UPPSC 2022 (Mains General Studies Paper-2)

Ans. UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-Age Governance) is one of the key initiatives under the Digital India program to develop a common, unified platform and mobile app to facilitate a single point of access to all government services. It is envisaged to act as a master application, which will integrate major government services from various sectors such Agriculture, Education, Health, Housing among others. The application will enable users to access e-Government services from the central Government, the State Governments, local bodies and their agencies.

UMANG is conceptualised to bring governance on the finger tips of individuals through ‘mobile first’ strategy. This multi-lingual app is developed and operated by National e-Governance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to fast-track Mobile Governance in India. Its primary aim is to abridge inconvenience faced by users in managing multiple mobile apps and facilitate a one-stop-solution to avail varied government services. Thus, downloading one mobile app will aid convergence of various efforts, carried out separately, to reach out to the individuals via mobile phones.

Ans. There are multiple causes of poverty that can easily be categorised under cultural and conflict causes. We will be briefly discussing a few reasons for poverty along with factors that contribute to poverty.

1. Lack of Access to Clean Water

2. Scarcity of Food

3. No Source of Income and Jobs

4. Substandard and Unequal Education Opportunities

The following measures can go a long way to reduce the inequalities of income. They are:

1. More Employment Opportunities

2. Minimum Needs Programme

The various social security schemes Workmen’s Compensation Act, Maternity Benefit Act, Provident Fund Act, Employ, State Insurance Act and other benefits in case of death, disability or disease while duty can make a frontal attack on poverty.

Ans. Civil society organisations function outside the conventional space of both State and Market, but they have the potential to negotiate, persuade and pressurise both these institutions to make them more responsive to the needs and rights of the citizens. Voluntary Organisations can offer:

> alternative perspectives

> committed expertise

>  an understanding of the local opportunities and constraints

> capacity to conduct a meaningful dialogue with communities, particularly those that are disadvantaged.

It is therefore essential that the Government and the Voluntary Sector work together.

The voluntary sector has contributed significantly to finding innovative solutions to poverty, deprivation, discrimination and exclusion, through means such as awareness raising, social mobilization, service delivery, training, research, and advocacy. The voluntary sector has been serving as an effective non-political link between the people and the Government.

Ans. The article prohibits the deprivation of rights according to procedures established by law. Article 21 is the heart of the Indian Constitution. It is the most organic and progressive provision in our Indian Constitution. Fundamental rights are protected under the charter of rights in the Constitution of India. Article 21 talks about equality before the law, freedom of speech and expression, religious and cultural freedom, etc. Article 21 is valid for every citizen of India. It is also valid for foreign citizens. Article 21 has two types of rights:

1. Right to life

2. Right to personal liberty

As a citizen of India, we have all the fundamental rights which are established by law. So we can enforce it through the Supreme Court whenever our fundamental rights get violated.

Ans. The Chief Minister is

1. Head of the government (administration) in the state.

2. The chief minister is the leader of the house (legislative assembly).

3. The chief minister is the leader of the ruling party/alliance in the state.

> The Governor of a state in India is

1. Constitutional head of the government in the state as all orders of the government are issued in his name.

2. The Governor acts as the eyes and ears of the union government and sends report to the centre in case of breakdown of the constitutional machinery in the state.

3. The Governor acts as the head of the government if President Rule is imposed.

Governer post is nominated by the ruling party. He Will act as a central government agent. Our constitution have given certain power to the governer. Accordingly he can advice the chief minister. But he don’t have any rights to take indipentant decisions.

Ans. The Finance Commission plays a crucial role in maintaining the financial relations of the Centre with the State. It signifies that the President is responsible to make recommendations every five years regarding the allocation and distribution of taxes between State and Centre.

It further signifies that the commission should suggest specific principles on the revenues being granted to the State out of integrated funds. Financial emergency ascertains the power to the Central government over the State government to observe specific standards of financial propriety.

It also directs the government to minimise the allowance and the salaries of judges and employees which aids in maintaining a healthy financial relationship uniting the State and Centre.

The central government has effective control over State government which can further be exercised by informal means.

Control over the expenditure and income implies that the Central government might be competent to determine which taxes the State government has access to as well as to determine the forms of diplomatic transfers.

Ans. The Lok Adalat is a platform where the cases (or disputes) which are pending before a court or which are at the pre-litigation stage (not yet brought before a court) are compromised or settled in an agreeable manner. Lok Adalats have acted as a great catalyst for change in Indian legal system.

> To hear and settle long pending cases, which are disposed through compromise and settlement. It can hear both civil and criminal cases.

> There is no court fee and if court fee is already paid the amount will be refunded if the dispute is settled at Lok Adalat.

> The system of Lok Adalat, which is an innovative mechanism for alternate dispute resolution, has proved effective for resolving disputes in a spirit of conciliation outside the courts.

> The aim of Lok Adalats is to bring justice to poor and underprivileged people of India. It ensures that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities.

Ans. Energy security of a country plays an important role in its economic prosperity including development of industries as well as household growth. In order to sustain continuous supply of energy source in form of petroleum products, India has a very deep and close relationship with western Asian countries. India’s energy cooperation with West Asia

India understands the importance of energy security during the crisis. Middle east being a cradle of conflicts it is likely to have reduction in petroleum supplies during tense times.

India has been attracting Gulf countries to invest in sectors such as petroleum refinery. Saudi Arabia has indeed decided to set up a refinery in India, which will be the largest in the world.

In order to reduce time for transportation for petroleum gas, India has signed an agreement with Turkmenistan for constructing a pipeline between Turkmenistan and India. This pipeline will provide piped gas connection to domestic as well as industrial consumers.

A sizeable portion of the Ukrainian population adheres to the ideology that the country should be part of the greater European Union. However, a considerable portion leans toward a pro-Russian stance, believing that they are better off strengthening their ties with Russia.

In a nutshell, the reason behind the Russia-Ukraine conflict is an internal sociopolitical crisis. This is evident from the backlashes and unrest that emerged when then Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych rejected an E.U. agreement to build stronger alignment with Russia.

Russia seems to take advantage of the situation. Some analysts have alleged that the Russian government under the leadership of Vladimir Putin is pushing an ideology that considers Ukraine as part of greater Russia or the one-Russia worldview.

The Russian government has also accused the European Union and the United States of pushing their political agenda toward Ukraine. Thus, it sees the country as a mere victim of the domineering and ever-encroaching hostility of the West.

Ans. Nepal is an important neighbour of India and occupies a special significance in its foreign policy because of the geographic, historical, cultural and economic linkages/ties that span centuries.

> One of the main challenges in the Indo-Nepal ties is the Kalapani boundary issue. These boundaries had been fixed in 1816 by the British, and India inherited the areas over which the British had exercised territorial control in 1947.

> The 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship was sought by the Nepali authorities in 1949 to continue the special links they had with British India and to provide them an open border and the right to work in India.

> Overtime trust deficit has widened between India-Nepal because of the Indian reputation for delaying implementation of various projects.

> In recent years, Nepal has drifted away from India’s influence, and China has gradually filled the space with investments, aid and loans.

India should stop looking at Nepal purely through a security prism, and at bilateral relations only as transactional and part of a zero-sum game with China.

Ans. Challenges in SHG’s

> Lack of knowledge and proper orientation among SHG-members to take up suitable and profitable livelihood options.

> Patriarchal mindset- primitive thinking and social obligations discourages

women from participating in SHGs thus limiting their economic avenues.

> Lack of rural banking facilities – There are about 1.2 lakh bank branches and over 6 lakh villages. Moreover, many public sector banks and microfinance institutions are unwilling to provide financial services to the poor as the cost of servicing remains high.

> Sustainability and the quality of operations of the SHGs have been a matter of considerable debate

> No Security – The SHGs work on mutual trust and confidence of the members. The deposits of the SHGs are not secured or safe

> Only a minority of the Self-Help Groups are able to raise themselves from a level of micro-finance to that of micro-entrepreneurship.

> Measures to Make SHGs Effective

> The Government should play the role of a facilitator and promoter, create a supportive environment for the growth and development of the SHG movement.

> Expanding SHG Movement to Credit Deficient Areas of the Country – such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, States of the North-East.

> Rapid expansion of financial infrastructure (including that of NABARD) and by adopting extensive IT enabled communication and capacity building measures in these States.

Ans. The Uttar Pradesh State Government recently launched a pilot programme called Mission Shakti Yojana fro the women of Uttar Pradesh State. Recent incidents against the women in society have led to the launch of Mission Shakti Yojana. Under this scheme, UP aims to protect and ensure the security of women in the state. Moreover, the government raise awareness in public by conducting different events from the grama panchayat level to the women at the industrial level, from schools to government institutions etc.

Mission Shakti is not only guaranteeing respect and safety to every woman of the state but is also making the women of Uttar Pradesh self-reliant and independent.

With the help of this campaign, women are getting all the possible benefits of different golden schemes of the Yogi Government.

Mission Shakti has boosted the morale of women and now women are working without fear till late night.

Schemes launched by the Yogi Government benefitting the women and poor of the state are reaching every village and house through Mission Shakti.

Ans. Planning Commission was replaced by a new institution – NITI (National Institute Of Transforming India) Aayog on January 1, 2015.

> To foster cooperative federalism through structured support initiatives and mechanisms with the States on a continuous basis, recognizing that strong States make a strong nation.

> To develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans at the village level and aggregate these progressively at higher levels of government.

> To pay special attention to the sections of our society that may be at risk of not benefitting adequately from economic progress.

> Chairperson: Prime Minister

> Vice-Chairperson: To be appointed by Prime-Minister

> Governing Council: Chief Ministers of all states and Lt. Governors of Union Territories.

> Regional Council: To address specific regional issues, Comprising Chief Ministers and Lt. Governors Chaired by Prime Minister or his nominee.

> Adhoc Membership: 2 member in ex-officio capacity from leading Research institutions on rotational basis.

> Chief Executive Officer: Appointed by Prime-minister for a fixed tenure, in rank of Secretary to Government of India.

> A committee chaired by Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog recommended scrapping of the Medical Council of India.

> Indices Measuring States’ Performance in Health, Education and Water Management have been prepared by the NITI Aayog.

> It drafted various model laws, which could be adopted by the states to improve governance in the country e.g. Model Land Leasing Law etc.

> NITI Aayog has played a significant role in strengthening the Ayushman Bharat Scheme.

Ans. Role of Parliamentary committee in working of Parliament

> Parliament scrutinizes legislative proposals (Bills) in two ways. The first is by discussing it on the floor of the two Houses.

> This is a legislative requirement; all Bills have to be taken up for debate.

> The time spent debating the bills can vary. They can be passed in a matter of minutes, or debate and voting on them can run late into the night.

> Since Parliament meets for 70 to 80 days in a year, there is not enough time to discuss every Bill in detail on the floor of the House.

The committee examines the estimates included in the budget. The committee function to report on the efficiency of the policy underlying the estimates the President. The other functions of the committee may be identified as

(i) Examining the appropriation account and the finance accounts of the Union Government and any other accounts laid before the Lok Sabha.

(ii) Scrutinizes the appropriation accounts and the audit report of CAG or satisfying itself that the (i) money disbursed was legally available for the applied service or purpose; (ii) expenditure conforms to the authority that governs it; (iii) reappropriation has been made in accordance with the related rules.

Ans. The first step towards the election of a President is the nomination of the candidates, which takes place in the following manner:

> The candidate must be subscribed by at least 50 electors as proposers and 50 electors as seconders;

> The candidates have to make a security deposit of Rs 15000 in the RBI, which is forfeited in case the candidate fails to secure 1/6th of the votes cast.

India follows the system of Proportional Representation by means of Single Transferable Vote Method/System in the election of the President. Proportional representation is characterized by the fact that an electorate is directly proportional to the elected body. Thus, if a certain number supports

a particular party, then the party will receive the same number of votes. The procedure in allocating the number of votes is as follows:

> Depending on the size of the state represented, the MLA of a state is given a certain number of votes. The number of authorised votes is arrived at by the following method:

The total population of the state, based on the 1971 population census, is divided by the number of elected members of LA, and then further divided by 1000. In case the number arrived at is higher than 500, then each member is allocated an extra vote.

> The elected members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha are allocated votes in the following manner:

The total value of votes of all the States, based on the 1971 population census, is divided by the total number of elected members of Parliament.

Ans. A NITI Aayog paper says that the country has at least one election each year, actually, each state has an election every year, too. In that paper, NITI Aayog argued that multiple elections incurs many direct and indirect disadvantages

> Incalculable Economic Costs of Elections: Directly budgeted costs are around Rs 300 crore for a state the size of Bihar. However, there are other financial costs, and incalculable economic costs.

– Each election means government machinery misses out on their regular duties due to election duty and related work.

– These costs of the millions of man-hours used are not charged to the election budget.

> Policy Paralysis: The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) also affects the government’s functionary, as no new significant policy can be announced and executed after the elections are announced.

> Administrative Costs: There are also huge and visible costs of deploying security forces and transporting them, repeatedly.

– A bigger invisible cost is paid by the nation in terms of diverting these forces from sensitive areas and in terms of the fatigue and illnesses that repeated cross-country deployments bring about.

Ans. ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF BASIC STRUCTURE DOCTRINE

Question of amenability of FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS under Art 368; challenged first CAA (Fundamental Right to Property) 1951.

> Parliament can abridge or take away any of the FR by enacting a constitutional amendment act and such a law will not be void under 13 (‘law’ in Art. 13 includes only ordinary laws and not constituent laws)

> SC ruled that the FR as ‘transcendental and immutable’ position

> Hence, the Parliament cannot abridge or take away any of fundamental rights.

> Overruled its judgement in the Golak Nath case (1967).

> Stated that Parliament is empowered to abridge or take away any of the FR.

> Laid down a new doctrine of the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution.

> Ruled that the constituent power of Parliament under Art. 368 does not enable it to alter the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution.

> It has set specific limits to the Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution.

> It allows the Parliament to amend any and all parts of the Constitution subject to basic structure.

> It places the Judiciary as the final authority in deciding if an amendment violates basic structure and what constitutes the basic structure.

> Invalidated provisions of 42nd CAA as it excluded judicial review (basic feature)

> Limited amendment power of parliament is part of basic structure.

> PARLIAMENT cannot expand its amending power under article 368 into unlimited.

Ans. Problems of Administrative system of Uttar Pradesh

The bureaucrats are not dedicated and do not wholeheartedly work for the state organisation. Mentality is to draw salary. Here lies the miserable condition of public sector undertakings. It has been suggested that a public sector should be managed in a business-like way. In actual situation this does not happen. It is generally believed that since a public sector organisation is not managed in a business-like way its objectives are not fulfilled.

> The minority finance development corporation and backward classes finance development corporation will be integrated into the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes finance and development corporation.

> Other recommended reforms include restructuring the existing headquarters offices and directorates under the finance department, with adjustments in the number of district level posts in the treasury and other offices.

> Similarly, the directorate of savings has been asked to integrate with the treasury directorate, while the directorate of budget and directorate of physical planning and resources will merge, with a re-determining of tasks and responsibilities.

> The financial statistical directorate has recommended a reorganising of posts in the treasury directorate and the local fund audit directorate and the chief audit officer cooperative societies via a merger.

> Also, since the personnel department is the nodal department for training of personnel in the state, there is a proposal to end the training works being carried out by the planning department and to bring that task under the control of the personnel department.

Ans. Areas of cooperation between the two countries

> Defence relationship between the US and India had enhanced following the signing of New Framework for India-US Defense Relations as it had led to the increase of defence trade, joint military exercises, cooperation in the maritime security aspects etc.

> India had participated in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise between July and August 2016.

> Both countries had signed the following strategic agreements :

> Information Exchange Annexe (IEA) on Aircraft Carrier Technologies

> Fuel Exchange Agreement

> The India-Russia defence relationship has also been a challenge in the Indo-US relationship.

> The CAATSA law has been part of the discussion for a long time on India’s purchase of the S-400 Triumf missile defence system from Russia. However, there is a clear recognition in the US that any move to sanction India would take the relationship back by decades.

> Although the US had warned about the “consequences to countries that actively trying to bypass or backfill the sanctions,” India and Russia are searching for ways of conducting bilateral trade by circumventing the dollar-based financial system.

India is emerging as a leading player in an international system that is experiencing a remarkable transformation. It shall utilize its current situation to explore opportunities to promote its vital interests.

Ans. The World Bank’s extensive lending program of around 100 operations and wide-ranging analytic work, together with International Financial Corporation (IFC)’s lending and advisory programs, underpin efforts to support growth that is resource efficient and generates jobs and returns for India’s people. The WBG has achieved results in supporting renewable power generation, climate-resilient agriculture in several states, public-private partnerships for infrastructure, increasing access to finance to underserved segments, and programs harnessing civil society for HIV/AIDS prevention. WBG financing supported India’s achievement of numerous results over the past five years, highlights of which include:

> Electricity Connectivity: Installation of over 5,000 kilometers of transmission lines, including contributing to interconnecting the country’s Southern Grid with its National Grid, thereby supporting India in achieving its goal of “One Nation-One Grid-One Frequency” as well as cross-border transmission of 500 MW among India, Nepal, and Bangladesh;

> Renewable Power Generation: Supported Madhya Pradesh’s government to set up the largest single-site solar power project in India, attracting private investments of about US$750 million, where the rigorous structuring of the project risk-sharing mechanism led to intensely competitive bidding that resulted in the lowest ever solar tariff bid-some 33 percent lower than lowest preceding bid-in India in 2017;

The WBG will build on its broad engagement and results achieved during the past five years to support India as it seeks to accelerate its already strong poverty reduction trends.

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