Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 17-07-2021

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 17-07-2021

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Education - School Innovation Ambassador Training Program - Union Education Minister and Tribal Affairs Minister jointly launched the ‘School Innovation Ambassador Training Program’ for 50,000 school teachers. It is an innovative training program for school teachers, with the goal of training 50,000 school teachers on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, IPR, Design Thinking, Product development, Idea generation etc. The training will be delivered in online mode only. It is designed by the Innovation Cell of the Ministry of Education and AICTE. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is a statutory body established by AICTE Act, 1987 for proper planning and co-ordinated development of a technical education system throughout the country and regulation & proper maintenance of norms and standards in the technical education system.
2. Environment Ecology and Climate Change - Flooding and deaths in Europe - By July 17th, the death toll from flooding in Belgium and Germany rose to more than 150, with hundreds missing. Emergency services in the Netherlands remain on high alert as swelling rivers threaten homes in the south. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the floods are evidence of the need to act faster on climate change. Technicals: The low-pressure region began forming on July 11th over the area where Germany meets Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Hundreds of kilometres wide and puffed up by heat—in the Netherlands, it had been the hottest June since 1901—it sucked in moisture from lakes and wet soil all across central Europe. Then it sat there for days, disgorging colossal quantities of rain. Some regions got over 90mm of precipitation on July 13th and a further 70mm or more the next day. Reservoirs filled, sewer systems saturated and streams jumped their banks. Soon entire towns were underwater. Across Germany’s north-western states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, bridges, cars and houses were swept away. Germans called it a "Jahrhundertflut", a once-in-a-century flood.
3. Science and Technology - Cloud computing by Google in India - Google Cloud announced expanding its footprint in India with its second ‘Cloud Region’ in the country, located in Delhi-NCR. With this, Google Cloud customers operating in India will benefit from low latency and high performance of their cloud-based workloads. Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”). It is the pool of shared resources such as networks, servers, storage, applications, and services that can be provided to the consumer rather than the consumer managing them on her own which is costly and time-consuming. Rather than owning their own computing infrastructure or data centres, companies or individuals can rent access to storage (or application or services) from a cloud service provider.
4. World Politics - Biden attacks Facebook - Joe Biden and Facebook engaged in a testy spat about misinformation, as America’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention described a surging covid-19 caseload with 99.5% of new patients unvaccinated. The president blamed Facebook and other social-media platforms for “killing people” by failing to combat misinformation about vaccines. Facebook rejected “accusations which aren’t supported by the facts”. The social media giant has been at the centre of many controversies worldwide, not the least in America itself, and was accused of having being used by Russian agents to push the candidature of Donald Trump in 2016.
5. Environment Ecology and Climate Change - Amazon forests no more a carbon sink - The Amazon forests in South America, the largest tropical forests in the world, have started emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of absorbing carbon emissions. Covering over 6 million square kilometres, it is nearly twice the size of India. The Amazon rainforests cover about 80 per cent of the basin, and is home to nearly a fifth of the world’s land species and about 30 million people including hundreds of indigenous groups and several isolated tribes. The basin produces about 20% of the world’s flow of freshwater into the oceans. Over the last few years, the forest faced many threats including fires (doubled since 2013), as farmers burnt their land to clear it for the next crop. In 2019, fires in the Amazon were visible from space. Then there's deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon (which is two-thirds of the area of the rainforest), started in the 1970s and 1980s when large-scale forest conversion for cattle ranching and soy cultivation began. Amazon is now teetering on the edge of functional destruction.
6. Social Issues - World Emoji Day - July 17th was declared the World Emoji Day, by Emojipedia, a reference website for the Japanese picture-characters. Since the first in 2014, July 17th each year has seen a flurry of announcements. This year Unicode Consortium, which approves emojis, unveiled some new icons, including a pregnant man and a multi-racial handshake. Scientists have joined the bandwagon, publishing an empirical analysis of global emoji use in Online Social Networks and Media, a journal. Researchers crunched the emojis from tens of millions of tweets in 30 languages. Despite cultural anomalies, emojis are strikingly universal and easily traverse language barriers. Surely that is cause for a partying face.
7. Polity and Constitution - J&L LG sacks terror-linked suspected govt. servants - The Lt. Governor of J&K Manoj Sinha dismissed 11 Jammu and Kashmir government employees for alleged terror links under provisions of Article 311(2)(c) of the Constitution. These include two sons of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin. The Article 311 of the Constitution deals with ‘Dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of persons employed in civil capacities under the Union or a State’. Under Article 311(2), no civil servant can be "dismissed or removed or reduced in rank except after an inquiry in which he has been informed of the charges and given a reasonable opportunity of being heard in respect of those charges". Subsection (c) of the provision, however, says this clause shall not apply “where the President or the Governor, as the case may be, is satisfied that in the interest of the security of the State it is not expedient to hold such inquiry”. The safeguard of an inquiry also does not apply in cases of conviction on a criminal charge [311(2)(a)], or “where the authority…is satisfied that for some reason, to be recorded by that authority in writing, it is not reasonably practicable to hold such inquiry”. [311(2)(b)].
8. World Politics - Indian projets in Afghanistan - As the Taliban push ahead with military offensives across Afghanistan, preparing to take over after the exit of US and NATO forces, India may be left with little choice but to exit fully. The 42MW Salma Dam in Herat province was inaugurated in 2016 and is known as the Afghan-India Friendship Dam. The other high-profile project was the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway built by the Border Roads Organisation. Zaranj is located close to Afghanistan’s border with Iran. The Afghan Parliament in Kabul was built by India at $90 million, and opened in 2015. A block in the building is named after former PM AB Vajpayee. In 2016, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the restored Stor Palace in Kabul, originally built in the late 19th century, and which was the setting for the 1919 Rawalpindi Agreement by which Afghanistan became an independent country. At the Geneva Conference in November, India announced that it had concluded with Afghanistan an agreement for the construction of the Shatoot Dam in Kabul district, which would provide safe drinking water to 2 million residents. Last year, India pledged $1 million for another Aga Khan heritage project, the restoration of the Bala Hissar Fort south of Kabul, whose origins go back to the 6th century. Bala Hissar went on to become a significant Mughal fort, parts of it were rebuilt by Jahangir, and it was used as a residence by Shah Jahan.
9. Science and Technolgy - NASA trying to fix Hubble's trouble - NASA plans to fix a glitch that has stopped the Hubble space telescope from being used for science work for more many days. The malfunction has been described as the most serious problem in a decade to face the legendary observatory, which is currently running in “safe mode”. The Hubble, launched in 1990, and named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble, is the first major optical telescope to be placed in space and has made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of astronomy since its launch. The launch and deployment of Hubble in April 1990 is said to be the “most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo’s telescope.” It is larger than a school bus in size, has a 7.9 feet mirror, and captures stunning images of deep space playing a major role in helping astronomers understand the universe by observing the most distant stars, galaxies and planets.
10. Science and Technology - Massive science museum in Shanghai - At 4,20,000 square feet (39,000 square metres) — more than five times the size of a British Football Association pitch — Shanghai's new museum dedicated to astronomy, is the world's largest. The building’s designers, Ennead Architects, eschewed straight edges and right angles. Instead the American firm deployed arcing lines meant to evoke the constant movement of the cosmos. The museum features a sphere housing a planetarium, and an inverted dome offering visitors a panorama of the sky. According to the project’s main architect, the design was inspired by the as-yet unsolved question of how to calculate the motion of more than two celestial bodies based on the gravitational attraction between them. Geopolitics undoubtedly played a part as well. China and America have been engaged in a new space race as part of their great-power rivalry. The unprecedented museum is ostensibly the latest show of China’s determination to win.

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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

Experts claim higher competition in road sector can impact quality

• The story: As per experts of India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra), higher competition in the road sector could impact the building quality. The firm said that increased competition in the road sector in FY21, resulting from the National Highways Authority of India's (NHAI) initiative to reduce prequalification requirements, may lead to a moderation in the quality of roads.
• Details: The agency found that alongwith higher order inflows, the sector witnessed an increase in competition, resulting in lower-than-expected bid prices. The NHAI's stated plan of action to monitor the execution closely, especially in cases of abnormally low bids, needs to be implemented strictly. Else, there will be a quick deterioration in quality.
• What firms are trying: The report cited that engineering, procurement and construction players were trying to increase their order book visibilities, backed by strong counterparties, to avoid the working capital lockups that could result from delayed realisations. The EPC players have started increasing their order books towards Central government or public sector entities, which have better financial profiles and are more prompt with respect to making payments.  This, along with the increase in budgetary allocations by the Central government in its budget towards the road space, and the fact that the NHAI is regarded as one of the most reputed counterparties, had heightened the competition in the sector.
• Knowledge centre:

1. Highway construction in India - Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said that India was constructing national highways faster than ever. As per numbers shared by Minister Gadkari, the annual average construction of national highways has recorded 83 per cent spike in what what was recorded during 2009-2014. Annual average construction of highways was 4,918 during 2009-2014, with 13 km per day. The number jumped to 8,993 with 25 km per day later. The target was 11,000 with 30 km per day but construction exceeded the target and achieved 13,327 with 37 km per day — 21 per cent higher that what what was targeted. India is now constructing 37 kms national highways per day.
2. Road network in India - India has the second-largest road network in the world, spanning a total of 5.89 million kilometres (kms). This road network transports 64.5% of all goods in the country and 90% of India’s total passenger traffic uses road network to commute. Road transportation has gradually increased over the years with improvement in connectivity between cities, towns and villages in the country. Highway construction in India increased at 17.00% CAGR between FY16-FY21. Despite pandemic and lockdown, India has constructed 13,298 km of highways in FY21. The government also aims to construct 23 new national highways by 2025. In April 2021, the NHAI decided to deploy Network Survey Vehicle (NSV) to enhance quality of the national highways. Carrying out road condition survey using NSV on the national highways was made mandatory for certifying completion of the project and every six months thereafter.

Medical infra credit guarantee scheme gets guidelines

• The story: To improve medical infrastructure in non-metros, the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC) issued operational guidelines for the Rs 50,000-crore credit guarantee scheme announced as part of Rs 6.29-lakh-crore stimulus package in June 2021. The loans under the Loan Guarantee Scheme for Covid Affected Sectors (LGSCAS) would be available at a concessional rate of not more than 7.95 per cent.
• Details: While announcing the scheme, the FM had said: "A maximum loan of Rs 100 crore will be given with a capped interest rate of 7.95 per cent (for healthcare projects) and guarantee provided for three years. Without a guarantee, it would have cost 10-11 per cent." The scheme is applicable to all eligible loans sanctioned during the period from May 7, 2021, till March 31, 2022, or till guarantees for an amount of Rs 50,000 crore are issued under the scheme, whichever is earlier.

1. The credit guarantee scheme for setting up of medical or health infrastructure by private hospitals in cities other than eight metropolitan cities, is for both greenfield (new) and brownfield (existing) projects.
2. credit guarantee of 50 per cent to all brownfield projects and 75 per cent to greenfield projects in the healthcare sector at centres other than 8 municipal areas would be available.
3. The excluded metros from the scheme are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.
4. For the aspirational districts, the guarantee cover for both brownfield expansion and greenfield projects shall be 75 per cent.
5. There will be no guarantee fee charged from the lending institution by NCGTC for the credit facilities provided under the scheme.

• Guarantee: The guarantee for loan up to Rs 100 crore per project will be valid up to two years from the date of commencement of commercial operations (DCCO), subject to maximum period of 5 years from the date of first disbursement. The scheme will encourage creation of private medical infrastructure in various parts of the country.

1. The lender should create charge on the existing and proposed assets/securities, as per its stipulation.
2. The NCGTC shall have second charge on the assets financed under the scheme (under both greenfield and brownfield projects), to be created within a reasonable period of time from the date of disbursal, but in any case before the account turning NPA (non-performing asset).
3. Any changes to the structure of the scheme, including but not limited to the eligibility criteria, guarantee fee, rate of interest and tenor of loans under the scheme, would be decided by the management committee for the LGSCAS Fund.

• MFIs scheme: The NCGTC also issued separate guidelines for the credit guarantee scheme for MFIs also announced as part of the stimulus package. That is aimed at providing guarantee coverage to eligible lending institutions for the funding provided by them to NBFC-MFIs or MFIs for on-lending to eligible small borrowers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It would come into force from the date of issue of these guidelines by NCGTC. It shall cover funding provided by the member lending institutions (MLIs) to MFIs/NBFC-MFIs till March 31, 2022 or till guarantees for an amount of Rs 7,500 crore are issued, whichever is earlier.

1. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) would be eligible for loans at one-year marginal cost-based lending rate plus 2 per cent per annum.
2. The funding provided by the lenders would be guaranteed by NCGTC to the extent of 75 per cent of amount in default for a maximum period of three years.
3. The loan extended to the NBFC-MFIs/MFIs could be for longer period. However, tenor of NCGTC's guarantee would be for a maximum period of three years.
4. No guarantee fee would be charged from the lenders by NCGTC for the credit facilities provided under the scheme, it added.

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

Africa first continent with digital land use data

• The story: Africa became the first continent in the world to complete the collection of accurate, comprehensive and harmonised digital land use and land use change data under the Africa Open DEAL initiative. DEAL stands for Data for the Environment, Agriculture and Land Initiative. The data collection and analysis initiative is led by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the African Union Commission (AUC).
• Learning: This open data initiative that covered the period between 2018 and 2020, disclosed more forests and arable lands than were previously detected.

1. 7 billion more trees - There are around seven billion trees outside forests in Africa, the continent-wide survey revealed. It also disclosed more arable lands in Africa than before.
2. Collect Earth, a free and open source software developed by FAO, was used to collect data through Google Earth. It is part of the set of tools called Open Foris and was developed in 2017 in collaboration with Google Earth, Bing Maps and Google Earth Engine.
3. The survey covered 100 parameters on each sampling point of about 0.5 hectares and included tree counts, farmlands, wildfires and existing infrastructure.
4. The data was analysed to highlight land use change over the past 20 years and the potential for restoration at the national level for every country in the African continent.

• Power of science: This initiative showed that science and innovation could provide real solutions and that collaboration and pooling experience led to the best results. The initiative revealed that 350 million hectares of cropland are cultivated in Africa. This is an increase by 25 per cent over the crop land in the continent. In 2018, 279 million hectares of crop land was cultivated in the continent, FAO estimates show.
• Fight against hunger: FAO said that the information received from the Africa Open Deal could help in the fight against hunger in the continent.
• Knowledge centre:

1. Africa - The world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, Africa, has an area of 30.3 million km2 and covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area. Its population is approximately 130 crore (2018), or 16% of the world's human population. With a median age in 2012 of just 19.7 years, Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents. Due to a history of sustained exploitation and colonisation, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita. Sadly, even now, most countries have not been able to develop viable democracies.
2. African agriculture - Agriculture is the most important economic activity in Africa, providing employment for about two-thirds of the continent’s working population. For most African countries, it makes up an average of 30 to 60 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) and about 30 percent of the value of exports. But arable land and land under permanent crops occupy only about 6 percent of Africa’s total land area. Agriculture has been largely confined to subsistence farming and dependent on the inefficient system of shifting cultivation, in which land is temporarily cultivated with simple implements until its fertility decreases and then abandoned for a time to allow the soil to regenerate. The persistence of relatively low-productivity agricultural systems is also due to a lack of integration between crop production and animal husbandry. Traditionally, sedentary cultivators live apart from their nomadic herdsmen neighbours.

Low-cost renewables market rising

• The story: A report by India’s Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and the financial think tank Carbon Tracker (both not-for-profits) indicated that fossil-fuel electricity may have peaked already.
• Findings: The Emerging Markets (EMs) are key to the global energy transition, accounting for 88% of all expected growth in electricity demand from 2019-2040. Overall, 82% of current emerging market electricity demand and 86% of expected demand growth comes from countries that import coal and gas, and they have powerful incentives to switch to solar and wind. With the right policies in place, technology and cost barriers to change can be crossed. The transition is different in emerging markets because they have electricity demand growth from a lower base as well as the need to provide access to hundreds of millions of people. In developed markets, demand for fossil fuels for electricity generation has fallen by 20% since it peaked in 2007.
• Four groups of EMs: First - China, which is nearly half the electricity demand, and 39% of the expected growth. Second - Other importers of coal and gas such as India or Vietnam, which are a third of the demand and nearly half the growth. Third - Coal and gas exporters such as Russia or Indonesia, which are 16% of demand but only around 10% of the growth. Resistance to the energy transition is likely to be more entrenched in coal and gas exporting countries. Fourth - ‘Fragile’ states such as Nigeria or Iraq which are 3% of demand and around the same share of growth.
• India doing well: It accounts for 9% of emerging market electricity demand and 20% of expected demand growth. From less than 20GW of solar in 2010, it has grown to 96GW of solar, wind biomass and small hydro in May 2021. Including large hydropower, renewables now provide 142GW or 37% of the country’s power capacity, and it has a target of 450GW by 2030. Demand for fossil fuel generation reached a plateau in 2018, and fell in 2019 and 2020. While fossil fuel demand might again increase in the near-term to meet latent electricity demand, India has demonstrated how a double leapfrog - connecting nearly all households to electricity and its renewable energy rollout - can be driven with policy priorities and market design.
• Indian initiatives:

1. Hydrogen Energy Mission - The Union Budget for 2021-22 has announced a National Hydrogen Energy Mission (NHM) that will draw up a road map for using hydrogen as an energy source. The initiative has the potential of transforming transportation.
2. Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) - It was launched in 2009 with a target for Grid Connected Solar Projects of 20,000 MW by 2022. The sector witnessed rapid development with installed solar capacity increasing rapidly from 18 MW to about 3800 MW during 2010-15.
3. International Solar Alliance (ISA) - Launched by Indian PM and the President of France on 30th November 2015 in Paris, with 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn as prospective members.
4. PM- KUSUM - KUSUM is "Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan". The goal is to provide financial and water security to farmers through harnessing solar energy capacities of 25,750 MW by 2022.
5. National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy - The goal is to provide a framework for promotion of large grid connected wind-solar photovoltaic (PV) hybrid systems for optimal and efficient utilization of wind and solar resources, transmission infrastructure and land. The wind-solar PV hybrid systems will help in reducing the variability in renewable power generation and achieving better grid stability.
6. Rooftop Solar Scheme - Goal is to generate solar power by installing solar panels on the roof of the houses. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is the implementing agency of the Grid-connected Rooftop Solar Scheme (Phase II).

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

B3W - Build Back Better World proposal

• The story: In June 2021, the G-7 leaders gave the "Build Back Better World (B3W)" proposal, to address the infrastructure investment deficit in developing and lower-income countries. It seeks to counter China’s rising influence across 100-plus countries through Belt Road Initiative (BRI) projects. Through BRI projects, China deploys corrosive tactics or debt traps for its strategic dominance in trade, foreign policy, and geopolitics in the world.
• Evolution: Today, the B3W is at its nascent stage, and remains to be seen what role India will play. India has always opposed the BRI, designed by China to establish strategic dominance in trade, foreign policy, and geopolitics.
• Status of BRI: It was launched in 2013, and broadly aimed at facilitating cross-border transportation of goods, access to energy, creating demand for existing excess capacity in Chinese industries. China had an overall exposure of investment of around $750 billion between 2013 to mid-2020.

1. But the China-centric motives are clear, in terms of international economic integration, production networks, hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region, and, eventually, the global economy.
2. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the Bangladesh-China, India, Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM), and the Colombo Port City Project in Sri Lanka are important BRI projects.
3. These are not the only commercial in nature but have strategic implications too. The BRI project is colonial in nature as China’s trade gives more market access to Chinese markets and ensures a stable supply of energy and other resources.

• B3W guiding principles: The Build Back Better Plan is a Covid-19 relief, future economic, and infrastructure package proposed by G-7 countries for developing and lower-income countries. Through B3W, the G7 and other like-minded partners will coordinate in mobilizing private-sector capital in four areas of focus: Climate, Health and health security, Digital technology, Gender equity and equality.
• Values-driven development: Infrastructure development carried out in a transparent and sustainable manner—financially, environmentally, and socially —will lead to a better outcome for recipient countries and communities. B3W will infuse investment by complying with the standards promoted by the Blue Dot Network, relating to the environment and climate, labor and social safeguards, transparency, financing, construction, anti-corruption, and other areas. It will be climate-friendly, and a more inclusive model of global development.
• What the plan means: Covid-19 exposed the fragility and societally negative outcomes of contemporary capitalist economies. To build a global development as highlighted by the B3W blueprint, it will require fine-tuning of the current model of Capitalism. The main challenge for G-7 countries is to build global consensus and deliver projects in a time-bound manner.

Covid vaccine passports

• The story: As the global administration of Covid-19 vaccines escalate, many countries announced plans to introduce a system of Covid immunisation certificates. These will be the "vaccine passports", essential as digital or paper-based certificates to move across international borders.
• Verification process: It involves two steps.

1. First, a vaccination site provides a digital record or certificate with details of a person’s vaccination. That person would then either scan the certificate or manually upload a verification number onto an app or a website.
2. They could then present that app or code to airlines, restaurants or other establishments to prove their vaccination status.

• Current ones: The vaccine passports gaining traction include the European Union’s Digital Green Certificate, New York’s state-backed platform Excelsior Pass, Common Pass, an initiative from the non-profit Commons Project Foundation, and IBM’s yet-to-be-released blockchain enabled certificate. Along with several vaccine passports introduced by individual airlines, the international Air Travel Association (IATA) has also called on the 290 airlines it represents to sign up for its IATA Travel Pass.
• Problems of equality: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised concerns surrounding the operational, ethical and diplomatic consequences of allowing certain individuals to avail of privileges that others face hurdles to access. Each country has its own definition of individual liberties and how they apply the use of these passports internally will vary in accordance with their laws and constitutions. The failure to create a uniform system of vaccine passports to regulate cross-border movement could escalate diplomatic conflicts and widen the gulf between richer and poorer nations.
• History: The concept of requiring proof of immunisation to occupy certain spaces dates back to Edward Jenner’s development of the first known vaccine in 1796. Designed to inoculate people against smallpox, confirmation of having taken this vaccine was a prerequisite for travellers at the time, mostly pilgrims, entering towns such as Pandharpur in British India or going to Mecca for the Hajj.

1. Continuing into the 19th century, this policy was widely implemented across the globe with the El Paso newspaper reporting that travellers entering the United States had to show either a vaccination certificate, a scar on the arm or a “pitted face” indicating that they had survived smallpox.
2. The need to provide proof of vaccination intensified after the introduction of air travel in the 20th century. Vaccination certification checks were enforced before travel “with forcible isolation at airports of any passengers considered to have dubious documentation.”
3. Vaccine certification checks are even codified under international law with the first protocols defined under the International Sanitary Regulations Act, adopted by WHO member countries in 1951.
4. Renamed the International Health Regulations (IHR) in 1969, this Act allowed member states to demand proof of vaccination as a condition of entry.
5. While now yellow fever is the only disease specified in the IHR, the WHO has recommended that certain high-risk countries require travellers to provide vaccination certificates for diseases from which their population has not been sufficiently inoculated. For example, visitors to Pakistan and Afghanistan are recommended by the WHO to take adult doses of the polio vaccine before travelling due to the prevalence of the disease in those regions.

• Summary: Creating a passport that benefits privileged groups will pose a risk to vulnerable populations fleeing war or economic hardship. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, including marginalised groups in vaccination programs is “key to ending the pandemic.” Yet while some refugee host states like Jordan and Lebanon are including refugees in their vaccine rollouts, several others are not. An estimated 9 out the 10 people living in the poorest states in the world may not receive the vaccine until 2022. So the world will need policies to allow them to be vaccinated at the point of arrival.

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

Women’s Reservation Bill, India

• The story: In 2021, a political party raised the demand of bringing the long-pending Women’s Reservation Bill to Parliament, ahead of the monsoon session. It was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in May 2008 and referred to a standing committee. In 2010, it was passed in the House and moved to the Lok Sabha. It lapsed with the 15th Lok Sabha.
• Points to note: The idea originated from a constitutional amendment which was passed back in 1993, which stated that a random one third of village council leader, or Sarpanch, positions in the gram panchayat should be reserved for women. The Women's Reservation Bill was launched as a long term plan to extend this reservation to Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies.
• About: The bill sought to reserve 33% seats in Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies for women. Reserved seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in the state or union territory. Reservation of seats for women shall cease to exist 15 years after the commencement of this Amendment Act.
• Need: According to Global Gender Gap Report 2021, India has declined on the political empowerment index by 13.5 percentage points, and a decline in the number of women ministers, from 23.1% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2021. Women's representatives in Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies are abysmally low.

1. Surveys indicate that women representatives from Panchayati Raj have worked commendably in the development and overall well-being of society in villages and many of them would definitely want to work on the larger scale.
2. Challenges include lack of proper political education, low financial power of women in society, sexual violence, manifestations of insecure patriarchy, uneven distribution of household work between men and women, etc.
3. The phenomenon of Panchayat Patis – husbands (or other male relatives) using women as proxies in PRIs and wielding the real power – is prevalent.

• Women = Men: Women’s political empowerment is premised on three fundamental and non-negotiable principles: (i) The equality between women and men, (ii) Women’s right to a full development of their potential, (iii) Women’s right to self representation and self-determination. There is a gender gap in political decision-making, and women leaders need to come out more in numbers to impact position decisions and inspire teenage girls to contribute to nation-building.
• Summary: Fundamental reforms at the party level will serve as a necessary and strategic compliment to the Women’s Reservation Bill. Even if the bill is derailed further, it should not stop political parties from making internal structures more conducive to women entering politics. There is a need to bring about institutional, social and behavioral change among India’s populace. Gender equality is a part of Sustainable Development Goals as well.

The horrible state of overcrowded Jails

• The story: A judgment of the Supreme Court in a bail petition offered a chance to look into the state of affairs in Indian jails. The imprisonment of a priest with Parkinson’s disease and a senior academic suffering from a serious eye infection after contracting COVID-19, exposed the overcrowded condition in the Taloja jail. The Bombay High Court granted hospitalisation and medical check-ups to the prisoners but their pleas for interim medical bail was deferred.
• Claims versus truth: There is a stark disparity between what the jail authorities say about the jail conditions and the evidence placed by the advocates for the undertrials. The conditions in several Indian prisons are pathetic with zero or next to zero monitoring by committees. Jails are overcrowded, have poor hygiene conditions, and has little or no statutory monitoring.
• House arrest: The SC urged the courts to actively use the option of house arrest in cases where age, health conditions and antecedents of the accused are a criterion. It expressed special concern over the overcrowding of jails — on an average at least 118 per cent higher than the limit. Following this order, the Calcutta High Court, in the case of three serving elected officials and ministers of the TMC-led Bengal government, ordered house arrest. The court even allowed them to perform some official duties under observation.
• Global status of house arrest: In medieval Europe, St Paul at the age of 60 was awarded house arrest for two years where he continued his profession as a tent maker and paid his own rent. Galileo Galilei, the Florentine physicist, philosopher and astronomer after a second trial in Rome in 1633 was confined to house arrest for the rest of his life. In modern times, house arrest has been used to repress political dissent before trial.
• Indian case: Only a few governments have evolved any legal understanding around the issue of political prisoners. West Bengal has engaged with this issue and, in 1992, passed the West Bengal Correctional Services Act that provides for residence in correctional homes. Under Section 19(4), it has created a special categorisation of a prisoner as a political prisoner. Any offence committed or alleged to have been committed in furtherance of any political or democratic movement is regarded as a political offence.
• Summary: House arrest as a punitive measure has been viewed differently depending on the socio-political context. The poor conditions of Indian prisons and the absence of political will in proper monitoring means this option has to be viewed favourably.

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

India's Anti-Defection law - Time for some changes

• The story: The Leader of Opposition in the Goa Legislative Assembly was set to move a private member’s resolution to recommend to the Central government to address the various issues associated with the anti-defection law.
• About the Act: The Tenth Schedule — popularly known as the Anti-Defection Act — was included in the Constitution via the 52nd Amendment Act, 1985 and sets the provisions for disqualification of elected members on the grounds of defection to another political party.

1. The grounds for disqualification under the Anti-Defection Law are as follows:

If an elected member voluntarily gives up his membership of a political party.
If he votes or abstains from voting in such House contrary to any direction issued by his political party or anyone authorised to do so, without obtaining prior permission. (As a pre-condition for his disqualification, his abstention from voting should not be condoned by his party or the authorised person within 15 days of such incident)
If any independently elected member joins any political party.
If any nominated member joins any political party after the expiry of six months.

• Defections and mergers: As per the 1985 Act, a 'defection' by one-third of the elected members of a political party was considered a 'merger'. But the 91st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003, changed this and now at least two-thirds of the members of a party have to be in favour of a "merger" for it to have validity in the eyes of the law. The members so disqualified can stand for elections from any political party for a seat in the same House. The decision on questions as to disqualification on ground of defection are referred to the Chairman or the Speaker of such House, which is subject to ‘Judicial review’.
• Issues: There are many criticisms of it.

1. It undermines representative democracy - After enactment of the Anti-defection law, the MP or MLA has to follow the party’s direction blindly.
2. It undermines legislatures - The core role of an elected MLA or MP is to examine and decide on a policy, bills, and budgets. Instead, the MP becomes just another number to be tallied by the party on any vote that it supports or opposes.
3. It undermines parliamentary democracy - In the parliamentary form, the government is accountable daily through questions and motions and can be removed any time it loses the support of the majority of members of the Lok Sabha. This chain of accountability is now broken by making legislators accountable primarily to the political party. So anti-defection law is acting against the concept of parliamentary democracy.
4. Controversial role of Speaker - In many instances, the Speaker (usually from the ruling party) has delayed deciding on the disqualification. The Supreme Court has tried to plug this by ruling that the Speaker has to decide the case in three months, but it is not clear what would happen if a Speaker does not do so.
5. No recognition of split - Due to the 91st constitutional amendment 2004, the anti-defection law created an exception for anti-defection ruling. According to this, if two-thirds of the strength of a party should agree for a ‘merger’ then it will not be counted as a defection. The amendment does not recognise a ‘split’ in a legislature party and instead recognises a ‘merger’.

• Some solutions: If government stability is an issue due to people defecting from their parties, the answer is for parties to strengthen their internal part of democracy. There is a need for legislation that governs political parties in India. Such a law should bring political parties under RTI, strengthen intra-party democracy, etc. The Chairman/Speaker of the house, being the final authority in terms of defection, affects the doctrine of separation of powers. So, transferring this power to higher judiciary or to Election Commission (recommneded by 2nd ARC report) may curb the menace of defection. In order to shield the detrimental effect of the anti-defection law on representative democracy, the scope of the law can be restricted to only those laws, where the defeat of government can lead to loss of confidence.

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• 6. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Prelims, GS Paper 3)

Sports and doping

• The story: The 2020 games, in Tokyo from July 23rd, shaped up to be among the strangest in the competition’s history. Because of Covid-19, even their name is out of date, for they are taking place a year late. And contagion-prevention means most stadiums will be empty of spectators, so events will take place in silence!
• No Russians around: The 2020 games are unusual in that they are the first summer games since 1984’s — which were boycotted by the Soviet Union — at which Russia will not be present. Some of its athletes will participate as individuals, under the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee, but the national team has been banned in the aftermath of one of the biggest doping scandals in the history of sport.
• Systematic fraud: Between 2011 and 2015, Russia systematically doped hundreds of athletes. It roped in its spy agencies to subvert the anti-doping tests overseen by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), then fabricated data. A controversial court ruling in 2020 reduced Russia’s initial four-year ban to two, which will expire in 2022.

1. The International Olympic Committee now says testing in the run-up to them will be the most extensive yet conducted.
2. Though new technology and increasingly strict rules have indeed made doping trickier than in the past, thousands of the 11,000-odd athletes at the Tokyo games could nonetheless be cheating.
3. Steroids, erythropoietin (EPO) and newer, less familiar performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) will have bulked their muscles, enriched their blood and allowed them to train harder than unenhanced humans would find possible. New drugs, clever tactics and institutional indifference or corruption could meanwhile help them outwit testers.

• Covid-19 and new problems: The pandemic may have made things worse. Since the effects of PEDs last much longer than the drugs stay in an athlete’s body, elite competitors are subject to testing even when they are not competing. Travel bans and lockdowns have disrupted that system.

1. In 2019, Nike closed down its much-publicised Oregon Project, a training camp for elite runners, after Alberto Salazar, the head coach there, was given a four-year ban for doping.
2. Kenya is famous for the dominance of its middle- and long-distance runners. These days that reputation is looking tarnished. The Athletics Integrity Unit, which polices anti-doping in athletics, lists 68 Kenyan runners currently banned from competing, including Wilson Kipsang, a former Olympic medallist and world-record holder.
3. Several other Olympic champions will miss the Tokyo games for drugs violations, including Sun Yang, a Chinese swimmer, and Brianna Rollins-McNeal, an American hurdler.

• Why dope: Athletes dope because drugs offer big advantages, and un-doped rivals have no hope of matching them. WADA, the rules of which bind many sports, maintains a list of hundreds of banned substances. They range from obscure chemicals with names like IGF-1 LR3 and AOD-9604 to insulin (to boost muscle size), amphetamines (for their stimulating effects) and even diuretics (used to mask the presence of other drugs).
• Better gaming through chemistry: The best-known PEDs are anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS), which are close chemical cousins of testosterone, the chief male sex hormone. Athletes take them to increase the size and strength of their muscles, and for their purported ability to enhance recovery after exercise, which allows people to train harder than would otherwise be possible.
• Second best: After anabolic steroids, the best-known doping drug is probably EPO, a natural substance which stimulates production of red blood cells. An artificial version was developed in the late 1980s to treat anaemia. It (and its chemical cousins) quickly became rampant in endurance sports such as running and cycling. Red blood cells transport oxygen around the body, and the supply of oxygen to an athlete's muscles is an important limiting factor in endurance exercise. So boosting red-blood-cell counts can allow superhuman efforts.
• Latest: Most new drugs are created by the pharmaceutical industry. Selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) are experimental drugs intended to provide similar benefits to AAS, but with fewer side-effects. Researchers hope they will help treat muscle-wasting diseases. SARMs have attracted sporting interest too. The pipeline of new drugs is unlikely to run dry, for the human body contains hundreds of processes and chemical targets that might be tweaked to boost sporting performance.
• Summary: Money and national pride complicate things a lot. Though WADA oversees the anti-doping system for many sports, it relies on national authorities to do most of the legwork. Lack of will is also a problem. Sport brings national glory, which can make questioning success risky. Countries and companies pay both for top-level sport and for the anti-doping system which polices it. America’s government, fed up with what it sees as a limp response to the Russian scandal, passed a law in December known as the Rodchenkov Act. It tries to assert American criminal jurisdiction over any sports event involving American athletes or companies, anywhere in the world. It gives American prosecutors the ability to impose ten-year prison sentences and $1m fines on those found to have aided doping (though it does not apply to individual athletes).

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

Neurological disorders

• The story: A recent study published in the ‘Lancet Global Health’ is the first comprehensive analysis of India's neurological diseases burden from 1990 to 2019. It is a part of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, which was published by the India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative. The "India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative" is a joint initiative of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) along with other public health institutions.
• Neurological disorders: These are diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system. In other words, the brain, spinal cord, cranial nerves, peripheral nerves, nerve roots, autonomic nervous system, neuromuscular junction, and muscles.

1. Non-Communicable Neurological Disorders - Stroke, Headache disorders, Epilepsy, Cerebral palsy, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, Brain and central nervous system cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Multiple sclerosis, Motor neuron diseases, and other neurological disorders.
2. Communicable Neurological Disorders - Encephalitis, Meningitis, Tetanus.
3. Injury-related Neurological Disorders - Traumatic brain injuries, Spinal cord injuries.

• Points to note: Neurological disorders contribute 10% of the total disease burden in India. There is a growing burden of non-communicable neurological disorders in the country, which is mainly attributable to the ageing of the population. The contribution of non-communicable neurological disorders to total DALYs (disability adjusted life-years) in India doubled from 4% in 1990 to 8·2% in 2019, and the contribution of injury-related neurological disorders increased from 0·2% to 0·6%. DALY, a time-based measure that combines years of life lost due to premature mortality and years of life lost due to time lived in states of less than full health, or years of healthy life lost due to disability.
• Leading diseases: Stroke, headache disorders, and epilepsy are the leading contributors to neurological disorders burden in India. Among non-communicable neurological disorders, stroke is the third leading cause of death in India, and dementias are the fastest growing neurological disorder. Headache is the commonest neurological disorder affecting 1 in 3 Indians, and is often neglected in terms of public health priority. Migraine affects females more than males, greatly affecting adults in the working age population.
• Factors: Among the known risk factors for neurological disorders, burden, high blood pressure, air pollution, dietary risks, high fasting plasma glucose, and high body-mass index are the leading contributors.
• Summary: The study has called for increased awareness, early identification, cost-effective treatment and rehabilitation among other efforts to reduce the burden of neurological disorders in each state. Headaches, especially migraine, need to be recognised as a public health problem and included under the National Non-Communicable Diseases programme. There is a need to address the shortage of trained neurology workforce, and strengthen early detection and cost-effective management of neurological disorders in the country. Policies and practices focusing on safe births, preventing head injury and stroke would help in averting a substantial proportion of epilepsy

Exclusion errors in "One Nation One Ration Card Scheme"

• The story: To tackle the problem of food security for migrant workers, the government introduced the One Nation One Ration Card scheme (ONORC) in 2020. It allows a beneficiary to access his food entitlements from anywhere in India irrespective of the place where the ration card is registered.
• Status: Thirty-two States and Union territories completed the formalities of the scheme, including linking beneficiaries’ ration cards with their Aadhaar numbers and installing e-Point of Sale (e-POS) machines in each FPS. The full mobility of food subsidy under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 relies on digitisation of the public distribution system (PDS), a network of over 5,00,000 fair-price shops (FPS). The Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IMPDS) portal records all purchases made under ONORC.
• Challenges: The digitisation of this PDS process, through Aadhaar-linked ration cards and smart cards, has been pushed in an effort to reduce leakages. However, there has been a rise of exclusion errors in post-Aadhaar seeding. There are many sections of society who still don’t have Aadhar Cards, thereby depriving them of food security. Not only PDS, most of the anti-poverty, rural employment, welfare and food security schemes were historically based on domicile-based access and restricted people to access government social security, welfare and food entitlements at their place of origin. An FPS receives the monthly quota of products strictly in accordance with the number of people assigned to it. The ONORC, when fully operational, would disrupt this practice, as some FPSs may have to cater to more numbers of cards even as others cater to less, owing to migration of people.
• Solutions: If emergencies continue to hamper uptake at ration shops, alternate delivery channels can be considered for delivering food grains to vulnerable groups. Food security should be seen from a broader framework of nutritional security. Therefore, ONORC must allow the portability of Integrated Child Development Services, Mid-Day Meals, immunisation, health care and other facilities. In the longer run, the PDS system may be replaced by a fool-proof food coupon system or direct benefit transfer.A Below Poverty Line family can buy rice, pulses, sugar and oil from any Kirana store at the market price, by either paying fully through the coupon or by cash.

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

SC system for Safe Digital Transmission of bail orders

• The story: The Supreme Court of India announced on July 16, 2021, to implement a system for safe digital transmission of its bail orders to jails across India.
• Points to note: With the implementation of ‘safe digital transmission of bail order’ scheme,  authorities will not be required to wait for authentic orders to release prisoners.

1. A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana has directed Secretary-General of Supreme Court to submit proposal on safe digital transmission of its bail orders scheme.
2. The bench directed to implement scheme within a month. It also requested states to provide information on availability of internet connection in jails across India because, digital transmission scheme would require an internet connection. Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave has been appointed as amicus curiae to aid implementation of scheme.

• History: The Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance, on July 13, 2021, of delay by Uttar Pradesh authorities in releasing 13 prisoners who were granted bail by supreme court on July 8, 2021. Prisoners were juveniles when they were convicted and have been lodged in Agra Central jail for 14 to 22 years in a murder case.

SEBI introduces ‘Expected loss-based’ rating scale

• The story: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced a new framework for “expected loss-based rating scale”.
• Key points: Under the framework, credit rating agencies are required to provide expected loss-based ratings for projects and instruments which are associated with infrastructure sector. SEBI introduced expected loss-based rating, divided into a scale of seven levels, from lowest to highest expected loss. This new scale will be used by credit rating agencies to rate projects or instruments associated with infrastructure sector to start with.
• Details: All provisions in latest circular, except those related to standardisation of rating scales, will be applicable for Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) with ‘immediate effect’. It was issued by exercising powers under Section 11 (1) of Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992.
• Seven level of losses: Seven expected level of losses on new scale prescribed by SEBI include-

   Lowest expected loss
   Very low expected loss
   Low expected loss
   Moderate expected loss
   High expected loss
  Very high expected loss and
   Highest expected loss.

• Instruments rated ‘EL 1’ (Expected Loss) will be considered to have lowest expected loss while those rated ‘EL 7’ indicate highest expected loss. To standardise usage of rating scales, rating agencies have been asked to align their rating scales with rating scales prescribed by financial sector regulator or authority. In case guidelines are absence, rating scales prescribed by SEBI will be followed. CRAs are required to comply with guidelines by March 31, 2022.

Male Guardian requirement for Women attending Hajj stopped

• The story: According to Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, Saudi Arabia, women can now register for annual Hajj pilgrimage without male guardian (marham). The Hajj is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which is considered as holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims which is must to carry at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims.
• Points to note: In registration guidelines of Hajj for domestic pilgrims, ministry highlights, women do not need require a male guardian to register, and could do registration along with other women. Women wishing to perform Hajj will have to register individually.
• Background: India had announced same rule in 2017 when Modi government declared that women could go on Haj without a male companion. Muslim women were exempted from mahram and also from lottery system. Following the rule of 2017, number of women who performed Hajj without mahram was 1,171 in 2018 which increased to 2,230 in 2019. Pilgrimage was stopped in 2020 because of rising number of coronavirus cases.
• Empowering Muslim women:  There are several factors suggesting central governments’ efforts towards empowerment of women. On August 22, 2017 triple talaq was abolished putting gender equality as the first place. In 2018, Hajj subsidy was abolished following which in 2019, two lakh Indian Muslims had performed Hajj without subsidy. Removal of Hajj subsidy has helped in saving Rs 700 crore. This money was used to empower women from minority communities by educating them. This effort has resulted into reduction of dropout rate among girls has to 30 per cent from 70 per cent.

US Navy hands over MH-60R multi role helicopters to India

• The story: The United States Navy has handed over first two MH-60R Multi Role Helicopters (MRH) to Indian Navy, further strengthening the India-US defence relationship.
• Details: The Indian Navy is procuring 24 of MH-60R helicopters manufactured by Lockheed Martin. Helicopters are being procured under foreign military sales from US at an estimated cost of USD 2.4 billion. Indian Cabinet had cleared purchase of these helicopters from USA in February 2020 before historic visit of then US President Donald Trump. First batch of Indian crew is currently undergoing training in US. These helicopters are considered as world’s most advanced maritime helicopter.
• Why: The induction of MH-60R helicopters would enhance three-dimensional capabilities of Indian Army. Helicopters would be modified with several unique equipment and weapons. It will provide India with capability to perform anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare missions. India would also be able to perform secondary missions like vertical replenishment, search & rescue and communications relay. India will use enhanced capability as deterrent against regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defence.
• India-U.S. defence relations: These have steadily improved since 2008. Defence trade has increased from U.S.$ 1 billion to U.S.$ 18 billion. United States is the second largest arms supplier to India, after Russia. India has procured- C-130 Hercules aircraft, P-8 Poseidon aircraft, C-17 Globemaster aircraft, AH-64 Apache helicopters, CH-47 Chinook helicopters and M777 Howitzer guns. USA also granted “unique Major Defence Partner (MDP)” designation to India in 2016 and Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 (STA-1) status in 2018. India became 37th country globally and third Asian country (after South Korea and Japan) to acquire STA-1 status.

9.1 Today's best editorials to read

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• SECTION 3 - MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)

Solve the online quiz given, right now. Check scores, and relative performance!

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