30 January 2023

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

1 – AISHE Report: GS II – Topic Social Sectors

Context:

• The Union Ministry of Education released the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) data for 2020–21 on Sunday. With a total of 4.13 crore students registered nationwide, it showed a 7.5% increase in student enrollment from 2019–20 to 2020–21.
• According to the survey, enrolment in distance learning programmes rose by 7% in 2020–21, the year the COVID–19 outbreak began.

Details of the Report:

• In-depth information was gathered on a variety of parameters, including student enrolment, instructor statistics, infrastructure, and financial data, among others, by the Union Education Ministry during its assessment of higher education institutions around the country. The AISHE carried out its maiden survey in 2011.
• According to the study, the total number of students enrolled in higher education increased from 38.5 million in 2019–20 to around 41.4 million in 2020–21. During the 2014–15 school year, enrollment climbed by about 7,200,000 pupils (21%) overall.
• In addition, there were 20.1 million more female students in 2020–21 than there were in 2019–20.
• There has been a rise of nearly 4,400,000 (28%) since 2014–15. The government estimates that as a result, the ratio of female enrollment to total enrollment increased from 45% in 2014–15 to nearly 49% in 2020–21.
• According to the report, there were 5,895,000 Schedule Caste (SC) students enrolled in academic programmes in 2019–20, up from 4,606,000 in 2014–15. In 2020–21, there will be 2,410,000 students who identify as Schedule Tribe (ST), up from 2,160,000 in 2019–20 and 1,641,000 in 2014–15.
• The government reports that between 2014–15 and 2020–21, “the average annual enrolment of ST students increased to around 100,000 from approximately 75,000 during the period from 2007–08 to 2014–15.”
• In 2020–21, there were 14.8 million students from Other Backwards Communities (OBC), up from 14.2 million in 2019–20. Since 2014–15, the number of OBC students enrolled has increased significantly, by roughly 3,600,000 (32%), according to the ministry.
• According to the poll, science (15.5%), business (13.9%), engineering & technology (11.9%), and humanities (33.5%) had the highest undergraduate enrolment rates. At the postgraduate level, social science was the most popular choice (20.56%), followed by science (14.83%).

Source The Hindu

 2 – RTI: GS II Topic –  Government Policies and Interventions

Context:

• The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has removed the option to create new accounts on the Union government’s RTI Online portal, where citizens can submit Right to Information requests to central government organisations, according to a Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) RTI response obtained by The Hindu. The website’s “high load” was cited as the cause. The website also notifies visitors that dormant user accounts will be deleted after six months.
• By setting up an account on the portal, users can avoid having to enter all of their personal data, such as their name, address, mobile number, and email address, for each RTI application they submit. Users who have had their accounts deleted or who have just registered must start over with all of their personal information.

Issues:

• Currently, over 3.15 lakh complaints or appeals are being handled by India’s 26 information commissions.
• There were 3,14,323 appeals and complaints outstanding in 2022 compared to 2,18,347 in 2019.
• The state with the most cases was Maharashtra, which was followed by Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, etc.
• dissolved information commissions Women hold 5% of the country’s 29 information commission seats, and two of them are completely dormant. Four of them are currently headless.
• Jharkhand and Tripura, respectively, have been completely idle for 29 and 15 months. Manipur, Telangana, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh don’t have any chiefs.
• Penalties Not Applicable: The commissions did not impose sanctions in 95% of the cases where they could have.
• Cases that are slowly disposed of: The paper also criticises the commissions’ sluggish case disposal rates and secretive business practises.
• Only five of the 29 information commissioners that offer an electronic filing option for RTI applications or appeals are actually in use.

What Is the Right to Information Act?

• The Right to Information Act of 2005 mandates that citizens’ requests for government information be quickly granted.
• The fundamental objectives of the Right to Information Act are to empower citizens, promote transparency and accountability in governmental operations, fight corruption, and actually make democracy work for the people.
• Right to Information (Amendment) Act of 2019
• It specified that the Chief Information Commissioner and an Information Commissioner (of the Center and States) will hold their positions throughout the entire intended period of the Central Government. Their term had previously been fixed at five years.
• It stated that the salary, allowances, and other terms of service for the Chief Information Commissioner and an Information Commissioner (of the Center and States) shall be in accordance with those established by the Central Government.
• Prior to this change, the Chief Election Commissioner’s pay, benefits, and other job conditions were comparable to those of the Chief Information Commissioner, and the reverse was true for an information commissioner (State Election Commissioners in case of States).
• As a result of pensions or any other retirement benefits they received for their prior public service, it eliminated the provisions relating to salary deductions for the Chief Information Commissioner, an Information Commissioner, the State Chief Information Commissioner, and a State Information Commissioner.
• It was criticised for weakening the law and giving the federal government more power through the RTI (Amendment) Act, 2019.

 Mistakes in Implementation:

• Failure of public bodies to adhere to the proactive disclosure obligation.
• Public information officers (PIOs) misapply the provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act to withhold information and act in a hostile manner toward the public.
• uncertainty surrounding the private rights and the public interest
• Refusal to react to information requests from involved people on pressing matters of public importance due to a lack of political will and inadequate infrastructure
• Threats and covert attacks are made against RTI advocates and applicants in an effort to intimidate them.

What is the Central Information Commission?

• Established: The Central Information Commission was established by the Central Government in 2005 in accordance with the stipulations of the Right to Information Act. (2005). For it, there is no constitutional body.
• Members: The Commission is composed of a Chief Information Commissioner and up to ten Information Commissioners.
• The Prime Minister, who serves as the committee’s chair, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and a Minister of the Union Cabinet that the Prime Minister has proposed are chosen by the President based on their recommendations.
• Until they turn 65 years old, whichever comes first, the Chief Information Commissioner and each Information Commissioner shall serve for the Central Government’s statutory periods.
• They are not eligible for reappointment.
• CIC’s authority and obligations: Any concerns related information requests filed under RTI, 2005 must be looked into by the Commission.
• The Commission may order an inquiry into any matter if there are good reasons (suo-moto power).
• When conducting an investigation, the Commission has the same summoning, seeking of documents, etc., powers as a civil court.

 Way Forward:

• For individuals to understand their legal right to information, information commissioners must function properly.
• The RTI law requires information commissions to uphold and preserve people’s fundamental right to information and act as the final authority.
• Transparency: There is an urgent need for the transparency watchdogs to work more effectively and transparently.
• Digitalization of systems: Through the digital RTI portal (website or mobile app), citizens can receive services that are more efficient and user-friendly than those offered through more conventional channels.
• This will be advantageous to the administration as well as those who want for more transparency.

 Source The Hindu

 3 – Sub Categorization Committee for OBCs: GS II – Topic Government Policies and Interventions

Context:

• The President has now prolonged the tenure of the Justice G. Rohini-led panel for the sub-categorisation of other backward classes, according to a gazette notification issued by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment last week (OBCs).
• There have already been fourteen extensions to the commission’s tenure. The panel, which was created in October 2017, was initially given 12 weeks to finish the process of sub-categorizing the more than 3,000 castes that fall under the OBC category and submit suggestions for how to appropriately allocate the 27% OBC quota among them. Before addressing the matter, the administration made clear that the panel needed more time to compile data and statistics.

 About the Commission:

• The commission was constituted on October 2, 2017, in compliance with Article 340 of the Constitution.
• Its responsibility was to fairly distribute the benefits allotted to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) by subdividing the OBCs.
• According to a 2015 recommendation by the National Commission for Back Classes, OBCs should be separated into highly backward classes, more backward classes, and backward classes (NCBC).
• The NCBC is qualified to examine welfare claims and initiatives for disadvantaged social and intellectual groups.

Guidelines for the Commission:

• to look into the uneven distribution of reservation benefits among the castes on the central OBC list.
• to create, using a scientific method, the sub-categorisation process, criteria, guidelines, and parameters.
• In order to give comprehensive data coverage, the task of choosing the proper castes, communities, sub-castes, and synonyms should be taken on.
• to check for repetitions, ambiguities, inconsistencies, and transcriptional or spelling errors, and make suggestions for resolving them.

 Progress made so far:

• In addition to speaking with officials of state governments, state backward classes commissions, community organisations, etc., it has gathered caste-specific data on OBC recruitment in federal agencies, public sector banks, and financial institutions.
• The commission recommended dividing the remaining 27% of OBCs into four subcategories with the numbers 1, 2, and 3 in 2021 and dividing the remaining 27% of OBCs into 2, 6, 9, and 10%, respectively.
• Additionally, it advocated for the complete digitization of all OBC records as well as a standardised procedure for awarding OBC certificates.
• How has the status of the OBC reservation altered throughout time?
• The Kalelkar Commission, which was founded in 1953, designated the first backward classes other than Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) at the national level.
• The Mandal Commission Report from 1980 said that 1 257 communities were considered underdeveloped and that 52% of people were supposed to come from the OBC.
• To include the OBCs, it was suggested that the current SC/ST-only quotas be increased from 22.5% to 49.5%.
• The central government reserved 27% of the seats in union civil posts and services for OBCs in accordance with Article 16(4). After that, the quotas were implemented at educational institutions under the control of the central government [Article 15 (4)].
• In 2008, the Supreme Court mandated that the federal government remove the advanced components (the creamy layer) from the OBCs.
• The 102nd Constitution Amendment Act of 2018 granted the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), which had previously been a statutory organisation under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, constitutional status.

 Source The Hindu

 4 – Indus Water Treaty: GS II –  Topic International Relations

Context:

• The 62-year-old Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan is being changed, according to an announcement made by India on Friday. It took this action in retaliation for what it called Pakistan’s “intransigence” in trying to settle differences over the Kishenganga and Ratle hydropower projects, both of which are situated in Jammu and Kashmir. India also took issue with Pakistan’s “unilateral” decision to get in touch with the arbitration court situated in The Hague.
• The administration wrote to Pakistan demanding amendments to the treaty in accordance with Article XII (3) of the IWT, which deals with the “final terms” of the pact. The first hearing in the Pakistani complaint began on Friday at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands. India made the decision to stay out of the discussion.

About:

• The agreement specifies the division of the River Indus and its five tributaries.

India now governs the following three eastern rivers:

• Ravi’s Beans and Sutlej
• India shall have unrestricted use of all Eastern River waters up until the occurrence of any unfavourable circumstance.

Pakistan now governs the following three western rivers:

• Jhelum, Indus & Chenab
• To address any potential worries about water sharing, the UN formed the Permanent Indus Commission, which provides a procedure for arbitration to settle issues amicably.
• The agreement enables India to use the water from the western rivers for a variety of domestic, non-consumptive needs, including storage, agriculture, and the creation of energy.
• In accordance with the agreement, Pakistan receives 80% and India receives 20% of the water from the Indus River System.
• When putting into practise any plan for flood protection or flood control, each country (India/Pakistan) will take all reasonable efforts to avoid causing any substantial injury to the other country.
• Both India and Pakistan are free to use the rivers’ natural channels to discharge flooding or other excess waters without restriction, and neither country is entitled to pay from the other for any damages brought on by such use.

 The Indus Waters Treaty has problems:

• The agreement has encountered issues, and both parties have accused one another of violating its terms.
• The Indian Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric power projects that were being constructed in Jammu and Kashmir drew complaints from Pakistan to the World Bank in 2016. After that, India demanded that the plants be evaluated by independent experts, alleging that Pakistan’s complaints were primarily technical in nature and did not warrant the creation of an arbitration tribunal (as Pakistan has taken it to an arbitration court). The World Bank allowed India to proceed with the projects following the conclusion of talks between the two countries regarding the agreement’s details.
• The Tulbul project, a navigation lock-cum-control facility at the mouth of the Wular Lake, located on the Jhelum from Anantnag to Srinagar and Baramulla, was halted in 1987 as a result of Pakistan’s protests. Recently, the government decided to reconsider this suspension without taking Pakistan’s protests into consideration.
• Pakistan’s Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) project in Gujarat, India, crosses the Rann of Kutch. Before the building started, India was not consulted. India has expressed disapproval because this goes against the IWT. All relevant information must be provided because the lower riparian state is in India. Flooding is a problem that also exists in the state of Gujarat.
• The bilateral ties between Pakistan and India have been trending downward recently.
• After the attacks in Uri, Prime Minister Modi declared that “blood and water cannot flow in the same direction,” sending a message to Pakistan that his support for terrorism on the other side of the border will force India to reevaluate its tolerant stance toward the IWT.
• In fact, many experts believe Pakistan will gain more from the agreement than India.
• The fact that Nehru, India’s former prime minister, signed the IWT on the country’s behalf has also drawn criticism. The pact was meant to be signed by the nation’s president at the time, who was in that position, and he wasn’t.
• India does not use all of the water to which it is entitled, per the rules of the IWT. 2 million acre-feet of unused water from the River Ravi enter Pakistan each year (MAF).
• In the wake of the Pulwama attacks in 2019, the Indian government said that all water now flowing into Pakistan through the three eastern rivers would be moved to Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan for a variety of uses.

To stop this flow and utilise all of its water allotment under the Treaty, India has taken the following actions:

• Shahpurkandi Project: This would help Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir produce electricity.
• A reservoir will be constructed on the Ujh, a tributary of the River Ravi, as part of the Ujh Multipurpose Project, to retain water for agricultural and power generation.
• another connection from Ravi Beas Ujh This has been classified as a National Project by the GOI. To do this, a barrage across the Ravi River must be constructed, and water must then be directed through a tunnel link to the Beas Basin. The goal of this is to prevent additional water from entering Pakistan.

Eastern Rivers Developments Under the Indus Water Treaty:

• To harness the waters of the Eastern rivers that have been assigned to it for exclusive use, India erected the Bhakra Dam on the Satluj River, the Pong and Pandoh Dam on the Beas River, and the Thein (Ranjit Sagar Dam) on the Ravi River.
• India uses nearly all (95%) of the water in the eastern rivers thanks to initiatives like the Indira Gandhi Nahar Project, the Madhopur-Beas Link, and the Beas-Sutlej Link. According to reports, each year 2 Million Acre Feet (MAF) of Ravi water still flows unutilized to Pakistan below Madhopur.
• The following steps have been taken by India to avoid this water from going to Pakistan and being used there instead:
• The Shahpur Kandi Project is being developed to use the water from Thein Dam for agriculture and power generation in Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.
• Construction of Ujh Multipurpose Projects The Ujh River empties into the Ravi. As a result, water will be stored, enabling India to use it for farming and power generation. From the moment it begins to be implemented, this project, which is a national enterprise, will take 6 years to finish.
• The second Ravi Beas connection below Ujh project is intended to collect additional water that the river Ravi continues to flow through into Pakistan even after the Thein Dam was built. This will be accomplished by constructing a barrage across the river, which will allow water to be transferred to the Beas basin via a tunnel link.

Options for India:

• Some political philosophers believe that the pact should be revoked since it is biassed and one-sided in Pakistan’s favour.
• Although it is more difficult said than done, this has important ramifications.
• Unilateral abrogation is prohibited by the provisions of the agreement.
• Even if India chooses to leave the agreement, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969 should be adhered to.
• As a result, the nation’s reputation overseas can suffer. Two more of India’s neighbours, Bangladesh and Nepal, might have second thoughts regarding agreements of a similar sort with them.
• Some foreign policy experts think that India should uphold bilateral agreements if it seeks a permanent seat in the UNSC.
• Greater problems relating to terrorist activity could result from abrogating the treaty.
• India should build the necessary infrastructure to use the complete supply of water before Pakistani water is stopped.
• China is a different perspective. Due of its support for Pakistan, China may restrict the Brahmaputra from flowing into Assam. It also has the capacity to block streams of the Indus River that originate in Chinese territory.
• In accordance with the IWT, experts advise India to use the water from the western rivers. This alone can convey a strong message to Pakistan. Further punitive actions should only be taken after careful consideration, as they can have long-term effects on relations with Pakistan.

Source The Hindu