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- October 2019
Index
Toppers Talk
Art & Culture
Polity
- Right to access internet is fundamental right declares Kerala High Court
- Legal rights of Deities in India, Difference in Natural and Juristic Person
- Bru refugees refuse to return to Mizoram
- No animal sacrifice in Tripura temple-Orders High Court
- EC’s Order on Reducing Sikkim CM’s Disqualification Period
- Law Ministry issues corrigendum to Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act
- Appointment of the Judges in India.
- New Chief Justice of India- How is CJI appointed?
- Indian Penal Code 1860, HM Amit Shah wants to Overhaul IPC
- National Population Register (NPR) 2020
- Whistle Blowers Allegations on Infosys
Governance & Social Justice
- 60% girls in Delhi colleges anaemic
- Niti aayog’s School education quality index
- Multipurpose National Identity Card
- Population pyramid : India Vs China, Demographic dividend Phase of India
- UN Population Report, India will become the most populous country by 2027
- Supreme Court upholds SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendments Act
- Comparing Population Pyramids of India and China
- Waqf boards-Their governance and purpose
- Harvard Admissions Case
- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana- Ist Anniversary, Problems and solutions
- Significance of sexual and Reproductive Health-Status of reproductive services in India
- Pregnancy in Old Age, What is In Vitro Fertilisation-Risks and legal shortcomings
- Supreme Court Judgement on NGOs and RTI
- Social Stock Exchange
- Rajasthan Govt changes EWS norms, Sets Rs 8 lakh family income as only criteria
- Global hunger index 2019
- No Government job for those with more than two kids
- Ranitidine CANCER risk
- IIT Council Introduces Tenure track system
International Relations
- Bangladesh growing faster than India ?
- Cyprus dispute explained
- Donald Trump impeachment
- India wins Hyderabad Nizam case against Pakistan
- India’s reply to Pakistan at UNGA
- Prime Minister of Malaysia calls India and invader in Kashmir
- Should India recognise the armenian genocide ?
- Why are CARICOM countries important for India ?
- Why are countries leaving OPEC ?
- Attacks on Saudi Oil facilities
- Organization of Islamic Cooperation issues statement on Jammu and Kashmir
- Sri Lanka’s relations with India & China
- US troops start pullout in Syria as Turkey prepares for operation
- What are Vanilla Islands?
- India-USA trade deal
- UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award-2019
- Modi – Xi Informal meet at Mamallapuram – Historic Chinese links
- India China informal summit in Tamil nadu
- Pakistan save from FATF blacklist till 2020
- USA blacklists China organisations over Uighur Muslim abuse
- Why is Chile burning ?
- Why is the Philippines important for India
- Xi jinping Nepal visit 2019 and impact on India
- India Pakistan Cross LOC Trade suspended, Should India revoke suspension?
- Protests in Lebanon
- Chennai to Vladivostok Sea Route
- End of baghdadi
- Indian government’s security advisory
- Indians no longer require Visa to visit Brazil
- Non Aligned Movement 2019 summit
- US backed Ceasefire between Turkey and Kurds
- Pakistan stops postal exchange with India
- China’s GDP growth slows to 6% slowest in 27 years
- Common Goods for Health project by WHO
- Turkey attack Kurds in Syria
Geography
Economy
- Behavioural Aspect of Farmer Suicide
- Is rural India really open defecation free ?
- Global Growth Slow Down
- Nobel Prize in Economics 2019
- Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
- SBI wrote off bad loans worth 76,000 crores
- Surge in Onion Price
- Agriculture Credit by RBI’s Internal Working Group
- What is Debt to GDP Ratio?
- Yes Bank Crisis
- Nobel prize in Literature – Controversy
- Boosting Indian Exports
- Sopore Fruit Mandi deserted
- What is Pink Collarisation?
- Mizoram to have Broad Gauge railway line by 2021
- Demand downturn in Indian Economy
- Payment facilitation fund
- Participatory Guarantee Scheme
- RBI’s 4th Bi-monthly Monetary Policy 2019-20
- Tourism restrictions lifted in Kashmir
- Link between Jobs, Farming, and Climate
- Draft Social Security Code 2019
- State Tax Revenues, SGST and Central Tax Devolution are likely to fall short
- Competitiveness Index 2019 by World Economic Forum
- NITI Aayog’s Water Resources Strategy
- BSNL and MTNL financial issues-DoT prepares Rs 74000 crore revival plan
- 20th Livestock Census
- India falls 10 ranks in World economic forum’s Global competitiveness index
- RBI stops Printing Rs 2000 Notes
- What is the Unified Approach proposal of OECD?
- FCI granaries overflowing
- India’s Economic Growth 2019
- Financial Sector Scams in India
- Labour Market of India
- New Strategic Disinvestment Process
- Payment Delays to Sugarcane Farmers
- Why India’s IMF Quota is not increased
- What is monetary policy Transmission? Why banks are not reducing interest
- Mahatma Gandhi’s theory of Economics
- India moves up 14 spots to 63 on world Bank ease of doing business index
- New amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act
- Power Sector Scenario in India
- Telecos to Pay Rs 96,642 crore to the Government
- Camel population declines in Rajasthan
- Merger of BSNL and MTNL
- World bank on Indian economy
Defence & Security
- Nagas Kukis Conflict, What is the cause of the latest tensions?
- Case against 50 Celebrities controversy
- Can Indian Government intercept WhatsApp?
- UP Government fires 25000 home guards, Is Yogi Government’s decision justified?
- NCRB’s Crime in India 2017 report
- Aadhaar Social Media mandatory linking case
- What is TechSagar? National repository of India’s cyber tech capabilities.
Disaster Management
Science & Technology
- ISRO’S Project NETRA
- Facebook’s LIBRA Currency in trouble
- WHO launches first World report on Vision
- 2019 Nobel prize in physics
- 2019 Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine
- Elon musk’s starlink project
- NASA’s ICON mission
- New King of the Moons in the Solar system is Saturn
- What Is Spectroscopy ?
- Quantum supremacy
Environment
- Climate Vulnerable Mapping Of India
- C40 Cities
- Gujarat Unveils emission trading scheme
- Forest Plus 2.0
- Himalayan States seeks Green Bonus
- India to Phase Out Single Use Plastic (SUP) by 2022
- Role of Volcanoes in Global Warming
- NH 766 ban controversy, Protests in Kerala against night traffic ban on the forest stretch
- Climate Change needs Global Solution
- Aarey Forest -2185 trees to be cut for Mumbai metro
- Government to build 1400 km long Green wall
- Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi
- Aerosol formation brightening clouds
- Anthrax outbreak in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Two affected buffaloes died
- Species in News from June to October 2019
- Climate Action Summit 2019
Prelims bits

Tag: GS-3 || Economy || Structure of the Indian Economy || Natural Resources
What is the issue?
- NITI Aayog released its ‘ Strategy for New India @75 ‘ in December 2018, setting clear goals for 2022-23.
- In this document, the strategy for ‘water resources’ is unrealistic as it was in the successive National Water Policies (NWP).
Essentials needed for a plan to be effective?
- There are three basic criteria for effective strategic planning.
- Acknowledge and analyze past failures.
- Suggest realistic and implementable goals.
- Stipulate who will do what, and within what time frame.
- The water ‘ strategy ‘ of the NITI Aayog fails in all three respects.
Is there a new outlook?
- Two failed proposals were repeated in the document
- Adoption of an Integrated river basin management approach
- For 70 years, the integrated management theory has been around, but not even one medium-sized basin has been handled in the world.
- Establishment of large river River Basin Organizations (RBOs).
- 32 years after the NWP recommended RBOs in 1987, not a single one for any major basin was formed.
- Regulatory authority of water
- The regulatory authority for water resources is another failed idea.
- Without examining and analyzing the reasons for the failure of the already established WRA, the establishment of Water Resources regulatory authorities was recommended.
- The strategy paper notes that a huge gap exists between the capacity for irrigation produced and used.
- It proposes that the Ministry of Water create an action plan to complete the creation of the Command Area (CAD) in order to reduce the gap.
- Again, a recommendation is made without analyzing why CAD works remain incomplete.
- Adoption of an Integrated river basin management approach
Goals mentioned in the document
- Provide an adequate, secure and safe supply of piped water.
- To provide all farms, factories, and industries with water.
- Ensure that all Indian rivers flow continuously and cleanly.
- Long-term groundwater sustainability.
- Coverage for proper water supply operation and maintenance.
- Use of 690 billion cubic meters of surface water resources.
- Improving the quality of water use on the ranch.
- Achieve zero-emission from industrial units of untreated effluents.
- For a 5-year period, these are too optimistic and absurdly impractical.
- Not even one of these targets has been accomplished in any state.
- A strategy document must specify who will be responsible and accountable for achieving the specific goals, and in what time-frame.
- Otherwise, no one will accept the responsibility to carry out various tasks, and nothing will get done
Constraints listed
- Potential for irrigation created but not being used.
- Poor irrigation systems efficiency and indiscriminate use of water in agriculture.
- Weak plan execution and maintenance.
- Crop variations that are not associated with agro-climatic areas.
- Subsidized water rates.
- Residents are not provided with piped water.
- Groundwater pollution.
- The Easement Act, 1882 giving farmers rights to own groundwater resulted in unchecked groundwater extraction.
- Only the Easement Act is, in reality, a constraint on these issues listed under’ constraints.’
- The proposals mentioned under’ moving forward’ and’ suggested changes ‘ do not specify how any of these will happen.
- These are problems caused by 72 years of mismanagement in the water sector and continue to be obstacles for the future.
What did the document failed to do?
- Real constraints are not defined in the text.
- It states that the interlinking project between the Ken-Betwa River, the Pancheshwar project between India and Nepal and the Siang project in northeastern India must be completed.
- A major obstacle to the completion of these ventures is public interest litigation (PIL) brought before the National Green Court, the Supreme Court or various High Courts.
- Projects will remain stuck in courtrooms unless the government checks that PIL is misused for environmental posturing.
- The report does not mention any concrete and successful changes that were implemented but later stalled.
Way forward
- Water problems in India can be solved with existing knowledge, technology and funding.
- However, India’s water establishment needs to admit that the strategy followed to date has not succeeded only then can there emerge a practical vision.
- The NITI Aayog should not have recommended a continuation of the unsuccessful policies of the past. It helps India to continue walking on the futile road it has been following for decades, far from addressing our water problems.
Mains model question
- NITI Aayog’s water resource policy is a continuation of past failures. Critically analyze.
References