Homo Sapiens

Threat to Federalism:

2)Non Systematic

· Economic

· political

Discretionary Grants:

Statutory grants:

In post-independent India, the Centre, on several occasions, has used its powers to dismiss or use the Governor to intimidate democratically elected governments. During the Emergency, education was moved to the Concurrent list which was until then a State subject under the constitutional division of responsibilities. However, the adverse changes to federal relations at present are more systemic.

To understand what has changed, at the risk of repetition, there has been increasing centralisation in resource allocations and welfare interventions. The gap between the revenue that State governments are allowed to generate and the expenditure that they are expected to incur has been widening, particularly with the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST). The shortfall of GST this year and the Centre’s lackadaisical response to demands for compensation by State governments are again known.

We can also see the consolidation and expansion of a few big business groups seen to be close to the BJP, probably at the expense of smaller players. On the one hand, the Centre has sought to insulate Indian big business from global competition by choosing not to enter into the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), but has eroded the power of small businesses through support for GST and the call for a single national market. Clearly, bigger players are more likely to benefit from a removal of State-level barriers to trade at the expense of smaller regional players. This re-calibration of State-capital relations works against smaller entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship.

Institutional transgression

The second challenge is in the use of executive and legislative aggression. Central institutions are increasingly weakening the policy levers of State institutions. Institutions such as the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate and the National Investigation Agency are being used to intimidate opponents. Appointments are not untouched either.

For instance, the Centre has been meddling with the appointments of vice-chancellors in universities funded and run by State governments. Direct transfers to beneficiaries of welfare schemes bypassing States are also contributing to this dynamic. Further, as recent events suggest, the Centre is increasingly ignoring elected representatives of State governments, holding meetings with State secretaries and district collectors on issues that are primarily under State control. An example was a recent meeting by Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank with State Education Secretaries on implementation of the New Education Policy.

Source: The Hindu and Laxmikant

To implement CBD india passed Biological diversity Act,2002

§ The act envisaged a three-tier structure to regulate the access to biological resources:

o The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA)

o The State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs)

o The Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) (at local level)

Issues in IPR(Intellectual Property Rights):

At the highest rate of 28%, India's is the second-highest among 115 countries - and is viewed as regressive by tax experts.

India has four non-zero tax slabs - 5, 12, 18 and 28 - while most countries have far lower: 49 countries have one rate, 28 have two and only 5 countries, including India, use four non-zero rates.

How Will Capitalism End? Ask Wolfgang Streeck and his co-authors in their book with that title. It will end, they say, when the forces that support capitalism run out. Capitalism expands by converting “the commons” into private capital. Economists justify this on practical grounds: it is the ‘tragedy of the commons’, Garrett Hardin postulated, that people will not care for something unless they own it. This is an ongoing justification for capitalist businesses owning land and forests and water resources. Businesses convert natural capital into financial capital and use it for generating profits and more capital for themselves. Over-exploitation of the earth’s resources to produce profits has contributed to the crisis of environmental sustainability and climate change. The concept of ownership of assets for creating wealth had gone too far when slaves without human rights were used in capitalist enterprises as their economic assets until moralists objected.

Slavery is banned by law and the earth’s resources are limited. Therefore, capitalism has moved on to convert knowledge into private property. Modern regimes of intellectual property rights (IPR) with armies of patent lawyers help capitalists to create intellectual property monopolies. Thus, people are denied the use of their own knowledge — as they are when natural products, such as neem and turmeric are patented by capitalists. Thereby, communities whose traditions produced the knowledge must pay those who stole it from them, albeit legally. The public contributes to the creation of scientific knowledge in many ways, for example through government research and development grants and subsidies, as Mariana Mazzucato explains in her book, The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. In fact, large public assistance in various ways has enabled U.S. pharmaceutical companies to develop their new COVID-19 vaccines at ‘warp speed’.

Positives:

‘the freedom to circulate one’s views as the lifeline of any democratic institution’.

Negatives:

Fair recourse, privacy issues

An intermediary is now supposed to take down content within 36 hours upon receiving orders from the Government. This deprives the intermediary of a fair recourse in the event that it disagrees with the Government’s order due to a strict timeline. Additionally, it places fetters upon free speech by fixing the Government as the ultimate adjudicator of objectionable speech online.

The other infamous flaw is how these Rules undermine the right to privacy by imposing a traceability requirement. The immunity that users received from end-to-end encryption was that intermediaries did not have access to the contents of their messages. Imposing this mandatory requirement of traceability will break this immunity, thereby weakening the security of the privacy of these conversations. This will also render all the data from these conversations vulnerable to attack from ill-intentioned third parties. The threat here is not only one of privacy but to the extent of invasion and deprivation from a safe space. These regulations in the absence of a data protection law, coloured in the backdrop of recent data breach affecting a popular pizza delivery chain and also several airlines highlight a lesson left unlearnt.

On fake news

The problem here is that to eliminate fake news — rather than defining its ambit as a first step, the Rules proceed to hurriedly take down whatever an arbitrary, ill-decisioned, biased authority may deem as “fake news”.

Lastly, the Rules create futile additional operational costs for intermediaries by requiring them to have Indian resident nodal officers, compliance officers and grievance officers. Intermediaries are also required to have offices located in India. This makes profit making a far-fetched goal for multinational corporations and start-up intermediary enterprises. Therefore, not only do these Rules place a barrier on the “marketplace of ideas” but also on the economic market of intermediaries in general by adding redundant financial burdens.

Source : The Hindu Editorial

ArticlesRelationship between Prime Minister and the President 

74Mentions how the Prime Minister and President are both connected with the council of ministers. The Council with PM as head advise President on various issues.

75Mentions three things:

78 mentions PM communicates all decisions made by the council of members to the President. President can also refer issues for the consideration of the council of members.

Prime Minister of India serves the country by following various functions. He performs his functions taking responsibilities as:

=====================CM=================

Article 163The governor is advised by the council of ministers which is headed by the Chief Minister.

Note: When the governor acts at his own discretion, no advice is needed by the council

Article 164Governor appoints Chief Minister and later Chief Minister recommends Governor on the appointment of ministers

Article 167Chief Minister has to communicate all administrative decisions that are taken up by him and the council of ministers to the governor

In relation to the governor, the Chief Minister performs the following functions:

Parliament + State Legislature : M Laxmikanth (universal133.blogspot.com)

Article 163: Council of Ministers to aid and advise Governor ===simmilar to 74 in state

(1) There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his functions, except in so far as he is by or under this Constitution required to exercise his functions or any of them in his discretion.

(2) If any question arises whether any matter is or is not a matter as respects which the Governor is by or under this Constitution required to act in his discretion, the decision of the Governor in his discretion shall be final, and the validity of anything done by the Governor shall not be called in question on the ground that he ought or ought not to have acted in his discretion.

(3) The question whether any, and if so what, advice was tendered by Ministers to the Governor shall not be inquired into in any court.

164: Other provisions as to Ministers=========simmilar to 75 in state

(1) The Chief Minister shall be appointed by the Governor and the other Ministers shall be appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister, and the Ministers shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor:

Provided that in the States of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, there shall be a Minister in charge of tribal welfare who may in addition be in charge of the welfare of the Scheduled Castes and backward classes or any other work.

(1A) The total number of Ministers, including the Chief Minister, in the Council of Ministers in a State shall not exceed fifteen per cent. of the total number of members of the Legislative Assembly of that State:

Provided that the number of Ministers, including the Chief Minister in a State shall not be less than twelve:

Provided further that where the total number of Ministers including the Chief Minister in the Council of Ministers in any State at the commencement of the Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act, 2003 exceeds the said fifteen per cent. or the number specified in the first proviso, as the case may be, then the total number of Ministers in that State shall be brought in conformity with the provisions of this clause within six months from such date*

(1B) A member of the Legislative Assembly of a State or either House of the Legislature of a State having Legislative Council belonging to any political party who is disqualified for being a member of that House under paragraph 2 of the Tenth Schedule shall also be disqualified to be appointed as a Minister under clause (1) for duration of the period commencing from the date of his disqualification till the date on which the term of his office as such member would expire or where he contests any election to the Legislative Assembly of a State or either House of the Legislature of a State having Legislative Council, as the case may be, before the expiry of such period, till the date on which he is declared elected, whichever is earlier.

(2) The Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly of the State.

(3) Before a Minister enters upon his office, the Governor shall administer to him the oaths of office and of secrecy according to the forms set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule.

(4) A Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the Legislature of the State shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister.

(5) The salaries and allowances of Ministers shall be such as the Legislature of the State may from time to time by law determine and, until the Legislature of the State so determines, shall be as specified in the Second Schedule.

Supreme CourtHigh CourtIt is the principal court of justice in the country.It is the highest judicial body of a state that regulates state,s law and order.It is headed by the chief justice of India.It is headed by the chief justice of the state.There is only one Supreme Court in India.There are total 24 High Courts in India, three of which have jurisdiction in more than one state.Supreme Court has superintendence over all law courts and tribunals of the country.The High Court has superintendence over all courts under its jurisdiction.The judges of Supreme Court are appointed by the President of India.The judges of the high court are appointed by the president of India after consulting the Chief Justice of India and governor of the respective state.The judge of the Supreme Court retires at the age of 65 years.The judge of the high court retires at the age of 62 years.The judge of Supreme Court cannot plead before any court during his or her tenure or after his or her retirement.The judge of high court cannot plead before any court during his or her tenure and after retirement cannot plead in a court below the high court.

● Home Rule League Movement

Manifestation of a trend of aggressive politics in national movement;

was pioneered by Tilak and Annie Besant on lines of a similar

movement in Ireland.

* Factors Favouring the Movement

1. Need being felt for popular pressure to attain concessions.

2. Disillusionment with Morley-Minto Reforms.

3. Wartime miseries—public ready to protest.

4. Tilak, Besant ready to assume leadership.

* Aim of the Movement To convey to the common man the

concept of Home Rule as self-government.

* Tilak’s League—Started in April 1916 and operated in

Maharashtra, Karnataka, Central Provinces and Berar; had six

branches.

* Besant’s League—Started in September 1916 and operated in

rest of India; had 200 branches.

Later, the leagues were joined by others including Moderate

Congressmen.

* Methods used Organising discussions, reading rooms, propaganda

through public meetings, newspapers, pamphlets, posters, etc.

* Positive Gains Emphasis shifted to the masses permanently;

organisational link established between town and country; prepared

a generation of ardent nationalists, influenced Moderate-Extremist

reunion at Lucknow (1916)

● Lucknow Session of INC—1916

Extremists were readmitted to Congress

Muslim League and Congress put up joint demands under Lucknow

Pact.

Congress accepted the League’s position on separate electorates.

● Importance of Montagu’s Statement Attainment of self-government

for Indians became a government policy.