Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 21-04-2021

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 21-04-2021

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Indian Politics - Covid Update - India recorded its worst-ever tally for Covid pandemic, with a total of 2,95,041 fresh infections registered in a span of 24 hours (20-04-2021), pushing the total Covid-19 cases to 1,56,16,130 while the active cases crossed the 21-lakh mark. It was also the second highest daily case count ever recorded by any country since the outbreak of the pandemic. Positivity rates on Tuesday also remained very high at 19% nationally, indicating that the daily tally may cross 3 lakh soon. Positivity rates on Tuesday also remained very high at 19% nationally, indicating that the daily tally may cross 3 lakh soon. India, with over 15.6 crore total cases, is currently the second worst Covid-hit country in the world after the US. With over 30.2 crore total infections, the US is well ahead of India while Brazil has just over 14 crore cases. Ten states constituted 76% of the new cases reported on Wednesday with Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka and Kerala recording the highest new cases. UP, the most populous state in the country, is now reporting the second highest figures every day. Delhi is not too far behind with over 28,000 cases in 24 hours.
2. World Politics - Global media shines light on India's massive Covid wave - Glboal media like Financial Times (FT) have analysed the wave, and pointed to under-reporting of deaths. FT says local news reports for seven districts across the states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar show that while at least 1,833 people are known to have died of Covid-19 in recent days, based mainly on cremations, only 228 have been officially reported. In the Jamnagar district in Gujarat, 100 people died of Covid-19 but only one Covid death was reported. The situation in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, a state of 200m that is among India’s poorest, highlights how health infrastructure has been pushed to breaking point. Local media reported that at King George’s Medical University, there was a queue of 50 people per hospital bed. Officials are alarmed about the suspected role of new variants in driving the latest wave, particularly the B.1.617 strain first detected in India in March 2021. Scientists are trying to understand the variant, which has already spread internationally, including to the UK, but some believe it is more infectious and vaccine evasive. Experts blame complacency for India’s surge, both among those who rushed back to shopping centres and weddings, and the country’s leaders, including the PM, who were part of electioneering during the second wave.
3. Environment and Ecology - CO2 emissions to rise by 1.5 bn tonnes in 2021: IEA - The International Energy Agency has predicted CO2 emissions would rise to 33 billion tonnes in 221, up 1.5 billion tonnes from 2020 levels. "This is a dire warning that the economic recovery from the COVID crisis is currently anything but sustainable for our climate," IEA Executive Director said. Energy-related CO2 emissions fell by 5.8% in 2020, after peaking in 2019. “Unless governments around the world move rapidly to start cutting emissions, we are likely to face an even worse situation in 2022. The Leaders Summit on Climate hosted by US President Joe Biden this week is a critical moment to commit to clear and immediate action ahead of COP26 in Glasgow.” Electricity generation from renewables is set to leap by over 8% in 2021, accounting for more than half of the increase in overall electricity supply worldwide. The biggest contribution to that growth comes from solar and wind, which are on track for their largest annual rise in history. Renewables are set to provide 30% of electricity generation worldwide in 2021, their biggest share of the power mix since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and up from less than 27% in 2019. China is expected to account for almost half of the global increase in electricity generation from renewables, followed by the United States, the European Union and India.
4. Governance and Institutions - Startup India Seed Fund Scheme - The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) was launched to provide financial assistance to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry, and commercialization. It was announced in the ‘Prarambh: StartupIndia International Summit’ that marks the five-year anniversary of the Startup India initiative. Rs. 945 crore corpus will be divided over the next 4 years for providing seed funding to eligible startups through eligible incubators across India. The SISFS will secure seed funding, inspire innovation, support transformative ideas, facilitate implementation, and start a startup revolution. It will create a robust startup ecosystem, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns of India, which are often deprived of adequate funding. Online portal created for the scheme by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will allow incubators to apply it. Investments of up to Rs 50 lakhs shall be provided to the startups for market entry, commercialization, or scaling up through convertible debentures or debt-linked instruments.
5. Energy - Cross-border electricity trading in IEX - Indian Energy Exchange Ltd (IEX) announced the launch of cross-border electricity trading on its platform. NTPC Vidyut Vypar Nigam Ltd, the trading arm of the public-sector power generator, has secured approval from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for Nepal’s participation in the market of IEX. The new development follows the notification of Cross Border Trade of Electricity Regulations by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission in 2019 and more recently of additional rules in March by the CEA. Currently, cross-border trade with neighbouring countries for India stands at about 18 BU conducted through the medium to long-term bilateral contracts. India imports 8.7 BU from Bhutan and exports 2.37 BU and 7 BU to Nepal and Bangladesh, respectively.
6. Envrionment and Ecology - Disc footed bat - Meghalaya has given India’s first bamboo-dwelling bat with sticky discs, taking the species count of the flying mammal in the country to 130. The disc-footed bat (Eudiscopus denticulus) was recorded in the north-eastern State’s Lailad area near the Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary, about 1,000 km west of its nearest known habitat in Myanmar. There are a couple of other bamboo-dwelling bats in India. But the extent of adaptation for bamboo habitat in this species is not seen in the others. The flattened skull and sticky pads enabled the bats to roost inside cramped spaces, clinging to smooth surfaces such as bamboo internodes. The disc-footed bat was also found to be genetically very different from all other known bats bearing disc-like pads. Scientists analysed the very high frequency echolocation calls of the disc-footed bat, which was suitable for orientation in a cluttered environment such as inside bamboo groves. The disc-footed bat has raised Meghalaya’s bat count to 66, the most for any State in India. It has also helped add a genus and species to the bat fauna of India.     
7. Environment and Ecology - SO2 emissions from Caribbean Volcano reach India - The Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) emissions from a volcanic eruption in the Caribbean (La Soufriere Volcano) have reached India, sparking fear of increased pollution levels in the northern parts of the country and acid rain. The Caribbean is the region roughly south of the United States, east of Mexico and north of Central and South America, consisting of the Caribbean Sea and its islands. It is an active stratovolcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. A stratovolcano is a tall, conical volcano composed of one layer of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash. These volcanoes are characterized by a steep profile and periodic, explosive eruptions. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, located in the southern Caribbean, consists of more than 30 islands and cays, nine of which are inhabited. It is the highest peak in Saint Vincent and has had five recorded explosive eruptions since 1718, most recently in April 2021. The last time the volcano had erupted was in 1979.
8. Governance and Institutions - Mizoram's Bru Refugees - The process of settlement of Mizoram Bru refugees in Tripura has finally started. It is in accordance with a quadripartite accord signed in New Delhi in January 2020. Bru or Reang is a community indigenous to Northeast India, living mostly in Tripura, Mizoram and Assam. In Tripura, they are recognised as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group. In Mizoram, they have been targeted by groups that do not consider them indigenous to the state. In 1997, following ethnic clashes, nearly 37,000 Brus fled Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei districts of Mizoram and were accommodated in relief camps in Tripura. Since then, 5,000 have returned to Mizoram in eight phases of repatriation, while 32,000 still live in six relief camps in North Tripura. In June 2018, community leaders from the Bru camps signed an agreement with the Centre and the two state governments, providing for repatriation in Mizoram. But most camp residents rejected the terms of the agreement. The camp residents said that the agreement didn't guarantee their safety in Mizoram.
9. World Politics - India ranks 142 on World Press Freedom Index 2021 - India remained at the 142nd position among 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index published by the Reporters Without Borders on 20-04-2021. India continues to be counted among the countries classified "bad" for journalism and is termed as "one of the most dangerous countries for journalists trying to do their jobs properly", the report said. For India, the latest report has blamed an environment of intimidation created by BJP supporters for any critical journalist, who, the report said, is marked as “anti-state” or “anti-national”. Journalists “are exposed to every kind of attack, including police violence against reporters, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials” and, the report said, ever since “the general elections in the spring of 2019, won overwhelmingly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, pressure has increased on the media to toe the Hindu nationalist government’s line”.
10. Indian Economy - India's crude oil production and gas output falls - India's crude oil production fell by 5% to 30.5 million tonnes in 2020-21, from 32.17 million tonnes in 2019-20, government data showed. Natural gas production also plummeted by 8% to 28.67 billion cubic metres (BCM) in FY21, as against 31.18 BCM in FY20. The refineries produced 11.2% less petroleum products at 233.4 million tonnes in 2020-21. India is nearly 85 per cent dependent on imports to meet its crude oil needs. It spent USD 61.9 billion in 2020-21 on import of 198.2 million tonnes of crude oil. This was lower than USD 101.4 billion spent on import of 227 million tonnes crude in FY 20. Also, with the pandemic pummelling economic activity, resulting in fall in fuel demand, India's public and private sector refiners processed nearly 13 per cent less crude oil at 221.7 million tonnes in 2020-21.

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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• 1. ECONOMY (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper)

What this second surge will cost India

• GDP forecasting: As the second wave of Covid-19 spread in India, various economists started reducing India’s expected economic growth in 2021-22. Nomura downgraded its growth projection to 12.6% from the earlier 13.5%. JPMorgan says India will grow at 11% against 13% earlier. As the disease spreads rapidly, economic activity is being negatively impacted, sending ripples across sectors as varied as auto, real estate, banking, and cinema.

• Second-order: There will be second-order effects, too, which can’t be easily measured. Government tax collections will fall. Companies will try and cut down expenditure to maintain or drive-up profits, thus impacting the overall economy negatively. What will also make things difficult is the fact that inflation has been rising.

1. Warning signs are popping up all over the place. CMIE data shows that unemployment as of 31 March had stood at 6.52%. It has risen to 8.4% as of 18 April, 2021.
2. HDFC Bank said that dishonoured cheques in April 2021 (as of 15 April) have gone up slightly due to medical emergencies, and the Nomura India Business Resumption Index, which tracks economic activity, as of 11 April fell to its lowest level since December 2020.
3. The excess money in the banking system, or the total amount of money that banks park with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), had stood at ₹3.8 trillion as of 31 March. It rose to ₹5.55 trillion as of 18 April, 2021, so lending by banks is slowing down dramatically!

• Reverse migration redux: The second round of reverse-migration of workers from cities, more so from Maharashtra, has started. Contractual labour is going back to their hometowns. Delhi has also been placed under a six-day lockdown, which has accentuated this trend. Reverse migration has a lot of second-order effects—ranging from a fall in home rents to a negative impact on overall consumption. Bad days are back for malls, that had recovered up to 90% of their business but took a beating once again in April 2021. Malls being shut impacts their revenue and also impacts all kinds of other products, including the sales of high-end mobile phones, electronics (everything from TVs to laptops), clothes, etc. Most multiplexes operate inside malls. This has an impact on film. Due to the lockdown, automobile production in Maharashtra has been impacted. Most companies are operating their factories at 50-60% of the normal output.

• Deep impact: A big fallout of the pandemic was the work from home phenomenon, which is likely to continue through 2021 too. This will continue to dampen the demand for commercial real estate. People working from home results in other effects, as it impacts off-role workers who keep office facilities running. The small shops around offices selling food will see a further collapse in business. People don’t need formal clothes, shoes, and so on. If offices that are already built can’t be leased out, there is no point in building new ones either. That impacts the construction industry, which is a huge job creator.

1. So will bigger homes be needed? The total home loans outstanding with banks grew by ₹1.02 trillion between April 2020 to February 2021. This was 39.5% lower than the growth between April 2019 to February 2020. The steep fall tells that just because people have a need for a bigger home, they won't buy one.
2. So the overall slowdown in the construction of real estate will lead to further reverse migration.

• Help at hand: In 2020-21, people moving back to the villages were helped by the increased work provided under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The government spent ₹1.12 trillion towards the scheme in 2020-21. The allocation in 2021-22 stands at a much lower ₹73,000 crores. So the government needs to increase allocation to this scheme.

• Banking: Loan defaults will likely shoot up now, and this comes when banks are yet to get around to declaring their non-performing assets or bad loans from the first round of Covid-19. A Supreme Court stay had stopped banks from declaring bad loans which hadn’t been classified as bad loans as of 31 August 2020. In 2021, the SC vacated the stay. Ratings agency ICRA estimates that banks have accumulated bad loans worth ₹1.3 trillion between September and December 2020, which isn’t reflected in the overall bad loans number yet. The overall bad loans of banks had peaked at ₹10.36 trillion as of March 2018. As of December 2020, they stood at ₹7.57 trillion. Total bad loans may be at ₹8.87 trillion. Chances are that the bad loan quantum might cross ₹10 trillion a few months down the line.

• Small firms hit hard: When the first wave of Covid-19 hit, the profit margin of many companies was expected to crash, and it did. But operating profits went up by 186.73% between July-September 2020. This wasn't dut to an increase in the total income of these firms, which actually fell by 7.07%. What the companies managed to do well was cut their expenditure by 13.72% after July. And how? Expenses were cut by renegotiating contracts with suppliers and contractors. The increase in employee expenses was also minimal. While this benefitted the larger companies, it created grave problems for the smaller ones. Big fish may do the same in 2021 also. Many smaller businesses are already having trouble finding workers, thanks to the reverse migration. Many small businessmen have exhausted their savings and capital in dealing with the lockdown of last year and have no more capacity to borrow. Overall bank lending to micro and small businesses has actually remained flat for nearly 5 years. It has grown by just ₹1,010 crore, or 0.27%, to a little under ₹3.77 trillion during this period.

• Inflation worries: Inflation is back, and the wholesale price index (WPI) inflation stood at 7.39% in March 2021—the highest in 101 months. Some of this is likely to feed into retail inflation. Also, if supply chains break down once again as Corona spreads, retail inflation will shoot up further.

• Tax collections: The tax collections of the government will take a beating. This means that the RBI will try and maintain lower interest rates in order to help the government borrow more. With high inflation and low interest rates, savers are likely to be hurt as they had been in 2020-21.

• Summary: India’s economic growth for 2021-22 is likely to end up being in the high single digit at least, thanks to the base effect of the economy contracting in 2020-21. With the government now ready to buy vaccines from foreign manufacturers and those above the age of 18 being allowed to take a vaccine, more people are likely to get vaccinated in the months to come. This will help build up immunity against the pandemic in the months to come. And the best news? Monsoon in 2021 is expected to be normal.

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• 2. ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): Draft 2020

• What is the EIA: The UNEP defines Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a tool used to identify the environmental, social and economic impacts of a project prior to decision-making. It aims to predict environmental impacts at an early stage in project planning and design, find ways and means to reduce adverse impacts, shape projects to suit the local environment and present the predictions and options to decision-makers.
• Importance: It provides a cost effective method to eliminate or minimize the adverse impact of developmental projects. It enables the decision makers to analyse the effect of developmental activities on the environment well before the developmental project is implemented. It encourages the adaptation of mitigation strategies in the developmental plan. It makes sure that the developmental plan is environmentally sound and within the limits of the capacity of assimilation and regeneration of the ecosystem.
• EIA and India: The need first arose in 1976-77 when the Planning Commission asked the Department of Science and Technology to examine the river-valley projects from an environmental angle. The first EIA notification was promulgated in 1994 by the then Ministry of Environment and Forests (now the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change). The notification mandated Environmental Clearance (EC) for expansion or modernisation of any activity or for setting up new projects listed in Schedule 1 of the same. The Environment Impact Assessment in India is statutorily backed by the Environment Protection Act, 1986 which contains various provisions on EIA methodology and process.

• 2006 Amendment: First came the decentralisation of Project Clearances. It classified the developmental projects in two categories - Category A (national level appraisal): projects are appraised by Impact Assessment Agency (IAA) and the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) and Category B (state level appraisal): State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and State Level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) provide clearance to the Category B projects.

1. Then came introduction of different stages. The Amendment introduced four stages into EIA Cycle; Screening, Scoping, Public hearing and Appraisal.
2. Category A projects require mandatory environmental clearance and thus they do not have to undergo the screening process.
3. Category B projects undergo a screening process and are further classified into B1 (Mandatorily requiring EIA) and B2 (Not requiring EIA).
4. Projects such as mining, thermal power plants, river valley, infrastructure (road, highway, ports, harbours and airports) and industries including very small electroplating or foundry units are mandated to get environment clearance.

• Draft EIA Notification 2020: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has published the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification 2020, with the intention of replacing the existing EIA Notification, 2006 under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Key points are -

1. Reduced time for public hearings - A major step of the EIA Mechanism is the public participation. The 2020 draft proposes to reduce the notice period for public hearings from 30 days to 20 days. But the MoEFCC has claimed it to be “in tune with the times”, given the growth of internet and mobile telephony.
2. Exemption of projects - By classifying a number of projects into A, B1 and B2, a host of projects are exempted from public scrutiny. Category B2 projects do not require mandatory Environment Clearance (EC), unlike the Category A and B1 projects.
3. Exempted projects - The projects under this exempted category include:
4. Offshore and onshore oil, gas and shale exploration.
5. Hydroelectric projects up to 25 MW.
6. Irrigation projects between 2,000 and 10,000 hectares of command area.
7. Small and medium cement plants.
8. Acids other than phosphoric or ammonia, sulphuric acid.
9. MSMEs in dye and dye intermediates, bulk drugs, synthetic rubbers, medium-sized paint units.
10. All inland waterway projects and expansion or widening of highways between 25 km and 100 km with defined parameters.
11. These include roads that cut through forests and dredging of major rivers.
12. Aerial ropeways in ecologically sensitive areas.
13. Specified building construction and area development projects; built-up area up to 1,50,000 sq. m.
14. Post-clearance compliance - It implies that once a project gets approved by the concerned authority, the proponent projects are required to adhere to certain rules laid down in the EIA report in order to ensure that no further environmental damages take place.
15. Annual submission of reports - The new draft EIA, proposes the submission of compliance reports annually whereas as per the 2006 notification, the compliance report was to be submitted every six months.
16. No public reporting for Non-Compliance - The EIA Notification 2020 excludes reporting of violations and non-compliance by the public. The government will take cognisance of reports only from the violator-promoter, government authority, Appraisal Committee or Regulatory Authority.
17. Post-facto clearance - Another major proposal in the draft 2020 is granting ‘post-facto clearance’ where a project that has been operating without environmental clearance, can be regularised or allowed to apply for clearance. The judiciary has held, as in the case of Alembic Pharmaceutical vs. Rohit Prajapati in April 2020 that “environment law cannot countenance the notion of an ex post facto clearance.”
18. Penalty for firms: Firms found violating the terms of their establishment, if they have to get the clearance, however, will have to pay a penalty.

• Issues associated: Environmental lawyers have argued that the Post-Facto Clearance of the Projects is likely to encourage industries to commence operations without bothering clearance and eventually get regularized by paying the penalty amount and thus opening the floodgates of violations. The draft offers no remedy for the political and bureaucratic stronghold on the EIA process, and thereby on industries. It just proposes to bolster the government’s discretionary power while limiting public engagement in safeguarding the environment. The draft, by limiting public consultation, is not in consonance with protecting the rights of tribals, among others. While projects concerning national defence and security are naturally considered strategic, the government gets to decide on the “strategic” tag for other projects. The 2020 draft says no information on “such projects shall be placed in the public domain”. This opens a window for clearance for any project deemed strategic without having to explain why.

• Dangers: The reduced notice period for public hearing from 30 days to 20 days will only make it difficult to study the draft EIA report, more so when it is not widely available or provided in the regional language. The reduction of time would particularly pose a problem in those areas where information is not easily accessible or areas in which people are not that well aware of the process itself. India’s been an active participant of the United Nations (UN) Conference on Human, Environment and Development in Stockholm in 1972, the Rio Summit in 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Climate Accord which has significantly strengthened its environmental governance. After pledging allegiance to these international environmental instruments and now on the contrary proposing to weaken its EIA regime at the domestic level, India is in a position of cognitive dissonance.

• What next: The ministry, instead of reducing the time for public consultation, should focus on ensuring access to information as well as awareness about the public hearing and its impact upon the whole EIA process. In order to improve ease of doing business, the government should bring down the average delay of 238 days in granting environmental clearance, that emanates from bureaucratic delays and complex laws. Grow now, sustain later should not be the policy, as the notion is dangerously tilted against the concept of sustainable development.

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• 3. FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper)

Foreign affairs and World politics - Various updates

• Black Lives Matter: Former police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd in a Minneapolis (US) court on 20-04-2021, almost a year after Floyd’s death sparked global protests against racism and police violence. Chauvin was found guilty of all three charges against him: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter, following one day of jury deliberations. Evan as criminal convictions against them remain rare, U.S. police lead the world’s democracies in the number of people they kill each year. Police in the United States killed 1,099 people in 2019. Canadian police, ranked second among democracies, killed 36 people. This verdict “brought accountability, but it didn’t bring justice.”
• Chad’s president killed: Chad’s president, Idriss Deby, died of injuries suffered from his visit to the frontlines as troops fought rebels in the north of the country. Deby, who became president in 1990, was one of the longest ruling leaders in Africa and a key ally to Western countries, which turned a blind eye to his dictatorial rule, in their counterterrorism efforts in the Sahel.The news came hours after Deby had been projected to win a sixth term in elections held earlier this month, just as the army said it had fended off rebels advancing within range of Chad’s capital, N’Djamena. Army said that a transitional military council will govern the country for the next 18 months under the interim presidency of Deby’s son, Mahamat Idriss Deby. Meanwhile, the rebel group, Front for Change and Concord, has sworn to continue its fight to seize N’Djamena. “Chad is not a monarchy,” it said. “There can be no dynastic devolution of power in our country.”
• Super league collapse: A proposed European football super league has imploded, just days after it was announced, after fans, politicians, and players voiced opposition to the multi-billion dollar capitalist plan. As of 20-04-2021, 7 of the 12 founding clubs — including six based in England — had pulled out. A statement from the would-be league said it was considering “the most appropriate steps to reshape the project.”
• Xi joins climate summit: Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to attend a White House climate summit on 21-04-2021, making the virtual event the first meeting between Biden and Xi since the U.S. presidential transition in January 2021. The confirmation from China’s foreign ministry comes after Xi met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss climate policy and follows U.S. climate envoy John Kerry’s visit to Shanghai.
• Peace summit postponed: Turkey decided to postpone a U.N. and U.S. backed Afghan peace conference after the Taliban refused to attend. “The conference would be meaningless without the Taliban joining,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, suggesting that the conference would be rescheduled at the conclusion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
• Sheika Latifa’s whereabouts: A United Nations panel of human rights experts has called on the UAE government to provide “evidence of life” for Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum, the daughter of Dubai’s leader who was reportedly abducted while trying to flee the United Arab Emirates in 2018. UAE authorities, the experts said, have failed to furnish proof of Sheika Latifa’s safety after leaked footage emerged last February in which she said she was being held against her will. The statement issued by the Emirates authorities’ merely indicating that she was being ‘cared for at home’ is not sufficient at this stage, as per experts.
• Pakistan's French problem: Pakistan’s Parliament was to consider a resolution about whether the French envoy should be expelled over the publication of controversial cartoons depicting Islam’s Prophet, testing whether the government gives in to threats from radical Islamists. Under the resolution, cases against Islamists over deadly anti-France protests would be withdrawn. It is all a test of whether Prime Minister Imran Khan succumbs to pressure from the hardline - and outlawed - Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan party. The group’s supporters are angered over the cartoons’ publication in France. They also are protesting the April 12, 2021, arrest of their leader, Saad Rizvi, a cleric who emerged as the leader of the group in November 2020 after the sudden death of his father, Khadim Hussein Rizvi. His party wants French products boycotted and the French ambassador expelled under an agreement signed between the government and Rizvi’s party in February. Khan’s government holds a simple majority in the National Assembly. Rizvi’s party supports the country’s controversial blasphemy laws and has a history of staging violent rallies to influence the government.

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• 4. GOVERNMENT SCHEMES (Prelims, GS Paper 2, Essay paper)

Artificial Intelligence and children of today

• The story: Like all fundamental technological change, AI is not only changing what humans can do, it is shaping our behaviours, our preferences, our perceptions of the world and of ourselves. Children and adolescents of today are born into a world increasingly powered by virtual reality and artificial intelligence (AI).

• Various issues: Not everyone can tap into the opportunities offered by this transformation. According to UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), as many as two-thirds of the world’s children do not have access to the Internet at home.

1. Unless societies take rapid and concerted action to close this digital divide, AI will radically amplify societal inequalities among children of different races, socio-economic background, genders, and regions.
2. The expansion and deployment of AI is far outpacing our ability to understand its implications, especially its impact on children. Elders themselves hardly understand the complexity of technology which is preventing us to equip children and young people with the knowledge, tools and awareness to protect themselves
3. While video gaming and chat forums offer an online space for children to socialise with their friends, multiple reports identify such virtual playgrounds as “honeypots” for child predators.
4. Short of banning screen time entirely, parents are hard-pressed to keep tabs on just what their kids are doing online, and with whom. With online homework and both the parents working, this oversight has become even more difficult.
5. AI systems driving many video games and social networks are designed to keep children hooked, both through algorithms and gimmicks like “streaks”, “likes”, infinite scroll, etc. Even if this is an ancillary consequence of the underlying business model, the damage is done — children, from a tender age through adolescence, are becoming digitally addicted.

• Social problems: Right when they need to be learning concentration skills, emotional and social intelligence, the digital addiction is causing children’s attention to be spliced into ever-thinner slices, and increasingly virtualising their social interactions. Similarly, right when children and youth are forming their initial views of the world, they are being sucked into virtual deep space, including the universe of fake news, conspiracy theories, hype, hubris, online bullying, hate speech and the likes

• Limited view range: An echo chamber is an environment (aided by AI) where a person only encounters information or opinions that reflect and reinforce their own. Echo chambers can create misinformation and distort a person’s perspective so they have difficulty considering opposing viewpoints and discussing complicated topics.  AI powered toys can offer playful and creative opportunities for children, with some even promoting enhanced literacy, social skills and language development. However, they also listen and observe our children, soaking up their data, and with no framework to govern its use

• What next: The next phase of the fourth Industrial Revolution must include an overwhelming push to extend Internet access to all children. Governments, private sector, civil society, parents and children must push hard for this now, before AI further deepens the pre-existing inequalities and creates its own disparities. To mitigate on-line harms, a multi-pronged action plan is needed

1. we need legal and technological safeguards
2. we need greater awareness among parents, guardians and children on how AI works behind the scenes
3. we need tools, like trustworthy certification and rating systems, to enable sound choices on safe AI apps
4. we need to ban anonymous accounts
5. we need enforceable ethical principles of non-discrimination and fairness embedded in the policy and design of AI systems
6. we need “do no harm” risk assessments for all algorithms that interact with children or their data.
7. we need safe online spaces for children, without algorithmic manipulation and with restricted profiling and data collection.
8. we need online tools (and an online culture) that helps prevent addiction, that promotes attention-building skills, that expands children’s horizons, understanding and appreciation for diverse perspectives, and that builds their social emotional learning capabilities.

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• 5. POLITY AND CONSTITUTION (Prelims, GS Paper 2, GS Paper 3)

The political side of Coronavirus's second wave in India

• The story: The scale of funeral pyres that blaze on the banks of the Ganges, is a grim symbol of the ferocious Covid-19 wave sparking a health crisis and human tragedy in India that is far surpassing anything seen in 2020. Patients are dying while their families search in vain for hospital beds. Supplies of oxygen and medicines are running low, leading to robberies of drugs from hospitals. Crematoriums and burial grounds cannot cope with the sheer number of corpses.
• No preparations: The devastation has sparked outrage at the lack of preparation among officials who believed that the worst of the pandemic was over. Only in February 2021, India was revelling in its success of reining in the spread of the virus. Now it is reporting about 294,000 infections and 2,000 deaths a day! The prime minister, and his Bharatiya Janata Party, have been accused of prioritising domestic politics over public health by holding mass political rallies with thousands of people and allowing the Kumbh Mela, a vast religious festival attended by millions, to take place during the second wave.
• Brazilian way: With a new variant suspected of stoking the surge, experts fear that India is on the same trajectory as Brazil, where a more contagious strain of the virus has hammered the country’s healthcare system and economy. The health systems weren’t better prepared for it this time around. Many people in the administration across India did not expect that there would be a ‘this time around’! While India’s fatality rate remains relatively low, other metrics betray a deepening crisis. Both the number of new cases and the percentage of positive tests are climbing at the fastest rate in the world, with the latter jumping from 3 per cent last month to 16 per cent.
• Overwhelmed: The sick are overwhelming hospitals in many parts of the country. The rate of ICU patients in Nagpur at 353 per million is higher than it was anywhere in Europe during the pandemic. Mumbai, the financial capital, has 194 ICU patients per million. To meet surging demand, authorities have set up emergency coronavirus hospitals in banquet halls, train stations and hotels. India has taken emergency measures to secure oxygen supplies, boost production of drugs such as remdesivir and fast-track vaccine approvals. It has frozen vaccine exports, too, a decision that will have profound consequences for the developing world that is depending on Indian manufacturing for its jabs.
• Not mentioning the truth: Under-reporting of deaths seems rampant. Local news reports for seven districts across the states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar show that while at least 1,833 people are known to have died of Covid-19 in recent days, based mainly on cremations, only 228 have been officially reported. The situation in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, a state of 200m that is among India’s poorest, highlights how health infrastructure has been pushed to breaking point. Local media reported that at King George’s Medical University, there was a queue of 50 people per hospital bed. (In the evening of 21st April, the CM Yogi Adityanath issued an order that other than institutional supply of oxygen, no more oxygen would be allowed on individual basis)
• New variants: Officials are alarmed about the suspected role of new variants in driving the latest wave, particularly the B.1.617 strain first detected in India last month. Scientists are still trying to understand the variant, which has spread internationally, including to the UK, but some believe it is more infectious and vaccine evasive. Some say there was not yet sufficient evidence to make B.1.617 a variant of concern like those first discovered in South Africa or Brazil. Experts also blame complacency for India’s surge, both among those who rushed back to shopping centres and weddings, and the country’s leaders, including Modi, who have sparked outrage for their electioneering during the second wave. Yogi Adityanath, the BJP chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, was a star campaigner in the elections before testing positive for Covid-19 last week. Cases in West Bengal, where many election rallies were held, have jumped.
• Home Minister disagrees: Amit Shah, India’s home minister, told a newspaper that the PM and the government were “ready, fighting against [the virus] on every front . . . I am confident that we will have a victory over this”. But the roots of the crisis ran much deeper, exposing years of neglect of public health infrastructure. India’s spending on healthcare has long lagged behind global peers.

Repromulgation of Ordinances

• What happened: The central government has repromulgated the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Ordinance, 2020. The ordinance establishes a commission for air quality management in the National Capital Region. This raised questions about the practice of issuing ordinances to make law and that of re-issuing ordinances without getting them ratified by Parliament.

• How it started: Historically, in the 1950s, central ordinances were issued at an average of 7.1 per year. However, the number peaked in the 1990s at 19.6 per year. The last couple of years has also seen a high spike in ordinance promulgation (16 in 2019, 15 in 2020). The ordinance was originally conceived as an emergency provision. However, in recent times the frequent use of ordinance route has led to the undermining the role of the legislature and the doctrine of Separation of powers.

• Constitutional provisions: The Constitution permits the central and state governments to make laws when Parliament (or the State Legislature) is not in session. The Article 123 authorizes the executive to promulgate ordinances if certain conditions are satisfied. Ordinances may be promulgated only if at least one House of Parliament is not in session. President is satisfied that “immediate action” is necessary. The Constitution states that the ordinance will lapse at the end of six weeks from the time Parliament (or the State Legislature) next meets. Similar provisions also exist for state governments under article 213.

• Supreme Court on Ordinances:

1. RC Cooper Case 1970 - Supreme Court in RC Cooper vs. Union of India (1970) held that the President’s decision to promulgate ordinance could be challenged on the grounds that ‘immediate action’ was not required, and the ordinance had been issued primarily to bypass debate and discussion in the legislature.
2. DC Wadhwa Case 1987 - The issue of frequent promulgation of ordinances was again brought up in the Supreme Court through a writ petition. The petition was regarding the promulgation of 256 ordinances between 1967 and 1981 in Bihar. This included 11 ordinances that were kept alive for more than 10 years and famously dubbed as ordinance raj. The SC held that the legislative power of the executive to promulgate ordinances is to be used in exceptional circumstances and not as a substitute for the law-making power of the legislature.
3. Krishna Kumar Singh Case 2017 - Supreme Court in Krishna Kumar Singh v. the State of Bihar held that the authority to issue ordinances is not an absolute entrustment, but is “conditional upon satisfaction that circumstances exist rendering it necessary to take immediate action”. It further stated that the re-promulgation of ordinances is a fraud on the Constitution and a subversion of democratic legislative processes.

• More issues: As lawmaking is a legislative function, this power is provided for urgent requirements, and the law thus made has an automatic expiry date. An ordinance “ceases to operate” six weeks after the two Houses reassemble, except if it is converted into an Act by then. Repromulgation sidesteps this limitation. To repromulgate is to effectively extend the life of an ordinance and lead to the usurpation of legislative power by the executive. In the "Kesavananda Bharati v State of Kerala case 1973", the Supreme Court listed the separation of powers as a “basic feature” of the Constitution. The ordinance mechanism, in effect, is designed to remedy situations of legislative urgency when Parliament is not in session; it is not an alternative to parliamentary legislation.
• Summary: The constitution has provided for the separation of powers among the legislature, executive, and judiciary where enacting laws is the function of the legislature. The executive must show self-restraint and should use ordinance making power only in unforeseen or urgent matters and not to evade legislative scrutiny and debates.

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• 6. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Prelims, Various GS Papers)

India's "Triple Mutation Variant" in India

• A new chapter: As India reports nearly three lakh cases and over 2,000 deaths in 24 hours, the biggest jump since the pandemic erupted, a new mutation in the COVID virus has emerged as the new challenge. For now, the "triple mutation" has been classified in India as a "variant of interest" rather than "variant of concern".

• What it is: The triple mutation means three different Covid strains combining to form a new variant, and this has been detected in parts of India (Maharashtra, Delhi and West Bengal). Scientists believe the new surges globally are driven by new variants.

1. The triple mutation may be a more transmissible variant, making lots of people sick very quickly
2. Science needs to keep tweaking vaccines. For that understanding the disease is crucial. That needs genomic sequencing.
3. That is a huge challenge for India, where genome sequencing is being done for less than one per cent of all cases, currently.

• Why so many mutations: The more a virus spreads, the more it replicates and the more it mutates. What is the triple mutation? A double mutation, which surfaced in India, was when two strains combined. Now three Covid variants have combined to form the triple mutation. Where has the triple mutation been found? Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi. Is the triple mutation infectious? Experts believe mutations are driving the fresh infection spikes, not just in India but across the world.

• How bad: How infectious the triple mutation is, or how deadly, will be known only from more studies. For now, only 10 labs across India are involved in virus genome studies. The double mutant shows increased transmission rate and is seen to affect children too. It has more severe pathogenicity, say scientists. For now, the triple mutation has been classified in India as a "variant of interest" rather than "variant of concern".

• Will existing vaccines work: Two of the three variants in the triple mutation have been seen to have immune escape responses, meaning they are more resistant to antibodies. Not much more is known yet on the effectiveness of vaccines. Scientists believe the new variant has some ability to escape the body's naturally acquired immunity to Covid.

American export controls threaten global vaccine production

• US is hurting: In April first half, the billionth dose of Covid-19 vaccine was produced. It is a sign of how greatly manufacturing capacity has expanded over the past six months that the next billion doses could be produced by May 27th. But American export controls on raw materials and equipment can threaten all of this. Production lines in India, making at least 160 m doses of covid vaccine a month, will come to a halt in the coming weeks unless America supplies 37 critical items.
• Please, sir: On April 16th, Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine-maker, put out a tweet begging President Joe Biden to “lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the US...Your administration has the details”. AstraZeneca’s, of which SII makes 100m doses a month, and Novavax’s, of which it expects to make 60m-70m doses a month. SII says it first alerted the American government to the impending problem two months ago.
• US law: That was shortly after the Biden administration announced, on February 5th, plans to use the Defence Production Act (DPA)—legislation that grants the president broad industrial-mobilisation powers—to bolster vaccine-making. This legislation has helped American pharmaceutical companies to secure raw materials and equipment needed to make more vaccines. But American firms that supply products essential to vaccine production say the DPA hinders their ability to export them. They must seek permission before exporting goods.
• Why needed: Vaccine production requires an array of special materials, including plastic tubing, raw goods, filters and even paper. Because all these items have to be specially approved by regulators to be used in medicine production, finding substitutes quickly can be impossible. The SII is not the only company to be concerned. Export controls also affect European vaccine producers, who need special bags from America in which to make their products. At
• Overall: If all goes smoothly, the world could produce as many as 14bn doses of vaccine this year. But if vaccines and raw materials do not arrive where and when needed, production will fall grievously short of that estimate. Shortfalls in India will hinder its own vaccination programme, which is ramping up amidst an alarming second wave of infections—the country is recording more than 1,000 deaths per day from Covid-19. At a time when many American states have a surplus of vaccines, with as many as one in three doses going unused, American export restrictions are not just galling. They may soon derail the plan to vaccinate the world.

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• 7. SOCIAL ISSUES (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

How Covid symptoms differ in 2021 compared to 2020

• The basics: Amid a massive surge in novel coronavirus cases in the country, there's a lot of concern over the symptoms of Covid-19 and its severity in the second wave of the pandemic.

• Differences: If symptoms are seen, then doctors feel that severity is very less in second wave. Asymptomatic/ mild illness can be managed at home and does not require hospitalization while adding that ventilator requirement in second wave is not high. In the second wave 2021, doctors are witnessing more cases of breathlessness while in the last wave, symptoms like dry cough, joint pain, headaches were more.

• Testing: The RT-PCR test is gold standard of testing, as it measures two genes or more, so there is no chance of missing detection of any mutant. There is no difference in the percent of death between the first wave and second wave. Only a marginally high proportion of COVID-19 patients are of younger age and that the average of patients in the first wave was 50 years and in this wave, it is 49 years. The older population continues to be more vulnerable to be admitted in the hospital in the current wave.

1. From zero to 19 years - the difference was 5.8 per cent versus 4.2 per cent, and in 20-40 years, the difference was 25 per cent versus 23 per cent. 
2. There is a marginal difference in this. More than 70 per cent were above or equal to 40 years of age. A higher number of asymptomatic individuals got admitted this year, than a higher proportion of patients admitted with breathlessness.
3. Asymptomatic/mild illness can be managed at home and does not require hospitalization and also added that ventilator requirement in second wave is not high.
4. Experts said (their estimates may be wrong) that there was no change in the death rate between the first wave and the second wave. Similar trends are being seen across all the states because this is a countrywide data of a national registry data which has been collected of only hospitalised patients, so this is 10,000 hospitalised patients that are being analysed.

• People are responsible: There was a tremendous amount of laxity regarding the pandemic and many instances of COVID-inappropriate behaviour was also seen. The rate of transmissibility of the 'double mutant' found in India has not yet been established. Three main variants from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil have already been found in India. According to the Health Ministry, India reported 2,73,810 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of positive cases in the country to 1,50,61,919. There were 19,29,329 active cases in the country as of 20-04-2021. The death toll reached 1,78,769 with additional 1,619 fatalities.

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• 8. MISCELLANEOUS (Prelims, GS Paper 1, GS Paper 2)

LIC collects highest ever premium of Rs. 1.84 trillion in FY21

• The story: India's largest life insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India or LIC said it has collected highest ever first year premium of ₹1.84 trillion for fiscal year ending March 2021, as per provisional figures. The LIC continued its high performance, and paid Rs.1.34 trillion as claims to policyholders.
• The first-year premium for March 2021 rose 64.7% to ₹28,105.92 crore compared to ₹17,066.57 crore in March 2020. Its premium for the full year 2020-21 increased by 3.5% to ₹1.84 trillion. LIC also procured an impressive 2.10 crore policies, out of which 46.72 lakhs were procured in the month of March alone, with a growth of 298.82% over 2020 for the corresponding month. During the FY 2020-21, it settled 9.59 lakh death claims amounting to ₹18,137.34 crores. Annuity payments due in March 2021 have also been settled on due dates.
• Its market share stood at 81.04% in number of policies for the month of March 2021 and 74.58% for the year. For first year premium, the market share was 64.74% in March and 66.18% for the whole year. In the just concluded financial year 2020-21, LIC achieved its highest ever first year premium income of Rs.56,406 crores under individual assurance business with a 10.11% growth over last year. Its pension and group superannuation business collected a record ₹1.28 trillion as new business premium income as against ₹1.27 trillion in the previous year. On the claims front, in spite of severe constraints due to covid-19 pandemic, LIC settled 2.19 crore maturity claims, money back claims and annuities, amounting to ₹1.16 trillion. With the addition of 3,45,469 agents, LIC has a strong sales force of 13,53,808 agents and has created 26,997 centurion agents.

Union Cabinet approves India-Bangladesh Cooperation in Trade

1. The story: India's Union Cabinet recently approved the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Director General of Trade Remedies of India and Trade and Tariff Commission of Bangladesh. The agreement was signed to increase the cooperation in the area of trade remedies. The agreement was signed on March 27, 2021.
2. Major points: The agreement aims to promote exchange of information, trade remedies and other activities in accordance with the provisions of World Trade Organisation. The agreement mainly targeted on countervailing, anti-dumping and safeguard measures in bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh.
3. Countervailing duties: The Countervailing Duties, also called CVDs, are import tariffs imposed to nullify the adverse effects of subsidies. CVDs are also called anti-subsidy duties. When a country finds out that a foreign country is subsidising its imports, and causing harm to domestic suppliers, the home country can impose duties on such goods to protect its domestic suppliers. These are imposed only under World Trade Organisation rules.
4. CVDs and and anti-dumping duties: The countervailing duties are imposed on subsidised products on exporting country, but anti-dumping duties are imposed on imports that are of low price. So if the Chinese Government provides subsidy to silicon wafer manufacturers, India can imposes import duties called countervailing duties. But if no subsidies are provided to silicon wafer by Chinese Government but the exporter is selling at very low prices, then India can impose anti-dumping duties.

Startup India Seed Fund Scheme

• The story: The Union Minister for Commerce and Industry has launched the “Start Up India Seed Fund” scheme. The scheme aims to provide financial support to the startups for their prototype development, proof of concept, product trials, market entry.
• Startup India Fund Scheme: The scheme will provide Rs 945 crores in the next four years to the startups, and expected to support more than 3,600 startups through three hundred incubators. The scheme will create robust startup ecosystem in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. The startups in these cities are often deprived of funding, and will support transformative ideas and kindle startup revolution.
• Disbursement: The funds under the scheme will be disbursed in following ways: Up to Rs 20 lakhs is to be granted for prototype development, Proof of concept and product trials. Up to Rs 50 lakhs is to be granted to scale up through convertible debentures.
• Seed Funds: These are funds that are provided or used during the very beginning of an investment. Indian startups face capital inadequacy especially in the seed and Proof of Concept development stage. Capital requirement is highly crucial at this stage as it might make or break a situation for startups that possess good business ideas.

Former RBI governor Narasimham no more

1. A great reformer: Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor M. Narasimham passed away on 20-04-2021 at the age of 94. He was the only governor to be appointed from the Reserve Bank cadre. As the 13th governor of RBI, he served a short tenure of seven months between May and November 1977, before he was succeeded by I.G. Patel. Narasimham joined RBI as a research officer in the economics department. He later joined the government and prior to his appointment as governor, he served as additional secretary, department of economic affairs.
2. Career: According to RBI History Volume 3, during Narasimham’s tenure, then finance minister H.M. Patel was in Mumbai when the 1977 credit policy was announced. He took the opportunity to address the chief executives of major banks at the RBI headquarters. “This had never happened before. The bank was rife with speculation as to the significance of this. What did it really mean? The puzzle was never solved and no comments were made on the auto-nomy of the bank in the press or in the academic writings of the time," the book says. Later, Narasimham served as executive director for India at the World Bank and the IMF, after which he was secretary in the finance ministry.
3. Rao's era of LPG: Much of what India’s financial sector landscape is today can be attributed to the seminal work done by two committees that Narasimham chaired: the Committee on Financial System (CFS) 1991 and the Committee on Banking Reforms 1998. The CFS was set up by then finance minister Manmohan Singh as part of the overall economic reforms. The committee on banking sector reforms recommended the dilution of government equity in nationalized banks to 33% and suggested that the RBI nominees on bank boards step down. It also recommended a phased reduction in the Statutory Liquidity Ratio to 25% over five years.
4. Father of RRBs: Narasimham is also credited with recommending the setting up of regional rural banks (RRBs) as subsidiaries of public sector banks. Shri Narasimham was a brilliant mind, fantastic draftsman and visionary overall. He wrote the RRB report in 1976 in one day.

9.1 Today's best editorials to read

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• SECTION 3 - MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)

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