IASbaba's Think and Learn-Mains 2015, Think and Learn, Think and Learn-2015, UPSC, UPSC Mains- Think and Learn-2015
Archives-Think and Learn-Mains 2015
Synopsis and Review – Think and Learn [Day 35]
GS 1) “Literacy is a powerful engine of social change in India”-Elucidate. (200 Words, 10 Marks)
The Top Answer for this question is written by – Anshika
Ans) Literacy is an important component which helps in fostering development and improvement of living standards of a society. Literacy has proved to be an important component of social change –
1) Individual Development
A literate individual tends to have more self esteem and confidence. It is a powerful tool in inculcating humanistic values and etiquette. Most importantly an literate individual is empowerd and is aware and can take various decisions for betterment of himself and society as a whole. Many literate people fought for rights of every individual for education and brought about a revolution Eg Raja Ram Mohan Roy to Gandhiji.
2) Social Change
Can be instrumental in maintaining good health, controlling reproductive behaviour, raising children in good manner. Improving literacy level is related with increased life expectancy, less child mortality, maternal mortality.
3) Political Level :
A literate person tend to be more aware about the policies of government and the effects of such policies on his / her society. It has potential for upliftment of disadvantaged and weaker section of society and help them fight for their rights. Just as how DR BR Ambedkar a highly educated individual fought for rights of his community
Literacy is very important for a nation to realising its complete potential. Hence several programs like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to Adult literacy mission are started to make society literate but it is very essential that along with making people literate, we also develop a society which is tolerant and which respects the other gender, religion and for which we need to even impart character education along with basic education.
GS 2) What is the difference between the system of reservation of constituencies and the system of separate electorates? Why did the constitution makers reject the latter? (200 Words, 10 Marks)
The Top Answer for this question is written by – Anurag
Ans) An electorate is the list of all the qualified voters in a particular constituency.
Reseved constituencies is a system where the constituencies are reserved for particular class of people may be based on gender, caste and only people belonging to the reserved class can contest from these constituencies. Here all the members of electorates vote to elect the representative.
Separate electorate is a system where the population is divided into different electorates based on factors like religion,caste. Here the member of each electorate votes only to elect representatives for their electorate. It is basically done to protect the intersest of minority groups which may feel threatened and may not get fair representation in the government.
To uplift the social, economic and political conditions of the backward classes, SC, ST and women India went for reserved constituencies. Since these group are quite vulnerable and if not given an opportunity of proper representation, may not be able to come at par with other groups. Also unlike the system of separate electorate it doesn’t create minority feeling as all the voters are involved in electing their representative.
On the other hand,separate electorates polarises the electorates to its extremes.It divides the country on the basis of factors like religion as is evident from partition of India.The seed of partition was sown by the britishers when they introduced the system separate electorate.
GS 3) What are the major problems affecting the banking sector in India subsequent to liberalisation of Indian economy? (200 Words, 10 Marks)
The Top Answer for this question is written by – L.I.
Ans) Banking sector in India has evolved through establishment of RBI, Nationalization, setting up Regional Rural Banks, Narasimham Committee (1 and 2), Bank Licences etc.
Major Problems:
– Public sector banks: Politicisation of appointments and role in delivering humongous schemes leading to stressed assets affecting profitability and performance
– SLR and CRR conundrum: Banks hardly earn any returns and are left with less money for lending.
– Priority Sector Lending: No regional targets. As such, loans preferably goes to better developed states as creditors are more likely to repay. Leads to regional imbalance in financial inclusion.
– Regional Rural Banks: Fewer shares to build capital coupled with debt waiver schemes by government leading to huge non-performing assets. Amendment bill seeks to address this.
– Bank Mitras: Low commissions leading to malpractices in charging additional illegal fees. Also according to RBI survey, almost 50% of them are untraceable
– Low positive interest rates: A hindrance to investments and savings
– Lack of proper database to check credit worthiness in rural areas hampers loan availability.
Overall the high proportion of non-performing assets are chief indicators for reforms. The banking sector is still evolving and needs autonomy for improving risk management practices, asset quality and recapitalization.
