GS Paper II 2016

The Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991 inserted Articles 239AA and 239AB, giving Delhi a special status as the National Capital Territory, between a Union territory and a State.

Essentials of the Amendment

• An elected Assembly and a Council of Ministers under a Chief Minister, functioning from 1992, with the Lieutenant Governor as Administrator.
• The Assembly legislates on State and Concurrent List subjects except public order, police and land; Parliament's overriding power remains.
• Ministers aid and advise the Lieutenant Governor except in his discretion; differences go to the President, with urgent action allowed meanwhile.
• Article 239AB lets the President suspend the arrangement if constitutional machinery fails.

Anomalies behind the conflicts

• Discretion is undefined, so the Lieutenant Governor can treat almost any file as his own.
• The text does not settle control of services or the Anti-Corruption Branch, so both sides claim them.
• Police answer to the Union, yet voters hold the elected government responsible for law and order: responsibility without control.
• References to the President carry no time limit, so routine disagreements harden into stand-offs.
• (since then, Constitution Benches have held that the Lieutenant Governor is bound by ministerial advice on matters within the Assembly's powers (4 July 2018) and that services other than public order, police and land belong to the elected government (11 May 2023); the Government of NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2023 then created a National Capital Civil Service Authority and was challenged in the Supreme Court.)

A new federal trend?

• Only in part: Delhi's design is unique, and Governors of States act on ministerial advice under Article 163.
• Yet friction will recur wherever a Centre-appointed head faces an elected government of a rival party, and it shows federal politics turning to courts for what convention once settled.

The conflicts flow from the unfinished design of Article 239AA rather than from a new model of federalism; clarity in the text and restraint on both sides will keep the capital governable.

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Article 370 was placed in Part XXI as a temporary and transitional provision, yet by 2016 it had governed the Union's relationship with Jammu and Kashmir for over six decades.

How temporary it was

• Text: Parliament's law-making power for the State was confined to Union and Concurrent List matters corresponding to the Instrument of Accession, in consultation with the State government, and to other matters only with its concurrence.
• Clause (3): the President could declare the article inoperative only on the State Constituent Assembly's recommendation; that Assembly dissolved in 1957 without recommending, which made the provision look permanent.
• Courts: in Sampat Prakash (1968) the Supreme Court held that Article 370 continued to operate even after the Constituent Assembly ceased to exist.
• Practice: Presidential Orders under clause (1)(d) extended most of the Constitution to the State, so the article became a channel of integration while its special content narrowed.
• Verdict: temporary in intent, durable in law and near-permanent in political fact.

Future prospects

• Continuity with erosion: the likeliest course was further Presidential Orders hollowing out the article while its shell stayed.
• Repeal: legally contested, since the body named in clause (3) no longer existed, and politically divisive; supporters saw a guarantee of autonomy, critics a barrier to integration, with Article 35A limiting non-residents' rights.
• Restored autonomy: demanded within the State, but hard to reconcile with a single constitutional order.
• (since then, Constitution Order 273 of 6 August 2019 made all clauses of Article 370 inoperative except one, which now applies the whole Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir; a Constitution Bench upheld this on 11 December 2023 in In re Article 370.)

Article 370 was temporary in design but durable in practice, and its future turned on political will rather than legal text; the 2019 change, now upheld, has moved the debate to restoring statehood and normal politics.

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India's party system has moved from Congress dominance to an era of coalitions and, in 2014, to the first single-party majority in the Lok Sabha since 1984, while regional parties remain strong.

A system in transition

• To 1967: one-party dominance, what Rajni Kothari called the 'Congress system', with opposition absorbed as factions inside the ruling party.
• From 1989: fragmentation; no party won a majority for twenty-five years, coalition governments became the norm and regional parties the kingmakers.
• 2014: a single-party majority returned, but inside a coalition and through a leader-centred, nationalised campaign.

Contradictions and paradoxes

• Many parties, few democrats: intense multi-party competition alongside parties built around a leader or a family, with little internal democracy.
• Ideology versus pragmatism: parties claim distinct ideologies yet ally and switch across lines; the Tenth Schedule (1985) curbs individual defection but not opportunistic alliances.
• Regional versus national: regional parties decide the shape of national coalitions, while national elections have turned presidential in style.
• Participation versus purity: rising turnout and mobilisation of the poor coexist with costly campaigns, opaque funding and candidates facing criminal cases.
• Federalising and centralising at once: power has spread to the States even as decision-making inside parties has concentrated at the top.

Way forward

• Intra-party democracy overseen by the Election Commission, transparent funding, stronger Commission powers over registered parties and fast-track trials for legislators facing criminal cases.

The paradoxes mark a democracy in flux rather than in decline; internal democracy and clean funding will decide whether the transition deepens representation or merely rearranges elites.

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Article 149 leaves the CAG's duties and powers to Parliament, which set them out in the CAG (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act, 1971; the mandate goes well beyond checking arithmetic.

Basis of the CAG's powers

• Article 148 secures independence through the manner of appointment, removal and conditions of service.
• Article 149 and the 1971 Act define the audit mandate over the accounts of the Union, the States and bodies substantially financed by them.
• Article 151 sends the reports to the President or Governor for laying before Parliament or the Assembly, where the Public Accounts Committee examines them.
• The audit has several kinds: financial, compliance, propriety and performance audit, the last testing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the use of public money.

Does auditing implementation overstep?

• No, when it asks whether money achieved the stated aims. Parliament votes funds for outcomes, and performance audit is how it learns whether they were delivered; audit of implementation is audit of accountability.
• Yes, when the CAG questions the merits of a policy choice, substitutes its judgement for the executive's, or computes speculative losses on assumptions the policy never made.
• The 2G spectrum and coal block allocation reports show both faces: their loss estimates were disputed, yet they set off parliamentary and judicial scrutiny of how the allocations were made.

Keeping the line

• Audit outcomes and process, not the wisdom of policy; state every assumption behind a loss figure; give departments a right of reply; leave judgement on the findings to the Public Accounts Committee.

Auditing how a policy is implemented sits squarely within the CAG's mandate; auditing whether the policy was wise does not, and the institution's authority rests on keeping that line visible.

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The Preamble declares India a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic; 'Socialist' and 'Secular' were added by the 42nd Amendment, effective 3 January 1977.

The four adjectives

• Sovereign: free of external control in internal and external affairs; treaties and membership of the UN or the WTO are exercises of sovereignty, not limits on it. Defensible, though global trade and finance narrow policy space in practice.
• Socialist: not state ownership but democratic socialism, a welfare state that reduces inequality, as the Supreme Court read it in D. S. Nakara (1983). After 1991 the State withdrew from production yet expanded rights-based welfare (MGNREGA, the Right to Education), so the word survives as a commitment rather than a model.
• Secular: no state religion and equal respect for all faiths, with the State keeping a principled distance from religion; S. R. Bommai (1994) made it part of the basic structure. Communal violence and identity politics test it, but the Constitution and the courts hold the line.
• Democratic: universal adult franchise, periodic elections, accountable government and enforceable rights. Money power, criminalisation of politics and disrupted legislatures weaken the practice, not the principle.
• Republic itself: an elected head of state (Article 54) and public office open to every citizen.

Are they defensible?

• Yes, as constitutional ideals: each names a goal rather than an accomplished fact, and the courts treat them as entrenched guides to interpreting every law.
• The gaps, whether inequality, communal strife or money in politics, argue for pursuing the adjectives more seriously, not for dropping them.

Each adjective remains defensible as the yardstick against which policy and politics are judged; the task is to shorten the distance between the Preamble's promise and everyday practice.

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In I.R. Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu (2007) a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court settled how far the Ninth Schedule can shield laws from fundamental rights.

What Coelho held

• Article 31B protects laws placed in the Ninth Schedule from being void for inconsistency with fundamental rights, and over the decades the Schedule grew to hold many laws far removed from land reform.
• Laws added after 24 April 1973, the date of Kesavananda Bharati, can be challenged if they damage the basic structure.
• The test is the law's actual effect on rights that form part of the basic structure, such as those under Articles 14, 19 and 21, not the mere fact of inclusion.
• Result: the Ninth Schedule gives no blanket immunity; Parliament cannot, by inserting a law, take away the courts' power to test it.

Is judicial review the key feature?

• Yes, in one sense: it is the machinery that enforces every other feature. Federalism, secularism, free elections and fundamental rights stay declarations unless a court can strike down what breaches them.
• Precedent agrees: Minerva Mills (1980) and L. Chandra Kumar (1997) treated review as essential, and the NJAC ruling (2015) guarded judicial independence for the same reason.
• Coelho itself is proof: the case turned on whether Parliament could exclude review through a device, and the answer was no.
• Caution: the basic structure has no hierarchy. Democracy, federalism and secularism are as basic as review, and review must stay within constitutional limits and respect the separation of powers, or the court becomes a super-legislature.

Judicial review is the keystone that holds the basic structure in place, but a keystone is not the whole arch: it protects the other features and draws its own legitimacy from restraint.

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The Government of India Act, 1935 proposed an All-India Federation of British provinces and princely states, but only its provincial part was ever brought into force.

Federal features

• A federation of provinces and princely states, the first legal scheme to bring both under one constitution.
• A three-fold division of powers through Federal, Provincial and Concurrent Lists, with residuary matters left to the Governor-General.
• A Federal Court (1937) to decide disputes between the Centre and the units and to interpret the Act.
• Provincial autonomy: from 1937 provinces had responsible ministries in their own sphere, an advance towards self-government within a federal frame.

Why it fell short

• Unitary reserve powers: the Governor-General and Governors kept special responsibilities, discretionary powers and emergency powers, so the Centre could override provinces at will.
• Undemocratic units: princely states' representatives were to be nominated by rulers, not elected, and the federation could start only after enough states acceded, which never happened.
• Incomplete Centre: federal dyarchy never came into force, so the Centre continued under the earlier arrangement.
• Colonial control: the British Parliament and the Secretary of State kept supremacy, so even the planned federation would have been a subordinate one.

Legacy

• The Constitution borrowed the three-list scheme, the Federal Court's role, the Governor's office and the emergency provisions, while deliberately building a stronger Union.

The Act laid down a federal framework on paper but not in spirit or practice; the Constituent Assembly adapted its federal ideas, with a stronger Centre, into the Constitution of India.

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A quasi-judicial body is an authority outside the regular courts that is empowered by law to decide rights and disputes, and must do so through fair, court-like procedure.

Meaning and features

• Statutory basis: created by a law for one field, with power to summon witnesses, take evidence and pass binding or recommendatory orders.
• Natural justice: it must hear the parties, act without bias and give reasoned decisions, though its procedure is more flexible than a court's.
• Expertise: members are often domain specialists rather than judges, which suits technical fields such as competition, securities or environment.

How it differs from a court

• Its jurisdiction is confined to its statute; it cannot take up any dispute a civil court can.
• Its orders are open to judicial review under Articles 32, 226 and 227; L. Chandra Kumar (1997) held that High Court oversight of tribunals cannot be excluded.

Examples

• Central Information Commission: decides appeals under the RTI Act and can penalise officers who withhold information.
• National Human Rights Commission: inquires with civil-court powers, but its findings are recommendatory.
• Competition Commission of India: adjudicates cartels and abuse of dominance and imposes penalties.
• SEBI: passes orders against market misconduct, appealable to the Securities Appellate Tribunal.
• Election Commission: decides disputes over party splits and symbols.
• Tribunals such as the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and the National Green Tribunal decide appeals and disputes in specialised fields.

Concerns

• Delays, vacancies, doubts over independence when the executive appoints and funds the body, and weak enforcement of recommendations.

Quasi-judicial bodies bring speed, expertise and low cost to justice; they serve the rule of law only while fair procedure, independence and judicial oversight are secured.

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Sen treats basic education and health as both ends of development and means to growth, and argues that India's neglect of both has held back its people and its economy.

Sen's diagnosis

• Schools that enrol but do not teach, absent teachers, and public clinics so weak that even the poor pay private providers.
• Low public spending and a public debate that ignores both; development is the expansion of capabilities, not income alone.

Primary education

• Teachers: fill vacancies, curb absenteeism through school management committees under the Right to Education Act 2009, and invest in continuous training.
• Learning, not enrolment: make early-grade reading and arithmetic the goal and measure them; use mid-day meals to keep children in school.
• Money and equity: raise public education spending towards the 6 per cent of GDP first proposed by the Kothari Commission (since then, restated in the National Education Policy 2020), with support targeted at girls and disadvantaged groups. Article 21A gives the effort constitutional footing.

Primary health care

• Facilities: staffed sub-centres and primary health centres with doctors, nurses, medicines and diagnostics, backed by ASHAs, immunisation and maternal and child care.
• Financing: raise public health spending from just over 1 per cent of GDP and cut out-of-pocket costs (since then, the National Health Policy 2017 set a target of 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025).
• Prevention: sanitation, nutrition and safe water, public goods that markets undersupply and that Sen places at the centre of health.

Accountability

• Give Panchayats and users a say, publish facility-level data, run social audits, and reward schools and clinics that perform.

Sen's case is that public investment in schools and clinics, made answerable to the people who use them, yields the largest and most lasting gains in human capability, and in growth.

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Non-state actors, from NGOs and self-help groups to the private sector, media and civil society, now work alongside the State in making and delivering public policy, so the claim of a merely marginal role needs testing.

Where the role is substantial

• Policy: civil society campaigns shaped the Right to Information Act 2005, MGNREGA, the Right to Education Act and the Forest Rights Act.
• Delivery: NGOs and SHGs run health, education, livelihood and microfinance services; SHGs under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission reach millions of women.
• Private sector: public-private partnerships in infrastructure and CSR under the Companies Act 2013 bring funds and management skills.
• Accountability: media exposure, social audits and public interest litigation hold the State to account for failures.

Where 'marginal' has some truth

• The State sets the terms: participation runs through schemes and contracts, not through an institutionalised right to be consulted.
• Regulation and dependence: FCRA rules and reliance on government or donor funds limit the independence of NGOs.
• Weak accountability: the governance of NGOs is uneven, elite capture and profit motives can distort priorities, and coordination with government is poor.
• Uneven reach: influence concentrates in cities and among the organised, while the most marginalised are still spoken for by others.

Verdict

• The statement understates reality. Non-state actors matter in agenda-setting, delivery and oversight, but their role is partnership on the State's terms rather than shared governance.

The role of non-state actors is significant and growing, not marginal; clear rules, transparency on both sides and genuine partnership would turn a useful supplement into a reliable pillar of governance.

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Effective government means institutions that deliver services, answer grievances and act transparently; people's participation means citizens shaping and monitoring that delivery. In India each feeds the other: institutions that listen invite participation, and participation makes institutions deliver.

Effectiveness enables participation

• Trust: when a Panchayat pays MGNREGA wages on time or a municipality clears a drain after a complaint, citizens see a return on engagement and turn up at Gram Sabhas and ward committees.
• Information and access: the RTI Act 2005, citizens' charters, proactive disclosure and online grievance portals give people the facts and the means to question officials.
• Enabling structures: the 73rd and 74th Amendments created Gram Sabhas, Panchayats and municipalities, but Article 243A leaves the Gram Sabha's powers to State law, so its vitality depends on how much each State devolves.

Participation improves effectiveness

• Local knowledge: villagers know which hamlet lacks water and which household is wrongly excluded; participatory planning under Kerala's People's Plan Campaign matched schemes to needs.
• Accountability: MGNREGA social audits and Jan Sunwais expose fake muster rolls and leakages, disciplining delivery from below.
• Ownership: decisions taken with people, on sanitation or school management, are sustained after the official leaves.

The circle can turn vicious

• Weak delivery breeds apathy; empty Gram Sabhas allow elite capture and corruption, which weakens delivery further.
• Constraints: low awareness and literacy, incomplete devolution of functions, funds and functionaries, and a hierarchical official culture keep participation formal rather than real.

Way forward

• Complete devolution to local bodies, give Gram Sabhas real powers over plans and beneficiary lists, ensure timely information, and build two-way digital feedback so that citizens' voice reaches decision-makers.

Responsive institutions and informed, engaged citizens reinforce each other; building that virtuous circle from the Gram Sabha upward is the surest route to effective and accountable governance in India.

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Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index scores India well below the midpoint of its 0–100 scale, among countries where abuse of public office for private gain is seen as common. Public morality declines when law, incentives and social norms all stop punishing such abuse.

Legal factors

• Slow trials and low conviction rates blunt the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988; sanction for prosecuting officials is delayed or denied.
• New laws stay on paper: no Lokpal had been appointed under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013, and the Whistle Blowers Protection Act 2014 was not brought into operation.

Political factors

• Costly elections and opaque party funding push candidates to recover money in office; criminalisation of politics and patronage networks tie legislators to private interests.

Economic factors

• Discretionary control over land, mining, spectrum and licences creates rents; large public procurement, black money and low pay at the cutting edge invite bribery.

Social factors

• Tolerance of petty corruption as 'speed money', caste and kinship loyalties in appointments and contracts, and weak citizen vigilance make bribery a routine transaction.

Cultural factors

• Loyalty to family and community over public duty, deference to power, and a consumerism that measures worth by wealth erode the idea of office as a public trust.

The administrative thread

• Secrecy, excessive discretion and weak accountability run through all five; the Second ARC's report Ethics in Governance (2007) recommended a Lokpal, whistle-blower protection and cleaner election finance for this reason.

Restoring public morality needs laws that actually convict, transparent political finance, fewer discretionary controls and a civic culture that refuses to pay; enforcement and ethics must move together.

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The 1991 reforms asked the State to move from controller of the economy to regulator and facilitator. The legal architecture changed substantially; the administrative culture changed far less.

Where the system responded

• Deregulation: industrial licensing was dismantled for most industries, and import controls and tariffs were cut.
• Laws for a market economy: FEMA 1999 replaced FERA, the Competition Act 2002 replaced the MRTP Act, and SEBI, TRAI and other sectoral regulators were created.
• Continuing reform: the constitutional amendment for GST and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, both in 2016, address a single national market and orderly exit for failed firms; e-governance and single-window clearances spread in several States.

Where it fell short

• Process: multiple clearances, red tape and slow contract enforcement raise the cost of doing business; land and labour laws remain rigid.
• Predictability: the 2012 retrospective tax amendment damaged investor confidence in the rules.
• Capacity: a control-minded generalist bureaucracy with limited skill in regulation, PPP contracts and negotiation; regulators often lack independence and expertise.
• Inclusion: reform outran safety nets, so workers, consumers and the vulnerable were weakly protected as the State withdrew from delivery.

What the government can do

• Simplify: time-bound and deemed clearances, a single digital window, sunset review of regulations and regulatory impact assessment before new rules.
• Professionalise: domain specialisation and lateral entry, training in economics and regulation, and performance-linked accountability for officers.
• Strengthen regulators: statutory independence, transparent selection and effective appellate bodies.
• Protect: strong competition and consumer law, faster commercial courts, and social security for informal workers so that reform also delivers inclusion.

The response has been substantial in law but incomplete in practice; a facilitative, skilled and accountable administration is what will complete the transition begun in 1991.

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India inherited a bureaucracy built as a colonial 'steel frame' for revenue and order. It gave the republic stability, but its structure and culture were designed for control, not for the developmental tasks the Constitution assigned to the State.

Structure that slows development

• Rigid hierarchy and file-based decisions: proposals pass many desks, so projects and clearances are delayed and costs rise.
• Departmental silos: health, water, nutrition and education run parallel programmes with little convergence at the block level.
• Generalist rotation and frequent transfers: officers move before outcomes show, and expertise in infrastructure, finance or regulation stays thin.

Culture that hampers outcomes

• Rule-following over result-seeking: compliance with procedure is rewarded, initiative is not, so risk aversion prevails.
• Secrecy and distance: the Official Secrets Act 1923 and a 'sahib' culture keep citizens as supplicants rather than partners.
• Discretion and rent-seeking: excessive controls create opportunities for corruption that deter investment and divert benefits from the poor.
• Political interference and weak performance appraisal reduce ownership of results.

The other side

• The same services conducted free elections and the census, delivered the Green Revolution, managed famines, floods and epidemics, and held a diverse country together. The failure lies in orientation, not in the institution.

Reform

• RTI Act 2005, citizens' charters and e-governance for openness; Second ARC recommendations on performance management and fixed tenures; domain expertise and lateral entry; devolution to Panchayats and municipalities so that decisions sit closer to people.

The bureaucracy has hampered development where it clung to control and advanced it where it was allowed to serve; the task is to turn the steel frame into a skilled, accountable and citizen-facing instrument of development.

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The National Policy for Children, 2013 replaced the 1974 policy and treats every person below 18 as a rights-holder, building on the Directive Principle in Article 45 and on India's commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Main provisions

• Guiding principles: children are not a homogeneous group; non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, and special care for children with disabilities, from SC, ST and minority communities, migrants and those in conflict-affected areas.
• Four priority areas: survival, health and nutrition; education and development; protection from violence, abuse, labour and trafficking; and participation of children in decisions affecting them.
• Machinery: a National Plan of Action and State plans, inter-ministerial coordination led by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and the NCPCR and State commissions to monitor rights.

Status of implementation

• Legal and programme gains: the RTE Act 2009, POCSO Act 2012, Juvenile Justice Act 2015 and the 2016 amendment banning child labour below 14 years; ICDS, mid-day meals and immunisation drives for survival and nutrition.
• Persisting deficits: NFHS-4 (2015-16) found 38.4 per cent of under-fives stunted (since then, NFHS-5 (2019-21) recorded 35.5 per cent); child labour, trafficking and child marriage continue, and learning outcomes lag enrolment.
• Weak links: many States lack funded plans of action; budgets for children remain a small share of spending; convergence across departments and monitoring at the block and village level are thin, and the NCPCR has limited staff and enforcement power.

The policy sets a rights-based direction, but rights become real only through funded State plans, convergent delivery and community-level monitoring of every child's survival, learning and safety.

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India's young age structure is an opportunity, not a guarantee: a demographic dividend is earned only when the young are healthy, educated and skilled enough to find productive work. Government measures span each of these links.

Education

• The Right to Education Act 2009, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and RMSA for elementary and secondary schooling, with mid-day meals to keep children in class; RUSA to fund State universities and NIRF to benchmark quality.

Skills

• Skill India Mission (July 2015) under the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015; Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana for certified short-term training; NSDC's partnerships with industry; DDU-GKY for placement-linked training of rural youth.

Employment and enterprise

• Make in India (2014) to create manufacturing jobs; MUDRA loans (2015) for micro-enterprises; Start-up India (2016) to support innovation-led ventures and creative risk-taking.

Health and nutrition

• The National Health Mission, immunisation and ICDS improve early-life outcomes that decide later learning and productivity.

Awareness and inclusion

• Digital India and the National Digital Literacy Mission spread digital access; Beti Bachao Beti Padhao promotes girls' survival and education so that half the workforce is not left out.

Where gaps remain

• Learning quality lags enrolment; skill courses are short and weakly matched to industry needs; formal jobs are scarce, and female workforce participation stays low.
• Creativity needs freedom to experiment, but higher education still rewards rote learning over research and problem-solving.

The measures cover schooling, skilling, health and enterprise; the dividend will be realised only when the quality of learning and the pace of job creation catch up with the numbers, especially for young women.

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The WTO, established in 1995, administers trade agreements, hosts negotiations and settles disputes so that trade flows predictably in a globalised economy. Its Doha Round, launched in 2001 as a 'development round', remains unfinished fifteen years on.

WTO's aims

• Rule-based, non-discriminatory trade through most-favoured-nation and national treatment; progressive liberalisation; binding dispute settlement; and special and differential treatment for developing members.

Why Doha stalled

• Agriculture: developed countries retain large farm subsidies while pressing emerging economies for market access; developing countries want subsidy cuts first.
• NAMA and services: demands for steep industrial tariff cuts from India, Brazil and China met little movement on farm support.
• Changed approach: the Nairobi Ministerial (December 2015) recorded that some members no longer reaffirm the Doha mandates and prefer 'new approaches' and new issues such as e-commerce and investment, while developing countries insist on finishing Doha first. Nairobi did agree to eliminate agricultural export subsidies.

Indian perspective

• Livelihoods: with millions of small farmers, India and the G-33 demand Special Products and a Special Safeguard Mechanism against import surges.
• Food security: MSP procurement and public stockholding can breach WTO subsidy limits; the Bali peace clause (2013) is interim, and a permanent solution is still pending.
• Strategy: defend policy space, hold developed countries to the development mandate, support trade facilitation, and build coalitions with other developing countries; the government also pursues regional and bilateral options in parallel.

The Doha impasse reflects a real North–South divide rather than a failure of the WTO itself; India's interest lies in keeping multilateral rules alive while securing farm livelihoods and food security within them.

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Launched in the early 1990s under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, the Look East Policy answered two post-Cold War shocks at once: the loss of the Soviet Union as India's principal partner, and the need after the 1991 crisis to plug into Asia's fastest-growing economies.

Economic dimension

• Institutional ladder: ASEAN sectoral dialogue partner (1992), full dialogue partner (1996), annual summits from 2002 and East Asia Summit membership (2005).
• Trade and investment: the India–ASEAN free trade agreement in goods (2010) and a comprehensive economic agreement with Singapore (2005) raised trade and drew investment.
• Connectivity: the Kaladan multi-modal project through Myanmar and the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway aim to turn the landlocked Northeast into a gateway.
• Limits: a widening trade deficit with ASEAN, slow-moving connectivity projects, and late liberalisation of services, where India is competitive.

Strategic dimension

• Balancing: engagement with Southeast Asia and Japan gave India weight against China's growing influence in the region.
• Maritime: securing the sea lanes towards the Malacca Strait through naval exercises, port calls and defence cooperation with Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia.
• Forums: membership of the ASEAN Regional Forum (1996) and the East Asia Summit brought India into Asia-Pacific security dialogue.
• Northeast: treating the region as a bridge to Myanmar and ASEAN linked internal security and development to foreign policy.
• Limits: China's economic weight in ASEAN far exceeds India's; instability in Myanmar and insurgent sanctuaries slow projects; 'looking' outpaced 'acting', which is why the policy was recast as Act East in 2014.

Economically and strategically the policy gave India a lasting presence in the Asia-Pacific; delivery on connectivity and trade will decide whether Act East converts that presence into real leverage.

Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.

SAARC, founded in 1985, decides by consensus, and Article X of its Charter keeps bilateral and contentious issues off its agenda. That design cannot hold when one member's conduct erodes trust across the region, as Pakistan's did in 2016.

Cross-border terrorism

• The attacks on the Pathankot air base (January 2016) and the Uri army camp (September 2016), like the Mumbai attacks of 2008, were traced to Pakistan-based groups.
• After Uri, India declined to attend the SAARC summit due in Islamabad in November 2016; Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also pulled out, and the summit was postponed.
• Under the consensus rule, a member seen as a source of terror turns cooperation into hostage: no summit, no new agreements.

Interference in internal affairs

• Afghanistan has repeatedly accused Pakistan of sheltering the Taliban and the Haqqani network, which strike Afghan cities and institutions.
• Bangladesh objected to Pakistan's comments on its 1971 war crimes trials as interference in its domestic justice system.
• Pakistan blocked the SAARC Motor Vehicles Agreement at the 2014 Kathmandu summit, so road connectivity moved ahead as BBIN without it.

What it means for SAARC

• Little delivery: SAFTA (2006) has barely raised intra-regional trade, and energy and connectivity projects wait on consensus.
• Counter-view: smaller members also worry about India's size, and the India–Pakistan rivalry is two-sided; SAARC still works in social sectors, such as the South Asian University in Delhi.
• India's response: invest in BBIN and BIMSTEC, keeping regional integration moving while SAARC stalls.

SAARC's future rests on Pakistan ending support to cross-border terror and respecting members' sovereignty; until then sub-regional platforms will carry South Asian integration forward without it.

Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.

In 1977 UNESCO appointed the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems under Seán MacBride, a Nobel Peace laureate; its 1980 report, Many Voices, One World, examined the imbalance in global information flows.

Aims and objectives

• Diagnose the one-way flow: a handful of Western news agencies controlled international news, so developing countries were reported through others' eyes and often stereotyped.
• Propose a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO): a balanced, two-way flow of information and reduced dependence on the North.
• Build capacity: national communication policies, stronger domestic and regional media, technology transfer and training for developing countries.
• Democratise communication: treat it as a right of individuals and communities, with access, participation and plurality of voices, and link it to development, peace and cultural identity.
• Protect journalists and raise professional standards without licensing the press.
• Controversy: Western governments and media saw NWICO as cover for state control; the United States (1984) and the United Kingdom (1985) left UNESCO, and the debate later shifted to 'free flow' with plurality.

India's position

• As a leading voice of the Non-Aligned Movement, India backed the demand for balance and helped build the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool, which exchanged member countries' news to counter Western agency dominance.
• India used communication for development, notably the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (1975–76) that beamed educational programmes to villages.
• At home, India kept a free, privately owned press and did not treat NWICO as a licence for state control, though the Emergency (1975–77) showed how censorship could be abused.

India sought a plural and balanced information order without state control of the press; the MacBride questions of who speaks and who is heard remain live in today's platform-driven media.

Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.