PM IAS JAN 07 NEWS ANALYSIS

UGC’s Draft Regulations-2023

In News

• Recently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) released draft regulations to allow foreign universities to enter India.

Key Points

• About:
  • The draft regulations of the UGC on Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India 2023 pave the way for the entry of foreign universities into the groves of higher education in the country. 
• Eligibility Criteria:
  • The UGC draft regulations-2023 have “top 500 foreign universities” and the ranking will be decided by the UGC “from time to time”.
  • In NEP-2020, only the top-100 QS ranking universities could establish their branch campuses in India to provide quality higher education to Indian students who aspire to gain foreign degrees. 
  • The draft regulations-2023 set another criterion for a branch campus to be opened up in India that “the applicant should be a reputed institution in its home jurisdiction”. 
• Fee Structure:
  • The draft regulations-2023 allow foreign higher educational institutions to decide a fee structure that is “transparent and reasonable”. 
  • Foreign higher educational institutions now have the freedom to decide “qualifications, salary structure, and other conditions of service for appointing faculty and staff”. 
• Physical Infrastructure:
  • It states that “The Foreign Higher Educational Institutions should arrange for adequate physical infrastructure”. 
• No Equivalence Requirement:
  • All Indian students with foreign degrees are required to get an equivalence certificate from the Association of Indian Universities. 
  • The draft regulations-2023 waive off equivalence requirement for the degrees granted by the foreign branch campuses in India. 
• Safeguards for Indian Students:
  • The draft states that the UGC will have the right to inspect the campuses at any time. 
  • Campuses will not be outside the purview of anti-ragging and other criminal laws.
• Repatriation of Profits: 
  • The draft regulations-2023 allow for smooth repatriation of profits earned by the foreign branch campuses under the rules and regulations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) 1999.
  • The draft regulations also require the foreign universities to submit audit reports and annual reports to the UGC “certifying that [their] operations…in India are in compliance with FEMA 1999” and other relevant government policies.
• Restrictive Instructions:
  • Foreign Higher Educational Institutions shall not offer any such programme of study which jeopardises the national interest of India or the standards of higher education in India.
  • The operation of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions shall not be contrary to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency, or morality.
  • The UGC shall impose a penalty and/ or suspend/ withdraw its approval at any time if the university’s “activities or academic programmes are against the interest of India”.

Image: Highlights of UGC’s draft

Significance of Draft Regulations

• Promoting the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020’ Vision:
  • Internationalisation of Indian higher education is necessary to meet the objectives of National Education Policy 2020 which states that “top universities in the world will be facilitated to operate in India”.
• Freedom to Foreign Universities:
  • The foreign universities will have full freedom to decide the fee structure and admission criteria for both Indian and overseas students.
  • They will also get a free hand in hiring faculty, either from India or abroad, and will not be expected to mandatorily follow reservation policies in admissions and employment.

Challenges/ Issues with Draft Regulations

• Issue of Accessibility:
  • The draft guidelines gives foreign branch campuses in India an upper hand in deciding different fees for different programmes. 
  • As a result, programmes with higher market value would be more expensive and not accessible to many students. 
• Investment on Infrastructure: 
  • The provision for physical infrastructure would be problematic for foreign higher education institutions reluctant to go for major infrastructural investment and many would prefer to wait and watch for others to take the initiative. 
• Restrictions on Faculty Members:
  • The foreign faculty members may find it difficult to balance state policies, sensibilities and laissez-faire intellectual standpoint. 
  • In days to come, this is going to be a major issue in the process of knowledge creation and transaction in India.
• Vague Criteria for Reputation: 
  • It is not clear how the UGC would determine the reputation of such foreign universities that do not appear in any world rankings but are considered “reputed” in their home country.
• Attracting Top Universities: 
  • It will ultimately depend on whether top universities find the Indian market attractive enough to invest in a branch campus in the country.
  • Surely the top 100 universities were not terribly keen to open their campuses in India. 
• Removal of Equivalence Certificate: 
  • After waiving off equivalence requirements, it would be difficult to ensure that the degrees offered by the foreign branch campuses would be accepted by the employers in the home countries of the campuses.
• Determining Need for Scholarship:
  • Although there is a provision for “full or partial need-based scholarships” to be provided by the FHEI (foreign higher educational institution) from funds such as endowment funds, alumni donations, tuition revenues, and other sources, determining “need” will be a challenging task. 

Way Ahead

• India is a young nation with an increasing need for higher education and an ever-increasing demand for foreign degrees. 
• As committed in NEP-2020, India should cater to the needs of a large section of Indian society termed “Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Groups-SEDGs” that include women, transgenders, SCs, STs, OBCs, EWS, differently abled, migrants and geographically disadvantaged groups.
• India should provide physical infrastructure to facilitate its strategy of internationalisation of higher education. (for example, successful functioning of Dubai Knowledge Park).
• The guidelines should not open floodgates for such foreign educational institutions whose sole objective is to only earn profit.

Facebook Fined for Breaching EU Privacy Law

In News

• Recently, Facebook’s parent company Meta has been imposed with two sets of fines totalling €390 million.

Key Points Of Ruling in Ireland

• The Irish privacy regulator concluded that the company’s advertising and data handling practices were in breach of the EU’s overarching privacy law. 
• The Irish DPC is the lead regulatory authority for Meta and a number of other US tech majors that have their headquarters in Ireland.
• Concerns:
  • Imposition of Personalised Ads: The legal permission that Meta sought from users to collect their data for personalised advertising as part of its lengthy terms-of-service agreement essentially forced them to accept personalised ads, in violation of the GDPR. 
• The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) said that Meta should be ordered to pay two fines —
  • a €210 million fine over violations of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and 
  • a €180 million fine linked to breaches of the GDPR by Instagram.
• Meta was not entitled to simply rely on contracts as a legal basis for processing user data for targeted advertisements.
• It said that Meta has to bring its data processing operations “into compliance within three months”.

Significance of the Ruling

• Emphasis on Protection of Individuals’ Data:
  • This case is particularly significant given that the Irish DPC began investigating Facebook on May 25, 2018 — the day the GDPR came into effect. 
  • So, it is supporting the overarching theme of the EU’s landmark legislation: the right of the individual over her data and the need for a person to give explicit consent before their data can be processed.
• Restricting Use of personal data for advertising:
  • The DPC’s decision could imply that Meta would have to tweak its apps over the next three months to ensure that they do not leverage personal data for advertising. 
  • That could be a big blow to the company in terms of how its advertising model works: Meta earlier relied on a user’s consent to process this information for the purposes of behavioural ads, but tweaked the terms of service for both Facebook and Instagram on the processing of the information after the GDPR kicked in.
• Financial Hardships for Meta:
  • This fine comes at a time when Meta’s forecasts for profits in 2023 have fallen nearly 50 percent. 
  • The company’s much-hyped Metaverse push is struggling, and the performance numbers reflect signs that both users and advertisers are moving away from the platforms.
  • Meta, which changed its name from Facebook in 2021, has seen its share price tumble by nearly 60 percent since the rebranding.

EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

• It is a law passed by the 28-member bloc in 2018. (now 27)
• The GDPR is the toughest privacy and security law in the world. 
• Though it was drafted and passed by the European Union (EU), it imposes obligations onto organizations anywhere, so long as they target or collect data related to people in the EU.
• As per the GDPR, cross-border cases are to be handled by the data-protection authority in the country where the company is based.
• European Data Protection Board: The body that oversees regulatory action on data privacy across the 27-nation bloc.

Data Protection Law in India

• The data protection Bill has been in the works since 2018 when a panel led by Justice B N Srikrishna had prepared a draft version of the Bill.  
• The government made revisions to this draft and introduced it as the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 (PDP Bill, 2019) in the Lok Sabha in 2019.
  • Due to delays caused by the pandemic, the Joint Committee on the PDP Bill, 2019 (JPC) submitted its report on the Bill after two years in December, 2021. 
• The report was accompanied by a new draft bill, namely, the Data Protection Bill, 2021 that incorporated the recommendations of the JPC. 
• In August 2022, citing the report of the JPC and the “extensive changes” that the JPC had made to the 2019 Bill, the government withdrew the PDP Bill.
• Now, the government is expected to introduce the Bill in Parliament in the budget session of 2023.

Way Ahead

• While protecting the rights of the data principal, data protection laws need to ensure that the compliances for data fiduciaries are not so onerous as to make even legitimate processing impractical. 
• The challenge lies in finding an adequate balance between the right to privacy of data principles and reasonable exceptions, especially where government processing of personal data is concerned.

Indian Women Peacekeeping Forces

Context

• India deployed a platoon of women peacekeepers in Abyei on the border of Sudan and South Sudan as part of the Indian Battalion in the United Nations Interim Security Force.

About

• Composition: It includes two women Army officers – a Major from the Corps of Signals and a Captain from the Corps of Engineers.
• The contingent has 25 women soldiers from the Corps of Military Police (CMP) and the Assam Rifles. 
• The CMP is the only arm of the Army opened for recruitment of women soldiers in 2021.
• Distinction: This is India’s largest single unit of women peacekeepers in a UN Mission.
• UN Mandate: The UN requested member states to deploy female engagement teams (FET) with infantry battalion groups in UN Missions to deal with situations involving women and children suffering the most in a conflict situation.

• The FETs tasks: Conduct of joint patrols, dialogue with local women or girls, assistance during humanitarian crises, information gathering and perception management.
• India’s Commitment: UN seeks at least 19% women officers of the total vacancies released to the Army. However, the Indian Army had sent 21% of women officers.

Importance of Women Peacekeeping Units:

• Genesis: India had deployed the first-ever all women’s contingent from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Liberia in 2007 as part of United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
• Praiseworthy: It acted as a model for the African country, which now has 17% women in Liberian security service as compared to less than 1% in 2007.
• Indian women tradition in Peacekeeping: 
• Dr Kiran Bedi, UN’s first Police Adviser, Major Suman Gawani and Shakti Devi have made a mark for themselves in UN Peacekeeping. 
• As part of UN Missions, women officers have served in various conflict-torn countries in challenging assignments, in medical duties and as military observers. 

• Social and community development: Indian teams in the Congo and South Sudan have also done sterling work in mainstreaming women and children into Community and Social developmental projects at the grassroots level.
• Vocational Training in native language: Women officers also learnt to interact with the population and NGOs in French and local Swahili and took part in various quick impact projects such as facilitating the operation of vocational training centers in the country and setting up power connections.  
• Better Reach: Women officers are able to reach the populace in a better manner, especially the women and children who are majorly affected in conflicts and victims of sexual violence in conflict zones.
• Complementary Role: The role of police and other paramilitary contingents in the UN is law enforcement in situations such as rioting and stone pelting. While their job is to assist and empower the local population as well as the local Army there under UN resolutions 6 and 7.
• Gender Parity: The move is in line with the United Nations’ Gender Parity drive and it will serve as a model for the deployment of similar engagement teams in other UN Missions in the near future.

UN Security Council resolution 1325 (UNSCR1325)

• UNSCR1325 ensuing resolutions, as well as the Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) Declaration of Shared Commitments, the UN has called for an expansion of the role and contribution of women in its operations, including of uniformed women peacekeepers. 
• In this context, promoting the participation of women, both in peacekeeping and within the societies, is at the center of UN efforts.

Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) Initiative

• It views the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda as critical to enhancing peacekeeping operations’ performance through:

• Supporting women’s full participation in peace processes and 
• Making peacekeeping more gender-responsive by increasing the number of civilian and uniformed women in peacekeeping at all levels and in key positions. 
• A4P has been signed by 152 Member States, a number of which have come forward to specifically champion implementation of A4P’s WPS commitment: Bangladesh, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, South Africa and the United Kingdom. 

Conclusion

• This reflects India’s cherished tradition of active participation in UN peacekeeping missions and showcasing of Nari Shakti in UN Peacekeeping Missions.

First Advance Estimates by NSO

In News

• According to the first advance estimates of national income released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to grow 7 percent in the financial year 2022-23.

Key Points

• About:
  • This marks the first official government estimate for economic growth ahead of the upcoming Union Budget for 2023-24. 
  • The first advance estimates, obtained by extrapolation of seven months’ data, are released early in January to help officers in the Union Finance Ministry and other departments frame the broad contours of the budget for the next financial year. 
  • The second advance estimate of GDP is then released on February-end.
• Slower GDP growth:
  • This is slower than the 8.7 percent GDP growth in 2021-22, but slightly higher than the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) forecast of 6.8 percent for the current financial year (FY).
  • Gross Value Added (GVA) is seen growing at sub-7 percent – 6.7 percent in FY23 as against 8.1 percent last fiscal. 
  • The GDP projection of 7 percent factors in a 0.2 percent contraction in private final consumption expenditure during the second half of the current FY, indicating weak demand and the impact of slowing exports. 
• Declining Growth of Nominal GDP: 
  • India’s nominal GDP, which factors in the inflation rate, is set to grow by 15.4 percent in 2022-23, down from 19.5 percent in 2021-22. 
• Performance of Various Sectors:
  • The growth of GDP will be aided by good performance and higher growth of the agriculture and services sectors. 
  • Agriculture is seen growing at 3.5 percent in FY23 as against 3 percent growth in the previous year.
  • The manufacturing sector is seen growing 1.6 percent as against 9.9 percent last fiscal. 
  • Electricity generation is estimated to grow 9 percent as against 7.5 percent last year, while the construction sector is seen growing at 9.1 percent as against 11.5 percent last fiscal.
  • The services sector, especially hospitality and financial services, are expected to post a strong rebound. Trade, hotels, and transport services are projected to post a growth of 13.7 percent in 2022-23 from 11.1 percent growth last fiscal. 
• Projections:
  • On the demand side, while private final consumption expenditure, gross fixed capital formation and exports are expected to witness reasonably good growth.
  • For the consumption side, government final consumption expenditure may record a low single digit growth.
  • The growth projections for the trade, hotels, transport and communication services segment seem quite optimistic. 
  • The growth projections for the public administration and other services segment are on the lower side and the projections are likely to undergo revisions going ahead.

The First Advance Estimates (FAE) of GDP

• About:
  • It was first introduced in 2016-17, and is typically published at the end of the first week of January. 
  • They are the “first” official estimates of how GDP is expected to grow in that financial year. 
  • But they are also the “advance” estimates because they are published long before the financial year (April to March) is over.
  • The FAE is published soon after the end of the third quarter (October, November, December), they do not include the formal Q3 GDP data, which is published at the end of February as part of the Second Advance Estimates (SAE).
• Methodology:
  • The FAE is derived by extrapolating the available data. 
  • The approach for compiling the Advance Estimates is based on the Benchmark-Indicator method i.e. “the estimates available for the previous year (2020-21 in this case) are extrapolated using relevant indicators reflecting the performance of sectors.”
• Significance:
  • The first advance estimates are released early to help officers in the Union Finance Ministry and other departments frame the broad contours of the next Union Budget.
  • From the Budget-making perspective, it is important to note what has happened to nominal GDP — both absolute level and its growth rate. All Budget calculations start with the nominal GDP.

Challenges for India’s Growth

• Lingering Slowdown:
  • India’s growth story is worrying because the slowdown began much before the COVID-19 pandemic. 
  • It began in 2016, after which, for four consecutive years, the growth rate each year was lower than in the previous year.
  • This downward spiral stretching over four years has never happened before in India since its independence in 1947.
• Rising Inequalities:
  • The inequality in India has risen disproportionately over the last few years. 
  • Most of India’s growth is occurring at the top end, with a few corporations gathering a disproportionate share of profits.
  • A large segment of the population are actually witnessing negative growth.
• Eroding Trust:
  • The investment rate has many drivers- monetary policy, fiscal policy, social and political factors. 
  • It is arguable that trust is a major driver of investment. As the level of trust erodes in a society, investment tends to fall.
  • With the rise of political polarisation and the policy of divide and rule, it is likely that societal trust is eroding and this is reducing the investment rate.
• Low Job Creation:
  • The falling investment rate is adversely impacting growth and hurting job creation and high unemployment rate.
  • Also, the erosion of trust is slowing down investment and adversely impacting job creation.

Way Ahead

• India needs to shift the policy focus from a few rich corporations to the larger segments of population — small businesses, farmers and ordinary labourers. 
• There is a need for fiscal policy interventions to transfer income from the super-rich to these segments. 
• For a sustainable growth and recovery of the Indian economy, revival of private corporate sector capex is a must.
• India must create an ethos of inclusion and trust for inclusive growth.

Gross Value Added (GVA)It is the value of output minus the value of intermediate consumption.GVA is a measure of the contribution to growth made by an individual producer, industry or sector.It provides the rupee value for the number of goods and services produced in an economy after deducting the cost of inputs and raw materials that have gone into the production of those goods and services.Simply put, GDP provides the demand side of the economy, and GVA the supply side.Real GDPIt is the GDP after taking away the effect of inflation. Real GDP = Nominal GDP — Inflation Rate

Members of the Kuki-Chin Community

In News

• As another round of refugee crisis brewed on the Mizoram-Bangladesh border, several members of the Kuki-Chin community were “pushed back” by the Border Security Force (BSF).

About Kuki-Chin Refugees

• Kuki-Chin, the Christian community from Bangladesh’s Chittagong hill tracts, share close ethnic ties with people in Mizoram.
  • The first tranche of around 300 refugees came in November 2022. 
• The Mizoram government has approved the setting up of temporary shelters and other amenities for the community, following an action by the Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion against some insurgents belonging to the group.

India’s Position 

• India is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol and does not recognise refugees, and undocumented migrants are liable to be prosecuted for violating the Foreigners Act.
  • Other than the Kuki-Chin, there are over 40,000 refugees from Myanmar who have taken shelter in Mizoram since a military coup in the neighbouring country in February 2021.

Arab Spring

In News

K.P. Fabian’s newly launched book, ‘The Arab Spring That Was and Wasn’t’ was seen in the news recently.

About Arab Spring

• a wave of uprisings, revolts, protests, and unrest, spread across Arabic nations in the Middle East and North Africa by early 2011.

What gave birth to the Arab Spring?

•  In December 2010, a Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi set himself ablaze in the city of Sidi Bouzid to protest the draconian seizing of his vegetable shop by the police over failure to receive a permit. 
• His sacrifice became a catalyst for the Arab Spring revolution in Tunisia. 
• The pro-democracy protests that ensued in Tunis, eventually provoked authoritarian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who ruled for more than 23 years, to resign and flee to Saudi Arabia.
• The regime change in Tunisia inspired activists in other countries and began to protest authoritarian governments in their own nations. 
• The street protests triggered a wave of revolts across the Middle East as people began to voice their angst against unemployment, corruption, discrimination, authoritarianism, and poverty.

Impact of Arab Spring

•  The Arab Spring caused the end of many long-standing autocrats. 
• In Yemen, the fallout of the Arab Spring is playing out in a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and the UAE — both US proxies — and Iran.
  • Millions have been displaced, and a Saudi-led blockade has led to massive starvation and malnutrition.
• Although the protest movements in 2011 were unique in their interconnected struggle for democracy across the region, the push to end corruption and improve citizens’ quality of life did not end with the Arab Spring. 

A new dwarf boa species from Ecuador

In News

• Scientists have discovered a new species of dwarf boa in the Ecuadoran Amazon and named it after an Indigenous activist.

About Dwarf Boa

• The snake from the Tropidophiidae family was found in the cloud forest in northeastern Ecuador and was up to 20 centimetres long. 
• Tropidophis cacuangoae can be identified from other reptiles in the same genus based on its external features and bone structure.
• The scientists found two verified specimens of the species.
  • Its colouring is primarily light brown with darker brown or black blotches — similar to a boa constrictor. 
  • The species inhabits eastern tropical piedmont and lower evergreen montane forests in the Amazon tropical rainforest biome and the researchers suspect it to be an Ecuadorian endemic. 
  • The species is unusual for having a “vestigial pelvis”, which is characteristic of primitive snakes.
    • This could be evidence that snakes descended from lizards that lost their limbs over millions of years. 
• History of naming: The snake’s name honours Dolores Cacuango, an early 20th-century pioneer in the fight for indigenous and farmers’ rights in Ecuador.

Significance of the discovery 

• The discovery of T cacuangoae demonstrates that small and cryptic vertebrates can undergo large periods of time without being detected and formally describe by science.
• The discovery of this new species highlights a critical need to accelerate research in remote areas where information gaps remain but are suspected of harbouring high biodiversity and are severely threatened by human impacts.