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Underlining the problems faced by domestic migrants in travelling back to their home constituencies to vote, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said it is ready to pilot remote voting, a move that will also result in better voter turnouts.
In a statement, the ECI said it has developed a multi-constituency Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM) that can facilitate voting for different constituencies from a single remote polling booth.
“Migration-based disenfranchisement is indeed not an option in the age of technological advancement. The voter turnout in General Elections 2019 was 67.4% and the Election Commission of India is concerned about the issue of over 30 crore electors not exercising their franchise and also differential voter turnout in various States/ UTs.
Inviting political parties for a discussion on January 16, the ECI pointed out as per Census 2011, 45.36 crore Indians, or 37 per cent of the population are migrants, but 75 per cent of them are migrants on account of marriage or other family-related reasons.
The Election Commission Thursday said that approximately 85 per cent of the internal migration is within the states.
The idea behind RVM is to ensure these migrant voters participate in the electoral process. While the ECI data shows though the voter registration and turnout has increased over the decades, the concern of participation stagnating is manifest.
Between 2009 and 2019, registered voters increased by almost 20 crores to 91.20 crores. Voter turnout too increased to 67.4 per cent from 58.21 per cent during the period, but almost 30 crore adults did not vote.
One key reason for low voter turnout (over 30 crore do not vote) could be migrants not going home to exercise their franchise.
The poll panel proposes to address this by using technology so that migrants can vote remotely and also stay connected with their roots.
Noting that internal migration (domestic migrants) is one of the prominent reasons to be addressed to improve voter turnout and ensure participative elections, the ECI said there were multifarious reasons for a voter not opting to register in a new place of residence.
The ECI will demonstrate the functioning of the remote EVM on January 16 to the eight national and 57 state political parties.
Rejuvenation of small rivers under NREGS highlight of PM meet today (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 2, Welfare Schemes)
The centre will showcase its initiative of rejuvenating around 75 small rivers, mainly in UP, over the past four years using funds under the national rural job guarantee scheme during the second meeting of the National Ganga Council, which will be held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kolkata Friday.
It will be the first meeting since 2019 of the Council, which is the apex authority responsible for cleaning the river and includes the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal as members.
The Council also includes several Union ministers, including the finance minister, Rural Development Minister and Power Minister.
Sources said the meeting’s agenda, prepared by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) which implements the Government’s Namami Gange programme, has been circulated to the Union ministries and the five states involved.
The NMCG has proposed making urban river management plans (URMPs) and river sensitive master planning mandatory for river cities as one of the agenda items for the meeting.
Some of the key small rivers that are being rejuvenated include Gomti, Sai, Mandakini and Varuna in UP, according to the meeting’s agenda. It also provides a break-up of the rejuvenation work done on rivers in UP through which a bulk of the Ganga flows — about 1,100 km of 2,525 km.
Work on six rivers was undertaken in the state under MGNREGA during 2018-19, 19 in 2019-20, six in 2020-21 and 14 in 2021-22.
Work on the Gomti river was taken up across four districts in UP — Pilibhit, Sitapur, Lucknow and Shahjahanpur — during the last four financial years (2018-19 to 2022-23).
Khare said the purpose of the exercise was not only to rejuvenate the river channel that was blocked by silt but also to connect people to the programme.
Highlighting work done for the rejuvenation of small rivers in UP, the agenda for Friday’s meeting states: “Two small rivers in each district have been identified to implement these measures.
Ideas page
A bond with the history (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The year 2022 was one in which Armenia and India celebrated 30 years of bilateral diplomatic relations. But this modern milestone, worth every toast raised in its honour, tells only a partial story of the bond it commemorated.
Armenia and India are ancient civilisations that have known each other intimately for millennia. Indeed, the familiarity and depth of mutual affection between the two nations are remarkable given the vast geography that separates them.
Few nations occupy a more exalted position in our national memory than India — the land where generations of Armenian diaspora communities have thrived and gave shape to the dream of reviving the Armenian state, which had been obliterated over centuries of invasion and rule by foreign powers.
Take, for instance, the Mamikonians, a revered aristocratic dynasty which controlled vast swathes of Armenia until the 8th century. A branch of the family moved between Armenia and India, and the greatest warrior it produced — the fifth-century military commander Vartan Mamikonian — bore a Sanskrit name.
Centuries before Vartan Mamikonian led his forces in defence of Christianity against the Persian army, a pair of Indian princes from Magadha had taken refuge in Armenia and even been allowed to raise Hindu settlements.
That warmth and liberality were reciprocated by Indian rulers as late as the Mughal era. In 17th-century India, Armenians were highly valued for their artisanship, granted trade privileges, and taken on as advisors by royal courts.
The Armenian republic which was reborn in 1991 was recognised by India a day after the Soviet Union’s demise. New Delhi chose Yerevan, the Armenian capital, as the site of its first embassy in the Caucasus.
My own career as a diplomat and politician, which began in the 1990s, was enhanced by the friendships I forged with Indians —from groundbreaking scientists to pioneering businesspersons and visionary politicians — and influenced by the lessons I learnt from India’s struggle for freedom.
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Shah: Borders can’t be secured only by fences but by the bravery of forces there (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
Stating that the BSF guards the “most difficult border of the country”, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said security of the country’s borders cannot be ensured by pillars or fencing but only by the bravery, patriotism and alertness of troopers posted there.
Addressing an event here, during which he launched the mobile app ‘Prahari’ and the manual of BSF, and revised version of 13 manuals, Shah said, “After Atal-ji (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) conceptualised ‘One Border One Force’, the responsibility of our borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh has come under BSF.
The security of the country’s borders cannot be ensured by pillars or fencing, but only by the bravery, patriotism and alertness of soldiers standing on that border.The ITBP, along with the Army, guards the border with China.
In the last three years, Shah said, BSF personnel have seized 26,000 kg narcotics and 2,500 pieces of arms and ammunition. Although the anti-drone technology on the border is still at the experimental stage, it has been successful to a great extent. In the last six months, BSF has shot down 22 drones on the western border.
Calling the ‘Prahari’ app a great example of proactive governance, Shah said, “Jawans can now get personal information and information related to accommodation, Ayushmann-CAPF and leaves on their mobile phone.
Bank frauds with cards, internet rise in 2022-23 (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Banking frauds involving cards and internet have gone up during the six-month period ended September 2022 amid the rapid progress made in the area of digitisation,
According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, 2,331 fraud cases involving Rs 87 crore were reported by banking entities during the six-month period as against 1,532 frauds involving Rs 60 crore.
During 2021-22, the average amount of fraud decreased substantially. “Based on the date of occurrence of frauds, advances-related frauds formed the biggest category prior to 2019-20.
Subsequently, however, in terms of number of frauds, the modus operandi shifted to card or internet- based transactions,” the RBI’s Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India.
Additionally, cash frauds are also on the rise. Banks reported 589 frauds involving Rs 81 crore in cash-related issues during the six-month period September 2022 as against 245 frauds involving Rs 51 crore in the same period of last year.
The RBI said total frauds, including advances, forex, inter-branch accounts, deposits and off-balance sheet items, came down to 5,406 cases involving Rs 19,485 crore during the six-month period as against 4,069 cases for Rs 36,316 crore.
According to the RBI, the number of fraud cases reported by private banks outnumbered those by PSU banks for the second consecutive year in 2021-22.
In terms of the amount involved, however, the share of PSBs was 66.7 per cent in 2021-22, as compared with 59.4 per cent in the previous year.
Fraudsters create a third-party phishing website which looks like an existing genuine website, such as a bank’s website or an e-commerce website or a search engine.
Links to these websites are circulated by fraudsters through SMS, social media, email and Messenger. Many customers click on the link without checking the detailed Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and enter secure credentials such as PIN, One Time Password (OTP) and password which are captured and used by the fraudsters.
Imposters call or approach the customers through telephone call, social media posing as bankers, company executives, insurance agents and government officials.
GNPA ratio falls to seven-year low of 5% in Sept 2022: RBI (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio, which declined to a seven-year low of 5 per cent in September 2022, is expected to further improve to 4.9 per cent by September 2023, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said.
The GNPA ratio estimate is based on the macro-stress test performed to assess the resilience of banks’ balance sheets to unforeseen shocks emanating from the macroeconomic environment.
Under the assumption of no further regulatory reliefs as well as without taking the potential impact of stressed asset purchases by National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL) into account, stress tests indicate that the GNPA ratio of all banks may improve from 5 per cent in September 2022 to 4.9 per cent by September 2023, under the baseline scenario.
However, if the macroeconomic environment worsens to a medium or severe stress scenario, the GNPA ratio may rise to 5.8 per cent and 7.8 per cent, respectively, the report said.
The ratio of GNPA to gross advances stood at 5.9 per cent in March 2022. As of September 2022, the net non-performing assets (NNPA) ratio stood at a ten-year low of 1.3 per cent, wherein private sector banks (PVBs’) NNPA ratio was below 1 per cent.
At the bank group level, the report said GNPA ratios of public sector banks (PSBs) may swell from 6.5 per cent in September 2022 to 9.4 per cent in September 2023, whereas it would go up from 3.3 per cent to 5.8 per cent for private sector banks (PVBs) and from 2.5 per cent to 4.1 per cent for foreign banks (FBs), under the severe stress scenario.
Stress test results presented in this issue of the FSR indicate that banks would be able to withstand even severe stress conditions, should they materialise.
The stress test results further showed that the banks are well capitalised and capable of absorbing macroeconomic shocks even in the absence of any further capital infusion by stakeholders.
Under the baseline scenario, the aggregate Capital to Risk Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) of 46 major banks is projected to slip from 15.8 per cent in September 2022 to 14.9 per cent by September 2023.
It may go down to 14 per cent in the medium stress scenario and to 13.1 per cent under the severe stress scenario by September 2023, but it stays well above the minimum capital requirement, including capital conservation buffer (CCB) requirements, which is 11.5 per cent.