SECURE SYNOPSIS: 19 FEBRUARY 2018
NOTE: Please remember that following ‘answers’ are NOT ‘model answers’. They are NOT synopsis too if we go by definition of the term. What we are providing is content that both meets demand of the question and at the same time gives you extra points in the form of background information.
General Studies – 1
Topic: Art and culture; Features of Indian society
Background:-
- Buddhist society is a society with features essentially opposed to those of the brahmanic society, and because it proclaims the equality of all human beings and denies that birth and belonging to a social group grant rights and privileges.
How the society is impacted:
Occupation:-
- Brahmanism fixed for the members of each caste the occupations which they had to carry out and the qualities they had to possess and cultivate in themselves. It hindered also the social mobility and the evolution of ideas, especially those of scientific nature.
- In many texts Buddhism discards birth as the criterion for fixing the place of the individual in society, and asserts that the criterion must be knowledge and moral values.
- Because of Brahmanism people were restricted for the same job being passed down to their children based on caste like blacksmith son as a blacksmith. This was not the case in Buddhism.
Birth :-
- Only education can guarantee that the tyranny of birth be replaced by the just government as the Buddha aspired to of Knowledge and Moral values.
- In Brahmanism birth decided everything from caste, occupation and life of a person
Rites and worship :-
- Brahmanism was a ritualistic culture, where the regular performance of rites in all the stages and moments of life was an obligation imposed in all the members of society. And the brahmans were the persons in charge for the execution of the rites.
- Rites and worship do not play any significant role in ancient Indian Buddhism.
Caste :-
- Buddhism, owing to the importance it gave always and everywhere to ethical values, could not accept the caste institution, which divided men into closed groups, distributed rights and privileges, organized social hierarchy according only to birth.
- Buddha’s conception of society and His rejection of the castes system is in absolute congruency with His attitude of universalistic inclusivism (not to leave anyone outside) and generosity.
- Brahmanism was a hierarchical society, a society of privileges and of discrimination, a society of group ethics where there was strong allegiance to caste.
- One own duty (svadharma)
- The distribution of the members of society into closed castes and the assignation to each of these castes of well fixed activities and virtues .Each caste has its own ethics.
- One own duty (svadharma)
Violence:-
- Buddhism propagated non violence
- But in Brahmanism to respect the purity of castes and to impose its norms sometimes people resorted to violence as well.
Equality:-
- The most important features of Buddhist society is the absolute equality of all its members. As for instance, the brahmans who converted to Buddhism, on entering the Buddhist Community, were not any more brahmans, and the privileges, which as such they possessed, disappeared.
- For people of low castes to enter Buddhist Community was the recovery of their
human dignity as they were treated equally which had been denied to them in Brahmanic society. - In Brahmanism absolute equality is a myth as lower castes were discriminated based on ascriptive criteria .
- Buddhism is one of the most magnificent and radical reactions in favour of the universal human rights of the individual against the oppressing tyranny of the pretended privileges of divine origin, of birth, and of class.
- Women equally treated with men is still constrained in a brahmanic society as the patriarchal mindset controls the women.
Conclusion:-
- Buddha’s conception of society is also of an extraordinary actuality as so many of his teachings that with the lapse of centuries have not lost their wisdom and capacity to benefit people.
- Today in a great number of countries it is still birth that determines the destiny of persons. The social discrimination of dalits, fights over inter caste and inter religious marriages in India show that age old wisdom of Buddha is dominated by brahmanic ideals imposed in the society
- However with education there is a slow change taking place in the society .
General Studies – 2
Topic: Parliament and State Legislatures – structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.
Background:-
- Parliamentary scrutiny of public finance is an important aspect of governmental accountability. There is a legitimate democratic need in this country to strengthen the capacity of Parliament and its members to carry effective financial oversight.
Mechanism of parliamentary oversight on government’s financial activities :-
- Parliamentary oversight of the government’s financial activities broadly involves two functions:
- (a) scrutinising and sanctioning the government’s expenditure proposals and the taxation policies financing them.
- (b)examining the efficiency of government functioning, once the funds have been allocated for various activities.
- Mechanisms for oversight before the budget is passed
- The Parliament scrutinises the annual budget (a) on the floor of the House and (b) by the departmentally related standing committees
- Scrutiny on the floor of the House
- The main scrutiny of the budget in the Lok Sabha takes place through:
- General discussion and voting:
- The general discussion on the Budget is held on a day subsequent to the presentation of the Budget by the Finance Minister.
- Discussion at this stage is confined to the general examination of the Budget and policies of taxation expressed during the budget speech.
- Discussion on Demand for Grants:
- The general discussion is followed by a discussion on the Demand for Grants of different ministries. A certain number of days or hours are allocated for the discussion of all the demands. However, not all the demands are discussed within the allotted number of days.
- Scrutiny of Demands for Grants by Parliamentary Committees
- One of the functions of the Parliamentary Standing Committees is to consider the Demands for Grants of the ministries under their supervision.
- Mechanisms for oversight after the budget is passed
- Oversight by Parliament after the Budget is passed is necessary to make sure that the sanctioned amount is being used in an appropriate manner. Parliament may also look at systemic improvements in financial management of the government.
- The financial committees of Parliament, (a) the Public Accounts Committee, (b) Estimates Committee, (c) the Committee on Public Undertakings serve as important means of Parliamentary control over government agencies.
- Financial Committees: Financial Committees scrutinise and exercise parliamentary control over government expenditure/finances and table reports in Parliament.
- General discussion and voting:
- The main scrutiny of the budget in the Lok Sabha takes place through:
Concerns :-
- Parliament core functions include Budget approval, scrutiny of its implementation, and holding the government to account. However, Parliament lacks the capability to perform such functions effectively. The result is often an arbitrary taxation policy, burgeoning fiscal deficit, and an inequitable allocation of public resources.
- Indian political economy literature fails to adequately address the role of Parliament and State legislatures in public finance management. The role of Parliament and State legislatures in budgetary decision-making and oversight is far from satisfactory. It is meaningful to have a well thought-out legislative-executive balance of power in budgetary governance.
- Voting of demand of grants is in the purview of Lok sabha so Rajya sabha does not have enough role.
- Problem with guillotine:-
- With the Gujarat issue in 2002 having devoured valuable time of the budget session, the Lok Sabha applied the guillotine to vote demands for grants of all Ministries and departments except agriculture. This compromises the budget process.
- PAC committee:-
- Some PAC reports in the past have generated a lot of debate, media attention and discussion on the floor of the House.Although it is open to the Lok Sabha to discuss reports of the Committee, such discussion is seldom held.
- Average number of PAC reports per year tabled by the PAC have been decreasing in number since the 6th Lok Sabha (1977)
- Supplementary Demands for Grants are not scrutinised by any Committee.
How to strengthen it :-
- Linking financial outlays to outcome:-
- Currently, no direct link exists between the amount allocated for the department and the final outcome in terms of learning levels of school children. There is a need for Parliament to ensure direct linkage of the Budget to actual outcomes and evaluate the Budget in accordance with these criteria.
- Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) :-
- Many countries are characterised by a specialised body dedicated to conducting essential budget-related and financial research for Parliament, such as the US (Congressional Budget Office), UK (Office for Budget Responsibility)etc
- There is a growing trend among legislatures, particularly within the OECD countries to establish specialised Budget research units.
- Establishing a PBO within Parliament is undoubtedly necessary.
- It is an instrument for addressing bias towards spending and deficits and, more significantly, for enhancing fiscal discipline and promoting accountability.
- Further, it can generate quality public debate on Budget policy and public finance, enabling parliamentarians to engage meaningfully in the Budget process.
- Strengthening the committee system
- Public Accounts Committee
- Till 1946, reports of the PAC could be discussed in the Lok Sabha through a formal motion moved by the Finance Minister. Adopting this practice again could ensure that reports of the PAC, examining crucial aspects of government functioning, are debated and discussed by the House.
- In order to expedite the regularisation of excesses over grants, the PAC recommended that the CAG should report these excesses to Parliament, in advance of submitting the Audit Report on the Appropriation Accounts.
- Public Accounts Committee
- Scrutiny of Supplementary Demands for Grants
- Supplementary Demands are not scrutinised by Deparmentally related standing committees and there is no prescribed limit to how much of such expenditure can be approved by Parliament. Evolving a system by which Supplementary Demands for Grants are discussed by DRSCs would strengthen Parliamentary oversight.
- The Estimates Committee should also examine why there was a need for Supplementary Demands, and why these could not be anticipated in the initial Demands.
Conclusion :-
- In the light of recent scams being unearthed along with issue of disproportionate assets of the elected representatives the measures elaborated like having a budget office, focusing on outcomes along with strengthening the committees will ensure parliament has effective financial oversight.
Topic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health,
Background:-
- According to the 2001 Census, there is a tenfold difference in the availability of qualified doctors between urban and rural areas i.e. one qualified doctor per 8,333 (885) people in rural (urban) areas of India. Addressing this rural scarcity is fundamental to efforts for achieving universal health care in India.
- At the time of India’s independence, licentiate medical practitioner (LMP)s, who underwent three years training, comprised nearly two-thirds of the qualified medical practitioners and they mostly served in rural areas. LMPs were abolished after Independence but doctors never really occupied the space that LMPs vacated. Now, the shortage of rural doctors has forced some States to look towards non-physician clinicians for relief.
Why LMP may be the solution:-
- If properly implemented, it may provide rural India with a lasting pool of primary care physicians.
- Starting a short-term course in modern medicine can provide an opportunity to design a medical curriculum that is much more relevant to the nation’s needs.
- With LMPs working at the grass-root level, a single PHC would be able to handle a bigger population, allowing for more resources to be concentrated on individual PHCs for manpower and infrastructure development and also for increasing the remuneration of medical officers.
- Ancillary responsibilities can be taken off an MBBS doctor and their skills put to better use.
- Quality emergency and inpatient attention can be made available at the Primary health care-level.
- Concerns about the clinical and administrative incompetence of fresh MBBS graduates appointed as bonded medical officers can be put to rest.
- Many countries which have doctor shortages have ameliorated this problem by using non-physician clinicians to deliver basic health services.
- In the United States, the United Kingdom, many countries in Africa, and even in South Asia, individuals such as nurse-practitioners or medical assistants, who have some years of basic clinical training, perform many of the clinical functions normally expected of fully qualified doctors.
- In sub-Saharan Africa and many parts of Asia, clinical services in rural areas are possible only because of these non-physician clinicians.
- Indian states example:-
- Clinicians with around three years of clinical training currently serve at government rural health clinics in Chhattisgarh and Assam.
- Assessments of their performance in Chhattisgarh have shown them to be as competent as doctors for delivering basic clinical care.
- Because their training focuses on serving as rural clinicians these clinicians, as the Chhattisgarh experience shows, have a greater likelihood of staying and serving in rural areas.
Demerits:-
- Short-term courses in modern medicine have been consistently equated with producing cheaply made, poor quality doctors.
- The rural population would be made to feel like second class citizens by appointing a lower tier doctor to treat them.
- Such proposals underestimate the clinical importance of physicians expertise and overestimate the cost-effectiveness of nurse practitioners.
- The Bhore committee rejected it.
Conclusion:-
- LMPs can be employed in sub-centres where they perform both clinical and administrative functions at the sub-centre level. This would also allow easier access to primary and emergency care and keep the post of medical officer for MBBS doctors, thereby deterring any competition between the two cadres of physicians.
- Along with other measures like strengthening public health Infrastructure and increasing government share in health expenditure India can make health programmes inclusive .The mention of bridge course in the medical bill under discussion recently is a right step.
Topic: Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act
Background:-
- Recently Supreme court gave a judgement which is one more in a long line of significant verdicts aimed at preserving the purity of the electoral process.
SC judgements preserving the purity of electoral process and their significance :-
- Latest judgement:-
- The Supreme Court has imposed an additional disclosure norm for candidates contesting elections. It has asked the Centre to amend the rules as well as the disclosure form filed by candidates along with their nomination papers, to include the sources of their income, and those of their spouses and dependants.
- This is a very significant step when there are allegations that elected representatives amass wealth or gaining unusual access to public funds and loans. Now these need to be addressed through new norms. the court has made it clear that non-disclosure of assets and their sources would amount to a “corrupt practice” under Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951
- The court has also asked for the establishment of a permanent mechanism to investigate any unexplained or disproportionate increase in the assets of legislators during their tenure.
- The idea of a permanent mechanism to collect data about the assets of legislators and periodically examine them is laudable.
- Persons in Custody to be debarred from contesting elections
- As per the 2004 judgment of the Patna High Courtin Jan Chaukidari v Union of India — upheld by the Supreme Court on 10 July 2013 all those in lawful police or judicial custody, other than those held in preventive detention, will forfeit their right to stand for election.
- Jan Chaukidarwas one of the boldest and unconventional decisions taken by the apex judicial body, striving towards the cleansing of political arena.
- It was being done to curb the criminalisation of politics.
- Further, Supreme court took account of practical considerations and ruled that the additional resources that would be required in terms of infrastructure, security and deployment of extra police forces were legitimate justifications in denying the right to vote to prisoners and those in custody.
- MPs, MLAs to be disqualified on date of criminal conviction
- In Lily Thomas v. the Union of India, the Supreme Court declared Section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, (RPA) which allowed legislators a three-month window to appeal against their conviction effectively delaying their disqualification until such appeals were exhausted as
- Direction to provide the ‘NOTA’ option in voting machines:-
- The NOTA option would indeed compel political parties to nominate sound candidates. The bench noted that giving right to a voter not to vote for any candidate while protecting his right of secrecy is extremely important in a democracy.
- Such an option gives the voter the right to express his disapproval of the kind of candidates being put up by the parties.
- The right to cast a negative vote will foster the purity of the electoral process and also fulfil one of its objectives, namely, wide participation of people. Not allowing a person to cast a negative vote would defeat the very freedom of expression and the right to liberty.
- The VVPAT Ruling
- Supreme Court (SC), in the case of Subramanian Swamy vs Election Commission of India (ECI), has held that VVPAT (Vote Verifiable Paper Audit Trial) is “indispensable for free and fair elections.
- This ruling is obviously a victory for accountable voting in India. This was necessary as there were criticisms against EVM and with this system people have proof that they have voted for his person.
- The Supreme Court said that freebies promised by political parties in their election manifestos shake the roots of free and fair polls, the, and directed the Election Commission to frame guidelines for regulating contents of manifestos.
- The Supreme Court in 2013 ruled that returning officer can reject nomination papers of a candidate for non-disclosure and suppression of information, including that of assets and their criminal background.
- The apex court said that voters have fundamental right to know about their candidates and leaving columns blank in the nomination paper amounts to violation of their right.
- Dispose-off cases within one year against MP/MLAs if cases are serious offense mentioned under sec-8 of RP Act. This act as deterrence for wrongdoer.
- With these judgements the court focused on making electoral system transparent and increase the accountability of the elected people.
Conclusion:-
- The Centre and the Election Commission will have to jointly address the issues . The larger message from the verdict is that a fully informed electorate and transparent candidature will be key components of future elections in India.
Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests
Background:-
- The post-Cold War world has compelled India to reshape relations with important countries, such as the US and Japan. There is immense potential for India finally to play a greater role not just in South Asia but in Asia as a whole.
Why should India build a robust maritime capacity:-
- Natural advantages:-
- Cultural:-
- India’s ties with Southeast Asia date back more than 2,000 years. Ancient trade between India and countries such as Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand is well-documented. Southeast Asian cultures, traditions and languages have been profoundly influenced by these early linkages.
- Geographic:-
- India is located strategically along major sea-lanes from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. These sea lanes are also vital trade routes for many ASEAN Member States.
- Acquired advantages:-
- Indian maritime forces have been conducting regular deployments east of the Malacca Straits through a set of bilateral maritime security and naval relations
- They have accumulated geographical familiarity and knowledge over many decades
- Close to ASEAN:-
- India became an ASEAN Sectoral Dialogue Partner in 1992, a full ASEAN Dialogue Partner in 1995, and participated in the East Asia Summits (EAS) from 2005.
- ASEAN and India share common interests in peace and security in the region, and an open, balanced and inclusive regional architecture. Both sides share an interest in preserving these vital maritime conduits of trade.
- Growing relations:-
- Several Southeast Asian countries locked in territorial disputes with China have sought even greater Indian engagement in the region
- China’s distinctly hegemonic moves in the last few years in the South China Sea and its growing assertiveness have made ASEAN look towards India as a partner for equilibrium.
- India already has strong naval ties with countries such as Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. The ongoing activities of ship visits, of coordinated patrols, of exercises that take place bilaterally, are taking place very well
- China factor:-
- China has also expanded its presence in South Asia, building ports and power plants in countries around India’s periphery, such as Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and spurring India to seek new allies.
- Quad:-
- By emphasizing the Act East Policy as the cornerstone of its engagement in the Indo-Pacific India has indicated that the Quad would be an extension of that policy.
- Rather than assuming greater responsibility with its rising power, China has become more authoritarian, opaque, mercantile, and revisionist. Furthermore, in all four countries elected governments attempted to reach accommodations with Beijing, but were spurned. This means that despite a continued willingness to engage China by all four parties, alternative mechanisms to uphold a rules-based order are being sought. For this reason, Quad is looked into.
- Being part of quad will upgrade the India’s naval forces and make them more effective.
- Malabar exercise has expanded in its military capabilities, built confidence, and is setting geopolitical rhetoric. India has quite rightly stuck to its ASEAN centrality/Act East Policy as the pivot for its Indo-Pacific nomenclature and views Quad in this context.
- Domestic actions:-
- India revamped its maritime doctrine in 2015, wherein it took stock of its commitment to an actionable policy. And keeping in line with this approach it has upped its maritime naval drills, made port calls in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, and undertaken maritime capacity building efforts (beyond training) in Vietnam and Myanmar.
- Growing international stature:-
- India sees itself as an emerging pole in the international order and therefore is keen on preserving its autonomy and flexibility of decision-making. It has also become a more vocal proponent and supporter of a liberal international order.
- Act east policy has wider prerogatives:-
- Act East is much more comprehensive and includes a strong security component, including greater capacity building, interoperability, and information sharing with Southeast and Northeast Asian powers.
- The scope of Act East has expanded to cover the entire Indo-Pacific, beyond an earlier focus on Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and South Korea.
- Act East has been more focused on end results rather than direction, which is a natural progression and also a sign of greater urgency.
- Cultural:-
How to do it:-
- Creating more institutionalized patterns of joint training and exercises along the lines of the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX), involving navies and coastguards.
- The latest Sambandh Initiative, and Mobile Training Team programme are targeted at the smaller Indian Ocean neighbours as part of the overall response to China’s increasing presence in the region. It might be worthwhile extending these programmes to South-East Asia.
- Where technical capacity is concerned, India’s extension of credit to Vietnam for acquiring new patrol vessels is noteworthy, but a more structured programme aimed at South and South-East Asia along the lines of Australia’s Pacific patrol boat programme, could be feasible.
- India could also leverage its space technology strengths, especially remote-sensing capabilities for maritime domain awareness.
- Technical tie-ups between the Indian Space Research Organization and its Asean counterparts in the area of micro- and nano-satellites for which such national programmes already exist in South-East Asia can be another way forward.
- It may reap greater benefits for these extra-regional powers to coordinate with each other instead of disparate national approaches to assist South-East Asia’s maritime security capacity-building, which could lead to duplication and overlap of efforts. The Quad may serve as such a platform to facilitate such efforts
- Even with external naval modernization and the success of the Vikrant-class aircraft carrier and Arihant-class of nuclear submarines, India’s indigenous defence production has faced serious operational glitch, leading to delays such as the failed MiG-29K.So India needs to focus on modernising its naval force than focusing on imports.
Conclusion:-
- The Delhi declaration at the recent India-ASEAN summit gave further impetus to maritime cooperation which emphasised need to promote maritime transport cooperation and encourage potential private sector participation in development of seaports, maritime logistics network and maritime services in order to create greater efficient linkages and continue discussions on these priority areas.
General Studies – 3
Topic: Agriculture pricing; Marketing
Background:-
- Recently the finance minister announced Operation Greens, on the lines of Operation Flood, with a seed capital of Rs 500 crore .This is the right step especially when farmers are forced to dump the vegetables in the light of price volatility.
Operation green:-
- Operation Greens wants to replicate the success of operation flood in fruit and vegetables, starting with tomatoes, onions and potatoes.
- reduce price volatility in these commodities, thereby helping farmers augment incomes on a sustainable basis. It also aims to provide these vegetables to consumers at affordable prices.
Current problems:-
- The problem with the commodities like potatoes, onions ,tomatoes are that their prices collapse when their production rises sharply.
- This is because the country lacks modern storage facilities and the links between processing and organised retailing are very weak. As a result, farmers often end up receiving less than a fourth of what consumers pay in major cities.
Lessons to be learnt from the success of operation flood which helps in building forward and backward linkages:-
- Operation Flood was driven largely by smallholders and the AMUL model has ensured that 75-80 per cent of the price paid by milk consumers goes to the farmers.
- Operation Greens needs to ensure that farmers receive at least 60 per cent of what consumers pay. In the case of milk, the producers get more than 75 per cent of what consumers pay. The basic principles of Operation Flood would be useful to operationalise Operation Greens as well.
- The AMUL company’s reliance on a diffuse network of milk procurement centres, because poor Indian farmers cannot afford to travel far to sell their milk, has also proved a powerful defence against foreign competitors. So in case of operation green link major consumption centres to major production centres with a minimal number of intermediaries.
- So there is a need to map mega consuming centres and link their retail networks with the producing centres of each commodity.
- Farmers can be organised in farmer producer organisations (FPOs). Having strong FPOs will make it easy for the input companies to sell their products to farmers. It will also facilitate the food processing companies to buy what the FPOs produce .
- The Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act will have to be changed to allow direct buying from FPOs, and giving incentives to these organisations, private companies and NGOs to build back end infrastructure as was done in the case of milk.
- The announcement of tax concessions to FPOs for five years is a welcome step in that direction, if it encourages building such critical infrastructure
- There needs to be investment in logistics, starting with modern warehouses, that can minimise wastage. Such storage facilities have to be cost effective. Large-scale investments in storage will require tweaking of the Essential Commodities Act.
- Linking the processing industry with organised retailing:-
- On an average, about one-fourth of the produce must be processed. India is way behind on this curve compared to most Southeast Asian countries. Dehydrated onions, tomato puree and potato chips should become cheap, so that an average household can use them.
- Processing industry adds value and absorbs surpluses. The announcement of increasing the allocation for the food processing industry by 100 per cent is a welcome step. The food processing ministry will have to coordinate with Operation Greens.
- Food processing sector is happy about the operation green scheme promoting cluster based development of agricommodities and regions . Cultivation of horticulture crops in clusters bring advantages of scales of operations and can spur establishment of entire chain from production to marketing, besides giving recognition to the districts for specific crops
- Educate the consumers:-
- Educating the consumers to use the processed products when fresh supplies become expensive.
Conclusion:-
- By developing such forward and backward linkages, the government can ease large price fluctuations, raise farmers share in the price paid by the consumer further reducing the farm distress and at the same time, ensure lower prices for the consumers a win-win situation for all.
General Studies – 4
Topic: Role of family, society and educational institutions in inculcating values
Answer:-
Universities since olden days have been the places of learning which produce experts in multiple fields who help in the development of the country in the future. So they have been known for being creative, experimentation, research etc. So students who study there enjoy the process rather than being forced to attend to the lectures.
Coercive attendance policies do little to help student learning or engagement and run contrary to the idea of undergraduates as independent learners. By the university level, students have the right and responsibility to prioritize their own time
In fact, many students who miss lectures and tutorials can be more engaged in their studies than those who show up without fail. Indeed, several highly successful individuals have gained hugely from university despite having attended very few classes. In addition to tech icon Bill Gates and media mogul Oprah Winfrey, several notable people dropped out of college but were still successful.
Attendance proves nothing in terms of learning. It is an academic ‘non-achievement’ but the system seems to be getting keener on rewarding it because it is easier than assessing students properly .
Compulsory attendance is contrary to the idea of higher education as a voluntary activity undertaken by adults and should have the freedom to learn in the way that suits them best.
Students do attend more classes but mostly because of fear. The actual passion for studying in class is lost. Anything which is forced upon someone will lose its charm.
As tuition payers, they shouldn’t be punished for missing something they are paying for.
Even when students attend classes some don’t pay attention so education need to focus on learning rather than presenteeism.
Colleges in the Western part of the world do not have compulsory attendance, yet because of the quality of the classes, students attend them voluntarily. The classes are interactive. Students are given freedom to choose their subjects and sometimes even given options in the method of evaluation.
The quality of higher education in India is criticized .So the education system should focus on quality of teaching as students will be keen to attend the lectures where they gain some knowledge .Also students from childhood should be encouraged to be creative, focus on learning. This will automatically push for demand based learning and make them aware of what they want to pursue by the time they reach university level.
