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CURRENT AFFAIRS MAY 2020 (PRATHAMIAS)

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Table of Contents

Geography ................................................................................................................. 4

Asteroid ‘1998 OR2’ ............................................................................................... 4

Coral Bleaching ..................................................................................................... 13

What is Urban Ozone? ......................................................................................... 20

Lipu Lekh Pass....................................................................................................... 22

Polity & Governance ................................................................................................ 27

Fiscal empowerment of States in times of Covid19 ............................................. 27

GRID Report 2020 ................................................................................................. 32

Bru Tribe resettlement in Tripura ........................................................................ 37

The National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) and minority institutions .............. 42

International Relations ............................................................................................ 46

WHO Funding ....................................................................................................... 46

Iran’s Currency Change ........................................................................................ 51

Economy .................................................................................................................. 58

Changing Labour and Tax Laws ............................................................................ 58

PM CARES FUND ................................................................................................... 62

SARFAESI ACT ....................................................................................................... 64

Special Liquidity Facility for MFs .......................................................................... 67

Ways And Means Advances ................................................................................. 69

ENERGY SECTOR AND ENERGY SAVING IN INDIA ................................................. 71

Agriculture ............................................................................................................... 74

Agricultural Reforms 2020 ................................................................................... 74

Science & Technology.............................................................................................. 78

Virtual Reality: On Telemedicine .......................................................................... 78

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare ...................................................................... 84


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NANO MISSION .................................................................................................... 87

Environment ............................................................................................................ 89

Olive Ridley Turtles............................................................................................... 89

Disaster Management ............................................................................................. 91

Vizag gas leak ....................................................................................................... 91

History of Pandemics............................................................................................ 95

Security .................................................................................................................... 98

Shekatkar Committee recommendations ............................................................ 98

A – SAT MISSILE .................................................................................................. 104

Miscellaneous ........................................................................................................ 107

Newly Awarded Gi Tags...................................................................................... 107


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General Studies-1

Geography

Asteroid ‘1998 OR2’ Asteroid ‘1998 OR2’—most massive asteroid to fly so close to Earth this year—

has a diameter of 1.8-4.1 km, flew past Earth on Wednesday, April 29. The

asteroid passed relatively close to Earth this morning at a safe distance, at some 4

million miles (6 million km), or about 16 times the Earth-moon distance.

Asteroid ‘1998 OR2’

• This asteroid was found in 1998 and the diameter is around 2.1 km. The

asteroid orbits around the Sun with a period of 3 years and 8 months,

which means it will keep visiting Earth once in 4 years. It crosses the orbit of

Mars and has a better chance to graze Mars than Earth.

• In fact, the closest OR2 will approach Earth is in 2079 when it will be just 6

times Earth-Moon distance at 2.3 million km from Earth.


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• The asteroid is travelling at a fast speed of around 32,000 kms per hr for

the proposed fly-by encounter on this Wednesday. Interestingly OR21998

has a strange look.

Asteroids

• Asteroids are small, rocky objects that orbit the Sun. Although asteroids

orbit the Sun like planets, they are much smaller than planets. They are also

known as planetoids or minor planets. There are millions of asteroids,

ranging in size from hundreds of miles to several feet across.

• In 1801, while making a star map, Italian priest and astronomer Giuseppe

Piazzi accidentally discovered the first and largest asteroid, Ceres, orbiting

between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres is now called a dwarf planet.

• There are lots of asteroids in our solar system. Most of them are found in

the main asteroid belt—a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

• Largest in this belt is of course Ceres and millions of small rocks are going

around the Sun at that distance. Currently over 1 million asteroids are

catalogued

• Nearly all asteroids are irregularly shaped, although a few of the largest are

nearly spherical, such as Ceres. The surfaces of most asteroids are thought

to be covered in dust.

• The average temperature of the surface of a typical asteroid is minus 100

degrees Fahrenheit (minus 73 degrees Celsius).

• Binary or double asteroids also exist, in which two asteroids of roughly

equal size orbit each other, and triple asteroid systems are known as well.

• Many asteroids seemingly have been captured by a planet's gravity and

become moons — likely candidates include Mars' moons, Phobos and

Deimos

Trojan asteroids orbit a larger planet in two special places, known as Lagrange

points, where the gravitational pull of the sun and the planet are balanced.

Jupiter Trojans are the most numerous, boasting nearly as high a population

as the main asteroid belt.


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Asteroid belt

• Asteroids are leftovers from the formation of our solar system about 4.6

billion years ago.

• The asteroid belt came into existence during the origin of the Solar System.

• Early on, the birth of Jupiter prevented any planetary bodies from forming

in the gap between Mars and Jupiter, causing the small objects that were

there to collide with each other and fragment into the asteroids seen

today.

• Asteroids lie within three regions of the solar system. Most asteroids lie in a

vast ring between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This main asteroid belt

holds more than 200 asteroids larger than 60 miles (100 km) in diameter.

Scientists estimate the asteroid belt also contains between 1.1 million and

1.9 million asteroids larger than 1 km (3,281 feet) in diameter and millions

of smaller ones.


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Kuiper belt

The Kuiper belt, occasionally called the Edgeworth–Kuiper belt, is a

circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of

Neptune to approximately 50 AU from the Sun.

The main difference between the Kuiper Belt and the Asteriod belt is that

• Kuiper belt is much larger in size and more massive (that is, it has

more objects) and

• Objects in the Kuiper Belt are composed largely of various ices

compared to the silicates (rocks) and metals of the Asteroid Belt.


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Why are Asteroids important in space science?

• Since asteroids formed at the same time as other objects in our solar

system, these space rocks can give scientists lots of information about the

history of planets and the sun. Scientists can learn about asteroids by

studying meteorites: tiny bits of asteroids that have flown through our

atmosphere and landed on Earth’s surface.

• Asteroid and comet collisions may have delivered the water-ice and other

carbon-based molecules to the planet that allowed life to evolve.

• Further, some of the asteroids can impact Earth and hence are a potential

threat to the planet Earth. They can devastate life on Earth.

• 50,000 yrs ago, a large impact in Maharashtra near Aurangabad caused the

formation of the famous Lonar Crater which is nearly 2 km in diameter and

over 150 meter deep.

• It is well known that a giant meteorite impact near Mexico resulted in a

mass extinction that wiped out even the mighty dinosaurs around 65

million years ago and its remnant is the Chicxulub Crater under the Sea

near Mexico. Hence, monitoring asteroids is crucial.

• A program called the Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) program keeps an eye on

the sky and finds out which asteroid has probability to collide with Earth.

• There are over 20,000 such potentially dangerous asteroids. Some of these

do come very close to Earth and have to be monitored regularly.

Lonar Lake, Maharashtra


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Types of asteroids

Scientists use telescopes to keep tracking all these small objects. The asteroids are

divided into various groups and depending on which group they belong—their

threat potential is seen differently.

Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) circle closer to Earth than the sun.

1. AMOR: These asteroids have an orbit size larger than Earth and will never

cross Earth. But they cross Mars orbit for sure. Some Amor asteroid may

divert towards Earth and be dangerous. Otherwise these are seen as safe

Asteroids.

2. APOLLO: These asteroids are Earth Crossing Orbits with the overall size of

the axis larger than that of Earth. Classified as Potentially Hazardous

Asteroids (PHA), Apollo’s are the most observed and potential candidates

for disaster on Earth.

3. ATENS: Also Earth Crossing orbits but axis size smaller than that of the

planet. These are also PHA’s and we should be keeping an eye on them.

4. ATIRA: These are groups of asteroids with an entire orbit smaller than that

of Earth. They come very close but never cross the orbit. So unless

disturbed they will not be coming to hit us.

In addition to classifications of asteroids based on their orbits, most asteroids fall

into three classes based on composition:

• The C-type or carbonaceous asteroids are grayish in color and are the

most common, including more than 75 percent of known asteroids. They

probably consist of clay and stony silicate rocks, and inhabit the main belt's

outer regions.

• The S-type or silicaceous asteroids are greenish to reddish in color,

account for about 17 percent of known asteroids, and dominate the inner

asteroid belt. They appear to be made of silicate materials and nickel-iron.

• The M-type or metallic asteroids are reddish in color, make up most of the

rest of the asteroids, and dwell in the middle region of the main belt. They

seem to be made up of nickel-iron.


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Large Asteroids hitting the Earth in the near future

Every year Earth is bombarded with countless rocks, debris from space.

• These small bits of the solar system enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn

in the atmosphere.

• On certain nights, like November 17 Leonids, there are Meteor Shower in

the sky.

• Based on the survey of craters around Earth and detailed simulations from

impactors from space, small impacts like those responsible for Lonar lake

type may happen once every million years whereas the large one like that

of Dinosaur extinction may occur once every 100 to 300 million years.

• These events have explosive power of over 100 million times that of the

Hiroshima bomb. They can destroy the entire planet during the explosion.

Asteroid defense system

In the unlikely event that the asteroid is deemed a threat, NASA has a

Planetary Defense Coordination Office that has scenarios for defusing the

situation.

PDCO planetary defense has two technologies at the least that could be

used:

• A kinetic impactor (meaning, a spacecraft that slams into the asteroid

to move its orbit) or

• A gravity tractor (meaning, a spacecraft that remains near an asteroid

for a long period of time, using its own gravity to gradually alter the

asteroid's path.)


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Asteroid Exploration Missions

• The first spacecraft to take close-up images of asteroids was NASA's

Galileo in 1991, which also discovered the first moon to orbit an asteroid in

1994.

• In 2001, after NASA's NEAR spacecraft intensely studied the near-earth

asteroid Eros for more than a year from orbit, mission controllers decided

to try and land the spacecraft. Although it wasn't designed for landing,

NEAR successfully touched down, setting the record as the first to

successfully land on an asteroid.

• In 2006, Japan's Hayabusa became the first spacecraft to land on and take

off from an asteroid. It returned to Earth in June 2010, and the samples it

recovered are currently under study.

• NASA's Dawn mission, launched in 2007, began exploring Vesta in 2011.

After a year, it left the asteroid for a trip to Ceres, arriving in 2015. Dawn

was the first spacecraft to visit Vesta and Ceres. As of 2017, the spacecraft

still orbits the extraordinary asteroid.

• In September 2016, NASA launched the Origins, Spectral Interpretation,

Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), which

will explore the asteroid Bennu before grabbing a sample to return to

Earth.

• In January 2017, NASA selected two projects, Lucy and Psyche, via its

Discovery Program. Planned to launch in October 2021, Lucy will visit an

object in the asteroid belt before going on to study six Trojan asteroids.

Psyche will travel to 16 Psyche, an enormous metallic asteroid that may

be the core of an ancient Mars-size planet, stripped of its crust through

violent collisions.


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Coral Bleaching

The Great Barrier Reef has experienced a third mass coral bleaching event in five

years, the most widespread bleaching event on record, with the south of the reef

bleaching extensively for the first time

Coral Reefs

Coral reefs are some of the most vibrant marine ecosystems on the planet --

between a quarter and one-third of all marine species rely on them at some point

in their life cycle.

• Coral polyps are tiny, soft-bodied organisms related to sea anemones and

jellyfish.

• Coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building

corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by

calcium carbonate.

• Reefs are important because they protect shorelines and coastal regions

from erosion and extreme weather events.

• They are also source of food security for millions of people around the

world.

• According to a study by the United Nations on the Economics of Ecosystems

and Biodiversity, coral reefs benefit about 850 million people worldwide,

with at least 275 million depending directly on reefs for livelihoods and

sustenance.

The Great Barrier Reef.

Covering nearly 133,000 square miles, it is the world's largest coral reef and is

home to more than 1,500 species of fish, 411 species of hard corals and dozens of

other species.

It's a vital resource to Australia's economy, contributing more than $5.6 billion

annually and supporting tens of thousands of jobs.


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Coral Bleaching

Coral bleaching happens when corals lose their vibrant colors and turn white.

• Coral are bright and colorful because of microscopic algae called

zooxanthellae.

• The zooxanthellae live within the coral in a mutually beneficial

relationship, each helping the other survive.

• But when the ocean environment changes— When water is too warm,

corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing

the coral to turn completely white.

• As the algae leaves, the coral fades until it looks like it’s been bleached.

• Bleaching doesn't kill coral immediately. But if temperatures remain high,

eventually the coral will die, destroying a natural habitat for many species

of marine life.

• As bleaching expands and becomes more frequent, corals are at greater

risk of dying off -- and that will be devastating not only for the region's

biodiversity, but for the thousands of people whose life and livelihood

depend on the reefs.

• The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found the published

evidence suggested a majority of tropical coral reefs would disappear even

if heating was limited to 1.5C and would be “at very high risk” at 1.2C.

• Four severe bleaching events have occurred in 2002, 2016, 2017, and now

in 2020.

• It takes about a decade for the fastest growing corals to make a full

recovery. As bleaching events become more frequent, there are fewer

opportunities for the corals to rebound. That could have a huge impact on

whether the reefs can recover.


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Factors causing Coral bleaching

1. High water temperature and bright sunlight are the primary triggers of

mass bleaching,

2. Calm and clear conditions with minimal current can exacerbate the stress

and intensify bleaching such as extreme low tide and exposure

3. Lack of wind and currents may result in less mixing of water layers, clearer

seas, and deeper penetration of solar irradiance (i.e., the amount of light

that penetrates the water column).


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4. Reefs dominated by resistant coral types may bleach less severely, or

bleach later, than reefs dominated by susceptible species.

5. Oxygen starvation caused by an increase in zooplankton levels as a result

of overfishing

6. Increased sedimentation caused due to silt runoff from human activities on

riverbed

7. Changes in Ocean salinity and Ocean acidification due to elevated levels of

CO2 caused by air pollution

8. Elevated sea levels due to global warming

9. Pollutants such as oxybenzone, butylparaben, which are common

sunscreen ingredients that are non-biodegradable and can wash off of skin

and mix with water.

10. Being exposed to Oil or other chemical spills


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Ecological impacts of coral bleaching

Coral bleaching and associated mortality not only have negative impacts on coral

communities, but they also impact fish communities and the human communities

that depend on coral reefs and associated fisheries for livelihoods and wellbeing.

• Bleached corals are likely to have reduced growth rates, decreased

reproductive capacity, increased susceptibility to diseases and elevated

mortality rates.

• Changes in coral communities also affect the species that depend on them,

such as the fish and invertebrates that rely on live coral for food, shelter,

or recruitment habitat.

• Change in the abundance and composition of reef fish assemblages may

occur when corals die as a result of coral bleaching.

• Declines in genetic and species diversity may occur when corals die as a

result of bleaching.

Socioeconomic impacts of coral bleaching

Healthy coral reefs attract divers and other tourists. Bleached and degraded reefs

can discourage tourism, which can affect the local economy.

• Degraded coral reefs are less able to provide the ecosystem services on

which local human communities depend.

• Degraded reefs are less productive and may not be able to sustain

accretion rates necessary to ensure reefs continue to provide shoreline

protection services.

• Reefs damaged by coral bleaching can quickly lose many of the features

that underpin the aesthetic appeal that is fundamental to reef tourism.

The resultant loss of revenue from reduced tourist activity can threaten

the livelihoods of local communities.

• Coral bleaching events that lead to significant coral mortality can drive

large shifts in fish communities. This can translate into reduced catches for


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fishers targeting reef fish species, which in turn leads to impacts on food

supply and associated economic activities.

• Cultural values of many tropical island communities (e.g., religious sites

and traditional uses of marine resources) depend upon healthy coral reef

ecosystems and can be adversely affected by coral bleaching.

• Coral reefs are a valuable source of pharmaceutical compounds. Degraded

and dead reefs are less likely to serve as a source for important medicinal

resources (i.e., drugs to treat heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses).

Recovery of Coral Reefs

If a coral reef is exposed to stressful conditions that are known to cause

bleaching, its fate is influenced by three key ecological attributes:

1. Extent to which corals can withstand elevated stress without bleaching

(bleaching resistance)

2. Ability of corals to survive bleaching (coral tolerance)

3. Ability of coral communities to be replenished (Reef recovery) should

significant coral mortality occur

4. In addition, human adaptive capacity can also affect coral reef resilience.

How long it takes a coral community to recover from bleaching related mortality

depends on a variety of factors, including:

1. Favorable recruitment conditions: These include good water quality, open

hard substrate for settlement, presence of coralline algae (provide

settlement substrate and chemical cues to facilitate coral settlement), and

healthy herbivore populations.

2. Larval supply: Regardless of how good recruitment conditions are (e.g.,

availability of substrate, presences of important herbivores), reefs require a

robust supply of larvae from source reefs to recover following a disturbance

event.

3. Connectivity: Reefs with high mortality after bleaching depend on

connectivity to other sources of live corals for re-seeding. For example, it is

possible for reefs receiving great numbers of larvae from other source reefs


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to recover in a relatively short time span (~10 years), provided that

recruitment conditions are favorable.

4. Grazing: If important herbivores are missing, overgrowth by algae can slow

reef recovery by taking up space that would otherwise be available to coral

recruits.

5. Natural selection: The recovery of coral reefs may be facilitated by

settlement of larvae from nearby, more heat-resistant corals that survived

the temperature-driven bleaching event. Over time, this could lead to heat-

tolerant species increasing their distribution range into habitats previously

dominated by other species.

6. Synergistic effects: Factors not previously recognized as important to

resilience, such as robust tissue regeneration, high competitive ability of

the corals, seasonal dieback in a seaweed bloom, protection afforded by an

effective marine protected area system, and moderate-to-good water

quality, can result in rapid coral recovery. re


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What is Urban Ozone?

CONTEXT:

A Manchester (UK) based research has found that the nationwide lockdown may

be leading to the generation of a dangerous pollutant, urban ozone.

The Ozone is formed due to different factors in the Troposphere and the

Stratosphere (where the protective ozone layer lies).

Urban Ozone

The photochemical production of ozone may become more important in urban

areas during summertime in these low conditions of oxides of nitrogen.

• As nitrogen oxides reduce, photochemical production may become more

efficient and can lead to higher ozone concentrations in the summertime.

• The higher summer temperatures increase emissions of biogenic

hydrocarbon from natural sources such as trees. These biogenic

hydrocarbons significantly affect urban ozone levels.

• While ozone is important for screening harmful solar UV radiation when

present higher up in the atmosphere, it can be a danger at the Earth’s

surface and can react to destroy or alter many biological molecules.

Ozone Gas

• It is a gas that occurs both in the Earth’s upper atmosphere and at ground

level.

• Ozone occurs in two layers of the atmosphere. The layer closest to the

Earth’s surface is the troposphere.

• Here, ground-level or “bad” ozone is an air pollutant that is harmful to

breathe and it damages crops, trees and other vegetation. It is the main

ingredient of urban smog.

• The stratospheric or “good” ozone protects life on Earth from the sun’s

harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays.


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Formation of Ozone

Ozone is produced naturally in the stratosphere when highly energetic solar

radiation strikes molecules of oxygen, and cause the two oxygen atoms to split

apart in a process called photolysis. If a freed atom collides with another O2, it

joins up, forming ozone.

The majority of tropospheric ozone formation occurs when nitrogen oxides (NOx),

carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), react in the

atmosphere in the presence of sunlight, specifically the UV spectrum.


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Lipu Lekh Pass

Context:

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, inaugurated Lipu Lekh pass on May 8, said the

road built by the Border Roads Organisation, was important for “strategic,

religious and trade” reasons.

Background

• Lipulekh sits atop the Kalapani Valley and forms a tri-junction between

India, Nepal and China. It is an ancient trade and pilgrimage route made

famous locally by the Bhutiya people who have inhabited the region for

centuries.

• India had closed Lipulekh from 1962 to 1991 due to the 1962 Sino-Indian

war.

• It is on the route of the annual Kailash Masarovar Yatra, which goes

through Uttarakhand’s Pithoragath district.

• The 80 km road goes right up to the Lipu Lekh pass on the LAC, through

which Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims exit India into China to reach the

mountain and lake revered as the abode of Siva. The last section of 4 km of

the road up to the pass still remains to be completed.


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Importance

• The government has underlined that through this improved route, yatris do

not need the alternative routes now available for the pilgrimage, one

through the Nathu La border in Sikkim and the other via Nepal.

• Now pilgrims to Mansarovar will traverse 84 per cent land journeys on

Indian roads and only 16 per cent in China.

• The Sikkim and Nepal routes are much-longer and the road via Pithoragarh

will ensure that most of the journey is within Indian Territory. This is not

the case with the other two routes that require pilgrims to enter Chinese

territory.

• The new road is also expected to provide better connectivity to Indian

traders for the India-China border trade at the Lipu Lekh pass between

June and September every summer.

• Pilgrims from India can reach Kailash Mansarovar through three routes —

via Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Kathmandu in Nepal — all of which are long

and arduous.

• The route via Uttarakhand involves three stretches. The first stretch is a

107.6 km-long road from Pithoragarh to Tawaghat, the second is from

Tawaghat to Ghatiabgarh on a 19.5-km single lane, and the third stretch is

the 80 kms from Ghatiabgarh to Lipulekh Pass at the China border, which

can only be traversed on foot. This stretch takes almost five days to cover

and is a tough journey. Several accidents have occurred on this route.

• The Border Roads Organisation is converting the second stretch into a

double lane road and has built a new road on the third stretch to allow

vehicles. It has completed 76 km of the 80-km stretch so far, cutting travel

time to just two days by a vehicle.


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Nepal’s Concerns and Border Issue

• On the day the road was inaugurated, there was an outcry in Nepal. The

next day the Nepal Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing

disappointment over New Delhi’s unilateral act.

• Nepal claims that the Lipulekh pass comes under its territory and lies in

the Dharchula district in Sudurpashchim Pradesh. It is marked by the

Kalapani River, one of the headwaters of the Kali River in the Himalayas at

an altitude of 3,600–5,200 meters.

• Nepal has brought up its concerns on the border issue several times,

including in November 2019, when Delhi put out its new political map of

India to show the bifurcation of Jammu & Kashmir.

• Nepal’s objection then was the inclusion of Kalapani in the map, in which it

is shown as part of Uttarakhand. The area falls in the trijunction between

India, China and Nepal.

• Since the 1962 war with China, India has deployed the ITBP at Kalapani,

which is advantageously located at a height of over 20,000 ft and serves as

an observation post for that area.

• Nepal has also been unhappy about the China-India trading post at Lipu

Lekh, the earliest to be established between the two countries

• In 2015, when India and China signed another trade treaty allowing trade

through Lipulekh pass, Nepal lodged protest with both India and China

staking claim on the Kalapani area.

• China has also tried to have some foothold in Nepal due to its geo-strategic

importance. This has led to rise of China-leaning Maoist leaders in Nepal.

• Kalapani being another tri-junction involving India and China, it is a

strategic vantage point for the country that controls the area. China is

making serious inroads in Nepal, through investment in both infrastructure

and technology.


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History of Kalapani Dispute

Kalapani is a strategically important tri-junction between India, China and Nepal in

the Pithoragarh district of Uttarahand.

• The Nepal-India border was delineated by the Sugauli Treaty of 1816,

under which it renounced all territory to the west of the river Kali, also

known as the Mahakali or the Sarada river. The river effectively became

the boundary.

• The terms were reiterated by a second treaty between Nepal and Briitsh

India in 1923. The rival territorial claims centre on the source of the Kali.

• Nepal’s case is that the river originates from a stream at Limpiyadhura,

north-west of Lipu Lekh. Thus Kalapani, and Limpiyadhura, and Lipu Lekh,

fall to the east of the river and are part of Nepal’s Far West province in the

district of Dharchula.

• New Delhi’s position is that the Kali originates in springs well below the

pass, and that while the Treaty does not demarcate the area north of these

springs, administrative and revenue records going back to the nineteenth

century show that Kalapani was on the Indian side, and counted as part of

Pithoragarh district, now in Uttarakhand. Both sides have their own British-

era maps as proof of their positions.

• Nepal says it has historical documents and tax receipts to show that people

inhabiting that area belonged to the country.

• India, on the other hand, rejects the claim citing Mughal history and British

control over the area. After the British left India, it maintained a police post

in Kalapani since mid-1950s. From 1979-80, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police

(ITBP) has been manning the boundaries.


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Border Roads Organisation (BRO)

The BRO develops and maintains road networks in India’s border areas and

friendly neighbouring countries and functions under the Ministry of Defence.

• It is entrusted for construction of Roads, Bridges, Tunnels, Causeways,

Helipads and Airfields along the borders.

• Officers from the Border Roads Engineering Service (BRES) and personnel

from the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) form the parent cadre of

the Border Roads Organisation.

• It is also staffed by officers and troops drawn from the Indian Army’s Corps

of Engineers on extra regimental employment.

• The BRO operates and maintains over 32,885 kilometres of roads and about

12,200 meters of permanent bridges in the country.


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General Studies-2

Polity & Governance

Fiscal empowerment of States in times of Covid19

Importance of health and spending on health-care services:

• The scale of disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has never been seen before.

• Even as we are in the midst of the second phase of the national lockdown, there is no clarity on the time it will take to come out of the crisis, the extent of damage it will inflict, and the cost of relief and rehabilitation required.

• At a time when governments, both at the Centre and in the States, are fiscally stressed, the pandemic has forced them to undertake huge expenditures to save lives, livelihoods and reduce distresses and even more, to create a stimulus to revive the economy as we map the exit strategy.

• Being closer to the people, the States have a much larger responsibility in fighting this war.

• Public health as well as public order are State subjects in the Constitution.

• In fact, some States were proactive in dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak by involving the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, even before the Government of India declared a universal lockdown invoking the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

Focus on health and economy is the need of the hour:

• The pandemic has underlined the historical neglect of the health-care sector in the country.

• The total public expenditures of Centre and States works out to a mere 1.3% of GDP.


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• The acute shortage of protective gear, testing kits, ventilators and hospital beds has been a major handicap and the immediate task of States is to ramp up their availability and supply.

• In addition, the disruption caused by the lockdown has caused untold misery, and providing relief and rehabilitation to migrant labourers and informal sector workers had to the focus.

• In 2017-18, in per capita terms, the public expenditure on medical and public health varied from an abysmal ₹690 in Bihar and ₹814 in Uttar Pradesh to the highest of ₹2,092 in Kerala.

• The centrally sponsored scheme, the National Health Mission, is inadequately funded, micromanaged with grants given under more than 2,000 heads and poorly targeted. The focus of “Ayushman Bharat” has been to advocate insurance rather than building wellness centres.

However, on the other side, extensive revenue losses for states:

1. While the requirement of States for immediate expenditures is large, they are severely crippled in their resources.

2. In the lockdown period, there has virtually been no economic activity and they have not been able to generate any revenue from State excise duty, stamp duties and registration fees, motor vehicles tax or sales tax on high speed diesel and motor spirit.

3. The revenue from Goods and Services Tax is stagnant and compensation on time for the loss of revenue has not been forthcoming.

• In Karnataka for example, it is reported that as against the estimated Rs.12,000 crore every month, the State may not be able to generate even Rs.300 crore in April.

• As the recovery process will be staggered, it is doubtful whether tax revenues will register any positive growth in 2020-21.

• Not surprisingly, the State has decided to monetise land through auctions to get money besides regularising unauthorised constructions by paying high fees.


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Tax devolution from the Centre is even more precarious:

• To begin with, the tax devolution in the Union Budget estimate is lower than the Commission’s estimate by Rs.70,995 crore.

• In fact, the Budget estimate for 2020-21 itself is a huge overestimate when seen against the 11-month actual collections in 2019-20.

• The required growth to achieve the Budget estimate is 33.3% over the annualised actual collection.

• The projections are that the growth of nominal GDP in 2020-21 will be just about 4% and if the tax revenue increases by the same rate, devolution to the States would be lower by ₹2.2-lakh crore than the Finance Commission’s estimate.

• This results in a loss of ₹9,173 crore for Tamil Nadu, ₹9,000 crore for Andhra Pradesh, ₹8,000 crore for Karnataka, ₹4,671 crore for Telangana, and ₹4,255 crore for Kerala. There is a strong case for the States to go back to the Finance Commission with a request to make and give a supplementary report.

• Faced with an acute fund crunch, Kerala floated 15-year bonds but was faced with a huge upsurge in the yield to 8.96%.

Need for fiscal consolidation process relief:

1. The speed of economic revival will depend on how long it will take to revive economic activities and the volume of stimulus through public spending the government is able to provide.

2. It now appears that the lockdown will be lifted in stages and the recovery process will be prolonged.

3. The country is literally placed in financing a war-like situation and the government will have to postpone the fiscal consolidation process for the present, loosen its purse strings and finance its deficits substantially through monetisation.

4. This is also the time for the government to announce relaxation in the States’ fiscal deficit limit to make them effective participants in the struggle. It is also important for the States to realise the importance of health and prioritise spending on health-care services.


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5. While Central intervention was done to enable, “consistency in the application and implementation of various measures across the country”, the actual implementation on the ground level will have to be done at the State level.

6. Furthermore, States are better informed to decide the areas and activities where relaxations should be done as the coronavirus curve is flattened.

7. Hopefully, there will be better coordination between the Union and State governments instead of claiming credit and apportioning blame.

Diverse efforts as mentioned below also the need of an hour

• Besides protecting lives and livelihoods, States will have to initiate and facilitate economic revival, and that too would require substantial additional spending.

• Hand holding small and medium enterprises which have completely ceased production, providing relief to farmers who have lost their perishable crops and preparing them for sowing in the kharif season are other tasks that require spending.

• In fact, States have been proactive. Kerala came out with a comprehensive package allocating ₹20,000 crore to fight the pandemic.

• Almost all States have taken measures to provide food to the needy besides ramping up health-care requirements.

Conclusion:

• The war on COVID-19 can be effectively won only when the States are armed with enough resources to meet the crisis .

• But as mentioned earlier, they are faced with stagnant revenues while their expenditure commitments are huge.

• There is only limited scope for expenditure switching and reprioritisation now. Their borrowing space too is limited by the fiscal responsibility and budget management limit of 3% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).


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• The announcement by the Reserve Bank of India on the increase in the limit of ways and means advances by 60% of the levels prescribed in March 31 could help States to plan their borrowing better; but that is too little to provide much relief.

• Therefore, it is important for the Central government to provide additional borrowing space by 2% of GSDP from the prevailing 3% of GSDP.

• This is the time to fiscally empower States to wage the COVID-19 war and trust them to spend on protecting lives, livelihoods and initiate an economic recovery.


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GRID Report 2020

The Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) is the annual flagship report

published by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

The report synthesizes the latest statistics, country/situation assessments,

thematic and policy analyses. It presents the most up-to-date estimates of new

displacements by conflict and disasters, and the total cumulative numbers of

internally displaced people (IDPs) worldwide.

The GRID is the global reference for internal displacement data and analysis and

is widely used by policy-makers national governments, UN agencies, international

NGOs, journalists and academics.

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) based in Geneva,

Switzerland, is the world's authoritative source  of data and analysis on

internal displacement.

• It was establishment in 1998 as part of the Norwegian Refugee

Council

• The work of IDMC informs policy and operational decisions that

improve the lives of the millions of people living in internal

displacement, or at risk of becoming displaced in the future.

Main focus Areas

• IDMC provides verified, consolidated and multi-sourced estimates

of the number of people internally displaced or at risk of becoming

displaced by conflict, violence, disasters and development projects

across the world.

• IDMC complements this global data with interdisciplinary research

into the drivers, patterns and impacts of internal displacement

across different country situations, contexts and scenarios.

• Using this evidence, IDMC provides tailor-made advice and support

to inform global, regional and national policy-making.


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Key findings of GRID Report 2020

1. 33.4 million new displacements in 2019 of which 8.5 million are conflict

and violence driven by increasing levels of violence in Burkina Faso, Yemen

and Libya

2. New incidents of conflict displacement were recorded in 50 countries in

2019.

3. The majority took place in low and middle-income countries including

Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Ethiopia, which

accounted for more than a million new displacements each.

4. Total number of IDPs 50.8 million of which 45.7million are a result of

conflict and violence and 5.1 million due to disaters

5. 8.3 million IDPs are children under 15 and 3.7 million are over 60

6. Nearly 2,000 disasters triggered 24.9 million new displacements across

140 countries and territories in 2019.

7. Disaster displacement was recorded in low and high-income countries

alike. Cyclones Idai and Kenneth forced hundreds of thousands of people

from their homes in Mozambique, Malawi, Madagascar, Zimbabwe and

the archipelagos of Comoros and Mayotte.

8. Hurricane Dorian’s impacts on the Bahamas also triggered displacement on

neighboring islands and in the US and Canada.

9. Cyclones Fani and Bulbul triggered more than five million in India and

Bangladesh alone.


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India Specific Findings

There were five million new disaster displacements in India in 2019, the highest

figure in the world and the result of a combination of increasing hazard

intensity, high population exposure and high levels of social and economic

vulnerability.

• The year was also the seventh warmest since records began in 1901, and

the monsoon was the wettest in 25 years. These conditions helped to fuel

the destructive power of the eight tropical storms to hit the country

during the year

• Cyclone Fani was the most powerful storm to strike the country in the last

five years, and the most intense to form in the Bay of Bengal since 1999

was destructive across the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West

Bengal before moving north to Bangladesh leading to evacuation of

more than 1.8 million people.

• Another 289,000 people were evacuated in Gujarat in June ahead of

cyclone Vayu,

• The south-west monsoon triggered more than 2.6 million displacements

in the months that followed.

• Cyclone Bulbul struck Odisha and West Bengal triggering 186,000

displacements.


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• Drought displacement was also recorded in the states of Andhra Pradesh

and Maharashtra.

Report recommendation on Managing IDPs

1. The recognition of internal displacement is a vital first step toward

addressing it.

2. Policies and programmes on internal displacement should always align

with national priorities. E.g. Afghan government understands internal

displacement as both a humanitarian and development issue, and

recognises it as a consequence of both conflict and disasters. This has the

potential to strengthen institutional coordination and responses.

3. Regional and global initiatives should act as catalysts for national

commitment and local action. Global initiatives such as the UN High-Level

Panel on Internal Displacement also have the potential to unlock national

action.


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4. Effective local initiatives require more predictable and sustained funding.

5. Existing tools can be used to provide planners and policymakers with

evidence that goes beyond numbers. E.g. Combining official monitoring of

disaster displacement with mobile phone tracking data and social media

analysis has helped to improve planning for shelters, reconstruction and

longer-term urban recovery.

6. Strengthen collaboration and coordination, and make data more coherent

and trustworthy as well as increase ownership among providers, users and

donors.

7. Accounting for displacement and reporting on progress is a vital tool in

generating and sustaining political commitment.


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Bru Tribe resettlement in Tripura

Context:

A quadripartite agreement allowed some 35,000 Bru tribal people, who were

displaced from Mizoram and are living in Tripura as refugees since 1997, to settle

permanently in Tripura.

• The Centre, State governments of Tripura and Mizoram, and

representatives of Bru organisations signed the agreement in the presence

of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

• The agreement, allowing 30,000 Bru tribals to permanently settle in

Tripura, took 20 years and nine attempts in the making,


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Who are the Brus and how did they become internally

displaced?

• The Brus, are spread across Tripura, Mizoram and southern Assam. In

Mizoram, they are scattered in Kolasib, Lunglei and Mamit districts.

• In Tripura they are known as Reangs, they are ethnically different from

the Mizos, with their own distinct language and dialect and form one of

the 21 scheduled tribes of Tripura.

• In Tripura, they are recognised as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group.

• In Mizoram, they are largely referred to by other tribes as ‘Tuikuk’.

• Mizos and Kukis, on the other hand share close linguistic and cultural ties

and were usually referred to as Kuki-Lushai tribes in colonial times (Lushai

or Lusei is the most prominent clan in what is now the Mizo community).

• While many Brus of Assam and Tripura are Hindu, the Brus of Mizoram

converted to Christianity over the years.

• Clashes in 1995 with the majority Mizos led to the demand for the removal

of the Brus, perceived to be non-indigenous, from Mizoram’s electoral

rolls.

• This led to an armed movement by a Bru outfit, which killed a Mizo forest

official in October 1997 in the Dampa Tiger Reserve

• The retaliatory ethnic violence saw more than 40,000 Brus fleeing to

adjoining Tripura where they took shelter in six relief camps.

• These clashes led to the Brus’ demand for an Autonomous District Council

(ADC), under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution, in western Mizoram,

where they were the more dominant lot, outnumbering the ethnic Mizo

population.

• Since then, 5,000 have returned to Mizoram in nine phases of

repatriation, while 32,000 still live in six relief camps in North Tripura.


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Efforts to repatriate Brus

• Tripura is keen that the Brus return to Mizoram, since they add to the

sizeable tribal population, and because the land occupied by the relief

camps is owned by domicile tribals.

• The Centre and the two State governments involved made nine attempts

to resettle the Brus in Mizoram.

• The first was in November 2010 when 1,622 Bru families with 8,573

members went back.

• Protests by Mizo NGOs, primarily the Young Mizo Association, stalled the

process in 2011, 2012 and 2015.

• Meanwhile, the Brus began demanding relief on a par with the relief given

to Kashmiri Pandits and Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.

• The camp residents say the repatriation package does not guarantee their

safety in Mizoram.

• They have demanded resettlement in cluster villages, among other things.

• In June 2018, Bru leaders signed an agreement in Delhi with the Centre and

the two state governments, providing for repatriation to Mizoram.

• Most residents of the camps, however, rejected the “insufficient” terms of

the agreement.

Latest agreement to settle Bru refugees in Tripura

The demand to rehabilitate the Brus in Tripura was first raised by Pradyot

Manikya, the scion of the Tripura royal family.

• He claimed that the Bru were originally from Tripura, and had migrated to

Mizoram after their homes were flooded due to the commissioning of the

Dumboor hydroelectric power project in South Tripura in 1976.

• Apart from their own Kaubru tongue, the Bru speak both Kokborok and

Bangla, the two most widely spoken languages of the tribal and non-tribal

communities of Tripura, and have an easy connection with the state.


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• Their long stay in Tripura has also acquainted them very well with the

state’s socio-political ecology.

• Hence the option to rehabilitate within Tripura must be explored.

Salient points of the new agreement

• All Bru currently living in temporary relief camps in Tripura will be settled

in the state, if they want to stay on.

• The Bru who returned to Mizoram in the eight phases of repatriation since

2009, cannot come back to Tripura.

• To ascertain the numbers of those who will be settled, a fresh survey and

physical verification of Bru families living in relief camps will be carried

out.

• The Centre will implement a special development project for the resettled

Bru.

• Each resettled family will get 0.03 acre (1.5 ganda) of land for building a

home, Rs 1.5 lakh as housing assistance, and Rs 4 lakh as a one-time cash

benefit for sustenance.

• They will also receive a monthly allowance of Rs 5,000, and free rations

for two years from the date of resettlement.

• The beneficiaries will get housing assistance, but the state government will

build their homes and hand over possession.

Implications of the Tripura resettlement

• The decision is a humanitarian from the point of view of the Brus, who

were apprehensive about returning to Mizoram, but it could lead to

conflicts with the locals of Tripura.

• Locals fear it could result in severe demographic imbalance, land crisis and

social disturbance.

• It could set a bad precedent, encouraging ethnocentric states to eject

minorities of all hues besides making the Brus of Mizoram opt for the

rehabilitation package in the relative safety of Tripura.

• Conflicts between the Brus and the local Bengali non-tribal people have

started taking place in Tripura.


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• Since about 162 acres of land will be required it may result in the possibility

of diverting forest lands, even reserve forest areas leading to

environmental degradation

• Further diverting forest land for human settlements will need clearance

from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups

• Some tribal groups have some specific features such as dependency on

hunting, gathering for food, having pre-agriculture level of technology,

zero or negative growth of population and extremely low level of

literacy. These groups are called Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups.

• In 1973, the Dhebar Commission created Primitive Tribal Groups

(PTGs) as a separate category, who are less developed among the tribal

groups.

• In 2006, the Government of India renamed the PTGs as PVTGs.

• In this context, in 1975, the Government of India initiated to identify the

most vulnerable tribal groups as a separate category called PVTGs and

declared 52 such groups, while in 1993 an additional 23 groups were

added to the category, making it a total of 75 PVTGs out of 705

Scheduled Tribes.

• PVTGs have some basic characteristics –

a. they are mostly homogenous,

b. Small population,

c. Relatively physically isolated,

d. Absence of written language,

e. Relatively simple technology and

f. Slower rate of change

• Among the 75 listed PVTG’s the highest number are found in Odisha.


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The National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) and

minority institutions

Context:

The Supreme Court ordered that the National Eligibility Entrance Test, or NEET,

the single entrance exam for all medical colleges, will apply to minority

institutions providing medical courses.

NEET controversy

• As a single entrance examination to medical and dental colleges, NEET

was first introduced in 2013.

• But this exam was scrapped by the Supreme Court within a few months.

• A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court revisited this verdict and

restored it in 2016.

• Over 15.9 lakh students have registered for this year’s entrance exam to

study medicine across the country.

• Christian Medical College, Vellore, which used to hold its own entrance

exam, had challenged the NEET route for admissions, arguing that it

violated the institution’s minority rights enshrined under Article 30.

Latest Supreme Court ruling

• The Supreme Court ruled that there would be no exception to the law that

lays down uniform entrance exams for all graduate and post graduate

medical courses.

• NEET would apply for both aided and unaided medical colleges

administered by minorities.

• The court said that there is no violation of the rights of the unaided/ aided

minority to administer institutions under Articles 19 (1) (g) and 30 that is

right minorities to establish and administer institution, read with Articles

25 which is the freedom to practice religion, 26 and 29 (1) of the

Constitution by prescribing the uniform examination of NEET for admissions


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in the graduate and postgraduate professional courses of medical as well as

dental science.

• Rights available under Article 30 (of the Constitution which secures the

right of religious and linguistic minorities to run educational institutions)

are not violated by provisions carved out in Section 10D of the MCI Act

(Medical Council of India Act) and the Dentists Act and Regulations framed

by MCI/DCI,

• The colleges had argued that imposing NEET would violate their

fundamental rights of religious freedom, to manage their religious affairs,

to administer their institutions. They said the State was reneging its

obligation to act in the best interest of minorities.

• The court dismissed arguments made by the managements of several

minority-run medical institutions, including the Christian Medical College

Vellore Association that bringing them uniformly under the ambit of NEET

would be a violation of their fundamental right to “occupation, trade and

business”.

• The right to freedom of trade or business is not absolute. It is subject to

“reasonable restriction in the interest of the students’ community to

promote merit, recognition of excellence, and to curb the malpractices. A

uniform entrance test qualifies the test of proportionality and is

reasonable”.

• The Government has the right for providing regulatory measures that are

in the national interest,” the order stated.

• The three-judge bench, reasoned that NEET was introduced for better

administration in view of several instances of maladministration by

several private colleges. NEET is intended to check several maladies which

crept into medical education, to prevent capitation fee by admitting

students which are lower in merit and to prevent exploitation,

profiteering, and commercialization of education.

• Regulating academics and imposing reasonable restrictions to ensure

educational standards was in national and public interest

• Uniform entrance exams would ensure improvement in future public

health by encouraging merit in furtherance of the Directive Principles


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enshrined in Articles 47 and 51(A)(j) of the constitution and enable the

individual by providing full opportunity in pursuance of his objective to

excel in his pursuit.

• The State has the right to frame regulatory regime for aided/ unaided

minority/private institutions as mandated by Directives Principles, Articles

14 and 21 of the Constitution to weed out evils from the system, which

were eating away fairness in admission process, defeating merit and

aspiration of the common incumbent with no means

Important Constitutional Article regarding the issue of NEET

• Article 19 (1) (g) grants citizens the right to practice any profession,

or to carry on any occupation, trade or business while

• Article 30 relates to the right of minorities to establish and

administer educational institutions.

• Article 25 provides that all persons are equally entitled to freedom

of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice, and

propagate religion subject to public order, morality and health.

• Article 26 grants that all denominations can manage their own

affairs in matters of religion

• Article 29(1) extends to all the citizens irrespective of the fact

whether they are in majority or minority, the only condition being

that such section must have a distinct language, script or culture of

its own

• Article 47 of the Directive Principles directs the State to raise the

level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public

health as among its primary duties

• Article 51 A(j) of the Fundamental duties lays down the duty to

strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective

activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of

endeavor and achievements.


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Special rights enjoyed by religious minority institutions include:

• Under Art 30(1)(a), minority institutions enjoy right to education as

a Fundamental Right. In case the property is taken over by state,

due compensation to be provided to establish institutions

elsewhere

• Under Article 15(5), minority institutions are not considered for

reservation

• Under Right to Education Act, minority institutions not required to

provide admission to children in the age group of 6-14 years upto

25% of enrolment reserved for economically backward section of

society

• In St Stephens vs Delhi University case, 1992, SC ruled that

minority institutions can have 50% seats reserved for minorities

• In TMA Pai & others vs State of Karnataka & others 2002 case, SC

ruled that minority institutions can have separate admission

process which is fair, transparent and merit based. They can also

separate fee structure but should not charge capitation fee.


PRATHAMIAS.COM

International Relations

WHO Funding

Context:

US President Donald Trump threatened to freeze US funding to the World Health

Organization (WHO), saying the international group had “missed the call” on the

coronavirus pandemic.

• Trump said the body had “called it wrong” on COVID-19 and that it was very “China centric” in its approach, suggesting that the WHO had gone along with Beijing’s efforts months ago to underrepresent the severity of the outbreak.

• The American President declared he would cut off US funding for the

organisation, then backtracked and said he would strongly consider such a

move.

WHO The World Health Organization (WHO), founded in 1948, is a specialized agency

of the United Nations with a broad mandate to act as a coordinating authority on

international health issues.

The U.S. government (U.S.) has long been actively engaged with WHO, providing financial and technical support as well as participating in its governance structure.

The U.S. is currently the largest contributor to WHO.

WHO Funding There are four kinds of contributions that make up funding for the WHO.

• These are assessed contributions, specified voluntary contributions,

core voluntary contributions, and PIP contributions.

• According to the WHO website, assessed contributions are the dues

countries pay in order to be a member of the Organization.

• Assessed contributions (set amounts expected to be paid by member-

state governments, scaled by income and population)


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• The amount each Member State must pay is calculated relative to the

country’s wealth and population.

• Voluntary contributions come from Member States (in addition to their

assessed contribution) or from other partners. They can range from

flexible to highly earmarked.

• Voluntary contributions (other funds provided by member states, plus

contributions from private organizations and individuals).

• Core voluntary contributions allow less well-funded activities to benefit

from a better flow of resources and ease implementation bottlenecks

that arise when immediate financing is lacking.

• Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Contributions were started in

2011 to improve and strengthen the sharing of influenza viruses with

human pandemic potential, and to increase the access of developing

countries to vaccines and other pandemic related supplies.

• In recent years, assessed contributions to the WHO have declined, and

now account for less than one-fourth of its funding.

• These funds are important for the WHO, because they provide a level of

predictability and minimise dependence on a narrow donor base.

• Voluntary contributions make up for most of the remaining funding.

The current funding pattern:

• The United States is currently the WHO’s biggest contributor, making up

14.67 percent of total funding by providing USD 553.1 million.

• The US is followed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation forming 9.76

percent or USD 367.7 million.

• The third biggest contributor is the GAVI Vaccine Alliance at 8.39 per cent,

with the UK (7.79 per cent) and Germany (5.68 per cent) coming fourth and

fifth respectively.

• The four next biggest donors are international bodies: United Nations

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (5.09 per cent), World

Bank (3.42 per cent), Rotary International (3.3 per cent), and the European


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Commission (3.3 per cent). India makes up 0.48 per cent of total

contributions, and China 0.21 per cent.

• Out of the total funds, USD 1.2 billion is allotted for the Africa region, USD

1.02 billion for Eastern Mediterranean region, USD 963.9 million for the

WHO headquarters, followed by South East Asia (USD 198.7 million),

Europe (USD 200.4 million), Western Pacific (USD 152.1 million), and

Americas (39.2 million) regions respectively. India is part of the South East

Asia region.

• The biggest programme area where the money is allocated is polio

eradication (26.51 per cent), followed by increasing access to essential

health and nutrition services (12.04 per cent), and preventable diseases

vaccines (8.89 per cent).


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Key Issues for the U.S. with WHO:

• The U.S. government has long supported WHO and continues to be its

largest donor at a moment when WHO is undergoing major reforms.

• Going forward, there are several key questions regarding U.S. engagement with the WHO, including:

• The extent to which the U.S. will continue its financial and other support of

WHO and what role it will play in WHO’s governance and helping it enact

needed reforms;

• The progress made by WHO under the leadership of its new Director-

General in improving the effectiveness of the organization and addressing

its challenges; and

• The quality of technical and governance partnerships between the U.S. and WHO, especially in the event of a new public health emergency or outbreak

in the future.

WHO faces a number of institutional challenges.

• The WHO faces a number of challenges including a broad mandate with

limited, inflexible funding, bureaucratic complexity, and a track record of poor responses to recent health emergencies; reforms have been initiated

to address some of these challenges.

• A scope of responsibility that has grown over time while its budget has

remained flat or been reduced;

• A budget that has become less flexible with greater reliance on voluntary

contributions often earmarked for specific activities;

• A cumbersome, decentralized, and bureaucratic governance structure; and

• A dual mandate of being both a technical agency with health expertise and

a political body where states debate and negotiate on sometimes divisive

health issues.

Way Forward: Reforming the World Health Organization.


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• As an intergovernmental body, WHO is not immune to global power-play as

is being witnessed by reports of the director-general having shied away

from naming the virus after the country where it originated China and

delaying the declaration of a pandemic.

• Moreover, only a quarter of its budget comes from contributions from UN

member-states, and the real money to power its work is from voluntary

funding by countries and organisations.

• WHO, as a global convener, plays a key role in standard-setting in public health. This is a matter of much importance to the “haves” of the global

economy, especially those with a vibrant pharmaceutical industry.

• The United States is the largest contributor, but the Chinese have also

recognised WHO’s importance.

• The main decision-making body at WHO is the annual World Health

Assembly (WHA), attended by all member-states.

• With demands for a better, real-time response from WHO, the Executive

Board (EB) should be made a standing body with the elected countries

having Geneva-based permanent


PRATHAMIAS.COM

Iran’s Currency Change

Context

Iran's parliament has passed a bill allowing the government to slash four zeros

from the rial and authorizing its replacement with another basic unit of currency

called the toman (redenomination).

Background

• The rial has been Iran’s official currency since 1932.

• The toman was the national currency during the Qajar dynasty (17851925)

and the first few years of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925-1979).

• Iran changed its basic monetary unit from dinar to the rial in 1932 as part

of the modernisation of the economy undertaken by the Pahlavi dynasty,

which was overthrown by the revolution in 1979.

• Iran has seen the value of its national currency decline steadily since the

Islamic Revolution brought the religious government to power in 1979.

• Iran had been mulling over the idea of cutting four zeros from its currency

since 2008.

Redenomination: It is the process whereby

a country's currency is

revalued due to significant

inflation and currency

devaluation, or when a

country adopts a new

currency and needs to

exchange the old currency

for a new one at a fixed

rate.


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The devaluation of the rial has been marked by four key

turning points:

1. The Islamic Revolution of 1979. When the government of the

Westernallied Shah collapsed and an ideological cadre of mullahs took over,

many entrepreneurs and business moguls left the country for fear of

persecution, and they took their wealth with them.

2. The end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1989. It took Iran almost eight years to

rebuild its shattered economy, during which time the rial lost almost 100%

of its value compared to the US dollar thanks to rampant inflation and the

unchecked printing of cash.

3. The third and worst devaluation came during the last years of President

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tenure. Before he left power in 2013, Iran was

slammed with severe international sanctions that saw the rial hemorrhage

almost 400% more of its value on global currency markets. The economic

crisis forced Iran's leaders to reconsider their stubborn refusal to negotiate

limits to their nuclear program. In 2015, under intense pressure, Iran

agreed to the now-defunct nuclear pact with the U.S., Europe, China and

Russia.

4. The last major turning point, which is still playing out, came when

President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal. It

adversely affected every aspect of Iran's already beleaguered economy. The

rial's plunge has continued as it lost more than 60% of its value


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Reasons for the currency change

The efficiency of the Iranian currency has declined due to chronic inflation over

five decades.

1. The currency has been devalued 3,500 times since 1971. It declined

steadily since the Iranian Revolution, 1979 brought the religious

government to power.

2. Crippling effect of American sanctions, which have severely limited the

country’s ability to sell oil or to conduct international financial

transactions

3. The government has also implemented strict rules on access to foreign

currency, leading to a flourishing black market for non-Iranian cash

inside the country and further eroding the value of the national

currency.

4. The coronavirus pandemic, which turned Iran into a regional epicenter

of the disease, appears to have played a decisive role, contributing to a

further devaluation of the rial since February.

5. Slashing the extra zeros would vastly simplify financial calculations in

Iran by eliminating the need for Iranian shoppers to carry loads of rials

to make purchases, which they must do now because of inflation.

6. The currency redenomination bill could become a good addition to

much larger banking and monetary reforms that are the product of

active cooperation between the government and parliament

7. It would help decrease money printing costs as total money supply in

Iran has been growing at an alarming annual rate of about 30 percent

for the past decade.

8. Furthermore, if the redenomination bill is passed into law, all monetary

regulations and auditing books will also be changed to facilitate

transactions. That will make accounting and auditing processes much

easier.

9. It could have a positive psychological impact on the Iranian people.

They are increasingly dissatisfied with the fact that a single U.S. dollar

fetches tens of thousands of their national currency.


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Chronology of Iran and USA conflict

Nuclear Fears and Sanctions 2002-13:

Overthrow of Mossadeq, 1953

• The US and British intelligence agencies planned a coup to oust Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadeq.

• He sought to nationalise Iran's oil industry, which was against the US's capitalist interests.

Iranian Revolution, 1979

• The US - backed Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi was forced to leave the country in 1979, following months of demonstrations and strikes against his rule by secular and religious opponents.

• This led to the return of Islamic religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini from exile and following a referendum, the Islamic Republic of Iran was proclaimed on 1st April 1979.

US Embassy Hostage

Crisis1979 - 81:

• The US embassy in Tehran was seized by protesters in November 1979 and American hostages were held inside for 444 days.

• The final 52 hostages were freed in January 1981, the day of US President Ronald Reagan's inauguration (ceremony to mark the commencement of a new 4 - year presidential term).


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Nuclear Fears and Sanctions 2002-13:

• In 2002 an Iranian opposition group revealed that Iran was developing nuclear facilities including a uranium enrichment plant.

• In pursuance of this, several sanctions were imposed by the United Nations (UN), the US and the European Union (EU) against Iran.

• US President George Bush denounced Iran as part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea.

• This caused Iran's currency to lose two-thirds of its value in two years.

Closer ties and a nuclear deal2013-

16:

• In September 2013, Iran's new moderate President Hassan Rouhani took office.

• In 2015, after a flurry of diplomatic activity, Iran agreed on a long-term deal on its nuclear programme- Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with a group of world powers known as the P5+1 -the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.

• Under the accord, Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors in return for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.

US-Iran Tensions in current times 2018

onwards

•Policy of maximum pressure: In May 2018, the US abandoned the nuclear deal and reinstated economic sanctions against Iran.

•Policy of strategic patience: Iran acted with restraint, with thinking that by abiding by the nuclear deal it could get economic favour from the EU. However, this policy failed to work for Iran and thereby it began a counter-pressure campaign.

•In June 2019, Iranian forces shot down a US military drone over the Strait of Hormuz and then began the cycle of response and escalation between the two countries.

•In early 2020 USA killed a top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani via a drone strike


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Challenges and Criticism

1. President Hassan Rouhani, who must step down next year after serving

two terms, will have no time to carry out the currency reform, which

they say could cause confusion in the currency markets.

2. Reforms will be troublesome at a time when the government is

struggling with US sanctions and the economic consequences of Covid-

19. Iran’s jobless figure — already at 17.9 per cent for youth

unemployment — is expected to worsen as a result of the pandemic.

3. The government has stepped up its privatization scheme through the

capital market to generate new income as tax revenues are expected to

drop significantly.

4. Tehran has already been deprived of most of its petrodollars because of

the sanctions and now is even less able to rely on crude oil exports

because of the plunge in global demand and prices.

5. The change of the currency may create unnecessary fluctuations in the

economic and social structures and will even fuel the inflation

6. The initial positive psychological impact of currency redenomination

will be short-lived, and could be quickly reversed, if high inflation

persists.

Way Forward

To ensure a smooth transition process and to prevent a rebound that would

force another redenomination and massive implementation costs a decade

down the line, Iran’s government and parliament need to reach a united

vision.

• They need to aim for macroeconomic stability through local reforms on

the national scale and weather the sanctions storm by working with

foreign partners to keep the nuclear deal alive and buoy trade.


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• Only after achieving those things can they take four zeros off the rial

and rebuild public trust in a reinvented national currency.

Other Recent Examples of redenomination

1. In 2005, Turkey took six zeros off its currency and redenominated

the lira in response to an inflation rate of higher than 50 percent.

The move was relatively successful because it was implemented in

tandem with wider reforms. But Turkey’s 2018 currency crisis

proved immensely challenging and again decreased confidence in

the lira mostly due to a problematic banking system.

2. Zimbabwe slashed 12 zeros off its currency at the height of an

economic crisis in 2009. Dealing with an astronomical inflation rate

that was estimated at 89.7 sextillion percent by the Cato Institute

meant that the move was an absolute failure. Zimbabwe was forced

to ditch its currency altogether in 2009 and opt for the U.S. dollar,

South African rand, and a basket of other currencies.

3. Venezuela cut five zeros off its national currency August 2018 in a

move socialist President Nicolás Maduro said would turn the

faltering economy around. It came as little surprise that it did

nothing to curb the country’s hyperinflation that has reached 10

million percent in 2019.


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General Studies-3

Economy

Changing Labour and Tax Laws

Introduction

The information technology industry has approached the central government ministries to flesh out changes to taxation and labour laws in line with the work-from-home model. While the coronavirus pandemic forced offices to migrate to WFH, many are expected to continue this even once a solution for the current health crisis emerges. At least 4.3 million IT workers or half the sector’s workforce would WFH permanently, according to estimates.

What changes is the IT industry expecting?

• IT industry has moved nearly 85-90% of its workforce to deliver services from home. The government categorised the industry as essential services and permitted exemptions similar to those granted to units in SEZs and STPIs by the department of telecom.

• India’s IT sector is seeking revisions in the country’s taxation and labour laws as over in the $191 billion industry could begin to deliver services remotely as part of the changes being wrought by the ongoing pandemic.

• The industry has also requested the government to make permanent several recent concessions extended until July, including relaxation of telecom regulations that allow back-office companies to work from home and move equipment out from designated special economic zones to facilitate remote working.

• Some of the labour laws may not cater to a work-from-home environment, so the industries need to start looking through a fresh lens


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• Officials are of the view that labour laws should be amended in a way to safeguard employees while also providing flexibility to employers.

• India’s IT industry contributes 8% to the country’s gross domestic product and has a 46% share in the country’s services exports.

• As working from home catches up, people could work for two or even three companies at the same time. So, the government will need to let employers and workers choose NPS (National Pension Scheme) instead of EPFO as a social security scheme, as in NPS a worker can be an employee today and a gig worker tomorrow.

• Income tax provisions also need to be reviewed as expenses incurred by employers to enable work from home will need to be treated as business expenses and not as benefits in the hands of the worker, including broadband costs or office furniture.

• Current labour laws will need to be revisited to provide industry the flexibility to enable working hours and shift timings. Moreover, the role of employer with respect to safety and health measures at the workplace will require a rethink as the home becomes the new workplace.

What have states done in this regard?

Several States have recently made significant changes in labour laws in order to deal with the economic challenges posed by COVID-19.

• While most states have only increased working hours for factory workers, states such as Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have undertaken wider changes aiming at attracting investment, easing compliance and speeding up the process of granting approvals and licences.

• Since labour welfare falls within the concurrent list of the Constitution, both Central and State Governments can make laws on the subject. Any amendment to a Central statute by a State also requires the assent of the President, unless a change is made by a State exercising its existing powers within the statute itself.

• Most states have followed the latter approach by introducing temporary relaxations under key labour statutes. Uttar Pradesh


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appears to have passed an ordinance providing a carte blanche exemption to all factories and commercial establishments from the application of almost all labour laws for a period of 3 years, barring provisions relating to the protection of women and children.

• While the legality of some of these changes may ultimately be subject to judicial scrutiny.

• The Government should look at bringing meaningful reforms to address the concerns of the industry while also safeguarding workers’ rights by simplifying laws, easing compliance, expediting approvals, and ensuring consistency across States in the interpretation and application of labour laws and procedure.

Issues faced by labourers and concerns related to labour laws:

• If all labour laws are removed, most employment will effectively turn informal and bring down the wage rate sharply. And there is no way for any worker to even seek grievance redressal.

• Laws to protect basic human rights covering migrant workers, minimum wages, maternity benefits, gratuity, etc. have been suspended.

• Through the public health crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic, workers are being abandoned by their employers and, above all, by the state.

• The workers’ right to go home was curbed using the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

• Adequate provisions were not made available for their food, shelter or medical relief.

• Wage payments were not ensured, and the state’s cash and food relief did not cover most workers.

• When the centre issued orders permitting their return to their home States, state governments responded by delaying travel facilities for the workers to ensure uninterrupted supply of labour for employers.

• Employers now want labour laws to be relaxed.

• The Uttar Pradesh government has issued an ordinance keeping in abeyance almost all labour statutes including laws on maternity


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benefits and gratuity; the Factories Act, 1948; the Minimum Wages Act, 1948; the Industrial Establishments (Standing Orders) Act, 1946; and the Trade Unions Act, 1926.

• Several States have exempted industries from complying with various provisions of laws.

• The Confederation of Indian Industry has suggested 12-hour work shifts and that governments issue directions to make workers join duty failing which the workers would face penal actions.


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PM CARES FUND

Introduction

On March 28, the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency

Situations Fund, or the PM-CARES Fund, was set up to tackle distress situations

such as that posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In one-and- a-half months, the

fund has raked in thousands of crores worth of donations including unlimited tax-

free contributions from major corporates.

Who may contribute to the fund?

1. The fund receives voluntary contributions from individuals and

organisations and does not get any budgetary support.

2. Donations have been made tax-exempt, and can be counted against a

company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) obligations.

3. It is also exempt from the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, and

accepts foreign contributions, although the Centre has previously refused

foreign aid to deal with disasters such as the Kerala floods.

4. The Prime Minister chairs the fund in his official capacity, and can nominate

three eminent persons in relevant fields to the Board of Trustees. The

Ministers of Defence, Home Affairs and Finance are ex-officio Trustees of

the Fund.

Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund –

1. The Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) was set up in January

1948, originally to accept public contributions for the assistance of Partition

refugees.

2. It is now used to provide immediate relief to the families of those killed in

natural calamities and the victims of major accidents and riots and support

medical expenses for acid attack victims and others.

3. The PMNRF was initially managed by a committee which included the

Prime Minister and his deputy, the Finance Minister, the Congress


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President, a representative of the Tata Trustees and an industry

representative.

4. However, in 1985, the committee entrusted the entire management of the

fund to the Prime Minister, who currently has sole discretion for fund

disbursal. A joint secretary in the PMO administers the fund on an honorary

basis.

Concerns

• It is not clear whether the fund comes under the ambit of the RTI Act or

oversight by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, although

independent auditors will audit the fund.

• The PM CARES web page is opaque regarding the amount of money

collected, names of donors, the expenditure of the fund so far, or names of

beneficiaries.

• The PMNRF provides annual donation and expenditure information without

any detailed break-up. The PM CARES Fund’s trust deed is not available for

public scrutiny.

• The decision to allow uncapped corporate donations to the fund to count

as CSR expenditure — a facility not provided to PMNRF or the CM’s Relief

Funds — goes against previous guidelines stating that CSR should not be

used to fund government schemes.

• A government panel had previously advised against allowing CSR

contributions to the PMNRF on the grounds that the double benefit of tax

exemption would be a “regressive incentive”.


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SARFAESI ACT

Introduction

• The Supreme Court recently held that the provisions of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI Act) will be applicable to cooperative banks, and not just commercial banks. This has been whole-heartedly welcomed by co-operative banks.

What is SARFAESI Act?

• The SARFAESI Act was passed on December 17, 2002, in order to lay down processes to help Indian lenders recover their dues quickly.

• The SARFAESI Act essentially empowers banks and other financial institutions to directly auction residential or commercial properties that have been pledged with them to recover loans from borrowers.

• Before this Act took effect, financial institutions had to take recourse to civil suits in the courts to recover their dues, which is a lengthy and time-consuming process.


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Provisions

• As per the SARFAESI Act, if a borrower defaults on a loan financed by a bank against collateral, then the bank gets sweeping powers to recover its dues from the borrower.

• After giving a notice period of 60 days, the lender can take possession of the pledged assets of the borrower, take over the management of such assets, appoint any person to manage them or ask debtors of the borrower to pay their dues too, with respect to the asset.

• This recovery procedure saves banks and financial institutions a lot of time which otherwise would be long drawn out due to the intervention of courts.

• One of the major drawbacks of the Act is that it is not applicable to unsecured creditors. This and other drawbacks in the recovery mechanisms were plugged in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.


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• ARCs or Asset Reconstruction Companies which buy out distressed assets are the other alternative that banks use to offload doubtful debt, to ensure more focussed and efficient resolution, say experts.

Significance of the move • Co-operative banks initially were not covered under the definition of banks

for which the SARFAESI Act was applicable. On May 5, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of co-operative banks invoking the SARFAESI Act.

• This move helps co-operative banks avoid inordinate delays in the recovery of their bad loans due to the involvement of civil courts and co-operative tribunals.

• The Indian banking system has 1,544 urban co-operative banks (UCBs) and 96,248 rural co-operative banks, with substantial deposits from retail investors.

• Considering their size, for the smooth functioning of these co-operative banks, speedy recovery of defaulting loans is critical.

• Allowing co-op banks recourse to the SARFAESI Act can expedite the process of liquidation or resolution.


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Special Liquidity Facility for MFs

Introduction

As Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund announced it was winding up six debt funds,

there was fear in the market that other mutual fund houses might face similar

challenges and liquidity shortages too.

• This fear stemmed from worried investors rushing to withdraw their

savings parked in other debt funds that might prompt them to sell bonds

into an illiquid market.

• Market participants hoped the Reserve Bank of India would step in to stem

the tide, taking a leaf out its own playbook from the 2008 financial crisis to

soothe investor angst. The Special Liquidity Facility that the RBI has

announced is in response to this.

What is ‘Special Liquidity Facility for MFs’? • The SLF-MF is a two-week window in which the RBI will lend money to

banks at the repo rate for 90 days. The funds that banks borrow under this

window can be used only for meeting the liquidity needs of mutual funds.

• This could be either through outright purchase of certain debt instruments

held by them, or lending to them using their bonds as collateral. The debt

instruments so acquired can only be investment-grade corporate bonds,

commercial papers, debentures and certificate of deposit.

Amount of Special Liquidity Facility for MFs

• The total amount that the RBI promised to lend through the SLF-MF is

₹50,000 crore, but this is subject to change in the future.

• The RBI has allowed banks to categorise the money borrowed using this

facility as part of their held-to-maturity portfolio.

• Loans by banks to mutual funds under this facility would also not be

considered as part of their capital market exposure and adjusted non-bank

food credit. The latter is used to calculate banks’ achievement of priority

lending targets.


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Need for Special Liquidity Facility for MFs When Franklin Templeton wound up its six schemes, there was a fear that this

could spook investors and turn into a financial contagion.

• Through this special liquidity facility, the RBI has sent a signal to bond

markets that it is willing to act as buyer of last resort for corporate bonds,

although indirectly.

• The RBI has shown its intent to backstop any liquidity risk that mutual funds

might face. However, it has allowed this facility only for investment-grade

bonds and not other bonds held by funds. It has also preferred to do it

through banks rather than directly step in.

• The move did help reduce redemption pressures on credit funds in the past

week. Banks, however, have not shown a lot of enthusiasm to use this

special window.

Significance of Special Liquidity Facility for MFs

• As the bank deposit and small savings scheme returns have been falling

lately, many individual investors have parked their savings in debt funds.

There are all kinds of debt funds, and the ones with higher risk earn a

higher return.

• Tax efficiency of debt funds has also been a draw. Investors who have

moved from bank deposits to debt mutual funds that take on credit risk

have witnessed multiple shocks over the past few years. The most recent

one is the Franklin Templeton MF winding up six funds.

• In times of uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic, where many people

are trying to keep their savings safe, the SLF-MF is a confidence-inspiring

measure for the mutual fund industry and for bond markets. It shows that

RBI is ready to do “whatever it takes” to support the financial sector in its

hour of need.

Conclusion

The RBI is willing to step in to resolve systemic issues, but draws the line at taking

risks off market players’ books.


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Ways And Means Advances

Context: The Reserve Bank of India has raised the limit for short term credit

that the government can borrow from the central bank.

The limits for this credit facility, known as ‘Ways and Means Advances’, has been

raised sharply to Rs 1.2 lakh crore for the first half of 2020-21.

Background:

The WMA scheme for the Central Government was introduced on April 1, 1997,

after putting an end to the four-decade old system of adhoc (temporary) Treasury

Bills to finance the Central Government deficit.

What are Ways and Means Advances?

• They are temporary loan facilities provided by RBI to the government to

enable it to meet temporary mismatches between revenue and

expenditure.

• The government makes an interest payment to the central bank when it

borrows money.

• The rate of interest is the same as the repo rate, while the tenure is three

months.

• The limits for WMA are mutually decided by the RBI and the Government of

India.

• When the WMA limit is crossed the government takes recourse to

overdrafts, which are not allowed beyond 10 consecutive working days.

• The interest rate on overdrafts would be 2 percent more than the repo

rate.


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Types of WMA:

There are two types of Ways and Means Advances — normal and special.

• Special WMA or Special Drawing Facility is provided against the collateral of

the government securities held by the state. After the state has exhausted

the limit of SDF, it gets normal WMA. The interest rate for SDF is one

percentage point less than the repo rate.

• The number of loans under normal WMA is based on a three-year average

of actual revenue and capital expenditure of the state.

Significance of this move:

The increased limit comes at a time when government expenditure is expected to

rise as it battles the fallout of a spreading Coronavirus. The availability of these

funds will government some room to undertake short term expenditure over and

above its long term market borrowings.


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ENERGY SECTOR AND ENERGY SAVING IN INDIA

The Union Ministry of Power has released a Report on “Impact of energy

efficiency measures for the year 2018-19”

About the report

• This report was prepared by an Expert agency PWC Ltd, who was engaged

by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).

• The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance and impact of all

the key energy efficiency programmes in India, in terms of total energy

saved and the related reduction in CO2 emissions.

Data on energy savings

• With our energy efficiency initiatives, we have already reduced the energy

intensity of our economy by 20% compared to 2005 levels. This includes

both the Supply Side and Demand Side sectors of the economy.

• The implementation of various energy efficiency schemes has led to total

electricity savings to the tune of 113.16 Billion Units in 2018-19, which is

9.39% of the net electricity consumption.

• Energy savings (electrical + thermal), achieved in the energy-consuming

sectors is to the tune of 16.54 Mtoe, which is 2.84% of the net total energy

consumption in 2018-19.

• Overall, this has translated into savings worth INR 89,122 crores against last

year’s savings of INR 53,627 crore.

• These efforts have also contributed to reducing 151.74 Million Tonnes of

CO2 emissions, whereas last year this number was 108 MTCO2.

(Note: Mtoe= million Tonne of Oil Equivalent)

What led to this significant savings?

The study has identified the following major programmes, viz. Perform, Achieve

and Trade Scheme, Standards &Labelling Programme, UJALA Programme,

Municipal Demand Side Management Programme, etc.


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There is huge capacity still for bringing efficiencies especially in MSME sector and

a Housing sector that has now been taken up.

Government Schemes to promote energy savings in India

1) PAT Scheme

Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme is a flagship programme of the Bureau

of Energy Efficiency under the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency

(NMEEE).

NMEEE is one of the eight national missions under the National Action Plan on

Climate Change (NAPCC) launched in the year 2008.

• The scheme aims to reduce specific energy consumption in energy-

intensive industries through certification of excess energy saving which can

be traded.

• It refers to the calculation of Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) in the

baseline year and projected SEC in the target year covering different forms

of net energy going into the boundary of the designated consumers’ plant

and the products leaving it over a particular cycle.

Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency is an agency under the Ministry of Power

created in March 2002 under the provisions of the nation’s 2001 Energy

Conservation Act.

• Its function is to develop programs which will increase the conservation

and efficient use of energy in India.

• The mission of BEE is to “institutionalize” energy efficiency services,

enable delivery mechanisms in the country and provide leadership to

energy efficiency in all sectors of the country.


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• Those eight Energy Intensive Sectors included are Chlor-alkali, Pulp &

Paper, Textile, Aluminum, and Thermal Power plants, Fertilizer, Iron & Steel

and Cement.

2) Standards & Labeling Programme

It is one of the major thrust areas of BEE.

• A key objective of this scheme is to provide the consumer with an informed

choice about the energy-saving and thereby the cost-saving potential of the

relevant marketed product.

• The scheme targets display of energy performance labels on high energy

end-use equipment & appliances and lay down minimum energy

performance standards.

3) UJALA Scheme

• Launched in 2015, the Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA), in a

short span of time, has emerged as the world’s largest domestic lighting

programme.

• The main objective is to promote efficient lighting, enhance awareness on

using efficient equipment which reduces electricity bills and helps preserve

the environment.

• The Electricity Distribution Company and Energy Efficiency Services Limited

(EESL) a public sector body of the Ministry of Power is implementing the

programme.


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Agriculture

Agricultural Reforms 2020

Introduction

The third tranche of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan focused on improving the infrastructure gaps and governance issues plaguing the farm sector. It had 11 major points, of which eight are related to miscellaneous items like financing farmgate infrastructure. The other three Agricultural Reforms relate to:

1. Amending the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) of 1955 2. Bringing a Central legislation to allow farmers to sell their produce to

anyone, outside the APMC mandi yard, and enable barrier-free inter-state trade

3. Creating a legal framework for contract farming

Amending the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) of 1955

The Central government will deregulate the sale of six types of agricultural produce, including cereals, edible oils, oilseeds, pulses, onions and potatoes.

History of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955:

1. The ECA has its roots in the Defence of India Rules of 1943 when India was plagued by famines and facing the effects of World War II.

2. It was relevant in the mid-1960s due scarcity of food grains caused by back-to-back droughts.

3. India needed a legislation to tackle illegal stockpiling as it was dependent on PL480 imports from the USA.

In present times, India is the largest exporter of rice in the world and the second-largest producer of both wheat and rice. It’s self-sufficient with huge buffer stocks and doesn’t require a law to ensure availability of food grains.


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Shortcomings/lacunas of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955:

1. The Economic survey (2019-20) describes the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) as anachronistic and scarcity-era legislation irrelevant today.

2. It discourages private investment in storage facilities as the ECA can put stock limits on any trader, processor or exporter.

3. Frequent and unpredictable imposition of blanket stock limits distorts

• movement up the agricultural value chain

• development of a national market for agricultural commodities

4. It has remained unsuccessful in controlling the volatility of the prices of Dal, Sugar and Onions.

5. ECA enables rent seeking and harassment by overzealous bureaucracy. 6. Poor remuneration for farmers when prices plummet immediately

after harvesting due to lack of storage facilities. 7. It also leads to inflation in the lean season caused by distress selling due to

lack of warehousing and storing facilities.

Impact of Changes:

1. Private Investment: Removal of stock limits will encourage private sector investment in agricultural value chain.

2. Creation of warehouses and post- harvest agricultural infrastructure (processors, mills and cold chain storage).

3. Better remuneration: Prevent distress selling by the farmers due to lack of warehouses.

4. Inflation control: Lack of storage facilities in the lean season leads to flaring up of prices for the consumers.

5. Wastage: Prevent wastage of agri-produce that happens due to lack of storage facilities.

6. Prevent harassment by the bureaucracy and cut down red tapismin farm sector.


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7. Balance of Payment: Promote exports leading to more forex earnings that would improve the Balance of Trade.

Challenges ahead

1. The provision of re-imposition of stocking limits under the ECA if the prices go up.

2. The law provided deterrence to black marketing and hoarding. 3. The risk of future inflationary food price spikes in case of total deregulation.

This amendment can help both farmers and consumers by bringing in price stability and preventing wastage of agri-produce.

Central legislation on Agri-Marketing

It allows farmers to sell outside the APMC yards and enables barrier-free inter-state trade.

Advantages of the proposed law:

1. Greater competition amongst buyers by breaking the monopoly of APMC markets

2. Creation of a unified national market and connecting farmers to end users. 3. Lower the mandi fee and the commission for arhatiyasor intermediaries. 4. Reduce multiple cessesimposed on APMC markets by state governments 5. Better returns: The proposed law will open more choices for the farmers

and help them in getting better prices. 6. Better spatial integration of prices:By facilitating the movement of agri-

goods and removing barriers in inter-state trade 7. Remove regional distortions: Farmers of regions with surplus produce will

get better prices and consumers of regions with shortages, lower prices.


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Contract farming law

Third, the Contract farming law plans to bring in legal framework to provide more certainty and choice for farmers.

Advantages of the law:

1. Provide assurance of a price to the farmers before sowing. 2. Cropping decisions will be based on forward prices instead of the last year’s

prices. 3. Lower NPAs: Minimize market risks of the farmers leading to less loan

defaults and consequently lower NPAs 4. Promote the idea of Farmer producer organizations’ (FPOs) for collective

bargaining.

Challenges and Way forward:

• Asymmetric position: Big processors and organized retailers will have an upper hand dealing with individual farmers.

• Promote farmer producer organizations (FPOs) to improve the bargaining power vis-à-vis large buyers.

• FPOs will help ensure uniform quality and lower transaction costs.

• Most of the FPOs get loans at high rates as they depend on microfinance institutions.

• Role of NABARD: It can ensure that all FPOs get their working capital at cheap interest rates.

These governance reforms can go a long way in building efficient value chains and ensuring better returns for farmers.


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Science & Technology

Virtual Reality: On Telemedicine

Introduction

Technology plays a crucial role in fight against COVID-19. The pandemic has contributed to the understanding of various ways in which available technologies can be put to better use and presented people with multiple opportunities to harness these devices, techniques and methods to get on with life in the time of lockdown. Among the primary uses is telemedicine that can help reach patients where access to medical care is difficult.

What is Telemedicine?

• World Health Organization (WHO) has defined telemedicine as, “the delivery of healthcare services, where distance is a critical factor, by all healthcare professionals using information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuing education of healthcare providers, all in the interests of advancing the health of individuals and their communities.”

• Initial use of telemedicine took place in early 20thcentury when ECG data was transmitted over phone.

• Telemedicine use is increasing in modern times due to wide use of wireless broadband technology, mobile phones and internet.

Telemedicine has advantages like:

✓ Reduced travel expenses of patients ✓ Time saving ✓ Easy access to specialized doctors ✓ Decreases the load of missed appointments and cancellations for

healthcare providers


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✓ Increasing patient load and revenue for hospitals ✓ Improving follow up and health outcome ✓ Increased reach to inaccessible areas

Scope of Telemedicine in India

Telemedicine services in the country come under the combined jurisdiction of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and the Department of Information Technology.

• Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) through its Department of Space (DoS) had initiated a Nationwide Telemedicine (TM) programin 2001.

• It provided TM systems hardware, software, communication equipment

• satellite bandwidth for 384 Hospitals with 60 specialty hospitals;

• connected to 306 remote/rural/district/medical college hospitals.

• Eighteen (18) Mobile Telemedicine units were also enabled for Satellite connectivity.

• ISRO first linked Chennai’s Apollo Hospital with the Apollo Rural Hospital at Aragonda village in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.

• MoHFW has set up a National Telemedicine Portalfor implementing a green field project on e-health establishing a National Medical College Network (NMCN).

• Under (NMCN) scheme, 50 Govt. Medical Colleges are being inter-linked with the purpose of tele-education, e-Learning and online medical consultation by utilizing the connectivity provided by National Knowledge Network (NKN).Under this initiative a virtual layer of specialty/super specialty doctors from these medical colleges is created for providing online medical consultation facility to citizens similar to OPD facility through a web/ portal.

• National Telemedicine Network (NTN) has been envisaged to provide Telemedicine Services to the remote areas by upgrading existing Government Healthcare Facilities in States. Telemedicine nodes across India are being created inter connecting these health facilities.


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• MoHFW has developed a set of Electronic Health Records (EHR) standards in 2013and revised in 2016, to ensure safe data transmission during telemedicine practices.

• MoHFW proposed to set up National e-health authority (NeHA) in 2015, with a vision of achieving high quality health services for all Indians through the cost-effective and secure use of ICTs in health and health-related fields.

• National Rural AYUSH Telemedicine Network aims to promote the benefit of traditional methods of healing to a larger population through telemedicine.

• MoHFW & Department of Space (DoS) jointly have sat up Satellite communication based Telemedicine nodes at various unreachable geographical locations including Chardhams and other pilgrimage centres like Amarnath cave (J&K), Ayappa temple (Kerala).Dwarkadheesh Temple (Gujarat), Kashi Vishwanath Temple,(UP) and Vidhyanchal Devi Temple (UP) to provide health awareness, screening of non-communicable disease (NCD) and specialty consultation to the devotees visiting these places.


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How India is using technology in fight against COVID-19?

Due to nationwide lockdown, people are seeking new solutions to routine tasks, be it food-delivery, medical consultations or education.

• The World Health Organization mentioned telemedicine among essential services in “strengthening the Health Systems Response to COVID-19” policy.

• Tele health can directly influence flattening the curve of demand on health systems worldwide, slowing transmission and spreading incidence over a longer time period.

• Startups like Practo, Portea, and Lybate, are facilitating remote medical checkups keeping in mind the practice of ‘Social Distancing’.

• Diabetes care and management app BeatO is trying to emulate the real-life experience by giving patients the option of adding their regular doctor to the platform.

• Meddo Health, which lists over 200 doctors across 16 specialties, has opened up its platform to doctors free-of-cost to cover other chronic ailments as well apart from Corona virus.

• Maker’s Asylum, a community hacker space in Mumbai and New Delhi, has designed face shields for healthcare workers. The M-19 shield can be made in just about three minutes by anyone following the guidelines of the prototype.

• The Indian government, on April 6, launched the Aarogya Setu app for contact-tracing. It is similar to Singapore’s Trace Together.

• Aerial surveillance or drones helps track large gatherings, minimizing physical contact, and monitoring narrow by lanes where police vehicles cannot enter. They can also be used to spray disinfectants in public spaces and residential colonies.

• Tamil Nadu has hired Garuda, a Chennai-based start-up, for sanitization of hospitals etc through drones.


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What are the government guidelines governing telemedicine?

A set of guidelines for telemedicine or remote delivery of medical services have been issued in March,2020 by the Ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW), in collaboration with NITI Aayog and Board of Governors (BoG), Medical Council of India (MCI).

• Doctors can write prescriptions based on telephonic, textual or video conversations, chat, images, messaging, emails, fax and others. This will allow users to consult certified medical practitioners without going out of the house and reduce the risk of transmission even further.

• Only medical practitioners, registered under the IMC (Indian Medical Council) Act 1956, are entitled to provide telemedicine consultation.

• The registered medical practitioners (RMP) are allowed to use text, video or audio-enabled solutions for consultations.

• All registered medical practitioners (RMP) will have to complete a mandatory course within three years of the release of the guidelines.

• Telemedicine consultations should not be anonymous, both patient and doctor should know each other’s identity.

• The government has also imposed certain restrictions on the type of medications that can be prescribed based on the type of consultations. Drugs listed under Schedule X of Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules cannot be prescribed through telemedicine.


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India only has one government doctor for every 1,139 people, whereas the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a ratio of 1:1,000. The shortage of doctors is limiting face-to-face consultations among patients. Secondly, India also has a shortage of hospital beds, which makes hospitalization tricky.

• Telemedicine will reduce the time of consultations and improve the quality of healthcare services in urban as well as rural areas, removing many of infrastructural challenges. Telemedicine is a sector that bridges the healthcare gap between rural India and urban India. In rural India, where the access to medical facilities, specialists opinion and advance healthcare amenities are limited, telemedicine acts as a healthcare provider bringing access to the specialist doctors to these areas.

• India is one of the top 10 countries in the telemedicine market in the world. The early adoption of a regulatory framework will help the segment grow rapidly. India has seen considerable growth in the telemedicine sector but the growth was not rapid due to the lack of proper guidelines and regulations.

• Though the Government is now starting to take a keen interest in developing telemedicine practices resulting in a slow but steady rise in its utilization in public health.


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Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

The modern era of global connectivity and high levels of mobile usage in India present significant opportunities for access to AI technology focused healthcare within the following areas –

• AI in assistance to Physicians – AI can relieve highly-skilled medical professionals from routine activities, freeing up doctors to concentrate on the higher-value cognitive application of medical practice, truly connect with patients and positively impact cases of medical errors and misdiagnosis.

• AI in Diagnostics – One of the key healthcare challenges in India is acute shortage of radiologists. AI based diagnosis can be especially helpful for radiology, pathology, skin diseases, and ophthalmology.

• AI for Optimising Treatment Plans – AI can also be used for assisting doctors and patients to choose an optimal treatment protocol. Machine Learning can be used to mine not only doctor’s notes and patient’s lab reports, but also link to the extant medical literature to provide optimal treatment options.

• AI for Monitoring/Ensuring Compliance – The potential for AI application in remote monitoring has enhanced manifolds via the use of wearables. These can be used for monitoring various aspects such as movements, physiological parameters, temperature and alerts that can be communicated to healthcare professionals.

• AI in the COVID-19 Epidemic – The COVID-19 epidemic highlights the need for an AI based epidemic monitoring system that can model and predict outbreaks and help optimise scarce resources. AI can help fight the virus via Machine Learning-based applications including population screening, notifications of when to seek medical help and tracking how infection spreads across swathes of the population.

Challenges and Controversies –

• Healthcare industry issues – The challenges of migrating to an AI-technology based healthcare infrastructure are numerous as medical


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professionals attempt to transition to new ways of working and adopt new systems and processes. Traditional healthcare personnel may resist new innovations, doctors may not trust AI systems, patients may question AI-based decision making and medical staff could view the changes as disenfranchising them from their key roles and decision-making powers.

• Technology-related issues – AI systems and the underlying algorithms are reliant on the quality of data to enable the Machine Learning elements to perform the necessary processing and decision making. Each state has its own system and working process. Initiatives are needed at the state and national government levels to ensure shared data standards, data security and exchange processes.

• Socio-cultural issues in technology implementation – Studies indicate that decisions with respect to technological development and adoption are made to take account of cultural context and existing social conditions. Solutions need to take account of the Indian context where pockets of the population are socially and educationally challenged, culturally marginalised and economically disadvantaged. Decision makers need to ensure that public sector healthcare organisations benefit from AI technology rather than default to the private sector reaping the rewards for investment.

• Regulatory and ethical issues – There are several ethical and regulatory challenges in implementation of AI in healthcare in India. Data security and privacy is especially important with increasing use of wearables which can potentially cause identity theft through hacking of devices and data. The regulators need to provide clear and concise agreement and privacy policies to enhance widespread and safe adoption of these devices.

What should be done?

• To enhance the adoption of technology by healthcare providers, AI and its application should be incorporated within the curriculum for medical and paramedical training.

• Technology should be recognised as socio-culturally embedded; hence, the technology design and implementation should take into account cultural practices and address the gender divide in India.


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• Ethical guidelines regarding security and privacy of data should be protected. The data should be strictly used for clinical purposes only.

• The AI system must be explainable and auditable. All decisions made in the context of diagnosis or recommendations can impact on human lives. The underlying algorithms must be transparent and explainable to ensure ease of audit.

• AI systems should not exhibit bias. The algorithms developed for the AI system must not exhibit racial, gender or Pin code-based decision making.

• AI healthcare systems must conform to human values and ethics. • Adoption of AI based healthcare must be benefits-driven. The migration

towards greater levels of technology must ensure that changes are geared to the benefits of patients and the overall healthcare of Indian people.

• Pilot initiatives should be developed within key states to trial the impact that AI systems could have on existing healthcare systems and infrastructure. Lessons should be learned from these initiatives before, wider rollout at a national level.


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NANO MISSION

The Nano Mission, is an umbrella programme for capacity building which

envisages the overall development of this field of research in the country and to

tap some of its applied potential for nation’s development. In brief, the objectives

of the Nano-Mission are:

Basic Research Promotion – Funding of basic research by individual scientists

and/or groups of scientists and creation of centres of excellence for pursuing

studies leading to fundamental understanding of matter that enables control and

manipulation at the nanoscale.

Infrastructure Development for Nano Science & Technology Research –

Investigations on the nano scale require expensive equipments like Optical

Tweezer, Nano Indentor, Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Atomic Force

Microscope (AFM), Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM), Matrix Assisted Laser

Desorption Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer (MALDI TOF MS), Microarray

Spotter & Scanner etc. For optimal use of expensive and sophisticated facilities, it

is proposed to establish a chain of shared facilities across the country.

Nano Applications and Technology Development Programmes

• To catalyze Applications and Technology Development Programmes leading

to products and devices, the Mission proposes to promote application-

oriented R&D Projects, estabsish Nano Applications and Technology

Development Centres, Nano-Technology Business Incubators etc.

• Special effort will be made to involve the industrial sector into

nanotechnology R&D directly or through Public Private Partnership (PPP)

ventures.

Human Resource Development – The Mission shall focus on providing effective

education and training to researchers and professionals in diversified fields so

that a genuine interdisciplinary culture for nanoscale science, engineering and

technology can emerge. It is planned to launch M.Sc./M.Tech. programmes,


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create national and overseas post-doctoral fellowships, chairs in universities,

etc.

International Collaborations – Apart from exploratory visits of scientists,

organization of joint workshops and conferences and joint research projects, it is

also planned to facilitate access to sophisticated research facilities abroad,

establish joint centres of excellence and forge academia-industry partnerships at

the international level wherever required and desirable.

Organizational Structure

The Nano Mission is a Mission-Mode programme within DST.

• At the apex level, it is steered by a Nano Mission Council (NMC).

• The technical programmes of the Nano Mission are also being guided by

two advisory groups, viz. the Nano Science Advisory Group (NSAG) and

the Nano Applications and Technology Advisory Group (NATAG).


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Environment

Olive Ridley Turtles

The Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), also known as the Pacific

ridley sea turtle, is a medium-sized species of sea turtle found in warm and

tropical waters, primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

• In the Indian Ocean, the majority of olive ridleys nest in two or three large

groups at Rushikulya rookery near Gahirmatha in Odisha.

• The coast of Odisha in India is the largest mass nesting site for the olive

ridley, followed by the coasts of Mexico and Costa Rica.

• The species is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List, Appendix 1 in CITES,

and Schedule 1 in Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Mass nesting

They are best known for their behaviour of synchronized nesting in mass

numbers, termed Arribadas.


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• Interestingly, females return to the very same beach from where they first

hatched, to lay their eggs.

• They lay their eggs in conical nests about one and a half feet deep which

they laboriously dig with their hind flippers.

• They hatch in 45 to 60 days, depending on the temperature of the sand and

atmosphere during the incubation period.


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Disaster Management

Vizag gas leak

Context:

• A gas leak, has claimed at least 11 lives and affected thousands of residents in five villages in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

• The source of the leak was a styrene plant owned by South Korean electronics giant LG, located at RRV Puram near Gopalapatnam, about 15 kms from the coast city.

• Initial reports indicate that several people from the surrounding villages fell unconscious on the roads. While six died due to prolonged exposure to the gas, another two died while trying to escape from the leak.

Bhopal gas tragedy:

• The government’s failure in protecting the legal rights of the gas victims is evident from the fact that close to 11 years after the disaster the registration of claimants is far from complete.

• According to official figures in all 5,97,306 claims have been registered with the directorate of claims, Madhya Pradesh government.

• The single largest omission is the non registration of claims of over 1,50,000 gas affected persons who were less than 18 years age at the time of registration of claims.

• Such a situation has been brought about primarily due to the arbitrary decision of the government officials in charge of claim registration to disallow persons under 18 to register their claims.

• This illegal practice was carried out under the erroneous notion that since minors cannot be owners of property, they cannot be entitled to compensation amounts.

What is styrene?


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• It is a flammable liquid that is used in the manufacturing of polystyrene plastics, fiberglass, rubber, and latex.

• According to Tox Town, a website run by the US National Library of Medicine, styrene is also found in vehicle exhaust, cigarette smoke, and in natural foods like fruits and vegetables.

What happens when exposed to styrene?

• As per the US-based Environment Protection Agency (EPA), short-term exposure to the substance can result in respiratory problems, irritation in the eyes, irritation in the mucous membrane, and gastrointestinal issues.

• And long-term exposure could drastically affect the central nervous system and lead to other related problems like peripheral neuropathy. It could also lead to cancer and depression in some cases.

• However, EPA notes that there is no sufficient evidence despite several epidemiology studies indicating there may be an association between styrene exposure and an increased risk of leukemia and lymphoma.

What are the symptoms?

• Symptoms include headache, hearing loss, fatigue, weakness, difficulty in concentrating etc.

• Animal studies, according to the EPA, have reported effects on the CNS, liver, kidney, and eye and nasal irritation from inhalation exposure to styrene.

What caused the leak?

• A statement from LG Polymers said that stagnation and changes in temperature inside the storage tank could have resulted in auto polymerization and could have caused vapourisation.


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Neutralising Styrene gas to take more time:

• The high-powered committee will inquire into the causes of the leakage, including possible lapses in the plant’s adherence to safety protocols;

• It will study the long-term effects of the gas leakage on the surrounding villages, if any and recommend action to be taken against the company if negligence is found.

• The committee will also suggest measures to be taken by industry units, including safety audits, to prevent such mishaps in future and will also make observations and suggestions for all similar industrial plants, which will be included in their report to be submitted within a month.

Where does responsibility for Industrial Disasters lie?

1. The legal gains made during the Bhopal Gas Leak, and subsequently with the Delhi Oleum Leakage case, held the principle of absolute enterprise liability for hazardous substances.

2. That is, any manufacturer of hazardous or inherently injurious substance was to be held liable. However, the Public Liability Insurance Bill (now Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991) took away these legal gains.

3. Aimed at providing immediate relief to the survivors of industrial accidents and incidents, the bill not only provided an inadequate treatment of the scope and definition of “hazardous substance,” but it also allowed for the centre and state governments to excuse themselves from any liability arising out of industrial disasters.

4. Moreover, despite the precedents before it, it took a narrow viewing of the injuries that manifest due to industrial disasters.

5. The National Green Tribunal sought response from the Centre, South Korean company LG Polymers, Central Pollution Control Board after 11 people died in the Vishakhapatnam gas leak tragedy.


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6. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson issued notices after taking cognizance of the incident in which hundreds more were admitted to the hospital, with several critical.

Conclusion:

• India’s handling of industrial disasters suffers from systemic apathy. To respond to the currently unfolding Visakhapatnam Gas Leak effectively and sensitively, it must reflect on and learn from its inadequate handling of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

• Imposes a no-fault liability on the owner of hazardous substance and requires the owner to compensate victims of accident irrespective of any neglect or default. For this, the owner is required to take out an insurance policy covering potential liability from any accident.

• Ensuring public safety, a comprehensive safety audit of all the industries should be taken up and a Standard Operating Procedure should be enforced.

• Without any hesitations, the officials should come up with suitable recommendations to avoid such mishaps in future.


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History of Pandemics

Introduction

Pandemics have had great influence in shaping human society and politics

throughout history. From the Justinian Plague of sixth century to the Spanish flu

of last century, pandemics have triggered the collapse of empires, weakened pre-

eminent institutions, created social upheavals and brought down wars. Here’s a

look at some of the deadliest pandemics and how they influenced the course of

human history.

Justinian Plague

One of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history broke out in the sixth century

in Egypt and spread fast to Constantinople, which was the capital of the Eastern

Roman (Byzantine) Empire.

• The plague was named after the then Byzantine Emperor Justinian.

• The outbreak, which spread from Constantinople to both the West and

East, had killed up to 25 to 100 million people.

• The plague hit Constantinople when the Byzantine Empire was at the

pinnacle of its power under Justinian’s reign. The Empire had conquered

much of the historically Roman Mediterranean coast, including Italy, Rome

and North Africa.

• The plague would come back in different waves, finally disappearing in AD

750, after weakening the empire substantially.

• As the Byzantine Army failed to recruit new soldiers and ensure military

supplies to battlegrounds in the wake of the spread of the illness, their

provinces came under attack.

• By the time plague disappeared, the Empire had lost territories in Europe to

the Germanic-speaking Franks and Egypt and Syria to the Arabs.


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Black Death

The Black Death, or pestilence, that hit Europe and Asia in the 14th century was

the deadliest pandemic recorded in human history. It killed some 75 to 200

million people.

• The plague arrived in Europe in 1347, where up to 50% of the population

died of the disease.

• In his book, “The Great Leveller”, Mr. Scheidel writes how the Black Death

led to improved wages for serfs and agricultural labourers. “Land became

more abundant relative to labour [after the death of millions of working

people]. Landowners stood to lose, and workers could hope to gain”.

• In parts of Europe, wages tripled as labour demand rose.

• The most significant impact of the Black Death was perhaps the weakening

of the Catholic Church. The Church was as helpless as any other institutions

as the plague spread like wildfire across the continent, which shook the

people’s faith in Church and the clergy.

• While Church would continue to remain as a powerful institution, it would

never regain the power and influence it had enjoyed before the outbreak of

the plague. The Protestant Reformation in the 16th century would further

weaken the Church.

Spanish Flu

• Spanish Flu, which broke out during the last phase of First World War, was

the deadliest pandemic of the last century that killed up to 50 million

people.

• One of the major impacts of the outbreak was on the result of the war.

Though the flu hit both sides, the Germans and Austrians were affected so

badly that the outbreak derailed their offensives.

• German General Erich Ludendorff in his memoir, “My War Memories”,

1914-18, wrote that the flu was one of the reasons for Germany’s defeat.

• Germany launched its Spring Offensive on the western front in March 1918.

By June and July, the disease had weakened the German units.


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• The Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918 that ended the War. But

the flu continues to ravage parts of the world for many more months.

COVID-19

• It’s too early to say how COVID-19 would change the world. But the

outbreak has seen countries, both democratic and dictatorial, imposing

drastic restrictions on people’s movements.

• The western world lies exposed to the attack of the virus. Unemployment

rate in the U.S. has shot up to the levels not seen since the end of Second

World War.

• Governments across the world, including the U.S. administration, are

beefing up spending to stimulate an economy that shows signs of

depression.

• Radical changes, good or bad, are already unfolding.


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Security

Shekatkar Committee recommendations

Context:

Government has accepted and implemented important recommendations of

Committee of Experts (CoE) under the Chairmanship of Lt General D B Shekatkar

(Retd) relating to border Infrastructure. These were related to speeding up road

construction, leading to socio economic development in the border areas.

1. On the matter related to creating border infrastructure, the Government

has implemented recommendation of CoE to outsource road construction

work beyond optimal capacity of Border Roads Organisation (BRO).

2. It has been made mandatory to adopt Engineering Procurement Contract

(EPC) mode for execution of all works costing more than Rs 100 crore.

3. The other recommendation relating to introduction of modern

construction plants, equipment and machinery has been implemented by

delegating enhanced procurement powers from Rs 7.5 crore to Rs 100

crore to BRO, for domestic and foreign procurements.

4. Border Roads has recently inducted Hot-Mix Plant 20/30 TPH for speedier

laying of roads, remote operated hydraulic Rock Drills DC-400 R for hard

rock cutting, a range of F-90 series of self-propelled snow-cutters/blowers

for speedier snow clearance.

5. New Technology like blasting technology for precision blasting, use of

Geo-Textiles for soil stabilisation, cementitious base for pavements,

plastic coated aggregates for surfacing, is also being used to enhance the

pace of construction.

6. With the empowerment of field officers through enhanced delegation of

financial and administrative powers, there has been significant

improvement in faster financial closure of works.

7. The land acquisition and all statutory clearances like forest and

environmental clearance are also made part of approval of Detailed

Project Report (DPR).


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8. Further, with the adoption of EPC mode of execution, it is mandatory to

award work only when 90 per cent of the statutory clearances have been

obtained, implementing the recommendation of CoE regarding obtaining

prior clearances before the commencement of the project.

DB Shekatkar Committee

The military reforms committee – under Lt General (retd.) DB Shekatkar – was set

up by then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in 2015.

• The committee was established with a mandate for Enhancing Combat

Capability and Rebalancing Defence Expenditure.

• The Lt Gen DB Shekatkar Committee recommended a number of measures

to trim, redeploy and integrate manpower under the Ministry of Defence

(MoD) in a gradual manner to meet the objective of an agile but effective

military to meet current and future threats that India faces

• The committee submitted its report on December 21, 2016 with some 200

recommendations.

Mandate of the committee:

1. To review logistics, training and administrative establishments for the

purpose of optimizing manpower in defence forces and increase “Teeth to

Tail ratio”.

2. Suggest redeployment, repositioning and restructuring of manpower and

resources to improve combat capability.

3. Suggest integration of civil infrastructure and resources into the logistic

system of the armed forces to avoid duplication and reduce expenditure

4. Suggest measures to correct the bias of defence budget towards revenue

expenditure.


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Major Recommendations are as follows

1. Increase Defence Budget Allocation

• The committee has recommended that the defence budget should be

in the range of 2.5 and three per cent of the GDP.

• This would however require a substantial change in approach and

outlook of the government towards the armed forces.

• For the last five years for instance, defence budget has remained

around two per cent of the GDP.

2. Review the definition of ‘Capital’ and ‘Revenue’ budget heads

• One of the major recommendations of the committee is to review

the definition of ‘Capital’ and ‘Revenue’ budget heads in the funds

allocated to the three armed forces, particularly the Indian Army.

• The panel notes that the Indian Army—unlike the Indian Navy and

the Indian Air Force—will have to remain a manpower-intensive

force because of its major deployment in the mountains against both

its major adversaries, China and Pakistan.

• As a result the sustenance budget of the Indian Army will be higher

than the other two services leaving very little money for capital

acquisition.


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• The panel has reportedly therefore recommended that a ‘roll on’

plan for fresh acquisitions be introduced so as to overcome the

practice of ‘surrendering’ funds at the end of every financial year.

3. Review of the financial management system of the MoD

• The panel has also suggested a review of the financial management

system of the MoD in which the defence finance wing is seen to be

more of an impediment in clearing projects

• The committee has recommended that the financial powers of all

the three chiefs and vice chiefs be enhanced further to quicken the

pace of acquisitions.

4. Performance audit of non-combat organizations

• As for redeployment and rationalising of manpower, the Shekatkar

Committee has recommended that the role of non-combat

organisations paid for and sustained by the defence budget be

subjected to a performance audit.

• Some of these organisations mentioned in the report are Defence

Estates, Defence Accounts, DGQA, Ordnance Factory Board (OFB),

DRDO, and the National Cadet Corps (NCC).

• Once a professional and objective review is carried out, the

committee said, substantial savings can be achieved by downsizing

or rationalising the manpower in these organisations.

5. Establishment of a Joint Services War College

• The committee has also suggested the establishment of a Joint

Services War College for training for middle level officers (the higher

command course for instance),

• The three separate War Colleges—currently at Mhow, Secunderabad

and Goa—for Army, Air Force and Navy could continue to train

younger officers for their respective service.

6. Tri-service Intelligence training establishment

• Similarly it has recommended that the Military Intelligence School at

Pune be converted to a tri-service Intelligence training

establishment.


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7. Better coordination between the MoD and state governments on

renewing lease of land for crucial firing ranges

• Another aspect highlighted by the committee is the increasing

reluctance on part of the state governments to renew lease of land

for crucial firing ranges for the troops.

• Increasing urbanization and pressure on land has meant that the

armed forces have to battle political and bureaucratic pressure to

retain the existing firing ranges.

• The panel has therefore suggested better coordination between the

MoD and state governments to overcome this problem.

8. Ramp up the quantum of training on various simulators

• The Committee has also suggested that the armed forces ramp up

the quantum of training on various simulators.

• The new recruits can do about 60 per cent of their firing training on

simulators, resulting in substantial savings to the tune of Rs 20-25

crore per annum in expenditure of training ammunition, the

committee has suggested.

9. There are several other suggestions to improve efficiency of Border Roads

Organisation (BRO), re-orienting the training staff of NCC by utilising more

ex-servicemen and Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) to free young

serving officers for more mainline jobs and even recommending the

possibility of shifting NCC under the Human Resources Development

(HRD) Ministry.

10.Appointment of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)

• The Shekatkar Committee too has said a 4-star Chief of Defence Staff

(CDS)—or a Permanent Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee—be

appointed as a ‘chief coordinator’ between the military and the

Ministry of Defence.

• This recommendation has recently institutionalized with the

appointment of General Bipin Rawat as the first CDS on 1st January

2020.


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The Shekatkar Committee has made it clear that the saving made as a result of its

recommendations must be redeployed in enhancing the combat capabilities of

the Indian armed forces and not be merged in the general budget.

The entire report is focused on shedding the flab in the MoD and make India’s

armed forces more agile and technology-oriented to meet current and future

national security objectives


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A – SAT MISSILE

Introduction:

India joined an elite club of nations who possess an anti -satellite technology. The technological mission, named Mission Shakti, was led by DRDO with an aim to strengthen India’s overall security. Experts say, the capability of attacking a satellite in a orbit closer to Earth will give a tactical weapons edge to the country.

Outer Space Treaty, 1967:

• The Outer Space Treaty, formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a treaty that forms the basis of international space law.

• The Outer Space Treaty prohibits only weapons of mass destruction in outer space, not ordinary weapons.

• 108 countries are parties to the treaty, while another 23 have signed the treaty but have not completed ratification.

• The exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind.

• Given the prohibitively expensive nature of space projects, India and other countries must utilise the increased presence in space to legitimately advance the well-being of their people

Anti-satellite missile test (ASAT):

• It is the technological capability to hit and destroy satellites in space through missiles launched from the ground.

• Scientists and engineers at Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) launched a missile from the Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Island launch complex near Balasore in Odisha that struck a predetermined target: a redundant Indian satellite that was orbiting at a distance of 300 km from the Earth’s surface .


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Significance of Mission Shakti:

• Satellites are used by countries for navigation, communications and also for guiding their missile weaponry.

• The ability to bring down an enemy’s missile, therefore, gives a country the capability to cripple critical infrastructure of the other country, rendering their weapons useless.

• Though the United States and the then Soviet Union both tested anti-satellite missiles way back in the 1970s at the height of the cold war, never has any country brought down the satellite of any other country, either during a conflict or by mistake.

• During the tests, countries target their own satellites, those which are no longer in use but continue to be in the space.

• A detailed statement by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed that an Indian satellite had been used for the test, but did not specify which satellite it was.

• PM Modi was careful to state that India’s test was a “defensive” move, aimed at securing its space infrastructure, and does not change India’s strong opposition to weaponisation of space


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Raising concerns:

• Outer space has become an “arena of rivalry between major powers.” At the same time, there was common concern on space debris. Satellites today have to avoid almost 6,00,000 debris of over 1cm travelling at speed faster than a bullet.

• As space gets increasingly crowded, there is need to regulate space traffic on the lines of air traffic or railways.

Previous ASAT missions:

• 1959: USA performs first anti-satellite test. An air-launched ballistic missile was fired from B-47 bomber at Explorer VI satellite.

• 1963: Soviet Union acquires ASAT technology.

• 1985: America tested AGM-135, launched from a F-15 fighter jet and destroyed its own satellite Solwind P 78-1.

• 2007: China enters anti-satellite arena. It destroyed old weather satellite in a high, polar orbit.

• 2008: USA carried out Operation Burnt Frost to destroy a defunct spy satellite.

• 27th March 2019: India became the fourth nation to acquire ASAT technology.

Way ahead:

• Arms race in outer space should not be encouraged. India has always maintained that space must be used only for peaceful purposes. It is against the weaponisation of Outer Space and supports international efforts to reinforce the safety and security of space based assets.

• India believes that Outer space is the common heritage of humankind and it is the responsibility of all space-faring nations to preserve and promote the benefits flowing from advances made in space technology and its applications for all.


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Miscellaneous

Newly Awarded Gi Tags

Chak-Hao

• Chak-Hao, the scented glutinous rice which has been in cultivation in Manipur over centuries.

• It is characterized by its special aroma. It is normally eaten during community feasts and is served as Chak-Hao kheer.

• The application for Chak-Hao was filed by the Consortium of Producers of Chak-Hao (Black Rice), Manipur and was facilitated by the Department of Agriculture.

• Chak-Hao has also been used by traditional medical practitioners as part of traditional medicine.

• According to the GI application filed, this rice takes the longest cooking time of 40-45 minutes due to the presence of a fibrous bran layer and higher crude fibre content.

• At present, the traditional system of Chak-Hao cultivation is practised in some pockets of Manipur.

• Direct sowing of pre-soaked seeds and also transplantation of rice seedlings raised in nurseries in puddled fields are widely practised in the State’s wetlands.


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Gorakhpur terracotta

• The terracotta work of Gorakhpur is a centuries-old traditional art form, where the potters make various animal figures like, horses, elephants, camel, goat, ox, etc. with hand-applied ornamentation.

• The application was filed by Laxmi Terracotta Murtikala Kendra in Uttar Pradesh.

• Some of the major products of craftsmanship include the Hauda elephants, Mahawatdar horse, deer, camel, five-faced Ganesha, singled-faced Ganesha, elephant table, chandeliers, hanging bells etc.

• The entire work is done with bare hands and artisans use natural colour, which stays fast for a long time.

• There are more than 1,000 varieties of terracotta work designed by the local craftsmen.

• The craftsmen are mainly spread over the villages of Aurangabad, Bharwalia, Langadi Gularia, Budhadih, Amawa, Ekla etc. in Bhathat and Padri Bazar, Belwa Raipur, Jungle Ekla No-1, Jungle Ekla No-2 in Chargawan block of Gorakhpur.

Kovilpatti kadalai mittai

• It is a candy made of peanuts held together with glistening syrup, and topped with wisps of grated coconut dyed pink, green and yellow.

• It is made using all natural ingredients such as the traditional and special ‘vellam’ (jaggery) and groundnuts and water from the river Thamirabarani is used in the production, which enhances the taste naturally.


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• It is manufactured in Kovilpatti and adjacent towns and villages in Thoothukudi district.

• It is produced by using both groundnuts and jaggery (organic jaggery), in carefully selected quantities from selected specific locations in Tamil Nadu.

Geographical Indications in India

• A Geographical Indication is used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.

• Such a name conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness which is essentially attributable to its origin in that defined geographical locality.

• This tag is valid for a period of 10 years following which it can be renewed.

• Recently the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry has launched the logo and tagline for the Geographical Indications (GI) of India.

• The first product to get a GI tag in India was the Darjeeling tea in 2004.

• The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 (GI Act) is a sui generis Act for protection of GI in India.

• India, as a member of the WTO enacted the Act to comply with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights

• Geographical Indications protection is granted through the TRIPS Agreement

current affairs may 2020 (prathamias) · current affairs may 2020 (prathamias) for civil services...

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