Daily RC

correct ans Option.D

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5. Which of the following is/are true as per the passage?

I. The project mentioned has been postponed indefinitely after public protests.

II. From 2006, most construction projects have been approved based on an application form instead of detailed assessment reports.

III. Multiple agencies in charge can create a lot of confusion

4. What qualities are being discussed in the line- ‘However, the project reports overlook these qualities’?

A. The enthusiasm of people to save their environment.
B. The laidback approach of the Judiciary.
C. The destruction and noise pollution accompanying the projects.
D. The importance of trees in the environment and for people.
E. None of the above

3. What is meant by the phrase- ‘indirect form of public silencing’?
I. Lack of open access to the internet.
II. Lack of official information on development related issues.
III. Actively misinforming the public with blatant lies and false reports.

2. Which of the following statements, if true, strengthen the claim that the large construction sector has managed to get itself special privileges when it comes to environmental norms of the country?

I. The projects were designed by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and approved by the Union Cabinet in 2017.

II. The projects have been declared “smart” and “green” despite their ecological impacts such as high water usage and tree loss.

III. About 5 projects have been given environment clearances after they were cleared by the National Green Tribunal.

1. Which of the following, if true, would strengthen the claim that compensatory afforestation has been a failure?

I. Saplings planted have a poor survival rate.
II. There is inadequate monitoring of the afforestation done.
III. The funds provided are adequate to cover the areas as well as look after them.

Daily RC pinned «Day 74»

Over the last few days, Delhi residents have been protesting against the government’s approval for
felling over 14,000 trees in south Delhi. Faced with severe criticism, the National Buildings Construction
Corporation, tasked with redeveloping half a dozen south Delhi colonies, on Monday assured the Delhi
High Court that no trees would be cut for the project till July 4, which is temporary relief. Many of the
trees proposed to be felled are mature, local, fruit-bearing ones that provide clean air, shade and water
recharge to humans and are homes to many birds. These areas of Delhi have served as the “lungs” of
the city. However, the project reports overlook these qualities.
Large constructions have been difficult to manage in India. The sector has systematically lobbied to be
excluded from the environmental norms of the country and has been successful in carving out special
privileges for itself in the environment clearance process. From 2006, most construction projects have
been approved based on an application form instead of detailed assessment reports. In 2014, schools,
colleges and hostels for educational institutions were exempted from taking environment clearances as
long as they followed specific sustainability parameters. In 2016, projects with areas of less than 20,000
sq m were permitted to proceed as long as they submitted a self-declaration ensuring adherence to
environmental norms. As a result of these privileges, construction projects contribute significantly to
urban air and noise pollution and high water consumption in cities. Compensatory afforestation taken
up in lieu of trees felled by projects is a failure due to poor survival rates of saplings and no monitoring.
Yet all regulatory bodies treat large constructions with kid gloves.
The Minister for Urban Development has stated that this public campaign is “misinformed”. But that is
far from the truth. In a literate, urban society that has high access to the Internet, the lack of official
information on urban development and its impacts can only be understood as an indirect form of public
silencing. There are no public hearings held for urban construction projects, and governments assume
that citizens have nothing to say about them. Since Delhi is ruled by so many agencies, you can run from
pillar to post and still not have a clue about who is in charge of what. The residents are now appealing to
the government to embrace inclusive ways of redesigning the city. The governments could join hands by
committing to review these projects.

Day 74

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8. Which of the following is/are true as per paragraph 5?

I. The Labour Bureau under the Ministry of Labour and Employment carries out household surveys similar to the annual Period Labour Force Survey.

II. The results of the Household Surveys point to a worsening employment situation.

III. The Unemployment Surveys (EUS) conducted by the National Sample Survey (NSS) were biennial in nature.

7. What could be a/some possible reason/s for so few jobs to be created, given that the growth rate is more than 7%?

I. There is no proper record of job creation in the informal economy, which forms the bulk of employment, and hence no way of accurately knowing how many jobs have been created.

II. The growth has mostly been in areas which are capital intensive and not labour intensive.

III. There is a possibility that the GDP figures are overestimated on account of some changes in the new National Accounts Statistics (NAS) series and the economic growth is overstated.

6. As per paragraph 4, which of the following is/are some features of the non-farm informal labour markets?

I. It has grown the most in recent decades.

II. Almost all of the workers are self employed or engaged in unpaid labour.

III. This segment suffers from disguised employment.

5. Which of the following is a suitable gist of paragraph 3?

A. The social security databases are lists of workers enrolled in the schemes, as an entitlement or as voluntary subscribers and not employment registers.

B. The social security databases lists out workers and accurately informs the actual level of employment in the firm.

C. The employees have the option to get themselves enrolled in social security schemes on reaching a particular number as specified by the Central and State laws.

D. The official data is matched with the register for social schemes to avoid any discrepancies in the calculation of the employment figures.

E. None of the above

4. As per paragraph 1, which of the following could weaken the importance of having added 4.1 million jobs in the economy as per the CSO report?

I. The report is silent about the majority of the workforce engaged in the informal sector.

II. The formal sector accounts for just about 12-15% of India’s workforce.

III. The estimates supplement the data on organised sector employment reported regularly by the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

3. As per paragraph 1, which of the following could weaken the importance of having added 4.1 million jobs in the economy as per the CSO report?

I. The report is silent about the majority of the workforce engaged in the informal sector.

II. The formal sector accounts for just about 12-15% of India’s workforce.

III. The estimates supplement the data on organised sector employment reported regularly by the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Daily RC pinned «Day 73»

Paragraph 1: Between September 2017 and April 2018, as per a CSO report, the economy added 4.1
million new jobs in the formal sector. The CSO release defines jobs as ones that provide at least one
government financed (or mandated) social security benefit such as Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF),
National Pension Scheme, or Employees’ State Insurance Scheme. NITI Aayog and official economists
have also put out similar estimates since early this year, inviting widespread skepticism among
knowledgeable people.

Paragraph 2: How reliable or credible are the official estimates? Very little and for two reasons: the
estimates are based on administrative records of implementing the social security schemes, whose
completeness, consistency and accuracy are unknown; and since a formal sector worker, in principle,
can legitimately access more than one social security scheme, double counting is a distinct possibility.
The release does not explain how the problem is addressed in the database. Therefore, rightly, experts
have demanded the release of the administrative data for independent verification.

Paragraph 3: Moreover, the official data suffer from a conceptual problem. The social schemes
mentioned above are applicable to establishments above a certain size (of employment), and to certain
kinds of enterprises. For instance, in the factory sector, those employing 20 or more workers are
mandated to provide EPF to all the workers. So, if in a factory, employment goes up from 19 to 20
workers, it comes under the purview of the EPF, to be provided to all the 20 workers. Thus, the EPF
enrolment increases by 20 workers, but the additional job created is just for one worker. Herein lies the
fault.

Paragraph 4: The formal sector stands at the apex of India’s labour market pyramid, agriculture being at
the bottom, employing 50% of the workforce. The remaining workers are in the non-farm informal
sector, spread across rural and urban areas. In fact, it is this sector that has grown in recent decades at
the expense of the other two sectors mentioned above. Moreover, nearly half of the informal labour
workers are self-employed in household (or own account) enterprises, often engaging unpaid family labour. Varying degrees of under-employment or disguised unemployment are the defining feature of informal labour markets.

Paragraph 5: Since 1972-73, the five-yearly Employment-Unemployment Surveys (EUS) conducted by
the National Sample Survey (NSS) have been the mainstay for analysing labour market trends. Though
infrequent, the database has served a valuable purpose of capturing the complexities of the labour
market; access to household-level data lately has spawned rich and granular analyses of the informal
economy. As the last round of the EUS was in held in 2011-12, there is no reliable way of updating
employment trends. The EUS has been replaced with an annual Period Labour Force Survey, and a time
use survey. However, it will be a while before these data series come up with stable and credible
estimates. The labour Bureau under the Ministry of labour and Employment has been carrying out
household surveys somewhat similar to the EUS since 2010-11. They show a decline in worker population ratio between 2013-14 and 2015-16, suggesting a deteriorating employment situation recently.

Day 73

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