Answered: Mains Marathon – UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions – June 28

1. Do you think that the poor quality of governance has affected the educational administration in India? Examine. (GS 2)

 Indian Express

Introduction:

• According to the study done by PEW research centre ,startling conclusion is that Hindus have the “lowest” level of “educational attainment” in the world, and the Indian school educational system is at the bottom of the international league.

Poor quality of governance has affected educational administration bin India:-

• National Survey Sample results in 2015 indicated sharp decline in learning outcomes in mathematics, science and English in the secondary schools.
• It is just sheer lack of basic opportunity that has kept the Indian child at very low education standards a proof of apathy in governance.
• Abysmal quality of governance, with politics permeating every aspect of educational administration.
  • Factors other than merit play a significant part in the management of affairs; proper governance standards, with adequate incentives, and checks and balances, have not been put in place .
• The focus of the entire structure at the Centre and the states is on the minister, secretary, and the educational regulatory institutions  not on the student, teacher, principal and school
• The system is not “inclusive” and does not give a second chance to the weaker sections.
• The fundamentals of teacher management, teacher education and training as well as school governance and management are lacking at every step.
  • Incentive structure for government school teachers is highly distorted, virtually guaranteeing poor performance.
  • High absenteeism is routine, around 25% according to some surveys. Even when present in schools, teachers often engage in activities other than teaching. Poorly paid and less qualified contract teachers actually do a much better job than permanent teachers.
• The curriculum is rote-oriented and little practical thought has been given to pedagogy at any stage.
• The school-level data are unreliable. The infrastructure promised in the Right to Education Act (RTE) is scarcely visible on the ground.
• The binding constraint on growth of high-productivity employment is the failure of India’s education policy.
  • Only a small proportion of the workforce has the educational foundation required for skilled high-productivity jobs.
  • Barely 5% of the workforce in India has had any skill training.
• Several programmes have been launched under National Policy on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 including the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) that aims to train roughly 400 million workers in the 15-45 age group over seven years.
  • The results so far are disappointing.
    • In its submission to a parliamentary committee, the government indicated that of the 1.76 million candidates trained under the PMKVY only 580,000 could be certified as having successfully completed the training.
    • Less than 82,000 were actually placed in jobs.
    • No skill development programme, however well designed, can succeed without an underlying foundation of basic education.
  • Peculiar top-heavy structure of India’s education profile, neglecting basic education and attaching priority to higher education, starkly captures the elitist bias in the implementation of India’s education policy.
  • Problems with education policy:
    • Education policy in India is focused on inputs rather than learning outcomes, which is what matters.
    • Education policy has a strong elitist bias in favour of higher education as opposed to primary or secondary education.

However government is continuosly striving to reform the education system.Making education a fundamental right under Article 21A and with successful implementation of programmes like Sarva shiksha abhiyan and mid day meals scheme, india has flared well in access. Gross enrollment ratio has increased and dropouts has been reduced.

Way forward:-

• There is need of complete overhauling of system in general and governance in particular.
• A system of assessment, training , reward and greater accountability has to be build up. Forming groups consisting of parents and other members of community to monitor teachers can check absenteeism.
• Initiatives like ASHMITA and Shagun to track the learning outcomes of school students online are steps in right direction.
  

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2. Discuss some reasons for the high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration in India.(GS 3)

The Hindu

Reasons for high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration in India:-

Environmental:

• Lack of a CO2 sink
• Point sources like forest fires or biomass burning
• Gaseous transport from neighbouring regions based on prevailing weather conditions.
• Generally, CO2 levels increase slightly during winter due to reduced vegetation.
• Burning fossil fuels, majorly coal to generate electricity, accounts for more than half of India’s carbon emissions.
• Unscientific agricultural practices such as stubble burning.
  • Burning of standing crops in agrarian states such as UP, Bihar, Haryana etc.

Economic:

• Ambitions as a fastest growing economy entail rapid industrialization, urbanisation, deforestation etc.
• Unsustainable housing and urban planning leading to urban island effect. Constant neglect of solutions such as green buildings, bioremediation for waste management.
• Vehicular pollution due to rising needs of growing population.

Social reasons:

• Lack of awareness among citizens about climate change and fundamental duty to protect environment (Article 51A).

Political:

• Political apathy to enforcement of various progressive rules, laws, policies such as EPA 1986, Solid Waste Management rules.
• Lack of autonomy to local government bodies preventing them from tailoring national targets to area specific needs.

With government commitment in the recent years and launch of schemes like Ujwala to promote use of LPG,Ujala to replace incandescent bulbs by LED’s ,striving towards Paris  agreement  commitments all show that India is moving in the right direction.

3. What do you understand by DNA-based computing? Discuss some of its applications.(GS 3)

The Hindu

DNA based computing:-

• Using biological molecule instead of silicon chip for computing is DNA based computing.
• So (A)(T)(G)(C) will be used Instead of 0 and 1used in computer processing.
• In the field of DNA-based computing, the DNA contains the information, but the molecules are floating around in solution.

Applications:-

• can be used to make nanotech sensors, amplifiers and even a molecular computer.
• Accurate detection of cancers: By generating a certain output if a cell is expressing too much of a certain gene or has particular sequences of microRNA.
• Nano Robots:
  • Researchers in Israel used it to create nano robots.
• Amplification:
  • DNA replication to make many copies of original DNA.
• Massive Parallel Processing:
  • Gives them the potential to find tractable solutions to otherwise intractable problems, as well as potentially speeding up large, but otherwise solvable, polynomial time problems.
  • Would help in processing millions of data within short period of time.
• Massive amount of memory can be handled effectively.
• For certain specialized problems, DNA computers are faster and smaller than any other computer built so far. Furthermore, particular mathematical computations have been demonstrated to work on a DNA computer.
• Drawbacks:-
  • However, it is much harder to analyze the answers given by a DNA-Computer than by a digital one
  • DNA computing technology is unlikely to replace conventional silicon computers.
    

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