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- Indian Heritage
- Culture
- Modern Indian history
- The Freedom Struggle
- Post-independence
- Indian Society
A. population and associated issues
B. poverty and developmental issues
C.urbanization
7. Geographical features
8.Indian Constitution
9. Polity
EVMs are accurate, observes top court
The Supreme Court on Tuesday disagreed with the idea of a return to paper ballots to restore the “little man’s” condence in the electoral process, saying machines give “absolutely accurate results” unless human bias maligns them.tnpsc coaching center in chennai
“Human weaknesses, including bias, may lead to a problem. Machines without human intervention would give absolutely accurate results,” Justice Sanjiv Khanna, heading a twojudge Bench, observed.
The court was open to the testing of the “actual performance” of electronic voting machines (EVMs). It said the review should be wholly based on data provided by the Election Commission, and not opinion garnered from private quarters.
The court xed the hearing on Thursday (April 18). The Bench, also comprising Justice Dipankar Datta, rejected the idea of returning to paper ballots. “We are in our sixties… We have seen in our lives what happened when it was ballot papers. We have seen the drawbacks of the past,” Justice Khanna said.
The court was hearing separate petitions led by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and by Arun Kumar Agarwal highlighting the voter’s fundamental right to information about his vote. The petitioner claried they were not attributing malice to the EVMs. Their only issue was that the EVM system did not provide voters with conrmation or condence about their votes. The VVPAT (Voter Veriable Paper Audit Trail) machine showed the slip only for seven seconds, after the vote was cast.tnpsc coaching center in chennai
“I am not talking about the urbane voter in this courtroom. I am talking about the queues of multitudes who are hustled into the polling booths to press a button and hustled out, not knowing what really happened. Leaving aside the foibles about the past regarding ballot papers, that system had at least given the little man condence that he had put his little cross across the right party symbol,” senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, for Mr. Agarwal, submitted. “I am unable to conrm my vote. My physical contact with my vote has gone completely,” Mr. Sankaranarayanan said.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan said the voter leaves the booth with no sense of accuracy. Mr. Bhushan suggested three options — revert to paper ballots, give VVPAT paper slips to voters for them to put in the ballot box and nally to make VVPAT screens transparent glass rather than opaque, as it was now.
The petitioners have also sought 100% cross verication of VVPAT slips with EVM votes count. They said while the government had spent nearly ₹5,000 crore to purchase nearly 24 lakh VVPATs, only slips from approximately 20,000 VVPATs could be veried. They have referred to a judgment of the top court in 2013 in Subramanian Swamy v. Election Commission of India that the election process should “have fullest transparency in the system and to restore the condence of the voters”.
Mr. Bhushan noted that European countries like Germany had gone back to paper ballots. Justice Datta said there were 98 crore registered voters in India compared to the six crore population in Germany. “This [elections in India] is a humongous task. My home State, West Bengal, is more populated than Germany. You have to repose some trust in somebody. Of course they [Election Commission] are accountable… Some dotting of the ‘i’ and ticking of the ‘t’ can happen, but do not try to bring down the system,” Justice Datta said.
10. Governance
A. institutions
B. regulatory
C. Government policies
D. role of NGOs
E. measures
11. Social Justice
A. Welfare schemes
B Health
C. Education
D. Human Resources
E. poverty and hunger
12. International relations
A. India and its neighbourhood
B. groupings and agreements
C.Indian diaspora
IMF forecasts India’s economy to grow 6.8% this scal year
he International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday raised its growth projection for India’s GDP in the current scal year 2024/25 to 6.8%, and forecast a 6.5% expansion next year. The latest FY25 forecast is a 0.3 percentage point upward revision from January’s projection, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook April 2024, released on Tuesday.
The global economy had remained “remarkably resilient” with steady growth and in£ation returning to target and had “deed expectations of stag£ation and global recession” in the wake of the post-pandemic supply disruptions, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent global energy and food crises as well as the monetary tightening across economies, the IMF observed.
It projected global output growth in 2024 and 2025 at 3.2%, after bottoming out at at 2.3% at the end of 2022.
T‘Liberalise investment’
The projected moderation in India’s growth rate from 7.8% last scal year was due to a tightening in monetary and scal policy, necessary to bring in£ation down, IMF economist Daniel
Leigh said at a press brieng on the report. In£ation was projected to be 4.6% this year and 4.2% next year, Mr. Leigh added.
Growth could end up higher than expected due to strengthening private demand, he added.
“Also, an upside comes from the potential for reforms that would liberalise foreign investment and really boost exports and boost jobs and labour force participation,” he said, partly in response to a question from The Hindu on policy recommendations for the Indian economy and addressing unemployment concerns.
“So, it’s a very strong outlook and… a balanced risk outlook,” he added.
For the global economy, the IMF expected median headline in£ation to ease from 2.8% at the end of this year to 2.4% at the end of 2025. “Most indicators point to a soft landing,” the Fund said.
‘Less scarring’
“Another piece of good news is that we project less economic scarring,” IMF Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said during a virtual brieng.
Scarring, or the gap in output compared with prepandemic levels, was less in most regions with the exception of low income and developing countries, he said.
13. Economic Development
A. Government Budgeting
RBI survey shows why livelihood issues are in focus in 2024 polls
The ndings of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s consumer condence survey, conducted in March in urban areas, on concerns regarding livelihood are similar to the ndings of the CSDS-Lokniti pre-poll survey, published in these pages.
One major conclusion of the CSDS-Lokniti pre-poll survey was that while the NDA has an edge over the Opposition in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, issues such as in§ation, unemployment, and falling income levels are major election issues this time.
In the pre-poll survey, 32% of the respondents chose ‘increasing unemployment’ as the reason for not electing the incumbent government. The other two reasons in the list of top three reasons were ‘price rise’ (cited by 20% of the respondents) and ‘falling income’ (cited by 11% of them). ‘Price rise’ and ‘increasing unemployment’ also featured as the top two ‘least popular initiatives’ of the government.
The RBI’s latest survey, conducted between March 2 and 1th 8 among 6,083 respondents across 19 major cities, shows similar concerns among urban consumers.
Chart 1 shows the share of respondents in the RBI survey who said employment opportunities have improved and those who said they have worsened compared to a year-ago period. Close to 38% of the respondents said the job outlook has worsened. A similar share said it has improved compared to a year-ago period. The rest said the outlook remained the same (not plotted in the graph).
These numbers should be read keeping in mind that the comparisons are from a low-base (the yearago period), when consumer condence was still recovering after the pandemic. While condence about job opportunities are now closer to pre-pandemic levels, close to one-third are pessimistic about employment scenarios. These ndings concur with the results of the pre-poll survey.
Chart 2 shows the share of respondents in the RBI survey who said income levels have improved and those who said they have worsened compared to a year-ago period. Condence about income levels is still recovering since the pandemic. Close to 22% of the respondents said income levels have decreased compared to a year-ago. This is higher than the 10% in 201415. Close to 27% said income levels have increased. The rest, close to 50%, said income levels have remained the same. This is a pain point given that the prices of commodities are increasing every year.
Chart 3 shows the share of respondents in the RBI survey who said the price levels of commodities have improved and those who said they have worsened compared to a year-ago period. Close to 90% of the respondents continued to say price levels of items have increased compared to the year before. A mere 1% said they have decreased; and 9% said they have stayed the same.
When Chart 2 and Chart 3 are read together (with 72% saying income levels have decreased or have stayed the same and with 90% saying price levels have increased, both from a year-ago period), it is understandable why these two became the main talking points in the CSDS-Lokniti pre-poll survey. Chart 4 shows the share of respondents in the RBI survey who said the general economic situation has improved and those who said it has worsened compared to a year-ago period. The condence levels about the economy are back to pre-pandemic levels. However, it must be noted that the economy had technically entered recession in 2019. Condence levels are still not back to the 2015-17 levels, as 36% in March 2024 said the economy had worsened from a year-ago period.
B. industrial
Farm sector can grow over 6% in FY25 on good monsoon, says NITI Aayog’s Chand
NITI Aayog Member Ramesh Chand predicts that the agriculture and related sectors in India may experience over 6% growth in the fiscal year 2024-25. This optimism is based on two main factors: the expected favorable monsoon conditions and the low growth base from the previous year. Mr. Chand highlights that a combination of a good monsoon and a low base has historically led to agricultural growth exceeding 6%.
Forecasts from various agencies suggest a normal or above-normal monsoon for the upcoming year, with promising regional distribution patterns. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts an ‘above-normal’ monsoon, while private forecaster Skymet expects a ‘normal’ monsoon.
Mr. Chand also mentions the rising real prices of agricultural products compared to non-agricultural goods, emphasizing the need for price stability. He clarifies that stability aims to prevent abnormal price hikes rather than artificially lowering prices. He suggests that allowing increased exports of surplus crops during the kharif season could be beneficial.
Currently, the government has imposed restrictions on the export of certain commodities like non-Basmati rice, wheat, sugar, and onions. However, these restrictions may be reconsidered, especially for non-Basmati rice, after assessing rice output in September-October.
E.issues
14. Technology
SPACE, a premier testing & evaluation hub for sonar systems for Indian Navy, set up by DRDO, inaugurated in Kerala
A state-of-the-art Submersible Platform for Acoustic Characterisation and Evaluation (SPACE) was inaugurated by Secretary, Department of Defence (R&D) and Chairman DRDO Dr Samir V Kamat at Underwater Acoustic Research Facility, Kulamavu in Idukki, Kerala on April 17, 2024. The SPACE, set up by the Naval Physical & Oceanographic Laboratory of DRDO, has been designed as a premier testing and evaluation hub for sonar systems destined for Indian Navy onboard various platforms including ships, submarines and helicopters.
The SPACE marks a milestone in naval technology advancement. It will consist of two distinct assemblages – a platform which floats on the water surface, and a submersible platform which can be lowered to any depth upto 100 m using winch systems. Upon completion of operations, the submersible platform can be winched up and docked with the floating platform.
The SPACE will mainly be utilised for evaluation of complete sonar system, allowing for quick deployment and easy recovery of scientific packages such as sensors and transducers. It will be suitable for survey, sampling, and data collection of air, surface, mid-water, and reservoir floor parameters using modern scientific instrumentation. It will cater to the needs of data processing and sample analyses in modern, well equipped scientific laboratories heralding a new era of Anti-Submarine Warfare research capabilities.
15. Environment
Nine years after green panel’s directions, Yamuna floodplain yet to be demarcated
The process of physical demarcation of the Yamuna’s
oodplain – a basic step to help identify and protect the sensitive ecosystem from encroachment – is still incomplete despite court orders.
While the Delhi government had claimed in submissions to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that “100%” physical demarcation of a major stretch of the Yamuna’s
oodplain in the city has been done, visits to the sites in question and interviews with ocials by The Hindu have conrmed that major gaps persist.
Moreover, nine years after the NGT asked authorities to identify encroachments in the oodplain, this process, too, has not been done, and was not initiated even after the devastating July 2023 oods that saw the Yamuna rise to unprecedented levels. In fact, illegal permanent constructions on the oodplain have only grown since the NGT’s directions in a landmark judgment in 2015, according to latest satellite images. “Demarcation of a oodplain is not rocket science. If it is not being done despite court orders, it is because of the dishonest intentions of bureaucrats and the government’s Executive wing,” said Shashi Shekhar, former Secretary at the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. He added that there was a “strong land maa” that was “grabbing” the oodplain. “This cannot happen without the connivance of ocials and politicians.”
Rising encroachment
Encroachment into the
oodplain intensied in the 1990s, with several illegal colonies mushrooming on the site. Over the years, multiple developmental projects, such as the Commonwealth Games Village, the Yamuna Bank Metro Station, and the Delhi Secretariat, were also constructed on the oodplain.
After the 2015 judgment in a case led by ex-IFS ofcer Manoj Mishra, the NGT formed the ‘Maili se Nirmal Yamuna (From Dirty to Clean Yamuna) Revitalisation Plan, 2017’, with the intent to restore the river’s oodplain to its natural state by March 31, 2017.
The NGT’s judgment, warning of “grave environmental disasters”, had directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) – a civic body administered by the Centre – to physically demarcate the entire oodplain, and prohibited any construction in the demarcated area. But the DDA missed the deadline.
‘Demarcation done’
However, from April 2021, the Delhi government, based on the submissions made to it by the DDA, has been claiming in di£erent reports to the Centre and the NGT that physical demarcation of the oodplain has been completed from Wazirabad to Jaitpur.
“100% work for demarcation of oodplain has been completed. 591 bollards marked with GPS coordinates, 375 ag posts, and 27 signboards for the entire stretch from Wazirabad barrage to Jaitpur have been installed,” stated a report submitted by the Delhi government to the NGT on December 12, 2023.
But when The Hindu visited di£erent parts of the
oodplain from Wazirabad to Jaitpur, the bollards could not be found in many areas.
“The demarcation has been done from Wazirabad to Okhla, but has not been completed from Okhla to Jaitpur. Most of the oodplain in Jaitpur does not belong to the DDA, so to complete the process, we will have to do a joint exercise with the Delhi government,” a DDA ocer said.
At Batla House, too, the demarcation could not be found except for one bollard. DDA-appointed guards at the site said they had not seen any more bollards. “The physical demarcation has not been completed here due to pending court cases,” another DDA ocial said.
Potential issues remain unaddressed even in the stretches which are demarcated, multiple ocial sources told The Hindu.
The minutes of a meeting of the Principal Committee – a panel appointed by the NGT to monitor the implementation of its 2015 judgment – on January 14, 2022 show that issues were raised about the demarcation already done by the DDA. “It was pointed out to the DDA that the bollards xed by them at some areas excluded a large part of the
16. Security
Indian Coast Guard apprehends an Indian fishing boat with unauthorised cash, reportedly involved in diesel smuggling, off Maharashtra coast
The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has apprehended an Indian fishing boat carrying unauthorised cash, reported to be involved in the smuggling of diesel, 83 nm northwest off Mumbai. Based on a tip off from Customs, the ICG Regional Headquarters (West) launched an operation, involving a sustained search during challenging night conditions amidst considerable fishing and merchant traffic covering an area of 200 square miles including offshore development areas off the Maharashtra coast.
In a coordinated operation comprising a search by two ICG Fast Patrol Vessels and one Interceptor Boat, the suspected boat was located and boarded on the night of April 15, 2024. Preliminary investigation revealed that the boat, with five crew, departed Mandwa port on April 14, 2024, to effect rendezvous with suspected Indian Offshore Supply Vessels (OSV) with an intent to smuggle diesel. It was found out that the boat was operating with modified holds to store fuel up to 20,000 litres and operating with false/multiple identities. Correlation with available data on the suspect boat indicated multiple discrepancies in vessel registration. The operation also revealed a carriage of Rs 11.46 lakh which was meant to be given to some Indian OSV operating from offshore areas in return of smuggled diesel.
The vessel was brought to the Mumbai anchorage in the early hours of April 17, 2024. A joint investigation with Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Customs, and State Police is being carried out to trace the linkages and further legal actions by respective agencies.
17. Disaster Management
Spatial distribution, timing of monsoon rains hold the key’
The India Meteorological Department has predicted an above-normal monsoon for this year, which is the first such forecast in eight years. This forecast is seen as positive for the economy’s growth and inflation outlook. However, there are concerns about below-par rainfall in parts of eastern, northeastern, and northwestern India, which could pose risks.
In 2023, the east and northeast regions received below-average rainfall, leading to concerns for states in these areas that are key producers of crops like rice, sugarcane, and maize. If this year’s prediction of below-normal rainfall in these regions comes true, it could result in another year of rainfall distress for these states.
The forecast of a healthy monsoon amidst extreme heatwave conditions brings hope for the farm sector and could help control high food inflation. However, the spatial distribution of rainfall will be crucial, as some regions are expected to receive below-normal rainfall. Replenishing water reservoir levels through a good monsoon is essential for supporting the rabi crop.
The distribution of rainfall will be closely monitored this year, as uneven distribution in the past, along with other weather disturbances, has negatively impacted agriculture output, incomes, and food inflation. The spike in food inflation in FY24, along with a sharp drop in farm sector gross value added, highlights the importance of a well-distributed and adequate monsoon for the agricultural sector.
The timing of the monsoon is critical for sowing decisions, as a delay or inadequate rainfall could affect crops and areas dependent on rain. The months of July and August are crucial for the kharif crop, with about 43% of the total cropped area dependent on rainfall during this period. Adequate rainfall during these critical months is necessary for a successful agricultural season.