Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- Horizontal and Vertical Reservation
- S&T Policy
- National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)
- Basaweswara
1 . Horizontal and Vertical Reservation
Context : The Supreme Court last month clarified the position of law on the interplay of vertical and horizontal reservations. The December 18 decision by a two-judge Bench in Saurav Yadav versus State of Uttar Pradesh dealt with issues arising from the way different classes of reservation were to be applied in the selection process to fill posts of constables in the state.
What are vertical and horizontal reservations?
- Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes is referred to as vertical reservation. It applies separately for each of the groups specified under the law.
- Horizontal reservation refers to the equal opportunity provided to other categories of beneficiaries such as women, veterans, the transgender community, and individuals with disabilities, cutting through the vertical categories.
How are the two categories of quotas applied together?
- The horizontal quota is applied separately to each vertical category, and not across the board. For example, if women have 50% horizontal quota, then half of the selected candidates will have to necessarily be women in each vertical quota category — i.e., half of all selected SC candidates will have to be women, half of the unreserved or general category will have to be women, and so on.
- The interlocking of the two types of reservation throws up a host of questions on how certain groups are to be identified. For example, would an SC woman be put in the category of women or SC? Since quotas are fixed in percentages, what percentage of quota would be attributed to each?
What was the Saurav Yadav case about?
The case was on the technicalities that form a substantial question of law. It was this:
- Sonam Tomar and Rita Rani had secured 276.5949 and 233.1908 marks respectively. They had applied under the categories of OBC-Female and SC-Female respectively. OBC and SC are vertical reservation categories, while Female is a horizontal reservation category.
- The two candidates did not qualify in their categories. However, in the General-Female (unreserved-female) category, the last qualifying candidate had secured 274.8298 marks, a score that was lower than Tomar’s.
- The question before the court was that if the underlying criterion for making selections is “merit”, should Tomar be selected under General-Female quota instead of the OBC-Female category for having secured a higher score?
What did the court decide?
- The court ruled against the Uttar Pradesh government, holding that if a person belonging to an intersection of vertical-horizontal reserved category had secured scores high enough to qualify without the vertical reservation, the person would be counted as qualifying without the vertical reservation, and cannot be excluded from the horizontal quota in the general category.
- A similar question had arisen in the case of vertical reservations in the past, and the law had been settled similarly: If a person in the SC category secures a higher score than the cut-off for the general category, the person would be counted as having qualified under the general category instead of the SC quota.
What was the government’s argument?
- The government’s policy was to restrict and contain reserved category candidates to their categories, even when they had secured higher grades. The court said this was tantamount to ensuring that the general category was ‘reserved’ for upper castes.
What was the court’s reasoning?
- The court did the math. Examining a number of hypothetical scenarios, it concluded that if both vertical and horizontal quotas were to be applied together — and consequently, a high-scoring candidate who would otherwise qualify without one of the two reservations is knocked off the list — then the overall selection would have candidates with lower scores.
- On the other hand, if a high-scoring candidate is allowed to drop one category, the court found that the overall selection would reflect more high-scoring candidates. In other words, the “meritorious” candidates would be selected.
- The ruling strikes at the heart of the debate on “merit versus reservation”, where reservation is sometimes projected as being anti-merit.
2 . Science and Technology Policy
Context : The draft Science, Technology and Innovation Policy released on Jan 1 contains radical and progressive proposals that could be game-changers for not just the scientific research community, but also for the way ordinary Indians interact with Science. The chief author of the policy explains how and why.
What is the overall philosophy behind the government’s draft Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy?
- Unlike previous STI policies which were largely top-driven in formulation, the 5th national STI policy (STIP) follows core principles of being decentralised, evidence-informed, bottom-up, experts-driven, and inclusive.
- It aims to be dynamic, with a robust policy governance mechanism that includes periodic review, evaluation, feedback, adaptation and, most importantly, a timely exit strategy for policy instruments.
- The STIP will be guided by the vision of positioning India among the top three scientific superpowers in the decade to come; to attract, nurture, strengthen, and retain critical human capital through a people-centric STI ecosystem; to double the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) researchers, gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) and private-sector contribution to GERD every five years; and to build individual and institutional excellence in STI with the aim of reaching the highest levels of global recognition and awards in the coming decade.
- The policy outlines strategies for strengthening India’s STI ecosystem to achieve the larger goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Main Features
- Open Science Framework, with free access for all to findings from publicly funded research – It is important to make publicly funded research output and resources available to all to foster learning and innovation. STIP provides a forward-looking, all-encompassing Open Science Framework to provide access to scientific data, information, knowledge, and resources to everyone in the country, and to all who are engaging with the Indian STI ecosystem on an equal partnership basis.
- One Nation One Subscription – The STIP envisions free access to all journals, Indian and foreign, for every Indian against a centrally-negotiated payment mechanism. This amount may be higher than what our institutions together pay today, but will facilitate access to India’s over 1.3 billion people. The larger idea behind One Nation, One Subscription is to democratise science by providing access to scholarly knowledge to not just researchers but to every individual in the country.
- Large Mission Mode Projects : The STIP also suggests modification or waiver of General Financial Rules (GFR), for large-scale mission mode programmes and projects of national importance.
Recommendations
- To address the issue of inclusion and equity in a holistic way, an Indian version of the Athena SWAN Charter (a global framework to support gender equality in higher education and research, especially in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) is needed. The STIP has made recommendations such as mandatory positions for excluded groups in academics; 30% representation of women in selection/evaluation committees and decision-making groups; addressing issues related to career breaks for women by considering academic age rather than biological/physical age; a dual recruitment policy for couples; and institutionalisation of equity and inclusion by establishing an Office of Equity and Inclusion, etc.
- In India, the pandemic presented an opportunity for R&D institutions, academia, and industry to work with a shared purpose, synergy, collaboration and cooperation, which helped the country develop the capability to produce these kits in record time. The STIP draft focuses on the need to adopt such learnings for greater efficiency and synergy in future
- STIP has made some major recommendations regarding low level of gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) such as expansion of the STI funding landscape at the central and state levels; enhanced incentivisation mechanisms for leveraging the private sector’s R&D participation through boosting financial support and fiscal incentives for industry and flexible mechanisms for public procurement; and creative avenues for collaborative STI funding through a portfolio-based funding mechanism called the Advanced Missions in Innovative Research Ecosystem (ADMIRE) programme to support distributed and localised collaborative mission-oriented projects through a long-term investment strategy.
3 . National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)
Context : Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday held a meeting to review the progress of 34 projects in the health and water resources sectors involving investments of Rs 3.6 lakh crore under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).
Background
- On Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced plans to invest ₹100 lakh crore on modern infrastructure. This is the expenditure needed to achieve a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25, according to an official statement.
- A task force of senior bureaucrats chaired by Economic Affairs Secretary Atanu Chakraborty then identified ₹102 lakh crore projects in 18 States as part of a National Infrastructure Pipeline.
Details of the plan
- The investment is phased over a six-year period, including the current financial year. The plan calls for a ₹13.6 lakh crore investment in 2019-20
- The funds would come from budgetary and extra-budgetary resources, as well as funds raised from the market and internal accruals of the relevant state-owned companies
- Almost a quarter of the capital expenditure is going to the energy sector, with ₹24.5 lakh crore expected to be invested in power, renewable energy, atomic energy and petroleum and natural gas.
- The other major focus areas are roads (19%) and railways (13%), urban (16%) and rural (8%) infrastructure, and irrigation (8%). Social infrastructure, including health and education, will get 3% of the capital expenditure, with digital communication and industrial expenditure each getting the same amount as well. Agriculture and food processing infrastructure will get one per cent of the planned capital expenditure.
4. Basaveshwara
Context : Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa laid the foundation stone for the ‘New Anubhava Mantapa’ in Basavakalyan, the place where 12th century poet-philosopher Basaveshwara lived for most of his life.
About Basaveshwara
- Basaveshwara is a 12th Century Kannada social reformer, poet and philosopher, who is considered as one of the most revered saints by the Lingayat sect.
- Basaveshwara, or Basavanna, worked towards uplifting the underprivileged classes and women, and believed that all humans are equal, irrespective of class, caste, creed, and gender.
- It is said he denounced the sacred janeu thread- worn by upper-caste Hindus, particularly Brahmins- at a young age in hopes to transform himself and achieve spiritual bliss.
- Through his teachings, he revolutionized Indian society.
- Basaveshwara spread his teachings through poetry (Vachanaas).
- He denounced superstitions and rituals, introducing an Ishta linga necklace, bearing a shiva-linga image, to mark equality.
- He also introduced a hall of spiritual acceptance, Anubhava Mantapa, where people of all origins could ask spiritual and mundane questions of life.
- Basaveshwara popularized the principles of Kayakave Kailasa (work is worship) and Dasoha (giving back to society).