DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS (AUGUST 31, 2022)

THE INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. CHALLENGING THE SPECIAL MARRIAGE ACT, 1954

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the Supreme Court dismissed a writ petition challenging provisions of the Special Marriage Act (SMA), 1954 requiring couples to give a notice declaring their intent to marry 30 days before their marriage.
THE EXPLANATION:
• The Supreme Court dismissed a writ petition challenging the Constitutional validity of certain provisions of the SMA under which couples seek refuge for inter-faith and inter-caste marriages.
• The writ petition has called these provisions violative of the right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution as they require couples to give a notice of 30 days before the date of marriage inviting objections from the public.
• The writ petition has also said that the provisions contravene Article 14 on prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste and sex as well as Article 15 on right to equality as these requirements are absent in personal laws.
• Another writ petition in Nandini Praveen vs Union of India & Others filed on similar grounds was admitted by the Supreme Court in 2020 and the government’s reply to is awaited.

What are the provisions that have been challenged?
Section 5 of the SMA requires couples getting married under it to give a notice to the Marriage Officer 30 days before the date of marriage.
Section 6 requires such a notice to be then entered into the Marriage Notice Book maintained by the Marriage Officer, which can be inspected by “any person desirous of inspecting the same”.
• These notices have to be also affixed at a conspicuous place in the office of the Marriage Officer so that anyone can raise an objection to the marriage.
Section 7 provides the process for making an objection such as if either party has a living spouse, is incapable of giving consent due to “unsoundness of mind” or is suffering from mental disorder resulting in the person being unfit for marriage or procreation.
Section 8 specifies the inquiry procedure to be followed after an objection has been submitted.

What is the Special Marriage Act?
• A marriage under the Special Marriage Act, 1954 allows people from two different religious backgrounds to come together in the bond of marriage.
• The Special Marriage Act, 1954 lays down the procedure for both solemnization and registration of marriage, where either of the husband or wife or both are not Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, or Sikhs.
• According to this Act, the couples have to serve a notice with the relevant documents to the Marriage Officer 30 days before the intended date of the marriage.

Registration process Special Marriage Act:
• Both parties are required to be present after the submission of documents for issuance of public notice inviting objections.
• Registration is done 30 days after the date of notice after deciding any objection that may have been received during that period by the SDM.
• Both parties along with three witnesses are required to be present on the date of registration.

2. LIFETIME PERKS FOR FORMER CJIS, SC JUDGES

THE CONTEXT: The Centre on amended service rules for Supreme Court judges by making additional post-retirement allowances, including a rent-free Type-VII accommodation in Delhi for a retired Chief Justice of India (CJI) for six months after demitting office and protocol courtesies at airports for SC judges.
THE EXPLANATION:
• The benefits of the amended rules will be extended to all living former CJIs and retired Supreme Court judges. As per the latest changes in the rules, a retired chief justice of India will also be entitled to a security cover round-the-clock at their residence in addition to a 24X7 personal security guard for a period of five years from the date of retirement.
• A retired Supreme Court judge will be entitled to 24X7 security cover at his or her residence in addition to a round-the-clock personal security guard for a period of three years from the date of retirement. If a retired CJI or a retired judge of the top court is already provided a “higher grade” security on the basis of threat perception, “the higher grade security already provided shall continue”.
• A retired CJI will be entitled to a rent-free Type-VII accommodation in Delhi (other than the designated official residence) for a period of six months from the date of retirement. Type VII accommodation is usually provided to sitting MPs who have been former Union ministers. The accommodation facility was extended to retired CJIs earlier this month.
• A retired judge of the Supreme Court will get a domestic help and a chauffeur for lifetime from the day of retirement. The ceremonial lounge facility at airports extended to retired CJI and retired Supreme Court judges announced earlier this month would also continue.
• Retired chief justices of the high courts were also extended the VIP lounge facility by amending the High Court Judges Rules. A retired CJI or a retired Supreme Court judge will be entitled to a residential telephone “free of cost” and reimbursement of telephone call charges of residential telephone or mobile phone or broadband or mobile data or data card not exceeding Rs 4,200 per month, plus taxes.
• “The post-retirement benefits under this rule shall be admissible to the retired Chief Justice (of India) or the retired Judge (of SC) if no such facilities are availed from any High Court or from any other government body where the retired Chief Justice or a retired Judge has taken up any assignment after retirement,” the notification explained. The expenditure on domestic help, chauffeur, secretarial assistant and telephone reimbursement will be borne largely by the Supreme Court or a high court establishment.
• Till recently, retired CJI and top court judges were given monthly monetary benefits to hire guards, domestic helps and chauffeurs. The amount given would be discontinued, a functionary said. While a retired CJI was entitled for Rs 70,000 per month for the purpose, retired Supreme Court judges were provided Rs 39,000 per month. On August 23, the government had amended the Supreme Court Judges Rules to provide chief justices of India rent-free accommodation for six months after demitting office and round-the-clock security for one year upon superannuation to CJIs and retired Supreme Court judges.
• For one year after retirement, CJI and Supreme Court judges were also given chauffeur facility and secretarial assistant. The sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court is 34 judges and on an average, three retire annually, a functionary pointed out.

3. KERALA PASSES BILL ON LOK AYUKTA

THE CONTEXT: Recently Kerala Assembly passed the Kerala Lok Ayukta (Amendment) Bill.
THE EXPLANATION:
• The amendments were related to the competent authority to consider Lok Ayukta recommendations.
• In the case of any unfavourable decision from the Lok Ayukta against the Chief Minister, the competent authority will now be the Legislative Assembly instead of the Governor in the existing Act.

WHAT IS LOKAYUKTA?
• The Lokayukta is an authority at state level which deals with corruption and mal-admistration complaints made by the general public.
• This authority is constituted for a quicker redressal of public grievances.
• The concept of Lokayukta traces back to the ombudsman in Scandinavian countries.
• The Lokayukta is put into power when the Lokayukta act is passed in the state and works for the State governments and addresses the complaints of the people living in the state.
• The complaints can be against the integrity and efficiency of the government or its administration which includes the people working in the government sector.
• The complaints can also be regarding any corruption faced by the people from the government administration.
• To address these serious issues a well-qualified and reputed person, generally a former high court chief justice or a former Supreme Court judge, is appointed as the Lokayukta and this person once appointed cannot be dismissed or transferred by the government.
• The creation of Lokpal at the centre and Lokayukta at the state level was suggested by the Administrative Reforms commission in the year 1966 after which the first Lokpal act was passed in the year 1971 in the state of Maharashtra.
• The Lokayukta has a fixed tenure and has to make sure to perform the given functions independently and impartially.
• The general public can directly approach this lokayukta with complaints against corruption, nepotism or defects in administration.

4. THE NCRB’S ‘CRIME IN INDIA’ REPORT

THE CONTEXT: A new edition of ‘Crime in India’, the annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), was released recently, for crime-related statistics in 2021.
THE EXPLANATION:
• NCRB reports have been a valuable compilation of statistics over the years on offences ranging from crimes against women to economic and financial crimes.
• Overall, 2021 saw a 7.6 per cent decline in the number of crimes registered, as compared to 2020.
• The crime rate per lakh population declined from 487.8 in 2020 to 445.9 in 2021.

Who publishes the NCRB report?
• The NCRB was established in January 1986 with the aim of establishing a body to compile and keep records of data on crime.
It functions under the Union Home Ministry.
Apart from publishing annual reports, its functions include:
• collection, coordination and exchange of information on inter-state and international criminals to the respective states.
• NCRB also acts as a “national warehouse” for the fingerprint records of Indian and foreign criminals, and assists in locating interstate criminals through fingerprint search.

Collection of information
• The NCRB report contains data received from the 36 states and Union Territories across the country.
• Similar data is furnished for 53 metropolitan cities, or those having a population of more than 10 lakh as per the 2011 census, by respective state-level crime records bureaus.
• This information is entered by state/UT police at the police station/ district level, and is then validated further at the district level, then the state level, and finally by the NCRB.

Limitations of NCRB report
• Since the publication caters to the ‘Principal Offence Rule’ for classification of crime, the actual count of each crime head may be under reported.
• The Principal Offence Rule states that in a case where multiple offences are registered, only the “most heinous crime”, carrying the most stringent punishment, will be considered when counting.
• For example, ‘Murder with Rape’ is accounted as ‘Murder’, leading to undercounting of the crime of rape.Since the report only compiles data that are submitted at the local level, inefficiencies or gaps in data at that level have an impact. Vacancies or a shortage of police officers at the local level may hinder the collection of data.
• The data record the incidence of registered crime rather than of actual crime.So, when reported crimes against women in Delhi rose significantly in the aftermath of the 2012 bus gangrape case, it may have been a reflection of increased awareness about the need for registering crimes, both among those affected and the police, rather than an actual increase in the incidence of crime against women.
• ‘Rise in crime’ and ‘increase in registration of crime by police’ are clearly two different things, a fact which requires better understanding,.
• Since actual numbers will be mostly higher for the bigger states, a “crime rate” is calculated per unit of population.But again, the data used at present for determining the total population is old — from the 2011 Census.

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

5. SOLOMON ISLANDS SUSPENDS ALL VISITS FROM FOREIGN NAVIES

THE CONTEXT: Recently,Solomon Islands has suspended visits from all foreign Navies, citing a need to review approval processes after a U.S. Coast Guard ship was unable to refuel at its port.
THE EXPLANATION:
The decision comes amid concerns over:
• the Solomons’ growing ties with China in recent years,
• switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 2019
• signing a security pact with the Asian power in April.
• Western governments are wary that the islands could provide China with a military foothold in a strategically important region.

About Solomon Islands
• Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu.
• Its capital, Honiara, is located on the largest island, Guadalcanal.
• The country takes its name from the Solomon Islands archipelago, which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the North Solomon Islands (a part of Papua New Guinea), but excludes outlying islands, such as the Santa Cruz Islands and Rennell and Bellona.
• In 1568, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to visit them.
• During World War II, the Solomon Islands campaign (1942–1945) saw fierce fighting between the United States, British Commonwealth forces and the Empire of Japan, including the Battle of Guadalcanal.
• The official name of the then-British administration was changed from the “British Solomon Islands Protectorate” to “The Solomon Islands” in 1975, and self-government was achieved the following year.
• At independence, Solomon Islands became a constitutional monarchy.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

6. TOPS INFLATION CHARTS AT 8.32%

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the headline inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index has averaged 6.8% in the first seven months of 2022.
THE EXPLANATION:
There are wide disparities in the pace of price rise experienced by consumers across the country, with a dozen States clocking an average inflation of less than 6% and another 12 States averaging more than 7% through 2022 so far.
• While headline inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index has averaged 6.8% in the first seven months of 2022, consumers in Telangana, West Bengal and Sikkim faced the steepest spike in prices, with their combined retail inflation for rural and urban areas averaging 8.32%, 8.06%, and 8.01%, respectively.
• As many as 14 States, along with the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir, have witnessed price rise higher than the national average through 2022.
Headline inflation is the raw inflation figure reported through the Consumer Price Index (CPI) that is released monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The CPI calculates the cost to purchase a fixed basket of goods to determine how much inflation is occurring in the broad economy.

Some of the other major States where inflation has stayed sharply elevated include
• Maharashtra and Haryana (7.7%),
• Madhya Pradesh (7.52%),
• Assam (7.37%),
• Uttar Pradesh (7.27%),
• Gujarat and J&K (7.2%),
• Rajasthan (7.1%).

Retail prices have been rising at less than 6% in States such as:
• Kerala (4.8%),
• Tamil Nadu (5.01%),
• Punjab (5.35%),
• Delhi (5.56%),
• Karnataka (5.84%).
Smaller States such as Manipur, Goa and Meghalaya have had an average inflation of less than 4% through this period, at 1.07%, 3.66%, and 3.84%, respectively.
The variation in the States’ inflation rates is mainly on account of two factors:
One is food prices, where non-producing States have higher inflation as transport prices get added.
Second is that some States lowered fuel prices while others didn’t, which also made a difference.
Moreover, States that have more rural areas than urban areas face a higher inflation as the rural segment of the Consumer Price Index has a higher weightage for food costs.

THE PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE

7. FRUIT FLY: NOVEL METHOD TO STUDY NUCLEAR MATRIX

THE CONTEXT: Recently, a group of researchers using a novel method, have established a way of studying the nuclear matrix of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) without removing the nucleus from the embryo.
THE EXPLANATION:
What is the nuclear matrix?
• Every cell that makes up an organism contains a copy of its genome.
• This genome is packaged in special ways with the help of a structure known as the nuclear matrix.
• The nuclear matrix gives an organisation and architecture to the nucleus.The nuclear matrix is like a scaffolding.
• Using biochemical means, if the nucleus is taken out and treated with an enzyme that digests all the DNA, then washed with a solution of high salt concentration so that viable DNA proteins or protein-protein interactions are removed, what is then left is a fibrous meshwork of proteins called the nuclear matrix.
• A familiar figure, the nuclear matrix of fruit flies, for instance, has been studied for many years, mainly by isolating it in nuclei that have been taken out from fruit fly embryos.
• This allows comparative study of nuclear matrix in different cells within the embryo, giving a boost for fruit fly genetics.

NuMat preparation
• The researchers collect embryos which are between zero and 16 hours old.
• They make, for the first time, the in situ nuclear matrix preparation using this entire collection of embryos.
• Some are in very early developmental stages, where they are made up of nuclei only, or just making a mono layer of nuclei across the embryos or have gone through differentiation.The array is made available in one preparation.




Ethics Through Current Development (31-08-2022)

  1. Fix administration READ MORE
  2. Build integral human world order for peace READ MORE
  3. Is a Moral Response to War Possible Today? READ MORE



Today’s Important Articles for Geography (31-08-2022)

  1. How the Ice Ages spurred the evolution of New Zealand’s weird and wiry native plants READ MORE
  2. A South Asian climate plan READ MORE
  3. Is it climate crisis that fuelled flooding in Pakistan? READ MORE



Today’s Important Articles for Sociology (31-08-2022)

  1. How financial access impacts women’s decision-making role in households READ MORE
  2. Suicides by the poor: Lakhs of deserving destitute are denied even their doles READ MORE
  3. Despite ‘Solutions’, Anaemia Remains an Unsolved Problem in India READ MORE



Today’s Important Articles for Pub Ad (31-08-2022)

  1. SC’s decision on Pegasus raises troubling questions READ MORE
  2. On Pegasus, Supreme Court panel failed its mandate, missed an opportunity READ MORE
  3. Is democracy really in danger? READ MORE
  4. Politics isn’t just about winning polls READ MORE
  5. Vulnerable to Misuse by Police, the New Criminal Identification Act Can Create a Surveillance State READ MORE



WSDP Bulletin (31-08-2022)

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

  1. Explained | Challenging the Special Marriage Act, 1954 READ MORE
  2. Solomon Islands suspends all naval visits READ MORE
  3. Delhi Police first force to make collection of forensic evidence mandatory READ MORE
  4. Abhijit Sen: An advocate of MSP, public distribution system READ MORE
  5. La Ninã conditions enter 3rd year, 6th time since 1950 READ MORE
  6. Five-judge Supreme Court Bench to hear EWS quota petitions on September 13 READ MORE

Main Exam

GS Paper- 1

  1. History, Southside: Medieval India’s queens: Were they feminist icons? Not Quite READ MORE
  2. How the Ice Ages spurred the evolution of New Zealand’s weird and wiry native plants READ MORE
  3. How financial access impacts women’s decision-making role in households READ MORE
  4. Suicides by the poor: Lakhs of deserving destitute are denied even their doles READ MORE

 GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

  1. SC’s decision on Pegasus raises troubling questions READ MORE
  2. On Pegasus, Supreme Court panel failed its mandate, missed an opportunity READ MORE
  3. Is democracy really in danger? READ MORE
  4. Politics isn’t just about winning polls READ MORE
  5. Vulnerable to Misuse by Police, the New Criminal Identification Act Can Create a Surveillance State READ MORE

SOCIAL ISSUES

  1. Despite ‘Solutions’, Anaemia Remains an Unsolved Problem in India READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

  1. The many ways of helping Sri Lanka: There is a strong case for greater Indian engagement, especially in certain sectors READ MORE
  2. How to end the China dispute READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

  1. How is Russian economy doing under western sanctions? READ MORE
  2. Low growth, inequality a trigger for freebies READ MORE
  3. ‘Freebie’ row: Six charts explain why states must be allowed to make their own decisions on welfare READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

  1. A South Asian climate plan READ MORE
  2. Is it climate crisis that fuelled flooding in Pakistan? READ MORE

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

  1. Floods and foes: India and Pakistan are best placed to help each other during natural disasters READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

  1. Let’s welcome Ganesh, the epitome of wisdom READ MORE
  2. Fix administration READ MORE
  3. Build integral human world order for peace READ MORE
  4. Is a Moral Response to War Possible Today? READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

  1. ‘Some Indian states, heavily burdened with high fiscal deficit and debt levels, have performing better on developmental outcomes’. In the light of the statement discuss whether the states should be allowed to make their own decisions on welfare and freebies?
  2. How far do you agree with this view that the New Criminal Identification Act will Create a Surveillance State? Analyse your view.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

  • It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
  • Frosty and droughty climates posed direct physiological challenges to plants, but they also left them more exposed to browsing; they thus developed anti-browsing defences to survive.
  • While the government continues to promote it as a tool to expedite investigations, the reality is that it is another tool at the disposal of the state to misuse the criminal justice system to harass whom it deems as dissenters.
  • Political proposals, encapsulating ideas and projects, compete with one another. Increased competition at once reflects and gives rise to greater diversity.
  • The need of the hour is a serious endeavour on the part of the entire political class to formulate and execute a slew of administrative reforms, to bring in structural changes.
  • The menace of bonded and child labour still rears its ugly head. The daily workers’ dire straits were best manifested during the Covid-induced lockdown when the sudden loss of jobs exposed their vulnerability and near-zero social security.
  • Several issues regarding the spyware case need to be addressed, including why the SC sealed the report and why the State chose not to cooperate during the committee’s pursuit of the truth. As a matter of public interest, accountability and action must be non-negotiable.
  • Governments need to initiate deep rooted reforms on several fronts to curb the ballooning subsidy bill.

50-WORD TALK

  • India’s caution on resumption of trade with Pakistan cannot be faulted. Flood-hit Pakistan’s devastated economy stands to gain more by trading directly with India. But Islamabad’s obsession with Kashmir-centric politics and thoughtless diplomatic muscle-flexing has only ended up hurting itself. A U-turn on trade can rekindle hope for the relationship.
  • Jharkhand governor Ramesh Bais sitting on Election Commission’s recommendation in CM Hemant Soren’s mining lease case is bewildering. Raj Bhawan seems to be encouraging political instability by its inaction. President Droupadi Murmu must direct the governor to discharge his constitutional duties. And remind him that his conduct should be non-partisan.

Things to Remember:

  • For prelims-related news try to understand the context of the news and relate with its concepts so that it will be easier for you to answer (or eliminate) from given options.
  • Whenever any international place will be in news, you should do map work (marking those areas in maps and exploring other geographical locations nearby including mountains, rivers, etc. same applies to the national places.)
  • For economy-related news (banking, agriculture, etc.) you should focus on terms and how these are related to various economic aspects, for example, if inflation has been mentioned, try to relate with prevailing price rises, shortage of essential supplies, banking rates, etc.
  • For main exam-related topics, you should focus on the various dimensions of the given topic, the most important topics which occur frequently and are important from the mains point of view will be covered in ED.
  • Try to use the given content in your answer. Regular use of this content will bring more enrichment to your writing.



Day-277 | Daily MCQs | UPSC Prelims | CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS

[WpProQuiz 321]




TOPIC : NIRF RANKING: DOES IT SERVE THE PURPOSE OF IMPROVING OF LEARNING?

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the Ministry of Education released the 7th Edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) Rankings 2022. The following article intends to evaluate the impacts of NIRF rankings on learning outcomes.

NIRF RANKINGS: KEY ASPECTS

  • The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) has been launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development on September 29th, 2015.
  • This framework outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country covering about 3500 educational institutes in India. The methodology draws from the overall recommendations to identify the broad parameters for ranking various universities and institutions.
  • NIRF India Ranking 2022 has been announced for 11 categories. This includes overall, university, management, college, pharmacy, medical, engineering, architecture, ARIIA (Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements), law and research institutions.
  • The subjectivity in the ranking methodology developed by QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Ranking led India to start its own ranking system for Indian HEIs on the line of Shanghai Rankings. The long-term plan of NIRF is to make it an international league table.
  • More than 7,000 institutes participated in NIRF Rankings for 2022.

The ranking framework judges institutions under five broad generic groups of parameters of

  • Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR),
  • Research and Professional Practice (RP),
  • Graduation Outcomes (GO),
  • Outreach and Inclusivity (OI),
  • Perception (PR).

Ranks are assigned based on the total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters.

ANALYZING IMPACTS OF RANKINGS ON LEARNING OUTCOMES

There is a new era in higher education, characterized by global competition, in which university ranking systems have assumed importance. Their emergence, often controversial and subject to considerable debate, has been met with a lot of scepticism, some enthusiasm and an institutional unease. Regardless, ranking systems are here to stay and it is important to assess their effect on the higher education sector and its stakeholders.

PRESENT STATUS

There are 864 Universities and 11669 Institutions in India but only 24 secured their places in the top 1000 list released by QS world university ranking.

  • Even after 70 years of independence, India does not have even one world-class multidisciplinary research university. And just one university IISc Bangalore was ranked in the Top 500 of Global Rankings.
  • If we talk about the top 100, 33 Institutes were from the USA, 15 from the UK, 7 from Germany, 6 from China and 5 from Japan.

Reasons for the worst condition of Indian Institutions

  • Even after liberalisation in the 1990s, there was no liberation of higher education from government control.
  • People complained about the lack of autonomy and bureaucratic interference.
  • There were some 17 bodies controlling each and every realm of higher education.
  • The country was incapable of producing many things it desired. We could not produce the necessary defence equipments.
  • Half of India’s students were pursuing courses in the liberal arts and sciences.

WHY DO WE NEED NIRF?

  • The importance of a national ranking system is that it helps students choose the best university. A national ranking ensures that all higher educational institutes strive hard to improve their rankings.
  • It also ensures that there is no complacency in the institutes and they work harder each year to provide quality education to students.
  • Educationists have always voiced their concern about the absence of Indian universities, technology and management institutes from global rankings and the importance of these rankings.
  • Thus, a national ranking framework ensures that universities keep working hard to ensure that they are providing scholastic education, at par with international standards.

NIRF: THE ASSESSMENT

Detailed assessment mechanism:

  • Teaching and Learning Resources (TLR): This parameter deals with the basic activities related to any place of learning. It deals with the teaching and learning resources available to the institute and how they are being utilized.

  • Research and Professional Practice (RP): This parameter measures the quality of research being carried out, and the scholarships provided to students.

  • Graduation Outcome (GO): This parameter judges the ultimate goal of students, graduation.

o   Combined Metric for Placement, Higher Studies, and Entrepreneurship (GPHE): It is calculated based on the percentage of graduating students placed through campus placement over the past three years and the number of sustained start-ups or entrepreneurial adventures over the past five years.

o   Metric for University Examinations (GUE): This is the number of students as a fraction of the approved intake who have passed the university exam within the stipulated time for the course they had enrolled in.

o   Median Salary(GMS): It is the median salary of graduates who have passed from the institution.

o   Metric for Number of PhD Students Graduated (GPHD): It is the average number of PhD students who have graduated over the past three years.

  • Outreach and Inclusivity (OI): This is the parameter that deals with the representation of women, marginalized and minorities in the institution.

  • Perception (PR): This parameter judges the overall perception of the institute by industry, peers and researchers. It is judged based on the following sub-parameters:

  • A ranking is the best form of publicity and comparison. It shows that your institute is better than the rest, it shows that you provide quality education and ensures that the general public views your institute with trust.
  • When students research colleges and universities, one parameter that they pay the most attention to is the ranking of the institute. Choosing the right educational institute is one of the most important and daunting tasks in a student’s life. A higher ranking ensures that students and their parents/guardians can place their trust in your institute.
  • A better ranking gives you a better reputation by evaluating your institute better than the others and it is also proof that the general public likes and trusts the institute. A ranking is a testimonial that your institute has worked on every parameter and provided the best resources, infrastructure and facilities to the students.

THE METHODOLOGY: PLACING VALUE ON INTEGRITY

  • Institutions, universities and colleges are supposed to register and upload information according to the guidelines issued by the NIFR. They also have to upload the information submitted to NIRF on their own site for a period of three years. As a step towards encouraging transparency, the NIFR is empowered to do random and surprise audits on the data submitted by institutes. If the submitted data are inconsistent with the findings, the institute could be barred from participating in the ranking survey for the next two years.
  • While the ranking depends heavily on self-declaration, asking institutes to publish data on their own site is a simple way of ensuring transparency and integrity of information.

NIRF RANKINGS: CRITICAL ANALYSIS

While it is laudable that the government is promoting a benchmark mostly based on objective indicators, it is a matter of concern that this does not serve the purpose of improving the standards of learning.  The zeal to tick the right boxes can give results that do not conform to the ground reality, raising questions about the fairness and reliability of the assessment parameters.

IMPACT ON STUDENT ENROLMENT

  • The impact of the NIRF rankings on improving students’ enrolment, is considered limited. That largely depends on the reputation, fee structure, infrastructural facilities, location and research output.
  • According to the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), India’s GER was 27.4 per cent for 2017-18.
  • This, in effect, means out of the total population in the age group of 18-23 in India, 27.4 per cent attend college and university.

SCOPE OF ATTRACTING FOREIGN STUDENTS

  • India having a global ranking system of its own may be a project in the making, but eventually, quality and vastly improved standards are what will bring international students and faculty to the country, not hollow validation based on scores that project a distorted image.

NEED FOR RESEARCH DRIVEN INSTITUTES

  • The industry connection will happen when research leads to better outcomes. That requires liberal funding for institutions that show promise, whether or not they figure high on rankings, putting an end to the meaningless exercise of churning out worthless, amateurish research papers just to get additional credit or help an individual acquire a degree.
  • Although India has seen an exponential increase in the number of scientific publications over the last 10 years and is in the third position globally after China and the US, the conversion rates of these patents into working models are far less than desired.
  • Although India is a hub of immense economic activity, its efforts to boost R&D and innovation are lagging. This can also be seen through the patenting activity in the country.
  • India has been ranked 40th out of 53 countries on the Global Intellectual Property Index. Patenting activity is an indicator of innovation and India has seen an infinitesimally small rise over the years in the patent filing.

DEFINING PURPOSE

  • The idea behind rankings should be to inform decisions, not drive admissions. Thus, even though the Gross Enrolment Ration (GER) could have spiked in recent times, the quality and quantity of worthy choices before students aren’t enough to be celebrated.
  • As the NIRF evolves and involves more institutions, guidance from foreign and Indian experts should be of immense help, besides an honest review of its performance, the shortcomings and the additional parameters it needs to incorporate, like the financial health and size of the institution. The success of the endeavor lies in how beneficial it can be for students.

Tyranny of Geography

  • There is discrimination present even in the top-rated universities and colleges in India. For example, certain courses in certain IITs are prefer it over the others. Also, the notion of explicit advantage of students belonging to tier one cities with regard to language and technological upgrade nations is visible clearly in such eminent institutes which somehow overlooks the overall quality of education in other institutes.

Global Comparisons

  • Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) a leading global career and education network for ambitious professionals looking to further their personal and professional development.
  • QS develops and successfully implements methods of comparative data collection and analysis used to highlight institutions’ strengths.
  • The ‘QS World University Rankings’ is an annual publication of university rankings which comprises the global overall and subject rankings.

Six parameters and their weightage for the evaluation:

  • Academic Reputation (40%)
  • Employer Reputation (10%)
  • Faculty/Student Ratio (20%)
  • Citations per faculty (20%)
  • International Faculty Ratio (5%)
  • International Student Ratio (5%)

National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF): The ranking framework judges institutions under five broad generic groups of parameters of

  • Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR),
  • Research and Professional Practice (RP),
  • Graduation Outcomes (GO),
  • Outreach and Inclusivity (OI),
  • Perception (PR).

Ranks are assigned based on the total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters.

Thus, clearly the NIRF is losing out on global standards like employment generation and foreign students.

THE WAY FORWARD:

  • The NEP (National Education Policy) notes that quality education would enable us to occupy the “global stage” and cites.
  • NEP also calls for attention to “local and global needs of the country”. It seeks the making of a truly global citizen through “Global Citizenship Education”. NEP calls for the use of global best practices for standard setting. India must thus, actualize best pedagogic practices to culminate patents into innovations.
  • For multidisciplinary education and research universities (MERU), the NEP calls for the highest global standards. In its recognition of the need to give a global competitive edge to the students, the policy (which is not without its problems and critiques) offers us a way of thinking about Flagship Universities as well.
  • To spur hundreds of universities and thousands of colleges to improve their level of excellence: give all higher education institutions complete autonomy. Let them all compete and get better. In tandem with increased transparency and accountability on outcomes, all the stakeholders’ students, industry, society and nation will benefit.

THE CONCLUSION: India has historically been the land of great universities and institutes which have given the world an unprecedented volume of wisdom and innovations. A similar perception needs to be created in present times. The advantage of improving our brand perception is that we get the added advantage of word-of-mouth advertising. It means that the general public views our institute in high regard and talks about it in the same manner. Thus, more people get to know and discuss about your institute, without any expenditure on advertising and marketing. It is also the most widespread and fast means of publicity.  Hence, a good NIRF ranking has multiple advantages for any institute if projected and utilised in a goal driven manner. It is in our best interest that we strive for a better rank every time and establish your institute in the top echelons of higher education.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

  • “The idea behind rankings should be to inform decisions, not drive admissions.” Examine critically in the light of the recently released National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
  • “There are many advantages of improving the brand perception of our institutes by means of better performance in competitive rankings.” Do you agree? Give valid arguments in support of your views.



DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS (AUGUST 30, 2022)

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. INDIA-BANGLADESH MOU ON KUSHIYARA RIVER

THE CONTEXT: During the 38th Ministerial Meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission, the two countries finalized a draft of a Memorandum of Understanding to share the waters of the Kushiyara River on an interim basis.
THE EXPLANATION:
• In this meeting, the two countries discussed many issues of mutual interest, including river water sharing of rivers, sharing of flood data, focus on river pollution, joint study on sedimentation management, river bank protection between the two countries. tasks etc.
• All aspects of issues related to Ganga, Teesta, Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla, Dudhkumar etc. other rivers were also discussed during this meeting.
• Meanwhile, both sides welcomed the finalization of the design of Feni River Water Harvesting Site and its technical infrastructure to meet the drinking water requirements of Sabroom Town, Tripura. It is noteworthy that in this regard, an MoU came into existence between the two countries in October 2019.
VALUE ADDITION:
Kushiyara River
The Kushiyara River forms the Indo-Bangladesh border as a branch of the Barak River when it separates from the Surma, another branch of the Barak. After flowing some distance in Bangladesh, it meets again with Surma river and this combined river is now called Meghna river.
Manipur, Mizoram and Assam receive water through this river in India.
India and Bangladesh water sharing
• India and Bangladesh share 54 between them. All the rivers of Bangladesh either have their source in India or pass through it.
• The Ganges, the major river system in India, flows through Bangladesh into the Bay of Bengal. About 35 million people in about one third of Bangladesh’s area are directly dependent on the Ganges.
Joint River Commission
• The Joint River Commission between India and Bangladesh was formed in the year 1972 under the peace treaty, through which issues of mutual interest on the border, border rivers can be resolved.
• The JRC is headed by the Ministers of Water Resources of both the countries.
• Under this commission, meetings are organized to get mutual benefit from the rivers located between the two countries and to discuss river related issues from time to time.

THE HEALTH ISSUES

2. 75 TRIBAL DISTRICTS IDENTIFIED FOR TB INTERVENTIONS

THE CONTEXT: Recently 75 high burden tribal districts have been selected by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Central TB Division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to become TB free in the coming months.
THE EXPLANATION:
For 75 such districts, a three-pronged strategy is presented, focusing on the following:
1. Generate demand for TB services through community mobilization, increasing awareness of TB symptoms, prevalence and treatment procedures, and continuing engagement with community influencers involved in the process of reducing stigma and fear associated with TB.
2. To improve the delivery of TB services by provision of customized solutions by leveraging PIPs and other sources of funding to bridge the implementation gap by increasing the infrastructure of TB testing or testing and diagnosis.
3. Reducing the risk and spread of disease through proactive case-detection campaigns.
Tribal TB Initiative
• The ‘Tribal TB Initiative’ is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Central TB Division of the Ministry of Health, supported by USAID as the technical partner and by Piramal Health as the implementation partner.
• Under this initiative, Aashwasan Campaign was launched from Nandurbar district of Maharashtra to detect active cases of TB in 174 tribal districts of India.
Aashwasan Campaign
• The campaign has brought together around 2 lakh community influencers, who participated with full dedication to make this campaign a success. These include tribal leaders, tribal doctors, PRI members, self-help groups (SHGs) and youth from tribal areas.
• Under this, door-to-door TB screening was done in 68,019 villages. Based on oral examination of 1,03,07,200 persons, 3,82,811 persons were identified as having TB.
• Of these, 2,79,329 (73 per cent) samples were tested for TB and 9,971 people tested positive for TB were treated as per the protocol of the Government of India.
End TB strategy
India is committed to eliminate tuberculosis from the country by 2025, five years ahead of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global target i.e. 2030.

THE GOVERNMENT SCHEMES AND INITIATIVES IN NEWS

3. 8 YEARS OF PM JAN DHAN YOJANA

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the central government’s ambitious scheme Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has completed eight years. The main objective of this scheme was to include the poor section of the country in the main banking system.
THE EXPLANATION:
Under this scheme more than 46 crore bank accounts have been opened in 8 years. It has deposits of Rs 1.74 lakh crore. With the help of this scheme, 67 percent of the rural population of the country has now got banking services and 56 percent of women also have Jan Dhan accounts.
Key Features of the Scheme
The schemes would provide the connectivity to the individuals through banking facilities. Several key features of the scheme include:
• Interest on deposit
• Accidental insurance cover of Rupee One Lakh.
• No minimum balance required
• Life insurance cover of Rs.30,000/-
• Easy Transfer of money across India
Further, the beneficiaries of Government Schemes would get Direct Benefit Transfer in these accounts; After satisfactory operation of the account for 6 months, an overdraft facility will be permitted; Access to Pension, insurance products.; Accidental Insurance Cover, RuPay Debit Card must be used at least once in 45 days; Overdraft facility uptoRs.5000/- is available in only one account per household, preferably lady of the household.
With the help of this scheme, the financial help sent by the central government to the poor during the covid-19 pandemic was directly transferred to their bank accounts. This made it possible for the financial assistance given under other schemes including Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi to reach the beneficiaries directly.
Challenges to Jan Dhan Scheme
• Usage of bank accounts is limited.
• Banking infrastructure has not reached rural areas, thus declining usage.
• Financial literacy is low.
• Availability of loans and credit for rural areas is less.
• A significant population is still without any bank accounts.
PMJDY is a significant scheme to ensure inclusive development and channelize savings in the economy. The focus should now shift to increasing bank reach in rural areas and including all unbanked population in a scheme rather than focusing on one member per family.

THE PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE

4. ALL MANIPUR SHUMANG LEELA FESTIVAL 2021-2022

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the 50th All Manipur Shumang Leela Festival 2021-2022 began at Iboyaima Shumang Leela Shanglen in Palace Compound, Imphal.
THE EXPLANATION:
• Shumang Leela is a traditional form of theatre in Manipur and the roles of female artists are all played by male actors and male characters are played by female artists in case of female theatre groups. The activities are done in the open air.
• During the festival, the Governor also distributed medals to the winners of the 49th All Manipur Shumang Leela Mahotsav 2020-21.
Background of Shumang Leela Festival
• Originally Shumang Leela began as a comedy genre presented to kings and nobles, which evolved into the present form of courtyard drama. The Shumang Leela of those days tried to preserve and promote humanity, tolerance, self-confidence, devotion, truth and justice through its performances.
• In the present day Shumang Leela is trying to focus on issues of moral values, unity and integrity. It is also striving to strengthen the bonds of brotherhood and friendship between different communities in the state.

5. AUGUST 29: NATIONAL SPORTS DAY

THE CONTEXT: The National Sports Day (NSD) is celebrated every year in India on 29th of August to mark the birth anniversary of legendary hockey player Major Dhyan Chand, who was known as ‘The Wizard’ or ‘The Magician’ of hockey for his superb ball control.
THE EXPLANATION:
About Major Dhyan Chand
• The legendary hockey player was born on 29 August 1905 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. He is widely considered as the greatest field hockey player of all time. He had started playing hockey only after joining the Army at the age of 16.
• He won gold medals in Olympics for India in the years 1928, 1934 and 1936. He scored over 400 goals in his career, from 1926 to 1948. It is believed that after India defeated Germany in the 1936 Olympics final by 8-1, Adolf Hitler offered him a senior post in the German Army, to which Chand refused.
• His autobiography “Goal!” was published by Sport & Pastime (Madras) in 1952. The Government of India (GoI) awarded him the 3rd highest civilian honour of Padma Bhushan in 1956. Beside this, the most noted memorial for him is the Major Dhyan Chand Award, which is the highest award for lifetime achievement in sports and games in India.
• It has been awarded annually from 2002 to sporting figures that not only contribute through their performance but also contribute to the sport after their retirement.

6. SAREX 22 INDIAN COAST GUARD EXERCISE

THE CONTEXT: The Indian Coast Guard recently conducted its biennial National Maritime Search and Rescue Exercise SAREX 22 off the Chennai coast.
THE EXPLANATION:
• The objective of this exercise is to avoid accidents at sea and save lives by conducting rescue operations. During this, 24 observers from 16 countries participated in the exercise organized under the theme ‘Capacity Building Towards Maritime Security’.
• This was the 10th exercise conducted by the Coast Guard. During this exercise, new technology like remote controlled lifebuoys were demonstrated over the Bay of Bengal.
Indian Coast Guard
It is an armed force, search and rescue agency that protects maritime interests of India. It is a Maritime Law Enforcement Agency. It was established in 1978 by coast Guard Act, 1978. It operates under Ministry of Defence.
The following are the missions of Indian Coast Guard-
1. To protect artificial Islands
2. To protect marine ecology and environment
3. To protect fishermen and mariners at ea
The responsibilities of the Indian Coast Guard are Offshore security coordination, national maritime search and rescue, coastal security.

7. VAJRA PRAHAR: INDIA-US JOINT MILITARY EXERCISE, 2022

THE CONTEXT: The 13th edition of India-US Joint Special Forces Exercise Vajra Prahar recently concluded in Bakloh, Himachal Pradesh. Earlier, its 12th edition was held in October 2021 at Joint Base Lewis Mc Cord in Washington, USA.
THE EXPLANATION:
• During this 21-day joint training, the special forces of both the countries underwent training in special operations, air operations and counter-terrorism operations in a joint environment under the United Nations Charter.
• The exercise was conducted in two phases. The first phase includes combat adaptation and tactical level special mission training exercises. At the same time, under the second phase, 48 hours of verification of training received by both the parties has been included in the first phase.
Vajra Prahar
• ‘Vajra Prahar’ is an Indo-US Special Forces joint training exercise that began alternately in 2010 in India and the US.
• The aim of the exercise is to boost military ties between the two countries by enhancing reciprocity and mutual exchange of strategies between the Special Forces.
• This joint training helps in developing a joint strategy between the two armies by sharing best practices and rich pool of experiences of each other’s armies as well as expertise in operations in counter-terrorism and counter-terrorism environments.




Day-276 | Daily MCQs | UPSC Prelims | GEOGRAPHY

[WpProQuiz 320]




TOPIC : REGULATORY ISSUES IN THE INDIAN DRUG AND PHARMACEUTICAL SECTOR

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a top official of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), the regulatory body for drug approvals in India, and a senior official in charge of regulatory affairs of a Bengaluru-based pharmaceutical firm as well as officials of a company acting as middlemen on behalf of the pharma company. This development again raised questions on the flaws in the drug regulation in India and highlighted the need for a strong mechanism for drug and pharmaceutical regulations. Daily analysis for the issue is as follows.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF REGULATION

The regulatory scenario in this sector is extremely crucial not only due to the rapid and ongoing changes at the global level, largely with reference to good manufacturing practices (GMP), good clinical practices (GCP)and good laboratory practices (GLP) but also due to the onus on the regulatory bodies to ensure a healthy supply of quality drugs at affordable prices to the Indian masses.

WHY THERE IS A NEED FOR REGULATION?

REASON

DETAILS

INFLATED FEES BY PRIVATE HOSPITALS

  • The Drug Price Control Order of 2013 stipulates a ceiling of MRP for medicines mainly in the national list of essential medicines and has provided full freedom to the pharmaceutical companies to fix the MRP at a high level.
  • This provides the regulatory space to facilitate corporate hospitals to demand high mark-ups from pharmaceutical companies.
  • The NPPA analyses show that a major portion of hospital bills – 55% – is payments for medicines and other consumables.

Case study:

  • In 2017, the country was shocked to hear that two families had to pay nearly Rs 16 lakhs each for the two weeks of inpatient care of their children for the treatment of dengue-related complications.
  • The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) inquiry into these two inflated charges revealed that hospitals were producing medicines at a cheap price and selling them to patients at the maximum retail price (MRP).
  • An analysis, by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), of Fortis Hospital’s bill of medicines and consumables of one such patient, shows the exorbitant charges: an IV Infusion set procured for Rs. 8.39 is sold to the patient for Rs. 115, a margin of 1,271 per cent. Similarly, a disposable syringe procured for Rs. 15.90 was sold to the patient for Rs. 205, a margin of 1,189 per cent.
  • The analyses of the hospital bills found a mark up between 375% and 1700%.

FAILED PAST ATTEMPTS DUE TO REGULATORY LOOPHOLE

  • Past experiences show that even if the government caps the margins or prices of the consumables, the hospitals then increase the charges for procedures and other services and refuse to pass on the benefit to the patients.
  • Example: In the case of cardiovascular stents, immediately after the prices were capped, hospitals increased the charges for procedures.
  • Therefore any effective remedy to ensure affordable healthcare charges can be done only through the ceiling of healthcare charges in private hospitals.

SHRUGGING OFF THE RESPONSIBILITY BY THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

  • With health being a State subject, the Central government says it cannot step in to regulate healthcare charges.
  • The Central Clinical Establishment Rules, which is to implement the Central Clinical Establishment Act (CEA) stipulates that the clinical establishments shall charge the rates for procedures and services fixed by the Central government in consultation with the state government.
  • Though the rules were framed in 2012, the Central government has not fixed the rates.
  • Draft Charter of Patients Rights, a joint initiative of the National Human Rights Commission and Ministers of Health is also silent on the ceiling of health charges.
  • The Charter, without any regulation or ceiling on healthcare charges, would not offer any relief to the people who are exposed to financial exploitation from private sector hospitals.

INTERNATIONAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATIONS

  • India, as a party to the International Covenant on Social and Economic Cultural Rights, has an international obligation to protect its population from the exploitation of private hospitals.
  • Similarly, the right to health is recognised as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the constitution which places a constitutional obligation upon both the Union and state governments to regulate healthcare charges.

NO CLEAR DEFINITION/REGULATION FOR GENERIC AND SPURIOUS DRUG

  • There is no definition of generic or branded medicines under the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules, 1945 made thereunder.
  • However, Clause 1.5 of Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002 prescribes that every physician should prescribe drugs with generic names legibly and preferably in capital letters and he/she shall ensure that there is a rational prescription and use of drug.
  • But, the regulation related to both medicine is not implemented so far. There is a clear vacuum related to their in terms of regulation and difference of both these drug.

PROMOTION OF DOLO DURING RECENT PANDEMIC

  • In the absence of clear guidelines and regulation, DOLO  non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (a harmful pain killer) promoted at wide level.
  • This shows that why there is need for an effective regulations for such of harmful medicine.

MAJOR BODIES REGULATING DRUGS AND PHARMACEUTICALS

MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) headed by the Drug Controller General of India, DCGI (I) + Statutory Committees + Advisory Committees +

State Licensing Authorities

MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS

Department of Pharmaceuticals

National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA): Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO) 2013

MINISTRY OF COMMERCE

Patent Office

Controller General of Patent

MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Department of Biotechnology (DBT)

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Laboratories

MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT

Environmental clearance for manufacturing

ROLE OF DIFFERENT DRUG REGULATING AGENCIES

The Central Drug Standards and Control Organization (CDSCO)

(Ministry of Health and Family Welfare)

  Prescribes standards and measures for ensuring the safety,

  Efficacy and quality of drugs, cosmetics, diagnostics and devices in the country;

  Regulates the market authorization of new drugs and clinical trials standards;

  Supervises drug imports and approves licences to manufacture the above-mentioned products.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA),

( Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals)

  Fixes or revises the prices of decontrolled bulk drugs and formulations at judicious intervals;

 Periodically updates the list under price control through inclusion and exclusion of drugs in accordance with established guidelines;

  Maintains data on production, exports and imports and market share of pharmaceutical firms;

 Enforces and monitors the availability of medicines in addition to imparting inputs to parliament on issues pertaining to drug pricing.

STATE DRUG REGULATING AUTHORITY(SDRA)

  Licenses and monitoring manufacture,

  Distribution and sale of drugs and other related products.

THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR PHARMA SECTOR

In India, drug manufacturing, quality and marketing are regulated in accordance with

  1. Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940 and Rules 1945
  2. Pharmacy Act of 1948
  3. Drugs and Magic Remedies Act of 1954
  4. Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO) 1995, 2013

In accordance with the Act of 1940, there exists a system of dual regulatory control or control at both Central and State government levels

INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES RELATED TO REGULATING BODIES IN PHARMA SECTOR

(ADMINISTRATION)

REGULATING BODIES

ISSUES                 

THE NATIONAL PHARMACEUTICAL PRICING AUTHORITY

  • NPPA chairman is an officer of the secretary level from   Indian administrative services.
  • There is no fixed tenure of chairmen. Further, there are no permanent staff at NPPA.
  • For implementing its order, NPPA has to depend upon state authorities.
  • NPPA can only control the price of drugs which are under NLEM (which is in stark contrast with its motto “affordable medicine for all”) previously, it can control prices of other drugs also using Para 19 of DPCO order, but it has since been deleted.

THE CENTRAL DRUG STANDARDS AND CONTROL ORGANIZATION (CDSCO)

Lack of access to resources (both physical infrastructure and human resources)

THE DRUGS CONTROLLER GENERAL OF INDIA (DCGI)

MDs in pharmacology and/or microbiology are given preference for appointment to the job of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI): this can generate a conflict of interest sometimes.

STATE DRUG REGULATORY AUTHORITY(SDRA)

  • Most of the regulators are pharmacists: this creates a conflict as; most of the regulators at the central level are Doctors.
  • Lack of access to resources (both physical infrastructure and human resources)

From the table below it will be clear that both the CDSCO and the SDRAs exercise regulatory control exclusively on the basis of executive fiat and delegation. In effect, both have limited Pre Manufacturing Distribution and Sale Post Marketing operational freedom and, therefore flexibility, to develop and operationalise their regulatory powers.

CHALLENGES IN PHARMA REGULATION SECTOR (FUNCTIONING)

AUTONOMY

  • Both the CDSCO and the SDRAs are umbilically tied to their parent ministries and departments of health respectively. This impedes flexibility in decision-making and autonomy in a host of areas beginning with finance, recruitment and other areas of institutional policy. Regulators are effectively accountable to bureaucrats in their respective parent ministries.
  • Any decision passes through various ministerial channels,weakening the autonomy of CDSCO.
  • The CDSCO is not a statutory body and, therefore, is not independent of the MOHFW. The CDSCO is headed by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). A similar structure operates at the state level where the State Drug Controller (SDC) heads the SDRA and reports to a joint secretary in the health department of state government AND HENCE OVERLAPPING JURISDICTIONS.
  • Fees collected by the CDSCO are routed through the Department of Health, thus budgetary allocation is the only source of finance
  • Fragmented drug regulators further decrease their autonomy as the power to regulate the Drug industry is at different levels VIZ. CDSCO,NPAA,SDRA
  • Lack of hierarchy between CDSCO and the SDRAs as both are legally entitled to function autonomously since ‘health’ is a subject; this creates a continuous challenge in ensuring harmonised application of drug regulatory standards throughout the country.

POWER

  • Section 33P15 which empowers the CDSCO to issue directions to SDRAs, to ensure that provisions of DCA are implemented uniformly in all states, has been rarely used and, even if it is used, the CDSCO has no power to enforce compliance by states.
  • Drug inspectors have no assurance of their safety and do not have the power to arrest
  • power of  SDRA to inspect the drug  only at the market level (off the sleeve whereas in most of the countries it is done at the process level)
  • lack of power to punish the doctors who give verbatim  because of pharmaceutical lobbying   on clinical trials of drugs

CAPACITY

  • AT THE ADMINISTRATIVE LEVEL, Lack of access to resources (both physical infrastructure and human resources.
  • AT THE FINANCIAL LEVEL, BOTH ORGANISATION COMPLETELY  DEPENDS UPON BUDGETARY ALLOCATION, and a minimal user fee is charged  FROM THE INDUSTRY
  • lack of planning and execution of training programmes for drug inspectors/ad hoc in approach
  • institutional channels of interaction between the CDSCO and the SDRAs are lacking.

1. Method to calculate ceiling prices

  • DPCO, 2013 lays down a complicated formula: “(Sum of prices to the retailer of all the brands and generic versions of the medicine having market share more than or equal to one per cent of the total market turnover on the basis of moving annual turnover of that medicine) / (Total number of such brands and generic versions of the medicine having market share more than or equal to one per cent of total market turnover on the basis of moving annual turnover for that medicine.)”
  • In other words, the ceiling price is the average of price of all brands of medicine with more than 1% market share.

WHAT ARE THE SHORTCOMINGS IN THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF CONTROL IN INDIA?

HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEMES ARE NOT EFFECTIVE

  • Instead of directly intervening and regulating the healthcare charges, the state and Central governments intervened through insurance schemes to reduce the financial burden of patients.
  • These schemes function as a cross-subsidization or by increasing footfalls for the private sector.
  • Studies have shown that even after insurance schemes like the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and various state government-sponsored insurance schemes; there is no change in the burden of out-of-pocket expenditure.
  • Often hospitals use these schemes to attract patients and charge them heavily by offering services outside the scheme.

REGULATORY CAPTURE

  • Regulatory capture is a phenomenon when a regulatory body gets influenced by the economic interests of special interest groups that dominate the industry, rather than those of the general public.
  • A regulatory capture is a form of government failure, where government agencies fail to perform their duties.

WEAK IMPLEMENTATION BY THE GOVERNMENT

  • Loopholes in policy design are complicated by weaknesses in implementation.
  • The government leaking out information on the dosage of a drug whose price is under regulation is an example of a loophole in policy design.
  • Also,

NO DETERRENCE OF PUNITIVE ACTIONS

  • There are no punishment methods if a firm fails to adhere to the price cap or is strategically launching a new variant of the drug to bypass regulation.
  • Violation of the price-cap ceiling imposed by DPCO 2013 has not attracted any punitive consequences for firms.

NO EFFECTIVE MONITORING MECHANISM

  • Neither the Department of Pharmaceuticals nor the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has the institutional ability to monitor the prices of medicines at the state level. Such capacities are key to the enforcement of the regulation.

OVERVIEW OF MAJOR REFORM EFFORTS

ON AUTONOMY

RANJIT ROY CHAUDHARY COMMITTEE REPORT

CDSCO should be upgraded to a separate organisation with functional and financial autonomy. DCGI qualification and experience should be similar to that of a secretary or director general.

MASHELKAR COMMITTEE REPORT

Independent CENTRAL DRUG AUTHORITY  reporting directly to the Ministry of Health.

Financing

59th Report on the Functioning of CDSCO

MOHFW should work out a fully centrally sponsored scheme for the purpose so that the state drug regulatory authorities do not continue to suffer from a lack of infrastructure and manpower anymore.

Mashelkar Committee Report

Requires more budgetary allocation for setting up world-class drug controlling authority

MANPOWER

Ranjit Roy Chaudhary Committee

Identification and creation of positions in different disciplines have become more important in drug regulation. this can be solved by better emoluments

Mashelkar Committee

creation of new posts

 Augment no. of drug inspectors

 The capabilities and skills of enforcement staff need to be upgraded

59th Report on the Functioning of CDSCO

Engagement of medically and professionally qualified persons on a short-term contract or on deputation basis of interest agreements.

Infrastructure

Ranjit Roy Chaudhary Committee

Expand the current pharmacovigilance programme to cover the whole country by strengthening Zonal and sub zonal office

Mashelkar Committee

The state must provide adequate infrastructure for the office of DRA, including vehicles and the purchase of samples.

59th Report on the Functioning of CDSCO

Upgrade existing offices and set up new offices

Strengthen both central and state drug testing laboratories

THE WAY FORWARD:

QUALITY + AFFORDABILITY

Ø  The system of healthcare in India should be balanced between quality healthcare and affordability.

Ø  To achieve this, both policymakers and firms need to meet somewhere mid-way to find a win-win solution.

ROLE OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

Ø  The Central government, which has the experience of capping the price of healthcare services under the CGHS scheme, should use its powers under the Concurrent List to stop the burden-shifting and establish a regulatory authority to fix ceiling prices on healthcare services.

Ø  Even though health is listed as a state subject, the constitution provides the Union government with enough powers to regulate healthcare fees.

Ø  Article 243 of the constitution provides legislative competence to the Union government to legislate upon any subject matter in the state list to fulfil an international obligation.

Ø  The concurrent list entries, like price control and essential services, provide powers to the Central government to regulate the healthcare charges of private hospitals.

REFORMS IN THE DRUG DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

Ø  The drug distribution system could be reformed in India, by building up the scale and scope of generic medicine pharmacies as in the Jan Aushadhi Programme, a campaign launched by the Government of India to provide quality generic medicines at affordable prices to the masses.

SUPPLY-SIDE REFORMS

Ø  The industry’s reputation from the supply side can be improved by responsible pricing behaviour and complementary programs to enhance the diffusion of their medicines and healthcare products to the less privileged at highly subsidised prices.

THE CONCLUSION: At the helm, we need persons of vision with an understanding of the importance of evidence-based medicine in public health and curative healthcare, as well as an understanding of the general progress of the science of medicine, pharmacology and pharmaceutics – these may be found in a wide range of associated disciplines, for mitigating the case of conflict of interest. National pharmaceutical policy is an opportunity to radically clean the anarchy in drug regulation in India in the interests of public health. Surely, “The Pharmacy of the World” deserves a better regulatory body.

MAINS QUESTIONS

  1. Discuss the regulatory loopholes in the healthcare system in India, especially related to drug price control.
  2. With healthcare being a State subject, the Centre has less power and responsibility in ensuring the right to health for everyone. Do you agree with the statement? Give reasons to justify your viewpoint.
  3. Discuss the strategies that can be applied to make healthcare in India affordable to each and every one.



DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS (AUGUST 29, 2022)

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. INDIA REITERATES SUPPORT TO ARGENTINA FOR RESUMPTION OF TALKS ON THE MALVINAS ISSUE

THE CONTEXT: India reiterated support for international negotiations regarding a territorial matter between Argentina and the United Kingdom in the Southern Atlantic Ocean.

THE EXPLANATION:
• Visiting Buenos Aires as part of his three-country tour in Latin America, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar held official discussions on a wide range of topics including the decades old Malvinas or the Falklands territorial issue
• He expressed India’s interest in exploring payment through local currencies.
• The two sides also held talks for enhancing military exchanges and trade in the strategic sectors.
• During his visit to India, Mr. Cafiero had launched the ‘Commission for the Dialogue on the Question of the Malvinas Islands in India’.

IMPORTANCE OF INDIA’S SUPPORT
• The ongoing bilateral visits and exchanges are significant as these are taking place on the fortieth anniversary of the 1982 Falklands war between Argentina and the United Kingdom.
• Argentina maintains that the issue of sovereignty of the islands was not settled by the war that led to the strengthening of UK’s control over the region.
• India has traditionally supported a negotiated settlement of the territorial issue that Argentina is expected to highlight in the coming multilateral events including at the United Nations.

MORE ABOUT THE VISIT AND OUTCOMES
• Both sides also planned to promote exchange of visits between the armed forces, enhance defence training and “collaboration for joint production of defence related equipment”.
• India acknowledged Argentina’s interest in the “Made in India TEJAS fighter aircraft for Argentine Air Force”.
• The delegations also reviewed the ongoing bilateral projects in the sectors like defence, nuclear energy, and space.
• The official discussion covered the area of cooperation between the two countries including the Human Rights Council (HRC) where Argentina is the chair for 2022.
• The exchange over the HRC is well-timed for India as the country will face the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) next winter.
• During the interactions with the senior Indian minister, the Argentine side expressed “strong support” to India’s campaign for membership at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

2. RUSSIA BLOCKS FINAL DOCUMENT AT U.N. NUCLEAR TREATY CONFERENCE

THE CONTEXT: Russia late Friday blocked agreement on the final document of a four-week review of the U. N. treaty considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament which criticised its military takeover of Europe’s largest nuclear plant soon after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, an act that has raised fears of a nuclear disaster.

THE EXPLANATION:
• Igor Vishnevetsky, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department, told the delayed final meeting of the conference reviewing the 50-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that “unfortunately there is no consensus on this document.”
• He insisted that many countries not just Russia didn’t agree with “a whole host of issues” in the 36-page last draft.
• The final document needed approval of all countries at the conference that are parties to the treaty aimed at curbing the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately achieving a world without them.

SECOND FAILURE
• The NPT review conference is supposed to be held every five years but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• This marked the second failure of its 191 state parties to produce an outcome document.
• The last review conference in 2015 ended without an agreement because of serious differences over establishing a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

GLOBAL FEARS OF NUCLEAR EMERGENCY
• The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine as well as the takeover of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, renewed global fears of another nuclear emergency.
• The four references in the draft final document to the Zaporizhzhia plant, where Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of shelling, would have had the parties to the NPT express “grave concern for the military activities” at or near the facility and other nuclear plants.
• It also would have recognised Ukraine’s loss of control and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inability to ensure the plant’s nuclear material is safeguarded. It supported IAEA efforts to visit Zaporizhzhia to ensure there is no diversion of its nuclear materials, a trip the agency’s director is hoping to organize in the coming days.

CONCERN OVER ZAPORIZHZHIA AND OTHER NUCLEAR FACILITIES IN UKRAINE
• The draft also expressed “grave concern” at the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, in particular Zaporizhzhia, and stressed “the paramount importance of ensuring control by Ukraine’s competent authorities.”
• After the conference’s failure to adopt the document, dozens of countries took the floor to express their views.
• The countries expressed deep concern that Russia is undermining international peace and the objectives of the NPT “by waging its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”

WHAT WAS THE PROMISES?
• Under the NPT’s provisions, the five original nuclear powers — the United States, China, Russia (then the Soviet Union), Britain and France — agreed to negotiate toward eliminating their arsenals someday and nations without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire them in exchange for a guarantee to be able to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
• The draft final document would have expressed deep concern “that the threat of nuclear weapons use today is higher than at any time since the heights of the Cold War and at the deteriorated international security environment.”

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

3. SUBSIDISED FERTILISER UNDER ‘BHARAT’ BRAND FROM OCTOBER: MANDAVIYA

THE CONTEXT: All subsidised fertilisers, including Urea and DAP (Diammonium phosphate), will be sold from October under a single brand name — “Bharat” — as part of the Centre’s ‘One Nation, One Fertiliser’ initiative.

THE EXPLANATION:
• The initiative is aimed at ensuring timely supply of fertiliser to farmers, bringing uniformity in supply, and reducing subsidy burden in terms of higher freight charges.
• As of now, there is a crisscross movement of fertiliser due to brand preference in different parts of the country.
• As of now, Fertiliser manufactured by Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) and Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO) in Uttar Pradesh are sent to Rajasthan, while nutrients made by Chambal Fertilisers are sold in UP.
• Similarly, IFFCO/KRIBHCO fertiliser from UP are sold in Madhya Pradesh, and those manufactured by National Fertilizers Limited in MP are sold in UP.

WHAT WILL CHANGE AFTER ‘ONE NATION, ONE FERTILISER’ INITIATIVE?
• “One Nation, One Fertiliser will stop crisscross movement of fertiliser for longer distances. It will reduce logistics cost and also ensure availability throughout the year.
• It also results in higher “average lead” (distance of a fertiliser bag from source to destination), which the government aims to bring down.
• This will save freight subsidy.

ABOUT ONE NATION, ONE FERTILISER INITIATIVE
• The One Nation, One Fertiliser initiative is part of the Centre’s fertiliser subsidy scheme Pradhan mantri Bhartiya Janurvarak Pariyojna (PMBJP).
• As part of this, the government also plans to set up Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samridhi Kendra (PMKSK), which will serve as a one-stop centre for farmers to access services such as soil health tests.

THE ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

4.KAZIRANGA WILDLIFE REHAB CENTRE COMPLETES 20 YEARS

THE CONTEXT: The Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) at Panbari near the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve has completed 20 years of providing emergency care, treatment and rehabilitation to indigenous wild animals displaced due to various reasons.

ABOUT KAZIRANGA WILDLIFE REHAB CENTRE
• A joint initiative of the Assam Forest Department, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the centre was established on August 28, 2002.
• The CWRC continues to be the only facility of its kind in India to have successfully addressed the welfare and conservation of 357 species including elephant, leopard, rhino, tiger, clouded leopard, black bear, wild buffalo, hog deer, muntjac, wild boar and monkeys.
• It has so far handled 7,397 animals out of which 4,490 (65%) could be sent back to the wild after proper care and treatment.

RHINO, ELEPHANT CALVES
• The CWRC has been rehabilitating rescued rhino and elephant calves in Assam, helping Manas National Back get back its rhinos after the entire population of the herbivore was wiped out by extremists in the late 1990s.
• The first rhino calf was translocated to Manas from the CWRC in 2006 under a repopulation programme. Twenty more rhino calves were shifted to Manas from the CWRC over the next two decades and 11 caves were born to these rehabilitated ungulates.
• The rhino rehabilitation component of the CWRC thus proved to be one of the most successful programmes for orphan animals and a critical conservation success.
• Of the 29 elephant calves rescued and hand-reared at the CWRC, 12 were sent back to the wild.
• Apart from rewilding rescued Asiatic black bear cubs, the CWRC rehabilitated clouded leopard cubs – the first such case in the world.
• The CWRC currently has two satellite facilities called mobile veterinary services. These are located in eastern Assam at Guijan in Tinsukia district (Dibru Saikhowa National Park) and in western Assam at Charaikhola (Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary).

ABOUT KAZIRANGA
• Kaziranga National Park is a protected area in the northeast Indian state of Assam.
• Spread across the floodplains of the Brahmaputra River, its forests, wetlands and grasslands are home to tigers, elephants and the world’s largest population of Indian one-horned rhinoceroses.
• Ganges River dolphins swim in the park’s waters. It’s visited by many rare migratory birds, and gray pelicans roost near Kaziranga village.

5.EXPLAINED: PAKISTAN’S MONSTER MONSOON

THE CONTEXT: While Europe, China and some other regions of the world are experiencing a severe drought, Pakistan is facing one of the worst floods in its recent history. Reports say about 110 of the 150 districts in the country are affected by the flooding.

THE EXPLANATION:
• Nearly 33 million people, about 15% of the country’s population, had been affected by the floods. That makes this a more widespread flooding event than the one in 2010, described as a ‘superflood’ in which about 20 million people were affected.
• More than half of Pakistan is currently under water, andat least half a million people had been evacuated and shifted to safer places.
• The Kabul river, which originates in Afghanistan and flows through the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province before joining a tributary of the Indus river not very far from Islamabad, was in a “very high flood level” and the Indus was flowing at “high flood level” near Chashma town in Punjab and Sukkur in Sindh province.

RAINFALL PATTERN IN PAKISTAN
• The current flood is a direct result of an extremely wet monsoon season this year.
• The same southwest monsoon that brings the bulk of India’s annual rainfall causes rain in Pakistan as well.
• The monsoon season in Pakistan, however, is a little shorter than in India.
• That is because the rain-bearing monsoon winds take time to travel northward from India into Pakistan.
• The official monsoon season in Pakistan begins on July 1 and extends until September, although most of the rainfall happens during the months of July and August.
• The active rainfall season is only one and a half months.
• The normal rainfall for Pakistan as a whole during this three-month monsoon season is 140 mm. But because the season is quite short, there is a wide variation in the monsoon rainfall every year.
• The country saw plenty of rain from late June itself. But August has been exceptionally wet. August had produced two and a half times its normal rainfall — 176.8 mm against the expected 50.4 mm.

Different situation in India
• The rainfall situation in Pakistan has been quite different from that of India so far, though incidents of extreme rainfall and flooding have happened here as well.
• In August, India has received rainfall that is barely 6 per cent more than the normal. For the entire season so far, the country has received 7 per cent more than normal rainfall.

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

6.IARI: NEW VIRUS BEHIND MYSTERY DWARFING OF RICE

THE CONTEXT: THE INDIAN Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has confirmed that the mysterious disease resulting in “dwarfing” of rice plants, reported mainly from Punjab and Haryana, has been caused by the Southern Rice Black-Streaked Dwarf Virus (SRBSDV). The virus is spread by the white-backed plant hopper, an insect pest, which injects it while sucking the sap from mostly young plants.

THE EXPLANATION:
• An IARI team surveyed a total of 24 fields in Sonepat, Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala and Yamunanagar districts of Haryana.
• In the fields where the disease was recorded, the infected plants varied from 2 to 10 per cent. In a severely-affected field in Panipat, up to 20 per cent incidence was recorded.
• The IARI investigation has revealed the infection in as many as 12 rice varieties, both basmati (Pusa-1962, 1718, 1121, 1509, 1847 and CSR-30) and non-basmati (PR-114, 130, 131, 136, Pioneer Hybrid and Arize Swift Gold).
• Given that the virus is exclusively transmitted by the white-backed plant hopper, the IARI has advised farmers to monitor the fields every week for the presence of the insect. The pest can be managed by spraying recommended dosages of ‘buprofezin’, ‘acetamiprid’, ‘dinotefuran’ or ‘flonicamid’ insecticides at 15-day intervals.




Ethics Through Current Development (29-08-2022)

  1. NDTV: the hostile takeover- Large conglomerates owning media units might crimp editorial independence READ MORE
  2. An urgent clarion call to build a global fraternity READ MORE
  3. The right attitude READ MORE



Today’s Important Articles for Geography (29-08-2022)

  1. A South Asian climate plan READ MORE
  2. Noida twin tower demolition: How will it affect local flora, fauna READ MORE



Today’s Important Articles for Sociology (29-08-2022)

  1. Ruination of the earth: Require a new creation myth to give new meaning to the planet & its beings READ MORE
  2. Loneliness is pushing morbidity among elderly READ MORE



Today’s Important Articles for Pub Ad (29-08-2022)

  1. Sops for votes: Promising gifts in run-up to polls,not welfare, is the real ‘freebie’ issue READ MORE
  2. Clean and clear: Government, Twitter must reassure the public that user data has not been compromised READ MORE
  3. Explained | The concerns around Aadhaar-Voter ID linkage READ MORE
  4. Constitution Bench: SC focus back on critical aspect of interpreting laws READ MORE



WSDP Bulletin (29-08-2022)

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

  1. India reiterates support to Argentina for resumption of talks on the Malvinas issue READ MORE
  2. Russia blocks final document at U.N. nuclear treaty conference READ MORE
  3. Decoding mosquitoes’ sense of smell READ MORE
  4. Kaziranga wildlife rehab centre completes 20 years READ MORE
  5. Risk of radioactive leak at Ukraine nuclear plant, operator says READ MORE
  6. Subsidised fertiliser under ‘Bharat’ brand from October: Mandaviya READ MORE
  7. Explained: Pakistan’s monster monsoon READ MORE
  8. IARI: New virus behind mystery dwarfing of rice READ MORE

Main Exam

GS Paper- 1

  1. Ruination of the earth: Require a new creation myth to give new meaning to the planet & its beings READ MORE
  2. Loneliness is pushing morbidity among elderly READ MORE

 GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

  1. Sops for votes: Promising gifts in run-up to polls,not welfare, is the real ‘freebie’ issue READ MORE
  2. Clean and clear: Government, Twitter must reassure the public that user data has not been compromised READ MORE
  3. Explained | The concerns around Aadhaar-Voter ID linkage READ MORE
  4. Constitution Bench: SC focus back on critical aspect of interpreting laws READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

  1. The world needs compassion and cooperation READ MORE
  2. Ukraine war: The global order is being reshaped READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

  1. Indian economy’s mixed signals READ MORE
  2. Stable policy vital for robust agri value chain READ MORE
  3. Rein in current account deficit for better fiscal health READ MORE
  4. Reforming ratings: New norms will increase transparency READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

  1. A South Asian climate plan READ MORE
  2. Noida twin tower demolition: How will it affect local flora, fauna READ MORE

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

  1. James Webb telescope: Light on dark matter READ MORE

SECURITY

  1. The cyber threat to mobile banking READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

  1. NDTV: the hostile takeover- Large conglomerates owning media units might crimp editorial independence READ MORE
  2. An urgent clarion call to build a global fraternity READ MORE
  3. The right attitude READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

  1. ‘Integration of education for sustainable development (ESD) into teaching and learning can help in the realization of quality education, which is critical to fulfilling many of the sustainable development goals (SDGs)’. Analyse the statement in the light of NEP 2020.
  2. ‘With geopolitical currents redefining geo-economics, India needs to be ready to emerge as the chief global diplomat’. Comment on the statement in the light of recent development in international diplomacy.
  3. How far do you agree with this view that Universal Basic Insurance is a better proposition than Universal Basic Income and India should focus on Universal Basic Insurance? Justify your view.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

  • The earth is not yours to plunder, nor is nature to tear asunder.
  • Media companies can maintain editorial integrity by cutting down their dependence on sources of revenues which have an embedded element of conflict of interest.
  • The Government has come across as being too eager to block its critics on social platforms. That, on top of unfettered access to sensitive user data, as is being alleged in the disclosure, can kill free speech.
  • The lack of adequate cybersecurity and the dearth of talent in banking could potentially lead to a further rise in cyberattacks on user devices.
  • Much of the universe remains unknown. The Webb telescope will hopefully provide a powerful window to help resolve some of the cosmos’s many mysteries.
  • A revamped warehousing system, along with the commodities derivatives market, can assess stocks and provide right price signals.
  • To deal with challenging circumstances worldover, the world requires compassion, cooperation and complete solidarity, but what is happening is just the opposite.
  • A new era of great power politics is playing out among Russia, China, and the United States as the conflict in Ukraine drags on. India will have to make tough choices.
  • The vacancies at various levels of the judiciary and the lack of infrastructure, resulting in the huge caseload and pendency, though, remain key areas of concern.
  • Democracy as drama cannot be reduced to the aridity of elections and numbers because it then reincarnates as secondary authoritarianism. Democracy has to also challenge the dualism of lay and expert to create citizenship as a trusteeship of knowledge.

50-WORD TALK

  • Obscenity of these lifetime freebies, peons, and chauffeurs for retired judges can’t be lost on anybody. Least of all on our 24×7 virtue-signaling Lordships. We can only hope they’ll say no. Unless they won’t even see the implicit conflict of interest in a country where the government’s the biggest litigant.

Things to Remember:

  • For prelims-related news try to understand the context of the news and relate with its concepts so that it will be easier for you to answer (or eliminate) from given options.
  • Whenever any international place will be in news, you should do map work (marking those areas in maps and exploring other geographical locations nearby including mountains, rivers, etc. same applies to the national places.)
  • For economy-related news (banking, agriculture, etc.) you should focus on terms and how these are related to various economic aspects, for example, if inflation has been mentioned, try to relate with prevailing price rises, shortage of essential supplies, banking rates, etc.
  • For main exam-related topics, you should focus on the various dimensions of the given topic, the most important topics which occur frequently and are important from the mains point of view will be covered in ED.
  • Try to use the given content in your answer. Regular use of this content will bring more enrichment to your writing.



Day-275 | Daily MCQs | UPSC Prelims | SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

[WpProQuiz 319]




TOPIC : OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH – WHY INDIA SHOULD ENDORSE THE ILO’s FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND RIGHTS AT WORK

THE CONTEXT: India’s record in promoting occupational and industrial safety remains weak even with years of robust economic growth. Making work environments safer is a low priority, although the productivity benefits of such investments have always been clear. Although occupational safety and health (OSH) is an existential human and labour right, it has not received due attention from lawmakers and even trades unions in India. This article analyses the issue of occupational safety and health in detail.

THE ILO DECLARATION ON FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND RIGHTS AT WORK

The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FPRW) , adopted in 1998 and amended in 2022, is an expression of commitment by governments, employers and workers’ organizations to uphold basic human values – values that are vital to our social and economic lives. It affirms the obligations and commitments that are inherent in membership of the ILO, namely:

  • freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
  • the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour;
  • the effective abolition of child labour;
  • the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation; and
  • a safe and healthy working environment. (added in 2022)

THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION’S FUNDAMENTAL CONVENTIONS

Embedded in the ILO Constitution, the principles and rights mentioned above have been expressed and developed in the form of specific rights and obligations in Conventions recognized as fundamental both within and outside the Organization. These ILO Conventions have been identified as fundamental, and are at times referred to as the core labour standards:

  • Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87)
  • Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention,1949 (No. 98)
  • Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)
  • Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105)
  • Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)
  • Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182)
  • Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100)
  • Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111)

The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work applies to all States belonging to the ILO, whether or not they have ratified the core Conventions.

WHY SOME COUNTRIES HAVE NOT RATIFIED THE CONVENTIONS:

  • Even though the FPRW was a valiant statement of reaffirming a set of labour rights as core and undeniable human rights, there existed cracks within the FPRW for reasons such as:
  • With the identification of a handful of conventions as core conventions, ILO has created a hierarchy of its own labour standards.
  • It also implicitly under-valued the informal economy as freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining in a large sense relate to the small formal economy in the vast majority of poor and developing countries.
  • Countries differ in terms of their stages in economic development and standards, OSH and minimum wages could not be brought under the FPRW framework, for they would have differential, if not difficult, economic outcomes for less developed and poor countries.
  • There is no disagreement among any country that forced labour is not permissible. Though with respect to the elimination of child labour, poor countries justified the same on grounds of economic poverty.

INCLUDING OSH AS A CORE LABOUR RIGHT

FOR

  • Some 2.3 million people die each year due to workplace illness and accidents and the current pandemic will only add to this appalling loss of human life. Many millions more have been injured or have long-term illnesses from their work. The right to protection from deadly work processes, noxious chemicals and other hazards must be recognised as a fundamental right, along with freedom of association and collective bargaining and protection from discrimination, forced labour and child labour.
  • Several global OSH bodies like The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health strongly backed the International Trade Union Council’s (‘ITUC’) call for the inclusion of OSH as a part of fundamental rights.

AGAINST

  • The International Organization of Employers recognized the value of OSH, it did not want to elevate it to a fundamental right alongside FOA and CB. It argued that OSH is frequently the result of irresponsible behaviour of workers and that OSH could be addressed in ways other than making a fundamental right.

Ø  On 23 March 2022, the ILO’s Governing Body, a tripartite committee overwhelmingly supported a call from worker members to move ahead with the process to designate occupational health and safety an ILO Fundamental Right at Work (FRAW).

Ø  In the plenary session of the ILC held on 10 June 2022, the delegates adopted a resolution to add the principle of “a safe and healthy working environment” to the ILO’s FPRW 1998.

Ø  Two ILO Conventions concerning OSH have been added to the ILO’s Core Conventions, viz. Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) , and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187).

C.155

  • C.155 applies to all branches of economic activity in which workers, that is, all employed persons including public employees, are employed, including public services, and to all workers therein. The term “workplace” covers all places where workers need to be at or to go by reason of their work, and which are under the direct or indirect control of the employer.
  • All member countries in consonance with the conditions prevalent in them formulate, implement and review periodically a national policy on OSH. The aim of the policy “shall be to prevent accidents and injury to health arising out of, linked with or occurring in the course of work, by minimising, so far as is reasonably practicable, the causes of hazards inherent in the working environment.”

C.187

  • According to C.187, there must be in place a national policy and a national system for occupational safety and health, a national programme on occupational safety and health, and national preventative safety and health culture.

THE KEY INSTRUMENTS OF OSH:

ILO notes that more than 40 standards deal specifically with OSH and “nearly half of ILO instruments” deal directly or indirectly with OSH issues. These key instruments are divided into three aspects:

ASPECTS

KEY INSTRUMENTS

ON OSH

  • Promotional Framework for OSH Convention, 2006 (C.187),
  • OSH Convention, 1981 (C.155), and
  • Occupational Health services Convention, 1985 (C.161);

ON HEALTH AND SAFETY IN PARTICULAR BRANCHES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

  • Hygiene (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1964 (C.120),
  • Occupational Safety and Health (Dock Work) Convention, 1979 (C.152),
  • Safety and Health in Construction Convention, 1988 (C.167),
  • Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (C.176), and
  • Safety and Health in Agriculture Convention, 2001 (C.184);

ON PROTECTION AGAINST SPECIFIC RISKS

  • Radiation Protection Convention, 1960, (C.115),
  • Occupational Cancer Convention, 1974 (C.139),
  • Working Environment (Air Pollution, Noise and Vibration) Convention), 1977 (C.148),
  • Asbestos Convention, 1986 (C.162), and
  • Chemicals Convention, 1990 (C.170).

To date, India has ratified only 47 Conventions and one Protocol. India has ratified several conventions which are somehow related to OSH, that is, hours of work, accidents, occupational diseases, and so on.

However, it has ratified only one of the Conventions noted above, which is, C.115 – Radiation Protection Convention, 1960 (No. 115) in 1975.

INDIA AND OSH:

  • In India, we have labour laws covering certain primary economic activities like factories, ports and docks, mines, plantations, and construction, among others. There exist elaborate measures to ensure workers’ safety and health in them.
  • The newly framed Code on Occupational Safety and Health and Working Conditions, 2020 has also put together the laws for various sectors like factories, mines, plantations, construction, and so on, however, some shortcomings and lacunas still exist. While the Code introduces some new provisions relating to OSH, it dilutes the existing ones. For instance:
  • Earlier, under the Factories Act, 1948, every factory carrying out hazardous processes or a hazardous factory had to have in place a bi-partite Safety Committee. Now, the constitution of the Safety Committee has been left to the executive process of “government notification”. Further, Safety Officers are required to be appointed only in factories or mines or plantations employing a certain number of workers. Both of these clauses seriously dilute OSH.
  • The Directorate General, Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes (‘DGFASLI’) deal with the safety and health of workers employed in factories and ports. The Director General of Mines and Safety is concerned with the safety and health of mining workers. There is no agency nor any other labour law to cover the workers in unorganized workers, and those working in the micro, small and medium establishments.
  • There is no direct law to regulate OSH in agriculture as there are in other branches of economic activity.
  • The statistical system that exists in India provides unreliable and often incomplete statistics on industrial relations relating to industrial accidents. The statistical system conceived during the early years of the planned economy continues even now. For instance:
  • The Indian Labour Statistics (an annual flagship publication of the Labour Bureau) publishes data on industrial accidents relating to four sectors: factories, mines, ports, and railways. Over so many decades, no more sectors have been added. The construction Sector is one such glaring omission.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PROBLEMS IN THE INFORMAL SECTOR

  • The informal sector or unorganized sector includes all those workers and tiny economic units that are not recognized, recorded, protected or regulated by formal arrangements in law or in practice. Unorganized workers do not have the social security benefits that workers in the formal sector enjoy from their employers and government. These workers are often exposed to various occupational hazards during their course of employment. Due to a lack of regulations governing occupational safety and standards in the unorganized sector, the occurrence of occupational diseases is common among these workers.
  • The most common examples of informal employment in India are agriculture, construction work, carpet weaving, beedi making, garment making, blacksmith and welding, pottery, agarbatti making, food vending, domestic employment, auto and rickshaw driving, local car and two wheeler workshops, rag picking and manual scavenging. All these employments are associated with exposure to hazards and risks to various occupational diseases.
  • Workers in informal sectors are not using protective devices and that aggravate risk to respiratory illnesses, eye problems, skin problem, hearing loss etc. The temporary nature of the occupational setup and belonging to poor socioeconomic status reduces their priority to occupational health and safety.
  • No reliable government data on the numbers of the person involved in the informal sector, their working conditions and specific health hazards leads to difficulty in making policy and doing interventions on a large scale.
  • Worksites and institutions should be encouraged and monitored to ensure safe health practices and accident prevention, besides providing preventive and promotive health care services. This can be started by formulating national health care guidelines for informal sector workers. Methods to implement these guidelines should also be discussed in detail.

THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN SECURING WORKERS’ RIGHTS, OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY PROVISIONS

  • Civil society is the “sum total of all individual and collective initiatives for the public good”. The role of civil society and CSOs comprises a wide-ranging plethora of diverse activities. Associations of civil society that pursue a common purpose/deliver a public good include Traditional Associations, Religious Associations, Social Movements, Membership based (representational, professional, socio-cultural, self-help) and Intermediary Organisations (service delivery, mobilizing, support, philanthropic, advocacy, network).
  • Various types of organizations engage at various levels. The nature of CSO activities can range from policy influencing to achieving certain goals (including evidence and agenda setting, policy development, advocacy, mobilization, consensus building, policy and accountability monitoring/watchdog work), to direct service provision (such as education, health, etc), to technical standard-setting, self-regulation through the creation and enforcement of best practices, and partnerships with the government to enhance their capacity to deliver essential services.
  • This holds true for CSOs working on Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and labour rights with the goal of securing workers’ rights to compensation. Often, these efforts take place within larger movements to secure health for all persons nationally. All CSOs have a different guiding ethos driving their efforts and espouse different theories of change to effect those changes in the long term.
  • For instance, PRIA’s theory of change, involving efforts at the micro, meso and macro levels, as a CSO is depicted in the Figure given below. PRIA’s efforts are grounded in its ethos of participatory research, action and development. Enabling the excluded and the marginalised to gain and then exercise their agency, and informing, capacitating and empowering communities to incorporate their knowledge into solutions for themselves forms the bedrock of PRIA’s efforts. [Established in 1982, PRIA (Participatory Research in Asia) is a global centre for participatory research and training based in New Delhi. PRIA has linkages with 3000 NGOs to deliver its programmes on the ground.]

  • Information Dissemination: One of the most crucial aspects of ensuring workers’ health and safety is building awareness about occupational hazards and existing provisions enabling workers’ rights. PRIA has carried this out by spreading information about the occupational hazards of silicosis among not just workers, but also medical professionals, local and national government officials, and communities at large. Seminars and campaigns were organised to help increase knowledge and awareness about the disease and how it could be dealt with at the workplace.
  • Capacity Building: Knowledge and information dissemination is also an essential part of the overall capacity building that PRIA undertook with workers. Workers were made aware of information and strategies they could use to secure their rights. This included building the skills they needed and the awareness of the need to unionise and demand better working conditions at their workplaces.
  • Monitoring: PRIA monitored and evaluated the implementation of specific projects, programs and policies to see how effective they were in actually effecting a change in the conditions of the workers.
  • Advocacy: PRIA also engaged in various advocacy initiatives to influence policies and changes that were made in the working conditions of the individuals suffering from silicosis, and to ensure proper diagnosis and treatment. Workers’ rights are also actively championed through activism on the ground and now increasingly on social media. Several organisations are engaged in this, along with awareness raising.

DOMESTIC WORKER AND LABOUR LAWS

  • Domestic workers are those workers who perform work in or for a private household or households. They provide direct and indirect care services, and as such are key members of the care economy. Their work may include tasks such as cleaning the house, cooking, washing and ironing clothes, taking care of children, or elderly or sick members of a family, gardening, guarding the house, driving for the family, and even taking care of household pets.
  • Of the 75.6 million domestic workers worldwide, 76.2 per cent are women, meaning that a quarter of domestic workers are men. Domestic work is a more important source of employment though among female employees than among male employees.
  • Although they provide essential services, domestic workers rarely have access to rights and protection. Around 81 per cent are in informal employment – that’s twice the share of informal employment among other employees. They also face some of the most strenuous working conditions. They earn 56 per cent of the average monthly wages of other employees and are more likely than other workers to work either very long or very short hours, they are also vulnerable to violence and harassment, and restrictions on freedom of movement. Informal domestic workers are particularly vulnerable. Informality in domestic work can partly be attributed to gaps in national labour and social security legislation, and partly to gaps in implementation.

REPORT PUBLISHED BY THE COMMONWEALTH HUMAN RIGHTS INITIATIVE (CHRI):

  1. While domestic workers across the world have suffered in the COVID-19 pandemic, the astounding lack of overarching legal or policy provisions in India to safeguard their wellbeing has meant a dire downward spiral for men and women in this sector in the last year, a report has found. The report published by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) notes that while the pandemic has demonstrated how integral domestic care and assistance is, this has not translated into an alleviation of the situation of domestic workers.
  2. But more importantly, governments do not appear keen to resolve this either. Only six out of 54 Commonwealth countries have ratified the Domestic Workers Convention (C189) – 10 years after it was brought to ensure decent conditions for domestic workers. India is not one of the six.
  3. The report calls for bold laws to eradicate the worst forms of child labour and adds that it would be in line with what India, as a signatory to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 8.7 and the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999, has claimed to aim for. However, the e-Shram portal which aims to register 38 crore unorganised workers in the country and the formulation of the Labour Codes as steps taken by the Union government towards ensuring safeguards for unorganised, including domestic, laborers is worth the praise.
  4. The report further recognises that a huge chunk of the work to ensure domestic workers get benefits are done by unions across the country and calls for civil society to encourage unionisation and collective action among domestic workers, including referrals to the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and/or the National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM) as appropriate.
  5. All such factors as mentioned in the report contributes to the call for India to ratify the C189, as a step towards streamlining national protections for domestic workers.

GIG WORKERS AND LABOUR LAWS IN INDIA

In an attempt to incorporate the doctrine of universalisation of social security, the gig workers are brought into the ambit of the labour laws for the first time, with the provision of some welfare measures under the Code on Social Security, 2020. The three other codes are silent on the policies toward gig workers.

In addition to the inclusion of laws for gig workers in the Code on ­Social Security, the Code on Industrial Relations, 2020 could have dealt with defining the nature of the relationship and the contract between the gig workers and the platforms by widening the scope of the ambit of employment relationships. When gig workers in many platforms are incentivised to work heavily ignoring the long-term health impacts, fixing maximum working hours and workplace safety measures could be covered in the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code.

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS IN INDIA

PNEUMOCONIOSIS:

  • Pneumoconiosis is the general term for a class of interstitial lung diseases (the tissue and space around the alveoli) where inhalation of dust has caused interstitial fibrosis.
  • It is an occupational health disease and mostly affects workers who work in the mining and construction sectors.
  • Depending upon the type of dust, the disease is given different names:
    • Coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (also known as miner’s lung, black lung or anthracosis) — coal, carbon
    • Asbestosis — asbestos
    • Silicosis (also known as “grinder’s disease”) – silica dust.

ABOUT SILICOSIS:

  • Silicosis can be described as an occupational disease or hazard due to dust exposure. It is incurable and can cause permanent disability. However, it is totally preventable by available control measures and technology.
  • Silica (SiO2/silicon dioxide) is a crystal-like mineral found in abundance in sand, rock, and quartz. It is a progressive lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica over a long period of time, characterized by shortness of breath, cough, fever and bluish skin.
  • In India silicosis is prevalent in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Pondicherry, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal among the workers of construction and mining.

LEGAL PROVISIONS:

  • Silicosis is a notified disease under the Mines Act (1952) and the Factories Act (1948) which mandates a well-ventilated working environment, provisions for protection from dust, reduction of overcrowding and provision of basic occupational health care.
  • Self-Registration: A system of worker self-registration, diagnosis through district-level pneumoconiosis boards and compensation from the District Mineral Foundation Trust (DMFT) funds to which mine owners contribute.
  • Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Condition Code 2020 (OSHWC): The code makes it mandatory for all employers to provide annual health checks free of cost as prescribed by the appropriate Government.

THE ANALYSIS:

Two of the largest employing sectors in India, namely agriculture and the micro, small and medium sectors, are not regulated by any law.The agriculture sector is lacking on legislation on safety and health for the workers working in this sector. There are certain Acts on occupational safety and health pertaining to certain equipments or substances, such as, the Dangerous Machines Regulation Act, the Insecticides Act. The enforcement authorities are not identified under these Acts and hence are not being enforced. The agriculture sector is the largest sector of economic activity and needs to be regulated for safety and health aspects. Lack of legislation on safety and health in the agriculture sector is also hindering the ratification of ILO convention 155. Industries under MSME also do not have any legislation to cover the safety and health of the workers which makes it difficult for India to ratify C.187.

However it must be understood that a safe and healthy workplace prevents accidents and occupational diseases; reduces, if not prevents, industrial accidents, especially fatal ones, thus ensuring higher participation of workers in economic activity, improves productivity, and thereby, in an overall sense, boosts economic efficiency, which eventually means higher economic growth. And hence employers must see the expenses on OSH, not as a liability but an investment.

THE WAY FORWARD:

  • India should establish efficient Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) data collection systems to better understand the situation for effective interventions. The labour codes, especially the OSH Code, the inspection and the labour statistical systems need to be reviewed and be made more effective as the Government is in the process of framing the Vision@2047 document.
  • Article 39(e) of the Constitution directs the State to ensure “that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength;” further, as per Article 42, the State “shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.” The state shall take proactive steps in realising such principles envisaged by the makers of our constitution which becomes even more imperative in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.
  • The Government of India in 2019 declared the National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment at Workplace (NPSHEW) which aims to establish a preventive safety and health culture in the country through the elimination of the incidence of work-related injuries, diseases, fatalities, disasters and to enhance the well-being of employees in all the sectors of economic activity in the country. The policy recognizes the role of OSH’s contribution toward productivity, growth and overall welfare of people. It also identifies the role of some factors like changing job patterns and sub-contracting in posing problems in managing OSH; the role of technology in mitigating hazards, but also new risks arising out of it. The Policy, in short, makes the right signals, including stressing the need for an adequate and effective labour inspection system which must be acted upon proactively, will also help India in the direction towards ratifying the C.155.
  • India faces large challenges in its efforts toward ratification of conventions relating to OSH. A progressive step that it could take in this direction is to endorse the FPRW which includes “a safe and healthy working environment” as another fundamental principle. Trade unions, academics, and more importantly, industry bodies must lobby the government toward these measures.

THE CONCLUSION: The labour agenda is never finished. The walk is long and strenuous as neoliberal globalization is more likely to put obstacles to the realization of rights as fundamental principles. It would indeed be a challenge as the world of work is undergoing profound changes. It is important for governments, employers and workers, and other stakeholders to seize the opportunities to create a safe and healthy future workplace for all. Their day-to-day efforts to improve safety and health at work can directly contribute to the sound socio-economic development of India.

Mains Practice Questions:

  1. Even after having the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020, India has not ratified the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. What is hindering India in ratifying the convention and what should India do to further enhance the safety and health of workers?
  2. ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FPRW) was amended in 2022 to include “a safe and healthy working environment” as a basic human value. Comment.



DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS (AUGUST 27, 2022)

THE HEALTH ISSUES

1. WHAT IS THE ‘PEN-PLUS’ STRATEGY?

THE CONTEXT: Recently Africa adopted a pen-plus strategy at the 72nd session of the Regional Committee of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) held in Lomé, Togo.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is the PEN-PLUS strategy?

  • PEN-PLUS is basically a regional strategy to address serious non-communicable diseases at first level referral health facilities.
  • This strategy supports capacity building of district hospitals and other first-class referral facilities for early diagnosis and management of serious non-communicable diseases, resulting in a reduction in mortality.
  • The strategy urges countries to establish standardized programs to combat chronic and serious non-communicable diseases to ensure that essential medicines, technologies and diagnostics are available and accessible in district hospitals.

What is a Non-Communicable Disease?

  • A disease which does not result from the presence of pathogens and may result from the imbalance in the dietary constituents, general wear and tear of tissues and uncontrolled growth of tissues, metabolic disorders or injury to any part of the body is called a non-communicable disease.
  • The non-communicable diseases include heart diseases, cancers, diabetes, asthma, Anemia, Polycythemia, Leucopenia, Hodgkin’s Disease etc.
  • Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) kill 41 million people each year, equivalent to 71% of all deaths globally.
  • Each year, more than 15 million people die from an NCD between the ages of 30 and 69 years; 85% of these “premature” deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.
  • In Africa, the most prevalent severe non-communicable diseases include sickle cell disease, type 1 and insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes, rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, severe hypertension and moderate to severe and persistent asthma.

Status of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in India

  • According to the WHO report, In India, nearly 5.8 million people die from NCDs (heart and lung diseases, stroke, cancer and diabetes) every year in other words, 1 in 4 Indians has a risk of dying from NCD before they reach the age of 70.
  • The major NCDs are heart disease, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. Physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, tobacco use and harmful use of alcohol are the main behavioural risk factors for NCD.

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

2. INDIA-TANZANIA TASK FORCE FOR DEFENCE COOPERATION

THE CONTEXT: Recently, Defense Minister held bilateral talks with Dr Sturgomena Lawrence Tax, Minister of Defense and National Services of Tanzania in New Delhi.

THE EXPLANATION:

  • During the meeting, the two ministers agreed to set up a task force to prepare a five-year roadmap to enhance defence cooperation between the two countries and to hold the next joint defence cooperation meeting in Tanzania at the earliest.
  • The Defense Minister also invited his Tanzanian counterpart to the India-Africa Defense Dialogue and DefExpo, scheduled to be held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, from October 18-22, 2022.

India-Tanzania Relations

  • India and Tanzania have maintained warm and cordial relations. Since the 1960s and 1980s, the countries have had common interests and have raised voices together against colonialism. The countries also shared commitments to non–alignment and South-South cooperation. During the post cold war era, India and Tanzania together initiated economic reform programs.
  • The high commission of India was established in 1961 in Dar es Sallam. However, the consulate was built late in 1974 in Zanzibar. Tanzanian embassy in New Delhi is also accredited to Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
  • Several agreements were signed between India and Tanzania during PM’s visit to the country in2016. It includes an MoU on water resource management and development, a joint action plan on small industries, visa waiver agreements, vocational training centres and a line of credit of 92 million USD for the improvement of water supply in Zanzibar.
  • It has a substantial population of around 70 thousand Indian diasporas.

 THE ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

3. GERMANY: FLEET OF HYDROGEN-POWERED PASSENGER TRAINS

THE CONTEXT: Recently Germany launched the world’s first fleet of hydrogen-powered passenger trains to replace 15 diesel trains running on non-electrified tracks in the state of Lower Saxony.

 THE EXPLANATION:

  • The new trains are equipped with a hydrogen tank and fuel cells on the roof and will produce electricity by combining water and hydrogen. The company revealed that the excess energy produced will be stored in ion-lithium batteries.
  • The estimated cost of this project is around a 93-million-euro (USD 92 million).
  • These bright blue Coradia iLint trains are built by French TGV-maker Alstom, which are costlier than diesel-powered trains but eco-friendly.
  • The green trains can travel 600 miles (1,000km) and a maximum speed of 140 kph (87 mph) on a single tank of hydrogen, similar to the range of diesel trains.

Hydrogen trains

  • Hydrogen trains are equipped with fuel cells that produce electricity by combining hydrogen with oxygen. This conversion process only emits steam and water, thus producing zero emissions. Excess energy produced is stored in ion-lithium batteries on board the train.
  • These trains also make very little noise. Moreover, hydrogen fuel cells have advantages over batteries. Instead of recharging, they can easily be refuelled like gas or diesel engine.
  • It is also easier to build refuelling infrastructure for these trains at railway stations.
  • These trains can run for around 1,000 km on a single tank of hydrogen, similar to the range of diesel trains.
  • These trains offer an attractive prospect to many cities scrambling to combat air pollution. The only disadvantage these hydrogen trains is that they are more expensive than fossil fuel-based trains.

THE GOVERNMENT SCHEMES AND INTERVENTIONS

4. INTEGRATION OF GATI SHAKTI MASTER PLAN WITH GEOSPATIAL MAPS

THE CONTEXT: Recently, Union Minister announced that the Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti National Master Plan will now be linked to geospatial maps to prevent unnecessary cost escalation.

THE EXPLANATION:

  • This linking will help in developing future infrastructure in a planned manner, curbing cost escalation and saving taxpayers money, besides enhancing India’s cost competitiveness.
  • As of now, 1,000 geospatial maps have been formed for forests, wildlife sanctuaries, highways and railway infrastructure, power plants and industrial zones in India. For example during the construction of an overbridge, diverting routes if a forest or wildlife sanctuary comes in the way, so it will help to figure out how to construct a bridge with the smallest length for a river, etc.

About Gati Shakti Platform

Gati Shakti platform was launched to provide information instantaneously. It will allow for better coordination among ministries. Gati Shakti Scheme was launched with the aim of achieving three basic goals namely,

  1. Seamless multimodal connectivity for facilitating easy movement of goods & people,
  2. Improved prioritisation, optimal usage of resources, timely creation of capacities, and
  3. Resolution of issues like disjointed planning, standardisation & clearances.

Aim of the Master Plan

  • This Master Plan will provide a framework for ‘The National Infrastructure Pipeline program’.
  • The plan also aims to make Indian products more competitive by cutting down their logistics costs and improving supply chains. It also aims to give a foundation for holistic infrastructure and an integrated pathway for the economy.
  • It will help the local manufacturers of India in turning globally competitive.
  • Apart from that, this scheme of worth over one hundred lakh crore rupees will create employment opportunities for the youth.
  • It seeks to attract investment from worldwide to improve the infrastructure in India and will provide new direction & fresh momentum for overall infrastructure development in India.

Significance of the Plan

It is a seamless multi-modal connectivity platform and will ensure seamless movement of goods & people and will enhance ease of living & ease of doing business.

 

5. AQUACULTURE TILAPIA FISH”.

THE CONTEXT: Recently, TDB-DST enters new domain, funds its first ever ‘Aquaculture’ project using ‘state of the art’ Israeli technology for production of Tilapia Fish”. TDB-DST (Technology Development Board – Department of Science and Technology) contributes to ‘Blue Revolution’ through technology intervention, supports sustainable & responsible development of fisheries sector in India”.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is Aquaculture?

  • Aquaculture can be simply put as the controlled process of cultivating aquatic organisms, especially meant for human consumption.
  • According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations”, The farming of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Farming implies some sort of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, protection from predators, etc.”
  • Such farming also implies individual or corporate ownership of the stock being cultivated, the planning, development and operation of aquaculture systems, sites, facilities and practices, and production and transport.

Why is Fisheries important for India?

  • Fisheries is one of the fastest growing sectors amongst the primary producing sectors. The sector plays a vital role in the economic and overall development of the country, also referred to as the “sunrise sector”, it is poised to bring in immense potential through equitable and inclusive growth.
  • The sector is recognized as a powerful engine for providing employment to 14.5 million people and sustaining a livelihood for 28 million fishermen community of the country. Thus, the sector urges young entrepreneurs of the country to come forward and offer solutions, resolving on-ground challenges through technology interventions and innovative solutions.

 What is the Neel Kranti Mission?

  • Blue Revolution, the Neel Kranti Mission has the vision to achieve economic prosperity of the country and the fishers and fish farmers as well as contribute towards food and nutritional security through full potential utilization of water resources for fisheries development in a sustainable manner, keeping in view the bio-security and environmental concerns.
  • Its vision is to create an enabling environment for integrated development of the full potential of fisheries of the country.
  • Also, it aims to improve the income status of fishers and fish farmers keeping in view the sustainability, bio-security and environmental concerns.

The objectives include:

  • To increase the overall fish production in a responsible and sustainable manner for economic prosperity
  • To modernise the fisheries with special focus on new technologies
  • To ensure food and nutritional security
  • To generate employment and export earnings
  • To ensure inclusive development and empower fishers and aquaculture farmers
What is Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana?

·      The cabinet under the chairmanship of Hon’ble Prime Minister, came up with ‘Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY)’ to bring about ‘Blue Revolution’ through sustainable and responsible development of fisheries sector in India.

·      The scheme targets to enhance fish production to 220 lakh metric tons by 2024-25, at an average annual growth rate of about 9%. The ambitious scheme also aims to double the export earnings to Rs.1,00,000 crore and generate about 55 lakhs direct and indirect employment opportunities in fisheries sector over a period of next five years.

What is the latest development and ‘Tilapia’?

  • Realising the potential of Fisheries sector, Technology Development Board, a statutory body under Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India supports M/s Fountainhead Agro Farms Private Limited, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra for ‘Advanced, Intensive, All Male Tilapia Aquaculture Project with Israeli Technology’.
  • The board has penned a mutual agreement, to provide loan assistance of Rs. 8.42 crores out of the total project cost of Rs. 29.78 crores to the company.
  • Tilapia’ has emerged to be one of the most productive and internationally traded food fish in the world.
  • The culture of tilapia has become commercially popular in many parts of the world and fishery experts have dubbed the tilapia as “aquatic chicken” due to its quick growth and low maintenance cultivation.
  • Today, if any fish could be named a global fish, no better name can be thought of than Tilapia.

 

6. ‘XYLITOL’: NEW SUGAR SUBSTITUTE

THE CONTEXT: Recently, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati have developed an ultrasound-assisted fermentation method to produce a safe sugar replacement called “Xylitol” from bagasse, which is the residue left after crushing sugarcane.

THE EXPLANATION:

  • Xylitol, recently developed by researchers at IIT Guwahati, has reduced the fermentation time to 15 hours as against about 48 hours in conventional processes and also increased the yield of the product by about 20%.
  • Previously only 8-15% of the D-xylose from which xylitol is made is converted to xylitol which translates to a higher price for the consumer.
  • The research has also been published in the journal Bioresource Technology and Ultrasonics Sonochemistry.

What is Xylitol?

  • Xylitol, a sugar alcohol derived from natural products.
  • It has potential antidiabetic and anti-obesogenic effects, is a mild prebiotic and protects teeth from caries.
  • It is a colorless or white crystalline solid that is soluble in water.
  • Xylitol is manufactured industrially by a chemical reaction in which wood-derived D-xylose, an expensive chemical, is treated with a nickel catalyst at very high temperatures and pressures which makes the process highly energy-consuming.

Is xylitol an artificial sweetener?

Xylitol is a natural sugar substitute safe for diabetics. It is not an artificial sweetener but is a natural sugar alcohol sweetener found in the fibres of many fruits and vegetables, and can be extracted from various berries, oats, and mushrooms, as well as fibrous material such as corn husks and sugar cane bagasse. Xylitol is roughly as sweet as sucrose with only two-thirds the food energy.




Ethics Through Current Development (27-08-2022)

  1. Why look down upon any religious belief system? READ MORE
  2. Investigate the word ‘I’ READ MORE
  3. The Wounds of Remission: The release of Bilkis Bano’s tormenters puts a question mark on the provision of remitting the convicts. READ MORE



Today’s Important Articles for Geography (27-08-2022)

  1. Rare 3rd consecutive La Nina event underway, could impact agriculture READ MORE
  2. Inclusion of climate change in policy is crucial for a strong economy READ MORE
  3. Meghalaya: Is Government Turning a Blind Eye Towards Illegal Coal Mining? READ MORE



Today’s Important Articles for Sociology (27-08-2022)

  1. Gender justice idea runs into political reality READ MORE  
  2. Many meanings of swaraj: We should assess our political vocabularies and their contextual relevance READ MORE
  3. Murder in the sewer: Deaths during manual cleaning of sewage are unacceptable READ MORE
  4. Nation and Its Battered Children: Care for all children is integral to the future of a responsive nation. READ MORE