(The Gist of PIB)  Operation Greens scheme

Operation Greens scheme

• In the budget speech of Union Budget 2018-19, a new Scheme “Operation Greens” was announced on the line of Operation Flood.

About:

• It is an outlay of Rs.500 crores to promote Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs), agri-logistics, processing facilities and professional management.
• The Ministry has formulated a scheme for integrated development of Tomato, Onion and Potato (TOP) value chain.

Key highlights:

• As per the terms of the OG Scheme, during a glut situation, evacuation of surplus production from producing areas to consumption centres will be undertaken as determined by the following:
• When the prices fall below preceding 3 years’ average market price at the time of harvest;
• When the prices fall more than 50% compared to last year’s market price at the time of harvest;
• When the prices fall less than the benchmark, if any, fixed by the State / Central Government for a specified period.

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Ease of Living - The Central Tenet of Union Budget 2020-21

• Our Prime Minister has laid before us Ease of Living as a goal to be achieved on behalf of all citizens”, said the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget 2020-21.
• This has been achieved by farmer friendly initiatives such as agriculture credit target of Rs. 15 lakh crore for 2020-21; schemes of “Kisan Rail” and “Krishi Udaan” for a seamless national cold supply chain for perishables; and expansion of PM-KUSUM to provide 20 lakh farmers for setting up stand-alone solar pumps.
• With this backdrop, our government shall work towards taking the country forward so that we can leapfrog to the next level of health, prosperity and wellbeing.

Three prominent themes:

• Aspirational India in which all sections of the society seek better standards of living, with access to health, education and better jobs. Its components are agriculture, irrigation and rural development; wellness, water and sanitation; education and skill mdevelopment.
• Economic Development for all, indicated in the Prime Minister’s exhortation of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas”. This would entail pervasive economic reforms and yielding more space for the private sector to ensure higher productivity and greater efficiency. Three components of which are industry, commerce and investment; infrastructure and the ‘New Economy’.
• Caring Society, based on Antyodaya, which is both humane and compassionate. Three components of which arc women and child, social welfare; culture and tourism and environment and climate change.

The Government aims to:

• Achieve seamless delivery of services through digital governance.
• Improve physical quality of life through National.

Infrastructure Pipeline:

• Mitigate Risks through Disaster Resilience.
• Boost Social security through pension and insurance penetration.

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Seven myths on corporate governance cleared (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 4: Ethics
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Corporate governance and its myths

Context:

• Largely, people believe that only public limited companies or conglomerates and established companies need to be concerned about corporate governance.
  Reasons behind this feeling:
• They feel these companies can benefit from implementing corporate governance practices; whereas the reality is that all companies—big and small, private and public, start-ups etc—compete in an environment where good governance is imperative.
• One size doesn’t fit all, but right-sized governance practices will positively impact the performance and long-term viability of every company.
• Corporate governance is a tricky topic that board members and senior management must constantly revisit and improvise. The business environment sometimes experiences a recession and, at times, a boom.

What are the common myths about corporate governance that need illumination?

Corporate governance is just a theoretical term:

• Reality: The myth that corporate governance ‘doesn’t apply’ comes from a view that it’s only theoretical and doesn’t impact the bottom line or performance. Some feel that it cannot be tailored to a company’s size and stage of development.
• In reality, all companies (with or without corporate governance) compete in an environment where good governance is a business imperative in relation to things like raising capital, obtaining loans, attracting and maintaining talented and qualified people, meeting the demands and expectations of shareholders, and expansion of firms.

Corporate governance does not have a single accepted definition; therefore, it is a vague idea:

• Reality: Broadly, the term describes the processes, practices and structures through which a company manages its business and affairs, and works to meet its financial, operational and strategic objectives and achieve long-term sustainability.
• It is generally a matter of law based on corporate legislation, securities laws and policies, and decisions of courts and securities regulators.
• Directors owe a duty of loyalty to the companies they serve, and have a fiduciary duty to act honestly, in good faith and in the company’s best interests.
• Corporate governance is also shaped by other sources such as stock exchanges, the media, shareholders, NGOs and interest groups. Corporate governance practices help directors meet their duties and the expectations from them.

One cannot expect a return on investment in corporate governance:

• Reality: Some companies view investment in corporate governance as a mandatory expenditure, whereas few realise that it gives significant returns—directly and indirectly.
• Companies with good governance also receive better credit ratings, which, in turn, help them get better interest rates, better supplier terms and improved working capital.
• Better-governed firms do better.......................................................

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Legislation compliance ensures good governance:

• Reality: Legislation can never account for a large proportion of corporate frauds; firms that want to get into frauds can find loopholes in the system. Firms cannot rely on compliance to create ethical behaviour.
• A lot of large-scale corporate frauds are committed by employees at firms that comply with all regulations.

Audit committees are powerful to reinforce corporate governance:

• Reality: While audit committees take the blame for lapses in governance, the reality is boards often do not give the audit committee the right scope or support it with the right processes.
• Audit committees’ ineptness has little to do with their powers or the quality of the directors. Their focus is often diluted as committee charters and responsibilities are rarely defined, and the group becomes an owner of risks which the board of the firm does not want.
• This impedes oversight on governance and increases risks of frauds. Firms that formalise the audit committee charter and conduct meetings and agendas at the beginning and make those reports available to public build market confidence.

A strong fraud management system is the most important way to record misconduct:

• Reality: When a firm establishes fraud detection and controls systems, but doesn’t take actions that are most important, it loses sense. Fraud management is not enough to reduce misconduct.
• To build an effective governance ....................................................

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Conclusion:

• Organisations must reinforce the commitment to integrity with a strong ‘tone from the top’ and demonstration of organisational justice. A lot depends on conduct of top management people’s behaviour.

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Covid crisis: What India can do to reverse economic decline (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Fiscal stimulus programs
Mains level: Coordinate fiscal development programs required for revive the economic decline

Context:

• Central banks can only provide money. They cannot spend it.
• Given the huge collapse in private spending, India can launch a fiscal stimulus programme to reverse the economic decline and job losses due to the lockdown associated with the coronavirus.

Need the fiscal stimulus programme:

• The fiscal stimulus programme will need to be bold and large, in the range of 10-15% of GDP, much like in China, Japan and the US.
• A fiscal stimulus is not necessarily associated with rising inflationary trends, or macroeconomic stability, or loss in growth or jobs.
• To minimise the downside risks associated with fiscal stimulus, it should be launched as an integral part of a comprehensive structural reform programme aimed at reviving economic growth and increasing the pace of job creation.

How will this be achieved?

• Fiscal stimulus will need to focus more on increasing investments in physical and human infrastructure, promoting entrepreneurship, and achieving gender equality and green growth.
  Infrastructure and growth:
• A fiscal stimulus programme during a .......................................

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Gaps in infrastructure financing:

• India’s infrastructure financing gap is huge, at over $1 billion a day. It is growing exponentially.
• A fiscal stimulus could close this financing gap immediately. Shifting the responsibility to commercial banks as the source of debt funds to finance infrastructure projects has not worked in the past.
• Banks often tend to lack the experience in project financing, and infrastructure financing crowds out financing available to private entrepreneurs.
• Bank financing of infrastructure also creates asset-liability mismatches, given that banks attract short-term deposit and infrastructure projects need long-term investments.

What kind of fiscal stimulus needs to be?

• A fiscal stimulus needs to be well-coordinated.
• The Ministry of Finance takes the lead, it can help coordinate with the line ministries and state governments to strengthen the institutional and legal framework for infrastructure projects.
• Problems of moral hazard and adverse selection can be resolved by reducing the opaque structures of projects, providing the information required to improve their risk-return profiles, and establishing project and sector-specific institutional frameworks with independent regulators.
• Goods and services cannot be produced and delivered without roads, electricity and telecommunication. And moving people is as important, if not more important, as moving goods.
• Investing more in roads, railways, bridges and schools should be an integral part of fiscal stimulus agenda. If this is important in the current US context, the role of infrastructure is even more fundamental in India, where there’s much more to be done than in the US and other advanced economies.

Entrepreneurship and job creation:

• India needs to create 10 million jobs every year to employ new people who join the labour force every year.
• Evidence from 500 districts in India has shown that there is a strong link between entrepreneurship and job growth. It is a worrying trend that there are too few entrepreneurs in India for its stage of development.
• The link between entrepreneurship ..............................................

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Gender and growth:

• An economic downturn adversely impacts women more than men. India’s rating in gender balance in economic participation and entrepreneurship is already amongst the lowest in the world.
• The coronavirus downturn has worsened it further. India’s fiscal stimulus will need to focus on improving women’s access to education and infrastructure.
• Due to the nature of household responsibilities, inadequate infrastructure particularly affects women.
• The lack of specific transport infrastructure and paved roads within villages is a big bottleneck for women, given the constraints in geographic mobility imposed by safety and social norms.
• Investment in local transport infrastructure will directly alleviate a major constraint for women to access markets.
• Women will play a bigger role in India’s future economic growth, if supported by the fiscal stimulus programme.
• This support can come in many forms: giving priority to women-owned enterprises in state procurement of goods and services, promoting female labour force participation in public sector jobs, reducing discrimination and wage differentials, and promoting women into leadership and managerial roles.
• Indeed, empowering half of the potential workforce will have significant economic benefits that go beyond promoting just gender equality.

Green growth:

• A key challenge for policymakers is how to prevent jumping from ‘coronavirus frying pan into the climate fire’.
• The impact of climate change is being felt by everybody in India. More than 70% of India’s population is exposed to outdoor air pollution, which has contributed to one in eight deaths and has reduced the average.................................................

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Conclusion:

• India has the potential to achieve double-digit growth, thanks to globalisation, the rise of the middle class and demographic dividend. But growth is not automatic.
• Globalisation does not automatically engender growth. It needs infrastructure—ports, roads, communication, education—to take advantage of trade.
• The link between demography and growth is not automatic. A demographic dividend could morph into a demographic disaster if people don’t have jobs. India is well positioned to benefit from a bold fiscal stimulus programme.

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Prelims Questions:

Q1. With reference to the Saras collection, consider the following statements:
1. It is a unique initiative of GeM and the Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), Ministry of Rural Development.
2. The Saras collection showcases daily utility products made by rural self-help groups.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: ..............................

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Mains Questions:
Q1. Discuss the role of ..........................................................?

Equal freedom and forced labour (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Labour laws in India
Mains level: Historical context of labour laws and it process of development

Context:

• Soon after Independence, while the Constitution of a free India was being drafted, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the chairperson of the Drafting Committee, was asked to prepare a note on the idea of Fundamental Rights.
• In a terse document, B.R. Ambedkar observed that thus far, the purpose of Constitutions had been to limit state power, in order to preserve the freedom of the individual.
• But this was too narrow an understanding of freedom, because it ignored the fact that often, it was private parties — individuals and corporations — that exercised great sway over the economic and social life of the nation.
• B.R. Ambedkar therefore argued that fundamental rights must also “eliminate the possibility of the more powerful having the power to impose arbitrary restraints on the less powerful by withdrawing from the control he has over the economic life of the people” — or, more euphemistically, to tackle the “the dictatorship of the private employer”.

Labour rights:

• B.R. Ambedkar, a long-time advocate for the rights of labour, and who had been instrumental in the passage of an eight-hour working day a few years before, was writing as part of a long-standing intellectual and political tradition.
• Labour movements had been key ............................................

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How do we understand the concepts of “force” and “freedom” in the backdrop of this history?

• A certain narrow understanding would have it that I am only “forced” to do something if there is a gun to my head or a knife at my throat. In all other circumstances, I remain “free”.
• As we all know, however, that is a very impoverished understanding of freedom.
• It ignores the compulsion that is exerted by serious and enduring differences of power, compulsion that may not take a physical form, but instead, have a social or economic character that is nonetheless as severe.
• In such circumstances, people can be placed in positions where they have no genuine choices left. As K.T. Shah, another member of the Constituent Assembly, famously wrote, “necessitous men are not free men”.

Judicial stand:

• In 1983, the Supreme Court understood this point. The Court was called upon to address the exploitation of migrant and contract labourers, who had been put to work constructing the Asian Games Village.
• In a landmark judgment, PUDR vs. Union of India, the Court held that the right against forced labour included the right to a minimum wage.
• It noted that often, migrant and contract labourers had “no choice but to accept any work that came [their] way, even if the remuneration offered... is less than the minimum wage”.
• Consequently, the Court held that “the .........................................

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Aims of labour laws:

• The purpose of labour laws, which arose out of a long period of struggle (often accompanied by state-sanctioned violence against workers), has always been to mitigate this imbalance of power.
• The shape and form of these laws has, of course, varied over time and in different countries, but the basic impulse has always remained the same: in B.R. Ambedkar’s words, to secure the “rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, in both the public and the private spheres.
• In some countries, the path chosen has been to give workers a stake in private governance, through strong trade union laws and mandatory seats for labour in the governing boards of firms (“co-determination”).
• In other countries (such as India), the path has been to create a detailed set of laws, covering different aspects of the workplace, and depend upon State agencies for their enforcement.

The Indian situation:

• India’s labour law structure has been criticised on multiple counts.
• It is argued that it sets up a labour bureaucracy that is prone to corruption; that the adjudicatory mechanisms are inefficient;
• the rights that labour laws grant are effectively submerged in a creaking judicial system, thus providing no real relief;
• that the system creates an ...................................................

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Way forward:

• What is very clear, however, is that the steps being taken by various State governments, ostensibly under cover of the COVID-19 pandemic, are grossly unconstitutional: various State governments are in the process of removing labour laws altogether (for a set period of time).
• What this means, in practice, is that the economic power exercised by capital will be left unchecked.
• In his Note on Fundamental Rights, B.R. Ambedkar pointed out that this would be nothing other than the freedom to “increase hours of work and reduce rates of wages”.

Conclusion:

• Ironically, an increase in working hours and a removal of minimum wages are two proposals strongly under discussion.
• If the Constitution is to remain a charter of freedom, however, it must be equal freedom — and that must be the yardstick from which we measure proposed legal changes in the shadow of COVID-19.

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Prelims Questions:

Q1. With reference to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), consider the following statements:
1. It is the only centre in the country which is pooling the samples for doing testing of COVID-19.
2. It was established in 1977 and is located in New Delhi.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: ........................................

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Mains Questions:
Q1. The steps being taken by ...............................................................?

16 Actions Points for Agriculture

● The key aspect of the Budget announcement was the 16 actions points for boosting agricultural incomes. Let's elaborate each of the points in terms of their impact over the agriculture and allied sector.

1. The finance minister urged state governments to implement three model laws enacted by the central government. Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016; Model Agricultural Produce and Live stock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act,2017;Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2018.
2. Water stress-related issues are now a serious concern across the country. The government is proposing comprehensive measures for one hundred water-stressed districts.
3. While recalling her first budget speech of July2019, the Finance Minister had stated that" annadata" can be "urjadata” too. The PM KUSUM scheme removed farmers' dependence on diesel and kerosene and linked pump sets to solar energy. She has proposed to expand the scheme to provide 20 lakh farmers for setting up stand-alone solar pumps and additional 15lakh farmers solarise their grid-connected pumpsets. Besides, a scheme to enable farmers to setup solar power generation capacity on their fallow or barren lands and to sell it to the grid would be operationalised.
4. The finance minister stressed the need for encouraging balance duse of all kinds of fertilisers including the traditional organic and other innovative fertilisers. She stressed the need for taking necessary steps to change the prevailing incentive regime (in terms of providing fertiliser subsidy), which encourages excessive use of chemical fertilisers. Excessive and imbalanced use of fertilisers at present is adversely impacting the environment as well as public health.
5. India has an estimated capacity of 162 million tonnes (MT) of agri-warehousing, cold storage, reefer van facilities, etc. NABARD will undertake an exercise to map and geo-tag them. In Addition, the Finance Minister has proposed creating warehousing, in line with Warehouse Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) norms. The central government would provide Viability Gap Funding for setting up such efficient warehouses at the block and taluk level. This can be achieved where States can facilitate land and are on a PPP mode Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) would undertake such warehouse building on their land. In the absence of warehousing, a significant chunk of the produce, especially fruits and vegetables gets destroyed thus impacting the farmers' income.
6. For building backward linkages in the agricultural sector, the Budget has proposed a village storage scheme whichM would be run by the Self-help Groups (SHGs). This will provide farmers the ability to hold stocks of agricultural produce at the village level and reduce their logistics cost. Finance minister aptly referred to this measure by stating that women SHGs shall regain their position as 'Dhaanya Lakshmi'.
7. The Finance minister also gave thrust on building a seamless national cold supply chain for perishables, inclusive of milk, meat and fish for which the Indian Railways will set up a 'Kisan Rail' through PPP mode. Refrigerated coaches would be available in Express and Freight Trains as well under the proposal announced. This move would likely reduce the transport cost of the milk. This measure would help in transporting milk from milk surplus regions (northern, western and southern parts of the country) to milk deficit regions (eastern and north-eastern parts) at lower costs.
8. 'Krishi Udaan' will be launched by the Ministry Of Civil Aviation on international and national routes. This will immensely help improve value realization especially in North-East and tribal districts. Through collaboration with a private airline, Tripura Government has initiated exports of Queen Pineapple to Dubai and Doha Last year.
9. Horticulture sector with its current producer of 311 MT exceeds production of food grains. For better marketing and export, the Finance minister has proposed supporting horticulture intensive states through cluster-based approach with a focus on 'one product, one district'.
10. The Budget also proposes expansion of integrated farming systems in rained areas. Multi-tier cropping, bee-keeping, solar pumps, solar energy production in non-cropping season will be added. Zero-Budget Natural Farming (as mentioned in July 2019 Budget) shall also be included. The government would strengthen online national organic products market portalon 'jaivik kheti'.
11. The Budget has stated that financing on Negotiable Warehousing Receipts (e-NWR) has grossed more than Rs. 6000 crore. NWRs are documents issued by warehouses to depositors (farmers) against commodities deposited in ware houses. NWRs can be traded, sold, swapped and used as collateral to support borrowing loans from banks. These receipts were made negotiable under Warehouse (Development And Regulation) Act, 2007 and are regulated by Warehousing Development and RegulatoryAuthority. The Finance Minister has proposed integration of e-NWR with the e-NAM. Currently585 mendes have joined the e-NAM portal andanother 400 mandis will be joining this portalsoon.
12. Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) and cooperatives are active in the agriculture credit space. The NABARD refinance scheme will be further expanded. The Union Budget proposed increase in agriculture credit disbursement target of Rs. 15 lakh crore for 2020-21 against actual disbursement of close to Rs. 13 lakh crore in 2019-20. All eligible beneficiaries of PAKISTAN will be covered under the Kisan Credit Card scheme.
13. One of the significant measures announced by the Finance Minister was increasing the milk processing capacity from 53.5 million MT currently to 108 million MT by 2025. This step would help in achieving the target set under the National Action Plan on Dairy Development (prepared by Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairy), of increasing organized milk handling by both cooperatives and private sector by 20per percent and 30 percent respectively by 2023-24 from the current level of 21per percent equally shared by both. This will impact the building of village-level dairy infrastructure, increase in milk procurement, manufacturing of milk products and enhancement of marketing capacities.
14. The Union Budget proposes to put in place a framework for development, management and conservation of marine fishery resources. 'Blue Revolution' is being implemented through a centrally-sponsored scheme for Integrated Development and Management of Fisheries (IDMF) to achieve economic prosperity of fishermen and fish farmers and to contribute towards food and nutritional security through optimum utilisation of water resources for fisheries development in a sustainable manner, keeping In view the bio security and environmental concerns. It has been targeted to enhance the fish production from 107.95 lakh tonnes in 2015-16 to about 150 lakh tonnes by the end of 2019-20 under IDMF.
15. Youth in coastal areas benefit through fish processing and marketing. By 2022-23, the Finance Minister has aimed at raising fish production to 200 lakh tonnes. The government would promote the growth of algae, sea-weedand cage culture. The government would involve youth in fishery extension through 3477Sagar Mitras and 500 Fish Farmer Producer Organisations and set up a target of fishery exports worth of Rs. 1lakh crore by 2024-25.
16. Under DeenDayalAntyodaya Yojana-NationalUrban Livelihoods Mission, for alleviation of poverty, 58 lakh SHGs have been mobilised. TheUnion Budget has proposed to expand mobilisation of more SHGs

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Health reforms in budget 2020-21

Holistic vision of healthcare:

• Provided about Rs. 69,000 crores that is inclusive of Rs. 6400 crores for PradhanMantriJan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) for the health sector.
• More than 20,000 empanelled hospitals under the PMJDY but more is required inTier-2 and Tier-3 cities to meet the needs of poorer people. A Viability Gap funding window is proposed for setting up hospitals in the PPP mode. Aspirational Districts Will be covered where presently there are no Ayushman empanelled hospitals.This would also provide large scale employment opportunities to youth. Proceeds From taxes on medical devices would be used to support this vital health infrastructure.
• Expanding Jan Aushadhi Kendra Scheme to cover all districts offering 2000medicines and 300surgicals by 2024.

Reforms in medical education and practice:

• To meet the requirement of qualified medical doctors, a medical college is to be attached to an existing district hospital in PPP mode for Viability Gap Funding.
• Large hospitals with sufficient capacity are to be encouraged to offer resident doctors DNB/FNB courses under the National Board of Examinations.
• Special bridge courses to be designed by the Ministries of Health and Skill Development together with professional bodies to bring in equivalence.

Development Women and child development:

• More than six lakh angan wadi workers are equipped with smart phones to upload the nutritional status of more than 10 crore households under the POSHAN Abhiyan.
• It is proposed to appoint a task force to look into the issue of age of a girl entering motherhood in accordance to the changing society as well as lowering MMR. The task force will present its recommendations in six months’ time.
• Allocation of Rs. 35,600 crore for nutrition-related programmes for the financial year 2020-21. Health and Sanitation:
• Avery focused safe water (JalJeevan Mission) and comprehensive sanitation programme (Swachh Bharat Mission) have been launched to support the healthvision. That would reduce the disease burden on the poor.
• The total allocation for Swachh Bharat Mission is about Rs.12,300 crore in 2020-21.

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Union Budget 2020-21: A Fine Balancing Act

Introduction:

• Budget this year's budget is woven into three major themes; Aspirational India, Economic Development And a Caring Society.
• In line with thePrime Minister’s dream of ‘SabkaSaath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’;addressing the aspirations of India;
• It aims to provide a better standard of living through improved access to health and education.
• Furthering Sustainable growth and economic development, it aims to promote the private sector and ensures we develop a harmonious and caring society,which looks after each individual's needs and benefits.
• The agriculture and allied activities sector, in the recent past,has been going through several ups and downs. However, the government remains committed towards the target of doubling farmer’s income by 2022.

Key objectives:

• The budget highlights 16-action points which cover almost all aspects of the agriculture and allied activities sector.
• There remains a high disconnect between the agricultural output and low farmer income due to supply bottlenecks.
• The budget aims to provide support for an end-to-end value chain and puts emphasis on warehouse storage and development. Significant Attention has been given to the development of the blue economy and through that, India’s coastal regions.
• The move to create a cold supply chain, and launching refrigerated coaches with the help of Indian Railways is a welcome move towards improving the shelf-life of perishable produce.
• This budget recognizes the need to keep pace with frontier technologies.
• Service sectors constitute a major share of the economy and these steps are sure to boost growth in these areas, especially the IT services.

Scope for India:

• It is estimated that within the next decade, India would have the largest working age population.
• We can only reap the benefits of this demographic dividend if we take the necessary steps now.
• It is important to note that while having a large labour force is advantageous, appropriate skilling is crucial for improving productivity through New Education Policy.

Measures taken by the government:

• The Prime Minister has strongly advocated entrepreneurship and start-ups for driving growth and India has emerged as a major start-up ecosystem globally.
• To further encourage this movement, the budget has made provisions to provide tax relief in ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) held by employees in start-ups.
• The Government's decision to set up a seed fund to support start-ups in their early stages should provide immense boost to budding entrepreneurs.
• The government has introduced several measures for the financial sector. An important step is opening up the bond markets to foreign investors and extending the investment limit in outstanding corporate bonds by FPIs to 15% from the current 9%.
• The Government also plans to launch a new Debt-ETF, composed primarily of Government securities. The Benchmark 10-year bond would be a great place to start given its high liquidity.
• These Steps will help to; increase the depth of the bond market and provide financial intermediaries viable options for funding thereby reducing their dependence onScheduled Commercial Banks.

Role of MSMEs in GDP contribution:

• Micro, Medium, and SmallEnterprises (MSMEs) contribute nearly 29% to the country’s GDP.
• This Budget provides sufficient financing relief to the sector.
• As the major lenders in this sector, finances fromNBFCs (Non-Banking FinancialCorporations)will now be facilitated through theTReDs platform to facilitate the strained working capital.
• Moreover, in lieu of the on- goingstruggle faced by NBFCs, the budget proposes to move their eligibility limit for debt recovery under SARFAESIAct to an asset size of Rs. 100crore or loan sizeof Rs. 50 lakhs.

Improve the functioning of PSUs:

• The government remains committed to improving the functioning of PSUs.
• The move to float LIC publicly will not only bring in additional revenues for the government, but also increase transparency in the functioning of the organisation.
• The government’s steps to increase the decades old deposit insurance coverage of Rs. 1 lakh toRs. 5 lakh.
• The government has proposed to sell holding of Government in IDBI Bank.
• The government has also proposed the recovery eligibility limit for NBFCs reduced to asset size of 100 crore or loan size of 50 lakh.
• An important step towards long-term sustainable growth and employment is the government's announcement of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).
• The Budget provides adequate funding to the tune of Rs. 22,000 crore equity support to infrastructure finance companies, which could be leveraged further and create long-term debt finance for projects.
• The government has taken several steps to increase transparency and improve the credibility of its data. Through the budget, it has been decided for the first time, to report extra budgetary items, in terms of bonds and loan borrowings.

Towards completing economic challenges:

• Much like the overall economy, which has undergone various structural reforms, the budget also makes an important shift from the past by encouraging wealth creation.
• The Move towards gradually simplifying the corporate and personal tax regimes is an important step to restore confidence back in the economy.
• The taxpayers’ charter will also help to enhance the trust of investors and corporations in the government. It is quite unfounded that the markets registered a loss right after the budget.
• The markets were probably expecting some demand mobilizing policies or major personal tax cuts however, once the market realized the long-term structural reforms, it recovered all its losses in the next two days.
• This budget realizes and recognizes challenges towards achieving higher growth. In the last six months, since the formation of the new government and the announcement of budget(FY20) with it, the government has taken numerous steps which would allow the economy to reap benefits in the medium term.
• The fine balancing act by the government, using the escape clause’ under the FRBM Act, is a statement enough. Even with the challenging revenue collection scenario, the government continues to commit to adequate expenditure levels while maintaining fiscal prudence.

Conclusion:

• The budget is sound, rational and ticks all the boxes. Keeping in mind the challenges to economic growth, it strives to address short, medium and long-term growth prospects equally, without shocking the system.
• The Budget goes a long way towards our goals of building an aspirational India. The steps taken over the recent past will drive us towards the target of becoming a USD 5 trillion economy.

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The public policy dilemma (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2:Governance
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Balancing the conflicts and policy making between various stakeholders

Context:

• Since the days of Frank Knight, economists have differentiated between the two.

Differences between risk and uncertainty:

• Risk has a known probability distribution.
• For uncertainty, the probability distribution is unknown.
• COVID-19 makes us confront uncertainty, not risk.
• For uncertainty, there is a subjective probability distribution, which can, and does, vary from individual to individual.

Subjective probability distribution:

• Through information and experience the individual already possess.
• There are various rationality assumptions used by economists. They are often violated.
• Otherwise, behavioural economics wouldn’t have taken off.
• Typically, given a situation, when your decision doesn’t agree with someone, you say they are being irrational.
• However, with uncertainty, the problem may not be with rationality assumptions, but with differences in subjective probability distributions.

Availability of data affecting various factors:

• Because of COVID-19, there is a certain risk of getting infected. Let’s call this the infection rate — total infections divided by the total population.
• We don’t know this infection rate for India,.................................

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Who do we test?

• Those who show symptoms, those who have been in contact with confirmed patients and those who suffer from severe respiratory diseases.
• Most countries do something similar.
• In other words, when we work out an infection rate based on those tested, there is a sampling bias.
• This isn’t a proper infection rate.
• The only country where we have had something like a random sample is Iceland. There, the infection rate was 0.8 per cent.

Death rate:

• There are similar caveats about the death rate.
• If we mechanically divide number of deaths by the number of confirmed cases for India, we will get a death rate just over 3 per cent.
• The global figure is a little less than 7 per cent. But neither of these is a death rate for the total population, since only those with severe symptoms are included in infection numbers.
• Three per cent or seven per cent are over-estimates.
• In a controlled environment like Diamond Princess, death rate as a ratio of total passengers, and not those infected, was less than 0.4 per cent.
• The true infection rate and true death rate are not alarming numbers.

What does this have to do with differential subjective probability distributions?

• There are slices in India’s population pyramid with rural/urban and other spatial differences too.
• Consider two extreme types.
• Type A, who are globalised in information ..............................

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How Type B forms subjective probability?

• Type B, someone whose life expectancy is 60, without a fixed income stream and whose health concerns are tuberculosis and water-borne diseases, not COVID-19. Nor is access to information that globalised.
• High subjective probability will be attached to loss of livelihood and low probability to death from COVID. Both the types reflect subjective probabilities.
• Neither is “irrational”. There is tension between the two.
• Type A would like the lockdown to continue indefinitely, until long tail of the infection curve tapers off, perhaps beyond September.
• Type B would like lockdown to be eased soon, with necessary restrictions in hotspots.
• There is indeed tension between lives and livelihood.
• Even if health outcomes and information access are like Type A, but income is contingent on growth, preferences might mirror Type B.

Balancing differential individual preferences in public policy:

• Type A disproportionately influences policy. This determination of aggregate preferences is a dynamic process.
• Therefore, sooner or later, Type B contests this and as the lockdown is prolonged and livelihood costs mount, discontent surfaces, as it has across a range of countries.
• There were also welfare economics ..........................................

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Conclusion:

• Increasing or decreasing the lockdown decision illustrates the public policy dilemma.
• Without a revival in growth, tax-paying capacity of Type B is limited and with job losses, some Type As become Type Bs. The choice is starker.

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Prelims Questions:

Q1. With reference to the draft new rules for satellite TV channels, consider the following statements:
1. All channels have to take security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
2. Once granted, the clearance is valid for 10 years.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

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Mains Questions:
Q1. What are the major causes of ........................................................?

Cautionary tale (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Disaster Management
Prelims level: Styrene gas
Mains level: Loopholes in handling of Hazardous chemicals in India

Context:

• Two thousand people affected in a 5 km radius in a densely populated city, hundreds in hospital and 11 dead — the gas leak in Visakhapatnam revives dark memories of Bhopal in 1984, when the Union Carbide plant there caused one of the biggest industrial disasters ever.
• By all accounts, recurring instances of human oversight and callousness appear to have precipitated the disaster at the LG Polymers India unit.

Exceeding the capacity:

• The original owners of the plant, McDowell and Co, had sold it when the fast-developing city of Visakhapatnam drew uncomfortably close to it.
• It would have been wise to relocate since the hazardous feedstock of styrene was in use, but LG took it over in 1997 and continued production, admitting last year that it had exceeded the capacity permitted by its environmental clearance.
• It had then sought permission for expansion from the state authorities, though the central ministry of environment and forests is the competent authority. The ministry later dropped the matter in the belief that the company had lost interest.

Failure to secure environmental clearance:

• This series of unfortunate events may have laid the ground for the accident on May 7 — it is being said that the leak occurred because the styrene had been stored for a long time, due to the lockdown.
• A failure to check hazardous .................................

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Steps taken:

• The National Green Tribunal has ordered LG Polymers India to pay interim damages of Rs 50 crore and issued notices to the company, the Central Pollution Control Board, the state and the Centre.
• The police have registered a case of culpable homicide and causing grievous hurt against the management, under the Indian Penal Code.
• The YS Jaganmohan Reddy government has set up a five-member team to probe the incident, and the Union ministry of chemicals and fertilisers has advised chemical plants to reopen with caution.

Conclusion:

• Now, the probe report should be called in as soon as possible, action must be taken against the guilty and authorities issuing environmental clearances must identify any other defaulters and prevent them from restarting.

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On overzealous reservation (Mint)

Mains Paper 2:Polity
Prelims level: Scheduled Areas
Mains level: Reservations for STs in scheduled areas

Context:

The Supreme Court is right in considering cent per cent reservation as anathema to the constitutional scheme of equality even if it is for the laudable objective of providing representation to historically deprived sections.

Key highlights of the verdict:

• The verdict quashing the reservation of 100% of all teaching posts in ‘Scheduled Areas’ of Andhra Pradesh for local Scheduled Tribes is not against affirmative programmes as such, but a caution against implementing them in a manner detrimental to the rest of society.
• The Constitution Bench found that .........................................

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Chronic absenteeism:

• The State government did, in its original orders of 1986, and thereafter, in a subsequent order in 2000, was not without its own rationale.
• It found that there was chronic absenteeism among teachers who did not belong to those remote areas where the schools were located.

Viable solution:

• However, its solution of drafting only members of the local tribes was not a viable solution.
• The President, under Article 371D, has issued orders that a resident of a district/zone cannot apply to another district/zone for appointment.
• Thus, the 100% quota .....................................

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Criticism:

• It is still a matter of debate whether the ceiling has innate sanctity, but it is clear that wherever it is imperative that the cap be breached, a special case must be made for it.
• Such a debate should not divert attention from the fact that there is a continuing need for a significant quota for STs, especially those living in areas under the Fifth Schedule special dispensation.
• In this backdrop, it is somewhat disappointing that courts tend to record obiter dicta advocating a revision of the list of SCs and STs.

Conclusion:

• While the power to amend the lists notified by the President is not in dispute, it is somewhat uncharitable to say that the advanced and “affluent” sections within SCs and STs are cornering all benefits and do not permit any trickle-down.
• Indian society is still some distance from reaching that point.

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Tragedy on tracks (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: Social safety net
Mains level: Functions and responsibilities both centre and states

Context:

• Sixteen more names were added on Friday to the lengthening toll — of migrants run over by a freight train in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, after they, in exhaustion, fell asleep on the tracks, on the way to their homes.
• The livelihoods of these workers had dried up after the iron factory in Jalna, which employed them, had pulled down its shutters because of the lockdown. The workers were trekking to Bhusawal, about 150-km away, to catch a Shramik Special train to return to their homes in Madhya Pradesh.

Social safety net:

• The social safety net (SSN) consists of non-contributory assistance existing to improve lives of vulnerable families and individuals experiencing poverty and destitution.
• Examples of SSNs are non-contributory social pensions, in-kind and food transfers, conditional and unconditional cash transfers, fee waivers, public works, and school feeding programs.

Wheels of the country’s economy:

• There is little doubt that the migrant workers are essential and indispensable for the wheels of the country’s economy to turn. They help run factories, build roads and houses, harvest crops, collect garbage and pull rickshaws.
• But it’s a measure of....................................

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Conclusion:

• The public health challenge posed by the novel coronavirus has led to some meaningful conversations on improving the country’s healthcare facilities. It should also occasion discussions on putting in place social security nets for the migrant workers.
• After the pandemic, these workers cannot go back to the ill-lit shadows of the economy that they have been forced to occupy for so long.

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Giving Human Rights Commissions more teeth (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Polity
Prelims level: Human Rights Commissions
Mains level:Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies

Context:

• The purpose of the Act was to establish an institutional framework that could effectively protect, promote and fulfil the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.
• The Act created a National Human Rights Commission, and also, Human Rights Commissions at the levels of the various States.

Background:

• In 1993, the Indian Parliament enacted the Protection of Human Rights Act.
• There have been the usual critiques of the politicisation of autonomous bodies, and selectiveness.
• Even more than that, however, it has been alleged that for all intents and purposes, the Human Rights Commissions are toothless: at the highest, they play an advisory role, with the government left free to disobey or even disregard their findings.

Pending case:

• A pending case before the High Court of Madras has assumed great significance.
• A Full Bench of the High Court will be deciding upon whether “recommendations” made by the Human Rights Commissions are binding upon their respective State (or Central) governments, or whether the .................................................

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Constitutional commitment:

• There needs to be good reason for interpretations of this kind. This brings us to the purpose of the Human Rights Act, and the importance of fourth branch institutions.
• As indicated above, the Human Rights Act exists to ensure the protection and promotion of human rights.
• To fulfil this purpose, the Act ....................................

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Way forward:

• The courts have invoked constitutional purpose to determine the powers of various fourth branch institutions in cases of ambiguity.
• It is therefore clear that in determining the powers of autonomous bodies such as the Human Rights Commission, the role that fourth branch institutions are expected to play in the constitutional scheme is significant.
• The Supreme Court held as much in the context of “opinions” rendered by the Foreigners Tribunals, using very similar logic to say that these “opinions” were binding.
• The crucial role played by a Human Rights Commission — and the requirement of state accountability in a democracy committed to a ‘culture of justification’ — strongly indicates that the Commission’s recommendations should be binding upon the state.

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Need for re-orientation (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:National
Prelims level: Higher education institutions
Mains level:Role and performance of state universities in higher education sector

Context:

• Out of about a thousand higher education institutions (HEIs) that are authorised to award degrees in India.
• About 400 are state public universities that produce over 90% of our graduates (including those from the colleges affiliated to them) and contribute to about one-third of the research publications from this country.

Background:

• Their quality and performance is poor in most cases is accepted as a given today.
• It is evidenced by their poor performance in institutional rankings, the poor employment status of their students, rather poor quality of their publications, negligible presence in national-level policy/decision-making bodies, ..................................................

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Support for Central institutions:

• Central government HEIs are valuable and should be supported in all ways.
• That they have hardly ever been short of funding and patronage has been ensured by the Central government and its arms; national-level parties, industries and businesses; and the national elite and the intelligentsia.
• It is the existence of such an unwritten contract at the national level that appears to be the key factor for the performance of these Central government institutions.

Why state universities are failing behind?

• However, a similar consensus and contract has never been built between the State universities and State governments, State-level political parties and organisations, industry and businesses; and the elite and the intelligentsia. It is as though State-level players do not have much stake in the stability and performance of the State university system.
• One reason why State-level ...............................

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For a state contract:

• In order to receive much more funding and support from the State system then, State universities would have to commit to delivering lots more to the State and its people where they are located.
• They must come up with a new vision and programmes specifically addressing the needs of the State, its industry, economy and society, and on the basis of it make the State-level players commit to providing full ownership and support to them.
• In other words establish a contract between the State universities and the State system similar to what seems to be existing between the Central institutions and the Central government and other national-level stakeholders.

Conclusion:

• The initiative to start a larger dialogue on the future of our State universities would have to be taken primarily by the academic community of these institutions.

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Competitive impropriety: On Ranjan Gogoi’s Rajya Sabha nomination(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Polity
Prelims level: Rajya Sabha nomination
Mains level:Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of variousConstitutional Bodies

Context:

• The President’s nomination of former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, as a Rajya Sabha member so soon after his retirement will be seen as a crass example of a regime rewarding a member of the judiciary for meeting its expectations during his tenure.

Background:

• It will be futile to argue that it is a well-deserved recognition for an eminent jurist.
• The gap of four months between his retirement and nomination, and the fact that a series of decisions in his court were in seeming conformity with the present government’s expectations militate against such a justification.

The second argument:

• There have been instances of retired Chief Justices being nominated to the Upper House or appointed Governors, does not cut ice either, as it is nothing more than a dubious claim to the same level of impropriety.
• In fact, references to the late CJI Ranganath Mishra and Justice Baharul Islam as valid precedents reflect quite poorly on the executive, and amount to competitive impropriety.

Past examples:

• There continues to be a perception that these were lapses in propriety. Justice Mishra’s commission of inquiry absolved the Congress from any organisational responsibility for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Justice Islam exonerated a Congress Chief Minister of wrong-doing in a financial scandal in Bihar.
• The party had helped Justice Islam move both ways between Parliament and the judiciary. He quit the Upper House in 1972 to take office as a High Court judge. In 1983, he quit as a Supreme Court judge to contest an election.

Cohesion between the judiciary and the legislature:

• Mr. Gogoi’s appointment cannot be seen, as he has sought to project, as a way of ensuring cohesion between the judiciary and the legislature. He no longer represents the judiciary, and his contribution will be........................................

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Way forward:

• Also, he ought to have followed the example of his former colleagues who had declared that they would not accept any post-retirement work from the government.
• And one cannot forget that his tenure was clouded by an employee’s complaint of sexual harassment, which acquired greater credibility after she was reinstated following his exoneration by a committee of judges.
• As for the government, making such an offer to a just-retired CJI is not mere brazenness. It indicates an alarming intention to undermine judicial authority so that the elected executive is seen as all-powerful.

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In Upper House nomination, a fall for ‘aloofness’(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Polity
Prelims level: Rajya Sabha
Mains level:Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies

Context:

• Within five months of his retirement as Chief Justice of India, Justice Ranjan Gogoi has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the government. Shortly before his retirement from the Supreme Court of India, he delivered several important verdicts with far-reaching political consequences that left the government pleased, including the Ayodhya judgment.
• Before that, Justice Gogoi dismissed a review of the Rafale fighter aircraft deal without substantially dealing with the grounds on which the original judgment, negating an independent investigation, had been challenged.
• The original judgment relied upon several pieces of false and misleading information, conveyed to the Supreme Court by the government, in an unsigned note and handed over in a sealed cover.

Key judgments handled:

• During his tenure, Justice Gogoi also presided over and pushed through the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, an exercise that has excluded more than 19 lakh people from the final version of the citizenship register, and which has been widely criticised on several grounds.
• In short, the exercise presided over by ....................................................

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A turning point:

• Allegations of sexual harassment against him give us a good insight into this. A female staffer who was asked by him to work at his residence, accused him in an affidavit of detail, of harassment soon after he became the Chief Justice of India.
• The action taken against her was astounding. Not only was she dismissed from service in an ex-parte hearing on frivolous grounds, but her brother-in-law, who was inducted to the Supreme Court staff under Justice .......................................................

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A forgotten code:

• The 16-point code of conduct for judges or as it was called the “Restatement of Values of Judicial Life” (adopted at a Chief Justices Conference in May 1997) states: “6. A judge should practice a degree of aloofness consistent with the dignity of his office”; 7. A judge shall not hear and decide a matter in which a member of his family, a close relation or a friend is concerned”.
• Obviously this “aloofness”........................................................

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Way forward:

• Justice Gogoi and the government’s actions in the sexual harassment case and the offer of a Rajya Sabha seat by the government, raise serious doubts about the fairness of many critical judgments, including the ones mentioned above that were under Justice Gogoi’s watch.
• The precedent that he has set strikes a blow against the independence of the judiciary. I hope that this shameful act will lead to public opprobrium which will deter other judges from emulating such conduct.

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Time for a powerful display of humanity(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Health
Prelims level: COVID-19
Mains level:Pandemic preparedness situation in India

Context:

• In a pandemic it is easy to apportion blame, but this is a moment for the world to be standing together
• As the COVID-19 pandemic fells country after country, many in India are wondering if we are somehow different. Globally, it took roughly 45 days for the first 100,000 cases. It is likely to take nine days for the next 100,000. The global death count is now doubling every nine days and stands at 8,248, with 207,518 confirmed cases.
• That is how epidemics work — they gather steam as infected individuals go on to infect even more people. Confirmed cases in India, as of today stand at 169, much lower than small countries such as Iceland (around 250).

Could this really be the case that we have fared better than everyone else?

• Probably not. Testing in India remains abysmally low. Only about 10 in a million people in India have been tested, compared to say nearly 120 in a million in Thailand or 40 per million in Vietnam.
• The stated explanation is that the limited number of test kits are being conserved for when they are truly needed but when is the need greater than right now? There are probably shortages even in being able to procure adequate supplies given that many countries are seeking to buy the limited stocks.
• Testing is the most important thing we could be doing right now. As the Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr.Tedros Ghebreyesus, said recently about the need for more testing, “You cannot fight a fire blindfolded.”

Prevent undercounting:

• We need to identify corona virus-infected patients in a timely manner in order to increase our chances of preventing secondary infections. There is no shame in saying that we have far more cases than what we have detected so far.
• Even the United Kingdom, which .........................................................

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Unprepared for pandemics:

• This all sounds doomsday-like. But we have known for decades now that of all catastrophic events to befall humanity, between an asteroid hit and a nuclear war, a disease pandemic has always been the highest on our list of impact and probability.
• There were some changes after the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) but not nearly enough. Pandemic preparedness always took a backseat to the crisis of the moment.And in fairness, there is truly no amount of preparation that can fully mitigate such an occurrence.

Way ahead:

• In a time of crisis, it is easy to blame government or China or someone else. But this is really a time to stand together, keep an eye on our neighbours, friends, families, co-workers and indeed anyone who has less than we do.
• That includes your household help, security guards, vendors and indeed anyone who touches your life. It is a time to see how we show the best of our human values while facing a crisis of a proportion none of us has ever witnessed in our lifetime.

Conclusion:

• Things are about to get a lot worse. Let us hope that this brings out the best in us, and not the worst. Whether we know this or not, these events are just a dress rehearsal for the more challenging events such as climate change that are likely to be with us this century. And if we take care of each other, we will survive both these challenges with our humanity intact.

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For a floor test first: On Madhya Pradesh crisis (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Polity
Prelims level: Floor test
Mains level:Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significantprovisions and basic structure

Context:

• Propriety and law require the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh to prove its majority on the floor of the legislature at the earliest.
• Delaying tactics by Mr. Nath with more than a little help from the Speaker, who has adjourned the Assembly until March 26, go against democratic principles.
• Equally, Governor Lalji Tandon’s position that the government will be presumed to have lost the majority unless it takes a floor test immediately is untenable.
• The BJP might have been morally deviant, but Kamal Nath must prove his majority quickly.

Morality and legality:

• The situation in the State raises other questions of morality and legality also, as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) innovates questionable routes to power that it did not win in the election.
• The Congress had won a narrow .................................................

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Approach to the Supreme Court:

• The BJP, the Congress and the rebel MLAs have all approached the Supreme Court which has taken up the matter with urgency.
• The BJP is replaying the script that it ...........................................

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Conclusion:

• Engineered resignations of lawmakers have become a new tool for sabotaging mandates and camouflaging defections.
• When the top court adjudicates on the Madhya Pradesh petitions, this larger point must be taken into consideration.
• The situation demands new guidelines by the Court to deal with the now-familiar malaise, beyond setting a reasonably quick deadline for a floor test.

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Epicentre shifts: On coronavirus spread (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Health
Prelims level: SARS-CoV-2
Mains level:Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health

Context:

• With 1,08,394 cases reported from outside mainland China as on March 17, there are more people infected with the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in other parts of the world than in mainland China (81,058).
• Also, as on March 17, the number of deaths (4,279) in the rest of the world is more than in mainland China (3,226).

Rising number:

• On Monday, there was just one new laboratory-confirmed case and 12 deaths reported in Wuhan; outside Wuhan, no new case has been reported from Hubei province for 12 consecutive days.
• Even as Iran recorded 16,169 cases ....................................

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Big lessons:

• There are big lessons that India and the rest of the world can learn from Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea on containing the spread.
• Taiwan began airport screening even before China reported its first case of human-to-human transmission on January 20.
• Together with closing its borders by January-end, it raised awareness about the virus and the disease, and ways to minimise risk through handwashing and the use of face masks.
• Taiwan essentially cut the transmission chain even before the virus could gain a foothold in the country.

Tracing contacts:

• Following the World Health Organization’s guidelines to a tee, Singapore went after all suspect cases by testing all influenza-like and pneumonia cases and aggressively tracing contacts.
• Like Taiwan and Hong Kong, ...............................................

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Conclusion:

• Global efforts to counter the virus have been uneven, with Europe and the U.S. faltering.
• A lesson from the pandemic is how containing an outbreak is dependent on quick public-health responses.

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A revival of multilateralism, steered by India (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:International
Prelims level: COVID-19 crisis
Mains level:Effect of policies and politics of developed anddeveloping countries on India's interests

Context:

• The COVID-19 pandemic has brought out in sharp relief the compelling reality that has been staring us in the face for the past several years. This reality has two aspects.

Key challenges:

• One, that most challenges confronting the world and likely to confront it in the future, are cross-national in character.
• They respect no national boundaries and are not amenable to national solutions.
• Two, these challenges are cross-........................................

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Rise of nationalism:

• The intersection of cross-national and cross-domain challenges demand multilateral approaches. They require empowered international institutions of governance.
• Underlying these must be a spirit of internationalism and solidarity, a sense of belonging to a common humanity. But over the past decade and more, the world has been moving in the reverse direction.
• There has been an upsurge in narrow nationalism, an assertion of parochial interests over pursuit of shared interests and a fostering of competition among states rather than embracing collaboration.
• COVID-19 has brought these deepening contradictions into very sharp relief. This is a global challenge which recognises no political boundaries.
• It is intimately linked to the whole pattern of large-scale and high-density food production and distribution.
• It is a health crisis but is also spawning an economic crisis through disrupting global value chains and creating a simultaneous demand shock. It is a classic cross-national and cross-domain challenge.

The current situation:

• But interventions to deal with the COVID-19 crisis are so far almost entirely at the national level, relying on quarantine and social distancing.
• There is virtually no coordination at the international level.
• We are also seeing a blame game erupt between China and the United States which does not augur well for international cooperation and leadership.
• While this is the present state of play, the long-term impact could follow alternative pathways.
• One, the more hopeful outcome would be for countries to finally realise that there is no option but to move away from nationalistic urges and embrace the logic of international cooperation through revived and strengthened multilateral institutions and processes.

Major consequences:

• The other more depressing consequence may be that nationalist trends become more intense, countries begin to build walls around themselves and even existing multilateralism is further weakened.
• Institutions such as the United .................................

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Remarks from Prime Minister:

• In this context, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks at the recent The Economic Times Global Business Summit are to be welcomed.
• While speaking of the COVID-19 crisis, he said, “Like today, the world is facing a huge challenge in the form of Corona Virus.
• Financial institutions have also considered it a big challenge for the financial world.
• Today, we all have to face this challenge together. We have to be victorious with the power of our resolution of ‘Collaborate to Create’.”
• He went on to observe that while the world today is “inter-connected, inter-related and also interdependent”, it has “not been able to come on a single platform or frame a Global Agenda, a global goal of how to overcome world poverty, how to end terrorism, how to handle Climate Change issues.”  

Seeking friendship:

• Mr. Modi lauded his government’s policy of seeking friendship with all countries as contrasted from the earlier policy of non-alignment.
• He seemed to suggest that non-alignment was a defensive policy which advocated “equal distance from every country”.
• Now, he claimed, India was still “neutral” — presumably meaning non-alignment — “but not on the basis of distance but on the basis of friendship”.
• He cited India’s friendship with Iran and Saudi Arabia, and with the U.S. as well as Russia.
• Elaborating on this, he added, “There was a time when people were neutral by creating equal distance, but we are now neutral by creating equal friendship.
• Today we are being friends and trying to walk together. This is the very essence of India’s foreign policy and the economic policy of India today.”

Highlights of the India’s foreign policy:

• Mr. Modi may wish to distinguish his foreign policy from that of his predecessors, but what he describes as its “essence” is hardly distinguishable from the basic principles of Indian foreign policy since Nehru.
• India’s non-alignment was ...........................................

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Pandemic as opportunity:

• The Prime Minister made no reference to the role of the U.N., the premier multilateral institution, as a global platform for collaborative initiatives.
• There may have been irritation over remarks by the UN Secretary General on India’s domestic affairs and the activism displayed by the UN Commissioner for Human Rights on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act controversy.
• This should not influence India’s long-standing commitment to the U.N. as the only truly inclusive global platform enjoying international legitimacy despite its failings.
• If one has to look for a “single platform” where a Global Voice could be created, as the Prime Minister suggested, surely a reformed and strengthened U.N. should be on India’s agenda.

Way forward:

• The COVID-19 pandemic presents India with an opportunity to revive multilateralism, become a strong and credible champion of internationalism and assume a leadership role in a world that is adrift.
• The inspiration for this should come from reaffirming the well springs of India’s foreign policy since its Independence rather than seeking to break free.

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