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Today's Headlines - 04 August 2023
Report on ‘sub-categorisation’ of OBCs
GS Paper - 2 (Polity)

The long awaited report of a commission set up to examine the sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) was submitted to President Droupadi Murmu. The four-member commission headed by Justice G Rohini, a retired Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, was appointed on 2 October 2017, and received as many as 13 extensions to its tenure.

Why was this Commission set up?

The commission was set up in recognition of the perceived distortions in the affirmative action policy, which was seen as leading to a situation in which a few castes cornered the bulk of benefits available under the 27% quota for OBCs, and tasked with suggesting corrective actions.
The report of the commission is widely expected to be politically sensitive and the contents of the report have not been made public as yet.

What is the need for sub-categorisation of OBCs?

OBCs get 27% reservation in central government jobs and admission to educational institutions.
There are more than 2,600 entries in the Central List of OBCs, but over the years, a perception has taken root that only a few affluent communities among them have benefited from the quota.
Therefore, there is an argument that a “sub-categorisation” of OBCs — quotas within the 27% quota — is needed in order to ensure “equitable distribution” of the benefits of reservation.
Even as the Justice Rohini Commission was examining the matter, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in August 2020 intervened in the sub-categorisation debate, ruling that the 2005 decision of another five-judge Bench in ‘E V Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh’ must be revisited.
‘Chinnaiah’ had held that no special sub-quota can be introduced within the quota for SCs and STs for the benefit of castes or tribes that were more backward than the others on these lists.
The 2020 verdict of the SC referring ‘Chinnaiah’ to a larger Bench was passed in ‘State of Punjab vs Davinder Singh’ in which the court examined the validity of a 2006 Punjab law that created sub-classification within the SCs, and sought to reserve half the SC quota for certain identified castes.

The commission’s brief was originally to:

Examine the extent of inequitable distribution of benefits of reservation among the castes or communities included in the broad category of OBCs with reference to such classes included in the Central List.
Work out the mechanism, criteria, norms and parameters in a scientific approach for sub-categorisation within such OBCs.
Take up the exercise of identifying the respective castes or communities or sub-castes or synonyms in the Central List of OBCs and classifying them into their respective sub-categories.
It was set up with tenure of 12 weeks ending 3 January 2018, but was given repeated extensions.
On 30 July 2019, the commission wrote to the government that it had “noted several ambiguities in the list… [and] is of the opinion that these have to be clarified/ rectified before the sub-categorised central list is prepared”.
Thus, on 22 January 2020, a fourth item was added to the terms of reference: “To study the various entries in the Central List of OBCs and recommend correction of any repetitions, ambiguities, inconsistencies and errors of spelling or transcription.”

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Today's Headlines - 24 August 2023
Poor nations forced to rely on fossil fuels
GS Paper - 3 (Energy)

Poor countries with heavy debts have been forced to continue to rely on fossil fuels for generating revenue to return the loans taken from richer countries and private lenders to meet various economic exigencies like the pandemic three years ago, a new report said. These countries, mostly in the global south, may find it impossible to phase out fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy as revenues from fossil fuel projects “are often overinflated and require huge investments to reach expected returns, leading to further debt”.

What is the “debt-fossil fuel trap”?

The report, ‘The Debt-Fossil Fuel Trap’, published on 21 August 2023 by the anti-debt campaigners Debt Justice and partners in affected countries.
The global south — a term used for developing, less developing and underdeveloped countries, located in Africa, Latin America, and Asia — countries are increasingly being burdened by enormous debts in recent years.
Their “external debt payments (money borrowed from richer countries, or multilateral creditors like the World Bank and IMF, or private lenders such as banks) has gone up by 150% between 2011 and 2023, reaching their highest levels in 25 years”, said the report.
Moreover, 54 countries are in a debt crisis — they had to cut their public sending budgets during the pandemic to repay the loans, the analysis found.
The situation is worsened by extreme weather events, which force these countries to borrow more money as they lack adequate finances and resources for adaptation, mitigation and tackling loss and damage.
For instance, Dominica’s debt as a percentage of GDP rose from 68% to 78% after Hurricane Maria hit the island in 2017.
To deal with the mounting debts, these countries have turned to extracting more fossil fuels.
The country’s strategy to reduce debt may end up adding to debt levels without generating adequate revenue to repay, which could force Argentia to further expand its fossil fuel projects, the report added. This is known as the “debt-fossil fuel trap”.
Ending the high debt burdens

The report has laid out a few recommendations to help global south countries exit the “debt-fossil fuel trap”.
It said clean energy, wealthy governments and institutions must implement “ambitious debt cancellation for all countries that need it, across all creditors, free from economic conditions.
They should also stop accepting repayments made through fossil fuel projects’ revenue.
Meanwhile, “Bilateral and multilateral finance should be aligned with a 1.5 degree warming scenario and fair shares calculations, and not be used to finance fossil fuels.

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