Fairness of High-Skilled Immigrants Act, 2019 or HR 1044
For prelims and mains: What is green card? Recent changes proposed and impact of these changes.
What is it? It is a Bill passed by the US lawmakers aimed at lifting the current seven per cent country-cap on issuing Green Cards.
Key changes proposed:
As per the present system, out of the total number of family-based immigrant visas to be given by the US in a particular year, the people of a country can be given a maximum of seven per cent of such visas. The new Bill seeks to increase this seven per cent per-country limit to 15 per cent.
Similarly, it also seeks to eliminate the seven per cent per-country cap on employment-based immigrant visas.
It also removes an offset that reduced the number of visas for individuals from China.
The bill also establishes transition rules for employment-based visas from FY 2020-22 by reserving a per centage of EB-2 (workers with advanced degrees or exceptional ability), EB-3 (skilled and other workers) and EB-5 (investors) visas for individuals from other than the two countries that get the largest number of such visas.
As per another provision of the Bill, not more than 85 per cent of the unreserved visas, would be allotted to immigrants from any single country.
Impact:
The Bill will create a first-come, first-served system providing certainty to workers and families and enabling the US companies to flourish and compete in a global economy as they hire the brightest people to create products, services, and jobs, regardless of where they were born.
How will this law help the Indian IT professionals working there?
Lifting the per-country cap on Green Card would mainly benefit high-tech professionals on H-1B work visas from countries like India, for whom the wait for Green Card is more than a decade.
Under current rules, citizens of India are getting about 25 percent of all the professional employment green cards each year. If this bill becomes law citizens of India will get more than 90 percent of the professional employment green cards.
Warming threatens Greenland’s archaeological sites, says study
Part of Prelims and mains GS III Climate change
In news
- In Greenland, climate change is not just a danger to ecosystems but also a threat to history, as global warming is affecting archaeological remains, says a study.
- There are more than 1,80,000 archaeological sites across the Arctic, some dating back thousands of years, and previously these were protected by the characteristics of the soil.
- Because the degradation rate is controlled by the soil temperature and moisture content, rising air temperatures and changes in precipitation during the frost-free season may lead to a loss of organic key elements such as archaeological wood, bone and ancient DNA.
- In addition to organic elements, such as hair, feathers, shells and traces of flesh, some of the sites contain the ruins of Viking settlements.
- The remains, some of which provide a glimpse into the lives of the first inhabitants of Greenland from around 2,500 BC, are at risk.
- Study predict that average temperature could increase by up to 2.6 degrees Celsius, leading to higher soil temperatures, a longer thaw season, and increased microbial activity within the organic layers.
Draft tenancy law
For prelims and mains: Key features of the draft and need for a law in this regard.
Context: Centre has proposed a Model Tenancy Law to regulate renting of premises.
Highlights of the draft:
It mandates the landowner to give a notice in writing three months before revising rent.
It advocates appointing district collector as rent authority and heavy penalty on tenants for overstaying.
According to it, tenants overstaying will have to pay double the rent for two times and four times thereafter.
The security deposit to be paid by the tenant in advance will be a maximum of two months’ rent.
Both landlord and tenant will have to submit a copy of rent agreement to the district Rent Authority which will also have the power to revise or fix rent following a request either by landlord or tenant.States will be free to adopt the law owing to land being state subject.States will be required to constitute rent courts and rent tribunal.
If the landowner refuses to carry out the required repairs, the tenant can get the work done and deduct the same from periodic rent.
A landowner cannot enter the rented premises without 24-hour prior notice to carry out repairs or replacement.
Landowner cannot cut power and water supply in case of a dispute with the tenant.
Rent Authority may direct for compensation on the person responsible for cutting off or withholding the essential supply.
The Rent Authority may levy a penalty be paid to the landowner or tenant if it finds that the application was made frivolously or vexatiously.
Significance:
It is an important piece of legislation that promises to ease the burden on civil courts, unlock rental properties stuck in legal disputes, and prevent future tangles by balancing the interests of tenants and landlords.
Need for a law in this regard:
Young, educated job seekers migrating to large metropolises often complain of onerous tenancy conditions and obscene sums of money as security deposits that they are asked to fork out to lease accommodation. In some cities, tenants are asked to pay security deposits amounting to 11 months of rent. Also, some house owners routinely breach tenants’ right to privacy by visiting the premises unannounced for sundry repair works. Whimsical rent raises are another problem for tenants, many of whom complain of being squeezed as “captive customers“.
Global MPI 2018
For Prelims: Key features of MPI.
For Mains: Highlights, key findings and significance of the report, concerns for India and measures needed to reduce the poverty.
Context: Global MPI 2019 Report prepared by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.
In the 101 countries assessed– 31 low income, 68 middle income and 2 high income –about 1.3 billion people are “multi-dimensionally poor“.
Definition of MPI poor:
Multi-dimensional poverty defines poor not only on the basis of income, but on other indicators, including poor health, poor quality of work and the threat of violence.
India specific:
Incidence of multidimensional poverty almost halved between 2005-06 and 2015-16, climbing down to 27.5%, indicating that the number of poor people in India fell by more than 271 million within ten years.
Incidence of multidimensional poverty halved in India due to faster progress among the poorest in the country. Among states, Jharkhand had the greatest improvement, with Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Nagaland only slightly behind.
However, Bihar was still the poorest state in 2015- 16, with more than half of its population living in poverty. In 2015-16, the four poorest states – Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh – were home to 196 million multidimensional poor people – over half of all the people living in multidimensional poverty in India.
Least poor regions also saw reduction in poverty. Relative to their starting levels, they netted some of the highest rates of reduction. For example, Kerala, one of the least poor regions in 2006, reduced its MPI by around 92%.
The positive trend of pro-poor poverty reduction was seen also across religions and caste groups. In both cases, the poorest groups (Muslims and Scheduled Tribes) reduced poverty the most over the ten years from 2005-06 to 2015-16.
The poorest district is Alirajpur in Madhya Pradesh, where 76.5% of people are poor – the same as Sierra Leone in Sub-Saharan Africa. Only eight countries have higher rates of MPI.
Sources: the Hindu.
Private member’s Bill calls for two-child norm
For prelims and mains: Concerns and issues associated with the proposed two- child policy.
Context: A nominated MP has introduced a private member’s Bill- Population Regulation Bill, 2019- in the Rajya Sabha, seeking to enforce a two-child norm by giving incentives for those adopting the small family practice and penalties for those contravening it.
Highlights of the Bill:
- It suggests that people with more than two living children should be “disqualified” from being chosen as an MP, MLA or a member of any body of the local self government after the commencement of the Act.
- Similarly, it suggests that government employees should give an undertaking that she or he will not procreate more than two children.
- It says those government employees who have more than two children on or before the commencement of the Act should be exempted.
- Other penalties include reduction in subsidies on loans and interest rates on savings instruments, reduction in benefits under the public distribution system, and higher than normal interest rates for availing loans from banks and financial institutions.
- The provisions of the Bill also list out several benefits for Central and public sector enterprise employees who adopt the two-child norm “by undergoing sterilization operation himself or of the spouse”.
Criticisms related to two- child policy:
India is a country with a booming technology industry, one that relies on young people. There is fear that, by restricting the number of children that can be born, there will not be enough educated young people in the next generation to carry on India’s technological revolution.
Critics also argue that the population growth of India will slow down naturally as the country grows richer and becomes more educated.
There are already well-documented problems with China’s one-child policy, namely the gender imbalance resulting from a strong preference for boys and millions of undocumented children who were born to parents that already had their one child. These problems risk being replicated in India with the implementation of their two-child policy.
By interfering with the birth rate, India faces a future with severe negative population growth, a serious problem that most developed countries are trying to reverse. With negative population growth, the number of old people receiving social services is larger than the young tax base that is paying for the social services. In this case, taxes must be increased and young people risk contributing way more than they will receive in the future.
The law related may also be anti-women. Human rights activists argue that, not only does the law discriminate against women right from birth (through abortion or infanticide of female fetuses and babies), but divorce and familial abandonment are at risk of increasing if a man with a large family wants to run for political office. In addition, women in India are, by and large, uneducated and illiterate and, as such, are often unaware of the two-child policy.
A legal restriction to two children could force couples to go for sex-selective abortions as there are only two ‘attempts’. A significant proportion of such women, especially those from lower socio-economic strata, would be forced to go for unsafe abortions because of issues of access and affordability. Besides being inhumane, this is bound to create gender imbalances.
Are urgent and aggressive steps to control population required for India?
It is indeed a fact that population of India is growing and will continue to grow for the next couple of decades. This is because, as compared to the past, there is a higher proportion of people in the marriageable age group who will produce children, and people are now living longer.
However, the fertility rates are also declining. The average number of children that a woman is expected to bear in her lifetime is called the total fertility rate (TFR). A TFR of about 2.1 is considered as replacement-level fertility – if achieved, it will lead the population to stabilise in the long run.
As per National Family Health Survey data, the country-level TFR in India is 2.23, which is not hugely above the desired level of 2.1.
Twenty states/UTs have achieved the replacement-level TFR, another five have got it below 2.2, with the remaining 11 states (including Bihar, UP, MP, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh) having a higher rate. Though these 11 states/UTs accounts for 42% of country’s population, they are already showing a fall in their TFRs.
Picking out plastic: on recycling and waste management
Background
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has put 52 producers, brand owners and importers, including big online retailers such as Amazon and Flipkart, and companies such as Patanjali Ayurveda and Britannia, on notice, for failing to take responsibility for their plastic waste.
Issue –
- The retail sector expects e-commerce to grow from about $38.5 billion-equivalent in 2017 to $200 billion by 2026. Given the role played by packaging, the waste management problem is likely to become alarming.
- Plastics are less expensive than other inputs in manufacturing, but recycling them into new products extends their life and provides a substitute for virgin material.
- In spite of legal requirements, municipal and pollution control authorities fail to see this and mostly pursue business-as-usual waste management methods.
- Recyclable waste is rendered useless when it gets mixed with other articles.
- Online retailers have not felt compelled to take back the thousands of polybags, plastic envelopes and air pillows used to cushion articles inside cardboard boxes.
- This is in contrast to more developed markets where they are trying out labels on packages with clear recycling instructions.
Extended producer responsibility –
The concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) was incorporated into the Plastic Waste Management Rules, but municipal and pollution control authorities have failed to persuade commercial giants to put in place a system to collect and process the waste.
What is EPR?
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach under which producers are given a significant responsibility – financial and/or physical – for the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products. Assigning such responsibility could in principle provide incentives to prevent wastes at the source, promote product design for the environment and support the achievement of public recycling and materials management goals.
Do you know?
PLASTIC WASTE MANAGEMENT RULES, 2016: SALIENT FEATURES –
- Increase minimum thickness of plastic carry bags from 40 to 50 microns and stipulate minimum thickness of 50 micron for plastic sheets also to facilitate collection and recycle of plastic waste;
- Expand the jurisdiction of applicability from the municipal area to rural areas, because plastic has reached rural areas also;
- To bring in the responsibilities of producers and generators, both in plastic waste management system and to introduce collect back system of plastic waste by the producers/brand owners, as per extended producer’s responsibility;
- To introduce collection of plastic waste management fee through pre-registration of the producers, importers of plastic carry bags/multi-layered packaging and vendors selling the same for establishing the waste management system;
- To promote use of plastic waste for road construction as per Indian Road Congress guidelines or energy recovery, or waste to oil etc. for gainful utilization of waste and address the waste disposal issue;
- To entrust more responsibility on waste generators, namely payment of user charge as prescribed by local authority, collection and handing over of waste by the institutional generator, event organizers.
Solutions:
- The two prongs of the solution are packaging innovation that reduces its use by using alternatives, and up scaling waste segregation, collection and transmission.
- These companies can form waste cooperatives in India, employing informal waste-pickers.
- In such a model, consumers will respond readily if they are incentivised to return segregated plastic waste.
- Making municipal and pollution control authorities accountable is also equally important.