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THE POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. FREE SPEECH VS DISINFORMATION CONTROL

THE CONTEXT: The Future of India Foundation’s ‘Politics of Disinformation’ report finds that in an age of amplification to boost user engagement, social media companies cannot use ‘freedom of expression’ as an excuse to let false information to further propaganda thrive.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Social media platforms cite ‘free speech’ in order to absolve themselves of their role in spreading disinformation. They have framed the discourse around disinformation and its resolution as a content-moderation problem. In reality, pervasive disinformation is spread more by social media’s amplification of disinformation-laden content rather than its failure to remove it. It is only at the removal stage that the question of free speech arises.
• The report pegs disinformation (the deliberate use of misinformation) as a political problem and finds that its solution does not solely lie in laws enacted by a government and its execution.
• When it comes to disinformation, the report notes that social media platforms have a more central role to play than they claim to have.
• As long as amplification is driven by engagement instead of the quality of content or the trustworthiness of the content’s sources, current moderation efforts by social media platforms are likely to fall short.

Neutrality

• However, platforms have neatly bypassed the discussion around amplified distribution and have found it convenient to exclusively frame measures to reduce misinformation as being in “tension” with freedom of expression – an issue which can arise only in the case of outright removal.
• Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook are all on the record stating their aversion to be the ‘arbiters of truth’ and that the platforms should be a marketplace of ideas. However, the report says that their very emphasis on free speech is because it is a grand business model.
• As private companies, the issue in the case of outright removal of content, is not freedom of speech but political neutrality of the platform, the report says, citing instances where Facebook did not restrict a post by former US president Donald Trump but Twitter did. The argument used by both companies was public interest.
• In 2020, an explosive report by the Wall Street Journal suggested that key Facebook employees in India were in conflict with the company’s pledge to remain neutral in elections around the world.
• The discussions focused on ascertaining the following:

1. how young people get and consume information.
2. how they determine which information is trustworthy.
3. how they sift between competing narratives on the same event/issue.
4. do they care to ascertain whether a piece of information is accurate.
5. the purpose and use of information
6. awareness of and reliance on fact-checking sites and
7. the impact of online misinformation.

• The report finds that the key takeaway from the focus group discussions is that not only have social media platforms disrupted the information ecosystem in India, but that they have allowed themselves to be weaponised by vested interests in ways which are leading to real world harm.

 2. MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE RELEASES NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY-5 (NFHS) REPORT

THE CONTEXT: The NFHS-5 survey work has been conducted in around 6.37 lakh sample households from 707 districts of the country from 28 States and 8 UTs, covering 7,24,115 women and 1,01,839 men respectively.

THE EXPLANATION:

• According to the report, Three times as many males as females are employed in the 15-49 age group in India, a stubborn gender gap that has remained virtually the same over the last five years, the latest edition of the National Family Health Survey Report shows.
• Around 75% of boys and men in the age group of 15-49 are currently employed, according to the fifth edition of the NFHS (for 2019-21), released by the ministry of health and family welfare.
• “About 25% of women in the age group of 15-49 are currently employed, compared with 75% of men aged 15-49. Employment is higher among less educated people. About 89% among men and 34% among women are employed with less than 5 years of schooling. There are approximately 87% men and 34% women who are employed with no schooling,” noted the report.
• Referring to the previous NFHS-4 (for 2015-16), the report said, “24% of women were currently employed in 2015-16, compared with 25% in 2019-21. Among men, the proportion who are currently employed has not changed in the same period.”
• The survey—an important indicator of social trends—defines currently employed as those who were employed in the seven days before the survey. This includes respondents who did not work in the past seven days but are regularly employed, and were absent from work for leave, illness, vacation or any other reason.
• India has been seeing a consistent decline in female labour force participation for years, and the survey raises important questions about whether India’s growth is inclusive enough, pointing to the need for urgent action, said Poonam Muttreja, executive director at the non-profit Population Foundation of India.
• Bihar (14%), Uttar Pradesh (17%), and Assam (18%) have the lowest percentage of women in work. More than a third of women were currently employed in a handful of states: Karnataka (35%), Andhra Pradesh (37%), Telangana (39%), Manipur (40%), and Meghalaya (42%).
• Those women who are employed are mostly working as farm or production workers.
• Ironically, women and men with 10-11 years of schooling, never married women and men, women and men with no children, and women and men belonging to the highest wealth quintile are less likely to be employed than others.

 THE ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

3. NASA’S CYNTHIA ROSENZWEIG RECEIVES 2022 WORLD FOOD PRIZE

THE CONTEXT: Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior research scientist and head of the Climate Impacts Group at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, received the 2022 World Food Prize from the World Food Prize Foundation on May 5.

THE EXPLANATION:

• According to the World Food Prize Foundation, the World Food Prize is a prestigious international award conceived as the “Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture” with a mission to elevate innovations and inspire action to sustainably increase the quality, quantity and availability of food for all.
• Rosenzweig was selected for the award for her research to understand the relationship between climate and food systems and forecast how both will change in the future.
• Her modeling work has provided a foundation for decision-makers around the world to create strategies to mitigate climate change and adapt our food systems to a changing planet, which has helped communities worldwide address the consequences of Earth’s changing climate.

4. DIRECT SEEDING OF RICE (DSR)

THE CONTEXT: The Punjab government recently announced Rs 1,500 incentive per acre for farmers opting for Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR), which is known for saving water.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Paddy is non-shelled rice that farmers grow and sell in mandis and then after milling paddy rice is prepared. According to the studies by Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana, around 3,600 litres to 4,125 litres of water is required to grow one kg rice depending upon the paddy variety.
• Long duration varieties consume more water. In Punjab, 32% area is under the long duration (around 158 days) paddy varieties, and the rest comes under paddy varieties that take 120 to 140 days to grow. So, on an average 3,900 to 4,000 litres water is required to grow one kg rice in the state.
• According to an analysis by the PAU, the DSR technique can help save 15% to 20% water. In some cases, water saving can reach 22% to 23%. With DSR,15-18 irrigation rounds are required against 25 to 27 irrigation rounds in traditional method.
• Since area under rice in Punjab is almost stagnant around 3 million hectares for the last three to four years, DSR can save 810 to 1,080 billion litres water every year if entire rice crop is brought under the technique.
• According to experts, DSR can solve labour shortage problem because as like the traditional method it does not require a paddy nursery and transplantion of 30 days old paddy nursery into the main puddled field. With DSR, paddy seeds are sown directly with machine.
• PAU experts said that DSR offers avenues for ground water recharge as it prevent the development of hard crust just beneath the plough layer due to puddled transplanting and it matures 7-10 days earlier than puddle transplanted crop, therefore giving more time for management of paddy straw.
• A PAU study said that results from research trials and farmers’ field survey have also indicated that yield, after DSR, are one to two quintals per acre higher than puddled transplanted rice.
• Experts said that with DSR technique, which is called ‘tar-wattar DSR’ (good soil moisture), farmers must sow paddy only after pre-sowing (rauni) irrigation and not in dry fields. Further, the field should be laser levelled. They said that spraying of herbicide must be done simultaneously along with sowing, and the first irrigation, which is done at 21 days after sowing.
• Experts said that suitability of soil is the most important factor as farmers must not sow it in the light textured soil as this technique is suitable for medium to heavy textured soils including sandy loam, loam, clay loam, and silt loam which accounts for around 80% area of the state.
• It should not be cultivated in sandy and loamy sand as these soils suffer from severe iron deficiency, and there is higher weed problem in it. Also, avoid direct seeding of rice in fields which are under crops others than rice (like cotton, maize, sugarcane) in previous years as DSR in these soils is likely to suffer more from iron deficiency and weed problems.
• Though government has said that farmers can sow paddy with DSR after May 20, but PAU experts say that DSR varieties must not be sown before May 25 or yield will get impacted. According to them, June 1-15 is best time to sow DSR-friendly paddy varieties and second fortnight of June is optimum time for direct sowing of basmati.
• Experts said that under agricultural extension services, farmers must train extensively at every stage from pre-sowing to harvesting so that they can develop confidence to adopt DSR without any hesitation.

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

5. AT UNSC, INDIA CALLS FOR THE REMOVAL OF EXPORT CURBS ON   COUNTRIES COMBATING THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS

THE CONTEXT: At United Nations Security Council (UNSC), May 5, India called for an exemption on food export restrictions for countries that are sending assistance to combat the current food shortages being experienced globally, resulting from the Ukraine war.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Referring to the first report of the Global Crisis Response Group Task Team, India’s permanent representative to the UN, T.S. Tirumurti, observed that the conflict had led to “skyrocketing” inflation and a shortage of food grains and fertilizers.
• The Global Crisis Response Group is led by UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, constituted to examine the fallout of the Ukraine war on food and energy security.
• The Group has made a recommendation for “exempting purchases of food by WFP [World Foood Programme] for humanitarian assistance from food export restrictions with immediate effect”.
• India’s proposal applied to situations beyond humanitarian catastrophes where WFP was directly involved, but also covered the crisis in countries that may be facing severe food shortages, like Egypt.
• Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore had led an initiative at WTO to remove export restrictions on food grains for non-commercial humanitarian efforts. But India had initially opposed it, worried that procurement of large volumes of food may lead to inflationary effects domestically.
• The Ukraine invasion by Russia has led to “a crisis that is also devastating global energy markets, disrupting financial systems and exacerbating extreme vulnerabilities for the developing world”.

6. AMID THE ECONOMIC CRISIS, SRI LANKA PLACED UNDER EMERGENCY FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A MONTH

THE CONTEXT: Sri Lanka’s president on 6^th may declare a state of emergency for the second time in five weeks, giving security forces sweeping powers amid a nationwide strike by angry demonstrators who blame him for an unprecedented economic crisis.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The decision came amidst weeks of protests demanding the resignation of the President and the government, blaming the powerful Rajapaksa clan for mishandling the island nation’s economy, already hit by the pandemic.
• Earlier in the day, student activists warned to lay a siege to Parliament as trade unions launched a crippling island-wide strike to demand the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his government over their inability to tackle the economic meltdown which has caused unprecedented hardships to the public.
• The beleaguered Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has made it clear that he will not quit from his post, came under unexpected pressure to resign at the special Cabinet meeting.
• Sri Lanka is going through the worst economic crisis in its history with the shortage of essentials, and power outages caused by a severe forex crisis.
• Sri Lanka is currently in the throes of unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948. The crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices.
• Thousands of demonstrators have hit the streets across Sri Lanka since April 9, as the government ran out of money for vital imports; prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed and there are acute shortages in fuel, medicines and electricity supply.
• Despite mounting pressure, President Rajapaksa and his elder brother and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa have refused to quit.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

7. INDIA HAS NO PLANS TO JOIN THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT AGREEMENT (GPA)

THE CONTEXT: India has “no plans” to join the government procurement agreement grouping of the World Trade Organization (WTO) but is open to negotiating such agreements as part of bilateral deals.

THE EXPLANATION:

• It already figures in the free trade agreement signed with the UAE, and while this may act as a template for all future bilateral free-trade agreements the scope and coverage of the section may vary, the ministry of commerce and industry said on the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). Pacts under negotiation include those with Canada, the EU, Israel and the UK.
• The India-UAE agreement, which came into effect on 1 May excludes government procurement (GP) for several union ministries.
• While this was the first time India had included government procurement in a free-trade pact, it is only limited to a few central ministries and excludes key sectors such as construction, infrastructure projects and health care, including medical devices and pharmaceutical products.
• India is an observer under WTO Agreement on government procurement since 2010 and, as of now, there is no plan to join the same.
• In future agreements, the GP chapter text may become a template, and the scope and coverage of the GP chapter may vary depending on the ambition.
• Under the pact, only government procurement contracts worth over ₹200 crore will be allowed for UAE-based companies on the same terms as Indian firms. Government procurement is open to 34 ministries and departments, including power and education.
• Earlier, India never took up government procurement for bilateral or multilateral trade agreements in order to protect domestic firms. This was one of the bottlenecks in several key FTA negotiations, including the one with the EU.State-owned firms and the defence ministry are excluded from GP.
• Only limited central government ministries are covered, that too with high thresholds for procurement of goods, services and construction services… excluded are subordinate entities of the central ministries including departments and attached bodies, autonomous bodies, government-owned firms, public sector enterprises, regulators or any other entity, wholly or partially, under the central government.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTION FOR 7th MAY 2022

Q. Consider the following statements:

1. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) at national level in India has gone below replacement levels.
2. All states in India have reached the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) at replacement level or below.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 only

b) 2 only

c) Both 1 and 2

d) Neither 1 nor 2

ANSWER FOR THE 6TH MAY

Answer: C

Explanation:

1. Koftgiri art – Rajasthan
2. Dhokra art – Chhattisgarh
3. Rogan painting – Gujarat