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With at least four Opposition-ruled states reverting to the Old Pension Scheme which offers defined benefits, and the BJP-Sena (Shinde) coalition in Maharashtra not averse it, senior officials in the Union government are seeing merit in the demands of employees who joined service post January 2004, and are part of the New Pension System where their contributions are defined, but benefits depend on the market.
While no proposal is on the Union Finance Minister’s table yet, there are discussions about a new model, which has been proposed by the YSR Jagan Mohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh.
What has attracted officials in the Union government about this model is it combines the elements of both the OPS (defined benefit) and the NPS (defined contribution). In doing so, it seeks ‘defined contribution’ from employees every month and offers two options of ‘defined benefit’.
A senior official in the government said, “The core idea of this model is good, but the Andhra government has deliberately understated the rate of return of the NPS.”
Employees can get a guaranteed pension of 33 per cent of their last drawn salary if they contribute 10 per cent of their basic salary every month which is matched by a 10 per cent contribution by the state government.
They can get a guaranteed pension of 40 per cent of their last drawn salary, if they are willing to contribute a higher 14 per cent of their salary every month, which will be matched by 14 per cent government contribution.
Officials in the state government said the Union Finance Ministry has been sounded out about this model. No formal approval has been sought, since it is not required to. But officials in the Union government said the model “is interesting”, but it needs to be studied in detail.
The Andhra government may be offering many freebies covering every stakeholder community, but it is clear on its assessment of the OPS – that it is not feasible, and it cannot be implemented.
In fact, its calculations show that the state’s budget outflow on account of pension and salaries would be Rs 76,590 crore in 2023, and more than double to Rs 1,85,172 crore. If OPS is reintroduced, its impact on future generations will be severe, an official observed.
Kerala has a drug problem: 300% jump in cases over six years; arrests increase 90% (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
A series of drug hauls by the police and Excise department has led to a sharp spike in cases related to narcotics, liquor and banned tobacco products being registered in Kerala in 2022, indicating that the state has a new problem: drugs.
Data show that the police registered 26,629 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in 2022 – a jump of over 300% when compared to 2016 (5,924 cases registered) and 188% when compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019 (9,245 cases).
While the cases have been steadily going up since 2016, only to witness a dip in the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, the 2022 numbers have gone up sharply.
An analysis of Excise data shows that the number of persons arrested for cases under the NDPS Act grew 87.47 per cent between 2016 and 2022 — from 3,217 to 6,031 – while the number of cases registered in the same period went up by 104 per cent.
This, when the number of raids recorded only a marginal increase — from 1,39,366 in 2016 to 1,44,200 in 2022.Kerala has a drug problem: 300% jump in cases over six years; arrests increase 90%
The cases registered by the Excise department under the NDPS Act too show a steady rise from 2016, with 2019 recording the highest numbers in over six years.
Both the police and Excise departments handle drug offences under the tough NDPS Act, with the quantum of punishment depending on the quantity of drugs seized.
Additional Director-General Police and Excise Commissioner S Ananthakrishnan said the steady rise in drug-related cases in Kerala is a factor of both “strict enforcement and raids” and easier access to the contraband.
Accessibility of synthetic drugs such as MDMA and LSD has increased. Youngsters are now aware about the availability of synthetic drugs. There is also peer pressure to explore these drugs.
Editorial page
Dole to development (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman needs to be complimented for taking a bold step to reorient support in the agri-food-rural space from doles towards development.
Assembly elections are slated for nine states this year and the Lok Sabha elections will be held in about a year’s time. The FM has, however, resisted the temptation to announce freebies.
Instead, she has proposed a growth oriented, asset creating and inclusive budget to develop better infrastructure and create more productive jobs.
She has proposed a drastic cut in food and fertiliser subsidies, and also reduced the expenditure on MGNREGA in 2023-24 compared to the revised estimates (RE) of 2022-23.
Together, these cuts amount to roughly Rs 1.7 lakh crore. But does this mean that the FM has wielded an axe on agriculture and rural spending.
The simple answer is “no”, because the savings from these doles have been redirected towards more productive expenditures on railways, roads, rural housing and Jal Shakti — this will help rural India through its multiplier effects.
Take the case of Railways. Its capital outlay is up 48.6 per cent at Rs 2.41 lakh crore in 2023-24, from the revised estimate of Rs 1.62 lakh crore in 2022-23.
Road transport and highways has a capital outlay of Rs 2.70 lakh crore in 2023-24 against Rs 2.17 lakh crore in 2022-23 (RE). This clearly reveals the government’s focus on Gati Shakti to reduce the cost of logistics.
Logistics and supply chain costs account for around 12 per cent of the GDP in India compared to the global average of 8 per cent.
Improving connectivity through rail, road, air and waterways will surely improve the competitiveness of Indian products, including that of agricultural produce in global markets and also help in taming inflation. This is a well thought out strategy and will pay the country handsomely in the years to come.
Embattled green (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The crisis unfolding in Joshimath for over a month has led to conversations on the relevance of hydropower in the Himalayan region. Two years ago, a glacier burst led to question marks over the Rishiganga hydroelectric project in Uttarakhand.
Hydropower is often considered green energy because it generates electricity from the natural flow of water without releasing any emissions or pollutants. It also does not rely on fossil fuels.
However, the environmental impact of hydropower can vary depending on projects and the ways in which they are implemented. Large-scale hydroelectric dams impact local ecosystems and communities — they displace people and result in loss of habitat for fish and other wildlife.
The building and maintenance of large hydroelectric dams can also have a significant environmental impact.
The Himalaya are a major water source for much of South Asia. Most countries in the region, including India, China, Nepal, Bhutan, and Pakistan, have built or are planning to build hydropower projects in the Himalaya.
In India, the government has identified hydropower as a key renewable energy source. Many hydropower projects are under construction or in the planning stages in the Indian Himalaya, including the Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project in Arunachal Pradesh and the Teesta Low Dam Hydroelectric Project in Sikkim.
Nepal has also identified hydropower as a major source of energy. It has many hydropower projects in the planning and development stages, including the Arun III Hydroelectric Project and the West Seti Hydroelectric Project.
Ideas page
Silent strike on the poor (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
In the recently-concluded Bharat Jodo Yatra, yatris walked from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and interacted with lakhs of Indians from all walks of life.
The voices they heard expressed deep economic distress and widespread disappointment about the direction in which India is headed.
Whether poor or middle class, rural or urban, Indians are being punished by the triple menace of price rise, unemployment and falling incomes.
The 2023-24 Budget not only fails to address these critical challenges, but also worsens them by slashing allocations meant for the poor and the vulnerable.
It is a silent strike on the poor by the Modi government, hitting at the heart of all far-reaching rights-based legislation enacted by the UPA government during 2004-14.
The promise of Independence was of a good life for every Indian, not only to satisfy their basic needs but to have equal opportunities to empower themselves socially, economically, and politically.
The rights-based legislation of the UPA era was a deliberate, cohesive step towards this goal. Rights-based laws empower citizens, and ensure it is the government’s duty to deliver — on education, food, work, and nutrition.
The Prime Minister makes no secret of his dislike for all this talk of rights. He began by ridiculing them in Parliament but was forced to rely on them during Covid-19. With this budget, he has now rolled back funding to lows not seen in over a decade.
Rural labourers will have less work, as funding for MGNREGA has been reduced by a third, bringing it below 2018-19 levels. Wages under the scheme are deliberately being kept below market rates, and workers struggle to get paid on time.
Explained
Cutting the NREGA budget (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Welfare Schemes)
The Narendra Modi government has slashed the budget for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme to Rs 60,000 crore in 2023-24.
This, after record outlays during 2020-21 to 2022-23, which also saw a significant step-up in employment under the scheme that guarantees a minimum 100 days of unskilled manual wage work in a financial year (April-March) to every rural household on demand.
The Rs 60,000 crore provided for the programme, launched in February 2006 by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, would be the lowest since 2017-18.
The Ministry of Rural Development has, however, clarified that MGNREGA “is a demand driven scheme”, and “the generation of person days depends upon the demand for the works”.
The original budget estimates (BE) for the programme were only Rs 61,500 crore, Rs 73,000 crore, and Rs 73,000 crore respectively in 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23; the monies eventually spent were much more.
Actual releases to the States have been much higher than that provided for at the BE level. Whenever additional fund is required, the Ministry of Finance is requested to provide the funds,” an official release said on February 3.
Over the last three years, India’s economy suffered massive disruptions, initially from the Covid-induced lockdowns and then, the war in Ukraine that gave a shock to global commodity markets comparable to the oil and food price hikes of the 1970s and 2008-09.
North star (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Space)
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar said Parliament is the “North Star” of democracy, “a place of discussion and deliberation to realise the aspirations and dreams of the people”.
Last month, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud had described the basic structure of the Constitution, laid down by the Supreme Court in the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati judgment, as the “North Star” that “guides and gives certain direction to the interpreters and implementers of the Constitution when the path ahead is convoluted”.
Polaris, known as the North Star or Pole Star, is a very bright star — around 2,500 times more luminous than the Sun. It is part of the constellation Ursa Minor, and is around 323 light years away from the Earth.
Since Polaris is less than 1° away from the north celestial pole, almost in direct line with the Earth’s rotational axis, it appears to sit motionless in the northern sky, with all the other stars appearing to rotate around it.
Its position and brightness have allowed humans to use it for navigation since late antiquity. Simply the elevation of the star above the horizon gives the approximate latitude of the observer.
In the northern hemisphere, if you can spot Polaris, you can tell the north — and by extension, the other three directions as well. Upon crossing the equator to the south, however, the North Star is lost over the horizon, and hence stops being a useful navigational aid.
Polaris seems to have been first charted by the Roman mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy, who lived from about 85 to 165 BC.
While there is some evidence that the star was used for navigation in late antiquity, it was during the ‘Age of Exploration’ that it became a central part of human history.