Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3- Leveraging AI and Big data for dealing with Covid-19, and how the IT industry could turn the Covid-19 crisis into an opportunity?
The article discusses how COVID-19 has prompted the software companies to focus on technologies that are still in demand. The IT companies have started to focus on ways to leverage the potential of AI and the Big data to deal with the pandemic.
Impact on IT companies and how they are planning to cope with it?
- Fall in spending: Spending on information technology (IT) globally is expected to shrink by 3-4% by the end of 2020.
- Impact: That would have a severe impact on hardware and slowdown in the software and service businesses.
- How companies are planning to deal with the situation? Software vendors such as IBM, SAP Software Solutions and Microsoft Corporation plan to make use of emerging technologies to become more relevant to their customers.
- IBM has created an AI platform ‘Watson Assistant for Citizens’ on its public cloud.
- The platform helps citizens understand and respond to common questions about covid-19, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.
- While the ongoing pandemic is having a dreadful impact on companies at scale, matured ones are taking a pause and rethinking their analytics approach.
- Using data analysis to prepare contingency plan: Data science teams are being called into action to crunch petabytes of data and build best business models on trusted data for decision-makers to quickly prepare contingency plans.
- This is where we are seeing enterprises using AI, machine learning, and natural language processing to mine the data and build predictive or prescriptive models in IBM Cloud Pack for Data.
UPSC could ask question connecting the use of IT and its potential to deal with the pandemics. And it could also be other way round you can cite the example of use of IT in the health sector.
Adoption of the AI by various sectors
- The government and public service agencies as well as healthcare and research companies urgently need AI solutions and analytics as they are in a race to find a treatment for the deadly disease.
- Other industries with high end-user touch-points like banks, insurance, retail, etc. are also in urgent need to use AI/ML-driven analytics and cognitive technologies to automate their communications, streamline predictions, decision making, etc.
AI and Big data could be a game-changer across the various sectors, health being one of them. As among the buzzwords in technologie today UPSC could ask about AI and Big data.
Covid-19 as an opportunity for the IT industry
- The covid-19 crisis is an opportunity for IT vendors to build and improve on their capabilities on AI and big data.
- Leveraging AI: They are also keeping an eye on emerging uses cases in AI for disease detection, tracking, and prevention.
- Relatively smaller companies are also launching dedicated AI-based apps to assist people amid the covid-19 crisis.
- Eka Software Solutions recently released ‘COVID-19 Risk Monitoring’, it help customers quickly gain visibility in supply chain risks by showing a company’s contract position across countries with reported cases of the virus.
- Based on company data, the app instantly visualises contracts at risk and provides businesses with the ability to identify alternate suppliers to maintain business continuity.
Conclusion
As the epidemic is far from being tamed, various sectors are likely to feel the existential crisis and IT could be one of them. But they can also turn this crisis into an opportunity by leveraging the AI and Big data in tackling the epidemic at various levels.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- What factors led to the failure of global world order in dealing with Covid-19, what would be the impact of Covid19 on the globalisation?
Theme of this article is the failure of the world order in mounting a collective fight against the epidemic that has become the global problem. Role of WHO has also come under the scanner. Functioning and reluctance of UNSC to discuss the pandemic have raised questions over its relevance. The issue of China’s growing influence and implications for the rest of the world are being discussed. In the past week, some newspaper articles have covered the same issue for instance-“The deep void in global leadership” in the Hindu.
Failure of the world order and global institutions
- The contemporary global order and institutions were a hegemonic exercise meant to deal with isolated political and military crises and not serve humanity at large.
- COVID-19 has exposed this as well as the worst nativist tendencies of the global leadership in the face of a major crisis.
- That the United Nations Security Council took so long to meet (that too inconclusively) to discuss the pandemic is a ringing testimony to the UN’s insignificance.
The above para. indicates that global order we are living in was made for entirely different purpose i.e. to maintain the peace and they are not capable to deal with the Covid-19 like challenges. So, from UPSC mains point of view you must take note of this.
Failure of regional groupings
- Regional institutions haven’t fared any better.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s SAARC initiative, curiously resurrecting a practically dead institution, was short-lived.
- The EU, the most progressive post-national regional arrangement, stood clueless when the virus spread like wildfire in Europe.
- Its member states turned inward for solutions: self-help, not regional coordination, was their first instinct. Brussels is the loser.
What these failures indicate?
- These failures are indicative of a deeper malaise: the global institutional framework is unrepresentative, a pawn in the hands of the great powers, cash-strapped, and its agenda is focused on high-table security issues.
- The global institutional architecture of the 1940s cannot help humanity face the challenges of the 2020s.
- What can be the solutions? Nothing less than a new social contract between states and the international system can save our future.
Here we come across the reasons for the failure of the world order and institutions. UPSC has asked questions related to UNESCO in 2019, who knows next could be the WHO.
Factors that will help China come out stronger from the pandemic
- Reports indicate that China has now managed the outbreak of COVID-19, and its industrial production is recovering even as that of every other country is taking a hit.
- The oil price slump will make its recovery even faster.
- When the greatest military power found itself in denial mode and the members of the EU were looking after their own interests, China appeared to use its manufacturing power to its geopolitical advantage.
- Beijing has offered medical aid and expertise to those in need; it has increased cooperation with its arch-rival Japan.
- This will aid Beijing’s claims to global leadership, push Huawei 5G trials as a side bargain, and showcase how the Belt and Road Initiative is the future of global connectivity.
- COVID-19 will further push the international system into a world with Chinese characteristics.
As China comes to dominate the emerging world order, we must pay attention to things related to China. Here, we can note down the factors that could help China emerge out stronger from the corona crisis.
Implications for globalisation: the rise of protectionism and hypernationalism
- Neoliberal economic globalisation will have taken a major beating in the wake of the pandemic.
- Economists are warning of a global recession.
- How the world reacted? The first instinct of every major economy was to close borders, look inwards and
- The pre-existing structural weakness of the global order and the COVID-19 shock will further feed states’ protectionist tendencies fueled by hypernationalism.
- A more inclusive global political and economic order is unlikely any time soon, if ever.
- Instead, as former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon warns, “we are headed for a poorer, meaner, and smaller world.”
- How this epidemic impact big corporations? The ability of big corporations to dictate the production, stocks, supply chains and backup plans will be limited by increased state intervention to avoid unpredictable supply sources, avoid geopolitically sensitive zones, and national demands for emergency reserves.
- The profits of big corporations will reduce, and the demand for stability will increase.
- Will the world after Covid-19 be more balance? State intervention in economic matters and protectionism are the easy way out, and that’s precisely what states will do once the crisis is over.
- It would be a return of the ‘Licence Raj’ through the backdoor, not a push for inclusive and responsible globalisation with its associated political benefits.
It is clear now that post-Covid-19 world would be different from the world we know today. Globalisation would take a significant beating. And globalisation is important topic from mains point of view. So, pay close attention to the points mentioned here.
Will post-Covid-19 world lead to some positive controls?
- Rise of state-led models: With the severe beating that globalisation has taken, state-led models of globalisation and economic development would be preferred over (big) corporates-led globalisation.
- Will this enable some positive controls over the inherent deficiencies of globalisation? We will have to wait and see.
- The relation between capitalists and the states: But the more important question is whether the state has any incentive to take on big capital.
- Given the symbiotic relationship between the state and big capital, states have become used to protecting the interests of their corporations, often at the cost of the general public.
- States preferred capital over health: Consider, for instance, that the first response of many Western states was to protect their capital markets than be concerned about public health.
Rise of racism in post-Covid-19 world
- Yet another undesirable outcome of the pandemic would be a spike in various forms of discrimination.
- Globally, societies could become more self-seeking and inward-looking leading to further pushback against liberal policies regarding migration and refugees.
- Implications for world trade: New questions are likely to be asked about the source of goods. More stringent imposition of phytosanitary measures by advanced states on products emanating from the less developed countries might become the new normal.
- Lockdowns and travel restrictions could potentially legitimise the rhetoric around border walls in more conservative countries.
- Tragically, therefore, while one answer to global pandemics is political globalisation, COVID-19 might further limit it.
Conclusion
The world order needs to wake up to new reality take measures to avoid the above listed undesired fallouts that could emerge in the post-Covid-19 world, and before that there is an urgent need for the global coalition to deal with the pandemic.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3- What are the issues in agri-marketing and suggestions to deal with them.
This article discusses the impact of lockdown on farmers and how the disruption of the supply chain is adding to their difficulties in selling their produce in the markets.
In the last two weeks or so, we have been reading about farmers and issues around the agri-marketing supply chain. If you have been following the story on Agriculture Marketing Reforms, you would remember us talking about it in the op-ed titled “A smarter supply line”
There are 6 suggestions to overhaul our agri-marketing system. These are-
1. Abolish/reframe the APMC Act
- There is an urgent need for abolishing or reframing the APMC Act and encourage direct buying of agri-produce from farmers/farmer producer organisations (FPOs).
- The companies, processors, organised retailers, exporters, consumer groups, that buy directly from FPOs need not pay any market fee as they do not avail the facilities of APMC yards.
APMC Act restrict the farmers from selling their produce outside the market yard, so in the present context of Covid-19 this is a counterproductive restrictions. UPSC asked question on in in 2014.
2. The warehouses can also be designated as markets.
- The warehouse receipt system can be scaled up.
- The private sector should be encouraged to open mandis with modern infrastructure, capping commissions.
3. The futures trading should be encouraged by allowing banking finance to hedge for commodity price risks.
A futures contract is a standardized legal agreement to buy or sell something at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future, encouraging this would help farmers assurance of price and help in making decion for the sowing based on price signal from he markets.
4. Promote e-NAM through proper assaying and grading the produce and setting up dispute settlement mechanism; rope in major logistics players for delivery of goods.
5. Avoiding rush in the markets: Procurement must be staggered through coupons and incentives that give farmers an additional bonus for bringing the produce to the market after May 10, or so.
6. The amount provided under PM Kisan should be increased from Rs 6,000 to at least Rs 10,000 per farming family to partially compensate them for their losses.
Way forward
- Besides these, Prime Minister would benefit by taking a leaf out of the book of President Donald Trump. Modi should lead from the front by holding daily press briefings and announce a country-wide relief package amounting to around 8-10 per cent of GDP.
- Whatever the causes of this disaster are, it is clear that the WHO failed in its duty to raise the alarm in time. India must ask for fundamental reforms in the UN System, including the WHO, making it more transparent, competent, and accountable.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Successful models for covid-19 containment
As many nations struggle to keep COVID-19 infection numbers down, the island of Taiwan presents an example of how to be prepared in the event of a pandemic. As the global total of infections has neared 700,000, with over 30,000 deaths, Taiwan’s count stood at 300, with only 5 deaths.
When you read through this article, try and map the best practices which could be incorporated in India. You might have to tweak a few. UPSC Mains may ask a question on “what could be done better etc.” and this is where you shine!
Taiwan Model of Healthcare Management
- Located less than 150 kilometres from the original viral source – China – Taiwan has seen far fewer cases of the coronavirus in the past month, with a much lower infection rate.
- It is also worth noting the practices utilized by Taiwan’s hospitals as they seek to curb the virus and protect patients and medics.
Following were the not so exceptional measures which helped Taiwan authorities contain coronavirus:
1) Smaller staff groups
- One of the early steps taken was the reduction of the workgroup sizes within medical facilities.
- This reduces the risk of a community spread within the hospital emerging from infected patients being treated.
- Depending on the size of the staff handling an area of the hospital, and the number of patients being overseen there, one infection could jeopardize the safety of an entire ward.
2) Traffic control in hospitals
- Hospitals were establishing separate entrances and exits for in- and out-patients to help prevent the spread of infection via regular hospital traffic.
- In effect, hospital entry began to resemble airport customs, with visitors passing through a temperature checkpoint and showing IDs before admittance.
3) Maintaining a high bed-per-capita ratio
- Many countries have found that they do not have nearly enough hospital beds to care for patients suffering from a highly infectious disease like COVID-19.
- In response, Taiwan has nearly 1,000 negative pressure isolation rooms (an isolation technique used in hospitals to prevent cross-contamination from room to room) available, with the capacity to add significantly more through room reconfigurations.
- This is a remarkably high number, given the relatively small population of the island, and speaks to the country’s preparedness and advanced medical infrastructure.
4) Best public health policy
- Finally, Taiwan has benefited greatly from the close coordination between its hospitals and central government.
- Within the country’s nationalized healthcare system, every citizen and resident is assigned a health card, embedded with a computer chip reflecting their identity and medical history.
Significance of the Taiwanese model
- Taiwan’s biggest success can be attributed to how ready the country and its hospitals were from Day-1, while other states were still assessing whether the virus was a threat to them at all.
- Many of these countermeasures can be easily duplicated by India.
- However, the willingness and effectiveness with which doctors and medical officials have worked to cooperate with each other and the public is a testament to the country’s smart and rational approach to healthcare and disease prevention.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Seismic noise
Mains level: Seismic activity and thier monitoring
Scientists at the British Geological Survey (BGS) reported a change in the Earth’s seismic noise and vibrations amid the coronavirus lockdown. This change has been monitored through a space-based seismograph.
Ever heard of space-based monitoring of seismic activities? This topic creates a scope for potential prelims question…
What is seismic noise?
- In geology, seismic noise refers to the relatively persistent vibration of the ground due to a multitude of causes.
- It is the unwanted component of signals recorded by a seismometer– the scientific instrument that records ground motions, such as those caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions.
- This noise includes vibrations caused due to human activity, such as transport and manufacturing, and makes it difficult for scientists to study seismic data that is more valuable.
- Apart from geology, seismic noise is also studied in other fields such as oil exploration, hydrology, and earthquake engineering.
How are vibrations generated?
- We measure ground vibrations from earthquakes using seismometers.
- These are incredibly sensitive so they also pick up other sources of vibration too, including human activity, such as road traffic, machinery and even people walking past.
- All these things generate vibrations that propagate as seismic waves through the Earth.
Reasons for the decline
- Due to the enforcement of lockdown measures around the world to tackle the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Earth’s crust has shown reduced levels of vibration.
How do the reduced noise levels help scientists?
- The seismic noise vibrations caused by human activity are of high frequency (between 1-100 Hz), and travel through the Earth’s surface layers.
- Usually, to measure seismic activity accurately and reduce the effect of seismic noise, geologists place their detectors 100 metres below the Earth’s surface.
- However, since the lockdown, researchers were able to study natural vibrations even from surface readings, owing to lesser seismic noise.
- Due to lower noise levels, scientists are now hoping that they would be able to detect smaller earthquakes and tremors that had slipped past their instruments so far.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Primordial Black Holes, Big Bang
Mains level: Black Holes
A scientist duo from Pune has studied primordial black holes that were born as a result of a tiny bump in the potential energy levels of the universe, at a time when it was expanding rapidly.
Strange space events are known to be the favourites of UPSC 🙂
Primordial Black Holes (PBH)
- PBH are a hypothetical type of black hole that formed soon after the Big Bang
- It is believed that they are formed as a result of collapsing radiations as opposed to the collapse of massive stars, which is the case of any other black holes.
- PBH can be massively large as 3000kms or be extremely tiny like nucleus of an atom.
What did the study conclude?
- The study has confirmed that this marginal rise in potential energy resulted in birth of several PBHs and also emitted very powerful gravitational waves.
- Approximately 14 billion years ago before the commencement of the Hot Big Bang phase, the very young universe was found to be active and expanding at a highly accelerated rate.
- This exponential growth in its size was fuelled by the presence of uniform energy field and density as the universe passed through the Cosmic Inflation phase.
- According to the scientists, as time passes, this uniform energy prevailing in the Inflation Field wanes out.
- As a result, the universe resumes its normal decelerating rate.
Expansion of universe
- Gravity is normally attractive in nature. The PBH did undergo rapid expansion due to the Inflation field which contrarily possessed repulsive gravity.
- This pushed the universe to expand at a much faster rate than normal.
- The universe had expanded to nearly 10^27 times its original size, that too, within just fraction of a second by the time Cosmic Inflation phase concluded.
- Thereafter, the remnant energy possessed by this gravitational force got converted mainly into photons (light) in addition to protons, electrons, neutrons and other particles.
- As the universe continued to grow exponentially during the Cosmic Inflation phase, it sent across tiny quantum jitters.
- These fluctuations, released in a specific fashion, when sufficiently large, slowly give birth to galaxies and stars. Among those that were significantly large, helped form PBHs.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Contact Tracing Technology
Mains level: ‘Contact tracing’ and its significance to control disease outbreaks
Global technology giants Apple and Google have announced that they are partnering on developing contact tracing technology to help governments and health authorities tackle the novel coronavirus pandemic.
What did tech-giants announce?
- Contact tracing is considered essential for bringing epidemics under control and is expected to help governments in relaxing lockdown orders.
- The tech companies announced that they would build a comprehensive solution that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist in enabling contact tracing.
What is contact tracing?
- The WHO defines contact tracing as the process of identifying, assessing, and managing people who have been exposed to a disease to prevent onward transmission.
- Via contact tracing, people who have come into contact with a person carrying a disease are alerted and identified.
Importance of contact tracing
- Identifying people at the onset of symptoms and promptly isolating them reduces exposure to other persons, preventing subsequent EVD (Ebola Virus Disease) infections.
- Additionally, prompt isolation and admission of the symptomatic person to a treatment facility decreases the delay to supportive treatment, which improves the likelihood of survival.
How will the new technology by Google and Apple work?
- Google and Apple are the developers of the Android and iOS platforms respectively, which together power most of the world’s smartphones.
- Both companies will release application programming interfaces (APIs) that would enable interoperability between Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities.
- The official apps will be available for users to download via their respective app stores, as per the press release.
- When this step is realized, phone-based matching via official apps will help alert people if they have come in contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19.
Actual working
- For this to work, COVID-19 patients would have to declare their status to the respective apps voluntarily.
- Following this, all people whose Android/iOS smartphones were detected nearby such patients, would get notified.
- This means the user will be notified even if he/she was around a stranger who has tested positive for the disease.
Issues with contact tracing
- Privacy, transparency, and consent are of utmost importance in this effort.
- The tech giants should look forward to building this functionality in consultation with interested stakeholders.
Note: How is our Aarogya Setu app different from the technology mentioned in the newscard?
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Currency Swap
Mains level: Currency Swap and its significance
India is working with the US to secure a dollar swap line that would help in better management of its external account and provide an extra cushion in the event of an abrupt outflow of funds.
What are Currency Swaps?
- A currency swap, also known as a cross-currency swap, is an off-balance sheet transaction in which two parties exchange principal and interest in different currencies.
- The purpose of a currency swap is to lower exposure to exchange rate risk or reduce the cost of borrowing a foreign currency.
Why do we need dollars?
- According to RBI data, 63.7% of India’s foreign currency assets — or $256.17 billion — are held in overseas securities, mainly in the US treasury.
- While FPIs investors looking for safer investments, the current global uncertainty over COVID outbreak have led to a shortfall in Indian stock markets.
- This has pulled down India’s foreign exchange reserves.
- This means that the government and the RBI cannot lower their guard on the management of the economy and the external account.
How does a swap facility work?
- In a swap arrangement, the US Fed provides dollars to a foreign central bank, which, at the same time, provides the equivalent funds in its currency to the Fed, based on the market exchange rate at the time of the transaction.
- The parties agree to swap back these quantities of their two currencies at a specified date in the future, which could be the next day or even three months later, using the same exchange rate as in the first transaction.
- These swap operations carry no exchange rate or other market risks, as transaction terms are set in advance.
Benefits of currency swap
- The absence of an exchange rate risk is the major benefit of such a facility.
- This facility provides India with the flexibility to use these reserves at any time in order to maintain an appropriate level of balance of payments or short-term liquidity.
- currency swaps between governments also have supplementary objectives like promotion of bilateral trade, maintaining the value of foreign exchange reserves with the central bank and ensuring financial stability (protecting the health of the banking system).
Recent examples
- India already has a $75 billion bilateral currency swap line with Japan, which has the second-highest dollar reserves after China.
- The RBI also offers similar swap lines to central banks in the SAARC region within a total corpus of $2 billion.
Note: Relate all other terminologies related to USD-INR convertiblity viz. Current Account, BoP etc.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CSR and its regulation
Mains level: CSR/SSR activities and their impacts on social transformation
The corporate affairs ministry has clarified that COVID-19 donations to CM Relief Fund won’t qualify as CSR contributions.
Contributions considered under CSR
- According to the ministry, contributions made to the State Disaster Management Authority to combat COVID-19 would qualify as CSR expenditure.
- The contributions by companies to PM-CARES Fund to tackle the pandemic would be considered as CSR.
- Ex-gratia payments made to temporary, casual and daily wage workers by companies will be considered as CSR expenditure under the company’s law, provided that such payments are over and above disbursement of wages.
- The contribution towards ‘Chief Minister’s Relief Fund’ or ‘State Relief Fund for COVID-19’ would not be considered as spending towards CSR work.
Note: Please remember or make note of the various contributions complying for CSR.
Back2Basics: CSR in India
- India is the first country in the world to make corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandatory, following an amendment to the Companies Act, 2013 in April 2014.
- Prior to that, the CSR clause was voluntary for companies, though it was mandatory to disclose their CSR spending to shareholders.
- Businesses can invest their profits in areas such as education, poverty, gender equality, and hunger as part of any CSR compliance.
- Under the Companies Act, 2013, certain classes of profitable entities are required to spent at least 2 per cent of their three-year average annual net profit towards CSR activities.
- Under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013, every company having net worth of at least ₹500 crore, turnover of ₹1,000 crore or more, or a minimum net profit of ₹5 crore during the immediately preceding financial year, has to make CSR expenditure.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Harvesting festivals across India
Mains level: Not Much
The nation today celebrates the festival of harvest, Vaishakhi under diverse names. Vaisakhi celebrates the solar new year, based on the Hindu Vikram Samvat calendar.
Vaishakhi
- Vaisakhi also known as Baisakhi is a historical and religious festival in Sikhism.
- It is usually celebrated on 13 or 14 April every year which commemorates the formation of Khalsa panth of warriors under Guru Gobind Singh in 1699.
- In Sikhism, Vaisakhi marks the start of the Khalsa in 1699 by Guru Gobind Singh.
Other names
- Maha Bishuba Pana Sankranti (Odisha)
- Bikhu or Bikhauti (Kumaon region of Uttarakhand)
- Bisu (Tulu region of Karnataka)
- Bohag Bihu (Assam)
- Puthandu (Tamil Nadu)
- Vishu (Kerala)
Note: Harvest festivals are significant events. Do try to remember their names as one can expect a match the pair question.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Operation Lifeline UDAN
Mains level: Not Much
To ensure a steady supply of essentials, even in the most remote locations, the Union Civil Aviation Ministry launched ‘Lifeline Udan’.
Don’t get confused or correlate this with Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) Scheme. The name clearly indicates that it is an HADR like operation. Whats HADR? Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief
Op. Lifeline Udan
- Under this operation, flights are being operated to transport essential medical cargo to remote parts of the country amid the lockdown to support India’s fight against Covid-19.
- The flights have been operated by Air India, Alliance Air, Indian Air Force, Pawan Hans and private carriers.
- The cargo compulsorily supplies goods such as regents, enzymes, medical equipment, testing kits and PPE, masks, gloves and other essential items as applicable by the State and UT Governments.
- Air India is shouldered to operate dedicated scheduled cargo flights to other countries for transfer of critical medical supplies, as per the requirement.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: YUKTI portal
Mains level: Coronovirus outbreak and its mitigation
Union Ministry for HRD has launched a web-portal YUKTI (Young India Combating COVID with Knowledge, Technology and Innovation).
There are various web/portals/apps with peculiar names, ex. DISHA, SWAYAM. Note them down with their one line purpose. UPSC Prelims may quiz you on these.
YUKTI web-portal
- YUKTI is a unique portal and dashboard to monitor and record the efforts and initiatives of MHRD.
- The portal intends to cover the different dimensions of COVID-19 challenges in a very holistic and comprehensive way.
- The primary aim of the portal is to keep academic community healthy, both physically & mentally and to enable a continuous high-quality learning environment for learners.
Utility of the portal
- The portal allows various institutions to share their strategies for various challenges which are there because of the unprecedented situation of COVID-19 and other future initiatives.
- It will give inputs for better planning and will enable MHRD to monitor effectively its activities for coming six months.
- It will establish a two-way communication channel between the Ministry of HRD and the institutions so that the Ministry can provide the necessary support system to the institutions.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Relation between value of rupee with export competitiveness.
Mains level: Paper 3- Why we need foreign exchange and ways to improve exports.
Context
The WTO expects a sharp drop-off in global trade in the wake of Covid-19. But India must not withdraw inwards.
Prospects of the exports
- Impact on global trade: The World Trade Organization (WTO) predicts that global trade could fall by 13-32% this year on account of disruptions and all the turmoil.
- At this point, we cannot even count on a quick recovery after this health emergency is past its peak.
- A trade revival may have to wait till 2022 or later.
- Indian exports have been in a slump for a large part of the past decade, and recent reports point to a rash of cancelled orders from abroad (except, notably, for drugs).
- This, however, should not mean that we slip into export pessimism.
- Opportunity in the crisis: Instead, a crisis such as this could serve as an opportunity to sharpen our competitive edge that has got blunt over the years.
- Rupee and reform: This is best done through reforms, though a rupee on the decline vis-à-vis the US dollar should help too.
Reasons for export orientations
- The relation between growth and exports: No country is an island unto itself, and nations will continue to exchange goods and services so long as it makes economic sense.
- Trade partners are usually better off producing what they’re best at, for all users, and buying from the rest what others turn out better—at a lower cost and higher quality.
- Economies that participate in this game, as the historical record has shown, tend to grow faster.
- There is another good reason for export orientation.
- Foreign earnings: India needs foreign earnings, not just for oil imports and suchlike, but also for overall economic stability, given our reliance on foreign capital for growth.
- In tough times such as these, when we may need to borrow money from abroad to bridge a hugely enlarged fiscal deficit, ensuring a stream of future dollar earnings becomes even more crucial.
- To enable the issuance of dollar bonds and raise our chances of staging a less painful return to form, we need to get our export act together.
Way forward to increase exports
- Structural and policy changes: Export success goes by competitiveness, and for domestic businesses to achieve this, India would need to undertake several structural and policy changes.
- We could begin with reversing the tariff barriers that have been raised in recent years.
- Exposure to foreign competitors would force them to turn efficient and perform better.
- Duties on inputs, especially, need to come down. So do other taxes that hold companies back. Other steps to raise productivity will help, too.
- Good logistical backup is another big requirement.
- The low value of rupee: The rupee’s slump is a plus for exporters, since their output is cheaper in dollar terms, but we may need to pursue a policy that does not let our currency’s value get over-inflated by inflows of foreign “hot money” (when they return).
- Cost of capital: The cost of capital in India needs to be low, too, and this would depend on how well the government manages its finances.
- India’s annual exports currently form less than 2% of the world’s. We should aim for 5%.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Fiscal deficit. Monetisation of deficit.
Mains level: Paper 3-Suggest the option to get the resources for dealing with the corona pandemic.
Context
Everyone is agreed that the whole world is hurtling towards an unprecedented economic recession. India, already facing a massive slowdown, is going to get hurt perhaps more than the others, because our economic immune system is already weak.
Three things that we must do in the present situation
- The first is containing the spread of the virus.
- Apart from the manpower, medicines, protective equipment for frontline workers and other methods, it will need massive resources to tackle it.
- Second, the poor are already suffering in more ways than one, including the daily wage earners. They will have to be taken care of, again needing massive resources.
- Third, economic activity will have to be revived as soon as conditions return to normal or near-normal, for which businesses will have to be helped, again needing massive resources; both in terms of revenue foregone and actual cash outgo.
- The question, therefore, on everyone’s mind is how much money will be needed for all this and where will it come from?
- What the government and the RBI have done so far is clearly awfully inadequate. Other countries have done much more. India can be no exception.
Where will the government will get resources?
- Partly from market and partly form RBI: Broadly speaking, resources will come partly through market borrowings and partly from the RBI.
- Manmohan Singh had decided in 1994 that in future the government of India would not monetise its deficit; in other words, would not borrow from the RBI but go to the money market and borrow from there.
- Borrow from the RBI: In these unprecedented times, we may take leave from that very sound principle, which all governments have followed religiously since then, and borrow from the RBI.
- What does it mean? This means printing of more currency notes with all its attendant problems including inflation.
- Government of India will have to take the steps necessary to tackle the after-effects to the extent possible. It must ensure that the supply chains work smoothly.
How will the money be spent?
- The Important role of states: The states will have to play a very important role in this, as much of the work will have to be done by them.
- Responsibility of finance commission: Since the finance commission continues to be in existence and has a clear idea of the state finances, it should be immediately tasked with the responsibility of discussing this matter with the state governments and making its recommendations available within a period of one month.
- The task force under the finance minister could work out the needs of businesses and the government of India both in the short as well as the medium term.
- Spending money properly and efficiently: It should not be wasted and each rupee spent creates its own multiplier effect.
- Our system leaves much to be desired. And the moment it is known that funding is not a constraint, the system can go berserk.
- We must guard against that and ensure that rules are in place, specially at the field level to ensure the proper use of resources.
Role of banks, financial institutions and MGNREGA
- The banks and other financial institutions will have to be provided with resources to help the private sector, especially the agricultural and MSME sectors.
- In the rural areas, we must ensure that durable assets are created out of the funds made available.
- The rules governing the MGNREGA scheme should be tweaked to the extent necessary in order to ensure that more material than labour is used wherever necessary.
Conclusion
India should and can come out of the present crisis with as little damage as possible if we tackle it together. We cannot control what happens in other countries, but we can surely learn from them and adopt their best practices. We must also play our role in defining the new global order because the world is more intertwined now than ever before.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WHO's role.
Mains level: Paper 2- How BRICS with India and China as its members poses challenges in its success?
Context
As the major global institutions — from the WHO to the WTO — are experiencing unprecedented turmoil India needs to be pragmatic and fleet-footed.
Reorientation of India’s multilateral strategy
- As many international institutions, including the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Security Council, come under great stress in the corona crisis, Delhi’s multilateral strategy is going through a rapid reorientation.
- Realists in Delhi recognise that India’s engagement with the UN is not about the pursuit of some higher ideological calling, but the navigation of hardball geopolitics.
China’s growing influence and implications for India
- China’s role on Kashmir question: China repeatedly pressed the UN to discuss the Kashmir question after Delhi changed the constitutional status of the region last August.
- China avoiding discussion on Covid crisis: But through last month, as the rotating chair of the UNSC, China blocked any discussion of the Covid crisis.
- Beijing insisted that the crisis was not a matter of international peace and security that the UNSC ought to bother itself with.
- A mere internal administrative change in Kashmir, Beijing continues to insist, is a grave threat to international peace and security.
- With its veto power, Beijing can simply prevent the UNSC from doing anything against China.
Why the credibility of the UN and WHO bureaucracy is under cloud?
- Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, jumped quickly into the Indo-Pak arguments over Kashmir, and raised concerns over India’s Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens.
- Guterres went on an extended visit to Pakistan in February and made an ostentatious public offer to mediate between Delhi and Islamabad on Kashmir.
- But when it comes to China’s role in the spread of the coronavirus, Guterres can’t seem to find the words.
- The situation at the WHO is a lot worse.
- The Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns against the dangers of “politicising” the Covid crisis.
- Many in Europe and the US think that is exactly what Tedros has done at the WHO in the last few months.
- Breakdown of the multilateral system: What we are witnessing is the breakdown of the multilateral system that emerged from the ashes of the Second World War amidst the deepening contestation between the world’s foremost powers — the US and China.
NEW MULTILATERALISM adopted by India
- India’s new multilateralism — as a pragmatic response to external change — involves downplaying some past associations and strengthening new partnerships.
- Take, for example, two innovations India has made since the end of the Cold War.
- One was the BRICS forum with Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa and the other was the so-called Quad — a coalition of democracies with Australia, Japan and the US.
- Actions of BRICS members with respect to India: As India reorders its multilateral priorities amid the corona crisis, the BRICS forum is losing some of its salience and the Quad is gaining traction.
- Preventing discussion on COVID crisis: Two of India’s partners in BRICS — Russia and South Africa — had reportedly backed the efforts of a third, China, to prevent a discussion of the COVID crisis in the UNSC.
- If Delhi were sitting in the UNSC right now as a non-permanent member, it would have had every interest in pressing for a discussion of the COVID crisis that has severely damaged India’s economic and social prospects.
- Meanwhile, India is in regular consultations on managing the corona crisis with the “Quad Plus” grouping that draws in South Korea, Vietnam and New Zealand.
- Neither the BRICS nor the Quad square with the conventional narrative on India’s multilateralism that was dominated in the past by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the G-77.
- As circumstances change, India is finding new international partners to secure its interests.
Context which gave rise to BRICS
- It started out as a triangular coalition with Russia and China in the mid-1990s.
- India’s interest in the RIC was borne out of fear of the unipolar moment and Russia’s relentless efforts to draw it into a “strategic triangle” that would resist “American hegemony”.
- In the early 1990s, Delhi was rather wary of the Bill Clinton Administration’s plans to relieve India of its nuclear and missile programmes.
- What made matters worse was the Clinton Administration’s formulation that “Kashmir is the world’s most dangerous nuclear flashpoint”.
- This was not just a description; it was accompanied by a prescription for Delhi: Resolve the Kashmir question by sitting down with Pakistan and the Hurriyat.
- If Delhi needs any help, Washington will be happy to chip in.
- Balancing the US pressure: Going into a political tent with Russia and China seemed a sensible bet to ward off American pressures on the nuclear and Kashmir questions.
Two decades after BRICS-Changes in circumstances
- Two decades later, we are in a very different place.
- Take the same two issues — Kashmir and the nuclear programme — that drove India into the BRICS.
- China’s role on Kashmir issue: It is Beijing that wants the UNSC to take up the Kashmir question, and it is Paris and Washington that are preventing it.
- NSG membership blocked by China: China has also resolutely blocked India’s effort to become a full member of the global nuclear order by joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
- On the nuclear front too, it was France and the US that helped India break the nuclear blockade.
- Shielding of Pakistan by China: China shields Pakistan from international pressures to end cross-border terrorism.
- And it is India’s partners in the West and the Muslim world that are helping Delhi cope better with violent extremism.
India’s engagement with Europe
- India has also discovered the new possibilities for engaging Europe in the multilateral arena.
- Europe as an important partner: If India’s definition of multilateralism — Afro-Asian solidarity — immediately after Independence was defined in opposition to colonial Europe, Delhi now sees Europe as a valuable partner in rearranging the global order.
- India has joined the “alliance for multilateralism” initiated by Germany and supported by its European partners.
Conclusion
India needs all the pragmatism it can muster to pursue its interests in a world where all the major global institutions — from the WHO to the WTO — are experiencing unprecedented turmoil and are heading towards an inevitable restructuring.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: e-NAM
Mains level: Alternative Market Channels for Farmers, Limitations of e-NAM
The start of the coronavirus pandemic coincided with the peak vegetable harvesting season. As the markets were locked down, there was a threat to the crop in over 100 lakh hectares in the country.
Alternative Market Channels
- The alternative market channel works on the principles of decentralisation and direct-to-home delivery.
- The idea is to create smaller, less congested markets in urban areas with the participation of farmers’ groups and Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) so that farmers have direct access to consumers.
- It is providing a valuable option against the lockdown when efforts to avoid crowding in the wholesale markets are likely to continue.
Success in Maharashtra
- Maharashtra is one of a handful of states where FPCs are robust.
- The model, implemented by the state Agriculture Department and Maharashtra State Agri Marketing Board (MSAMB), requires urban and rural local bodies and other stakeholders to buy into the agricultural marketing chain.
Innovations in food supply chain management are always a hot topic in mains answers. Talk about decentralization and give examples of a successful implementation and you are all set for a good answer.
How does it work?
- The government and MSAMB identify farmer groups and FPCs, and form clusters; local bodies choose the market sites and link the markets for direct delivery to cooperative housing societies.
- The FPCs and farmers’ groups are allotted space for weekly markets in municipal wards or localities.
- Some producers group park pick-up trucks loaded with fruits and vegetables at the gates of housing societies.
Why need such a mechanism?
- The traffic of both buyers and sellers in these decentralized markets can be controlled more effectively than in wholesale mandis — a key advantage when social distancing is critical.
- Most FPCs have minimized contact, and have taken to selling pre-packed, customised packets of vegetables.
- This will likely help create alternative market chains that could continue even after more normal times return.
Conclusion: A boon for the farmer
- The practices of rudimentary packing, sorting and branding are being inculcated in farmers, as they pack and send pre-ordered packets to housing societies.
- With this, a larger numbers of vegetable growers in Maharashtra have got into direct selling to consumers thus bypassing middlemen.
Also read:
Is e-NAM portal capable of supporting farmers?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Wildlife Protection Act, National Board for Wildlife
Mains level: Environmental clearances: Major bottlenecks in the process
The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) hasn’t met since 2014. Policy decisions and clearances have, meanwhile, come from a standing committee to the dismay of experts.
This newscard is all about the factoids on National Board for Wildlife. The fact that they haven’t met since 2014 makes it interesting for UPSC to quiz you on its details.
About National Board for Wildlife
- The NBWL is constituted by the Central Government under Section 5 A of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (WLPA).
- It serves as an apex body to review all wildlife-related matters and approve projects in and around national parks and sanctuaries.
- The board is advisory in nature and advises the Central Government on framing policies and measures for conservation of wildlife in the country.
Composition
- It is chaired by India’s Prime Minister and its vice-chairman is Minister of Environment.
- The NBWL has 47 members including the chairperson.
- Among these, 19 members are ex-officio members.
- Every new government constitutes a new board, based on the provisions of the WLPA, with the new PM as the chair.
Functioning
- The primary function of the NBWL is to promote the conservation and development of wildlife and forests.
- It has the power to review all wildlife-related matters and approve projects in and around national parks and sanctuaries.
- No alternation of boundaries in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries can be done without the approval of the NBWL.
Working through a Standing Committee
- The National Board may, at its discretion, constitute a Standing Committee.
- The Committee shall consist of the MoEFCC in charge as Vice-Chairperson, Member Secretary and not more than ten members to be nominated by the Vice-Chairperson from amongst the members of the National Board.
- The WLPA mandates that without the approval/recommendation of the NBWL, construction of tourist lodges, alteration of the boundaries of PAs, destruction or diversion of wildlife habitat and de-notification of Tiger Reserves, cannot be done.
Seeking clearances
- Several proposals seeking statutory approvals for such projects come up before the Standing Committee.
- Every proposal requires to be submitted by the State Government in the approved format with complete details (maps, field assessments, alternatives explored…).
- It must also contain the clear opinion of the officer in charge of a PA, the Chief Wildlife Warden and the State Government in consultation with the State Board for Wildlife.
- The Standing Committee will then have to consider such proposals in accordance with the provisions of the WLPA.
Back2Basics: Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
- WPA provides for the protection of the country’s wild animals, birds and plant species, in order to ensure environmental and ecological security.
- It provides for the protection of a listed species of animals, birds and plants, and also for the establishment of a network of ecologically-important protected areas in the country.
- It provides for various types of protected areas such as Wildlife Sanctuaries, National Parks etc.
- There are six schedules provided in the WPA for protection of wildlife species which can be concisely summarized as under:
| Schedule I: |
These species need rigorous protection and therefore, the harshest penalties for violation of the law are for species under this Schedule. |
| Schedule II: |
Animals under this list are accorded high protection. They cannot be hunted except under threat to human life. |
| Schedule III & IV: |
This list is for species that are not endangered. This includes protected species but the penalty for any violation is less compared to the first two schedules. |
| Schedule V: |
This schedule contains animals which can be hunted. |
| Schedule VI: |
This list contains plants that are forbidden from cultivation. |
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Market Intervention Scheme
Mains level: Various price support mechanisms for farmers and issues in their implementation
Fruit and vegetable farmers are facing major losses due to obstacles in harvesting and marketing their perishable produce. The Centre has now directed all the States and UTs to implement the Market Intervention Scheme to ensure remunerative prices for perishable crops.
Market Intervention Scheme
- MIS is a price support mechanism implemented on the request of State Governments for the procurement of perishable and horticultural commodities in the event of a fall in market prices.
- It is implemented when there is at least a 10% increase in production or a 10% decrease in the ruling rates over the previous normal year.
- MIS works in a similar fashion to Minimum Support Price based procurement mechanism for food grains but is an ad-hoc mechanism.
- Its objective is to protect the growers of these horticultural/agricultural commodities from making distress sale in the event of the bumper crop.
- Under MIS, support can be provided in some years, for a limited but defined period, in specified critical markets and by purchasing specified quantities. The initiative has to emerge from the concerned state.
UPSC Prelims can ask a question on the difference between MSP and MIP. All the agricultural and horticultural commodities for which Minimum Support Price (MSP) are not fixed and are generally perishable in nature are covered under Market Intervention Scheme (MIS).
Commodities covered
- The MIS has been implemented in case of commodities like apples, garlic, oranges, grapes, mushrooms, clove, black pepper, pineapple, ginger, red-chillies, coriander seed, chicory, onions, potatoes, cabbage, mustard seed, castor seed, copra, palm oil etc.
Remuneration under MIS
- MIS provides remunerative prices to the farmers in case of glut in production and fall in prices.
- Proposal of MIS is approved on the specific request of State/UT Government, if they are ready to bear 50% loss (25% in case of North-Eastern States), if any, incurred on its implementation.
- Further, the extent of total amount of loss shared is restricted to 25% of the total procurement value which includes cost of the commodity procured plus permitted overhead expenses.
Implementation of MIS
1) Market Intervention Price (MIP)
- The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation is implementing the scheme.
- Under the MIS, a pre-determined quantity at a fixed MIP is procured by NAFED as the Central agency.
- There are other agencies designated by the state government for a fixed period or till the prices are stabilized above the MIP whichever is earlier.
- The area of operation is restricted to the concerned state only.
2) Funds transfer
- Under MIS, funds are not allocated to the States.
- Instead, central share of losses as per the guidelines of MIS is released to the State Governments/UTs, for which MIS has been approved, based on specific proposals received from them.
The last 2 heads that you just read, Renumeration & Implementation, they have a lot of information on which you can be quizzed by UPSC Prelims. Make a note of the agency, %age share, state vs. center responsibility
Back2Basics: Minimum Support Price
- Minimum support price (MSP) is one of the instruments of Agricultural Price Policy (APP).
- The basic intent of announcing MSP before the sowing season is to help farmers take a sowing decision keeping in mind that if they are not able to get a reasonable price by selling in the market, at least they will be able to get the MSP.
- In that sense, MSP is an assured or guaranteed price (insured price).
For additional reading on MSP, navigate to:
Price Support Mechanism under MSP Operations
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3- Stimulus package on the lines of package declared by developed countries is necessary for Indian economy to deal with the pandemic.
Context
The lockdown and other movement restrictions, backed by scientific and political consensus on their inevitability, have directly led to a dramatic slowdown in economic activity across the board. What is its impact on the Indian economy? This question calls for an urgent answer.
The methodology used to estimate the impact
- We provide an initial, quantitative response, using a methodology that is based on the technique of input-output (IO) models, first elaborated by the economist Wassily Leontief.
- How the model works: Such models provide detailed sector-wise information of output and consumption in different sectors of the economy and their inter-linkages, along with the sum total of wages, profits, savings, and expenditures in each sector and by each section of final consumers (households, government, etc.).
- Crucially, it pays attention to intermediate consumption, namely consumption by some sectors of the output of other sectors (as well as consumption within their own sector).
- Advantage of the model: The key advantage of such a model is that it allows the calculation of the impact of any change in any sector in both direct and indirect terms, which has made this model somewhat ubiquitous in the computation of the economic impact of disasters.
- This also renders it well-suited to estimating the economic consequences of COVID-19.
- Regrettably, the last officially published IO table for India was for the year 2007-2008.
- In our estimates, we use the IO tables for India published by the World Input-Output Database for the year 2014 that updates the IO tables for individual countries using time series of national income statistics.
- To calculate the impact of the lockdown, there are four different scenarios of the number of workdays lost in different sectors.
- How daily output loss is calculated? Assuming that the estimated annual output is distributed uniformly across the year, it is possible to calculate the daily output and therefore the daily output loss.
- The direct and indirect impacts of the lockdown are then estimated using IO multipliers which are assumed to be constant.
- We then calculate the percentage decline in the national gross domestic product (GDP) of 2019-2020 that this impact amounts to.
What is the impact on various sectors?
- Loss at 7% to 33% of GDP: Model (see table) shows that the loss of GDP ranges from ₹17 lakh crore (7% of GDP) in the most conservative scenario, where the average number of output days lost is only 13, to ₹73 lakh crore (33% of GDP) in the most impactful scenario, where the number of days of lost output averages 67.
- In intermediate scenarios of 27 and 47 days of lost output, the GDP decline is ₹29 lakh crore (13% of GDP) and ₹51 lakh crore (23% of GDP), respectively.
- OECD estimate: These estimates also accord well with other estimates, such as those of the OECD that suggest a 20% loss to GDP for India.
- Impact of varying lockdown period: Even assuming that sectors will have varying lockdown periods, all sectors face serious losses due to their
- If we take the scenario where a prolonged lockdown happens, averaging about 47 days across sectors, we find that the mining sector faces the largest drop of 42% in value-added despite that sector itself being shut down for, say, 35 days.
- The electricity sector sees a 29% fall in value-added, even though it faces no shut down per se.
- Losses are expected across all sectors in terms of both wage compensation and the availability of working capital.
Incorporation of feedback effect in estimates
- The linear character of our estimates, intrinsic to IO analysis, does not allow incorporation of feedback effects and assumes that output commences where it left off without further constraints.
- An attempt has been made to correct for this by using a varying number of days of output loss across sectors, but this is quite possibly inadequate to capture the continuing economic impact.
- We are faced today with a unique situation where both supply and demand have collapsed in several sectors.
- Impact on agriculture: In some sectors such as agriculture, the impact may manifest in the delayed fashion, if the anti-COVID-19 measures, or the pandemic itself, affects agricultural operations in the next the kharif season, even if, as reports suggest, much of this year’s rabi has been successfully harvested.
- The shortfall in export not accounted for: Given the database, we are using and the initial character of our analyses we have also not explicitly accounted for possible shortfalls in exports due to lack of demand elsewhere in the world, as well as the unavailability of intermediate imported goods that are crucial for the Indian economy.
- Nor are we able to adequately separate the impact on the informal sector, that is partially aggregated with the formal sector in the database that we are using and partially unaccounted for due to lack of data.
Need for the huge stimulus package
- The most striking feature of even this simple calculation is the all-round pervasive impact on the economy of the anti-COVID-19 measures that we are currently undertaking and that are likely to continue in modified form for a short period.
- Measures such as debt relief, postponement of revenue and tax collections, immediate relief in cash and kind to the poor, and revamping and scaling up public distribution are all undoubtedly necessary but far from sufficient.
- Our numbers suggest that the resort to huge stimulus packages that developed countries have already started putting in place is by no means mistaken.
Way forward
- Package for all the sectors of the economy: We need to compensate and pump cash into the hands of not only wage workers in the formal and informal sectors, and also into the livelihood activities of the informal sector.
- But businesses too need to be primed with handouts in the case of small and medium enterprises, and with a variety of concessions even in the case of larger businesses.
- It is critical to preserve the productive capacities of the Indian economy across the board. The annual budget of the current year, already passed, clearly cannot cope with such a massive effort and needs to be revisited by suitable parliamentary measures.
- Caring too much about fiscal deficit will not be helpful: Redistributing expenditure, seeking to keep the fiscal deficit “under control” as it were, through measures such as cutting back on government salaries, are unlikely to be helpful.
- Apart from sending the wrong signal to private sector employers, who have so far been exhorted to maintain salaries and wages during the lockdown, it is quite likely to lead to further reduction in demand since the government is the biggest employer in the country.
- Ensure the key role of the state: Finally, one must note that the current crisis is not a transformatory moment for the Indian economy, even if the scale of the impact and recovery process will undoubtedly push the economy in new directions.
- But “greening” the economy or more radical transformative measures are not particularly relevant in its current state.
- What is needed is ensuring the key role of the state to lift up an economy that is in danger of being brought to its knees, and to restore some semblance of its normal rhythm, by an unprecedented scale of state investment.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2-In fight against covid-19 epidemic we must follow the principles of international laws and treaty obligations.
Context
Amid the many developments in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic one of the facets that is also discussed is-How to read international law in the context of the pointers to the future?
Constitutional duty regarding international laws
- Respect for the norms and standards of international law is among the paramount constitutional duties of the state under Article 51 of the Constitution.
- The duty is regardless of the quibbles on whether the language here refers only to treaty/obligations or also to customary international law.
- International norms remain relevant: Despite US President Donald Trump’s recent threat of actions against the WHO, international norms, standards, and doctrines remain relevant to making national policy and law.
Possibility of discussion over pandemic at UNSC
- The difference between the United Nations as a site of normative discursivity and as a site of doing global power politics is sadly manifest even now in the accelerated pace of the pandemic.
- Discussion extremely unlikely: President Trump’s insistence on calling it a “Chinese virus” renders it extremely unlikely that the pandemic will be discussed during the current monthly presidency of the UN Security Council by China.
- Possibility of veto: The threat of veto by China and Russia will always loom large whenever the matter is placed for discussion.
Role of the UN in the codification of law
- The UN is also a site of systems of norm enunciation.
- Along with the International Law Commission, it is responsible for the progressive codification of law.
- The UN system has developed lawmaking and framework treaties as well as provided auspices for systems of “soft” law that may eventually become the binding law.
- There are three types of international laws which are described below.
1. The fundamental overriding principle of international laws
- Jus cogens: Some of the norms of international law are robust and deeply relevant. For example, the peremptory jus cogens — a few fundamental, overriding principles of international law such as crimes against humanity, genocide, and human trafficking apply to all states.
- And Article 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties goes so far as to declare that a “treaty is void if, at the time of its conclusion, it conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law”.
- And even when ingredients of genocide remain difficult to prove, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has held, in 2007, that states have a duty to prevent and punish acts and omissions that eventually furnish elements for the commission of crime of genocide.
- Erga omnes: There also exist erga omnes rules prescribing specifically-determined obligations which states owe to the international community as a whole.
- This was enunciated by the ICJ in 1970 for four situations — the outlawing of acts of aggression; the outlawing of genocide; protection from slavery; and protection from racial discrimination.
- A great significance of this judicial dictum is that it lays down obligations which transcend consensual relations among states.
- In addition, there are three other sets of international law obligations.
- These are primarily derived from the no-harm principles crystallised in the International Law Commission’s 2001 Draft Articles on the Prevention of Transboundary Harm (DAPTH) and the Paris Framework Agreement on Climate Change, 2015.
- The DAPTH has carefully developed norms of due diligence, stressing all the way that these may be adapted to contextual exigencies.
- But due diligence obligations certainly extend beyond local and national boundaries, especially because the environmental problems have a transboundary impact.
- Each state is obliged to observe these standards in the fight against COVID-19 as a matter of international law.
2. International laws dealing with core human right measures
- No law or policy to combat epidemics or pandemic can go against the rights of migrant workers, internally displaced peoples, and refugees and asylum seekers.
- Respect for the inherent dignity of individuals in combating COVID-19 and for the rights of equal health for all, non-discrimination, and the norms of human dignity further reinforce accountability and the transparency of state and other social actors.
- Panicky and sadist policing, including shoot-a- sight orders in collective exodus situations, and militaristic responses to food riots de-justify health lockouts and curfews.
3. International humanitarian law
- The third set of obligations arises out of international humanitarian law. The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) is pertinent here.
- India did not subscribe to any conspiracy or racist theory about the origins of COVID-19 — in fact, India’s foreign minister rightly affirmed the BTWC obligations on March 26 (on the 40th anniversary of that Convention).
- Surely, this global and non-discriminatory disarmament convention deserves applause because it outlaws a whole range of weapons of mass destruction.
- India has, and rightly so, called for “high priority” to “full and effective implementation by all states parties”.
Conclusion
The starting point of a determined fight against COVID-19 has to be a full-throated repudiation of an ancient Latin maxim, inter arma enim silent leges (in times of war, the law falls silent). Combating this fearsome pandemic calls for re-dedication to nested international law obligations and frameworks.
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