INTEGRATED MAINS AND PRELIMS MENTORSHIP (IMPM) 2025 Daily KEY
| Exclusive for Subscribers Daily: Indian Judiciary for the UPSC Exam? Why are topics like Climate Financing and Unemployment important for both preliminary and main exams? Discover more insights in the UPSC Exam Notes for January 08, 2025 |
🚨 UPSC EXAM NOTES presents the January edition of our comprehensive monthly guide. Access it to enhance your preparation. We value your input - share your thoughts and recommendations in the comments section or via email at Support@upscexamnotes.com 🚨
Critical Topics and Their Significance for the UPSC CSE Examination on January 08, 2025
Daily Insights and Initiatives for UPSC Exam Notes: Comprehensive explanations and high-quality material provided regularly for students
-
In the past, the Supreme Court has imposed strict boundaries on when it can reassess decisions made by High Courts regarding judicial appointments or direct them to reconsider their choices. On Friday, however, Justices Hrishikesh Roy and P K Mishra determined that the current matter warranted review.
-
The collegium system, responsible for the appointment and transfer of Supreme Court and High Court judges, was established by a nine-judge Bench in the 1993 case Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association vs Union of India, also referred to as the Second Judges Case.
-
This ruling made the recommendations of the Supreme Court collegium mandatory for the government, thereby granting the judiciary the authority to appoint and transfer judges in the higher courts. Under this system, judges select other judges, and while the government can delay appointments, it does not have the power to outright reject the collegium’s nominees.
-
In 1998, the Supreme Court responded to a set of queries from then-President K R Narayanan by further clarifying the working of the collegium system, a decision known as the Third Judges Case.
-
The Court ruled that the collegium for High Court appointments would consist of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and the two most senior judges of the Supreme Court. This collegium must consult the Chief Justice and senior judges of the concerned High Court, the most senior Supreme Court judge from that High Court, and any other Supreme Court judges familiar with the functioning of that court.
-
The court also outlined specific, limited grounds on which a recommendation could be contested. One reason would be the absence of “effective consultation” with the necessary individuals or bodies. Another would be if the proposed candidate lacked the necessary qualifications to become a judge, as defined by Articles 217 (for the High Court) and 124 (for the Supreme Court) of the Constitution.
-
In December 2022, the High Court collegium, consisting of the Chief Justice and the two senior-most judges, recommended district judges Chirag Bhanu Singh and Arvind Malhotra for elevation to the High Court. On January 4, 2024, the Supreme Court collegium returned this recommendation to the High Court’s Chief Justice for reconsideration.
-
However, on April 23, the High Court collegium nominated two other judicial officers for promotion to the High Court, prompting Singh and Malhotra to petition the Supreme Court, claiming that the High Court collegium had overlooked their seniority.
-
In both the Second and Third Judges cases, the Supreme Court emphasized the significance of considering judges’ seniority when making recommendations for appointments.
-
Following the guidance from the Third Judges Case, the central government and the Supreme Court formulated a Memorandum of Procedure (MOP) in 1998, outlining the process for appointing High Court judges from the initial stages.
-
As part of this procedure, the Chief Justice of the High Court must consult the two most senior judges of the High Court, forming the High Court collegium. This body sends its recommendations, along with reasons, to the Chief Minister, Governor, and CJI.
-
The Governor, based on the Chief Minister’s advice, forwards the proposal to the Union Law Minister, who conducts a background check before submitting all the relevant documents to the CJI, who reviews them with the Supreme Court collegium
|
Answer (C)
This statement is correct. According to Article 128 of the Indian Constitution, the Chief Justice of India can request a retired judge of the Supreme Court to act as a judge of the Supreme Court with the previous consent of the President. This provision allows for flexibility in managing the court's workload and utilizing the expertise of retired judges when needed.
This statement is also correct. Both the Supreme Court and High Courts in India have the power to review their own judgments. This power is derived from Article 137 for the Supreme Court and Article 226 for High Courts, along with various precedents set by the courts themselves. The power of review allows courts to correct errors in their judgments, preventing miscarriage of justice. Given that both statements are correct, the answer is: C. Both 1 and 2 |
On climate finance to developing nations
For Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance
For Mains Examination: GS III - Environment & Ecology
Context:
The 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) of the UNFCC to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 22 is expected to be a “finance COP” as key climate finance issues feature at the top of its agenda.
Read about:
What is Climate Financing?
Are Developing Countries at Risk?
Key takeaways:
- The upcoming 29th UNFCCC Conference (COP29), scheduled for November 11-22 in Baku, Azerbaijan, will primarily focus on financial aspects of climate action, making it a key summit for discussing monetary support for climate initiatives.
- The impact of climate change disproportionately affects developing nations, primarily due to their geographic locations and their economic dependence on climate-sensitive sectors like farming.
- These nations face a paradoxical situation - while they've historically contributed minimal greenhouse gas emissions (developed nations account for 57% of emissions since 1850 despite smaller populations), they face the greatest climate challenges.
- This reality led to the Copenhagen Accord's commitment in 2009, where developed nations promised annual climate funding of $100 billion to developing countries through 2025. At COP29, participants will discuss new funding targets for subsequent years.
- Climate finance encompasses any funding - whether local, international, public, or private - directed toward reducing emissions or adapting to climate impacts.
- While the OECD monitors and reports on climate funding flows between developed and developing nations, their methodology faces criticism. Critics argue that the reports should focus on actual money transferred rather than promises, ensure funding is truly additional rather than relabeled existing aid, and emphasize grants over commercial loans. Currently, loans make up about 69.4% of climate finance, with grants comprising 28%.
- The necessity for external climate funding in developing nations is clear. Consider that 675 million people in developing regions lacked electricity access in 2021.
- These nations also struggle with limited domestic financial resources and higher capital costs - for instance, financing solar projects typically costs twice as much in developing versus developed economies.
- Looking at India specifically, the country has established ambitious climate goals for 2030, including 500 GW of non-fossil fuel power generation, 5 million metric tonnes of annual green hydrogen production, and widespread electric vehicle adoption.
- Meeting these objectives requires substantial investment - approximately ₹16.8 lakh crore for renewable energy targets alone. The green hydrogen initiative needs ₹8 lakh crore, while electric vehicle transitions may require consumer spending of around ₹16 lakh crore. Long-term projections suggest India needs ₹850 lakh crore in investments to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.
- Regarding the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), experts emphasize it should track actual disbursements rather than pledges, ensure funding is additional to existing aid, prioritize direct public grants, and include private investments motivated by public funding initiatives. According to expert analysis, developing nations (excluding China) will require approximately $1 trillion in external funding annually by 2030
Follow Up Question
B. 2 only
C. 2 and 3 only
D. 1, 2 and 3
|
Answer (B)
Statement 1: "The Agreement was signed by all the member countries of the UN and it will go into effect in 2017."
Statement 2: "The Agreement aims to limit greenhouse gas emissions so that the rise in average global temperature by the end of this century does not exceed 2°C or even 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels."
Statement 3: "Developed countries acknowledged their historical responsibility for global warming and committed to donate $1000 billion a year from 2020"
Therefore, only Statement 2 is correct. The correct answer is B (2 only). |
Were 8 crore new jobs created in three years?
For Preliminary Examination: Unemployment, Types of Unemployment
For Mains Examination: GS III - Indian Economy
Context:
Prime Minister Modi, based on the India-KLEMS database, claimed that India created “eight crore new jobs in the last three to four years”. However, analysts are questioning the methodology used to estimate these numbers. They argue that little meaningful employment was created in these years
Read about:
What is Unemployment?
Types of Unemployment
Key takeaways:
- India-KLEMS utilizes employment data from the PLFS, but instead of using the absolute number of workers, it relies on the Worker Population Ratio (WPR), which the PLFS provides as the proportion of workers in the population.
- To calculate the total number of workers, the WPR is multiplied by the total population. The challenge arises here because India does not have an official population figure after 2011.
- Demographers typically estimate population figures for years between censuses by interpolating data from the most recent Census. However, India-KLEMS took a different approach by using population estimates from the Economic Survey (ES) 2021-22 for the years 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20.
- The ES projected population by assuming that the growth rates from 2001 to 2011 remained constant after 2011. These population projections were then multiplied by the WPR to estimate the number of workers for those years.
- For the years 2020-21 to 2023-24, India-KLEMS switched to a different source and method, using population projections from 2011-2036 published by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) in 2020.
- These projections were based on 2011 Census data and were adjusted annually using demographic models that included Total Fertility Rates (TFR) and mortality rates reported in the 2017 Sample Registration System (SRS).
- The question arises as to why India-KLEMS did not consistently use the MoHFW projections for all years after 2017-18. It seems that while the RBI updates the series with new estimates after 2022, it does not revise or update earlier estimates.
- There are two significant concerns here. First, the population projections from both the ES and MoHFW fail to account for the significant decline in fertility rates in India over the past decade.
- The standard replacement TFR is typically 2.1 children per woman, but recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data show that India’s TFR had dropped to 2.0 by 2019-21. Additionally, a 2024 study in The Lancet projected that TFR values in India and Bangladesh would fall below 1.75 by 2027. These declines in TFR were not factored into the population projections by either the ES or MoHFW.
- Second, the population projections from both the ES and MoHFW do not differentiate between rural and urban areas. As a result, India-KLEMS managers used national sex-wise population data, assumed uniform growth rates for rural and urban populations, and derived separate projections for each.
- However, it is well-known that rural populations in India are growing more slowly than urban populations. Assuming the same growth rates for both likely leads to an overestimation of the rural population.
- Due to these two issues, the population figures used to multiply the WPR in India-KLEMS, and the resulting estimates of the number of workers, are likely overestimated
- In the past three to four years, the claim of job creation has come under scrutiny, with analysts raising concerns about the methodology used to estimate these figures. They argue that there was minimal meaningful employment generated during this period.
- Employment, or the lack thereof, has been a hotly debated topic among economists and policymakers in India recently.
- According to this database, the total number of workers in India increased from 56.6 crore in 2020-21 to 64.3 crore in 2023-24, indicating a net increase of 7.8 crore workers. Following this claim, the research team at the State Bank of India (SBI) released a report that appeared to validate these figures, showing a correlation between the number of workers in the India-KLEMS database and the NSSO's Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE), 2022-2023.
- What was surprising about these claims was the reported increase in the number of workers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reported that the employment-to-population ratio between 2019 and 2023 remained stagnant or even declined in regions such as East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. Given these global trends, analysts have expressed significant methodological and empirical doubts about the India-KLEMS database, suggesting that India's employment growth figures may be outliers.
- The India-KLEMS project originated as an academic initiative funded by the RBI in 2009, and since 2022, the RBI has hosted the database. KLEMS stands for Capital (K), Labour (L), Energy (E), Material (M), and Services (S), representing a framework for measuring industry-level "total factor productivity" (TFP), which is seen by mainstream economists as an indicator of the efficiency of all inputs in producing a unit of output.
- It is important to note that the primary purpose of the KLEMS framework is not to generate employment data. Instead, employment figures serve as inputs within the database's modeling framework. Additionally, the RBI does not directly collect data on employment or any other inputs used in the India-KLEMS database. Instead, it sources sectoral data on employment, input usage, and output from official sources such as the Central Statistics Office, Census of India, Annual Survey of Industries, and Periodic Labour Force Surveys (PLFS). It is therefore surprising that data sourced by the RBI from these official channels, intended for TFP estimation, are being portrayed as "RBI jobs data" to make political statements about employment generation in the economy.
- India-KLEMS derives its employment data from the PLFS, but it does not use absolute figures for the number of workers. The PLFS only provides the Worker Population Ratio (WPR), or the proportion of workers in the population. To estimate the number of workers, the WPR is multiplied by the total population. The problem arises because there is no official population figure for India after 2011.
- To estimate population figures for the years between censuses, demographers typically interpolate numbers from the last available Census. However, India-KLEMS took a different approach by using population estimates from the Economic Survey (ES) 2021-22 for the years 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20. The ES assumed that population growth rates from 2001 to 2011 remained constant after 2011, and these projections were then used to estimate the number of workers by multiplying them with the WPR.
|
Answer (B)
Thus, the correct answer is B. 1 and 2 only |
Saudi’s new law aid migrant workers
For Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance
For Mains Examination: GS II & III - International law, Economy
Context:
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest recipients of migrant domestic workers (MDWs), will roll out a new domestic workers law in September. The six GCC states (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain) employ close to 5.5 million migrant domestic workers, and all of them exclude MDWs from labour laws, with only four having passed specific domestic worker laws.
Read about:
Who is an Illegal migrant?
What are some of the features?
Key takeaways:
Who are migrant domestic workers?
Migrant domestic workers are individuals who move from their home country or region to another country or region to work in private households, performing tasks such as cleaning, cooking, childcare, elderly care, and other household duties. These workers often migrate in search of better economic opportunities, higher wages, or improved living conditions.
Here are some key characteristics of migrant domestic workers:
-
Work Environment: They typically work within private homes, making their work less visible and often less regulated compared to other types of employment.
-
Vulnerability: Migrant domestic workers are often vulnerable to exploitation and abuse due to factors such as language barriers, isolation, lack of legal protections, and dependency on their employers for housing and legal status.
-
Legal Status: The legal status of migrant domestic workers varies by country. In some places, they may have formal work permits and legal protections, while in others, they may work without proper documentation, increasing their vulnerability.
-
Gender: The majority of migrant domestic workers are women, reflecting traditional gender roles that associate women with domestic and caregiving tasks.
-
Economic Importance: Migrant domestic workers play a crucial role in the economies of both their home and host countries. Their remittances support their families back home, and their work enables many households in host countries to manage work-life balance, especially in dual-income families.
-
Challenges: They often face challenges such as long working hours, low wages, lack of social protections, and, in some cases, physical or emotional abuse. Legal and social advocacy for the rights and protections of migrant domestic workers is an ongoing issue globally
-
Sponsorship Requirement:
- Under the Kafala system, a migrant worker's legal status is tied to a local sponsor, typically their employer, who is responsible for the worker’s visa and legal residency.
- The sponsor has significant control over the worker, including the ability to decide if the worker can change jobs or leave the country.
-
Control Over Movement:
- Workers often need their sponsor’s permission to leave the country, known as an "exit permit." This can lead to situations where workers are trapped in the country, unable to return home even in cases of abuse or contract disputes.
-
Restrictions on Job Mobility:
- Migrant workers under the Kafala system usually cannot switch jobs without the consent of their sponsor. This lack of mobility makes it difficult for workers to escape exploitative or abusive situations.
-
Vulnerability to Abuse:
- The system can create a power imbalance, leading to exploitation such as withholding of wages, excessive working hours, poor living conditions, and even physical or psychological abuse.
- Many workers are also subjected to passport confiscation, limiting their ability to move freely or leave the country.
-
Recent Reforms:
- In response to international criticism and pressure, some Gulf countries have introduced reforms to the Kafala system. For example, Qatar abolished the exit permit requirement for most workers and allowed greater job mobility. Saudi Arabia introduced labor reforms in 2021 that allow workers to switch jobs without employer consent, under certain conditions.
- Despite these reforms, the Kafala system still exists in various forms, and issues of worker exploitation remain prevalent.
1.Which of the following statements about the Kafala system is/are correct?
- The Kafala system is a legal framework that ties a migrant worker's legal status to a local sponsor, typically their employer, in several Gulf countries.
- Under the Kafala system, workers can freely change jobs or leave the country without the sponsor’s permission.
- Recent reforms in countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia have entirely abolished the Kafala system.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1 and 3 only
(c) 1 only
(d) 2 and 3 only
|
Answer (c)
|
Make in India Initiative: A Comprehensive Overview
Launch and Objective:
- Launched: September 25, 2014, by the Government of India.
- Objective: To transform India into a global manufacturing hub, enhance investment, foster innovation, and generate employment.
Key Sectors Covered: Initially, 25 sectors were identified, such as:
- Automobiles
- Pharmaceuticals
- Textiles and Garments
- Chemicals
- Information Technology and Business Process Management
- Food Processing
- Renewable Energy
- Railways
- Ports and Shipping
- Aviation, etc.
Key Features:
- Ease of Doing Business: Simplifying regulations, fast-tracking approvals, and reducing red tape to improve India's rank in the Ease of Doing Business Index.
- FDI Reforms: Liberalizing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms in various sectors like defense, railways, and construction.
- Skill Development: Focusing on skill enhancement through programs such as the Skill India initiative to create a skilled workforce.
- Infrastructure Development: Strengthening infrastructure with initiatives like industrial corridors and smart cities to support manufacturing.
Achievements:
- Improved Ease of Doing Business: India's ranking improved from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019.
- FDI Inflows: The country witnessed record FDI inflows, making it a top destination for investment.
- Growth in Manufacturing: Several sectors, such as electronics and automotive, saw significant growth due to the initiative.
1.What is/are the recent policy initiative(s)of Government of India to promote the growth of manufacturing sector? (2012)
- Setting up of National Investment and Manufacturing Zones
- Providing the benefit of ‘single window clearance’
- Establishing the Technology Acquisition and Development Fund
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
|
Answer (d)
|
| Subject | Topic | Description |
| History | Modern Indian History | Important Personalities |
| History | Modern Indian History | Independence and Partition |
| History | Modern Indian History | Constitutional Development in India |
| History | Modern Indian History | Peasants, Tribal and other movements |
|
UPSC EXAM NOTES will be conducting both Prelims and Mains exams every Sunday as part of the Integrated Mains and Prelims (IMPM) Program. This program provides a comprehensive approach to UPSC exam preparation, ensuring that candidates are well-prepared for both stages of the exam. Program Highlights:
Duration: The IMPM plan is a one-year program, ensuring continuous and structured preparation over 12 months. With regular testing and consistent study guidance, this program is designed to maximize your chances of success in the UPSC exams |