Surabhi Yadav: GS2 answer copy

Constitutional & legal provisions to solve Inter-State Border Dispute

(1) Article -3 grants power to Parliament to adjust state borders

(2) Article 263 provides for Inter-state Council.

(3) State Reorganisation Act, 1956 was created to decide borders of state (linguistic basis)

The Parliament can thus, initiate talks with the states - like Assam Accords, a committee to address the issues could be created.

Inter-State council were created on the recommendation of Sarkaria Commission. They have helped in better co-ordination and upholding Indian Federalism.

Role of Inter-state council

(1) Vertical (Centre-State) cooperation

→ Promotes bottom-up approach. States are able to table their grievances (eg Finance allocation or Centrally sponsored schemes. → Implementation of scheme is easier and targetted. (eg Focus on education in Bihar more than Kerala. → Coordination on schemes like MGNREGA, to provide employement (eg During COVID or Indian Epidemic Act guidelines implementation

(2) Horizontal (Inter-State)

• Promotes competetive Federalism
• Helped resolve inter-state issues (eg River water dispute (Kaveri) between Kerala & Tamil Nadu
• Helped in development of regional issues (eg) separate North eastern Council voice N-E specific issues.

Thus, Council have helped put forward grievances. They could be further utilised by frequent meetings and implementation of suggestion.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) scrutinise the government expenditure through CAG.

Key Function

• Keep an eye / audit of public funds.
• It ensures proper resource allocation in proportion to claims in the budget.
• It presents its report to President which is tabled in Parliament for scrutiny and question to government (Holds govt accountable).

However, it faces certain challenges → Post-mortem of expenditure, not prevent the expenditure that was extra.

• The discussions on its report are rare.
• suggestions may/ may not be implemented.

Steps to enhance its effectiveness

(1) Include members who are expert in economics or public finances (2) Include opposition members to ensure better accountability. (3) Publish report in digital format in public domain for transparency. (4) Discussions should be compulsory along with report on why implementation or non-implementation of suggestion.

PAC are the guardians of public purse, they must be strengthend to protect taxpayers money.

Urban Local Bodies were given constitutional status by 74th Constitutional Amendment Act under Article 243.

They play a major role in urban development. More than 50% of our population will be urban areas by 2030, so its important to create sustainable, employable urban areas.

Suggestions by 15th Finance Commission in this regard

(1) Develop channels of Fund generation (Independent) in urban local bodies → currently dependent on State grants or Central grants

(2) Devolution of power to ULBs in all states → Karnataka has devolved only 3/18 of the powers in 12th Schedule

(3) Prevent overlap of functions of the state and ULBs → Delhi Jal Board / Electricity Board by the state while these duties are assigned to ULBs.

(4) Scrutiny of the fund utilisation by the ULBs should be regular by State Finance Commission. Its report must be discussed.

Thus, 15th Finance commission made various suggestion in different areas. Strengthening ULBs should strengthen people with proper Decentralisation

The Constitution provides various rights to the citizen under Article 19(1) as

Freedom to speech and expression while parliamentarians under Article enjoys an extended privilege.

Difference

Need to Maintain a Balance

1. They are both granted by the constitution, so to uphold constitutional morality.

2. Parliamentary privilege are important to raise issues of concern and protect legislatures from unwanted criticism for raising people's voice (because elected by people)

Thus, we need to have a fine balance. Fundamental rights are important but not absolute (Kesavananda Bharati Case). Similarly Parliamentary Privileges should respect the will of the people.

Civil Society Organisations like NGOs, SHGs, pressure groups help fill the void in the governance structure. So, its important to strengthen them. But, they face several Issues

Challenges

In Local Resource Mobilisation

• Registration under FCRA Act and auditing of their funds.
• Lack of trust in certain organisation deter people from donating.
• SHGs are generally by women of weaker section, they face dual issue → societal contraints of Patriarchy → lack of access to loans from Banks due to extensive documentation and collateral issues.

In Corporate Funding

• Targetted towards certain sectors like Education, Health, so organisation for child labour, marriage etc face difficulty.
• Huge funding towards one civil society which they have historical relations - new/small org suffer

Measures

1. Pooling of CSR and need based distribution to all sectors civil society.
2. Registration and validation of civil society (For trust development)
3. Loan access to SHGS - through govt schemes like MUDRA.

Civil society organisation can thus strengthen governance by recieving funds and auditing can ensure intended utilisation of fund.

Data driven policy yields better outcomes because they are able to ensure targetted delivery of government services.

NITI Aayog's Multi Dimensional Poverty Index focused on various aspects to ensure all round upliftment of poor from poverty.

Methodology

1. Evaluate poverty by dividing factors into 3 category → Education → Health → Standard of living

2. 3 category are further subdivided into-child mortality, access to fuel, sanitation, enrollment ratio etc to ensure better categorisation.

3. The data is collected from various sources → Hospitals for Mortality → School enrollment (Pvt & govt) → Census and various other surveys by ministries.

4. Online records of the data have helped in better categorisation. Data Scientists have helped.

Significance

1. Prevent problem of exclusion or inclusion of any section - promotes social justice.
2. Better utilisation of limited resources.
3. Targeted delivery of govt. services like PM Anna Yojana, MGNREGA, PM Matru Vandana Yojana etc.
4. Help civil servants devise better policy eg Revision of POSHAN - POSHAN 1.0, 2.0 etc.

Thus, better assessment have helped the government in pulling 126 million people out of poverty in last decade.

Healthy citizenry is important to develop a healthy nation and a healthy economy. In this light, there are various provisions:-

Constitutional

• Under Article 21 - SC has recognised right to health.
• Right to clean environment to promote better health (Vellore Citizen Welfare Fund Case)

Legal precedents

• Various state measures (since state list subject - 7th schedule) Eg Assam Health Act.

International Commitments

• commitment and contribution to World Health Organisation

Lack of Explicit Recognition (1) Lack of funds - only 2.5% of GDP to Health against 6% desirable (2) Limited infrastructure to ensure the implementation of the right. Eg seen during COVID-19. (3) Limited availability of resources - Eg Doctors are short in number. (4) Varied nature of issues associated with Health Eg Rare diseases that have no known cure. → Despite best efforts, it might not be able to save a patient. → causes legal implication & increase litigants in the courts

Thus, though Health is a right, best efforts are made by government to ensure Universal Health coverage through schemes like Aayushman Bharat.

BRIC was the term coined by Goldman Sachs South Africa joined late and it became BRICS which ensure as pillar for coordination.

Cooperation on Myriad Issues like

1. Trade and diversification of trade basket among nations.
2. Supply chain resilience : WTO negotiate
3. Coordination on sustainable development and issues like Green Economy
4. Collaborate on climate change & induced disaster threats.
5. Cultural exchange among the nations and voice of developing nations in UN

However, bilateral relationship - an issue:-

1. Conflict between India and china on border issues is beyond scope of BRICS.
2. Authoritarian regime : Russia, China, Brazil as constraint to India's democratic ethos.
3. South Africa, India, Brazil- focus on agricultural production - so trade diversification remains an issue.

Way Forward

• Focus on bilateral meetings along with BRICS summits. 2+2 dialogues could be initiated.
• Focus on terrorism
• Focus on fund mobilisation.

BRICS has huge potential to voice developing nations concerns.

Indus Water Treaty is an agreement between India and Pakistan to share Indus and its tributary water, it was brokered by World Bank.

Recently, Pakistan has raised issue over India's Kishanganga Dam & Rattle Dam as not being run-of-river dams.

This led to conflict and treaty is being with Permanent Water Commission to amend the Indus Waters Treaty.

Possible Implications

(1) Re-negotiation on terms of treaty.

(2) India might claim greater share in access to water.

→ In Recent treaty Pakistan recieves 80% of water share. Its seen as injustice by India.

(3) It might also resuet in hostile situation over water.

→ But India has always shown humanitarian concerns.

(4) Larger share of data on rivers and water-sharing.

Way Forward

1- Global forum of Transboundary rivers to assist policy making.

2- Ratification of UN Water Convention.

Indus Water Treaty is a rare example of continuous cooperation between India and Pakistan. It can further boost relation by resolving the issue.

Ans1. Doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty says that Parliament law is above all (eg in UK) where Parliament is above constitution..

Judicial supremacy entails that Judiciary could scrutinise the legislature executive actions in sync with the constitution & uphold constitutional morality (eg the case in India & USA)

Role of Judiciary in Influencing the constitution

(1) In India

• Kesavananda Bharti v State of Kerala Case, 1973 establish that Parliament can't alter the Basic Structure doctrine and its power under Article 368 are not absolute.

• In Indira Gandhi v Raj Narain case Supreme court overturned the CA 39th which immuned PM, President election from Judicial review.

(2) In USA

• Marbury v Madison case the USA supreme court bought the Judicial review into account.

• In Dred Scott case, the USA judicial review invalidated the legatit abolishing of slavery by the Senate

Scope of Judicial Review

• Its wider in USA than India.
• USA is the source of Judicial review.
• India follows principle of Judicial Restraint → Gout of AP v Laxmi dev (2008) SC said invalidating a legislative act is a grave step and should not be lightly taker.
• AK Gopalan case - procedure established by law - powers to Parliament However, Judicial Activism like Judicial legislation (Vishakha guidelines, D.K Basu case) remains an issue that needs to be restrain But court has put effective restraints and maintaind Separation of Powers.

Ans 12 Delimitation Commission is constituted by President (Recently for Jammu & Kashmir) to ensure better and equitable representation of the population. It ensures that varied distribution of population doesn't hampe hampers representation through MPs / MLAs.

Challenges due to mis-representation (1) Constitutional: It promotes equality (Art 14), but distorted representation gives preferance to one section over the other. (2) Legal challenge of distribution of resources. (3) Regional Disparity: as the section

represented in Parliament get better access to policy implementation

(4) Sectarian divisions -eg) lack of Tribal representation at Centre could pose problems like Naxalism.

(5) Could create unrest or distorted allocation of policy : hampers social justice.

(6) conflict among states : A threat to Federalism : Unlike US that has 2 vote for each state, India has high vote share of UP when compared to Sikkim or Goa. This could create enimity.

Ramification

(1) Equal representation of all sections in the Parliament → Targeted welfare policies further the idea of Socialist state (Preamble)

(2) Address the issue of small and large states and differing population densities (Delhi has more than 10,000 people/sqkm while Arunachal has only 17 people/km²)

(3) But created conflict among states like UP and of North & South, when Southern states claim that they pay the price for controlling their population

Thus, Delimitation Commission decision are beyond judicial review to ensure independence in Representation & legislative process of election.

Supreme Court of India and Election Commission are two independent bodies that ensure that India's democracy is preserved with free fair and transparent election.

Supreme Court's role

(1) In Subramanyam Swamy case SC upheld the importance of VVPAT to ensure legal/legitimate counting of votes.

(2) In Indra Gandhi v Raj Narain Case, SC upheld the judicial review into election of Prime Minister, President and Vice President.

This helped Election Commission ensure greater transparency.

(3) Prevent Criminalisation of Politics by ensuring fast track courts to try criminal case related Politicians.

(4) Upheld the Representation of People's Act, 1957 and disqualification under it (eg: Rahul gandhi case).

(5) In a SC judgment, it upheld the need to declare the assets, qualification of the candidates.

This has helped Election Commission to ensure informed decisions are made by citizens

However, challenges

1. Misreporting/undereporting of the asset is the common practice.
2. Criminalisation has been increasing
3. The Model Code of Conduct by Election commission is violated on many grounds (eg Screening of movie by politician during election duration.

Election Commission could be further strengthened to ensure better transparency through Digitisation of Records. SC acts as a safeguard to commission.

The Constitution of India does not provide for strict Separation of Power but promotes checks and Balances on other organs of the government.

However, the Parliament sittings have been on a decline, the 17th lok Sabha set for the least number of days since Independence → hence hampers the power to check executive.

Ways to keep check on Executive by Parliament

1. It ensures the election of the President (Article
2. It can impeach president (Article for violation of constitution.

(3) It keep contiol over the ministers through - question hour, zero hour, motion discussion etc.

(4) Executive has to table reports in Parliament which got scrutinised from time to time.

Issues with lack Separation of Power and Check & Balances

(1) The executive (Council of Minister) presents the bill and all the Parliamentarian act according to the whip or suffer Disqualification, this reduces the questioning power of Parliamentarians on Executine.

(2) The Bills are introduced by 15% Ministers that get passed. Private Member Bills (85% of Members) do not even get a chance to represent themselves.

(3) Declining sittings and frequent walkouts by opposition leads to decline in effective debate (eg: Manipur Issue/ Farm Bills)

(4) Haste passage of Bills (Guillotine) reduces checks on executives. (eg: 7th Session of current lok Sabha 145 bills in 101 minutes)

Thus, there's need to ensure better separation of power & check & Balance by: → Fixing no. of days of parliament sitting → Actions against unnecessary disruption → Fixed timetable of Question Hours etc.

National Commission of women is a statutory body in India that look into all the matter concerning women.

Role played by NCW Discourse

(1) Domestic Sphere → Prohibition of Dowry Act. → Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act upto 26 weeks, right to bodily autonomy of women. → Equal rights in Inheritance in Hindu law.

(2) In employement sphere → Vishakha guidelines against harrassment of women at place of work → NCW efforts led to compulsory establishment of Grievance Redressal Institution.

(3) Others → Debates on need of gender parity in STEM education. → Talks about Prostitution as a profession & safeguards to women

The elevation of National commission of women to constitutional space will promote - (1) President will table its report to Parliament, and if no action is taken Parliament will have to relase a statement. (Can't go unnoticed)

2- NCW will get rights of a civil court 3- The election of chairman will be protected by constitution (more autonomy & independence) 4- It can promote investigation into matters of immediate threat 5- Better gender parity measures: not only suggestion but implementation. Thus, National Commission of women could promote equality as enshrined in Article 14, 15, 16 and International commitment under SDG 5.

Minimum government and maximum governance is the sine-qua non of effective justice system in a nation. Justice is finally delivered when the grievances of an individual regarding policy/scheme benefits, documentation, access, awareness are addressed. But, there are various [challenges] in current grievance redressal mechanism. (1) Absence of staff: unwillingness of the staff member to address issue & consequent absence serves as a challenge. (2) Lack of awareness about where to

register grievances : Though departments has made citizen Charter but citizen awareness about charter remains low.

(3) Distorted digital Infrastructure : old / wrong number are registered online.

(4) Sometimes, lack of resources with the government is a challenge to address issue.

(5) Multiplicity of documentation requirement

(6) Fees to register grievance (es. RTI and concern of privacy)

(7) Bureaucratic apathy.

Measures to strengthen

For government

• Update online forms/websites/ numbers.
• updated Citizen charter with department specific needs. (no one size fit all approach)
• Regular attendance of employee.
• Social Audit

For Citizen

• Digital literacy of people.
• Increasing awareness
• Community capacity building to address their grievances

Grievance Redressal is the last step to effective service delivery but its the most important since it helps to improve & bring change (intended)

Corruption is like a termite that eats the foundation of any organisation / government.

Corruption in governance leads to wastage of resources, undermine the goal of welfare state & unequitable distribution of resources.

In this direction, government took various steps to reduce corruption:-

RTI Act → publish government Reports & access to citizens.

Whistle Blowers Protection Act (WBPA) → protects the public spirit person who identify & report loophole in governance.

• Satyendra Dube in Golden Quadrilateral Case.

Lokpal & Lokayukta Act, 2013 - They question the government employee / minister and even Prime Minister for any instance of corruption reported.

Potential of Harmonising to enhance effectiveness of anti-corruption

Positives

(1) Enhance citizen awareness to access information and make informed decision.

(2) Acts as a deterrence to government officials: fear of being caught promote them to do the right thing.

(3) Digitisation of these acts and grievance redressal gives access to citizen at home.

(4) Protection promotes citizen to raise

report grievance in fearless manner. (5) Even Ministers could be dettered via effutine lokpal.

Challenges to Potential

(1) Lack of awareness - only 2% of citiren file RTI → lack of privacy in RTI ditters people → threat from powerful politician/official. (2) Whistleblowers Act has not been effective in granting protection Eg Death of Satyendra Dubey. (3) Lokpal's independence has been subject to questioning

India needs better coordinated efforts and strong people and political will - Minimising Digitisation of Records and active citizen participation could help.

SHGs are ground level cooperative groups largely led by women that pool in their resources and carry out economic activities.

SEWA by Ela Bhatt is one of the largest SHGs

challenges with SHGs

(1) In skill development: - women are generally layered by Patriarchy where mobilising women for skill development in government or urban centre would be in conflict with society / gender / caste roles. (2) In Entrepreneurship ↳ They lack Initial capital for

Investment. → Bank shy from granting loans to women without collateral, which is a challenge. → Excessively competetive market with Machine mede - cheap products. (3) In Income generation → Access to market and selling of products. → Lack of digital penetration & awareness (only). → Complicated government registration and documentation. → Largely unskilled population,

Benefits to Involve SHGs (1) Grassroot presence - usually of same community - easy to mobilise other women. (2) Since women led - whole family prosper : low instance of women spending on alcohol. (3) Access to funds through NABARD bank linkage programme. (4) Access to government schemes like Ujjwala, PM Matru Vandana Yojana could be done in organised manner. (5) Feedback and Grievance Redressal mechanism could be more effective in governance. Thus, SHGs could become a channel of growth in India's goal to become a $5 trillion economy.

India is known as the cultural capital. It has the largest Diaspora around the world which brings glory and helps in soft power diplomacy of India.

Role in Soft Power Diplomacy

(1) Culture → promotes a vibrant, rich heritage image of India

• It promotes tourism (Taj Mahal) and cultural exchange
• Connectivity with ASEAN (Buddhist circuit)

(2) Indian Diaspora

• promotes goodwill
• ensure India's interest through political means (Parliamentarians of Indian Origin US/UK)

(3) Democracy

• helps India build a peace loving, transparent country
• we're known as largest Democracy

India as - 'smart power'

Utilisation of Potential

(1) In evacuation of students from Ukraine (Operation Ganga)

(2) India emerging as leader to

negotiate peace between Russia-ukraine.

(3) Signing of CEPA with UAE due → one of the positive aspect was large Indian diaspora.

(4) Friendly Indian Ocean Region Nation countries- Humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka / Turkey have helped.

(5) Non-alignment increase negotiation power

Not a 'smart power'

(1) EU claims of India violating Human and Minority Rights.

(2) India out campaign in Mauritius

(3) Big Brother syndrome in BBIN nations

India could move away from these challenge by further utilising its resources & initiation - Disaster Management

↳ completing Buddhist circuit

Ans 20 India and Australia have shared history as commonwealth nations. It emerges as point of convergence along with cultural values, diaspora relations.

Potentials of collaboration

1- Trade

• Recently signed Grain Partnership to promote agricultural export.

• Free trade agreement could boost trade of various items. Balance of Payment could be ensured.

2 - Strategic

• Collaboration in Indian Ocean Region through QUAD.
• Military exercises like MALABAR
• Similar concerns on china threat
• Multilateral cooperation in G-20 IOR-ARC could be beneficial.

Challenges despite convergence

(1) Different outlook - India sees whole Indian Ocean while Australia focus only on East Indian Ocean.

(2) Agriculture - Australia raised voice against India in WTO for MSP as unfair trade practice.

(3) AUKUS seen as opposition to QUAD and Australia-France hostile situation due to cancelling nuclear submarine deal- difficult for India to balance.

(4) Racism against Indian diaspora

• hampers soft diplomacy.

Way Forward to Strengthen Relations further

(1) Coordination in regional forums like IOR-ARC, East Asia Summit.

(2) Increasing technological ties - cyber security - Critical Infra to boost trade.

(3) Engagements through CECA to boost trade and economy.