PAPER-IV : General Studies-III

General Studies-III: Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management (Marks 250)

Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Inclusive growth and issues arising from it

Government Budgeting.

Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country, – different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers.

Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices; Public Distribution System- objectives, functioning, limitations, revamping; issues of buffer stocks and food security; Technology missions; economics of animal-rearing.

Food processing and related industries in India- scope’ and significance, location, upstream and downstream requirements, supply chain management.

Land reforms in India.

uma kapila

Effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth.

Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Investment models.

link1

Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

VisionIAS NOTES Link 1

Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

——————————————————-

Disaster and disaster management.

——————————————————————————-

Linkages between development and spread of extremism.

Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.

Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media and social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security; money-laundering and its prevention.

Security challenges and their management in border areas – linkages of organized crime with terrorism.

link

Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate.

Important E-book on Economics.

Here is the list of important Economics Book :-

1.  CHANAKYA’S CHANT – ASHWIN SANGHI

2.  THE THREE WORLDS OF WELFARE CAPITALISM – GOSTA ESPING ANDERSEN

3.  Euro Crash – Brendan Brown

4.  THE GLOBALIZATION OF WORLD POLITICS – John Baylis, Patricia Owens, and Steve Smith

5   PRINCIPLE OF ECONOMICS  – N. Gregory Mankiw

6.  Challenge and Strategy: Rethinking India’s Foreign Policy –  Rajiv Sikri

7.  Indian Economy –  Ramesh Singh

8.  APPLIED ECONOMICS Thinking Beyond Stage One –  THOMAS SOWELL

9.  This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate – Naomi Klein

10. Capital in the Twenty-First Century –  Thomas Piketty

SAARC

SAARC  is an organization of  eight countries  located in the South Asia  and  it stands for  the South Asian Association for Regional Corporation. Its   around  1.7 billion of the  people  and it is  21% of the  world population. All six member countries share boarders with  the big brother of the  SAARC nations India.  Only exception is  Afghanistan. Late President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman  first raised the necessity of  regional and political  and economical cooperation in the South Asia  on  the  2nd May 1980. Subsequently on  the  8th  of December 1985 fist    SAARC countries summit was held  in Dhaka Capital of Bangladesh. Initial members of the SAARC countries  were  India, Bangladesh, Pakistan,  Bhutan, Neola, Maldives   and Sri Lanka.  Later  another country Afghanistan was awarded the full membership and there are several other  countries were given observer memberships.

Objectives of SAARC :-

1.Promoting peace, stability, amity and progress in the region through strict adherence to the principles of the UNITED NATIONS CHARTER and NON-ALIGNMENT, particularly respect for the principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, national independence, non-use of force and non-interference in the internal affairs of other States and peaceful settlement of all disputes;

2. Conscious that in an increasingly interdependent world, the objectives of peace, freedom, social justice and economic prosperity are best achieved in the SOUTH ASIAN region by fostering mutual understanding, good neighbor relations and meaningful cooperation among the Member States which are bound by ties of history and culture;
3. Aware of the common problems, interests and aspirations of the peoples of SOUTH ASIA and the need for joint action and enhanced cooperation within their respective political and economic systems and cultural traditions;
4. Convinced that regional cooperation among the countries of SOUTH ASIA is mutually beneficial, desirable and necessary for promoting the welfare and improving the quality of life of the peoples of the region;
5. Convinced further that economic, social and technical cooperation among the countries of SOUTH ASIA would contribute significantly to national and collective self-reliance;
6. Reaffirming their determination to promote such cooperation within an institutional framework;

PRINCIPLES

1.Cooperation within the framework of the ASSOCIATION shall be based on respect for the principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, political independence, non-interference in the internal affairs of other States and mutual benefit.

SAARC have four charter bodies:-

1.Council of Minister

2. Standing Committee
3. Technical Committee
4. Programming Committee

Article III MEETINGS OF THE HEADS OF STATE OR GOVERNMENT

The Heads of State or Government shall meet once a year or more often as and when considered necessary by the Member States.

Article IV

COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

 The Council of Ministers consisting of the Foreign Ministers shall meet twice a year. Extraordinary session of the Council may be held by agreement among the Member States.

Article V

STANDING COMMITTEE

1.The Standing Committee comprising the Foreign Secretaries shall have the following functions:

1. a) overall monitoring and coordination of programme of cooperation; b) approval of projects and programmes, and the modalities of their financing; c) determination of inter-sectoral priorities; d) mobilization of regional and external resources; e) identification of new areas of cooperation based on appropriate studies.

Article VI

TECHNICAL COMMITTEES

1.Technical Committees comprising representatives of Member States shall be responsible for the implementation, coordination and monitoring of the programmers in their respective areas of cooperation.

2. They shall have the following terms of reference:
3. a) determination of the potential and the scope of regional cooperation in agreed areas; b) formulation of programs and preparation of projects; c) determination of financial implications of sectoral programs; d) formulation of recommendations regarding apportionment of costs;

Article VIII

SECRETARIAT

There shall be a Secretariat of the ASSOCIATION.

Article IX

FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS

1.The contribution of each Member State towards financing of the activities of the ASSOCIATION shall be voluntary. 2. Each Technical Committee shall make recommendations for the apportionment of costs of implementing the programs proposed by it. 3. In case sufficient financial resources cannot be mobilized within the region for funding activities of the ASSOCIATION, external financing from appropriate sources may be mobilized with the approval of or by the Standing Committee.

Article X

GENERAL PROVISIONS

1.Decisions at all levels shall be taken on the basis of unanimity.

2. Bilateral and contentious issues shall be excluded from the deliberations.

Area of cooperation:-

1. Agriculture and Rural Development
2. Biotechnology
3. Culture
4. Economic and Trade
5. Education
6. Energy
7. Funding Mechanism
8. Security aspects
9. Social Development
10. Tourism
11. Finance

 

12. Poverty alleviation                             

India and SAARC Relation

The relationship between India and other South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member states rejects the gravity theory of international trade, which emphasizes on the role of geographical proximity in augmenting bilateral trade among countries. Despite the nearness, India has a prolonged history of poor trade with the other SAARC nations. In 2013­2014, India’s trade with SAARC members was 2.6 percent of India’s total trade with the rest of the world. Compared to this, India’s trade with countries further away in terms of distance namely the United States (US) and countries in the European Union (EU) was much larger.

India’s trade with SAARC member states is not only low, but it has been more or less stagnant over the past few years. It stood at about 2.2 percent in 2009­10, and continued to remain in bandwidth of 2­2.6 percent over the past five years.   

 Within the SAARC region, India is the largest economy in terms of its gross domestic product and the size of its market. It is the most strategically located, as a center point of the SAARC region, with both land and sea connectivity with other SAARC member states. India shares a land border with four member nations and a sea border with two others. No other SAARC nation shares a common border with each other. Due to its strategic location, India acts as an important trans­shipment hub for the land­locked SAARC member states such as Nepal and Bhutan. According to an estimate, more than 50 percent of the total trade for these countries takes place with India. The trade statistics from 2013­2014 show that within SAARC, a majority of India’s trade takes place with Bangladesh (33.3 percent), Sri Lanka (26 percent) and Nepal (20.6 percent). 

 Traditional theories of comparative advantage very well justify the low level of trade in the SAARC region. There is a lack of trade complementarities in the region. Most countries specialize in the production of similar products such as textiles. India’s trade therefore is skewed towards the developed countries in the West, namely the US, the EU and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The major items of trade (apart from gold) include petroleum, gems and jewellery, high­technology machinery, fertilizers, textiles, among others.   

India’s present trade in the SAARC region reflects more of the strained political relationship than an economic logic. However, more recently, there have been several initiatives in the right direction.    With the new government in 2014, India’s foreign policy is being redrawn with a buoyant outlook, which accentuates the need to move from a protectionist environment to a more liberal trade framework. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reinforced the importance of South Asian regional integration at several international forums and this has also been reflected in growing diplomatic visits in the region. The reigning idea of India’s ministerial conferences with the leaders of the neighboring nations is to improve the overall trade and investment climate in the region. More specifically, the focus has been to improve physical (road, rail, sea and air) and cultural connectivity within the SAARC region. This is expected to provide an impetus to India­SAARC ties.              

 It is well recognized that removal of trade and non­trade barriers would enhance regional cooperation among the SAARC members. While tariff reduction is the most popular tool for trade liberalization, for streamlining trade and investments in the region, SAARC member states have undertaken a series of trade facilitation measures. For instance, SAARC member states had established the South Asian Regional Standards Organization (SARSO) in 2011 to address the most important non­trade barrier of divergence in standards of the products traded in the region. While this is a step in the right direction, there are presently only 38 items for which the standards are being harmonized. This list of items needs to be expanded by including other essential items of regional interest such as refined sugar, jute bags, cement, among others. For certain product categories such as food items, the SAARC standards can be brought in line with the globally followed Codex Alimentarius standards. 

The leaders of SAARC are also committed to transform this region into South Asian Economic Union (SAEU) through free flow of goods among the member states, which requires streamlining the customs procedures, easy visa regimes, direct road and rail connectivity and rationalization of the tariff structures. This delay in delivery is due to the absence of a direct road or rail link between India and Bangladesh which hinders the growth of trade between them. Several efforts have been made by the SAARC nations to improve road and rail connectivity within the region, which is expected to boost trade and cultural exchanges in SAARC.

While some measures are being undertaken to enhance trade in goods, it is important for the SAARC member states to enhance the scope of collaboration beyond goods, to include trade in services and economic cooperation. Some of the potential areas of cooperation include hydropower trading, religious tourism and asynchronous intra­grid connectivity.

 Bhutan’s power sector has an untapped trade potential of nearly 28,520 megawatts (MW) as the four major hydropower plants namely Chukha, Kurichhu, Basochu and Tala have an installed capacity of merely 1,480 MW, which is barely 4.9 percent of its total hydropower potential. This is a potential sector for investment for Indian companies as the production cost of hydropower in Bhutan is one of the lowest in the world, which translates into higher returns for the investors. Moreover, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) have taken multilateral approach­laden initiatives by exploring the scope for engaging in power trade and inter­grid connectivity among themselves. At present, India­Bhutan, India­Bangladesh and India­Nepal grids are interconnected that facilitate cross­border trade in these nations. However, the potential trade partners for India, namely Sri Lanka and Pakistan, still remain isolated from the power grid connectivity loop among SAARC nations. 

Another measure for enhancing intra­SAARC merchandise trade requires India to redesign its sensitive list by removing products that are of export interest to SAARC member states. A reduction in the size of sensitive lists will magnify the size of regional trade among SAARC members. A closer look at the sensitive list of Pakistan reveals that items that hold comparative export potential for India such as automobiles, textiles, steel and pharmaceuticals form a part of the restricted imports from India to Pakistan. This might be a measure directed at protecting the domestic industries in Pakistan from international competition, but an improved regional integration would produce a win­win situation for both the members. The liberalization of foreign direct investments (FDI) climate in SAARC region is likely to deepen the trade linkages among the member states. Creation of well­targeted investment opportunities for private and public sector companies within SAARC, particularly for infrastructural development, could be a way forward in the integration of India with SAARC members.   

There exists a huge trade potential of India with the SAARC nations, a large proportion of it is still untapped and yet to be realized. It is essential that the SAARC leaders recognize the distinct issues and problems of each member state and address them separately. 

For instance, the cross­border terrorism and insurgency issues with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have to be dealt with independent of each other. Moreover, the bilateral trade between India and Pakistan is largely affected due to the Kashmir issue as well as the denial of granting accord of the most favoured nation (MFN) status to India. The issue of India and Pakistan is delicate, and therefore it needs to be addressed appropriately without affecting the spirit of free trade and integration in the overall SAARC region. 

There is an urgent need to overhaul in the SAARC region for bringing the member states closer to each other. Several initiatives have been made by India in this regard.    The recent visit of Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar to four SAARC nations is conclusive of India’s determination to forge cooperation with its neighbours. The Indian foreign secretary undertook the ‘SAARC Yatra’ with an objective to review the initiatives announced for the region by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 18th SAARC Summit in Nepal, such as launch of a SAARC satellite, a SAARC business travelers’ card and partnership between South Asian University (SAU) and other universities in the member states. Similar regional integration efforts are being fostered by other neighbouring states, such as the visit of Sri Lankan President, Maithripala Sirisena, to India in February 2015 has paved the way for India and Sri Lanka cooperation in energy and water front.    The SAARC nations must realize that greater economic cooperation is to be built on the foundation of cultural cooperation. Developing economic cooperation among them through people­to­people contact and educational and cultural exchanges is the foremost step in enhancing regional cooperation. Such partnerships among SAARC members are likely to shape the trade and investment climate of the region and provide a new dimension to their alliance  

Microfinance

Micro finance is way to enrich the social and economic sector of society, after  years of independence India is still suffering from global poverty, the poverty which means the basic need for survival is still a big question in front of us, there is so much imbalance between the wealth in rural sector of India, their proper growth, empowerment is a big question among us. Micro finance is way to enhance poor rural people by providing them loan, saving and give insurance to the people, to establishment of a new business, to come out from the money crisis which most of time compel them to do suicide,  it’s like second way to get financial support on low interest rate.  People who benefit from this is the poor people who do not  get proper  benefit from Government scheme, According to report, about 40 percent of rural India is still not connect to bank,  so the weaker section of village go to money lender, who gives money on very high interest rate so that if they return the actual money, they still faces the problem with interest rate with rises exponentially, so to overcome this society economical mismatch, micro finance help them, the interest rate is not much high, and good thing is that they are 100% recoverable, there main priority is the rural sector of India. In past, report said that overall help in global poverty micro finance is helpful. The micro finance gives financial help in agriculture, fishing, horticulture and the small business for village prospective people. They also encourage the entrepreneur from the rural area by destroying the financial wall. One face on micro finance is SHG, which give women to participate and make they own group and nurture their skill of business and participation in administration.

In recent study the world bank report, more than 7000 institution that provide the micro finance, 16 million client and provided loan above 2.25 billion dollar and financial support.

There are mainly three micro financial institution in India which empower the rural India :-

1. Grameen Bank
2. Co-operative Bank
3. Self Help Group.

1. Grameen Bank

Grameen bank is the concept which first came in Bangladesh, muhammad yunus founded the concept of Grameen bank and for this they got Nobel prize, the main concept is behind that if any poor people want some money for starting new business, if they have no any guarantee or assets, they are still eligible for getting small amount of money which is generally less than several dollar, so that they set their business and earn money and meet their basic need, also it eradicate the poverty from our society. Large amount of population in village have no linkage with professional bank, so the main objective behind the Grameen bank to set up the bank in rural area, to link with village to Grameen Bank and provide them financial support like loan, saving or credit facility. Grameen bank send their representative door to door to meet the family representative so that they   get aware and start their account with Bank. Its also empower their financial condition and also make them independent. If a person is beggar, and no more source of income, the Grameen bank is proving money to him, not for spending money on livelihood, in respect they help him to settle new business, which make him financial self-reliance.

2.Co-operative Society

 Cooperative society is the another way to develop the weaker section of village, There is  many co-operative society in India which help the weaker section by doing different- different work, their primary purpose  to give financial support to rural people by providing them work. they generally weaker section of society, illiterate women and unemployed people, One such cooperative society is the Amul diary. They also provide infrastructure to the people like transportation, education and health. Co-operative society also help them for  loan money, the regular working also help them to saving money and meet the basic need.

There is so many NGO and Government scheme connected to the cooperative society to help them, there is so many state which are in poverty, which get benefit from this.

Government and RBI with the help of NBARD provide financial support to these cooperative society, now government also provide certain guidelines to professional bank to provide 40 % loan to rural sector for empowerment as the loan rate in commercial bank is low. Participation of women in cooperative society is also empower our women by just not nurturing the skill of management and also break the society old rule, which lead to foundation of equal opportunity for women.

3.Self Help Group:-

  Self help Group is the another way to eradicate the global poverty. On small scale, few people gather and setup the small co-operative society; they have few representatives who take care all the financial account management. Generally they take financial support from co-operative society, suppose five women form a self help group so first only two member are allow to take loan, once they fulfill the work next two worker get loan, this way chain continue, they held their own meeting, together they understand the problem and solve them by proper planning. Self Help Group, setup small institution like sewing work, so first they train the worker, once they trained and aware them with requirement. Together they work and fulfill the work, sometime they work in regular basis or sometime they distribute the profit after work. They also have saving scheme, so that if anyone need them they could also borrow from own group.  By their own Group they are totally dedicated and better understand their need and work accordingly. NGO ‘s  and government also encourage them to setup self help group because its work on root level with hard dedication and no corruption.