Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Inflation triggering factors
Context
Inflation is turning into a global concern fueled by multiple global factors. However, in India there are a few other triggers that will have a bearing on the inflationary trajectory.
Global inflation concerns
- All that could have possibly triggered higher inflation globally has already occurred — multiple waves of the pandemic, supply disruptions, an overdose of policy stimuli, war, sanctions, energy shocks, geopolitical adversity and weather disruptions.
1] Impact of MSP on inflation
- The MSP that is fixed by the government for kharif and rabi crops has been one of the key policy instruments.
- Policymakers in India have often acted with alacrity to protect the interests of farmers over the years.
- In the last 20 years, the weighted average MSP for kharif crops saw double-digit growth four times — in 2007, 2008, 2012 and 2018.
- Food inflation shot up to 12 per cent in 2007-08 as against 8 per cent in 2006-07 and 4 per cent in 2005-06.
- The inflationary surge continued in 2009 as a monsoon failure hit agricultural output hard.
- Global agricultural commodity prices started to rise in 2010 again and the FAO food price index reached an all-time high in July 2012.
- One of the key reasons for the increase in food prices was the oil price surge and a rise in demand for biofuel production.
- The global upside in food prices coincided with a 22 per cent increase in MSP for Kharif crops in India.
- Following the rise in MSP, food inflation in 2012 increased by 14.6 per cent as against 3.6 per cent the preceding year.
- In 2018, for the first time, the MSPs for all 23 kharif and rabi crops were fixed at a margin of at least 50 per cent higher than the cost of cultivation.
- The cost of cultivation (A2 + FL) includes the paid-out cost and cost of imputed family labour.
- Accordingly, the MSP of kharif crops in 2018 saw an annual increase of about 14 per cent.
- However, despite the significant rise in MSP, food inflation in 2018-19 was muted at 0.3 per cent.
- This was because farm input costs were under control and the terms of trade for farmers remained positive.
2] Impact of GST on inflation
- Raising the revenue-neutral rate: In the upcoming meeting, there is talk of changes in GST slabs and rates with an eye on raising the revenue-neutral rate from around 11.5 per cent, which is far lower than the 15.5 per cent estimated at the time of the launch of GST.
- Avoid the shock: However, a GST rate shock to the system is best avoided given the global inflationary backdrop and the fragility of consumer balance sheets.
3] Influence of weather
- While the dependence of agricultural output on the quantum of rainfall has reduced, variance in the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall is emerging as a key risk.
- A look at 2021 — a normal monsoon year with rainfall at 99 per cent of its long period average — is instructive.
- The late excess rains delayed the crop cycle and led to crop damage in several parts of the country.
- Likewise, the spatial distribution of rainfall remained uneven in 2021.
- Thus, even with normal rainfall in 2021, there were several disruptions to the crop cycle and farm cash flows.
Conclusion
The government has taken various steps lately to rein in inflation. However, the RBI will have little freedom in case the GST council decides to accord revenue protection to states via higher GST rates or if the monsoon is not in line with expectations. One hopes these events pan out right, like the MSP hike, when most other things have gone wrong.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CoWIN
Mains level: Paper 2- CoWIN platform
Context
Seeing its success, other nations have also expressed interest in availing CoWIN and using it as a bridge for erecting their digital health systems. Responding to this incoming interest, our prime minister has offered CoWIN as a digital public good, free of cost, for all nations globally to adopt.
About CoWIN
- In late 2020, even before the Covid-19 vaccines had arrived, the Government of India had commenced preparations for launching the world’s largest vaccination drive.
- This led to the beginning of the CoWIN journey in January 2021.
- Scalability, modularity, and interoperability: CoWIN, or the Covid-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network, was developed in a record time, with consideration given to scalability, modularity, and interoperability.
- The platform has been made available in English and 11 regional languages to allow citizens across multiple states to access the platform with ease.
- To circumvent the lack of digital access, the platform allows for up to six members to be registered under one mobile-number linked account.
- CoWIN has scaled every 100 million milestone faster than any other platform.
- It reached the coveted one billion registered user mark which only a handful of platforms have been able to achieve globally, and none in such a short time.
- A key feature of the platform has been its modularity and evolvability.
- The CoWIN team has been adept at keeping pace with the changing policy environment and scientific research and developments in the administration of vaccines.
- It was never that CoWIN became the bottleneck or delayed the implementation of our vaccination policies or drive.
- Time and again, CoWIN has proved itself as one of the most secure and robust platforms with minimal data input and zero risk of personal data hacks.
Major phases of CoWIN
- The journey of CoWIN was staggered across three major phases, with multiple additions subsequently.
- In phase 1, the registration process went online where healthcare workers and frontline workers were sent system-generated notifications about their vaccination schedule.
- In subsequent phases, beneficiaries were allowed both walk-in and online vaccination registration, along with the choice of location and time slot as per their convenience.
- An assisted mode was also made available through the 240,000+ Common Service Centres (CSCs) and a helpline number.
- After ensuring successful orchestration using scalability and agile features of the platform to vaccinate individuals over 45 years of age, the APIs of the platform were made available to private players at the beginning of Phase III of the vaccination drive.
- Once access to its services was opened through APIs, more than 100 applications integrated with CoWIN for providing search, booking and certification facilities to their users.
Way ahead
- The inevitable question is what will we do with CoWIN when no further Covid-19 vaccines are to be administered?
- Repurpose the platform: The decision is to repurpose the platform as a universal immunisation platform.
- The credentialing service of DIVOC, used in CoWIN, has proven to be a game-changer in the world of digital certificates.
- CoWIN service is being implemented in five other countries after India and receiving global acceptance for its veracity and sound architecture.
- There is a proposal for opening the credentialing service for more use cases in health.
Conclusion
The story of CoWIN has truly been one of national impact and importance. And while the story started during the pandemic, it won’t end with the pandemic: it will segue into a repurposed digital platform for more health use-cases.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: EPI
Mains level: Paper 3- Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and related issues
Context
The 2022 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) produced by Yale and Columbia Universities and released on World Environment Day (June 5) has triggered much consternation in India, as the country is ranked last (180th).
Issues with EPI 2022
- Ignoring the past effects: Indicators may focus on current rates of increase or decrease in environmental pressures (flows) — as the EPI does for carbon dioxide emissions and tree cover gains — but under-state the accumulated effect (stocks) that relates to actual harm, thereby ignoring past effects.
- Same standard in different socio-ecological context: When ranking countries, one is essentially applying the same standard across vastly different socio-ecological contexts – this involves difficult choices.
- For example, the EPI leaves out arsenic in water, which is a major threat in Bangladesh.
- Difficulty in measurement of frogress on climate change: Climate change is a global environmental problem, and because its effects depend on the accumulation of greenhouse gases over time, measuring progress in a given country is challenging.
- Climate change mitigation has to be measured against what it is reasonable and fair to expect from different countries, taking into account their past emissions as well as national contexts.
- There has been an inconclusive 30-year debate on this question; any choice of benchmark involves major ethical choices.
- EPI has given 38 per cent weight to the climate change in the index.
- They assume that the world must reach net zero emissions by 2050, and so the appropriate benchmark is whether all countries are reducing emissions and reaching zero by 2050.
- Against CBDR: This approach is contrary to widely accepted ethical principles, especially the global political agreement on common-but-differentiated-responsibility (CBDR).
- The Yale-Columbia approach ignores the fact that countries have different responsibilities for past accumulations and are at different levels of emissions and energy use.
- The inclusion of indicators on emissions intensity and emissions per capita partly addresses this issue, but these two account for 7 per cent of the weight, versus 89 per cent for indicators derived from current emission trends.
Implications EPI’s approach
- This approach is guaranteed to make richer countries look good, because they have accumulated emissions in the past, but these have started declining in the last decade.
- Meanwhile, poorer countries that have emitted comparatively little in the past, look bad.
- The EPI’s flawed and biased approach distracts from a much-needed honest conversation about the environment in India.
- India’s local environmental performance on air, water and forests is deeply problematic.
- Air quality in India is now the second largest risk factor for public health in India, behind only child and maternal nutrition.
- Rivers and lakes are increasingly polluted, rivers are drying, groundwater tables are rapidly declining, and gains in tree cover hide declining natural productivity and diversity of forests and grasslands.
Conclusion
While indices like these have a limited attention-grabbing purpose, they serve this purpose well only when they are focused, limited to easy-to-measure metrics, and consciously minimise value judgements. The EPI 2022 resoundingly fails this test.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: FATF
Mains level: Terror financing and money laundering
Pakistan which continues to face an economic crunch from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is hoping for some respite in the form of its removal from the FATF’s ‘grey list’.
What is the FATF?
- The FATF is an international watchdog for financial crimes such as money laundering and terror financing.
- It was established at the G7 Summit of 1989 in Paris to address loopholes in the global financial system after member countries raised concerns about growing money laundering activities.
- In the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attack on the US, FATF also added terror financing as a main focus area.
- This was later broadened to include restricting the funding of weapons of mass destruction.
- The FATF currently has 39 members.
Working of FATF
- The decision-making body of the FATF, known as its plenary, meets thrice a year.
- Its meetings are attended by 206 countries of the global network.
- It includes members, and observer organisations, such as the World Bank, some offices of the UN, and regional development banks.
Functions of FATF
- The FATF sets standards or recommendations for countries to achieve in order to plug the holes in their financial systems and make them less vulnerable to illegal financial activities.
- It conducts regular peer-reviewed evaluations called Mutual Evaluations (ME) of countries to check their performance on standards prescribed by it.
- The reviews are carried out by FATF and FATF-Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs), which then release Mutual Evaluation Reports (MERs).
- For the countries that don’t perform well on certain standards, time-bound action plans are drawn up.
- Recommendations for countries range from assessing risks of crimes to setting up legislative, investigative and judicial mechanisms to pursue cases of money laundering and terror funding.
What are the Black List and the Grey List?
- The words ‘grey’ and ‘black’ list do not exist in the official FATF lexicon.
- They however designate countries that need to work on complying with FATF directives and those who are non-compliant.
- Black List: The blacklist, now called the “Call for action” was the common shorthand description for the FATF list of “Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories” (NCCTs).
- Grey List: Countries that are considered safe haven for supporting terror funding and money laundering are put in the FATF grey list. This inclusion serves as a warning to the country that it may enter the blacklist.
Consequences of being:
(1) In the grey list:
- Economic sanctions from IMF, World Bank, ADB
- Problem in getting loans from IMF, World Bank, ADB and other countries
- Reduction in international trade
- International boycott
(2) In the black list:
- High-risk jurisdictions subject to call for action
- Countries have considerable deficiencies in their AML/CFT (anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing) regimens
- Enhanced due diligence
- Members are told to apply counter-measures such as sanctions on the listed countries
Note: Currently, North Korea and Iran are on the black list.
Pakistan and FATF
- Pakistan, which continues to remain on the “grey list” of FATF, had earlier been given the deadline till the June to ensure compliance with the 27-point action plan against terror funding networks.
- It has been under the FATF’s scanner since June 2018, when it was put on the Grey List for terror financing and money laundering risks.
- FATF and its partners such as the Asia Pacific Group (APG) are reviewing Pakistan’s processes, systems, and weaknesses on the basis of a standard matrix for anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime.
Why is Pakistan on the grey list?
- Pakistan has found itself on the grey list frequently since 2008, for weaknesses in fighting terror financing and money laundering.
- It never addressed concerns on the front of terror financing investigations and prosecutions targeting senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terrorist groups.
- However, now steps had been taken in this direction such as the sentencing of terror outfit chief Hafiz Saeed, prosecution of Masood Azhar and seizure of their properties.
- India meanwhile, a member of FATF, suspects the efficacy and permanence of Pakistani actions.
Steps taken by Pakistan
- Pakistan is currently banking on its potential exclusion from the grey list to help improve the status of tough negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to get bailout money.
- Pakistan is now making a high-level political commitment to the FATF and APG to address its strategic AML/CFT deficiencies.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Misleading Advertisements and Consumer Rights
The Centre has announced a new set of guidelines for advertisements preventing misleading ads by Celebrities.
Guidelines on Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022: Key takeaways
(1) Conditions for non-misleading and valid advertisement
An advertisement shall be considered to be valid and not misleading:
- If it contains truthful and honest representation;
- Does not mislead consumers by exaggerating the accuracy,
- Scientific validity or practical usefulness or capability or performance or service of the goods or product;
- Does not present rights conferred on consumers by any law as a distinctive feature of advertiser’s offer.
(2) Bait Advertisement
- A bait advertisement shall not seek to entice consumers to purchase goods, products or services without a reasonable prospect of selling such advertised goods, products or services at the price offered.
- The advertiser shall ensure that there is adequate supply of goods, products or services to meet foreseeable demand generated by such advertisement.
(3) Prohibition of surrogate advertising
- No surrogate advertisement or indirect advertisement shall be made for goods or services whose advertising is otherwise prohibited or restricted by law.
- No circumventing of such prohibition or restriction and portraying it to be an advertisement for other goods or services shall be allowed.
(4) Free claims advertisements
- A free claims advertisement shall not describe any goods, product or service to be ‘free’, ‘without charge’ or use such other terms if the consumer has to pay anything other than the unavoidable costs.
- Seller must make clear the extent of commitment that a consumer shall make to take advantage of a free offer.
(5) Children targeted advertisements
- An advertisement that addresses or targets or uses children shall not condone, encourage, inspire or unreasonably emulate behaviour that could be dangerous for children or take advantage of children’s inexperience, credulity or sense of loyalty.
(6) Limitations on Celebrity Endorsers
- The government has tightened norms for endorsers, including celebrities and sportspersons.
- They are now required to make material connection disclosures and undertake due diligence while doing advertisements.
- Endorsements must reflect the honest opinions, belief or experience of the endorsers.
- The endorsers have to make material connection disclosures and failing to do so will attract penalty under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).
- Material disclosures mean any relationship that materially affects the weight or credibility of any endorsement which a reasonable consumer would not expect.
- Violation of these guidelines will attract a penalty of ₹10 lakh for the first offence and ₹50 lakh for the subsequent offence, under the CPA.
(7) ASCI rules
- The latest guidelines will also apply to government advertisements.
- Moreover, the advertising guidelines for self-regulation issued by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) will also be in place in a parallel manner.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BrahMos Missile System
Mains level: Not Much
On June 12, 2001 the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was first tested from a land-based launcher in Chandipur.
What is BrahMos Missile System?
- BrahMos is a joint venture between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya.
- The missile derives its name from the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers.
- Beginning with an anti-ship missile, several variants have since been developed.
- It is now capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against surface and sea-based targets and has constantly been improved and upgraded.
Its capabilities
- BrahMos is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine.
- Its first stage brings the missile to supersonic speed and then gets separated.
- The liquid ramjet or the second stage then takes the missile closer to three times the speed of sound in cruise phase.
- The missile has a very low radar signature, making it stealthy, and can achieve a variety of trajectories.
- The ‘fire and forget’ type missile can achieve a cruising altitude of 15 km and a terminal altitude as low as 10 m to hit the target.
Background and development
- The early 1980s the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme was conceived and led by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.
- It started developing a range of missiles including Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag, with a wide spectrum of capabilities and ranges.
- In the early 1990s, India’s strategic leadership felt the need for cruise and guided missiles.
- The need was felt primarily following the use of cruise missiles in the Gulf War.
- An Agreement was signed with Russia in Moscow in 1998 by Dr Kalam, who headed the DRDO.
- This led to the formation of BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between DRDO and NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM), the Indian side holding 50.5% and the Russians 49.5%.
Tests and induction
- In 1999, work on development of missiles began in labs of DRDO and NPOM after BrahMos Aerospace received funds from the two governments.
- The first successful test in 2001 was conducted from a specially designed land-based launcher.
- The missile system has since reached some key milestones, with the first major export order of $375 million received from the Philippines Navy this year.
Strategic significance
- Cruise missiles such as BrahMos, called “standoff range weapons”, are fired from a range far enough to allow the attacker to evade defensive counter-fire.
- What makes the missile system unparalleled is its extreme accuracy and versatility.
- With missiles made available for export, the platform is also seen as a key asset in defence diplomacy.
Variants of Brahmos
- Versions currently being tested include ranges up to 350 km, as compared to the original’s 290 km.
- Versions with even higher ranges, up to 800 km, and with hypersonic speed are said to be on cards.
- Efforts are also on to reduce the size and signature of existing versions and augment its capabilities further.
- Versions deployed in all three Armed forces are still being tested regularly, and so are versions currently under development.
- LAND-BASED: The land-based BrahMos complex has four to six mobile autonomous launchers, each with three missiles on board that can be fired almost simultaneously. They are described as ‘tidy’ as they have very few components.
- SHIP-BASED: The Navy began inducting BrahMos on its frontline warships from 2005. These can hit sea-based targets beyond the radar horizon. The Naval version has been successful in sea-to-sea and sea-to-land modes.
- AIR-LAUNCHED: On November 22, 2017, BrahMos was successfully flight-tested for the first time from a Sukhoi-30MKI against a sea-based target in the Bay of Bengal. It has since been successfully tested multiple times.
- SUBMARINE-LAUNCHED: This version can be launched from around 50 m below the water surface. The canister-stored missile is launched vertically from the pressure hull of the submarine and uses different settings for underwater and out-of-the-water flights.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA)
Mains level: Parliamentary efficiency
A delegation of MLAs from Gujarat visited the UP Legislative Assembly to learn about the novel e-Vidhan system for paperless proceedings that has been recently adopted by the UP state assembly.
E-Vidhan System
- The National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) is a system for digitising the legislative bodies of all Indian states and the Parliament through a single platform.
- It includes a website and a mobile app.
- The house proceedings, starred/unstarred questions and answers, committee reports etc. will be available on the portal.
- Nagaland became the first state to implement NeVA, in March this year.
Significance of NeVA
- There has been a shift towards digitisation in recent years by the government.
- NeVA aims for streamlining information related to various state assemblies, and to eliminate the use of paper in day-to-day functioning.
- PM Modi mentioned the idea of “One Nation One Legislative Platform” in November 2021.
- A digital platform not only gives the necessary technological boost to our parliamentary system, but also connects all the democratic units of the country.
Has this been done elsewhere?
- Himachal Pradesh’s Legislative Assembly implemented the pilot project of NeVA in 2014, where touch-screen devices replaced paper at the tables of the MLAs.
- Though both Houses of Parliament have not gone fully digital yet, governments world over are heading towards embracing the digital mode.
- In December last year, the Government of Dubai became the world’s first government to go 100 percent paperless.
- It announced all procedures were completely digitised.
- This, as per a government statement, would cut expenditure by USD 350 million and also save 14-million-man-hours.
What are the challenges?
- Access to devices and reliable internet and electricity was an issue particularly for legislators representing rural constituencies.
- Lack of training and heightened concerns over security are some more recent issues in the road to digitization.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Microplastics pollution
Mains level: Not Much
Scientists have found microplastics — plastic pieces much smaller than a grain of rice — in freshly fallen Antarctic snow for the first time.
What are Microplastics?
- Microplastics are tiny bits of various types of plastic found in the environment.
- The name is used to differentiate them from “macroplastics” such as bottles and bags made of plastic.
- There is no universal agreement on the size of microplastics. It defines microplastic as less than 5mm in length.
- However, for the purposes of this study, since the authors were interested in measuring the quantities of plastic that can cross the membranes and diffuse into the body via the bloodstream.
- Hence they agreed on an upper limit on the size of the particles as 0.0007 millimetre.
Why in news?
- Researchers have found microplastics in the snow samples from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
Threats posed by Microplastics
- Microplastics has the potential to influence the climate by accelerating melting of ice.
- They limit growth, reproduction, and general biological functions in organisms, as well as humans.
Try this PYQ:
- Why is there a great concern about the ‘microbeads’ that are released into environment?
(a) They are considered harmful to marine ecosystems.
(b) They are considered to cause skin cancer in children.
(c) They are small enough to be absorbed by crop plants in irrigated fields.
(d) They are often found to be used as food adulterants.
Post your answers here.
Back2Basics: Ross Ice Shelf
- Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica roughly the size of France.
- It is several hundred metres thick.
- The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600 kilometres long, and between 15 and 50 metres (50 and 160 ft) high above the water surface.
- Ninety percent of the floating ice, however, is below the water surface.
- Most of Ross Ice Shelf is in the Ross Dependency claimed by New Zealand.
- It floats in, and covers, a large southern portion of the Ross Sea and the entire Roosevelt Island located in the east of the Ross Sea.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021
Mains level: Read the attached story
A person has approached the Delhi High Court to question why marital status, age or gender should be the criteria for prohibiting someone from commissioning a surrogacy.
Why in news?
- Under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 a married couple can opt for surrogacy only on medical grounds.
- The petitioner have challenged in the court the surrogacy law and the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021 which provides a regulatory framework for surrogacy.
Issues raised by the petition
- Currently, the laws does not allow single men to have child through surrogacy.
- Married women can only avail surrogacy services if they are unable to produce a child due to medical conditions.
- Otherwise, for women to avail of surrogacy services, they must be aged between 35 and 45 and widowed or divorced.
- Women can only offer surrogacy if they are aged between 25 and 35 and married with at least one biological child.
- The laws also require a surrogate to be genetically related to the couple who intend to have a child through this method, their petition said.
Basis of the Petition
- The personal decision of a single person about the birth of a baby through surrogacy, i.e., the right of reproductive autonomy is a facet of the right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
- Thus, the right to privacy of every citizen or person affecting a decision to bear or beget a child through surrogacy cannot be taken away.
Distinct features of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021
- Definition of surrogacy: It defines surrogacy as a practice where a woman gives birth to a child for an intending couple with the intention to hand over the child after the birth to the intending couple.
- Regulation of surrogacy: It prohibits commercial surrogacy, but allows altruistic surrogacy which involves no monetary compensation to the surrogate mother other than the medical expenses and insurance.
- Purposes for which surrogacy is permitted: Surrogacy is permitted when it is: (i) for intending couples who suffer from proven infertility; (ii) altruistic; (iii) not for commercial purposes; (iv) not for producing children for sale, prostitution or other forms of exploitation; and (v) for any condition or disease specified through regulations.
- Eligibility criteria: The intending couple should have a ‘certificate of essentiality’ and a ‘certificate of eligibility’ issued by the appropriate authority ex. District Medical Board.
Eligibility criteria for surrogate mother:
- To obtain a certificate of eligibility from the appropriate authority, the surrogate mother has to be:
- A close relative of the intending couple;
- A married woman having a child of her own;
- 25 to 35 years old;
- A surrogate only once in her lifetime; and
- Possess a certificate of medical and psychological fitness for surrogacy.
- Further, the surrogate mother cannot provide her own gametes for surrogacy.
Also read:
[Burning Issue] Surrogacy in India
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