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THE HEALTH AND EDUCATION

1. NEW RESEARCH: HEART INFLAMMATION RISK AFTER COVID-19 JABS IS VERY LOW, FINDS STUDY

THE CONTEXT: According to the latest study at National University Hospital, Singapore found no statistically significant difference between the incidence of myopericarditis following the Covid-19 vaccination and other vaccinations (56 per million).

THE EXPLANATION:

• The overall risk of heart inflammation (myopericarditis) following Covid-19 vaccination is very low, affecting 18 people per million vaccine doses, a study in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine has found.
• The researchers found no statistically significant difference between the incidence of myopericarditis following the Covid-19 vaccination and other vaccinations (56 per million).
• THE CONDITION: Myopericarditis is a condition that causes inflammation of the heart muscle and, in some cases, severe permanent heart damage. It is most often caused by viruses, but in rare instances can also occur after vaccination.
• DATABASE: The researchers looked at more than 400 million doses from global databses, and analysed more than 20 studies with reported incidences of myopericarditis following any type of vaccination between January 1947 and December 2021.
• Of these, 11 studies looked specifically at Covid-19 vaccinations, covering over 395 million doses – nearly 300 million of which were mRNA vaccines. The rest of the studies covered other vaccinations such as smallpox (2.9 million doses), influenza (1.5 million doses), and others (5.5 million doses).
• FINDINGS: Among COVID-19 vaccinations, the risk of myopericarditis (18 cases per million dases) was higher for those who received mRNA vaccines (22.6 per million) compared to non-mRNA vaccines (7.9 per million). Reported cases were also higher in people below 30 (40.9 per million), males (23 per million), and following the second dose (31.1 per million).
• According to the specialist,“The occurrence of myopericarditis following non-Covid-19 vaccination could suggest that myopericarditis is a side effect of the inflammatory processes induced by any vaccination and is not unique to the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins in Covid-19 vaccines or infection.

2. UGC ALLOWS ENROLLING FOR TWO DEGREES

THE CONTEXT: According to the new UGC guidelines, from the academic session 2022-23, students will have the option to pursue two academic programmes simultaneously at the higher education level.

THE EXPLANATION:

• It will essentially allow students to simultaneously opt for two programmes at the undergraduate, diploma and postgraduate levels. Both degrees can be in physical mode, or one offline and another online, or both offline. But it will be optional for the universities to adopt these guidelines.

What are the subject combinations that a student will be allowed to take up?

• According to the UGC, the permitted combination of subjects will vary from one institution to another as different institutes set different criteria for admissions. However, it will be possible for a student to pursue a degree in humanities and sciences at once, or two degrees falling in the same stream.
• For instance, if a student is already enrolled in a BSc mathematics degree and also wants to pursue a bachelor’s degree in History, He/She will be allowed to do so. If a university offers an offline BCom programme during the evening shift and a full-time BA programme during the morning shift, a student may enroll in both programmes.

What are the possible combinations in terms of modes of study?

• The move allows a student to pursue two academic programmes, one in full-time physical mode, and another in open and distance learning mode. They can also join a programme in a physical mode in a university, along with another programme in an online mode. The third choice for students is that they can pursue two online degrees simultaneously.
• On the question of attendance, particularly in case of a student choosing the purely offline mode, UGC noted that in such cases, students and colleges will ensure that class timings for one programme do not overlap with that of the other.
• Also, the guidelines will not apply to MPhil and Ph.D. programmes. Students can only pursue a degree or diploma course in distance mode/online mode at institutions that have been approved by the UGC, and concerned bodies of the Government of India.

Will admission eligibility criteria and attendance requirements be revised?

• The eligibility criteria for each of the programmes will remain unchanged and admissions will be conducted based on the existing UGC and university norms. If a student aspires to pursue a specialised degree in any domain but the minimum criteria require her to have basic knowledge of the subject, then she may not be able to enroll in that particular course.
• Since all academic programmes have minimum attendance requirements for students to be able to take the exams, universities may have to devise or revise the attendance criteria for these courses. “UGC does not mandate any attendance requirements and these are the policies of the universities.

 THE ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY, AND CLIMATE CHANGE

3. INDIA WILL MISS ITS 2022 SOLAR POWER TARGET: REPORT

THE CONTEXT: A report, jointly prepared by two energy-research firms — JMK Research and Analytics and the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis — says India will likely miss its 2022 target of installing 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity. This is because rooftop solar lagging behind.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is India’s solar policy?

• Since 2011, India’s solar sector has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 59% from 0.5GW in 2011 to 55GW in 2021. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), also known as the National Solar Mission (NSM), which commenced in January 2010, marked the first time the government focussed on promoting and developing solar power in India.
• Under the scheme, the total installed capacity target was set as 20GW by 2022. In 2015, the target was revised to 100GW and in August 2021, the government set a solar target of 300GW by 2030.
• India currently ranks fifth after China, U.S., Japan and Germany in terms of installed solar power capacity. As of December 2021, the cumulative solar installed capacity of India is 55GW, which is roughly half the renewable energy (RE) capacity (excluding large hydropower) and 14% of the overall power generation capacity of India. Within the 55GW, grid-connected utility-scale projects contribute 77% and the rest comes from the grid-connected rooftop and off-grid projects.

What does the report say?

• As of April, 2022 only about 50% of the 100GW target, consisting of 60GW of utility-scale and 40GW of rooftop solar capacity, has been met. Nearly 19 GW of solar capacity is expected to be added in 2022 — 15.8GW from utility-scale and 3.5GW from rooftop solar. Even accounting for this capacity would mean about 27% of India’s 100GW solar target would remain unmet, according to JMK Research.
• A 25GW shortfall in the 40GW rooftop solar target, is expected compared to 1.8GW in the utility-scale solar target by December 2022. Thus, it is in rooftop solar that the challenges of India’s solar-adoption policy stick out.

What are the reasons for rooftop solar adoption not meeting targets?

• In December 2015, the government launched the first phase of the grid-connected rooftop solar programme to incentivise its use in residential, institutional and social areas. The second phase, approved in February 2019, had a target of 40GW of cumulative rooftop solar capacity by 2022, with incentives in the form of central financial assistance (CFA).
• As of November 2021, of the phase 2 target of 4GW set for the residential sector, only 1.1GW had been installed. The disruption in supply chains due to the pandemic was a key impediment to rooftop solar adoption.
• In its early years, India’s rooftop solar market struggled to grow, held back by lack of consumer awareness, inconsistent policy frameworks of the Centre/State governments and financing. Recently, however, there has been a sharp rise in rooftop solar installations thanks to falling technology costs, increasing grid tariffs, rising consumer awareness and the growing need for cutting energy costs.
• These factors are expected to persist giving a much-needed boost to this segment, the report notes. Going ahead, rooftop solar adoption is expected to proportionally increase as land and grid-connectivity for utility solar projects are expected to be hard to come by.

Challenges:

• Factors impeding rooftop-solar installation include pandemic-induced supply chain disruption to policy restrictions, regulatory roadblocks; limits to net-metering (or paying users who give back surplus electricity to the grid); taxes on imported cells and modules, unsigned power supply agreements (PSAs) and banking restrictions; financing issues plus delays in or rejection of open access approval grants; and the unpredictability of future open access charges, the report notes.

How critical is solar power to India’s commitment to mitigate climate change?

• Solar power is a major prong of India’s commitment to address global warming according to the terms of the Paris Agreement, as well as achieving net-zero, or no net carbon emissions, by 2070.
• Prime Minister at the United Nations Conference of Parties meeting in Glasgow, in November 2021, said India would be reaching a non-fossil fuel energy capacity of 500 GW by 2030 and meet half its energy requirements via renewable energy by 2030.
• To boost the renewable energy installation drive in the long term, the Centre in 2020 set a target of 450GW of RE-based installed capacity to be achieved by 2030, within which the target for solar was 300GW.
• Given the challenge of integrating variable renewable energy into the grid, most of the RE capacity installed in the latter half of this decade is likely to be based on wind-solar hybrid (WSH), RE-plus-storage and round-the-clock RE projects rather than traditional solar/wind projects, according to the report. On the current trajectory, the report finds, India’s solar target of 300GW by 2030 will be off the mark by about 86GW, or nearly a third.

The study speculates that the government, in the short term, will aggressively push for expediting solar capacity addition to achieve the 100GW target by 2022 by re-allocating some of the unmet rooftop targets to utility-scale projects.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

4. INDIA TO GROW AT 8%: WORLD BANK

THE CONTEXT: According to World Bank, India is projected to grow at 8% over the current fiscal year (April 1- March 31), and 7.1% over the next (FY 2023-24) fiscal year.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The country is estimated to have grown at 8.3% in the fiscal year that just passed, following a contraction of 6.6% in the year owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• For the South Asia region, growth is expected to be slower than projected, by 1 percentage point, at 6.6% in 2022 and 6.3% next calendar year.
• This is due to Russia’s war on Ukraine, which has impacted the region, when it was already experiencing “uneven and fragile” growth, rising commodity prices, bottlenecks to supply and financial sector vulnerabilities.

External shocks

• “Given these challenges, governments need to carefully plan monetary and fiscal policies to counter external shocks and protect the vulnerable, while laying the foundation for green, resilient and inclusive growth”.
• It highlighted, that there is limited space for fiscal stimulus and supply bottlenecks are of greater significance than insufficient effective demand.
• The impact of sanctions on Russia would be on the South Asian region, the report noted the impact was indirect, rather than direct, given the relatively low proportion of imports and exports that go to and from Russia and Ukraine. The indirect impact was via the global impact of sanctions on commodity and financial markets.
• All countries in the region will face challenges ahead, despite “solid” GDP growth during recovery, as per the report. In the case of India, household consumption will be constrained due to the incomplete recovery of the labour market and inflationary pressures.

Greener fuels

• The report suggests that countries in the region move towards greener fuels and commodities as a response to rising fuel prices and the introduction of green taxes. This would also be a new source of government revenue. Also, It noted that the green tax recommendation applied to both firms that were polluting as well as energy prices.

THE GOVERNMENT SCHEMES/INITIATIVES IN THE NEWS

5. NOD TO EXTEND GRAM SWARAJ SCHEME

THE CONTEXT: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a proposal to continue the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA), a scheme for improving the governance capabilities of Panchayati raj institutions, till 2025-2026.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The CCEA, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister, approved the extension of the scheme that ended on March 31, 2022 at a total financial outlay of ₹5,911 crores, of which ₹3,700 crore would be the Centre’s share and ₹2,211 crore the States’ share.
• “The approved scheme of RGSA will help more than 2.78 lakh rural local bodies to develop governance capabilities to deliver on SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals] through inclusive local governance with focus on optimum utilisation of available resources”.
• The scheme would work towards “poverty free and enhanced livelihood in villages; healthy village, child friendly village; water sufficient village; clean and green village; self-sufficient infrastructure in village; socially secured village; village with good governance; engendered development in village”.

Strengthening the panchayats

• The government said panchayats would be strengthened and a spirit of healthy competition inculcated. No permanent posts would be created under the scheme but “need-based contractual human resources may be provisioned for overseeing the implementation of the scheme and providing technical support to States/UTs”.

VALUE ADDITION:

About Gram Swaraj Abhiyan

• In continuation of “Gram Swaraj Abhiyan”, which started on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti, Govt. of India has extended it in 117 Aspirational Districts identified by the NITI Aayog.
• This campaign which, undertaken under “SabkaSath, Sabka Gaon, Sabka Vikas”, is to promote social harmony, spread awareness about pro-poor initiatives of the government, and reach out to poor households to enroll them as also to obtain their feedback on various welfare programmes.
• During this Abhiyan, a saturation of eligible households/persons would be made under seven flagship pro-poor programmes namely, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Saubhagya, Ujala scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Mission Indradhanush. In addition, 5 priority are related activities under Education, Health, Nutrition, Skills and Agriculture also been identified as per district plan.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Q. Which of the following pairs is/are correctly matched?

1. Bohag Bihu – Sowing festival
2. Kati Bihu – Crop protection
3. Bhogali Bihu – Harvest festival

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

a) 1 only

b) 1 and 2 only

c) 2 and 3 only

d) 1, 2 and 3

ANSWER FOR 13TH APRIL 2022

Answer: C

Explanation:

• The electoral college for the election of President of India is made up of all the elected members of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament (Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs) and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of States and Union Territories (MLAs).