Digital rupee pilot project, UN published flagship report on Climate change, U-DISE+ report on schools, Electoral Bonds scheme

India, Bangladesh Establish Contact As More Kuki-Chin Refugees Are Expected To Enter Mizoram

• Recently, on November 20, more than 270 members of the Kuki-Chin community from Bangladesh entered Mizoram and crossed over to India fearing an attack from Bangladesh security forces. On November 27, 21 Kuki-Chin members entered Mizoram, taking the total number of refugees to 293.
• The government estimate that 150 more refugees are expected to seek shelter in Mizoram in the next few days.

What is the issue?

• The Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), an ethnic separatist group claiming to speak for the interests of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo communities residing in the region, has an armed wing called the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA), which is engaged in combat with Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) soldiers in the Chittagong Hill Tract.
• Around 2008, the KNF was created in response to the CHT’s demand for a separate state.
• The KNF claims all members of the Bawm, Pungkhua, Lushai, Khumi, Mro, and Khyang ethnic groups belong to a greater Kuki-Chin race.
• In October, Bangladesh launched a special armed operation to seize the KCNF cadre from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, an area known to be home to a number of ethnically distinct communities.
• The KCNF and FAFHS have a similar desire to establish a base for their activities in the strategically significant region at the intersection of Myanmar, Bangladesh, and India.
• A fundamentalist group in Bangladesh named Jama’atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya (JAFHS) had provided financial support to Kuki-Chin National Front fighters.
• The Kuki-Chin fighters, according to Dhaka, had received weapons training but lacked money, which the JAFHS supplied to them.
• Since Bangladesh maintains a zero-tolerance attitude toward terrorism and extremism, the JAFHS has been kept in check and hasn’t developed into a sizable armed organisation.

Kuki-Chin tribe

• The Kuki-Chin people share ethnic ties with the Mizos are spread over hilly areas in Bangladesh, Mizoram, and Myanmar.
• They fled their homes following armed conflicts between the Bangladesh army and an ethnic insurgent group Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA).

What is India’s stand on refugees?

• India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol.
• All undocumented foreign nationals are governed as per the provisions of The Foreigners Act, 1946, The Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and The Citizenship Act, 1955.
• According to the MHA foreign nationals who enter the country without legitimate travel documents are classified as unlawful immigrants.
• Currently, there is no national law on refugees.
• The MHA only publishes Standard Operating Procedures to handle foreign nationals in India who claim themselves to be refugees.
• In some cases, the Center offers relief assistance in the form of a monthly cash dole, a subsidized ration, clothing materials, utensils, grants for cremation and shradh (last rites), as well as infrastructure facilities in camps

Digital rupee pilot project

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the launch of India’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), a sort of official cryptocurrency, for retail users from 1 December 2022. It has repeatedly flagged concerns over money laundering, terror financing, tax evasion, etc. with private crypto currencies like Bit coin, Ether, etc.

Who can use the retail CBDC?

1. The first phase of the pilot project will cover select locations and banks in a closed user group (CUG) comprising participating customers and merchants.
2. Four banks will be involved in the controlled launch of the digital currency, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, and IDFC First Bank.
3. It will initially cover the four cities of Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Bhubaneswar, where customers and merchants will be able to use the digital rupee (e₹-R), or e-rupee.
4. The service will be subsequently extended to the cities of Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna, and Shimla.
5. RBI says four more banks, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank will join the pilot project.
6. The scope of the pilot may be expanded gradually to include more banks, users and locations as needed.

About the retail digital rupee:

1. The retail e-rupee will be an electronic version of cash, and will be primarily meant for retail transactions.
2. It will be potentially available for use by all the private sector, non-financial consumers and businesses and will be able to provide access to safe money for payment and settlement, as it will be the direct liability of the central bank.
3. It is the legal tender issued by a central bank in a digital form. It is the same as a fiat currency and is exchangeable one-to-one with the fiat currency. Only its form is different.

Flashback

1. On November 1, the RBI launched the digital rupee for the wholesale segment to settle secondary market transactions in government securities.
2. Wholesale CBDC is designed for restricted access to select financial institutions. It has the potential to transform the settlement systems for financial transactions undertaken by banks in the government securities (G-Sec) segment, inter-bank market and capital market more efficiently and securely in terms of operational costs, use of collateral and liquidity management.

UN Publishes Flagship Report on Climate Change

A United Nations report called ‘State of Global Water Resources 2021’ – a first of its kind launched on 29 November 2022 has underlined concerns about the effects of climate change on Earth’s already stressed water resources.  The report published by the UN body – the World Meteorological Organization.

What the UN Report said

1. The impacts of climate change are often felt through water – more intense and frequent droughts, more extreme flooding, more erratic seasonal rainfall and accelerated melting of glaciers – with cascading effects on economies, ecosystems and all aspects of our daily lives.
2. India also faced extreme events in 2021, mostly due to heavy rainfall. The report says a total of 762 casualties were reported in India, with Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Uttarakhand states being the most affected states due to extreme weather events.
3. Constrained by growing demands and limited supplies, the current pace of managing water resources has left 3.5 billion with inadequate water access for at least one month per year.
4. The report cites data by UN-Water which said between 2001 and 2018, 74% of all-natural disasters were water-related, a concerning revelation that stresses the need to integrate water into adaptation efforts.
5. The report estimates that about 1.9 billion people live in areas where the cryosphere – glaciers and ice caps, etc are available sources of freshwater. Melting glaciers, tropical cyclones, super typhoons, regional prolonged droughts, and hurricanes are occurring with increased intensity.

U-DISE+ report on schools

The Unified District Information System for Education plus (UDISE+) report is an Education ministry initiative to collate data about school education for 2021–22.About 66 per cent of schools in India lack access to the internet, with states such as Bihar and Mizoram having 92 and 90 per cent schools, respectively.

More about the news:

1. It shows that 80 to 85 percent of schools lack internet access in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Odisha, Telangana, and Tripura.
2. Delhi and Lakshadweep each have 100 percent schools with working computer facilities and 97.4 percent schools with access to the internet.
3. Delhi is also the only Union Territory (UT) to have 100 per cent of its schools with an internet connection. Other UT’s such as Chandigarh (98.7 per cent) and Pondicherry (98.4 per cent) also perform well in this category.
4. Among states Kerala (94.6 per cent) and Gujarat (92 per cent) are the top-performing states. Gujarat is the only state in the country where more government schools(94.2 per cent) have internet access than private schools (89. 6 per cent).
5. The gap between government and private schools also persists. While 59.6 per cent of the private and unaided schools and 53.1 percent of government-aided schools surveyed had internet access, only 24.2 per cent of government schools did so.
6. The report adds that less than 50 per cent of the schools surveyed had functional computers, with accessible functional mobile phones for teaching purposes just at 20 per cent.

Key digital reforms in school education

1. NISHTHA – A National Mission to improve learning outcomes at the elementary level through an Integrated Teacher Training Programme called NISHTHA – National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement was launched.
2. DHRUV – The Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Program (DHRUV) was launched to identify and encourage talented children to enrich their skills and knowledge.
3. Shagun – One of world’s largest Integrated Online Junction for – School Education ‘Shagun’ is an over-arching initiative to improve school education system by creating a junction for all online portals and websites relating to various activities of the Department of School Education and Literacy in the Government of India and all States and Union Territories.
4. Unified District Information System for Education plus (UDISE+) – To ensure quality, credibility and timely availability of information from all the schools in the country, the revamped UDISE+ has been launched.
5. Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) 2.0 – Diksha Portal was launched in 2017 for providing a digital platform to teachers giving them an opportunity to learn and train themselves and connect with the teacher community.
6. Operation Digital Board (ODB) – The aim is to provide by March 2023, two smart classrooms for every Secondary/Senior Secondary schools in 1,01,967 Government and 42,917 aided schools in all States/ UTs and 1704 KVs and NVs making a total of 1,46,588 schools

A tough law to prevent cruelty to animals

The Centre has proposed to overhaul The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, introducing 61 amendments in the law, which includes three years’ imprisonment for committing “gruesome cruelty” including “bestiality” with animals. A draft Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Amendment) Bill, 2022, has been prepared by the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying.

What are the main changes proposed in the law?

1. Essentially, the law is proposed to be made tighter, with more stringent punishments. Several offences have been made cognizable, which means offenders can be arrested without an arrest warrant.
2. The draft Bill has proposed to include “Bestiality” as a crime under the new category of “Gruesome cruelty.”
3. The proposed subsection describes “gruesome cruelty” as any act involving animals which leads to “extreme pain and suffering” and is “likely to leave the animal in life-long disability”.
4. It includes “mutilation or killing of animal by the use of strychnine injection in the heart or any other cruel manner that is known to cause permanent physical damage to the animal or render animal useless or cause any injury which is likely to cause death including bestiality…”.
5. The draft proposes fines from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 “or the cost of the animal…whichever is more or with the imprisonment of one year which may extend up to three years or with both” for the offence of gruesome cruelty.
6. For killing an animal, the draft Bill proposes a maximum punishment of five years in jail.

Electoral Bonds (EBs) Scheme

 The government has shelled out Rs 9.53 crore of taxpayers’ money towards commission and printing costs of the Electoral Bonds (EBs) issued to fund political parties.

About Electoral Bond Scheme:

• Introduced with the Finance Bill, 2017, the Electoral Bond Scheme was notified on January 29, 2018.
• An Electoral Bond is like a promissory note that may be purchased by a person who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India.
• A person being an individual can buy Electoral Bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals.
• The bonds are like banknotes that are payable to the bearer on demand and are interest-free.
• Only the Political Parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1951 and which secured not less than one percent of the votes polled in the last General Election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State, shall be eligible to receive the Electoral Bonds.

Procedure:

• The State Bank of India (SBI) has been authorised to issue and encash Electoral Bonds through its 29 Authorized Branches.
• The bonds are sold by the SBI in denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore.
• One can purchase these bonds only digitally or through cheques.
• The Electoral Bonds can be encashed by an eligible Political Party only through a Bank account with the Authorized Bank.
• The Electoral Bond deposited by an eligible Political Party in its account is credited on the same day.
• Electoral Bonds shall be valid for fifteen calendar days from the date of issue and no payment is being made to any payee Political Party if the Electoral Bond is deposited after expiry of the validity period.

Advantages of Electoral Bonds:

• Ensures Accountability: Donations through Electoral Bonds will only be credited in the party bank account disclosed with the ECI.
  • As encashment of all the donations are through banking channels, every political party shall be obliged to explain how the entire sum of money received has been expended.
• Discouraging Cash: The Purchase will be possible only through a limited number of notified banks and that too through cheque and digital payments. Cash will not be encouraged.
• More Transparency: It helps the political parties to operate in a more transparent manner with the election commission, regulatory authorities and the general public at large.
• Maintains Anonymity: The individuals, groups of individuals, NGOs, religious and other trusts are permitted to donate via electoral bonds without disclosing their details. Therefore, the identity of the donor is being preserved.

Criticism of Electoral Bonds:

• Hindering Right to Know: Voters will not know which individual, company, or organisation has funded which party, and to what extent. Before the introduction of electoral bonds, political parties had to disclose details of all its donors, who have donated more than Rs 20,000.
  • The change infringes the citizen’s ‘Right to Know’ and makes the political class even more unaccountable.
• Unauthorized Donations: In a situation where the contribution received through electoral bonds are not reported, it cannot be ascertained whether the political party has taken any donation in violation of provision under Section 29B of the RPA, 1951 which prohibits the political parties from taking donations from government companies and foreign sources.
• Leading to Crony-Capitalism: It could become a convenient channel for businesses to round-trip their cash parked in tax havens to political parties for a favour or advantage granted in return for something. Anonymous funding might lead to infusion of black money.
• Loopholes: Corporate Entities may not enjoy the benefit of transparency as they might have to disclose the amount donated to the Registrar of Companies; Electoral bonds eliminate the 7.5% cap on company donations which means even loss making companies can make unlimited donations etc.

Supreme Court’s Stance on Electoral Bonds:

• The Supreme Court (SC) agreed that the scheme protects the identity of purchasers of electoral bonds in a cloak of anonymity, but highlighted that such purchases happened only through regular banking channels.
• In 2019, the Supreme Court asked all the political parties to submit details of donations received through electoral bonds to the ECI. It also asked the Finance Ministry to reduce the window of purchasing electoral bonds from 10 days to five days.
• The Election Commission of India (ECI) also told the Supreme Court of India that while it was not against the Electoral Bonds Scheme, it did not approve of anonymous donations made to political parties.

Way Forward:

It can be said that the release of electoral bonds will restrict the generation of black money up to some extent. But the rule that identity of the donors will be kept confidential may make futile the exercise to eliminate black money, as it may just end up making Black money White.

The government may reconsider and modify certain provisions of the Electoral Bonds Scheme to ensure full disclosure and transparency. At the same time, the bonds should ensure that the funds being collected by the political parties are accounted for clean money from the appropriate channels without any obligation of give and take.