Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ShaGun platform
Mains level: Paper 2- Technology based learning in India
The article suggests a policy formulation for future of the learning with the adoption of technology.
Learning crisis facing and finding solutions through technology
- India was facing a learning crisis, even before the Covid-19 pandemic, with one in two children lacking basic reading proficiency at the age of 10.
- The pandemic worsened it with the physical closure of 15.5 lakh schools that has affected more than 248 million students for over a year.
- With the Fourth Industrial Revolution — the imperative now is to reimagine education and align it with the unprecedented technological transformation.
- The pandemic offers a critical, yet stark reminder of the impending need to weave technology into education.
Is India prepared for integrating technology in learning?
- India’s new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020envisions the establishment of an autonomous body, the National Education Technology Forum (NETF).
- The NETF will spearhead efforts towards providing a strategic thrust to the deployment and use of technology.
- India is well-poised to take this leap forward with increasing access to tech-based infrastructure, electricity, and affordable internet connectivity.
- Flagship programmes such as Digital India and the Ministry of Education’s initiatives, including the Digital Infrastructure for School Education (DIKSHA), open-source learning platform and UDISE+ will help in this direction.
- However, we must remember that technology cannot substitute schools or replace teachers.
- It’s not “teachers versus technology”; the solution is in “teachers and technology”.
- In fact, tech solutions are impactful only when embraced and effectively leveraged by teachers.
Four key elements for ed-tech policy architecture
- A comprehensive ed-tech policy architecture must focus on four key elements:
- Access: Providing access to learning, especially to disadvantaged groups.
- Enable: Enabling processes of teaching, learning, and evaluation.
- Teacher training: Facilitating teacher training and continuous professional development.
- Governance: Improving governance systems including planning, management, and monitoring processes.
Ed-tech ecosystem in India
- With over 4,500 start-ups and a current valuation of around $700 million, the ed-tech market is geared for exponential growth.
- There are, in fact, several examples of grassroots innovation.
- The Hamara Vidhyalaya in Namsai district, Arunachal Pradesh, is fostering tech-based performance assessments.
- Assam’s online career guidance portal is strengthening school-to-work and higher-education transition for students in grades 9 to 12.
- Samarth in Gujarat is facilitating the online professional development of lakhs of teachers in collaboration with IIM-Ahmedabad.
- Jharkhand’s DigiSATH is spearheading behaviour change by establishing stronger parent-teacher-student linkages.
- Himachal Pradesh’s HarGhar Pathshala is providing digital education for children with special needs.
Way forward
1) Short term policy formulation
- In the immediate term, there must be a mechanism to thoroughly map the ed-tech landscape, especially their scale, reach, and impact.
- The policy formulation and planning process must strive to:
- 1) Enable convergence across schemes– education, skills, digital governance, and finance.
- 2) Foster integration of solutions through public-private partnerships, factor in voices of all stakeholders.
- 3) Bolster cooperative federalism across all levels of government.
- Special attention must be paid to address the digital divide at two levels: access and skills.
- Thematic areas of the policy should feature infrastructure and connectivity; high-quality software and content; and global standards for outcome-based evaluation, real-time assessments, and systems monitoring.
2) Long-term policy measures
- In the longer term, as policy translates to practice at local levels a repository of the best-in-class technology solutions, good practices and lessons from successful implementation must be curated.
- The NITI Aayog’s India Knowledge Hub and the Ministry of Education’s DIKSHA and ShaGun platforms can facilitate and amplify such learning.
Conclusion
With NEP 2020 having set the ball rolling, a transformative ed-tech policy architecture is the need of the hour to effectively maximise student learning.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UAPA
Mains level: Paper 2- Misuse of anti-terror laws
The recent Delhi High Court order granting bail to the student activists charged with the UAPA has brought into focus the issue of misuse of anti-terror laws by the policy. The article deals with this issue.
Misuse of anti-terror laws
- In the period 2015-2019, as many as 7,840 persons were arrested under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act) 1967 but only 155 were convicted by the trial courts.
- Under TADA, till 1994, though 67,000 people were detained, just 725 were convicted in spite of confessions made to police officers being made admissible.
- In Kartar Singh (1994), the Supreme Court of India had observed that in many cases, the prosecution had unjustifiably invoked provisions of TADA.
- It added that such an invocation of TADA was ‘nothing but the sheer misuse and abuse of the Act by the police’.
The definition of terrorism
- There is no universal definition of the term ‘terrorism’ either in India or at the international level.
- Accordingly, neither TADA nor UAPA has a definition of the crucial terms ‘terror’ and ‘terrorism’.
- Section 15 of UAPA merely defines a terrorist act in extremely wide and vague words: ‘as any act with intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, security, or sovereignty of India or with intent to strike terror or likely to strike terror in the people….’.
- In Yaqoob Abdul Razzak Memon (2013), the Supreme Court said that terrorist acts can range from threats to actual assassinations, kidnappings, airline hijacking, car bombs, explosions, mailing of dangerous materials, use of chemical, biological, nuclear weapons etc.
- In Hitendra Vishnu Thakur (1994), the Supreme Court had defined terrorism as the ‘use of violence when its most important result is not merely the physical and mental damage of the victim but the prolonged psychological effect it produces … on the society as a whole’.
- In Kartar Singh (1994), the Supreme Court held that a mere disturbance of public order that disturbs even the tempo of the life of community of any particular locality is not a terrorist act.
- By this interpretation, the CAA protests in a few localities of Delhi cannot be termed as terrorist activity.
- In the PUCL judgment (2003), the Supreme Court included within its meaning amongst other things the ‘razing of constitutional principles that we hold dear’, ‘tearing apart of the secular fabric’ and ‘promotion of prejudice and bigotry.
- Accordingly, in the CAA protest case the Delhi High Court concluded that since the definition of a ‘terrorist act’ in UAPA is wide and somewhat vague, it cannot be casually applied to ordinary conventional crimes.
- The Delhi High Court said that the act of the accused must reflect the essential character of terrorism.
Distinction between ‘law and order’, ‘public order’ and ‘security of state’
- In Ram Manohar Lohia (1966), the Supreme Court explained the distinction between the above three terms.
- Law and order represents the largest circle within which is the next circle representing ‘public order’, and the smallest circle represents the ‘security of state’.
- Accordingly, an act may affect ‘law and order’ but not ‘public order’.
- Similarly, an act may adversely affect ‘public order’ but not the ‘security of state.’
- In most UAPA cases, the police have failed to understand these distinctions and unnecessarily clamped UAPA charges for simple violations of law and order.
Conclusion
Radicalisation generally succeeds only with those who have been subjected to real or perceived injustices. Let us remove injustice to combat terrorism. The creation of a truly just, egalitarian and non-oppressive society would be far more effective in combating terrorism.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Testing the constitutionality of section 124A
The article highlights the issues with section 124A of the Indian Penal Code and suggests a review of its constitutionality in Kedar Nath judgement by a larger bench.
About section 124A of IPC
- Section 124A of the IPC contains the law of sedition.
- This law was enacted by the British colonial government in 1870 with the sole object of suppressing all voices of Indians critical of the government.
- The gist of the offence is: bringing or attempting to bring the government into contempt or hatred, or exciting or attempting to excite disaffection towards the government.
- It categorises four ways sources of seditious acts: spoken words, written words, signs or visible representations.
- There are three explanations attached to this section.
- The first explanation says that ‘disaffection’ includes disloyalty and all feelings of enmity.
- The second and third explanations say that one can comment on the measures of the government without bringing or attempting to bring it into contempt or hatred or exciting or attempting to excite disaffection towards the government.
What did Supreme Court say in Kedar Nath case (1962)
- In the ultimate analysis, the judgment in Kedar Nath which read down Section 124A and held that without incitement to violence or rebellion there is no sedition.
- It says that ‘only when the words written or spoken etc. which have the pernicious tendency or intention of creating public disorder’ the law steps in.
- So if a policeman thinks that a cartoon has the pernicious tendency to create public disorder, he will arrest that cartoonist.
- The Kedar Nath judgment makes it possible for the law enforcement machinery to easily take away the fundamental right of citizens.
Violation of Article 19
- Sedition, as defined in Section 124A of the IPC, clearly violates Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution which confers the Fundamental Right of freedom of speech and expression.
- Further, this section does not get protection under Article 19(2) on the ground of reasonable restriction.
- However, the Supreme Court invoked the words ‘in the interest … of public order’ used in Article 19(2) and held that the offence of sedition arises when seditious utterances can lead to disorder or violence.
- This act of reading down Section 124A brought it clearly under Article 19(2) and saved the law of sedition from being declared unconstitutional.
Consider the question “What are the issues with section 124A of Indian Penal Code? Examine the interplay between Article 19 and section 124 of IPC.”
Conclusion
People will display disaffection towards a government which has failed them. The law of sedition which penalises them for hating a government which does not serve them cannot exist because it violates Article 19(1)(a) and is not protected by Article 19(2). Therefore, an urgent review of the Kedar Nath judgement by a larger Bench has become necessary.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ONORC
Mains level: Benefits of ONORC for Migrants
The Supreme Court directed all states and UTs to implement the One Nation, One Ration Card (ONORC) system, which allows for inter-and intra-state portability, by July 31.
ONORC Scheme
- The ONORC scheme is aimed at enabling migrant workers and their family members to buy subsidized ration from any fair price shop anywhere in the country under the National Food Security Act, 2013.
- For instance, a migrant worker from will be able to access PDS benefits elsewhere in India, where he or she may have gone in search of work.
- While the person can buy food grains as per his or her entitlement under the NFSA at the place where he or she is based, members of his or her family can still go to their ration dealer back home.
- To promote this reform in the archaic Public Distribution System (PDS), the government has provided incentives to states.
How does ONORC work?
- ONORC is based on technology that involves details of beneficiaries’ ration card, Aadhaar number, and electronic Points of Sale (ePoS).
- The system identifies a beneficiary through biometric authentication on ePoS devices at fair price shops.
- The system runs with the support of two portals —Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS) (impds.nic.in) and Annavitran (annavitran.nic.in), which host all the relevant data.
- When a ration card holder goes to a fair price shop, he or she identifies himself or herself through biometric authentication on ePoS, which is matched real time with details on the Annavitaran portal.
- Once the ration card details are verified, the dealer hands out the beneficiary’s entitlements.
- While the Annavitaran portal maintains a record of intra-state transactions — inter-district and intra-district — the IM-PDS portal records the inter-state transactions.
How many people will it benefit?
- Under the National Food Security Act, 2013, about 81 crore people are entitled to buy subsidised foodgrains — rice at Rs 3/kg, wheat at Rs 2/kg, and coarse grains at Re 1/kg – from designated fair price shops.
- As on 28 June 2021, there are about 5.46 lakh fair price shops and 23.63 crore ration cardholders across the country.
- Each NFSA ration cardholder is assigned to a fair price shop near the place where his ration card is registered.
What factors led to the launch of ONORC?
- Earlier, NFSA beneficiaries were not able to access their PDS benefits outside the jurisdiction of the specific fair price shop to which they have been assigned.
- The government envisioned the ONORC to give them access to benefits from any fair price shop.
- The idea was to reform the PDS, which has been historically marred by inefficiency and leakages.
- ONORC was initially launched as an inter-state pilot.
- When the Covid-19 pandemic forced thousands of migrant workers to return to their villages last year, a need was felt to expedite the rollout.
What has been the coverage so far?
- Till date, 32 states and Union Territories have joined the ONORC, covering about 69 crore NFSA beneficiaries.
- About 1.35 crore portability transactions every month are being recorded under ONORC on an average.
- While inter-state ration card portability is available in 32 states, the number of such transactions is much lower than that of intra-district and inter-district transactions.
States not joining
- Four states are yet to join the scheme — Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal. There are various reasons.
- For instance, Delhi is yet to start the use of ePoS in fair price shops, which is a prerequisite for the implementation of ONORC.
- In the case of West Bengal, the state government has demanded that the non-NFSA ration cardholders — ration cards issued by the state government — should also be covered under the ONORC.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: India's healthcare system and its limitations
NITI Aayog has released a comprehensive study on the not-for-profit hospital model in the country, in a step towards closing the information gap on such institutions and facilitating robust policymaking in this area.
‘Not-for-Profit’ hospitals
- The “Not-for-Profit” Hospital Sector has the reputation of providing affordable and accessible healthcare for many years.
- This sector provides not only curative healthcare, but also preventive healthcare, and links healthcare with social reform, community engagement, and education.
- They utilize the resources and grants provided to them by the Government to provide cost-effective healthcare to the population without being overly concerned about profits.
- However, this sector remains largely understudied, with a lack of awareness about its services in the public domain.
Significance for India
- As per the NITI Aayog’s report, the not-for-profit hospitals account for only 1.1% of treated ailments as of June 2018.
- The report further revealed that for-profit hospitals account for 55.3% of in-patients, while not-for-profit hospitals account for only 2.7% of in-patients in the country.
- The cumulative cost of care at not-for-profit hospitals is lesser than for-profit hospitals by about one-fourth in the in-patient department.
- This is reckoned by the package component of cost, which is approximately 20% lower, the doctor’s or surgeon’s charges, which are approximately 36% lower and the major aspect being the bed charges, which are approximately 44% lower than the for-profit hospitals.
NITI Aayog’s approach
- Categorization of the prominent not-for-profit hospitals based on the premise of services and their ownership
- Understanding the business model of the hospitals i.e. the financial viability, and their dependence on donations and grants
- Understanding the challenges faced by these hospitals
- Formulation of recommendations for policy interventions to promote the sector
Categories of such hospitals
Using the above-mentioned approach and secondary research, the following four categories were defined for the not-for-profit hospitals:
- Faith-based Hospitals
- Community-based Hospitals
- Cooperative Hospitals
- Private Trust Hospitals
Why need such hospitals?
- There has been relatively low investment in the expansion of the health sector in the private domain.
- The not-for-profit hospital sector provides not only curative but also preventive healthcare.
- It links healthcare with social reform, community engagement, and education.
- It uses government resources and grants to provide cost-effective healthcare to people without being concerned about profits.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Glacial Lake Atlas
Mains level: Not Much
The Ministry of Jal Shakti has released the Glacial Lake Atlas of Ganga Basin.
Glacial Lake Atlas
- The atlas is based on the inventoried glacial lakes in part of the Ganga River basin from its origin to the foothills of the Himalayas covering a catchment area of 2,47,109 sq. km.
- The study portion of the Ganga River basin covers part of India and the transboundary region.
- The Atlas is available on National Hydrology Project or NHP-Bhuvan Portal.
- It can be used by water resources professionals, researchers, disaster management authorities and other stakeholders for managing the glacial lakes as well as to mitigate the possible adverse impacts of GLOF and climate change.
Expected utility of the atlas is:
- The atlas provides a comprehensive and systematic glacial lake database for Ganga River basin with size > 0.25 ha
- In the context of climate change impact analysis, the atlas can be used as reference data for carrying out change analysis, both with respect to historical and future time periods
- The atlas also provides authentic database for regular or periodic monitoring changes in spatial extent (expansion/shrinkage), and formation of new lakes
- The atlas can also be used in conjunction with glacier information for their retreat and climate impact studies.
- The information on glacial lakes like their type, hydrological, topographical, and associated glaciers are useful in identifying the potential critical glacial lakes and consequent GLOF risk.
- Central and State Disaster Management Authorities can make use of the atlas for disaster mitigation planning and related program.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.Consider the following Pairs :
Glacier: River
- Bandarpunch : Yamuna
- Bara Shigri : Chenab
- Milam : Mandakini
- Siachen : Nubra
- Zemu : Manas
Which of the following pairs given above are correctly matched? (CSP 2019)
(a) 1,2 and 4
(b) 1,3 and 4
(c) 2 and 5
(d) 3 and 5
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NATRAX
Mains level: Auto sector updates
Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises has inaugurated the 11.3 km NATRAX- the High-Speed Track (HST) in Indore which is the longest such track in Asia.
NATRAX
- NATRAX, developed in an area of 1000 acres of land is a one-stop solution for all sorts of high-speed performance tests for the widest categories of vehicles from 2 wheelers to heavy tractor-trailers.
- It has multiple test capabilities like measurements of maximum speed, acceleration, constant speed fuel consumption.
- It can conduct emission tests through real road driving simulation, high-speed handling and stability evaluation during manoeuvred such as lane change, high-speed durability testing, etc.
- Also, it is a Centre of excellence for Vehicle Dynamics.
Features of the HST
- The vehicle can achieve a max speed of 375 Kmph on curves with steering control and it has less banking on ovals making it also one of the safest test tracks globally.
- It is the one-stop solution for all sorts of high-speed performance tests, being one of the largest in the world.
- It can cater to the widest category of vehicles; say from two-wheelers to the heaviest tractor trailers
Its significance
- HST is used for measuring the maximum speed capability of high-end cars like BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Tesla and so forth which cannot be measured on any of the Indian test tracks.
- Being centrally located in Madhya Pradesh, it is accessible to most of the major OEMs.
- Foreign OEMs will be looking at NATRAX HST for the development of prototype cars for Indian conditions.
- At present, foreign OEMs go to their respective high-speed track abroad for high-speed test requirements.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PMFME Scheme
Mains level: Not Much
The centrally sponsored Pradhan Mantri Formalization of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme, launched under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan marks the completion of its one year.
PMFME Scheme
- The PMFME Scheme is a centrally sponsored scheme that aims to enhance the competitiveness of existing individual micro-enterprises in the unorganized segment of the food processing industry.
- It aims to enhance the competitiveness of existing individual micro-enterprises in the unorganized segment of the food processing industry and promote formalization of the sector,
- It further aims to promote formalization of the sector and provide support to Farmer Producer Organizations, Self Help Groups, and Producers Cooperatives along their entire value chain.
- The scheme envisions to directly assist the 2,00,000 micro food processing units for providing financial, technical, and business support for upgradation of existing micro food processing enterprises.
Major component of the scheme
One District One Product
- Under the One District One Product (ODOP) component of the PMFME Scheme, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries approved ODOP for 137 unique products.
- The GIS ODOP digital map of India has been launched to provide details of ODOP products of all the States and UTs.
- The digital map also has indicators for Tribal, SC, ST, and aspirational districts.
- It will enable stakeholders to make concerted efforts for its value chain development.
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