Current affairs July 8th-13th (2019)

8^th July, 2019

TOPIC- Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health

1. What do you understand by occupational health hazards? Do you agree with the view that occupational health services in India remain entirely primitive?

Ans:

Introduction

Occupational health deals with the physical, mental and social well-being of workers in relation to their work and work environment. Occupational health disorders can be broadly divided into four categories – physical, chemical, biological and psychological.

Major occupational health hazards in India include injuries due to accidents, pneumoconiosis (lung damage due to dust inhalation, especially silicosis), chronic obstructive lung diseases, musculoskeletal problems, workplace stress, skin problems, noise-induced hearing loss and cancer. Agriculture, mining and construction cause high levels of accidents, injuries and diseases.

State of occupational health services in India

• Occupational health issues are prevalent in all industries, but continue to be highly underreported due to compensation liabilities and lax legal mechanisms.
• Provisions of the relatively new Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Act are geared towards welfare and monetary grants rather than prevention of occupational diseases in India’s vast construction sector.
• Post the Bhopal gas disaster, legislative focus has been centred on organised industries, whereas the bulk of the Indian working population is in small enterprises and the unorganised sector, where legal provisions are hardly enforced.
• Sadly, even the ESI scheme, dedicated to giving health coverage to industrial employees, focuses on curative treatment and welfare, not on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of occupational diseases.
• Lack of occupational health expertise and facilities for diagnosis of occupational diseases extends to primary health services provided by the public health department.

Conclusion

In view of the aforementioned points, it can be said the occupational health services in India remain at primitive level.

Proactive policy initiatives, capacity building/training and access to common occupational health facilities for workers from small and medium industries, as well as the unorganised sector leading to universal occupational health coverage, are need of the hour.

Reference: DNA India

 

TOPIC- Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

2. Do you agree with the view that lack of effective regulation and policy of cheap or free power supply for irrigation have intensified freshwater crisis beyond technological redemption? Also suggest some measures that can help get out of this situation.

Ans:

Introduction

India is facing the worst water crisis in its history, and 21 Indian cities will run out of groundwater by 2020, according to a new report from the NITI Aayog. It has led many experts to ponder over the reasons for such a crisis. Some experts have pointed that lack of effective regulation and policy of cheap or free power supply for irrigation have intensified freshwater crisis beyond technological redemption.

Effect of policy of cheap or free power supply for irrigation

• Of the total freshwater resources available in the country, as per Central Water Commission, 78% was being used for irrigation in 2010, which is likely to be reduced to 68% by 2050. Agriculture will remain the biggest user of water to produce enough food, feed and fibre in the foreseeable future. And, unless this sector is geared to improve in terms of water supplies and efficiency in water use, the situation on the water front is not going to improve much.
• There is hardly any effective regulation of groundwater. The policy of cheap or free power supplies for irrigation has led to an almost anarchic situation in the use of groundwater. Power subsidies to agriculture cost the exchequer roughly `70,000 crores each year while depleting groundwater in an alarming manner.
• One of the key reasons for the shrinking ground water level is the cropping pattern, which is skewed toward crops that use more water. Rice and sugarcane crops together consume more than 60% of water available for irrigation.
• In view of the aforementioned points, it can be said that lack of effective regulation and policy of cheap or free power supply for irrigation have intensified freshwater crisis beyond technological redemption.

Way forward

• Technological solutions, like drip, sprinklers, etc, cannot make much headway unless policies are put on the right track. Israel has perhaps the best water technologies and management systems, ranging from drips to desalinisation to recycling (87%) of urban waste water for agriculture.
• One way out is to give farmers monetary rewards for saving water and power. The existing situation can be taken as a sort of current entitlement, and if those who agree to get power supplies metered save on power consumption compared to current levels, they can be monetarily rewarded. Along with that, there could be income support on per hectare basis (say, `15,000/ha) for less water-guzzling crops, say maize or soyabean in Punjab during kharif season.
• Eastern India can develop better procurement facilities for PDS system for paddy, and procurement from Punjab-Haryana needs to be discouraged/curtailed.

Reference: Financial Express

 

9^th July, 2019

TOPIC- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests

1. African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) for goods and services can have a promising impact on India’s interests. Analyse.

Ans:

Introduction

Recently concluded Summit of the African Union resulted in signing of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) for goods and services. Some experts have pointed out that if taken to its logical conclusion, this audacious project would have a promising impact of India’s trade interests.

Will AfCFTA have promising impact on India’s interests?

• Africa is already an important economic partner for India with total annual merchandise trade estimated at $70 billion or nearly a tenth of our global trade. India is Africa’s third largest trading partner. While India’s global exports have been largely stagnant, those to Africa have surged.
• Africa still has unfulfilled demand for Indian commodities, especially foodstuff, finished products (automobiles, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods) and services such as IT/IT-Enabled Service, health care and education, skilling, expertise in management and banking, financial services and insurance.
• In principle, African economies becoming more formalised and transparent would be in India’s interest. While local manufactured items and services may ultimately compete with Indian exports, Indian firms can co-produce them in Africa. If handled in a proactive manner, the AfCFTA is likely to open new opportunities for Indian stakeholders in fast-moving consumer goods manufacturing, connectivity projects and the creation of a financial backbone.

Conclusion

In light of the aforementioned points, it is safe to say that African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) for goods and services can have a promising impact on India’s interests. Once the AfCFTA is accepted as beneficial game changer, the African elite could perhaps contemplate an India-African FTA.

Reference: The Hindu

 

Topic- Bilateral relations of India

2. India and the U.S. should aim to progressively eliminate trade and investment barriers. Disucss.

Ans:

Introduction

Trade turmoil has been putting at risk the U.S.’s strategic partnership with India. In the last two months, the U.S. has withdrawn from India preferential tariff benefits under its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme, and India has imposed retaliatory tariffs in response to tariffs that the U.S. applied last year on steel and aluminium. In this context, some experts have opined that if the two fail to relieve the building tension, a tit-for-tat trade war mimicking that between the U.S. and China may follow.

Why India and the US should aim to eliminate trade barriers?

• The U.S. is India’s single most important export market; India is a huge and growing market for U.S. investment and exports. An escalating series of retaliation and counter-retaliation could undermine efforts to advance what might be the most consequential bilateral relationship in the 21st century.
• The U.S.-India strategic partnership deserves higher aspirations on trade. The goal should be a more comprehensive platform for expanding trade and investment through the progressive elimination of trade and investment barriers, from protectionist regulatory measures to tariffs and restrictions on trade in services. This might even lead some day to the negotiation of a free trade agreement, which is the ultimate example of economic integration in a trade relationship.

Conclusion

Each country has a strong but messy democracy with many voices against free trade agreements. Each is a tough negotiator with a passionate commitment to its national interests. But both can dream big together and trade should be central to those dreams.

Reference: The Hindu

 

10^th July, 2019

TOPIC- Linkages between development and spread of extremism

1. What are some of the hate crimes committed in India? Suggest some measures to curb such hate crimes.

Ans:

Introduction

Studies of hate crimes in India show that they have steadily risen over the past few years. This has raised a rising tide of concern both domestically and internationally. Internationally, India has begun to feature prominently on a growing list of countries marked by hate crime, including hate speech in electoral campaigns.

Common hate crimes in India

Amnesty International India documented 721 such incidents between 2015 and 2018. The more common hate crimes, they found, were honour killings — that have sadly occurred for decades — and ‘cow-related violence’, that was rare earlier but has become more frequent over the past five years. The new pattern of hate crimes, emerged in the recent past in India is multifold and mainly perpetrated against the Muslims and some lower caste Hindus in many states in the name of cow vigilantism, love jihad, Islamophobia (Islamic terrorism) and so on.

Steps that can be taken to curb hate crimes

• An omnibus act against all hate crimes, including hate speech, is required across India and should be a priority of the 17th Lok Sabha.
• Home Minister could set benchmarks for policemen and administrators to deal with hate crime.
• Ensure that the police take prompt action, including safety for witnesses
• Set up fast-track courts in such cases; and take action against policemen or officials who failed to comply. The legislature and political parties could suspend or dismiss members who are implicated in hate crimes or practise hate speech.
• Legal reforms that enable recording of hate crimes and strengthen accountability must be a priority for the government.
• The electronic and print media could stop showing or publishing hateful comments and threats.
• Priests could preach the values of tolerance and respect that are common to all religions.
• Schools could revitalise courses on the directive principles of our Constitution.

Conclusion

For a demographically diverse country such as India, hate crimes — including crimes of contempt — are a disaster. Each of our religious and caste communities number in the millions, and crimes that are directed against any of these groups could result in a magnitude of disaffection that impels violence, even terrorism.

Reference: The Hindu

 

Topic- Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections

2. Why despite rapid economic growth, declining levels of poverty, enough food to export, and a multiplicity of government programmes, malnutrition amongst the poorest remains high in India? Discuss.

Ans:

Introduction

A new report, ‘Food and Nutrition Security Analysis, India, 2019’, authored by the Government of India and the United Nations World Food Programme, paints a picture of hunger and malnutrition amongst children in large pockets of India. This punctures the image of a nation marching towards prosperity. It raises moral and ethical questions about the nature of a state and society that, after 70 years of independence, still condemns hundreds of millions of its poorest and vulnerable citizens to lives of hunger and desperation.

Why does malnutrition still remain high in India?

• For the poor and marginalised, access to food is impeded by social, administrative and economic barriers. In the case of children and their mothers, this could be anything from non-functioning or neglectful governments at the State, district and local levels to entrenched social attitudes that see the poor and marginalised as less than equal citizens who are meant to be an underclass and are undeserving of government efforts to provide them food and lift them out of poverty.
• Anganwadis are key to the distribution of services to mothers and children. But many States, including Bihar and Odisha, which have large vulnerable populations, are struggling to set up functioning anganwadis, and recruit staff.
• A year after Poshan Abhyan was launched; State and Union Territory governments have only used 16% of the funds allocated to them. Fortified rice and milk were to be introduced in one district per State by March this year. But this has not been done, and officials in charge of public distribution have not yet got their act together.

Conclusion

In view of the aforementioned points, it can be said that the key to ending the tragedy of child nutrition lies with a handful of State governments. Undoubtedly, the agencies of State governments have to adopt a comprehensive and coordinated multi-sectoral approach which is formulated by taking into account the varied nature of local-level challenges. They have to demonstrate better governance, too.

Reference: The Hindu

ORF

 

11^th July, 2019

Topic- Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate

1. There is little doubt today that WTO is in a state of crisis. Comment.

Ans:

Introduction

There is a sense around the world that the WTO is deep in trouble. The last round of multilateral trade negotiations, the Doha Development Agenda, sponsored by the members in 2001, was virtually abandoned in 2015. And, now, the dispute settlement function has been put in jeopardy.

Is WTO in a state of crisis?

• Since the late 2000s, the WTO has been unable to carry out its basic task of overseeing a successful conduct of multilateral trade negotiations.
• Previous rounds of ministerial meetings have resulted in very little progress.
• The last ‘low-hanging fruit’ the WTO was able to garner for its members was the Trade Facilitation Agreement at the Bali ministerial in 2013.
• While this came as a lifesaver for the WTO in 2013, it had been on the cards since the Doha Development Agenda in the 2001 ministerial. The 2015 ministerial in Nairobi did nothing much to enhance the WTO’s stature.
• The WTO has made limited progress over the past two decades for numerous reasons—be it the one-sided nature of the original agreements, the North-South divide, or the aggression of the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) lobby on subsidies, agriculture and food security at successive ministerial meetings.
• Now US has blocked appointment of new judges to the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). It could prove to be a deadly blow to the entire system.

Conclusion

WTO needs to strengthen the dispute settlement mechanism as there are issues in appointment of judges in new appellate body. WTO needs to enhance discussion mechanism by introducing wider consultations.

Reference: Indian Express

Financial Express

 

TOPIC- Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

2. There is enormous potential in mitigating climate change through forest restoration. Discuss.

Ans:

Introduction

Countries across the globe committed to create a new international climate agreement by the conclusion of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris in December 2015. In preparation, countries have agreed to publicly outline what post-2020 climate actions they intend to take under a new international agreement, known as their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). India made a number of promises that would lead to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, or mitigation, and actions to adapt to living in a warmer world, or adaptation.

Potential of forests in mitigating climate change

• Trees and other vegetation fix carbon as part of photosynthesis and soil too holds organic carbon from plants and animals.
• Locking up the carbon from the atmosphere in trees, ground vegetation and soils is one of the safest ways with which to remove carbon. If done correctly, the green cover increase will provide many other benefits: it will improve water quality, store water in wetlands, prevent soil erosion, protect biodiversity, and potentially provide new jobs.
• According to a study published in Science journal, it is possible to add 0.9 billion hectares of canopy cover worldwide, potentially mitigating up to two-thirds of historical greenhouse gas emissions. This would then prevent or delay the worst impacts from climate change.

Conclusion

Active forest management by local people has a long history in India and needs to expand to meet climate, environment and social justice goals.

Reference: The Hindu

 

12^th July, 2019

TOPIC- Conservation

1. Give a brief description about FAME II scheme. What are the bottlenecks in India’s move to make a transition to electric vehicles?

Ans:

Introduction

The Union Budget has announced a bold move to make a transition to electric vehicles, and offered a tax incentive for the early adopters. Its stated vision to leapfrog into an era of electric mobility and domestic vehicle manufacturing, led by public transport and commercial vehicles, is forward-looking.

FAME II Scheme

• The main objective of the scheme is to encourage Faster adoption of Electric and hybrid vehicle by way of offering upfront Incentive on purchase of Electric vehicles and also by way of establishing a necessary charging Infrastructure for electric vehicles.
• The scheme will help in addressing the issue of environmental pollution and fuel security.
• To encourage advance technologies, the benefits of incentives, will be extended to only those vehicles which are fitted with advance battery like a Lithium Ion battery and other new technology batteries.
• Lithium-ion batteries can match internal combustion engine performance, being more energy-dense than lead acid batteries, but are very expensive.
• Customers are likely to be frightened off by prices and hold on longer to old bikes and scooters.
• Since these old bikes emit more pollutants than newly certified internal combustion engines, it will offset environmental gains from the conversion to electric.

Bottlenecks in India’s move to make transition to electric vehicles

• There is a strong believe that electric infrastructure will have a massive scale going forward. But the bad part is there is no subsidy for those that want to set up EV infrastructure as a business.
• In fact, Ather has more than 30 charging stations in Bengaluru while the other companies in this space are yet to foray into support infrastructure.
• As of today, there are only 250 charging stations in the country and they mostly catering to three-wheelers. To make this transition viable, infrastructure is a key factor.

Conclusion

The budgetary measures will have an immediate impact on the pricing of electric vehicles and bring in more models, but it will take a sustained effort by the Centre, in partnership with State governments, to enable a fast rollout of charging infrastructure.

Reference: The Hindu

 

TOPIC- Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure

2. What is the purpose of the anti-defection law? What are the grounds of disqualification? How far has the law succeeded in achieving its goal?

Ans:

The anti-defection law is contained in the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. It was enacted by Parliament in 1985. The purpose, as is obvious, is to curb political defection by the legislators. There are two grounds on which a member of a legislature can be disqualified.

Grounds for disqualification

• One, if the member voluntarily gives up the membership of the party, he shall be disqualified. Voluntarily giving up the membership is not the same as resigning from a party. Even without resigning, a legislator can be disqualified if by his conduct the Speaker/Chairman of the concerned House draws a reasonable inference that the member has voluntarily given up the membership of his party.
• Second, if a legislator votes in the House against the direction of his party and his action is not condoned by his party, he can be disqualified. These are the two grounds on which a legislator can be disqualified from being a member of the House.
• However, there is an exception that was provided in the law to protect the legislators from disqualification. The 10th Schedule says that if there is a merger between two political parties and two-thirds of the members of a legislature party agree to the merger, they will not be disqualified.

How far has the law succeeded in achieving its goal?

The law certainly has been able to curb the evil of defection to a great extent. But, of late, a very alarming trend of legislators defecting in groups to another party in search of greener pastures is visible. The recent examples of defection in state Assemblies and even in Rajya Sabha bear this out. This only shows that the law needs a relook in order to plug the loopholes if any. But it must be said that this law has served the interest of the society. Political instability caused by frequent and unholy change of allegiance on the part of the legislators of our country has been contained to a very great extent. That is a story of success of one of the most important legislation that the Indian Parliament has enacted.

Reference: Indian Express

 

13^th July, 2019

TOPIC- Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life

1. Describe the processes of cloning and therapeutic cloning. What are the ethical issues involved with cloning?

Ans:

Cloning

The term cloning describes a number of different processes that can be used to produce genetically identical copies of a biological entity. The copied material, which has the same genetic makeup as the original, is referred to as a clone. It can be natural as well as artificial. There are three different types of artificial cloning: gene cloning, reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning. Gene cloning produces copies of genes or segments of DNA. Reproductive cloning produces copies of whole animals. Therapeutic cloning produces embryonic stem cells for experiments aimed at creating tissues to replace injured or diseased tissues.

Therapeutic Cloning

Therapeutic cloning involves creating a cloned embryo for the sole purpose of producing embryonic stem cells with the same DNA as the donor cell. These stem cells can be used in experiments aimed at understanding disease and developing new treatments for disease. To date, there is no evidence that human embryos have been produced for therapeutic cloning. The richest source of embryonic stem cells is tissue formed during the first five days after the egg has started to divide. At this stage of development, called the blastocyst, the embryo consists of a cluster of about 100 cells that can become any cell type. Stem cells are harvested from cloned embryos at this stage of development, resulting in destruction of the embryo while it is still in the test tube.

Some of the breakthroughs in this field have been:

• LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad has used stem cells to restore the eyesight of the victims of acid attack.
• A team of scientists in Japan was successful in developing human liver in the lab.

Ethical issues involved with cloning

• Gene cloning is a carefully regulated technique that is largely accepted today and used routinely in many labs worldwide. However, both reproductive and therapeutic cloning raises important ethical issues, especially as related to the potential use of these techniques in humans.
• Reproductive cloning would present the potential of creating a human that is genetically identical to another person who has previously existed or who still exists. This may conflict with long-standing religious and societal values about human dignity, possibly infringing upon principles of individual freedom, identity and autonomy. However, some argue that reproductive cloning could help sterile couples fulfill their dream of parenthood. Others see human cloning as a way to avoid passing on a deleterious gene that runs in the family without having to undergo embryo screening or embryo selection.
• Therapeutic cloning, while offering the potential for treating humans suffering from disease or injury, would require the destruction of human embryos in the test tube. Consequently, opponents argue that using this technique to collect embryonic stem cells is wrong, regardless of whether such cells are used to benefit sick or injured people.

 

TOPIC- Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life

2. What is carbon nanotube? Discuss its properties and applications.

Ans:

Carbon nanotube is basically an allotrope of carbon. These are nanoscale hollow tubes composed of carbon atoms. The unique one-dimensional structure and concomitant properties endow carbon nanotubes with special natures, rendering them with unlimited potential in nanotechnology-associated applications. They take the form of cylindrical carbon molecules. Their name is derived from their size, since their diameter is on the order of a few nanometers (approximately 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair), while they can be up to several millimeters in length. There are two main types of nanotubes: single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs).

The properties of carbon nanotubes are as follows:

• They are good conductors of both heat and electricity. This makes them very useful as materials for making transistors.
• The conductivity of carbon nanotube changes with the change in environment. This property has been use to develop carbon nanosensors to detect the presence of biological and chemical weapons present in the air.
• They have a very high tensile strength (much more than that of steel) and this property is the basis for making composite materials.
• CNTs represent a very small, high aspect ratio conductive additive for plastics of all types. Their high aspect ratio means that a lower loading (concentration) of CNTs is needed compared to other conductive additives to achieve the same electrical conductivity.
• Field emission results from the tunneling of electrons from a metal tip into vacuum, under application of a strong electric field. The small diameter and high aspect ratio of CNTs is very favorable for field emission. Even for moderate voltages, a strong electric field develops at the free end of supported CNTs because of their sharpness.
• These are highly flexible and can be bent to a great extent without damage.

Applications of carbon nanotube

• Carbon based composite materials are light and strong. Their weight to strength ratio is extremely low. This property can serve the requirements of railways (gear box type materials) and organizations such as ISRO, DRDO etc.
• They are used for making aircrafts.
• They can be used for making materials for remote sensing.
• They are used in purifying water as these materials remove the smallest particles and also kill bacteria. They are used in RO system to transform oceanic water to portable drinking water.
• These have various health applications as well. Carrier molecules fabricated by using carbon nanotube.
• Carbon Nanotubes hold applications in various fuel cell components.
• Nano satellites are also fabricated by using carbon nanotubes.