2 oct 2014-gitesh (g.ombale9@gmail.com)----9561586849

1st reviewer(R1)

2nd reviewer(R2)

1) Examine what efforts were made previously to eradicate the problem of open defecation in India. Explain why these missions/schemes haven’t been successful.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/toilet-training-india-114100101338_1.html

Some efforts by government –

• Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan and Total Sanitation Campaign – funds were allotted to achieve 100% provision of toilets in all households• MNREGS was integrated with TSC to boost toiled construction in rural areas• RTE had a provision for providing separate toilets for boys and girls in schools• Access to toilets was made a basic feature in IAY and RAY for construction of housing for poor.

The reasons for the same can be identified as:

1) Administrative and political reasons:a) There is a lack of enthusiasm in states and its officials regarding sanitation.b) These schemes were mostly target driven and there was lack of emphasis on monitoring the usage of toilets.c) Some politically important states and districts received more attention over others.d) Merging TSC with MGREGS resulted in less material cost.

2) Social Challenges:a) There has been a lack of acceptance of toilets by the people in rural areas.b) In most of the cases, the toilet construction is done for newly wed brides and men prefer to defecate in open.c) Many in rural areas consider open defecation as a mean of social interaction.d) Even where the toilets are constructed, the cleaning of them is left to low castes which poses serious challenge in the spirit of the act.

Thus it can be said that ,considering above analysis, although the government has been keen and proactive on its efforts to make India open defecation free, there has been a lack of societal convergence towards the same. Despite of the scheme being demand driven, no active participation was seen from people which resulted in low enthusiasm from authorities. The Swachh Bharat mission aims to address these gaps in a comprehensive way.

2)“It should be a cause for serious concern that a country of India’s size, which is growing in economic strength and has a great intellectual history, still does not have any of its universities in world’s top 200 list.” Critically comment.

Devnam farziat@gmail.com 7798748337

Amit amaanand@gmail.com 8127747047

http://www.business-standard.com/article/management/only-2-indian-institutes-make-it-to-top-300-in-times-ranking-114100200015_1.html

1)Brain drain– professors are not paid to their worth. This has created a new sort of brain drain where professors are moving out abroad in pursuit of greener pastures.

2) Infrastructure – Indian universities are mostly located in metros, hence have a fair access to all modern infrastructure which include academic buildings, hostel etc. Indian universities perform at par on this point

3) Opportunities offered – This refers to options made available at universities in terms of study courses as well as job. In India, most of universities are job focused and courses are limited to prepare students for those job only. This vicious cycle of job-study kills the interest in study part.

4) Contribution to R&D – This is where Indian universities lag the most due to lack of budgets as well poor infrastructure. The number of cutting edge technologies coming from Indian universities is very less compared to world universities .Indian institutes lag way behind in the amount of papers presented , patents granted and generation of life saving drugs ( Growth of generic drug industry is a case in point ) etc.

5) Content outdated :- , the linkage between institutes and industry is not as strong as one can see in countries like America. Here encouragement is lost on part of students to get to know latest technological know how

3)Recently a committee recommended that public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the coal mining and power distribution segments should be allowed to make these sectors profitable and efficient. Critically examine what problems these sectors are facing presently and how PPP can solve them.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/open-coal-power-sectors-to-private-competition-to-revive-investment-deepak-parekh-report-114100100981_1.html

Coal and power sectors are the key sectors for sustaining the economic progress of the country. However, these sectors are marred with certain challenges that impede their efficient utilization, which are;Challenges of coal sector:1) Administrative challenges: Coal India Ltd. is highly centralized which results in delays and red tapism.2) Land acquisition: Most of the coal reserves in India re located in ecologically sensitive areas which makes it difficult for the companies to explore them due to environmental regulations.3) Technological deficiencies: The coal sector has not been able to use the technology to its advantage which has resulted in escalated costs and delays.

Challenges faced by the power sector:1) Transmission losses: Wide scale transmission losses due to inferior material usage has resulted in wide scale transmission losses of distribution companies.2) Financial losses: The distribution companies are forced by the governmental authorities to keep the tariff down and hampers their profitability.3) Lack of infrastructure: There has been a lack of infrastructure in the power distribution sector which has resulted in unequal distribution of power resulting in sub optimal utilization of available resources..

Suggestion: 1. PPP model in coal mining2. Re-auctioning of all the cancelled coal blocks

3. Setting up a new public sector undertaking to award and manage PPP concessions4. Inviting private investment for augmenting and modernizing power distribution systems

4) Write a note on the role played by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in ensuring fair competition among companies in India.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/avirup-bose-the-dawn-raiders-are-coming-114100101340_1.html

Competition commission of India (CCI) was set up in 2003, to enforce the competition Act of 2002. The main objectives included ensuring fair market practices, ensuring competitive environment, protecting consumer interests. With India being such large market and slow legal action against malpractices, the incentives for fraudulent practices were high prior to CCI. CCI has effectively brought back market ethics by:

1) Interfering when dominant players were misusing their position. E.g. When CCI found IPL ownership agreements were unfair, they penalized BCCI for it

2) Being vigilant against anti-market practices. E.g. In 2012, they fined 11 cement companies who formed a cartel and distorted prices

3) Making sure norms are followed by companies. E.g Google was fined as it failed to comply with directives given by CCI director

4) Along with these, CCI keeps a keen eye on any antitrust practices which might harm consumer interests or unfavorable for fair market competion

The success of CCI can be attributed to multiple factors which include:1) Power to Swift action – Against the old methods, CCI conducts ‘dawn raids’ to collect evidence2) Trained staff – The staff of CCI is trained in their work which gives it a large leverage3) Independent of any government ministry

Though we have enjoyed the fruits of CCI’s success, we must make sure that power is not misued by CCI in form of harassment against companies as it would lead to negative signals for gloabl market

5) Critically comment on the design and objectives of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Some critics think that schemes like this perpetuate the plight of scavenging communities. Do you agree with this view? Comment.

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/a-sarkari-campaign-about-us/99/

After long time, a prime minister drew nation’s attention towards basic yet omnipresent problem of cleanliness. With a clean India in mind, Swacch Bharat campaign was launched on October 2,2014.

Design: The scheme has started with cleaning of streets, roads and other government infrastructure (most visible part). The way in which this scheme stands outs is the use of social media in spreading awareness. Seeing the quick results will help spread the word much faster. Though a good start is half battle won, Government should make sure this campaign does not fall prey to corruption and this spirit does not die down with October 2. Involving multiple NGOs at execution phase might help in keeping the lamps lit and making it corruption free

Objectives: To put in layman terms, primary objective of this scheme is leave a clean and alive environment for future generations. And along this path we will eliminate problems like water borne diseases, air borne disease etc. Though the

objectives are noble, the scheme needs to be complimented with two more dimensionsa) Legislative reforms – should resonate with these schemes. Environmental clearances only to high ROI projects

b) Social reforms – Many sections of society dealt with social stigma because they were cleaners (manual scavengers specially). This scheme involving masses will definitely help remove that stigma. As an addition, if provisions for resettlement of these sections are also included in objectives, the scheme would be near complete

Though launched with great zeal and enthusiasm, the success of such schemes is largely dependent on support of people. Administration here can help by keep running small programmes throughout the year so that by 2019, we have a “swacch bharat” as a reality

6) “The Indian state is secular and has no religion. It cannot, therefore, compel citizens to fit into one religion or the other.” In the light of the statement, critically analyse how India’s secularism differs from the West’s and examine if any anomalies are found in the way secularism is practised in India by the state and its subjects.

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-right-not-to-believe/99/

finding this question difficult, just copy pasting answer . guys please help to jott down important points from below answer which I feel is best among all the rest answer at insight

Secularism as a word was only inserted into the Preamble in 1976, but a perusal of the Constituent Assembly Debates makes it clear that the Indian Constitution is avowedly secular. Dr. Rajendra Prasad famously remarked that the Indian State was neither pro-religion, nor anti-religion but wholly divorced from religion.

In practice however, the Indian State does interfere in religious practice under the excuse of social reform. Legitimacy for this is often sought through Article 13 of the Constitution which makes all laws (including customs) that fall afoul of Fundamental Rights as void. This is the source of the Hindu Acts and the amendments made thereto. The Constitution further provides for protecting the group rights of minorities in Articles 25-30 of the Constitution. The Indian State also accommodates religious practice by recognising personal laws for minorities (both religious and cultural) and creating reasonable exceptions for them in employment (like Sikhs in the military sporting beards for instance).

It is in the latter that Indian Secularism differs from the Western Conception of Secularism. France, for instance, makes no such exceptions for its minorities and does not seek to protect their personal or group identity. The modern Western Secular State is therefore avowedly anti-religion (atleast in the public sphere).

The very same protection of individual religious expression is claimed by the subjects of the Indian state when they seek to introduce religion into public life. It results in categorisation of people into specified religious communities, conducting religious ceremonies at public occasions and generally being assertive about religious identity. This is the result of a fundamental dichotomy that exists in the Indian State claiming to be divorced from religion, but in effect playing an active role in administering the same. The only way out therefore is to fall back on Article 14 which makes religion irrelevant where the Rule of Law is concerned.

7) Recently it was reported that Islamic State, a terrorist organization presently occupying certain parts of Iraq and Syria, is recruiting fighters – men and women – from many parts of the world including Western European countries and Canada. Critically examine why nationals from some of the progressive countries want to participate in terrorist activities.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/young-western-women-among-jihadis/article6467339.ece

point number a) if didn’t get completely ,please clarify

The reasons behind the Islamic State’s appeal to certain sections of the Western population are as under:

a) Quest for identity: Many of the recruits are converts to Islam in an overwhelmingly agnostic or Christian setup. They seek a religious identity that they are unable to find in private Islamic worship. Therefore the IS has a great appeal to them.

b) Social inequity: For many in the immigrant community who exist on the social periphery of European political life, the IS provides both a means of retribution as well as a great attraction in seeking political power.

c) Influence of radical preachers: The internet is a powerful propaganda tool for the IS. By beaming images of real and perceived injustices in the Arab and Muslim world to European Muslims, it creates an image of being the only opposition to Neo-Western Imperialism in the Middle East. This lends it legitimacy as an army of resistance and not as a mere terror outfit.