Tiger Conservation

Tiger Census in January 2015 : 2226 tigers in 2014
NTCA has approved creation of 3 new tiger reserves in

1. Ratapani in MP
2. Sunabeda in Odisha
3. Guru Ghasidas in Chhattishgarh

also conversion of following NPs into Tiger Reserves

1. Kudremukh NP, Karnataka
2. Rajaji NP, Uttarakhand

Proposals have been invited for

1. Mhadei in Goa
2. Suhelwa in UP
3. Dibang in Arunachal
4. MM hills in Karnataka
5. Srivilliputtur Grizzled Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary/ Meghamalai Wildlife Sanctuary/ Varushanadu Valley in Tamil Nadu

Punishments for violation of tiger reserve rules and hunting or altering the boundaries of tiger reserves have been enhanced.

Montreal Protocol

A protocol on substances that deplete the Ozone layer
by phasing out the following substances

• CFCs
• HCFCs
• HFCs 
• do not pose threat to Ozone layer, as these do not contain Chlorine
• but are GHGs, with a high global arming potential (GWP)
• Montreal protocol does not address, but these figure as one of the 6 GHGs under Kyoto Protocol (rest are 

Assessment

• It is one of the most successful case of international cooperation -> has led to recovery of Ozone layer over Antarctica

http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/india-commits-to-phasing-out-hfcs-115042700975_1.html

India's External Sector in FY2014-15

Export Target : $340 bn
Actual Export : $ 310.5 bn

Actual Import : $447.5 bn

Trade Deficit : $ 137 bn

Reforms undertaken

1. Simplification of labor laws
2. land acquisition

still, exports are not encouraging as

1. global demands are muted
2. volatility in the currency market (value of euro has fallen hurting the exporters)

Share of Europe's in India's export : 18%

IT Act - section 66A

It act was enacted in 2000 to

• provide legal basis to e-commerce transactions
• penalize cyber crimes

amended in 2009 to insert sec 66A which criminalizes the sending of offensive messages through a computer or other communication devices. specific provisions are - 

• messages that are grossly offensive
• false and meant for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will
• meant to deceive or mislead the recipient about the origin of such messages, etc

Penalty provisions include imprisonment up to three years with fine.

It has been grossly misused in case of comments, sharing info or thought over the internet.

1. Case in Mumbai
2. Case in UP

So, a PIL was filed in SC challenging the constitutionality of this provision against the Freedom of Speech and Expression (Art 19(1))

Apr 2015 : SC struck down the provision

References

1. http://www.prsindia.org/theprsblog/?p=3523

Evacuation of Indian Nationals from Conflict-ridden Countries

Operation Rahat

• currently underway jointly by Army, Navy and Air Force to evacuate Indians from Yemen.
• also nationals from other countries including Pakistan have been evacuated
• Pakistan has also evacuated 12 Indians from Mukalla
• thousands in a matter of days.
• Gen. V.K. Singh (Retd.) is stationed in Djibouti  
• 5 ships and 4 planes to evacuate 4000 Indians

What should be the future strategy?

• despite advisories issued in Jan 2015, Indians chose to stay mainly because of
• economic reasons
• passports and wages held by the employer
• So, India must negotiate better working conditions for expatriates (nearly 6 million Indians in west asia).
• Together with SAARC countries, India can also negotiate
• need for an early warning system
• India need to maintain its neutrality in the region unless there is a UN-led intervention

Reference

1. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/yemen-crisis-operation-rahat-rescues-indians/article7074434.ece

Law Commission Recommendations on Electoral Reforms

Law Commission


Recommendations on Electoral Reforms

on Financing Elections

on Anti-defection Law

1. Commission recommends that power to disqualify a member under this law should rest with President (or Governor) instead of speaker/chairman. President (or Governor) should act on the advice of ECI.

on Election Commission

1. The removal procedure of the two ECs should be same as that of CEC (Art 324)
2. the appointment of ECs+CEC should be by a collegium or selection committee consisting of PM,LoP(or leader of largest opposition party) and CJI. Elevation of an EC to CEC on basis of seniority, unless there are compelling reasons, which needed to recorded in writing. 
3. ECI should be provided with a permanent and independent secretariat as in the case of LS and RS to improve the independence of ECI (Art 324)

on Paid News, Political Advertisements etc.

RPA needs to amended

1. should be defined in RPA
2. punishments (as electoral offence) should be prescribed so as to lead to disqualification of offender as candidates
3. disclosure of political advertisement should be mandatory

on Compulsory Voting

Commission does not recommend this because of following reasons

1. being undemocratic
2. illegitimate
3. expensive
4. difficult to implement
5. unable to improve quality political participation and awareness

Financial Inclusion

It is the inclusion of people in the formal (institutional) financial system, so that everyone (especially weaker and marginal sections) to get access to basic financial services (money deposit, credit, insurance, pension, remittance facility etc.)

Different entities are engaged -
Financial intermediaries (act as a bridge between people needing financial services)

1. Banks
2. NBFCs

Schemes/ Programs for Financial Inclusion

PM Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)

Objective : To achieve financial inclusion

Launched on : 28th Aug, 2014

Salient Features

• at least one one basic banking account for every household
• Financial Literacy
• access to credit and insurance
• account holder will get
• a RuPay debit card having in-built accident cover of 1 lakh.
• life insurance cover of 30000 to those opening account before Jan 26, 2015

Issues/ Observations

• As on 28th jan, 67.5% accounts were with zero balance
• As on 28th jan, 12.31 cr bank accounts had been opened
• Guinness world record for opening most bank accounts in the week starting 23rd aug.
• Jaitley in March : next phase of JDY will focus on mobilizing savings in order to check the declining savings rate. This will be done by progressive use of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), increasing financial literacy and creating universal social security cover for all citizens, especially the poor, under-privileged and workers in unorganized sector

ATMs

• Help in Financial inclusion 
• Bank ATMs
• Brown Label ATMs
• White Label ATMs

Banking Correspondence Agents/ Bank Saathi

Nachiket Mor Committee

This committee was set up by RBI in Sep, 2014 and one of the major agenda for it was Financial Inclusion. It made following recommendations in this regard

Ordinance in legislatures

Ordinance - What is it?

It is like a legislative act/ bill. It has the same force and effect. Only difference - These are temporary in nature. These have to be replaced by a suitable act in future.

Who can do it?

Executive Head i.e. President (by Art. 123) (Governor in case of states (by Art. 213)) can promulgate ordinance, subject to four constraints -

1. Only when both or any of the house is not in session (i.e. when in recess). So, it is not a power legislative power.
2. Only when President is satisfied that immediate action is required. In Cooper case (1970), SC held that President's satisfaction can be questioned in the court on the ground of malafide. So it is justiciable.
3. This ordinance is just like a law i.e. 
1. it can deal with only on Union list/ concurrent list subjects
2. subject to all those limitations that of a law
4. The ordinance must be laid before the house once it reassembles. 3 course of action can follow
1. gets approved - become an act.
2. Parliament takes no action - the ordinance ceases to operate on the expiry of six weeks from the reassembly of Parliament
3. gets disapproved by Parliament resolution - ceases to operate from the date of disapproval 

Some more points

• maximum life of an ordinance can be six months and six weeks 
• In case the ordinance lapses, the acts done under it remain valid and effective.
• President also can withdraw an ordinance at any time.
• This ordinance related power of President is not a discretionary power. 
• Ordinance can be retrospective.
• It can repeal or modify any previous law or ordinance.
• It cannot amend the constitution.
• In British India, Viceroy was empowered with the power to issue ordinances by the Indian Councils Act, 1861. 
• Other than that, ordinance making power is not found in modern democratic world such as USA or UK.

After the Ordinance is Promulgated...

• The government attempts to replace the ordinance with a suitable bill/ act. 
• In this scenario, Rules of Business in Lok Sabha requires a statement explaining the emergency situation also to be placed before the house.

Recent Developments

The NDA government which came to power at the center in May 2015, has majority in Lok Sabha, but falls way short of the half-way mark in the Rajya Sabha.

This has led to promulgation of a number of ordinances since then. Notable among them are -

1. Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance, 2014 (Sep, re-promulgated in Dec)
2. Land Acquisition
3. The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014
4. TRAI (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014
5. Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 2015
6. Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015
7. Citizenship (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 - converted into act in budget session

President's Concern

References

1. Laxmikanth

2. PRS Blog

Electricity

A clean energy

very imp. for growth and prosperity (even per capita consumption is an indicator of standard of living and economic well-being)
required for - 

1. Industries
2. Household (cooking, etc.)
3. Transport
4. Agriculture
5. Education
6. Health

3 major types depending on raw material

1. Hydroelectricity
2. Thermal Electricity
3. Nuclear Electricity/ Energy

CBM, Shale Gas, Gas Hydrates etc.

Coal Bed Methane (CBM)

It is the methane obtained from coal seams

Coal bed Methane (CBM), is an eco-friendly natural gas, stored in coal seams, generated during the process of the coalification.

CBM exploration and exploitation has an important bearing on reducing the green house effect and earning carbon credit in preventing the direct emission of methane gas from operating mines to the atmosphere further, extraction of the CBM through degassing of the coal seams prior to mining of coal is a cost effective means of boosting coal production and maintaining safe methane level in working mines.

Having the 3rd largest proven coal reserves and being the 4th largest coal producer in the world, India holds significant prospects for commercial recovery of CBM. Prognosticated CBM resource has been estimated to be around 4.6 TCM.

Gas Hydrate (GH)

• Crystalline form Methane and Water
• abundant in the shallow sediments of outer continental shelf

Ministry of Earth Sciences is developing high-end equipment to harness and exploit the deposits of gas hydrates in Indian Ocean

http://www.dghindia.org/NonConventionalEnergy.aspx?tab=1

Oil Shale

http://www.dghindia.org/NonConventionalEnergy.aspx?tab=1

Natural Gas

Usually accompanies petroleum. When a well is dug, it is natural gas, which is available first (being lighter than oil). Yet, there are wells where, there is only natural gas available.

• 1984 : GAIL was incorporated to look after
• transportation
• processing
• marketing of Natural Gas
• KG offshore basin in 2002 (estimated to be 14 trillion cubic feet (TCF))
• deepest oil exploration in India
• 2005 : by ONGC in the shallow water of KG basin
• 2004 : off the Odisha coast (4-5 TCF)
• 2003 : oil and gas in Barmer district

Imported gas constitutes a third of our consumption

Significance

1. can be used for 
1. power generation, 
2. producing fertilizer, 
3. running transport systems, (CNG)
4. cooking purposes (mahanagar Gas, Indraprastha gas - JV of GAIL)
2. more a clean fuel than coal and petroleum 
3. saves precious forex
4. transforms economy

GAIL

• incorporated in Aug, 1984
• for transportation, processing and marketing
• completed HBJ pipeline

State	Reserves (%)	Production (%)	Imp Fields	Downstream
W Offshore	30.7	81	KG basin
E Ofshore	35		KG basin, Mahanadi basin, Cauvery basin
Assam	10	6
Gujarat	6	4.5
AP	4
TN	3
Tripura	3		Palatana fields, Udaipur district	Palatana thermal power plant
Others
Total	1355 BCM

Gas Transportation

State	Reserves (%)	Production (%)	Imp Fields	Downstream
W Offshore	30.7	81	KG basin
E Ofshore	35		KG basin, Mahanadi basin, Cauvery basin
Assam	10	6
Gujarat	6	4.5
AP	4
TN	3
Tripura	3		Palatana fields, Udaipur district	Palatana thermal power plant
Others
Total	1355 BCM

Gas Transportation

2 ways

1. As LNG
1. A number of LNG terminals are coming up around the coastline
2. Gas from Iran, Qatar, Oman, Algeria, Australia
2. Through Pipelines
1. TAPI
2. IPI
3. From B'desh and Myanmar
4. From Russia

Gas Pricing

• less fungible than oil. So, does not have a single global price.
• Gas markets tend to be segmented because of transportation issues over a great distance
• So, a range of gas prices exist
• Henry hub
• Asia pacific rate
• So, a mechanism is needed (either to make it market determined by principle of supply and demand or make it cost price linked)
• In a market economy it should be linked to market, but it has its own ramification
• gas is linked to our food and energy security
• nearly 35% of gas consumed is for making fertilizer which is already heavily subsidized by the govt.
• already CNG prices are almost at par with diesel prices. hiking it more is not good from pollution POV
• also in absence of a global price, we should go by domestic demand and supply
• but there is a severe supply shortage (under production by RIL)

Rangarajan formula considers global prices

Jan 2014 : Govt notified new gas pricing formula which doubled the gas price to $ 8.4 per mbtu.

Aug 2014 : Govt formed a panel (under Shri Vijay Kelkar) consisting on secretaries of power, fertilizer, expenditure and additional secy of oil ministry to review the Gas Pricing Mechanism.

Sep 2014 : panel has submitted report
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-08-28/news/53324442_1_gas-pricing-gas-market-natural-gas

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-gas-price-conundrum/article5703174.ece

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_India

http://insightsonindia.com/2014/10/23/indias-energy-security-oil-and-gas-sector/