjans all over the country.
• It was launched on International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3rd December, 2015.

Right of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016

• Disability has been defined based on an evolving and dynamic concept.
• The types of disabilities have been increased from 7 to 21. The act added mental illness, autism, spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, chronic neurological conditions, speech and language disability, thalassemia, hemophilia, sickle cell disease, multiple disabilities including deaf blindness, acid attack victims and Parkinson’s disease which were largely ignored in earlier act. In addition, the Government has been authorized to notify any other category of specified disability.
• It increases the quantum of reservation for people suffering from disabilities from 3% to 4% in government jobs and from 3% to 5% in higher education institutes.
• Every child with benchmark disability between the age group of 6 and 18 years shall have the right to free education. Government funded educational institutions as well as the government recognized institutions will have to provide inclusive education.
• Stress has been given to ensure accessibility in public buildings in a prescribed time frame along with Accessible India Campaign.
• The Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities and the State Commissioners will act as regulatory bodies and Grievance Redressal agencies, monitoring implementation of the Act.
• A separate National and State Fund be created to provide financial support to the persons with disabilities.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)

• The Convention was adopted by the General Assembly in December 2006 and it came into force on in May 2008.
• The convention seeks to engage member countries in developing and carrying out policies, laws and administrative measures for securing the rights recognized in the Convention and abolish laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination.
• It requires countries to identify and eliminate obstacles and barriers and ensure that persons with disabilities can access their environment, transportation, public facilities and services, and information and communications technologies.
• It asks member countries to recognize the right to an adequate standard of living and social protection which includes public housing, services and assistance for disability-related needs, as well as assistance with disability-related expenses in case of poverty.

NEOWISE after the NASA telescope

GS-Paper-3 S&T (PT)

The recently discovered comet C/2020 F3 will make its closest approach to the Earth at a distance of 64 million miles or 103 million kilometres while crossing Earth’s outside orbit on 22^nd July 2020.

It is also known as NEOWISE after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) telescope that discovered it. On 3^rd July, it was closest to the sun at 43 million km due to which its outer layer was released, creating an atmosphere (referred to as coma) of gas and dust from its icy surface. It will be visible through binoculars or a small telescope.

What is Coma?

On July 3, the comet was closest to the sun at 43 million km. On this day, the comet cruised inside Mercury’s orbit and, due to its proximity to the sun, its outer layer was released creating an atmosphere – referred to as coma – of gas and dust from its icy surface.

1. This atmosphere sometimes leads to formation of a bright tail of debris that can extend for thousands or millions of kilometres.

What Are The Differences Between An Asteroid, Comet, Meteoroid, Meteor and Meteorite?

• Asteroid: A relatively small, inactive, rocky body orbiting the Sun and is available between Mars and Jupiter.
• Comet: A relatively small, at times active, object whose ices can vaporize in sunlight forming an atmosphere (coma) of dust and gas and, sometimes, a tail of dust and/or gas.
• Meteoroid: A small particle from a comet or asteroid orbiting the Sun.
• Meteor: The light phenomena which results when a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere and vaporizes; a shooting star.
• Meteorite: A meteoroid that survives its passage through the Earth’s atmosphere and lands upon the Earth’s surface.

NASA’s NEOWISE:

Launched in December 2009 as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, the space telescope was originally designed to survey the sky in infrared, detecting asteroids, stars and some of the faintest galaxies in space.

It did so successfully until completing its primary mission in February 2011. In December 2013, it was re-purposed for the NEOWISE project as an instrument to study near-Earth objects, or NEOs, as well as more distant asteroids and comets.

Significance of the Study

• Astronomers believe that comets hold important clues about the formation of the solar system and it is possible that comets brought water and other organic compounds to Earth.
• NASA tracks all Near Earth Objects (NEOs) that includes comets and asteroids using telescopes placed all around the Earth, as part of its NEO Observation Program.
• Objective of the Program: To find, track and characterise NEOs that are 140 meters or larger in size since they can pose a risk to the Earth because of the devastation a potential impact can cause.

Multidimensional Poverty Index

GS-PAPER-3 Poverty (PT-MAINS)

The Multidimensional Poverty Index was launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) in 2010.

MPI is based on the idea that poverty is not unidimensional (not just depends on income and one individual may lack several basic needs like education, health etc.), rather it is multidimensional. The index shows the proportion of poor people and the average number of deprivations each poor person experiences at the same time. MPI uses three dimensions and ten indicators which are:

• • Education: Years of schooling and child enrollment (1/6 weightage each, total 2/6);
  • Health: Child mortality and nutrition (1/6 weightage each, total 2/6);
  • Standard of living: Electricity, flooring, drinking water, sanitation, cooking fuel and assets (1/18 weightage each, total 2/6)

A person is multidimensionally poor if she/he is deprived in one third or more (means 33% or more) of the weighted indicators (out of the ten indicators). Those who are deprived of one-half or more of the weighted indicators are considered living in extreme multidimensional poverty. MPI is significant as it recognizes poverty from different dimensions compared to the conventional methodology that measures poverty only from income or monetary terms.

In News:

According to India’s Voluntary National Review (VNR) of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) at least 271 million people were lifted out of multi-dimensional poverty between 2005-06 and 2016-17. The VNR of SDGs has been presented by the Niti Ayog at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

Data:

• The estimates presented were drawn from the 2019 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) released in July 2019.
• Over 640 million people across India were in multidimensional poverty in 2005-2006.
• The number of people living under poverty decreased to around 369.55 million by 2016-2017.
• However, 27.9% of India’s population was still poor in 2016-17

Poverty Reduction: In rural areas, poverty reduction has outpaced that in urban areas.

Himalayan Viagra

• Ophiocordyceps Sinensis, also known as Himalayan Viagra is a fungus.
• It is known for its aphrodisiac and rejuvenation properties
• Recently IUCN has placed the fungus, in the ‘vulnerable’ category.
• According to IUCN its spread has declined by at least 30% over the past 15 years as a result of overharvesting.
• It is endemic to the Himalayan and Tibetan plateau and is found in China, Bhutan, Nepal and India.
• In India, it is primarily found in Uttarakhand in the higher reaches of districts like Pithoragarh and Chamoli.
• It is the world’s costliest fungus which sells in international markets for upwards of Rs.20 lakh per.

Hope orbiter

• The Emirates Mars Mission is a planned space exploration mission to Mars set to launch the Hope orbiter in July 2020.
• It was built by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, an Emirati space organization, as well as the University of Colorado Boulder, Arizona State University, and the University of California, Berkeley.
• The probe will study daily and seasonal weather cycles, weather events in the lower atmosphere such as dust storms, and how the weather varies in different regions of Mars.
• It will attempt to answer the scientific questions of why the Martian atmosphere is losing hydrogen and oxygen into space and the reason behind the drastic climate changes on Mars.
• The mission is being carried out by a team of Emirati engineers in collaboration with foreign research institutions and is a contribution toward a knowledge-based economy in the UAE.
• Hope is scheduled to reach Mars in February 2021, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of the United Arab Emirates' formation.
• It wll be launched from Tanegashima space centre, Japan.

15th Finance Commission for FY 2020-21

Paper-2 Governance Finance commission (PT-MAINS-IV)

The Finance Commission is a constitutional body formed by the President of India to give suggestions on centre-state financial relations. The 15^th Finance Commission (Chair: Mr N. K. Singh) was required to submit two reports. The first report, consisting of recommendations for the financial year 2020-21, was tabled in Parliament on February 1, 2020. The final report with recommendations for the 2021-26 period will be submitted by October 30, 2020.

Key recommendations in the first report (2020-21 period) include:

• Devolution of taxes to states: The share of states in the centre’s taxes is recommended to be decreased from 42% during the 2015-20 period to 41% for 2020-21. The 1% decrease is to provide for the newly formed union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh from the resources of the central government. The individual shares of states from the divisible pool of central taxes is provided in Table 3 in the annexure.

Criteria for devolution

Table 1 below shows the criteria used by the Commission to determine each state’s share in central taxes, and the weight assigned to each criterion. We explain some of the indicators below.

Table 1: Criteria for devolution (2020-21)

Sources: Report for the year 2020-21, 15^th Finance Commission; PRS.

• Income distance: Income distance is the distance of the state’s income from the state with the highest income. The income of a state has been computed as the average per capita GSDP during the three-year period between 2015-16 and 2017-18. States with lower per capita income would be given a higher share to maintain equity among states.
• Demographic performance: The Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Commission required it to use the population data of 2011 while making recommendations. Accordingly, the Commission used only 2011 population data for its recommendations.
• The Demographic Performance criterion has been introduced to reward efforts made by states in controlling their population. It will be computed by using the reciprocal of the total fertility ratio of each state, scaled by 1971 population data. States with a lower fertility ratio will be scored higher on this criterion. The total fertility ratio in a specific year is defined as the total number of children that would be born to each woman if she were to live to the end of her childbearing years and give birth to children in alignment with the prevailing age-specific fertility rates.
• Forest and ecology: This criterion has been arrived at by calculating the share of the dense forest of each state in the aggregate dense forest of all the states.
• Tax effort: This criterion has been used to reward states with higher tax collection efficiency. It has been computed as the ratio of the average per capita own tax revenue and the average per capita state GDP during the three-year period between 2014-15 and 2016-17.

Grants-in-aid

In 2020-21, the following grants will be provided to states: (i) revenue deficit grants, (ii) grants to local bodies, and (iii) disaster management grants. The Commission has also proposed a framework for sector-specific and performance-based grants. State-specific grants will be provided in the final report.

• Revenue deficit grants: In 2020-21, 14 states are estimated to have an aggregate revenue deficit of Rs 74,340 crore post-devolution. The Commission recommended revenue deficit grants for these states (see Table 4 in the annexure).
• Special grants: In case of three states, the sum of devolution and revenue deficit grants is estimated to decline in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20. These states are Karnataka, Mizoram, and Telangana. The Commission has recommended special grants to these states aggregating to Rs 6,764 crore.
• Sector-specific grants: The Commission has recommended a grant of Rs 7,375 crore for nutrition in 2020-21. Sector-specific grants for the following sectors will be provided in the final report: (i) nutrition, (ii) health, (iii) pre-primary education, (iv) judiciary, (v) rural connectivity, (vi) railways, (vii) police training, and (viii) housing.
• Performance-based grants: Guidelines for performance-based grants include: (i) implementation of agricultural reforms, (ii) development of aspirational districts and blocks, (iii) power sector reforms, (iv) enhancing trade including exports, (v) incentives for education, and (vi) promotion of domestic and international tourism. The grant amount will be provided in the final report.
• Grants to local bodies: The total grants to local bodies for 2020-21 has been fixed at Rs 90,000 crore, of which Rs 60,750 crore is recommended for rural local bodies (67.5%) and Rs 29,250 crore for urban local bodies (32.5%). This allocation is 4.31% of the divisible pool. This is an increase over the grants for local bodies in 2019-20, which amounted to 3.54% of the divisible pool (Rs 87,352 crore). The grants will be divided between states based on population and area in the ratio 90:10. The grants will be made available to all three tiers of Panchayat- village, block, and district.
• Disaster risk management: The Commission recommended setting up National and State Disaster Management Funds (NDMF and SDMF) for the promotion of local-level mitigation activities. The Commission has recommended retaining the existing cost-sharing patterns between the centre and states to fund the SDMF (new) and the SDRF (existing). The cost-sharing pattern between centre and states is (i) 75:25 for all states, and (ii) 90:10 for north-eastern and Himalayan states.

For 2020-21, State Disaster Risk Management Funds have been allocated Rs 28,983 crore, out of which the share of the union is Rs 22,184 crore. The National Disaster Risk Management Funds has been allocated Rs 12,390 crore.

Recommendations on fiscal roadmap

• Fiscal deficit and debt levels: The Commission noted that recommending a credible fiscal and debt trajectory roadmap remains problematic due to uncertainty around the economy. It recommended that both central and state governments should focus on debt consolidation and comply with the fiscal deficit and debt levels as per their respective Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Acts.
• Off-budget borrowings: The Commission observed that financing capital expenditure through off-budget borrowings detracts from compliance with the FRBM Act. It recommended that both the central and state governments should make full disclosure of extra-budgetary borrowings. The outstanding extra-budgetary liabilities should be clearly identified and eliminated in a time-bound manner.
• Statutory framework for public financial management: The Commission recommended forming an expert group to draft legislation to provide for a statutory framework for sound public financial management system. It observed that an overarching legal fiscal framework is required which will provide for budgeting, accounting, and audit standards to be followed at all levels of government.

• Tax capacity: In 2018-19, the tax revenue of state governments and central government together stood at around 17.5% of GDP. The Commission noted that tax revenue is far below the estimated tax capacity of the country. Further, India’s tax capacity has largely remained unchanged since the early 1990s. In contrast, tax revenue has been rising in other emerging markets. The Commission recommended: (i) broadening the tax base, (ii) streamlining tax rates, (iii) and increasing capacity and expertise of tax administration in all tiers of the government.

• GST implementation: The Commission highlighted some challenges with the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). These include: (i) large shortfall in collections as compared to original forecast, (ii) high volatility in collections, (iii) accumulation of large integrated GST credit, (iv) glitches in invoice and input tax matching, and (v) delay in refunds. The Commission observed that the continuing dependence of states on compensation from the central government (21 states out of 29 states in 2018-19) for making up for the shortfall in revenue is a concern. It suggested that the structural implications of GST for low consumption states need to be considered.
  

Other recommendations

• Financing of security-related expenditure: The ToR of the Commission required it to examine whether a separate funding mechanism for defence and internal security should be set up and if so, how it can be operationalised. In this regard, the Commission intends to constitute an expert group comprising representatives of the Ministries of Defence, Home Affairs, and Finance. The Commission noted that the Ministry of Defence proposed following measures for this purpose: (i) setting up of a non-lapsable fund, (ii) levy of a cess, (iii) monetisation of surplus land and other assets, (iv) tax-free defence bonds, and (v) utilising proceeds of disinvestment of defence public sector undertakings. The expert group is expected to examine these proposals or alternative funding mechanisms.

Criticisms:

• The population parameter used by the Commission has been criticised by the governments of the southern states.
• The previous FC used both the 1971 and the 2011 populations to calculate the states’ shares, giving greater weight to the 1971 population (17.5%) as compared to the 2011 population (10%).
• The use of 2011 population figures has resulted in states with larger populations like UP and Bihar getting larger shares, while smaller states with lower fertility rates have lost out.
• The combined population of the Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand is 47.8 crore.
• This is over 39.48% of India’s total population, and is spread over 32.4% of the country’s area, as per the 2011 Census.
• On the other hand, the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and undivided Andhra Pradesh are home to only 20.75% of the population living in 19.34% of the area, with a 13.89% share of the taxes.
• This means that the terms decided by the Commission are loaded against the more progressive (and prosperous) southern states.