Railways have been at the very heart of modern Chinese nationalism.

Compare an
d contrast how railways have been used as a tool of economic progress and nation
al integration in China and India.




Railways are considered as the lifeline for economic progress and national integ
ration for continental size developing countries like India and China. It improv
es connectivity across country and facilitating smooth flow of passengers and go
ods with reduced environmental impact and resource consumption.
Chinese Railway is the world's second largest freight railway system carrying 4.5
BT of freight annually as compared to 1.2 BT in India. It has also developed tra
nscontinental railways like Yuxinou railway developing trade routes in landlocke
d regions. This enables faster movement of goods within and beyond the boundarie
s of nation fostering economic growth, industrialization and also diplomacy. Als
o both the state-owned behemoths are their country's single largest employer.
The affordable rail communication in India has been the backbone for national in
tegration facilitating huge population to move from one place to another. Though
Indian railways moved 6.2 billion passengers while China moved 1.4 billion pass
engers, the quality of passenger travel in the Chinese Railway is far superior.
Chinese have express trains with speeds of 300kms/hr. Maximum speed of a passeng
er train in India is about half of the Chinese Railways at 160kms/ hr. China has
succeeded in connecting remote areas with unfavorable terrain like Lhasa in Tib
et.
Indian Railways needs a drastic overhaul so as to grow sustainably in tandem wit
h the rest of the economy by incorporating some of the learning from Chinese app
roach which has been pragmatic coupled with bold initiatives, clarity, and conti
nuity.




What is Direct Tax Code (DTC)? Critically examine the provisions of draft DTC bi
ll and explain the importance of requirement of such a code.





Direct tax code was brought out in 2010, which seeks to amend direct tax laws as
well as merging the 1957-wealth tax act and 1961- income tax act under a single
unified schedule to ensure simplification as well as uniformity in the tax repo
rting and tax compliance.
Main provision of the amended draft includes:
1. It proposes a 35% tax rate for an individual and a Hindu Undivided Family (HU
F) having income exceeding Rs 10 crore. This would affect the big businesses and
corporate houses.
2. Additional surcharge of 10% on those whose taxable income exceeds 1 crore. An
additional 10% tax on recipients of dividends exceeding 1 crore. Such rigorous
taxation may lead to tax evasion.
3. The Bill proposes to tax indirect transfers if 20% of the global assets are i
n India, a fallout of the Vodafone tax case. The threshold though is reduced fro
m 50 % in the original draft. Such aggressive tax planning and possibly coming u
p of GAAR would further hurt the investors sentiment coming to the country.
4. It proposes to take out section 80 (c) of income tax act , several schemes wh
ich at present enjoy exemptions such as National saving certificate, Unit-linked
insurance plan, and equity linked saving schemes, stamp duty on purchase of pro
perty and few other schemes. It would deteriorate the saving avenues and may red
uce national savings.
Instead of all criticism the positives of the tax code cannot be overlooked as i
t would raise the direct tax to GDP ratio. It would simplify the complex taxatio
n in the country and is in the line of Goods and service tax in case of indirect
taxes. It would broaden the base by minimizing the exemptions and rebate. It wo
uld remove the ambiguities in the direct tax laws to bring about uniformity both
vertically and horizontally.




Write a note on the Direct Admission of Students Abroad (DASA) scheme.





DASA stands for Direct Admission to Students Abroad. Run by the Government of In
dia, this scheme offers direct admission to undergraduate Programmes to the dese
rving foreign nationals, Persons of Indian Origins (PIOs) and Non-Resident India
ns (NRIs). Administered by the Educational Consultants of India, the courses und
er this programme are offered by the National Institutes of Technology and other
centrally funded institutes other than IITs and Punjab Engineering College.
Through this scheme, the Government of India aims to provide quality education t
o the children of overseas Indians in the field of Engineering and technology.
Under DASA Scheme, admissions are offered to Foreign Nationals / PIOs / NRIs who
fulfill the following eligibility criteria:
Candidates must have passed the qualifying examination i.e. senior secondary or
any other examination equivalent to 12 years of schooling in India.
Candidates must have scored minimum aggregate marks of 60% or 6.75 CGPA on 10 po
int Scale or Equivalent Grades in all the subject of the qualifying Examination.
Indian nationals seeking admissions should have studied abroad for a minimum per
iod of five years including the qualifying examination i.e. XI & XII Standards d
uring the last eight years.
Critically comment on the Indra Sawhney judgment of 1992. Do you think the judge
ment needs revision? Substantiate.




Indra Sawhney judgement of 1992 is one of the path breaking judgments in Indian
democracy. The judgement came in the light of demand for reservations for Other
Backward Castes in Education and Employment.
Our constitution is explicitly backed the idea of justice- socially, economicall
y and politically which is possible only when all the citizens of this country h
ave equal opportunities for development.
Reservations, as many people thought, not damage the social fabric of our societ
y where as they are slowly reuniting our fractured society.
Time for the revision of the judgement of Indra Sawhney case, which taken caste
is the main basis for reservation instead of class, is yet to come. Positive dis
crimination, which is employed by constitution of India, to uplift the down trod
den communities is only a partial solution to the problem. with out showing a pe
rmanent solution, removing existing one may cause great injustice to the citizen
s of this country..
In our caste based hierarchical society, still caste is playing more crucial rol
e in deciding one person's social, economical and political capital more than the
class. Developed families in reserved categories are very less in comparison wit
h their community population.
Implementation of class based reservation is highly problematic where one can ea
sily get lower income certificate and class has fluctuating phenomena which is h
ighly problematic to identify the real needy people.





Explain the importance of regional navigation satellite system for India. What h
as been India's record so far in establishing such a system of its own?





The importance of regional navigation satellite system for India cannot be under
played. Navigation systems, once used by the most powerful militaries around the
world, are also being used by civilians through their smart phones. In addition
, many militaries are using them for a wide range of applications. India's ability
to develop its own system without having to rely on any external source will go
a long way in securing itself.
It will make us independent in the area of navigation. At the moment we depend o
n US' GPS or Russia's GLONASS system. They can block signals anytime if they want.Gi
ven the growing importance of location data for a variety of purposes including
in the civilian, disaster management and military domain, India cannot be laggin
g behind.
As part of the project, ISRO opened a new satellite navigation center within the
campus of ISRO Deep Space Network. India planned to start launching satellites
at a rate of one satellite every six months. This would have made the IRNSS func
tional by 2015.
India planned to send 7 satellites with name as IRNSS, IRNSS-1A is the first of
the seven satellites of the IRNSS constellation which was launched in 2013. It h
as a C-band ranging transponder, which operates in L5 band and S band. while the
full constellation is planned to be placed in orbit by 2015





Why was NATO set up? Critically comment on its role and activities after the end
of cold war.




NATO is a treaty based around western democracies opposed to totalitarian regime
s. NATO was formed to combat the Soviet Union and the treaty it maintained with
its satellites until the nation fell apart, the Warsaw Pact. This alliance was m
eant as a protective force to prevent communism from taking over any of the coun
tries included in the treaty.
Others objectives were as follows:
a. supervision of the West German government
b. distribution of Marshall Plan funds
c. to regulate world trade
d. to protect member nations against Communist aggression
After the Cold War, NATO's mandate was to include two main objectives: to foster d
ialogue and cooperation with former adversaries in the Warsaw Pact and to manage
conflicts in areas on the European periphery, such as the Balkans. Further in 1
995, it got involved in war in Bosnia and Herzegovina by staging air strikes aga
inst Bosnian Serb positions.In March 1999 NATO launched massive air strikes agai
nst Serbia in an attempt to force the Yugoslav government of Slobodan Miloevi to a
ccede to diplomatic provisions designed to protect the predominantly Muslim Alba
nian population in the province of Kosovo.
By the start of the second decade of the 21st century, it appeared likely that t
he EU would not develop capabilities competitive with those of NATO or even seek
to do so; as a result, earlier worries associated with the spectre of rivalry b
etween the two Brussels-based organizations dissipated.During the presidency of
Bill Clinton (19932001), the United States led an initiative to enlarge NATO memb
ership gradually to include some of the former Soviet allies.
Events following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 led to the forging o
f a new dynamic within the alliance, one that increasingly favoured the military
engagement of members outside Europe, initially with a mission against Taliban
forces in Afghanistan beginning in the summer of 2003 and subsequently with air
operations against the regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi in Libya in early 2011.
Recently, NATO is to cancel all co-operation with Russia and beef up border forc
es on Russia's unilateral annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, which the U.S.
and its allies have condemned as an illegal land grab.
Criticisms: Critics point out that NATO moved quickly to intervene in oil-rich L
ibya, while there's been no serious discussion of such action in Syria, where Pres
ident Bashar Assad has been waging a deadly crackdown on opponents of his govern
ment. Again, the legitimacy of the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugos
lavia has been subject to question by individuals such as Nebojsa Malic and Noam
Chomsky. Also, NATO is possibly acting without UN Security Council authorizatio
n and calling itself a peace-keeping force. While the UN itself is not perfect,
it has more experience in peace-keeping activities but has constantly been under
mined or used by the more powerful nations when it suits them.
A recent study (India Human Development Survey (IHDS) of 2004-05) has found that
the implementation of RTE and NRHM schemes have actually reversed the objective
s of both the schemes. Critically comment on the reasons behind this reversal.
from hindu article




Critically comment on the contribution of Dr Ambedkar to the cause of Dalit empo
werment.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was an intellectual, a revolutionary, a philosopher, and the c
onstitution maker. He struggled against the untouchability and the caste system
and initiated the liberation movement of roughly 65 million untouchables of Indi
a. He held that the emancipation of Dalit in India was possible only through the
three-pronged approached of education, agitation in organization and at the sam
e time safeguarding them by making constitutional provision.
His earlier achievement was the setup of Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha, which was
intended to promote education and socio-economic improvement, as well as the wel
fare of outcastes. He gave an inspiring self-confidence to the Dalits, untouchable
s and women.
In 1927, he started satyagraha against untouchability and Kalaram temple movemen
t in 1930 to ensure the right to every dalit of entry in the temple. He attended
round table conference in London and later secured separate seats for untouchab
les in elections through Poona pact in 1932.
Dr. Ambedkar didn't demand for improvement in caste system but annihilation of cas
t system. He argued that Dalits' position in Indian society is social, not the rac
ial and therefore subjected to change. He also favored Buddhism due to its ratio
nalism compared to Hinduism. His books `Annihilation of Caste' and `who were the shudr
as?' played a great role boosting the self confidence in Dalits.
Ambedkar introduced many provisions for upliftment of Dalits in Indian constitut
ion as removal of untouchability and discrimination on the ground of caste etc i
n fundamental rights. he pressured for the reservation of seats in educational i
nstitutes and govt. jobs for Schedule castes. He also laid foundation of nationa
l commission for SC's and STs to monitor its implementation.
Today there is need to apply vision of Dr. Ambedkar effectively again as nearly
8 lakh people are still engaged in manual scavenging and dalits students are sti
ll subjected to discrimination in Mid day meals and classes even after various s
trict rules by govt. Effective implementation of recent Prohibition of Employmen
t as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation act, 2013 should be ensured.