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Bitcoins reside in a legal grey area within the United States. Many of the laws on the books that apply to currencies cannot apply to bitcoin, but there are questions as to whether it may be designated as a security, and hence could be regulated as such.If you look at one of the recent cases involving the Liberty Dollar, a department of Justice statement on the matter said the following, "It is a violation of federal law … to create private coin or currency systems to compete with the official coinage and currency of the United States" [1]. There are two specific sets of statutes which address currency creation, that being counterfeiting statutes, and the Stamp Payments Act of 1862.Coining CurrencyIn 1998, Bernard von NotHaus started printing metal backed paper currency called Liberty Dollars. He was charged and convicted of violating Title 18, United States Code, Sections 485, 486.18 USC § 485Whoever falsely makes, forges, or counterfeits any coin or bar in resemblance or similitude of any coin of a denomination higher than 5 cents or any gold or silver bar coined or stamped at any mint or assay office of the United States, or in resemblance or similitude of any foreign gold or silver coin current in the United States or in actual use and circulation as money within the United States; orWhoever passes, utters, publishes, sells, possesses, or brings into the United States any false, forged, or counterfeit coin or bar, knowing the same to be false, forged, or counterfeit, with intent to defraud any body politic or corporate, or any person, or attempts the commission of any offense described in this paragraph - Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than fifteen years, or both.18 USC § 486Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes, or attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design, shall be fined under this title (!1) or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.As you can see, these laws deal specifically with silver and gold coinage which resembles U.S. and foreign currency, so prosecution of bitcoin participants under these statutes would not apply because of the digital nature of bitcoins.Stamp Payments Act of 1862During the 19th century, there were many shortages of small denomination U.S. coins, due to hoarding of coins worth more than their face value (thanks to inflation), so many firms issued private currencies.To discourage further circulation of these small denomination coins, congress passed the Stamp Payments Act, Section 2 states the following:Whoever makes, issues, circulates, or pays out any note, check, memorandum, token, or other obligation for a less sum than $1, intended to circulate as money or to be received or issued in lieu of lawful money of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.Now one could interpret "intended to circulate as money" as applicable to bitcoin usage, but because the authors might not have envisioned digital monies, and congressional amendments to the act (as late as 1994) did not include "electronic cash or coins", there is an argument that congress did not intended the law to apply to non-physical currency.SecuritiesUnder the 1933 Securities Act §2(a)(1), a "Security" is defined as "any note, stock, treasure stock, security future, bond, debenture, evidence of indebtedness, certificate of interest or participation of any profit-sharing agreement", and many other items. In terms of a note, bitcoins are a settled amount, and are not promises of payment to parties at any future dates. Bitcoins are also not stocks because they do not infer voting rights or claims to profits in proportion to shares.Investment ContractsIn the Supreme Court case SEC v. W.J. Howey Co., "investment contracts" can be interpreted as "securities" if persons invest monies in a common enterprise, with the expectation of profits by way of a third party [2]. Some could argue that those who participate in bitcoin exchange are doing so at their own volition, independent of one another. Any profit seeking is only a function of supply and demand, and there are no inherit expectations of profits (except on a speculative basis), and those who own bitcoins do not rely on third parties for their value.To argue the other way, those who participate in bitcoin exchange invest with their own money, and only a small percentage partake as miners. Those who invest do so with a group of like-minded computer developers, forming an enterprise of individuals who have a common desire for bitcoins to appreciate in value. In terms of third parties, there is an expectation that developers of bitcoin source code will continue to maintain its viability.CommodityBecause bitcoins are not claims on other entities, there may be more reason to classify it as a commodity, like coffee beans. The difficulty in this is defining the inherent value of bitcoins, because they receive no backing by any tangible assets, unlike governments (bullets) and coffee beans (actual items you can roast). For instance, if bitcoin source code suddenly halted, would they be able to retain their value, against say the dollar? Even if bitcoins 'act' like commodities, there nature is similar to that of investment contracts.CurrencyUnder securities laws, currencies are are not securities, as the 1934 Securities Act excludes from the definition of a security "currency or any note ... which has a maturity at the time of issuance of not exceeding nine months" [3]. However, the Courts of Appeals have been unanimous in rejecting a literal reading of the exclusions. (United Housing Foundation, Inc. v. Forman [4], Tcherepnin v. Knight [5].) Congress first enacted the securities acts such that they would sufficiently cover all instruments which could be sold as investments. If a case were to go before the courts, and it is argued that bitcoins are currencies and therefore are exempt because they are excluded under the 1934 Securities Act, they may respond by saying that Congress did not intend to exclude those currencies that are also securities.ConclusionBitcoin is able to skirt much of the federal law concerning currencies because of its digital nature. Although, case law on securities may be able to define a bitcoin as a "security", subjecting bitcoins to sweeping regulation and other anti-fraud provisions. There are also other legal issues which may arise over time, including tax evasion, and money laundering [6].Sources:Defendant Convicted of Minting His Own Currency - http://www.fbi.gov/charlotte/press-releases/2011/defendant-convicted-of-minting-his-own-currencySEC v. W. J. HOWEY CO - http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=328&page=293Securities Exchange Act of 1934 § 3(a)(10) - http://taft.law.uc.edu/CCL/34Act/sec3.htmlUnited Housing Foundation, Inc. v. Forman - http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&friend=%3C%20riend%3E&court=US&case=/us/389/332.htmlTcherepnin v. Knight - http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&friend=%3C%20riend%3E&court=US&case=/us/389/332.htmlBitcoin: An Innovative Alternative Digital Currency - http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1817857

My optional subject is Public Administration.I have written four mains with Public Administration as an optional. I got 228 marks in 2015, 297 in 2016, 290 in 2017 and 307 in 2018. Public Administration has always been special to me and this is one subject which never ditched me in Mains exam.My journey with public administration began in the end years of college when I got Laxmikanth public administration book. Over the years I read a number of books, many research papers and have really grown fond of this subject.One thing I would like to state in advance is that I have done very little answer writing as far as optional paper is considered. But I have focused more on approach and analysis, linkage and relevance. I will share all these experiences in this write up and hope that you will benefit from it somehow.To start with, I learnt much of my pub ad from a thread run by @doodlbean maa’m on ForumIAS. I scanned through all 260+ pages on that thread and observed, read, ingrained the right approach towards public administration.In the next few years I built on this foundation, going into details by reading from various sources.Based on my personal journey I would recommend following approach. Aspirants should see if it suits their studying style, time availability and interests. This is only indicative in nature. There is absolutely no need to read some of the books I mentioned if you don’t have time.The essential books: The must read booksAribam-Paper 1 & Paper-2 (One should start with these two books)Administrative Thinkers: Prasad & Prasad (This can go parallel with Aribam if you are new to the subject, otherwise P&P can always be referred to for more in-depth understanding of a thinker)Mohit Bhattacharya: New Horizons of Public Administration (The language of this book is tough, so it should be read after Aribam. 2nd or 3rd reading of the book gives some good conceptual clarity)Shubhra Saxena: Public Administration Super 50 (25-25 topics from Paper 1 & Paper 2 have been dealt in a nice manner, more of a revision and content enrichment book, will help in marks augmentation. This used to be my go to book during the interval between paper 1 and paper 2 on the optional exam day)Vikram Singh: Public Administration Dictionary (Some of the complex concepts have been explained beautifully and a simple manner, quite effective for using them in your answers)Frederickson, Smith & Others: The Public Administration Theory Primer [Some selected chapters of Primer can be done like Postmodern theory (ch 6), Governance (ch 9), future of pub ad (ch 10) etc]Website: https://publicadministrationtheone.blogspot.com(The website is a rich source of various pub ad concepts and is also helpful in quick revision of an entire topic in a 360 degree manner)The non-essential books: Recommended, but they are not necessarily must-read books.Mohit Bhattacharya: Restructuring Public Administration: A New Look (should be read after New horizons, deals with NPM and Post NPM development; concepts like Neo-weberian state (NWS) has been explained beautifully.Mohit Bhattacharya: Social Theory and Development administrationRamesh K. Arora: Comparative Public AdministrationHidden Syllabus :This is what we often hear in pub ad circle that there is a hidden syllabus. Irrespective of whether it is there or not, following things/names need to be studied, mainly through internet or other books.Following should be looked into :·Public Administration in other countries - the French and American version, Thatcherism and Reaganism and how New Zealand successfully adopted concepts of Thatcher·Minnowbrook 3 and latest advances in the field of Public Administration (You can refer to public administration review (PAR) website)·Thinkers like Marx and his views on Bureaucracy, Hegel, Hayek, Nozick, Friedman, Talcott parsons, Aaron Wildavsky and Budgeting, Waldo,Warren Bennis, Foucalt and his Governmentality concept, Edward Weidner and his contribution to Development Administration, Gunnar Myrdal, Sabatier’s Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), Harrold Lasswell and his idea on Policy Science, Estonian Black Box of Policy Making·Gender and Administration, Gender in Administration and Gender and Budgeting etc. (Very well covered in Mohit Bhattacharya: Social Theory and Development administration)·Ferrel heady and his contribution to Comparative Public Administration·Concepts like Neo Classical Theorists, Neo Marxism, Post Structuralism, Post Modernism, Pareto Optimality, Critical Theory, Habermas, Contingency vs Strategic Contingency , Neo Taylorism and Gramsci’s criticism of Taylor, Taylorism and recent best practices like Toyota Production System, Kaizen, Gemba etc, Phenomenological approach: Heidegger And Husserl work. asked in 2018 mains)·Amartya Sen & Jean Dreaze vs Bhagwati Sen Debate·Techniques of Administrative improvement - CPM, PERT and how to draw the charts, Gantt Chart, Enterprise Resource Management, SAP, Management Information SystemRoad to good score:1.Use simple language which doesn’t require an examiner to read a particular sentence twice. Simplicity is the function of your understanding and conceptual clarity. Build upon it.2.Introduction should be sharp and focused. Don’t beat around the bush. Also, for 10 marker try to come to the main body in the very next paragraph as time and space is limited. In 15/20 markers, one can elaborate the same point in little bit more details compared to a 10 marker.3.It often happens that we approach question tangentially, meaning that we use the concepts but somehow it is not answering what has been asked. So using the keywords of a question in your answer would help in ensuring that diversion doesn’t happen in the answer.4.For paper 1, contemporary examples, especially from Indian Administration will surely boost your marks. Hence keep an eye on happenings in Indian administration and link it with Paper 1 thinkers and theories. Example: Use of MIS in district administration is an example of New Public management (NPM), Social audit is a tool to take feedback from environment (People, civil society) and make administration more transparent (moving from a closed system to an open system) etc. Similar linkages can be thought of.5.For paper 2, try to link with paper 1 concepts and thinkers as far as possible. For example for 2016 Pub ad paper-2: defense ministry/home ministry question..Likert’s linking pin mechanism can be used to improve policy making process in India, officials from two overlapping ministry can work jointly on a policy like border management in remote areas (defense ministry and home ministry).6.Use of constitutional articles: If there is a question on governor, the starting line can be : Article 153 states that there shall be a governor for each state. Similarly, article 163 for Council of minister, article 169 for state legislative council, article 279A for GST council etc should be used.7.Use of 2nd ARC recommendations, Punchhi commission recommendations, Sarkaria commission recommendations would augment marks. Aribam covers selected chapters of 2nd ARC in the end of both books. Those must be done thoroughly. Also, it is recommended that you read original chapters and make some concrete notes. This will improve your understanding.8.Use Flow charts and Diagrams wherever possible. They will help you to present your answer in a better way and you can save lots of time. For example, Barnard’s contribution-satisfaction equilibrium can be shown using a balance (remember that justice lady using that tarajoo..balance). Write Contribution on one end and satisfaction on another end. Similarly, PRIs and Social Audit can be linked with Sherry Arnstein’s participation ladder. Draw a ladder and show how true empowerment happens through participation.9.Try to quote one example as far as possible for all answers. This will mean you need to have a collection of examples. Keep an eye on best practices (Some best practices which I had collected are 1.Vadodara's One day governance model(ODG) 2.Gujarat CM's citizen access approach: SWAGAT Project 3.UP's grievance redressal project: Lokvani Project 4.Nagaland's community Involvement in Elementary education, health services and electricity management: Communitisation Program 5.Some e-governance programms: E-Mitra-Rajasthan, HARIS-Harayana, SARITA-Maharashtra,FRIENDS-Kerala,GYANDOOT-MP,BHOOMI-Karantaka 6.Bhagidari : Citizens participation in Governance, Delhi 7.Trichi Community Policing model, 8.PRAHARI: Community Policing Initiative in Assam ). Keep collecting similar examples and also work on their linkages: (Compassionate Kozikhode project..Can you link it with Perry’s Public service motivation model (PSM)?)10.Have a good peer group and discuss about topics and questions regularly. Confluence of various ideas will do magic on your answer. This can be done either on ForumIAS (now quest platform) or on telegram. Also, you can form a very close group of 3-4 friends apart from these platform and discuss everything with them. I have benefitted immensely from these associations and I am highly thankful to all my friends for their help and co-operation.11.Though I didn’t do much answer writing practice for optional I highly recommend that you do practice answer writing on a frequent basis. It is also good to join any test series so that someone would correct your presentation. Additionally you should go through the toppers copy, try the questions first and learn from their approach. If there is a good diagram, you can practice and internalize it. Keep collecting such flowcharts and diagrams. This is called cumulative learning from community (to use the pub ad terminology: network learning )My marksheet

Perhaps a name forgotten in the many older pages of history, is Sir Chintaman Dwarakanath Deshmukh (CIE, ICS), popularly known as:C. D. Deshmukh.A portrait of C. D. Deshmukh from Photo Division - Information and Broadcasting Ministry, IndiaEarly Age:He proved himself an academic badass from an early age, rapidly expanding his list of formidable achievements. To wit,He stood first in the Matriculation examination of the University of Bombay in 1912 (aged 16). My grandpa tells me of a legend that C.D. wrote his answers so well, he was usually awarded more than the maximum marks allotted for the questions. Do note that these exams were notoriously difficult to pass, had a higher passing percentage, and topping them was definitely a rare feat at the time.Secured the first Jagannath Shankersheth Scholarship in Sanskrit. (Jagannath 'Nana' Shankersheth was a philanthropist, a successful businessman and a visionary educationalist; another Marathi badass.) His love for Sanskrit is well known and he published a volume of his poems in Sanskrit in 1969. He was also proficient in a number of foreign languages.At the University of Cambridge in 1917, he graduated in the field of Natural Sciences Tripos with Botany, Chemistry and Geology, winning the Frank Smart Prize in Botany (aged 21). To travel another country at that time for higher education was unheard of, to graduate from Cambridge with honors, was legendary.He appeared for the Indian Civil Service Examination, then held only in London, in 1918 (aged 22), and topped the list of successful candidates.His Career:But that's just the beginning, brace yourselves. His is going to be a long list of illustrious accomplishments.After qualifying for civil services, he became probably the youngest among those who held the positions of Revenue Secretary and Finance Secretary in the British Government in India.While on leave in London, he worked as one of the secretaries to the Second Round Table Conference in which Mahatma Gandhi participated.He prepared a financial memorandum for the purpose of the enquiry by Sir Otto Niemeyer leading to the award on the financial relations between the Centre and the Provinces under the Government of India Act, 1935.As the First Indian Governor of RBI:But one of his most important contributions was in the capacity as the Governor of RBI during the Indian independence era. He was to the then infant Indian economy what Raghuram Rajan is to the RBI today; only C.D.'s role would have been much more challenging.Steering a recently independent and partitioned country (merely a collection of territories and princely states); subjected to centuries of looting, conflict, and poverty under the British Raj, towards a sustainable, stable and growing economic future must have been a Herculean task.Chintaman Deshmukh was appointed Liaison Officer in the Reserve Bank of India in July 1939 to keep the Government of India in touch with the Bank's affairs. Three months later, he was appointed Secretary of the Central Board of the Bank and two years later in December 1941, as the Deputy Governor. He was Governor from August 11, 1943 to June 30, 1949.Deshmukh oversaw the post-partition division of the assets and liabilities of the Reserve Bank between India and Pakistan.Chintaman Deshmukh proved to be an outstanding Governor. He presided over the transformation of the Reserve Bank from a private shareholders' bank to a nationalized institution.He secured the enactment of a comprehensive legislation for the regulation of banking companies and the establishment of the first financial institution for the provision of long-term credit to industry, namely, the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI). It took no less than a visionary such as C.D., to foresee the impact and need for establishing credit structures on the early Indian industries.He also initiated a number of steps for building up an adequate machinery for rural credit.Making a case internationally for India's economy:He represented India at the Bretton Woods Conference on July 1–22, 1944. The conference led to the establishment of two important world organizations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).He was a member of the Board of Governors of both of these institutions for the next ten years. In 1950, at the Paris conference of these institutions, he served as the Chairman of the Joint Annual Meeting.C. D. also spear-headed negotiations to obtain wheat loan from America during his tenure as the Special Financial Ambassador to America and Europe.Towards the unification of Maharashtra:After all of these achievements, he had the guts to resign from the office of the Union Finance Minister to register his protest against Nehru's plan of forming a separate State of Bombay, much against the wishes of the Marathi speaking majority, instead of it being integrated into Maharashtra.Other achievements, social work and personal life:All Statisticians need to thank him as well. He was the President of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) from 1945 to 1964. It was during the period when he was both the President of the ISI and the Union Finance Minister that the National Sample Survey, to be conducted by the ISI, was instituted (1951-52), and the Central Statistics Office was established.Apart from the above important achievements, he made significant contributions to the following organizations:He was President of the Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi, from 1965 to 1974.Chairman of UGC from 1956 to 1960Vice-chancellor of University of Delhi from 1962 to 1967He served as the Honorary Chairman of the National Book Trust from 1957 to 1960.He founded the India International Centre in 1959, for which he was the Life President.Other bodies with which Chintaman Deshmukh was associated included the Indian Council of World Affairs (1960-67) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (1965-70).He also supported and worked with his wife Durgabai in social service, who was the Founding President of the Andhra Mahila Sabha, Madras and Hyderabad. This social organization worked to educate the masses(especially women) about literacy and family planning.In 1952, he was elected an Honorary Fellow by his college, Jesus College, Cambridge, in recognition of his distinguished contribution in the areas of Indian and international finance and administration.He was co-recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation's Award for distinguished Government Service in 1959.A number of prestigious universities and institutions, international as well as Indian, conferred on him doctorates honoris causa ('honorary degree'); these included the Universities of Princeton (USA), Leicester (UK), Pune, Delhi, Allahabad, Nagpur and Osmania (India), as also the Indian Statistical Institute.His hobbies included horticulture, learning foreign languages and writing Sanskrit poems, a volume of which was published in 1969.Postage Stamp issued in honor of C.D. DeshmukhIn retrospect:Truly, he set the bar of excellence really high, proved that politicians aren't always corrupt, and demonstrated what a person could accomplish through sheer determination and intellect. Sadly, he left us without his telling us his life story, what made him so successful, what made him tick, so that future generations could have emulated him.References:Reserve Bank of IndiaC. D. DeshmukhCopyright for the images used in this article lies with the respective sources.