Polity & Governance One Year Current Affairs Set 8 (UPSC 2020)

Table of Contents

Topics to discuss

India Enterprise Architecture
One nation, one ration card
Police commissionerate system Bru community
500^thsession of Rajya sabha
Index in news
Jan Soochna
Porta

Q) With reference to the one nation one ration card scheme, which of the following statements is/are correct?

A person will only be eligible for the subsidies supported by the centre such as those under Nation Food security act, 2013.
One nation one ration card scheme comes under the Ministry of agriculture.

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2

WHY IN NEWS

One Nation, One Ration Card

Under the scheme the beneficiaries can buy subsidized food grains from a ration shop in any part of the country.
The scheme is all about inter-state portability of ration cards. It enables the beneficiaries who are taking food grains under the Public Distribution System (PDS) to access the same benefits if they happen to migrate from one part of the country to the other, in a seamless manner.
Ration card Aadhar linkage is must to access the scheme
A person will only be eligible for the subsidies supported by the centre such as those under Nation Food security act, 2013. The government is covering nearly 81 crore people of the country under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) based on the 2011
Even if a beneficiary moves to a state where grains are given for free he/she will not be able to access those benefits.
A migrant will be allowed to buy maximum of 50% of the family quota. This is to ensure that the individual, after shifting to another place does not buy the entire family quota in one go.
Old ration cards will also remain valid throughout the nation.
Under the scheme Centre has designed a standard format for ration cards and has asked state governments to follow the pattern while issuing new ration cards from now

Importance of the scheme

Historically, India has had food security benefit schemes which have domicile based access.
36 crore people or 37% of the population is that of migrant labourers. The scheme is therefore important for anyone who is going to move from one place to the other.
The Scheme will help in curbing corruption by weeding on bogus ration card, stopping duplication of ration card for a family in different states
It will help in ensuring food security in the country l

Ration Card

A Ration Card is a document issued under an order or authority of the State Government, as per the Public Distribution System, for the purchase of essential commodities from fair price shops (FPS).
State Governments issue distinctive Ration Cards to Above Poverty Line, Below Poverty Line and Antyodaya families and conduct periodical review and checking of Ration Cards.
Families living below the poverty line are entitled to Blue Cards, under which they can avail special subsidies
It helps save money by aiding in the procurement of essential commodities at a subsidised rate.

WHY IN NEWS

INDEA

Shillong Declaration on e-governance adopted at the 22^ndNational Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) talked about India Enterprise Architecture (IndEA).

India Enterprise Architecture

IndEA, is a framework for developing a holistic architecture treating the Government as a single enterprise which are functionally inter-related.
IndEA provides a generic framework, comprising a set of architecture reference models, which can be converted into an integrated architecture
With IndEA, there will be one personalised account for each individual and he or she can avail all government services from that account. This shall eliminate the need to visit separate sites and have separate logins on them to access government services

WHY IN NEWS

Bru community

Bru is a community indigenous to Northeast India, living mostly in Tripura, Mizoram and parts of Southern Assam
In 1997, following ethic clashes in Mizoram, nearly 34,000 Brus fled Mizoram and were accommodated in relief camps in Tripura.
In Tripura, they are known as Reang.
According to the new agreement, Bru refugees will settle in Tripura and will be given aid to help with their rehabilitation – providing each family a small plot of land, grant of tribal status, voting rights and a one- time financial assistance.
The Mizoram government will be responsible for repatriated Bru refugees who were identified and verified as per the 1997 electoral rolls of Mizoram

WHY IN NEWS

Commissionerate System

In the commissionerate system, the Commissioner of Police (CP) is the head of a unified police command structure, is responsible for the force in the city, and is accountable to the state government.
The office also has magisterial powers, including those related to regulation, control, and licensing.

Background

Under the colonial system, the dual system of police administration was The overall in-charge of a district or region was the District Collector and the Superintendent of Police (SP) reported to him.
The primary objective of the British was revenue collection in rural India. They needed a force that could support this objective and unleash tyranny and oppression when needed to suit the objective. That system continued post-
The British also brought the Police Commissionerate System first in Kolkata and followed it in Mumbai and Chennai presidencies.
The system was introduced even before the Police Act of 1861.

Some important Facts about Police

Under the 7^thSchedule of the Constitution, Police is under the State list.
Delhi Police does not come under the Delhi Government.
Political executive (i.e., ministers) has the power of superintendence and control over the police forces to ensure their accountability.
Prakash Singh Vs Union of India case is related to police reforms

WHY IN NEWS

250^thSession of Rajya Sabha

The Rajya Sabha secretariat has released the first-ever analysis of its legislative work, “Rajya Sabha: The Journey since 1952” on the occasion of the 250^thsession of Rajya Sabha.

Good Governance Index

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions launched ‘Good Governance Index’ on the occasion of Good Governance Day
The objectives of GGI are to provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and UTs
The states and UTs are divided into three groups: a) Big States, b) North-East & Hill States and c) Uts
The GGI takes into consideration ten sectors

Rankings

Big States category: Tamil Nadu has topped followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.
North-East and Hill States category: Himachal Pradesh ranked first, followed by Uttarakhand, Tripura, Mizoram and Sikkim.
UTs: Puducherry topped followed by Chandigarh and Delhi.

Corruption Perception Index is released by

UNHRC
European commission
Transparency International
Amnesty International

Corruption Perception Index

Corruption Perception Index is released by Transparency International annually since 1995.
It ranks 180 countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption.
It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
More than two-thirds of countries score below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of just 43.

Highlights of the index

Denmark and New Zealand are at the top spot, followed by Finland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland in the top ten. Somalia is ranked last, preceded by South Sudan and Syria.
India slipped two positions to the 80th rank, while its score remained steady at 41

Transparency International

It is an international non-governmental organization based in Berlin, Germany, since 1993.
With more than 100 national chapters worldwide, it works with partners in government, business and civil society to put effective measures in place to tackle corruption.
It also publishes Global Corruption Barometer, and Global Corruption Report.

Democracy Index

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Democracy Index provides a snapshot of the state of world democracy for 165 independent states and two territories
It is based on electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government,
political participation, political culture and civil liberties.

It classifies a particular country as one of four types of regime:

Full democracy (22 COUntries) {पूर्ण लोकतंत्र}
Flawed democracy (54 countries) {दोषपूर्ण लोकतंत्र}
Hybrid regime (37 countries) {हाइब्रिड शासन}
Authoritarian regime (54 countries) {सत्तावादी शासन}

Performance

India dropped 10 places in the Democracy Index’s global ranking to 51st place.
India’s overall score fell from 7.23 in 2018 to 6.90 in 2019.
Index categorises India under “flawed democracies”
Flawed democracy are countries that hold free and fair elections and where basic civil liberties are respected, but have significant weaknesses in aspects of democracy, such as problems in governance, an underdeveloped political culture and low levels of political participation {शासन में समस्याएं , एक अब्रवकब्रसत राजनीब्रतक संस्कृ ब्रत और राजनीब्रतक भागीदारी का ब्रनम्न स्तर}
Norway topped the index, while north Korea was at the bottom

WHY IN NEWS

Jan Soochna Portal

The portal has been developed by the Department of Information Technology and Communication (DoIT&C) in collaboration with civil society and other stakeholders.
It is the first of its kind system in the country and has information about 23 government schemes and services from 13 departments on a single platform