RENUNCIATION OF INDIAN CITIZENSHIP

Government data claimed that over 3.9 lakh Indians gave up their citizenship in the past three years to settle abroad.

Findings

• More than 1.63 lakh Indians relinquished their citizenship in 2021 alone and the majority had opted the citizenship in the USA
• Between 2019 and 2020 more than 1.44 lakh Indians gave their citizenship and the most common reason given was ‘personal’.
• The United States emerged as the top choice among 103 countries where the emigrant settled.
• Apart from choosing countries such as Singapore (7,046) and Sweden (3,7540), many have also renounced their citizenship for Bahrain, Angola, Iran, and Iraq.
• The maximum number of Indians who had given Indian citizenship in 2021 and went to the United States of America (78,284), Australia (23,533), Canada (21,597), United Kingdom (14,637).

About Citizenship in India

• Citizenship refers to the individual relationship with the state. Citizens are full members of the Indian state and are bound by its law and order.
• Citizenship is listed in the Constitution's Union List and hence it falls under the sole control of the Indian parliament
• Though the term “citizen” is not defined in the constitution. Part 2 of the Constitution describes the numerous types of people who are eligible for citizenship (Articles 5 to 11).

No dual Citizenship: Under the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955, Persons of Indian Origin are not allowed to hold the citizenship of two countries.

Surrendering the passport: If a person has ever held an Indian Passport and then obtains the passport of some other country, then they will be required to surrender their Indian Passport immediately after they gain the nationality of the other country.

Various ways to obtain Indian citizenship (The Citizenship Act 1955)

• Citizenship conferred by birth
• Citizenship through descent
• Citizenship through registration
• Naturalization leads to citizenship.
• Territorial incorporation (by the Government of India)

Termination of citizenship:

• Renunciation: Any Indian citizen who is also a national of another country who renounces his Indian citizenship in the prescribed manner through a declaration cease to be an Indian citizen.
• Termination: An Indian citizen's citizenship can be revoked if he or she knowingly or voluntarily adopts the citizenship of another country.
• Deprivation: In some cases, the Government of India may deprive a person of his citizenship. However, this does not apply to all citizens. Conditions for deprivation are as follows:

• If he/she obtained citizenship by fraud mean.
• If the Citizen has shown disloyalty to the Constitution of India.
• If the Citizen has unlawfully traded or communicated during times of war.
• Within 5 years of naturalization, the said citizen is imprisoned for a term of two years.
• If the Citizen has been ordinarily resident out of India for 7 years.

Reason for the renouncement of Citizenship:

The reasons change widely from country to country, and among socio-economic and ethnic groups.

• In general, around the world, people leave their countries in the search of better jobs and living conditions, and even some are pushed out by climate change or unfavorable political situations at home.
• Family: As the Indian people around the world have increased in numbers, with the upcoming or the newer generations holding passports of other countries, some older Indians are choosing to leave to be with family settled overseas.
• Fleeing: Some people who leave the nation may be fleeing the law or fear legal action for the alleged crimes.
• A 2020 report by the Global Wealth Migration review showed that high net worth individuals around the world who renounce their citizenship acquired at birth may do so for reasons of rising crime rates or the lack of business opportunities at home.
• Some may renounce for social reasons: Safety of women and children, lifestyle factors like climate and pollution, financial concerns including taxes, better healthcare for families and educational opportunities for children, and to escape oppressive governments.
• Jobs: The post-Independence diasporic community has been going (out of India) for better jobs and higher education. Those who leave for jobs can be unskilled, semi-skilled, or even skilled labor.

By contrast, the pre-Independence diasporic movement was completely different, where the forced and contractual labor movement was witnessed.

• Privileges: The majority of the Indians do it because of the privileges they will get by using the passports of other countries.

World passport index: India stands at 69th number on the passport power rank according to the world passport index.

While comparing it with other countries - the rank of Australia is 3rd, the USA is 5th, Singapore is 6th and Canada is 7th. At the top are UAE at number 1 and New Zealand at number 2.

• Visa-free access: The higher the passport index ranking, the better access they get to travel visa-free to many countries.

INTERPOL’S ICSE INITIATIVE

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation has joined Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) initiative.

International Child Sexual Exploitation database

• The ICSE database uses video and image comparison to analyze the Child Sex Exploitation Material (CSEM) and make connections between the victims, abusers, and places.
• The database avoids duplication of effort and saves precious time by letting investigators know whether a series of images have already been discovered or identified in another country, or whether it has similar features to other images.
• The image and video databases are intelligence and investigative tool, which allows specialized investigators to share various data on cases of child sexual abuse.
• It helps victim identification specialists worldwide analyze and compare child sexual abuse images.

INTERPOL’s Child Sexual Exploitation database holds more than 2.7 million images and videos that have helped identify 23,564 victims worldwide.

Significance for India

• From 2017 to 2020 India has reported over 24 lakh instances of online child sexual abuse with 80% of victims being girls below the age of 14 years.
• More than 60% of the unidentified victims were prepubescent, including infants and toddlers.
• Around 65% of unidentified victims were mostly girls, but severe abuse images were more likely to have boys.
• It will allow India to collaborate with investigators in other countries for detecting child sexual abuse online and identifying abusers, victims, and crime scenes from audio-visual clips using specialized software.

India is the 68th country to have access to this database and software.

INDIA INNOVATION INDEX 2021

• It was the third edition of the Innovation Index Report by the Niti Aayog.
• Karnataka has topped again in the ‘Major States’ category, Manipur is leading the ‘North East and Hill States’ category, and Chandigarh is the top performer in the ‘Union Territories and City States’ category.

About Innovation index

• The India Innovation Index is a comprehensive tool for the evaluation and development of the country’s innovation ecosystem which ranks the states and the union territories on their innovation performance to build healthy competition amongst them.
• This index has been developed in the line with the Global Innovation Index (GII) to strengthen the innovation ecosystem of Indian state and union territories and to design policies to drive innovation across the region.
• The number of indicators has increased from 36 (in the India Innovation Index 2020) to 66 (in the India Innovation Index 2021). The indicators are now distributed across 16 sub-pillars, which, in turn, form seven key pillars.

Indicator used

The indicator which the survey has used is the level and quality of education and the various parameter such as:

• Internet subscriber
• FDI inflows, business environment and safety, and legal environment
• Investment in the research and development and several patent and trademark applications filed.
• Number of Ph.D. students and knowledge-intensive employment.

Categories: The innovation Index is divided into three categories that are major states, union territories, and hill and northeast states.

Ranking of states

• Karnataka stood at the first position with a score of 18.01 followed by Telangana, Haryana, and Maharashtra in the major state categories
• Bottom state: Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Bihar scored the lowest on the index which put them at the bottom in the major state category
• Chhattisgarh ranked last with a 10.97 score

Hill and northeast state

• Manipur topped the ranking of hill and northeast states, followed by Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, and Arunachal Pradesh
• Nagaland ranked last in these categories

Union territories/small state

• Chandigarh has scored the highest on the index with a score of 27.88 followed by Delhi and the Andaman and Nicobar Island.

The merit of the innovation index

• It helps in solving the biggest challenges of present times: bringing millions out of poverty, generating livelihood opportunities, and paving the way for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
• Innovation index is critical in promoting the country’s resilience and self-reliance.
• The index also draws some international parallels, which will add to India’s learnings and how we can be on a par with our counterparts.
• The India Innovation Index 2021 is a testament to the Government of India’s continued commitment to transforming the country into an innovation-driven economy.
• Innovation is a key to promote sustainable and inclusive growth in the country.

Challenges

• Need for micro-analysis of State-level policies: For a country as large as India, the state of innovation needs to be understood at mostly the regional level for effective policy formulation.

Based on the index each state needs to formulate its own policy, based on its unique resources and strengths.

• Attracting Private Investment in Research - The Indian government is a major spender in R&D, while the investment of the private sector is very low when compared to countries like Israel where private companies account for 70% of private investment in R&D.

The focus must be on investing more in research and development. Increased spending on research and development with greater collaboration between the industry and educational institutions may help to enhance innovation capability in the country.