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Slow, but steady: On COVID-19 spread in India (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Health 
Prelims level: COVID-19
Mains level: Increasing the testing process of COVID 19

Context:

• With 52,469 confirmed cases and 1,771 fatalities as on May 6, 2020, India entered the list of the top 15 countries with the highest number of people infected by the novel coronavirus. 
• The infection count in India accounted for only 1.41% of the overall COVID-19 cases the world over, but this proportion has increased from 0.13% (536 cases) on March 24, the day when lockdown measures were announced, to 0.58% (11,487 cases) when the lockdown was extended to what it is currently. 

Doubling time for cases:

• The number of infections continues to surge in the U.S., where as on May 6 there were more than 1.2 million cases, nearly a third (32.7%) of the world’s total.
• While severely affected countries such as Italy, Spain, the U.K., France, Germany, Turkey and Iran finally seem to be experiencing a relative slowdown in the growth of new cases, emerging economies such as Brazil and Russia have shown no flattening of the curve as cases continue to exponentially increase in these countries. 
• This is indicated by the doubling time for cases in the last week: seven and nine days, respectively, for these two countries. Brazil has also registered 7,921 deaths due to the virus, much higher than in India (1,771) and Russia (1,451). 

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Early contact tracing and testing: 

• The fact that despite two extensions to one of the most stringent lockdowns in the world, India has not managed to flatten the curve suggests that the lockdown might have been necessary but it is not sufficient. 
• The common theme among countries that have substantially arrested the spread of the virus has been early contact tracing and testing during the outbreak. 
• Some countries such as South Korea have managed to flatten the curve simply by community testing and surveillance. 
• It was always going to be difficult to test at such high rates in India, but even within the limited testing protocols, a closely monitored testing and surveillance strategy has paid dividends for States such as Kerala. 

Testing rates across the states: 

• Other States that have registered a sudden increase in COVID-19 cases, such as Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana, must continue to ramp up testing and isolation of positive cases for the lockdown strategy to work. 
• Fortunately, these States have had only a few fatalities unlike Maharashtra, Gujarat (which have tested more samples per day than the national average) and West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh (which continue to test at a rate lower than the national average). 

Conclusion: 

• The country cannot afford to lock down its activities indefinitely. Ramping up testing and public health infrastructure, besides protecting the vulnerable, remains the best way for India.

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A war-like state and a bond to the rescue (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy 
Prelims level: Consol bond
Mains level: Government budgeting system and raising funds 

Context:

• As India’s ominous COVID-19 curve stretches further, urgent attention needs to be paid to an economy that is teetering on the edge. 
• Several economists, former Finance Ministers and central bank Governors have made the clarion call for a large stimulus to pull the economy back from the brink. 
• There are a few who seem to believe that there are ways and means to provide this stimulus without breaking the bank as it were. 
• As we spend more time in a national lockdown or quasi-lockdown situation, we believe that austerity measures and reallocations notwithstanding.
• We will definitely need to go beyond current revenue receipts to fund the complete stimulus.

A gathering financial storm:

• In the Budget before the pandemic, India projected a deficit of ₹7.96-lakh crore. 
• However, even then there were concerns around off balance sheet borrowings of 1% of GDP and an overly excessive target of ₹2.1 lakh crore through disinvestments. 

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Need for stimulus package and measures taken by the central bank:

• In addition to the expenditure that was planned, the government has to spend anywhere between ₹5-lakh crore and ₹6-lakh crore as stimulus. 
• The insipid stimulus provided by the government so far and recent announcements by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) only serve to highlight how out of touch with reality they are. 
• All the RBI’s schemes are contingent on the availability of risk capital, the market for which has completely collapsed. 
• The two have tried several times over the last year to nudge banks into lending to below investment grade micro, small and medium enterprises, but have come up short each time. 
• Furthermore, while the 60% increase in ways and means limits for States is a welcome move, many States have already asked for double the limits due to the shortages in indirect taxation collections from Goods and Services Tax, fuel and liquor. 
• The government and the central bank need to understand that half measures will do more harm than good. 
• It will only lull us into a false sense of security, much like a lockdown without adequate testing.

Echo from the past:

• Politicians and epidemiologists across the world have used the word “war” to describe the situation the world is currently in. 
• As we wage a united war against this virus, it would be interesting for us to look at war-time methods of raising financing. 
• One such method that has been used as early as the First World War is the Consol Bond. 
• In 2014, the British government, a century after the start of the First World War, paid out 10% of the total outstanding Consol bond debt. 

What is a consol bond? 

• A perpetual bond, also known as a "consol bond" or "prep," is a fixed income security with no maturity date. 
• This type of bond is often considered a type of equity, rather than debt. One major drawback to these types of bonds is that they are not redeemable. 
• However, the major benefit of them is that they pay a steady stream of interest payments forever.The bonds, which paid out an interest of 5%, were issued in 1917 as the government sought to raise more money to finance the ongoing cost of the First World War. 

Why it is a better option?

• There is no denying the fact that the traditional option of monetising the deficit by having the central bank buy government bonds is one worth pursuing. 
• However, given an as yet hesitant (to raise debt) Prime Minister’s penchant for making citizens active participants to his missions, he might view a Consol Bond as a more compelling alternative. 
• Furthermore, with the fall of real estate and given the lack of safe havens outside of gold, the bond would offer a dual benefit as a risk free investment for retail investors. 
• When instrumented, it would be issued by the central government on a perpetual basis with a right to call it back when it seems fit. 
• An attractive coupon rate for the bond or tax rebates could also be an incentive for investors. 

Conclusion: 

• The government can consider a phased redemption of these bonds after the economy is put back on a path of high growth — a process that might take that much longer for every day we extend this lockdown.

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An army against COVID-19 (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Science and Tech 
Prelims level: Monoclonal antibody
Mains level: Details about the monoclonal antibody and its application process to combat COVID 19

Context:

• Israel’s new monoclonal antibody against SARS-CoV-2, isolated by the country’s premier public sector biological research organization.
• The Israel Institute of Biological Research (IIBR), joins a line of monoclonal antibodies being proposed against the pathogen. 
• Celltrion, a South Korean pharma company, had announced mid-April that it had identified 14 neutralising monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in partnership with the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from a pool of 300 antibodies that bind to SARS-CoV-2’s surface proteins.

Eyeing human trials:

• The company is eyeing human trials in July, and has said that it is also on track for the development of an ‘antibody cocktail’. 
• It is important to mention here that South Korea has a high recovery rate, of 86% as on May 4; such a large pool of recovered people could facilitate a wide assessment of convalescent antibody-led lines of treatment, mAbs trials.

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What are the Monoclonal antibodies? 

• Monoclonal antibodies are generated from a single recovered parent-cell in laboratory conditions through the use of genetically modified mice, and are reformatted for use in humans after they show efficacy in beating a pathogen. 
• These are particularly potent, since they target one epitope (site of engagement with the pathogen on its surface) and prevent its entry into a healthy cell. 
• The fact that these engage with a unique epitope means that the pathogen targeted is overwhelmed with very little time for it to develop a mutation against the mAb.

mAb line of therapy:

• The IIBR reports directly to the prime minister—however haven’t shared any scientific literature on the development or information on laboratory evaluation of their isolated mAb. 
• The IIBR researchers are looking to apply for a patent and enter into a commercial partnership with an international pharma company, that will need regulatory approvals for human use after the results of clinical trials are assessed. 
• Human trials will be an important milestone in the progress of an mAb line of therapy, since mAbs, though they mimic antibodies produced by the human body, could have significant side-effects.
• Trials of gimsilumab, an mAb developed by Roivant Sciences, was rolled out on April 16 on Covid-19 patients with lung injury or showing signs of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, with the Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia being the primary site of trial. 
• The primary endpoint being considered for the trial is mortality by day 43, with the secondary endpoints being incidence and duration of mechanical ventilation use, number of ICU days and inpatient hospitalisation days.
• Considering the primary endpoint for the trial, the results should be available by the end of this month.
• Researchers at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands have also reported the development of an mAb (named 47D11), in the journal Nature Communications. 
• The mAb neutralised SARS-CoV-2 in in vitro conditions by binding to the Spike surface protein of the virus. 

Way ahead:

• The researchers believe the mAb may also have therapeutic use in another coronavirus (SARS-CoV, the pathogen behind SARS), if it passes the clinical trial stage. This would make the Utrecht mAb a bi-specific one, i.e., with efficacy against two pathogens.
• Apart from these instances of mAb research targeting Covid-19, American biotech major Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and British-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca are working on mAb solutions, too. 
• The US’s Darpa is also playing a seminal role in mAb research with many partner biotech firms.

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Online route of justice delivery system (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Polity 
Prelims level: eCourts Project
Mains level: Adoption of technology in Judiciary 

Context:

• The lockdown has generated several webinars on justice delivery, technology and the future. 
• The discussions focus on the way forward in tackling the problem of social distancing with lawyers and litigants crowding the courts even after the lockdown is lifted.

Kinds of courts in our justice delivery system:

• First, conventional courts located in court complexes where judges, lawyers and litigants are physically present. 
• Second, online courts where the judge is physically present in the courtroom but the lawyer or litigant is not. This is the present arrangement, except that now the courtroom is the residential office of the judge, due to the lockdown. 
• Third, virtual courts where there is no judge, lawyer or litigant and a computer takes a decision based on the inputs of the litigant.

Pilot project with Tihar Jail:

• The pilot project for dealing with routine remand cases of prisoners. 
• The procedure postulated prisoners being produced in court, not physically but through video conferencing (VC), hence an online court. 
• The pilot project started tentatively with some hiccups but proved to be a success and now several courts have adopted the online process with varying degrees of commitment.

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Adoption of online routes by district and high courts:

• A few intrepid district judges have taken a step forward and recorded the statement of parties in cases of divorce by mutual consent. 
• As of now, several such cases, including those involving NRIs, are dealt with through VC in online courts. 
• Punjab and Haryana judges have gone even further ahead. The online courts record the expert evidence of doctors from PGIMER through VC. 
• This has freed the doctors from time consuming trips to the courts and has resulted in savings of several crores for the exchequer. 
• Similar success stories are available from other district courts, but a determined and concerted effort is necessary to popularise online courts at the district level.
• Some high court judges in Delhi and Punjab and Haryana have completely dispensed with paper — everything is on a soft copy, through e-Filing and scanned documents. 
• Lawyers and judges have made necessary adjustments to the new regime and the cases are conveniently heard and decided in “paperless courts”. 
• A few other high courts initiated similar steps, but have yet to institutionalise “paperless courts”.

Limitations: 

• The online courts is unfamiliarity with the medium of communication. Judges are simply not used to consciously facing a camera generally and in particular while hearing a case.
• Similarly, lawyers find it difficult to comfortably argue while seated. Body language, facial expressions, the tone and tenor, both of the judge and the lawyer, make for important signals and clues which cannot be captured in VC. 
• Some technical problems in conducting online hearings have also surfaced. The bandwidth is not adequate or stable enough. The picture sometimes breaks or gets frozen and the voice often cracks.
• Consultations are also a problem. Lawyers occasionally need to consult their client or the instructing advocate; judges also need to consult each other during a hearing. Attention needs to be paid to these real-time issues otherwise lawyers will harbour misgivings about a fair hearing.
• The chairman of the Bar Council of India has voiced a concern that 90 per cent of the lawyers are not computer literate or tech savvy. 

eCourts Project:

• A virtual court is a unique contribution of the eCourts Project. 
• A pilot virtual court was launched in August 2018 in Delhi for traffic offences and it has been a great success. 
• Virtual courts have been successfully tried out in Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. 
• A virtual court is a simple programme through which a person can find out if a challan has been issued to him or her through a search facility. 
• If a challan has been issued, the details are available online and the person may plead guilty or not guilty. 
• On a guilty plea, the minimum fine is imposed and on a not-guilty plea, the case is electronically transferred to the traffic court for trial. 
• At the end of the day, a judge reviews the cases and disposes of them electronically depending on the option exercised. 
• One judge is all it takes to manage the virtual court for Delhi or an entire state. 
• With the launch of virtual courts, the daily footfalls to the courts have drastically reduced and thousands have pleaded guilty and paid the fine electronically.

Potential of virtual court system: 

• The virtual court system has the potential of being upscaled and other petty offences attracting a fine such as delayed payments of local taxes or compoundable offences can also be dealt with by virtual courts. This will ease the burden on conventional courts and therefore must be strongly encouraged.

Way ahead: 

• Post lockdown, justice delivery will certainly undergo a transformation and judges, lawyers and litigants will need to adapt to the new normal. 
• Social distancing is here to stay and will bring about profound changes in the way justice is administered and delivered. 
• Open courts will remain as also open justice, but some definitions will change with a more aggressive use of technology, not only in conventional but also online and virtual courts. 

Conclusion: 

• Several countries and courts have made adjustments not only for the period of the pandemic or lockdown, but also for the future. 
• We should certainly not be left behind but must also make a roadmap to meet the challenge. As the Boy Scouts say: Be prepared.

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Covid constraints on defence expenditure could help transform military culture (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Defense and Security 
Prelims level: Defence forces in India
Mains level: Various security forces, agencies and their mandates 

Context:

• The freezing of fresh capital acquisitions by the defence forces, delays in procurement and induction of existing orders, and austerity measures in the administrative domain, were expected. 

Myopic approach:

• It is easy to approach this problem tactically by issuing directives and guidelines and then seeking periodic feedback from the military on the progress made, targets met, shortfalls and remedial measures instituted. 
• Instead, this should be seen as an opportunity to evolve a transformational culture in the Indian military, based on clear political guidelines driven by existing and futuristic capabilities, expected strategic outcomes and anticipated strategic challenges.

Approaches taken by neighbouring countries:

• Pakistan stagnates in an existential-threat-based and India-centric approach to national security. 
• China’s expansive global strategy and unbridled capability-based development surge have overcome the dangers of direct competition with the US. It has closed the gap through an “indirect approach to international security”, which looks at building on strengths in areas such as cyberspace, non-contact warfare, economic and diplomatic coercion. 

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Strategic guidelines for India’s security:

• Strategic guidelines for India’s security managers must shift from a threat-based methodology to a multi-disciplinary capability.
• An outcome-based orientation to fit with the nation’s power aspirations.

Five visible silos most critical to kick-start the transformation:
Creation of indigenous defence capability:

• Doing this without brushing away the short and medium-term requirement of selective imports will be the key to a calibrated march to self-sufficiency. 

Leadership: 

• India’s military leadership is very hierarchical and sequential in its approach. 
• However, this same leadership has superb operational skills and possesses a quick understanding of technology, tactics, techniques and procedures. 
• Consequently, strategic leaders need to be identified and their transition towards becoming more than mere executors of operational plans and campaigns needs to be enabled. 
• Multi-disciplinary thinking, lateral assimilation and a world-view are among the specific skill-sets that need to be nurtured.

Training and education:

• Training and education form the next two silos in the process of transformation. Let us take the developed Western model for example. 
• Several military officers at the colonel level — fresh out of war colleges and the university environment where they spend a year of education (not training) — are posted at the Pentagon and NATO HQ. 
• Here, they work alongside civilians, politicians, lawmakers, not forgetting their own joint leadership. In such an environment, it is not difficult to mark, train and recognise talent in ways that go beyond the mere rank structure. 
• It is high time India goes down that road because even though economic globalisation may be on hold for a while post COVID-19, there is going to be a flattening of the world from a security perspective. 
• There will be common threats that would need to be fought jointly by nations. 
• The three pre-requisites in these silos will be an amalgam of service-centric and joint operations expertise, operational acumen in a global environment, and broad-based education that develops intellectual capital.
• Training in the Indian military is top-notch and needs a little tweaking to help officers and men understand the rules of engagement in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world. It is diversified education at all levels of leadership that is a weak area.

Jointness and integration:

• The silo of jointness and integration without losing identities and compromising competencies is an outcome that needs to be chased down with focus and determination. 
• There will be pain and turfs will be trampled on, but with transformed and intellectually empowered leadership, no bridge will too far to cross for the Indian military.

Way ahead:

• Some have suggested radical ways of selecting future chiefs, suggesting a “deep selection” and a four-year tenure based on several criteria that have been highlighted in this article. 
• They have also highlighted the accompanying risks of such a move.
• Keeping that as an aspirational long-term outcome may be a good idea as the processes needed to incorporate such a radical change are either nascent or absent from the current system.

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Promise of equity (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Governance 
Prelims level: Direct benefit transfer 
Mains level: Welfare schemes for poor through direct benefit transfer 

Context:

• Recently, the FM announced a fiscal relief package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore to help the poor.
• This package—at 1% of GDP. 
• FM said that the “measures are intended at reaching out to the poorest of the poor, with food and money in hands, so that they do not face difficulties in buying essential supplies and meeting essential needs”.

To scale up the fiscal relief measures:

• With a special emphasis on “Basic Income” the threshold fiscal deficit to GDP ratio, as in the FRBM, may be revised. 
• It is not only the levels, but also the financing pattern, of deficits that need a relook.
• Given the narrative of “whatever it takes” to address “life versus livelihood” crisis and the public health pandemic, we must emphasise the increased monetisation of deficits, along with the bond financing, rather than external financing of debt.

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Informal workforce: 

• The Economic Survey 2018-19 points that “almost 93%” of the total workforce is ‘informal’. 
• In a nation, which is under the Great Lockdown, where the daily worker is prevented from earning a fair wage.
• It stands to reason that we exercise the humane quality of being fair and impartial, particularly considering the size of the informal workforce.
• The announcements by the FM, thus, are partial, and there is a need to enhance “basic income” transfers.

Universal Basic Income:

• One of the biggest challenges in providing Universal Basic Income (UBI) to all is that it gets mired in politics—both good and bad. 
• Many questions arise, if the income is considered “universal”, who all benefit from it—why should the rich be included? And, if only the poor are included, does it become an unalienable right? 
• These are technically the Type 1 (inclusion error) and Type 2 (exclusion error) errors in public expenditure management.
• To avoid getting mired in a political discourse, we may term this as Basic Sustenance Income. 

Targeting the underprivileged:

• The proposed Direct Benefit Transfer will be targeting the underprivileged (BPL) for day-to-day sustenance all through the year. 
• The government can scale up the existing fiscal relief package and contribute to individual and household income sustenance in six ways.
• It can strengthen the minimum living sustenance income guarantee, announced in the initial fiscal Covid policy response. 
• The announcement of Rs 500 per head to the women in the care economy per se is insufficient. 
• It is indeed significant to combine food security with basic income. National Food Security Act, 2013 makes the right to food a justiciable right. 
• As on date, a significant part of this is fulfilled by the PDS system. However, many of the intended beneficiaries—such as inter-state migrants—are left out.

Fulfilling calorific requirements:

• The focus of the PDS programme is more on fulfilling calorific requirements rather than nutritional requirements. 
• Moreover, there are several challenges in running such a PDS system efficiently, as a “leak proof” distribution system. 
• What we propose is weekly direct transfer of payments based on market rates for the food grains supplied via PDS throughout the year. 
• Thus, the intended beneficiary decides what food grains (nutrition) to buy and how much to buy. 
• This transfer benefits directly to migrants’ accounts at their place of work. 

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Calamity Jane Disaster Support Schemes:

• “Calamity Jane” Disaster Support Schemes need to be designed to support the needy during this period. 
• The beneficiaries could be state/region-specific, or whatever the deserving category as declared by the government. 
• This could be in the form of weekly or one-time lumpsum transfers dependent upon the distress caused to the targeted group. 
• A good example can be the migrants or other deserving poor unable to work owing to the lockdown.

Provisions for PPE during Covid:

• To strengthen social insurance payments for sickness, including provisions for PPE during Covid. 
• The significant issues would be to firm up social security based on contributions.
• The monetary policy has limitations in triggering the economy through credit policy instruments.
• Design appropriate conditional cash transfers, contingent upon citizens fulfilling certain government-targeted social goals such as vaccinations for children, or volunteering during emergencies. 
• This list can be expanded or reduced as per the government’s social goals and availability of funds. 
• The conditional transfers should be given preferably to the female head of households using a “Citizen Card” which operates like a debit card.
• The Brazil’s Bolsa Familia Programme is a significant example of this category DBT. 

Intergovernmental fiscal transfers:

• The 15th Finance Commission can design and integrate such intergovernmental fiscal transfers in their final report, to be submitted on October 2020.
• To strengthen “Payment for Work” programmes, like MGNREGA. When the environment is more conducive, the government can roll out work programmes. 
• In the post-Covid era, the government acting as “employer of last resort” is very relevant. 
• The drastic reduction in budgetary allocation for this scheme is alarming, and the deviation between what is estimated and the actual needs course correction.
• Design “Nudge Payments”, which make it more likely for an individual/family to make benevolent choices or behave in a particular way. 
• An example is rewarding people to follow health guidelines. So, staying indoors gets a small reward. Monitoring is easy with the deployment of Aarogya Setu app or other metrics. 
• In future, this can be extended to other health guidelines.

Conclusion:

• It is vital to strengthen the existing fiscal package, by tweaking existing “means-tested policies” with a more effective exercise of morally required equity. 
• It would be a promise of equity, not equality, a new starting line set above the poverty line. More importantly, it will not be an ad hoc one.

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Prepare for long haul (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Health 
Prelims level: COVID 19
Mains level: Need a pragmatic approach towards to combat COVID 19

Context:

• The coronavirus pandemic has created an unprecedented crisis. 
• It has spread rapidly, catching governments, local administrations and public health systems unprepared. All countries — rich or poor — have been adversely affected.

For India’s perspective: 

• For India — a country of 1.3 billion with socio-economic disparities, and hundreds of millions of poor, unemployed and underemployed labourers — the virus has posed critical challenges. 
• The country has been under a total lockdown since March 25, which has now been extended to May 17. 
• But the virus is still spreading and the lockdown restrictions have to be extended further. On March 25, India had only 627 confirmed cases spread over 130 districts. 
• On May 3 — the last day of phase II of the lockdown — the number of affected districts stood at 401 with 42,836 confirmed cases, now rising by over 2,000 a day. 

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Bipartisan support: 

• India’s lockdown has been arguably the harshest. It was supported by all major political parties, and elected state governments of which 11 are controlled by the opposition.
• This bipartisan consensus was made possible as containment of the virus was considered necessary.
• The lockdown has helped in slowing the spread and flattening the curve. Tracking suspected cases, their contacts and testing them has been relentlessly pursued. 
• This period has also provided space for the Centre and state governments to ramp up testing facilities, and strengthen a fragile public health system for a possible post-lockdown surge.

Burden on government hospital: 

• The pandemic has brought to fore the glaring shortcomings of the public health system and the over-dependence on private hospitals. 
• Over the years, there has been a tendency to favour an insurance-based private hospital model and not opt for increasing government spending to expand public healthcare facilities. 
• Two-thirds of hospital beds in India and almost 80 per cent of available ventilator-equipped ICU beds are in private hospitals. They are handling only 10 per cent of the COVID load. 
• For a country with a large number of poor and socially vulnerable citizens, private healthcare is neither accessible nor affordable. 
• Ironically, in this time of crisis, it is the government hospitals that are taking on the burden.

Resources on public healthcare infrastructure: 

• This pandemic should be a wake-up call for the government to allocate more resources for public healthcare infrastructure. 
• It is persisting with the controversial Central Vista Project which costs Rs 20,000 crore. This will also be a criminal waste of public money when there is already a paucity of resources to fight the pandemic. 
• The government is withholding DA installments and accepting loans from the World Bank to fight the pandemic. 
• India needs well-equipped government hospitals and not grand buildings which will serve no public purpose.

Impact of lockdown: 

• The shutdown of the economy has inflicted unbearable social and economic costs. An estimated 122 million jobs in the formal and informal sectors have been lost. 
• The informal sector which employs 90 per cent of the workforce and the MSME’s are worst hit.
• The lockdown was hastily imposed by the Central government without any advance preparation or coordination. 
• There were no consultations with the state governments. Abrupt cancellations of trains, buses and bans on movement of all vehicles led to confusion and despair. Millions were stranded without food and money. Untold suffering was inflicted on them.
• The fallout on the large number of casual workers and migrant construction and farm labourers has been severe. Migrant labour desperate to return to their native villages were stranded and trapped in harsh conditions. 
• Thousands of migrant workers deprived of their livelihoods were forced to walk back to their villages. 
• The images of men and women — many pregnant, carrying their belongings and children, the elderly and young ones, starving and crying — will remain forever frozen in our memory.

Fundamental questions: 

• The enforcement of the first lockdown without consultation with the states raises fundamental questions.
• India has a federal structure and in the constitutional scheme of things, healthcare is a State subject and contagious diseases is on Concurrent list. 
• Also, trade and commerce within the state and industry are State subjects. But all decisions were arbitrarily taken by the Centre under the National Disaster Management Authority Act of 2005. This approach has long-term implications on Centre-state relations.

Way forward:

• India is staring at a prolonged recession and massive unemployment. The financial package provided by the government is very small to make any meaningful impact. A financial package of 5 per cent of GDP is a must to revive the economy. The government has directed industry to pay full wages to their workers. 
• MSME’s should be given government-guaranteed finance at zero interest to enable them to pay their workers. The fiscal deficit and inflation issues can be put in abeyance until April 2021.
• For the poor — 75 per cent of rural and 50 per cent of urban households — food security has to be guaranteed. Fortunately, the granaries are full with 77.5 million tonnes of buffer food grain stocks.
• A phased exit from the lockdown has started. Industrial activity, movement of cargo and limited retail trade has resumed. 
• This will help to balance the twin objectives of saving lives and livelihoods. 
• It will also save the economy as the collateral damage is bound to be far greater if the lockdown is extended.

Conclusion: 

• The lockdown has definitely slowed the spread of the virus. It will resurface once the restrictions are eased. 
• The virus spread, it appears now is beyond the ability of state to contain by quarantining. 
• Ensuring personal protective equipment for doctors and healthcare workers and providing required resources and logistical support to government hospitals is essential to prepare for the next wave.
• India has to be prepared for a long haul. A pragmatic approach is the need of the hour.

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Resuscitating multilateralism with India’s help (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations 
Prelims level: Multilateralism
Mains level: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.

Context:

• Even as the coronavirus pandemic unleashes its devastation across the globe, the great and the good have been quick to remind us of the value of multilateralism and the necessity to preserve it. And yes, they are right. 
• To reduce the further spread of the virus, to develop effective medical treatments, and to curtail the worst effects of the inevitable recession that is already in the offing, cooperation among nations will be necessary. 
• But there is a problem: multilateralism is possibly at its weakest today, when the need for it is more dire than ever before. Unless the fundamental problem is addressed, no meaningful fix will be possible. 

Assuming leadership: 

• India may be uniquely positioned to help resuscitate multilateralism. 
• With the United States facing multiple internal challenges including the prospects of a deeply divisive Presidential election in November, New Delhi (together with like-minded partners even beyond the usual suspects) could assume leadership in strengthening constructive transnational cooperation. 
• At a time when China is facing a global crises of credibility, India may even consider a last-ditch attempt at mediation; to temper what is increasingly seen as Beijing’s unilateralist revisionism; revive the promise of the gradual socialisation of China into the international system; and its acceptance of the norms and rules that regulate the principal multilateral institutions. 
• Deepened by the pandemic
• The malaise that afflicts multilateralism is not new. The paralysis of all three functions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) — negotiation, dispute settlement, and transparency — was one sign of that deep-rooted malaise; the severely dented credibility of the World Health Organization (WHO) is just another more recent indicator. 

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Weaponized for nationalistic gain:

• The underpinning assumption of the post-war multilateral system was that peace and prosperity went hand in hand. 
• Some like-mindedness and a commonly-held purpose were also assumed among members: increasing economic integration and shared prosperity would help enhance these affinities and contribute to peace. 
• Countries with fundamentally different domestic systems of governance did not form a part of this multilateral order, as was the case with the Soviet bloc in the Cold War years. 
• None of our multilateral institutions was built for a world where the ties of interdependence — which were supposed to enhance the well-being of all — could themselves be “weaponized” for nationalistic gain, at the expense of other players. 
• The misuse of existing rules (or loopholes within the existing rules) by several countries, especially by China (e.g. via forced technology requirements, intellectual property rights violations, and subsidies), to gain an unfair advantage in trade relations was already attracting critique in the last years. But the pandemic has provided us with some even more alarming illustrations of how damaging the weaponisation of global supply chains can be. 

Need for commintment of multilateralism:

• As death tolls rose many countries responded with export restrictions on critical medical supplies. 
• This was far from ideal, but almost inevitable given the absence of adequate stocks within countries, and little in the rules to curb export restraints. 
• Recognising the shortages that countries were facing — masks, personal protective equipment, ventilators and more — to deal with COVID-19, China offered to sell these products to countries in need. 
• When the European Union (EU) put up export restrictions, China stepped in at Serbia’s request. But China’s coronavirus diplomacy did not stop there. 
• When India complained that test kits imported from China were faulty, China slammed it for “irresponsible” behaviour. 
• Australia indicated that it would conduct an independent investigation of China’s early handling of the epidemic, China threatened it with economic consequences. 
• Add to this the dangers of using faulty equipment on critical patients, plus the risks that several actors, including the EU and India, see of predatory takeovers of their companies by China. 
• The pandemic is teaching countries, through bitter experience, that weaponised interdependence is not just a theory but a practice that is rapidly evolving. And it can have life and death consequences.
• Against this background, repeated calls by heads of governments and international organisations urging countries to remain committed to multilateralism ring hollow. 

Reforming multilateralism

• To argue for a multilateral rules-based system will never suffice on its own; one must always address the issue of the goals and values that underpin the rules. The remedies are obvious.
• The need for reassurance and policies that reflect a renewed commitment to the raison d’étre of multilateralism. 
• A “retreating” United States must, of course, demonstrate in word and deed that autarchy is not the way forward (of this global crises) and that it remains committed to strengthening global supply chains which are based on the promise of ensuring global stability and the attendant promise of peace and prosperity.
• There is an urgent need for some strategic decoupling, handled smartly in cooperation with other like-minded countries. 
• This will not happen overnight. And it will undoubtedly cause considerable disruption to existing global value chains. 
• This in turn, will result in a shrinking of the global economic pie. We will be less prosperous. But we will also be more secure. 
• A multilateralism that recognises the need for decoupling will necessitate closer cooperation with some and distancing from others. 
• Membership of such renewed multilateral institutions would not be universal; rather, one would limit deep integration to countries with which one shares first-order values — such as pluralism, democracy, liberalism, animal welfare rights, and more. 

A role for India:

• The current crisis in multilateralism could be a remarkable opportunity for India, a country whose pluralism, democracy, and liberalism have often been underestimated by the West. At an immediate level, the gains are obvious: India has also maintained a consistent reserve about a blanket entrenchment in global value chains. As some constituencies in the West seek a gradual decoupling from China, they would be well served to look toward India. 
• To make use of the opportunities, for itself and for the provision of certain global public goods, India’s cooperation with like-minded actors will be key. 
• India could work closely with the Alliance for Multilateralism (an initiative launched by Germany and France) to shape both the alliance itself and the reform agenda at large. Working together with a group of countries from the developed and developing countries could further amplify India’s voice.
• But beyond these immediate gains could be a greater role for India. Not since Chernobyl has global public opinion lost as much faith in the competence and integrity of a great power as it has in China because of COVID-19 and the apparent malfeasance and the opaqueness with which it has dealt with the crises. 
• While China may recover faster than most economically, and its military might remains intact, its image as a reliable partner has suffered a huge dent. Neither aid diplomacy nor the unleashing of Chinese soft power can easily recover the trust deficit that exists today between China and much of the rest of the world. 

Conclusion: 

• While prudence may demand gradual decoupling, it is critical to not be seen as immediately isolating China; with fewer stakes in world order, Beijing’s turn towards revisionism could be faster than anticipated. 
• Instead, India could lead a coalition to bridge this deficit of trust through a regime of incentives and sanctions that seek to embed Beijing into a much more guided and directed socialisation into the rules of the international system. 
• Clearly, the strategic and economic have, however, to be in consonance with each other. In the longer term then, whether multi-polarity is the only firm guarantor of a sustainable and fairer multilateralism requires further debate among scholars and practitioners alike.

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Blame game : On Donald Trump’s anti-China rhetoric over COVID-19 (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations 
Prelims level: US China relations 
Mains level: Shaping renewed anti-China rhetoric will leave U.S.-China relations

Context:

• President Donald Trump’s recent attacks on China over the coronavirus outbreak risk further deterioration of already strained ties between the two countries at a time when the global economy is in a precarious situation. 
• Mr. Trump, under fire at home over his handling of the pandemic, seeks to hold China accountable for the infection spread. 
• He has attempted to tie the virus to a virology lab in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, endorsing an unproven theory, while his administration officials accuse Beijing of withholding information about the virus. 

Trump claims: 

• Over the past week, the President went so far as to seek compensation, threatening to impose more tariffs on China. 
• This is a U-turn given his initial appreciation of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping’s handling of the crisis. 
• Stepping up the attacks on China might help Mr. Trump, whose approval ratings are falling, to mobilise his base. 
• The Republican Party has already issued a memo asking candidates to attack China. Mr. Trump echoed the party sentiment when he said last week that China “will do anything” to defeat him in the November election. 

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Renewed anti-China rhetoric:

• The question is about what shape this renewed anti-China rhetoric will leave U.S.-China relations; ties have been uneasy since Mr. Trump became President. 
• The trade war by Mr. Trump and the push to weaken Chinese giant Huawei’s global bid to roll out 5G technology had impacted the four decades long partnership. 
• However, both sides agreed to an initial trade agreement in January that cut some U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods in return for China’s pledges to buy more American products. A final trade deal is yet to be reached. 
• If Mr. Trump decides to punish China over the COVID-19 outbreak, it would, in all likelihood, lead to the unravelling of the trade talks during an unfortunate time for the global economy. 

Looking beyond narrow blame game: 

• Also, China, which has brought the virus situation at home under control, has sent economic and medical assistance to the hardest hit countries. 
• Even the U.S. is importing personal protective equipment supplies from China. When Mr. Trump halted funding for the World Health Organization last month, China stepped in with an additional $30 million grant for the agency. Mr. Trump should look beyond his narrow blame game and see the larger picture.

Conclusion:  

• If the goals are to defeat the virus, save lives and rebuild economies and societies, those can be achieved only through global cooperation, not through unsubstantiated accusations, conspiracy theories and threats.

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Back home: On return of Indian expatriates (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International 
Prelims level: Standard Operating Procedures
Mains level: Indian Diaspora 

Context:

• After nearly two months, stranded Indians across the world will begin their journey home this week as aircraft and naval ships, in a government-coordinated plan, are to bring back about 15,000 nationals from 13 countries in the first week. 
• The mammoth exercise, dubbed the “Vande Bharat” mission by the External Affairs Ministry, is expected to last for weeks, given the numbers of people who have registered with embassies in these countries. 

Prioritising lists:

• The stranded include business travellers and tourists who were unable to return in time; due to the pandemic, the last flights allowed to land with incoming passengers were on March 22. There are also students whose university hostels have shut down. 
• Increasingly, those appealing to be allowed to return have included professionals and labourers who have lost jobs due to the economic impact of global lockdowns. 

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Standard Operating Procedures:

• According to the Standard Operating Procedures released by the Home Ministry, only those who have “compelling reasons to return” — people whose visas are expiring, who face deportation, with family emergencies, medical issues including pregnancy, and students who have lost their accommodation — will be allowed to return in the first phase, which is open to only Indian nationals at present. 
• In addition, the government has also laid down stringent conditions which include “mandatory institutional quarantine” for 14 days. 
• All those returning will also bear the costs for travel arrangements and accommodation.

Efforts of diplomats and officials: 

• Despite these, the returnees will no doubt be grateful to the government for its efforts, Indian diplomats who have helped keep them informed, organised food and shelter, and also to airline and naval crews who will carry out these operations despite the risks of infection. 
• The efforts required by unsung diplomats and officials have been made all the more difficult by India’s stringent lockdown and the government’s decision not to allow its own nationals to return, even as about 60,000 foreign nationals were flown out during this period. 

Way forward:

• As the government plans its exit from the lockdown, as well as its repatriation manoeuvres, it is necessary to consider putting in better systems so that it does not have to repeat the trauma of keeping Indian citizens stranded outside the country for extended periods away from their families. 
• It is necessary that quarantine facilities are identified or makeshift centres built to deal with the large numbers of people who may need to return. 
• The government needs to prepare for both a possible second wave of the novel coronavirus as well as a rapid increase in Indian expatriates needing to return given the drop in oil prices in West Asia and the downturn in global economies.

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Toxic boy talk (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1: Society 
Prelims level: Locker room
Mains level: Degradations of human behavior and practicing misogyny among teenagers 

Context:

• The outed Instagram “locker room”, where hundreds of teenage boys from Delhi-NCR’s most accomplished schools allegedly shared pictures of girls their age or less, offers a disturbing glimpse into their minds. 

Practicing misogyny:

• But this is not the first inkling society or elite schools have had of how brutally young people practice misogyny and shame culture as they grow into sexual awareness, nor will it be the last.
• For the most part, it is something that is looked away from — perhaps, because even in the “real, grown-up” world, men get away with more serious transgressions, as the #MeToo movement recently uncovered. 
• In this case, too, social media has exposed how talk is not just talk. 
• Language — even if it is below-the-radar gossip, chatter, mockery — can be used to belittle and reduce women to sexualised things, setting them up as targets of “real” violence.

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Consequences of their behavior:

• For the ecosystem that surrounds the boys, the challenge is to convince them of the consequences of their behaviour. 
• Parents, schools and other institutions can start by opening a conversation about consent and empathy, about drawing a line between desire and entitlement, and about thinking hard about ways to enforce accountability. 
• This is a hard ask — simply because young people model themselves on behaviour much more than they do on language and sermons.

Grown up with privilege:

• It might be especially hard to come to terms with the insensitivity of a generation that has grown up with privilege, and that is far more relaxed in terms of sexual mores than any other preceding generation.
• But a look at this economy of desire and permissiveness reveals an old problem: Without empathy, curiosity and a respect for the other, what seems like sexual exploration and discovery falls into the old rut of power play. 
• Boys continue to make invisible locker rooms, and girls make lists of predators to share anonymously.

Conclusion:

• It is best to remember that the internet in India is an overwhelmingly male preserve, and that offensive sexual behaviour is likely to push more women off it. 
• For parents of many girls, pragmatism might dictate that they give up their smartphones or go off social media. 
• But this is also a time for the same ecosystem to stand by them, to act as circuit-breakers between their self-expression and the jolts of shame, sexism and humiliation that the internet can inflict.

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Not at the cost of food security (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance 
Prelims level: National Policy on Biofuels 
Mains level: Imperative to food security and food price stability for the welfare of the vulnerable sections of the society 

Context:

• In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and a country-wide lockdown came an announcement that was difficult to believe. 
• The press release said the National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC) chaired by the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas has decided to use “surplus” rice available with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for conversion to ethanol. 
• This is ostensibly for making alcohol-based hand-sanitisers and for the blending of ethanol with petrol. 
• This decision is not only audacious but also an affront to the millions of people who are deeply affected by food insecurity.

Transfer grain from godowns:

• The images of exhausted migrants with their families trudging back from cities to villages are still vivid. Some have died on the way for the want of food and water. 
• Distribution of food rations and cooked food is still far from adequate. 
• The urgent priority is to transfer grain from godowns to ration shops and NGOs helping in food packet distribution — certainly not diverting rice to ethanol producers.

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National Policy on Biofuels 2009:

• Policymakers in India have been acutely aware of the dangers of diverting grain for biofuel production. 
• In 2009, the National Policy on Biofuels stressed on the use of non-food resources to avoid a possible conflict between food and fuel. 
• Contrast this with the thoughtless path taken by the US. In 2007-8, about 25 per cent of the corn produced in the US was used for biofuel production. 
• In addition to cereals, oilseed crops like rapeseed, soyabean and sunflower were used for biofuel production. 
• In 2018-19, an astounding 37.6 per cent of the corn produced in the US was used for making ethanol.

Rise in food prices: 

• Such diversion of food crops to produce biofuel was considered one of the reasons for the rise in food prices globally. 
• Corn and other grain is also used in feedstock for poultry and cattle and is hence part of the food economy. 
• This at a time when India’s position in the Global Hunger Index has slipped nine places. India was placed 102 among the 117 countries ranked in the index in 2019. 
• The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) 2015-16, found that 38.4 per cent of children under five years are “stunted” (height for age), and 21 per cent are “wasted” (low weight for height). 
• In fact, over a period of 10 years, wasting has increased from 19.8 per cent in NFHS-3 to 21 per cent in NFHS-4.

National Policy on Biofuels 2018:

• In 2018, the government modified its 2009 policy. The new National Policy on Biofuels had a target of 20 per cent blending of ethanol in petrol and 5 per cent blending of biodiesel in diesel by 2030. 
• This was to be achieved by increasing production using second generation bio-refineries and developing new feedstock for biofuels. 
• It allowed the production of ethanol from damaged food grains like wheat and broken rice, which are unfit for human consumption.
• The new policy allowed the use of excess food grain for ethanol in a bounty crop year, so long as the surplus is endorsed by the Union Ministry of Agriculture. The approval for this is to be given by the National Biofuel Coordination Committee, chaired by the Union Minister Petroleum and Natural Gas. It includes representatives from 14 other central departments.

Possible projections: 

• It is not known if the departments of agriculture and food and public distribution have projected that there will be an excess supply of rice in 2020-21. 
• The quantity of rice from which ethanol will be produced has not been announced, nor do we know the price at which such rice will be sold by the FCI. 
• About 85 per cent of rice is kharif crop, heavily dependent on monsoon. 
• Despite the prediction of a normal monsoon, public interest demands that the basis for the projection of surplus of rice is disclosed. What happens if the monsoon projections go wrong? Will we have to import grain?
• In the past, damaged grain, unfit for human consumption, has been sold by the FCI for cattle feed. 
• Despite the commonly held belief of a lakh of tonnes of rotting grains, the FCI’s storage practices are actually quite good — damaged grains as a percentage of total quantity issued by the FCI has been just about 0.01 per cent to 0.04 per cent in the last five years. 
• On March 1, the FCI had just 984 tonnes of non-issuable rice and 20 tonnes of non-issuable wheat — hardly any ethanol can be made from such a small amount of damaged grains.

Imperative to food security and food price stability:

• Therefore, it seems that the NBCC has decided to use sound quality rice, within FSSAI specifications, for ethanol. 
• It is a bad policy in normal times and particularly unethical during a pandemic. It potentially deprives food to humans as well as livestock. 
• At a time when there are fears of a steep fall in national income, a rise in unemployment, and an increase in food inflation due to supply bottlenecks, it is imperative that food security and food price stability be given the highest priority.
• Ethanol can be produced from other ingredients such as B and C heavy molasses, sugar, sugar syrup, and sugarcane juice.
• Ethanol has also been blessed with a low GST and enjoys relaxed conditions for inter-state movement if used for blending with petrol. 

Conclusion:

• Since the economy faces a bleak prospect due to the impact of COVID-19, the government should first use the food grains to meet the requirement of about 10 to 20 crore people without ration cards. 
• It must provide rice to NGOs at PDS prices, for providing cooked food to migrant labour stuck in cities and it should provide an additional five kg food grains to the poor for six months instead of three months.
• If the Centre still thinks that the country will still have surplus rice, it must facilitate export to friendly countries which are suffering an adverse impact of COVID-19 on their economies.

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MPLADS, its suspension, and why it must go  (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity  
Prelims level: MPLADS scheme 
Mains level: Reasons for abolition of MPLADs scheme

Context:

• All Opposition parties have been unanimous in their criticism of the government’s recent move to suspend the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) for two years, approved by the Cabinet. 
• The government’s reason is this: to use these funds “to strengthen the government’s efforts in managing the challenges and adverse impact of COVID-19 in the country”.
• Such political unanimity is not very common but does happen whenever self-interest is involved. Under the scheme, each Member of Parliament “has the choice to suggest to the District Collector for works to the tune of ₹5 crores per annum to be taken up in his/her constituency”.
• It must be said upfront that notwithstanding the fact that unilateral decision-making is inappropriate in a democracy, the decision to suspend MPLADS for two years is a good first step. 

Five key reasons for abolition of MPLADs scheme:
Violates cardinal principles:

• The scheme violates one of the cardinal principles, which though not specifically written down in the Constitution, actually permeates the entire Constitution: separation of powers. 
• Simply put, this scheme, in effect, gives an executive function to legislators (read legislature). 
• The argument that MPs only recommend projects, but the final choice and implementation rests with the district authorities is strange; there are hardly any authorities in the district who have the courage or the gumption to defy the wishes of an MP.

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CAG’s observations:

• Implementation of the scheme has always left much to be desired. 
• The details below, which are some of the observations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in a report make it clear: Expenditure incurred by the executing agencies being less than amount booked. Utilisation of funds between 49 to 90% of the booked amount.
• Though the scheme envisages that works under the scheme should be limited to asset creation, 549 of the 707 works test-checked (78%) of the works recommended were for improvement of existing assets; 
• Wide variations in quantities executed against the quantities specified in the BOQ (Bills of Quantity) in 137 of the 707 works test-checked. 
• Variations ranged from 16 to 2312%. (“2312%” is the figure actually mentioned in the audit report); Use of lesser quantities of material than specified by contractors resulting in excess payments and sub-standard works; “no accountability for the expenditure in terms of the quality and quantities executed against specifications”; 
• Delays in issuing work orders ranging from 5 to 387 days in 57% of the works against the requirement of issuing the work order within 45 days of the receipt of recommendation by the MP.
• Extensions of time granted to contractors without following the correct procedure; Register of assets created, as required under the scheme, not maintained, therefore location and existence of assets could not be verified; “The implementation of the scheme was marked by various shortcomings and lapses. 
• These were indicative of the failure of internal control mechanisms in the department in terms of non-maintenance of records”.

Gaps in utilization:

• There are wide variations in the utilisation of the MPLAD amount in various constituencies. 
• A report published in IndiaSpend has some very interesting insights based on data made available to it by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. 
• Some of these are: “A year after they took office, 298 of 542 members of the 16th Lok Sabha — India’s lower house of parliament — have not spent a rupee from the ₹5 crore that is set aside annually for them to develop their constituencies”; 508 MPs (93.55%) did not, or could not, utilise the entire MPLADS amount from May 4, 2014 till December 10, 2018, in 4 years and 7 months. 
• Only 35 MPs of the Lok Sabha utilised the entire amount of MPLADS during this period; Though ₹1,757 crore had been released for MPLADs, only ₹281 crore had been utilised by all the 543 MPs till May 15, 2015. 
• This means only 16% of the money had been spent in one year by all the MPs put together, because the Lok Sabha was constituted in May 2014; Since the MPLADS began in 1993, ₹5,000 crore was lying unspent with various district authorities by May 15, 2015.
• It is clear from the details above, as well as later experience, that most MPs use money under MPLADS quite haphazardly, and a significant portion of it is left unspent.

Appease or oblige:

• Added to the data above is fairly widespread talk of money under MPLADS being used to appease or oblige two sets of people: opinion-makers or opinion-influencers, and favourite contractors.  Sometimes these two categories overlap.
• An often-heard tale is that of the contractor being a relative, close friend, or a confidant of the MP, and the contractor and the MP being financially linked with each other.

Legality or constitutionality issue:

• We come back to the legality or constitutionality issue which was mentioned earlier. The constitutional validity of MPLADS was challenged in the Supreme Court of India in 1999, followed by petitions in 2000, 2003, 2004, and 2005. 
• The combined judgment for all these petitions was delivered on May 6, 2010, with the scheme being held to be constitutional.
• With due respect to the top court, it must be said that the Court does not seem to have been able to appreciate the situation in totality. 
• It seems to have placed an unquestioned trust in the efficacy of the scheme of implementation of MPLADS drawn up by the government without an assessment of the situation prevalent in the field, evidence of which is available in audit reports wherein gross irregularities and infirmities in implementation have been pointed out. 
• The possibility that implementation of a lot of schemes bears no relationship to how the schemes were intended to be implemented, seems to have completely escaped the attention of the Court. 
• Common experience does not support this because of large, yawning gaps being found in actual implementation.

Cases of misuse:

• Reports of underutilisation and misutilisation of MPLADS funds continue to surface at regular intervals but there seems to have been no serious attempt to do anything about it till now. 
• There are innumerable instances of misuse of these funds; one prominent example is the construction of a fountain in the open space of an unauthorised settlement, or a jhuggi jhopdi colony, which did not have provision of drinking water. 
• The general belief in the settlement was that the contractor who bagged the contract to build the fountain was related to the local Member of Parliament.

Conclusion: 

• Therefore, it would be in order to convert the two-year suspension into the complete abolition of this undesirable and unconstitutional scheme.

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Off course: On Cauvery water issue (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity 
Prelims level: Cauvery water issue
Mains level: Process to make Cauvery Water Management Authority to became functional 

Context:

• The Cauvery is a perennial source of controversies. 
• The latest political row to erupt in Tamil Nadu is around the Centre’s April 24 notification bringing the Cauvery Water Management Authority under the administrative control of the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, which was created a year ago by combining two Ministries. 

Upset with the notification:

• Several political parties, especially the Opposition, and some farmers’ associations were upset with the notification on the ground that the move has reduced the Authority to a “puppet” of the Centre. 
• They point out that the CWMA was created on the direction of the Supreme Court in February 2018. 
• It is also argued that between June 2018-May 2019, when the Union Ministry of Water Resources was in existence, there was no public notification on the CWMA being designated as an organisation under the Ministry. 
• Such an argument is weak, as the CWMA, a body corporate, has been working all along under the Ministry. 

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An apparent lapse:

• Even in the case of its predecessor, the Cauvery River Authority (1998-2013) with the Prime Minister as the Chairman and Chief Ministers of the basin States as Members, the Union Ministry of Water Resources had administrative control. 
• The CWMA has had only a part-time head, the chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC), attached to the Ministry. 
• Besides, there are eight inter-State river water boards under the Jal Shakti Ministry. Along with the CWMA, four other bodies, including the Krishna and the Godavari Water Management Boards — which have been in existence since 2014 following the re-organisation of Andhra Pradesh — were designated to be under the Ministry. 
• The formalisation of the CWMA’s status corrects an apparent lapse on the Ministry’s part and addresses administrative issues.
• Making the CWMA fully operational:
• Apart from meeting the procedural requirement, the notification does not, in any way, alter the character, functions or powers of the CWMA that form part of a scheme drawn up a few years ago, and which was approved by the Supreme Court. 
• If there is anything the Centre can be blamed for, it is the way the CWMA functions. Even two years after its formation, the Authority does not have a full-fledged chairman. 
• The Centre would do well to act, at least now, in making the CWMA fully operational, when the southwest monsoon is about to set in. 

Conclusion:

• Successive governments at the Centre have been wary of acting decisively, other than under the orders of the Supreme Court for fear of alienating voters in one of the States involved. 
• The latest episode should convince political parties that relentless politicisation of each and every matter concerning water resources does not benefit the stakeholders. 
• The parties should realise that electoral gains or losses are not always linked to their stand on any one issue, even if it is the Cauvery, the lifeline of Tamil Nadu’s rice bowl.

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App for one season: on Centre's directive to use Arogya Setu (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity 
Prelims level: Arogya Setu
Mains level: Shortfall of legislative guidance on Arogya Setu app

Context:

• The Centre’s national directive for the mandatory use of its contact tracing app.

Shortfall of legislative guidance: 

• Aarogya Setu, as part of its COVID-19 combat measures, falls short of established legal standards for the protection of privacy. 
• The first requirement laid down by the Supreme Court in K.S. Puttaswamy, namely, a law authorising the involuntary use of such an app, has not been fulfilled. 
• The government has no power to make the app’s use compulsory without legislative authorisation. 
• There is no legislative guidance for the app’s purpose, functioning, and the nature of the use of the sensitive personal data it collects. 

Directives under the Disaster Management Act:

• Going by the directive issued under the Disaster Management Act, all people residing in ‘containment zones’, all government and public sector staff and all employees, both public and private, who are allowed to work during the lockdown, will have to download the app, which also cautions against not keeping the phone’s location and Bluetooth on. 
• Lawyers and activists have raised concerns not only over privacy; they also fear that assessments made on the basis of information collected may be used to restrict public movement and access. 

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Gaining popularity besides privacy concern: 

• Aarogya Setu seems to be quite popular downloads have crossed 75 million. 
• The government has going for itself is that many countries are implementing mobile app use for contact tracing.
• More and more governments are introducing applications for automated location services to trace the contacts of those infected. 

Models followed across the world: 

• India should abide by best practices elsewhere. 
• The EU has laid down guidelines to the effect that such app use should be voluntary, that it should preserve user privacy and should not be used after it becomes no longer necessary. 
• Israel’s Supreme Court recently struck down emergency powers given to the country’s intelligence agency to trace the phone location of COVID-19 patients without enabling legislation. 
• Australia’s tracking app has sparked privacy concerns, but the government has released a privacy impact assessment. 

Way forward: 

• While the intention behind the app’s introduction may be good, 
• as it is a given that the government is keen on doing everything possible to keep a watch on the spread of the virus so that the lockdown, 
• As well as relaxations given to zones based on colour-coding, 
• Are effective it would be well-advised to heed privacy concerns raised by the Opposition, allay fears that it may become a permanent mass surveillance instrument and ensure that there is sufficient anonymising of data and its limited access. 
• It has a duty to resort to methods that cause the least harm.

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Implement strong climate policy post COVID-19 (Financial Express)

Mains Paper 3: Environment
Prelims level: Post COVID-19 climate policy
Mains level: Implement strong climate policy post COVID-19

Context:

• The last time India’s real GDP growth rate crashed to less than 1% was in 1991. 
• The opportunity, however dark that might sound, was not wasted. 

Require a series of structural reforms:

• India unleashed a series of structural reforms that placed greater faith in the market than ever before.
• To freed firms from the shackles of licensing, reduced import tariffs, and created regulatory institutions to oversee liberalised product markets. 
• What followed was not unexpected but, to many, it was a miraculous outcome. 
• India not only breached the ‘Hindu Rate of Growth’ for consistently long periods of time but also established a new normal growth rate that was structurally different and an order of magnitude greater than that in the past.

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Empirical vindication:

• The miracle lay in the empirical vindication that markets could actually deliver if given a chance, and that the mistrust of markets on which much of our previous development model was based was essentially unfounded.
• Markets did not need to be distrusted, they needed to be regulated.
• The largely uninterrupted high growth brought in its wake development impacts that were truly exceptional. Millions were lifted out of poverty, trade flourished, and India exported goods and services to developed markets that was, at one time, reckoned to be impossible. 
• India became a favoured destination for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), with the peak gross investment touching 36% of GDP just before the financial crisis hit in 2008. 
• More recently, growth has slowed to below 5% for the first time since the structural reforms of 1991, and the outlook for next year, in the wake of Covid-19, is rather bleak. 
• Much before Covid-19 struck, the economy was already in poor shape and cracks in the growth model were palpable.

Resource-intensive growth:

• The resource-intensive growth of the last two decades has been associated with severe local air pollution and lasting harm to lives and livelihoods, especially of the poor. 
• The damage due to more and more extreme weather events has raised anxieties over the sustainability of the business-as-usual (BAU) model of economic growth. 
• Everywhere it is the poor and vulnerable who get hit the hardest, whether they live in rural areas or in the city. Covid-19 has already sharpened this disparity.
• Taken together, climate change and Covid-19 pose a massive risk of undoing the poverty alleviating benefits of the high growth witnessed in the last decade. 
• About 140 million people were lifted out of poverty between FY05 and FY12, and we risk dumping many more millions back into poverty unless we act decisively now. 
• The resurgence of mass poverty will be a tragedy of monumental proportions.

Medical shock of Covid-19:

• A fiscal stimulus of around 1% of GDP has been introduced as a preventive against job losses, and to make sure people who have lost jobs, or will lose them, have money to spend on essentials during the economy-wide lockdown.
• Both, people and companies, need large doses of support from government and banks, which, in turn, need support from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). 
• Essentially, the immediate focus must be to prevent as many individuals and firms from slipping into traumatic bankruptcies as possible.

Exposed the weaknesses in India:

• The pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in India’s public distribution, social security, and public health systems. 
• The presence of a very large informal and migrant workforce in need of urgent state support has added several dimensions to the challenge. 
• An immediate fallout of Covid-19 is the unambiguous warning that these systems will need to be overhauled to build resilience against the next pandemic, and to lay the foundation for a strong, humane, and inclusive economy.
• Economists Amartya Sen have for long lamented India’s inadequate public spending on health and education. 
• This is a moment to correct that failing. 
• This is also an unprecedented opportunity to take a long view. 

Fiscal stimulus compelling: 

• Fiscal injections are compelling during a crisis, but what is equally, if not even more compelling is how the economy can be restored and sustained post Covid-19. 
• Fiscal stimulus is a means to start the recovery rather than an alternative to it.
• Eventually, the stimulus will have to be gradually retracted as the wheels of the economy start to move again. 

Post Covid-19 revival process: 

• The post Covid-19 revival ought to focus on the root causes of our growth model going awry. 
• The massive environment degradation and unchecked air pollution are as much a worry in and of themselves as they are for being a reason for exacerbating unequal outcomes. 
• We have reason to believe that climate change will magnify existing inequality as the poor will bear the brunt of its impact.
• The ongoing regeneration of natural capital in India (blue skies, clean air, and breathing rivers) during the Covid-19 inspired lockdown and claim that growth produces negative externalities, and that damage to the environment is a cost which must inevitably be borne during the development process. 
• According to The Economist, at one monitoring station in central Delhi, levels of nitrogen dioxide are 85% lower.
• NASA, says that levels of suspended aerosols are lower than at any time since it started measuring them twenty years ago. 
• The narrative that concerted action against climate change will compromise economic growth.
• However it ignores the technological and financial innovations that now exist and which can lead the transition to a low-carbon economy. 
• It also ignores effective public policy that could be designed to address the challenge.

Challenges in economic growth:

• A reason we cannot abandon economic growth is that it speaks to people’s aspirations, and also provides resources for public policy programmes, not to mention jobs that are fundamental to India’s future. 
• The absence of economic growth also leads to political instability and the potential for disturbance. 
• The path to climate mitigation, and adaptation and inclusion is far better served not through slower economic growth, but through economic growth that is steered toward environmental sustainability.
• Globally, efforts to reduce GHGs through mitigation measures—phasing out fossil fuels, increasing energy efficiency, adopting renewable energy sources, improving land use and agricultural practices—continue, albeit slowly. 
• Our demand for climate justice must continue at the global level, but domestic policy change should not be kept hostage to it. Climate change is upon us, blighting lives of millions of people in India.

Investments in infrastructure:

• Investments in infrastructure will assume centrestage post Covid-19. 
• Since they are long lasting, the right investments will deliver what is now referred to as the “triple dividend” by avoiding future losses due to stranded high-carbon assets, stimulating economic gains through innovation, and delivering social and environmental benefits. 
• Updated building codes, renewing urban infrastructure, scaling energy efficiency, making agriculture more climate resilient by investing in research and development are a few examples.

Way ahead:

• We must mainstream sustainability and inclusion in our economic policy discourse.
• There have been extraordinary developments in technologies such as AI and robotics, materials, biomedical and biological, and renewable energy to name a few that have the potential to transform our ability to manage cities, energy, transport, and land use.
• The nationwide lockdown and the accompanying hardships will perhaps have made citizens more willing to accept decisions that have a high discount rate, i.e., benefits of which will be more apparent in the future. 
• One could argue whether strong climate policy has a high discount rate or not, but even if it does, then political anxieties over strong climate policy action could well be more palatable post Covid-19. 

Conclusion: 

• Never let a crisis go to waste is a sagely advice often heard in India and acted upon once, in 1991. With its large population and many vulnerabilities, it is time for an encore.

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Diplomacy in a virtual world (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations 
Prelims level: India relations with Saint Vincent and Grenadines
Mains level: Diplomacy in a virtual world 

Context:

• The Foreign Office is merely following other professions that are adapting to restrictions on travel across borders and within them by the corona crisis.
• Not many in Delhi’s political, bureaucratic, and chattering classes will be able to find a nation called Saint Vincent and Grenadines on a large world map. 
• But External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was on a call last week with the foreign minister of this small nation formed by many islands.

Background: 

• Die-hard cricket fans will object to our proposition on Saint Vincent and Grenadines. 
• Beyond cricket, island nations like Dominica, St Lucia, and Saint Vincent and Grenadines rarely feature on India’s diplomatic radar. 
• They are sovereign states and members of the UN. Some of them are part of institutions like the Commonwealth. 
• All of them are in important regional organisations in the Caribbean and Latin America. 
• Jaishankar was on line with all three last week, as part of a comprehensive global outreach.

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Turning adversity into an opportunity:

• The South Block is turning this adversity into an opportunity — to conduct a lot of routine diplomatic engagement online. 
• The Foreign Office is merely following other professions that are adapting to restrictions on travel across borders and within them by the corona crisis. 
• Work that was considered deeply inter-personal, like teaching, has now gone virtual as universities moved to cope with the massive disruption in their academic schedules. 
• Diplomacy is another profession that requires facetime for both formal and seemingly informal work.

Required negotiations or consultations:

• Negotiations or consultations of any kind required sitting across a table in a chancellery. 
• Diplomats also work in less formal settings — say signalling a nuance in a quiet corridor conversation. 
• They also assess the political mood in the host capital over drinks and dinner with local leaders. 
• Official meetings involve a lot of detailed agreements on form and structure. And it is easier to discuss complicated issues in a pleasant setting.
• Delhi took the lead in getting the South Asian leaders to meet through video to explore cooperation in combating the corona crisis. 
• Delhi also pressed for a G-20 video meeting. Since then the UNSC, EU and NATO have all conferred through video. 
• Besides the conversations with foreign leaders, senior officials of the South Block are engaging foreign embassies in Delhi through video. 
• Diplomatic missions in Delhi have long complained that they barely get access to the MEA.
• The Indian missions abroad have the same problem — of the GoI’s radio silence on responding to queries from foreign governments. 
• Delhi is trying to make amends with the new medium. 
• The EAM has begun regular engagement with ambassadors in various regions and sub-regions in recent days.

Reaching out to the heads of missions:

• PM Modi had set the tone by reaching out to the heads of missions on the questions of safety and security of Indians abroad. 
• Union Minister Piyush Goyal has followed through by interacting with commercial officers at the Indian embassies. 
• Hopefully, other ministers and senior officials will make interaction with the embassies a regular affair.
• To be sure, there is some resistance across the world’s foreign offices against virtual diplomacy. 
• There are some real difficulties, technical and substantive, that will have to be overcome. 
• Foreign offices, however, have learnt to work with new technologies, whether it was the trans-oceanic cable or the internet. 

Conduct a virtual summit:

• There is speculation that PM Modi could conduct a virtual summit with Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The Australian leader had cancelled his visit to Delhi earlier this year because of forest fires at home. 
• It should not be impossible for Modi and Morrison to sign a joint statement, finalised by officials, at the end of video conversation. 

Conclusion:

• Much of MEA’s energy goes into organising visits, but the follow-up has always been hard. 
• Virtual diplomacy makes high-level engagement less burdensome. 
• Involving the whole government should make the implementation of summit-level decisions a bit easier. 
• An India that reboots after the lockdown could do with all the diplomatic efficiencies it can generate.

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The new capitalism (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: International 
Prelims level: Globalisation 2.0
Mains level: Impact on the economics of globalisation and benefitted to China 

Context:

• In 1920, John Maynard Keynes, perhaps the most influential economist of the first half of the 20th century, wrote a famous passage, which could well have been written for our times. 
• Worth citing at length, Keynes was speaking of how the First World War ended what we now call Globalisation 1.0 that lasted nearly a century till then.

Life during World War 1:

• What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of mankind, which came to an end in August 1914?
• The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such quantity as he might see fit, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep; he could at the same moment and by the same means adventure his wealth in the natural resources and new enterprises of any quarter of the world, and share, without exertion or even trouble, in their prospective fruits and advantages; …He could secure forthwith, if he wished it, cheap and comfortable means of transit to any country or climate… But, most important of all, he regarded this state of affairs as normal, certain, and permanent, except in the direction of further improvement, and any deviation from it as aberrant, scandalous, and avoidable.”

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Globalisation 2.0

• No World War is likely anymore, as scholars of international relations continually remind us, thanks to nuclear weapons. 
• But can COVID-19, instead, bring an end to what scholars call Globalisation 2.0, which began in the early 1980s and has lasted for four decades, an era when human beings, of a certain class, “could order by (the internet)… products of the whole earth… adventure wealth in any quarter of the world”, and regard “this state of affairs as normal, certain and permanent”?
• In strictly economic terms, globalisation is about the free movement of capital, goods and labour across national borders. 
• Capital and goods are disembodied; one does not necessarily see who produced them. Migrants are embodied, as it were. 
• One can directly observe how ethnically, racially, religiously different from the mainstream they might be. 
• Hence labour flows, if large, have nearly always triggered right-wing politics of nativism in a way that the movements of goods and capital rarely have.

Critique of globalization:

• Donald Trump’s unrelenting critique of globalisation predates COVID-19. 
• He made non-white immigrants, especially Hispanics and Muslims, a special object of his political ire.
• But he was also vigorously against free trade as well as critical of businessmen who, in search of lower costs, had made China the destination of their accumulated investments, transferring jobs away from America’s industrial heartland. 
• He levied higher tariffs to curtail freer trade, and exhorted American corporations to bring capital back to the US. In Europe, a similar politics has been led by the UK, though less vociferously.

Benefitted China:

• In any realistic political sense, this question cannot be answered unless we pay special attention to how Globalisation 2.0 has benefitted China.
• China was among the biggest sufferers of Globalisation 1.0 (1815-1914). 
• In 1800, an estimated 33 per cent of the world’s manufactures were produced in China. Defeats in two Opium Wars later, this share had gone down to 6 per cent by 1900. 
• More significantly for now, China was far behind other economies in the early years of Globalisation 2.0. In 1980, it was the 48th largest economy in the world. 
• In 1982, with GDPs at roughly $200 billion, Indian and Chinese economies were similar in size.

Rise of China: 

• In 2018, the last year for which we have systematic data, China, with a GDP of $13.6 trillion, was the second largest economy in the world, behind the US ($20.5 trillion), but far ahead of Japan ($4.9 trillion), Germany ($4.0 trillion), Britain ($2.8 trillion), France ($2.8 trillion) and India ($2.7 trillion). In 2018, China was also the largest trading nation in the world. 
• Its exports were worth $2.5 trillion, substantially ahead of the US ($1.6 trillion). 
• In 2018, China attracted over $203 billion worth of net foreign direct investment (FDI), much more than Germany, Japan, UK, France as well as India ($42 billion), and second only to the US ($258 billion), showing how monumental foreign investment in China had become.
• Given the current pandemic, even more revealing are the data on medical equipment. For 50-80 per cent of its supplies, the US was dependent on China for protective surgical garments, plastic face shields, textile face masks and thermometers. Only for ventilators and hand sanitisers was the dependence less than 20 per cent.
• No matter how much businessmen and economists argue that these trends are purely economic, only demonstrating how easy it is to manufacture at scale in China.
• The political leaders of the world, not simply in the West, can only view it with great concern and, if China threatens supply disruptions for critical materials, even as a national security issue.

Impact on the economics of globalisation:

• The political winds are now independent of President Trump, who is clearly trying to scapegoat China to cover up his own bungling. 
• Given all the doubts, right or wrong, about how China handled the information about the origins of the virus in Wuhan, the anger against China in world capitals is very palpable. 
• Born of sudden and enormous suffering, such anger cannot but have an impact on the economics of globalisation.
• We should not only expect that labour flows will now be more strictly regulated than before. But also more than ever before in recent decades, Western investors will also have to factor in political risks in their investment decision-making. 
• Instead of chasing lower labour costs, they will either bring capital back to domestic shores, or geographically restructure their supply chains. 
• For a whole range of goods, the global supply chains for all practical purposes became Chinese supply chains. That level of economic concentration is no longer politically sustainable.

Conclusion: 

• For the foreseeable future, economic efficiency, the cornerstone of market-based systems, will have to go into a lower gear. 
• Politics will drive new economic policies, not market-based rationality. 
• Globalisation will not end, but it will be pushed into greater retreat. We are entering a new phase of capitalism.

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