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2. What is current rule on deputation?
Reference News:-
The Centre has proposed amendments to the IAS (Cadre) Rules in order to exercise
greater control in central deputation of IAS officials.
 Central deputation has often been at the centre of tussles between the Centre and
the states.
What is the current rule on deputation?
Central deputation in the Indian Administrative Service is covered under Rule-6 (1) of
the IAS (Cadre) Rules-1954, inserted in May 1969.
As per the rule:
A cadre officer may, with the concurrence of the State Governments concerned and the
Central Government, be deputed for service under the Central Government or another
State Government or under a company, association or body of individuals, whether
incorporated or not, which is wholly or substantially owned or controlled by the Central
Government or by another State Government.
What happens in case of disagreement?
In case of any disagreement, the matter shall be decided by the Central Government and
the State Government or State Governments concerned shall give effect to the decision of
the Central Government.
 However, existing rules did not mention any time limit for deciding on such
disagreement.
What are the proposed amendments?
The proposal will give greater say to the Centre.
 The amendments enable the Union government to seek the services of an Indian
Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service
(IFoS) officer posted in a State even without the State government’s consent.
 The Centre will be able to relieve an officer from their cadre if the State
government does not give effect to the Central government’s decision within
the specified time.
 In case of any disagreement, the matter shall be decided by the central
government and the state government or state governments concerned shall give
effect to the decision of the central government “within a specified time”.
 Services of an AIS officer with a specific domain expertise may be required for
any important time-bound flagship programme or project.
What necessitated these amendments?
Various state/joint cadres are not sponsoring adequate numbers of officers for central
deputation, as part of the Central Deputation Reserve. As a result of this, the number of

3. officers available for central deputation is not sufficient to meet the requirement at
Centre.
How many officers are working under deputation?
Only 10% mid-level IAS officers were posted with the Union government in 2021, a sharp
fall from 19% in 2014.
 The decrease in central deputation of IAS officers becomes even more stark as the
total pool of such officers at this level expanded from 621 in 2014 to 1130 in 2021,
an increase of around 80%.
 According to data available with the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT),
the number of central deputation reserve of IAS officers has gone down from 309 in
2011 to 223.
Gujarat HC’s digital initiatives:
Reference News:-
Two digital services for Gujarat High court — a ‘Justice Clock’, and electronic
payment of court fee, were recently inaugurated.
What is the ‘Justice Clock’?
 It is an LED display of 7 feet by 10 feet, placed at a height of 17 feet from the
ground.
 Placed in high court premises.
 This ‘Justice Clock’ will exhibit vital statistics of the justice delivery system in
Gujarat, to “maximise outreach and visibility” of the work done by the state
judiciary.
What is e-court fee and how will it help?
The online e-Courts fee system allows advocate and parties to procure judicial stamps
online through electronic payment and upon submission of a PDF receipt.
Significance of these initiatives:
 The two digital initiatives add to a slew of other digital measures the Gujarat HC
has undertaken to cope with Covid-19.
 Digital transformation brings in transparency and openness in court proceedings
and also provides a glimpse to the public at large of how judges function.
Need for Digitization?
Perception about Indian courts is that courts justice delivery is with long delays and
difficult for ordinary litigants. It is expected that technology will revolutionaries the
justice delivery.

4. Judiciary’s Efforts During Pandemic:
1. In the wake of the pandemic, courts began using facilities like e-filing in true
earnest.
2. In May 2020, the Supreme Court also introduced another innovation: a new system
of e-filing and artificial intelligence-enabled referencing.
3. The latest Vision Document for Phase III of the e-Courts Project seeks to address
the judiciary’s digital deprivation. It envisages an infrastructure for the judicial
system that is ‘natively digital’ and reflects the effect that the pandemic has had on
India’s judicial timeline and thinking.
ISRO test fires high-thrust Vikas engine:
Reference News:-
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently conducted a successful
qualification test of its High Thrust VIKAS Engine at the ISRO Propulsion Complex
(IPRC) in Tamil Nadu’s Mahendragiri.
 The Vikas engine will power the ambitious Gaganyaan mission into space.
About the Vikas engine:
 It is a family of liquid fuelled rocket engines.
 It is used in the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous
Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) series of expendable launch vehicles for space
launch use.
About Gaganyaan:
 Formal announcement of the Gaganyaan programme was made by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address on August 15, 2018.
 The initial target was to launch the human spaceflight before the 75th anniversary
of India’s independence on August 15, 2022.
With this launch, India will become the fourth nation in the world to launch a Human
Spaceflight Mission after the USA, Russia and China.
Objectives:
The objective of the Gaganyaan programme is to demonstrate the capability to send
humans to low earth orbit on board an Indian launch vehicle and bring them back to
earth safely.
Preparation and launch:
1. Four Indian astronaut-candidates have already undergone generic space flight
training in Russia as part of the Gaganyaan programme.
2. ISRO’s heavy-lift launcher GSLV Mk III has been identified for the mission.

5. Space debris:
Reference News:-
Russia blew up one of its old satellites in November in a missile test that sparked
international anger because of the space debris it scattered around the Earth’s orbit.
 Recently, a Chinese satellite (Tsinghua Science Satellite) had a near collision with
one of the many chunks of debris left by the fallout of this Russian anti-satellite
missile test.
What’s the issue?
With more countries venturing into space with every passing decade, the problem is
simply ballooning out of control and recent events, like the anti-satellite weapons test by
Russia, are only exacerbating the problem.
 The debris is now adding to the space junk problem and posing a major risk to the
International Space Station (ISS) and the satellites in geostationary orbit.
 The debris also poses a potential threat to the lives of the US, Russian, and Chinese
astronauts and cosmonauts currently in space.
What is Space Debris?
Space debris poses a global threat to the continued use of space-based technologies that
support critical functions like communication, transport, weather and climate
monitoring, remote sensing.
 Predicting collision probability from these space objects is crucial from the
national security perspective as well as for the protection of public and private
space assets of Indian origin.
Amount of space debris in space:
The real amount of space debris is said to be between 500,000 and one million pieces as
current sensor technology cannot detect smaller objects. They all travel at speeds of up to
17,500 mph (28,162 kmph) fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to
damage a satellite or a spacecraft.
Significance of the Project:
Outcome of this project will directly support the Indian space sector, valued at $7 billion
(Rs 51,334 crore) by providing an operationally flexible, scalable, transparent and
indigenous collision probability solution.
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,

6. 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.
Netra:
To safeguard its space assets from space debris, Isro had set up a dedicated Space
Situational Awareness (SSA) Control Centre named “Netra” in Bengaluru last
December.
 Netra’s key objective is to monitor, track and protect the national space assets and
function as a hub of all SSA activities.
 Only the US, Russia and Europe have similar facilities in place to track space
objects and share collision warnings.
India’s Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile:
Mission Shakti is a joint programme of the Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
 As part of the mission, an anti-satellite (A-SAT) weapon was launched and
targeted an Indian satellite which had been decommissioned. Mission Shakti was
carried out from DRDO’s testing range in Odisha’s Balasore.
Significance:
India is only the 4th country to acquire such a specialised and modern capability, and
Entire effort is indigenous. Till now, only the US, Russia and China had the capability to
hit a live target in space.
Artemis Program
Reference News:-
The first moonbound rocket and spacecraft of NASA’s Artemis program are expected to
do a “wet dress rehearsal” on the launch pad in February.
What is Artemis?
Artemis– Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of Moon’s
Interaction with the Sun.
It is NASA’s next mission to the Moon.

7. Objective: To measure what happens when the Sun’s radiation hits our rocky moon,
where there is no magnetic field to protect it.
Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology.
Significance of the mission:
With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon
by 2024.
Mission details:
1. NASA’s powerful new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), will send astronauts
aboard the Orion spacecraft nearly a quarter million miles from Earth to lunar
orbit.
2. Astronauts will dock Orion at the Gateway and transfer to a human landing system
for expeditions to the surface of the Moon.
3. They will return to the orbital outpost to board Orion again before returning safely
to Earth.
Background- Artemis 1, 2:
The agency will fly two missions around the Moon to test its deep space exploration
systems.
Artemis 1 is aiming to send an uncrewed spacecraft around the moon using a
combination of the never-flown Space Launch System rocket, along with the once-flown
Orion spacecraft.
NASA hopes to extend the program with the moon-orbiting crewed Artemis 2 mission in
2024, then a landing on Artemis 3 in 2025, ahead of other crewed missions later in the
2020s.
Scientific objectives:
1. Find and use water and other
critical resources needed for long-
term exploration.
2. Investigate the Moon’s mysteries
and learn more about our home
planet and the universe.
3. Learn how to live and operate on
the surface of another celestial
body where astronauts are just
three days from home.
4. Prove the technologies we need
before sending astronauts on
missions to Mars, which can take
up to three years roundtrip.

8. OBC reservation in local bodies
Reference News:-
Reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local body elections sans empirical base can
no more be sustainable in law.
 Supreme Court’s latest order in Rahul Ramesh Wagh v. State of
Maharashtra &Ors. makes it mandatory that the principles laid down by it for
providing reservation to OBCs in local bodies should be followed across the country.
The Constitution Bench decision
Krishnamurthy (Dr.) v. Union of India (2010)
 Supreme court declared that though reservation to local bodies is permissible, the same is
subject to empirical finding of backwardness in relation to local bodies as fulfilled through
the three tests as follows:
1. To set up a dedicated Commission to conduct contemporaneous rigorous empirical
inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies, within
the State;
2. To specify the proportion of reservation required to be provisioned local body-wise
in light of recommendations of the Commission.
3. and in any case such reservation shall not exceed aggregate of 50% of the total seats
reserved in favour of SCs/STs/OBCs taken together.” The 50% ceiling specifically relied
on the ratio of the historic Indra Sawhney judgment (1992).
Vikas Krishnarao Gawali v. State of Maharashtra &Ors. (2021)
 The 2010 judgment was not acted upon and the constitutionality of the enacted
reservation was challenged. This resulted in the 2021 judgment of a three-judge Bench
of the Supreme Court.
 In this above case, the Supreme Court read down the provision of the Maharashtra Zilla
Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961, which mandated for 27% reservation to
OBCs in local bodies.
 The court observed that the reservation for OBCs was just a statutory dispensation
to be provided by the State legislations and is different from the constitutional”
provisions which mandate reservation to the SC/ST.
 While insisting on the triple test, the court observed that the reservation in favour of
OBCs in the concerned local bodies can be notified to the extent that it does not exceed
50% of the total seats reserved in favour of SCs/STs/OBCs taken together.
 The Supreme Court quashed notifications issued by the Maharashtra Election
Commission, which provided more than 50% reservation to OBCs and SC/STs in some
local bodies.
 However, the political decision was to take the route of ordinance to overcome an
adverse judicial decision.
The wingless ordinance

9.  Maharashtra had constituted a Commission to ascertain the backwardness of OBCs
 But without waiting for an empirical report, as mandated by the court, an ordinance
was promulgated to amend the Maharashtra local body legislations so as to conduct
local body elections while ensuring OBC reservation.
 Though the ordinance was portrayed to be in compliance with the order of the apex
court without breaching the 50% ceiling as mandated by the triple test, other
parameters had been violated.
 The ordinance failed to take off, as it was challenged before the Bombay High Court; but
the election process was not stalled,
 The OBC reservation and notification for the local body election in Madhya Pradesh also
were deemed to fall foul of the Supreme Court order, as was found by the apex court, on
challenge.
 The Supreme Court directed the re-notification of the reserved seats as belonging to
general category in both the States on the basis of which the election process may
proceed.
Legislative resolve and the judicial response
 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed a resolution to keep the local body
elections without OBC reservation at suspension.
 Taking a political cue from Madhya Pradesh, the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
also passed a resolution to stall the local body elections in the wake of the judicial
interference.
 Interestingly, the last order of the apex court records that “In case the State is not in a
position to fulfil the triple test requirement, then the election to local body cannot be
postponed beyond the statutory period. In such situation, the State Election
Commission concerned ought to notify proportionate seats as open category seats, and
proceed with the elections of the local bodies.”
Empowering City Governments
Reference News:-
Urban Local Governments (along with Panchayati Raj Institutions) have been in existence
in India for a long time as units of local government. They were established with the purpose
of democratic decentralisation.
Even in the Covid-19 pandemic, the third-tier governments in India played a frontline
role in implementing containment strategies, healthcare, quarantining and testing facilities,
organising vaccination camps and maintaining the supply of essential goods and services.
However, with this, their finances have come under severe strain, forcing them to cut down
expenditures and mobilise funding from various sources.
The financial empowerment of these civic bodies via higher resource availability is
essential to increase their functional autonomy and strengthen their governance.

10. Urban Local Governments
 Beginning of Urban Empowerment: The general approach towards urban empowerment
has remained piecemeal in India.
o The first intervention to understand ‘the urban’ and plan with a pan-India vision took
place in the 1980s when the National Commission on Urbanisation (1988) was
formed with Charles Correa as its chairperson.
 However, there were references in the earlier Five Year plans.
 Other Provisions: Another important intervention was made by the 74th Amendment to
the India Constitution which empowered urban local bodies to perform 18 functions
listed in the 12th Schedule.
o The 15th Finance Commission report on local bodies emphasised the city governance
structures and the need for their financial empowerment.
Challenges
 Draining Resources: An RBI survey of 221 municipal corporations (2020-21) revealed
that more than 70% of these corporations saw a decline in revenues while in
contrast, their expenditure rose by almost 71.2%.
o The RBI report also highlights the limited coverage of property tax and its
failure in shoring up municipal corporation revenues.
o Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data also
shows that India has the lowest property tax collection rate (property tax to
GDP ratio) in the world.
 Lesser Functional Autonomy: During the pandemic, the leaders at national, state and
district level were seen taking a call on disaster mitigation strategies, however,
the heads of municipal corporations were not included in this group.
o Although, under the disaster management plan of action, cities are at the
forefront to fight the pandemic, the elected leadership finds no place in them.
o The old approach of treating cities as adjuncts of State
governments continues to dominate the policy paradigm.
 Decline in Grants: Octroi (a duty levied on various goods entering a town or city)
was one of the major earnings of cities which was later replaced by the grants to
urban local bodies (recommended by FC) based on a formula of demographic profile.
o Previously, while almost 55% of the total revenue expenditure of urban centres
was met by octroi, now, the grant covers only 15% of expenditure.
o This has resulted in a vicious circle of burdening people more with taxes and
further privatisation/outsourcing of the services of the municipalities. The GST
further aggravated the problem.
 Structural Issues: Some of the urban local governments do not have their own building
or they exist but without basic facilities like toilets, drinking water, and electricity
connection.

11. o Moreover, there is a lack of support staff and personnel in local bodies such as
secretaries, junior engineers, computer operators, and data entry operators.
This affects their functioning and delivery of services.
Way Forward
 The Three F’s for City Governments: The functional autonomy of city governments
must be allowed and this should happen with three F’s: the transfer of ‘functions,
finances and functionaries’ to city governments. Without these, functional
autonomy would be empty rhetoric.
o In the people’s plan model of Kerala, 40% of the State’s plan budget was for
local bodies (directly) with a transfer of important subjects such as planning, etc.
 This paved the way for a new dimension to urban governance. Similar measures
in other states are welcomed.
o Also, leadership in the cities must be elected for a term of five years. In some cities,
the term of the mayor is for a year, the functionaries must be transferred to the
cities with a permanent cadre.
 Grants from Income Tax Collection: The Scandinavian countries manage their
functions well — from city planning to mobility to waste management by giving a chunk
of the income-tax collected from citizens to city governments.
o If the large urban agglomerates in India could get a percentage of income tax for
managing the affairs of urban places, it would really help improve their situation.
o Also, it was earlier recommended to give 10% of income-tax collected from the
cities back to them as a direct revenue grant from the central government.
 Need of Behavioural Change for Transformation: Cities must be treated
as important centres of governance, where democratic decentralisation can bring in
amazing results.
o There should be transparency and adequate participation of the people.
o Cities should not be considered as entrepreneurship spaces where the sole driving
force is to make them competitive to attract investments.
 They must be considered as spaces for planned development by
giving adequate attention to resources.