9 PM Daily Brief – November 12, 2020

Good evening dear reader.

Here is our 9pm current affairs brief for you today

GS 1

A digital sisterhood

GS 2

Credibility of exit/opinion polls

GS 3

Covid19 Vaccine

Future of the federal framework

9 PM for Preliminary examination

FACTLY

A digital sisterhood

Source: The Indian Express

Syllabus: GS-1- Gender issues

Context: Social media helps the independent woman find and forge new solidarities.

The rise of social media is a result of loopholes in the traditional society. Discuss these loopholes.

• Globalisation: Globalisation and the resulting rush of ideas across the world d meant that we are no longer connected only to our physical tribes.
• This has also meant that we do not feel connected to our families and communities in the way that the previous generations were.
• Effect on women: This disconnect is far more distinct in women than in men; because men are more inclined to follow the traditional line of thought, especially since that school of thought heavily privileges them.
• Independent women who have a voice and demand to be heard, who refuse to bow down to the old world order and refuse to fit in with cultural norms of what a woman “ought” to be like.
• Traditional communities fall short: People need to be understood. Their worldview is so different from ours that we have spent much of our lives in isolation; an emotional isolation.
• Distance between generations: The isolation of the modern world has not been brought on by technology alone, but by the new ideas and by the distance between the ideas of the present generation and the previous one.
• Lack of support: Individuals who didn’t conform to normative ideas of social acceptance, traditional communities did not provide much support or emotional nourishment.
• There is no replacement for the feeling of being heard and understood that one gets in the presence of people who can empathise, and offer advice that enables you to live a life that you want.

How should be social media ideally used?

• Social media is a supplement: Social media becomes a hindrance and an isolator only when you begin to use it as a replacement for real-life family and friends, ignoring their physical presence when you are glued to your device even in the presence of people around you.
• Social media is not a substitute for physical networks.
• Seeking genuine and meaningful engagements: Instead of constantly being in battle mode over politics or religion or the newest debate, we need to attempt to genuinely connect with people at a personal level, at the level of ideas and emotions and empathy.
• Some of those online friendships could translate into offline friendships too.
• An additional tribe: There are various support groups popping up on social media now, for this purpose. To help people find their tribes, who would understand them and help them overcome the unending loneliness that is the curse of people whose ideas are vastly different from the physical communities they are a part of.

Way forward

• In a world that is increasingly becoming a mix of cultures, a mix of identities and a mix of selfhoods, we need a mix of multiple tribes to get through life.
• The notion of tribes and communities needs to evolve as well.

Credibility of exit/opinion polls

Source: The Hindu

Gs2: Salient Features of the Representation of People’s Act.

Context: Prediction of Election outcome through Exit polls and opinion polls have not been accurate.

Some examples where election prediction has miserably failed?

• The example of the Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004: The exit poll that predicted Hugo Chávez to be recalled however, Hugo Chávez won in the Venezuela Referendum
• In recent Bihar elections: The exit polls, mostly predicted a Rashtriya Janata Dal victory with huge margin however the NDA proved exit polls are wrong.
• US presidential elections 2016: Hillary Clinton consistently led Trump in national polls in 2016 however Trump won the election.

What are the reasons for such failures?

• Principles of statistics ignored: Pollsters do not follow the statistical principles properly in designing, sampling, and analyzing their data.
• Lacks holistic coverage: They do not cover remote corners of the country and cover sensitive booths for their surveys.
• No scope for Margin of error: The standard requirements of 3 percentage points as margin of error is not adhered.
• Selection bias: The samples selected by them does not maintain the proportions across gender, age, income, religion, caste, and other important factors.
• Issues in method of sampling: Non responses are not properly tackled and the aspect of ‘random’ sampling is not given adequate importance.

Covid19 Vaccine

Source: The Hindu

Gs3: Science and Technology- Developments and their Applications and Effects in Everyday Life.

Context:  The US-based pharma company Pfizer Inc and German biotech company BioNTech today announced their mRNA-based covid vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, against coronavirus has demonstrated evidence of efficacy against COVID-19.

Background

• Earlier in August, the results of the Pfizer vaccines Phase-1 trial were announced. It showed that the vaccine was capable of inducing neutralising antibodies and specific T cell responses in younger and older adults.
• In the Phase-3 trial, ninety-four confirmed cases of COVID-19 in trial participants were evaluated and the results seems to be encouraging.
• The endpoint to evaluate vaccine efficacy is when 164 trial participants get infected, irrespective of whether they received the vaccine or a placebo.
• The company expects that endpoint to be reached by the end of this month.
• Also note that apart from Pfizer Inc Moderna and NIAID are also at advanced Phase-3 trial, and uses the same mRNA platform. It is likely that these vaccines too may show similar outcomes.
• The Oxford University vaccine too produced immune responses similar to Pfizer’s in early stage trials and is expected to show positive results in Phase-3 trial.

What are the findings from the Phase-3 trial?

• Over 90% effectiveness is reported against symptomatic infection.
• It is also observed that the protection is achieved 28 days after administration of the first dose of vaccines.

Why caution is needed?

• The nature of infection that the vaccine can protect is not clearly demonstrated i.e. mild, moderate or severe.
• Also, the interim results do not reveal how effective the vaccine is in older adults, who are more likely to progress to severe disease and even die.
• The duration of the protection after getting vaccinated is also not known.
• It is likely that the effectiveness might change as more cases get reported. However, 90% effectiveness demonstrated is way high than the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cut off of 50% required to prevent disease or decrease disease severity.
• The inability of the vaccine to prevent asymptomatic infection will reduce the ability to prevent transmission of disease.

Future of the federal framework

Source- The Indian Express

Syllabus- GS 3- Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Context- The role of the Finance Commission as a neutral arbiter in the Centre-state relation in achieving the delicate balance.

What are the key highlights of the latest report?

The Fifteenth Finance Commission led by Chairman N. K. Singh submitted its report for the period 2021-2026 to President of India.

Title of the report – ‘Finance Commission in COVID Time’s and the scales are used to represent the balance between the States and the Union.

Significance of report-

1. The report will determine how India’s fiscal architecture is reshaped.
2. And how Centre-state relations are reset as the country attempts to recover from the COVID-19 shock

What are the key points in the report that can impact states revenue share?

1. The 15th Finance Commission, in its interim report had said, ‘There is merit in ensuring funds for defence and internal security and this will receive appropriate consideration in our final report.’

• This had led to speculation that states will have to contribute to such a fund, in turn leading to a drop in their share of central government’s taxes.

2. Southern Indian states complaining their efforts to control population would go against them. This is because the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission included using the 2011 census to suggest devolution of taxes to states.

• The 15th FC has considered the 2011 population along with forest cover, tax effort, area of the state, and “demographic performance” to arrive at the states’ share in the divisible pool.

Read also :- Current affairs

What are the States issues?

Recommendation of 14^th Finance commission– The commission had recommended for an increase in the share of the States in total tax revenues from 32% to 42%. However, states’ share never touched 42 per cent of tax collections due to-

• Dominance of Centre– The Centre is trying to claw back the fiscal space ceded to the states and assert its dominance over the country’s fiscal architecture. Central government spending has risen on items that lie in the state and concurrent lists.
• Shrinking of divisible pool– Centre has reduced the pool of funds to be shared with the States by shifting from taxes to cesses and surcharges, revenue from which is not shared with the states.

Way forward-

• Finance Commission has to play an important role in achieving the delicate balance in the conflicting domain of finance by addressing the concerns of both the players.
• The Centre can reduce States’ fears by tabling the report without delay, and address any apprehensions it may give rise to.

9 PM for Preliminary examination

Click on “Factly articles for November 11, 2020”

https://factly.forumias.com/factly-articles-for-november-12-2020/