A brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
National
[1]. NASA plans to exit space station
What has happened?
NASA has planned to move in the cislunar space for an active human exploration project. So it will be decommissioning the International Space Station in a decade. It has already completed 15 years in the low earth orbit.
What you need to know?
Cislunar :-
It is the space between the earth and the orbit of the moon.
ISS:-
Its a Microgravity laboratory in the low earth orbit travelling at the speed of 5 miles per second orbiting the earth every 90 minutes. It was commissioned on Nov 2000 and various international crew members have conducted research since then. It has an acre of solar panels making it the brightest object in the night sky after moon and is visible to the naked eye.
Microgravity:-
It’s the region where the gravity is maintained at 1*10^-6 g. Since all the objects in the region are falling at the same rate it looks like as if they are floating.
Low earth orbit:
It the orbit above earth at a distance of 99 miles to 1200 miles. Almost all manned satellites are placed in this orbit. It provides high bandwidth and low communication time lag apart from being simple and cheap.
[2]. Groundbreaking for TAPI project tomorrow
What has happened?
The TAPI Gas Pipeline will be inaugurated on 13th December. It will supply Turkmenistan gas to Afghanistan Pakistan and India. It is an 1800 km pipeline in which India joined in 2008 to fuflil 15-25% of its natural gas needs .
Obstacles:
The cost of laying infrastructure to protect the pipeline from possible attacks from Afghan Taliban will affect the TAPI’s viability. Pakistan’s insurgency in Baluchistan will further add to final cost.
Bypassing Russia:-
US has been a strong advocate for TAPI pipeline to bypass Russia.
The U.S. has also pushed the TAPI as an alternative to the IPI (Iran-Pakistan-India) project so as to bring pressure on Iran to deliver on nuclear safeguards.
What you need to now?
IPI project:-
Iran Pakistan India is a 2700km pipeline (1000km in Iran, 1100 in Pakistan and 600 in Indian Territory). The pipeline can carry 110 million cubic meters of gas a day. Iran government has urged Bangladesh also to join the project hence it might be extended.
[3]. Japan keen on ‘making in India’
This topic will be undertaken once the pacts have been finalised .
[4]. 8 States Heed PM’s Call on Competitive Federalism
Context:-
Taking inspiration based on PM’s civil services day speech 8 states have planned to implement successful e governance initiatives from other states.
What the PM said?
To see how the project was conceptualised, what were the resources, how the infrastructure was created, what difficulties were faced… and see if it can be replicated or suitably modified to be implemented in states and districts. This process should be institutionalised. it’s not enough to just print a booklet on the award-winning initiatives
Best initiatives:-
Karnataka’s `Effective Vehicles Database Management System’:
It comes handy to trace the owners of unclaimed vehicles lying in police stations.
Gujarat’s `Suraksha Setu Project’:-
Under the scheme 604 CCTV cameras, connected to a control room through a 200-km long underground optical fibre network, have been installed at 113 strategic locations, leading to a reduction in crime rate by a third.
It is aimed at taking the role of Police beyond solving crimes by bridging the gap with the society and by creating a feeling of trust among residents with their proactive and prompt actions. The project intends to give a human face to the police force and minimize incidents of crime in the society.
For more: http://surakshasetu.org/
Gujarat’s `Barcoded Ration Card’ project and `Biometric Food Coupon’ project:-
It won a national award last year for ensuring there is no leakage in public distribution system. Barcoded ration cards are linked with biometric authentication of the beneficiaries and they have to pass through the process of authorization as well as fingerprint authentication to avail the food coupons. The collected food coupons to get the subsequent month’s food grains as it is linked with the opening stock minus food coupons validated thus resulting in the closing stock.
For more: http://darpg.gov.in/darpgwebsite_cms/document/file/Barcoded%20Ration%20Card_Case%20study_v1.0.pdf
Chhattisgarh, on the other hand, is replicating `Gujarat’s Mineral Administration and Governance through ICT (MAGIC)’ project:
Its goal is to achieve “Zero Visit Office”. CGM has implemented many innovative ideas such as mineral exploration through outsourced agencies, identification of mineral blocks and putting the entire information in the public domain, e-Auction of new leases, integrated Lease Management System (ILMS), including weighbridge automation,
Use of technology to curb illegal mining – through establishment of Boundary Poles marking the boundaries of the mines using the latitude-longitude coordinates system Audit by professional CA firms, etc.
For more:- http://indiagovernance.gov.in/bestpractices.php?id=2091
Suggestions:-
For e-governance projects to be successful, and citizens to transact online, the ability of the telecom infrastructure to carry data needs to grow manifold. That, in turn, depends on the availability of spectrum. The Centre must have policies to ensure that more spectrum is made available cheap. Only then can states replicate e-governance initiatives.
What is co operative federalism?
Cooperative federalism creates a relationship in which the national government strongly influences the policies and behaviours of state governments, often through the use of funding for programs. For example, if the federal government is interested in ensuring that national highways are well-maintained, they might create grants in aid, a specific kind of grant from the federal government that provides funds for the states to pursue a policy
Economic Digest
[1]. China’s MSRI and Indian business
MSRI – Maritime Silk Route Initiative – proposed by China under One Belt One Road (OBOR) program.
Context: The geopolitical importance of India under MSRI as well the advantages that India can leverage with negative impacts if any.
Continents Under MSRI : Asia, Africa Europe
Proposed Connectivity : Far East to North Europe
Proposed Route: South China Sea, Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean to Northern Europe.
Regions Covered: North-East Asia, South-East Asia, South Asia, the Indian Ocean region, North and East Africa and South and North Europe
India’s location is exactly in the middle of the proposed route.
Europe – China shipping route – busiest and heaviest in the world. A huge cross continental value chain and production networks.
“These chains originate from Asia, through raw material and intermediates, are assembled in the region and then eventually exported to Europe as final demand products. On the other hand, there are large resource and commodity chains connecting Europe and Asia through Africa primarily in energy products.”
Advantage India :
- Make-in-India initiative is being visualised as a programme for encouraging export-oriented production, the MSRI provides a good opportunity to Indian and India-based foreign producers for plugging into the global value-chains
- The second opportunity for India arises from the possibility of growing into a strategic maritime hub.
- India’s central positioning in the route, can help it in latching on to a large part of this traffic. However, such an eventuality would require India to build ports that efficient in drawing containers with large cargo. At the same time, it is also important that India develops at least a couple of major trans-shipment ports that allow quick turnaround of containers with low berthing time. A great example is Colombo Port.
India’s Lack of preparedness to leverage the advantage can be described as follow:
- Across the MSRI geography, East Asia, Southeast, and Europe are far ahead of India at this point in time in port and logistics efficiencies.
- The World Bank’s logistics performance index rankings also place India at much lower levels compared with these countries.
What is India doing?
India’s ambitious plan to develop its ports through the ‘Sagarmala’ initiative is a welcome step. However, the benefits from Sagarmala will take years to materialise
[2]. RBI to help banks tackle stressed assets
Context:-
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday said it is looking at how the banks are using the “various new powers” given to them in order to accelerate the process of recovery of bad assets. To avoid misuse of such initiatives a dialogue with the lenders is ongoing.
Allegation on lenders:
Some of the banks are using the new measures like strategic debt restructuring (SDR) to camouflage their stressed loans and delay provisions.
SDR’s:-
The concept of Strategic Debt Restructuring (“SDR”) has been introduced by the Reserve Bank of India (the “RBI”) in the SDR Scheme (the “Scheme”) to help banks recover their loans by taking control of the distressed listed companies.
It will give lenders the right to convert their outstanding loans into a majority equity stake if the borrower fails to meet conditions stipulated under the restructuring package. Allowing loan conversion will now be a precondition for all debt restructuring deals.
For more:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47588542.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest& utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
Opinion & Editorials
[2]. In Chennai, a disaster foretold
What has happened?
Recent floods in Chennai and the absence of proper planned development has raised concerns.
While many cities around the world that are susceptible to disasters have planned to reduce risk, mitigate damage and increase resilience, Chennai remained under-prepared.
The article discusses the alternatives and the way forward.
Urban floods:-
Unlike rural floods they are difficult to manage because of concentration of large population in a small area, impervious ground and indiscriminate building in low lying areas.
Most often planning is wilfully neglected and required risk mitigation measures are also not undertaken increasing their vulnerability.
Around the world-
Cities prepare for a 100 year flood recurrence period (they are ready for a severe flood situation, even if it has one-in-100 chance of). So, Chennai’s argument of unexpected recurrence of flood after 100 years is unacceptable.
Way forward:-
Enhance preventive measures:-
Well-prepared cities have mapped flood zones. Which will help citizens understand the status of their neighbourhoods and decide where to move or buy new homes. Based on risk zones construction works should be regulated and restricted.
The intention is to prevent a high concentration of population in flood-prone areas, and make buildings safe. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has collated data spanning three decades, starting from the 1980s, for various places in Tamil Nadu including Chennai which can be used to prepare hazard maps.
Most important part is ensuring compliance which should be done by the government.
Enhance Mitigation:-
Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo have built extensive water discharge tunnels to divert and store flood water. This system is efficient but expensive. Before attempting any of them, it would be wise to take care of natural water bodies.
Chennai is a flat area and depends on canals and water bodies for draining rain waters.
Reclaiming these water bodies is critical. The city should also explore the possibility of designing highways to conduct runoff water. All this would warrant a thorough review of its urban engineering
Enhance response measures:-
The recent experience clearly shows the need for early warning and dissemination of reliable information about floods and rescue.
It also exposed the impediments multiple authorities and the lack of coordination among them can cause. Improved governance and non-interference of political parties in relief measures are critical
The way Chennai citizens admirably coordinated relief measures using communication technology has to be integrated into any plan
[3]. Delhi should wield a carrot
What has happened?
India’s unofficial blockade along nepal’s border has reached 11th week. It has stressed the level of fuel stock and other essential supplies hampering the normalcy of life in our neighbouring country. The author discusses the environmental impact of the issue.
Environmental not just economical
Due to shortage of fuel people have been cutting down trees for their fuel needs. As forests act as carbon sink, the alarming rate of deforestation can affect the carbon sequestration capacities.
The burning of firewood has increased the concentration of particulate matter affecting the air quality of the cities which were pleasant tourist attractions.
Way forward:
Arm twisting is not the solution rather Madhesis should try attaining consensus through Nepal’s democratic process.
India may benefit from following that golden rule and treating others as it would like to be treated when it comes to border issues.
[4]. A body blow to justice
What has happened?
The Supreme court upheld the validity of the disqualifications in Section 175 of the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act 2015, including the lack of minimum educational qualification, electricity bill arrears, agricultural loan arrears and absence of a functional toilet at home.
The law debars from contesting men who have not completed matriculation, women who have not cleared class 8 (with the corresponding qualifications for SC men being class 8 and for SC women class 5),
Controversies:-
Haryana’s statistics on key social indicators is poor and in the light of the new law it might be discriminatory.
The state’s failure to provide basic services cannot be used as an excuse to debar candidates and this goes against the tenets of participatory democracy our constitution makers envisioned.
The qualification is not in conformance with the criteria for MLAs and MPs which makes it more controversial and contradictory.
Way forward:-
Parliament intervention is required in the issue.
[5]. Reasons to invest in health: an OECD perspective
Context:-
India spends very little on health: $215 in terms of purchasing power parity per person, which is lower than comparable middle-income countries such as China, Brazil and South Africa. And majority of this spending is made directly by Indian households.
The author discusses examples from OECD countries and how to imbibe them in our health policies for increasing effectiveness and efficiency.
Importance of health policies:-
Investment in health sector should be encouraged as it is crucial for increasing productivity which in turn enriches the human capital development.
Shortcomings of our health policy-
The push by the Indian government for universal health coverage in recent years is commendable. But while spending more on health is essential in India, value for money also needs to be demonstrated.
This problem has been addressed by defining a limited set of essential, cost-effective services.
For example, Mexico’s Seguro Popular programme provided an explicit package of cost-effective interventions, including pharmaceuticals.
Allocating financial resources:-
Special attention needs to be given to ensure that health remains a priority for states and Union territories
State governments should be incentivized to expand health coverage to the poor, focusing on cost-effective interventions.
For example, financing to states in Mexico was linked to the number of additional persons that signed up to the Seguro Popular programme, with states providing a contribution.
Reducing health inequalities:-
In the UK, a weighted capitation formula is carried out.
It uses a locality’s socio-economic characteristics to equitably allocate funds to clinical commissioning groups (the units responsible for health services in specific localities).
This is to enable similar levels of healthcare for populations with similar needs, with the further objective of helping to reduce avoidable health inequalities.
Accountability matters more than decentralization:-
The central government defining the minimum standards of care is an important first step.
It requires coordinated political will at both the central and state levels.
Lessons from OECD countries suggest accountability mechanisms for healthcare outcomes matter more than the degree of decentralization or type of provision.
The central government plays a stewardship role, and has a key planning and oversight role, with a consolidated national information infrastructure necessary to adequately monitor health outcomes, while the states are responsible for the implementation of programmes.
Conclusion:-
Effective policies can ensure that states and Union territories’ incremental spending goes to health, but also enhances value for money.
This is because funding can be linked to cost-effective interventions, such as preventive and primary care activities, rather than less cost-effective (but more visible, and therefore more politically attractive) interventions, such as construction of new hospitals.
International Relations
[1]. India, Japan in Hectic Talks to Seal N-Deal
This topic will be undertaken once the talks have been finalised.
By: ForumIAS Editorial Team
Leave a Reply