Theory of Alienation

GS Paper- II – III

Context-  Karl Marx’s concept of ‘alienation’ is one of the most highly debated terms in social, political, and economic theory.

The Definition of Alienation

• Alienation is defined as a person’s “withdrawal or separation from a former object or position of attachment” or, in the case of property, “the conveyance of property to another.”
• Marx’s concept: According to Marx, alienation is a sense of detachment from one’s own labour and a loss of influence over it.
• Marx’s definitions of alienation

Karl Marx discussed four forms of alienation:

Alienation from the product of labour:

• In today’s highly specialised and fragmented industry, workers are frequently unaware of what they are doing since the production process is so split.
• Because the product is immediately held and controlled by someone else, it gains power.

Alienation from the labour process:

• Factory workers are said to work long hours, in bad conditions, and for little pay. They carry out monotonous duties.
• The more productive power there is for someone else to own and control, the more employees there are.

Alienation from humanity:

• The worker becomes a cheaper commodity as he produces more items. He does not have free use of his mental and physical resources and is physically and psychologically weary.
• As a result, the worker only feels at home during his spare time, while at work he feels homeless. His task is not choice; rather, it is enforced, forced labour.

Alienation from society:

• Workers gradually become more competitive as they fear losing their employment. They live apart from their family because they are unable to obtain other, better-paying occupations.
• The process of alienation of employees from the product, the process, themselves and their skills, and others is thus completed.

Theory examination:

• Other writers have defined alienation as helplessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, self-estrangement, and social isolation in a broader socio-psychological sense.
• Alienation is also employed in politics, with electorate alienation being the cause of dissatisfaction with political parties or policies.
• These sorts of alienation may be caused by a variety of factors, including bureaucracy and organisational structures, a lack of ownership, social disorganisation or bad management, or technology.
• The majority of these methods define alienation as a loss of control, a lack of significance, and difficulties expressing oneself at work.
• Assembly-line employees, according to some academics, suffer the highest sense of alienation.

Exceptions:

• Workers who are least alienated include physicians, teachers, and other professions.
• A few believe that alienation is lowest in organisational settings where individuals have power, purpose, and possibilities for self-fulfillment in their employment.

Solution:

So, the solution to this form of alienation is to make work more meaningful.

Criticisms

• According to others, Marx’s explanation was not developed out in terms of its repercussions and how it may be abolished.
• Marx’s solution of communism has not materialised and does not appear to be a viable prospect in the near future.
• While Marx’s approach to the study of alienation aids in our understanding of the labour market, as well as its living and working conditions, all of these have altered significantly since his time.

Labor laws are now in effect everywhere.

• As there is more division of labour, the consequences of labour are experienced differently by different segments and vary depending on the nations in which they live.
• Marxism is sometimes criticised for focusing primarily on class and neglecting other types of segregation.
• Only in the exchange of labour and private property did Marx see the foundations of alienation.
• However, similar feelings of alienation may be related to ethnicity or race (for example, if Black people are not hired), region (people from Western Canada frequently say that they have been excluded from mainstream politics), caste (upper castes are reportedly preferred in some roles in private companies), and gender (women have frequently reported that they have not received the same promotions and wages as men).
• Aside from professional situations, social relationships can also contribute to alienation.

Way ahead

It is commonly stated that the concept of alienation has gone out of favour in social and political philosophy. Others, however, continue to interpret, discuss, and criticise it from a modern perspective.

Source – The Hindu

Snakebites in India

GS Paper- II

Context- According to a recent assessment by the Kerala Forest Department, snakebites cause nearly twice as many human deaths as wild elephants.

About

• According to an ICMR research, India saw an estimated 1.2 million (12 lakh) snakebite deaths from 2000 to 2019, with an average of 58,000 deaths each year.
• India is responsible for about half of all snakebite deaths worldwide.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) designated snakebite envenoming (poisoning from snake bites) as a high-priority neglected tropical illness.

Snakebite Envenoming

• Snakebite envenoming is a potentially fatal illness produced by toxins in a venomous snake’s bite.
• Envenoming can also be induced by having venom sprayed into the eyes by some snakes that can spit venom as a defence mechanism.
• Snake venom comprises a multitude of enzymes or proteinaceous compounds that target the blood, neurological system, or other tissues in various levels depending on the species of snake.

Impacts of Snake biting

• Some venoms are directly harmful, although not all of them are fatal to humans. Some are systemically fatal (e.g., rattlesnake venom), whereas others are mostly harmful to tissue in the region of the bite but may induce gangrene.
• Because of the socioeconomic origins of victims, snakebites have received little attention as a public health concern in India.
• It is seen as a poor person’s ailment or a rural issue. Snake bite victims are mostly from marginalised populations, rural origins, women, and children.
• The hypothesis holds that four kinds of snakes in South Asia, Russell’s viper, saw-scaled viper, spectacled cobra, and common krait, bitten the most humans in this region.
• The ‘big four’ are responsible for around 90% of snakebites in India.

SnakeBiting Cure

• Snake antivenoms are excellent therapies for preventing or reversing the majority of the negative symptoms of snakebite envenomation. They are on the WHO’s list of essential medicines.
• Antivenoms: Antivenoms are antibodies that have been purified against venoms or venom components. Antivenoms are manufactured from antibodies developed by animals in response to injected venoms. Antivenom is the sole effective therapy for poisonous snake bites.
• Antivenom production: To create life-saving antivenoms, scientists enlist the assistance of horses living on specialist ranches.
• The animals are given a little, harmless dosage of venom, which induces their immune systems to create antibodies and proteins that attack and destroy the venom poisons.
• The scientists will then be able to collect the antibodies and utilise them to treat patients who have been bitten or stung.

Challenges

• Poor medical treatment is caused by a lack of community awareness, inadequate understanding of snakebite avoidance, and a lack of first aid.
• Peripheral healthcare personnel, delays in accessing lifesaving treatment, and a lack of qualified medical officials for snakebite management all contribute to an increase in the number of deaths.
• Snake bite superstitions include: The community had incorrect beliefs about the identification of poisonous snakes and snakebites. Belief in a snake deity, use of tamarind seeds, or use of magnets to decrease the poison impact.
• There was no Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) material accessible in any of the government healthcare institutions on the identification of venomous and non-venomous snakes, prevention, first aid, and treatment of snakebites.

Steps taken

• Inclusion of snakebite management in the curriculum of state public health departments’ training institutes in India, required short-term training of medical graduates during their internship, and as part of the induction training when entering state health services in India.
• The Union government plans to integrate snakebite prevention in a nationwide programme.
• A multi-sectoral approach combining community awareness and healthcare facility capacity building to reduce mortality and morbidity related to snakebite envenoming in India.
• Every village-level health centre contains Anti Snake Venom (ASV), which is the initial stage of therapy and was previously unavailable in rural India.
• Even the World Health Organization created a strategy with the goal of halving snakebite death and disability by 2030.

Source – The Hindu

Budget 2023:Push for Digitisation and Green Growth

GS Paper- III

Context- Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman’s Union Budget address on Wednesday emphasised the government’s ongoing efforts to push for digitalisation in the country. In addition, the Finance Minister named ‘Green Growth’ as one of her Budget’s seven goals.

The country’s push for digitisation: important highlights

• It will be a public good that is open source, open standard, and interoperable. Through relevant information services for crop planning and health, improved access to farm inputs, credit, and insurance, crop estimation assistance, market intelligence, and support for the growth of the agri-tech industry and start-ups, the platform will provide inclusive, farmer-centric solutions.
• This will be built to facilitate the provision of high-quality books in a variety of languages, genres, and levels. The government will also strive to foster a reading culture by cooperating with non-governmental organisations that will supply age-appropriate reading material to everyone.
• A proposal has been made to establish three centres of excellence for artificial intelligence in prestigious educational institutions. These centres will perform multidisciplinary research and produce cutting-edge applications and scalable issue solutions in agriculture, health, and sustainable cities in collaboration with industry leaders.
• The government will develop a data governance strategy to provide start-ups and academics access to anonymized data for innovation and research.
• A hundred laboratories will be built in engineering colleges to develop applications that will use 5G services to provide new opportunities, business models, and job chances.
• To guarantee the effective administration of justice, the government will launch phase three of the E-Courts initiative.
• In the first step, a digital epigraphy museum will be constructed, and one lakh old inscriptions will be digitised.
• The digital skilling ecosystem would be expanded further by the establishment of a single Skill India Digital portal for allowing demand-based formal skilling, connecting with employers and MSMEs, and simplifying access to entrepreneurship incentives.

Elements of the Budget’s Green Growth push

• The recently formed National Green Hydrogen Mission, with a budget of Rs 19,700 crores, would help the economy transition to a low-carbon economy, reduce reliance on fossil fuel imports, and position the country as a technical and market leader in this emerging industry. India wants to produce 5 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen per year by 2030.
• The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has budgeted Rs 35,000 crore for priority capital investments toward energy transition and net zero goals, as well as energy security.
• Battery Energy Storage Systems with a capacity of 4,000 MWH will be supported with Viability Gap Funding to help guide the economy toward sustainable growth. A thorough framework for Pumped Storage Projects will be developed as well.
• The inter-state transmission infrastructure will be built to evacuate and integrate 13 GW of renewable energy from Ladakh.
• A Green Credit Programme will be notified under the Environment (Protection) Act to encourage behavioural change. This will encourage enterprises, people, and local governments to take ecologically sustainable and responsive actions, as well as assist mobilise more resources for such initiatives.
• A new PM Programme for Mother Earth Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment, and Improvement will be launched to encourage states and union territories to promote alternative fertilisers and the balanced use of chemical fertilisers.
• Under the GOBARdhan project, 500 new waste-to-wealth factories would be created to promote the circular economy.
• Proposal to assist 1 crore farmers in adopting natural farming during the next three years. 10,000 Bio-Input Resource Centres will be established for this purpose, resulting in a national-level distributed micro-fertilizer and pesticide production network.
• MISHTI, or Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes, will be implemented for mangrove plantation along the shoreline and on salt pan lands wherever possible, thanks to collaboration between MGNREGS, CAMPA Fund, and other sources.
• AmritDharohar, a project that will be implemented over the next three years to encourage optimal use of wetlands and improve bio-diversity, carbon stock, eco-tourism prospects, and income production for local populations, will be promoted by the government.
• Through the PPP approach with viability gap finance, coastal shipping will be promoted as an energy efficient and low-cost means of transport for both people and freight.
• Replacing obsolete, polluting automobiles is a critical component of greening our economy. States will be assisted in replacing outdated cars and ambulances as part of the vehicle scrapping strategy.

Conclusion

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman’s Union Budget discusses the government’s aim for digitalization and green growth in India. The budget’s key themes imply that it sets the groundwork for a more technologically connected and ecologically sustainable India.
Source – The Hindu

Opportunity to unlock the full Potential of MSMEs

GS Paper- III

Context- In 2022, India surpassed the United Kingdom as the world’s fifth-largest economy, and it is on course to meet Prime Minister NarendraModi’s aim of a $5 trillion GDP by 2026-27. Despite fears of a global recession, supply interruptions, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India has emerged as a bright light, rising faster than the majority of big emerging countries. The government’s 2023 budget gives a chance to make Indian MSMEs more competitive and self-sufficient.

What exactly are MSMEs? What are their definitions?

• The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act, 2006, which became effective on October 2, 2006, defines MSMEs. The MSMED Act of 2006 defines Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises as follows:
• The purchase of plant and machinery by individuals involved in the manufacture, production, processing, or preservation.
• The purchase of equipment for businesses that provide or offer services.

MSMEs in India at the moment

• This attitude of resilience may be seen in the 6.3 crore micro, little, and medium firms that account for 30% of GDP and employ roughly 11 crore people.
• With sales in various industries in the MSME sector exceeding 90% of pre-pandemic levels, India’s small enterprises are on the mend.
• Union budget 2023: A chance to make MSMEs more competitive and self-sufficient
• Currently, sellers selling on e-commerce platforms must get input services such as logistics, which are taxed at 18%. This causes valuable working capital to be stalled with little visibility into future realisation, thereby preventing suppliers from using e-marketplaces.
• From covering fixed expenditures like energy, rent, and staff compensation to investing in future development, small companies require appropriate operating cash.
• By decreasing GST rates on input services used by online retailers, the government would not only strengthen their finances but also help them on their way to digitalization. Refunds of accrued input tax credits will also help their cash flow problems.
• It is also necessary to accelerate GST exemption for small internet firms. Last year, the GST Council announced a major decision to simplify requirements for small firms wishing to go online.
• Among other things, obligatory GST registration was waived for small online merchants having a turnover of less than Rs 40 lakh for commodities and Rs 20 lakh for services.
• With just 10% of our MSMEs already online, rapid adoption of these new standards is critical to realising their full potential. Millions of small companies are awaiting the benefits of digitalisation, which include a significantly larger target market, better efficiency, and easier access to funding.
• The NLP aspires to reduce logistics costs as a proportion of GDP from 13-14 percent to 8%, putting the country on level with affluent nations. While decreased prices would encourage more MSMEs to employ logistics services powered by technology, they will require assistance to meet expanding e-commerce demand from smaller towns and semi-rural regions.
• The government might enlist India Post as a technologically advanced last-mile delivery partner capable of facilitating cash-on-delivery transactions at competitive pricing. Similarly, the remarkable reach of Indian Railways may be leveraged to promptly and cost-effectively convey goods to the most remote corners of the country.

Why the MSME sector is important especially for India?

• Outside of agriculture, the Indian MSME sector offers the most chances for both self-employment and wage employment.
• It helps to the development of an inclusive and sustainable society in several ways, including the production of low-cost non-farm livelihoods, balanced regional development, gender and social balance, ecologically sustainable development, and so on.
• Khadi and village industries, for example, need little per capita investment and employ a large number of women in rural regions.
• With over 36.1 million units spread across the country, MSMEs contribute around 6.11% of manufacturing GDP and 24.63% of service GDP.
• It accounts for over 45% of India’s total exports.

Conclusion

With a visionary administration charting the nation’s economic path, the budget is expected to address MSMEs’ difficulties and bring us closer to the dream of an Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Source – Indian Express

Drugs in the valley: Pakistan’s new weapon to finance terrorism

GS Paper- III

Context- With weaponry and terror infiltration proving more difficult, Pakistan has turned to drug trafficking to degrade the young of Jammu and Kashmir. Police Chief Dilbag Singh has branded narcotics, Pakistan’s new weapon for financing terrorism in the Valley, the largest issue confronting Jammu and Kashmir.

Background: Terrorism supported by Pakistan and its consequences

• Pakistan’s persistent financial and strategic assistance for the insurgency in the Kashmir Valley, including training and infiltrating weapons and militants, impacted society in a variety of ways.
• Terrorism supported by Pakistan shattered society’s centuries-old socioeconomic and social fabric.
• Deaths, a major migration of Pandits, and greater unemployment destroyed the composite way of life, increasing boredom, sadness, and worry among the populace.

How are Pakistan’s designs failing?

• Three years after the repeal of Articles 370 and 35A, Pakistan-sponsored terrorism is at an all-time low in Jammu and Kashmir.
• The number of active militants has decreased from 250 at the end of 2019 to little more than 100 by January 2023.
• Security services worked hard to accomplish zero terror activity within the Union territory of Jammu & Kashmir, and in 2022, they dismantled 146 terror modules built by Pakistan.
• As a result, Pakistan’s 30-year-long plan to instil a culture of violence in the Valley, backed by a self-serving and incestuous political class, is failing.

Pakistan’s drug policy in Kashmir

• With the people of Kashmir increasingly rejecting terrorism and a culture of violence, Islamabad’s narcotics policy serves a dual purpose. One is to assault the heart of societal well-being, and the other is to fund terrorists within the Valley.
• Substances are constantly being smuggled into the Valley from Pakistan via the Kupwara and Baramulla districts, while less-popular drugs including as brown sugar, cocaine, and marijuana are also widely accessible across the Valley and even in areas of Jammu.

Drug addiction in Kashmir

• The Kashmir Valley is gradually becoming a drug centre in Northern India, with over 67,000 drug abusers, 90 percent of them are heroin addicts who use more than 33,000 syringes everyday.
• Kashmir has emerged as the country’s most drug-affected area, with 2.5 percent of the population taking drugs, ahead of Punjab, where 1.2 percent of the population is supposedly hooked to drug addiction.
• The state-level narcotic coordination committee meeting convened by the Chief Secretary in November 2022 indicated that at least six lakh residents in Jammu and Kashmir were afflicted by drug-related difficulties.
• A drug addict in the Valley spends an average of INR 88,000 per year, boosting Kashmir’s crime rate.

Reasons for this situation

• The near-total breakdown of the Valley’s age-old informal social discipline and control mechanisms imposed by village elders is a key explanation for such a worrisome condition.
• Pakistan’s malicious assault on the Valley’s cultural core has rendered this conventional social control mechanism ineffectual.
• Village elders have also frequently collaborated with Pakistan’s wicked goals by staying silent and condoning societal deterioration.

Jammu and Kashmir police and war against drugs

• Jammu and Kashmir’s security forces are well-known for their anti-terrorist operations. They have effectively formed an alliance with the local authority in order to disrupt Pakistan’s and ally troops’ efforts in the Valley. As the Pakistan-sponsored insurgency fades, security authorities have shifted their emphasis to narcotics peddlers.
• In 2022, the police reported 1,021 offences and arrested 1700 drug peddlers under the Narcotic Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, including 138 infamous peddlers. At the same time, authorities recovered massive amounts of contraband, including 212 kilos of charas, 56 kilogrammes of heroin, 13 kilogrammes of brown sugar, 4.355 tonnes of poppy straw, and 1.567 tonnes of fukki.
• Security authorities also dismantled many narco-terror modules and detained 36 people with large quantities of narcotics, weapons, ammunition, and money.
• In December 2022, police raided a drugs module in Pakistan and detained 17 people, including five police officers and some political activists. Over five kilos of drugs worth INR 5 crore were trafficked from Pakistan in three months, according to investigations.
• The local administration has also launched the Nasha-Mukt Bharat Abhiyan, a Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment effort inaugurated on August 15, 2020, to remove the issue of drug addiction in 272 districts across India. This initiative has held large-scale awareness campaigns in colleges, institutions, and communities.

Way ahead

• The Kashmiri society must engage in internal dialogue and take a critical look at Pakistan’s actions that incite conflict, particularly through narco-terrorism.
• Kashmir’s elders and religious leaders, through mosques, must become involved in the drug war and educate the young to participate actively in the slew of developmental initiatives done by the national and union territory governments in the aftermath of the repeal of Article 370.
• The government should also develop and facilitate public-private partnerships in which local police, military, paramilitary, and citizen bodies work together to rid Kashmir of narco-terrorism and Pakistan’s culture of violence.

Conclusion

With the entry of weaponry and terror proving more difficult, Pakistan has resorted to drug trafficking to damage Kashmir’s young. Creating a workable synergy between Kashmir’s traditional and formal social control systems can help to alleviate the drug problem.

Source – Indian Express

Layoff and the conditions for retrenchment

GS Paper- III

Context-Around 160,000 individuals in the IT business were laid off globally last year. In comparison, 60,000 tech professionals have been laid off in just this month. Due to a bleak global economic outlook and the possibility of a recession, tech corporations throughout the world, from US-based behemoths like Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta to early-stage startups, have engaged in large-scale layoffs.

What does it mean to get laid off?

• A layoff is an employer’s temporary or permanent termination of employment for reasons unrelated to the employee’s performance.
• Employees may be laid off when corporations want to reduce expenses, as a result of a drop in demand for their products or services, a seasonal closure, or during an economic downturn.
• Employees who are laid off lose all salary and corporate perks but are eligible for unemployment insurance or compensation (typically in USA).
• Inflation following a robust global economic recovery: There are two elements.
• Demand outpaced supply: Aggregate demand in advanced economies surpassed supply, boosted by unusual pandemic relief assistance to families.
• Supply chain disruption caused by Russia-Ukraine war: The armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine disrupted supply chains, resulting in worldwide inflationary pressures for food and gasoline. In response, the US Federal Reserve has quickly raised interest rates.

Layoff drive in India

• As multinational corporations attempt to reduce their global payrolls, this layoff push has spread to India.
• Indian workers, both expats and locals, have been affected in both the conventional IT business and the tech-based startup sector.
• Despite a good start, India’s spending began to deteriorate in 2022, with third-quarter funding dipping to a two-year low.
• Rising interest rates have increased the cost of capital, forcing venture capitalists to be more careful in how they deploy cash during this financial winter.
• In order to be profitable, Indian software firms are under pressure to slash expenses and restructure their operations. As a result, startups, even unicorns, have seen widespread retrenchment.

Retrenchment conditions according to Industrial Disputes Act

• Employers must provide workers who have been in continuous employment for at least a year a one-month notice with grounds for layoff.
• Employers must provide layoff pay.
• A notification must be served on the competent government in the specified way.
• When retrenching employees, employers must adhere to the principle of last come, first served.

Concerns for contract workers

• Employers frequently avoid legal obligations by requesting voluntary resignations in order to avoid layoff restrictions.
• In any event, these regulations solely apply to non-managerial personnel; managerial employees’ employment contracts control them.
• Gig or contract employees do not have comparable safeguards.

Conclusion

Even as India strives to lead a digital and technologically driven world, it is critical to remember that the technology industry is not immune to hard macroeconomic realities. It is critical for the government and private sector to collaborate in order to reduce the impact of layoffs on workers while also ensuring that the industry continues to thrive and generate opportunities for everybody.

Source – Indian Express

Facts for Prelims

President’s Address

Context- After taking office in July 2022, President DroupadiMurmu addressed the joint session of Parliament for the first time.

Major Points of the Speech

• She commended Prime Minister NarendraModi’s government, stating that it “respects honesty” and is “stable, brave and resolute, and tries to realise huge aspirations”.
• By 2047, we must have built a nation that embraces both its great heritage and every shining facet of modernity.

Concerning the President’s Address

• History: The monarch’s speech to Parliament originated in the 16th century in the United Kingdom.
• In the United States, President George Washington delivered his first speech to Congress in 1790.
• The tradition of the President addressing Parliament in India was established with the adoption of the Government of India Act in 1919.
• There was no speech to the Constituent Assembly from 1947 and 1950. (Legislative).
• On January 31, 1950, President Rajendra Prasad addressed members of the LokSabha and RajyaSabha for the first time after the Constitution went into effect.
• Constitutional Provisions: The President and Governor have the authority to address a legislative session under the terms of the Constitution.
• Article 87 of the constitution specifies two occasions when the President may address both Houses of Parliament separately.
• When the reconstituted lower house meets for the first time following a general election, the President of India addresses both the RajyaSabha and the LokSabha.
• Each year, the President addresses both chambers at the start of the first session.
• Tradition and procedure: The format of the President’s or Governor’s address is not fixed. The President must “inform Parliament of the reason for the summons,” according to the Constitution.
• The President’s address focuses on the government’s policy goals and plans for the following year. The address lays forth the government’s goals and direction in broad strokes.
• Following the President’s talk, the two Houses pass a motion thanking the President for her remarks.
• Deviation from the wording of the speech: The President or Governor may not decline to fulfil the constitutional responsibility of addressing the legislature.
• However, there may be occasions when they vary from the wording of the government-prepared speech. There have been no instances of a President doing so thus far.
• However, there have been instances where a Governor has missed or amended a section of his or her address before the Assembly.
• Recently, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi altered the prepared address he read before the Assembly.

Importance

• The President’s address is regarded as one of the most sombre events on the legislative calendar.
• It is the only time of year when the entire Parliament meets.
• The President’s address serves as a forum for the administration to announce policy and legislative changes.

Privilege motion

Context- A breach of privilege petition filed against RajendraRathore, a prominent BJP MLA and Deputy Leader of the Opposition, sparked a firestorm in the Rajasthan Assembly.

Concerning the Privilege Motion

• All Members of Parliament (MPs) have individual and collective privileges and immunities that allow them to carry out their responsibilities and tasks efficiently.
• Any violation of these rights and immunities by a member of the LokSabha or RajyaSabha is considered a ‘breach of privilege,’ and is penalised under Parliamentary Law.
• Any member of either house may move a notification in the form of a motion against the member who he or she believes has violated the privilege.
• According to the statutes, both Houses of Parliament reserve the power to penalise any act of contempt (not necessarily a breach of privilege) that is against their authority and dignity.

The norms that regulate privilege

• Privilege is governed by Rule No. 222 in Chapter 20 of the LokSabha Rule Book and Rule 187 in Chapter 16 of the RajyaSabha Rule Book.
• It states that a member may bring a question alleging a breach of privilege by a member, the House, or a committee thereof with the approval of the Speaker or the Chairperson.
• The regulations, however, require that any notice be related to a recent incident that requires the participation of the House.

The Speaker’s/RajyaSabha Chair’s Role

• The first level of examination for a privilege motion is the Speaker/RS chairman.
• The Speaker/Chair can decide on the privilege motion himself or herself, or submit it to Parliament’s privileges committee.
• If the Speaker/Chair grants consent under Rule 222, the member in question is allowed to make a brief remark.