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Transition to ‘work from home’ may pay off (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 4:Ethics  
Prelims level:  Not much
Mains level:Work culture and shifting workplace

Context:

• In the fear, bordering on panic, in our cities around the novel caronavirus it easy to forget that this too will pass. 
• Despite its staggering toll there will be life, even urban life, after this pandemic. This could create a longing for a return to the normal. 
• But a once-in-a-century pandemic does not leave things just as they are. 
• Even the more insensitive leadership may be prompted to take a closer look at the condition of our urban health infrastructure. 

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Capabilities of turning adversity into opportunity: 

• A more resourceful leadership would look to turn this adversity into opportunity.
• The scale of these opportunities would vary depending on the existing abilities of a country. 
• Now that the rates of infection in that country appear to have tapered off, they have rapidly begun to use that experience to influence global thinking about the coronavirus. 
• Experimental treatments made by Chinese doctors are being tried out on a larger scale elsewhere in the world. 
• President Trump too has mixed his talk of China’s virus with terming something experimented within China — the use of an anti-malarial drug as treatment — as a game-changer.

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India’s response:

• There is also the possibility that as the Chinese economy recovers from the impact of the virus, production systems in the developed world would still be affected by the virus. 
• This could well offer China the possibility of regaining market share in the developed world.
• India may not be able to respond in quite the same way. Apart from the huge gap in economic capabilities between the two most populous countries in the world, there is the fact that our exposure to the disease is coming when China may well be past it. 
• Rather than having global ambitions we may be better off keeping our focus within the country. And some of the practices that are being put in place to fight the virus could well have a longer-lasting impact. 
• The practice of washing our hands frequently could reduce our susceptibility to other diseases as well.

Key benefits: 

• Tapping the more significant opportunities in the current adversity would require greater and more original thinking. 
• This is arguably most striking in what the experience of dealing with the coronavirus can do to our cities. Social distancing has forced companies and even governments to explore the option of working from home.
• This has had an immediate effect on many of the problems of congestion, particularly traffic. 
• The commute to work constitutes a major part of traffic in Indian cities on days other than the weekend. 
• Working from home will contribute to a reduction in fuel consumption and pollution. 
• Within the workplace too there will be the benefit of those working from home saving on the time they take to come to office.
• This would be particularly significant in India’s metropolises where scant attention has been paid to the task of reducing the distance between work and home.

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Limitations: 

• A substantial shift to work from home would, however, not be easy. There are aspects of work that require face-to-face interactions. 
• An email, or even a telephonic conversation, does not always capture the nuances of what is sought to be conveyed. 
• The atmosphere of a discussion with other members of a group in office could also help generate new ideas. 
• The benefits of group thinking are not restricted to an aggregate of ideas that each member has worked out on her own. 

Way ahead:

• Thus even if there is a shift towards work from home, it cannot be a complete migration to the new rules. 
• What can be attempted would be working from home for a part of the time, say, a few days in a week.
• Even this limited transition to work from home would call for larger changes in our work culture. 
• The focus of both the workers and their bosses would have to shift from the time spent in the office to the final output. 
• Specific tasks would have to be specified for the period of work from home. 
• These tasks would ideally be that part of the job that is best done by the individual working alone. 
• There would also have to be effective monitoring systems to ensure that work from home does not lead to a fall in accountability.

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Conclusion:

• These changes in work culture do appear formidable, especially when considered in the abstract. Once they are put in place, though, the benefits could become more evident. 
• Companies may just be able to tap the savings in travel time of their employees, as well as the decline in time spent on gossip. 
• If this works for even a few companies, the very dark cloud of Covid-19, may just have a thin silver lining.

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Dressing a wounded economy (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Economy 
Prelims level:  Cash transfer schemes
Mains level:Coronavirus effect or economic slowdown and other effects 

Context:

• The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is now felt by almost every country. 
• First, there are the health effects of the virus, and 
• Second is the economic impact of the various actions that have to be taken to combat the virus. 
• The world is experiencing an additional slowdown on top of the contracting tendencies already present and India is no exception. 
• The economic impact on India can be traced through four channels: external demand; domestic demand; supply disruptions, and financial market disturbances.

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Falling external and domestic demand:

• As the economies of the developed countries slow down (some people are even talking of recession), their demand for imports of goods will go down and this will affect our exports which are even now not doing well. 
• In fact after six months of negative growth, it was only in January that Indian exports showed positive growth. 
• The extent of decline will depend on how severely the other economies are affected. Not only merchandise exports but also service exports will suffer. 
• Besides these, the IT industry, travel, transport and hotel industries will be affected. The only redeeming feature in the external sector is the fall in oil prices. 
• India’s oil import bill will come down substantially. But this will affect adversely the oil exporting countries which absorb Indian labour. Remittances may slow down.
• As passengers travel less, the transportation industry, road, rail and air, is cutting down schedules, sometimes drastically. 
• This will affect in turn several other sectors closely related to them. 
• The laying off of non-permanent employees has already started. 

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Supply disruption: 

• Supply disruptions can occur because of the inability to import or procure inputs. The break in supply chains can be severe. 
• It is estimated that nearly 60% of our imports is in the category of ‘intermediate goods’. Imports from countries which are affected by the virus can be a source of concern. 
• Domestic supply chain can also be affected as the inter-State movement of goods has also slowed down.

Financial market issues

• Financial markets are the ones which respond quickly and irrationally to a pandemic such as the coronavirus pandemic. 
• The stock market in India has collapsed. 
• The indices are at a three-year low. Foreign Portfolio Investors have shown great nervousness and the safe haven doctrine operates. In this process, the value of the rupee in terms of dollar has also fallen. 
• The stock market decline has a wealth affect and will have an impact on the behaviour of particularly high wealth holders.

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Using monetary policy: 

• Monetary policy in a situation like this can only act to stimulate demand by a greater push of liquidity and credit. 
• The policy rate has already beenbrought down by 135 basis points over the last several months. 
• There is obviously scope for further reduction. But our own history as well as the experience of other countries clearly show that beyond a point, a reduction in interest rates does not work. 
• It is the environment of the overall economy that counts. Credit may be available. But there may not be takers. 
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) needs to go beyond cutting policy rate. A certain amount of regulatory forbearance is required to make the banks lend. 
• Even commercial banks on their own will have to think in terms of modifying norms they use for inventory holding by production units. 
• Repayments to banks can be delayed and the authorities must be willing to relax the rules. 
• Any relaxation of rules regarding the recognition of non-performing assets has to be across the entire business sector. 
• The authorities must be ready to tighten the rules as soon as the situation improves. This is a temporary relaxation and must be seen as such by banks and borrowers.

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Taking fiscal actions: 

• Fiscal actions have a major role to play. Once again, the ability to play a big role is constrained by the fact that the fiscal position of the government of India is already difficult. 
• Even without the pandemic, the fiscal deficit of the Central government will turn out to be higher than that indicated in the budgets for 2019-20 and 2020-21. 
• Revenues are likely to go down further because of the virus related slowdown in economic activity.

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The job sector:

• Serious concerns have been expressed about people who have been thrown out of employment. 
• These are mostly daily-wage earners and non-permanent/temporary employees.
• Some of the migrant labour have gone back to home States. We must appeal to the business units to keep even non-permanent workers on their rolls and provide them with a minimal income. 
• Some relief can be thought of by the government for such business units even though this can be misused. 
• However, in general, in the case of sectors such as hospitality and travel, the government can extend relief through deferment of payments of dues to the government.

Providing cash transfer benefits: 

• There is also talk of providing cash transfer to individuals. There is already a programme for rural farmers with all the limitations. 
• For a system of cash transfer to be workable, it has to be universal. 
• At this moment when all the energies of the government are required to combat the virus, to institute a system of universal cash transfer will be a diversion of efforts. 
• The burden on the government will depend upon the quantum of per capita cash transfer and the length of the period.

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Way forward:

• The government should advise all business units not to retrench workers and provide some relief to them to maintain the workers. 
• A supplemental income scheme for all the poor can be thought of once the immediate problem is resolved. 
• Provision of food and other essentials must be made available to the affected as is done at the time of floods or drought. States must take the initiative.
• The fiscal deficit is bound to go up substantially. The higher borrowing programme will need the support of the RBI if the interest rate is to be kept low. 
• Monetisation of deficit is inevitable. The strong injection of liquidity will store up problems for the next year. Inflation can flare up. 

Conclusion:

• The government needs to be mindful of this. All the same, the government must not stint and go out in a massive way to combat the virus. This is the government’s first priority.

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Making agriculture more rewarding for farmers (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Economy 
Prelims level:  Agricultural marketing 
Mains level:Issues and challenges in Agricultural marketing

Context:

• While agriculture contributes about 15 per cent to the country’s GDP, it also sustains more than 600 million Indians or half the population of the country. 
• This is an important aspect in the present scenario as the agri-sector will also be expected to play a crucial role in the revival of the Indian economy from its current despondent state.

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Steps taken by the government so far: 

• The Union Budget 2020 brought several commendable green shoots of recovery for the agriculture sector, including the government’s 16-point action plan to boost agriculture towards the goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2022. 
• However, there is much that needs to be done and a more holistic approach will be required to ‘tone and muscle up’ the agriculture sector.
• The government’s ambitious objective for India to become a $5-trillion economy by FY2024-25, the agriculture sector has to contribute at least 30 per cent of the GDP.

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Competitive food production challenges: 

• Globally, enhanced food production has changed the market dynamics leading to pressure on prices of our produce. 
• Input costs are constantly on the rise, severely impacting farmers’ incomes, debt repayment capacity and their livelihood. 
• It makes matters worse is that all the risks in the farm-to-market cycle are borne by the farmer — these include, among others, production, storage, and transport risks, outbreak of pests , and price uncertainty. 
• Traders, aggregators and processors do not have to undertake these risks. Farmers are “implicitly taxed’ through restrictive marketing and trade policies even though agricultural income is not taxed in India.

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More attention needed:

• The Indian agriculture sector certainly deserves much more attention and allocation of resources. 
• The allocation of ₹15 lakh crore is a great step, but does it ultimately reach the farmer?
• We tend to forget that more than half this allocation gets utilised in meeting the assistance required during natural calamities, including droughts and floods. 
• Announcements to provide enhanced irrigation capabilities, agricultural credit target of ₹15 lakh, allocation of ₹2.83 lakh crore for agriculture, and provision of standalone solar pumps to 20 lakh farmers under PM KUSUM are a commendable start, but these address only the tip of the iceberg.
• Urgent steps need to be taken to minimise the risk for farmers and distribute the risk equitably across the agro-value chain. 
• Additionally, the government has to ensure that a fair share of the value that is generated at the end-consumer reaches the farmer. 
• India’s agriculture sector requires a long-term and sustainable solution, which ensures first and foremost ‘virtual’ land aggregation by way of cooperatives, by unshackling legislation around it. 

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The other reforms needed are: 

• The privatisation of agricultural markets, improving access of farmers to institutional credit, productivity-based production incentives, and farm level cold storages and downstream distribution through integrated cold supply chains via PPP. 
• Also needed is an intensive and simplified crop and life insurance scheme for farmers through an unified insurance structure and promoting secondary agriculture for small farmers to mitigate risks of crop failure. 
• The multiplier effect of these solutions will go a long way in enhancing sustainable growth for multiple stakeholders of the agriculture sector. 
• The government should also actively work to facilitate and encourage the integration of agriculture and technology. 
• The agriculture industry has had a long standing problem of lack of cold supply chain for preserving perishable goods. 
• Although precise figures are not known, it is estimated that India wastes over 20 per cent of its fruits and vegetables, due to lack of adequate cold chain infrastructure. 
• The loss is estimated to be $20 billion each year. 
• The Kisan Rail project via PPP arrangement and the launch of Krishi UDAN by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on international and national routes are welcome steps in the right direction, as these will help prevent wastage and fill in a long-standing gap in the infrastructure supply chain. 

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Conclusion:

• However, the devil is in the implementation details which are awaited. 

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Death by fireworks: on violation of rules in hazardous industries (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Economy 
Prelims level:  Hazardous industries
Mains level:Challenges to the violations of rules by hazardous industries

Context:

• Unsafe working conditions and improper handling of inflammable raw materials continue to endanger lives in the fireworks industry.

Background:

• Last week, 11 workers were charred at a fireworks unit in Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar district. 
• Police data show that in the past decade, at least 239 people have perished and over 265 injured in 142 accidents in fireworks units. 
• Such tragedies have not been confined to Sivakasi, deemed the fireworks capital of the world, where most such units are concentrated. 

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A major threat: 

• Illegal cracker units functioning in a few other parts of the State have also led to loss of a significant number of lives. 
• In and around Sivakasi, the manufacturing of firecrackers in makeshift unlicensed units, rough handling of chemicals by untrained and unskilled workers, spillage or overloading of chemicals during the filling process, and working outside permitted areas have been identified as major causes for past accidents. 
• In the recent tragedy too, the workers were engaged in manufacturing ‘fancy aerial crackers’ for which the unit did not have a licence. Preliminary investigations suggest that mishandling of chemicals could have triggered an explosion.
• Occasional accidents in an industry dealing in explosive materials may seem inevitable. 
• But the probability of such mishaps can certainly be reduced by adopting safe work practices, complying with rules and through cohesive monitoring by Central and State licensing and enforcement authorities. 
• Crackdowns against violators have been few and far between despite illegal sub-leasing of works to unlicensed cottage units becoming a widely acknowledged practice in the industry. 

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Steps needed to be taken to address the loopholes: 

• It also found a lack of coordination between Central and State authorities dealing with the regulation of fireworks industries. 
• The committee recommended making sub-leasing of works by licensed units a cognisable penal offence; mandated inter-safety distances between sheds covered with earthen mounds; and provision of a smoothened pathway with a width of 1.5 metres, as part of industrial safety measures. 
• Ground reports suggest these recommendations continue to be ignored, with sub-leasing of works still rampant. Regulators understandably complain of a lack of manpower in checking violations. 
• The number of players has exponentially grown since the 1980s with 1,070 licensed units employing an estimated 10 lakh workers now. 

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Conclusion: 

• The safety is non-negotiable. The governments must walk the extra mile to enforce rules in a hazardous industry and prosecute violators. The industry too must self-regulate in its own interest. 

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Focus on horticulture and food processing(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Economy 
Prelims level:  Horticulture and food processing
Mains level:Issues in horticulture and food processing and their disputes redressal

Context:

• Horticulture is considered as a better alternative farming option for farmers in many areas due to several advantages. 
• Besides the fact that it is more remunerative, horticulture saves water which is critical. 

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Major challenges:

• Moreover, it can be done on dry and hilly land and has lower risks of failure. 
• Farmers who shift to horticulture, however, do not have a safety net of selling at a minimum price in case of unforeseen problems and the case in point where farmers moved back to field crops is Punjab. 

Steps needed to improve: 

• There is a need for the government to focus separately on horticulture and balance the incentives between field crops and horticultre.
• To produce several export-feasible horticulture products like medicinal herbs, fruits, flowers and dry fruits which are high value and have the potential to deliver rich dividends to farmers and the country alike. 
• The move to support districts to emerge as export hubs for a single crop is conceptually good but size, scale, infrastructure, quality and traceability need to be plugged before importing countries can open doors. 
• The cutting down of MGNREGS allocation by 13 per cent has reduced its positive impact, which too has been compensated in the PM-KISAN scheme. 

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Proper utilisation of the government schemes: 

• Moreover, the focus on Zero Budget Natural Farming has the potential to result in losses up to 20-25 per cent to farmers. 
• A better implementation of Pradhan Mantri FasalBima Yojana should be facilitated in the near future through speedy and transparent processes allowing for timely disbursement of claims. 
• This will enable farmers to claim losses in case of poor crop yields due to multiple reasons. Once optimised, this insurance scheme has the potential to provide a substantial safeguard to farmers and reduce their weather dependency.

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Food processing 

• The processed food industry is still contingent on several uncharted risks.
• Often it continues to be awaiting measures to live up to its full potential even though the sector plays an important role in helping farmers improve income and reduce risks. 
• Processed foods companies working in this area directly engage with farmers to educate and enhance their knowledge on advancing technologies and develop new crops and product lines. 

Issues in food processing sector: 

• A major issue for (especially SME) the food processing sector is inadequate access to credit from the banking sector. 
• Unlike credit to agriculture, banks have no compulsion to lend to this sector since credit to food processing is subsumed within the 18 per cent mandated threshold for agriculture. 
• The risks and dynamics of this sector are regrettably not understood holistically by the banks who often decline proposals or else apply onerous terms and conditions on them. 
• Credit from banks to food processing is approximately 17 per cent of the sector size as against 45 per cent in agriculture even as the food processing sector has been growing and is projected to grow at over 12 per cent per annum in next five years due to the demographic factors. Even direct benefits to the sector such as subventions and incentivisation are minimal.

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Way ahead:

• Overall, the improvement of the sector requires measures to enhance market efficiency by promoting more innovative platforms like ‘kisan mandis’ and other similar initiatives which create a planned and sustainable marketing infrastructure. 
• There has been a shift in the needle. But the the government definitely needs to take bolder and more significant decisions that promote farmers’ livelihood and address not only recommendations of the Economic Survey but also on marketing the produce. 

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Conclusion:

• Ultimately, we want the government’s ambitious scheme to ‘double farmer income’ to succeed as it will benefit over half the population in the country.

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21-day lockdown (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2:National 
Prelims level:  Agri-commodities and foodgrains
Mains level:Welfare schemes for the vulnerable sections in the society 

Context:

• On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated that the Centre and state governments will take all steps to ensure the supply of “essential items” during the lockdown to combat the novel coronavirus, which has now been made nationwide and extended for a further 21-day period. 

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Domestic availability of foodstuff: 

• There’s no real issue as far as production or supply goes for most agri-commodities, starting with foodgrains. 
• As on March 1, stocks of wheat and rice with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) stood at around 77.6 million tonnes (mt). 
• This was over three-and-a-half times the minimum operational buffer-cum-strategic stock of 21.04 mt required to be maintained for April 1. 
• Moreover, the new wheat crop, which is a bumper one, will arrive in the mandis from the coming month.
• The same applies to pulses, where the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India or Nafed was holding 2.25 mt of stocks as on March 19. 

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Impact: 

• COVID-19’s impact will not be on production, given that most rabi crops are close to ripening, if not already harvested. 
• The impact will be only on marketing the produce at the mandis and reaching it to the final consumer. 
• Simply put, it isn’t a “supply”, but a “supply chain” problem arising from the various movement restrictions imposed under the ongoing lockdown. 
• But for the rice, wheat and pulses with FCI or Nafed, even that shouldn’t be a problem, as the grain has to merely be moved from godowns and supplied to ration shops. 
• This can, in fact, be an opportunity for the Centre to significantly offload its surplus foodgrain stocks – including to regular grocery shops at open market rates.

What about stuff like milk, sugar and edible oils?

• These, again, are produce not brought to be sold in mandis. Dairies procure milk directly from farmers or through bulk vendors. 
• The sugar that mills produce similarly comes from cane sourced straight from growers. Two-thirds of the edible oil consumed by India is imported. 
• There, too, the problem of the crop having to first come to an APMC (agricultural produce market committee) mandi does not arise.
• In the current lockdown situation, there are actually mitigating factors on the supply requirement front, particularly for the three food items. 
• The most important of them is the demand destruction due to shutting down of HORECA (hotels, restaurants and catering) businesses. 

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Two effects:

First one: 

• On the one hand, direct consumer sales of milk, curd, sugar and branded oils have gone up in the past few days, with households buying more in anticipation of shortages. 
• The managing director of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, claims that the daily sales of ‘Amul’ milk are currently about 37 lakh litres in Delhi-NCR and 22 lakh litres in Maharashtra, as against their normal respective levels of 31-32 lakh litres and 18-19 lakh litres.

Second one: 

• The sales of skimmed milk power (SMP) to ice-cream companies and cheese to pizza makers have crashed, as consumers aren’t eating out and focusing on basic foods. 
• This has led to SMP prices crashing to Rs 250 per kg, from Rs 320-330 per kg till roughly 15 days ago, with some Maharashtra-based dairies mainly into B2B sales slashing their procurement price for cow milk from Rs 32-plus to Rs 20 per litre.
• In sugar also, mills are seeing less buying from the sweetmeat, soft drinks and HORECA segments. Nor are oil marketing companies lifting ethanol, a by-product of sugar manufacture used for 10% blending with petrol. 
• The reason: People sitting at home and not taking out their vehicles.
• The above demand destruction on account of B2B is, nevertheless, ensuring that existing supplies are enough to meet the requirements of household consumers or B2C.

So, which are the food products whose supplies are being affected?

• Basically fruits and vegetables (F and V), which are produce sold through APMC mandis. 
• Fruit traders and commission agents at the Vashi market of Navi Mumbai have announced suspension of their operations from Wednesday, fearing the spread of coronavirus. 
• Such closures are, however, more likely in terminal markets close to cities than the primary APMCs, where the bulk of farmers bring their produce. 
• Right now, the fear of the pandemic is less in rural areas.

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Way ahead: 

• In his first address to the nation on dealing with COVID-19, the Prime Minister mentioned that all necessary steps would be taken to ensure “no shortage of essential items like milk”. 
• That specific reference has, perhaps, helped in the largely unhindered supplies of milk from the rural hinterland to urban centres across India. 
• Unfortunately, the same approach has not been visible in other food items. 
• Indiscriminately imposed inter-state movement restrictions have resulted in tomato-laden trucks from Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh not crossing over to Bengaluru or brinjal and beans from Chikkaballapur in Karnataka not reaching Hyderabad’s consumers. 
• Alphonso mangoes and grapes not being allowed to move freely will hurt growers in Ratnagiri and Sangli just when their crop is being harvesting.
• There are similar reports about F and V collection and distribution centres of online grocers being forcibly shut down.
• The sugar mills in UP running out of lime, sulphur and HDPE bags procured from Rajasthan and Gujarat; and labourers engaged in grading and packing of produce not being permitted to go their workplaces. 

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The Maoist trap: On killing of security personnel in Sukma (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Defense and Security 
Prelims level:  Maoist threats
Mains level:Efficiency of security forces

Context:

• The attack by Maoist extremists in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on Saturday, that killed 17 security personnel and injured 15, including two critically, presents a grim picture on how poorly India continues to fare on this front. 
• There was intelligence that Maoists were going to assemble at Elmagunda village, which is dominated by the Peoples’ Liberation Guerrilla Army Battalion. 
• Accordingly, security forces, comprising District Reserve Guards, Special Task Force, numbering 500, were dispatched into the forests to deal with the emergent situation. 

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Highlights the incident: 

• In retrospect, despite the intelligence, they did not encounter even one Maoist and began their journey back, in two groups, to their camps at Chintagufa and Burkapal, not more than six kilometres apart as the crow flies. 
• The smaller contingent, numbering 100, headed to Burkapal, encountered fire six kilometres from the base camp and they duly returned it. 
• The Maoists retreated and fired again and the security forces fired and followed till they had been lured into an open area in hilly terrain where the Maoists, some 350 of them, had the advantage of numbers, line of fire as well as height, a classic ambush. 

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Key challenges: 

• The real story is still to emerge, but it is odd that in the battle that began about noon and lasted five-and-a-half daylight hours, reinforcements could not be sent to hapless personnel. 
• It can be surmised that at the very least those who got ambushed did not know the terrain or the tactics enough, although that should not be the case considering the composition of the DRG. 
• It is yet to be convincingly explained how as many as 400 personnel so near did not rush to aid their uniformed brethren. 
• It is remarkable, too, that helicopters were able to evacuate the wounded afterwards. So complete was the rout that even though the security forces said they took down some Maoists, there is not much physical evidence to support this claim. 

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Way forward: 

• It is also significant that as many as 13 of the dead security forces were locals from Sukma district, many of them surrendered Maoists. 
• And unfortunate that many of them bled to death waiting for assistance. 
• There is a lot to answer for but it seems that despite dedicated training the security forces get for just these eventualities, the Maoists are able to improvise and come out on top, smarter, nimbler, and many steps ahead.

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China’s zero: On China’s lead in containing coronavirus(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:International 
Prelims level:  SARS-CoV-2
Mains level:COVID-19 effects and challenges outside China

Context:

• In a remarkable turnaround, China had zero cases of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) on March 18-20, including in Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic. 
• This comes three months after the first case emerged in Wuhan. But on March 21, Guangdong province had one instance of local transmission from an imported case. 

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Number of cases:

• As on March 22, China reported 314 imported cases. As the instance on Saturday shows, more number of fresh cases from local transmission can show up, turning the zero cases reported on three consecutive days into nothing but a blip. 
• At the peak of the epidemic, mainland China reported thousands of fresh cases and hundreds of deaths each day before the total number reached 81,054 which is nearly 26% of the global case load of 3,16,659 as on March 22. 
• The total mortality from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in mainland China stands at 3,237, which is less than the deaths reported from Italy (4,825). 
• The initial signs of the epidemic beginning to wane were visible when the first makeshift hospital in Wuhan was closed in early March after all patients had recovered and there were no new admissions. 
• The turnaround in China comes at a time when the virus is galloping in Europe and is spreading in the U.S. 

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Squandering an opportunity:

• Unfortunately, both Europe and the U.S. seem to have squandered that opportunity. 
• What was once considered undoable outside China is now being played out in Italy — the entire country is locked down. 
• Putting the rights of the community ahead of the individual, many countries have been adopting tough measures akin to China’s — 
• restricting travel, 
• banning mass gatherings, 
• cancelling important events 
• shutting down educational institutions and; 

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Covering-UP:

• Even as China’s success in containing the epidemic is in the spotlight, its cover-up of the outbreak until mid-January, nearly a month after the first few cases showed up, will remain a stain hard to erase. 
• Worse, its refusal to inform its people even after notifying a cluster of cases to the World Health Organization on December 31, 2019 and gagging doctors for raising an alarm show that not much has changed since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002.
• The only solace is that China did not unduly delay informing WHO about the novel virus unlike in the case of the 2002 SARS outbreak. 

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Conclusion:

• Scientific papers published by Chinese researchers have given their peers across the world a head start in understanding the virus and the disease.
• The rest of the world might have to follow China’s lead in containing the virus.

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Stealing a mandate : On Madhya Pradesh crisis(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Polity 
Prelims level:  Legislative assembly
Mains level:Disqualifications of MLAs and its effect 

Context:

• The impending change of guard in Madhya Pradesh is on the back of a disgraceful betrayal of the popular mandate of 2018 when the Congress defeated the BJP that was in power for three consecutive terms. 
• Jyotiraditya Scindia’s vault from the Congress to its antithesis, the BJP, set the ball rolling for the unravelling of Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s government earlier in March. 
• With the resignation of 22 of its MLAs from the Assembly, the Congress was reduced to a minority, with 92 members. 

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The half way mark:

• The resignations brought down the halfway mark to 104 and now, the BJP, with 106, can claim a majority as it is doing right now. 
• The BJP legislature party is expected to elect former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as its leader who is likely to form the new government this week. 
• Mr. Nath tried to salvage his government by buying time to woo back the defectors but the Supreme Court ordered that a floor test be held on Friday. 
• His decision to submit the resignation before forcing a vote in the Assembly was appropriate. Luring back the defectors by dubious means would have been no less dishonourable than the defections. 

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Moral and Political legitimacy:

• Although the BJP is within its rights to stake claim, in the interest of moral and political legitimacy, it could have waited until after by-elections are held to these seats and either of the parties establishes a clear majority.
• But a disturbing new mechanism of usurping power that is not won through an election, perfected by the BJP in recent years, has no such restraint. 
• The party engineered the resignations of Congress and JD(S) MLAs and returned to power in Karnataka last year. 
• The BJP took power on the claim of majority in a truncated legislature, and had the advantage of being the ruling party when the by-elections were held. 
• It had used the same strategy earlier and there are indications that it might be tried in some other States too in the coming weeks. 

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Conclusion:

• The recurrence of this model across States makes this an unhealthy pattern and a fresh challenge to clean politics. 
• The legal and moral implications of mass resignations of MLAs to upend an electoral verdict need to be examined at the political and judicial levels.
• BJP played by the book, but a new govt. will lack moral legitimacy without winning bypolls.

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Hydroxychloroquine is recommended for very specific cases (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3:Science and Tech 
Prelims level:  Hydroxychloroquine
Mains level:Hydroxychloroquine’s efficacy in COVID-19 patients

Context:

• Hydroxychloroquine, a drug that has existed for several decades, could see a resurgence of demand, after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Monday recommended its use as a post-exposure prophylactic (preventive medicine) against the novel coronavirus disease.
• Last week, US President Donald Trump had said a hydroxychloroquine-azithromycin combination could be a “game changer” in the fight against COVID-19.
• What is known about hydroxychloroquine’s efficacy in COVID-19 patients?
• Hydroxychloroquine (not to be confused with anti-malaria drug chloroquine) is an oral drug used in the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. 
• On March 19, an article in The Lancet Global Health explored its therapeutic and prophylactic properties. 
• Notably, the drug shows antiviral activity in vitro against coronaviruses, and specifically, SARS-CoV-2 [the virus that causes COVID-2]. 

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What has India recommended?

• The National Taskforce for COVID-19 has recommended hydroxychloroquine for prophylaxis in case of asymptomatic healthcare workers involved in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 and asymptomatic household contacts of laboratory confirmed cases. 
• The new guidelines say: “Hydroxy-chloroquine is found to be effective against coronavirus in laboratory studies and in-vivo studies.
• Its use in prophylaxis is derived from available evidence of benefit as treatment and supported by pre-clinical data.
• The following recommendation… is based on these considerations, as well as risk-benefit consideration, under exceptional circumstances that call for the protection of high-risk individuals.”
• Doctors in the private sector are, however, cautious. ICMR guidelines are very specific for specific people. We have to limit it to them. It cannot become something that everybody uses,” 

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So, should you stock the drug?

• The short answer is, no. If you suspect you have contracted the infection, you should visit a doctor. 
• You must not attempt to self-medicate. Even the government’s guidelines on hydroxychloroquine say the drug has to be given only on the prescription of a registered medical practitioner.

What combination did Trump speak of?

• The combination is hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin, a commonly used antibiotic. On Saturday, following a press conference in which he endorsed the combination, Trump tweeted: HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE and AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. 

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Way ahead:

• While the roles of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in management of COVID-19 are still open questions for the scientific community, the azithromycin-hydroxychloroquine combination is part of an upcoming multicountry trial anchored by the WHO in the fight against COVID-19.
• The azithromycin-hydroxychloroquine combination has sometimes been administered to COVID-19 patients in the US, the CDC says. 
• In a small study in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents published on March 17, French scientists reported: “Twenty cases were treated in this study and showed a significant reduction of the viral carriage at D6-post inclusion compared to controls, and much lower average carrying duration than reported of untreated patients in the literature. Azithromycin added to hydroxychloroquine was significantly more efficient for virus elimination.”

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Conclusion:

• Simply put, the combination did reduce the viral load but the size of the study is too small to draw a definitive conclusion.

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Procurement reform : Jugaad legislation in India (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2:Polity 
Prelims level:  Public Procurement (PP) Bill
Mains level:Jugaad legislation and its effect on Indian political system. 

Context:

• While researching over 10,000 Bills that had been introduced in legislatures nationwide in the US over eight years, a recent investigation by the USA Today, The Arizona Republic and the Center for Public Integrity found that they had been almost entirely copied from versions written by special interest groups.

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Background: 

• Indeed, copycat Bills originating from self-styled ‘model’ ‘international’ legislation can pose serious dangers, as was quickly discovered by the government of India while reviewing the (draft) Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and Officials of Public International Organisations Bill, 2011. 
• The 2011 Bill lapsed, perhaps once it was realised by the government that the Bill would severely disadvantage Indian entities vis-à-vis foreign companies.
• Since the latter could easily reinforce their business interests by exploiting a number of loopholes with foreign legislations such as the US’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK’s Anti Bribery Act.

Draft Public Procurement (PP) Bill:

• The Indian government was equally nifty when dealing with mounting international pressure for the ‘quick’ passage of the (draft) Public Procurement (PP) Bill, which was also later allowed to lapse. 
• Multiple versions of the draft PP Bills in 2011-12 had been drafted by the (then) Planning Commission of India, virtually copy-pasting the UNCITRAL Model Public Procurement Law of 1996, not even the already released 2011 version. 
• The first draft required foreign bidders to be treated at par with domestic bidders, staring in the face of many legal and non-tariff barriers to participation by Indian bidders in external public procurement markets such as those in the US, Europe and China.
• It is easier for the government of India to overcome external agency pressure, given its size and high standing in international politics, but state governments in the country have not been as lucky, especially when faced with strong market-opening measures pursued by international loaning agencies as ‘public finance management’ reforms.

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Procurement reform experiences:

• Almost 10 years ago, Rajasthan was the first state to enact UNCITRAL-styled public procurement legislation in India—the Rajasthan Transparency in Public Procurement (RTPP) Act 2012—resulting in perhaps the fattest but a rather unnecessary ‘reform’ measure of this variety. 
• Copy-pasting in Rajasthan went on to the extent of permitting ‘competitive negotiations’ under state law, when there is virtually no one in the state who understands either its meaning or its complexity, and therefore, unsurprisingly, not one single contract has been processed in Rajasthan during the last eight years under this method after enactment of the RTPP Act. 
• Assam followed next in Rajasthan’s footsteps in 2017, copy-pasting all the confusion and inefficiencies with the Rajasthan Act in the Assam version as well; although they managed to remove some of these defects while finalising their draft rules. 
• Punjab, as recently as in September 2019, seems to have fallen prey to using the legislative route to procurement reform, as if efficient project execution can be achieved without proper allocation of risk, and without first ensuring simplified procurement procedures and standardised bidding documents.

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Provisions on debarment:

• The Punjab Act makes for comparatively more interesting reading, given its rather unique provisions on debarment (sections 7 and 56) and blacklisting (section 26), without defining either of these phrases, and even though these two concepts, as a matter of legal practice, are virtually the same!
• Punjab’s debarment provisions have been copy-pasted from the Rajasthan/Assam texts, while its blacklisting provisions seem to have been copied from some of its earlier executive instructions. 
• All this confusion seems to have happened in Punjab only because of copycat legislation without attempting to appreciate procurement complexities in a bottoms-up manner, particularly when contractor ineligibility as a matter of international best practice, and even under the government of India’s 1971 framework for banning and suspension of business dealings, has always been narrowly interpreted and applied to contracts awarded only by the debarring agency/department.

Conclusion:

• It would, of course, be premature and naïve to state that the only defects with the Punjab, Assam, Rajasthan texts are in relation to their provisions on debarment, blacklisting, competitive negotiations. 
• There appear to be many other instances of similar confusion and impracticality in each of these states—confusion that is unlikely to die down soon enough.

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(Written Result) UPSC COMBINED DEFENCE SERVICES EXAMINATION (I) 2020

(Written Result) UPSC COMBINED DEFENCE SERVICES EXAMINATION (I) 2020

Picking up the quantum technology baton (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Science and Tech 
Prelims level:  Quantum technology
Mains level:Developing the Quantum technology in India

Context:

• In the Budget 2020 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a welcome announcement for Indian science — over the next five years she proposed spending ₹8,000 crore (~ $1.2 billion) on a National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications. 
• This promises to catapult India into the midst of the second quantum revolution, a major scientific effort that is being pursued by the United States, Europe, China and others. 
• In this article we describe the scientific seeds of this mission, the promise of quantum technology and some critical constraints on its success that can be lifted with some imagination on the part of Indian scientific institutions and, crucially, some strategic support from Indian industry and philanthropy.

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A timeline:

• Quantum mechanics was developed in the early 20th century to describe nature in the small — at the scale of atoms and elementary particles. 
• For over a century it has provided the foundations of our understanding of the physical world, including the interaction of light and matter, and led to ubiquitous inventions such as lasers and semiconductor transistors. 
• Despite a century of research, the quantum world still remains mysterious and far removed from our experiences based on everyday life. 
• A second revolution is currently under way with the goal of putting our growing understanding of these mysteries to use by actually controlling nature and harnessing the benefits of the weird and wondrous properties of quantum mechanics. 
• One of the most striking of these is the tremendous computing power of quantum computers, whose actual experimental realisation is one of the great challenges of our times. 
• The announcement by Google, in October 2019, where they claimed to have demonstrated the so-called “quantum supremacy”, is one of the first steps towards this goal.

Promising future:

• Besides computing, exploring the quantum world promises other dramatic applications including the creation of novel materials, enhanced metrology, secure communication, to name just a few. 
• Some of these are already around the corner. 
• China recently demonstrated secure quantum communication links between terrestrial stations and satellites. And computer scientists are working towards deploying schemes for post-quantum cryptography — clever schemes by which existing computers can keep communication secure even against quantum computers of the future. 
• Beyond these applications, some of the deepest foundational questions in physics and computer science are being driven by quantum information science. This includes subjects such as quantum gravity and black holes.

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Require and unprecedented collaboration: 

• Pursuing these challenges will require an unprecedented collaboration between physicists (both experimentalists and theorists), computer scientists, material scientists and engineers. 
• On the experimental front, the challenge lies in harnessing the weird and wonderful properties of quantum superposition and entanglement in a highly controlled manner by building a system composed of carefully designed building blocks called quantum bits or qubits. 
• These qubits tend to be very fragile and lose their “quantumness” if not controlled properly, and a careful choice of materials, design and engineering is required to get them to work. 
• On the theoretical front lies the challenge of creating the algorithms and applications for quantum computers. 
• These projects will also place new demands on classical control hardware as well as software platforms.

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Where India stands?

• Globally, research in this area is about two decades old, but in India, serious experimental work has been under way for only about five years, and in a handful of locations. 
• What are the constraints on Indian progress in this field? So far we have been plagued by a lack of sufficient resources, high quality manpower, timeliness and flexibility. 
• The new announcement in the Budget would greatly help fix the resource problem but high quality manpower is in global demand. 
• In a fast moving field like this, timeliness is everything — delayed funding by even one year is an enormous hit.

Way ahead: 

• There are some limits that come from how the government must do business with public funds. 
• Here, private funding, both via industry and philanthropy, can play an outsized role even with much smaller amounts.
• This is the most effective way (as China and Singapore discovered) to catch up scientifically with the international community, while quickly creating a vibrant intellectual environment to help attract top researchers.
• Further, connections with Indian industry from the start would also help quantum technologies become commercialised successfully, allowing Indian industry to benefit from the quantum revolution. 

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Conclusion:

• We must encourage industrial houses and strategic philanthropists to take an interest and reach out to Indian institutions with an existing presence in this emerging field. 
• As two of us can personally attest, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), home to India’s first superconducting quantum computing lab, would be delighted to engage.

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The perils of an all-out lockdown (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Governance 
Prelims level:  Unorganised sectors
Mains level: Challenges towards India’s lockdown

Context:

• As the novel coronavirus spreads, a double crisis looms over India: a health crisis and an economic crisis. 
• In terms of casualties, the health crisis is still very confined (seven deaths in a country where eight million people die every year), but the numbers are growing fast. 
• The economic crisis is hitting with full force, throwing millions out of work by the day.Unlike the health crisis, it is not class-neutral, but hurts poor people the most.

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Challenges towards India’s lockdown:

• Migrant workers, street vendors, contract workers, almost everyone in the informal sector — the bulk of the workforce — is being hit by this economic tsunami.
• In Maharashtra, mass lay-offs have forced migrant workers to rush home, some without being paid. 
• Many of them are now stranded between Maharashtra and their homes as trains have been cancelled. 
• The economic standstill in Maharashtra is spreading fast to other States as factories, shops, offices and worksites close with little hope of an early return to normalcy. 
• With transport routes dislocated, even the coming wheat harvest, a critical source of survival for millions of labouring families in north India, may not bring much relief. And all this is just a trailer.
• This economic crisis calls for urgent, massive relief measures. Lockdowns may be needed to slow down the epidemic, but poor people cannot afford to stay idle at home. If they are asked to stay home, they will need help. There is a critical difference, in this respect, between India and affluent countries with a good social security system. 
• The average household in, say, Canada or Italy can take a lockdown in its stride (for some time at least), but the staying power of the Indian poor is virtually nil.

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Tap social schemes

• Since time is of the essence, the first step is to make good use of existing social-security schemes to support poor people — pensions, the Public Distribution System (PDS), midday meals, and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), among others. 
• Initial measures could include advance payment of pensions, enhanced PDS rations, immediate payment of MGNREGA wage arrears, and expanded distribution of take-home rations at schools and anganwadis. 
• Some States have already taken useful steps of this sort, but the scale of relief measures needs radical expansion. 
• That, in turn, requires big money from the Central government. It also requires the government to avoid squandering its resources on corporate bailouts: most crisis-affected sectors of the economy will soon be lobbying for rescue packages.

Negative impact of the vulnerable sections of the society:

• Meanwhile, there is a danger of people’s hardships being aggravated by a tendency to shut down essential services. 
• Public transport, administrative offices, court hearings, MGNREGA projects and even immunisation drives have already been suspended to varying degrees in many States. 
• Some of these interruptions are certainly justified, but others are likely to be counter-productive. 
• Remember, we are dealing not only with a health crisis but also with an economic crisis. Even if discontinuing public services helps to contain the health crisis, the economic consequences need to be considered.

Precautionary measures:

• To assess the case for various precautionary measures, we must bear in mind the dual motive for taking precautions. 
• When you decide to stay at home, there are two possible motives for it: a self-protection motive and a public-purpose motive. 
• In the first case, you act out of fear of being infected. 
• In the second, you participate in collective efforts to stop the spread of the virus.

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Display creativity:

• A similar reasoning applies to the case for shutting down public services as a precautionary measure. Self-protection of public employees is not a major issue (for the time being), the main consideration is public purpose. 
• Further, public purpose must include the possible economic consequences of a shutdown. If a service creates a major health hazard, public purpose may certainly call for it to be discontinued (this is the reason for closing schools and colleges). 
• On the other hand, services that help poor people in their hour of need without creating a major health hazard should continue to function as far as possible. 
• That would apply not only to health services or the Public Distribution System, but also to many other public services including administrative offices at the district and local levels. 
• Poor people depend on these services in multiple ways, closing them across the board at this time would worsen the economic crisis without doing much to stem the health crisis.

Way ahead: 

• The urgent need for effective social security measures makes it all the more important to avoid a loss of nerve. 
• The way things are going today, it will soon be very difficult for some State governments to run the Public Distribution System or take good care of drinking water. 
• That would push even more people to the wall, worsening not only the economic crisis but possibly the health crisis as well. 
• This is not the time to let India’s frail safety net unravel.

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Need and issues in Lokpal (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Polity 
Prelims level:  Lokayukta Act
Mains level: Jurisdiction and the power of Lokpal

Context:

• After six years of coming into effect of Lokpal and LokayuktaAct, 2013, it is yet to play a significant role in tacklingcorruption in the country. 

Basicsof Lokpal and Lokayukta Act:

• It establishes Lokpal for the Union and Lokayukta forStates to inquire into allegations of corruption againstcertain public functionaries.
• It provides for an Enquiry Wing and a Prosecution Wingto deal with cases of corruption.
• The Inquiry wing conducts preliminary inquiry intoalleged cases of corruption against public servants underPrevention of Corruption Act, 1988 whereas theProsecution Wing file cases before the Special Court toprosecute public servants under Prevention of CorruptionAct, 1988.

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Establishment of Lokpal: 

• Lokpal shall consist of a Chairperson, who is or has been aChief Justice of India or is or has been a Judge of theSupreme Court or an eminent person,
• It shall have a maximum of eight members of which halfshall be judicial members.
• The Chairperson and Members shall be appointed by thePresident after obtaining the recommendations of a
• Selection Committee consisting of—
• the Prime Minister—Chairperson;
• the Speaker of the House of the People—Member;
• the Leader of Opposition in the House of the People—Member;
• the Chief Justice of India or a Judge of the Supreme Courtnominated by him—Member;
• one eminent jurist, as recommended by the Chairpersonand Members.
• The Chairperson and every Member shall, on therecommendations of the Selection Committee, be appointed by the President by warrant under his handand seal and hold office as such for a term of five yearsor until he attains 70 years of age (whichever is earlier).

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Jurisdiction and the power of Lokpal:  

• Lokpal have jurisdiction to inquire allegations of corruptionagainst Prime Minister, Ministers, members of Parliament,officers belonging to Group A, B, C and D and officials ofCentral Government.
• The Lokpal on receipt of a complaint, may orderpreliminary inquiry against any public servant by itsInquiry Wing or any agency including the Delhi SpecialPolice Establishment.
• Lokpal shall refer complaints of corruption against publicservants to Central Vigilance Commission and the CVCafter making preliminary enquiry –
• In respect of public servants belonging to Group A andGroup B - shall submit its report to the Lokpal.
• In case of public servants belonging to Group C andGroup D - the Commission shall proceed in accordancewith the provisions of the Central Vigilance CommissionAct, 2003.
• Lokpal can also inquire against any society or trust or bodythat receives foreign contribution above Rs.10 lakhs.
• Lokpal Act creates Special Courts to hear and decide thecases arising out of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988or under the Lokpal Act involving public servants.
• The Special Courts shall ensure completion of each trialwithin a period of one year from the date of filing of thecase in the Court.

Probe against Prime Minister:

• The Lokpal cannot inquire into any corruption charge againstthe Prime Minister if the allegations are related tointernational relations, external and internal security, publicorder, atomic energy and space unless a full Bench of theLokpal, consisting of all members, considers the initiation of aprobe necessary and is approved by at least two-thirds of themembers of Lokpal. 
• Such a hearing should be held privatelyand if the complaint is dismissed, the records shall not bepublished or made available to anyone.

Challenges in implementation:

• For more than five years, the chairperson and members ofthe Lokpal were not appointed as thegovernment claimedlack of Leader of Opposition in the Parliament.
• Supreme Court Judgment in April, 2018 instructed thegovernment to appoint Lokpal and its members and saidthat even without recognised Leader of Opposition, Lokpaland its members can be appointed.
• Accordingly, after much deliberation, governmentappointed Mr. Pinaki Chandra Ghosh as India’s firstLokpal in March 2019. Thus, it took almost five years toappoint Lokpal at the centre to handle cases of corruptionagainst public officials.
• No member from Opposition in Selection Committee.
• While appointing Chairperson and Members of Lokpal, thegovernment invited the opposition as “special invitee” andnot as Leader of Opposition or Leader of Single LargestParty.
• So, the selection committee remained very much politicallybiased towards a single political party due to lack ofrepresentation from the opposition.
• The unilateral selection may make the Chairperson andMembers of Lokpal go soft on officials who are close to theruling party on cases of corruption.
• This also puts pressure on other members of Lokpal oncases of corruption involving high officials consideredclose to the ruling majority.

Lack of Rules or Regulations for proper functioning:

• Even after one year of appointment of Lokayukta andMembers of Lokpal, central government has not framedrules for its regular functioning including providing formfiling complaints.
• The Central government has also failed to formulate rulesregarding asset disclosure by public servants. Further, noregulations have been made specifying the manner andprocedure of conducting preliminary inquiry andinvestigation. Yet the government claims that tillSeptember 30, 2019, it disposed of 1000 cases out of 1065cases. This claim of the government appears fabricatedand can be challenged in a Court of law.
• The government has neither constituted Inquiry andCorruption Wing of Lokpal nor appointed its Directors asprescribed in the Lokpal Act.

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Way forward:

• Mere appointment of Members of Lokpal and Lokayuktaswill not serve the purpose unless these officers areempowered with adequate powers to address the issue ofcorruption in the society.
• The government must frame rules and regulations tomake the institution function transparently, independentlyand authoritatively without any political or externalinfluence.
• The institution of Lokpal must be made financially andadministratively independent so that it can perform itsfunctions without being dependent on central authorities.

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Can digital tools trigger behavioural shift in how Indians save?(Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3:Economy 
Prelims level:  Unified Payments Interface
Mains level:Behavioural shift in the Indian economy 

Context:

• India and its central bank have done a tremendous job so far, to reach every nook and corner of the country to ensure rural branches or bank correspondents to cover every village and district. 
• This is India’s chance to build on that success by using digital technologies and platforms such as WhatsApp.

Evolution of the Unified Payments Interface:

• In the last few years, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is another such innovation which has demonstrated the promise of digital transactions. 
• These were just the first steps in a series of reforms that brought India out of a crisis and into an era of sustained economic growth. 
• In the last few years, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is another such innovation which has demonstrated the promise of digital transactions. 
• India’s technology leaders have a unique architecture that can scale to serve hundreds of millions of users and bring more people into the financial system to enjoy all the benefits of a digital economy. 
• UPI is also the first example of India’s public digital infrastructure which can go global and help solve for many complex problems related to poverty and financial inclusion.
• In India, many of those working in urban centres support their families who continue to live in rural India. 

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Rise in the household consumption:

• There are many studies which show that those who are working as construction labourers in cities like Mumbai, save a large chunk of their wages to send home through relatives or friends travelling back for a minimal fee. 
• UPI and the Digital India initiative, sending and receiving money over WhatsApp is now as easy as making a phone call or sending a message and it is free.
• Today people can send money using dozens of apps to one another or make a purchase at a local shop. 
• In the future, we believe people will be able to do so much more, helping people and our overall economy. 
• As per the latest Economic Survey released earlier this year, household savings has declined steadily over a six-year period of 2012-17 from over 7 to over 6.5 per cent. 
• While this is one reason why household consumption is up, it is also a clear indication that for Indian households the potential of savings and turning them into investments is quite high. 

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Way ahead:

• Research shows that access to financial products and services empowers people to achieve their dreams and prohibits them from falling into poverty. 
• India and its central bank have done a tremendous job so far, to reach every nook and corner of the country to ensure rural branches or bank correspondents to cover every village and district. 
• This is India’s chance to build on that success by using digital technologies and platforms such as WhatsApp.

Conclusion:

• We are charting a unique path forward. 
• Together we can build a more prosperous and Digital India.

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Judicious activism, not judicial activism: Time for judiciary to practice constitutional morality(Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2:Polity 
Prelims level:  Judicious activism
Mains level:Judicious activism and its major challenges 

Context:

• The global and Indian economies reel under the Covid-19 pressure, so it is necessary to assess the overall economic slowdown.
• The judiciary should practice the constitutional morality with respect to its own power of constitutional review of economic policies.

Government’s priority:

• The Indian government wants to improve India’s profile in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) index.
• It wants to do so to yield better external and internal investments, which are a shot in the arm that the Indian economy certainly needs.
• In its efforts to improve investor confidence, it has introduced numerous legislations that provide boost to its rank on the EoDB index. 

In what parameter does India lag?

• Under the parameter of “enforcing contracts”, India continues to lag behind even lesser economies. 
• This parameter, while looking at dispute resolution capacities, reveals the challenges that a litigant faces in the Indian judicial system.
• Delays and procedural breakdowns, lack of adequate remedy or proper enforceability of a judicial decree. 

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Remedy taken by the Parliament:

• It enacted amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, and the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. 
• Primarily, both these legislations aim at improving commercial litigation, especially those involving higher economic stakes. 
• Yet, no mechanism or legislation comprehensively addresses resolution of disputes pertaining to vital infrastructure development projects.

What is the debate? 

• A debate is on how far courts can intervene in developmental and economic policies of the state to balance divergent interests.
• There is also a debate on whether contemporary jurisprudence is emblematic of more amped up and overzealous judicial activism. 
• If there is any violation alleged against the governments undertaking such development exercises, they wind up in constitutional courts through the PIL route. 
• Once there, these projects have the unfortunate tendency of beleaguering pendency.

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Should courts sit in review of these policies?

• Judicial review and the oversight of courts are an inherent check and balance prescribed by the Indian Constitution. 
• However, the apex court itself has upheld that when conducting a constitutional review, the courts must limit it to constitutionality.
• It added that the courts should not delve into the intent of such policies, unless it is prima facie established to be born of mala fide intent. 
• There are instances of excessive judicial activism that are viewed as stumbling blocks impeding a booming economy.
• It is within this larger debate on the powers of judicial review and intervention that injunctions emerge as the central contention. 

What would be the effect of injunctive orders?

• Injunctive orders have the capacity to offset developmental plans in motion, and their cost implications are significant. 
• The Economic Survey of 2017-18 quantifies the costs of such delays. 
• The cumulative value of multiple projects snagged by injunctions and interim orders was pegged at Rs 52,000 crore (in March 2017). 
• On an average, such injunctions would remain in effect for over four years, thus causing severe delays.
• In turn, it would add the overrun costs to the development projects. 

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Information war (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2:International Relations 
Prelims level:  Infowar
Mains level:Outcome of the infowar between states 

Context:

• The Covid-19 pandemic has done nothing to improve intellects, and the usual suspects are still up to no good. 
• The relatively insignificant OpIndia attributes the spread of infection in Southeast Asia to Muslim evangelism, while applauding Hindus there for continuing to observe festivals undeterred by the peril.

Background:

• The two great powers have barely put a trade war behind them, and now Covid-19 has sparked off an unprecedented infowar in which journalists are cannon fodder. 
• A month ago, the US authorities designated Chinese news organisations as foreign missions – an euphemism for propaganda units. 
• Operationally, it only means that they must provide staff lists and cannot buy property without prior permission, but the message has been delivered. 
• The affected bodies include the Xinhua news agency and the China Global Television Network, Beijing’s face to the world.

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Unprecedented infowar: 

• A war on information is a self-goal for all because there is a huge deficit of knowledge on which action against the pandemic and the management of its economic, social and political fallout can be reasonably based.
• Nations are taking extraordinary steps, and preparing to deliver emergency funding that is often in the tens of billions, if not more. 
• The US has invoked wartime provisions to harness private plant capacity for the public good, and the EU has liberalised access of companies to government funds. 
• Populations under isolation are dealing with restrictions not seen since the Great War, which will have wide-reaching economic effects. 
• But initiatives for containment are actuated largely by prudence, rather than knowledge of the behaviour of the virus.
• Perhaps influenced by the message from the WHO, the media has focused on the need for testing.

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Way forward:

• India is being lauded for widening the ambit of testing to patients with atypical pneumonia, for instance. But the samples are not wholly random – they are drawn from a small fraction of the population who report illness – and has sampling bias built in. 
• To estimate the development of the pandemic and its effects on nations, whole populations would have to be randomly sampled. 
• Only the smallest nations have the wherewithal to do that. Liechtenstein, maybe, but not India or Russia. Besides, statistics indicates probabilistic ranges, not absolute figures. 
• Going by the present data, the death rate could be far lower than that of the annual influenza, or very much higher. Also, terminal health data generally features confusing signal to noise ratios, because there is rarely a single cause of death.

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