9 PM Daily Brief – 26 February 2016

Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation

What is 9 PM brief?

GS PAPER 2

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[1]. Now, e-visa for tourists from 37 more nations

Electronic tourist visas (e-TVs) will be extended to citizens of 37 more countries  taking the total number to 150

e-TV:-

TVoA (tourist visa on arrival) or e-tourist visa scheme

Enabled by electronic travel authorisation

International Travellers, whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sightseeing, casual visit to meet friends or relatives, short duration medical treatment or casual business visit may apply for eTV.

eTV is not valid for entry from sea ports in India.

The eTV scheme entails capture of biometric data of the visitor on arrival at the airport.

How it works?

Apply online->Pay visa fee online->Recieve e-TV online->Fly to India.

 

 

[2]. Ammunition from private sector soon, says Parrikar

Objective:-

To open up and streamline the defence procurement process

As of now:-

Only the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) is permitted to manufacture ammunition

Initiatives:-

Allowing the private sector to manufacture ammunition

Longer tenures for Army officers in the acquisition wing to ensure continuation

Private sector will be given orders for 10 years to ensure financial viability

Creating a separate set-up for acquisition and OFB, both for capital and revenue streams.

Not welcomed:-

Military officers are not keen in extending tenure in acquisition wing as it would deprive them of promotion to higher ranks.

Policy tweaking:-

Revised  Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP)

Tweaked the Defence Procurement Manual (DPM) and the OFB procurement procedures to streamline the process and ensure transparency.

[3].Quantifying the caste quotas

Issue:-

Proportion of individuals identifying themselves as Other Backward Classes (OBCs) is steadily growing

The National Sample Survey Office data show

1999-2000 – 36 per cent of the population fell in the self-identified OBC category;

2011-12, – 44 per cent.

OBC+ Scheduled Tribe (ST)- 9% + Scheduled Caste (SC) population 20%= 73 per cent of the Indian population eligible for reservation

Adding new claimants- 80 per cent of Indians

Situations have changed:-

Decline in poverty numbers

Increasing interest towards non land related jobs

But access to government jobs has been declining for all groups.

Why?

Government jobs have stagnated while educational attainment has increased rapidly.

Way out:-

Identify the problem:-

Since 1931 Census, the only effort at collecting data on different castes and their socio-economic circumstances was undertaken by the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC), 2011.

National Commission for Backward Classes claimed that this data is neither available nor usable for the purpose of establishing the economic condition of various castes.

What to do?

The planning cycle of the 2021 Census is the ideal time for ensuring that comprehensive data about caste and religion for all the groups.

We have to rely on more recent data while developing our preferential policies.

Reevaluating Eligibility criteria:-

Data should allow us to re-evaluate the eligibility of groups for inclusion in reserved categories every 10 or at least every 20 years.

Unrest among the Jat and Patel communities is associated with the poor performance of agriculture in the country.

The opportunity for re-examination of the caste-wise economic status would facilitate the setting up of a structure for the redressal of grievances.

Churning the number:-

Find ways to churn in the number of individuals eligible for benefits to ensure that these benefits reach the widest segment of society.

Suggestion:-

With the advent of the Aadhar card, one way of ensuring that the same families do not capture all the benefits is to ensure that each time someone uses their reserved category certificate, their Aadhar number is noted down and linked with the certificate.

Further, it may be stipulated that the reserved category certificate can be used only once in 20 years

Conclusion:-

Tackling reservation lies in shuffling people in and out of the eligibility criteria and ensuring that the benefits are not concentrated among certain groups and/or individuals.

[4].Drug pricing: a bitter pill to swallow

Issue:-

With low wages workers find it hard to spend high on medicines.

Recently prices of drugs have been sky rocketting.

Medical debt remains the second biggest factor for keeping millions back into poverty.

Little to no availability of basic health insurance, and a preference for private practitioners, drugs engender poverty

Health care remains heavily skewed against the poor.

Other reasons:-                                    

Voluntary Licence agreements

Removal of customs duty exemption on the imports

Skewed health care:-

The Drug (Prices Control) Order, 2013 covers only 18 per cent of the domestic market.

Supreme Court said, India’s current drug pricing policies have tended to fix the maximum price of a medicine above the retail price of the market volume leader

India’s pharmaceutical industry suffers from a significant lack of competition.

Significant information asymmetry causes customers often buy the priciest product to alleviate an immediate need.

How to solve?

Price controls remain an effective answer to ensuring affordability. Even free markets in the West utilise price, volume and cost-effective controls to mitigate health-care inflation.

Centralised procurement system as utilised by Tamil Nadu for purchasing drugs will reduce price of drugs significantly.

Unethical and unfair drug selling practices, such as holiday trip offers and fancy gifts, used to influence doctors and key bureaucrats, need to be curbed.

The(National list of essential medicines) NLEM should be revised every 2-3 years, with price regulation based on the therapy considered, instead of a focus on formulation.

VAT abolishment on essential medicines can also be considered

The government’s push for low cost “in-patient” insurance, while encouraging, should also incorporate out-patient expenses.

Low-cost diagnostic capabilities

Generic drug stores (Rajasthan’s “Life Line” drug stores)

Low-frills hospitals that provide affordable care (Vaatsalya)

[5].Urgent need to improve corporate governance

Cause for crisis:-

Poor governance standards is a key underlying cause of several crises like

• rising fraud,
• wilful defaults of Indian borrowers
• staggering level of non-performing assets (NPAs) of Indian banks.

The Companies Act (the “Act”), introduced in 2013, places significant emphasis on governance through the board and board processes but is followed more in letter than in spirit.

Example:-

It calls for independent and women directors in listed companies and specified classes of public companies.

A number of companies have appointed friends or family to fulfil the criteria outlined by the Act which puts into question the true independence of such directors.

External auditing scandals:-

External auditors are a crucial element of good governance as they are responsible for providing independent evaluations of the performance of companies and investors and lenders rely on them before they make decisions which is hampered by numerous accounting scandals and investment disputes in India

Conclusion:- 

To improve the long-term investment environment in India the government and regulators have to stress on corporate governance.

[6].The martyr who cleans your drains

Indian languages do not have the word “martyr”.Martyr is from the Greek word marturia.Marturia or martyr also means “witness” .The word doesn’t mean what we usually think it to mean.i.e., sacrifice.

Martyrdom is being mentioned a lot;

1. Ten soldiers died in Siachen a few weeks ago and one of them, Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad, is a hero because he almost survived the calamity.
2. Five men from the security forces died in an attack in Kashmir but two of them, were singled out for praise because they were officers.

What is the most lethal work in India?

It is done by those who know that their work is dangerous and that the chances of death or injury are very high.

1. The work kills 2% of those who do it in Delhi, meaning 100 deaths annually in a community of 5,000
2. If this ratio were to be applied to the Armed Forces, we would be looking at 40,000 dead soldiers a year
3. Every year 100 sewerage workers die after entering drains and manholes with high temperature, slippery walls, floors and toxic gases, in Delhi.

Problems they face:

1. lack of medical attention,
2. Suffer from several dreaded diseases like cardiovascular degeneration, musculoskeletal disorders, infections, skin problems and respiratory ailments.
3. low pay
4. caste-based discrimination
5. Prejudice
6. lack of occupational safety
7. Apathy of government agencies..

For most of us, the idea of martyrdom is limited to the deaths of uniformed men.

 

[7].Is power fencing helping Kaziranga’s wild animals?

Government is erecting fence off areas in the Kaziranga National Park.

This move has been welcomed by local people. Because,

1. Animals routinely make their way into human habitations or the adjoining highway
2. Making them vulnerable to poachers or high-speed traffic.

Except there’s one simple biological fact:

1. Wild animals need to move for foraging, breeding and dispersal.
2. Habitat like Kaziranga, which gets flooded every year, the movement of animals is imperative,.
3. Even if they end up risking their lives on National Highway 37 while escaping the flood waters.
4. Many animals use animal corridors to move out of the park boundary. So keeping these corridors free from any physical barriers is important.

Steps taken:

1. Power lines are switched off during the monsoon season to allow the animals to escape and that sections of the fences have been kept open, especially at points like Panbari which are known to be animal corridors. The report points out that some areas where tigers and rhinos used to stray out of the park have now been fenced
2. “no scientific study was conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India or the National Tiger Conservation Authority” about erecting these fences.

Experience from Africa:

They state that fences “are costly to build and maintain; they have ecological costs through blocking migration routes, restriction of biodiversity range use which may result in overabundance, inbreeding and isolation”.

What then are the solutions?

1. Development of adequate buffer zones.
2. Proper research on animal corridors is imperative.
3. Need for SMART fencing, which is more in tune with the grain of the land (for instance including water points rather than excluding them) and in tune with ecological processes such as migration and flooding of the land.

Simple line fencing based on the demands of the local people is a short-sighted intervention.

National Highway 37:

Is a National Highway in India that runs from Panchratna across Assam state to Roing in Arunachal Pradesh. The total length of NH 37 is 740 km. It is also known as A.T. Road in Assam.

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GS PAPER 3

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[1].Customer takes first class seat in Prabhu’s plans/Apps, wi-fi services in pipeline/ Four new categories of trains announced

Current Circumstances:-

Global economic slowdown is hurting India’s core sectors

Seventh Pay Commission

Features of the Rail Budget:-

No hike in passenger fares

Cut in freight tariffs

Unveiled a bouquet of new train services

New initiatives to make life easier for passengers

Capital outlay of Rs. 1.21 lakh crore for 2016-17,

Air plane type features like on-board entertainment and travel insurance options at the time of booking to win back passengers

Technology:-

Mobile apps dealing with all ticketing issues

Mobile app for receipt and redress of complaints and suggestions.

“Clean my Coach” service will be introduced Pan-India through which a passenger will be able to request cleaning of his/her coach/toilets on demand through SMS.

Partnership with FM Radio stations

Introduce Indian Railways bi-lingual magazine Rail Bandhu to all reserved classes of travellers in Mail/Express trains in all regional languages

High-end technology to significantly improve the safety record, elimination of all unmanned level crossings

Increasing punctuality to almost 95 per cent.

Installing information boards in trains enumerating onboard services along with GPS-based digital displays inside coaches to provide real time information regarding upcoming halts.

In partnership with Google will start Wi-Fi services at 100 stations this year, increasing it to 400 more stations in the next two years.

New Categories of trains:-

One for unreserved passengers and three for reserved passengers.

Antyodaya Express- a long-distance, fully unreserved, superfast train service, for the common man, to be operated on dense routes

Deen Dayalu coaches to some long-distance trains for unreserved travel to enhance our carrying capacity for the masses

Humsafar– a fully third AC train

Tejas category of trains will run at 130 km an hour, with entertainment, local cuisine, Wi-Fi and other amenities on board.

UDAY (Utkrisht DoubleDecker Air-conditioned Yatri), which will be overnight trains plying on the busiest routes to increase capacity by 40 per cent.

Note:- In all the pricing policies, third AC is the only one that makes a profit.

[2].Four decades on, people of Kerala hamlet wait for justice

What happened?

Tribals from Muthikulam tribal settlement were forced to relocate to facilitate the building of Siruvani dam.

Which Tribe?

Muduga tribes

Significance of dam:-

Major source of drinking water for Coimbatore city and its surrounding areas in Tamil Nadu.

When?

Beginning of the 1970s based on an agreement between Tamil Nadu and Kerala .

Broken promises:-

Pucca housing with water and power connections and toilets

Compensation of Rs.10,000

Current Problems:-

3 km to fetch water

Most children do not attend school, as the nearest school is about 20 km away as a nearby school got submerged in the dam waters

Wild animals do not allow them to make any profit from agriculture

Apart from once-in-a-week visit of a junior public health nurse, there is no health care facility for the people here.

[3]. Components made by Indian firms used in IS explosives, finds study

What has happened?

Products from at least seven Indian companies figure in explosives used by Islamic State terrorists.

But there was no illegality on the part of the Indian companies.

All those Indian products landed up with the IS through some intermediaries.

IEDs:-

IS is now producing IEDs “quasi-industrial scale,”

It uses both regulated components and easily available items such as fertilisers and mobile phones.

Turkey is the most important source of components.

What are IEDs?

Improvised Explosive device.

Homemade device that is designed to cause death or injury by using explosives alone or in combination with toxic chemicals, biological toxins, or radiological material.

[4].Meeting great expectations

Prebudget Report:-

OECD Best Practices for Budget Transparency’ report argues that “a pre-budget report serves to

• Encourage debates on the budget aggregates
• Analyses how they interact with the economy.
• Creates appropriate expectations for the budget

 

Current circumstances:-

Oil and commodity prices are low- which has helped us rationalisation of petroleum subsidies, decreased inflation and a high current balance due to low imports.

UD fed increasing rates

Europe presenting a mixed picture

Chinese slow down

Rural demand remains weak

Stalled projects in the private sector remain high

Divergence between nominal and real GDP growth

Healthy macro credentials for India:-

Inflation is subdued — the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) is negative for the 15th month in succession

Consumer Price Index (CPI), at 5.69 per cent due to weightage and high inflation in some food products, particularly lentils, and more recently vegetable, eggs, meat, and fish.

Current account deficit is down to 0.7 per cent

FDI flows registered a 48 per cent increase

Fiscal consolidation versus growth:-

Private investment is subdued and hesitant

Fiscal road map for next year should be recalibrated

Resultant extra resources can be used to support public outlays in infrastructure.

Private investment could then piggyback on enhanced public outlays

Create a multiplier effect

Why to think twice before deviating from Fiscal consolidation?

It is unclear if we have the implementation capability to gainfully spend the additional resources.

Issues of credibility and compromising the hard-earned macro stability

Raise concerns about the sustainability of public debt going forward

Unclear whether the market absorb more public debt (UDAY scheme)

Looser fiscal policy would weaken the case for lower interest rates and rekindle inflationary expectations.

Way out:-

Enhancing non-tax revenues through a more robust disinvestment programme

Disinvestment needs to be earmarked for infrastructure

NPA’s:-

Renewed public focus on our financial system due to NPA’s

Due to :-

Poor judgment,

Politically directed loans to favour corporates or individuals

Way out:-

Recapitalisation programme would be an inescapable part of the Budget

It may not add to fiscal deficit based on international practices.

Apart from the Indradhanush programme we need to revisit the issue of governance.

Other issues:-

GST (Goods and Services Tax) legislation should be enacted soon

Retrospective taxation should be repealed

Calibrating Corporate tax over four years and getting rid of exemption is a difficult balancing act.

PPPs need to be reinvigorated by accepting the recommendations of the Kelkar committee.

The digital coverage would be crucial in harnessing the benefits of JAM (Jan-Dhan Yojana, Aadhar, mobile) and anti-poverty programmes.

“a good agreement is one which leaves all parties equally dissatisfied”

[5].The benefits of open science

Scientists who studied Zika virus have been sharing information publicly including raw data.

Significance:-

Important and remarkable step.

Helps us learn faster and make  faster progress

Allows researchers to modify their own studies to get optimal results

Zika virus is still a “very large black box”, so anything that can be learnt from it and shared will help others to make progress.

Led to a two-way learning process between the team and other researchers in conducting the experiments.

 

Public benefits:-

As researches are undertaken in tax payers money if anyone should have precedence in seeing the data as quickly as possible, it is the public .

Is it right to do so?

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has explicitly confirmed that pre-publication dissemination of information critical to public health will not prejudice journal publication in the context of a public health emergency declared by the WHO.

[6].Marshalling resources to stay on track

Obstacles:-

Shortfall in traffic receipts

Low freight demand from the core sector

Seventh Pay Commission’s recommendations will lead to a two percentage point rise in the operating ratio

Initiatives  in the budget:-

Monetise various assets, including land,

Boost non-fare revenue,

Use the private-public-partnership model more extensively,

Working jointly with State governments to formulate and fund region- or city- specific projects.

Initiatives to restructure operational management and processes.

Railway Board is to be reorganised along business lines with cross-functional teams focussed on areas such as non-fare revenues, speed enhancement and information technology.

Freight:-

Lost ground in freight has had a negative impact not only on the Railways’ finances but on the economy too.

Suggestions:-

• expanding the freight basket by moving away from dependence on bulk commodities,
• rationalising tariffs to stay competitive
• building terminal capacity

Initiatives in budget:-

• Moving from containerisation to roll-on/roll-off,
• Time-tabled freight trains
• Long-term tariff contracts,

[7].Public-private partnerships to fuel future growth of Indian Railways

Railway Budget has laid emphasis on Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to implement initiatives such as

• rail connectivity for ports- important for seamless logistics to boost imports and exports,
• station-redevelopment
• rail-side logistics parks – complete the transportation chain.
• Warehousing- complete the transportation chain
• satellite terminals- to de-congest terminals in big cities

Foreign investors from Spain and France were keen on dedicated freight corridors (DFC) projects provided they were structured properly in terms of financial returns and risk-allocation and mitigation.

Land acquisition for dedicated freight corridors could take a long time.

[8].Delhi-Chennai has been identified as corridor for auto transportation

Delhi and chennai are big markets for automobile.

By running auto freight carriers between Delhi and Chennai it gives me traffic both ways.

Beginning for auto transportation.

Special purpose vehicle

SPV has been formed and registered under the name National High Speed Rail Corporation.

The funding model is 81 per cent of the funds will come from Japan and the balance has to be a joint company between the government of India and the (governments of) two states.

Travel insurance scheme for passengers

As of now anybody who gets injured in an accident is eligible for some ex-gratia payment and some regular compensation.

The proposed scheme could be a simple insurance for injury or theft for which the consumer has to pay.

[9].Railway budget 2016: Some reformist moves, but worrying math

Gross traffic receipts fell by 8.6% from the budgeted estimates.

Freight earnings declined by almost 8%  on account of low demand from the core sector.

The budgetary support this year has been slashed to Rs.34,220 crore from Rs.40,000 crore last year.

Operating ratio: the ratio of working expenses to gross earnings

1. The operating ratio target of 88.5% set last year remains unachieved;
2. The revised estimates come to a figure of around 90%.

Three pillars of strategy:

1. New revenues (monetizing all possible sources of revenue);
2. New norms (incorporating best international practices including, most importantly, a zero-based budgeting approach);
3. New structures (revisiting all process and organizational structures).

Other things on plate:

1. Issue of reorganization of the railway board.
2. provision of baby foods and hot milk on stations
3. conversion of station walls into murals

Zero based budget:

Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is a method of budgeting in which all expenses must be justified for each new period. Zero-based budgeting starts from a “zero base” and every function within an organization is analyzed for its needs and costs. Budgets are then built around what is needed for the upcoming period, regardless of whether the budget is higher or lower than the previous one.

[10].Platinum 3G network

Part of Project Leap programme, a national network transformation drive.

It is enabled with additional infrastructure and spectrum and is expected

• to boost indoor coverage,
• enhance voice clarity,
• Deliver faster Internet speed.

It is powered by dual band spectrum of both 900 Mhz and 2,100 Mhz

[11].APPLE WORKING ON ‘UNHACKABLE’ PHONE

Apple is said to be working on an iPhone even it can’t hack in a bid to protect customer information after the recent controversy where the FBI sought access to its phones

[12].30-million-year-old rocks found under Qatar stadium

Dukhan rock

Distinct colour bandings on the rock formations

Originated under water, forming a layer known as the middle-Eocene epoch

Dukhan is a city in the west of Qatar

[13].Virtual reality is next as smartphone sales slow

The emphasis on virtual reality comes as the increasingly-saturated smartphone market begins to slow.

 What is it?

The computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors.

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By: ForumIAS Editorial Team

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