Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Gains against HIV
The article highlights the achievement in the fight against AIDS. Most significant are the achievements in the prevention of transmission from mother-to-child.
Significant gains
- As per recently released 2019 HIV estimates by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)/Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with the technical support of UNAIDS there has been a 66.1% reduction in new HIV infections among children and a 65.3% reduction in AIDS-related deaths in India over a nine-year period.
- The number of pregnant women living with HIV has reduced from 31,000 in 2010 to 20,000 in 2019.
- Overall, antenatal coverage has expanded, and HIV testing has increased over time and within target range.
- Treatment coverage has also expanded.
Progress in preventing mother to child transmission
- Under the leadership of NACO, a ‘Fast-Tracking of EMTCT (elimination of mother-to-child transmission) strategy-cum-action plan’ was outlined by June 2019.
- The plan entailed mobilisation and reinforcement of all national, State and partners’ collective efforts to achieve the EMTCT goal.
- Additionally, in March 2020, we began efforts to minimise challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- From 2010 to 2019, India made important progress in reducing the HIV impact on children through prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
- This was done through education and communication programmes; increased access to HIV services with innovative delivery mechanisms for HIV testing; counselling and care; and treatment and follow-ups.
- India made HIV testing for all pregnant women free and HIV treatment is offered the same way nationwide without cost to pregnant mothers living with HIV through the national ‘treat all’ policy.
- For two years UNICEF has worked with the World Health Organization and NACO to identify high burden districts (in terms of density of pregnant women living with HIV) as the last mile towards disease elimination.
- Since 2002, when the EMTCT of HIV programmes were launched in India, a series of policy, programmatic and implementation strategies were rolled out so that all pregnant women can access free HIV testing and free treatment regimens for life to prevent HIV transmission from mothers to babies.
- This has been made possible in government health centres and grass-root level workers through village health and nutrition days and other grass-roots events under the National Health Mission.
- Indeed, the approach being promoted by UNICEF in focusing attention and resources in high burden districts is supported by the HIV strategic information division of NACO and UNAIDS to better understand the locations and populations most HIV affected, so that technical support and HIV services can be directed towards these areas.
Conclusion
Using data-driven and decision-making approaches it is certain that AIDS will no longer be a public health threat for children in India by the end of 2030, if not before.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BBIN, SAARC
Mains level: Paper 2- Economic progress of Bangladesh and its implications for the subcontinent
Bangladesh is expected to cross India in terms per capita income. This speaks volumes about the achievements of Bangladesh when contrasted with Pakistan. At the same time, it has several implications for the region. The elaborates on such implications.
What other countries can learn from Bangladesh
- The International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook published recently predicts that Bangladesh’s per capita GDP will overtake that of India this year.
- The projected difference is rather small — $1,888 to $1,877 — and unlikely to last beyond this year.
- International development institutions are convinced that the rest of the subcontinent and developing countries around the world can learn much from Dhaka’s experience — the so-called “Bangladesh model”.
5 Implications for the region
1) Rising global interest in the subcontinent
- Rapid and sustained economic growth in Bangladesh has begun to alter the world’s perception of the subcontinent.
- India and Pakistan dominated the region and other countries were considered small.
- But Bangladesh was far from being small, demographically it’s the eighth-largest nation in the world.
- The economic rise of Bangladesh is changing some of that.
2) Changing economic weights of Bangladesh and Pakistan
- This year, Bangladesh’s GDP is expected to reach about $320 billion.
- The IMF did not have the 2020 numbers from Pakistan to report but in 2019, Pakistan’s economy was at $275 billion.
- The IMF suggests that Pakistan’s economy will contract further this year.
- Bangladesh has controlled its population growth and Pakistan has not.
- Dhaka has a grip over its inflation and Islamabad does not.
- There is no question that Pakistan’s negative geopolitical weight in the world will endure.
- But Bangladesh’s growing economic muscle will help Dhaka steadily accumulate geopolitical salience in the years ahead.
3) Accelerate regional integration
- Bangladesh’s economic growth can accelerate regional integration in the eastern subcontinent.
- The region’s prospects for a collective economic advance are rather dim.
- Due to Pakistan’s opposition to economic cooperation with India and its support for cross-border terror, the main regional forum for the subcontinent, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), is dormant.
- Instead of merely praying for the revival of Saarc, Delhi could usefully focus on the BBIN.
- BBIN is sub-regional forum among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal, activated in the middle of last decade — has not advanced fast enough.
- It is time for Delhi and Dhaka to take a fresh look at the forum and find ways to widen the scope and pace of BBIN activity.
- Meanwhile, there is growing interest in Bhutan and Nepal for economic integration with Bangladesh.
4) Increasing importance of Bangladesh in geopolitics of Indo-Pacific
- The economic success of Bangladesh is drawing attention from a range of countries in East Asia, including China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.
- The US, which traditionally focused on India and Pakistan, has woken up to the possibilities in Bangladesh.
- Bangladesh does not want to get into the fight between Beijing and Washington, but the great power wooing of Dhaka is bound to intensify in the new geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific.
5) Development of India’s eastern and north-eastern states could accelerate
- Bangladesh’s economy is now one-and-a-half times as large as that of West Bengal; better integration between the two would provide a huge boost for eastern India.
- Also, connectivity between India’s landlocked Northeast and Bangladesh would provide a boost to the development of north-eastern states.
- Delhi and Dhaka are eager to promote greater cooperation, but there has been little political enthusiasm in Kolkata.
- In Assam, the issue of migration continues to impose major political constraints.
Way forward
- Parliamentary approval of the boundary settlement in 2015, despite the opposition, was a step in the right direction from India.
- So was the acceptance of the 2014 international arbitration award on the maritime boundary dispute between India and Bangladesh.
- But the positive dynamic surrounding the bilateral relationship acquired a negative tone in the second amidst the poisonous rhetoric in India around the Citizenship Amendment Act.
- There is much room for course correction in Delhi and to shift the focus from legacy issues to future possibilities.
Conclusion
Both the countries need to jointly develop and pursue with Dhaka an ambitious framework for shared prosperity.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Doha Accord
Mains level: Paper 3- Threat of terrorism
We have been spared of some unfortunate news of terrorist attacks in the recent past, however, it would be mistake to discount the threat posed by the terrorist organisations especially when we consider the backdrop of Doha Accord. The article deals with the threat of terrorism.
Declining support
- Terrorist organisations like Taliban, al-Qaeda, Islamic State, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) have been dormant during a pandemic.
- This is partly explained by the fact that open terror attacks have been reducing, presumably because:
- 1) Terror outfits lack resources.
- 2) Because of temporary loss of support from those normally hostile to the non-Islamic world and tolerant Muslims.
- However, given their past resilience, they continue to pose threats to modern society, especially to India and its neighbourhood.
But threat persists
- These terrorist organisations continue to be attractive to misguided youth in India whose loyalties are extraterritorial.
- Their numbers may not be formidable, but they can cause a ripple effect that cannot be underestimated.
- Terrorist cells are probably engaged in the quiet process of collecting resources for future lethal assaults against India and other countries in the neighbourhood.
- Once the pandemic eases, we may see a resurgence of terror.
- The aggravation of poverty in developing nations due to COVID-19 could offer a fertile ground for recruitment.
- The al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are carrying out their recruitment undiminished by the problems posed by the pandemic.
- Only these two outfits have an impressive global reach backed by global ambitions.
What are the implications of Doha Accord?
- The Doha Accord signed this year between the Taliban and the U.S., which has brought about an improved relationship between the two.
- The U.S. has agreed to a near-total withdrawal of its troops in return for the Taliban’s promise to preserve peace in Afghanistan.
- The Taliban and the al-Qaeda need each other in many areas.
- Both are friendly towards Pakistan and could pose a problem or two to India in the near future.
- Many recent raids by the National Investigation Agency point to an al-Qaeda network in India.
- Once the situation gets better, the al-Qaeda, in cahoots with other aggressive Islamic outfits in and around Pakistan, is bound to escalate the offensive against India.
- This is one factor that makes the al-Qaeda and other terror outfits still relevant to India’s security calculus.
Consider the question “What are the implications of Doha Acord for India’s security architecture?”
Conclusion
The threat posed by the changing geopolitical landscape is bound to increase in the coming days and hence India should prepare itself to tackle the challenge.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Regulatory sandbox
Mains level: Paper 3- Regulatory sandbox
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has introduced a framework for Regulatory Sandbox to tap into innovative Fin-tech solutions.
Try answering this simple question:
Q.What is Regulatory Sandbox? What are its salient features?
Regulatory Sandbox
- A regulatory sandbox usually refers to live testing of new products or services in a controlled/test regulatory environment for which regulators may permit certain regulatory relaxations for the limited purpose of the testing.
- The objective of the sandbox is to foster responsible innovation in financial services, promote efficiency and bring benefit to consumers.
- It provides a secure environment for fintech firms to experiment with products under supervision of a regulator.
- It is an infrastructure that helps fintech players live test their products or solutions, before getting the necessary regulatory approvals for a mass launch, saving start-ups time and cost.
Its inception
- The concept of a regulatory sandbox or innovation hub for fintech firms was mooted by a committee headed by then RBI executive director Sudarshan Sen.
- The panel submitted its report in Nov 2017 has called for a regulatory sandbox to help firms experiment with fintech solutions, where the consequences of failure can be contained and reasons for failure analysed.
- If the product appears to have the potential to be successful, it might be authorised and brought to the broader market more quickly.
What is the new framework?
- IFSCA has introduced a framework for “Regulatory Sandbox”.
Under this Sandbox framework, entities operating in the capital market, banking, insurance and financial services space shall be granted certain facilities and flexibilities.
- It will experiment with innovative FinTech solutions in a live environment with a limited set of real customers for a limited time frame.
- These features shall be fortified with necessary safeguards for investor protection and risk mitigation. The Regulatory Sandbox shall operate within the IFSC located at GIFT City (Gandhinagar).
- IFSCA shall assess the applications and extend suitable regulatory relaxations to commence limited purpose testing in the Sandbox.
Other propositions
- As additional steps towards creating an innovation-centric ecosystem, the IFSCA has proposed the creation of an “Innovation Sandbox”.
- It will be a testing environment where Fin-tech firms can test their solutions in isolation from the live market.
- This would be based on market related data made available by the Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs) operating in the IFSC.
- The Innovation Sandbox will be managed and facilitated by the MIIs operating within the IFSC.
Back2Basics: GIFT City, Gandhinagar
- GIFT city is India’s first operational smart city and international financial services centre (much like a modern IT park).
- The idea for GIFT was conceived during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor Summit 2007 and the initial planning was done by East China Architectural Design & Research Institute (ECADI).
- Currently approximately 225 units/companies are operational with more than 12000 professionals employed in the City.
- The entire city is based on concept of FTTX (Fibre to the home / office).The fiber optic is laid in fault tolerant ring architecture so as to ensure maximum uptime of services.
- Every building in GIFT City is an intelligent building. There is piped supply of cooking gas. India’s first city-level DCS (district cooling system) is also operational at GIFT City.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Countries participating in exerciese
Mains level: Paper 3- Defence exercises
Upping the ante against China amid the ongoing LAC confrontations, Australia has formally accepted India’s invite for the upcoming Malabar Exercise.
About Ex. Malabar
- Exercise Malabar is a trilateral naval exercise involving the United States, Japan and India as permanent partners.
- Originally begun in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between India and the United States, Japan became a permanent partner in 2015.
- Past non-permanent participants are Australia and Singapore.
- The annual Malabar series began in 1992 and includes diverse activities, ranging from fighter combat operations from aircraft carriers through Maritime Interdiction Operations Exercises.
Significance of Australia’s inclusion
- Earlier, India had concerns that it would give the appearance of a “quadrilateral military alliance” aimed at China.
- Now both look forward to the cooperation in the ‘Indo-Pacific’ and the strengthening of defence ties.
- This has led to a convergence of mutual interest in many areas for a better understanding of regional and global issues.
- Both are expected to conclude the long-pending Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) as part of measures to elevate the strategic partnership.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cultivation of heeng
Mains level: Paper 3- Heeng cultivation in India
Farmers of the remote Lahaul valley in Himachal Pradesh are taking up cultivation of asafoetida (Heeng) to utilize vast expanses of waste land in the cold desert conditions of the region.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which one of the following reflects back more sunlight as compared to other three?
(a) Sand desert
(b) Paddy crop land
(c) Land covered with fresh snow
(d) Prairie land
Asafoetida cultivation in India
- Asafoetida is one of the top condiments and is a high-value spice crop in India.
- Raw asafoetida is extracted from the fleshy roots of Ferula assafoetida as an oleo-gum resin.
- Although, there are about 130 species of Ferula found in the world, but only Ferula asafoetidais the economically important species used for the production of asafoetida.
Why cultivate it?
- Heeng is not cultivated in India.
- Government data states that India imports about 1,200 tonnes of raw heeng worth Rs 600 crore from Iran, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
Regions for its cultivation
- Asafoetida best grows in dry and cold conditions.
- The plant can withstand a maximum temperature between 35 and 40 degree, whereas during winters, it can survive in temperatures up to minus 4 degree.
- During extreme weather, the plant can get dormant.
- Regions with sandy soil, very little moisture and annual rainfall of not more than 200mm are considered conducive for heeng cultivation in India.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: District Development Councils
Mains level: Paper 2- DDCs in J and K
The Centre has amended the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989, to facilitate the setting up of District Development Councils (DDC).
Tap to read more about: Reorganization of J&K
What are DDCs?
- DDCs structure will include a DDC and a District Planning Committee (DPC).
- The J&K administration has also amended the J&K Panchayati Raj Rules, 1996, to provide for establishment of elected District Development Councils in J&K.
- This system effectively replaces the District Planning and Development Boards in all districts, and will prepare and approve district plans and capital expenditure.
Composition of DDCs
- Their key feature, however, is that the DDCs will have elected representatives from each district.
- Their number has been specified at 14 elected members per district representing its rural areas, alongside the Members of
- Legislative Assembly chairpersons of all Block Development Councils within the district.
Term of reference
- The term of the DDC will be five years, and the electoral process will allow for reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women.
- The Additional District Development Commissioner (or the Additional DC) of the district shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the District Development Council.
- The council, as stated in the Act, will hold at least four “general meetings” in a year, one in each quarter.
What will be the process here onward?
- The 14 constituencies for electing representatives to the DDC will have to be delimited.
- These constituencies will be carved out of the rural areas of the district, and elected members will subsequently elect a chairperson and a vice-chairperson of the DDC from among themselves.
Within the third tier, where do the DDCs fit in?
- The DDCs replace the District Planning and Development Boards (DDBs) that were headed by a cabinet minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
- For Jammu and Srinagar districts, as winter and summer capitals, the DDBs were headed by the Chief Minister.
However, for Leh and Kargil districts, the Autonomous Hill Development Councils performed the functions designated for the DDBs.
How will DPC work, then?
- For every district there will be DPC comprising MPs representing the area, Members of the State Legislature representing the areas within the District etc. among others.
- The MP will function as the chairperson of this committee.
- The committee will “consider and guide” the formulation of development programmes for the district.
- It would indicate priorities for various schemes and consider issues relating to the speedy development and economic uplift of the district.
- It would function as a working group for formulation of periodic and annual plans for the district; and formulate and finalise the plan and non-plan budget for the district.
Centre’s objective behind this new structure
- The J&K administration in a statement said that the move to have an elected third tier of the Panchayati Raj institution marks the implementation of the entire 73rd Amendment Act in J&K.
- The idea is that systems that had been made defunct by earlier J&K governments such as the panchayati raj system are being revived under the Centre’s rule in the state through the Lieutenant Governor’s administration.
- In the absence of elected representatives in the UT, senior government officials argue that DDCs will effectively become representative bodies for development at the grassroots in the 20 districts of the UT.
- They hope that this may draw some former legislators in as well.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now