GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

The Public Debt Management report for July to September 2022 has been released showing growth in the G-sec market by 8.64% in Q2 quarter from the last Quarter (Q1) of April to June 2022-23.

Details of the report:

• Released by: The Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.
• Points discussed:
  • Trading volumes in government securities (g-secs) hit a two-year high of Rs 27.67 lakh crore in the July to September quarter (Q2) of 2022-23, rising 8.64% from Q1, with the Finance Ministry terming this a sign of growing market interest in such bonds.
  • The higher trading volume in Q2 of 2022-23 in comparison to the previous quarter shows the growing interest of market players/ traders in the government security market.
  • In terms of ownership, Government of India bonds owned by the RBI fell to a two-year low of 15.3% in Q2.
  • This was also the first time in seven quarters that RBI-owned bonds have slipped below 16% of outstanding dated GoI securities. 

How they are used by the Central Bank?

• Open market operations are conducted by the RBI by way of the sale or purchase of government securities (g-secs) to adjust money supply conditions.
• The central bank sells g-secs to suck out liquidity from the system and buys back g-secs to infuse liquidity into the system.
• These operations are often conducted on a day-to-day basis in a manner that balances inflation while helping banks continue to lend.
• The RBI uses Open Market Operations (OMO) along with other monetary policy tools such as repo rate, cash reserve ratio and statutory liquidity ratio to adjust the quantum and price of money in the system.
• The Reserve Bank reserves the right to decide-
  • on the quantum of purchase/sale of individual securities
  • accept bids/offers for less than the aggregate amount
  • purchase/sell marginally higher/lower than the aggregate amount due to rounding-off
  • Accept or reject any or all the bids/offers either wholly or partially without assigning any reasons.

Significance:

• Smoothens the availability of money: In India, liquidity conditions usually tighten during the second half of the financial year (mid-October onwards).
  • This happens because the pace of government expenditure usually slows down, even as the onset of the festival season leads to a seasonal spike in currency demand.
  • Moreover, activities of foreign institutional investors, advance tax payments, etc. also cause an ebb and flow of liquidity.
  • However, the RBI smoothens the availability of money throughout the year to make sure that liquidity conditions don’t impact the ideal level of interest rates it would like to maintain in the economy.
• Liquidity management: Liquidity management is also essential so that banks and their borrowers don’t face a cash crunch.
  • The RBI buys g-secs if it thinks systemic liquidity needs a boost and offloads them if it wants to mop up excess money.

The Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) Promotion Task Force report has been submitted to the government for consideration, which has proposed a ‘National AVGC-Extended Reality Mission’ with a budget outlay to be created for integrated promotion and growth of the sector.

Need of the initiative:

• India today contributes about $2.5-3 billion of the estimated $260-275 billion worldwide AVGC market.
• According to industry experts, the Indian market which currently employs about 1.85 lakh AVGC professionals, can witness a growth of 14-16% in the next decade.

About the proposed mission:

• Draft national and State policies for the promotion of the gaming digital sector have been submitted by the Task Force.
• A “Create in India” campaign was to be launched with an exclusive focus on content creation. It is an international AVGC platform aimed at:
• Attracting foreign direct investment, co-production treaties and innovation in collaboration with international counterparts,
• National and regional centres of excellence for skill development; and
• Leveraging National Education Policy to develop creative thinking at the school level.
• University-based curriculum: A University Grants Commission (UGC)-recognised curriculum for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees has also been suggested.
• The Task Force has proposed standardisation of admission tests for AVGC-related courses.
• For Training and capacity building: Memorandum of Cooperation may be signed between India and other developed global AVGC markets like S., Japan, South Korea, and Germany, for providing internships to Indian AVGC professionals.
• The report has also recommended the establishment of AVGC accelerators and innovation hubs in academic institutions.
• Democratising AVGC technologies by promoting subscription-based pricing models for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), start-ups and institutions.
• Promoting culture: It will promote indigenous technology development through incentive schemes and Intellectual Property creation, and setting up a dedicated production fund for domestic content creation from across India to promote the country’s culture and heritage globally.
• Inclusion of Women and Children: A special incentive for women entrepreneurs was also included in the sector and promotion of local children’s channels for raising awareness of the rich culture and history of India among children and youth.
• It suggested the establishment of a framework to ensure the protection of child rights in the digital world.

• The Parliamentary panel on Social Justice and Empowerment has asked the centre to speed up the process to categorize 260 denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic tribes under either the SC/ST/OBC lists.

Details:

• The Parliamentary panel has categorically said that:
  • The delay is increasing the suffering of potential beneficiaries.
  • It is also depriving them of welfare schemes.
  • Potential beneficiaries are unable to benefit from schemes for the welfare of SC/STs.

Departments Response:

• Anthropological Survey of India submitted reports on the categorization of 48 DNT communities.
• More than 10 crore Indians from over 1,400 communities are either denotified, nomadic, or semi-nomadic.
• Of this, the Idate Commission had categorized 1,262 communities under SC/ST/OBC lists and 267 communities were left uncategorized.
• Even the communities categorized by the Idate Commission are not accurate with many communities appearing in SC lists in one State or district and on the ST list in others.

What are Notified, Nomadic, and Semi-Nomadic Tribes?

• These are communities that are the most vulnerable and deprived.
• DNTs are communities that were ‘notified’ as being ‘born criminals’ during the British regime under a series of laws starting with the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871.
  • These Acts were repealed by the Independent Indian Government in l952, and these communities were "De-Notified".
• A few of these communities which were listed as de-notified were also nomadic.
  • Nomadic and semi-nomadic communities are defined as those who move from one place to another rather than living in one place all the time.
• Historically, Nomadic Tribes and De-notified Tribes never had access to private land or home ownership.
• While most DNTs are spread across the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories, some DNTs are not covered in any of the SC, ST, or OBC categories.
• Many commissions and committees constituted since Independence have referred to the problems of these communities.
  • Criminal Tribes Inquiry Committee, 1947
  • Ananthasayanam Ayyangar Committee in 1949
  • Kaka Kalelkar Commission
  • B P Mandal Commission constituted in 1980
  • National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC), 2002

Policy measures for DNTs

• A National Commission for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) was constituted in 2006 by the then government.
• It was headed by Balkrishna Sidram Renke and submitted its report in June 2008.
• It said that it is an irony that these tribes somehow escaped the attention of our Constitution makers and thus got deprived of the Constitutional support unlike SCs and STs.
• The Renke commission estimated their population at around 10.74 crore based on Census 2001.
• Much recently, the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment launched the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of De-notified, Nomadic, and Semi Nomadic Communities (SEED).
• It is important to know that, the processing the applications for the SEED scheme cannot be completed unless the State and district-level reviews are completed.

The efforts made by the Telangana government in the direction of protecting its heritage sites have created a buzz about heritage and culture.

Steps were taken by Telangana Government:

• Moazzam Jahi Market (1935) was restored at a reported cost of Rs 16 crore.
• Bansilalpet stepwell was restored at Rs 2.6 crore.
• The restoration of a century-old library and two municipal markets is in the pipeline.

Recent achievements:

• Ramappa temple (13^th-century temple) near Warangal was given the UNESCO World Heritage site
• The Golconda stepwells and Domakonda Fort were winners in UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific awards for cultural heritage conservation in 2022.

Future Plans:

• The World Bank and Government of India project mapped the steps to create an ‘inclusive heritage-based city development in India.
  • The detailed project report identified a 4.29 km stretch of the river Musi for action.
  • It prescribed structural improvement to heritage buildings and retaining walls.
• To achieve the UNESCO World Heritage City status for Hyderabad, like Ahmedabad and Jaipur.
  • This will help to boost tourism.

What is Cultural Heritage?

• Cultural Heritage includes physical, or tangible cultural heritage, such as artworks. These are generally split into two groups of movable and immovable heritage:
  • Immovable heritage includes buildings, historic places, and monuments.
  • Moveable heritage includes books, documents, moveable artworks, music, and other artefacts that are considered worthy of preservation for the future.

What is the Significance of Preserving Cultural Heritage?

• Economic significance: Cultural industries are key components of modern economies. The prevalence of cultural sites, services, and art forms tends to boost tourism, sustain livelihoods, and attract investment.
• Historical-Social significance: The non-economic benefits of culture include the preservation of history, the generation of knowledge, and the nurturing of creativity

Issues Related to Heritage Management in India:

• Lack of Centralised Database for Heritage Sites: India lacks a complete national-level database with the state-wise distribution of heritage structure.
  • However, Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has inventoried about 60,000 buildings in around 150 cities which is still only the tip of the iceberg as there are estimated more than 4000 heritage towns and cities in the country.
• Outdated Mechanism of Excavation and Exploration: Due to the prevalence of outdated mechanisms, Geographic Information Systems, and Remote Sensing are rarely used in exploration.
• Lack of Centre-State Coordination: Despite the presence of some of the best conservation and heritage management institutions in India like the Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage (INTACH), a multidisciplinary approach to practising heritage conservation is lacking due to a lack of coordination between the centre and the state.
• Prevailing Developmental Activities over Heritage Conservation: In India, many sites with rich deposits of archaeological remains have been destroyed due to developmental activities.
• Urban renewal activities are compartmentalized both in terms of city development planning and investments.
  • This is a key challenge as the revitalization of built heritage or a site cannot happen in isolation and a holistic perspective is needed.

The report, ‘Smuggling in India Report, 2021-22’ has shown concern regarding the volume of illegal commodities seized and describes the kinds of items smuggled in India.

Key highlights from the Report:

• Items seized by Indian Customs and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).
  • Gold, dried seahorses, heroin and red sander, etc.
• Gold: Worth of over 800 kilograms of gold transported illegally (worth over Rs.400 crore)
  • Most of the seized gold originated in Myanmar.
• Illegal foreign currency: DRI seized over Rs 1,100 lakhs worth of illegal foreign currency.
• Narcotics: 28,334 kilos were seized.
  • 1,100 lakh sticks of cigarettes worth over Rs 93 crore
  • Cigarettes are smuggled into India given the high taxes imposed on local brands.
  • Most seized packages do not contain pictorial warnings as mandated by the Indian government.
• Crimes related to the environment:
  • Elephant tusks worth over Rs 700 crores were recovered by the DRI.
  • A kilo of Ambergris is worth Rs 1 crore.
  • Ambergris or whale vomit: It is produced by the digestive system of sperm whales and is used in luxury perfumery, is a banned substance in India.
  • Seahorses: They have anti-inflammatory qualities and are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
  • Indian star tortoises: They are smuggled into the country and sold as exotic pets.

The Northeast smuggling routes:

• 73 per cent of the gold caught had been brought through Myanmar and Bangladesh.
  • 37% of all the gold seized in FY22 was from Myanmar. 20% of it originated from West Asia.
  • Many international reports suggest that smuggled gold is brought into Myanmar from China through the towns of Ruili and Muse on the Chinese and Myanmarese sides of the border respectively.
  • Muse is located in the Shan State in Northeastern Myanmar and Ruili is in the Dehong Dai Prefecture of Yunnan Province, China.

About the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI):

• It is India's chief anti-smuggling intelligence, investigations, and operations agency.
• It works under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Ministry of Finance.
• It is headed by a Director General of the rank of Special Secretary to the Government of India.
• DRI works to secure India's national and economic security by preventing the outright smuggling of firearms, gold, narcotics, fake Indian Currency notes, antiques, wildlife, and environmental products.
• It also works to prevent the proliferation of black money, commercial frauds, and trade-based money laundering.
• It is headquartered in New Delhi.

The Karnataka Legislative Assembly has passed the Bill that increases the reservation of seats in educational institutions and jobs for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes unanimously.

Key Points:

• The Bill purposes to increase reservations:
  • Scheduled Castes from 15 per cent to 17 per cent
  • Scheduled Tribes from 3 per cent to 7 per cent in the state
• It will result in exceeding the 50 per cent ceiling on quota by 6 per cent, which is against the ceiling of 50 % by the Supreme Court in the 1992 Indra Sawhney case.
• If the constitution is not amended to suit the increase in the reservation, the court could strike it off.
• In the Bill passed by the Karnataka Assembly, the recommendation is to amend the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution accordingly.

Other demands:

• Reservation in Private sectors and outsourced jobs: It was argued that the increase in reservations for the SC and ST would not benefit unless the reservation was implemented in the private sector too.
  • Reason: There is only 2 per cent of jobs in government offices and they are also decreasing due to disinvestment and privatization.

Why the need to include it in the Ninth Schedule?

• The 56 per cent reservation breaches the 50 per cent ceiling set by the Supreme Court in the landmark 1992 Indra Sawhney v Union of India verdict.
• However, placing legislation in the Ninth Schedule shields it from judicial scrutiny.

Indra Sawhney case:

• In the Indra Sawhney vs Union of India, popularly known as the Mandal Commission case, the Supreme Court ordered that total reservation should not exceed 50 per cent.
  • Critics believe that the 50 per cent ceiling is a constitutional requirement without which the structure of equality of opportunity would collapse.
• Supreme Court’s recent judgment regarding flexibility on the 50% cap on the reservation:
  • The bill was cleared in the backdrop of a Supreme Court Constitution Bench’s majority ruling in the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) case that the 50% cap on the reservation was not sacrosanct.