Polity & Governance: Report and Indices
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Freedom in the World Report 2020
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Freedom House, a US-based watchdog
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- The Report tracks global political and civil liberties.
- Top 3 Countries: Finland, Norway and Sweden
- Bottom 3 Countries: India, Timor-Leste and Tunisia.
- India-83rd / 195
- Derives its methodology from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
- The report treats “Indian Kashmir” as a separate territory.
- India among the countries categorized as “Free”, with only Tunisia receiving a lower score.
- Worst score decline among the world’s 25 largest democracies
Year |
Political rights |
Civil Liberties |
2017 |
35/40 |
42/60 |
2018 |
35/40 |
42/60 |
2019 |
35/40 |
40/60 |
2020 |
34/40 |
37/60 |
- Political rights category: India scored 34 out of 40 points.
- Political rights indicators: such as the electoral process, political pluralism and participation and government functioning.
- Civil liberties category: India scored 37 out of 60 points.
- Civil liberties indicators: related to freedom of expression and belief, associational and organisational rights, the rule of law and personal autonomy and individual rights.
- Reason for decline in India’s rank: Scrapping of Article 370, NRC, CAA, the crackdown on mass protests, Hindutva ideology.
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NCRB Report 2019
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National Crime Records Bureau
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- NCRB was set-up in 1986 to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981) and the MHA’s Task force (1985).
- Total Cases: An increase of 3.6% in the registration of cases over 2016.
- Delhi witnessed the highest crime rate in the country.
- Offences against the State: There is a rise of 30% in cases recorded as “offences against the State.”
- ‘Offences Against the State’ include offences against the State (under sections 121, 121A, 122, 123 & 124-A IPC) and offences promoting enmity between different groups (under sections 153A & 153 B IPC)
- Crime against women: There is an increase in crime against women from 3,793 per million in 2016 to 3,886 per million in 2017.
- Top states: UP > Maharashtra
- Cybercrime: There is an increase of more than 75% cyber cases in 2017 compared to 2016. Bengaluru topped and was followed by Mumbai and Jaipur.
- Crime against Children: Crimes against children increased by nearly 28% in 2017 compared to 2016 crimes.
- Crime against Dalit: There was an increase of 6% cases against Dalit.
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INDEX
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World Press Freedom Index
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Reporters Without Borders
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- Norway ranks first for the fourth consecutive year.
- Criteria: Pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative framework, transparency, and the quality of the infrastructure that supports the production of news and information.
- Bottom: North Korea, which is at 180th position.
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Global Terrorism Index
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Institute for Economics and Peace
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- India-worse affected than Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Palestine and Lebanon.
- Deaths from terrorism fell for the fourth consecutive year.
- Four parameters:
- Number of terrorist incidents
- Number of fatalities
- Number of injuries
- Total property damage
- Most affected: Afghanistan > Iraq
- India- 7th worst affected- 2020, 8th-2019
- Pakistan- 5th rank
- GTI scores are directly used in the Global Peace Index, the Global Slavery Report.
- Indirectly used in World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness and Global Competitiveness Indices and compilation of Safe Cities Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
- NITI Aayog questioned the credibility of the report.
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Municipal Performance Index
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Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs
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- It will assess the performance of municipalities on five enablers-Service, Finance, Planning, Technology and Governance.
- It will help Municipalities in better planning and management, filling gaps in city administration and improving the liveability of cities.
- All participating cities have appointed nodal officers to collect and collate the relevant data
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Corruption Perception Index
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Transparency International
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- It ranks 180 countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, giving each a score from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
- Top: Denmark and New Zealand
- Bottom: Somalia
- India: ranked 80th
- Rank 80this also shared by China, Benin, Ghana and Morocco. Pakistan-120th
- Transparency International is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation dedicated to fighting corruption.
- It was founded in 1993 and is based in Berlin, Germany.
- Corruption is more pervasive in countries where big money can flow freely into electoral campaigns and where governments listen only to the voices of wealthy or well-connected individuals.
- Issues in control of corruption: Even in democracies, such as Australia and India, unfair and opaque political financing and undue influence in decision-making and lobbying by powerful corporate interest groups, resulting in stagnation or decline in control of corruption.
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Good Governance Index
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Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
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The good governance index is a uniform tool across states to assess the status of governance and the impact of various interventions taken up by the state government and union territories.
Objective:
- To provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and UTs.
- To enable states and UTs to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance.
- To shift to result-oriented approaches and administration.
Sectors which are part of GGI:
- Agriculture and Allied Sectors,
- Commerce & Industries,
- Human Resource Development,
- Public Health,
- Public Infrastructure & Utilities,
- Economic Governance,
- Social Welfare & Development,
- Judicial & Public Security,
- Environment and
- Citizen-Centric Governance.
Composite Ranking: The states and UTs are divided into three groups -- big states, north-east & Hill states and UTs.
Big States category: Tamil Nadu > Maharashtra > Karnataka
North-East and Hill States category: Himachal Pradesh > Uttarakhand > Tripura
UTs: Puducherry > Chandigarh > Delhi
Sector-wise ranking:
Environment sector: Top-West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu
Bottom: Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Goa.
Judicial and public security: Tamil Nadu tops while West Bengal is at the bottom.
Economic governance: Karnataka tops
Health: Kerala tops in the public health sector
Agriculture: Madhya Pradesh tops
Social welfare: Chhattisgarh tops
Commerce and industries: Jharkhand tops
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Rule of Law index
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World Justice Project
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- The ROL Index is a quantitative assessment tool designed to offer a comprehensive picture of the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law.
- It is the world’s leading source for original, independent data on the rule of law, covering 128 countries and jurisdictions.
- The index measures how the rule of law is experienced and perceived worldwide.
Indicators of Rule of law Index:
Rule of Law Index measures countries’ rule of law performance across eight factors
- Constraints on Government Powers.
- Absence of Corruption.
- Open Government
- Fundamental Rights.
- Order and Security.
- Regulatory Enforcement.
- Civil Justice.
- Criminal Justice.
India’s performance:
- Rule of Law Index ranked India in the 69th position. “India has never been ranked even among the top 50 in the Index.
- Nepal is leading in South Asia regions in the overall rule of law scores were.
Global trend:
- More countries declined than improved in overall rule of law performance for the third year in a row, continuing a negative slide toward weakening and stagnating rule of law around the world.
- At a global level, countries experienced the biggest declines over the past year in the areas of Fundamental Rights (54 declined, 29 improved) and then in Constraints on Government Powers.
- Civil Justice showed the most positive movement over the previous year.
- Top: Denmark, Norway, and Finland topped the WJP Rule of Law Index rankings in 2020.
- Bottom: Venezuela, Cambodia, and DR Congo had the lowest overall rule of law scores—the same as in 2019.
- The first time, the United States fell out of the top 20 countries.
- Countries with the strongest improvement in the rule of law were:
- Ethiopia ( driven primarily by gains in Constraints on Government Powers and Fundamental Rights) and
- Malaysia (driven primarily by gains in Constraints on Government Powers, Fundamental Rights, and Regulatory Enforcement).
- The most downward movement in the rule of law was seen in Cameroon.
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