The Standing Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes (Chair: Mr. Ganesh Singh) submitted its report on the ‘Rationalisation of Creamy Layer in Employment for OBCs in Services and Posts under the control of Government of India, including Union Territories, PSUs etc.’ The “creamy layer” refers to the socially and economically advanced members of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). At present, an Office Memorandum (revised in 2017) released by the Department of Personnel Training (DoPT) includes the criteria based on which OBC government employees can be excluded from reservations and be considered a part of the creamy layer. In its report, the Committee examined various issues related to the implementation of reservation for OBCs in government positions. Key findings and recommendations include:
Application of the rule of exclusion to Class I Services: Category IIA of the DoPT Office Memorandum (OM) provides that the children of parents, either or both of whom are appointed as Class I officers of the All India Central and State Services, shall be excluded from reservations. Category IIB(b) extends this rule of exclusion to children whose father is a Class II Officer of the All India Central and State Services and gets into Class I before or at the age of 40 years. The Committee sought to clarify whether the latter rule of exclusion would apply if a Class II Officer were to enter Class I after the age of 40 years. In response, the DoPT stated that the prescribed age limit would only apply in cases where an individual is promoted from Class II to Class I services, and would not apply to direct recruits.
The Committee noted that the rationale behind excluding an individual whose parent is a Class I Officer is that they would not have suffered the consequences of poverty or other economic constraints. However, an OBC candidate who may not have had the same privileges, would not stand to benefit from the elevated rank of a parent who begins Class I service after the age of 40 years. The Committee recommended that the rule of exclusion not be applied to children whose parents enter Class I service after the age of 40 years.
Application of the rule of exclusion to Class III and Class IV services: In 2017, the Department of Financial Services established that clerks and peons in public sector banks, financial institutions, and public sector insurance corporations, will be treated as being at par with Class III services employees. The Committee was informed by a representative of the Ministry of Social Justice that the children of clerks and peons who enter into junior management posts at or before the age of 40 years will be excluded and fall under the creamy layer.
The Committee noted that this provision would go against a judgment passed by the Supreme Court as well as the DoPT OM which sought to exclude such employees from the creamy layer. The Committee recommended that all Class III employees be exempted from the creamy layer.
Establishment of equivalence of posts: Category IIC of the Schedule to the DoPT OM states that the criteria for exclusion of government employees from reservations will also apply to officers holding equivalent posts in public sector undertakings, banks, insurance organisations, universities, and the private sector. The Committee noted that, till now, the Ministry of Social Justice has not shown initiative in identifying equivalent posts in these institutions. This inaction has led OBC candidates to seek judicial intervention. The Committee recommended that necessary steps be taken to identify equivalent posts in autonomous organisations, in co-ordination with the appropriate Ministries and departments.
Applicability of the Income/Wealth Test: The Income/Wealth Test is used to determine whether an OBC individual may be deemed as part of the creamy layer or excluded from it. In its revised 2017 OM, the DoPT stated that children of individuals with a Gross Annual Income of Rs 8 lakh or above shall be excluded from reservations. The Committee noted that the Supreme Court has held that income from salaries or agriculture alone cannot be used as a criterion for determining the creamy layer among OBC individuals. The Committee also observed that individuals falling under Category IIC of the DoPT OM (employees in equivalent posts) should not be disentitled to the benefit of reservation. Hence, the Committee recommended that while applying the Income/Wealth Test, only income only from sources other than salaries and agriculture should be taken into account.
Why do we need a fiscal council? Various cesses and surcharges are becoming disproportionate proportion of overall divisible revenue. There should be some mechanism to ensure that the basic spirit of the devolution process should not be undercut by clever financial engineering or taking recourse to traditions. There is a need for coordination between the finance commission as well as the GST Council. GST Council has no clue of what the Finance Commission is doing and Finance Commission has even lesser clue of what the GST Council is doing.
Also, for state government liabilities, Article 293 (3) provides a constitutional check over borrowings. But there is no such restriction on the Centre. Therefore, it is time to have an alternative institutional mechanism like Fiscal Council to enforce fiscal rules and keep a check on Centre’s fiscal consolidation.
Expert committee recommendations: In India, two expert committees have advocated the institution of such a council in recent years. In 2017, the N.K. Singh committee on the review of fiscal rules set up by the finance ministry suggested the creation of an independent fiscal council that would provide forecasts and advise the government on whether conditions exist for deviation from the mandated fiscal rules.
In 2018, the D.K. Srivastava committee on fiscal statistics established by the National Statistical Commission (NSC) also suggested the establishment of a fiscal council that could co-ordinate with all levels of government to provide harmonized fiscal statistics across governmental levels and provide an annual assessment of overall public sector borrowing requirements.
These recommendations follow similar recommendations from the 13th and 14th finance commissions, which also advocated the establishment of independent fiscal agencies to review the government’s adherence to fiscal rules, and to provide independent assessments of budget proposals.
Way ahead: With a complex polity and manifold development challenges, India need institutional mechanisms for prudent fiscal practices. An independent fiscal council can bring about much needed transparency and accountability in fiscal processes across the federal polity. International experience suggests that a fiscal council improves the quality of debate on public finance, and that, in turn, helps build public opinion favourable to fiscal discipline.
With this decision, non-residents of India can undertake rupee interest rate derivative transactions on recognised stock exchanges, electronic trading platforms and over the counter markets (OTCs).
What is an Interest-Rate Derivative? An interest-rate derivative is a financial instrument with a value that increases and decreases based on movements in interest rates. Interest-rate derivatives are often used as hedges by institutional investors, banks, companies and individuals to protect themselves against changes in market interest rates, but they can also be used to increase or refine the holder’s risk profile.
What is an Interest Rate Swap? An interest rate swap is a forward contract in which one stream of future interest payments is exchanged for another based on a specified principal amount. Interest rate swaps usually involve the exchange of a fixed interest rate for a floating rate, or vice versa, to reduce or increase exposure to fluctuations in interest rates or to obtain a marginally lower interest rate than would have been possible without the swap.
What is it? Skytrax World Airport Awards lists the Best 100 Airports of the World. It has been released by the UK-based Skytrax, a consultancy firm which runs an airline and airport review and ranking site.
The Awards are based on votes of customers in a global airport customer satisfaction survey.
Top performers: Singapore’s Changi Airport has been crowned the world’s best aviation hub for the seventh time in a row. Indira Gandhi International Airport of New Delhi is at rank 59.
Tashigang, a small Himachal Pradesh village has got the distinction of the highest polling station in the world. Tashigang is located at an altitude of 15,256 feet. It is located in Lahaul-Spiti and forms part of the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, the second largest constituency in India.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has instructed Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh not to mention the caste of the accused, victims or witnesses in proceedings before the court.
Why? It was noted that the caste system was profoundly illogical and was also against the basic tenets of the Constitution.
What is Hikikomori? Hikikomori is a psychological condition which makes people shut themselves off from society, often staying in their houses for months on end. There are at least half a million of them in Japan. It was once thought of as a young person’s condition, but sufferers are getting older and staying locked away for longer.
What’s the concern? Unless the broken satellite pieces fall down into the atmosphere, and burn up, these can produce a chain reaction of damaging and blowing up other satellites in the orbit, each adding to the shrapnel-like mass that hurtles towards other satellites. It is called the Kessler effect, after a NASA scientist who put foresaw this possibility.
Background: Space junk is an ever-growing problem with more than 7,500 tonnes of redundant hardware now thought to be circling the Earth. Ranging from old rocket bodies and defunct spacecraft through to screws and even flecks of paint – this material poses a collision hazard to operational missions.
The rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, but especially to the International Space Station (ISS), space shuttles, satellites and other spacecraft.
Technologies that can tackle the problem in future are: Moving an object out of the way by altering its orbit is one method of diverting a potential crash, but the sheer amount of debris requires constant observation and prediction – by any means necessary. Nasa’s Space Debris Sensor orbits the Earth on the International Space Station. The sensor was attached to the outside of the space station’s European Columbus module in December 2017. It will detect millimetre-sized pieces of debris for at least two years, providing information on whatever hits it such as size, density, velocity, orbit and will determine whether the impacting object is from space or a man-made piece of space debris.
REMOVEdebris, satellite contain two cubesats that will release simulated space debris so that it can then demonstrate several ways of retrieving them. deorbit mission: There are two emerging technologies being developed under what’s known as the e.Deorbit mission to grasp the wayward space junk, or to catch it.
Other technologies include moving objects with a powerful laser beam. It is important to start doing that soon, current scientific estimates predict that without active debris removal, certain orbits will become unusable over the coming decades.
Need of the hour: There is a need to ensure the long-term accessibility of orbits and to adjust current behaviour in space in order to minimize the creation of new debris. People need to be more careful with existing operational satellites and new missions.