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26 April 2023

DAILY QUESTIONS & MODEL ANSWERS

Q1. Do you believe the time has come for Parliament to reconsider entrusting disqualification petitions under the Anti-Defection Act to the Speaker? Examine in the context of recent events. (250 words)

Paper & Topic: GS II – Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.

Model Answer:

Introduction:

Defection is defined as “a member of a political party abandoning his or her commitment to that party” or, more simply, “when an elected representative joins another party without resigning from his or her current party in exchange for rewards.”
Defection is the institutional malaise, and switching parties is state-neutral, party-neutral, and politics-neutral.
The Anti-Defection Law was enacted in 1985 as part of the 52nd Amendment to the Indian Constitution, which added the Tenth Schedule.
The law’s principal goal was to counteract “the evil of political defections,” which could occur as a result of a payment for office or other comparable factors.
Both Parliament and state legislatures are subject to the statute.
However, there are a number of concerns with how this law operates.

Body:

Some sitting MLAs in the Manipur administration recently switched to the opposition, causing political uncertainty in the state. This defection politics in Manipur is not unusual; defections have also occurred recently in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.

Background:

Political defections by members of the legislature have influenced the Indian political system for a long time. The political system became more unstable and chaotic as a result of this predicament.
In 1985, the 52nd constitution amendment act on anti-defection was passed, and the 10th Schedule was inserted to the Indian Constitution to combat the evil of political defections.
The 91st Constitution Amendment Act of 2003 was adopted with the goal of reducing the size of the Council of Ministers, prohibiting defectors from holding public office, and strengthening anti-defection legislation.

Current Anti-defection legislation has the following flaws:

Anti-defection legislation has failed to prevent “horse trading” and defection, resulting in the overthrow of governments due to the machinations of corrupt legislators.
For example, in Karnataka, 17 members of the coalition government resigned, resulting in a government change. Later, the 17 MLAs ran for the party that established the new administration.
Individual defections are prohibited by law, but bulk defections are not.
For example, the Congress administration in Madhya Pradesh lost its majority due to MLA resignations.
Against the genuine spirit of representative democracy: The anti-defection law aims to maintain government stability by preventing legislators from switching sides.
This statute, however, prohibits legislators from voting in accordance with their conscience, judgment, and the interests of their constituents.
Impairs legislative supervision of government: The anti-defection statute obstructs the legislature’s oversight duty over the government by guaranteeing that members vote based on party leadership decisions.
In other words, if parliamentarians are unable to vote on legislation independently, they will be unable to serve as an effective check on the administration.
In effect, the Anti-Defection Law weakens the separation of powers between the Executive and the Legislature, concentrating power in the hands of the executives.
The presiding officer of the House has the authority to disqualify parliamentarians on the basis of defection by the Presiding Officer of a legislature in response to a petition from any other member of the House.
However, there are other cases in which presiding officials serve the entrenched interests of a ruling political party or government.
Furthermore, the statute makes no provision for the Presiding Officer to make a decision on a disqualification plea within a specific time frame.
As a result, the ruling is sometimes reliant on the presiding officer’s whims and fancies.
Has an impact on debate and discussion: In India, the Anti-Defection Law has created a democracy based on parties and numbers rather than debate and discussion.
It makes no distinction between dissent and defection in this way, weakening Parliamentary debates on any measure.

Speaker’s Authority ruling by the Supreme Court:

The Supreme Court’s recent judgment on the Speaker as the adjudicating authority under the anti-defection law has two major implications.
The first is that Parliament should appoint a “permanent tribunal” or external mechanism to make speedy and impartial verdicts on defection cases in place of the Speaker.
Few would argue with the Court’s assessment that initial concerns and misgivings regarding Speakers’ impartiality had been realized.
The second is its remarkable finding that a major question referred to a Constitution Bench by another Bench in 2016 was superfluous.
The question before a bigger Bench is whether courts have the authority to order Speakers to decide disqualification petitions within a set time frame.
The issue arose because numerous presiding officers have permitted defectors to increase the strength of ruling parties and even be sworn in as Ministers simply by refusing to hear accusations against them.
Defections in large numbers have occurred in some states shortly after elections.
Speakers have been intentionally breaking the law, believing that no court would question the delay in disposing of disqualification cases as long as the matter was ongoing before a Constitution Bench. This has aided the ruling party, which is generally the one that helped them get to the Chair.
It is past time for Parliament to reconsider whether disqualification petitions should be entrusted to a Speaker as a quasi-judicial authority while the Speaker remains a de jure or de facto member of a political party.
Restriction on the Speaker’s discretion: According to a recent Supreme Court ruling, the Speaker must make a decision on disqualification within three months of receiving the application. It cannot be the Speaker’s decision to take no action.

Steps to take:

The Speaker’s decision to exclude a legislator is based on the Speaker’s institution.
In many states, the Speaker’s partisan position has ensured that turncoat politicians remain genuine members of the House.
Various commissions, including the National Commission to Review the Workings of the Constitution (NCRWC), have recommended that, on the advice of the Election Commission, the President (in the case of MPs) or the Governor (in the case of MLAs) make the decision to disqualify a member rather than the Presiding Officer.
Independent disqualification committee: In the Hollohan decision, Justice Verma stated that the Speaker’s tenure is contingent on the continued support of the House majority, and hence he does not meet the criteria of such independent adjudicatory authority.
Furthermore, his selection as the only arbitrator in the case breaches a fundamental characteristic of the basic feature.
As a result, an impartial body to deal with incidents of defection is required.

Conclusion:

This is an opportune opportunity to follow the advise of eminent constitutional experts and revise the anti-defection law to provide an autonomous body the power to dismiss turncoats.
The court has thus established a window for judicial involvement in circumstances when Speakers refuse to act, as “failure to exercise jurisdiction” is now a recognized stage at which the court might interfere.
This bodes well for the text and spirit implementation of the legislation prohibiting desertion.
In light of Speakers’ partisan behavior, the report recommends that Parliament change the Constitution to create a permanent tribunal to hear issues under the 10th Schedule.

Q2. Examine the possibility and prospective benefits of employing Artificial Intelligence as a tool for social empowerment in the country’s healthcare, agriculture, education, pandemic preparedness, and smart mobility. (250

words)

Paper & Topic: GS III – Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life

Model Answer:

Introduction:

RAISE 2020 (Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020) was a virtual AI summit that took place from October 5th to October 9^th
Around 79,000 people from academia, research and development, and government officials from 147 nations attended the conference.
The summit was organized by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NITI Aayog.
MeitY’s goal is to promote India’s e-development and empower Indian citizens through electronic methods. ‘Leveraging AI for Pandemic Preparedness,’ ‘
The Impetus that Innovation Places on Digitisation,’ ‘Inclusive AI,’ and ‘Partnerships for Successful Innovation’ were among the summit’s key agenda items.

Body:

Artificial intelligence (AI) can assist in the transformation of Indian healthcare:

With the rise in noncommunicable illnesses and the country’s aging population, the overall burden of disease management has been rising year after year, and the government, healthcare experts, and healthcare institutions are seeking for new ways to manage it.
Deep learning algorithms have been found in studies to provide clinicians with greater insights in predicting prognosis and future occurrences in patients.
By capturing and analyzing numerous vitals of patients, advanced digital technologies such as AI and ML can aid in illness prevention and early detection.
Artificial intelligence enables access to the knowledge and data accumulated from hundreds of thousands of patient situations.
For instance, Microsoft and Apollo Hospitals have partnered to establish an AI-focused cardiology network.
AI algorithms are assisting doctors in analyzing a far broader range of data and predicting novel medicine combinations that are customized for a patient’s individual need with more granularity.
Healthcare will eventually be supplied at a lesser cost as technology and artificial intelligence advance, since as efficiency improves, diagnosis will become more focused.

Agriculture with artificial intelligence:

Climate prediction:Because agriculture is dependent on the weather all over the world, the use of AI to predict the weather is the most obvious application case. There are numerous projects to anticipate weather across countries, both at the government level and by businesses like as IBM and Google.
Image Processing for Crop Monitoring:Whether we take photographs using a satellite, a drone, or a robot, image processing is utilized to assess the crop in some circumstances. This comprises agricultural vegetation index monitoring in real time using satellite photos, insect monitoring, yield size forecast, soil assessment, and a variety of other applications.
Irrigationis one of the most labor-intensive operations in farming, but artificial intelligence can eliminate it because it is aware of previous weather patterns, soil condition, and the type of crops to be grown. Automated irrigation systems are built around a real-time machine that can maintain optimum soil conditions at all times in order to boost average yields.
Soil Health Monitoring:Using Al to conduct or monitor identify any flaws and nutrient deficiencies in the soil can be done efficiently. With the picture
Harvesting robots: A variety of harvesting robots are being developed.
Farm labor shortages have led to the introduction of self-driving tractors by a number of enterprises throughout the world. In September 2019, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, India’s largest tractor manufacturer, unveiled its first driverless tractor.

Smart Mobility and AI:

Intelligent Transportation Systems:Real-time dynamic choices on traffic flows, such as lane monitoring, exit access, toll pricing, allocating right of way to public transportation vehicles, enforcing traffic regulations through smart ticketing, and so on, can be made with the help of AI. Using accident data and driver behavior at specific areas on the road network, heat maps of accidents might be created.
Autonomous Trucking:AI can aid in road safety and provide drivers a break from long hours behind the wheel. AI will assist boost road infrastructure capacity by allowing for efficient road-space utilization.
With access to network-level traffic data, AI can help develop smart forecasts for public transportation travels by reducing total journey time, which includes access time, waiting time, and travel time.

Railways and AI:

between 2012 and 2017, more than 500 trains were engaged in accidents, with 53 percent of them being due to derailment, according to government statistics. The Indian government has planned to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct remote condition monitoring. Signals, track circuits, and axle counters are all monitored by the government using non-intrusive sensors.
AI will be required to mediate the intricate vehicle grid interaction (VGI) as well as charge optimization in community-based parking. Parking guidance systems assist drivers in locating available parking spaces while on the road and close to their destination.

Using AI to prepare for a pandemic:

In numerous nations, big data and artificial intelligence have aided COVID-19 preparedness and tracking, as well as the transmission of infection.
The Anitgen Map project gathers blood samples, performs immunosequencing, and maps T-cell responses to the COVID virus using AI algorithms and machine learning, and then makes the data open to the public for further research and analysis.
The use of artificial intelligence to handle the pandemic in Dharavi, Mumbai, was a major success. Several companies, including Wadhwani AI, EY, PwC, Google, Zoom, Uber, qure.ai, and others, have agreed to donate their time and expertise. To aid speedy screening and monitoring of the recovery program, AI-based screening was employed for chest X-ray.

Next Steps/Conclusion:

In India, AI research is still in its early stages, necessitating large-scale concentrated and collaborative interventions.
Adopting AI necessitates the training and retraining of employees.
Decentralised teaching procedures are being implemented in partnership with the private sector and educational institutions.
AI adoption across the value chain, including startups, the private sector, public utilities, and government institutions, will fully unlock the potential by generating a virtuous supply and demand cycle.
Because data is one of the key drivers of AI solutions, proper data handling, as well as assuring privacy and security, is critical.
Creating data-protection policies and implementing international standards
A strong intellectual property framework is necessary for India to ride the AI innovation wave.