Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Factors to consider in finding solution to conflicts in Afghanistan and Myanmar
The article highlights the inherent difficulty in finding a solution to the two conflicts raging on in India’s neigbourhood.
Tale of two conflicts in neighbourhood
- Efforts to end two major conflicts in India’s neighbourhood have become intense.
- To the west, a peace summit on Afghanistan, seeking to end decades of conflict there, was also scheduled to take place in Istanbul over the weekend.
- To the east, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has produced a diplomatic opening with Myanmar’s military leadership.
- Afghan conflict go back to the late 1970s; since then we have seen different phases of the conflict.
- Although the crisis in Myanmar appears recent, the tension between civil-military relations is not new.
- Back in 1988, the army annulled the huge mandate won by Aung San Suu Kyi and unleashed massive repression.
3 Common Themes in the effort at peace and reconciliation
1) Ending violence
- The first is about ending violence.
- In Afghanistan it has been near impossible to get a resurgent Taliban to agree to stop its attacks on government forces or the civilian population.
- The ASEAN initiative in Myanmar calls for an immediate cessation of violence and utmost restraint from all sides.
- The opposition demanding restoration of democracy might find this rather ironic, since it is the army that is employing violence and has shown scant restraint.
2) Dialogue among all parties
- The second theme in the ASEAN initiative — “constructive dialogue among all parties” to “seek a peaceful solution” — is also common to all peace processes.
- The Taliban found all kinds of excuses to delay a dialogue with the Kabul government that it always saw as illegitimate. So far, it has avoided one.
- In Myanmar, the army might be ready to engage the opposition in a prolonged dialogue and defuse international pressure; but it will be hard for the victims of the coup to accept a dialogue on the army’s terms.
3) Third-party mediator
- The Afghan conflict has long been internationalised.
- All major powers, including regional actors and neighbours, have acquired stakes in the way the Afghan conflict is resolved.
- This unfortunately makes the construction of an internal settlement that much harder.
- In Myanmar, the ASEAN has set the ball rolling by agreeing that a special envoy will be traveling to the region and will engage with all parties to the conflict.
Cost-benefit in diplomacy
- The US is hoping that the Taliban will moderate some of its hardline positions given its need for significant international economic assistance for reconstruction, political legitimacy.
- In Myanmar, too, the international community will hope the military would want to avoid the risks of political isolation and economic punishment.
- But how the Taliban and the Myanmar army calculate these costs and benefits could be very different.
- Both have long experience of surviving external pressure and enduring sanctions.
Conclusion
Few civil wars have seen the kind of massive external effort to change the internal dynamics as in Afghanistan; but to no avail. In Myanmar, it is not clear how far the international community might go. The prospects for positive change in Afghanistan and Myanmar, then, do not look too bright in the near term.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Disaster Management Act 2005
Mains level: Paper 2- Governance issues during pandemic
Order under Disaster Management Act 2015
- Invoking the Disaster Management Act, the Centre ordered States that all liquid oxygen shall be made available to the government and will be used for medical purposes only.
- The order said that under section 10(2)(I) and section 65 of the DM Act, States had to ensure that “liquid oxygen is not allowed for any non medical purpose”
- The order was passed after the review of oxygen supply situation in the country.
Dealing with the shortage
- On April 22, Centre issued order under the DM Act, making the district magistrates and senior superintendent of police personally liable to allow unhindered inter-State movement of vehicles carrying medical oxygen.
- Despite MHA’s orders and letters, States continued to flag shortage of oxygen supply.
- Medical oxygen to States are being provided as per daily quota decided by an empowered group of officers in central ministries.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: What constitute M3
Mains level: Paper 3- Increase in currency with public
Increase in currency with the public
- During the fortnight ended April 9, currency with the public jumped by Rs 30,191 crore to hit a new high of Rs 27,87,941 crore.
- In the six-week period between February 27 and April 9, currency with the public rose by Rs 52,928 crore, show RBI data.
- Experts said the increase in currency with the public is on account of the fear of imposition of lockdowns by state or central governments.
How currency with public is arrived at
- According to the RBI, currency with the public is arrived at after deducting the cash with banks from the total currency in circulation.
- Currency in circulation, which includes notes in circulation, rupee coins, and small coins, refers to cash or currency within a country that is physically used to conduct transactions between consumers and businesses.
- It effectively means the currency that individuals across the country hold with themselves.
M3 has gone up
- Money supply in the economy – or M3 – has gone up over the last couple of months.
- M3, which includes currency with public, current deposits, savings deposits, and fixed deposits, has increased by 11.3 per cent, or Rs 19.17 lakh crore, to a new high of Rs 189.07 lakh crore as on April 9, 2021.
B2BASICS
Measures of Money supply
- Reserve Money (M0): It is also known as High-Powered Money, monetary base, base money etc.
M0 = Currency in Circulation + Bankers’ Deposits with RBI + Other deposits with RBI
It is the monetary base of economy.
- Narrow Money (M1):
M1 = Currency with public + Demand deposits with the Banking system (current account, saving account) + Other deposits with RBI
- M2 = M1 + Savings deposits of post office savings banks
- Broad Money (M3)
M3 = M1 + Time deposits with the banking system
- M4 = M3 + All deposits with post office savings banks
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with the deportation of Rohingya
The article highlights the issues with the order passed by the Supreme Court allowing the deportation of Rohingya refugees.
Context
- Recently, in its order in Mohammad Salimullah v. Union of India, the Supreme Court rejected an application to stay the deportation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.
Principle of non-refoulement
- The Supreme Court noted the petitioners’ reliance on a judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dated January 23, 2020, which recorded the genocidal conditions that resulted in 7.75 lakh Rohingyas being forced to take refuge in Bangladesh and India.
- The Supreme Court relied on the word of the government that the principle of non-refoulement, or forcible repatriation to a place where the refugee’s life is in danger, applies only to signatories to the UN’s Refugee Convention of 1951 or its 1967 Protocol.
- It must be stated that a UN Special Rapporteur was not heard, as the Court felt that serious objections had been raised to her intervention.
- The Supreme Court accepted that the right not to be deported flows not from the right to life and liberty under Article 21, which applies to all human beings, but from the right to reside and settle in India under Article 19(1)(g), which applies to citizens alone.
Why the judgement needs reconsideration
1) India has recognised genocide as an international crime
- India is a signatory to the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention, 1948),
- Acceding to the Convention in 1959, India has recognised genocide as an international crime, and that the principles of the Convention are “therefore already part of common law of India”.
- India has also ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) have a bearing on non-refoulement.
- Article 6(1) of the ICCPR, which mirrors Article 21 of our Constitution.
- A number of other UN conventions particularly those dealing with the rights of women (CEDAW) and children (CRC) also have a non-refoulment element in it and both of which have been declared by the Supreme Court to be part of our domestic legal framework.
2) Prevention of genocide
- The leitmotif of the Genocide Convention is prevention.
- Prevention is also central to Article I, under which the contracting parties confirm that genocide is a crime under international law, “which they undertake to prevent and to punish”.
3) Preemptory norm
- It is increasingly accepted in public international law, that non-refoulement and other protections emanating from the Genocide Convention, are peremptory norms that apply to state parties as well as non-parties.
- That non-refoulement is jus cogens, a norm from which there can be no derogation whatsoever. I
- At least three high courts (Gujarat in 1998, Delhi in 2015, and Calcutta in 2019) have held that non-refoulement is part of the right to life and liberty protected by Article 21 of our Constitution.
What should the Supreme Court do
- There are two possible solutions.
- The first is that in its interim order, the Court specifies that the Rohingya refugees may not be deported unless “the procedure prescribed for such deportation is followed”.
- It is a long-held principle of Indian jurisprudence that the word “procedure” means “due process”, or a procedure that is just, fair, and reasonable.
- The Supreme Court can, thus, suo motu clarify that due process requires that they not be deported as long as there exists a reasonable threat of persecution in Myanmar.
- Alternately, since the order in question is an interim order, the Supreme Court could swiftly hear the main petition on its merits, and clarify the law on non-refoulement and Article 21.
Conclusion
The order on the deportation of Rohingya refugees needs reconsideration by the Supreme Court considering the India’s treaty obligations on the genocide.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Anatolia region
Mains level: Paper 2- Relations between Turkey and the US
What is genocide
- According to Article II of the UN Convention on Genocide of December 1948, genocide has been described as carrying out acts intended “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.
Why Armenians were targeted
- In a way, the Armenians were victims of the great power contests of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- The resentment started building up after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 in which the Turks lost territories.
- In the Treaty of Berlin, big powers dictated terms to the Ottomans, including putting pressure on Sultan Abdülhamid II to initiate reforms “in the provinces inhabited by Armenians, and to guarantee their security against the Circassians and Kurds.”
- The Sultan saw this as a sign of strengthening ties between the Armenians and other rival countries, especially Russia.
- Post the treaty, there were a series of attacks on Armenians by Turkish and Kurdish militias.
- In 1908, the Young Turks wrested control from the Sultan and promised to restore imperial glory.
- Under the Turks, the empire became more and “Turkik” and persecution against the ethnic minorities picked up.
- In October 1914, Turkey joined the First World War on the side of Germany.
- In the Caucasus, they fought the Russians, their primary geopolitical rival.
- But the Ottomans suffered a catastrophic defeat in the Battle of Sarikamish by the Russians in January 1915.
- The Turks blamed the defeat on Armenian “treachery”.
How the killings took place
- As the War was still waging, the Ottomans feared that Armenians in eastern Anatolia would join the Russians if they advanced into Ottoman territories.
- First, Armenians in the Ottoman Army were executed.
- On April 24, the Ottoman government arrested about 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders. Most of them were later executed.
- The Ottoman government passed legislation to deport anyone who is a security risk.
- Then they moved Armenians, including children, en masse to the Syrian Desert. That was a march of death.
- Before the First World War broke out in 1914, there were 2 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
- According to a study by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, in 1922, four years after the War, the Armenian population in the region was about 387,800.
- This has led historians to believe that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the course of the War.
What is Turkey’s response
- Turkey has acknowledged that atrocities were committed against Armenians, but denies it was a genocide which comes with legal implications.
- Turkey also challenges the estimates that 1.5 million were killed.
- The Turkish Foreign Ministry has issued a strong statement to Mr. Biden’s announcement saying it doesn’t not have “a scholarly and legal basis, nor is it supported by any evidence”.
- Turkey has called on the U.S. President to correct the mistake of recognition as genocide.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: About SWAMITVA Scheme
Mains level: Paper 3- SWAMITVA Scheme
e-Property cards under SWAMITVA scheme
- The Prime Minister launched the distribution of e-property cards under the SWAMITVA scheme on National Panchayati Raj Day (24 April).
- 4.09 lakh property owners were given their e-property cards on this occasion, which also marked the rolling out of the SVAMITVA scheme for implementation across the country.
- Under the scheme, the entire village properties are surveyed by drone and property card are distributed to the owners.
- The Scheme has infused a new confidence in the villages as property documents remove uncertainty and reduce the chances of property disputes while protecting the poor from exploitation and corruption.
- This eases credit possibility also.
About SWAMITVA Scheme
- SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) was launched by Prime Minister on 24th April 2020.
- It is a Central Sector Scheme to promote a socio-economically empowered and self-reliant rural India.
- The Scheme has the potential to transform rural India using modern technical tools of mapping and surveying.
- It paves the way for using the property as a financial asset by villagers for availing loans and other financial benefits.
- The Scheme will cover around 6.62 Lakh villages of the entire country during 2021-2025.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Role of civil servants in implementing the development agenda
The article highlights the role bureaucracy can play in the development of the country and suggests the ways to deal with the challenges faced by the bureaucracy.
Background of the PSU’s
- In the 1950s and ’60s, the private sector had neither the capability to raise capital to take the country on the path of industrialisation.
- The state had to take on the role of industrialising the country by establishing PSUs.
- The civil services became the natural choice for establishing and managing these units.
- They delivered substantially, if not fully.
- Even after privatisation, the bureaucracy would be required for the transition of PSUs from the public to the private sector.
Need for structural transformation agenda
- The goal of making India a $5-trillion economy needs a coherent structural transformation agenda and extraordinary implementation capacity.
1) Dealing with crony capitalisms
- Since Independence, the political survival of Indian regimes has required pleasing a powerful land-owning class and a highly concentrated set of industrial capitalists.
- The elites of business houses and land owners share no all-encompassing development agenda.
- Can the present regime find a way out of this conundrum?
2) Implementing the development agenda
- While the agenda is an outcome of political choices, the thinking goes that market mechanisms should be used as far as possible to make economic choices.
- This argument is at the heart of the privatisation of state assets.
- However, markets operate well only when they are supported by other kinds of social networks, which include non-contractual elements like trust.
- Particularly in industrial transformation, there must be an essential complementarity of state structures and market exchange.
- Only a competent bureaucracy can provide this.
- It is for this reason that Max Weber argued that the operation of large-scale capitalist enterprise depended upon the kind of order that only a modern bureaucratic state can provide.
3) Removing the constraints on the bureaucracy
- The political and permanent executives had to work as a team through mutual respect for each other’s roles as defined in the Constitution.
- Every deviation from these ideals has lowered the capacity of the state to deliver.
- This is the result of electoral politics where the essence of the state action is the exchange relationships between the incumbent governments and its supporters.
- All this is achieved by undermining the impartiality of the bureaucracy in implementing rules and giving opinions frankly.
- The power to transfer is weaponised to bring the bureaucrats to heel and it works because authority sits with the position not the person.
- The pressure on officials to behave contrary to the ostensible purpose of the department undermines to a great extent the ability of the state to promote development.
- If privatisation is to work, then the corruption-transfer mechanism and its effects on the bureaucracy has to go.
4) Corporate coherence
- Corporate coherence is the ability of the bureaucracy internally to resist the invisible hands of personal maximisation by undercutting the formal organisational structure through informal networks.
- If this goes too far, then everything becomes open to sale and the state becomes predatory.
Consider the question “What are the issues facing civil services in India? Suggest the ways to deal with these issues.”
Conclusion
We need to fight the increasing tendency to grab public resources and restore to the bureaucracy its autonomy of action as envisaged in the Constitution by de-weaponising transfers.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Vaccine inequality
Issue of diverting the vaccine stock to India
- Epidemiologists to industry leaders are urging the Biden administration to release the reserve to countries like India and Brazil, given the assertion that the doses won’t be used in the US.
- According to Brown University School of Public Health Ashish Jha, the US is “sitting on 35-40 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine Americans will never use”.
- In early April, US chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said the US will likely not need the AstraZeneca shot.
- The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been granted Emergency Use Authorization by the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA).
- With documented cases of blood clots in younger women in Europe correlated with the vaccine, FDA authorisation may be further delayed.
What has the US said in response
- Co-ordinator of the US Covid-19 taskforce that the Quad partnership and team is providing assistance across government to the country.
- He also stated that as their confidence around our supply increases, we will explore the option of exporting the vaccines.
Vaccine inequality
- According to Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker, highest-income countries are vaccinating at a pace 25 times faster than the lowest ones.
- The US has 22.9% of the world’s vaccines but only 4.3% of the world’s population.
- China has 21.9% and 18.2% respectively, and India 13.8% and 17.7%, according to the tracker.
- Almost half of all vaccines have gone to 16% of the world’s population.
- The Washington Post reported that the world’s poorest 92 countries may not be able to vaccinate even 60% of their population for another three years.
- India has vaccinated 8% per cent of the population with one dose and 1% with two. Brazil has vaccinated less than 12% with one.
Impact on vaccination in African nations
- India’s stalled vaccine exports have domino effects on the rollouts in African nations and other developing countries, as Serum’s productions were fuelling efforts globally before India’s second wave.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NPCI
Mains level: Paper 3- Cybersecurity norms for payment systems
What prompted RBI to take such step
- Following a series of data breaches faced by operators including Mobikwik and payment aggregator JusPay, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon issue cybersecurity norms for payment service providers (PSPs).
- On cyber frauds, Reserve Bank of India has issued very recently basic guidelines on cyber hygiene and cybersecurity for banks and certain NBFCs,
- The standards for fintech-driven payment services providers will be similar to these cyber hygiene norms issued recently.
- the critical challenge for regulators would be to speed up the absorption of fintech without undermining the financial system’s integrity or stability.
UPI dominated by limited players
- There are not too many payment systems in India and the number of players is limited.
- Two apps provide about 70% of third-party services in the UPI system.
- The concentration of two or three third-party providers in this retail payments space could give rise to competitive weaknesses.
- Therefore, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) had laid down a framework for a more even distribution of share of third-party app providers in the UPI system.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Role of microfinance in India and challenges sector faces
The article highlights the important role played by the microfinance sector in furthering financial inclusion in India and suggests measures to achieve holistic development of the sector.
Important role played by microfinance
- No other form of financial services has had the kind of far-reaching impact, in terms of fostering financial inclusion, as microcredit has.
- Access to small, collateral-free loans for economically productive purposes has helped transform the lives of millions at the bottom-of-the-pyramid—especially women.
- Over the past decade, India’s microfinance industry has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 26% to reach ₹2.36 trillion.
- It has helped 50 million economically vulnerable Indians, 99% of them women, live a life of dignity and financial independence.
- Assuming that these 50 million people who took a loan to start a small business employed at least one other person, it translates into 50 million additional jobs in the country.
- This creates a ‘network effect’ that has a social impact at scale.
Evolution of microfinance industry
- Recommendations of the Malegam Committee, which became regulations, and practices such as relying on credit bureau data to assess a borrower’s creditworthiness have helped the industry immensely.
- The vital role that microfinance plays in the last-mile delivery of financial services was acknowledged.
- Subsequently, eight out of the 10 small finance bank licences granted were also given to microfinance institutions.
- RBI has sought to undertake a comprehensive review of the sector again, after 10 years, to better align the regulatory framework with the sector’s current realities.
Steps for development of sector
- First, Entities should promote financial literacy through group meetings of borrowers.
- Second, organizations should complement their microcredit operations with social development projects and community-connect initiatives.
- Third, prospective borrowers’ indebtedness and ability to repay dues should be assessed properly.
- Fourth, loans must be given only for income-generation purposes.
- Fifth, every microfinance organization should devote time and resources for capacity building at the grassroots.
- Sixth, rather than focusing on taking over the existing debt of a borrower, or lending to her further, institutions should focus on bringing new-to-credit customers into the fold.
Consider the question “How can microcredit stimulate financial inclusion in India? Suggest the measures for the development of microfinance sector in India.”
Conclusion
There is much more that we, as a nation, collectively need to do in order to bring a vast population of unbanked and underbanked Indians into the fold of formal financial services.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: VARUNA-21
Mains level: Paper 2- VARUNA-21
Details of the exercise
- The 19th edition of the Indian and French Navy bilateral exercise ‘VARUNA-2021’ is scheduled to be conducted in the Arabian Sea from 25th to 27th April 2021.
- The exercise will see high tempo-naval operations at sea, including advanced air defence and anti-submarine exercises, intense fixed and rotary wing flying operations, tactical manoeuvres, surface and anti-air weapon firings, underway replenishment and other maritime security operations.
- Units of both navies will endeavour to enhance and hone their war-fighting skills to demonstrate their ability as an integrated force to promote peace, security and stability in the maritime domain.
- On completion of exercise VARUNA-21, to consolidate accrued best practices and enhance interoperability, Indian Navy’s guided-missile frigate INS Tarkash will continue to exercise with the French Navy’s Carrier Strike Group (CSG) from 28th April to 1st May 2021.
- During this period, the ship will take part in advanced surface, anti-submarine and air-defence operations with the French CSG.
Significance of exercise
- VARUNA-21 highlights growing bonhomie and showcases increased levels of synergy, coordination and inter-operability between the two friendly navies.
- These interactions further underscore the shared values as partner navies, in ensuring freedom of seas and commitment to an open, inclusive Indo-Pacific and a rules-based international order.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 50, Article 124
Mains level: Paper 2- Challenges facing judiciary in India
The article highlights the issues facing the judiciary in India and emphasises the need for addressing these issues.
Separating judiciary from the executive
- Today, the judiciary, especially the SC, is called upon to decide a large number of cases in which the government has a direct interest.
- These can be politically sensitive cases too.
- The framers of the Constitution understood the importance of the oath of office of judges of the Supreme Court of India (SC) and carefully designed its language.
- The words, “without fear or favour” to “uphold the constitution and the laws” are extremely significant and stress the need for a fiercely independent court.
- Article 50 of the Constitution provides: “The State shall take steps to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State.”
Master of roaster issue
- The Chief Justice of India is the first amongst the equals but by the virtue of his office assumes significant powers as the Master of the Roster to constitute benches and allocate matters.
- The SC has re-affirmed this position in a rather disappointing decision in Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms v. Union of India, (2018).
- The result has been catastrophic.
- Many matters were either treated casually or deflected for no reason from serious hearing.
Accountability from legislature and executive
- The SC is expected to seek strict accountability from the legislature and executive and any infraction of the Constitution and laws must be corrected.
- Yet, this is not happening.
- A country of billion-plus needs its highest court to stand for the people, not seemingly for the executive of the day.
Inherent and fundamental challenges
- The judiciary is besieged by inherent and fundamental challenges.
- Millions of pending cases, quality of judges and their decisions, organisational issues and its integrity and impartiality, need urgent attention.
- Yet, in the last two decades precious little has been done.
- Justice is eluding the common man, including the vulnerable sections of society.
Way forward
- The new Chief Justice must seriously introspect and free himself of the bias in constituting benches and allocating cases and take concrete steps to revitalise the administration of justice.
- Only then will the rule of law be restored and the Constitution served.
Consider the question “Examine the inherent and fundamental challenges faced by the judiciary in India. Suggest the measures to deal with these challenges.”
Conclusion
The Chief Justice of India on account of the position he holds as paterfamilias of the judicial fraternity, was suspected by none other than Dr B R Ambedkar. Let us hope the new Chief Justice makes serious efforts to prove otherwise.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: How vaccine works
Mains level: Paper 2- Breakthrough infections
Breakthrough infections
- There have been several cases of Covid-19 vaccinated people, even those who have received both doses, testing positive for the virus.
- Such cases are referred to as “breakthrough” infections, indicating that the virus has been able to break through the defences created by the vaccine.
- Such cases have led to some doubts being expressed about the effectiveness of the vaccine, and contributed to the already prevailing vaccine hesitancy.
- However, vaccines protect not against the infection, but against moderate or severe disease and hospitalisation.
- It typically takes about two weeks for the body to build immunity after being vaccinated.
- So, the chances of a person falling sick during this period are as high — or as low — as the chances for any person who has not been vaccinated.
- Also, those in the priority list of vaccination, such as healthcare workers and frontline workers, have been prone to getting infected due to prolonged occupational exposure to the virus
Full protection not possible
- It is very well understood that no vaccine offers 100% protection from any disease.
- However, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) in the United States, vaccinated people are much less likely to get sick, but it is never entirely ruled out.
- Then there is the emergence of new variants of the virus.
- Some variants of the virus are able to evade the human immune response, and therefore have a greater chance to break through the defences created through the vaccine.
Breakthrough cases in India
- Among 10.03 crore people who had taken only the first dose of Covishield vaccina, 17,145 had got infected.
- That translates into a 0.02% prevalence.
- Among the 1.57 crore people who received the second dose as well, 5,014, or about 0.03%, had got infected later.
- About 1.1 crore doses of Covaxin have been administered until now.
- Of the 93.56 lakh who took only the first dose, so far 4,208 have got the infection.
- That is about 0.04% of the total.
- Among the 17.37 lakh who have taken the second shot, only 695 had been infected, again 0.04%.
Challenges
- “Given the scope of the pandemic, there’s a huge amount of virus in the world right now, meaning a huge opportunity for mutations to develop and spread.
- That is going to be a challenge for the developers of vaccines.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Type 1 interferons
Mains level: Paper 2- Emergency use approval of Virafin
About the drug
- It is used in treating people with chronic hepatitis B and C.
- The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) granted emergency use approval for pharma major Zydus Cadila’s antiviral drug ‘Virafin’, to treat moderate COVID-19 disease in adults.
- When administered early on during COVID, Virafin will help patients recover faster and avoid much of the complications.
- It significantly reduces viral load when given early on and can help in better disease management.
Findings of the clinical trials
- A single dose subcutaneous regimen of the antiviral Virafin [a pegylated interferon alpha-2b (PegIFN)] will make the treatment more convenient for the patients.
- When administered early on during COVID, Virafin will help patients recover faster and avoid much of the complications.
- In the phase-3 trials, the drug was able to achieve “better clinical improvement in the patients suffering from COVID-19”.
- A “higher proportion (91.15%) of patients administered the drug were RT-PCR negative by day seven as it ensures faster viral clearance”.
- The drug reduced the duration for supplemental oxygen to 56 hours from 84 hours in moderate COVID-19 patients.
How the drug works
- Type I interferons are the body’s first line of defence against many viral infections.
- In old people, the ability to produce interferon alpha in response to viral infections gets reduced, which might be the reason for higher mortality.
- The drug when administered early during the disease can replace this deficiency and help in the recovery process.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Consolidated Sinking Fund (CSF)
Mains level: Paper 3- RBI extends WMA scheme
About Ways and Means credit
- Simply put, it is a facility for both the Centre and states to borrow from the RBI.
- WMAs are temporary advances given by the RBI to the government to tide over any mismatch in receipts and payments.
- Section 17(5) of the RBI Act, 1934 authorises the central bank to lend to the Centre and state governments subject to their being repayable “not later than three months from the date of the making of the advance”.
Extension of the scheme
- The RBI decided to continue with the existing interim Ways and Means Advances (WMA) scheme limit of ₹51,560 crore for all States/ UTs shall for six months given the prevalence of COVID-19.
- Based on the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on WMA to State Governments, 2021 — chaired by Sudhir Shrivastava — the RBI had revised the WMA Scheme of States and Union Territories (UTs).
- The WMA limit arrived at by the Committee based on total expenditure of States/ UTs, works out to ₹47,010 crore.
What RBI said about SDR
- The RBI further said Special Drawing Facility (SDF) availed by state governments and UTs will continue to be linked to the quantum of their investments in marketable securities issued by the Government of India.
- The net annual incremental investments in Consolidated Sinking Fund (CSF) and Guarantee Redemption Fund (GRF) will continue to be eligible for availing of SDF, without any upper limit.
- CSF and GRF are reserve funds maintained by some State Governments with the Reserve Bank of India.
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Health and Animal Husbandry teams have launched preventive measures and initiated an epidemiological investigation, after one case of brucellosis, was confirmed in a prisoner.
- The infection is passed on to humans through the ingestion of unpasteurized milk and milk products or contact with animal secretions.
Brucellosis:
- Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that mainly infects cattle, swine, goats, sheep and dogs.
- Humans can get infected if they come in direct contact with infected animals or by eating or drinking contaminated animal products or by inhaling airborne agents.
- According to the WHO, most cases of the disease are caused by ingesting unpasteurised milk or cheese from infected goats or sheep.
Symptoms:
- Fever, sweats, malaise, anorexia, headache and muscle pain
- While some signs and symptoms can last for long periods of time, others may never go away.
- These include recurrent fevers, arthritis, swelling of the testicles and scrotum area, swelling of the heart, neurologic symptoms, chronic fatigue, depression and swelling of the liver or spleen.
- Human to human transmission of the virus is rare.
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The Central Government announced that 5kg of free wheat or rice per monthwill be provided to around 80 crore people for the next two months, May and June.
Major Highlights:
- This will be extended to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act(NFSA).
- Nearly 8 million tonnes of food grains will be distributed under this scheme.
- The scheme is expected to bring relief to NFSA beneficiaries as it will be in addition to the regular entitlement of 5kg highly subsidised foodgrains to each beneficiary at Rs 3, 2 and 1 per kg of rice, wheat and coarse grains.
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY):
- Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana is a food security welfare schemeannounced by the Government of India in March 2020.
- PM-GKAY is a part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat to supply free food grains to migrants and poor.
- The program is operated by the Department of Food and Public Distributionunder the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
Aim:
- To feed the poorest citizens of India by providing grain through the Public Distribution System to all the priority households (ration card holders and those identified by the Antyodaya Anna Yojana scheme).
- PMGKAY provides 5 kg of rice or wheat (according to regional dietary preferences) per person/month and 1 kg of dal to each family holding a ration card.
Eligibility/ Beneficiaries:
- Families belonging to the Below Poverty Line – Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Households (PHH) categories will be eligible for the scheme.
- PHH are to be identified by State Governments/Union Territory Administrations as per criteria evolved by them.
- AAY families are to be identified by States/UTs as per the criteria prescribed by the Central Government:
- Households headed by widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support.
- Widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or single women or single men with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence.
- All primitive tribal households.
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- Landless agriculture labourers, marginal farmers, rural artisans/craftsmen such as potters, tanners, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, slum dwellers, and persons earning their livelihood on daily basis in the informal sector like porters, coolies, rickshaw pullers, hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers, snake charmers, rag pickers, cobblers, destitute and other similar categories in both rural and urban areas.
- All eligible Below Poverty Line families of HIV positive persons.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Role of data in shaping the global order
Digital data revolution
- The Industrial Revolution restructured the global manufacturing order to Asia’s disadvantage.
- But in the ‘Digital Data Revolution’, algorithms requiring massive amounts of data determine innovation, the nature of productivity growth, and military power.
- Mobile digital payment interconnections impact society and the international system, having three strategic implications.
3 implications of mobile digital payment interconnections
1) Symbiotic nature of military and civilian system
- Because of the nature and pervasiveness of digital data, military and civilian systems are symbiotic.
- Cybersecurity is national security, and this requires both a new military doctrine and a diplomatic framework.
2) Productivity advantage of data to Asia
- The blurring of distinctions between domestic and foreign policy and the replacement of global rules with issue-based understanding converge with the growth of smartphone-based e-commerce, which ensures that massive amounts of data give a sustained productivity advantage to Asia.
3) India can negotiate new rules as an equal with US and China
- Data streams are now at the centre of global trade and countries’ economic and national power.
- India, thus, has the capacity to negotiate new rules as an equal with the U.S. and China.
How data shaped US-China relations
- Innovation based on data streams has contributed to China’s rise as the second-largest economy and the “near-peer” of the U.S.
- The national security strategy of the U.S. puts more emphasis on diplomacy than military power to resolve conflicts with China, acknowledging that its military allies have complex relationships with Beijing, as it seeks to work with them to close technology gaps.
- China’s technology weakness is the dependence on semiconductors and its powerlessness against U.S. sanctions on banks, 5G and cloud computing companies.
- But China’s digital technology-led capitalism is moving fast to utilise the economic potential of data, pushing the recently launched e-yuan and shaking the dollar-based settlement for global trade.
How global strategic balance will be shaped by data standard
- China has a $53-trillion mobile payments market and it is the global leader in the online transactions arena, controlling over 50% of the global market value.
- India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) volume is expected to cross $1 trillion by 2025.
- The U.S., in contrast, lags behind, with only around 30% of consumers using digital means and with the total volume of mobile payments less than $100 billion.
- The global strategic balance will depend on new data standards.
- The U.S., far behind in mobile payments, is falling back on data alliances and sanctions to maintain its global position.
India’s role in digital economy
- With Asia at the centre of the world, major powers see value in relationships with New Delhi.
- India fits into the U.S. frame to provide leverage.
- China wants India, also a digital power, to see it as a partner, not a rival.
- And China remains the largest trading partner of both the U.S. and India despite sanctions and border skirmishes.
Way forward for India
- India, like China, is uncomfortable with treating Western values as universal values and with the U.S. interpretation of Freedom of Navigation rules in others’ territorial waters.
- New Delhi’s Indo-Pacific vision is premised on “ASEAN centrality and the common pursuit of prosperity”.
- The European Union recently acknowledged that the path to its future is through an enhanced influence in the Indo-Pacific, while stressing that the strategy is not “anti-China”.
- The U.S. position in trade, that investment creates new markets, makes it similar to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Conclusion
India alone straddles both U.S. and China-led strategic groupings, providing an equity-based perspective to competing visions. It must be prepared to play a key role in moulding rules for the hyper-connected world, facing off both the U.S. and China to realise its potential of becoming the second-largest economy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Glacial Lake Outburst Floods
Mains level: Paper 3- Mitigating glacial lake outburst flood events
Melting of glaciers in Himalaya and GLOFs
- The Himalayan region is home to the largest ice mass outside of the planet’s Polar Regions.
- The glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at a faster rate creating new lakes and expanding the existing ones.
- The rising temperatures and extreme precipitation events make the region increasingly prone to a variety of natural hazards, including devastating glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs).
- GLOFs occur when either a natural dam containing a glacial lake bursts or when the lake’s level suddenly increases and overflows its banks, leading to catastrophic downstream destruction.
- However, the remote, challenging Himalayan terrain and the overall lack of cellular connectivity throughout the region have made the development of early flood warning systems virtually impossible.
- In their recent work the Scientists point out that the surge of meltwater in mountain streams is most commonly caused by cloud-burst events during the monsoon season (June–July–August) time frame.
Satelitte-based real-time monitoring
- Satellite-based real-time monitoring of Himalayan glacial catchments would improve understanding of flood risk in the region and help inform an early flood warning system that could help curb disaster and save human lives, says a recent study.
- This should be the future strategy to reduce loss of human lives during glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF), said a study carried out by scientists from IIT Kanpur.
- The IIT Kanpur team suggests that efforts to help mitigate GLOF events in the future should include the creation of a network of satellite-based monitoring stations that could provide in situ and real-time data on GLOF risk.
- The integration of monitoring devices with satellite networks will not only provide telemetry support in remote locations that lack complete cellular connectivity but will also provide greater connectivity in coverage in the cellular dead zones in extreme topographies such as valleys, cliffs, and steep slopes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Covid vaccination policy and issues with it
The article deals with the issues of different prices set for the Covid vaccine and its implications.
Understanding the positive and negative externalities
- Vaccines have a positive externality; it is a good whose consumption benefits not just the one who has it.
- A vaccinated person is not only relatively protected against the disease himself/herself, but also less likely to transmit it to others.
- Usually, a person getting vaccinated takes into account only his/her own cost and benefit, while ignoring the fact that he/she lowers the chances of infecting others.
- It is the opposite of smoking, which has “negative externality”.
- Since every individual ignores the full set of benefits/costs from consuming goods with positive/negative externalities, the market isn’t always the most efficient mechanism for allocation of such goods.
- That is a key reason why governments treat goods having large positive externalities as “public goods” and provide these while factoring in the full costs and benefits to society.
Analysing the issues with vaccine policy
1) Vaccine inequality
- It requires vaccine manufacturers to supply 50 per cent of their production to the Centre at controlled prices, while allowing them to sell the remaining half in the open market including to state governments at pre-announced “self-set” prices.
- To start with, the new policy can lead to differential access to the vaccine.
- Manufacturers are supposed to “transparently declare” their prices in advance for their 50 per cent supply to the open market.
- But there is no limit per se on the retail price they would charge.
- This could lead to a whole range of prices and vaccine inequality, apart from diversion of supplies from the controlled low-price government centres to the open market.
- So, we may well have scarcity in the “mass” segment co-existing with a glut in the “elite” segment.
- There is also concerns about economic efficiency and the potential for market failure.
2) Economic efficiency and potential for market failure
- Imagine there are two sets of people in India.
- The first consists of those who are better off and can afford to stay back or work from home.
- This lot is also less likely to cause infection to others.
- The second set is mostly blue-collar workers, small traders, vendors and agriculturists.
- The nature of their work — on the shop floor or in the field — makes them naturally prone to infect others.
- It follows, then, that society gains from first vaccinating the latter, as they have a higher negative externality.
- The market will ignore those with lower purchasing power, despite them having a higher probability of spreading the disease.
- In fact, the bigger the income difference between the two segments, the greater will be the extent of market failure from simultaneous over-provisioning and under-provisioning.
Way forward
- The solution could be a single price to be paid to vaccine makers for all the doses that they supply.
- The price should be high enough to stimulate them to rapidly ramp up production.
- Those government should pay directly to the vaccine maker or the hospital administering the dose for those without sufficient means.
- The suggested solution is similar to the fertiliser subsidy, which is now disbursed to companies only after actual sales to farmers.
Consider the question “What policy should be followed for the vaccination in the country? What are the issues with the curent policy which involved different price for government and for open market.”
Conclusion
A single price for Covid-19 vaccines will stimulate production, ensure efficient vaccination.
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