Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Nutrition safety
The article highlights the issue of nutrition and suggest the ways to achieve nutrition security in the country to drive sustainable growth for India.
Nutrition in India
- A recent United Nations report- The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2020 highlighted that there are 189.2 million undernourished people in India.
- Even though this number has declined by 60 million over the past decade, the progress is far too slow.
- While we recorded a drop in undernourishment, obesity amongst Indian adults grew from 25.2 million in 2012 to 34.3 million in 2016.
- India is likely to miss the 2025 global nutrition targets according to the Global Nutrition Report 2020, unless more is done, soon.
Impact of POSHAN Abhiyan
- With the launch of POSHAN Abhiyan in 2018, the government mainstreamed nutrition, with this multi-ministerial and multi-sectoral approach.
- It converges all existing programs to improve the nutritional status of pregnant women, mothers and children.
- It brings together several programs such as National Rural Health Mission, Mid-Day meals, Integrated Child Development Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and others to improve nutrition intake in India.
- The success lies in following an outcome based approach to ensure all the benefits under these interventions are delivered to mothers and children within the first 1000 days, setting the base for healthier lives.
Micronutrients through food fortification
- Food fortification is another effective way to deliver micronutrients to Indian masses, through existing food delivery systems such as mid-day meals and the public distribution system.
- Regulators have already been promoting fortification in food products like salt, edible oil, milk, rice and wheat flour to improve nutritional content.
- Going forward, we will see more and more food products and crops getting covered.
Need for innovation
- It is crucial for the food and beverage industry to make nutrition an integral part of their strategy.
- Healthier ingredients, fortification, reformulation to reduce saturated and trans-fat content and optimize sugar and sodium content, immunity boosting product is already commonplace across urban markets.
- This will soon permeate to rural markets.
- Factors such as product taste, convenience, shelf life, and price – all of which determine consumption – are also important elements that ensure higher intake of nutritious products by consumers everywhere.
- This calls for more innovation. Innovation in product, pricing, technology, digitalization, and research and development by food companies.
Rising nutrition awareness
- Solving the problem of malnourishment has to start with awareness.
- In rural areas, general nutritional awareness has historically been lower.
- In urban areas even though people are generally more aware a large percentage still consumes excess sugar and salt, leads sedentary lifestyles coupled with lack of exercise, resulting in lifestyle diseases like diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure
- Consumers everywhere need to be better educated about nutritional benefits of common food items and the importance of including them in regular diet.
- This can be done effectively through government led awareness campaigns and healthy public food distribution initiatives, industry acting responsibly.
Conclusion
Good nutrition is the best investment we can make in human capital. It has the power to drive sustainable economic growth for India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ASEAN and RCEP
Mains level: Paper 2-Implications of not signing RCEP for India
India’s challenges from RCEP didn’t end by staying out of it. Remaining out of the RCEP has several implications for India. This article discusses such challenges.
What RCEP mean for the region
- The RCEP was finally signed by its 15 members on the sidelines of the Asean Summit last week without India.
- This would make it a trade deal that includes the ten Asean economies, and all of Asean’s bilateral FTA partners, except India.
- It would create new market access for China and Japan-the two largest economies of the group.
- China, Japan and Korea were negotiating a trilateral trade pact, which now might become inconsequential following RCEP.
- In this respect, RCEP would actually produce much greater market access outside of the Asean, among non-Asean members China, Japan and Korea.
- Asean’s specific market access gains would be over and above those that are already available through various Asean+1 FTAs.
- Additional market access gains would be more with respect to China, in terms of the additional tariff coverage and concessions that RCEP would provide.
Implications for China
- Apart from the additional preferential access it obtains, it is also able to pull off strategic dividends.
- As the RCEP proceeds, it would establish China’s decisive say in writing the rules of trade in the region through the RCEP.
- And this is precisely what the US would be wary of.
Implications for the U.S.
- President Obama had pitched the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as an obvious and essential alternative for counterbalancing Chinese strategic domination of the regional trade game.
- The US was taken out of the TPP by President Trump.
- The remaining members managed to salvage the deal, largely due to the spirited leadership provided by Japan and Australia.
- While the TPP survives as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
- But CPTPP is incapable of being a strategic counterweight to China, and the RCEP.
- Nothing other than a CPTPP that includes the US would be able to counterbalance China in economic size and strategic clout.
Way forward
- The Quad—a security partnership between the US, Japan, India and Australia—is looking to expand beyond defence and assume broader strategic proportions.
- Geopolitics is contributing significantly to the construction of economic alliances, including the reorganisation of regional supply chains.
- Due to these factros, search for an Indo-Pacific trade and economic compact is likely to hasten following the conclusion of RCEP.
- Following RCEP, and the almost non-existent possibility of returning to its fold, India too, might find itself working actively on moving towards an Indo-Pacific trade deal.
- The RCEP, which has a sizeable number of key Indo-Pacific economies like Japan, Australia, Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia, would need to stick to these countries to stick to the trade agreement after its ratification.
Conclusion
RCEP might actually force the U.S to look at returning to CPTPP much more proactively than it might have imagined. It would also, expectedly, look at India to join the bloc. That would be another challenge to navigate. India’s challenges from the RCEP might have increased in spite of staying out of it.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Policy framework for adaptation of technology
The changing realm of technology requires a change in the policy framework. The article discusses the issue of the impact of technology and the required changes in the policy framework.
Adoption of information-based technologies
- The expansion of computing power has driven the pace of information gathering and analysis.
- The new currency drives processes and decision-making across a wide array of products and services, making them more efficient and value accretive for consumers.
- These information-based technologies have been widely adopted across a broad range of industries and products that traditionally have not been perceived as electronic or software based.
- A modern automobile has 40% of its component value from electronic-based products.
- This is a paradigm shift as the amount of “value add” from intangible technology services as opposed to physical objects, even in traditional goods, is being transformed by information.
- Information and electronics are becoming all-pervasive, ensuring that we set boundaries to control quality or the uptime of the equipment.
- Information availability drives efficiency and creates value for customers by providing greater control over the product
- There is increasing digitisation and electronification of industrial activities, products and services, influencing the evolving skill sets in industry.
Need for holistic views in policies
- To address the needs of various stakeholders, governments have tended to build specialised departments and designed policies that govern those areas.
- Over time, as each of these departments grew, they have tended to operate in silos.
- The recent developments in technology have, however, blurred standard boundaries that dictate policy framework in most governments.
- As technology is driving an increasing share of the value add coming from digitisation and data analytics, there needs to be a way of encouraging capital formation by way of intangibles in traditionally tangible industries.
- There is a need to have a holistic view of policies for economic development as technology is becoming a significant enabler in most industries.
- A change in policy framework regarding economic development that enables various ministries to work together is essential.
Way forward
- A nourishing ecosystem for industry, including the hard infrastructure and softer areas such as education, skilling, technical institutions, laboratories, testing centres, etc., has to be cultivated.
- The creation of clusters of companies in adjacent but complementary areas could constitute such an ecosystem that encourages multi and cross-disciplinary learning and spur innovation and economic development.
- Moreover, this type of ecosphere could also attract investment and capital formation.
- There is also the larger issue of a shift of value between manufacturing and services as technology changes.
- The policy, by and large, promotes and gives incentives for manufacturing, whereas the share of intangibles are not adequately covered in industrial policies.
- It is important to include these to encourage innovation and technological development.
- It is important that there is close cooperation and alignment between the Centre and State to ensure effective implementation on the ground.
Conclusion
Some of these thoughts could help us navigate through an ecosystem that is changing with technology.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Recusal of Judges
Mains level: Judicial conduct and associated issues
A Justice of the Supreme Court has recused himself from hearing a petition that sought action against the Andhra Pradesh CM for levelling political allegations against an AP High Court judge.
Can you list down some basic principles of judicial conduct?
Independence, Impartiality, Integrity, Propriety, Competence and diligence and Equality are some of them as listed under the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct.
What is the Recusal of Judges?
- Recusal is the removal of oneself as a judge or policymaker in a particular matter, especially because of a conflict of interest.
- Recusal usually takes place when a judge has a conflict of interest or has a prior association with the parties in the case.
- For example, if the case pertains to a company in which the judge holds stakes, the apprehension would seem reasonable.
- Similarly, if the judge has, in the past, appeared for one of the parties involved in a case, the call for recusal may seem right.
- A recusal inevitably leads to delay. The case goes back to the Chief Justice, who has to constitute a fresh Bench.
Rules on Recusals
- There are no written rules on the recusal of judges from hearing cases listed before them in constitutional courts. It is left to the discretion of a judge.
- The reasons for recusal are not disclosed in an order of the court. Some judges orally convey to the lawyers involved in the case their reasons for recusal, many do not. Some explain the reasons in their order.
- The decision rests on the conscience of the judge. At times, parties involved raise apprehensions about a possible conflict of interest.
Issues with recusal
- Recusal is also regarded as the abdication of duty. Maintaining institutional civilities are distinct from the fiercely independent role of the judge as an adjudicator.
- In his separate opinion in the NJAC judgment in 2015, Justice Kurian Joseph highlighted the need for judges to give reasons for recusal as a measure to build transparency.
- It is the constitutional duty, as reflected in one’s oath, to be transparent and accountable, and hence, a judge is required to indicate reasons for his recusal from a particular case, he ruled.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RCEP
Mains level: Economic implications for India
Even as India opted to stay out after walking out of discussions last year, the new trading bloc has made it clear that the door will remain open for India to return to the negotiating table.
Must read:
China-led RCEP takes off without India
Try answering this also:
Q.Signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement would have given more substance to India’s Act East policy. Analyse.
Why did India walk out?
- India decided to exit RCEP negotiations over “significant outstanding issues”.
- Its decision was to safeguard the interests of industries like agriculture and dairy and to give an advantage to the country’s services sector.
- The current structure of RCEP still does not address these issues and concerns.
How far is China’s presence a factor?
(1) Escalated tensions
- Escalated tension with China is considered to be a major reason for India’s decision.
- Major issues that were unresolved during RCEP negotiations were related to the exposure that India would have to China.
(2) Surge in imports
- This included India’s fears that there was “inadequate” protection against surges in imports.
- It felt there could also be a possible circumvention of rules of origin— the criteria used to determine the national source of a product.
- In the absence of this, other partner countries could dump their products by routing them through other countries that enjoyed lower tariffs.
(3) Inability for countermeasures
- India was unable to ensure countermeasures like an auto-trigger mechanism to raise tariffs on products when their imports crossed a certain threshold.
- It also wanted RCEP to exclude most-favoured-nation (MFN) obligations from the investment, especially to countries with which it has border disputes.
(4) No assurance of market access to India
- RCEP also lacked clear assurance over market access issues in countries such as China and non-tariff barriers on Indian companies.
- The agreement would have forced India to extend benefits given to other countries for sensitive sectors like defence to all RCEP members.
(5) Trade balances paradox
- India’s stance on the deal also comes as a result of learnings from unfavourable trade balances that it has with several RCEP members, with some of which it even has Free Trade Agreements.
- India has trade deficits with 11 of the 15 RCEP countries, and some experts feel that India has been unable to leverage its existing FTAs with several RCEP members to increase exports.
What can the decision cost India?
- There are concerns that India’s decision would impact its bilateral trade ties with RCEP member nations, as they may be more inclined to focus on bolstering economic ties within the bloc.
- The move could potentially leave India with less scope to tap the large market that RCEP presents —the size of the deal is mammoth, as the countries involved account for over 2 billion of the world’s population.
- Given attempts by countries like Japan to get India back into the deal, there are also worries that India’s decision could impact the Australia-India-Japan network in the Indo-Pacific.
What are India’s options now?
- India, as an original negotiating participant of RCEP, has the option of joining the agreement without having to wait 18 months as stipulated for new members in the terms of the pact.
- RCEP signatory states said they plan to commence negotiations with India once it submits a request of its intention to join and it may participate in meetings as an observer prior to its accession.
- A possible alternative for India is to review its existing bilateral FTAs with some of these RCEP members as well as newer agreements with potential for Indian exports.
- There is also a growing view that it would serve India’s interest to invest strongly in negotiating bilateral agreements with the US and the EU, both currently a work in progress.
Conclusion
- A country can never get into FTAs merely to provide its market to the partner countries.
- When we accommodate our partner countries, our objective is also to increase the presence of our products in the markets of partners, and India hasn’t been able to achieve the latter objective.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: mRNA
Mains level: Vaccination challenges for coronavirus
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines which recently announced their success use the same technology, based on messenger RNA, or mRNA.
Try this PYQ first:
Q.‘RNA interference (RNAi)’ technology has gained popularity in the last few years. Why?
- It is used in developing gene silencing therapies.
- It can be used in developing therapies for the treatment of cancer.
- It can be used to develop hormone replacement therapies.
- It can be used to produce crop plants that are resistant to viral pathogens.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1, 2 and 4
(b) 2 and 3
(c) 1 and 3
(d) 1 and 4 only
What is mRNA?
- Messenger RNA (mRNA) is a single-stranded RNA (Ribo Nucleic Acid) molecule that is complementary to one of the DNA strands of a gene.
- The mRNA is an RNA version of the gene that leaves the cell nucleus and moves to the cytoplasm where proteins are made.
- During protein synthesis, an organelle called a ribosome moves along the mRNA, reads its base sequence, and uses the genetic code to translate each three-base triplet, or codon, into its corresponding amino acid.
What is the mRNA vaccine?
- Such vaccines make use of the messenger RNA molecules that tell the body’s cells what proteins to build.
- The mRNA, in this case, is coded to tell the cells to recreate the spike protein of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.
- It is the spike protein — which appears as spikes on the surface of the coronavirus — that initiates the process of infection; it allows the virus to penetrate cells, after which it goes on to replicate.
- A coronavirus vaccine based on mRNA, once injected into the body, will instruct the body’s cells to create copies of the spike protein.
- In turn, this is expected to prompt the immune cells to create antibodies to fight it.
- These antibodies will remain in the blood and fight the real virus if and when it infects the human body.
Back2Basics: Ribo Nucleic Acid (RNA)
- RNA is an important biological macromolecule that is present in all biological cells.
- It is principally involved in the synthesis of proteins, carrying the messenger instructions from DNA, which itself contains the genetic instructions required for the development and maintenance of life.
- In some viruses, RNA, rather than DNA, carries genetic information.
- The type of RNA dictates the function that this molecule will have within the cell.
- Aside from the coding region of messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules that will be translated into proteins, other cellular RNA elements are involved in different processes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ramsar sites in India
Mains level: Wetland conservation in India
The Lonar Lake in Maharashtra and Sur Sarovar, also known as Keetham lake, in Agra, have been added to the list of recognised Ramsar sites.
Make a note of all freshwater and saltwater lakes in India.
Lonar Lake
- Lonar Lake, also known as Lonar crater, is a notified National Geo-heritage Monument, saline (pH of 10.5), Soda Lake, located at Lonar in Buldhana district, Maharashtra.
- It was created by an asteroid collision with earth impact during the Pleistocene Epoch.
- It is one of the four known, hyper-velocity, impact craters in basaltic rock anywhere on Earth.
- It sits inside the Deccan Plateau—a massive plain of volcanic basalt rock created by eruptions some 65 million years ago.
Sur Sarovar
- It is a scenic lake just outside Agra on the Agra – Delhi highway (NH 2) and a declared bird sanctuary.
- The riverine belt of River Yamuna surrounds the area of Sur-Sarovar.
- It is today home to more than 165 species of migratory and resident birds.
- It is the same place that inspired the famed poet Soordas to compose the “Bhakti Kavya” one of the finest pieces of devotional poetry.
Two amongst many
- India now has 41 wetlands, the highest in South Asia, with two more added to the list of recognised sites of international importance under the treaty of Ramsar Convention.
- Recently, Kabartal in Bihar’s Begusarai district was recognised as a wetland of international importance, the first such wetland in the State, under the Ramsar Convention.
- The Asan Conservation Reserve in Dehradun, the first wetland from Uttarakhand to be recognised by Ramsar convention, was added to the list in October this year.
Back2Basics: Wetlands
- A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded by water, either permanently or seasonally, where oxygen-free processes prevail.
- The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other landforms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique hydric soil.
- Wetlands provide a wide range of important resources and ecosystem services such as food, water, fibre, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control and climate regulation.
What is the Ramsar Convention?
- The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is a treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of such sites.
- The convention, signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, is one of the oldest inter-governmental accords for preserving the ecological character of wetlands.
- Also known as the Convention on Wetlands, it aims to develop a global network of wetlands for the conservation of biological diversity and for sustaining human life.
- Over 170 countries are party to the Ramsar Convention and over 2,000 designated sites covering over 20 crore hectares have been recognised under it.
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